WORD OF THE DAY: EFFUSIVE
adjective | ih-FYOO-siv
What It Means
Someone or something described as effusive is expressing or showing a lot of emotion or enthusiasm.
// Jay positively glowed as effusive compliments on the meal echoed around the table.
Examples of EFFUSIVE
“More recently, Billboard ranked Grande, who also writes and produces her own work, high on its list of the greatest pop stars of the 21st century. … Rolling Stone has been similarly effusive, praising ‘a whistle tone that rivals Mariah Carey’s in her prime.'” — Lacey Rose, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Feb. 2025.
Did You Know?
English speakers have used effusive to describe excessive outpourings since the 17th century. Its oldest and still most common sense relates to the expression of abundant emotion or enthusiasm, but in the 1800s, geologists adopted a specific sense characterising flowing lava, or hardened rock formed from flowing lava. Effusive can be traced, via the Medieval Latin adjective effūsīvus (“generating profusely, lavish”), to the Latin verb effundere (“to pour out”), which itself comes from fundere (“to pour”) plus a modification of the prefix ex- (“out”). Our verb effuse has the same Latin ancestors. A person effuses when speaking effusively. Liquids can effuse as well, as in “water effusing from a pipe.”
Merriam Webster Dictionary
