A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Mon Dec 2 02:03:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Philadelphia lawyer X-Bonus: No one should drive a hard bargain with an artist. -Ludwig Van Beethoven, composer (1770-1827) Philadelphia lawyer (fil-uh-DEL-fee-uh LOI-yuhr) noun A shrewd lawyer, one who is adept at exploiting legal technicalities. [From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.] "Then Willie Lee nailed me those many years ago. With a woman's way she said to Bob, `Bob, this man's been here three days and he's complimented my cooking more than you have in thirty years of marriage.' "A death pall lay over the burdened table. Willie Lee had pierced both of us with two horns of the same bull. I gulped and floundered -- helpless to assist my wounded friend -- but Bob never missed a spoonful as he said, `I've been too busy eatin'.' "No Philadelphia lawyer ever saved (himself and) the condemned with so few words, so coolly and ably stated. I was in Bob's debt and learned that moment to keep my compliments to a peck and not a bushel." Bill Tarrant, Hunting the Russian Boar, Field & Stream (Los Angeles), Apr 1998. The term Philadelphia lawyer can have either positive or negative connotations depending on whether it's being applied to a lawyer who's for or against us. The term can also be applied to a person, not necessarily a lawyer, who is good at manipulating and obfuscating matters. The most famous Philadelphia lawyer was Andrew Hamilton who defended John Peter Zenger, printer and publisher of the New York Weekly Journal, in a 1735 libel case that set the precedent for free speech in America. Here are the fascinating details of this landmark case: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zenger/zenger.html Discover more words derived from place names in AWAD this week. -Anu (garg AT wordsmith.org) -------- Date: Tue Dec 3 00:01:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ghetto X-Bonus: His mother had often said, When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. She had emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more vehemently: when you desired a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it. -Lois McMaster Bujold, writer (1949- ) ghetto (GET-o) noun 1. Part of a city, typically densely populated and run-down, inhabited by members of an ethnic group or a minority, for social, economic or legal reasons. 2. A situation or environment characterized by isolation, inferior status, bias, restriction, etc. [From a word for a foundry, to the name of an island, to the place where Jews were forced to live, to its current sense, the word ghetto is a fascinating example of how words come to mean something entirely different as they travel through time. The word originated from Latin jacere (to throw), the root of words such as project, inject, adjective, jet. Venetian getto is the word for a foundry for artillery. As the site of such a foundry, a Venetian island was named Getto. Later when Jews were forced to live there because of persecution, the word became synonymous with cramped quarters, populated by isolated people.] "He (Vidal Sassoon) came out of a London ghetto to create the swinging hair that every woman had to have in the 60's." Mary Tannen, Message in a Shampoo Bottle, New York Times Magazine, August 18, 2002. "Anne Frank actually wrote two diaries... Not until she lived in the ghetto house in the closeness of her surroundings and in the locked-up condition did her themes change." Mirjam Pressler, Take Your Childhood And Run, Bookbird (Mansfield, Ohio), Jan 1, 2001. This week's theme: toponyms, or words derived from names of places. -------- Date: Wed Dec 4 02:01:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--chartreuse X-Bonus: What is art but a way of seeing? -Thomas Berger, writer (1924- ) chartreuse (shahr-TROOZ, -TROOS) noun 1. A light, yellowish green. 