Simple, straightforward, WOTD. It’s been a while since we’ve had one of those. But today, that’s what you’ll get. Actually, you got this one before, hidden at the bottom of a President’s Day post. But the good folks at Merriam Webster have summarized it so perfectly, it bears repeating.
| Nabob – noun. “Nay-bahb” | ||||
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In India’s Mogul Empire, founded in the 16th century, provincial governors carried the Urdu title of nawāb. In 1612, Captain Robert Coverte published a report of his “discovery” of “the Great Mogoll, a prince not till now knowne to our English nation.” The Captain informed the English-speaking world that “An earle is called a Nawbob,” thereby introducing the English version of the word. Nabob, as it thereafter came to be spelled, gained its extended sense of “a prominent person” in the 18th century. That’s when it was applied sarcastically to British officials of the East India Company returning home after amassing great wealth in Asia. The word was perhaps most famously used by Vice President Spiro Agnew, in a 1970 speech written by William Safire. That’s when he referred to critical members of the news media as ” nattering nabobs of negativism.”
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You go, Spiro. Hey, at least he didn’t recommend injecting Lysol into your veins. God, I miss the good old days, when our nabobs in positions public trust at least had the good grace to make fun of the MSM without endangering public health. Well, before they were convicted of felony tax evasion that is. That’s something at least. Right? <sigh> Carry on, good folk. Close as it appears in the short run, it’ll all be long gone in your rear view mirror soon enough. And you can quote me on that too.
The reason objects are closer than they appear in the rear view mirror is actually pretty simple. It’s convex, bowed outward in the center, and curves back on the sides. That distorts the perceived distance.