Word of the Day

: December 16, 2006

cajole

verb kuh-JOHL

What It Means

1 a : to persuade with flattery or gentle urging especially in the face of reluctance : coax

b : to obtain from someone by gentle persuasion

2 : to deceive with soothing words or false promises

cajole in Context

Peter's friends cajoled him into coming to the party even though he wasn't in the mood to go.

Did You Know?

"Cajole" comes from a French verb, "cajoler," which is all about cajoling, coaxing, and chattering. You might not think to associate "cajole" with "cage," but some etymologists theorize that "cajoler" is connected to not one but two words for "cage." One of them is the Anglo-French "cage," from which we borrowed our own word "cage." It comes from Latin "cavea," meaning "cage." The other is the Anglo-French word for "birdcage," which is "gaiole." It's an ancestor of our word "jail," and it derives from Late Latin "caveola," which means "little cage." Anglo-French speakers had a related verb, "gaioler," which meant "to chatter like a jay in a cage." It's possible that "cajoler" is a combination of "gaioler" and "cage."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.