The Good Oil Word of the Day

The word for today is…

winnow (verb, noun) -

transitive verb 1a(1): to remove (something, such as chaff) by a current of air (2): to get rid of (something undesirable or unwanted) : remove - often used with out b(1): separate, sift (2): select 2a: to treat (something, such as grain) by exposure to a current of air so that waste matter is eliminated b: to free of unwanted or inferior elements : pare c: narrow, reduce 3: to blow on : fan

intransitive verb 1: to separate chaff from grain by fanning 2: to separate desirable and undesirable elements

Source : Merriam-Webster

Etymology : As one Bob Dylan song goes, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” In fact, all you need to do is hold up a dandelion puff the next time there’s a breeze blowing, and watch the wind winnow the silver-white seeds from the rest of the head. Winnow and wind are both ancient words in English, and both share an ancestor with the Latin word for wind, ventus. Winnow first applied to the removal of chaff (seed coverings and other unwanted debris) from grain using the wind or other air current. This use was soon extended to describe the removal of anything undesirable or unwanted (a current example of this sense would be “winnowing out sensitive material”). People then began using the word for the selection of the most desirable elements (as in “winnowing down the list to the most qualified applicants”). Although these senses are more familiar today to most English users than the one used in processing grain, if you have trouble remembering any of them, just remember that the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.

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