A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Mon Mar 2 00:01:02 EST 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--parastatal X-Bonus: Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You. -Dr. Seuss, author and illustrator (2 Mar 1904-1991) A few years ago I played a small part in a local play. There's nothing like being part of a production to understand the mechanics of a play. One thing I learned was that a playwright often gives even secondary roles a few minutes in the limelight. They get to be on center stage and show their stuff. Well, consider this week's words as such a case. Each day, we pick a vowel and focus the spotlight on it. Today it's "a". parastatal (par-uh-STAYT-l) noun: A company or agency owned wholly or partly by the government. adjective: Relating to such an organization. [From Greek para- (beside) + state, from Latin status (condition). Earliest documented use: 1944.] Parastatals do not have a good reputation. A search on Google Images for this word shows this: https://www.google.com/search?q=parastatal&tbm=isch "In South Africa, rising economic growth and poor government planning, critics say, have left Eskom, the country's energy parastatal, scrambling to build new power plants." Joseph J. Schatz; Power Cuts Cripple Southern Africa; The Christian Science Monitor (Boston, Massachusetts); Jan 25, 2008. "State and parastatal staff also must contribute more to their pensions." Neil Behrmann; 2m British Civil Servants Walk Out; The Business Times (Singapore); Dec 1, 2011. -------- Date: Tue Mar 3 00:01:03 EST 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--defervescence X-Bonus: Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it's the only one you have. -Emile Chartier, philosopher (3 Mar 1868-1951) This week's theme: Words using only one of the vowels defervescence (dee-fuhr-VES-uhns) noun The abatement of a fever. [From Latin de- (away from) + fervere (to boil, to be hot). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhreu- (to boil or to bubble), which is also the source of brew, bread, broth, braise, brood, breed, barmy, and perfervid https://wordsmith.org/words/perfervid.html . Earliest documented use: 1721.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/defervescence "'I don't like these sudden drops. It's false defervescence ...' That same evening, Philippe's temperature went back up." Andre Maurois; Climates; Other Press; 2012. (translation: Adriana Hunter) -------- Date: Wed Mar 4 00:01:02 EST 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--imprimis X-Bonus: It took less than an hour to make the atoms, a few hundred million years to make the stars and planets, but five billion years to make man! -George Gamow, physicist and cosmologist (4 Mar 1904-1968) This week's theme: Words using only one of the vowels imprimis (im-PRY-mis, -PREE-) adverb In the first place. [From contraction of Latin phrase in primis (among the first), from in (among) and primus (first). The word was originally used to introduce the first of a number of articles in a list, such as a will, an inventory, etc. Earliest documented use: 1465.] "Imprimis, H.M. did not like being addressed as the Ancient Mariner; and, secondly, he said he had an artistic temperament and must not be interrupted while rehearsing his lines." John Dickson Carr; And So to Murder; Merrivale; 1940. -------- Date: Thu Mar 5 00:01:05 EST 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--poltroon X-Bonus: Scratch a pessimist and you find often a defender of privilege. -William Beveridge, economist and reformer (5 Mar 1879-1963) This week's theme: Words using only one of the vowels poltroon (pol-TROON) noun An utter coward. [From French poltron (coward), from Italian poltrone (lazy person), from Latin pullus (young animal). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pau- (few, little), which is also the source of few, foal, filly, pony, poor, pauper, poco, and catchpole https://wordsmith.org/words/catchpole.html . Earliest documented use: 1529.] "Against this backdrop, Bertuccelli offers a derisive portrait of officialdom. Administrators and doctors come across as poltroons." Richard Duckett; 'Since Otar Left' is Slow But Intriguing; Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Massachusetts); Dec 9, 2004. -------- Date: Fri Mar 6 00:01:03 EST 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--tumulus X-Bonus: I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. -Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor, painter, architect, and poet (6 Mar 1475-1564) This week's theme: Words using only one of the vowels tumulus (TOO-myuh-luhs, TYOO-) noun 1. A mound of earth placed over prehistoric tombs. Also known as a barrow. 