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6.20.2004

No story, sorry. 

Okay, for this word I have no story or interesting comment to make. I just found it fascinating that saints have a different word for their life story than the rest of us. Then again...I guess they deserve it. Wow your friends with this crazy new word knowledge.

hagiography \hag-ee-AH-gruh-fee\ noun

1 : biography of saints or venerated persons
*2 : idealizing or idolizing biography

Example sentence:
"In Elvis hagiography, Presley's 'C' in music is like Einstein's flunking math." (Scott Spencer, The Nation, December 5, 1994)

Did you know?
Like "biography" and "autograph," the word "hagiography" has to do with the written word. The combining form "-graphy" comes from Greek "graphein," meaning "to write." "Hagio-" comes from a Greek word that means "saintly" or "holy." This origin is seen in Hagiographa, the Greek designation of the Ketuvim, the third division of the Hebrew Bible. Our English word "hagiography," though it can refer to biography of actual saints, is these days more often applied to biography that treats ordinary human subjects as if they were saints.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

6.17.2004

Bad once more! 

"What happened to the promise of daily posts to update the words of the day?", you may be asking yourself. I sure as hell know I am. I led you on. I cheated you, lied to you. On many occasions, at that. Now I'm trying to fix it. Behold!

Side note: look at the sample sentence. From where I'm sitting, Marcus is an idiot, unless he got a free dinner or something else non-monetary out of the deal. Then again, I'm a college student and have come to value money for what it is. Especially quarters –- those are GOLD!

pecuniary \pih-KYOO-nee-air-ee\ adjective

*1 : consisting of or measured in money
2 : of or relating to money

Example sentence:
Marcus was more than happy to water Rachel's plants while she was away and refused any pecuniary compensation for the job.

Did you know?
"Pecuniary" first appeared in English in the early 16th century and comes from the Latin word "pecunia," which means "money." Both this root and the Latin "peculium," which means "private property," are related to the Latin noun for cattle, "pecus." In early times, cattle were viewed as a trading commodity (as they still are in some parts of the world), and property was often valued in terms of cattle. "Pecunia" has also given us "impecunious," a word meaning "having little or no money," while "peculium" gave us "peculate," which is a synonym for "embezzle." In "peculium" you might also recognize the word "peculiar," which originally meant "exclusively one's own; distinctive" before acquiring its current meaning of "strange."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

End note: no, I don't ACTUALLY believe that Marcus is an idiot. There's nothing wrong with doing someone a favor at no cost whatsoever.

6.03.2004

I'm a bad person. 

I've been letting the words of the day pile up...sorry about that. But I've kept the good ones, so here we go. It will take me a while to catch up if I go day by day, because double words of the day are slightly confusing. So, I won't tell you how old this word of the day is...but it's got its fair share of wrinkles...Enjoy.

I live in cloud-cuckoo-land. I really think I do. Reality is good enough, I guess, because you can't really be in cloud-cuckoo-land. So take what you're given. For those of you who feel your cloud-cuckoo-land often melds or even becomes your reality....is there a manual or something for that?

cloud-cuckoo-land \klowd-KOO-koo-land\ noun

: a realm of fantasy or of whimsical or foolish behavior

Example sentence:
If the boss really thinks he can up productivity and increase profit after the company is downsized, he is living in cloud-cuckoo-land.

Did you know?
In Aristophanes' 5th century B.C. comedy Birds, Peisthetaerus (a human) convinces the king of the birds and his followers to help him build an ideal city juxtaposed between heaven and earth. They plan to intercept all of the sacrifices rising from the earth to the gods on Olympus, thereby starving the gods into cooperating with them. The newly built city is dubbed "Nephelokokkygia," (from "nephos," meaning "cloud," and "kokkyx," the native European cuckoo). By the late 19th century, English speakers had translated the town's name as "Cloud-Cuckoo-Land" and had begun using it as a general term for any similarly unreal or whimsical place or situation.


*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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