Thought for the day.

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Whoe'er excels in what we prize / Appears a hero in our eyes. -Jonathan Swift, satirist (1667-1745)

A WORD FOR TODAY:

atone

PRONUNCIATION:
(uh-TOHN, rhymes with phone) 

MEANING:
verb tr., intr.: To make amends for.


ETYMOLOGY:
From the contraction of the phrase "at one" meaning "to be in harmony".


USAGE:
"While society must be protected from those who might pose it a threat, it is vital we let people get on with their lives once they have atoned."
Éamonn Mac Aodha; Minor Offenders Need More Help to Escape Spectre of Past Crime; The Irish Times (Dublin); Apr 28, 2009.

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
As long as there are slaughterhouses there will be battlefields. -Leo Tolstoy, author (1828-1910)

A WORD FOR TODAY:

tessera

PRONUNCIATION:
(TES-uhr-uh; plural tesserae: TES-uhr-ee) 

MEANING:
noun: A small piece of stone, glass, or tile used to make a mosaic.


ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin, from Greek tesseres, variant of tessares (four), from the four corners of its square shape.


USAGE:
"Like red-stained tessera, the remnants of lost lives come together to compose a vast and shocking mosaic of contemporary life."
Art Gould; Piecing It All Together; The Anniston Star (Alabama); May 10, 2009.

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Every man thinks God is on his side. The rich and powerful know he is. -Jean Anouilh, dramatist (1910-1987)

A WORD FOR TODAY:

decuman

PRONUNCIATION:
(DEK-yoo-muhn) 

MEANING:
adjective: Very large.


ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin decumanus, variant of decimanus (of the tenth), from decimus (tenth), from decem (ten). The word was often applied to waves from the belief that every tenth wave is greater than the others. The word also referred to the main gate of a military camp in ancient Rome. This gate faced away from the enemy and the tenth cohort of the legion was stationed there. A related word is decimate and a dean is, literally speaking, a chief of ten.


USAGE:
"The lover whose soul shaken is
In some decuman billow of bliss."
Francis Thompson; The Way of a Maid; c. 1890.

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration.  Inspiration seldom generates action...

A WORD FOR TODAY:

abstain

DEFINITION:    (verb) to refrain, to hold back.

EXAMPLE:    After her heart attack, she was warned by the doctor to abstain from smoking, drinking, and overeating.

SYNONYMS:    forbear, forgo, refrain (from)

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
If you don't have time to do it right you must have time to do it over...

A WORD FOR TODAY:


digress

DEFINITION:    (verb) to wander from the main path or the main topic.

EXAMPLE:    My high school biology teacher loved to digress from science into personal anecdotes about his college adventures.

SYNONYMS:    deviate, drift

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Perfect valor is to behave, without witnesses, as one would act were all the world watching. -Francois, duc de La Rochefoucauld, moralist (1613-1680)

A WORD FOR TODAY:

"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone.
"When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Alice and Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass might as well have been talking about this week's words. While the word "set" has the largest number of meanings -- the Oxford English Dictionary has 26 pages devoted to this little three-letter word -- each of this week's hard-working words has many unrelated meanings that are interesting.

Come to think of it, Alice's one word mean can mean more than one mean word. With this week's words in AWAD Humpty Dumpty is going to have to pay a lot. Let's get our money's worth.

purlicue

PRONUNCIATION:
(PUHR-li-kyu)

MEANING:
noun:
1. The space between the extended forefinger and thumb.
2. A flourish or curl at the end of a handwritten word. Also known as curlicue.
3. A discourse, especially its summarizing part.

ETYMOLOGY:
Of uncertain origin, probably from Scots pirlie (curly).

USAGE:
"Won Li's attentions moved to the weblike purlicue between my thumb and forefinger."
Suzann Ledbetter; A Lady Never Trifles with Thieves; Pocket; 2003.

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
It is a trick among the dishonest to offer sacrifices that are not needed, or not possible, to avoid making those that are required. -Ivan Goncharov, novelist (1812-1891)

A WORD FOR TODAY:

trammel

PRONUNCIATION:
(TRAM-uhl) 

MEANING:
noun:
1. Something that limits or hinders.
2. A fishing net having three layers.
3. An instrument for drawing ellipses.
4. A shackle used in training a horse to amble.
5. An instrument for gauging and aligning parts of a machine.
6. A hook for hanging a pot or a kettle over a fire.
verb tr.: To restrain; to hinder.


ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French tramail, from Latin tremaculum, from tres (three) + macula (mesh). Ultimately from the Indo-European root trei- (three) that's also the source of such words as three, testify (to be the third person: to bear witness), and triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13).


USAGE:
"John Singleton, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. spokesman, said [the ban on cigarette sales at Boston drugstores and on college campuses] does trammel on businesses' right to sell what they want to sell."
Stephen Smith; Hub Seeks More Bans on Tobacco; The Boston Globe; Sep 4, 2008.

"'Lost in Showbiz asks what constitutes a crisis?' Jonathan Blake continues, free of the trammels of punctuation."
Marina Hyde; Our High Priest of Showbiz Offers Up Some Vehicle Specs; The Guardian (London, UK); Apr 27, 2009.

