10 November 2013

smellfungus

[smel-FUNG-uhs]

noun

– A habitual faultfinder or complainer.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Smelfungus, a hypercritical character in Laurence Sterne’s 1768 novel, A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. Earliest documented use: 1807.

NOTES:
Novelist Laurence Sterne modeled his character Smelfungus after traveler and author Tobias Smollett who complained about almost everything in his 1766 travel book Travels through France and Italy. Here’s how Sterne describes Smelfungus:
“The learned Smelfungus travelled from Boulogne to Paris, from Paris to Rome, and so on; but he set out with the spleen and jaundice, and every object he pass’d by was discoloured or distorted. He wrote an account of them, but ’twas nothing but the account of his miserable feelings.”

USAGE:
“And a couple of smellfungus from the Official Paper … carped that Issel chose to jump when the schedule reached its toughest stretch.”
Paige Woody; Issel is the Wrong Scapegoat in Nuggets’ Mess; Denver Post; Feb 13, 1995.

Today’s aphorism

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

– Abraham Lincoln

On this day

10 November 1969 – Sesame Street debuts on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), featuring muppets by Jim Henson. It is one of the longest running tv shows in history and has been highly successful at increasing the literacy and numeracy skills of children.

10 November 1982 – Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet President, dies in office from a heart attack.

9 November 2013

hypocorism

[hahy-pok-uh-riz-uhm, hi-]

noun

1. a pet name.
2. the practice of using a pet name, ‘their new boss was prone to hypocorism’.
3. the use of forms of speech imitative of baby talk, especially by an adult, ‘the young couple’s public hypocorism, embarrassed and sickened their friends’.

Origin:
1840–50; < Greek hypokórisma pet name. See hypocoristic, -ism

Today’s aphorism

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.

– Confucius

On this day

9-10 November 1938 – Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) – Nazi paramilitary forces (the Brownshirts) and non-Jewish German citizens attack Jews, smash windows of synagogues, shops and houses. At least 91 Jews were killed in the attack and more than 30,000 incarcerated in concentration camps. Over 1,000 synagogues and 7,000 businesses were destroyed or damaged. The Nazis undertook the attack following the assassination of German diplomat Ernst Vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan in Paris, a German-born Polish Jew. However, it is likely that the attack would have happened anyway, as Kristallnacht is seen as the beginning of Hitler’s Final Solution which was to eliminate Jews from Europe. The Final Solution culminated in the Holocaust, in which more than 6 million Jews were executed, along with many other ‘undesirables’, such as Gypsys, homosexuals and dissidents. At its height, the Nazis had over 40,000 concentration camps in which millions of Jews and others were executed, sometimes by firing squad, but often by gas chamber. The Nazis also conducted medical experiments on the prisoners, in an effort to build a genetically modified ‘master race’. The subjects who survived the experiments were usually executed and dissected.

9 November 1967 – First edition of Rolling Stone magazine is published, and features John Lennon.

9 November 1989 – fall of the Berlin Wall.Construction of the wall commenced in 1961 and was completed in 1962, to separate the Communist controlled East Berlin from the capitalist West Berlin. The Communist government claimed that it was to protect East Germany from Fascist forces in West Germany, although it was mainly to prevent the mass defections from the Eastern bloc. Between the end of World War II and the construction of the Wall, more than 3.5 million people defected to the West. The Wall was more than 140km long, with numerous guard towers and check-points. It symbolised the ‘Iron Curtain’, which was used to describe the attempts of Europe’s Eastern bloc, including the Soviet Union, to severely restrict contact with the West.

8 November 2013

blasé

[blah-zey, blah-zey; French bla-zey]

adjective

– indifferent to or bored with life; unimpressed, as or as if from an excess of worldly pleasures.
Origin:
1810–20; < French, past participle of blaser to cloy, sicken from surfeit, perhaps < Dutch blasen to blow; see blast

Synonyms
apathetic, jaded, cloyed, sated, glutted, surfeited, world-weary.

Today’s aphorism

Laughter is the sun which drives winter from the human face.

– Victor Hugo

On this day

8 November 1836 – birth of Milton Bradley, U.S. board-game maker, credited with launching the board-game industry. Died 30 May 1911.

