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Jan 18, 2021
This week’s themeWords to describe people This week’s words diversivolent smatchet mensch unflappable circumspect Previous week’s theme Words with variant spellings 
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargIt’s a transient world. We fill a role and then go away. In an office, in a relationship, in a neighborhood. Did we think beyond ourselves? Is anyone better having come in contact with us? That’s the question. What legacy are we leaving? It doesn’t have to be something giant. Did we leave some corner of the world -- maybe as small as one person, maybe as big as a country -- a bit better than how we found it? Something to think about. Meanwhile, in this week’s A.Word.A.Day we’ll look at some words to describe people. diversivolent
PRONUNCIATION:
(dy-vuhr-SIV-uh-luhnt)
MEANING:
adjective: Desiring strife.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin diversus (diverse), from divertere (to turn aside), from di-
(away, apart) + vertere (to turn) and volens, present participle of velle
(to wish). Earliest documented use: 1612.
USAGE:
“No more diversivolent or superficial creature have I ever known.” Stephen Marche; Shining at the Bottom of the Sea; Riverhead; 2007. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The main problem in any democracy is that crowdpleasers are generally
brainless swine who can go out on a stage and whup their supporters into an
orgiastic frenzy -- then go back to the office and sell every one of the
poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece. -Hunter S. Thompson,
journalist and author (18 Jul 1937-2005)High though his titles, proud his name, / Boundless his wealth as wish can claim; / Despite those titles, power, and pelf, / The wretch, concentred all in self, / Living, shall forfeit fair renown, / And, doubly dying, shall go down / To the vile dust from whence he sprung, / Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung. -Walter Scott, novelist and poet (15 Aug 1771-1832) |
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