2. An aromatic, usually yellow or green liqueur, originally made by Carthusian monks in Grenoble, France. adjective Having a light, yellowish green color. [From French, after La Grande Chartreuse, the name of Carthusian monastery near Chartreuse mountain where this liqueur was first made.] "Lost with the sun in a chartreuse wood, afflicted by associations, flies, thirst, and by a growing chill my clothes cannot keep out ..." Eleanor Wilner, Reversing the Spell: New and Selected Poems, Feb 1998. "I must have been 7 or 8, squatting on the summer-hot pavement with my sister, scrawling disappearing messages on the concrete with snapped leaves of an ice plant, when it occurred to me that people could agree on the name of a thing, in this case, a color -- the green of the translucent fluid that oozed from the leaf, which we determined was chartreuse -- while seeing it very differently. I understood that when my sister agreed on the name chartreuse, she might, in fact, be seeing what I call red or yellow or blue. I began to see language less as a bridge between people than as a threadbare rope tossed from one edge of a precipice to open hands at another." Allison Hoover Bartlett, An Ear For Color; Exploring the Curious World of Synesthesia, Where Senses Merge in Mysterious Ways, The Washington Post, Jan 22, 2002. This week's theme: toponyms, or words derived from names of places. -------- Date: Thu Dec 5 00:01:17 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--good Samaritan X-Bonus: Do you love me because I'm beautiful, or am I beautiful because you love me? -Oscar Hammerstein II, lyricist (1895-1960) good Samaritan (good suh-MAR-i-tn) noun A person who voluntarily helps others in distress. Also Samaritan. [From the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke (a book of the Bible) where a Samaritan stopped to help a man who had been injured and robbed, while others passed by; Samaritan from Late Latin Samaritanus (a resident of Samaria), ultimately from Greek Samareia, Samaria.] "A man with a gun was chasing three people through an alley in San Diego the other day when an onlooker jumped on his back. Cut! The onlooker didn't realize he had interrupted the shooting of a scene from a movie based on the old TV series `Hunter.' A city film commission rep told columnist Diane Bell of the San Diego Union-Tribune that neither the good Samaritan nor the actor was injured." Steve Harvey, Well-intentioned Samaritan Halts Shooting by Tackling a Gun-toting Actor, The Los Angeles Times, Aug 20, 2002. This week's theme: toponyms, or words derived from names of places. -------- Date: Fri Dec 6 00:01:06 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--calico X-Bonus: An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy. -Spanish proverb calico (KAL-i-co) noun, plural calicoes or calicos 1. A brightly printed coarse cotton cloth. 2. (Mainly British) A plain white cotton cloth. 3. An animal having a spotted coat, especially with red and black patches. adjective 1. Made from such a cloth. 2. Having a spotted pattern. [From Calicut, former name of Kozhikode, a city in southern India from where this cloth was exported. Other words for clothes with Indian origins are bandana, cashmere, chintz, dungarees, jodhpurs, khakis, pajamas, and seersucker.] "The putty should be in a layer about a quarter of an inch thick, and may be advantageously applied rolled out between two pieces of thin calico which maintain it in the form of a continuous sheet ..." Joseph Lister, Antiseptic Principle Of The Practice Of Surgery, 1867. "Before Mr. Homer's barefoot urchins and little girls in calico sun-bonnets, straddling beneath a cloudless sky upon the national rail fence, the whole effort of the critic is instinctively to contract himself ..." John Updike, Homer's Epic: A Wonderful Painter With No Theory, The New Republic (Washington, DC), Feb 5, 1996. This week's theme: toponyms, or words derived from names of places. -------- Date: Mon Dec 9 00:01:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--eudemonia X-Bonus: Him that I love, I wish to be free -- even from me. -Anne Morrow Lindbergh, writer (1906-2001) eudemonia (yoo-di-MO-nee-uh) noun, also eudaemonia 1. A state of happiness and well-being. 