A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Mon Mar 1 00:01:02 EST 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--lilliput X-Bonus: What is the opposite of two? A lonely me, a lonely you. -Richard Wilbur, poet and translator (1 Mar 1921-2017) Things are getting better, but travel is still not recommended. We can travel virtually any time though. This week we take you to some mythical places. Sometimes visiting fictional places can be more profitable than real ones, as Gulliver discovered in his travels. Jonathan Swift's satire became so popular that many of the terms from his novel, "Gulliver's Travels", have now become part of the English language. This week we feature five of them. lilliput (LI-li-puht/poot) adjective: Tiny. noun: Someone or something very small. [After Lilliput, an island nation in Jonathan Swift's satirical novel "Gulliver's Travels" (1726). Earliest documented use: 1867.] Gulliver in the now-defunct theme park Gulliver's Kingdom in Japan. Mount Fuji is in the background: https://wordsmith.org/words/images/lilliput_large.jpg Photo: Mandias https://www.flickr.com/photos/mutantmandias/334922922/in/album-72157626786698515/ NOTES: In his travels, Gulliver lands in Lilliput where people are only six inches tall. He may appear to be a giant to them, but it's all relative. Soon he'd visit a land where he himself appears as a lilliput to them. The word is also used in the form lilliputian https://wordsmith.org/words/lilliputian.html . "It doesn't go boom like one big nuclear bomb, it goes like a string of snap-crackers unend, little grenades in a lilliput war." Joseph Harry Silber; Bum; Lulu; 2012. -------- Date: Tue Mar 2 00:01:02 EST 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Laputan X-Bonus: Religious freedom should work two ways: we should be free to practice the religion of our choice, but we must also be free from having someone else's religion practiced on us. -John Irving, novelist (b. 2 Mar 1942) This week's theme: Words coined after "Gulliver's Travels" Laputan (luh-PYOOT-n) adjective Absurdly fanciful or impractical. [After Laputa, a floating island in Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (1726). Earliest documented use: 1866.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/Laputan NOTES: In the book, a resident of the floating island is called a Laputian; however, in the English language we use the word Laputan. Laputians/Laputans are described as people who are scientists and philosophers, lost in the arts of music, mathematics, technology, and astronomy. Practical matters do not concern them much. "Their houses are very ill built, the walls bevil [sloping], without one right angle in any apartment." That said, in that work of fiction, Laputans/Laputians discover two moons of the planet Mars, more than 150 years before the actual discovery by the real-life astronomer Asaph Hall. In Swift's honor, Mars's moon Deimos has a crater named Swift and the moon Phobos has geographical features named after places in "Gulliver's Travels": Laputa Regio and Lagado Planitia. Here's to Laputans and their "impractical" pursuits! https://wordsmith.org/words/images/laputan_large.jpg Illustration from "Gullivers Reisen", 1910, artist unknown "As a mathematician, Prof. Nowak's particular Laputan conceit is that human nature (before it is upgraded) is to be discovered in increasingly sophisticated computer programs rather than by examining the real thing." Peter Foster; Science Good, Markets Bad; National Post (Don Mills, Canada); May 7, 2011. -------- Date: Wed Mar 3 00:01:02 EST 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--struldbrug X-Bonus: Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it's the only one you have. -Emile Chartier, philosopher (3 Mar 1868-1951) This week's theme: Words coined after "Gulliver's Travels" struldbrug (STRUHLD-bruhg) noun Someone very old and decrepit. [After struldbrugs, the name for people in "Gulliver's Travels" who grow old and decrepit, but never die. Earliest documented use: 1773.] NOTES: In "Gulliver's Travels", struldbrugs is the name given to a small group of immortal people who live in the kingdom of Luggnagg. They continue to grow old and at the age of eighty they are regarded as legally dead, though they continue living on a small pension from the state. https://wordsmith.org/words/images/struldbrug_large.jpg