Today in History (May 17th):
1749: Birthdays: English physician Edward Jenner, developer of the smallpox vaccine.
1792: The New York Stock Exchange was formed.
1805: Birthdays: English writer Robert Surtees.
1860: Birthdays: Schuyler Wheeler, inventor of the electric fan.
1866: Birthdays: French composer Erik Satie.
1875: Aristides was the winner of the first Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.
1903: Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Fame member James Cool Papa Bell.
1911: Birthdays: Actor Maureen O’Sullivan.
1936: Birthdays: Actor Dennis Hopper.
1942: Birthdays: Musician Taj Mahal.
1954: In a major civil rights victory, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
1955: Birthdays: Actor Bill Paxton.
1956: Birthdays: Actor Bob Saget; Boxer Sugar Ray Leonard.
1959: Birthdays: Sports broadcaster Jim Nantz.
1961: Birthdays: Irish New Age singer Enya.
1962: Birthdays: Scottish comedian Craig Ferguson.
1973: The U.S. Senate Watergate Committee opened hearings into a break-in at Democratic National headquarters in Washington.
1987: Two Iraqi Exocet missiles hit the frigate USS Stark in the Persian Gulf, killing 37 seamen. Iraq apologized for mistaking the ship’s identity and the Stark’s top officers were reprimanded and retired.
1989: 1 million people demonstrated for democratic reforms in Beijing. The number of students fasting to support the drive reached 3,000.
1994: The U.N. Security Council approved sending troops to secure the airport in the civil war-torn African nation of Rwanda.
1999: Israel’s hawkish Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu lost his bid for re-election when Israeli voters elected Ehud Barak, head of the center-left Israel One coalition, to succeed him.
2000: Prosecutors in Birmingham, Ala., charged two longtime suspects in the deaths of four girls in a church bombing in 1963 that became a watershed event in the civil rights movement. The suspects were convicted in May 2001.
2004: The president of the Iraqi Governing Council, Ezzedine Salim, was assassinated in Baghdad by a suicide bomber. Massachusetts became the first state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
2005: Los Angeles voters elected Antonio Villaraigosa as the city’s first Hispanic mayor since 1872.
2007: The United States’ minority citizenship topped the 100 million mark, about one-third of the total American population, the U.S. Census Bureau said. Hispanics made up the largest group, edging African-Americans 44.3 million to 40.2 million.
2009: U.S. President Barack Obama called for civility and compromise on the divisive abortion issue in an address to graduates of Notre Dame University, the noted Catholic school that drew considerable criticism from abortion foes for its invitation to a pro-abortion-rights president to speak. Pakistani military officials reported killing 1,000 militants, severely weakening Taliban control of the North-West Frontier province.
2010: The U.S. Supreme Court banned the sentencing of a juvenile to life in prison for a non-homicide case, calling the practice unconstitutional and cruel and unusual punishment.
2011: Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he and his wife of 28 years, Maria Shriver, had separated after she learned he had a child years earlier with a household employee.
2012: U.S. President Barack Obama said Myanmar is making progress in the path to Democracy and announced his nomination of Derek Mitchell as the first U.S. ambassador to the Southeast Asian country.
Quotes
“The physician can bury his mistakes but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
“A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.” – Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)
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PRONUNCIATION: (dog and POH-nee shoh)
http://wordsmith.org/words/dog-and-pony_show.mp3
MEANING: (noun), An elaborately staged presentation or briefing that lacks substance, arranged for public relations, selling, etc. Also, a presentation that is overly contrived.
ETYMOLOGY: After small traveling circuses that featured tricks involving dogs and ponies. Earliest documented use: 1885.
USAGE:
“Rather than be honest about the tragic missteps of the past and confront the lingering issues over detainee treatment, the Pentagon puts on a preposterous dog-and-pony show when reporters come calling.” – Pentagon’s Offensive Guantanamo Show; St. Petersburg Times (Florida); Jul 7, 2009.
“Cebu Pacific, the Philippines-based airline, has turned their safety announcement into a true dog-and-pony show. Their flight attendants dance to the music of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry while pointing out and demonstrating safety equipment. It’s even choreographed.” (video) – Gail Todd; Some Airlines Employ Humor With Safety Announcements; Chicago Daily Herald (Illinois); Apr 3, 2011.
orthogonal
PRONUNCIATION: (or-THOG-uh-nuhl)
http://wordsmith.org/words/orthogonal.mp3
MEANING: (adjective)
1. At right angles.
2. Unrelated or independent of each other.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin orthogonius (right-angled), from Greek orthogonios, from ortho- (right, correct) + gonia (angle). Ultimately from the Indo-European root genu- (knee), which also gave us knee, kneel, genuflect, and diagonal. Earliest documented use: before 1560.
USAGE: “I’ve always liked the idea of belonging to a union, but then again they always seemed orthogonal to what I was actually doing with my life.” – Now That’s A Really Good Question; The Economist (London, UK); Feb 22, 2011.
Explore “orthogonal” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=orthogonal
Let’s Play ‘Vol’-ley Ball!
The words “volunteer,” “volley” and “volume” all share the same syllable: “vol.” But does that mean they share a common origin?
Nope. Each is derived from a different Latin root.
“Volunteer” comes from the Latin root “vol-,” a stem of the Latin verb “velle,” meaning “to will, to wish.” Thus, “volunteers” are people who wish to do something of their own free will, without coercion or compensation. (Students who have freely chosen to attend the University of Tennessee and do charity work are “Volunteers” in three senses of the word.)
This same Latin root also gives us the word “volition” (the act of making a choice), “volitive” (expressing a wish) and, surprisingly, “voluptuous” (delighting in or conducive to sensual pleasure). Here the connection with wishing is that sensual pleasure is something we desire.
Volley,” by contrast, comes from a completely different Latin root: “volare,” meaning, as the energetic song 1950s song “Volare” reminds us, “to fly.” A volley, whether of bullets, arrows or balls, flies through the air.
“Volare” also launches “volatile” (easily vaporizable) because such vapors fly off quickly into the air. By extension, of course, “volatile” also describes people who are fickle and moody — and sometimes “fly” off the handle.
Other “vol-” words derive from the Latin verb “volvere” (to roll).
This root lies at the heart of many words related to turning around or rolling out from a certain set of circumstances: “revolve,” “evolve,” “devolve.”
When something rolls back within itself we say that it’s “involved” or “convoluted.” In ancient Rome, a scroll was called a “volumen” because it was rolled up, which is why we still refer to a book as a “volume.”
And when rolled up objects such as scrolls or carpets or banners are uncoiled, they take up a lot of space, so “volume” also came to refer to quantity and amount. That’s why we speak of the “volume” of a solid, liquid or gas.
Likewise, the English adjective “voluminous,” which first meant “consisting of many coils, folds or convolutions,” eventually broadened to mean “large, numerous,” as in a “voluminous art collection.”
You’re probably about to erupt because I haven’t mentioned “volcano.” Even though “volcano” contains the syllable “vol,” it derives, not from one of the three “vol-” roots, but from Volcanus, the Roman god of fire and metalworking.
To paraphrase Porky Pig, “That’s ‘vol’ folks!”
Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
Copyright 2013 Creators Syndicate Inc.