Word of the Day

: April 26, 2016

inveterate

adjective in-VET-uh-rut

What It Means

1 : firmly established by long persistence

2 : confirmed in a habit : habitual

inveterate in Context

Since Ernie is an inveterate liar, we naturally didn't believe him when he told us he'd met the movie star.

"As an inveterate letter writer, I started sending email as soon as I could sign on with dial-up, and became impatient to connect via DSL." — Deborah Lee Luskin, The Rutland (Vermont) Herald, 25 Feb. 2016

Did You Know?

Like veteran, inveterate ultimately comes from Latin vetus, which means "old," and which led to the Latin verb inveterare ("to age"). That verb in turn gave rise eventually to the adjective inveteratus, the direct source of our adjective inveterate (in use since the 14th century). In the past, inveterate has meant "long-standing" or simply "old." For example, one 16th-century writer warned of "Those great Flyes which in the springe time of the yeare creepe out of inveterate walls." Today, inveterate most often applies to a habit, attitude, or feeling of such long existence that it is practically ineradicable or unalterable.