24 March 2015

torpor

[tawr-per]

noun
1. sluggish inactivity or inertia.
2. lethargic indifference; apathy.
3. a state of suspended physical powers and activities.
4. dormancy, as of a hibernating animal.

Origin
1600-1610; < Latin: numbness, equivalent to torp (ēre) to be stiff or numb + -or -or1

Synonyms
2. stolidity, listlessness, lethargy. 4. sleepiness, slumber, drowsiness.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for torpor
– Hopefully, they will awaken from their long torpor and rise to the challenges of the times.
– Those who are content need robust political speech to rouse them from their civic torpor.
– She was kneeling on the floor, ice in her hair, lost in some kind of hypothermic torpor.

Anagram

or port

Today’s aphorism

If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

– Benjamin Franklin

On this day

24 March 1958 – Elvis Presley is conscripted into the U.S. Army as a Private. He was discharged on 2 March 1960 with the rank of Sergeant.

24 March 1989 – the oil-tanker, Exxon Valdez, is seriously damaged after running aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. Over 11 million gallons of crude oil was released, resulting in a five mile oil slick, which caused severe environmental damage, including the deaths of 250,000 birds, 3,000 sea otters, 300 seals, 22 killer whales and an untold number of fish.

24 March 1973 – Pink Floyd release their iconic ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ album, which is the 6th best-selling album of all time with over 40 million sales worldwide.