31 December 2012

suffrage

[suhf-rij]

noun
1. the right to vote, especially in a political election.
2. a vote given in favor of a proposed measure, candidate, or the like.
3. Ecclesiastical . a prayer, especially a short intercessory prayer or petition.

Related form:

suffragette

noun

– member of a (women’s) suffrage movement.

Origin:

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin suffrāgium voting tablet, vote, equivalent to Latin suffrāg ( ārī ) to vote for, support + -ium -ium

Today’s aphorism

‘Independence is happiness’.

– Susan B. Anthony, American suffragette leader.

On this day

31 December 1967 – Evel Knievel unsuccessfully attempts a motorcycle jump over the fountains of Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. He received concussion and numerous broken bones, which left him in a coma for 29 days.

31 December 2007 – Murder statistics in the United States reveal that murder rate is 0.055 per head of population, which is slightly less than it was in 1947, when the rate was 0.0551. The population in 1947 was 145,000,000 and there were 8,000 murders. In 2007, the population was 300,000,000 and there were 16,500 murders.

30 December 2012

xylose

[zahy-lohs]

noun, Chemistry .

– a colorless, crystalline pentose sugar, C 5 H 10 O 5, derived from xylan, straw, corncobs, etc., by treating with heated dilute sulfuric acid, and dehydrating to furfural if stronger acid is used.

Origin:
1890–95; < Greek xýl ( on ) wood + -ose2

Today’s aphorism

‘Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners’.

– Vladimir Lenin

On this day

30 December 1922 – Lenin establishes the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

30 December 2006 – Former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, hanged after being found guilty of committing crimes against humanity.

29 December 2012

jocose

[ joh-kohs, juh-]

adjective

– given to or characterized by joking; jesting; humorous; playful: a jocose and amusing manner.

Origin:
1665–75; < Latin jocōsus, equivalent to joc ( us ) joke + -ōsus -ose

Today’s aphorism

‘History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people’.

– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On this day

29 December 1998 – Six people die in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race as huge waves swamp the vessels during the 1167km race.

29 December 1998 – Former Khmer Rouge leaders apologise for the Pol Pot led genocide in Kampuchea (now known as Cambodia), which killed 1 million people between 1975 and 1979.

28 December 2012

gaffe

[gaf]

noun

– a social blunder; faux pas, a tactless remark.

Origin:
1905–10; < French: blunder, probably special use of gaffe gaff1

Can be confused: gaff (an iron hook)

Example:

Japanese wasn’t her first language, so she didn’t realise the gaffe she made in her welcoming speech to the delegation from Tokyo.

Today’s aphorism

‘Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed’.

– Friedrich Nietzsche

On this day

28 December 1945 – the United States Congress officially recognises the pledge of allegiance to the flag, which states, ‘I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all’.

28 December 1981 – the world’s first test-tube baby is born after being conceived in a lab dish. Her name is Elizabeth Jordan Carr and she weighed 5lb 12oz.

27 December 2012

pluperfect

[ploo-pur-fikt]

adjective

1. Grammar .
a. perfect with respect to a point of reference in past time, as had done in He had done it when I came.
b. designating a tense or other verb formation or construction with such meaning, as Latin portāveram ‘I had carried’.
2. more than perfect: ‘He spoke the language with pluperfect precision‘.

noun, Grammar .
3. a. the pluperfect tense, or other verb formation or construction with such meaning.
b. a form in the pluperfect.

Today’s aphorism

‘all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’

– from Sergei Bondarchuk’s Soviet film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s book ‘War and Peace’, in which the narrator declares ‘All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing’, although since the original is in Russian various translations to English are possible. The quote has also incorrectly been attributed to Edmund Burke (as noted on Wikiquote)

On this day

27 December 1822 – birth of Louis Pasteur, French bacteriologist, one of the founders of microbiology. Invented the process for preventing milk and wine from causing sickness, known as pasteurisation. (Not entirely fool-proof, as over-imbibing wine still seems to cause sickness in some). Died 28 September 1895.

27 December 1979 – Soviet Union overthrows the Afghan government, replacing President Hufizullah Amin with Babrak Karmal.

27 December 2007 – Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani Prime Minister, is assassinated by a suicide bomber immediately after shots were fired at her. Bhutto was the first female head of an Islamic nation. The bombing killed 24 other people.

26 December 2012

ysame

[Y*same]

adverb

– Together. [Obsolete.]

‘And in a bag all sorts of seeds ysame’. -Spenser

Today’s aphorism

‘If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality’.

– Desmond Tutu

On this day

26 December 1991 – formal dissolution of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) when the Supreme Soviet dissolved itself following the Alma-Ata Protocol of 21 December 1991 and the resignation of President Gorbachev on 25 December 1991.

26 December 2004 – the Boxing Day tsunami originates in Indonesia and spreads across the Indian Ocean killing 230,000 people in 14 countries. It was triggered by a massive earthquake which registered a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3 and caused the entire planet to vibrate by up to 1cm and caused earthquakes as far away as Alaska.

