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fiscal
Mar. 28th, 2026 01:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
merriamwebster_feedMerriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 28, 2026 is:
fiscal • \FISS-kul\ • adjective
Fiscal is used to describe things relating to money and especially to the money a government, business, or organization earns, spends, and owes.
// The recent change in leadership was essential for addressing the fiscal health of the university.
Examples:
“The Town of Java [New York] ... has received exemplary audits from the State Comptroller’s Office, while continuing to streamline government and demonstrate fiscal responsibility.” — The Daily News (Batavia, New York), 13 Feb. 2026
Did you know?
Fiscal comes from the Latin noun fiscus, meaning “basket” or “treasury.” In ancient Rome, fiscus was the term for the treasury controlled by the emperor, where the money was literally stored in baskets and was collected primarily in the form of revenue from the provinces. Fiscus also gave English confiscate, which is most familiar as a verb meaning “to seize by or as if by authority,” but can additionally refer to the forfeiting of private property to public use. Today, we often encounter fiscal in “fiscal year,” a 12-month accounting period not necessarily coinciding with the calendar year.
dross
Mar. 27th, 2026 01:00 ammerriamwebster_feedMerriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 27, 2026 is:
dross • \DRAHSS\ • noun
Something referred to as "dross" is of low value or quality. Dross may also be used as a technical term to refer to unwanted material that is removed from a mineral to make it better.
// He's a skilled editor who has a talent for turning literary dross into gold.
Examples:
"Hollywood optimists argue that AI's greatest weakness will be originality. After all, viewers already complain of being deluged with formulaic, low-budget dross churned out by streaming platforms because an algorithm deems it popular." — Tom Leonard, The Scottish Daily Mail, 23 Feb. 2026
Did you know?
Dross has been a part of the English language since Anglo-Saxon times. It comes from the Old English word drōs, meaning "dregs," those solid materials that fall to the bottom of a container full of a liquid such as coffee or wine. While dross today is used to refer to anything of low value or quality, its earliest use is technical: dross is a metallurgy term referring to solid scum that forms on the surface of a metal when it is molten or melting—remove the dross to improve the metal. The metallurgical sense of the word is often hinted at in its general use, with dross set in contrast to gold, as when 19th century British poet Christina Rossetti wrote "Besides, those days were golden days, / Whilst these are days of dross."
zany
Mar. 26th, 2026 01:00 ammerriamwebster_feedMerriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 26, 2026 is:
zany • \ZAY-nee\ • adjective
Zany describes people or things that are very strange and silly.
// The cartoon series centers around two zany characters, best friends who also happen to be space aliens, constantly amusing each other with outrageous antics.
Examples:
“The fourth and final episode centers on a birthday party for The Cat in the Hat. ... Seeing where the clues lead, the friends embark on a joyous adventure of songs, dances, silly challenges, and plenty of zany energy from their wacky striped friend.” — Sarah Scott, Parents, 22 Dec. 2025
Did you know?
The oddballs among us are likely familiar with zany as an adjective, meaning “eccentric.” But did you know the word originated as a noun—one that has withstood the test of time? Zanies have been theatrical buffoons since the heyday of the Italian commedia dell’arte, in which a “zanni” was a stock servant character, often an intelligent and proud valet with abundant common sense and a love of practical jokes. Zanni comes from a dialect nickname for Giovanni, the Italian form of John. The character quickly spread throughout European theater circles, inspiring such familiar characters as Pierrot and Harlequin, and by the late 1500s an anglicized version of the noun zany was introduced to English. The adjective appeared within decades, and eventually both adopted more general meanings to refer to or describe those of us who are quipsters and weirdos.
SlasHeaven is Moving to AO3!
Mar. 25th, 2026 08:00 pmao3_news_feed
SlasHeaven, a Spanish-language slash fanfiction and fanart archive, is being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).
In this post:
- A bit of background explanation
- What this means for creators who had work(s) on SlasHeaven
- And what to do if you still have questions
Background explanation
SlasHeaven was founded on May 19, 2004, by the programmer and main promoter of the archive, Ayesha, and two collaborators, Maryam and Aura. This began after a massive deletion of fanfiction slash written in Spanish at a popular platform and with the conviction that we needed a place where we could publish in our language without restrictions. And so this website was born, a place dedicated exclusively to slash fanfiction written in Spanish.
SlasHeaven’s archivist made the decision to move the archive to AO3 after web configuration issues made it untenable to continue maintaining the archive themselves.
The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s Online Archive Rescue Project is to assist moderators of archives to incorporate the fanworks from those archives into the Archive of Our Own. Open Doors works with moderators to import their archives when the moderators lack the funds, time, or other resources to continue to maintain their archives independently. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with moderators who want to import their archives and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with Maryam and Aura to import SlasHeaven into a separate, searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, any fanart currently hosted by SlasHeaven will be hosted on the OTW's servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.
