14 November 2018

andiron

[and-ahy-ern]

noun

1. one of a pair of metal stands, usually of iron or brass, for holding logs in a fireplace.

Origin of andiron

Middle English, Anglo-French, Old French, Gaulish

1250-1300; Middle English aundyr(n)e, Anglo-French aundyre, with the 2nd syllable taken as Middle English ire, iren iron < Old French andier, allegedly < Gaulish *anderos young animal (through known use of animals’ heads as decorations on andirons), though supposed relation between this word and Middle Welsh anneir, Breton annoer heifer, Old Irish ainder young woman, poses serious phonetic problems

Regional variation note

See dog iron, firedog.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for andiron

Historical Examples

He hit it against the andiron to knock the ashes off, and plunged it into the mixture.
Ben Comee
M. J. (Michael Joseph) Canavan

He was looking at the elevated portions of the andiron which were invisible to me.
The Sleuth of St. James’s Square
Melville Davisson Post

An andiron, a wash-tub, is the result of an idea that did not exist before.
Mark Twain’s Speeches
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

Today’s quote

History in its broadest aspect is a record of man’s migrations from one environment to another.

– Ellsworth Huntington

On this day

14 November 1868 – birth of Steele Rudd, Australian author, (pen-name for Arthur Hoey Davis). Wrote ‘On Our Selection‘, which introduced Australia to ‘Dad and Dave’. Died 11 October 1935.

14 November 1942 – birth of Robert G. Barrett, Australian author of books such as ‘Davo’s Little Something’ and the Les Norton series which included, ‘High Noon in Nimbin’, ‘The Tesla Legacy’, ‘Crime Scene Cessnock’, ‘Rosa-Marie’s Baby’, ‘Guns n Rosé’. Barrett sold over 1,000,000 books in Australia. Died 20 September 2012.

14 November 2012 – Total solar eclipse visible from Cairns, North Queensland, Australia. Other areas saw a partial eclipse. The last total eclipse for Cairns was in 710AD, with the next one not expected for another 225 years.

13 November 2018

morphology

[mawr-fol-uh-jee]

noun

1. the branch of biology dealing with the form and structure of organisms.
2. the form and structure of an organism considered as a whole.
3. Linguistics.
the patterns of word formation in a particular language, including inflection, derivation, and composition.
the study and description of such patterns.
the study of the behavior and combination of morphemes.

Bring Back
4. Physical Geography. geomorphology.
5. the form or structure of anything:
to gain an insight into the morphology of our political system.
6. the study of the form or structure of anything.

Origin of morphology

German

1820-1830; morpho- + -logy; first formed in German

Related forms

morphologic [mawr-fuh-loj-ik] (Show IPA), morphological, adjective
morphologically, adverb
morphologist, noun
unmorphological, adjective
unmorphologically, adverb

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for morphology

Historical Examples

What proportion of time should be given to morphology in relation to other interests?
College Teaching
Paul Klapper

Furthermore, morphology is in reality a basal consideration.
College Teaching
Paul Klapper

The morphology and Distribution of the wandering cells of Mammalia.
Histology of the Blood
Paul Ehrlich

Today’s quote

One should always be drunk. That’s all that matters…But with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you chose. But get drunk.

– Charles Baudelaire

On this day

13 November 1940 – the prototype of the Jeep was submitted to U.S. Army for approval by car-maker Willys-Overland. Following the U.S. declaration of war 12 months later, production of the Jeep began. By the end of the war in 1945, there had been 600,000 produced.

13 November 1940 – Walt Disney releases his animated movie, Fantasia, which eventually became a cult-classic. At time of release though, the movie was not a commercial success.

13 November 1956 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that laws which segregated buses were illegal.

13 November 1970 – the worst natural disaster of the 20th century occurs when a devastating cyclone strikes Bangladesh, killing over 500,000 people. The cyclone with 160km/h winds, caused tidal waves and storm surges which swept over the densely-populated, low-lying regions of the Ganges Delta and nearby islands.

13 November 1971 – Space voyager Mariner 9, reaches Mars and becomes the first spacecraft to orbit another planet.

13 November 2009 – NASA announces that a significant resource of water has been located on the moon by the Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter.

12 November 2018

quacksalver

[kwak-sal-ver]

noun

1. a quack doctor.
2. a charlatan.

Origin of quacksalver

early Dutch

1570-1580; < early Dutch (now kwakzalver); see quack1, salve1, -er1

Dictionary.com

Today’s quote

I know some who are constantly drunk on books as other men are drunk on whiskey.

– H.L. Mencken

On this day

12 November 1927 – Josef Stalin takes full control of the Soviet Union after Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party a few weeks earlier.

