4 May 2017
cavil
[kav-uh l]
verb (used without object), caviled, caviling or (especially British) cavilled, cavilling.
1. to raise irritating and trivial objections; find fault with unnecessarily (usually followed by at or about):
He finds something to cavil at in everything I say.
verb (used with object), caviled, caviling or (especially British) cavilled, cavilling.
2.to oppose by inconsequential, frivolous, or sham objections:
to cavil each item of a proposed agenda.
noun
3. a trivial and annoying objection.
4. the raising of such objections.
Origin of brad
Middle English Old Norse late Middle English
1425-1475; late Middle English brad, dialectal variant of Middle English brod(d) sprout, shoot, nail; Old Norse braddr, cognate with Old English brord spike (see braird )
Today’s quote
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
– Rumi
On this day
4 May – International Firefighters Day
4 May – Star Wars Day – May the Fourth be with you!
4 – 8 May 1942 – Battle of the Coral Sea, a major naval battle in the Pacific Theatre during World War 2, fought between the Japanese Imperial Navy and Allied forces from Australia and USA. Japan was attempting to occupy Port Moresby, but was repelled by the Allied forces.
4 May 1970 – National Guards open fire on anti-war protesters at Kent State University, killing four. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young wrote the song ‘Ohio’ about the incident.
4 May 1979 – Margaret Thatcher forms government in the UK. Her administration was controversial and ultra-conservative. Her policies of smaller government, privatisation, nationalism, lower taxes, and free markets gave rise to the term, ‘Thatcherism’. However, her policies were also seen as anti-worker and anti-Union. During the 1980s, United States President Ronald Reagan adopted similar economic conservatism which came to be known as Reaganism. Both Reagan and Thatcher ascribed to the economic theories espoused by neo-liberal economist Milton Friedman. Thatcher remained Prime Minister until her resignation in November 1990 after losing a leadership challenge from Michael Heseltine.