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Oct 9, 2025
This week’s themeWords with a bossy past This week’s words hallelujah dekko noli me tangere ![]() ![]()
Himalayan Balsam aka Touch-Me-Not
Gif: MakeAGif
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with Anu Gargnoli me tangere
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin noli me tangere (do not touch me), from noli (do not),
imperative of nolle (to be unwilling) + me (me) + tangere (to touch).
Earliest documented use: 1398.
NOTES:
In John 20:17, the resurrected Jesus says to Mary Magdalene:
“Noli me tangere” or “Touch me not” (also translated as: Do not cling
to me.) Since then the term has been applied to things that are best
left alone. You could say noli me tangere is Latin for: “This isn’t a
touch screen.”
USAGE:
“[Tarquin Winot’s] fascination with his own text, like all things
narcissistic, is half-alluring, half-repellent; a come-on to the reader
and a noli me tangere.” James Lasdun; Suddenly Last Supper; The Village Voice (New York); May 28, 1996. “And then there’s what you’re missing by skipping the office: the trafficky commute, the petroleum-based slacks by Theory or Banana Republic, the noli-me-tangere demeanor that women were supposed to cultivate to ensure boardroom authority. All of these duties vanish when workplace and homeplace become one.” Virginia Heffernan; Home Tool; The New York Times Magazine; Jan 10, 2010. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Imagine there's no countries, / It isn't hard to do. / Nothing to kill or
die for, / And no religion, too. / Imagine all the people / Living life in
peace. -John Lennon, musician (9 Oct 1940-1980)
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