It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for March 4th.

Today's word is syllubrious, spelled S-A-L-U-S-A-N-G-G-N-G-G-N-G-N-G-N-B-R-I-O-U-S.

Salubrious is an adjective.

It's a formal word that means favorable to or promoting health or well-being. Here's the word used in a

sentence from the conversation by Primrose Freestone. Despite their

salubrious sounding name, fruit flies eat food that is decaying.

They inhabit rubbish bins, compost heaps, or any place where food is present, including drains.

The word salubrious, like the words healthful and wholesome, describes things that are favorable to the health of the mind or body.

A rather formal and somewhat rare word, it's related by its Latin ancestor Salubris to the very common word in English safe.

Unlike healthful and wholesome, Salubrious tends to apply chiefly to the helpful effects of climate or air, as in the

Salubrious climate of the tropical island. Salubrious seems to be expanding

semantically. We occasionally see evidence of it being used as a descriptor of prosperous people or

locales.

This is the same sense used by British author Zady Smith in her 2023 historical novel, The Fraud, when she writes,

following the more salubrious element of the crowd,

they found themselves on the second floor

of Lady Blessington's old Gore house recently converted into a restaurant by Alexis Sawyer.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski. Visit Marion Webster

Webster.com today for definitions, word play, and trending word lookups.