We will begin importing works from SlasHeaven to AO3 after March. However, the import may not take place for several months or even years, depending on the size and complexity of the archive. Creators are always welcome to import their own works and add them to the collection in the meantime.
What does this mean for creators who had work(s) on SlasHeaven?
We will send an import notification to the email address we have for each creator. We'll do our best to check for an existing copy of any works before importing. If we find a copy already on AO3, we will add it to the collection instead of importing it. All works archived on behalf of a creator will include their name in the byline or the summary of the work.
All imported works will be set to be viewable only by logged-in AO3 users. Once you claim your works, you can make them publicly-viewable if you choose. After 30 days, all unclaimed imported works will be made visible to all visitors.
Please contact Open Doors with your SlasHeaven pseud(s) and email address(es), if:
- You'd like us to import your works, but you need the notification sent to a different email address than you used on the original archive.
- You already have an AO3 account and have imported your works already yourself.
- You’d like to import your works yourself (including if you don’t have an AO3 account yet).
- You would NOT like your works moved to AO3, or would NOT like your works added to the archive collection.
- You are happy for us to preserve your works on AO3, but would like us to remove your name.
- You have any other questions we can help you with.
Please include the name of the archive in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account associated with your SlasHeaven account, please contact Open Doors and we'll help you out. (If you've posted the works elsewhere, or have an easy way to verify that they're yours, that's great; if not, we will work with the SlasHeaven mods to confirm your claims.)
Please see the Open Doors Website for instructions on:
- importing your works to AO3
- adding your works to the new collection SlasHeaven
If you still have questions...
If you have further questions, visit the Open Doors FAQ, or contact the Open Doors committee.
We'd also love it if fans could help us preserve the story of SlasHeaven on Fanlore. If you're new to wiki editing, no worries! Check out the new visitor portal, or ask the Fanlore Gardeners for tips.
We're excited to be able to help preserve SlasHeaven!
- The Open Doors team and Maryam and Aura
Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days, on April 8, 2026. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.
undulate
Mar. 25th, 2026 01:00 ammerriamwebster_feedMerriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 25, 2026 is:
undulate • \UN-juh-layt\ • verb
Undulate is a formal word that means “to move or be shaped like waves.”
// On the approach to the tulip festival, visitors are greeted by a large field of the colorful flowers undulating in the wind.
Examples:
“When sufficiently heated, the fresh cheese contracts, sweating whey from the curds that provides liquid to cook the dough, which will plump up and undulate slightly as it expands.” — Karima Moyer-Nocchi, The Epic History of Macaroni and Cheese: From Ancient Rome to Modern America, 2026
Did you know?
Undulate and inundate (“to cover something with a flood of water”) are word cousins that flow from unda, the Latin word for “wave.” No surprise there. But would you have guessed that abound, surround, and redound are also unda offspring? While their modern definitions have nothing to do with waves or water, at some point in their early histories, they all meant “to overflow,” and caught a wave from there.
cadence
Mar. 24th, 2026 01:00 ammerriamwebster_feedMerriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 24, 2026 is:
cadence • \KAY-dunss\ • noun
Cadence is used to refer to various rhythmic or repeated motions, activities, or patterns of sound, or to the way a person's voice changes by gently rising and falling while they are speaking.
// Ivy relaxed at the beach, listening to the cadence of the surf.
// He speaks with a soft Southern cadence.
Examples:
“Urged by a fast-talking auctioneer and his familiar cadence, paddles shot up as bids climbed into the four- and five-figure range.” — Lily Moayeri, Rolling Stone, 29 Jan. 2026
Did you know?
A cadence is a rhythm, or a flow of words or music, in a sequence that is regular (or steady as it were). But lest we be mistaken, cadence also lends its meaning to the sounds of Mother Nature (such as birdsong) to be sure. Cadence comes from Middle English borrowed from Medieval Latin’s own cadentia, a lovely word that means “rhythm in verse.” (You may also recognize a cadence cousin, sweet cadenza, as a word that is familiar in the opera universe.) And from there our cadence traces just a little further backward to the Latin verb cadere “to sound rhythmically, to fall.” Praise the rising and the falling of the lilting in our language, whether singing songs or rhyming or opining on it all.
Updates to "No Fandom" Additional Tags, March 2026
Mar. 23rd, 2026 04:39 pmao3_news_feed
AO3 Tag Wranglers continue to test processes for wrangling canonical additional tags (tags that appear in the auto-complete) which don't belong to any particular fandom (also known as "No Fandom" tags). This post overviews some of these upcoming changes.
