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Nov 21, 2012
This week's themeEponyms This week's words serendipity mithridatism rhadamanthine elysian icarian “All words are pegs to hang ideas on.” ~Beecher Send some to friends & family Discuss Feedback RSS/XML A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargrhadamanthine
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
adjective: Inflexibly just or severe.
ETYMOLOGY:
In Greek mythology, Rhadamanthus was the son of Zeus and Europa.
He was a judge of the underworld and known for his strict justice.
Earliest documented use: 1778.
USAGE:
"Antoine Christophe Saliceti returned to his home island in the role
of inflexible ideologue ... dispensing rhadamanthine justice." Steven Englund; Napoleon: A Political Life; Scribner; 2003. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true. -Nathaniel Hawthorne, writer (1804-1864)
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