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A.Word.A.Day--parnassian Pronunciation: WAV or RealAudio Parnassian (pahr-NAS-ee-uhn) adjective Of or relating to poetry. [From Latin Parnassius, of Parnassus, from Greek parnasios after Parnasos (Parnassus), a mountain in Greece sacred to Apollo and the Muses.] noun A member of a school of late 19th-century French poets whose work is characterized by detachment and emphasis on metrical form. [From French parnassien after Le Parnasse contemporain, the group's first anthology of poetry (1866), from Parnasse, Parnassus, from Latin Parnassus, from Greek Parnasos.] "We do West posthumous justice by acknowledging the plotless freak as cinema's beautiful beginning and by categorizing West not as a sex goddess but as a Parnassian personality whose splendors stop narrative, on which movies continue, to their detriment, to rely." Wayne Koestenbaum, Vamp and Camp; Becoming Mae West By Emily Wortis Leider, Los Angeles Times, 13 Jul 1997. This week's theme: toponyms or words derived from place names. X-Bonus Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants of fame; and servants of business. -Francis Bacon [Essays Or Counsels - Civil And Moral] (1561-1626)

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