extemporize
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\n \n Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 7, 2024 is:\n \n
\n \n\n extemporize • \\ik-STEM-puh-ryze\\ • verb
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To extemporize means to do something extemporaneously\u2014in other words, to improvise.
\n\n// A good talk show host must be able to extemporize when interviews don\u2019t go as planned.
\n\n\n \n \n\n Examples:
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\u201cThe president was fast on his feet. Sensing an opportunity to extemporize, he looked around the chamber, pleased.\u201d \u2014 Robin Abcarian, The Los Angeles Times, 12 Feb. 2023
\n \n \n\n Did you know?
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Let\u2019s dive into the essence of extemporize by exploring its origins. (We\u2019ll try not to bore you with too many extraneous details.) To extemporize is to say or do something off-the-cuff; extemporize was coined by adding the suffix -ize to the Latin phrase ex tempore, meaning \u201con impulse\u201d or \u201con the spur of the moment.\u201d (Incidentally, ex tempore was also borrowed wholesale into English with the meaning \u201cin an extemporaneous manner.\u201d) Other descendants of ex tempore include the now rare extemporal and extemporary\u2014both synonyms of extemporaneous\u2014and as you have no doubt guessed by now, extemporaneous itself.
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