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Post by David on Oct 8, 2020 21:11:28 GMT
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher,
Diogenes replied: "Only stand out of my light." Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity.
Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light.
-John W. Gardner, author and educator (8 Oct 1912-2002)
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Post by David on Oct 10, 2020 3:33:50 GMT
Bigfoot
PRONUNCIATION:
(BIG-foot)
MEANING:
noun: A prominent person in a commanding position, especially a journalist.
verb tr.: To dominate or to take control of a situation from someone.
verb intr.: To behave in an authoritative, domineering manner.
ETYMOLOGY:
Bigfoot is a nickname for a Sasquatch, a large, ape-like mythical creature who lives in a remote wilderness,
especially the Pacific Northwest region of the US and the adjacent part of Canada. Earliest documented use: 1833.
USAGE:
“That FDA commissioner, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, told CNN Friday that this kind of political bigfooting can happen at any time.”
Elizabeth Cohen; Here’s How Trump Could Bigfoot the FDA and Get a Vaccine Out Ahead of the Science; CNN.com; Sep 5, 2020.
See more usage examples of Bigfoot in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.
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Post by David on Oct 10, 2020 3:34:49 GMT
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
From everything that man erects and builds in his urge for living, nothing in my eyes is better and more valuable than bridges.
They are more important than houses, more sacred than shrines.
Belonging to everyone and being equal to everyone, useful, always built with a sense,
on the spot where most human needs are crossing, they are more durable than other buildings
and they do not serve for anything secret or bad. -Ivo Andric, novelist, Nobel laureate (9 Oct 1892-1975)
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Post by David on Oct 12, 2020 5:15:07 GMT
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg
Do you believe there’s something to nominative determinism? It’s a fancy term for the idea that our names determine our destiny. Perhaps the lexicographer Noah Webster’s (16 Oct 1758-1843) name did determine his destination.
A webster is, literally, a weaver. And what is compiling a dictionary but assembling it one thread/word at a time? Also, if you go by his first name, he did herd words in one place, in the style of Biblical Noah:
Noah Webster,
Word herder.
Herded words from A to Z*
Into An American Dictionary.
He’s best known for his An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), but he published all sorts of stuff, including textbooks, his own version of the Bible (Common Version), newspaper articles, and more.
Besides writing, he served as a legislator in two states (Connecticut and Massachusetts), started an anti-slavery group (Connecticut Society for the Abolition of Slavery), co-founded a college (Amherst College), founded a newspaper (American Minerva, New York’s first daily), and served as a teacher, lawyer, soldier, and more.
And you thought you didn’t have time?!
This week marks Webster’s 262nd birthday and in his honor we’ll feature words about words and language.
*Yes, Z rhymes with dictionary around here. If that puppy answers to zed in your part of the world, you get to write your own verse! Zee or zed, let inspiration flow! Share your Webster tributes (in verse) on our website or email us at words@wordsmith.org.
(The one I wrote is a clerihew, but you can choose any format for your verse.)
endonym
PRONUNCIATION:
(EN-duh-nym)
MEANING:
noun: A name used internally to refer to a place, people, language, etc.
For example, Germany’s endonym is Deutschland, because that’s what Germans call their country.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek endo- (inside, within) + -onym (word, name). Some related words endogenous and endogamy
USAGE:
“PLU [People Like Us] is the English elite’s secret name for their own upper-middle-class tribe ... So I’ll be a good little anthropologist and call this tribe by its own smugly self-satisfied endonym.”
Kate Fox; People Like Us; New Statesman (London, UK); Oct 10, 2014.
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Post by David on Oct 12, 2020 5:16:45 GMT
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The mosque is too far from home, so let's do this / Let's make a weeping child laugh.
-Nida Fazli, poet (12 Oct 1938-2016)
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Post by David on Oct 13, 2020 23:32:54 GMT
basilect
PRONUNCIATION:
(BAY-zuh/suh-lekt, BAZ/BAS-uh-lekt)
MEANING:
noun: The least prestigious variety of a language.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin basis + dialectus (dialect). Earliest documented use: 1965.
NOTES:
There’s a saying: A language is a dialect with an army and a navy. It was popularized by the sociolinguist Max Weinreich.
The idea is that what we call a “dialect” is not any less grammatical or in any way inferior to a “language”.
The distinction has more to do with other factors, such as the social status accorded by the political and economic might of its speakers.
For example, the reason the flavor of English spoken around London or French spoken around Paris is considered “standard” is not because
there’s something special about them. It’s because people in that area have more power. In reality, we all speak a dialect.
The opposite of basilect is acrolect, the most prestigious variety of a language. In the middle is mesolect.
