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A.Word.A.Day--dol

dol (dol) noun

A unit for measuring the intensity of pain.

[From Latin dol(or) pain.]

"Minutes later it was still a comfortable four dol--what did they do, shut off the steam? Finally I removed my hand and examined my fingers: great blisters on thumb and finger." Richard Kopperdahl, Bettervue hospital, Village Voice, Oct 3, 1995.

One doesn't have to know the unit of pain to realize that the unit of joy is not the dollar, or any other currency for that matter. We don't have to look far to discover that some of the richest people on this planet are not the most happy ones. Having lived in two not only geographic but also economically antipodal places, I've met persons who were blissful and those who were miserable, but their conditions were hardly a function of money. Certainly it is good to have the means to pay for basic necessities, but after that it's only a series of zeros in some account.

English author Samuel Butler once said, "Words are like money; there is nothing so useless, unless when in actual use." We can't do much about circulating money (which I hope you have plenty of), but we do try our best to put words in actual use. This week it is those words that make one say, "I didn't know there was a word for that." -Anu

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