11 February 2013

hobbledehoy

[hob-uhl-dee-hoi]

noun

– an awkward, ungainly youth.

Origin:
1530–40; variant of hoberdyhoy, alliterative compound, equivalent to hoberd (variant of Roberd Robert) + -y2 + -hoy for boy ( b > h for alliteration; see hob2 )

Example sentence:

‘Miss O’Brien, we are about to host a society wedding. I have no time for training young hobbledehoys’.

– Mr Carson, Downton Abbey (Series 3)

Today’s aphorism

On the pavement
of my trampled soul
the steps of madmen
weave the prints of rude crude words.

– Vladimir Mayakovsky, Russian Poet – “1” (1913); translation from Patricia Blake (ed.) The Bedbug and Selected Poetry (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975) p. 53.

On this day

11 February 1847 – birth of Thomas Edison, U.S. inventor. Died 18 October 1931.

11 February 1916 – Emma Goldman arrested for campaigning for birth control in New York.

11 February 1945 – The Yalta Agreement is signed by Josef Stalin (USSR), Winston Churchill (UK), Franklin D. Roosevelt (USA), regarding the control of Germany once World War II finishes.

11 February 1979 – the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, is overthrown by the Iranian Revolution, and replaced by the Ayatollah Khomeini.

10 February 2013

augur

[aw-ger]

noun

1. one of a group of ancient Roman officials charged with observing and interpreting omens for guidance in public affairs.
2. soothsayer; prophet.
verb (used with object)
3. to divine or predict, as from omens; prognosticate.
4. to serve as an omen or promise of; foreshadow; betoken: Mounting sales augur a profitable year.
verb (used without object)
5. to conjecture from signs or omens; predict.
6. to be a sign; bode: The movement of troops augurs ill for the peace of the area.

Origin:
1540–50; < Latin augur (variant of auger ) a diviner, soothsayer, derivative of augēre to augment with orig. implication of “prosper”; cf. august

Today’s aphorism

Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.

– Bertolt Brecht

On this day

10 February 1898 – birth of Bertolt Brecht, German playwright, writer and theatre practitioner.

10 February 1992 – death of Alex Haley, U.S. author of ‘Roots‘, ‘Malcolm X‘. (Born 1921).

9 February 2013

jubilarian

[joo-buh-LAIR-ee-uhn]

noun:

A person who celebrates or has celebrated a jubilee, as a nun observing 25 or more years of religious life.

To enable the school to open in 1916, Sisters Agnes Geraghty and Corona Hargrafen, golden jubilarians, had come out of retirement, and Sister Juliana Kritenbrink, another golden jubilarian, joined them the next year.
— O. P. Dolores Enderle, Suzanne Noffke, The Dominicans of Racine, Wisconsin

The crowd was so great that when the doors were closed at a late hour to relieve the strain on the seventy-two-year-old jubilarian, a line of people still reached around the south and west sides of the Square.
— Patrick Ryan, Archbishop Patrick John Ryan His Life and Times

In Biblical tradition, the jubilee is a yearlong celebration which occurs every 50 years. All debts are forgiven and lands returned to their original owners. Today jubilees are often celebrations of significant anniversaries, particularly every 25, 50, 60 or 75 years. Jubliarian refers to anyone who has or is celebrating a significant 25-year milestone.

Today’s aphorism

In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.

– Alice Walker

On this day

9 February 1944 – birth of Alice Walker, American author, poet and activist. She grew up in the America’s deep south, under the notorious ‘Jim Crow’ laws which segrated whites and blacks. She has since written numerous books, including the Pulitzer Award winning ‘The Color Purple’ which addressed much of the issues facing society in Georgia in the 1930s.

9 February 1981 – death of Bill Haley, who arguably had the world’s first ever rock’n’roll song, ‘Rock Around the Clock’. He was born 6 July 1925.

9 February 1997 – death of Brian Connolly, Scottish rocker, lead singer of Sweet (Fox on the Run, Ballroom Blitz, Teenage Rampage, Action). Born 5 October 1945.

7 February 2013

sang-froid

[French sahn-frwa]

noun

– coolness of mind; calmness; composure: They committed the robbery with complete sang-froid.

