futile
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\n \n Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 20, 2024 is:\n \n
\n \n\n futile • \\FYOO-tul\\ • adjective
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An effort, action, or emotion described as futile has no result or effect, and therefore serves no useful purpose.
\n\n// City officials attempted to stifle the scandal, but their efforts were futile.
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\u201c... when resolve is wearing thin and hope feels futile, sometimes the only thing left to do is laugh.\u201d \u2014 Cassidy George, Rolling Stone, 10 Feb. 2023
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Attempts to pinpoint the first use of the phrase \u201cresistance is futile\u201d may ultimately be futile\u2014that is, pointless or in vain\u2014but that hasn\u2019t stopped folks from trying. Popular in movies and television series from Star Trek to Stargate, Veronica Mars to Napoleon Dynamite, the slogan is often uttered by an antagonist who wants to make it clear in no uncertain terms that they will be the one to prevail in the onscreen struggle. Some people point to a 1976 episode of Doctor Who in which a character called The Master says \u201cResistance is futile now,\u201d while others prefer the quote without the now, holding up a 1977 episode of Space: 1999 as being the first to feature it. However, author Randall Garrett had both shows beat in his 1961 short story \u201cThe Highest Treason,\u201d in which a character says \u201cNot if they \u2026 can prove that resistance is futile.\u201d Despite its clear importance to futuristic science fiction, however, the word futile has ancient roots. It comes from the Latin adjective f\u016btilis/futtilis, which was used to describe things that are brittle or fragile and, by extension, serve no purpose. These meanings survive in the English word futile, which denotes ineffectiveness.
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