Taradiddle - plus, new M-W tote bags for fall!

[Merriam-Webster]( WORD OF THE DAY [September 13, 2018](#none) taradiddle [Audio pronunciation]( noun | tair-uh-DID-ul Definition 1 : a trivial or childish lie : [fib]( 2 : pretentious nonsense Scroll down for more about taradiddle TRENDING NOW: [hirsute]( [op-ed]( [collegiality]( [mistrial]( [SEE ALL [>]]( PEOPLE ARE READING # [What Exactly Is 'Normal'?]( # [8 Words for Things for Holding and Carrying]( # ['Shadowban' Emerges from the Dark]( # [Hygge]( WORD GAMES AND QUIZZES: WEEKLY CHALLENGE [Musical Words Quiz]( A quiz in common time. [PLAY NOW]( Nailed this quiz? We have plenty more to try! [TAKE ME THERE [>]]( Did You Know? The true origin of taradiddle is unknown, but that doesn't mean you won't encounter a lot of [balderdash]( about its history. Some folks try to connect it to the verb [diddle]( (one meaning of which is "to swindle or cheat"), but that connection hasn't been proven and may turn out to be [poppycock](. You may even hear some [tommyrot]( about this particular sense of diddle coming from the Old English verb didrian, which meant "to deceive," but that couldn't be true unless didrian was somehow suddenly revived after eight or nine centuries of disuse. No one even knows when taradiddle was first used. It must have been before it showed up in a 1796 dictionary of colloquial speech (where it was defined as a synonym of [fib](), but if we claimed we knew who said it first, and when, we'd be dishing out pure [applesauce](. Examples of TARADIDDLE "The time came when she not only told her taradiddle about having 'hunted quite a lot,' she even came near believing it." — George Orwell, Burmese Days, 1934 "As truths go, the history of Miss Rossiter she had laid out was unimpressive: a forked-tongue taraddidle of the highest order and if I were to serve it up to Hardy and be found out afterwards I should be lucky to escape arrest, if not a smack on the legs with a hairbrush for the cheek of it." — Catriona McPherson, Danny Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains, 2009 Name That Synonym Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of taradiddle: c _ a _ t _ a _. [VIEW THE ANSWER [>]]( MERCH Get ready for fall! Whether you're going back to school or going apple picking, we've got you covered with our new tote bags! [SHOP NOW [>]]( MORE WORD FUN: [WORD GAMES [>]]( [TRENDING NOW [>]]( [WORDS AT PLAY [>]]( FOLLOW US: [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( [Pinterest]( SHARE: [Facebook][Facebook]( [Twitter][Twitter]( [View this email in a web browser]( You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive the Merriam-Webster Word of the Day. [Unsubscribe from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day]( [Manage your subscription settings]( Merriam-Webster, Inc. 47 Federal Street P.O. Box 281 Springfield, MA 01102 [www.merriam-webster.com](