 |  | ||||||||
| Suggest tomorrow's Word of the Day | |||||||||
Word of the Day for Wednesday, March 16, 2011apposite \AP-uh-zit\, adjective: Being of striking appropriateness and relevance; very applicable; apt. As we survey Jewish history as a whole from the vantage point of the late twentieth century, Judah Halevi's phrase "prisoner of hope" seems entirely apposite. The prisoner of hope is sustained and encouraged by his hope, even as he is confined by it. Suppose, for example, that in a theoretical physics seminar we were to explain a very technical concept in quantum field theory by comparing it to the concept of aporia in Derridean literary theory. Our audience of physicists would wonder, quite reasonably, what is the goal of such a metaphor--whether or not it is apposite--apart from displaying our own erudition. The author warns against doubling freely-bid contracts on the strength of a wealth of high cards, since the opponents usually have compensating distributional values. He gives the diagramed example, which is decidedly humorous though not entirely apposite. Apposite comes from Latin appositus, past participle of apponere, "to set or put near," from ad-, "to, toward" + ponere, "to put, to place." | |||||||||
 Words of the Day? How about words of timeless wisdom?Introducing our Quotes channel! "Life itself is a quotation." - Jorge Luis Borges | |||||||||
  What are the "ides" in the "Ides of March," and what caused the need to "beware" them?March 15th marks a very inauspicious anniversary. Like a black cat crossing your path, the Ides of March has become a metaphor for impending doom. How did a day that was once celebrated by the Romans become so heavily cloaked in superstition? The Ides of March is a phrase derived from the Latin idus, a term marking the... | |||||||||
| |||||||||
No comments:
Post a Comment