A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Wed Jul 1 12:01:01 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Crichtonism X-Bonus: One's first step in wisdom is to question everything -- and one's last is to come to terms with everything. -Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, scientist and philosopher (1 Jul 1742-1799) This week's theme: Eponyms Crichtonism (KRY-tuh-niz-uhm) noun Extraordinary accomplishment in many fields. [After James Crichton (1560-1582), a Scottish scholar, linguist, debater, and man of letters whose reputation for wide-ranging brilliance led to the epithet the Admirable Crichton. Earliest documented use: 1850.] "James, 'The Admirable', Crichton" https://wordsmith.org/words/images/crichtonism_large.jpg Art: Attributed to the Italian School, late 16th century https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anonymous_-_James,_%22The_Admirable%22,_Crichton_(1560-85%5E)_-_RCIN_401233_-_Royal_Collection.jpg NOTES: James Crichton was a young Scot with a reputation as a polymath, https://wordsmith.org/words/polymath.html or polyhistor. https://wordsmith.org/words/polyhistor.html He is said to have entered college at 10 and taken both bachelor's and master's degrees by 14 or 15. Accounts credited him with a dazzling range of accomplishments, including medicine, law, astronomy, arms, horsemanship, philosophy, music, and debate. According to the writer Sir Thomas Urquhart, Crichton issued a challenge in Paris to answer questions in "any science, liberal art, discipline, or faculty, whether practical or theoretic". Maybe, I thought. But when I read that he offered to answer any question in any field in _12 languages_, my bullshit detector went into overdrive. Sure, Jan. Let's just say Urquhart's account of the Admirable Crichton was a bit embellished. And by "a bit", I mean he turned a talented polymath into a Renaissance superhero. "Zuleika Dobson typifies the irreverent deflation of the myth of Crichtonism which was prevalent at the turn of the century." Mortimer R. Proctor; The English University Novel; University of California Press; 1957. "[The Dean] was a brilliant light at Oxford, and came over to illumine our darkness, and if pedantry could only supply the deficiency in the potato crop, he would be a providence to the land. His affectation is to know everything ... His failures in these attempts at Admirable Crichtonism would abash even confidence great as his." Charles Lever; Roland Cashel; Chapman and Hall; 1850. -------- Date: Thu Jul 2 12:01:02 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Mona Lisa X-Bonus: In order for me to write poetry that isn't political / I must listen to the birds / and in order to hear the birds / the warplanes must be silent. -Marwan Makhoul, poet (b. 2 Jul 1979) This week's theme: Eponyms Mona Lisa (MOH-nuh LEE-suh/zuh) noun: A woman with an enigmatic smile or expression. adjective: Enigmatic, mysterious, or inscrutable, especially of a smile or expression. [After Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa (c. 1503-1519). Earliest documented use: 1835.] "Mona-Leo", 1988 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/mona_lisa_large.jpg Print: Lillian Schwartz / The Henry Ford https://www.thehenryford.org/collections/explore/artifact/522330?AssetId=THF628991 NOTES: According to a 2005 emotion-recognition analysis, the Mona Lisa is "83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful, and 2% angry." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4530650.stm Computer artist Lillian Schwartz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Schwartz of Bell Labs proposed a Mona-Leo theory, arguing from digital comparisons that the portrait was partly a disguised self-portrait by Leonardo. What do you think? "[Franz Welser-Möst, the music director of the Cleveland Orchestra] was neither solemn nor particularly expressive; he just flashed a Mona Lisa smile before turning to the players and gesturing the downbeat of a Mozart symphony." Joshua Barone; Preparing to Surrender the Baton; The New York Times; Jan 14, 2024. -------- Date: Fri Jul 3 12:01:02 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Comstock Lode X-Bonus: There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking. -Alfred Korzybski, engineer, mathematician, and philosopher (3 Jul 1879-1950) This week's theme: Eponyms Comstock Lode (KUHM/KOM-stahk LOHD) noun A rich supply or source, especially one that seems inexhaustible. [After Henry T.P. Comstock (c. 1820-1870), a prospector whose name is attached to the rich silver-and-gold deposit discovered in 1859 near what is now Virginia City, Nevada. Earliest documented use: 1866.] "Mining on the Comstock", 1876 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/comstock_lode_large.jpg Art: T.L. Dawes https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsc.01032/ NOTES: The California Gold Rush began in 1848-49; about a decade later, Nevada had its own silver rush. In 1859, prospectors uncovered a rich silver-and-gold deposit near what became Virginia City. It drew a rush of prospectors, led to large-scale mining, and helped Nevada become known as the Silver State. Henry Comstock was not the heroic discoverer the name might imply. He was one of the early claim holders around the site, and the lode wound up with his name. A reminder that history, like mining, sometimes rewards whoever is standing nearest the shiny thing. The phrase Comstock Lode is sometimes shortened to the Comstock. Not to be confused with comstockery, https://wordsmith.org/words/comstockery.html from Anthony Comstock, a different Comstock with a different lode of censoriousness. See also Golconda. https://wordsmith.org/words/golconda.html "There was only light, and light is intangible. You cannot slice off an inch of the spectrum and put it in your pocket. The people who had come to exploit this Comstock Lode of the miraculous, found themselves painfully frustrated." Aldous Huxley; Adonis and the Alphabet and Other Essays; Chatto & Windus; 1956. -------- Date: Mon Jul 6 12:01:02 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--somewhen X-Bonus: Animal factories are one more sign of the extent to which our technological capacities have advanced faster than our ethics. -Peter Singer, philosopher, professor of bioethics (b. 6 Jul 1946) The adverb is the whipping boy of language. When a novel stalls, a poem goes nowhere, or writer's block plants its heavy feet on the sofa, professional writers often blame the nearest adverb. The thinking seems to go: My manuscript is not moving. Perhaps I should whip out an essay with writerly advice on why no one should ever write _slowly_. Mark Twain, Stephen King, V.S. Naipaul, Kurt Vonnegut, and a battalion of workshop advice givers have all taken a swing at the poor POS. That is, part of speech, just so we are clear. And, of course, Strunk and White, those two hall monitors of the sentence. Around here, we do not play favorites with any POS. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs: all are children of the same unruly language. This week, we'll show the adverb a little languagy love. We'll feature a few adverbs proudly wearing their -ly suffixes, and a few that refuse to conform. Use them in your own writing, but use them judiciously. One can overuse anything, including adverbs, writing advice, and the word judiciously. somewhen (SUHM-(h)wen) adverb At some indefinite or unspecified time; sometime. [From Old English sum (some) + when, from Old English hwenne. Earliest documented use: 1297.] NOTES: _Somewhen_ is the ultimate excuse for procrastinators who refuse to be pinned down by the linear constraints of a clock. I told my editor I'd have the revised manuscript over to her somewhen. She told me she'd pay me somemoney. DRIVE SLOWly https://wordsmith.org/words/images/somewhen_large.jpg Photo: Eli Reusch https://flickr.com/photos/eli_reusch/2912898000/ "It is fun to know that serious scientists believe the fabulous alternate realities of the Philip Pullman novels could be accurate descriptions of reality (for in a multiverse of infinite size and scope there will, somewhere and somewhen, be a world where a little girl called Lyra befriends a talking polar bear and where people's souls take the form of animal familiars)." Michael Hanlon; Reality Check Required; New Scientist (London, UK); Feb 9, 2008. -------- Date: Tue Jul 7 12:01:02 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--dispositively X-Bonus: People's souls are like gardens. You can't turn your back on someone because his garden's full of weeds. You have to give him water and lots of sunshine. -Nancy Farmer, author (b. 7 Jul 1941) This week's theme: Adverbs dispositively (dis-POZ-uh-tiv-lee) adverb Conclusively; so as to settle the matter. [From dispositive, https://wordsmith.org/words/dispositive.html from dispose, from Old French disposer, from Latin disponere (to arrange), from dis- (apart) + ponere (to put). Earliest documented use: 1475.] Vestal virgins signal death for the defeated gladiator (detail) https://wordsmith.org/words/images/dispositively.jpg "Pollice Verso", 1872 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/dispositively_large.jpg Art: Jean-Léon Gérôme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollice_Verso_(G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me) "Who can dispositively argue that this analysis is wrong?" William F. Buckley Jr.; Should We Have Gone to War?; National Review (New York); Aug 9, 2004. -------- Date: Wed Jul 8 12:01:02 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--yonder X-Bonus: What is called discretion in men is called cunning in animals. -Jean de la Fontaine, poet and fabulist (8 Jul 1621-1695) This week's theme: Adverbs yonder (YON-duhr)    adverb: Over there; at a relatively distant place. adjective: Being over there; farther away. [From yond (at a distance), from Old English geond (beyond, at a distance, over there). Earliest documented use: before 1300.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/yonder NOTES: Yonder is the world's least precise indicator. Depending entirely on the vigor with which a person points their finger, yonder can mean anything from "just across the street" to "a three-day horseback ride past the mountains." "Over Yonder", 1909 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/yonder_large.jpg Art: N.C. Wyeth https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/199980 "I stopped right yonder and waited for them to reach the other side." David Sedaris; Goodyear; The New Yorker; Jan 29, 2024. -------- Date: Thu Jul 9 12:01:01 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--lubberly X-Bonus: I wanted to live my life so that people would know unmistakably that I am alive, so that when I finally die people will know the difference for sure between my living and my death. -June Jordan, writer, teacher, and activist (9 Jul 1936-2002) This week's theme: Adverbs lubberly (LUHB-uhr-lee) adverb: Clumsily, awkwardly, or unskillfully. adjective: Clumsy, awkward, or unskilled; not seamanlike. [From lubber (a clumsy or inexperienced person, especially an inept sailor). Earliest documented use: 1580.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/lubberly "Sailors on Horseback", 1811 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/lubberly_large.jpg Art: Thomas Rowlandson https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/811529 "She moves lubberly, but with great concentration." Valzhyna Mort; "Zhenya"; Collected Body; Copper Canyon Press; 2011. -------- Date: Fri Jul 10 12:01:02 AM EDT 2026 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--nigh X-Bonus: The truth is that every morning war is declared afresh. And the men who wish to continue it are as guilty as the men who began it, more guilty perhaps, for the latter perhaps did not foresee all its horrors. -Marcel Proust, novelist (10 Jul 1871-1922) This week's theme: Adverbs nigh (ny) adverb: Nearly; almost. adjective: Near. preposition: Near. [From Old English neh (near). Earliest documented use: before 1150.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/nigh "The Beginning Is Nigh" https://wordsmith.org/words/images/nigh_large.jpg Photo: Adam Rummer https://flickr.com/photos/adamrummer/6784124091/ "The carbon emissions produced when peatlands burn may be well nigh irreversible." World on Fire; The Economist (London, UK); Aug 24, 2024.