The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day is druthers. Read on for what it means, how it’s used, and more.

What It Means

Druthers refers to “a free choice or preference.” It is often used in the phrase if one had one’s druthers.

// If I had my druthers, I’d be relaxing at the beach this weekend instead of remodeling my kitchen.

DRUTHERS in Context

“If I had my druthers, collegiate baseball wouldn’t begin play until mid-March. The weather is too unpredictable in mid-February for baseball.” — Terry J. Wood, The Fayetteville (Arkansas) Flyer, 15 Feb. 2022

Did You Know?

Druther is an alteration of “would rather.” “Any way you druther have it, that is the way I druther have it,” says Huck to Tom in Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, Detective. This example of metanalysis (the shifting of a sound from one element of a phrase to another) had been around for some time in everyday speech when Twain put those words in Huck’s mouth. By then, in fact, druthers had already become a plural noun, so Tom could reply, “There ain’t any druthers about it, Huck Finn; nobody said anything about druthers.” Druthers is a dialectal term.