waggish

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 12, 2025 is: waggish \WAG-ish\ adjective Waggish describes someone who is silly and playful, and especially someone who displays a mischievous sense of humor. The word can also describe things that such a person might do or possess. // He had a waggish disposition that could irk adults but typically delighted children. // She denied the prank but did so with a waggish smirk that didn't match her disavowal. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/waggish) Examples: “[Patricia] Lockwood began her writing life quietly, as a poet. She found her first major audience on Twitter, posting self-proclaimed ‘absurdities’ ... that quickly came to define the medium’s zany, waggish ethos ...” — Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025 Did you know? One who is waggish acts like a wag. What, then, is a wag? It has nothing to do with a dog’s tail; in this case a wag is a clever person prone to joking. Though light-hearted in its use and meaning, the probable source of this particular [wag](https://bit.ly/3WUgRqV) is grim: it is thought to be short for waghalter, an obsolete English word that translates as [gallows bird](https://bit.ly/3LINC82), a gallows bird being someone thought to be deserving of hanging (wag being the familiar [wag](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wag) having to do with movement, and [halter](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/halter) referring to a noose). Despite its gloomy origins, waggish is now often associated with humor and playfulness—a wag is a joker, and [waggery](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/waggery) is merriment or practical joking. Waggish can describe the prank itself as well as the prankster type; the [class clown](https://bit.ly/49Qqmis) might be said to have a “waggish disposition” or be prone to “waggish antics.”