Daniel E Wolf
Mostly from Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, words of interest or note.
Today’s Word of the Day is “Forfend.”
Uhhh… You mean…. You mean…. In our inmost nature lies something OTHER than sweetness and light??? Heaven forfend!
Thanks to faithful reader JAK for inspiration on this one. You da man, John!
Also thanks to the NY Times for the inspiring/offending article, here.
As always, comments welcome.
Bonus art below.
Today’s Word(s) of the Day, for all those suffering in the Polar Vortex this week, comes courtesy of the current New Yorker:
Being both cold and sweaty at the same time.
A brand of wet cat food with tuna chunks and peppermint bits.
The exact office temperature that makes Ted happy because he can wear his little Patagonia vest.
When your nose is running and someone else’s nose is running and you kiss.
The community of single gloves living inside the lost-and-found box.
4 ounces mulled cough syrup
2 ounces Bourbon whiskey
1 tsp. rainwater
Fill the glass halfway with snow; garnish the rim with road salt.
A school dance at which someone who is always cold asks out someone who is usually warm.
The coat orgy on the bed during a party.
When you think that the person walking toward you is going to move to your right, so you move to your left, but you both end up moving to your left – and also it’s winter.
A meet-up for single gloves ready to put themselves out there again.
The exact moment in 2023 when global warming will magically reverse itself, according to climate-change deniers.
When a warm smile melts a cold shoulder.
The last, wispy exhalation of a young rosebud prematurely choked by a late frost.
A burned CD that you made on a snow day in middle school, probably.
When the groundhog pretends to see his shadow so that he can go back to bed.
A small but tasteful wedding reception for a pair of misfit gloves who once lost love but have found it again.
The rotation of takeout orders you make to avoid leaving your apartment in February.
When you put your ice-cold extremities on your partner’s warm, toasty body and your partner gets upset for some reason.
Chex Mix laced with freshly fallen snow.
My favorite? I’ll give you three guesses…
Yours?
Today’s Word of the Day is “Nemesis.”
2 plural nemeses\ ˈne-mə-ˌsēz
An old nemesis of mine recently died of brain cancer. He was about my age, just shy of sixty. He wasn’t an all-bad guy and he wasn’t exactly a rival. But he did at one point very publicly betray and humiliate me. That turned him from one I considered – if not a close friend and ally, then at least one I regarded neutrally – into one of whom I said with venom, “May you die a painful death.” Sometimes – through no agency or action of our own – those kind of words have a way of turning true.
My nemesis was an Air Force veteran, a paramedic, and later, a firefighter. This last was actually the root cause of the tumor that eventually killed him. He participated in many a toxic clean up after fires on the bases where he served. Given how rare in the general population this kind of cancer is, the causal link between some of those chemicals and glioblastoma multiforme for firefighters has now been pretty firmly established. Which is only to say that the seeds of his demise were sown long before I ever met him: My evil-eye had nothing to do with it.
His family first knew something was wrong when, on a mountain bike vacation trip up the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii, he started swearing a blue streak. Usually circumspect and mild-mannered, this was totally out of character for him. After the necessary scans, he was diagnosed and given a lousy prognosis. This is the kind of cancer you really don’t want to have.
Being a fighter at heart, he opted for aggressive treatment options that included multiple “debulking” procedures. That’s what they call tumor surgery when the tumor you’re going after has no hope of complete removal or cure. These surgeries left his head wrapped like a mummy in gauze. In addition, he also joined experimental chemotherapy clinical trials. The family even moved houses to be closer to the docs at Anschutz Medical Center where he was being treated. It was all to little or no avail. He died just under three years post-diagnosis.
The Greeks – as with many cultures both ancient and modern – have a deeply ingrained sense of retributive justice. It’s not just “an eye for an eye” or “a tooth for a tooth.” Those particular Old Testament formulations were actually a measured and progressive advance from alternatives common at the time they were first written. No, the Pagan baseline was this: You screw with me in any way, shape, or form… and I will kill you. Then, I’ll kill your children. And if you have them, I’ll kill your grand-kids too. Then, I’ll burn down your village and salt your fields – thus making them unusable for the next, oh, say, 100 years or so. And then, just for kicks, I’ll throw a dead cow down each of your village’s wells to foul the water supply (ditto). So, better not screw with me: Capische?
We’ve seen a shift in this country of late from more measured Judaeo-Christian forms of conflict resolution back toward the Greek goddess Nemesis, and let me tell you, it’s not pretty. <I’m not naming any names here. Lord knows, there’s plenty of that stuff available on the Internet for those who seek it.> All I’m saying is, forget about a higher standard like “We forgive those who trespass against us” or “Love your enemies.” Notions like those are no longer just quaint, they’re unthinkable. Maybe they always were? I dunno.
<Hey, gimme a break here, I don’t make this stuff up – I’m just the messenger!>
So, what’s a proper response when an old nemesis dies a painful death? We could gloat, I guess. Say “He got what was coming to him.” Say, “See what happens when you betray people?” But by any fair or just rendering of the facts, this kind of response just isn’t tenable – for if it were, we’d ALL be keeling over with brain tumors – or worse.
