wane
\n
\n \n Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 15, 2024 is:\n \n
\n \n\n wane • \\WAYN\\ • verb
\n
To wane is to become smaller or less, or in other words, to decrease in size, extent, or degree.
\n\n// The national scandal caused her popularity to wane.
\n\n\n \n \n\n Examples:
\n
\u201cIn 2023, Royal Caribbean's bookings hit an all-time high ahead of the launch of its newest ship, the Icon of the Seas. Interest has yet to wane: The three strongest booking weeks in the company\u2019s history were at the start of 2024 and \u2018wave season,\u2019 when cruise lines typically roll out flashy discounts to incentivize reservations.\u201d \u2014 Brittany Chang, Business Insider, 20 Mar. 2024
\n \n \n\n Did you know?
\n
In her book Braiding Sweetgrass, scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer, an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, recounts some of the stories of her people surrounding Windigos, fearsome, shrieking monsters that prey on human flesh: \u201cThe Windigo is most powerful in the Hungry Times. With the warm breezes his power wanes.\u201d Wane is a verb used when something\u2014such as strength, power, or influence\u2014decreases or diminishes, usually with the implication that the lessening is gradual, natural, or\u2014as in the case of the Windigo\u2014seasonal. Daylight wanes, as does summer. In a classroom, one\u2019s attention may be said to wane if, minute by minute, one becomes more interested in watching birds through the window than following the points of the professor\u2019s lecture. For centuries, wane has also been called upon to describe the seeming decrease in the size of the moon in the later phases of the lunar cycle. The traditional opposite of wane is wax, a once common but now rare synonym of grow. Wane and wax have been partnered in references to the moon since the Middle Ages.
\n\n \n