12 November 1944 – sinking of the German battleship, Tirpitz. The Allies had tried for two years to sink the ship. Finally, 32 British Lancaster bombers attack and sink the ship.

12 November 1990 – Swiss computer scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, publishes a formal proposal for hyper-text transfer, this followed his proposal for Information Management, published in March 1989. On 25 December 1990, he makes the world’s first successful communication between a hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) client and a server; and the world wide web is born. He is director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which oversees the ongoing development of the world-wide web.

11 November 2018

alienist

[eyl-yuh-nist, ey-lee-uh-]

noun

1. (formerly) a doctor specializing in the treatment of mental illness.
2. an expert witness in a sanity trial.

Origin of alienist

French

1860-1865; alien(ation) + -ist; compare French aliéniste in same sense

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for alienist

Historical Examples

Why might not Allonby have deceived him as to the alienist ‘s diagnosis?
The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton, Part 1 (of 10)
Edith Wharton

The English poet’s plays are a perfect storehouse of examples for the alienist.
Iconoclasts
James Huneker

To the alienist and the criminal anthropologist it is a social pathology.
Appletons’ Popular Science Monthly, October 1899
Various

No doctor, no alienist, would have pronounced him mad, of course.
The Brightener
C. N. Williamson

I feel that she is likely to get an alienist in at any time.
Outside Inn
Ethel M. Kelley

But there was my friend Dr. Alten, alienist, who lived within a mile of here.
Astounding Stories, April, 1931
Various

And yet this is just what the jurist constantly demands of the alienist.
Studies in Forensic Psychiatry
Bernard Glueck

They are the people of what the alienist calls the “idée fixe.”
Modern Religious Cults and Movements
Gaius Glenn Atkins

Ezra Melville and Forest, the alienist from Seattle, were already in session.
The Sky Line of Spruce
Edison Marshall

McNamara focused an intent gaze first on Ben, then on the alienist.
The Sky Line of Spruce
Edison Marshall

Today’s quote

Censure acquits the raven, but pursues the dove.

– Juvenal

On this day

11 November 1880 – execution by hanging, of Ned Kelly, Australian bush-ranger.

11 November 1918 – End of World War I. Commemorated as ‘Remembrance Day’ in British Commonwealth countries and ‘Armistice Day’ in other nations, recognising the armistice signed at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. In 1954, the United States, changed Armistice Day to ‘Veterans Day’ and made it a public holiday to recognise those who have served in the armed forces, not just those who served in World War I.

11 November 1954 – Pensioners’ Revolt, United Kingdom. Thousands of pensioners march in a rally in London calling for an increase of their pensions by 17s 6d, which would take a single person’s pension to £2 10s per week.

11 November 1975 – Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam (Labor Party) sacked by the Governor-General and replaced by Malcolm Fraser (Liberal Party).

11 November 2004 – death of Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader in Paris after falling into a coma. The cause of his death is disputed, with some believing he was poisoned by Israel, others believing it was from cirrhosis. Born 4 August 1929.

10 November 2018

biophilia

[bahy-oh-fil-ee-uh, ‐feel-yuh]

noun

1. a love of life and the living world; the affinity of human beings for other life forms.

Origin of biophilia

1960-1965; < New Latin “love of life” from bio- + -philia; coined by Erich Fromm in The Heart of Man: Its Genius for Good and Evil (1964) to mean “love for humanity and nature, and independence and freedom”; extended by Edward O. Wilson in Biophilia (1984) to mean “the rich, natural pleasure that comes from being surrounded by living organisms.”

Dictionary.com

On this day

10 November 1919 – birth of Mikhail Kalashnikov, Soviet Union hero, inventor of the world’s most popular assault weapon, the AK-47, or ‘Kalashnikov’. The AK-47 stood for Kalashnikov Assault, 1947, the year it was designed. He was awarded the ‘Hero of Russia’ medal as well as Lenin and Stalin prizes. Kalashnikov invented the AK-47 to protect the national borders of the Soviet Union. The AK-47 has a simple design, which makes it very reliable and easy to replicate. Kalashnikov hadn’t patented the design internationally. As a result, of the estimated 100 million AK-47s in the world today, it is believed that at least half are copies. Although his weapon has been favoured by armies and guerillas across the globe, Kalashnikov claimed he never lost sleep over the numbers of people killed by it. He always maintained that he invented it to protect the ‘Fatherland’s borders’. He did however, rue the use of it by child soldiers. Kalashnikov was a World War II veteran who was wounded in 1941. While recovering in hospital he conceived the design. Died 23 December 2013.

