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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--sutra This week's theme: loanwords from Sanskrit. sutra (SOO-truh) noun A rule or formula; aphorism. [From Sanskrit sutra (thread). Ultimately from Indo-European root syu- or su- (to bind or sew) that is also the source of sew, suture, couture, Kamasutra, and hymen.] Today's word in Visual Thesaurus. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Even in autumn, when the apprentice is desperately agitated, having dragged the world's violence (and its modernity) back to the lake, the old monk is capable of writing down for his student an entire sutra, using as a pen the tail of a remarkably patient cat." Stuart Klawans; Chronicle of a Disappearance; The Nation (New York); Apr 26, 2004. X-Bonus Humans -- who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals -- have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and "animals" is essential if we are to bend them to our will, wear them, eat them -- without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. -Carl Sagan, astronomer and author (1934-1996) & Ann Druyan, author (1949- ) [Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, 1993]

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