zeroth

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The Word of the Day for April 7 is:

zeroth   \ZEE-roath\   adjective 
     : being numbered zero in a series; also : of, relating to, 
or being a zero 

Example sentence:
     Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov's Zeroth Law for 
robots -- "A robot may not harm humanity" -- supersedes his 
First Law disallowing a robot to harm an individual human being.

Did you know?
     You don't have to be a rocket scientist to use "zeroth," 
but the word, which was coined by physicists over a hundred 
years ago, does often show up in scientific contexts. (It comes 
from "zero," which is itself from Arabic "sifr.") These 
days "zeroth" is frequently used, as in our example sentence, 
to suggest a level of importance that is even higher than 
first. Renowned Soviet physicist Lev Landau used "zeroth" this 
way when he classified all the famous physicists according to 
the relative value of their contributions to science. He put 
Niels Bohr and Max Planck, for example, right up there in the 
first class, and lesser-rated physicists in the second through 
fifth classes. Where did he think Albert Einstein and Isaac 
Newton belonged? They were unmatched, he felt, so they went in 
his zeroth class.