Saturday, February 27, 2010

supplicate \SUP-luh-kayt\, intransitive verb:

1. To make a humble and earnest petition; to pray humbly.

transitive verb:

1. To seek or ask for humbly and earnestly.
2. To make a humble petition to; to beseech.

Supplicate derives from the past participle of Latin supplicare, from supplex, "entreating for mercy." The noun form is supplication.

F9

• To go through relationships rapidly, to be promiscuous.Derives from Chatroulette, where the F9 key brings another chat-partner up.

Dude 1: "I was thinking of trying to start a long-term devoted relationship with Maria."
Dude 2: "Not gonna happen. She straight F9s dudes."
Trivia
What famous 19th-century storyteller often left a note at his bedside stating “I only seem dead,” for fear he’d be buried alive after being prematurely pronounced dead?

• Danish fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen.

History

• Dominican Republic: became independent ofHaiti (1844); then got its first elected president after 38 years of dictatorship (1963)
• Leaning Tower of Pisa: the Italian government requested aid in preventing the tower from toppling; however, it was considered important to retain the tilt (1964)
• carbon-14: radioactive isotope that is the basis ofradiocarbon dating was discovered at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1970)
• Kuwait: oil-rich Arabian Peninsula country was liberated from Iraqi occupation during the Gulf War (1991)

Berfdays

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(1807-1882): poet, The Song of Hiawatha; other American writers born today include John Steinbeck (1902-1968), Peter De Vries (1910-1993) and Irwin Shaw (1913-1984)
• Hugo Black (1886-1971): liberal US Supreme Court justice appointed by FDR
• Ariel Sharon (82): Israeli prime minister; he suffered a stroke in 2006 and remains in a coma
• Elizabeth Taylor (78): violet-eyed actress, Cleopatra, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; other actors born today include Joanne Woodward (80), Howard Hesseman (70), Timothy Spall(53), Adam Baldwin and Grant Show (both 48) and Donal Logue (44)
• Josh Groban (29): pop singer, Noël; other singers born on this date include Marian Anderson (1897-1993) and Adrian Smith (53)