It's the Word of the Day for March 19th.

Today's word is juggernaut, spelled J-U-G-G-G-E-R-N-A-U-T.

Juggernaut is a noun. A juggernaut is something such as a force campaign or movement

that is extremely large and powerful and cannot be stopped. Here's the word used in a sentence from

Variety by Cynthia Littleton. Judd Apatow talked about the box office success of Wicked,

the Universal Musical that became a juggernaut

over the holiday season and has been an awards darling.

In the early 14th century, Franciscan missionary friar Odurik brought to Europe the story of

an enormous carriage that carried an image of the Hindu god Vishnu, whose title was

Jagannath, literally Lord of the World, through the streets of India in religious processions.

Odirik reported that some worshippers deliberately allowed themselves to be crushed beneath the

vehicle's wheels as a sacrifice to Vishnu.

That story was likely an exaggeration or misinterpretation of actual events, but it spread

throughout Europe. The tale caught the imagination of English listeners, and they began using

the word juggernaut to refer to any massive vehicle, such as a steam locomotive, and to any

other enormous entity with powerful crushing capabilities. While the word is still used sometimes

in British English to refer to a very large heavy truck, also called a juggernaut lorry,

juggernaut is more commonly used figuratively for a relentless force entity campaign or movement,

as in a political, economic, or cultural juggernaut.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sakalowski.

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