gregarious

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The Word of the Day for December 22 is:

gregarious   \grih-GAIR-ee-us\   adjective
     1 a : tending to associate with others of one's kind : social  *b : marked 
by or indicating a liking for companionship: sociable  c : of or relating to a 
social group
     2 a of a plant : growing in a cluster or a colony  b : living in 
contiguous nests but not forming a true colony -- used especially of wasps and 
bees

Example sentence:
     Michael's gregarious nature made him popular with students of all 
different stripes at school.

Did you know?
     When you're one of the herd, it's tough to avoid being social. The 
etymology of "gregarious" reflects the social nature of the flock; in fact, the 
word grew out of the Latin noun "grex," meaning "herd" or "flock." When it 
first began appearing in English texts in the 17th century, "gregarious" was 
applied mainly to animals, but by the 18th century it was being used for social 
human beings as well. By the way, "grex" gave English a whole flock of other 
words too, including "egregious," "aggregate," "congregate," and "segregate."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.





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