Today in History (April 23rd):
1564: Birthdays: English playwright William Shakespeare.
1616: Deaths: William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes.
1635: The first public school in America, the Boston Latin School, was opened.
1791: Birthdays: James Buchanan, 15th president of the United States.
1858: Birthdays: Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Planck.
1891: Birthdays: Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev.
1897: Birthdays: Canadian Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lester Pearson.
1898: The first movie theater opened at the Koster and Bials Music Hall in New York City.
1898: The U.S. government asked for 125,000 volunteers to fight against Spain in Cuba.
1921: Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn.
1928: Birthdays: Actor/diplomat Shirley Temple Black.
1932: Birthdays: Distance runner and author Jim Fixx.
1936: Birthdays: Singer Roy Orbison.
1939: Birthdays: Actor Lee Majors; Actor David Birney.
1942: Birthdays: Actor Sandra Dee.
1943: Birthdays: Actor Herve Villechaize.
1949: Birthdays: Actor Joyce DeWitt.
1954: Birthdays: Documentarian Michael Moore.
1957: Birthdays: Actor Jan Hooks.
1960: Birthdays: Actor Valerie Bertinelli.
1961: Birthdays: Actor George Lopez.
1965: More than 200 U.S. planes struck North Vietnam in one of the heaviest raids of the Vietnam War.
1967: Birthdays: Actor Melina Kanakaredes.
1968: Birthdays: Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
1977: Birthdays: Actor Kal Penn.
1985: Former U.S. Sen. Sam Ervin died at age 88. The North Carolina Democrat directed the Senate Watergate investigation that led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation.
1991: Virgilio Pablo Paz Romero was arrested for the 1976 car-bomb killing of Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier in Washington.
1992: McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in Beijing.
1993: United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez died at age 66.
2002: Pope John Paul II met with U.S. cardinals to discuss the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Roman Catholic Church. He expressed an apology to victims of abuse, saying what had happened to them was a crime and an appalling act in the eyes of God.
2006: Hungary’s Socialist-Liberal coalition recaptured government control by a comfortable majority in parliamentary elections.
2007: Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who faced down army tanks during the fall of the Soviet Union, died of cardiac arrest at the age of 76.
2008: U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, top U.S. military official in Iraq, was promoted to head of Central Command, overseeing military affairs in the Middle East and Central Asia, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
2009: The U.S. government told Chrysler, the third member of Detroit’s Big 3 automakers, to prepare to file for bankruptcy. Chrysler was given a few days to complete a deal with Fiat, the Italian carmaker.
2010: Arizona enacted a law requiring local governments and police to crack down on illegal immigrants. The law, among other things, made it a state crime to be in the United States illegally and eased the process of making arrests.
2011: Syrian police were accused of firing at mourners at funerals for protesters killed a day earlier, claiming six lives. At least 104 people were reported killed the day before in one of the most violent days in protests against President Bashar al-Assad.
2012: French election results had Socialist Francois Hollande edging President Nicolas Sarkozy, setting up a May 6 runoff.
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“No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.” – Viktor Frankl, author, neurologist, and psychiatrist (1905-1997)
“I may not have gone where I intended to go but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.” – Douglas Adams
svelte
PRONUNCIATION: (SVELT)
MEANING: (adjective), Slim, slender; elegant, graceful.
ETYMOLOGY: French, from Italian svelto, past participle of svellere “to stretch out” devolved from Vulgar Latin *exvellere based on ex- “out” + vellere “to pull.” Where the root of the Latin word comes from is difficult to say. It apparently comes from an underlying *wel- but that root in PIE seems to have been “roll, twist,” not “stretch” or “pull.” If they are related, the root here is akin to German Welle “wave,” walzen “roll,” and English “envelop(e).” This adjective compares the old fashioned way: “svelter” and “sveltest.” The noun is “svelteness” and the adverb, “sveltely,” though we recommend you avoid words this lumpish and ungainly. “Svelte” sounds as sophisticated as its meaning but it has a family of black sheep. The connection it makes between “slender” and “elegant” reflects Western societies bias against the zaftig.
USAGE: “Jean-Anne, you look so svelte in the area covered by your new swim suit!”
cachinnate
PRONUNCIATION: (KAK-i-nayt)
http://wordsmith.org/words/cachinnate.mp3
MEANING: (verb intr.), To laugh very loudly or immoderately.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin cachinnare (to guffaw), of imitative origin. Earliest documented use: 1824.
USAGE: “‘Butler’ is so deliciously zany and funny, we cachinnated until our sides hurt.” – Christopher Muther; It’s Oh So Quiet; Boston Globe (Massachusetts); Mar 20, 2004.
Explore “cachinnate” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=cachinnate
forte
PRONUNCIATION: (fort, FOHR-tay)
http://wordsmith.org/words/forte.mp3
MEANING: (noun)
1. A strong point: something in which a person excels.
2. The stronger, lower part of a sword blade.
Used in music direction (FOHR-tay)
(adjective), 3. Loud.
(adverb), 4. In a forceful manner.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1, 2: From French forte (strong), from Latin fortis (strong). Earliest documented use: before 1648. Also see foible.
For 3, 4: From Italian forte (strong, loud), from Latin fortis (strong). Also seesforzando. Earliest documented use: 1724.
NOTES: The noun sense of the word was originally pronounced as a single syllable (fort), as in French, however the two-syllable pronunciation (FOHR-tay) has mostly supplanted it. The word is in that limbo state where no matter how you pronounce it, someone may fault you for it.
USAGE: “Peter Mandelson made blunders in the very dark arts that were supposed to be his forte.” – European Redemption; The Economist (London, UK); Oct 11, 2008.
Explore “forte” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=forte
borborygmus
PRONUNCIATION: (bor-buh-RIG-muhs)
http://wordsmith.org/words/borborygmus.mp3
MEANING: (noun), A rumbling noise caused by the movement of gas through the intestines.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek borborygmos (intestinal rumbling), an onomatopoeiac word to describe the sound.
NOTES: Borborygmi are usually harmless, they are simply a result of gas movement around the stomach. And the rumbling sound doesn’t mean one is hungry either. We can’t really do anything about the sound of a stomach growling, but we can take comfort in the fact that at least we know a fancy word to describe it.
USAGE: “And the piece de resistance: ‘He was woken early by borborygmus as his insides fermented and his intestines ballooned with gas beyond their capacity.'” – Ruth Dudley Edwards; Book Review / Straying Into A Dark, Ugly And Sick World; The Independent (London, UK); Sep 21, 1994.