Tuesday, July 17, 2012

mumpsimus \MUHMP-suh-muhs\, noun:

1. Adherence to or persistence in an erroneous use of language, memorization, practice, belief, etc., out of habit or obstinacy.
2. A person who persists in a mistaken expression or practice.

Mumpsimus comes from a story (perhaps first told by Erasmus) about an illiterate priest who mispronounced a word while reciting the liturgy. The priest refused to change the word, even when he was corrected.

old.edu

• Something considered antiquated or eliciting nostalgia, but that in relative terms is a quite recent phenomenon; typically dating back no earlier than the year 2000. A variation on the term "old school."

One of my friends told me to 'MySpace' her. That's so old.edu.

Trivia
.
History

• Spanish-American War: ended when Spanish troops surrendered to US in Santiago, Cuba (1898)
• House of Windsor: in the wake of anti-German sentiment, British royal family changed its name from Saxe-Coburg Gotha (1917)
• Potsdam Conference: world leaders Truman, Stalin and Churchill begin the final Allied summit of WWII (1945)
• Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: for the first time, an Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit; it marked the warming US-USSR relationship (1975)
• Woolworths: the last of the company's five-and-dime stores closed; over 9,000 employees went jobless (1997)

Birthdays

• John Astor 1762
• Luis Munoz-Rivera 1859
• Erle Stanley Gardner 1889
• Berenice Abbott 1898
• James Cagney 1899
• Christina E. Stead 1902
• William Gargan 1905
• Art Linkletter 1912
• Eleanor Steber 1916
• Lou Boudreau 1917
• Phyllis Diller 1917 - Comedian
• Gordon Gould 1920
• Niccolo Castiglioni 1932
• Mimi Hines 1933
• Pat McCormick 1934
• Donald Sutherland 1934 - Actor
• Diahann Carroll 1935 - Actress, singer
• Peter Schickele 1935 - Musician (P. D. Q. Bach)
• Spencer Davis 1939 - Musician, singer (Spencer Davis Group)
• Connie Hawkins 1942 - Basketball player
• Camilla 1947 - Duchess of Cornwall, wife of Britain's Prince Charles
• Cathy Ferguson 1948
• Mick Tucker 1949 - Musician (Sweet)
• Terence 'Geezer' Butler 1949 - Musician (Black Sabbath)
• Mike Vale 1949 - Musician (Tommy James and the Shondells)
• Lucie Arnaz 1951 - Actress
• Phoebe Snow 1952 - