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Re: CYNOSURE

Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2012 12:55 pm
by LukeJavan8
No apologies needed. I was jesting - had a friend looking
at her calendar and said how early Lent was this year. I have
not looked so don't really know. I think I was lamenting
the loss of Christmas tide. The day after Christmas the
tree is out on the curb for trash pickup. People in such a
hurry, going no where. We need to stop and just enjoy,
relax and take in the beauty. Christmas tide of course is
the time between Christmas day and Epiphany, when the
Orthodox celebrate the gift giving, which makes more
sense, in a way, since that is Magi's arrival (at least
in some sense for we do not know the exact days of
any of these things.)
Lent - yes, the ashes on the forehead. I so remember
the days, which are still around.
Liturgy. A definition in theology was something akin to
"A complexus of signs making the unseen, visible".
Unfortunately long gone in many of the hierarchical
Churches, especially the Roman. They have denuded
the beauty they used to have in favor of simplicity, and
as a result have lost a whole generation of believers.

Re: CYNOSURE

Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 6:31 am
by JaimeCole

• cynosure •

Pronunciation: si-nê-shyur • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. The North Star or Ursa Minor, its constellation. 2. Something that attracts attention by its brilliance. 3. Anything that provides guidance or leadership, a 'guiding star'.

Notes: Today's Good Word is one of the most graceful in the English language; use it for its sheer decorative effect in your conversations. Its only relative is cynosural, an adjective not quite as lovely as its mother. Thomas Carlyle wrote in The French Revolution (1837), "Meanwhile the fair young Queen, in her halls of state, walks like a goddess of Beauty, the cynosure of all eyes."

In Play: Cynosures first and foremost must be striking and stand out: "When Christ was born, Rome was the cynosure of the Western world." This implies that it was bright, brilliant, and widely imitated. Things smaller than Rome may be cynosures, too: "Alison Wonderland was the cynosure of the soiree from the moment she lilted into the room in her lustrous white gown hemmed with a striking furbelow."

Word History: The origin of this Good Word presents a stark contrast to its glitter and glamour. Cynosure is a hand-me-down from the French descendant of a Latin borrowing of Greek kynosoura "dog-tail," based on kuon, kynos "dog" + oura "tail", the Greek name of Ursa Minor. The Proto-Indo-European root kuon- made it to English as hound while Latin converted it to canis "dog", from which English snitched canine and canary. Yes, canary: canaries were named for their point of origin, the Canary Islands, which comes from the Latin Canariae Insulae "Dog Islands". (Our cynosure today is Mark Bailey, who suggested it and who is one of the select circle of Grand Panjandra in the Alpha Agora.)

Re: CYNOSURE

Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 12:09 pm
by LukeJavan8
Welcome Jaime

Re: CYNOSURE

Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 4:44 pm
by Perry Lassiter
Thanks for reviving this thread. I had forgotten that, but it is interesting.

It occurs to me that I have frequently heard the word cynosure used to mean an appointment or an office or some kind of position of respect

Re: CYNOSURE

Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 6:19 pm
by Slava
Perry, the word you're hearing is most likely a mispronunciation and misuse of sinecure, Doctored up here.