8 November 1847 – birth of Bram Stoker, Irish novellist, author of ‘Dracula’. Died 20 April 1912.

8 November 1960 – 43 year old, John F. Kennedy wins the presidential election and becomes the youngest President of the United States of America.

8 November 1973 – In Brisbane, Australia, a home-made bomb is placed on a teacher’s desk. It detonates, killing one student, injuring 8 others, while the teacher loses both hands.

6 November 2018

neurosis

[noo-roh-sis, nyoo-]

noun, plural neu·ro·ses [noo-roh-seez, nyoo-] Show IPA . Psychiatry.

1. Also called psychoneurosis. a functional disorder in which feelings of anxiety, obsessional thoughts, compulsive acts, and physical complaints without objective evidence of disease, in various degrees and patterns, dominate the personality.
2. a relatively mild personality disorder typified by excessive anxiety or indecision and a degree of social or interpersonal maladjustment.
Origin:
1770–80; < Neo-Latin; see neur-, -osis

Neurotic:

adjective – 1. of, relating to, or afflicted by neurosis

noun – 2. a person who is afflicted with a neurosis or who tends to be emotionally unstable or unusually anxious

Today’s aphorism

Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.

– Mahatma Gandhi

On this day

6 November 1985 – Iran-Contra Affair revealed in the media. U.S. President Ronald Reagan exposed as having sold arms to Iran in order to secure the release of Americans being held by an Iranian group and to also help the U.S. to continue illicitly funding the Nicaraguan Contras after Congress had banned further funding arrangements. The Contras were rebels who were committing human rights violations while opposing the ruling Marxist Sandinista regime. Numerous high-ranking members of the Reagan government were indicted, including Casper Weinberger (Secretary of Defence, later pardoned by President George H.W. Bush), William Casey (Head of CIA), Robert McFarlane (National Security Advisor), Oliver North (member of the National Security Council), and John Poindexter (National Security Advisor).

6 November 1999 – Australians vote to keep the Queen as head of state instead of establishing a republic.

5 November 2013

wager

[wey-jer]

noun

1. something risked or staked on an uncertain event; bet: to place a wager on a soccer match.
2. the act of betting.
3. the subject or terms of a bet.
4. Early English Law. a pledge to make good one’s cause by the supporting oaths of others or by battle.
verb (used with object)
5. to risk (something) on the outcome of a contest or any uncertain event or matter; bet.
6. History/Historical . to pledge oneself to (battle) for the decision of a cause.

Today’s aphorism

Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.

― W.C. Fields

On this day

5 November 1605 – Guy Fawkes Day. Celebrates King James I survived an attempt on his life when Guy Fawkes and others from the Gunpowder Plot placed gunpowder around the House of Lords in a failed attempt to blow up parliament.

5 November 1996 – Bill Clinton secures a second term as U.S. President, with a land-slide victory. Clinton is the first Democrat in 50 years to win consecutive terms of government.

4 November 2013

savoir-faire

[sav-wahr-fair; French sa-vwar-fer]
noun

– knowledge of just what to do in any situation; tact.

Origin:
1805–15; < French: literally, knowing how to do

Synonyms
adaptability, adroitness, diplomacy, discernment, skill, ability.

Today’s aphorism

Profits, like sausages… are esteemed most by those who know least about what goes into them.

– Alvin Toffler

On this day

4 November 1926 – British archeologist, Howard Carter, discovers steps leading to the tomb of the Pharoah Tutankhamen.

4 November 1979 – Students loyal to the Ayatollah Khomeini over-run the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 90 Americans hostage in protest against the former Shah of Iran being allowed into the U.S. for medical treatment. The hostages were held for 14 months and released after the U.S. government promised $5 billion in foreign aid and unfroze $3 billion of Iranian funds. During the crisis, President Jimmy Carter attempted an unsuccessful rescue mission by helicopter, which ended in the deaths of 8 U.S. marines.

4 November 1995 – assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The assassin was Yigal Amir, an Israeli right-wing Zionist, who opposed the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in which Rabin had negotiated a peace plan with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.