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
If your morals make you dreary, depend on it they are wrong. -Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist, and poet (1850-1894)

A  WORD FOR TODAY:

grig

PRONUNCIATION:
(grig) 

MEANING:
noun:
1. A cricket or grasshopper.
2. A small or young eel.
3. A lively or lighthearted person.


ETYMOLOGY:
The word is often used in the phrase "merry as a grig". The word is of uncertain origin, though various theories have been suggested, such as a corruption of "merry as a cricket" or "merry as a Greek", as in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida: "Then she's a merry Greek indeed."


USAGE:
"When all is reversed and we shall be like the insane, to whom the antics of the sane seem the crazy twistings of a grig."
EB White; Removal; 1938.

"I walked into my local branch of Boots the Chemists as merry as a grig, with a twinkle in my eye and an annoying whistle on my lips."
The Weasel; Independent (London, UK); Jun 8, 1996.

[Wang Solutions]

The word is often used in the phrase "merry as a grig".

Yes, hardly a day goes by where I don't hear someone say that ... 

[Cruncher Pete]

The word is often used in the phrase "merry as a grig".

Yes, hardly a day goes by where I don't hear someone say that ... 

No wonder, with that local cheese factory and Brown Bros wine every Wangarite must be as happy as a Greek.    :drool:

[Wang Solutions]

Winery Walkabout this weekend too.    :drink:

[Cruncher Pete]

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility. -St. Augustine (354-430)

A WORD FOR TODAY:

growler

PRONUNCIATION:
(GROU-luhr) 

MEANING:
noun:
1. One that growls.
2. A container (as a pail or pitcher) brought by a customer to fetch beer.
3. A small iceberg.
4. A four-wheeled cab.
5. An electromagnetic device for testing short-circuited coils.


ETYMOLOGY:
From growl, from Middle English groule, grollen (to rumble), probably of imitative origin.


USAGE:
"When Euro-metal comes to mind it can often rouse visions of hairy, horn-helmeted growlers howling about faraway lands and legendary times."
Fawnda Mithrush; Primordial: Thoroughly Modern Metal; Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada); May 7, 2009.

"The two-story building will feature a to-go bar on the first floor for beer aficionados to buy and fill growlers."
Rachael Fisher; Brewing Company on the Move; The Anchorage Daily News (Alaska); May 1, 2009.

"We sailed the 30-mile stretch of the Atlantic Sound, otherwise known as Iceberg Alley. The smaller, granite-hard growlers are to be avoided just as deftly as the enormous floating glacial islands."
Neill Johnston; Cool Cruise Among Ice and Penguins; Birmingham Post (UK); May 15, 2009.

"So this growler will get into Audi R8 territory for about a third of the Audi's $130,000 starting price tag."
Jeremy Cato; New Challenger Even Better; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Feb 19, 2008.

[WikiWill]

Not quite a thought for today, but a couple of items of historical interest, in memory of another member of historical interest :)

After 35 Years, Another Message Sent From Arecibo
http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/11/23/013255/After-35-Years-Another-Message-Sent-From-Arecibo

Australia's CSIRO To Launch CPU-GPU Supercomputer
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/11/23/090213/Australias-CSIRO-To-Launch-CPU-GPU-Supercomputer

And 46 years ago today, Dr Who appeared on TV :)

[Vajras]

well, not so much A thought but MANY thoughts. As to if any are apochryphal, you be the judge  biggrin



ONE
Recently, when I went to McDonald's I saw on the menu that you could order 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets.
So I asked for a half dozen nuggets.
'We don't have half dozen nuggets,' said the teenager at the counter.
'You don't?' I replied.
'We only have six, nine, or twelve,' was the reply.
'So I can't order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?'
'That's right.'
I just shook my head and ordered six McNuggets.
(Unbelievable, sadly true...)


TWO
I was checking out at the local Woolworths with just a few items and the lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine.
I picked up one of those 'divider' thingy's they keep by the cash register and placed it between our things so they wouldn't get mixed.
After the girl had scanned all my items, she picked up the 'divider' and looked at it all over for the bar code so she could scan it.
Not finding the bar code, she said to me, 'Do you know how much this is?'
So I said to her, 'Look, I've changed my mind; I don't think I'll buy that today.'
'OK,' she said, and so I paid for my things and left.
She had no clue what had just happened.


THREE (and it wasn't my wife)
A woman at her workplace was seen putting a credit card into her floppy drive and pulling it out very quickly.
When asked what she was doing, she said she was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for a credit card number, so she was using the ATM 'thingy.'
(keep shuddering!!)


FOUR
I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping beside her car. 'Do you need some help?' I asked.
She replied, 'I knew I! should have replaced the battery to this remote door unlocker. Now I can't get into my car. Do you think they (pointing to a distant convenience store) would have a battery to fit this?'
'Hmmm, I don't know. Do you have an alarm, too?' I asked.
'No, just this remote thingy,' she answered, handing it and the car keys to me.
As I took the key and manually unlocked the door, I replied, 'Why don't you drive over there and check about the batteries. It's a long walk....'


FIVE
A mother calls 000 very worried asking the dispatcher if she needs to take her kid to the emergency room, the kid had eaten ants. The dispatcher tells her to give the kid some Benadryl and he should be fine, the mother says, 'But I just gave him some of this ant killer in a packet stuff ....'



Life's tough but it's a damn sight tougher if you're stupid!!

[Mike Mitchell]

Plus one for brightening my day.