In this round of updates, we continued to streamline creating new canonical tags, prioritizing more straightforward updates which would have less discussion compared to renaming current canonical tags or creating new canonical tags which touch on more complex topics. This method also reviews new tags on a regular basis, so check back on AO3 News for periodic "No Fandom" tag announcements.
None of these updates change the tags users have added to works. If a user-created tag is considered to have the same meaning as a new canonical, it will be made a synonym of one of these newly created canonical tags, and works with that user-created tag will appear when the canonical tag is selected.
In short, these changes only affect which tags appear in AO3's auto-complete and filters. You can and should continue to tag your works however you prefer.
New Canonicals
The following concepts have been made new canonical tags:
- All Characters Are Of Legal Age
- Black Cat/Golden Retriever Personality Dynamics
- Cannibalism as a Metaphor for Love
- Canon-Typical Cannibalism
- Characters in Love
- Classism
- Cock Stepping
- Crotch Stepping
- Crying After Sex
- Dramatic Irony
- Established Friendship
- Fealty
- Fealty Kink
- Loyalty Kink
- Pain Kink
- Thigh Kink
- Frotting | Rubbing Penises Together
- Girls in Love
- Grumpy/Sunshine Relationships
- Happy Tears
- Mating Press Position
- Moodboards
- Muscular Female Characters
- Muscular Male Characters
- Consensual Omegaverse Bitching | Turning into an Omega
- Omegaverse Bitching | Turning into an Omega
- Omegaverse Studding | Turning into an Alpha
- Omegaverse Alpha Bitching | Alpha Turning into an Omega
- Omegaverse Beta Bitching | Beta Turning into an Omega
- Relationship Wingmanning
- Consensual Spanking
In Conclusion
While some of these tags may be tags and concepts you're intimately familiar with, others may be concepts you've never heard of before. Fortunately, our fellow OTW volunteers at Fanlore may be able to help! As you may have seen in the comments sections of previous posts, Fanlore is a fantastic resource for learning more about these common fandom concepts, and about the history and lore of fandom in general. For the curious, here's a quick look at a few articles about concepts related to this month's new canonical tags:
- Aesthetic Edit
- Alpha/Beta/Omega
- Cannibalism
- Domestic Discipline
- Friendship
- Grumpy Character and the Sunshine Character
- Loyalty Kink
- Sex Position
While we won't be announcing every change we make to No Fandom canonical tags, you can expect similar updates in the future about tags we believe will most affect users. If you're interested in the changes we'll be making, you can continue to check AO3 News or follow us on Bluesky @wranglers.archiveofourown.org or Tumblr @ao3org for future announcements.
You can also read previous updates on "No Fandom" tags as well as other wrangling updates, linked below:
- Past "No Fandom" Additional Tags Updates and 5 Things Said by Wrangling Volunteers
- Past Fandom-Specific and "No Fandom" Tag Wrangling Change Posts
For more information about AO3's tag system, check out our Tags FAQ.
In addition to providing technical help, AO3 Support also handles requests related to how tags are sorted and connected. If you have questions about specific tags, which were first used over a month ago and are unrelated to any of the new canonical tags listed above, please contact Support instead of leaving a comment on this post.
Please keep in mind that discussions about what tags to canonize and what format they should take are ongoing. As a result, not all related concepts will be canonized at the same time. This does not mean that related or similar concepts will not be canonized in the future or that we have chosen to canonize one specific concept in lieu of another, simply that we likely either haven’t gotten to that related concept yet or that it needs further discussion and will take a bit longer for us to canonize it as a result. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
Lastly, we're still working on implementing changes and connecting relevant user-created tags to these new canonicals, so it’ll be some time before these updates are complete. If you have questions about specific tags which should be connected to these new canonicals, please refrain from contacting Support about them until at least three months from now to give us adequate time to do so.
The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, OTW Legal Advocacy, and Transformative Works and Cultures. We are a fan-run, donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.
frenetic
Mar. 23rd, 2026 01:00 ammerriamwebster_feedMerriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 23, 2026 is:
frenetic • \frih-NET-ik\ • adjective
Something described as frenetic is filled with excitement, activity, or confusion. The word is a synonym of frantic.
// The event was noisy and frenetic, which prompted us to leave early.
Examples:
“As Marty Mauser, a wannabe table tennis champion who dreams and deceives his way through his shamble of a life ... [Timothée Chalamet] injects his scenes with enough nervous energy to fuel a plane. Nowhere will you see a performance more frenetic or impressive.” — Ralph Jones, Vanity Fair, 9 Feb. 2026
Did you know?
