20 November 2016

ignis fatuus

(or ignus fatuus)

noun

1. a pale light sometimes seen at night over marshy ground

2. an illusion that misleads

Synonyms

apparition, chimera, false impression, misconception, fantasy, delusion, paramnesia, will-o’-the-wisp, mirage

Example

They trekked through the desert, following the distant shimmering water, not realising it was a mirage, an ignus fatuus that could prove deadly to their dehydrated bodies.

Anagram

a fusing suit
I gift USA sun

Today’s aphorism

Don’t say ‘maybe’ if you want to say ‘no’.

– Paulo Coelho

On this day

20 November 1900 – birth of Chester Gould, American creator of the cartoon strip, ‘Dick Tracy’. He drew the comic strip from 1931 to 1977. Died 11 May 1985.

20 November 1910 – death of Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer, (‘Anna Karenina‘, ‘War and Peace‘). Born 9 September 1828.

20 November 1947 – Princess Elizabeth, who is crowned Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, marries Phillip Mountbatten in Westminster Abbey.

20 November 1985 – Microsoft launches Windows 1.01, a graphical user interface for personal computers. The program required MS-DOS to operate.