Today marks my first birthday as collator of the BFD’s Word of the Day. As a birthday present to myself I am going to re-post my favourite word from the last year. This was first posted on 2nd February 2021 and was the first word I chose after
Alwyn Poole alwynpoole.substack.com Alwyn Poole founded and was the Principal of Mt Hobson Middle School and the Villa NCEA Academy in Newmarket, Auckland for the first 18 years. The default mode of children and young people is to look to the grownups in the room for inspiration, comfort
righttolife.org.uk Prenatal tests for a number of conditions, which are being marketed and sold in the UK, have been found, by a New York Times investigation, to be delivering ‘false positives’ for a range of conditions “about an average of 85% of the time”, with testing for some
The word for today is… malice (noun): 1 : desire to cause pain, injury, or distress to another 2 : intent to commit an unlawful act or cause harm without legal justification or excuse Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Malicious and malevolent are close in meaning, since both refer to ill will that
Neil Tuttle University of Tasmania Neil’s ongoing experience as a Physiotherapist informs both his research and teaching which includes undergraduate and post-graduate courses in Australia and overseas. Some people habitually crack their joints, others can’t, and many are irritated by those who do. So what’s going
Clayton Fox brownstone.org Clayton Fox was a 2020 Tablet Magazine Fellow. He has been published at Tablet, Real Clear Investigations, Los Angeles Magazine, and JancisRobinson.com. Looming over my city of Evanston, Illinois is Northwestern University, home of the Wildcats, alma mater of David Schwimmer, Kathryn Hahn, and real
The word for today is… jovial (adjective): : characterized by good-humored cheerfulness and conviviality Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Jupiter, also called Jove, was the chief Roman god and was considered a majestic, authoritative type—just the kind of god to name a massive planet like Jupiter for. Our word jovial
The word for today is… feign (verb): 1a : to give a false appearance of b : to assert as if true 2 archaic a : invent, imagine b : to give fictional representation to 3 obsolete : disguise, conceal Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Feign is all about faking it, but that hasn’t always
Guy Hatchard PhD Guy Hatchard PhD is formerly a senior manager at Genetic ID a global food testing and certification company Sometimes we imagine we are involved in a rational argument about Covid vaccine safety and publish the evidence trusting that truth will have out, but mostly we puzzle about
Julie Birky brownstone.org Julie Penrod Birky is a clinical social worker specializing in the treatment of behavior disorders for children, adolescents, and young adults. She is also a college instructor, develops mental health education programs, and teaches Mental Health First Aid. More than a decade ago, my sister lost
The word for today is… enclave (noun): : a distinct territorial, cultural, or social unit enclosed within or as if within foreign territory Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Looking for the keys to the etymology of enclave? You’ll find them in French and Latin. English speakers borrowed “enclave” from French in
Ben and Jerry’s like to tout themselves as old-fashioned hippies takin’ on the man, man. The reality is quite different, of course: they’re really just another bunch of greedy one-percenters, multinationally chasing the Benjamins around the world. In fact, the “hippies” had no compunction in selling
The word for today is… garbage (noun): 1a : food waste b : discarded or useless material 2a : trash b : inaccurate or useless data Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Middle English, “poultry organs and body parts used for food, poultry refuse,” borrowed from Anglo-French. Garbage (implied in sergant garbagere – “kitchen servant tasked
Erin Sebo Flinders University Erin Sebo has taught and published widely in medeival epic poetry and historical reconstructive linguistics. Wordle is a quick English-language word game developed by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a unique gift for his partner, released in October 2021. It’s easily accessible online. The
The word for today is… univocal (adjective): 1 : having one meaning only 2 : unambiguous Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Earliest known print evidence of univocal, in the sense of “having one meaning only,” dates the word to the mid-1500s, somewhat earlier than its more familiar antonym equivocal (meaning “often misleadingly
Isaac Morehouse fee.org Isaac Morehouse is the CEO of Crash and Founder of Praxis. He is a member of the FEE Faculty Network. He blogs at IsaacMorehouse.com. Universities are dying. They have long ceased being the best way to gain knowledge. More recently, the degrees they confer have
