Pronunciation [‘hyu-mêr]
noun
1) A tendency to disease or disease itself.
2) A proud conceit; an erroneous notion arising from an ill-balanced physical or mental temperament.
3) A manifestation of pettishness or peevishness.
4) A caprice; a whim entertained at the moment.
5) A disposition to look at things from the mirthful point of view.
6) Mental or moral tendency; predominant inclination; general turn or temper of mind.
7) A liquid, a fluid.
8) According to Galen there are four humors, blood, choler, phlegm and melancholy, lying at the bases respectively of the sanguineous, the bilious, the phlegmatic, and the melancholic temperaments. He believed that if all these humors were mixed in equal proportions, the temperament was a perfect one, but if, as was almost always the case, some one markedly predominated, then a person would show certain mental peculiarities produced by, or at least in harmony with the particular humor which preponderated in his physical temperament.
9) A mental faculty which tends to discover incongruous resemblances between things which essentially differ, or essential differences between things put forth as the same; he result being internal mirth or an outburst of laughter. Wit does so likewise, but the two are different. Humor has deep human sympathy, and loves men while raising a laugh against their weaknesses. Wit is deficient in sympathy, and there is often a sting in its ridicule. Somewhat contemptuous of mankind, it has not the patience to study them thoroughly, but most content itself with noting superficial resemblances or differences. Humor is neath the surface; while, therefore, the sallies of wit are often on sided and unfair, those of humor are, as a rule, just and wise.
[French humeur; Old French, Provincial Spanish and Portuguese humour, all from Latin humor a liquid, moisture, humeo = to be moist; Greek chumos = juice, liquid; cheo = to pour; to become liquid; see also Greek huo = to wet.]
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]]>verb
1) To atone or make satisfaction for; to annul or extinguish the guilt of by the sufferance of some penalty.
2) To make reparation or satisfaction for.
3) To avert the threat of prodigies.
[Latin expiatus, past participle of expio = to atone for fully; ex = out, fully, and pio = to propitiate; pius = devout, kind.]
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]]>Pronunciation [‘les] Hear it
adjective
Smaller; of less size, extent, or amount; not so large or great.
adverb
In a smaller or lower degree; not so much.
noun
1) A quantity smaller than another; not so much.
2) A younger, an inferior, a junior.
[Anglo Saxon laessa. Laessa is for laes-ra, and is the comparative from a root las, which appears to Gothic lasius = feeble; Icelandic lasina = feeble, ailing; lasna = to become feeble, to decay. Less is used as the comparative of little, but is from an entirely different root.]
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]]>Pronunciation [‘i-mê-nênt] Hear it - (use your browsers back button to get back here after listening)
adjective
Staying or remaining in; not passing out of the subject; limited to the subject or associated acts; having no external effect; inherent, internal, not transient.
[Latin immanens, present participle of immaneo = to remain in; im- = in- = in, and maneo = to remain; French immanent.]
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]]>Pronunciation [‘fi-lê-bê-stêr]
noun
Originally one of a number of buccaneers, who infested the West Indian seas, preying on the Spanish commerce with South America; now applied to any lawless military adventurer, especially one in quest of plunder; a freebooter, a pirate. Applied more especially to the followers of Lopez in his expedition to Cuba in 1851, and to those of William Walker, who, after various military enterprises in Central America, was taken and shot on September 12, 1860.
[Spanish from flibote, flibote = a fast sailing vessel, from English flyboat; Dutch vlieboot. In French filibustier.]
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]]>Pronunciation: [‘i-mê-nênt]
Definition: 1) Bodily fluids and semi-fluids such as blood, lymph, or glandular secretions that excite a response; the fluids of the eye; 2) The comical, what is funny and anything that causes it; also, a mood.
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]]>Pronunciation [at (awt)]
pronoun
1) Anything, whether great or small.
2) The smallest portion of anything, a whit, a jot, or tittle.
adverb
In anything, in any respect.
Aught = anything, is sometimes erroneously spelled ought, and thus confounded with ought = should, or is under an obligation. It would tend to clearness if the former were uniformly spelled, as correctness requires, with a, and the latter with o.
[Anglo Saxon abt, awht, auht, awiht, awuht, owiht, owuht = aught, anything, some; a or o = one; wuht, wiht = (1) aught, something, anything; (2) a thing, a creature, a wight, an animal; Old High German wiht; Goth vaiht = a thing, anything.]
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]]>noun
1) An optical effect produced by a magic lantern. The glass is painted black on all parts except that occupied by the figures, which are painted in transparent colors. The image is shown upon a transparent screen placed between the spectators and the lantern. By moving the instrument toward or away from the screen, the figures are made to diminish or increase in size, which is capable (e.g., if the figures be a skeleton) of producing startling effects.
2) The apparatus by which such effect is produced.
[Greek phantasma = a phantasm, and agora = an assembly, a collection; ageiro = to collect.]
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]]>So today is Friday the 13th. It’s a bright sunny day in most of the world and although around the world bad things will happen today, I doubt seriously that it has anything to do with the date. Fear of the number 13 (triskaidekaphobia) is recognized as a mental disorder by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
From “Some Mathematical History: The History of Numbers” (2003) by W. Clarke
“Benjamin Franklin was mildly afflicted: if there were 13 people at his dinner table, he would call for his secretary to join the party. He was apparently not bothered by the fact that the United States at the time consisted of 13 states and the flag had 13 stars and 13 stripes. The rationale for Franklin’s affliction seems to have been that there were 13 people at the Last Supper of Jesus Christ.”
Fast facts:
The arrest and murder of the Knights of Templar occurred on Friday October 13, 1307 and is supposed to be the cause of the reputation of Friday the 13th.
In ancient Egypt and China, the number 13 was considered lucky.
The ancient Egyptians considered the 13th stage of life to be death, the afterlife, which they welcomed.
Useful links:
Wikipedia
Wall Street Journal
Wolfram MathWorld
Eons
MedicineNet.com - Freaky Friday the 13th