A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Wed Dec 1 00:03:28 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--senescent X-Bonus: Tell me how much a nation knows about its own language, and I will tell you how much that nation cares about its own identity. -John Ciardi senescent (si-NES-uhnt) adjective Growing old; aging. [Latin senescens, senescent-, present participle of senescere, to grow old, inchoative of senere, to be old, from senex, sen-, old.] "The uplifter at the Christian Science Monitor was recently citing not only the senescent tennis stars but the nonagenarian lady who had climbed Mount Fuji." Daniel Seligman, Patty de Llosa, Keeping Up: Guess what's sacred at Stanford, the case for ageism, panhandler rights, and other matters. Fortune, 17 Dec 1990. This week's theme: words to describe people. -------- Date: Thu Dec 2 00:03:32 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--juvenescent X-Bonus: A doctor saves lives--it's up to people to create lives that are worth saving. -Philip Gold, immunologist juvenescent (joo-veh-NES-ent) adjective Becoming young or youthful. [Latin iuvenescens, iuvenescent-, present participle of iuvenescere, to reach the age of youth, from iuvenis, young.] "To him, I am perennially juvenescent, a toddler with a worrisome weakness for cigars." Alexander Frater, South Seas, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr 1999. This week's theme: words to describe people. -------- Date: Fri Dec 3 00:03:30 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--impetuous X-Bonus: The most favourable laws can do very little towards the happiness of people when the disposition of the ruling power is adverse to them. -Edmund Burke impetuous (im-PECH-oo-uhs) adjective 1. Characterized by sudden and forceful energy or emotion; impulsive and passionate. 2. Having or marked by violent force. [Middle English, violent, from Old French impetueux, from Late Latin impetuosus, from Latin impetus, impetus.] "Dashing, mercurial, impetuous and given to wild bouts of infectious enthusiasm--Microsoft employees were warned to beware of his (Job's) `reality-distortion field' ...". Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Time 100: Steve Jobs: Apple's Anti-Gates, Time, 7 Dec 1998. This week's theme: words to describe people. -------- Date: Sat Dec 4 00:04:00 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--circumspect X-Bonus: critic, n. A person who boasts himself hard to please because nobody tries to please him. -Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) [The Devil's Dictionary] circumspect (SUR-kuhm-spekt) adjective Heedful of circumstances and potential consequences; prudent. [Middle English, from Latin circumspectus, past participle of circumspicere, to take heed : circum-, + specere, to look.] "A man's worth can be assessed in several ways, but for a truly candid appraisal, check with his creditors. At the usually circumspect World Bank, inquiries about Indian politician N.Chandrababu Naidu are likely to produce a string of superlatives." Maseeh Rahman, Asia: Beating Bangalore, Time International, 24 Aug 1998. This week's theme: words to describe people. -------- Date: Sun Dec 5 00:03:25 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--pusillanimous X-Bonus: The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavour upon the business known as gambling. -Ambrose Bierce [The Devil's Dictionary] pusillanimous (pyoo-suh-LAN-uh-muhs) adjective Lacking courage; cowardly. [Middle English pusillanimus, from Late Latin pusillanimis : Latin pusillus, weak, diminutive of pullus, young of an animal + animus, reason, mind.] "The Doncaster story is about more than badly filed letters in Tony Blair's office and pusillanimous regional party officials ignoring warnings." Doncaster - a case for stronger councils, Independent, 18 Feb 1997. This week's theme: words to describe people. -------- Date: Mon Dec 6 00:03:48 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--tabula rasa X-Bonus: Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. -Calvin Coolidge tabula rasa (TAB-yuh-luh RAH-sa, -za) noun, plural tabulae rasae (TAB-yuh-lee RA-see, -ze) 1. The mind before it receives the impressions gained from experience. The unformed, featureless mind in the philosophy of John Locke. 