Illustration: Stephen Baghot de la Bere, 1904 "The most startling moment came in a Q&A session, when a normal, healthy-looking middle-aged woman volunteered the information that she had been given a life expectancy of 100. Apparently this is now not unusual. She did not seem wholly happy about it, understandably: the prospect seemed more of a burden than a blessing. She did not want to be a struldbrug." Margaret Drabble; "I Am Not Afraid of Death. I Worry About Living"; The Guardian (London, UK); Oct 29, 2016. -------- Date: Thu Mar 4 00:01:02 EST 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--yahoo X-Bonus: Creativity -- like human life itself -- begins in darkness. We need to acknowledge this. All too often, we think only in terms of light: "And then the lightbulb went on and I got it!" It is true that insights may come to us as flashes. It is true that some of these flashes may be blinding. It is, however, also true that such bright ideas are preceded by a gestation period that is interior, murky, and completely necessary. -Julia Cameron, artist, author, teacher, filmmaker, composer, and journalist (b. 4 Mar 1948) This week's theme: Words coined after "Gulliver's Travels" yahoo (noun: YAH-hoo, interjection: ya-HOO) noun: A person who is boorish, loud, disruptive, etc. interjection: Expressing excitement, delight, or triumph. [For noun: After Yahoos, a race of brutish creatures in Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels". Earliest documented use: 1751. For interjection: Apparently of echoic origin. Earliest documented use: 1966.] Yahoos in the 1996 TV series "Gulliver's Travels" https://wordsmith.org/words/images/yahoo_large.jpg Image: IMDb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115195/mediaviewer/rm1613374976/ See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/yahoo "Delta CEO Ed Bastian is proposing a solution to passengers who create in-flight troubles -- a lifetime ban from flying, at least on Delta. ... Bastian should follow through on his proposal, and other airlines should consider similar bans. Doing so might prove an actual deterrent to the yahoos who think they have the right to behave badly and turn a simple flight onto an ordeal for fellow passengers and the flight crew." Keep the Skies Friendly; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania); Feb 9, 2021. -------- Date: Fri Mar 5 00:01:02 EST 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Brobdingnag X-Bonus: For 50 million years our biggest problems were too few calories, too little information. For about 50 years our biggest problem has been too many calories, too much information. We have to adjust, and I believe we will really fast. I also believe it will be wicked ugly while we're adjusting. -Penn Jillette, magician, actor, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author (b. 5 Mar 1955) This week's theme: Words coined after "Gulliver's Travels" Brobdingnag (BROB-ding-nag) noun: Something very large. adjective: Huge. [After Brobdingnag, a region where everything is enormous, in Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels". Earliest documented use: 1731.] "The King of Brobdingnag and Gulliver", 1803 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/brobdingnag_large.jpg Art: James Gillray in "Swift's Gulliver: Voyage to Brobdingnag" https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_King_of_Brobdingnag_and_Gulliver.%E2%80%93Vide._Swift%27s_Gulliver_Voyage_to_Brobdingnag.jpg NOTES: For scale, people in Brobdingnag are about 60 feet tall. In the English language the form Brobdingnagian is also used https://wordsmith.org/words/brobdingnagian.html . According to Gulliver, the place should have been spelled as Brobdingrag. Also, as per the map included in the book, Brobdingnag/Brobdingrag is located off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. Not sure why large mythical creatures are placed in this part of the world. Also see, Bigfoot https://wordsmith.org/words/bigfoot.html . "[Ford] has already got small, medium, large, and Brobdingnag covered with Escape, Flex, Edge, Explorer, and Expedition." Jim Kenzie; Roomy Compact SUV Has Split Personality; Toronto Star (Canada); Jun 2, 2018. -------- Date: Mon Mar 8 00:01:02 EST 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--autokinesy X-Bonus: A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used. -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., US Supreme Court Justice (8 Mar 1841-1935) This Sunday, March 14, marks 27 years of Wordsmith.org. Time flies when you're having fun. 3^3 years and we're still having fun, still playing with words, discovering new words, and sharing them with you. Thank you for being with us and joining in the fun whether you signed up last week or decades ago. Speaking of fun, someone recently asked: Can you think of a word that uses all the vowels including the y? Unquestionably! Yes, we can think of hundreds of words like this. Each of this week's words has the usual vowels and the sometime-vowel y. Such a word is known as a euryvocalic, from Greek eury- (wide) + vocalic (relating to vowels). Euryvocalic Headline Contest What newspaper headline, real or imaginary, can you come up with that makes use of all six vowels? Send it to contest@wordsmith.org or post it on our website by Fri, Mar 12, 2021 (include your location). https://wordsmith.org/words/autokinesy.html . PRIZES: Winners will receive their choice of a copy of any of my books or a copy of the word game One Up! https://wordsmith.org/awad/books.html https://www.oldscoolcompany.com/products/one-up Did you notice that all sentences in this intro, yes, including this one, have all six vowels? Do you have a euryvocalic name? Do you live in a euryvocalic place? Any other euryvocalic connections? Drop us a line. A word that has all five vowels is known as a supervocalic and a word that makes use of only one of the vowels is a univocalic. https://wordsmith.org/words/euphoria.html https://wordsmith.org/words/univocalic.html . autokinesy (au-toh-KIN-uh-see) noun Self-propelled or self-directed motion or energy. [From Greek auto- (self) + kinein (to move). Earliest documented use: 1678.] "There may be a simple internal energy or vital autokinesy." Journal of the History of Ideas; Johns Hopkins University Press; 1962. -------- Date: Tue Mar 9 00:01:02 EST 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--hypogeusia X-Bonus: What I want to happen to religion in the future is this: I want it to be like bowling. It's a hobby, something some people will enjoy, that has some virtues to it, that will have its own institutions and its traditions and its own television programming, and that families will enjoy together. It's not something I want to ban or that should affect hiring and firing decisions, or that interferes with public policy. It will be perfectly harmless as long as we don't elect our politicians on the basis of their bowling score, or go to war with people who play nine-pin instead of ten-pin, or use folklore about backspin to make decrees about how biology works. -PZ Myers, author, biology professor (b. 9 Mar 1957) This week's theme: Euryvocalic words hypogeusia (hy-puh-GOO/GYOO-zee/zhee-uh, -zhuh) noun A diminished sense of taste. [From Greek hypo- (under) + -geusia (taste). Earliest documented use: 1888.] NOTES: A complete lack of taste is ageusia (feel free to use the word metaphorically). And an extremely keen sense of taste is oxygeusia, from Greek oxy- (keen or sharp). How does the word oxygen fit in here? In 1778, Lavoisier named the newly discovered gas oxygen (literally, sharp giving) because he mistakenly believed that it was part of all acids. He was guillotined, not for misnaming of the gas we now know as oxygen, but for the charge of adulterating France's tobacco with water. He was exonerated posthumously. "It's lucky that the vic [victim] had that medical condition, hypogeusia, leaving him unable to taste food properly." Morgana Best; Any Given Sundae: Australian Amateur Sleuth; 2016. -------- Date: Wed Mar 10 00:01:02 EST 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sanguinolency X-Bonus: Anyone who wishes to become a good writer should endeavour, before he allows himself to be tempted by the more showy qualities, to be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid. -H.W. Fowler, lexicographer (10 Mar 1858-1933) This week's theme: Euryvocalic words sanguinolency (sang-GWIN-uh-len-see) noun Addiction to bloodshed. [From Latin sanguis (blood). Earliest documented use: 1664.] "His advisors' sanguinolency has produced a climate of lethophobia [fear of oblivion]." Gary Pettus; Words to Live by in Age of Trump; The