USAGE:
“The constant babble of thousands of beings speaking hundreds of languages, patois, pidgin, and favored dialects blended together to create a rich basilect brew.”
Michael Reaves; Star Wars: Coruscant Nights II: Street of Shadows; Ballantine Books; 2008.
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Post by David on Oct 13, 2020 23:34:09 GMT
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
You can't do anything with anybody's body to make it dirty to me.
Six people, eight people, one person...
you can do only one thing to make it dirty: kill it. Hiroshima was dirty.
-Lenny Bruce, comedian and social critic (13 Oct 1925-1966)
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Post by David on Oct 15, 2020 14:28:29 GMT
homeoteleuton
PRONUNCIATION:
(ho-mee-o-TEL-yuh-ton)
MEANING:
noun: A repetition of the same or similar endings in a sequence of words.
ETYMOLOGY:
From homeo- (similar) from Greek homoio + -teleutos, from teleute (end). Earliest documented use: 1592.
NOTES:
The word also refers to a form of scribal error where a copyist’s eye skips to a word with the same ending
one or more lines below where they were.
USAGE:
“Fittingly, the poem rhymes abab, although the ‘b’ rhyme in the first stanza is more homeoteleuton than true rhyme.”
Al Benthall; Worlds of Eye and Ear in the Poems of William Harmon; The Mississippi Quarterly; Jan 2004.
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Post by David on Oct 15, 2020 14:29:08 GMT
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
One will rarely err if extreme actions be ascribed to vanity,
ordinary actions to habit, and mean actions to fear.
-Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (15 Oct 1844-1900)
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Post by David on Oct 17, 2020 4:15:24 GMT
heterophemy
PRONUNCIATION:
(HET-uh-ruh-fee-mee)
MEANING:
noun: The use of a word different from the one intended.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek hetero- (different) + pheme (speaking). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bha- (to speak),
which also gave us fable, fairy, fate, fame, blame, confess, and infant (literally, one unable to speak),
apophasis (allusion to something by denying it will be said), confabulate, and ineffable. Earliest documented use: 1875.
USAGE:
“In effect, Hyacinth’s nervousness results in a classic case of heterophemy: his disrupted mental condition leads him ‘to speak without thinking’.”
Gavin Jones; Strange Talk; University of California Press; 1999.
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Post by David on Oct 17, 2020 4:15:55 GMT
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.
-Oscar Wilde, writer (16 Oct 1854-1900)
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Post by David on Oct 19, 2020 13:48:46 GMT
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg
The Serenity Prayer, written by Reinhold Niebuhr, goes:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
Every four years, God, or at least the US Constitution, grants Americans the power to change the things they can.
I’m talking about presidents. We get the power to change a president and undo errors of the past.
May we have the wisdom to actually use that power in the elections two weeks from now.
Meanwhile, this week we’ll see five words that appear to be coined after presidential candidates, but aren’t.
bident
PRONUNCIATION:
(BY-duhnt)
MEANING:
noun: A two-pronged instrument, weapon, implement, etc.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin bidens (two-pronged), from bi- (two) + dens (tooth). Earliest documented use: 1675.
USAGE:
“I landed on the nearest demon, knocking him down while ramming both ends of my bone weapon through his eyes. ...
I yanked the bident out and immediately flew up, leaving the other demon to smack into the wall.”
Jeaniene Frost; Wicked Bite; Avon; 2020.
“During this tight match ... Aaron Boretos cheered on his team by shaking his bident.”
John Cannon; It Was All a Blur; McClatchy-Tribune Business News (Washington, DC); Jan 15, 2010.
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Post by David on Oct 19, 2020 13:50:06 GMT
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own.
-Adam Lindsay Gordon, poet (19 Oct 1833-1870)
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Post by David on Oct 20, 2020 5:28:56 GMT
trumpery
PRONUNCIATION:
(TRUHM-puh-ree)
MEANING:
noun:
1. Something showy but worthless.
2. Nonsense or rubbish.
3. Deceit; fraud; trickery.
ETYMOLOGY:
From French tromper (to deceive). Earliest documented use: 1481.
USAGE:
“The room was crowded with a chilly miscellany of knick-knacks and ornaments, gewgaws, and trumpery of every kind.”
Leo Bruce; Case for Three Detectives; Academy Chicago; 1980.
“History, made up as it is of so much trumpery, treachery, and tyranny, needs deeds of valor, of sacrifice, and of heroism if it is to be palatable.”
The Medal of Honor: A History of Service Above and Beyond; Zenith Press; 2014.
See more usage examples of trumpery in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.
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Post by David on Oct 20, 2020 5:29:35 GMT
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I have three ex-wives. I can't remember any of their names, so I just call 'em Plaintiff.
-Lewis Grizzard, humorist (20 Oct 1946-1994)
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