untenable
02:18 Share

It's the Word of the Day podcast for January 10th.

and people helping truckers fill up and get maintenance at our convenient locations. They're part of the more than 300,000 jobs BP supports across the country. Learn more at bp.com slash investing in America.

Today's word is untenable, spelled U-N-T-E-N-A-B-L-E. Untenable is an adjective. Something such as a position, excuse, or situation that is described as untenable cannot be defended against attack or criticism. Here's the word used in a sentence from Will I Be Fung in The Mötley Fool.

According to The Economist, the disparity between investor enthusiasm about AI and reality might be untenable. They report that only 5% of U.S. businesses say they use AI in their products and services, and few AI startups are turning a profit.

Most notably, OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, expects to lose around $5 billion this year because of huge outflows for employee salaries and the massive energy costs associated with running large language models.

The word untenable and its opposite, tenable, come to us from the old French verb tenir, meaning to hold or have possession of, and ultimately from the Latin verb tenere, meaning to hold, occupy, or possess. We tend to use untenable in situations where an idea or position is so off-base that holding onto it is unjustified or inexcusable.

one way to hold on to the meaning of untenable is to associate it with other tenere descendants whose meanings are associated with holding or holding on to tenacious meaning holding fast is one example others are contain detain sustain maintain and retain

Spanish speakers may also recognize tenere as a predecessor of the commonplace verb tener, which retains the meaning of to hold or possess. With your Word of the Day, I'm Peter Sokolowski. Visit Merriam-Webster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.