Word of the Day for Thursday, July 18, 2013

poetaster \POH-it-as-ter\, noun:

an inferior poet; a writer of indifferent verse.

Someone who writes verses but does not produce this essence is called a "poetaster." A poetaster is a fraudulent poet, a non-poet.
-- Frederick Busch, Letters to a Fiction Writer, 2000

Rotten as a poetaster or a second-rate musician reduced to beggary.
-- Carmen Boullosa, Cleopatra Dismounts, 2003

Poetaster entered English in the late 1500s. It is a combination of the word poet and the rarely used Latin suffix -aster which denotes something that imperfectly resembles or mimics the true thing.

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On This Day:
Thursday July 18, 2013

This is the 199th day of the year, with 166 days remaining in 2013.

Fact of the Day: gymnastics

The first perfect score in Olympic gymnastics history occurred on July 18, 1976. Fourteen-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci scored a perfect "10" for her efforts on the uneven bars at the Montreal Olympics. Nadia managed to repeat this feat seven times in her gymnastics career.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Bruno of Segni, St. Pambo, St. Arnoul or Arnulf of Metz, and St. Frederick of Utrecht.
Uruguay: Constitution Day.

Events

64 B.C.E. - The Great Fire of Rome started; in 9 days, two-thirds of the city was destroyed.
1872 - Britain introduced the concept of voting by secret ballot. 
1925 - Adolf Hitler published the first volume of his personal manifesto, "Mein Kampf."
1927 - Ty Cobb recorded his 4,000th career hit.
1932 - The United States and Canada signed a treaty to develop the St. Lawrence Seaway.
1936 - The Spanish Civil War began. It was the first major military contest between left-wing forces and Fascists led by GeneralFrancisco Franco, and has been called the first chapter of World War II. 
1947 - President Harry Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act, which placed the speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate president pro tempore next in the line of succession after the vice president. 
1969 - A car driven by Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha's Vineyard; passenger Mary Jo Kopechne died. The senator did not report the fatal car accident for 10 hours.

Births

1811 - William Makepeace Thackeray, English author.
1906 - S.I. Hayakawa, U.S. senator, college administrator, writer.
1909 - Andrey Gromyko, Soviet foreign minister (1957-1985).
1913 - Red Skelton, American comedian.
1918 - Nelson Mandela, civil rights activist, first black president of South Africa.
1921 - John Glenn Jr., first astronaut to orbit Earth, U.S. Senator.
1939 - Hunter S. Thompson, American "gonzo" journalist.
1947 - Steve Mahoney, Canadian politician.
1947 - Steve Forbes, American entrepreneur and politician.
1950 - Sir Richard Branson, British entrepreneur.
1954 - Ricky Skaggs, American country/bluegrass musician.
1963 - Martín Torrijos Espino, President of Panama.
1967 - Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair Vincent), American actor.

Deaths

1610 - Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Italian painter.
1817 - Jane Austen, English novelist.
1872 - Benito Juárez, five-term Mexican President.
1997 - Eugene Merle Shoemaker, American astronomer and one of the founders of the fields of planetary science.
2001 - Fabio Taglioni, Italian automotive engineer.
2002 - Victor Emery, British theoretical physicist.
2004 - Paul Foot, British journalist.
2005 - William Westmoreland, American general.

Spanish Word of the Day
Thursday, July 18, 2013

Yesterday's Word - Previous Words - Help

ilusión, noun
hope; dream; illusion

Ilusión is one of those Spanish words which shares a meaning with English - illusion - but it’s more often used in its other meanings.

Llegó aquí con mucha ilusión.
She arrived here full of hope.

Te aconsejo que no te hagas muchas ilusiones.
I’d suggest you don’t build your hopes up too much.

Apart from hope ilusión also means your ambition or dream:

Mi mayor ilusión es llegar a ser médico.
My greatest dream is to become a doctor.

And in the meaning closest to English:

una ilusión óptica
an optical illusion

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Scholarship Positions - Becas

New Scholarships and Financial Aid Updates from Scholarship-Positions.com

 

July 18, 2013: Search Free Online College Scholarship, Financial Aid and Grants 
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2014/15 UNIL Master’s Grants for International Students in Switzerland
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Word of the Day for Wednesday, July 17, 2013

gobbet \GOB-it\, noun:

1. a lump or mass.
2. a fragment or piece, especially of raw flesh.

