A.Word.A.Day --eunoia

A.Word.A.Day

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Dec 26, 2022

This week’s theme
Words with world records

This week’s words
eunoia
scraunch
limnophilous
pharmacopoeia
oxygeusia

Eunoia by Christian Bök

Image: Amazon

Previous week’s theme
No el

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

I’m such an underachiever.

I don’t have a single world record to my name. Not only that, I have not even attempted one.

Make it, underachiever and unambitious.

I was reminded of this when I read about a man named Ashrita Furman. He has made more than 700 world records. Imagine when the number of records you have made needs to be rounded. To the nearest hundreds!

Furman has another record I had not even thought about: Having made the largest number of world records.

That makes me: underachiever, unambitious, and unimaginative.

Well, more power to him. You have to admire the resolve and tenacity it takes to accomplish something like that while many of us are trying to make a record for the most consecutive evenings spent sitting with a television remote in one hand and a can of beer in the other.

As for me, well, I sit here in my corner of the world, playing with words.

This week we introduce you to five words that make a record of sorts, let’s call them word records.

Note: What’s a word? That may sound like a straightforward question, but it is not. Based on your definition of “word” you may be able to find other, better candidates, for this week’s word records.

eunoia

PRONUNCIATION:

(yoo-NOY-uh)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A feeling of goodwill.
2. A state of good mental health.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek eunoia (well mind), from eu (well, good) + noos (mind, spirit).

NOTES:

Eunoia is the shortest word in English with all five vowels.

USAGE:

“But never put away your eunoia -- my conscience says.”
Jesús de Rodríguez; She Fears; Lulu; 2018.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

If you pray for rain long enough, it eventually does fall. If you pray for floodwaters to abate, they eventually do. The same happens in the absence of prayers. -Steve Allen, television host, musician, actor, comedian, and writer (26 Dec 1921-2000)

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