10 November 1969 – Sesame Street debuts on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), featuring muppets by Jim Henson. It is one of the longest running tv shows in history and has been highly successful at increasing the literacy and numeracy skills of children.

10 November 1982 – Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet President, dies in office from a heart attack.

2 November 2018

determinism

[dih-tur-muh-niz-uh m]

noun

1. the doctrine that all facts and events exemplify natural laws.
2. the doctrine that all events, including human choices and decisions, have sufficient causes.

Origin of determinism

1840-1850 First recorded in 1840-50; determine + -ism

Related forms

determinist, noun, adjective
deterministic, adjective
deterministically, adverb
nondeterminist, noun, adjective
nondeterministic, adjective

Can be confused

determinism, fatalism, necessitarianism.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for determinism

Contemporary Examples

The deterministic narrative just doesn’t work; each state is different, and the picture is muddled.
Why the Republican Party’s Narrative on Income and Voting Failed
Alex Klein
December 10, 2012

Historical Examples

They ascertain politics as sequential, linear, and deterministic.
The Civilization of Illiteracy
Mihai Nadin

Some changes are unpredictable, even in deterministic principle.
After the Rain
Sam Vaknin

It, too, has borrowed from the desert something that is deterministic and ineffaceable.
The Secrets of a Kuttite
Edward O. Mousley

(d) By its comprehensive and deterministic Conception of History.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 2
Various

In other words, the deterministic influence of circumstances is contingent, not necessary.
Determinism or Free-Will?
Chapman Cohen

We continue using words that on deterministic lines have lost all meaning.
Determinism or Free-Will?
Chapman Cohen

Literacy stood as the rulebook for all these direct, integrated, sequentialized, deterministic occurrences.
The Civilization of Illiteracy
Mihai Nadin

The deterministic component carried over from literacy- based practical experiences reflects awareness of action and reaction.
The Civilization of Illiteracy
Mihai Nadin

He had absorbed from Taine his deterministic leaning, luckily tempered by a sensible toleration.
Painted Veils
James Huneker

Today’s quote

You can’t compare an apple to an orange. It will cause a lot of self-esteem issues.

– Craig Sheffer

On this day

2 November 1917 – British Foreign Secretary, James Balfour, presents a declaration of intent to establish a national homeland in Palestine for the Jewish people. It became known as the ‘Balfour Declaration’.

2 November – 10 December 1932 – The Great Emu War, when the Australian government takes military action against a large number of emus running amok in the Campion district of Western Australia, causing crop destruction. Soldiers armed with Lewis guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition, were dispatched to mow down the unarmed and flighless emus. It was also planned that 100 emu skins were to be collected so that their feathers could be used to make hats for the light horsemen. The initial operation killed somewhere between 50 and 200 emus, with no military casualties. Major Meredith, the officer commanding the operation, likened the emus to Zulus, when he said, ‘If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world… They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks. They are like Zulus whom even dum-dum bullets could not stop‘. After a second operation concluded on 10 December 1932, Meredith claimed that 986 emus were killed from 9860 rounds, at a rate of 10 rounds per bird, with 2,500 emus wounded. The emus continued menacing crops, but rather than taking further military action, the government used a bounty system in which 57,034 bounties were claimed in a six month period in 1934.

2 November 1936 – launch of the British Broadcasting Commission (BBC-TV). World’s first regular television service. Initially broadcasting with a radius of 25 miles. It was taken off-air from 1939 – 1946 because of World War II. Now known as BBC One.

2 November 1942 – Australians recapture Kokoda from the Japanese during the Kokoda Track campaign. The campaign was fought from 21 July 1942 to 16 November 1942, in the Australian territory of Papua New Guinea between Japanese and predominantly Australian forces. The Kokoda Track wound through the Owen Stanley Ranges, which Japanese forces had invaded as they attempted to seize Port Moresby.

1 November 2018

tub-thump

[tuhb-thuhmp]

verb (used without object), Informal.

1. to promote something or express opinions vociferously.

Related forms

tub-thumper, noun

Dictionary.com

Today’s quote

I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.

– Audrey Hepburn

On this day

1 – 2 November – Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), celebrated around the world, but particularly in Mexico, where it is a public holiday. On this day people pray for loved ones who have died. Coincides with the Catholic holidays of All Saints’ Day (originally introduced in 609AD) and All Souls’ Day.

1 November 1952 – The U.S. detonates the world’s first thermonuclear weapon, the Hydrogen Bomb, at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

1 November 1993 – The European Union formally established as a result of the Maastricht Treaty, which had been ratified by 12 nations in February 1993. The nations were Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Irish Republic.