Some readers may find my Word For Today section a bit boring. But I have a pretty good reason for including it in my blog. It helps me be more precise when I am trying to communicate via the written word. I have a great many words in my reading vocabulary, but I've discovered that the exact definition of a word is not always what I thought it to be.
For example: A few years ago, during the 2008 campaign for the presidency, I wrote a short piece wherein I stated that Sarah Palin was an erudite speaker. Erudite, I believed, meant entertaining and personable -- at ease when addressing an audience.
I was immediately corrected by a man who really did know the meaning of the word erudite who wrote to me his own response, which was, "Sarah Palin is NOT erudite." When I looked up the word, I found that erudite is an adjective meaning: "Having or showing great knowledge or learning" which Sarah Palin most certainly was not.
I have never forgotten that embarrassing incident. And since then I have tried to know the true meaning of a word before using it in a sentence. I don't always succeed, but hosting my own Word For Today helps me to stay closer to achieving that goal.
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HISTORICAL CLIP
On this day, March 21, 1965, in the name of African-American voting rights, 3,200 civil rights demonstrators, led by Martin Luther King Jr., began a historic march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol at Montgomery. Federalized Alabama National Guardsmen and FBI agents were on hand to provide safe passage for the march, which twice had been turned back by Alabama state police at Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge. U.S. Army troops and federalized Alabama National Guardsmen escorted the marchers across Edmund Pettus Bridge and down Highway 80.
That August, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed African Americans the right to vote. Between the passing of the act and the May 1966 primary, 122,000 blacks registered to vote in the state. This represented a quarter of Alabama's voters.
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WORD FOR TODAY
vendetta
noun
1. a private feud, originally between Corsican or Sicilian families, in which the relatives of a murdered person seek vengeance by killing the murderer or some member of his family
2. any prolonged feud, quarrel, etc.
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Born Mar 21, 1962
Age: 50 years old
Age: 50 years old
Matthew Broderick is an American film, stage and voice actor who, among other roles, played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, voiced Simba in The Lion King, and portrayed Leo Bloom in the Hollywood and Broadway productions of The Producers.
Born Mar 21, 1962
Age: 50 years old
Age: 50 years old
Roseann "Rosie" O'Donnell is an American comedian, actress, author and television personality. She has also been a magazine editor and continues to be a celebrity blogger, LGBT rights activist, television producer and collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company R Family Vacations.
Born Mar 21, 1958
Age: 54 years old
Age: 54 years old
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English screen and stage actor, filmmaker and musician. Some of his best-known roles are Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy, Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears, Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK, Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Norman Stansfield in Léon: The Professional, Ludwig van Beethoven in Immortal Beloved, Sirius Black in the Harry Potter series, James Gordon in Nolan's Batman series and George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Other films in which Oldman plays significant roles include Meantime, The Firm, State of Grace, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, True Romance, Basquiat, The Fifth Element, Air Force One, The Contender, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Lawless.
Born Mar 21, 1958
Age: 54 years old
Age: 54 years old
Sabrina Le Beauf is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Sondra Huxtable Tibideaux on the NBC situation comedy The Cosby Show. She has voiced the character Norma Bindlebeep on the Nick at Nite animated series Fatherhood, a show based on Bill Cosby's book of the same name. Le Beauf also appeared on two episodes of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Gambit, Parts I & II" as Ensign Giusti.
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I welcome new words, or old words used in new ways, provided the result is more precision, added color or greater expressiveness.
--William Safire
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