This week’s theme
Words that look like misspelling

This week’s words
abjective
librate
psilanthropy

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(sil-LAN-thruh-pee)

MEANING:

noun: The doctrine or belief that Jesus was merely human.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek psilo- (mere) + anthropos (human). Earliest documented use: 1821.

NOTES:

Charles Dickens loathed this painting for depicting Jesus and his family as ordinary, working-class people rather than divine icons. He called John Everett Millais’s Jesus “a hideous, wry-necked, blubbering, red-headed boy, in a bed-gown” and described Mary as “so horrible in her ugliness, that ... she would stand out from the rest of the company as a monster, in the vilest cabaret in France, or the lowest ginshop in England.” The artist embedded this beautiful painting with numerous Christian symbols, which Dickens seems to have overlooked.

USAGE:

“I have never believed in psilanthropy. I am a Catholic priest and you might expect these words from me.”
Richard Conde; Century One; Writer’s Showcase; 2001.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: