Word of the Day
: December 2, 2011stratagem
playWhat It Means
1 a : an artifice or trick in war for deceiving and outwitting the enemy
b : a cleverly contrived trick or scheme for gaining an end
2 : skill in ruses or trickery
stratagem in Context
As a stratagem to get the kids to do their chores, Melissa persuaded them to have a race to see which child could finish first.
"With runners at the corners, Bochy unwrapped one of his favorite stratagems. He had Fontenot take off for second base on a pitch to Sandoval, then Torres came home on the designed delayed steal to give the Giants a 4-1 lead." -- From an article by Andrew Baggarly in the Monterey County Herald, July 16, 2011
Did You Know?
A "stratagem" is any clever scheme -- sometimes one that's part of an overall "strategy" (i.e., a carefully worked out plan of action). Clearly, we no longer limit ourselves to the original military sense of "stratagem" as 15th-century users of the term did. The military meaning can be traced back to the word's Greek ancestor "strategema," which is itself based on "strategein," meaning "to act as a general." "Strategein" in turn comes from "strategos" ("general"), which comes from "stratos" ("army") and "agein" ("to lead"). "Strategos" is an ancestor of "strategy" as well.
Word Family Quiz
What descendant of "agein" means "teacher" and is used especially of a teacher who is dull, formal, or pedantic? The answer is ...