2. In Aristotelian philosophy, happiness in a life of activity governed by reason. [From Greek eudaimonia (happiness), from eudaimon (having a good genius, happy), from eu- (good) + daimon (spirit, fate, fortune).] "A Japanese delegation from the `blessed garden' city of Eniwa visited Timaru to extend its understanding of the role flower gardens play in modern urban eudemonia, among other things." Tom McKinlay, Tom McKinlay in Ashburton, The Press (Christchurch, New Zealand), Jan 26, 2002. "We identify ourselves with the world of magazine publishing, yes, but we identify even more passionately with the all absorbing world of dance -- and that is perhaps the source of our strength and success. In terms of eudemonia, you might say that we have been supremely blessed. Our demons have been very good to us indeed!" Richard Philp, Seventy, Dance Magazine (New York), Jun 1997. December 15 will be the anniversary of the birth of L.L. Zamenhof (1859-1917), physician and philologist, best known as the creator of Esperanto. Designed as a common International language, Esperanto is the most popular artificial language ever devised. Why would one want to have a single language rather than a rainbow of languages, dialects, sounds, and intonations? How else would we have multi-lingual puns, lost-in-translation gems, and other cross-linguistic humor? And what better way to understand other cultures but by understanding their languages? The etymology of the name Esperanto (from Latin sperare, to hope) gives us a good indication of the motivation behind its invention. Growing up in Poland, among an ethnic population of Poles, Germans, and mostly Yiddish-speaking Jews, Zamenhof witnessed violence arising from language conflicts and envisioned a world that had a common tongue, free of ambiguity and misunderstanding. His goal was not to replace other languages with Esperanto. Rather, he hoped to create an auxiliary language to link people who spoke in diverse tongues. He called it Esperanto, from his pseudonym Dr. Esperanto, literally one who hopes. While Zamenhof's vision of a single international language was a lofty one and he had noble intentions, Esperanto achieved limited success. It is still the most popular invented language, though far from being adopted worldwide. For better or worse, English has become the Esperanto of the 21st century. In this week's AWAD we'll see words from some of the languages that have contributed most of the wordstock of the English language. -Anu (garg AT wordsmith.org) -------- Date: Tue Dec 10 00:01:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sabulous X-Bonus: I learned long ago that being Lewis Carroll was infinitely more exciting than being Alice. -Joyce Carol Oates, writer (1938- ) sabulous (SAB-yuh-luhs) adjective Sandy; gritty. [From Latin sabulum (sand).] "Clinical disorders of the lower urinary tract of cats are not new phenomena. Kirk, for example, described `retention of urine' as a very common condition in cats. He also noted that the most common cause of the problem was obstruction of the urethra by a sabulous material." Peter J Markwell, et al, The Effect of Diet on Lower Urinary Tract Diseases in Cats, The Journal of Nutrition (Bethesda, Maryland), Dec 1998. "Absolutely sabulous: Sabu is caught in a giant spider web in Alexander Korda's `The Thief of Bagdad' from 1940." Focus Forum, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), Apr 16, 1995. This week's theme: words from the major source languages of English. -------- Date: Wed Dec 11 00:01:07 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--agita X-Bonus: To himself everyone is immortal; he may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead. -Samuel Butler, writer (1835-1902) agita (AJ-i-tuh) noun 1. Heartburn; acid indigestion. 2. Anxiety. [Americanism, from Italian agitare (to agitate), from Latin agitare (agitate).] "The idea of having only one key standing between me and a totally moribund Camaro gives me agita, however. A second key is clearly advisable. Like all great business executives, I delegate the problem to my chief operating officer in these matters, my wife - who is, as you may guess, a woman." Stanley Bing, Bing! It's a !@#$% Man's World, Fortune (New York), Oct 14, 2002. "Ms. Falco and Mr. Tucci bring a more earthy, New York agita to the roles. After growing up in the New York suburbs -- she on Long Island, he in Westchester County -- the two have made careers playing incomplete, angular characters." John Leland, Haltingly, Layers Of Clothing Fall Away, The New York Times, Aug 4, 2002. This week's theme: words from the major source languages of English. -------- Date: Thu Dec 12 00:01:06 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--betise X-Bonus: When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong. -R. Buckminster Fuller, engineer, designer, and architect (1895-1983) betise (bay-TEEZ) noun, plural betises (bay-TEEZ) 1. Stupidity, foolishness. 