A.Word.A.Day --vuln

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Jun 23, 2025

This week’s theme
Short words

This week’s words
vuln
oik
kerf

Photo: Matt Lincoln

Previous week’s theme
Nouning verbs, verbing nouns

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Sometimes people ask me, “Do you actually use all those big fancy words you feature here?”

I do -- when the word fits.

But short words? They work any time. They pack a punch. They are the fists of speech. Quick, clean, no frills. Just force.

Sure, long words have their place. Now and then, you may need an antidisestablishmentarianism to scare off the snobs (or impress your cat). But most of the time, short words do the hard work.

So this week, we cheer the small words that could, and do.

vuln

PRONUNCIATION:

(vuhln)

MEANING:

noun: Vulnerability: susceptibility to attack, injury, or temptation.
verb tr.: To wound.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin vulnerare (to wound), from vulnus (wound). Earliest documented use: verb: 1583, noun: unknown.

NOTES:

The noun sense of the word vuln is often used in the context of cybersecurity or video games to refer to a specific, exploitable weakness or flaw.

As for the verb, in heraldry, a pelican is shown vulning: wounding her own breast to feed her young with her blood. This was based on the medieval belief that pelicans did so, making the vulning pelican a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice.

USAGE:

“The bot was scanning Jack’s network for vulns in her power system.”
Annalee Newitz; Autonomous; Tor; 2017.

“God was vulned in his very fundament due to a fumble.”
Neil Baker; G Day; AuthorHouse; 2010.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

It's like, at the end, there's this surprise quiz: Am I proud of me? I gave my life to become the person I am right now. Was it worth what I paid? -Richard Bach, writer (b. 23 Jun 1936)

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