7 February 2013

vitriol

[vi-tree-uhl]

noun, verb, vit·ri·oled, vit·ri·ol·ing or ( especially British ) vit·ri·olled, vit·ri·ol·ling.

noun

1. Chemistry . any of certain metallic sulfates of glassy appearance, as copper sulfate or blue vitriol, iron sulfate or green vitriol, zinc sulfate or white vitriol, etc.
2. oil of vitriol; sulfuric acid.
3. something highly caustic or severe in effect, as criticism.
verb (used with object)
4. to treat with or as with vitriol, especially sulfuric acid.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English < Medieval Latin vitriolum, vitreolum, equivalent to Latin vitre ( us ) vitreous + -olum, neuter of -olus -ole1

Example sentence:

She’s only partially informed, full of vitriol, and can barely form an argument.

Today’s aphorism

‘It is more comfortable to follow one’s conscience than one’s reason: for it offers an excuse and alleviation if what we undertake miscarries–which is why there are always so many conscientious people and so few reasonable ones’.

– Friedrich Nietzsche

On this day

7 February 1967 – Black Tuesday bushfires in Tasmania, which kill 62 and injure 900.

7 February 1971 – Switzerland gives women the right to vote.

7 February 1984 – Bruce McAndless becomes the first man to fly freely in space when he unclips his harness and uses a jet-pack to fly 300 feet away from the space shuttle, Challenger, before flying safely back to it.

7 February 1992 – Twelve members of the European Union ratify the Maastricht Treaty for greater economic integration, security and policing. The Treaty is implemented in November 1993. The nations were Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Irish Republic.