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A.Word.A.Day--levin levin (LEV-in) noun Lightning; a bright light. [From Middle English levene. Ultimately from Indo-European root leuk- (light) that's resulted in other words such as lunar, lunatic, light, lightning, lucid, illuminate, illustrate, translucent, lux, and lynx.] "Broad and frequent through the night Flash'd the sheets of levin-light;" Walter Scott; The Dance of Death; 1815. "See! from its summit the lurid levin Flashes downward without warning, As Lucifer, son of the morning, Fell from the battlements of heaven!" Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; At Sea; 1851. This week's theme: archaic words. X-Bonus Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity. -Lord Acton, historian (1834-1902)

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