It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for July 27th.

Today's word is jurisprudence, spelled J-U-I-N-G-E-N-G-E-N-G-E-S-P-R-U-D-E-N-C-E.

Jurisprudence is a noun.

It's a formal word that typically refers to the science or philosophy of law or to a system or body of law.

Here's the word used in a sentence from Rolling Stone by Andy Green. The nine justices follow our

national debate as close as any political pundit and it shapes their jurisprudence

in countless ways. The English jurist Sir Edward Koch welcomed new words into

English with his farewell to fellow jurist Sir Thomas Littleton with these

words for a farewell to our jurisprudent,

I wish unto him the gladsome light of jurisprudence.

In 1628, his word jurisprudence meant knowledge of or skill in law, a now archaic sense that reflects

the meaning of the words root. Jurisprudence goes back to the Latin phrase, prudentia juries, literally meaning skill in law, from which came the late Latin formation juries prudentia, and subsequently the English word. The noun jurisprudent

means one skilled in law, in other words a jurist or a judge. There's also

juris prude, a somewhat rare 20th century back formation created from jurisprudence,

with influence from the word prude. It means one who makes a showy display of jurisprudential learning.

With your Word of the Day I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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