Todays Thought

There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, nαked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don’t expect you to save the world, I do think it’s not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary, and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair, and disrespect. 

-Nikki Giovanni, poet and professor (7 Jun 1943-2024)

Todays Word

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Hudibrastic

PRONUNCIATION:

(hyoo-duh-BRAS-tik) 

MEANING:

adjective: Mock-heroic; playfully burlesque or satirical.
noun: A piece of verse or writing in this style.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Hudibras (published in three parts in 1663, 1664, and 1678), a mock-heroic satirical poem by Samuel Butler. Earliest documented use: 1712.

NOTES:

Butler’s Hudibras follows a pompous knight and his squire through comic misadventures, satirizing the religious and political quarrels of his time. Its rollicking style gave us the word Hudibrastic to describe a mock-heroic verse, often in rhyming eight-syllable couplets.

USAGE:

“But so far from writing a panegyric, he would scourge the Province with the lash of a Hudibrastic as a harlot is scourged at the public post.”
John Barth; Sot-Weed Factor; Doubleday; 1960.

Todays Word

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deipnosophist

PRONUNCIATION:

(daip-NOS-uh-fist) 

MEANING:

noun: One skilled at dinner-table conversation.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Deipnosophistae (The Deipnosophists), a work from around 200 CE by the Greek writer Athenaeus. From Greek deipnon (meal, dinner) + sophistes (wise man, sophist). Earliest documented use: 1581.

NOTES:

In his 15-book work Deipnosophistae, Athenaeus depicts learned men dining and discussing everything from food and its preparation to literary criticism, music, luxury, grammar, and more. The word deipnosophist has traveled from its earlier sense of a master of dining to its modern sense: someone skilled in dinner-table conversation.

In short, a deipnosophist is the person who can pass the potatoes, quote Pindar, rescue a dying conversation and turn it into a sparkling one, all without using the salad fork as a pointer.

USAGE:

“In mimicking a deipnosophist, we can learn how to transition topics to make our chaotic conversations meaningful.”
Pat Connell; Embracing Your Inner Deipnosophist; The Heights (Boston College); Apr 2, 2023.

See more usage examples of deipnosophist in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

Todays Thought

It is the people who scream the loudest about America and Freedom who seem to be the most intolerant for a differing point of view. 

-Rosanne Cash, singer-songwriter and author (b. 24 May 1955)

Todays Thought

I should dearly love that the world should be ever so little better for my presence. Even on this small stage we have our two sides, and something might be done by throwing all one's weight on the scale of breadth, tolerance, charity, temperance, peace, and kindliness to man and beast. We can't all strike very big blows, and even the little ones count for something. 

-Arthur Conan Doyle, physician and writer (22 May 1859-1930)

Todays Word

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Parthian

PRONUNCIATION:

(PAHR-thee-uhn) 

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Relating to Parthia.
2. Delivered while retreating or departing, especially as a final remark.

ETYMOLOGY:

After the Parthians, people of Parthia, an ancient region corresponding roughly to modern northeastern Iran. Earliest documented use: c. 1400.

NOTES:

Parthians were expert mounted archers. Their specialty was firing arrows while in actual or feigned retreat, disrupting pursuing forces. The more familiar term, Parthian shot, is a synonym. Also see esprit d’escalier.

USAGE:

“[John Bolton’s] book is a Parthian machine gun salvo at the ‘Risen Bureaucrats’ of the State Department who defeated him, with their view that US interests are best served by recognising that other countries can have their own interests, and still be allies -- if you listen to them. Bolton famously did sticks, not carrots. And got diplomatic peanuts in return.”
Ian Williams; To See Ourselves As Others; The World Today (London, UK); Jan 2008.

See more usage examples of Parthian in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

Todays Thought

The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other. 

-Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (18 May 1872-1970)