31 December 2014

Hogmanay

[hog-muh-ney]

noun, Scot.
1. the eve of New Year’s Day.
2. (lowercase) a gift given on Hogmanay.

Origin
1670-1680; origin uncertain

Dictionary.com

Anagram

among hay

Today’s aphorism

When I am silent, I have thunder hidden inside.

– Rumi

On this day

31 December 1948 – birth of Disco star, Donna Summer. Died 17 May 2012.

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 2014

Juggernaut

[juhg-er-nawt, -not]

noun
1. (often lowercase) any large, overpowering, destructive force or object, as war, a giant battleship, or a powerful football team.
2. (often lowercase) anything requiring blind devotion or cruel sacrifice.
3. Also called Jagannath. an idol of Krishna, at Puri in Orissa, India, annually drawn on an enormous cart under whose wheels devotees are said to have thrown themselves to be crushed.

Origin
Hindi
1630-1640; < Hindi Jagannāth < Sanskrit Jagannātha lord of the world (i.e., the god Vishnu or Krishna), equivalent to jagat world + nātha lord

Related forms
Juggernautish, adjective

Dictionary.com

Anagram

a urgent jug
a grunge jut
jug nut rage

Today’s aphorism

You were born an original. Don’t die a copy.

– John Mason

On this day

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

30 December 1945 – birth of Davy Jones, singer with British 1960’s rock band, The Monkees. Died 29 February 2012.

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

28 December 2014

polyphony

[puh-lif-uh-nee]

noun
1. Music. polyphonic composition; counterpoint. Comprising of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody.
2. Phonetics. representation of different sounds by the same letter or symbol.

Origin

Greek
1820-1830; < Greek polyphōnía variety of tones. See poly-, -phony

Related forms
polyphonous, adjective
polyphonously, adverb

Dictionary.com

Anagram

phony ploy

Today’s aphorism

A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.

– J.R.R. Tolkien

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 2014

hallow ⁽¹⁾

[hal-oh]

verb (used with object)
1. to make holy; sanctify; consecrate.
2. to honor as holy; consider sacred; venerate:
to hallow a battlefield.

Origin
Middle English, Old English
900, before 900; Middle English hal (o) wen, Old English hālgian (cognate with German heiligen, Old Norse helga), derivative of hālig holy

Related forms
hallower, noun

hallow ⁽²⁾

[huh-loh]

interjection, noun, verb (used without object), verb (used with object)
1. hallo (to call or answer someone)

Dictionary.com

Anagram

all who

Today’s aphorism

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.

– Bertrand Russell

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 2014

confute

[kuh n-fyoot]

verb (used with object), confuted, confuting.
1. to prove to be false, invalid, or defective; disprove:
to confute an argument.
2. to prove (a person) to be wrong by argument or proof:
to confute one’s opponent.
3. Obsolete. to bring to naught; confound.

Origin
Latin
1520-1530; < Latin confūtāre to abash, silence, refute, equivalent to con- con- + -fūtāre; cf. refute

Related forms
confutable, adjective
confuter, noun
unconfutable, adjective
unconfuted, adjective
unconfuting, adjective

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for confute
– Nothing in this handbook should be used to supersede or confute competently developed site-specific estimates.

Anagram

cue font
cote fun

Today’s aphorism

Democracy is indispensable to socialism.

– Vladimir Lenin

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.

24 December 2014

ossuary

[osh-oo-er-ee, os-]

noun, plural ossuaries.
1. a place or receptacle for the bones of the dead.

Also, ossuarium.

Origin
Late Latin
1650-1660; < Late Latin ossuārium, variant of ossārium, equivalent to oss- (stem of os) bone + -ārium -ary

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for ossuary
– Their finds included an ossuary, that is, a large pit with human remains.

Anagram

as yours
says our
a rosy us

Today’s aphorism

When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?

– Eleanor Roosevelt

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 in response to Afghan insurgents (armed by the United States) who had been attacking Soviet troops. 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 2014

immix

[ih-miks]

verb (used with object), immixed or immixt, immixing.
1. to mix in; mingle.

Origin
Middle English, Latin

1400-1450; back formation from Middle English immixt (e) mixed in < Latin immixtus past participle of immiscēre to blend, equivalent to im- im-1+ mix- (see mix ) + -tus past participle suffix

Dictionary.com

Today’s aphorism

The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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 approximately 87,000 people, followed by a chemical spill that poisons China’s Songhue River, contaminating the water supply of millions of people.

23 December 2013 – death of Mikhail Kalashnikov, Soviet Union hero, inventor of the world’s most popular assault weapon, the AK-47, or ‘Kalashnikov’. The AK-47 stood for Kalashnikov Assault, 1947, the year it was designed. He was awarded the ‘Hero of Russia’ medal as well as Lenin and Stalin prizes. Kalashnikov invented the AK-47 to protect the national borders of the Soviet Union. The AK-47 has a simple design, which makes it very reliable and easy to replicate. Kalashnikov hadn’t patented the design internationally. As a result, of the estimated 100 million AK-47s in the world today, it is believed that at least half are copies. Although his weapon has been favoured by armies and guerillas across the globe, Kalashnikov claimed he never lost sleep over the numbers of people killed by it. He always maintained that he invented it to protect the ‘Fatherland’s borders’. He did however, rue the use of it by child soldiers. Kalashnikov was a World War II veteran who was wounded in 1941. While recovering in hospital he conceived the design. Born 10 November 1919.