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May 18, 2026
This week’s themeToponyms This week’s words 
King Aigeus in front of the Pythia, oracle of Delphi 440-430 BCE
Art: Codrus Painter Previous week’s theme Whose what? Wordsmith Games
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargTravel broadens the mind. Sometimes it also broadens the dictionary. This week we’ll take a lexical tour of five places that found their way into English. Scattered throughout the dictionary are the ghosts of ancient empires, bustling markets, retreating archers, and museum labels with guilty consciences. In this etymological trip, we’ll explore toponyms: words that were coined from the names of places. We’ll follow our travel motto: Leave only footprints. Bring back only words. Delphian
PRONUNCIATION:
(DEL-fee-uhn)
MEANING:
adjective: Obscure or ambiguous.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Delphi, a city in ancient Greece. Earliest documented use: 1625.
NOTES:
In Greek mythology, Delphi, located near Mount Parnassus,
was the seat of the oracle
of Apollo. The priestess, known
as the Pythia, delivered responses believed to come from Apollo. The oracle was the ancient world’s answer desk: always ready with a reply, though not always one you could safely act on. The classic example involves Croesus, king of Lydia. He asked whether he should attack Persia. The oracle said that if he crossed the Halys River, he would destroy a great empire. He did. The empire was his own. USAGE:
“It takes the form of a Delphian composition entitled ‘Noodlin’. To begin
with and to get your mind stimulated, the word ‘noodle’ has many meanings.” Bickford Parker; Excrements; Xlibris; 2010. See more usage examples of Delphian in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic
leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of
leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and
muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and
terrorism on the other. -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician,
author, Nobel laureate (18 May 1872-1970)
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