Usage 1: As you use today's word, be careful not to confuse it with titillate "to excite as though by tickling," a mistake made by no one less than Dylan Thomas, who wrote in one of his letters: "Even now twelve heartfelt pages are titivating the senses of a Dead Letter superintendent." Even were the letter written in one of his sessions at the pub, the verb here should have been "titillate." The activity is "titivation" and someone prone to the activity would be a "titivator." The adjective would be "titivating" as, "She tossed back a stray curl of hair with a titivating gesture of her hand."

Suggested usage: The basic meaning of today's word is "to tidy up" something some of us can never get enough of: "Muriel stretched Edgar's patience to its limit, titivating his attire before their every departure from the house." Today, however, the meaning has broadened to include almost any kind of decoration, "The ox-cart carrying the newlyweds had been titivated with brightly colored ribbons."

Etymology: Originally spelled "tidivate" or "tiddivate," this word is ostensibly a blend (portmanteau) of "tidy" + some Latinate borrowing such as "cultivate," "elevate," or "renovate." Notice that between two vowels, English [t] is pronounced [d] in many dialects, especially in the US; hence, the change in spelling does not affect the pronunciation in these dialects. The exact origin is unknown but it first began appearing in print around 1805. (We would like to thank Lyn Laboriel of Tarzana, California today for significantly titivating our Word of the Day series with this little gem.)