2. A need or an opportunity to start from the beginning. [Medieval Latin tabula rasa : Latin tabula, tablet + Latin rasa, feminine of rasus, erased.] "The big, virtually empty backyard was as close to a perfect tabula rasa as anything we had seen." Filler, Martin, Digging in, House Beautiful, 1 Jun 1995. "The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." Those colorful words of writer James Davis Nicoll (1961- ) succinctly inform us of the tendency of English to profit from foreign imports. Luckily, there is no nanny called The English Academy to keep it honest and we are all the richer for it. While many of these "borrowed" expressions, or what linguists call loanwords, eventually become naturalized a lot of them retain their distinctly foreign character, in spelling, pronunciation and grammar. In this week's AWAD we'll identify a few of the latter variety known as foreignisms and look at words and phrases from seven different languages, one each, during the next seven days. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Dec 7 00:03:23 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--soi-disant X-Bonus: Hitch your wagon to a star. -Ralph Waldo Emerson soi-disant (swa-dee-ZAN) adjective Self-styled; so-called. [French : soi, oneself + disant, saying.] "Some audiences jeered, but many acclaimed the laconic eloquence of a work that voiced, better than soi-disant existentialist theater, the despair and the moral perplexity besetting postwar Europe." Brown, Frederick, He couldn't go on. He went on (writer Samuel Beckett), The New Republic, 30 Dec 1996. This week's theme: foreignisms. -------- Date: Wed Dec 8 00:03:22 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--hoi polloi X-Bonus: Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you. -William Arthur Ward, newspaper editor, writer hoi polloi (hoi puh-LOI) noun The common people; the masses. [Greek, the many : hoi, nominative plural of ho, the + polloi, nominative plural of polus, many.] "But now, thanks to the Web, even us hoi polloi can see and hear what the rich and powerful are thinking." David Moschella, The globalists are in charge, and they love IT, Computerworld, 15 Feb 1999. This week's theme: foreignisms. -------- Date: Thu Dec 9 00:03:29 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--dolce vita X-Bonus: The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one. -J. Russell Lynes (1910-1991) dolce vita (DOL-chay VEE-tuh, -tah) noun A luxurious, self-indulgent way of life. [Italian : dolce, sweet + vita, life.] "Anyway, it was at Burger and Buns that my mentor imparted a nugget of wisdom that, he claimed, would enable me to live la dolce vita." Leyner, Mark, Take my third cousin, please, Esquire, 1 Mar 1996. This week's theme: foreignisms. -------- Date: Fri Dec 10 00:03:20 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--satori X-Bonus: Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves. -Lord Byron (1788-1824) satori (suh-TOR-ee) noun Sudden enlightenment. [Japanese, noun derivative of verb to awaken (sato- aware + -r formative affix)] "... she jumped into her car and drove and the sun was setting and nothing else was around and she felt This is it, the moment of satori when all things become clear." Drew Barrymore is, Esquire, 1 Feb 1994. This week's theme: foreignisms. -------- Date: Sat Dec 11 00:03:28 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--olla podrida X-Bonus: I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult the calendar. -Robert Brault, software developer, writer (1938- ) olla podrida (OL-uh puh-DREE-duh, po-THREE-thah) noun, plural olla podridas also ollas podridas 1. A stew of highly seasoned meat and vegetables. 2. An assorted mixture; a miscellany. [Spanish : olla, + podrida, feminine of podrido, rotten (from Latin putridus).] "The trouble is, Petronius is so infernally readable, and his olla podrida of conmanship, bitchy lit. crit., absurd gastronomy, bed-bouncing, murder and anecdotes (werewolves, susceptible widows) is so enticing that we tend to forget the horrendous social implications of what we're reading." Green, Peter, The Satyricon (book reviews), The New Republic, 28 Oct 1996. This week's theme: foreignisms. -------- Date: Sun Dec 12 00:03:23 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--megillah X-Bonus: He who sees the truth, let him proclaim it, without asking who is for it or who is against it. -Henry George Megillah (meh-GIL-uh) noun 1. The scroll containing the biblical narrative of the Book of Esther, traditionally read in synagogues to celebrate the festival of Purim. 2. megillah. Slang. A tediously detailed or embroidered account. [Hebrew megilla, scroll, from galal, to roll.] "Our reality covers the whole human megillah, from feeble to fierce, from bad to good, from endangered to dangerous." Dunn, Katherine, Just as fierce, Mother Jones, 1 Nov 1994. This week's theme: foreignisms. -------- Date: Mon Dec 13 00:03:21 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--flatulent X-Bonus: People seldom become famous for what they say until after they are famous for what they've done. -Cullen Hightower flatulent (FLACH-uh-lent) adjective 1. Of, afflicted with, or caused by flatulence, the presence of excessive gas in the digestive tract. 