21 February 2015

niveous

[niv-ee-uh s]

adjective
1. resembling snow, especially in whiteness; snowy.

E.g. You contemplate all the hours you sat attentive and alert on the flight deck, and how you never grew less enamored of the niveous white magnificence of clouds as you gazed down at them from thirty or thirty-five thousand feet.
-Chris Bohjalian, The Night Strangers, 2011

Origin
Latin
1615-1625; < Latin niveus snowy, snow-white, of, from snow, equivalent to niv- (stem of nix) snow + -eus -eous
Dictionary.com

Anagram

envious

Today’s aphorism

A mind that is stretched by new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.

– Oliver Wendell Holmes

On this day

21 February 1903 – birth of Anais Nin, French-Cuban author. Died 14 January 1977.

21 February 1965 – assassination of Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little), also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist. He campaigned for the rights of African-Americans. At the age of 20, while in prison, he joined the ‘Nation of Islam’, a group that preached black supremacy. He eventually became disillusioned with it and its leader, Elijah Muhammad. On 8 Mach 1964, he publicly announced he had the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X founded Muslim Mosque Inc and the Organisation of Afro-American Unity. He converted to Sunni Islam, revoked black supremacy and preached equal rights. He was assassinated on 21 February 1965 by three members of the Nation of Islam; Talmadge Hayer (also known as Thomas Hagan), Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson. All three were convicted, although Butler and Johnson maintained their innocence. Born 19 May 1925.