13 December 2013

panache

[puh-nash, -nahsh]

noun

1. a grand or flamboyant manner; verve; style; flair: The actor who would play Cyrano must have panache.
2. an ornamental plume of feathers, tassels, or the like, especially one worn on a helmet or cap.
3. Architecture . the surface of a pendentive.

Origin:
1545–55; variant (after F) of pennache < Middle French < early Italian pennachio < Late Latin pinnāculum, diminutive of pinna wing; identical in form with pinnāculum pinnacle

Anagram

Ache nap

Today’s aphorism

You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.

– John Bunyan

On this day

13 December 1937 – Nanking, China, is captured by Japanese forces. The Japanese General Matsui orders the destruction of the city, resulting in the massacre of more than 200,000 people, and rape and mutilation of around 20,000 women and girls.

13 December 1939 – Premier of the classic movie, Gone With The Wind, starring Clark Gable and Vivienne Leigh.

13 December 1995 – Thousands of people riot in Brixton, England, ransacking shops and attacking police.

13 December 2003 – US forces capture Saddam Hussein at a compound near Tikrit. He was executed by hanging on 30 December 2006 after being found guilty of the 1982 murder of 148 Iraqi Shi’ites.

13 December 2006 – Belgians react angrily to the news that their country is to be divided in two, with the Dutch speaking component of the country declaring their independence. The news was a joke propagated by Belgian public television station, R.T.B.F.

13 December 2007 – Pakistani President, Pervez Musharaff, moves responsibility for Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal from the Prime Minister to the President amid fears of it falling into the hands of Islamic extremists.

12 December 2013

cloy

[kloi]

verb (used with object)

1. to weary by an excess of food, sweetness, pleasure, etc.; surfeit; satiate.
verb (used without object)
2. to become uninteresting or distasteful through overabundance: A diet of cake and candy soon cloys.

Origin:
1350–1400; aphetic variant of Middle English acloyen < Middle French enclo ( y ) er < Late Latin inclāvāre to nail in, equivalent to in- in-2 + -clāvāre, verbal derivative of clāvus nail

Related forms
o·ver·cloy, verb (used with object)
un·cloyed, adjective

Synonyms
1. glut, sate, bore.

Today’s aphorism

I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone, it’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone.

– Robin Williams

On this day

12 December 1901 – Italian inventor, Guglielmo Marconi sends the world’s first wireless transmission over 2,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean from Poldhu, Cornwall, England to Newfoundland, Canada. The message he sent was the letter ‘s’ in morse code, represented by three dots …

12 December 1913 – the Mona Lisa is recovered in Florence, two years after being stolen from the Louvre in Paris.

12 December 1925 – the world’s first motel, the Milestone Mo-Tel, opens in San Luis Obispo, California. The motorists-hotel enabled visitors to park their cars outside their rooms.

12 December 1946 – John D. Rockefeller donates six blocks of Manhattan to the United Nations, which is now the site of UN Headquarters.

12 December 2003 – Keiko, the killer whale from the movie, ‘Free Willy’, dies in Norway.

12 December 2007 – International Chess Grand-Master, Garry Kasparov announces that he is withdrawing from running for the presidential election. Kasparov’s party, Other Russia, had faced difficulty in meeting the electoral requirements for supporters to meet in Moscow.

11 December 2013

falstaffian

(fal-STAF-ee-uhn)

adjective

– Fat, jolly, and convivial.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Sir John Falstaff, a character in Shakespeare’s plays Henry IV (parts 1 & 2) and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Earliest documented use: 1809.

USAGE:
‘His hair was long and scruffy, his ties ludicrous and his manner jovial bordering on Falstaffian; a board meeting, for him, was a debate, punctuated by gales of his maniacal laughter’.
John Harvey-Jones; The Economist (London, UK); Jan 17, 2008.

Anagram

A fatal sniff

Today’s aphorism

Try everything at least twice.

– Shane Duran

On this day

11 December 1941 – Hitler and Mussolini declare war on the United States. The USA responds in kind.

11 December 1946 – establishment of UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) to provide food and healthcare to children in countries devastated by World War II.

11 December 1918 – birthday of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian dissident writer, ‘The Gulag Archipelago‘, ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich‘, ‘The First Circle‘.

11 December 1961 – America’s first direct involvement in the Vietnam civil war, when a US aircraft carrier arrives in Saigon.

11 December 1975 – The Cod War in Iceland continues when an Iceland gun boat fires on unarmed British fishing vessels. Iceland had expanded its fishing zone from 50nm to 200nm from its coast.

11 December 1979 – The Rhodesian government returns power of the country to Great Britain until democratic elections are held. Following the elections, Rhodesia is renamed Zimbabwe.

11 December 1997 – The Kyoto Protocol is agreed to by 150 countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to combat anthropogenic global warming.

A slight issue with the internets meant that Monday’s WOTD lazed around as a draft instead of winging its way to your inbox. So! Belated, as it is, enjoy:

9 December 2013

largesse

[lahr-jes, lahr-jis]

noun

1. generous bestowal of gifts.
2. the gift or gifts, as of money, so bestowed.
3. Obsolete . generosity; liberality.

Also, lar·gesse.

Example

The public is subject to ‘market discipline’, however, multinationals continue to enjoy the largesse of the Bank.

Origin:
1175–1225; Middle English largesse < Old French; see large, -ice

Can be confused: large, largess.

Anagram

ears legs

Today’s aphorism

There are things known and things unknown and in between are the doors.

– Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors

On this day

9 December 1906 – birth of Sir Douglas Nichols KCVO, OBE. Aboriginal activist, raising awareness of aboriginal issues, including treating aborigines with dignity and as people. He played for Carlton football club in the A-grade Victorian Football League (VFL), leaving after racist treatment and joining the Northcote football club in the Victorian Football Association (VFA). Nicholls became a minister and social worker. In 1957, he was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE). In 1972 he was the first aborigine to be knighted. In 1976, he became the 28th governor of South Australia, the first aborigine to be appointed to a vice-regal position. He died on 4 June 1988.

9 December 1947 – Deputy Prime Minister of India, Sandar Valiabbhai Patel announces that India and Pakistan have reached an agreement on the borders of the two countries following partition … except for the issue of Kashmir, which is unresolved to this day.

9 December 1990 – Polish dissident, Solidarity union leader and 1983 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Lech Walesa wins Polish presidential election in a landslide. Solidarity was the Soviet Bloc’s first independent trade union. Walesa presided over Poland’s transition from a communist state to a post-communist state.

10 December 2013

construe

[v. kuhn-stroo or, esp. British, kon-stroo; n. kon-stroo]
verb, con·strued, con·stru·ing, noun
verb (used with object)

1. to give the meaning or intention of; explain; interpret.
2. to deduce by inference or interpretation; infer: He construed her intentions from her gestures.
3. to translate, especially orally.
4. to analyze the syntax of; to rehearse the applicable grammatical rules of: to construe a sentence.
5. to arrange or combine (words, phrases, etc.) syntactically.
verb (used without object)
6. to admit of grammatical analysis or interpretation.
noun
7. the act of construing.
8. something that is construed.
Origin:
1325–75; Middle English construen < Latin construere to put together, build, equivalent to con- con- + struere to pile up, arrange, perhaps akin to sternere to spread, strew; see stratum

Related forms
con·stru·er, noun
un·con·strued, adjective

Anagram

Our scent

Today’s aphorism

Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.

– Frank Zappa

On this day

10 December 1896 – death of Alfred Bernhard Nobel, Swedish chemist and armaments manufacturer, inventor of dynamite and the Nobel Prizes. Was known as the ‘Merchant of Death’. A newspaper stated that he ‘became rich by finding ways to kill people faster than ever before‘. As a result, he decided to leave a better legacy than that and used his estate to establish and fund the Nobel Prizes, which included the Nobel Peace Prize. Born 21 October 1833.

10 December – Human Rights Day.

10 December 1948 – Universal Declaration of Human Rights is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.

10 December 1959 – James Coburn (star of ‘The Great Escape‘, ‘The Magnificent Seven‘) takes 200 micrograms of LSD-25 for the first time as part of a controlled experiment conducted by Dr Janiger. Other famous people who participated in Janiger’s experiments include Cary Grant (‘North by Northwest‘, ‘An Affair to Remember‘) who took over 100 acid trips, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, and author Anais Nin (refer: http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_history6.pdf and http://www.carygrant.net/autobiography/autobiography14.html)

10 December 1967 – Soul singer, Otis Redding and members of the Bar-Kays band are killed when the plane they are travelling on crashes into Lake Monona, Madison, Wisconsin.

10 December 1981 – An epidemic comprising of two diseases, skin cancer and pneumonia, spreads throughout the United States since July, killing 75 people, 92% of whom are gay men. The disease is eventually identified as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

10 December 1983 – Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

10 December 1992 – Prime Minister Paul Keating delivers the historic ‘Redfern Speech’ at Redfern Park, New South Wales. It is regarded as one of the greatest Australian speeches and was the first time a Prime Minister had acknowledged the role that European settlement had in the murders and other travesties inflicted on the indigenous population. In 2007, Radio National listeners voted the speech as the third most unforgettable speech in the world, behind Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech (first) and Jesus’s ‘Sermon on the Mount (second). The speech can be heard here: Redfern Speech – audio or on YouTube. The text is available here: Redfern Speech – Text.

10 December 2002 – Former US President Jimmy Carter is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomatic efforts in solving the Middle East crisis in the 1970s.

10 December 2009 – President Barack Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his ‘extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples‘.

8 December 2013

brawn

[brawn]

noun

1. strong, well-developed muscles.
2. muscular strength. (The project took brains to plan and brawn to implement).
3. Chiefly British .
a. a boar’s or swine’s flesh, especially when boiled and pickled.
b. headcheese.

Origin:
1275–1325; Middle English brawne < Old French braon slice of flesh ( Provençal bradon ) < Germanic; compare German Braten joint of meat, akin to Old English brǣd flesh

Synonyms
2. brawniness, robustness, muscle, sturdiness, might, power.

Today’s aphorism

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…

– John Lennon, from the song Imagine

On this day

8 December 1943 – birthday of Jim Morrison, lead singer and song writer for the Doors.

8 December 1980 – Murder of John Lennon. English guitarist and singer-songwriter for the Beatles. Born 9 October 1940.

8 December 1991 – the Presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus sign the Belavezha Accords declaring the Soviet Union dissolved and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States. The legality of this accord was questionable, however, it was ratified by leaders of all other Soviet republics (except Georgia) on 21 December 1991.

8 December 2004 – death of Dimebag Darrell, (born Darrell Lance Abbott), American musician, founding member of Pantera. Dimebag was shot dead on stage while playing for Damageplan.

7 December 2013

hoick

[hoik]

verb (informal)

1. to rise or raise abruptly and sharply: She hoicked her dress above her knees
2. to clear the throat and spit
3. throw something: He hoicked the cricket ball back to the bowler.

[C20: perhaps a variant of hike ]

Anagram

hock I

Today’s aphorism

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

– Nelson Mandela

On this day

7 December 1941 – bombing of Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.

7 December 1987 – USSR President Mikael Gorbachev arrives in the USA for an arms control summit with US President Ronald Reagan. The summit resulted in the Intermediate Nuclear Force Treaty (INF) which called for elimination of all cruise and ballistic missiles and launchers in Europe that had a range of 320 to 3,400 miles. This was one of the most significant arms treaties of the Cold War.

7 December 1988 – An earthquake registering 7.2 on the richter scale, completely destroys the Armenian city of Spitak, in the Soviet Union, killing 50,000.

7 December 2001 – the Taliban regime surrenders 61 days after commencement of US-led war in Afghanistan.

6 December 2013

Nous

[noos, nous]

noun

1. Greek Philosophy . mind or intellect. Example: ‘He had the technical nous to design the system’.
2. Neoplatonism. the first and purest emanation of the One, regarded as the self-contemplating order of the universe.
Origin:
1670–80; < Greek noûs, contracted variant of nóos mind

Today’s aphorism

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

– Barack Obama

On this day

6 December 1790 – The United States Capitol is relocated from New York to Philadelphia. Ten years later, the District of Columbia is completed and the capitol permanently relocates there.

6 December 1922 – Creation of the Irish Free State as a dominion under the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Northern Ireland was included in the State, but chose not to join.

6 December 1962 – a deadly smog, mainly containing sulfur dioxide, kills 90 people in London.

6 December 1969 – The Rolling Stones organise a free concert at the disused Altamont Speedway, Livermore, California, featuring themselves, as well as Jefferson Airplane, Santana, the Flying Burrito Brothers and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Hell’s Angels were used as security. The concert was marred by the deaths of four people, including one who was stabbed by a member of the Hell’s Angels.

4 December 2013

epithet

[ep-uh-thet]

noun

1. any word or phrase applied to a person or thing to describe an actual or attributed quality: “Richard the Lion-Hearted” is an epithet of Richard I.
2. a characterizing word or phrase firmly associated with a person or thing and often used in place of an actual name, title, or the like, as “man’s best friend” for “dog.”
3. a word, phrase, or expression used invectively as a term of abuse or contempt, to express hostility, etc.

Origin:
1570–80; < Latin epitheton epithet, adjective < Greek epítheton epithet, something added, equivalent to epi- epi- + the- (variant stem of tithénai to put) + -ton neuter verbid suffix

Related forms
ep·i·thet·ic, ep·i·thet·i·cal, adjective

Can be confused: epigram, epigraph, epitaph, epithet.

Synonyms
1, 2. nickname, sobriquet, designation, appellation. 3. curse, insult, abuse, expletive, obscenity.

Anagram

The Pet I

Today’s aphorism

I re-invented my image so many times that I’m in denial that I was originally an overweight Korean woman.

– David Bowie

On this day

4 December 1952 – A deadly smog in London caused by soot and sulphur dioxide from factories, cars and home coal-fires. It continues for four days and kills at least 4,000 people.

4 December 1954 – the first Burger King is opened in Miami, Florida by James McLamore and David Edgerton.

4 December 1961 – the birth control contraceptive pill (‘the pill’) available publicly through the National Health Service.

4 December 1969 – 14 police shoot dead two members of the Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton and Mary Clark, who were asleep in their apartment. The Black Panther Party was committed to racial equality and rights for African Americans.