In modern use, frenetic can describe a focused and intense effort to meet a deadline, or dancing among a hyped-up crowd, but the word’s Middle English predecessor, frenetik, had a narrower use: it was used to describe those exhibiting a severely disordered state of mind. If you trace frenetic back far enough, you’ll find that it comes from Greek phrenîtis, a term referring to an inflammation of the brain. As for frenzied and frantic, they’re not only synonyms of frenetic but relatives as well. Frantic comes from frenetik, and frenzied traces back to phrenîtis.
apotheosis
Mar. 22nd, 2026 01:00 ammerriamwebster_feedMerriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 22, 2026 is:
apotheosis • \uh-pah-thee-OH-sis\ • noun
Apotheosis refers to the perfect form or example of something, or to the highest or best part of something. It can also mean “elevation to divine status; deification.” It is usually singular, but the plural form is apotheoses.
// Some consider (however ironically) french fries to be the apotheosis of U.S. cuisine.
// Their music reached its creative apotheosis in the late 2010s, which is also when they won two Grammys.
Examples:
“At its simplest level, Canada appears in American literature as a wilderness escape from a more urbanized United States. ... The apotheosis of this view of Canada as a wilderness getaway might be Sylvia Plath’s poem ‘Two Campers in Cloud Country,’ subtitled ‘Rock Lake, Canada’ and written about a camping trip she and her husband Ted Hughes took through Canada and the northeastern US in 1959.” — Brooke Clark, LitHub.com, 17 Apr. 2025
Did you know?
Among the ancient Greeks, it was sometimes thought fitting to grant someone “god” status. Hence the word apothéōsis, from the verb apotheóō or apotheoûn, meaning “to deify.” (All are rooted in the Greek word theós, meaning “god,” which we can also thank for such religion-related terms as theology and atheism.) There’s not a lot of literal apotheosizing to be had in modern English, but apotheosis is thriving in the 21st century. It can refer to the highest or best part of something, as in “the celebration reaches its apotheosis in an elaborate feast,” or to a perfect example or ultimate form, as in “a movie that is the apotheosis of the sci-fi genre.”
scrutinize
Mar. 21st, 2026 01:00 ammerriamwebster_feedMerriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 21, 2026 is:
scrutinize • \SKROO-tuh-nyze\ • verb
To scrutinize something is to examine it carefully especially in a critical way.
// I closely scrutinized my opponent's moves before making my own.
Examples:
"The governor proposes a balanced budget, and the General Assembly scrutinizes every line." — J.B. Jennings, The Baltimore Sun, 5 Feb. 2026
Did you know?
Scrutinize the history of scrutinize far back enough and you wind up sifting through trash: the word comes from Latin scrutari, which means "to search, to examine," and scrutari likely comes from scruta, meaning "trash." The etymology evokes one who searches through trash for anything of value. The noun scrutiny preceded scrutinize in English, and in its earliest 15th century use referred to a formal vote, and later to an official examination of votes. Scrutinize was established in the 17th century with its familiar "to examine closely" meaning, but retained reference to voting with the specific meaning "to examine votes" at least into the 18th century. (Votes are still commonly said to be scrutinized in the general sense of the word.) And while the term scrutineer can be a general term referring to someone who examines something, it is also sometimes used in British English specifically as a term for someone who takes or counts votes.
eureka
Mar. 20th, 2026 01:00 ammerriamwebster_feedMerriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 20, 2026 is:
eureka • \yoo-REE-kuh\ • adjective
As an interjection, eureka is used to express excitement when a discovery has been made. When used as an adjective, eureka describes something (typically a moment) that is characterized by a usually sudden triumphant discovery.
// After years of trying to piece together a concrete business idea, I had a eureka moment and everything made sense.
Examples:
“Back in 2020, Trautmann and fellow college student Max Steitz were lamenting the unrelenting loss of Louisiana wetlands, while sharing a bottle of wine. It was a eureka moment, as Trautmann and Steitz realized that by crushing wine bottles and other disposable glass into sand, they could relieve pressure on landfills and simultaneously help fend off coastal erosion.” — Doug MacCash, nola.com (New Orleans, Louisiana), 5 Dec. 2025
Did you know?
When people exclaim “Eureka!” they are harking back to a legendary event in the life of the Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes. While wrestling with the problem of how to determine the purity of gold, he had the sudden realization that the buoyancy of an object placed in water is equal in magnitude to the weight of the water the object displaces. According to one popular version of the legend, he made his discovery at a public bathhouse, whereupon he leapt out of his bath, exclaiming in Greek “Heurēka! Heurēka!” (“I have found it!”), and ran home naked through the streets. The absence of a contemporary source for this anecdote has done nothing to diminish its popularity over the centuries. The English word eureka, which of course hails from heurēka, has also retained its popularity; its use as an interjection dates to the early 17th century, and it gained a brand-new use in the early 20th century as an adjective describing moments of discovery or epiphany.