Clarion Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi); Dec 13, 2016. -------- Date: Thu Mar 11 00:01:01 EST 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--coequality X-Bonus: The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas-covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal, is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be. -Douglas Adams, author (11 Mar 1952-2001) This week's theme: Euryvocalic words coequality (koh-ee-KWAH-li-tee) noun The state of being equal with one another, as in rank, power, value, etc. [From Latin co- (with) + aequus (level, equal). Earliest documented use: 1583.] "Agatha Christie's 'The Secret Adversary' firmly establishes the coequality of investigative duo Tommy and Tuppence." Fiction Reviews; Publishers Weekly (New York); Aug 13, 2018. -------- Date: Fri Mar 12 00:01:02 EST 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--enunciatory X-Bonus: Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and admiration of fools. -Richard Steele, author and editor (12 Mar 1672-1729) This week's theme: Euryvocalic words enunciatory (ee-NUHN-see-uh-toh-ree) adjective Announcing; declaring; pronouncing. [From Latin ex- (out) + nuntiare (to announce). Ultimately from the Indo-European root neu- (to shout), which also gave us announce, denounce, pronounce, renounce, and pronunciamento https://wordsmith.org/words/pronunciamento.html . Earliest documented use: 1693.] "'You know, they say there are as many different Hamlets as there are actors to play him,' says Walken, asked to consider the issue of his trademark enunciatory style." Steven Rea; Many Mimics, But No One Delivers a Line Like Walken; Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania); Feb 3, 2013. -------- Date: Mon Mar 15 00:01:02 EDT 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--coventry X-Bonus: Beware the stories you read or tell; subtly, at night, beneath the waters of consciousness, they are altering your world. -Ben Okri, poet and novelist (b. 15 Mar 1959) Having a word coined after yourself -- that's quite an achievement -- doesn't happen all that often. Examples: Socratic irony https://wordsmith.org/words/socratic_irony.html and Socratic method https://wordsmith.org/words/socratic_method.html . You're more likely to win a Nobel prize than to have a word, known as an eponym (from Greek ep-: after + -onym: name), coined after you. Let's just call such people overachievers. Then there are words coined after places, known as toponyms (from Greek topos: place). Again, it's rare to have a word coined after a place name, but there are some places -- overachievers of sorts -- that have given us multiple words. This week, we'll visit five places and look at words coined after them. Next week, we'll revisit them and look at another word that came from there. Coventry (KUV-uhn-tree) noun A state of ostracism. [After Coventry, a city in central England. It's unclear how Coventry developed this sense. One conjecture is that Royalist prisoners were sent there during the English Civil War. Earliest documented use: 1691. Also see stellenbosch https://wordsmith.org/words/stellenbosch.html .] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/Coventry Coventry, England: https://wordsmith.org/words/images/coventry_map.png Map: Wikimedia https://wordsmith.org/words/images/coventry_large.jpg Image: Ken Timbers https://www.flickr.com/photos/kentim/4348564458/ "When I was about twelve, all the girls at school stopped talking to me ... I arrived at school and gradually realized that I had been sent to Coventry. It made me miserable, so upset." Rowan Coleman; The Day We Met; Ballantine; 2015. -------- Date: Tue Mar 16 00:01:02 EDT 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Roman matron X-Bonus: I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the rights of the people by the gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. -James Madison, fourth US president (16 Mar 1751-1836) This week's theme: Places that have given us multiple toponyms Roman matron (ROH-muhn may-truhn) noun A woman having a dignified bearing. [From the ideal of a woman in ancient Rome. From Latin matrona (a married woman), from mater (mother). Earliest documented use: 1596.] "A Roman Matron", 1905 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/roman_matron_large.jpg Art: John William Godward "A learned