A Single Life - Oscar Nominated Animated Short

Todays Thought

When I listen to love, I am listening to my true nature. When I express love, I am expressing my true nature. All of us love. All of us do it more and more perfectly. The past has brought us both ashes and diamonds. In the present we find the flowers of what we've planted and the seeds of what we are becoming. I plant the seeds of love in my heart. I plant the seeds of love in the hearts of others. 

-Julia Cameron, artist, author, teacher, filmmaker, composer, and journalist (b. 4 Mar 1948)

Todays Word

 A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Wordsmith.org

Long before cars, buses, and airplanes, there were boats. Evidence of sea voyages dates back 50,000 years, such as the early migrations to Australia that required crossing open water. This reliance on boats makes sense when you consider that two-thirds of the the planet’s surface is water.

Seafaring hasn’t just shaped human history, it’s also left a lasting wake in our language. Countless everyday phrases have nautical origins, even if we rarely notice their roots on dry land. From learning the ropes (learning to do a job) to going overboard (taking things too far), the language is buoyed by maritime influence.

This week we’ll dive deep into words of nautical origins.

trimmer

PRONUNCIATION:

(TRIM-uhr) 

MEANING:

noun:
1. One who adjusts beliefs, opinions, and actions to suit personal interest.
2. A person or a tool that clips, shortens, neatens, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:

From trim, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Old English trymman/trymian (to arrange, strengthen, etc.). Earliest documented use: 1513.

NOTES:

In sailing, to trim the sails is to adjust them for maximum advantage based on the wind’s direction. A sailing ship’s trimmer monitors the wind and fine-tunes the sails accordingly -- kind of like a political weather vane, but with actual responsibility. It’s easy to see how the term evolved to describe someone who shifts positions out of self-interest, keeping an ear to the wind and a foot in both camps.

Interestingly, trimmer also had another nautical meaning: a worker who arranged coal or cargo to keep the ship balanced.

The term gained political prominence when it was applied to George Savile, Lord Halifax. Reclaiming the label, he published The Character of a Trimmer (1688) under a pseudonym, defining a trimmer not as an opportunist but as someone who ensures stability: “One who keeps even the ship of state.”

USAGE:

“Overton particularly disliked him as a political trimmer, prepared to cut his conscience to the prevailing fashion.”
Frank McLynn; The Road Not Taken; Bodley Head; 2012.

“Stanley Kunitz: ‘Most of all, I love being alive. I love the natural world -- and caring and creative people -- and the seekers of justice and truth. Whom do I disdain? Bigots, reactionaries, self-righteous people, zealots, trimmers, bullies, and manipulators.”
Bill Moyers; Fooling With Words; William Morrow; 1999.

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

We have come to a point where it is loyalty to resist, and treason to submit. 

-Carl Schurz, revolutionary, statesman, and reformer (2 Mar 1829-1906)

The Modes Ranked by Brightness

Todays Thought

The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second. 

-John Steinbeck, novelist, Nobel laureate (27 Feb 1902-1968)

Todays Thought

In the cellars of the night, when the mind starts moving around old trunks of bad times, the pain of this and the shame of that, the memory of a small boldness is a hand to hold. 

-John Leonard, critic (25 Feb 1939-2008)