25 December 2012

Yuletide

[yool-tahyd]

noun
1. the Christmas season.

adjective

2. of or pertaining to the Christmas season.

Origin: 1425–75; late Middle English; see yule, tide.

Originally, Yuletide was a festival celebrated by Northern Europeans honouring ‘The Wild Hunt’ (a myth about a ghostly hunt), Odin (Nordic God) and Modranicht (Mother’s Night).

Today’s aphorism

‘Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas’.

– Calvin Coolidge

On this day

25 December 1876 – birthday of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the father of Pakistan. Leader of the Muslim League calling for the creation of Pakistan. Served as Pakistan’s first Governor-General from 15 August 1947 until his death on 11 September 1948.

25 December 1914 – Soldiers from Britain, Germany, Russia and France agree to a ‘Christmas’ truce. They crossed no-man’s land and wished each other ‘Merry Christmas’ in each nation’s language.

25 December 1974 – Cyclone Tracy strikes Darwin, Northern Territory, killing 71 people and flattening 70% of the city, leaving 41,000 homeless (out of a population of 47,000). The cyclone had winds up to 240km/h, central pressure of 950 hectopascals,

25 December 1991 – Soviet President Gorbachev resigns, declaring the Soviet presidency extinct, and hands power to Russian President Boris Yeltsin, effectively bringing an end to the Soviet Union.

25 December 2006 – death of James Brown, the Godfather of Soul. He was born 3 May 1933.

24 December 2012

jocund

[jok-uh nd, joh-kuh nd]

adjective

cheerful; merry; gay; blithe; glad: a witty and jocund group.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English jocound < Late Latin jocundus, alteration of Latin jūcundus pleasant, equivalent to ju ( vāre ) to help, benefit, please, delight + -cundus adj. suffix

Related forms
jocundly, adverb.
quasijocund, adjective.
quasijocundly, adverb.
unjocund, adjective.

Synonyms
joyous, joyful, blithesome, jolly.

Today’s aphorism

‘If you care about what other people think, you will always be their prisoner’.

– Lao Tzu

On this day

24 December 1865 – Ku Klux Klan formed by a group of confederate veterans who are opposed to civil rights for African-Americans.

24 December 1979 – The Soviet Army, comprised of 100,000 troops, invades Afghanistan. The occupation lasts for 10 years and results in the deaths of between 600,000 and 2,000,000 Afghan civilians, as well as 6,000,000 refugees who fled to Pakistan and Iran. The Soviets withdrew in 1989. The cost of the Afghan occupation is a significant factor that led to the economic collapse of the Soviet Union. During the Soviet occupation, the United States funded Afghan resistance in the form of the Mujahideen and other militant Islamic groups, out of whom emerged Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The real victims in this war were the Afghan people, who continue to suffer and to comprise a significant portion of global refugee numbers because of the involvement of the USSR and the USA during this period.

23 December 2012

egress

[ee-gres; ih-gres]

noun

1. the act or an instance of going, especially from an enclosed place.
2. a means or place of going out; an exit.
3. the right or permission to go out.
4. Astronomy , emersion ( def 1 ) .

verb (used without object)

5.to go out; emerge.

Example sentence:

‘Should we dive right in? Or were finding Gabrielle’s egress to distracting?’

– Henry Sturges to Abraham Lincoln in ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter‘.

Today’s aphorism

‘Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds!’

– Bob Marley

On this day

23 December 1947 – Bell demonstrates the world’s first transistor radio.

23 December 1972 – 16 survivors of a plane-crash in the Andes, Argentina are rescued. The plane had crashed on 13 October 1972, carrying 45 people. A number of passengers were killed in the crash and some died later from exposure to the cold. Eight died in an avalanche. The survivors lived on chocolate bars, cabin food and the bodies of those who had died.

23 December 2005 – an earthquake in South-East Asia kills around 87,000 people, followed by a chemical spill that poisons China’s Songhue River, contaminating the water supply of millions of people.

22 December 2012

curmudgeon

[ker-muhj-uh n]
noun

– a bad-tempered, difficult, cantankerous person.

Origin:

1570–80; unexplained; perhaps cur- representing cur

Related forms
curmudgeonly, adjective.

Synonyms
grouch, crank, bear, sourpuss, crosspatch.

Example sentence:

‘Famous now as Britain’s most lovable curmudgeon, Arthur Smith arrived at UEA in 1973 to study Comparative Literature’.

Today’s aphorism

Nya b’a’n tu’n twa’n toj chuj, ku’n b’e’x cy-elil chuj tc’u’ja.
(It is not good to eat in the bath or your stomach will grow that size.)

– Ancient Mayan proverb.

On this day

22 December 1936 – Italy sends thousands of troops to Spain to support the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War who were opposed to the democratically elected left-wing ’Popular Front’ government which comprised of Trotskyists, communists and other left-wing groups.

22 December 1949 – birth of Maurice Gibb on the Isle of Man. Founded the Bee Gees with his brothers, Robin and Barry. Died 12 January 2003 in Miami, Florida.

22 December 1989 – The Brandenburg Gate opens for the first time in almost 30 years, allowing access between East and West Germany.