leitmotif
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It's the word of the day for January 12th.

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Today's word is leitmotif, spelled L-E-I-T-M-O-T-I-F. Leitmotif is a noun. A leitmotif is a dominant recurring theme, something such as a melody, an idea, or a phrase, repeated many times throughout a book or story or opera. Here's the word used in a sentence from Scribner's Five Generations in Publishing.

F. Scott Fitzgerald considered his year and a half spent on The Vegetable a complete waste, but I disagree, for he followed it with a new novel written with all the economy and tight structure of a successful play, The Great Gatsby.

Both The Vegetable and Gatsby shared the theme of the American dream, first as a spoof for a comedy, finally as the leitmotif of a lyric novel. I don't think there has ever been a more elusive, mysterious, intriguing character than Gatsby. He's pure fiction and pure Fitzgerald, the hopeful romantic outsider looking in. The English word leitmotif is

sometimes spelled with a V at the end rather than an F, comes from the German leitmotiv, meaning leading motive, and is formed from the verb leiten, meaning to lead, and the noun motif, meaning motive.

In its original sense, the word applies to opera music. It was first used by writers interpreting the works of composer Richard Wagner, who was famous for associating a melody with a character or important dramatic element.

Leitmotif is still commonly used with reference to music and musical drama, but it's now also used more broadly to refer to any recurring theme in the arts. The Imperial March heard in the Star Wars film franchise whenever Darth Vader appears on screen, for example, or in everyday life. With your Word of the Day, I'm Peter Sokolowski. Visit Merriam-Webster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.