As in "jaded government official". According to my dictionary, it means "worn out or wearied, as by overwork or overuse". But the dictionary can only offer a "?" on where it comes from.
Don
Search found 19 matches
- Fri Mar 23, 2007 8:34 pm
- Forum: Good Word Suggestions
- Topic: Jaded
- Replies: 2
- Views: 6290
- Fri Feb 23, 2007 10:13 pm
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: RUBESCENT
- Replies: 5
- Views: 10556
Rubescent
Notes: We need sisters like this semantic sister of red for all adjectives: why not adjectives meaning "becoming old", "becoming blue", "becoming cold", and so on? Other languages do this easily. Chinese and Korean have a suffix word, "hwa", which one can add...
- Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:17 pm
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: SOLIPSISM
- Replies: 14
- Views: 19822
Solipsism
1. Mark Twain evidently was fascinated by solipsism. His short story, "The Mysterious Stranger", concludes expressing a solipsistic point of view. 2. "It cannot be proved or disproved." This is false. It follows logically from certain premises as to how we know things. It is diff...
- Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:17 pm
- Forum: Good Word Suggestions
- Topic: Republic
- Replies: 10
- Views: 13678
Republic
1. Sorry, Perry. I had overlooked your 1604 date. I agree with your observation that apparently, by that time or earlier, "republic" was widely regarded as a form of government where authority resides with the people rather than in a monarch. That is, I think, consistent with the second of...
- Thu Feb 15, 2007 8:50 am
- Forum: Good Word Suggestions
- Topic: Republic
- Replies: 10
- Views: 13678
Republic
Regarding my suggestion that our modern usage of "republic" might have arisen at the end of the Middle Ages, to provide an alternative to feudal conceptions. Recall that Hobbes and Rousseau, each in his own way, propose theories of government where the people are sovereign (instead of some...
- Thu Feb 15, 2007 8:27 am
- Forum: Good Word Suggestions
- Topic: Republic
- Replies: 10
- Views: 13678
Republic
gailr - You're getting closer, but still don't seem to me to focus on the right questions. 1. "[H]ow does a term describing an assembly of people become a description of governing that people?" You seem to insinuate a false premise. It's not clear to me that "republic" in its var...
- Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:00 pm
- Forum: Good Word Suggestions
- Topic: Republic
- Replies: 10
- Views: 13678
- Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:41 am
- Forum: Good Word Suggestions
- Topic: Republic
- Replies: 10
- Views: 13678
Republic
Following is my understanding. Our word comes from Latin, Res Publica , which means "things pertaining to the public". The Latin, in turn, is a translation of the title of Plato's dialogue, Politeia . (I've heard that Cicero did the translation.) In Attic Greek, Plato's title means "s...
- Fri Feb 09, 2007 10:46 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: POTAMOPHILOUS
- Replies: 4
- Views: 8036
- Tue Feb 06, 2007 9:39 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: ENNUI
- Replies: 10
- Views: 15123
Following is the beginning of Robert Benchley's satire, sixty years ago, of Dickens. Christmas Afternoon What an afternoon! Mr. Gummidge said that, in his estimation, there never had been such an afternoon since the world began, a sentiment which was heartily endorsed by Mrs. Gummidge and all the li...
- Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:40 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: MERETRICIOUS
- Replies: 1
- Views: 4688
meretricious, merit, and tumeric
That was very good. Thanks. I had no idea . . .
Don
Don
- Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:03 am
- Forum: Good Word Suggestions
- Topic: for good
- Replies: 23
- Views: 35733
for good
"He's gone for good." One might regret that he's gone, so how is it that using this expression forces allusion to goodness? Is there a fundamental meaning common to all differing uses of "good"? Or do we have here a collection of homonyms, each with its own, distinct word history...
- Wed Jan 17, 2007 8:07 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: REPAIR
- Replies: 7
- Views: 12010
FEL TEMP REPARATIO
Doug - Thanks. That was fascinating. I don't have Latin and don't know coins, but nonetheless suggest the Romans may have had Dr. G's intransitive sense of "repair" in mind. It probably would have been controversial and impolitic for Constantine and his successors to imply they were transi...
- Mon Jan 15, 2007 10:34 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: Sententious
- Replies: 8
- Views: 12169
Sentences and Opnions
Sentences Per Dr. G, the Latin “sententia” means “opinion, sentiment, intent”. This usage echoes traditional doctrines of logic. Aristotle in De Interpretatione and the Posterior Analytics distinguishes (among other things) assertions, which can be true or false, from (syllogistic) arguments which s...
- Fri Jan 12, 2007 5:11 pm
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: SANCTION
- Replies: 25
- Views: 34745