2. A foolish remark or action. [From French bêtise (stupidity, nonsense), from bête (foolish, beast), from Old French beste (beast), from Latin bestia. A related French term is bête noire (literally, black beast), something or someone dreaded or avoided.] "Public accountability of ministers and senior civil servants has, to put it mildly, been relaxed. If something goes badly wrong, the minister in whose orbit the betise has occurred rarely makes a public apology, let alone resigns." Europe: What's Wrong With Nepotism, Anyway?, The Economist (London), Mar 20, 1999. "We say English; they say language arts. There are some resemblances between the two tongues, and `The Expository Mode of Discourse' warns against overdoing the conjunctions - a betise technically known, apparently, as an `on and on' - and tells us that the run-on sentence is still regarded as serious error." James Gill, When the Jargon is Impenetrable, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), May 21, 1995. This week's theme: words from the major source languages of English. -------- Date: Fri Dec 13 00:01:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--katzenjammer X-Bonus: We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them. -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931) katzenjammer (KAT-sen-jam-uhr) noun 1. Hangover 2. Distress; depression. 3. Confusion; clamor; uproar. [From German, from Katzen (plural of Katze, cat) + Jammer (distress, wailing).] "Peebles, in his rejoinder, compared the intense activity in cosmology over the last few years to `a really good party.' But he also listed open questions that, he said, left him with an `uneasy feeling'--a kind of cosmic katzenjammer--about whether the concordance will survive new and more precise tests." James Glanz, Cosmology: Does Science Know the Vital Statistics of the Cosmos? Science (Washington, DC), Nov 13, 1998. "The characteristic Grimm story has a katzenjammer irreverence and a narrative urgency; its characters are no better than they have to be, and are foxy, wild, lucky or unlucky, and utterly human." Arthur C. Danto, Maurice Sendak and a Tale Not Quite Grimm Enough, The Washington Post, Nov 6, 1988. This week's theme: words from the major source languages of English. -------- Date: Mon Dec 16 01:30:06 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--erg X-Bonus: Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. -Peter Ustinov, actor, writer and director (1921-2004) erg (urg) noun The unit of work or energy in the centimeter-gram-second system. [From Greek ergon (work). Other words that derive from the same Indo-European root (werg-) are: ergonomic, work, energy, metallurgy, surgery, wright, and orgy.] erg (erg) noun A large area of land covered with sand. Also known as sand sea. [From Arabic.] "Every available erg of waste heat from operating machinery will be used to warm living quarters. In all, it may save 150,000 gallons of fuel every year." Robert Lee Hotz, Last Journey To The Last Place On Earth: At the South Pole, Nothing Can Grow Except the Spirit, The Los Angeles Times, Jun 8, 2001. "A day later we reached Tumbain, a flat table mountain from whose top you look out on the infinity of the erg. The solitude of the place was awesome." John Eisenhammer, Led by Wise Men, The Independent (London), Dec 21, 1996. Has a short quote you read somewhere ever made you think more than you would have thought after spending several weeks with a heavy tome? Perhaps that's what Friedrich Nietzsche had in mind when he said, "It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book." In this spirit, this week we feature five short yet potent words. -Anu (garg AT wordsmith.org) -------- Date: Tue Dec 17 01:11:06 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--lee X-Bonus: Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral. -Paulo Freire, educator (1921-1997) lee (lee) noun 1. Shelter. 