Raillery - #469

Today’s word of the day is raillery, R-A-I-L-L-E-R-Y. Raillery is a noun that means good natured ridicule. You may have noticed the word rail embedded in our word of the day. The two words do share a common ancestor in the Latin word ragere (rah GER ay). But when used to describe a conversation the two words differ a great deal in tone. Rail means to revile or scold in  harsh or abusive language. Raillery, on the other hand, in a softer more playful word.  After two weeks off, I began to miss my co-workers. I don’t know how I made it through the day without my daily supply of banter and raillery.  Once again, raillery is spelled R-A-I-L-L-E-R-Y.