Perspicacious - #455 - a podcast by Word of the Day

Today’s word of the day is perspicacious, P-E-R-S-P-I-C-A-C-I-O-U-S. Perspicacious is an adjective that means keen or of acute mental vision.

The Latin word perspicere (PAIR spee care ay) got things started with a word that meant ‘to look through’ or ‘to see clearly.’ From here a number of English words were born, including periscope, a device used to help navigate a submarine. It may help to think of a perspicacious person as someone skilled at looking through the surface and seeing things clearly — as they would if gazing through a periscope.

At first, Henry seemed to be paying Jane a friendly visit. But Jane was perspicacious enough to know he was sniffing around for a favor.

Further episodes of Word of the Day

Further podcasts by Word of the Day

Website of Word of the Day