A man at the window of another building spat, the gobbet of phlegm falling on the dirty pavement by Hermogenes' feet.
-- Gillian Bradshaw, Render Unto Caesar, 2004

The glowing, faceted eyes glared at me, the mouth opened and spat out a gobbet of flame.
-- Sergei Lukyanenko, Last Watch, 2009

Gobbet comes from the Old French word gobe meaning "a mouthful."

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On This Day:
Wednesday July 17, 2013

This is the 198th day of the year, with 167 days remaining in 2013.

Fact of the Day: condiments

Condiments are food substances used to heighten the natural flavors of foods, stimulate the appetite, aid digestion, or preserve certain foods; the word comes from Latin condire "to preserve." The custom of using condiments is as ancient as cookery itself, the first ones being mainly of vegetable origin and used as a means of preserving. In the U.S., large quantities of bottled sauces and condiments are used to accompany salads, meats, vegetables, etc.

Holidays

Feast day of The Seven Apostles of Bulgaria, St. Clement of Okhrida and his Companions, St. Leo IV, pope, St. Ennodius, St. Kenelm, St. Speratus and his Companions, St. Marcellina, and St. Nerses Lampronazi.
Iraq: 17 July Revolution / Baath Revolution Day.
Korea: Constitution Day.
Puerto Rico: Munoz-Rivera Day.

Events

1754 - King's College opened in New York City; the Anglican academy would later become Columbia University.
1821 - Spain ceded Florida to the United States. 
1867 - Harvard School of Dental Medicine was established in Boston, Massachusetts -- the first dental school in the U.S.
1898 - During the Spanish-American War, Spanish troops in Santiago, Cuba, surrendered to U.S. forces. 
1945 - President Harry Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill began meeting atPotsdam in the final Allied summit of World War II.
1955 - Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California. 
1975 - The U.S. spacecraft Apollo 18 and the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 19 docked in space.
1996 - Shortly after takeoff from New York's Kennedy International Airport, a TWA Boeing 747 jetliner bound for Paris exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 230 people aboard. Investigators concluded that the explosion resulted from mechanical failure.
1997 - After 117 years, the Woolworth Corp. closed its last 400 five-and-dime stores.
1998 - An earthquake registering 7.0 on the Richter scale, hits Papua New Guinea resulting in a tsunami which swept the coast.

Births

1889 - Erle Stanley Gardner, American detective writer, creator of the character Perry Mason.
1899 - James Cagney, American actor.
1912 - Art Linkletter, American television host.
1917 - Phyllis Diller (born Phyllis Ada Driver), American comedian.
1934 - Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor.
1952 - David Hasselhoff, American actor and musician.
1954 - Angela Merkel, German stateswoman and chancellor.
1960 - Mark Burnett, English-born television producer.

Deaths

1790 - Adam Smith, Scottish political economist.
1903 - James McNeill Whistler, American painter.
1959 - Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan), American jazz singer.
1961 - Ty Cobb, American baseball player and Hall of Famer.
1967 - John Coltrane, American jazz musician.
2005 - Edward Heath, British politician.
2006 - Mickey Spillane, American author.

Spanish Word of the Day
Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Yesterday's Word - Previous Words - Help

gato, noun
cat

In English there are many colorful phrases referring to cats, such as ‘let the cat out of the bag’, and ‘to play cat and mouse with somebody’. Today we’re looking at a couple of phrases in which gato - cat - appears.

El debate se transmite muy tarde, y lo ven cuatro gatos.
The debate is broadcast very late and hardly anyone watches it.

When Spanish-speakers want to stress how very few people are involved in something, they use the phrase cuatro gatos. Here’s another example:

No somos más que cuatro gatos en la oficina.
There’s only a handful of us in the office.

The second phrase is dar gato por liebre - to swindle or to con somebody. Word for word it means ‘to give cat for hare’, and refers to people in the past selling cat meat as the more highly prized hare meat.

Te dieron gato por liebre.
You’ve been swindled.

Al ministro le dieron gato por liebre en los documentos.
They pulled the wool over the minister’s eyes in the documents.

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