woman's morals were always suspect, especially if she earned her living. Catharine Macaulay, a republican historian, could pose as a Roman matron all she liked, but that did not stop caricaturists mocking her for using cosmetics and for her male friendships." Clever Girls; The Economist (London, UK); Mar 22, 2008. -------- Date: Wed Mar 17 00:01:02 EDT 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Canterbury tale X-Bonus: When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him. -Bayard Rustin, civil rights activist (17 Mar 1912-1987) This week's theme: Places that have given us multiple toponyms Canterbury tale (KAN-tuhr-ber-ee tayl) noun A story that is long, tedious, or absurdly implausible. [After "The Canterbury Tales" c. 1400 by Geoffrey Chaucer. It's a collection of 24 stories told in verse by a group of pilgrims as they travel from London to Canterbury. Earliest documented use: 1575.] https://amazon.com/dp/B00SAWNQ2Y/ws00-20 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/canterbury_tale.jpg Image: Amazon "If someone had told a Canterbury tale in hopes of getting his part of the bounty -- well, I'm sure Mrs. d'Aubigny's brother would pay just as well for the truth." Madeleine E. Robins; Petty Treason; Tor; 2006. "What he had forgotten was whatever Canterbury tale he had spun to achieve his objective." Elisabeth Kidd; For Love of Celia; Walker & Co.; 1988. -------- Date: Thu Mar 18 00:01:02 EDT 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Trojan horse X-Bonus: I'm somewhat shy about the brutal facts of being a carnivore. I don't like meat to look like animals. I prefer it in the form of sausages, hamburger and meat loaf, far removed from the living thing. -John Updike, writer (18 Mar 1932-2009) This week's theme: Places that have given us multiple toponyms Trojan horse (TRO-juhn hors) noun Something or someone placed in order to subvert from within. [In the legendary Trojan War, the Greeks left a large hollow wooden horse at the gates of the city of Troy. The Trojans took it inside. Greek soldiers hidden in the horse came out at night and opened the gates of the city, allowing the Greek army to enter and conquer the Trojans. Earliest documented use: 1574. In computing, a Trojan horse is a program that, while seemingly useful, steals passwords or does other damage to computers.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/Trojan%20horse "The Procession of the Trojan Horse in Troy" c. 1760 (detail) https://wordsmith.org/words/images/trojan_horse2_large.jpg Art: Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Procession_of_the_Trojan_Horse_in_Troy_by_Giovanni_Domenico_Tiepolo_(cropped).jpg "David Uhlmann, the former Justice Department official, warned, ... 'the Kochs are using criminal-justice reform as a Trojan horse for their efforts to weaken environmental, health, and safety regulations.'" Jane Mayer; New Koch; The New Yorker; Jan 25, 2016. -------- Date: Fri Mar 19 00:01:01 EDT 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Kentish cousins X-Bonus: It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of one of those liberties which make the defense of our nation worthwhile. -Earl Warren, jurist (19 Mar 1891-1974) This week's theme: Places that have given us multiple toponyms Kentish cousins (KEN-tish kuh-zuhns) noun Distant relatives. [After Kent, a county in England. Since most of the county is bounded by the sea and the river Thames, its citizens were not as mobile and intermarriages were common. Earliest documented use: 1796.] https://wordsmith.org/words/images/kentish_large.jpg Image: Duncan C https://flickr.com/photos/duncan/37601527254/ "It is due to the correspondence maintained between the Hampshire and the Kentish cousins that various facts relating to the period of Jane Austen's girlhood were not long ago discovered by one of the authors of 'Life and Letters'." Helen Amy; The Jane Austen Files; Amberley Publishing; 2015. -------- Date: Mon Mar 22 00:01:02 EDT 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--plotz X-Bonus: Too often I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen. -Louis L'Amour, novelist (22 Mar 1908-1988) If languages were food, English would be a loaf of bread, Spanish a fine dish of fresh veggies, French a dessert, ... and Yiddish a spicy pickle. Add it to any meal to bring that tang. Add it to any conversation to give it a nice pungent flavor. At least to my tongue. Your tastebuds may vary (share it on our website https://wordsmith.org/words/plotz.html or email us at words@wordsmith.org). This week we share with you five words from Yiddish that are now a part of the English language. Yes, we have featured chutzpah https://wordsmith.org/words/chutzpah.html and mensch https://wordsmith.org/words/mensch.html and schmooze https://wordsmith.org/words/schmooze.html in the past. It's time to share words that you may not have heard of. Yiddish (literally, Jewish) is a language without a country (Israel's official languages are Hebrew and Arabic). It started out as the language of the Ashkenazi Jews (from Germany). The language has German as its base, includes a generous sprinkling of words from Hebrew and other languages, and is written in an alphabet based on Hebrew. Like any language, Yiddish serves its speakers in whatever they wish to express, however they wish to communicate. When I call it spicy pickle, it's only in the context of Yiddish vocabulary that's now a part of the English language. plotz (plots) verb intr. To faint, collapse, explode, or flop down, as from excitement, frustration, surprise, exhaustion, etc. [From Yiddish platsn (to burst), from German platzen (to burst). Earliest documented use: 1920.] "I laughed so hard I almost plotzed." Giles Coren; Fiction Review; The Times (London, UK); Sep 3, 2016. -------- Date: Tue Mar 23 00:01:01 EDT 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--frum X-Bonus: We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming. -Wernher von Braun, rocket scientist (23 Mar 1912-1977) [See this note about Wernher von Braun https://wordsmith.org/awad/awadmail978.html#braun ] This week's theme: Words borrowed from Yiddish frum (froom, [short oo, as in book]) adjective Religious; observant of religious laws. [From Yiddish frum, from Middle High German vrum (pious). Modern German fromm (pious). Earliest documented use: 1889.] "And I say this even though some of my best friends are frum and I'm a completely fake agnostic, because I still quietly recite the Shema [a liturgical prayer] when things get awkward." Jonathan Margolis; Not Strictly Kosher; The Guardian (London, UK); Nov 30, 2009. -------- Date: Wed Mar 24 00:01:02 EDT 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--shonda X-Bonus: Simplicity of life, even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of refinement. -William Morris, designer, poet, and novelist (24 Mar 1834-1896) This week's theme: Words borrowed from Yiddish shonda or shanda (SHON/SHAHN-duh) noun 1. Disgrace or shame. 2. Someone or something that brings shame or disgrace. [From Yiddish shande (shame, disgrace), from German Schande (disgrace). Earliest documented use: 1961.] "I was pegged as a gang leader who had organized a prayer and study group that influenced and caused a deadly silence that incited a riot. "'Three years, it's a shonda, but, it's the best I could do,' my green-eyed lawyer said." Sister Souljah; A Moment of Silence: Midnight III; Atria/Emily Bestler Books; 2015. -------- Date: Thu Mar 25 00:01:02 EDT 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--yichus X-Bonus: Law and justice are not always the same. When they aren't, destroying the law may be the first step toward changing it. -Gloria Steinem, activist, author, and editor (b. 25 Mar 1934) This week's theme: Words borrowed from Yiddish yichus (YEEKH-uhs) noun Prestige, social status, or pedigree. [From Yiddish yichus/yikhus (pedigree), from Hebrew yihus (pedigree). Earliest documented use: 1890.] "If you were a published author, for example, that would be yichus, or if you came from a family he heard of, that would be yichus." Bernard Beck; One American Dream; Amberjack; 2017. -------- Date: Fri Mar 26 00:01:02 EDT 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--gelt X-Bonus: We are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed. -Sterling Hayden, actor, author, and WWII veteran (26 Mar 1916-1986) This week's theme: Words borrowed from Yiddish gelt (gelt) noun Money. [From Yiddish gelt (money) and/or German, Dutch geld (money). The words gild, gilt, yield, and guild are cousins of this word. Earliest documented use: 1529.