2. The side (of a ship, for example) that's sheltered or away from the direction from which the wind blows. adjective Of or pertaining to the side that's away from the wind. [From Middle English, from Old English hleo (shelter).] "Sunlight spread in waves across eerily calm fields in the lee of the woods ..." Paul Evans, Wednesday Radio, The Guardian (London), Oct 30, 2002. "Eventually, the rain let up, and cabin-fevered, we stood in the lee of the dorm and watched the bowed trees and the sea-foam creeping up between the huts." Denise Fainberg, An Ill Wind in Paradise, The New York Times, Mar 3, 2002. This week's theme: short words. -------- Date: Wed Dec 18 01:10:06 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--heft X-Bonus: The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven? -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931) heft (heft) noun 1. Weight; heaviness. 2. Importance. verb tr. 1. To test the weight of something by lifting. 2. To heave or hoist. [After heave, on the pattern of cleave/cleft, leave/left, thieve/theft, weave/weft, etc. From Middle English heven (to lift, take).] "Turning 40 once meant winding down, but for thousands of Canadian women, it means winding up: hefting barbells, hitting the books, embracing whole new lives." Deborah Jones, Middle-aged? Who, Me?, Chatelaine (Toronto, Canada), Apr 1, 1998. "Mr. Shaw indicated that without the expanded customer base and financial heft that the merger would have provided, Hughes no longer is willing to make the risky investments necessary to offer and subsidize such services to homeowners and other nonbusiness customers." Andy Pasztor, Hughes to Halt Internet Offerings It Views as Risky, The Wall Street Journal (New York), Dec 12, 2002. This week's theme: short words. -------- Date: Thu Dec 19 00:01:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--tor X-Bonus: No one has ever become poor by giving. -Anne Frank, Holocaust diarist (1929-1945) tor (tor) noun 1. A rocky heap on the top of a hill. 2. A peak of a bared hill. [From Middle English, from Old English torr. Of uncertain origin: probably from Celtic.] "Felicity Jones is in England with her mother, who is on sabbatical to pursue intensive research into the Arthurian legend. There is speculation that Glastonbury Tor might really be Avalon, where Arthur was taken to die." Renee Steinberg, The Last Grail Keeper, School Library Journal (New York), Dec 2001. This week's theme: short words. NOTE: Anu Garg will be on WMUB 88.5 FM (Oxford, Ohio's NPR affiliate), tomorrow Fri, Dec 20 at 9 AM Eastern. You can call in at 888-877-3885. For other events, please see https://wordsmith.org/awad/book.html -------- Date: Fri Dec 20 00:01:06 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ret X-Bonus: It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them. Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say. -Thomas Merton, monk, writer (1915-1968) ret (ret) verb tr. To soak or expose to moisture (flax, hemp, etc.) to remove fiber from softened wood. [From Middle English reten, perhaps from Middle Dutch.] "Besides sunscreen, a good tote is essential for the coming months, especially one that'll hold all your needs for the beach (meaning everything but the kitchen sink). Antera Le Products offers a model in natural retted jute-heavy-duty enough for that sink." Rose Apodaca, Optic Verve, The Los Angeles Times, May 28, 1993. "Deep in the city's culture memory is the experience of the linen trade. As Robert Johnstone writes, 'The fibres came to the hacklers retted, dried and scutched, like long, flaxen hair which would comb through metal brushes.'" Tom Paulin, Saturday Review: The Vernacular City, The Guardian (London), Feb 23, 2002. This week's theme: short words. -------- Date: Mon Dec 23 01:20:07 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--hobbledehoy X-Bonus: You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become uninterested in money, compliments, or publicity. -Thomas Wolfe, novelist (1900-1938) hobbledehoy (HOB-uhl-dee-hoy) noun An awkward young fellow. [Of uncertain origin.] "However, the vines are still too young to deliver fruit profound enough for top quality wine. In other words, the Shiraz class was probably compromised by young vines yielding wine that was a little too gawky and hobbledehoy." Michael Fridjhon, Shiraz Falls Short of Expectations, Business Day (Johannesburg), Jul 25, 2002. "The literature of fandom - Frederick Exley on Edmund Wilson, Boswell on Johnson, Eckermann on Goethe, Goethe on Goethe - presents a skittish equation between subject and author. Thus the first question that might attend a reading of Nicholson Baker's hilarious and hobbledehoy homage to John Updike, now twice-laureled by the Pulitzer