Word of the Day

: March 24, 2009

negotiate

verb nih-GOH-shee-ayt

What It Means

1 : to confer with another so as to arrive at the settlement of some matter; also : to arrange for or bring about by such conferences

2 : to transfer to another by delivery or endorsement in return for equivalent value

3 : to get through, around, or over successfully

negotiate in Context

"On the coast we negotiate much of our navigable waters as if driving through a big empty parking lot without lines or barriers, safely avoiding shallow water and other hazards and allowing reasonable clearance for fellow boaters." (David Sikes, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, April 10, 2008)

Did You Know?

For the first 250 years of its life, "negotiate" had meanings that hewed pretty close to its Latin root, "negotiari," meaning "to carry on business." Around the middle of the 19th century, though, it developed the meaning "to successfully travel along or over." Although this sense was criticized in the New York Sun in 1906 as a "barbarism creeping into the language," and Fowler's 1926 A Dictionary of Modern English Usage declared that any writer who used it was "literally a barbarian," it has thrived. The Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage claimed in both its 1975 and 1985 editions that it is "considered inappropriate in formal speech and writing," but our evidence does not show that there is anything particularly informal about its use.