1 April 2014

langour

[lang-ger]

noun

1. lack of energy or vitality; sluggishness.
2. lack of spirit or interest; listlessness; stagnation.
3. physical weakness or faintness.
4. emotional softness or tenderness.

Origin:
1250–1300; < Latin (see languish, -or1 ); replacing Middle English langour sickness, woe < Old French < Latin

Example:

Ceiling fans spin slowly overhead in the tropical languor.

Perhaps he stood in order to avoid the temptation to languor on any decision.

Anagram

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Today’s aphorism

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

– Richard Buckminster Fuller

On this day

1 April – April Fool’s Day.

1 April 1918 – the Royal Air Force is founded in England. It’s first planes were the Sopwith Pup, Sopwith Camel, Bristol F2B fighters, and Royal Aircraft Factory’s SE5s, which were used during World War I.

1 April 1999 – Europe adopts the Euro as a common currency.

1 April 2012 – Aung San Suu Kyi wins a Burma by-election. Suu Kyi had been under house arrest for around 20 years following the military take-over of Burma in 1990.