Prize, is, `How do you suppose Updike will react?' Robert Taylor, Nicholson Baker Writes About the Updike He Imagines, The Boston Globe, Apr 17, 1991. "Post No Bills". Ever seen a wall with that notice pasted on it? That reminds me of the book with an "empty" page with the text: "This page intentionally left blank". Well, in the same vein, this week's A Word A Day theme is intentionally left blank. Instead, I've selected a bunch of whimsical, odd, and fanciful words and brought them together for a week. -Anu (garg AT wordsmith.org) -------- Date: Tue Dec 24 01:20:06 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--spatchcock X-Bonus: If the rich could hire someone else to die for them, the poor would make a wonderful living. -Jewish Proverb spatchcock (SPACH-kok) verb tr. 1. To insert or interpose something in a forced or awkward manner. 2. To split open a fowl for grilling. noun A fowl prepared in this manner. [Of uncertain origin. Perhaps an alteration of spitchcock, a similar way of cooking an eel. Popular interpretation as a shortening of "dispatch cock" is etymologically not confirmed.] "A spatchcocked version of flexibility was adopted when the EU's 15 governments held a constitutional conference in 1996-97, and produced the Amsterdam treaty that came into force last year. They agreed that groups of countries should be free to do their own thing--so long as no other EU country objected, which rather negated the point." European Union: Order a la Carte?, The Economist (London), Apr 22, 2000. "The author manages to spatchcock together Democratic despair at approaching elections, Truman's low political clout, his posing for a portrait, his listening to a baseball game in the 1946 World Series and his being the only man in formal attire at a reception for Supreme Court justices." Kathleen Burk, Truman (book review), History Today (London), Feb 1, 1994. This week's theme: miscellaneous words. -------- Date: Wed Dec 25 01:20:06 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--idoneous X-Bonus: The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit. -Moliere, actor and playwright (1622-1673) idoneous (i-DO-nee-uhs) adjective, also idonaeous Appropriate, suitable, fit. [From Latin idoneus (fit).] "A friend in Wyoming received a fund-raising flier from the Cheyenne Civic Center. It began, `Kudos is an idoneous name for the Cheyenne Civic Center's 1991-92 season.'" James J. Kilpatrick, The Vast Weltanschauung of Word Wavelengths, The Chicago Sun-Times, Feb 9, 1992. This week's theme: miscellaneous words. -------- Date: Thu Dec 26 01:20:05 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--fantod X-Bonus: To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to. -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931) fantod (FAN-tod) noun 1. A state of nervous anxiety, irritability, the willies, the fidgets. 2. A fit or emotional outburst. [Of unconfirmed origin. Perhaps an alteration of fantique (a state of anxiety) or a blend of fantasy and fatigue.] "Of course, when we cranked the 70-horse Evinrude into life to go ripping to another part of the lake, Mr. (Izaak) Walton might have the fantods." Ned Crabb, Bugs, Bass and Loons in Moonlight, The Wall Street Journal (New York), Aug 20, 2001. "Most of his (John Jerome) books are long out of print. They were about mountains, about weather, about building a stone wall, about swimming, about turning 65; solid, meaty, meditative books of a terse lyricism, as remote from the publishing mainstream as Moose Jaw is from Elaine's, so devoid of commercial sizzle as to give agents the fantods and hip editors the yawns." Bruce McCall, The Most Successful Writer, The New York Times Book Review, Sep 29, 2002. This week's theme: miscellaneous words. -------- Date: Fri Dec 27 01:20:06 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--noetic X-Bonus: With enough 'ifs' we could put Paris in a bottle. -French saying noetic (no-ET-ik) adjective Of or relating to the mind or intellect. [From Greek noetikos, from noein (to think), from nous (mind).] "This `noetic Casanova,' as Gleick calls him (Richard Feynman), put science next to sex, where it belongs in alphabetical order. His books are full of brainy pranks and skirt-chasing honed to a science of its own." Thomas A. Bass, Casanova of the Mind, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (book review), The Los Angeles Times, Nov 1, 1992. "The former literature professor (Paul LeBlanc) says: `Before the invention of writing, the most important intellectual skill you could possess was the ability to memorize. After writing was invented, however, our noetic economy shifted.'" Linton Weeks, Ten-Track Mind: We Do Everything at Once. But Are We Forgetting Something?, The Washington Post, May 26, 1999. This week's theme: miscellaneous words. -------- Date: Mon Dec 30 00:40:06 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--anabasis X-Bonus:When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. -John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914) anabasis (uh-NAB-uh-sis) noun, plural anabases (uh-NAB-uh-seez) An expedition or an advance, especially a military one. [After Greek mercenary expedition led by Cyrus the Younger of Persia across Asia Minor in 401 BCE, described by Xenophon in his historical work Anabasis. From Greek anabainein (to go up), from ana- (up) + bainein (to go). Can you imagine anything in the world that could be common between today's word and diabetes? Both are formed from the same Greek root bainein (to go, pass, stand). The symptom of frequent urination as a result of the disease resulted in it being named diabetes, Greek for siphon. And the word diabetes derived from diabeinein (to straddle, to walk with legs apart), from dia- (across) + our old friend bainein. Another word with the same root is acrobat, from acro- (high) + bat, from bainein.] "Between mid-November 1864 and April 1865, William Tecumseh Sherman cut his supply lines and -- against standard military orthodoxy and the advice of the president, the secretary of war and General Grant -- set off with an army of over 60,000 Midwesterners into `the bowels of the Confederacy.' `I can make Georgia howl,' he promised his superiors at the outset of the anabasis that shattered the pretensions of the secessionists and ruined the soul of the South." Victor Davis Hanson, Marching Through Georgia, The New York Times Book Review, Jul 29, 2001. "From there, the sailors continued their anabasis on foot ..." John Dunn and Donald Stoker, Blood on the Baltic, Naval History (Annapolis, Maryland), Mar/Apr 1999. Editor and statesman Josephus Daniels (1862-1948) once described an army as "a body of men assembled to rectify the mistakes of the diplomats." As we enter an uncertain new year, here's hoping that we'll be able to manage with words instead of arms. Whatever betides, we wish you inner peace and a heart that's full of bliss in the coming year. This week's theme is a topical one: words related to the military. -Anu (garg AT wordsmith.org) -------- Date: Tue Dec 31 01:01:06 EST 2002 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--kriegspiel X-Bonus: The only difference between saints and sinners is that every saint has a past while every sinner has a future. -Oscar Wilde, writer (1854-1900) kriegspiel (KREEG-speel) noun 1. A game in which miniature characters and blocks represent armies, ships, etc. as they move around on a drawing of a battlefield, used to simulate war and teach military tactics. 2. A form of chess where players see only their own pieces and an umpire keeps track of all the pieces on a third board. [From German Kriegsspiel, from Krieg (war) + Spiel (game).] "`(Prof Richard) Holmes and his chums spent six months recreating the battle of Waterloo on an enormous sand table,' I am told. `Thousands of soldiers, cannons, and horses were painstakingly painted and placed ready for battle.' Alas, one day school rebels broke into the Kriegspiel room and bounced footballs on his battleground. When he discovered the carnage Holmes collapsed, sobbing: "I want the culprits found, court martialed and shot!" The Scurra, The Mirror (London), Mar 4, 2002. "`So my father, my two brothers and I used to go for long walks and one brother would be way out in front, my father would be in the middle and the other brother would be way at the back and they'd be playing the game Kriegspiel in their head and my father would keep both positions in his mind. And my role was to carry the moves backwards and forwards, so I was the runner.'" John Schwartz, At the Heart of the Mind, Roger Penrose Thinks Computers Have a Lot to Learn, The Washington Post, Dec 1, 1994. This week's theme: words related to the military.