2. Inducing or generating flatulence. 3. Pompous; bloated. [French, from Latin flatus, fart.] "It's well known that a flatulent episode can range from a barely detectable rumble to a propulsive burst sufficient to attain low Earth orbit, depending on general health and recent visits to all-you-can-eat salad bars." Kluger, Jeffrey, What a gas, Discover Magazine, 1 Apr 1995. "The trial of Andrew Johnson in the U.S. Senate during Washington's lovely spring of 1868 alternated between flatulent speechifying and blistering invective." John Burnett, Bob Edwards, Andrew Johnson Impeachment, Morning Edition (NPR), 21 Dec 1998. It's a dirty job but someone has to do it. This week's words do that job when they describe the human body, its conditions, and actions. Like it or not, these are proper words which have found a vaunted place in the hallowed pages of the English lexicon. They fill a need: that's why they exist. If you are squeamish you may want to skip this week's words but chances are you have come across what the words describe, and wouldn't you take comfort in the knowledge that there is a word for it and you grok it. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Dec 14 00:03:32 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--enuresis X-Bonus: If you aspire to the highest place it is no disgrace to stop at the second, or even the third. -Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE) enuresis (en-yuh-ree-sis) noun The uncontrolled or involuntary discharge of urine. [New Latin, from Greek enourein, to urinate in : en-, in + ourein, to urinate.] "`To date, there hasn't been much material about enuresis that is specifically aimed at the child so the programme has been developed to improve the information that children receive about their bed-wetting,' she (Dr Jacqueline Collier) says." Helen Hague, Self-help for bed-wetters, Independent, 17 Jul 1997. This week's theme: words related to the human body, its actions and conditions. -------- Date: Wed Dec 15 00:03:23 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--coprolalia X-Bonus: Everybody knows if you are too careful you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something. -Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) coprolalia (kop-ruh-LAY-lee-uh) noun The uncontrolled, often excessive use of obscene or scatological language that may accompany certain mental disorders, such as schizophrenia or Tourette's syndrome. [Copro- dung + Greek lalia, babbling (from lalein, to talk).] "Such uttering of obscenities and profanities, called coprolalia, is not an uncommon feature of the syndrome, but it was not common in LaCrete." Oliver Sacks, Medicine: The Divine Curse, Life, 1 Sep 1988. This week's theme: words related to the human body, its actions and conditions. -------- Date: Thu Dec 16 00:03:24 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--eructate X-Bonus: I will love the light for it shows me the way, Yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars. -Og Mandino eructate also eruct (i-RUK-tayt) verb tr. intr. To belch. [Latin eructare : e-, ex-, + ructare, to belch.] "The score of Gawain features three tubas in eructating trinity." Malcolm Hayes, Arts: The bluffer's guide to Birtwistle, Independent, 10 Apr 1996. This week's theme: words related to the human body, its actions and conditions. -------- Date: Fri Dec 17 00:03:34 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--priapism X-Bonus: There are some things so serious you have to laugh at them. -Niels Henrik David Bohr, chemist and physicist (1885-1962) priapism (PRI-uh-piz-em) noun Persistent, usually painful erection of the penis, especially as a consequence of disease and not related to sexual arousal. [French priapisme, from Late Latin priapismus, from Greek priapismos, from priapizein, to have an erection, from Priapos, Priapus, the Roman god of procreation, guardian of gardens and vineyards, and personification of the erect phallus.] "The urologist also warned of a small but real danger of priapism--a painful, ongoing erection that threatens permanent damage and must be treated at an emergency room." Avery Comarow; Mary Brophy Marcus, Viagra tale, U.S. News & World Report, 4 May 1998. This week's theme: words related to the human body, its actions and conditions. -------- Date: Sat Dec 18 00:03:26 