This week’s theme
Words with a bossy past

This week’s words
gardyloo
hallelujah
dekko
noli me tangere

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(NO-lee mee/may TAN-juh-ree)

MEANING:

noun:	1. Someone or something that must not be touched or interfered with.
	2. A warning against touching or meddling.
	3. Any of various plants whose seed capsules burst open when touched.
adj.:	Relating to prohibition or fear of being touched.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin noli me tangere (do not touch me), from noli (do not), imperative of nolle (to be unwilling) + me (me) + tangere (to touch). Earliest documented use: 1398.

NOTES:

In John 20:17, the resurrected Jesus says to Mary Magdalene: “Noli me tangere” or “Touch me not” (also translated as: Do not cling to me.) Since then the term has been applied to things that are best left alone. You could say noli me tangere is Latin for: “This isn’t a touch screen.”

USAGE:

“[Tarquin Winot’s] fascination with his own text, like all things narcissistic, is half-alluring, half-repellent; a come-on to the reader and a noli me tangere.”
James Lasdun; Suddenly Last Supper; The Village Voice (New York); May 28, 1996.

“And then there’s what you’re missing by skipping the office: the trafficky commute, the petroleum-based slacks by Theory or Banana Republic, the noli-me-tangere demeanor that women were supposed to cultivate to ensure boardroom authority. All of these duties vanish when workplace and homeplace become one.”
Virginia Heffernan; Home Tool; The New York Times Magazine; Jan 10, 2010.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: