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Foreign. It's Merriam Webster's Word of the Day for January 19th. Today's Word is ephemeral, spelled E P H E M E R A L. Ephemeral is an adjective, something described as ephemeral lasts only for a very short time. Here's the word used in a sentence from the Seattle Times like most garden moments, fresh holiday wreaths are ephemeral, having accomplished their purpose of seeing us through the darkest days of winter. Removing this traditional symbol of the wheeling seasons is a way to recognize the birth of a new year and celebrate the returning light. In its aquatic immature stages, the mayfly has all the time in the world, or not quite. Among the approximately 2,500 species of mayflies, some have as much as two years, but a year is more common. But in its adult phase, the typical mayfly hatches, takes wing for the first time, mates and dies within the span of a few short hours. This briefest of heydays makes the insect a potent symbol of life's ephemeral nature. When the word ephemeral, from the Greek word ephemeros, meaning lasting a day, first appeared in print in English in the late 16th century, it was a scientific term applied to short term fevers and later to organisms such as insects and flowers with very short lifespans. Soon after that, it acquired an extended sense, describing anything fleeting and short lived as in ephemeral pleasures. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski. Visit marionwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay and trending. Word lookups.