Word of the Day

: May 31, 2020

palmy

adjective PAH-mee

What It Means

1 : marked by prosperity : flourishing

2 : abounding in or bearing palms

palmy in Context

"The new breed of the Silicon Valley lived for work. They were disciplined to the point of back spasms. They worked long hours and kept working on weekends. They became absorbed in their companies the way men once had in the palmy days of the automobile industry." — Tom Wolfe, Hooking Up, 2000

"In Beaufort Road was a house, occupied in its palmier days, by Mr Shorthouse, a manufacturer of acids...." — J.R.R. Tolkien, letter, July 1964

Did You Know?

The palm branch has traditionally been used as a symbol of victory. It is no wonder then that the word palm came to mean "victory" or "triumph" in the late 14th century, thanks to the likes of Geoffrey Chaucer. Centuries later, William Shakespeare would employ palmy as a synonym for triumphant or flourishing in the tragedy Hamlet when the character Horatio speaks of the "palmy state of Rome / A little ere the mightiest Julius fell."