Origin:
1740–50; < French: literally, cold blood

Synonyms
self-possession, poise, equanimity, self-control, nerve, courage, steadiness.

Today’s aphorism

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

On this day

8 February 1952 – Princess Elizabeth declares herself Queen of the British Commonwealth, taking the title, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

7 February 2013

vitriol

[vi-tree-uhl]

noun, verb, vit·ri·oled, vit·ri·ol·ing or ( especially British ) vit·ri·olled, vit·ri·ol·ling.

noun

1. Chemistry . any of certain metallic sulfates of glassy appearance, as copper sulfate or blue vitriol, iron sulfate or green vitriol, zinc sulfate or white vitriol, etc.
2. oil of vitriol; sulfuric acid.
3. something highly caustic or severe in effect, as criticism.
verb (used with object)
4. to treat with or as with vitriol, especially sulfuric acid.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English < Medieval Latin vitriolum, vitreolum, equivalent to Latin vitre ( us ) vitreous + -olum, neuter of -olus -ole1

Example sentence:

She’s only partially informed, full of vitriol, and can barely form an argument.

Today’s aphorism

‘It is more comfortable to follow one’s conscience than one’s reason: for it offers an excuse and alleviation if what we undertake miscarries–which is why there are always so many conscientious people and so few reasonable ones’.

– Friedrich Nietzsche

On this day

7 February 1967 – Black Tuesday bushfires in Tasmania, which kill 62 and injure 900.

7 February 1971 – Switzerland gives women the right to vote.

7 February 1984 – Bruce McAndless becomes the first man to fly freely in space when he unclips his harness and uses a jet-pack to fly 300 feet away from the space shuttle, Challenger, before flying safely back to it.

7 February 1992 – Twelve members of the European Union ratify the Maastricht Treaty for greater economic integration, security and policing. The Treaty is implemented in November 1993. The nations were Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Irish Republic.

6 February 2013

apotheosis

[uh-poth-ee-oh-sis, ap-uh-thee-uh-sis]

noun
plural a·poth·e·o·ses [uh-poth-ee-oh-seez, ap-uh-thee-uh-seez]

1. the elevation or exaltation of a person to the rank of a god.
2. the ideal example; epitome; quintessence: This poem is the apotheosis of lyric expression.

Origin:
1570–80; < Late Latin < Greek. See apo-, theo-, -osis

Example sentence:

Gary Ablett, a.k.a. God, achieved apotheosis during his legendary AFL career with the Geelong Cats.

Today’s aphorism

‘It’s not: I jumped in, and it was cold. No. It was cold, and I jumped in. Always arrange a sentence so you appear to be fearless, when in fact you are far less than fearless — you are clueless’.

– Jarod Kintz

On this day

6 February 1938 – ‘Black Sunday’, when freak waves strike Bondi Beach, Australia, dragging swimmers hundreds of metres out to sea. Five people drowned and 250 needed rescuing.

6 February 1952 – King George VI dies, resulting in new sovereign being Queen Elizabeth II.

6 February 1971 – Alan Shephard becomes the first man to hit golf balls on the moon. He smuggled the club and balls on board lunar spacecraft, Apollo 14, by hiding them inside his suit.

5 February 2013

vicarious

[vahy-kair-ee-uhs, vi-]

adjective

1. performed, exercised, received, or suffered in place of another: vicarious punishment.
2. taking the place of another person or thing; acting or serving as a substitute.
3. felt or enjoyed through imagined participation in the experience of others: a vicarious thrill.
4. Physiology . noting or pertaining to a situation in which one organ performs part of the functions normally performed by another.

Origin:
1630–40; < Latin vicārius substituting, equivalent to vic ( is ) (genitive) interchange, alternation (see vice3 ), + -ārius -ary; see -ous

Related forms
vi·car·i·ous·ly, adverb
vi·car·i·ous·ness, vi·car·i·ism, noun
non·vi·car·i·ous, adjective
non·vi·car·i·ous·ly, adverb
non·vi·car·i·ous·ness, noun

Today’s aphorism

‘Destiny has two ways of crushing us – by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them’.

