4 August 2014

multifarious

[muhl-tuh-fair-ee-uhs]

adjective

1. having many different parts, elements, forms, etc.
2. numerous and varied; greatly diverse or manifold: multifarious activities.

Origin:
1585–95; < Late Latin multifārius many-sided, manifold, equivalent to Latin multifāri ( am ) on many sides + -us adj. suffix (see -ous); see multi-, bifarious

Related forms
mul·ti·far·i·ous·ly, adverb
mul·ti·far·i·ous·ness, noun

Anagram

a futurism oil
a four stimuli
i suit formula
if sumo ritual

Today’s aphorism

Man has no right to kill his brother. It is no excuse that he does so in uniform: he only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder.

– Percy Bysshe Shelley

On this day

4 August 1181 – Supernova (not the rock band), SN1181, observed by Chinese and Japanese astronomers in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was visible for 185 days. A supernova is the explosive death of a star, resulting in a nebula of illuminated gas.

4 August 1792 – birth of Percy Bysshe Shelley, English romantic poet, considered to be one the finest lyric poets of all time. Died 8 July 1822.

4 August 1914 – United States declares its neutrality in World War I.

4 August 1944 – German police and Gestapo officers arrest Jewish diarist, Anne Frank and her family, in Amsterdam. The family was eventually transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. In March 1945 a typhus epidemic spread through the camp, claiming the Anne’s life. The camp was liberated only weeks later, in April 1945, by British troops. Anne Frank kept a diary which later was published and became a best seller.

4 August 1964 – the second Gulf of Tonkin Incident in which it was believed North Vietnamese troops fired on two US destroyers, the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy. It is now believed the second incident may have involved false radar images and not the North Vietnamese.