I liked all the words I received this week so I am gonna share them:
cassandra
PRONUNCIATION:
(kuh-SAND-ruh)
MEANING: noun: One who prophesies disaster and whose warnings are unheeded.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Cassandra in Greek mythology who received the gift of prophecy but was later cursed never to be believed. Earliest documented use: 1670.
NOTES:
Cassandra was the daughter of the Trojan king Priam and Hecuba. Apollo, the god of light, who also controlled the fine arts, music, and eloquence, granted her the ability to see the future. But when she didn't return his love, he condemned her never to be believed. Among other things, Cassandra warned about the Trojan horse that the Greeks left but her warning was ignored.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The late F.W.H. Myers used to tell how he asked a man at a dinner table what he thought would happen to him when he died. The man tried to ignore the question, but on being pressed, replied: "Oh well, I suppose I shall inherit eternal bliss, but I wish you wouldn't talk about such unpleasant subjects." -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)
ETYMOLOGY:
After Wilkins Micawber, an incurable optimist in the novel David Copperfield (1850) by Charles Dickens. His schemes for making money never materialize, but he's always hopeful that "something will turn up". Earliest documented example of the word used allusively: 1852.
USAGE:
"As the shadow work-and-pensions secretary, David Willetts, said yesterday, he takes the Mr Micawber approach to economics: something will turn up."
Larry Elliott; Mr Micawber May Find Result Misery; The Guardian (London, UK); Nov 4, 2004.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Nature never said to me: Do not be poor. Still less did she say: Be rich. Her cry to me was always: Be independent. -Nicolas de Chamfort, writer (1741-1794)
MEANING: noun: A person who complains continually, has a gloomy attitude, or one who warns about a disastrous future.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Jeremiah, a Hebrew prophet during the seventh and sixth centuries BCE who prophesied the fall of the kingdom of Judah and whose writings (see jeremiad) are collected in the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations. Earliest documented use: 1781.
USAGE:
"Economists are pretty reluctant to forecast a recession ... perhaps because no one loves a Jeremiah.
Shorter Cycles?; The Economist (London, UK); Sep 12, 2011.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The skylines lit up at dead of night, the air-conditioning systems cooling empty hotels in the desert and artificial light in the middle of the day all have something both demented and admirable about them. The mindless luxury of a rich civilization, and yet of a civilization perhaps as scared to see the lights go out as was the hunter in his primitive night. -Jean Baudrillard, sociologist and philosopher (1929-2007)
MEANING: noun: A naively cheerful and optimistic person.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Pollyanna Whittier, heroine of novels by Eleanor Porter (1868-1920). Pollyanna is an indefatigable optimist and teaches everyone to play the "glad game": find something to be glad about, no matter what tragedy befalls. Earliest documented use: 1917.
USAGE:
"So the doctrine of positive thinking does not require you to close your eyes and ears to the world. It does not require you to become a Pollyanna, calling everything wonderful, no matter how horrid it is."
A Thought About Negative Thinking; Deccan Chronicle (India); Sep 16, 2012.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain. -Mildred Witte Stouven
Text without context is pretext If your opponent is of choleric temperament, seek to irritate him
Here's a word I've apparently misunderstood the meaning of for a long time.
Skeptical
While one meaning is "not easily convinced" the other meaning is "Philosophy relating to the theory that certain knowledge is impossible.".
So be careful when using this word when talking about the deen! Don't call yourself a skeptic unless you think it is impossible to know something for certain.
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