A.Word.A.Day --prospero

A.Word.A.Day

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Apr 18, 2014

This week's theme
Words coined after Shakespearean characters

This week's words
dogberry
portia
timon
romeo
prospero

Detail from Prospero and Ariel
Art: William Hamilton, 1797

Photo: Wikimedia

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Next week's theme
Words to describe people

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Prospero

PRONUNCIATION:

(PROS-puh-roh)

MEANING:

noun: Someone who is capable of influencing others' behavior or perceptions without their being aware of it.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Prospero, the deposed Duke of Milan and a magician, in Shakespeare's The Tempest. Earliest documented use: 1785.

USAGE:

"Melliora is the Prospero who engineers a return to social order entirely in accord with her desires."
David Oakleaf (ed.), Eliza Haywood; Love in Excess; Broadview Press; 2000.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

To my mind to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder. -Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

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