Word of the Day for Monday, October 6, 2008

officious \uh-FISH-uhs\, adjective:

• Marked by excessive eagerness in offering services or advice where they are neither requested nor needed; meddlesome.

Officious comes from Latin officiosus, obliging, dutiful, from officium, dutiful action, sense of duty, official employment, from opus, a work, labor + -ficere, combining form of facere, to do, to make. It is related to official, of or pertaining to an office or public trust.

quan

• When you are one with something. Suggests unity or completion. A loosely defined quality combining or uniting athletic skill with love and respect, as well as money. This word is used in the movie Jerry Maguire by Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr.

"Jerry, you are the ambassador of quan." And

"Some players have coin, but I have the quan."

Trivia

What is the official song of the vice president of the United States?

• “Hail Columbia.” Originally written for the inauguration of George Washington in 1789, it’s now played to announce the vice president’s entrance at ceremonial events when he is not accompanying the president.

Today in History

• The Jazz Singer: first full-length talkie debuted with songs and 291 spoken words (1927)
• The Curse of the Billy Goat: began when Billy Sianis and his goat were ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series; Sianis predicted that the Cubs would never again win a World Series, and, so far, they haven't even been in one since then (1945)
• Yom Kippur War: Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on the holiest day of the Jewish year (1973)

Today's Birthdays

• Wenceslas III (1289-1306): king of Hungary
• James McGill (1744-1813): Canadian businessman whose bequest founded McGill University in Montreal
• Jenny Lind (1820-1887): the "Swedish Nightingale"
• Le Corbusier (1887-1965): city planner and painter who was also one of the most influential architects of the 20th century
• Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002): ethnographer and adventurer who went on the Kon Tiki expedition