Word of the Day 07.09.11

yen \YEN\, noun:

1. A strong desire or inclination; a longing.
2. To have a strong desire or inclination; to long.

But all that duty must have incubated a yen for rebellion.
-- Michael Tomasky, "The Candidate", New York Times, March 26, 2000

Mojo, a fellow who's started a successful ice-cream business, likes to think of himself as "a post-Marxist with a yen for a Porsche."
-- Michiko Kakutani, "Alienated Young and Their Solipsistic Pleasures", New York Times, May 7, 1988

We come into the world with a yen for sweets (newborns can even distinguish among glucose, fructose, lactose, and sucrose) and a weak aversion to bitterness, and after four months develop a fondness for salt.
-- Jeffrey Steingarten, The Man Who Ate Everything

Yen comes from Chinese (Cantonese) yan, "craving."



In case you were wondering, I was playing Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction on this day six years ago.