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/gelt Chocolate gelt given to kids on Hanukkah https://wordsmith.org/words/images/gelt_large.jpg Photo: Andrew Moor https://www.flickr.com/photos/drewott/30843821463/ "When I struck gelt ... I rented a furnished bungalow, a pretty little place in a row of bungalows." Maureen Howard; The Silver Screen; Viking; 2004. -------- Date: Mon Mar 29 00:01:02 EDT 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--coventrate X-Bonus: At least one way of measuring the freedom of any society is the amount of comedy that is permitted, and clearly a healthy society permits more satirical comment than a repressive, so that if comedy is to function in some way as a safety release then it must obviously deal with these taboo areas. This is part of the responsibility we accord our licensed jesters, that nothing be excused the searching light of comedy. If anything can survive the probe of humour it is clearly of value, and conversely all groups who claim immunity from laughter are claiming special privileges which should not be granted. -Eric Idle, comedian, actor, and author (b. 29 Mar 1943) A couple of weeks ago https://wordsmith.org/words/coventry.html we went to five places in search of words coined after them. If you travel all this distance, it makes sense to bring back more than just one word. This week we'll share with you another toponym (a word derived from a place name) that we fetched from those places. If you live in any of these places, drop us a line. How common are these terms there? Coventrate (KOV-uhn-trayt) verb tr. To devastate, such as by heavy bombing. [After Coventry, a city in central England, that was devastated in German bombing during WWII, Nov 14-15, 1940. The Germans coined the verb coventrieren (to coventrate) after the city to describe any heavy bombing, and the term was adopted in English as well. Earliest documented use: 1940. See also, blitzkrieg https://wordsmith.org/words/blitzkrieg.html .] Coventry city center after the raid https://wordsmith.org/words/images/coventrate_large.jpg Photo: Lt. Taylor / Imperial War Museums https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205190922 "Fighter and bomber commands were at the heart of the defensive and offensive strategy; Germany's cities would be Coventrated." Paul Oestreicher; The Legacy of Dresden; The Guardian (London, UK); Mar 3, 2004. -------- Date: Tue Mar 30 00:01:02 EDT 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Roman holiday X-Bonus: It's my rule never to lose my temper till it would be detrimental to keep it. -Sean O'Casey, playwright (30 Mar 1880-1964) This week's theme: Places that have given us multiple toponyms Roman holiday (ROH-muhn HOL-i-day) noun An entertainment event where pleasure is derived from watching gore and barbarism. [From the gladiatorial contests held in ancient Rome. Earliest documented use: 1818.] https://wordsmith.org/words/images/roman_holiday_large.jpg Photo: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/917595 "John might remind you of James Bond, but he has no interest in the honeys. Carnage is his release." Jeannette Catsoulis; Review: 'John Wick: Chapter 2': a Roman Holiday with Shots, Not Sparks; The New York Times; Feb 9, 2017. -------- Date: Wed Mar 31 00:01:01 EDT 2021 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--canter X-Bonus: I became a vegetarian after realizing that animals feel afraid, cold, hungry, and unhappy like we do. -Cesar Chavez, farm worker and activist (31 Mar 1927-1993) This week's theme: Places that have given us multiple toponyms canter (KAN-tuhr) verb tr., intr.: 1. To move at an easy pace. 2. To ride a horse at a canter. noun: 1. An easy pace. 2. A three-beat gait of a horse. [After Canterbury, a city in England, the home of Thomas Becket's shrine, toward which medieval pilgrims supposedly rode at an easy pace. Earliest documented use: 1706.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/canter An Andalusian horse cantering https://wordsmith.org/words/images/canter_large.gif Image: Waugsberg / Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canter_animated_frame_0013.gif#/media/File:Canter_animated.gif "The offshore industry needed Marintek's blessing before any new structure could be built. Lund spotted him, broke off her conversation and headed over. It meant walking all the way round the pool, which she did at her usual canter." Frank Schatzing; The Swarm; HarperCollins; 2009.