From the Word Lab
Honorificabilitudinitatibus: A made–up word on the Lat. honorificabilitudo, honorableness, which frequently occurs in Elizabethan plays as an instance of sesquipedalian pomposity.
Ex. “thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus”
—Shakespeare: Love’s Labour’s Lost, act V, scene i.
Anyone We Know?
I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps himself in the Constitution than someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps himself in the flag!
—Molly Ivins
Hitler’s Silly Dance
In June 1940 Hitler accepted the surrender of the French government at a ceremony in Compiegne, France. He melodramatically insisted on receiving France’s surrender in the same railroad car in which Germany had signed the 1918 armistice that had ended World War I.
After Hitler accepted France’s surrender, he stepped backwards slightly, as if in shock. But this is not what the audiences in the Allied countries saw who watched the movie-reel of the ceremony. Instead they saw Hitler dance a bizarre little jig after signing the documents, as if he were childishly celebrating his victory. The scene was played over and over again in movie theaters. Of course, Hitler had not done a little dance. Allied propagandists had simply looped the footage of Hitler’s step backwards, so that it appeared as if he were dancing. The film clip served its desired purpose, which was to ridicule the Nazi leader.
An Abstract Expression
The artist Pablo Picasso surprised a burglar in his new chateau, but the intruder got away.
Picasso told the police he could make a rough sketch of what he looked like. On the basis of his drawing, the police arrested a mother superior, the minister of finance, a washing machine, and a lawn mower.
What’s in a Name?
Kabadayan: Turkish in derivation, identified as a descriptive name, kabadayuh is defined as swashbuckler; bully; tough; having guts; the best of anything.
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