 7/9/26
I hope you’re intrigued by these wise women’s thoughts on leadership To make laws that man cannot, & will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt. -Elizabeth Cady Stanton The art of leadership is one which the wicked, as a rule, learn more quickly than the virtuous. -Agnes E. Meyer You take people as far as they will go, not as far as you would like them to go. -Jeannette Rankin …there are as many ways of living as there are men, & one is no more fit to lead another, than a bird to lead a fish, or a fish a quadruped. -Frances Wright Every form of bigotry can be found in ample supply in the legal system of our country. -Florynce R. Kennedy It is high time that we had lights that are not incendiary torches. -George Sand Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. -George Sand The contempt for law & the contempt for the human consequences of lawbreaking go from the bottom to the top of American society. -Margaret Mead A leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his naation into battle is not fit to be a leader. Golda Meir May your next week be filled with wise women & their wisdom. Thanks to this week’s sources: Quotlr, The Quotations Page, The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women, & Dreamstime.
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 Euphemisms are fascinating things. Typically born of the preceived need to be polite, sometimes born of clever minds. See if you can match these euphemisms with their meanings (answers are in the comments). 1. American murder log 2. Energy preservation mode 3. Finger pants 4. Theater of operations 5. Taking time apart 6. Correctional facility 7. To be economical with the truth 8. To clone the mammoth 9. To be made redundant 10. Chronologically gifted Gloves Old War zone To be fired To tell a lie To make futile efforts Alligator A relationship’s end Prison Resting Thanks for playing. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Inspiration Feed, Wordopedia, DoTEFL, Merriam Webster, & RUFreePic.  Sometimes words fade away or fizzle out. Here’s a collection of some I’m sorry we’ve lost.
Pulchritudinous: attractive or beautiful, from Latin Moeity, an equal half or an equal share, from Latin through Old French Outre: exagggerated, excessive, extreme, from Proto-Indo-European through French. Rantipole: as a noun, a reckless & quarrelsome person, as an adjective, in a wild or unruly manner, as a verb, to act in a wild & unruly manner, probably from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch. Nubilous: cloudy, foggy, or obscure, Tenebrous: dark, murky, or obscure, Atramentous: inky, from Latin through French. Cattymount: lynx, puma, or cougar, from cat o’ the mountain, American English. Betwixt: between, from Old High German through Old English and Middle English Ichor: blood of the gods & the foul-smelling discharge from a wound or ulcer, from an unknown source that made its way through Greek and Latin to English. Albeit, a contraction of although it be that, from Proto-Germanic through Old English. Befoul: to cover with filth, Old English Costermonger: a seller of fruits &/or vegetables, from Old French throgh Anglo-French & Proto-Germanic. May any nubilous or tenebrous elements of your life become pulchritudinous. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Etymonline, Collins Dictionary, Wasitgoodforyoutoo, Merriam Webster, the OED, & Dreamstime.  To follow up last week’s list of positive adjectives, it seemed this week we’d cover positive nouns — put-ups, if you will. After searching a dozen synonyms sites & an old school thesaurus or two, I’ve realized we English speakers aren’t very good at complimenting one another with nouns. The best overall positive noun I can find is mensch, which is a lovely word, but really doesn’t have any English synonyms. So I’ve included some still-positive, but not quite as solid put-ups. The word mensch came to us through Yiddish from German. Mensch means a person of honor, of extraordinary warmth & compassion, an overall wonderful human. It comes from a source that originally meant simply, man. The word godsend didn’t appear on any list I found, but my loving wife suggested it & when it comes to usage, it’s about as close to mensch as I can find. It officially means a desirable or needed event, thing, or person that arrives unexpectedly. It’s a back-formation of god-sent, & arrived in English in 1792. Jewel arrived in the 1200s, meaning an article of value for adornment, but in the last two centuries it broadened its meaning to include a wonderful & valuable person. Gem also showed up in the 1200s, meaning a precious stone. It came from through Latin & Old French from one of two possible sources — one meaning bud or sprout, the other meaning tooth or nail. Whatever its source, it took less than a century to be applied to humans, or at least rare or excellent humans. A class act is an example of outstanding quality or prestige. It showed up in 1974. Fave is a shortening of favorite, and made its way into English in 1938. Back in the 1300s, sweetheart showed up meaning loved child. In the following century it oozed into meaning any loved one, & by the 1900s it began to mean anything good of its kind (think, sweetheart deal). Dear showed up in Old English meaning beloved, precious, close, valued, or favorite. It came from a Germanic word meaning valuable. May you discover new and wonderful ways to compliment those around you. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Etymonline, Merriam Webster, Collins Dictionary, the OED, & Vecteezy.  After the negativity of the last two weeks, here are some positive adjectives you might employ.
