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Word of the Day for Monday, March 28, 2011afflatus \uh-FLAY-tuhs\, noun: A divine imparting of knowledge; inspiration. Whatever happened to passion and vision and the divine afflatus in poetry? Aristophanes must have eclipsed them . . . by the exhibition of some diviner faculty, some higher spiritual afflatus. The miraculous spring that nourished Homer's afflatus seems out of reach of today's writers, whose desperate yearning for inspiration only indicates the coming of an age of "exhaustion. Afflatus is from Latin afflatus, past participle of afflare, "to blow at or breathe on," from ad-, "at" + flare, "to puff, to blow." Other words with the same root include deflate (de-, "out of" + flare); inflate (in-, "into" + flare); soufflé, the "puffed up" dish (from French souffler, "to puff," from Latin sufflare, "to blow from below," hence "to blow up, to puff up," from sub-, "below" + flare); and flatulent. | |||||||||
 Words of the Day? How about words of timeless wisdom?Introducing our Quotes channel! "Life itself is a quotation." - Jorge Luis Borges | |||||||||
  What words will be changed in two new editions of the Bible?Transcribing the text of the Bible has been an ongoing and often controversial process ever since the Greeks translated ancient Hebrew manuscripts around the 3rd century BC. The revised New International Version (NIV) and The New American Bible, respectively, will include gender-neutral language and substitute words that the editors claim will reflect a modern understanding... | |||||||||
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