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--steatopygia X-Bonus: The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any. -Alice Walker (1944-) steatopygia (stee-at-uh-PIJ-ee-uh) noun An extreme accumulation of fat on the buttocks. [Steato- fat + Greek pyge, rump + -ia.] "No one had told her that all that keeping still encouraged the growth of an uncommonly large posterior and by the time Sally thought of taking more exercise, steatopygia had set in for good ...." Wicomb, Zoe, Untitled extract. (excerpt from a novel in progress), World Literature Today, 1 Jan 1996. This week's theme: words related to the human body, its actions and conditions. -------- Date: Sun Dec 19 00:03:29 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--borborygmus X-Bonus: There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great. -G.K. Chesterton borborygmus (bor-buh-RIG-muhs) noun A rumbling noise produced by the movement of gas through the intestines. [New Latin, from Greek borborugmos, of imitative origin.] "And the piece de resistance: 'He was woken early by borborygmus as his insides fermented and his intestines ballooned with gas beyond their capacity ....'" Ruth Dudley Edwards, Book Review / Straying into a dark, ugly and sick world: On, Independent, 21 Sep 1994. This week's theme: words related to the human body, its actions and conditions. -------- Date: Mon Dec 20 00:03:26 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mondegreen X-Bonus: If you feel that you have both feet planted on level ground, then the university has failed you. -Robert Goheen, President, Princeton University mondegreen (MON-di-green) noun A word or phrase resulting from a misinterpretation of a word or phrase that has been heard. [Coined by British author S. Wright] "`Mondegreens can be found in every area of the spoken word,' writes (Gavin) Edwards, `from the record buyer who asks for a copy of the Queen single `Bohemian Rap City' (It's "Bohemian Rhapsody") to the schoolchild who is convinced that the Pledge of Allegiance begins `I led the pigeons to the flag.'" Duckett, Jodi, 'The Ants Are' Lies in Garbled Lyrics, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 19 Oct 1995. Face it, you have been guilty of it since early childhood. Beginning with the nursery rhymes you heard on the playground to the national anthem you recited in school to crooning with the love songs on the radio, you have been misinterpreting and repeating them. Now you know there is a word for it and that you are not alone. Luckily there are no Mondegreen Police or we would all be behind bars. No matter what your native tongue, chances are you have experienced mondegreens in your language. Whether you consider mondegreens a case of aural dyslexia or a variant of Freudian slip, the results are often much more fascinating than the original matter. The mondegreen effect is not limited to lyrics either. More than one school librarian has seen distraught pupils complaining of not being able to locate the book mentioned in their class: Charles Darwin's seminal work "Oranges and Peaches". The other day I received a message requesting me to add the sender to the mailing list she heard about over lunch. She thought I run a mailing list called "What a day!" that is supposed to improve one's vocabulary. So how did we come to call this oral-cum-aural phenomenon mondegreen? It all started when a courageous woman named Sylvia Wright confessed to mishearing the following words of a Scottish folksong: They hae slain the Earl of Moray / And laid him on the green as They hae slain the Earl Amurray / And Lady Mondegreen Imagine Wright's disappointment when she discovered that there was no Lady Mondegreen who valiantly gave her life to be with her love. She wrote her story in the November 1954 issue of Harper's Magazine and ever since we have labeled these occurrences in honor of Lady Mondegreen's sacrifice. During the rest of this week, we'll see some other coined words. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Dec 21 00:03:24 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--booboisie X-Bonus: So I accept these awards on behalf of the cake bakers and all of those other women who can do some things quite as important, if not more important, than flying, as well as in the name of women flying today. -Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) booboisie (boo-bwa-ZEE) noun A segment of the general public composed of uneducated, uncultured persons. [Blend of boob + bourgeoisie; coined by H.L. Mencken in 1922] "... intellectuals making fun of the booboisie ....'" Henry Allen, The Gin Before the Storm, The Washington Post, 22 Sep 1999. This week's theme: coined words. -------- Date: Wed Dec 22 00:03:31 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--ekistics X-Bonus: When you sell a man a book you don't sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue--you sell him a whole new life. -Christopher Darlington Morley (1890-1957) [Parnassus on Wheels, 1917] ekistics (i-KIS-tiks) noun The science of human settlements, including city or community planning and design. [Ultimately from Greek oikistikos, of settlements, from oikistes, colonizer, founder, from oikizein, to settle, from oikos, house.] "Konstantinos Doxiadis (1913-1975) was present at that meeting. He was a Greek architect who coined the term `ekistics' and led the movement for more thoughtful urban planning. According to (Wesley) Posvar, Doxiadis was preoccupied with the ills of city life. He thought the village format--where everything from family to food was within walking distance--was the perfect living unit." Rehan Nasir, Former chancellor still active at U. Pittsburgh, University Wire, 17 Nov 1998. This week's theme: coined words. -------- Date: Thu Dec 23 00:03:23 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--agnostic X-Bonus: We meet no Stranger, but Ourself. -Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) agnostic (ag-NOS-tik) noun One who believes that there can be no proof of the existence of God but does not deny the possibility that God exists. adjective 1. Relating to or being an agnostic. 2. Noncommittal. [A- + gnostic, Late Latin Gnosticus, a Gnostic, from Late Greek Gnostikos, from Greek gnostikos, concerning knowledge, from gnosis, knowledge.] "Rather, the scouts have actively sought to keep out of their ranks atheists and others uncomfortable with such oaths. In 1991, two agnostic scouts were booted out for having silently mouthed the words about God." Tolerance is a Virtue, Too, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 31 Jan 1998. "Jobs may advocate building Intel-based Macs. It's rumored that he has already approached Advanced Micro Devices to discuss using its Intel-compatible processors (which some might view as heresy). Jobs is hardware agnostic." Mello, Adrian, Steve Jobs' second dynasty, Macworld, 1 Oct 1997. This week's theme: coined words. -------- Date: Fri Dec 24 00:03:28 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--meme X-Bonus: If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people. -Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) meme (meem) noun A cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes. [Greek mimeisthaito imitate, copy; coined by U.S. biologist Richard Dawkins in his book "The Selfish Gene" in 1976.] "But what will protection do to the rivals of these invading memes? Isolation, as repeated biological instances show, is not always helpful to an organism." The perception is that American television is a virus, Independent, 17 Feb 1996. This week's theme: coined words. -------- Date: Sat Dec 25 00:03:32 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bombinate X-Bonus: Absurdity, n. a statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion. -Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1906) bombinate (BOM-buh-nayt) verb intr. To make a humming or buzzing noise. [New Latin bombinatus, past participle of bombinare, apparently coined by Rabelais on basis of Latin bombilare to hum, buzz, from Greek bombyliazein, derivative of bombos.] "He is often drunk. His head hurts. Snatches of conversation, remembered precepts, prefigured cries of terror bombinate about his skull." Elspeth Barker, Nobs and the rabble, all in the same boat, Independent on Sunday, 22 Sep 1996. This week's theme: coined words. -------- Date: Sun Dec 26 00:03:21 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--teetotal X-Bonus: All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence. -Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) teetotal (tee-TOT-l) adjective 1. Of, relating to, or practicing complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages. 2. Total; absolute. [Probably partly tee (pronunciation of the first letter in total) + total (abstinence), and partly reduplication of total, coined by R. Turner, of Preston, England, in 1833, in a speech advocating total abstinence from alcoholic drinks] "His wife's uncle, John Preston, described Dilorenzo to the commission as a virtual teetotal. `He's not a drinker mate,' he said." Accused policeman alleges death threats at PIC, AAP General News (Australia), 2 Nov 1999. This week's theme: coined words. -------- Date: Mon Dec 27 00:03:27 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--neapolitan X-Bonus: There is one art of which man should be master, the art of reflection. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) Neapolitan (nee-uh-POL-i-tuhn) adjective Of, belonging to, or characteristic of Naples, Italy. noun A native or resident of Naples, Italy. [Middle English, from Latin Neapolitanus, from Greek neapolites, from Neapolis, Naples, Italy.] "As one Neapolitan businessman put it, `70% of the new roads around Naples cannot be used ....'" Not as bad as it was, but plenty left to do: Southern promise, The Economist, 8 Nov 1997. A New York native is a New Yorker, one hailing from Thailand is a Thai, and someone from India is an Indian. But it's not always that easy as George W. Bush, U.S. presidential candidate, has discovered in recent months (he used the word Kosovarians for Kosovars and East Timorians instead of East Timorese, among others). This week's AWAD features words for denizens of various places, especially those that you can never deduce just by looking at the name. Pay attention--you never know when you might need this week's words--they'll come in handy even if you don't aspire to having an email address ending in whitehouse.gov. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Dec 28 00:03:26 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mancunian X-Bonus: Son, when you grow up you will know who I really am. I am just a child like you who has been forced to act responsibly. -Rod Byrnes Mancunian (man-KYOO-nee-uhn, -KYOON-yuhn) adjective Of or relating to Manchester, England. noun A native or inhabitant of Manchester, England. [From Latin Mancunium, Manchester, of Celtic origin.] "Traditionally, Manchester families had new clothes for the Whit Walks. However poor they were, they managed somehow, although the whole bundle might be in the pawn shop the following week. My mother comes from the South of England, where Whitsun is not celebrated, and she refused to observe this Mancunian tradition." In the Rain with Baby Duck, The Horn Book Magazine, 11 Jan 1997. This week's theme: words to describe people from particular places. -------- Date: Wed Dec 29 00:03:25 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--nauruan X-Bonus: God is subtle, but he is not malicious. -Albert Einstein. Nauruan (nah-OO-roo-uhn) adjective Of or relating to Nauru, an island country of the central Pacific Ocean just south of the equator and west of Kiribati. noun A native or inhabitant of Nauru. (The word Nauruan has the distinction of being the only nationality word that's a palindrome. -Anu) "Nauru is a very small island down toward the Australian quadrant of the Pacific Ocean, and Nauruan for Nauruan, it may be the richest country in the world, thanks entirely to an enormous mound of bird droppings that form a great plateau in the center of the island. This pile has been mined for phosphate, used as fertilizer, for most of this century." Island Of Nauru Backs Musical To Save Its Economy, Weekend Edition - Saturday (NPR), 5 Jun 1993. This week's theme: words to describe people from particular places. -------- Date: Thu Dec 30 00:03:33 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--glaswegian X-Bonus: Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. -Anais Nin Glaswegian (glas-WEE-juhn, glaz-) adjective Of or relating to Glasgow, Scotland. noun A native or resident of Glasgow, Scotland. [Glas (Gow) + Galwegian, person from Galloway : Medieval Latin Galwidia, Galloway, a region of southern Scotland + -ian.] "If you do happen to get lost, it's an excuse to get into a conversation with a Glaswegian--it always ends in laughter." Stanger, Ila, The new glow in Glasgow, Town & Country Monthly, 1 Apr 1994. This week's theme: words to describe people from particular places. -------- Date: Fri Dec 31 00:03:24 EST 1999 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--tellurian X-Bonus: Television is democracy at its ugliest. -Paddy Chayefsky tellurian (te-LOOR-ee-uhn) adjective Of, relating to, or inhabiting Earth. noun 1. An inhabitant of Earth; a terrestrial. 2. Variant of tellurion, an apparatus that shows how the movement of Earth on its axis and around the sun causes day and night and the seasons. [Latin tellur- (stem of tellus) earth + -ian] "She hypostatized, becoming a vessel for the containment of spirit. Thus, the once integrated earthly being, whose relationship with both tellurian and heavenly realms had been fluid and balanced, was transformed into a strictly celestial force." Knapp, Bettina, The archetypal woman fulfilled: Isis, harmony of flesh/spirit/logos., Symposium, 1 Mar 1996. This week's theme: words to describe people from particular places.