8 February 2014

callipygian

[kal-uh-pij-ee-uhn]

adjective

– having well-shaped buttocks, ‘As they prepared for their squat classes, the couple playfully argued over who had the most callipygian assets’.

Also, cal·li·py·gous [kal-uh-pahy-guhs]

1640–50; < Greek kallipýg ( os ) with beautiful buttocks; referring to a statue of Aphrodite ( kalli- calli- + pyg ( ḗ ) rump + -os adj. suffix) + -ian

Anagram

I lag pliancy

Today’s aphorism

The greatest deception we suffer from is our own opinions.

– Leonardo da Vinci

On this day

8 February 1238 – Mongols burn the Russian city of Vladimir.

8 February 1587 – Mary Queen of Scots is executed for her apparent role in the failed Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

8 February 1952 – Princess Elizabeth declares herself Queen of the British Commonwealth, taking the title, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

8 February 1960 – Queen Elizabeth II issues an Order-in-Council declaring that her family would be known as the House of Windsor and her descendants will take the name ‘Mountbatten-Windsor’.

8 February 1983 – At 3pm, Australia’s second largest city, Melbourne, is hit by a massive dust-storm, towering 320m high, reducing visibility to 100m and turning day into night. The dust-storm came during the most severe drought on record and was caused by loose top-soil in the Mallee and Wimmera districts of western Victoria being whipped up by fierce northerly winds. Other places in Victoria recorded dust as high as 1,000m. This photo was taken by a motorist heading west on the Princes Highway at Werribee.