2. A dome-shaped swelling formed in cooling lava. [From Latin tumere (to swell). Earliest documented use: 1686.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/tumulus Dissignac tumulus, France: https://wordsmith.org/words/images/tumulus1_large.jpg Lava tumulus: https://wordsmith.org/words/images/tumulus2_large.jpg Photo: Wikimedia "Anthropologists have suggested they [Mima mounds] might be tumuli marking ancient burials." Gopher Broke; The Economist (London, UK); Dec 14, 2013. "Many inflation features are present on the flow, including the tumulus in upper right." Megan Moseley; Lava Advances 50 Yards, Edging Closer to Highway; Honolulu Star-Advertiser (Hawaii); Jan 27, 2015. -------- Date: Mon Mar 9 00:01:02 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--clerihew X-Bonus: A full belly to the labourer is, in my opinion, the foundation of public morals and the only source of real public peace. -William Cobbett, journalist, pamphleteer, and farmer (9 Mar 1763-1835) Twenty-one years ago, on March 14, 1994, I started what became Wordsmith.org. Dictionaries do not list a word for a 21st anniversary, but we can call it a unvicennial or unvicennary, from Latin unus (one) + vicies (twenty times) + annus (year). (This is based on the pattern of undecennary https://wordsmith.org/words/undecennary.html ) Twenty one years may sound like a long time, but each morning I can't wait to wake up and play with words. Thanks for sharing your love of words with me. You are what makes Wordsmith.org. Thanks for participating and sending your comments and stories. Now I invite you to send your poems. To celebrate the occasion we are throwing a big poetry-writing party. This week I have picked five words to describe various forms of light verse. You are invited to write a poem in each of this week's verse forms. If you've never written a poem, do not worry. Some of the poems described in this week's words can be as short as two lines. Send your ORIGINAL poems to contest@wordsmith.org (include your location: city/state/country) by this Friday. Selected poems will win books https://wordsmith.org/awad/books.html , word games http://oneupmanship.com/oneup.html , and t-shirts https://wordsmith.org/awad/tshirt.html . clerihew (KLER-uh-hyoo) noun A humorous, pseudo-biographical verse of four lines of uneven length, with the rhyming scheme AABB, and the first line containing the name of the subject. [After writer Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956), who originated it. Earliest documented use: 1928.] Here is one of Clerihew's clerihews: Sir Christopher Wren Said, "I am going to dine with some men. If anyone calls Say I am designing St. Paul's." Here's a clerihew I came up with: Biblical Noah Collected zoa. So did the lexicographer, from A to Z Into his "American Dictionary". See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/clerihew "Commanders-in-chief have long been targets for jokes, and Raczka continues this tradition with gusto in a collection of clerihews for each American president, accompanied by Burr's impish b&w caricatures." Children's Reviews; Publishers Weekly; Dec 22, 2014. http://amazon.com/o/asin/1596439807/ws00-20 A couple of examples from this delightful book titled "Presidential Misadventures": Founding dad James Madison was sad he never had a son. His parental contribution? Father of the Constitution. Turf defender James Monroe warned the Europeans, "Whoa! If you trespass, you'll be shot. That's my doctrine, like it or not." -------- Date: Tue Mar 10 00:01:03 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--epigram X-Bonus: Anyone who wishes to become a good writer should endeavour, before he allows himself to be tempted by the more showy qualities, to be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid. -H.W. Fowler, lexicographer (10 Mar 1858-1933) This week's theme: Poetic forms epigram (EP-i-gram) noun A short witty saying, often in verse. [From Latin epigramma, from Greek epigramma, from epigraphein (to write, inscribe), from epi- (upon, after) + graphein (to write). Other words originating from the same root are graphite, paragraph, program, and topography. Earliest documented use: 1552.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/epigram According to the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole; Its body brevity, and wit its soul. Here is one from Benjamin Franklin that truly demonstrates the power of a pithy epigram: Little strokes Fell great oaks. "I had never read Martial until I picked up his Selected Epigrams in a new edition with delightfully snarky translations by Susan McLean ... it's hard to demonstrate the quality of Martial's wit, since most of his best epigrams are unprintable here." Bruce Handy; Humor; The New York Times Book Review; Dec 7, 2014. A few selected epigrams from the delectable "Selected Epigrams": http://amazon.com/dp/052155539/ws00-20 "Write shorter epigrams" is your advice. Yet you write nothing, Velox. How concise!" "Both judge and lawyer grab what they can get, so, Sextus, my advice is -- pay your debt." -------- Date: Wed Mar 11 00:01:03 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cento X-Bonus: The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas-covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be. -Douglas Adams, author (11 Mar 1952-2001) This week's theme: Poetic forms cento (SEN-to) noun A literary work, especially a poem, composed of parts taken from works of other authors. [From Latin cento (patchwork). Earliest documented use: 1605.] NOTES: Nobel-prize-winning poet T.S. Eliot's observation is relevant to centos: "Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion." Examples of centos: The Oxford Cento by David Lehman http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9502E3D71630F931A35757C0A9609C8B63 The Dong With the Luminous Nose by John Ashbery http://www.english.txstate.edu/cohen_p/poetry/Ashbery.html "Louis Zukofsky continued to write ... a play, a novella, a book of criticism, a 500-page cento of philosophy in homage to Shakespeare ..." Bob Perelman; Finding His Voice; Tikkun (Berkeley, California); May/Jun 2007. -------- Date: Thu Mar 12 00:11:02 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--limerick X-Bonus: All of life is a foreign country. -Jack Kerouac, author (12 Mar 1922-1969) This week's theme: Poetic forms limerick (LIM-uhr-ik) noun A humorous, often risque, verse of three long (A) and two short (B) lines with the rhyme scheme AABBA. [After Limerick, a borough in Ireland. The origin of the name of the verse is said to be from the refrain "Will you come up to Limerick?" sung after each set of extemporized verses popular at gatherings. Earliest documented use: 1896.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/limerick Here's how someone has described a limerick: The limerick packs laughs anatomical Into space that is quite economical. But the good ones I've seen So seldom are clean And the clean ones so seldom are comical. "First of all, the limerick judges at this newspaper would like contestants to know that we are acutely aware that 'Journal' rhymes with 'urinal'. Almost as much fun as reading limericks was reading excuses from the people who wrote the limericks. It was as if we had caught someone reading the Sex With Aliens Weekly at the supermarket. Diane Harvey, of DeForest, for example, began her entrant thusly: It is with a deep sense of shame that I submit the following puerile, low-brow limericks, and confess the guilty pleasure I had in writing them. As one who normally leads a completely respectable life, I cannot tell you what an illicit thrill it was to shed the trappings of responsible adulthood and for a 'brief shining moment' indulge in rude juvenile humor once again. "Several writers put the 'Journal-urinal' rhyme to obvious use, and a few similarly included good-humored critiques of columnist George Hesselberg, as in the one by Dan Barker, of Madison: There once was a parrot named Colonel, Who read all the papers diurnal. But his favorite page On the floor of his cage Was the Hesselberg page from the Journal." Limerick Tricks: Readers Turn Their Talents to Punny, Funny Rhymes; Wisconsin State Journal (Madison); Jun 2, 1996. -------- Date: Fri Mar 13 00:01:03 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--doggerel X-Bonus: Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life. -Giorgos Seferis, writer, diplomat, Nobel laureate (13 Mar 1900-1971) This week's theme: Poetic forms doggerel (DO-guhr-uhl, DOG-uhr-) noun 1. Comic verse that is irregular in rhythm and in rhyme especially for burlesque or comic effect. 2. Trivial or bad poetry. [Dogs have a bad rap in the language (see dog's chance https://wordsmith.org/words/dogs_chance.html or dogsbody https://wordsmith.org/words/dogsbody.html ) and the word doggerel reflects that view. The word is apparently a diminutive of the word dog. Earliest documented use: 1405.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/doggerel The poet John Skelton (c. 1463-1529) defending his doggerels: For though my rhyme be ragged, Tattered and jagged, Rudely rain-beaten, Rusty and moth-eaten, If ye take well therewith, It hath in it some pith. "In the first world war 324,000 Australians volunteered to fight overseas, an extraordinary number in a nation of fewer than 5m people. Of the 60,000 Australians who died in the war, 8,700 were lost in a few months during a hopeless attempt to capture Gallipoli, a small piece of territory in Turkey. In the words of a piece of doggerel at the time, 'In five minutes flat, we were blown to hell / Nearly blew us right back to Australia.'" Obituary: Alec Campbell; The Economist (London, UK); Jun 1, 2002. -------- Date: Mon Mar 16 00:25:02 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--abstentious X-Bonus: I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the rights of the people by the gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. -James Madison, fourth US president (16 Mar 1751-1836) A couple of weeks ago vowels had solos https://wordsmith.org/words/parastatal.html and this week it's time for the chorus. Each word featured this week has all five vowels. And if you like, you can even append the suffix -ly to these words to make them have the sometime-vowel Y as well. Not only that, we avow that each word this week will have all five vowels appearing once, and only once, and in order. Hope they wow you. abstentious (abs-TEN-shus) adjective Self-restraining, especially in eating or drinking. [From Latin abstinere (to hold back), from ab- (away) + tenere (to hold). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ten- (to stretch), which also gave us tense, tenet, tendon, tent, tenor, tender, pretend, extend, tenure, tetanus, hypotenuse, pertinacious https://wordsmith.org/words/pertinacious.html , and detente https://wordsmith.org/words/detente.html , countenance https://wordsmith.org/words/countenance.html , distend https://wordsmith.org/words/distend.html , extenuate https://wordsmith.org/words/extenuate.html , and tenable https://wordsmith.org/words/tenable.html . Earliest documented use: 1839.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/abstentious https://wordsmith.org/words/images/vowels1_large.jpg Collage: Chris https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisinplymouth/4279510562 "Ballplayers ... have popped up at water polo, diving, and softball, cheering for Canadian teammates and downing a beer or two, unlike most of their abstentious fellow athletes." Ken MacQueen; Now or Never; Maclean's (Toronto, Canada); Aug 30, 2004. -------- Date: Tue Mar 17 00:01:02 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--arterious X-Bonus: We open our mouths and out flow words whose ancestries we do not even know. We are walking lexicons. In a single sentence of idle chatter we preserve Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Norse: we carry a museum inside our heads, each day we commemorate peoples of whom we have never heard. -Penelope Lively, writer (b. 17 Mar 1933) This week's theme: Words with all vowels arterious (ahr-TIR-ee-uhs) adjective Of or relating to the arteries or a main road or channel. [From Latin arteria, from Greek arteria (windpipe, artery). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wer- (to raise or lift), which is also the source of air, aira, aura, and meteor. Earliest documented use: 1578.] Irritable vowel syndrome https://wordsmith.org/words/images/vowels-cartoon_large.jpg Cartoon: Chad https://www.flickr.com/photos/sardonicsalad/4530398496 "Once the breathing system begins, the arterious ducts close due to the contraction of the thick muscles." Sebastion Jose; The Space, Time, and I; Alpha-Beta Publications; 1966. -------- Date: Wed Mar 18 00:01:03 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--placentious X-Bonus: Smaller than a breadbox, bigger than a TV remote, the average book fits into the human hand with a seductive nestling, a kiss of texture, whether of cover cloth, glazed jacket, or flexible paperback. -John Updike, writer (18 Mar 1932-2009) This week's theme: Words with all vowels placentious (pla-SEN-shus) adjective Pleasing or inclined to please. [From Latin placentia (pleasantness), from placere (to please). Earliest documented use: 1661.] https://wordsmith.org/words/images/vowels-scrabble_large.jpg Photo: Sean Jones https://www.flickr.com/photos/fotografia79/4097687987 "[John Walbye was] a placentious person, gaining the good-will of all with whom he conversed, being also ingenious, industrious, learned, eloquent, pious, and prudent." Thomas Fuller; The History of the Worthies of England; T. Tegg; 1840. -------- Date: Thu Mar 19 00:01:03 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--aerious X-Bonus: It's best to give while your hand is still warm. -Philip Roth, novelist (b. 19 Mar 1933) This week's theme: Words with all vowels aerious also aereous (AY-ree-uhs) adjective Of or like air; airy. [From Latin aereus/aerius, adjectival form of aer (air). Earliest documented use: 1594.] Vowel movement https://wordsmith.org/words/images/vowels-movement-cartoon_large.jpg Cartoon: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gianthamburger/5690718464 "It is a feature of this philosophy that all mixed bodies contain a spirit of an aerious, aetherial, or luminous nature." Michael Hunter; Robert Boyle Reconsidered; Cambridge University Press; 2003. -------- Date: Fri Mar 20 00:01:03 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--duoliteral X-Bonus: We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say "It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem." Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes. -Fred Rogers, television host, songwriter, and author (20 Mar 1928-2003) This week's theme: Words with all vowels duoliteral (doo-uh-LIT-uhr-uhl) adjective Having two letters. [From Latin duo (two), from Greek duo + littera (letter). Earliest documented use: 1828.] Alphabet War: Vowels vs Consonants: https://wordsmith.org/words/images/vowels_vs_consonants_large.jpg Illustration: Alex Gorzen https://www.flickr.com/photos/zeusandhera/2459383032/ "The teacher will then proceed with another letter in a similar manner, taking one that, with the preceding, will make a duoliteral word." Charles Northend; The Teacher's Assistant; Crosby, Nichols, and Co.; 1859. -------- Date: Mon Mar 23 00:01:02 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--expectorate X-Bonus: The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal. -Erich Fromm, psychoanalyst and author (23 Mar 1900-1980) When I travel, I note that often there is more than one way to do something, and ours is not necessarily the best. Sometimes there can be two answers to a question and both can be right. Some drive on the left, others on the right. Electrical sockets and phone outlets come in all shapes and sizes. For some, the street-level floor is the 'ground' floor, for others, the 'first'. So it is with language. Likewise with words. This week we'll see five words that are synonyms of everyday words. To answer those who might ask, why use another, a less-common, word when there's already a word to describe something, I say, "Why not?" expectorate (ik-SPEK-tuh-rayt) verb tr., intr.: 1. To spit. 2. To eject by coughing. [From Latin expectorare (to expel from the chest), from ex- (out) + pectus (br east). Earliest documented use: 1601.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/expectorate "I'm especially good at expectorating." https://wordsmith.org/words/images/expectorate.png https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuJTqmpBnI0 (3.5 min) From the film "Beauty and the Beast" "Sportswriters and talk-radio hosts may expectorate their opinions like gobs of tobacco juice." James Wolcott; Breakdown of Champions; Vanity Fair (New York); Apr 2013. -------- Date: Tue Mar 24 00:01:03 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--seism X-Bonus: Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations. -Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet and painter (b. 24 Mar 1919) This week's theme: Unusual synonyms seism (SY-zuhm) noun Earthquake. [From Greek seismos, from seiein (to shake). Earliest documented use: 1883.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/seism "seismograph" https://wordsmith.org/words/images/seism_large.jpg Photo: Tilo Driessen https://www.flickr.com/photos/morelcreamsauce/384670201 "The deep seisms are hundreds of thousands of small, individual quakes occurring in parts of the deep crust." Keay Davidson; Deep Tremors Could Be Clues to Surface Quakes; San Francisco Chronicle; Mar 15, 2007. -------- Date: Wed Mar 25 00:01:04 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--autochthon X-Bonus: Truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it. -Flannery O'Connor, writer (25 Mar 1925-1964) This week's theme: Unusual synonyms autochthon (o-TOK-thun) noun 1. A native; an aborigine. 2. Something, as a rock, formed or originating in the place where found. [From Greek autochthon (of the land itself), from auto- (self) + chthon (earth, land). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dhghem- (earth), which also sprouted human, homicide, humble, homage, chamomile, exhume, inhume https://wordsmith.org/words/inhume.html, chthonic https://wordsmith.org/words/chthonic.html , disinter https://wordsmith.org/words/disinter.html , chameleonic https://wordsmith.org/words/chameleonic.html , and Persian zamindar (landholder). Earliest documented use: 1538. The opposite of this term is allochthon https://wordsmith.org/words/allochthonous.html .] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/autochthon "A Bavarian autochthon, Werner Herzog has been a passionate imagemaker since the early 1960s." Tom Webber; The Dream Weaver; New Statesman (London, UK); Feb 13, 2006. -------- Date: Thu Mar 26 00:01:02 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--leechdom X-Bonus: When two opposite points of view are expressed with equal intensity, the truth does not necessarily lie exactly halfway between them. It is possible for one side to be simply wrong. -Richard Dawkins, biologist and author (b. 26 Mar 1941) This week's theme: Unusual synonyms leechdom (LEECH-duhm) noun A remedy or medicine. [From Old English laecedom (medicine, healing), from laece (physician). The word for the bloodsucking parasite has a different origin. Earliest documented use: 900.] "I will now do my leechdoms with the sick man." William Morris; The Water of the Wondrous Isles; Kelmscott Press; 1897. -------- Date: Fri Mar 27 00:01:03 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--festinate X-Bonus: History is a novel whose author is the people. -Alfred de Vigny, poet, playwright, and novelist (27 Mar 1797-1863) This week's theme: Unusual synonyms festinate (verb: FES-tuh-nayt, adjective: -nayt, -nit) verb tr., intr.: To hurry or hasten. adjective: Hurried or hasty. [From Latin festinare (to hasten). Earliest documented use: 1616.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/festinate "We will not delay discussing the budget, but will not festinate it either." Commission to Accelerate; Dominican Today (Santo Domingo); Dec 30, 2005. -------- Date: Mon Mar 30 00:01:03 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--saturnine X-Bonus: One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul, and yet no one ever comes to sit by it. -Vincent van Gogh, painter (30 Mar 1853-1890) The moon. Is it a planet? Is it a star? Is it a ...? Television hosts at QVC, a shopping channel, recently debated the status of the moon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBXOUCP518g&t=447 After this, you'd think QVC would see the opportunity and hawk a book about the basics of the solar system. Well, if you slept through elementary school while dreaming of going on television to persuade people to buy more stuff they don't need, help is at hand. This week we'll feature five words relating to the names of planets in our solar system. Ultimately, most of these words are coined after Roman gods who also gave their names to the planets in our solar system. There are many words derived from the word moon in the English language: moony, lunatic, lunula (a crescent-shaped area at the base of a nail), etc. You'll notice that we are not featuring them in A.Word.A.Day this week. That's because, as Google can tell us, a moon is a natural satellite, from Latin satelles (attendant, follower, or hanger-on). saturnine (SAT-uhr-nyn) adjective 1. Sluggish. 2. Gloomy. 3. Cold. [From Latin Saturninus (of Saturn). From the ancient belief in astrology that those born under the planet Saturn's supposed influence had its characteristics. Since Saturn was the farthest known planet at the time, it was believed to be the slowest and coldest. The planet received its name after the Roman god of agriculture. Earliest documented use: 1433.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/saturnine "This saturnine assessment of the world's economic predicament has been whispered about in worried tones for months now in the world of high finance." Felix Martin; Real Money; New Statesman (London, UK); Oct 17, 2014. -------- Date: Tue Mar 31 00:01:03 EDT 2015 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--mercurial X-Bonus: Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations. -Leo Buscaglia, author, speaker and professor (31 Mar 1924-1998) This week's theme: Words relating to the names of planets mercurial (muhr-KYOOR-ee-uhl) adjective 1. Fickle; volatile; changeable. 2. Animated; quick-witted; shrewd. 3. Relating to the metal, planet, or god Mercury. [After Mercury, Roman god of commerce, thievery, eloquence, communication, etc. The planet is named after the god and in ancient astrology those born under the supposed influence of Mercury were ascribed his qualities. Earliest documented use: 1300.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/mercurial https://wordsmith.org/words/images/mercurial_large.jpg Cartoon: Mike Flanagan "Arab presidents, African dictators, and European diplomats have all made the trek from Tripoli, 250 miles away, to see the mercurial Libyan leader." Michael Binyon; Rise of the African king; The Times (London, UK); Aug 9, 2002. "Why is North Korea raising the stakes now, when the world is campaigning to eliminate nuclear weapons from the world's arsenals? It is difficult to tell, because Pyongyang and its mercurial leader Kim Jong-il act in erratic and contradictory ways." Bantarto Bandoro; Nuclear Tension Rises on Divided Korean Peninsula; The Jakarta Post (Indonesia); Jan 18, 2003.