The word for today is… interlocutor (noun): 1 : one who takes part in dialogue or conversation 2 : a man in the middle of the line in a minstrel show who questions the end men and acts as leader Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology :It may not necessarily be grandiloquence to use
Jay L. Zagorsky Boston University Jay L. Zagorsky teaches at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. From 1988 to the present his teaching has spanned a wide range of levels from senior executives taking intensive classes to high school students encountering economic theories for the first time. The latest
The word for today is… writhe (verb): 1a : to twist into coils or folds b : to twist so as to distort : wrench c : to twist (the body or a bodily part) in pain 2 : intertwine Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology :Writhe wound its way to us from the Old English verb
The word for today is… bespoke (adjective): 1a : custom-made b : dealing in or producing custom-made articles 2 dialect : engaged Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology :In the English language of yore, the verb bespeak had various meanings, including “to speak,” “to accuse,” and “to complain.” In the 16th century, bespeak acquired another
The word for today is… litotes (noun): : understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary (as in “not a bad singer” or “not unhappy”) Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology :Even if you’ve never heard the word litotes, chances are you’ve encountered this figure of
Matthew Robert Anderson Concordia University Everyone knows the story of Scrooge, a man so miserly his name has become synonymous with penny-pinching meanness. Scrooge’s conversion from miser to benefactor has been told and retold since Charles Dickens first wrote A Christmas Carol in the fall and winter of 1843.
Sally O’Reilly The Open University Our fascination with ghostly tales around Christmas time goes back thousands of years and is rooted in ancient celebrations of the winter solstice. In the depths of winter, pagan traditions included a belief in a ghostly procession across the sky, known as the Wild
The word for today is… hyperbole (noun): : extravagant exaggeration Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology :In the 5th century B.C. there was a rabble-rousing Athenian politician named Hyperbolus. Since Hyperbolus is known to history as a demagogue, i.e. “a leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and
Joe Perry Georgia State University In 1921, in a Munich beer hall, newly appointed Nazi party leader Adolf Hitler gave a Christmas speech to an excited crowd. According to undercover police observers, 4,000 supporters cheered when Hitler condemned “the cowardly Jews for breaking the world-liberator on the cross” and
Joan Fitzpatrick Loughborough University Charles Dickens popularised the traditional, English Christmas in 1843 in his novel A Christmas Carol, when Bob Cratchit and his family sit down on Christmas Day to eat a dinner of goose with mashed potatoes and apple sauce accompanied by sage and onion stuffing and followed
What’s the best Christmas gift you ever got? In The Big Bang Theory, socially-awkward genius Sheldon struggles with the whole concept of Christmas gift-giving. Why is it wrong to give someone something practical that they need? Why give someone something ostensibly useless? Sheldon just doesn’t get it — until
William Keylor Boston University The Christmas Truce is no stranger to popular entertainment – 2014 more than any other as its 100th anniversary is marked. The famous moment when British and German soldiers climbed out of the trenches in peace on Christmas Day 1914 has been replicated and ruminated upon in
The word for today is… noel (noun): 1 : a Christmas carol 2 capitalized : christmas Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology :English speakers borrowed the word noel from French. It can be traced further back to the Latin word natalis, which can mean “birthday” as a noun or “of or relating to birth”
goodnewsnetwork.org A retired couple amusingly recreate their friends’ Christmas card photo every year—by posing in place of their young children. 68-year-old Carol and 72-year-old Michael Whalen started the tradition after receiving a greetings card showing their pals’ then one-year-old son in his toy car. They have been remaking
Diane Winston USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Tinseled trees and snowy landscapes are not the only signs of the upcoming holiday season. Red kettles, staffed by men and women in street clothes, Santa suits and Salvation Army uniforms, also telegraph Christmastime. The Salvation Army is among America’s
François Lévêque Mines ParisTech A few hundred years ago, who would have dreamed that the humble Christmas tree would one day be an immense global success? Certainly not Martin Luther, who is said to have decorated a tree with candles to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Nor Prince Albert,
