Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar — another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word:

INVETERATE

Human beings are creatures of pattern and habit. We tend to settle in with our favorite patterns over the long haul, and they become inveterate. The word (pronounced in-VET-ur-at) means having a long-established habit or interest or activity that is unlikely to change.

The word came to us in late Middle English, referring to disease, in the sense of "chronic." Its root is in the Latin inveteratus, "made old."

Example: The writer John Green says, "As a child I was an inveterate liar. As opposed to now, I am a Novelist."