Brilliant, meaning sparkling with light or luster. Brilliant came from French through Vulgar Latin from a word which meant to shine like a beryl (a precious stone). It was in 1848 that brilliant was first used in regards to humans to mean distinguished by admirable qualities. Insightful was first used in 1881 to mean with penetrating understanding into character or hidden nature. It comes from insight, which was born about 1200 & meant to see with the eyes of the mind. Insightful is of Germanic origin. Warmhearted appeared in English in about 1520, meaning marked by affection, cordiality, generosity. Its parts came from Middle English & Old High German. Thoughtful started out about 1200 & meant both contemplatively reflective, & prudent, moody, & anxious. Its now-lost synonyms included thoughtsome, thoughty, & thoughtive. By 1851 thoughtful meant showing consideration for others. Perspicacious appeared in the 1630s, meaning of acute mental discernment. Most of its parts came from Proto-Indo-European. Back in the 1400s, benevolent showed up, meaning wishing to do good, kindly, well-dispoosed. Its parts come from Latin & translate to good feeling. Compassionate showed up in the 1680s meaning kind, sympathetic. It came from the noun compassion, used as early as the 1200s, meaning feeling sorrow or deep tenderness for one who is suffering. It came to English from Greek through Latin. Peachy is American slang for fine or excellent. This meaning came about in the early 1900s, though before that peachy simply meant like a peach. The adjective dandy is an American term meaning just right, fine, or remarkable. It appears to have arrived in the 1800s as a shortening of jim-dandy. Nifty showed up in 1865 & means pleasing, stylish, witty, or clever. Its origin is unknown. May your next week be spent identifying positive qualities in those around you & throwing around some positivity. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Merriam Webster, Etymonline, Collins Dictionary, the OED, & Alamy.  Last week we took a look at put-downs of the noun variety. This week, we’ll consider some adjectival ones.
An abhorrent person is repulsive or reprehensible. It comes from a Latin word meaning to shrink back from, or be out of harmony with. A baleful human is ominous, cruel, dire, or threatening misfortune. Baleful came from Proto-Germanic, where it meant noxious, wicked, mischievous. Someone who is belligerent is pugnacious or argumentative. It comes from Latin & is related to bellicose & ante-bellum. A bilious individual is irritable & bad-tempered. It comes through French from Latin, where it meant peevish & ill-tempered. Someone who is censorious is critical, stern, & disapproving. One who is derogatory is insulting, disparaging, or offensive. Derogatory comes through Latin from a Proto-Indo-European word which meant to reach out the hand (the de- in derogatory suggests that the offered hand has been pulled away). A diabolical person is devilish — wicked or evil. It came through French & Latin from Greek, where it translates to pertaining to the devil. Someone who is disingenuous is insincere, untruthful, & calculating. It showed up in the 1600s. An egocentric person behaves as if s/he is the only one who matters. Makes sense, eh? ego + centric. Someone who is execrable is appalling or disgusting, & deserving of curses. It came through Old French from Latin. May you avoid them all! Big thanks to this week’s sources: Wrath, a Dictionary for the Enraged, Merriam Webster, the OED, Etymonline, & Dreamstime.  It’s election season, so the air is rife with put-downs. Let’s appreciate ten of them.
