Word of the Day

: August 25, 2014

operose

adjective AH-puh-rohss

What It Means

: tedious, wearisome

operose in Context

The operose volume offers up considerably more verbiage than useful information.

"But now competitors face an operose task: it is not enough that they know how to spell a tongue-twister, they should also know its meaning." - Economic Times, April 16, 2013

Did You Know?

"Operose" comes from the Latin "operosus" (meaning "laborious," "industrious," or "painstaking"). That word combines the noun "oper-," "opus," which means "work," with "-osus," the Latin equivalent of the English "-ose" and "-ous" suffixes, meaning "full of" or "abounding in." In its earliest uses, beginning in the mid-1500s, the word was used to describe people who are industrious or painstaking in their efforts. Within a little over 100 years, however, the word was being applied as it more commonly is today: to describe tasks and undertakings requiring much time and effort.