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Jun 7, 2026 This week’s theme Book titles that became words This week’s words brave new world deipnosophist Lord of the Flies Hudibrastic Alice in Wonderland How popular are they? Relative usage over time AWADmail archives Index Next week’s theme There’s a Word for It Wordsmith Games 🧩 Jigsaw Riddle A Sea of Red 🌍 Langitude Trace bologna home AWADmail Issue 1249 A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day and Other Tidbits about Words and Language Email of the Week -- Brought to you by Oneupmanship From: David Santangelo (dcsantangelo2005 comcast.net) Subject: Brave new world Your mention of Huxley’s novel made me think of one of its greatest influences, We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. Originally published in English in 1924, We is one of the first dystopian novels. Orwell later reviewed We, and the novel is widely discussed as an influence on Nineteen Eighty-Four. What I find so interesting about We is that while setting the blueprint for many of the dystopias that follow, it is different in one key aspect. At the end of the novel, our rebellious protagonist D-503 is brought back into conformity with the state, but it is uncertain that the state will survive the rebellion against it. We has been overshadowed by Brave New World and 1984, but I urge everyone to read it! David Santangelo, Stevens Point, Wisconsin From: Michael Hegemann (micheg.schlebusch googlemail.com) Subject: Brave New World “Brave New World” is an iconic track (video, 12 min.) from Jeff Wayne’s musical version of The War of the Worlds (1978). In the concept album, it represents the Artilleryman’s grandiose vision of rebuilding human society underground after the Martian invasion, with vocals by David Essex. Michael Hegemann, Leverkusen, Germany From: Nicholas Jones (nrjones360 gmail.com) Subject: Brave New World “Brave new world!” sounds optimistic. But what Miranda beholds in Act 5, Scene 1 of The Tempest is a bunch of usurpers and schemers. Her dad fittingly chills her hope with his world-weary comment, “’Tis new to thee.” Her “new world” may also have carried New World/Americas overtones for Shakespeare’s audience, but it was already tainted with the vices of the old: rapacity, enslavement, and disease. Nicholas Jones, Berkeley, California From: Beth Carroll (n4cae aol.com) Subject: brave new world A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: The animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth. -Henry Beston, naturalist and author (1 Jun 1888-1968) Check out An Immense World by Ed Yong. We humans are missing sooo much. Beth Carroll, Apex, North Carolina From: Glenn Glazer (glenn.glazer gmail.com) Subject: deipnosophist The film Mindwalk takes a similar approach to Deipnosophistae, though the characters walk around Mont Saint-Michel rather than eat dinner together. Glenn Glazer, Felton, California From: Chiquitia Montgomery (chiqmontgomery yahoo.com) Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--deipnosophist I thought of a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode (video, 5 min.) in which dinner-party conversation goes nowhere because the person seated in the middle keeps talking about installing flooring. Chiquitia Montgomery, Cleveland, Ohio From: Glenn Glazer (glenn.glazer gmail.com) Subject: Lord of the Flies In the 1990 film adaptation, Piggy says, “We did everything just the way grownups would have. Why didn’t it work?” (video, 1 min.) Glenn Glazer, Felton, California From: Henry M. Willis (hmw ssdslaw.com) Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--Lord of the Flies The real Lord-of-the-Flies schoolboys left to fend for themselves on a deserted island did not descend into savagery (The Guardian). On the contrary, those six shipwrecked boys established a regime in which each of them shared responsibility for ensuring they all survived and thrived: not only tending the fire and feeding themselves, but also fashioning musical instruments and providing effective medical care when one of them broke his leg. Which is not to say that William Golding’s contrary vision of what boys would become when left to govern themselves was completely wrong; it no doubt reflected his years as a schoolteacher, where he would have seen the gang behavior of children firsthand. I was part of a similar group as a ten-year-old when one of my classmates organized all of us smaller kids into The Shorties’ Club, whose only reason for being was singling out and tormenting one of the bigger kids whom we would have been afraid to confront one on one. We may not have been as murderous as the kids in LOTF, but we were just as cruel. (As