<Again, I’m not naming any names… but you know who you are!>
There is another way, of course – a different path. “Mercy triumphs over judgement” is how the epistle-writer James puts it. This isn’t exactly “forgive and forget,” but neither is it pissing on a nemesis’ grave either. How about this: Instead of nursing an old grudge, inquire after (or indeed, work to ensure) the health and well-being of the nemesis’ widow and orphan? You don’t have to pen a glowing eulogy for the guy. But why not – in place of salting his fields – maybe plant a small tree in the fallen foe’s honor? Maybe one with a tasteful little plaque underneath, just to remind people of, you know, a salient detail or two? What could that hurt? Are we really so insecure that we’ve got to place our enemy’s head on a pike at the city gates just to show everybody what’s what and who’s who? I mean, REALLY?
OK, I admit, maybe it’s a bit more than “just a messenger” here. Think of this post as a newly planted tree, perhaps. A small one with a tasteful bronze plaque underneath. Over the course of time, add a bit of water and some sunlight – who knows? Out of that black dirt something good just might grow. There are worse things in this old world, you know. And we don’t have to travel far down the road to see them.
Today’s Word of the Day is “Duvet.” Turns out, to get the definition for this one, you need “Comforter” too. Whodathunkit?
I had an Airbnb guest tell me the other day that I ought to “keep my duvet covered” so I “wouldn’t have to wash it so often.”
My first reaction was, “Madame, when have you ever seen my duvet?” And my second was, “I’ll have you know, Madame, that my duvet is pristine. In fact, I’ll wash it just as often as I like!”
One of the reasons I make such a great Airbnb host is that, when talking with guests, I never say the first thing that occurs to me – and very rarely the second. <There are those Twitter-hounds in public life who could benefit from such a strategy – but I digress.>
Clearly in this case a quick trip to the dictionary was warranted. Turns out, neither “toochis” nor “keister” was anywhere to be found under the heading of “duvet.” I did, however, find it fascinating to discover the Holy Spirit at (1a) under “Comforter.” You learn something new every day.
In any case, I’m sure you will be glad to know that both my arse and my duvet are now completely covered.
As for the washing schedule… <wait for it> …
It’s still TBD.
😉
Today’s Word of the Day is “Weir.”
noun – wer, wir
Noticed this obit in today’s NY Times, for Dr. Larry Eisenberg, age 99…
A nonagenarian, I,
A sometime writer of sci-fi,
Biomed engineer,
Gen’rally of good cheer,
With lim’ricks in ready supply.
Next time, a haiku?
I know: Everywhere, critics!
RIP, Larry.
Today’s Word of the Day is “perfervid.” According to Merriam Webster’s it means “marked by overwrought or exaggerated emotion.” But if you read the derivation below, it comes through as “thoroughly boiling hot.” Pretty cool, eh?
The adjectives “fervent,” “fervid,” and “perfervid” all derive from the Latin verb fervēre, meaning “to boil.” This suggests a bubbling up of intense feeling. “Fervent” was the first to enter the English language in the 14th century. It stresses sincerity and steadiness of emotional warmth and zeal. As in “Her colleagues expressed fervent good wishes.” The next to emerge was “fervid” in the late 16th century. It too suggests warmth but adds an element of spontaneity and feverishness. A lover might write a fervid billet-doux to his beloved, for example. With its first known appearance in print dating back only to 1833, “perfervid” is a relative newcomer to English. But it implies the most extreme or exaggerated expression of emotion. Its intensity comes from “per-,” a prefix meaning “thoroughly.”
Used in a sentence: “Supporters of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tend toward perfervid idealism when discussing the potential for change she brings to politics-as-usual in the DC swamp.”
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Watch the dance video, here.
OK, I am officially on board, AOC fans.
Just one question, though…
“Sandy?”
As promised to some of you – and you know who you are, JULIE K! – today’s Word of the Day is “Luddite.”
From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:
: one of a group of early 19th century English workmen destroying laborsaving machinery as a protest
: one who is opposed to especially technological change
“The Luddite argued that automation destroys jobs.”
Luddites were the first victims of corporate downsizing. The Luddite movement began near Nottingham, England, toward the end of 1811 when textile mill workers rioted for the destruction of the new machinery that was slowly replacing them. The exact origin of the name is uncertain, but it may derive from a (probably mythical) person known as Ned Ludd. According to an unsubstantiated account in George Pellew’s Life of Lord Sidmouth (1847), Ned Ludd was a Leicestershire villager of the late 1700s who, in a fit of rage, rushed into a stocking weaver’s house and destroyed his equipment. From then on, his name was proverbially connected with the destruction of machinery. With the onset of the information age, Luddite gained a broader sense describing anyone who shuns new technology.
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This post was crafted using the last known iPhone 3 in existence. The guys at the Genius Bar in the Apple store just shook their heads as I, whistling a little tune, walked out of the mall with this gem in my shopping bag …
Claustrophobia: ‘Tis the season.
Three letters, “It ends with ‘zyzzyva,’ in brief.”
Any guesses? Answer here.
I love a good puzzle. It’s a trait I inherited from my mom, one I’ve passed on to my kids. When she did them, mom used a pencil and a well-thumbed paperback copy of Merriam Webster’s Crossword Puzzle Dictionary for those hard-to-decipher clues favored by sadistic puzzle constructors everywhere. Nowadays most of us do our crosswords online and the urge to Google such stumpers is nearly overwhelming. A paperback crossword dictionary? It’s a collector’s item.
Just for the record, though, you can get one of 54 used copies available on Amazon today for the low, low price of just $2.51 – so, maybe not such a “collectors item” after all?
Hmmmm, 14 letters, “Thing of the past, may or may not be very valuable.”
