1 July 2014

moiety

[moi-i-tee]

noun, plural moi·e·ties.

1. a half. ‘The annual rates were payable in two moieties; one in January and one in July’.
2. an indefinite portion, part, or share.
3. Anthropology . one of two units into which a tribe or community is divided on the basis of unilineal descent.

Origin:

1400–50; late Middle English moite < Middle French < Latin medietāt- (stem of medietās ) the middle, equivalent to medi ( us ) mid + -etāt-, variant, after vowels, of -itāt- -ity

Anagram

yo time

Today’s aphorism

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean that politics won’t take an interest in you.

– Pericles

On this day

1 July 1862 – founding of the Russian State Library in Moscow. It is the fourth largest library in the world. It has 275km of shelves, 17.5 million books, 13 million journals, 350,000 music scores and sound records, 150,000 maps.

1 July 1921 – founding of the Communist Party of China.

1 July 1943 – Tokyo City is officially dissolved following its merger with the Tokyo Prefecture. Since then no Japanese city has been named Tokyo. Modern-day Tokyo is not officially a city, instead it is a prefecture consisting of 23 wards, 26 cities, five towns and eight villages.

1 July 1961 – birth of Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales. Died in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997.

1 July 1963 – ZIP codes introduced for United States mail.

1 July 1978 – Australia’s Northern Territory is granted self-government.

1 July 2002 – establishment of the International Criminal Court to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war-crimes and the crime of aggression.