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A.Word.A.Day--diurnal diurnal (DY-uhr-nuhl) adjective 1. Of or pertaining to the daytime. 2. Occurring every day. noun Diary; journal; newspaper. [From Middle English, from Late Latin diurnalis, from Latin diurnus (daily), from dies (day).] A large part of the joy of words is in discovering how seemingly unrelated words are related at the root. Some of the cousins of today's word, all of which derived from Latin dies (day), are adjourn, diary, diet, circadian, journal, journey, quotidian, and sojourn. -Anu "If I were in the Great Leaders shoes, with the task of calendrical reform now behind me, I'd be thinking of a more ambitious agenda. One key item would be to make time zones horizontal instead of vertical. This runs counter to the diurnal motion of the planet, to be sure, but at a stroke it would solve the problem of Turkmenistan's remoteness from anyplace you'd actually want to be. Thus the capital Ashkhabad, instead of being fully half a day ahead of New York, with all the logistical problems this entails, would now be in the same time zone." Cullen Murphy, My Way, The Atlantic Monthly (Boston), Nov 2002. "During the night colors are not visible, and there can be no doubt that the nocturnal moths, taken as a body, are much less gayly decorated than butterflies, all of which are diurnal in their habits." Charles Darwin, Descent Of Man, 1871. This week's theme: relatively lesser-known antonyms of everyday words. X-Bonus Just as appetite comes by eating so work brings inspiration. -Igor Stravinsky, composer (1882-1971)

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