it turned out, that club only lasted a week or so because the big kids organized their own club, forcing us to head for the hills.) But that form of schoolboy savagery is not inevitable. As W.H. Auden, another former schoolteacher, famously wrote, I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return. ... And no one exists alone; ... We must love one another or die. More... Whatever you think of that last line -- Auden later disavowed it -- it reminds us that we are capable of overcoming our worst instincts. Henry Willis, Los Angeles, California From: Athery4 (via website comments) Subject: Hudibrastic The note tells us Hudibras is a satire on the way we live. Right away, religion comes in for its share. The satire is blatant when introducing the church as truly militant, where the “holy text of pike and gun” decides religious controversies by artillery. Why is religion always undergoing reformation? Which always must be carried on, And still be doing, never done. As if religion were intended For nothing else but to be mended. True devotion must lie “In odd perverse antipathies: / In falling out with that or this.” Where is its everlasting stability when piety is ours and “in other men all sin”? The poem’s short meter (octosyllabic) fits the jumpy, ignorant, nervous, and wrongheaded characters who argue thusly. The zest of the poem attracts readers to conclude the speakers are fools indeed. So the heroic becomes mock heroic. Athery4 From: Edward Connors (eddyc bu.edu) Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--Alice in Wonderland I love, love, love Alice in Wonderland. It’s my favorite property by far, despite my never having read the books. I’ve seen movie adaptations going back to the early 1900s. One of my favorite shows is Alice by Heart (2012). It retells the story through two teenage friends during the London Blitz in WWII. It’s amazing. Curiously, both of your usage examples also pertain to war. Edward Connors, Litchfield, Maine From: Steve Benko (stevebenko1 gmail.com) Subject: Book titles Anu, this week’s journey through book titles was quite an Odyssey. But was there some sort of Catch-22 that stopped you from using the most popular book-title-turned-word of all? Or perhaps you became inebriated at some Gatsbyesque party. Steve Benko, New York, New York From: Alex McCrae (ajmccrae277 gmail.com) Subject: Alice in Wonderland and Brave New World “America 250” is the official bipartisan commission established by Congress to manage America’s 250th anniversary. The invited artists believed that was what they had signed up for. But Trump created a separate entity, Freedom 250, and didn’t inform the artists. Many musicians pulled out of the concert series once they discovered the event’s partisan, divisive, and misleading nature. Here, his loyal chief of staff, Susie Wiles, tries to salvage a silver lining from this disappointing turn of events. Hmm... Where are Kid Rock and Ted Nugent when you need them? Now Trump is threatening to scrap the entire concert series and replace it with an extended MAGA fest, with him as the chief party planner. (Alice’s tea party was much better organized.) Here, I’ve imagined a nonagenarian Trump whose dementia is well-advanced and who is confined to a skilled nursing facility. He’s now on a stringent, bland, and standardized diet. Fast food fare is forbidden. Thankfully, no more Truth Social rants. Welcome to a Brave New World! Alex McCrae, Van Nuys, California Anagrams Book titles that became words Brave new world Deipnosophist Lord of the Flies Hudibrastic Alice in Wonderland = In new epoch Hobnobber conversed whilst we tasted food Is it not wild, feral? Parodic lol That is absurd, dreamlike -Julian Lofts, Auckland, New Zealand (jalofts xtra.co.nz) This week’s theme: Book titles that became words Brave new world Deipnosophist Lord of the Flies Hudibrastic Alice in Wonderland = Despotic establishment Wow! His refined table talk help The 1st bent, evil one Did do mock-heroic oration (few words) Bad surreal wish -Shyamal Mukherji, Mumbai, India (mukherjis hotmail.com) Make your own anagrams and animations. Limericks brave new world If on visual proof you rely, It’s a strange, brave new world with AI. You must doubt every meme, For things aren’t what they seem -- This deceit I detest and decry! -Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com) Her lips in a small smile curled, As away from her old life she whirled. Off to college now bound, Her heart it did pound, To embrace the unknown brave new world. -Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com) As my grandmother knitted and purled, “Buy a scarf? This is some brave new world!” She would scoff. And I’d wail, “There’s a cute one on sale!” Then I’d dodge when her needles she hurled. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) deipnosophist I believed that the suave gynecologist Whom I worked with might be a misogynist. Sharing hospital food, Though, I blushed -- came unglued! I soon married this brilliant deipnosophist! -Judy Distler, Teaneck, New Jersey (jam1026 aol.com) What was all his chit-chatter about? I just couldn’t figure it out! A deipnosphist’s needed When I have been seated With Humphrey, that great noisy lout! -Bindy Bitterman, Chicago, Illinois (bindy eurekaevanston.com) Deipnosophists I will invite To join me for dinner tonight. Conversation will flow For these people I know Make chitchat, I find, a delight. -Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com) If at dinner you want a deipnosophist, You’d best not invite an economist. Their graphs and their charts Are as charming as farts, And will cure you of being an optimist. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) Lord of the Flies She’s afraid that her teen likes to hang With a Lord of the Flies kind of gang. Declares her wild son, “My friends are great fun, And at least I’ll go out with a bang.” -Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com) She said, “Well, It’s no big surprise, That a trip to his island’s not wise. For after a while On Jeff Epstein’s isle, A vacation turns Lord of the Flies.” -Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com) With goals they don’t try to disguise, This White House is Lord of the Flies. While through meetings he sleeps, We see Donald’s fine peeps Larry, Curly, and Moe throwing pies. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) Hudibrastic Oh, wouldn’t it be just fantastic To write a brand new Hudibrastic? But that I can’t do; I’ll stick to haiku Or limericks super sarcastic. -Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com) “Your writing is bland, it is plastic,” His teacher’s critique was sarcastic. “I gave you a D just because I could see No great effort to be Hudibrastic.” -Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com) In SNL skits hudibrastic, The guy who plays Trump is fantastic. That voice and the hair! But it’s sad and unfair. (Please don’t worry, I’m being sarcastic.) -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) Alice in Wonderland There’s an Alice in Wonderland feel At Trump’s cabinet meetings surreal. While his sycophants fawn, He nods off with a yawn -- But this habit he calls “No big deal.” -Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com) Our President’s mad as a hatter, And texting all night is the matter. It’s Alice in Wonderland, Or malice in blunderland. I fear it is more of the latter. -Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com) While the rest of the world Donald’s blunder panned, He was living in Alice in Wonderland. “We won! They’ve no cards!” He said, full of canards, And to tear us all further asunder planned. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) Puns “Wheel good, Papa. Some jobs lost, others created. We must try to be brave new world coming,” Oog’s daughter tried to reassure him. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) “Copy them for the sake of winning arguments? No, I’deipnosophist,” young Socrates told his parents. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) To leave their potato salad alone was what the picnickers imp-lord of the flies. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) The tailor prided himself on his zipper stitching, and earned the title, “Lord of the Flies.” -Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com) “Get rid of them? But they’re part of the building’s natural ecosystem,” said the slum-lord of the flies. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) She asked the lingerie designer hudibrastic-ker price of $1,000 would attract? -Joan Perrin, Port Jefferson Station, New York (perrinjoan aol.com) “Though I’m a loyal Hudibrastic-s me off,” complained the Mongolian nomad about his tribe’s leadership. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) “Knowest thou where I might find the holy grail?” asked King Arthur. “I think I saw that ch-alice in Wonderland,” answered the white rabbit. -Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com) A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don’t expect you to save the world, I do think it’s not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary, and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair, and disrespect. -Nikki Giovanni, poet and professor (7 Jun 1943-2024)

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