Word of the Day - 12/07/25
construe
/kən'stru/(v.): interpret (a word or action) in a particular way
I wouldn't construe his karaoke enthusiasm as actual talent.
Word Origin
The word 'construe' originates from Late Middle English, deriving from the Latin verb construere. This Latin word is composed of two parts: 'con-', meaning 'together' or 'with', and 'struere', meaning 'to build' or 'to arrange'. The original sense in Latin referred to building or putting together, particularly in grammar, to arrange words in a sentence. This evolved into the English meaning of interpreting or analyzing something by putting its parts together to understand its meaning.
Words with similar origins from the Latin struere (to build) include 'construct' (to build or form), 'structure' (the arrangement of and relations between the parts of something complex), 'instruct' (to teach, originally to build knowledge), 'destroy' (to pull down a building, from de- + struere), and 'obstruct' (to block or hinder, from ob- + struere).
As a reminder, here are all of the words from this week:
veneer felicitous garrulous
construe
See if you can remember all of this week's words! Here is a sentence that includes all seven, followed by a version that simplifies them to help you remember:
The garrulous scholar's late-night lucubration was a felicitous attempt to construe the quiddity of enantiodromia, yet his confident veneer often belied a fear of misinterpretation.The talkative scholar's intense late-night study was a well-chosen attempt to understand the true nature of how things turn into their opposites, yet his confident outer appearance often hid a fear of being misunderstood.