forfend
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\n \n Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 2, 2024 is:\n \n
\n \n\n forfend • \\for-FEND\\ • verb
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Forfend is used in contexts relating to some kind of real or pretended danger or other unpleasantness. In humorous and ironic use, forfend typically appears in the phrase \u201cheaven forfend,\u201d and, like \u201cheaven forbid,\u201d expresses a usually ironic desire that something not happen or be done. In general use, if you forfend something unwanted or undesirable, you ward it off or prevent it; and if you forfend yourself from or against something, you protect or preserve yourself from it.
\n\n// Heaven forfend that people actually pick up dictionaries and read them!
\n\n// By studying your dictionary, you may forfend any risk of not knowing the meaning of a word.
\n\n// To forfend against the prospect of being at a loss for words, we recommend you read the Word of the Day daily.
\n\n\n \n \n\n Examples:
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\u201cCigarette companies financed armies of letter and op-ed writers, think tank reports, and \u2018expert\u2019 testimony promoting the return of DDT. \u2026 Big Tobacco fought for the return of DDT, [Elena] Conis argues, because the pesticide made for such \u2018a helpful scientific parable, one that, told just right, illustrated the problem of government regulation of private industry gone wrong.\u2019 It was private companies, and not politicians\u2014or, heaven forfend, the people\u2014who should decide what products should be produced, and how.\u201d \u2014 Scott W. Stern, The New Republic, 31 May 2022
\n \n \n\n Did you know?
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Forfend is an unusual word in that its most commonly used sense is considered archaic, meaning it survives in English chiefly in specialized uses. When forfend was first used in the 14th century, it meant \u201cto forbid.\u201d It still does but only in phrases, like \u201cheaven forfend\u201d or \u201cGod forfend,\u201d that have an exaggeratedly old-timey ring to them. (The use is also typically humorous and/or ironic.) Put another way, substituting forfend for forbid in any other context would sound strange, as in \u201cstudents are forfended from using cell phones in the classroom.\u201d Other senses of forfend, including \u201cto protect or preserve\u201d and \u201cto ward off or prevent,\u201d are current, though much less common. The fend part of the word comes from the same Latin source as defend.
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