A troglodyte behaves in an uncivilized & beastly manner. It comes from a Greek word which translates to cave-dweller. A provocateur intentionally stirs up trouble. It’s related to the word provoke. A reprobate is a disreputable & wicked person or degenerate. A tyrant has power and abuses power in an oppressive fashion. Tyrant may have come from the Lydian language. A yahoo is crude, coarse, & boorish (from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels). A miscreant is a villain, evildoer, or law-breaker. It comes through Middle English from Middle French from a word meaning non-believer. A despot is a dominant figure exercising complete & often abusive power. Despot’s roots are in Proto-Indo-European, putting together a word that meant house & a word that meant powerful lord. A gadfly is a pest, named after cattle-biting flies, a gadfly can also be a person who socializes and likes to “go about.” A misanthrope hates all humankind. The word was made popular by a Molière play written in 1666. A bugaboo is a person or thing that causes obsessive fear or anxiety. It comes from either the word buggybow or bugger-bo, & nobody knows where those came from. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Merriam Webster, Etymonline, the OED, Wrath, a Dictionary for the Enraged, & Alamy.  This week we’ll consider etymologies from one short bit of Mary Oliver’s poem with the unlikely title, “What Was Once the Largest Shopping Center in Northern Ohio Was Built Where There Had Been a Pond I Used to Visit Every Summer Afternoon.”
Where will the trilliums go, and the coltsfoot? Where will the pond lilies go to continue living their simple, penniless lives, lifting their faces of gold? Trillium is a Latin word & appeared in English in the mid-1700s. Tri- means exactly what one would expect. The trillium’s leaves & flowers show up in groups of three. Pond came from Old English & means an artificially banked body of water. It’s related to pound, an enclosed place. Simple came from Old French, appearing in English about 1200. It had—& still has— a plethora of meanings: free from duplicity, guileless, blameless, innocent, & uneducated, unsophisticated, ignorant, & also plain, unmixed, foolish, stupid, wretched, & miserable. Penniless comes from penny. In the USA it showed up in 1889 meaning cent, but back in Jolly Old England it had meant 1/12 of a schilling for over six centuries — the Old English word pence came from an Old High German word which came from a Proto-Germanic word meaning coin. The word face has been a part of English since about 1300. It came through French from Vulgar Latin where it meant appearance, face, figure, or form imposed on something, & the Vulgar Latin word came from a Proto-Indo-European word meaning to set or put. And gold appeared in English before 1100, meaning exactly what it means today. It came from a Proto-Indo-European word meaning to shine. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Merriam Webster, the OED, Etymonline, Mary Oliver’s Why I Wake Early, & Dreamstime.  This week we’ll consider a few diminutives — suffixes that make things small (though some of these suffixes do all sorts of other things, too).
-y or -ie get thrown onto the end of many names. Meet Frannie, Timmy, Ollie, Joey, Rosie & Sadie. . It also works with common nouns: puppy, kitty, sweetie, bunny, & matey. -ling gets employed in a simlary manner: darling, hatchling, duckling, & underling. -ella or -ello are also diminutives: Cinderella, bordello, salmonella, & novella. -el shows up in chapel, tunnel, gravel & gunnel. -et or -ette appear in kitchenette, cigarette, wallet, & faucet. -ine shows up in magazine, figurine, tambourine, & even linguine. -ina, -ino, & -ini diminutize palomino, marina, & zuchini. -kin gives us napkin, mannequin (originally spelled manikin) & bumpkin. -let or lette appear in booklet, omelette, hamlet, & roulette. Dear readers — if someone were to dimunituze your name, which of the above options would you appreciate (or tolerate) most? Let me know in the comments section. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Etymonline, Word Hippo, Merriam Webster, Daily Writing Tips, & Dreamstime.  Sometimes a prefix is a prefix, and sometimes it’s just masquerading as a prefix. Take ig-.
Sometimes ig- fills in as a substitute for the prefix in- (not, or opposite of): In ignorant, ig- means not & -norant comes from Proto-Indo-European through a Latin word meaning to know. ig- also operates in place of the prefix in- (not, or opposite of) in the words ignoramus, ignore, ignoble, ignominious & the name Ignatius. But in words like igloo, the first two letters aren’t a prefix. English simply borrowed (or stole, depending on one’s world view) this word from Inuit (it means house). The word igneous comes fully formed through Proto-Indo-European and Latin from a word meaning fire. Ignescent, ignite, ignition come from this same root. The noun iguana comes from a Haitian word meaning lizard. And the source of the Pig Latin word igarettesay (or igarettecay) is simple foolishness. Did any of these surprise you? Big thanks for this week’s sources: my 1959 Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Partridge’s Concise Dictionary of Slang & Unconventional English, Merriam Webster, Etymonline, the OED, & Adobe. |
I write for teens & tweens, bake bread, play music, and ponder the wonder of words in a foggy little town on California's central coast.
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