A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Fri May 1 12:01:02 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--square the circle X-Bonus: The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on. -Joseph Heller, novelist (1 May 1923-1999) This week's theme: Geometrical terms used figuratively square the circle (skwair thuh SUHR-kuhl) idiom To accomplish what appears to be impossible, especially in satisfying conflicting requirements. [From the classical geometric problem of constructing, using only a compass and straightedge, a square equal in area to a given circle. Earliest documented use: 1624.] NOTES: In classical geometry, to square the circle is to construct a square with the same area as a given circle, using only a compass and straightedge. Mathematicians chased this problem for centuries. In 1882, it was proved impossible to do exactly in a finite number of steps. That has not stopped people, in mathematics or elsewhere, from trying. Anyone who still tries to solve this problem is being completely irrational (just like π). President Lyndon Johnson and Senator J. William Fulbright inspect Richard Anuszkiewicz's 1963 painting "Squaring the Circle" at the 1965 White House Arts Festival. https://wordsmith.org/words/images/square_the_circle_large.jpg Photo: Yoichi Okamoto https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johnson_Fulbright_Square_Circle.tif "I understand, Terence, what a dilemma you had: there seemed no way to square the circle." S.R. White; White Ash Ridge; Headline; 2024. -------- Date: Mon May 4 12:01:02 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cadgy X-Bonus: Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity. -Horace Mann, educational reformer (4 May 1796-1859) The human species is a wonderfully assorted lot. At work, in the neighborhood, on a trail, or while idling over a coffee and watching the world go by, you meet a whole pageant of personalities. What do you call them all? Fortunately, English has been taking notes for centuries. Why settle for loud or grumpy when the language offers sharper, stranger, and more colorful ways to pin a label on them? This week we hold up the linguistic magnifying glass and present five words to describe people. Can you think of someone to whom one or more of this week's words would apply? It may be difficult to find a single person who fits all five, though now and then humanity does overachieve. cadgy (KAJ-ee) adjective 1. Wanton; lustful. 2. Cheerful. [Of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1724.] "Before", 1730-1731 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/cadgy_large.jpg Art: William Hogarth https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RDS There's an "After" too https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RDV "Crawford's Willie is crude, cadgy, and blindingly charismatic, a man consumed by desire for raw power and its accouterments." Soren Andersen; Solid Outside, Hollow Inside; McClatchy-Tribune Business News (Washington, DC); Sep 22, 2006. -------- Date: Tue May 5 12:01:02 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--querimonious X-Bonus: That's the terrible hypnotism of war, the brute mass-impulse, the pride and national spirit, the instinctive simplicity of men that makes them worship what is their own above everything else. I've thrilled and shouted with patriotic pride, like everyone else. Music and flags and men marching in step have bewitched me, as they do all of us. And then I've gone home and sworn to root this evil instinct out of my soul. God help -- let's love the world, love humanity -- not just our own country! -Christopher Morley, writer (5 May 1890-1957) This week's theme: Words to describe people querimonious (kwer-uh-MOH-nee-uhs) adjective Habitually complaining; querulous; full of grievances. [From Latin querimonia (complaint), from queri (to complain). Earliest documented use: 1604.] "Self Portrait (Portrait of a grumpy old man)", 1980 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/querimonious_large.jpg Art: Corneliu Baba https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Self-Portrait--Portrait-of-a-grumpy-old-/7B088AF495A855C6 "When he spoke, too, his voice was like an old man's, harsh, yearning, querimonious." Robin Jenkins; The Cone Gatherers; Macdonald; 1955. -------- Date: Wed May 6 12:01:01 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bombaster X-Bonus: One must not be mean with the affections; what is spent of the fund is renewed in the spending itself. -Sigmund Freud, neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis (6 May 1856-1939) This week's theme: Words to describe people bombaster (bom-BAS-tuhr) noun One given to bluster and pretentiousness. [From Old French bombace (cotton padding), from Latin bombax (cotton), from Greek bombux (silk, silkworm). Earliest documented use: 1611.] NOTES: For other fabric words used metaphorically, see here. https://wordsmith.org/words/linsey-woolsey.html "Falstaff", 1921 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/bombaster_large.jpg Art: Eduard von Grützner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_John_Falstaff_-_Eduard_von_Gr%C3%BCtzner.jpg "Over a matter of policy, a seasoned professional bombaster [Rush Limbaugh] with a big microphone attacks a young, seemingly unassuming female law student [Sandra Fluke]." John M. Crisp; Let's Not Give Name-Calling a Bad Name; Times Record News (Wichita Falls, Texas); Mar 14, 2012. -------- Date: Thu May 7 12:01:02 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--canescent X-Bonus: The butterfly flitting from flower to flower ever remains mine, I lose the one that is netted by me. -Rabindranath Tagore, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (7 May 1861-1941) This week's theme: Words to describe people canescent (kuh-NES-uhnt) adjective Turning gray or white; becoming hoary. [From Latin canescere (to grow gray or white), from canus (white, hoary). Earliest documented use: 1775. A synonym is hoary. https://wordsmith.org/words/hoary.html ] "Portrait of an Elderly Man and a Young Boy", 1490 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/canescent_large.jpg Art: Domenico Ghirlandaio https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark%3A/53355/cl010064987 See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/canescent "Riding up the ski chairlift with a stranger, a documentarian just back from Africa filming elephants, he was canescent and thin, seemed depressed and spoke so low I could hardly hear him as he said unflattering things about humanity (is depression blasphemous?)" Joanne Dominique Dwyer; Petitioning for a Hit; The American Poetry Review (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania); Nov/Dec 2024. -------- Date: Fri May 8 12:01:01 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cumberground X-Bonus: If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers. -Thomas Pynchon, novelist (b. 8 May 1937) This week's theme: Words to describe people cumberground (KUHM-buhr-graund) noun A useless person. [From cumber (to hinder or encumber), from Anglo-French acumbrer (encumbrer) + ground. Earliest documented use: 1657.] NOTES: A cumberground is someone who encumbers the ground while adding nothing of value. The image echoes Luke 13:7, in the parable of the barren fig tree: "Why cumbereth it the ground?" A synonym is cumberworld. https://wordsmith.org/words/cumberworld.html "The Land of Cockaigne", 1567 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/cumberground_large.jpg Art: Pieter Bruegel the Elder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Land_of_Cockaigne_(Bruegel) "Tuli, sweetheart, can you fetch me more cake? And put it on this side, far away from my friend the cumberground here." Evelyn Puerto; Flight of the Spark; Open Water Books; 2019. -------- Date: Mon May 11 12:01:02 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cat's meow X-Bonus: The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant. -Salvador Dali, painter (11 May 1904-1989) Possession is nine-tenths of the law, but in English it's also a fertile source of idioms. Crow's feet, https://wordsmith.org/words/crows_feet.html for example, do not constitute evidence of birds tiptoeing across your face even though they are wrinkles around your eyes. This week we feature five terms that answer the question: Whose what? Each is a possessive phrase in the format X's Y. We'll meet a cat, a patriarch, a rake, a pig, and a parson. As you'll see below, the cat's ___ is already filled in. Stay tuned to discover the same for the rest of this week's cast. cat's meow (CATS mee-OW) noun Something or someone excellent. [From cat, from Old English catt + meow (the cry of a cat), of imitative origin. Earliest documented use: 1921.] "Three Cats Singing", 1925/1939 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/cats_meow_large.jpg Art: Louis Wain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AThree_cats_singing._Gouache_by_Louis_Wain%2C_1925-1939._Wellcome_L0026168.jpg NOTES: The term is strongly associated with the slangy exuberance of the 1920s and the Jazz Age. In that era, American English had a fad for playful animal phrases meaning something excellent: cat's pajamas, https://wordsmith.org/words/cats_pajamas.html cat's whiskers, bee's knees, and so on. Today's term belongs to that same litter. If something is merely okay, let's call it the cat's meh-ow. If it's actively dull, the cat's me-yawn. "'My mom truly believed that my brother was the king and the cat's meow,' Lam said in an interview. 'She truly embodied that sons and boys were put on a pedestal.'" Nathan Griffiths; 'Biased' Will That Left $2.9m to Son Overruled in BC; Daughter Inherited $170,000; Calgary Herald (Canada); Sep 18, 2024. -------- Date: Tue May 12 12:01:01 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--patriarch's age X-Bonus: Neither genius, fame, nor love show the greatness of the soul. Only kindness can do that. -Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire, preacher, journalist, and activist (12 May 1802-1861) This week's theme: Whose what? patriarch's age (PAY-tree-arks ayj) noun 1. A very long time. 2. A very advanced age. [From patriarch, from Greek patriarches (father or chief of a family), from patria (lineage) + -arche (ruler), + age. Earliest documented use: 1693.] "Isaac Blessing Jacob", c. 1638 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/patriarchs_age_large.jpg Art: Govert Flinck https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Isaac-Blessing-Jacob--2b54bb1686497ef82c03b86ae456c272 NOTES: The term is coined after biblical men who lived for hundreds of years. As with many biblical details, it depends on how broadly you use the term patriarch. Narrowly, the three main patriarchs are Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaac's son Jacob, who lived 175, 180, and 147 years, respectively. Widen the family album to the antediluvian patriarchs, and Methuselah https://wordsmith.org/words/methuselah.html outlasts them all at 969 years. Try fitting 969 candles on a birthday cake, much less blowing them out! Two near-synonyms are donkey's years https://wordsmith.org/words/donkeys_years.html and dog's age. https://wordsmith.org/words/dogs_age.html "This bold German patriot was the very model of male beauty at a patriarch's age. Sixty-five years had robbed neither his body nor his spirit of the freshness of youth." Emil Klauprecht (Translation: Dale V. Lally, Jr); Cincinnati, Or, The Mysteries of the West; Peter Lang; 1996. -------- Date: Wed May 13 12:01:02 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--rake's progress X-Bonus: How simple life becomes when things like mirrors are forgotten. -Daphne du Maurier, novelist (13 May 1907-1989) This week's theme: Whose what? rake's progress (rakes PROG-res) noun A steady decline, especially one brought on by dissipation, folly, or vice. [After "A Rake's Progress", a series of paintings and engravings by William Hogarth, depicting the decline of a spendthrift. Earliest documented use: 1833.] NOTES: The painter and engraver William Hogarth made a series of eight paintings and engravings titled "A Rake's Progress" (c. 1733-35). The series depicts the decline of Tom Rakewell, the son of a prosperous merchant, who wastes his money on luxuries, gambling, and prostitution and ends up in a debtors' prison and finally in Bedlam, https://wordsmith.org/words/bedlam.html a hospital for the insane. See also, rakehell. https://wordsmith.org/words/rakehell.html One might say his fortune went from inheritance to in-here-a-dunce. Progress, in this case, is strictly downhill. "The Madhouse", 1732-1735 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/rakes_progress_large.jpg Art: William Hogarth https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Hogarth_019.jpg "People have gone from using gold or silver coins through paper notes and plastic cards to the modern practice of 'quantitative easing' (QE). To some on the Republican right in America, this evolution is a rake's progress, in which QE is a debasement of the currency leading to hyperinflation and economic ruin." The Origins of Money; The Economist (London, UK); Feb 14, 2015. -------- Date: Thu May 14 12:01:02 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--pig's whisper X-Bonus: Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence. -Hal Borland, author and journalist (14 May 1900-1978) This week's theme: Whose what? pig's whisper (pigz WIS-puhr) noun 1. A very short time. 2. A low or nearly inaudible whisper. [Of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1780.] An illustration from the book "The Tale of Pigling Bland", 1913 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/pigs_whisper_large.jpg Art: Beatrix Potter https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_tale_of_Pigling_Bland_pg_13.jpg NOTES: It's not clear how a pig's whisper came to be associated with a very short time or a whisper. A pig is not known for whispering, though a grunt can be brief enough. A variant of today's term is a pig's whisker. "For if your love knew you loved him in perpetuum, he would return and return in a pig's whisper." Chanelle Benz; The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead; Ecco; 2017. "I heard Ata informing Mummy, in a pig's whisper, that plagiarism, too, was actionable." Hindu (Chennai, India); Jan 21, 2001. -------- Date: Fri May 15 12:01:02 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--parson's week X-Bonus: When you re-read a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in yourself than there was before. -Clifton Fadiman, editor and critic (15 May 1904-1999) This week's theme: Whose what? parson's week (PAHR-sunz week) noun A period of 13 days, especially as a holiday. [From parson (a clergyperson), from persona (person) + week, from Old English wice (week). Earliest documented use: 1790.] NOTES: A parson has other duties, of course, but the principal day on duty is Sun. If excused for one Sun, a parson could be away for 13 days, from the Mon before through the Sat after it. In some instances, parson's week has also been used for a period of six days, from Mon to Sat, with no Sun off. "The Skating Minister", 1790s https://wordsmith.org/words/images/parsons_week_large.jpg Art: Henry Raeburn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skating_Minister "Two years ago, we left home for a parson's week, during which time the house, pussy included, was in the charge of servants." W. Gordon Stables; Cats: Their Points and Characteristics; Dean & Son; 1876. -------- Date: Mon May 18 12:01:02 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Delphian X-Bonus: 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) Travel 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 (DEL-fee-uhn) adjective Obscure or ambiguous. [After Delphi, a city in ancient Greece. Earliest documented use: 1625.] NOTES: In Greek mythology, Delphi, located near Mount Parnassus, https://wordsmith.org/words/parnassian.html was the seat of the oracle of Apollo. https://wordsmith.org/words/apollo.html 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, https://wordsmith.org/words/croesus.html 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. King Aigeus in front of the Pythia, oracle of Delphi 440-430 BCE https://wordsmith.org/words/images/delphian_large.jpg Art: Codrus Painter, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Pythia#/media/File:Oracle_of_Delphi,_red-figure_kylix,_440-430_BC,_Kodros_Painter,_Berlin_F_2538,_141668.jpg See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/Delphian "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. -------- Date: Tue May 19 12:01:01 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--laconism X-Bonus: The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely. -Lorraine Hansberry, playwright and painter (19 May 1930-1965) This week's theme: Toponyms laconism (LAK-uh-niz-uhm) noun Brevity or terseness of expression, or an instance of this. [After Laconia, a region in southern Greece whose chief city was Sparta. From the reputation of the Laconians/Spartans for terseness. Earliest documented use: 1570.] NOTES: The adjectival form is laconic. https://wordsmith.org/words/laconic.html The Laconians, especially the Spartans, were famous for verbal thrift. When Philip II of Macedon warned that if he invaded Laconia he would destroy Sparta, the Spartans reportedly replied: "If." Two other toponyms are derived from places in Laconia: spartan https://wordsmith.org/words/spartan.html from Sparta, and helot, https://wordsmith.org/words/helot.html from Helos. See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/laconism "Le Discret", 1791 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/laconism_large.jpg Art: Joseph Ducreux https://spencerart.ku.edu/art/collections-online/object/9141 "Now, there's a certain laconism in the diary. There are places where Johann Burckhardt doesn't speak, so we don't know what his opinion was." "Blood & Beauty": Capturing the Ruthless, Infamous Borgias Family; Talk of the Nation (Washington, DC); NPR; Jun 20, 2013. -------- Date: Wed May 20 12:01:01 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Smithfield match X-Bonus: Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn't, bleed, like colors, on the whole of our existence. -Honore de Balzac, novelist (20 May 1799-1850) This week's theme: Toponyms Smithfield match (SMITH-feeld match) noun A marriage of convenience, especially one arranged for money. [After Smithfield, London, long associated with markets and fairs, including Bartholomew Fair (1133-1855). Earliest documented use: 1703.] "The Marriage Settlement", 1743 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/smithfield_match_large.jpg The first of a series of six paintings "Marriage A-la-Mode" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_A-la-Mode_(Hogarth) Art: William Hogarth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_A-la-Mode_(Hogarth) NOTES: Smithfield, London, has long been known for its livestock and meat markets, which seems right on the nose for a place that gave us a term for a marriage of convenience. But that's not how this sense of the word started: Smithfield was also famous for fairs and bargains, especially Bartholomew Fair, held there for hundreds of years. A Smithfield match was a match made not in heaven, but in the accounts ledger. The bride, groom, and cattle may all have been inspected with the same commercial squint. A near synonym is Smithfield bargain. https://wordsmith.org/words/smithfield_bargain.html "In such marriages, the prime negotiator was called a cattle-dealer ... Bianca's marriage also is a Smithfield match." Barbara C. Hodgdon; Ghostly Fragments; University of Michigan Press; 2021.