Ask Merriam-Webster

Shortly after establishing these blogs I put a bookmark on www.m-w.com, I was using it so much. I'm not ashamed to say that. In fact, it's been good to flex my writing muscles over these past two months. It's also been nice to add to my vocabulary some words that are not related to my primary job (for you see, over the years I've acquired all these words that I can't use in polite conversation with normal folks). While at the site I decided, hey, why not subscribe to the Word of the Day? I have been unimpressed by some of the entries, as they seem to be new words that represent the recent bastardization of old standards, but some have been at least an interesting read:

The Word of the Day for October 7 is:
burke \BERK\ verb
1 : to suppress quietly or indirectly
2 : bypass, avoid
Example sentence: The governor attempted to discreetly burke all inquiries into his alleged misuse of state funds.
Did you know? When an elderly pensioner died at the Edinburgh boarding house of William Hare in 1827, the proprietor and his friend William Burke decided to sell the body to a local anatomy school. The sale was so lucrative that they decided to make sure they could repeat it. They began luring nameless wanderers (who were not likely to be missed) into the house, getting them drunk, then smothering or strangling them and selling the bodies. The two disposed of at least 15 victims before murdering a local woman whose disappearance led to their arrest. At Burke's execution (by hanging), irate crowds shouted "Burke him!" As a result of the case, the word "burke" became a byword first for death by strangulation and eventually for any cover-up.

I hope that no part of my name is ever turned into a verb.