– Henri Frederic Amiel

On this day

5 February 1922 – Readers Digest first published by DeWitt and Lila Wallace.

5 February 2009 – China tells Canada not to accept 17 Chinese Uyghur prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. The Uyghurs had applied for refugee status in Canada. They had been arrested in Afghanistan during the 2001 US invasion.

4 February 2013

acumen

[uh-kyoo-muhn, ak-yuh-]

noun

– keen insight; shrewdness: remarkable acumen in business matters.

Origin:
1525–35; < Latin acūmen sharpness, equivalent to acū- (stem of acuere to sharpen; see acute) + -men noun suffix

Related forms
a·cu·mi·nous [uh-kyoo-muh-nuhs] adjective
un·a·cu·mi·nous, adjective

Today’s aphorism

‘I think a simple rule of business is, if you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress’.

– Mark Zuckerberg

On this day

4 February 1948 – birth of Alice Cooper, (Vincent Damon Furnier), legendary American shock rocker.

4 February 1948 – Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) is granted independence from Britain, but remains a member of the British Commonwealth.

4 February 1959 – the barbie doll is invented by Ruth Handler.

4 February 1993 – Yugoslavia is dissolved and replaced by a union between Serbia and Montenegro.

4 February 2004 – Facebook founded by Mark Zuckerberg.

3 February 2013

conterminous

[kuhn-tur-muh-nuhs]

adjective

1. having a common boundary; bordering; contiguous.
2. meeting at the ends; without an intervening gap: In our calendar system, the close of one year is conterminous with the beginning of the next.
3. coterminous.

Also, con·ter·mi·nal, coterminal.

Origin:
1625–35; < Latin conterminus having a common border with, equivalent to con- con- + terminus terminus; see -ous

Related forms
con·ter·mi·nal·ly, con·ter·mi·nous·ly, adverb
con·ter·mi·nal·i·ty, con·ter·mi·nous·ness, noun
non·con·ter·mi·nal, adjective
non·con·ter·mi·nous, adjective
non·con·ter·mi·nous·ly, adverb

Example sentence:

‘New South Wales and Victoria have a conterminous border’.

Today’s aphorism

‘The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart’.

– Helen Keller

On this day

3 February 1919 – Inaugural meeting of the League of Nations (the predecessor of the United Nations), which was headed by US President Woodrow Wilson, aimed at promoting world peace and security.

3 February 1959 – ‘The Day the Music Died’. Plane crash during a storm near Clear Lake, Iowa, claims the lives of some of America’s finest rock and roll stars: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson). The pilot, Roger Peterson, also died. Another rock star, Dion Di Mucci, decided not to board the plane. The stars had performed at Clear Lake as part of ‘The Winter Dance Party Tour’ and were on their way to the next venue. Don McLean’s iconic song ‘American Pie’ paid homage to the tragedy, declaring it the ‘Day the Music Died’.

3 February 1966 – The Soviet Union achieves the first moon landing when the unmanned Lunix 9 spacecraft touches down on the moon’s Ocean of Storms area.

2 February 2013

denizen

[den-uh-zuhn]

noun

1. an inhabitant; resident.
2. a person who regularly frequents a place; habitué: the denizens of a local bar.
3. British . an alien admitted to residence and to certain rights of citizenship in a country.
4. anything adapted to a new place, condition, etc., as an animal or plant not indigenous to a place but successfully naturalized.
verb (used with object)
5. to make a denizen of.

Today’s aphorism

‘I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it’.

– Edgar Allan Poe

On this day

2 February 1943 – the German 6th Army surrenders to Soviet forces in Stalingrad.

2 February 1964 – Hasbro launches G.I. Joe (‘Government Issue Joe), an Armed Forces toy.

2 February 1971 – Idi Amin declares himself President of Uganda and launches a genocidal program that massacres between 100,000 and 500,000 people.

2 February 1990 – South African President, F.W. De Klerk orders the release of Nelson Mandela from jail. Mandela had served 27 years in prison for his anti-apartheid work with the African National Congress. De Klerk also lifted the 30 year ban on the ANC.