The word for today is… cadre (noun): 1: a nucleus or core group especially of trained personnel able to assume control and to train others 2: a cell of indoctrinated leaders active in promoting the interests of a revolutionary party 3: a member of a cadre 4: frame, framework Source
Joao Pedro de Magalhaes University of Birmingham All human beings age. It is part of our biology and limits our lifespan to slightly over 120 years. Not all animals experience ageing during their lives. Some animals’ bodies do not gradually degenerate as they get older the way our bodies do.
The word for today is… extraneous (adjective): 1: existing on or coming from the outside 2a: not forming an essential or vital part b: having no relevance 3: being a number obtained in solving an equation that is not a solution of the equation Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology :Extraneous has
The word for today is… regale (verb, noun): verb 1: to entertain sumptuously : feast with delicacies 2: to give pleasure or amusement to noun 1: a sumptuous feast 2: a choice piece especially of food Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Regale has been an English verb since the early half of
The word for today is… threshold (noun): 1: the plank, stone, or piece of timber that lies under a door : sill 2a: gate, door b(1): end, boundary – specifically, the end of a runway (2): the place or point of entering or beginning : outset 3a: the point at which a
Neil J. Gostling Associate Professor in Evolution and Palaeobiology University of Southampton Hugh Gray was taking his usual post-church walk around Loch Ness in Scotland on a November Sunday in 1933. His amble was disrupted when he saw something bobbing above the water two or three feet from him. He
The word for today is… beholden (adjective): : being under obligation for a favor or gift : indebted Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : To behold something is to perceive or gaze upon it—therefore, to be beholden is to be seen or observed. Well, no. It’s true that behold and beholden share
The word for today is… inculcate (verb) : to teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Sometimes before a lesson sinks in, you’ve got to go over it in your mind for a long time. The same is true for when you want to make
The word for today is… quintessence (noun): 1: the fifth and highest element in ancient and medieval philosophy that permeates all nature and is the substance composing the celestial bodies 2: the essence of a thing in its purest and most concentrated form 3: the most typical example or representative
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… omnipotent (adjective, noun): adjective 1 often capitalized : almighty 2: having virtually unlimited authority or influence 3 obsolete : arrant noun 1: one who has unlimited power or authority : one who is omnipotent 2: capitalized : god Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : The word omnipotent made its way into
Dimitris Xygalatas University of Connecticut The mere thought of holiday traditions brings smiles to most people’s faces and elicits feelings of sweet anticipation and nostalgia. We can almost smell those candles, taste those special meals, and hear those familiar songs in our minds. Ritual marks some of the most
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
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
