Today’s WOTD – 26 August 2012

empyrean

[em-puh-ree-uhn, -pahy-, em-pir-ee-uhn, -pahy-ree-]

— n
1. archaic the highest part of the (supposedly spherical) heavens, thought in ancient times to contain the pure element of fire and by early Christians to be the abode of God and the angels
2. poetic the heavens or sky

— adj
3. of or relating to the sky, the heavens, or the empyrean
4. heavenly or sublime
5. archaic composed of fire

[from Medieval Latin empyreus, from Greek empuros fiery, from pur fire]

Example Sentences
The professional bailiwick we’ve staked out is the empyrean of pure thought.
From the ninth sphere to the empyrean, which is mere light.

Today’s aphorism

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ARE MORE
EQUAL THAN OTHERS

– George Orwell, Animal Farm, Ch. 10

‘No question now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.’
– George Orwell, Animal Farm, Ch. 10

On this day

26 August 580 – toilet paper invented by the Chinese.

26 August 1910 – birth of Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu) in Yugoslavia, winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work in the slums of Calcutta.

26 August 1946 – George Orwell’s revolutionary novel, Animal Farm, is published.