Today in History (January 18th):
1689: Birthdays: French philosopher Montesquieu.
1778: James Cook became the first European to reach the Hawaiian Islands. He called them the Sandwich Islands.
1779: Birthdays: English physician Peter Roget, who compiled Roget’s Thesaurus.
1782: Birthdays: American orator and statesman Daniel Webster.
1871: William of Prussia was declared the first German emperor.
1882: Birthdays: English author A.A. Milne, who wrote Winnie the Pooh.
1892: Birthdays: Comedian Oliver Hardy of the Laurel and Hardy movie team.
1904: Birthdays: Actor Cary Grant.
1913: Birthdays: Actor Danny Kaye.
1919: The Paris Peace Conference opened in Versailles.
1933: Birthdays: American inventor Ray Dolby; Filmmaker John Boorman.
1937: Birthdays: Former Northern Ireland politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate John Hume.
1938: Birthdays: Former baseball star Curt Flood.
1941: Birthdays: Singer David Ruffin; Singer Bobby Goldsboro.
1943: Moscow announced the 16-month Nazi siege of Leningrad had been lifted.
1955: Birthdays: Actor Kevin Costner.
1966: Indira Gandhi, daughter of the late Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, became prime minister of India.
1968: The United States and Soviet Union agreed on a draft of a nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
1969: Birthdays: Actor Jesse L. Martin.
1983: The International Olympic Committee restored Jim Thorpe’s Olympic medals to his family. They had been rescinded for Thorpe’s having played professional baseball. He won gold medals in 1912 in the pentathlon and decathlon.
1990: Washington Mayor Marion Barry was arrested in an FBI sting at a downtown hotel and charged with buying and smoking crack cocaine.
1994: Iran-Contra independent counsel Lawrence Walsh issued his final report on the scandal. He blasted former U.S. President George H.W. Bush for his Christmas Eve 1992 pardons of six Iran-Contra defendants.
1995: Officials in Paris announced the discovery of a magnificent display of Paleolithic cave art in southern France.
1996: Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley, filed for divorce from Michael Jackson after 20 months of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences.
1997: Norwegian Borge Ousland completed a 1,675-mile trek across Antarctica, the first time anyone traversed the continent alone.
2004: At least 23 people were killed when a car bomb exploded in Baghdad.
2006: Bodies of 36 Iraqis were found in mass graves in two towns north of Baghdad. Officials said many of the victims were police recruits.
2007: Venezuelan lawmakers voted to allow President Hugo Chavez to rule by decree for 18 months.
2008: U.S. President George W. Bush urged passage of a $145 billion stimulus package to provide tax relief for individuals and businesses to boost a sagging U.S. economy. After major presidential primary tests in Iowa and New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton led Barack Obama in the Democratic race and Mike Huckbee and John McCain shared wins among the Republicans.
2009: The three-week assault by Israel on Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip came to an end with a truce. The offensive was aimed at stopping Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians.
2010: U.S. President Barack Obama earned a 57 percent job approval rating for his first year in office, a rating pulled down by negative responses over the last six months, a Gallup poll indicated. The man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 was released from a Turkish prison after 29 years behind bars.
2011: A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vest in a group of police recruits in Tikrit, Iraq, killing at least 60 people and wounding 150 others. Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier; who recently returned to Port-au-Prince from exile, was charged with corruption and embezzlement.
2012: The Obama administration rejected a bid to expand the controversial cross-country Keystone XL pipeline because the congressional deadline was considered too short for a necessary impact review. A multibillion-dollar pipeline expansion to 1,700 miles was being sought in a project intended to carry crude oil from Canada’s oil sands in Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico.
Quotes
“Hardware are the parts of a computer that can be kicked.” – Jeff Pesis
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Daniel Webster (1782-1852) American Statesman:
“A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue.”
“An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, the power to destroy.”
“Failure is more frequently from want of energy than want of capital.”
“God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.”
“He who tampers with the currency robs labor of its bread.”
“How little do they see what really is, who frame their hasty judgment upon that which seems.”
“I apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign foe… Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger.”
“I mistrust the judgment of every man in a case in which his own wishes are concerned.”
“It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment, independence now and independence forever.”
“Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together.”
“Let us not forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. When tillage begins, other arts will follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization.”
venial
PRONUNCIATION: (VEE-nee-uhl, VEEN-yuhl)
http://wordsmith.org/words/venial.mp3
MEANING: adjective: Minor; easily excused.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin venia (forgiveness). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wen-(to desire or to strive for), which is also the source of wish, win, ween,overweening, venerate, venison, Venus, and banyan. Earliest documented use:before 1300.
USAGE:
“Wealthy fraudsters are given chieftaincy titles and venerated, and theirnefarious deeds are euphemistically tagged venial.” – Chiedu Uche Okoye; Victims of Illusion; Daily Independent (Nigeria);Jun 27, 2011.
“The production takes a few venial liberties with the text.” – Ben Brantley; Railing at a Money-Mad World; The New York Times; Jul 1, 2010.
Explore “venial” in the Visual Thesaurus.
(http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=venial)
Jan 18, 2013 at 9:32 PM
Moving Up in Social Circles
At social or business gatherings, ambitious people often circle the room, introducing themselves to everyone. This circulating behavior provides a clue to the origin of “ambitious.”
In ancient Rome, politicians who went around glad-handing people were described as “ambitio,” meaning “go around.” So in English, “ambition” came to mean “an ardent desire for fame, wealth or power.” This may explain why we feel as if some ambitious people are giving us the go-around.
Many other words describing human characteristics and emotions are derived from Latin:
–Diffident — This adjective, meaning “shy, hesitant,” derives from the Latin “diffido,” from “dis-” (not) and “fides” (faith). Thus people who are “diffident” lack faith in either themselves or a happy outcome. By contrast, “confident” comes from “con-” and “fides,” meaning “with faith.”
–Pusillanimous — In Latin “pusillus” meant “tiny,” and “animus” meant mind or spirit, so a pusillanimous person is small in spirit, i.e., timid, cowardly.
–Recalcitrant — Horses and people who kick back in defiance of orders are called “recalcitrant,” derived from the Latin “re-” (back) and “calcitro” (to kick with the heel).
–Supercilious — People who are “supercilious” (haughty, snobby) tend to raise their eyebrows (and their noses) at other people, so “supercilious” comes from the Latin “super” (above) and “cilium” (eyebrow).
–Glad — The Latin “glaber” meant “smooth, bald,” and this meaning survives in “glabella,” the smooth prominence between the eyebrows. Eyebrows again! “Glaber” entered English as “glad,” meaning “shining, smooth.” Because objects that are bright and shiny often make people happy, “glad” eventually came to mean pleased, cheerful.
–Capricious — If you’ve ever seen a frisky goat capering around a pasture — and who hasn’t? — you’ve gleaned a clue to the origin of “capricious” (fickle, inconstant). “Caper” meant “goat” in Latin, so a “capricious” person is acting like a goat by moving whimsically from one place or idea to the next.
–Duplicitous — Anything that’s folded over two times (think cell phone contract) might be hiding something. So the word “duplicitous,” from the Latin “duo” (two) and “plico” (fold), came to mean “double-dealing, deceitful.”
–Eager — If you’re eager for this column to end — and who isn’t? — you’re also “keen” to see it end. And that’s appropriate, for “eager” derives from the Latin “acer” (keen, sharp).
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
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