Some stuff I missed over the weekend

Word of the Day for Saturday, November 1, 2008

abate \uh-BAYT\, verb:

1. to make or become less in force or intensity; decrease or diminish
2. to be at an end; become null and void
3. to deduct from something; reduce

c.1270, from Old French abattre "beat down," from Latin ad "to" + battuere "to beat"; secondary sense of "to fell, slaughter" is in abatis and abattoir

Today's History

• Sistine Chapel: Michelangelo's legendary ceiling frescoes of biblical scenes were first exhibited to the public (1512)
• Axis: term was coined by Benito Mussolini referring to the alliance between Italy and Nazi Germany (1936)
• Ivy Mike: the United States detonated its first hydrogen bomb on Enewetak, a Pacific atoll (1952)

Today's Birthdays

• Benjamin Guinness (1798-1868): brewer, politician and philanthropist who was Ireland's richest man
• Stephen Crane (1871-1900): novelist and short story writer who wrote The Red Badge of Courage
• Lyle Lovett (51): country singer/songwriter; other country musicians born on this date are Bill Anderson (71) and Kinky Friedman (64)
• Jenny McCarthy (36): model, comedian and actress

Word of the Day for Sunday, November 2, 2008

addle \AD-'l\, verb:

1. to make or become muddled or confused
2. to make or become rotten or putrid

by 1712, from addle (n.) "urine, liquid filth," from Old English adela "mud, mire, liquid manure" (cognate with Old Swedish adel "urine," Middle Low German adel, Dutch aal "puddle"). Used in noun phrase addle egg (c.1250) "egg that does not hatch, rotten egg," literally "urine egg," a loan translation of Latin ovum urinum, which is itself an erroneous loan translation of Greek ourion oon "putrid egg," literally "wind egg," from ourios "of the wind" (confused by Roman writers with ourios "of urine," from ouron "urine"). Because of this usage, the noun in English was taken as an adjective from c. 1600, meaning "putrid," and thence given a figurative extension to "empty, vain, idle," also "confused, muddled, unsound" (1706). The verb followed.

Today's History

• Balfour Declaration: British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour declared support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine (1917)
• Spruce Goose: made of birch, not spruce, the largest flying boat was flown on its first and only flight by its designer, billionaire Howard Hughes (1947)
• Lady Chatterley's Lover: publisher Penguin Books was found not guilty of obscenity for printing the D.H. Lawrence novel (1960)

Today's Birthdays

• Daniel Boone (1734-1820): US explorer and frontiersman, who did not actually wear a coonskin cap
• Marie Antoinette (1755-1793): queen of France during the Revolution who met her end at the guillotine
• James K. Polk (1795-1849): POTUS who fulfilled America's Manifest Destiny
• Warren G. Harding (1865-1923): POTUS known chiefly for the Teapot Dome Scandal
• David Schwimmer (42): awkward paleontologist Ross on Friends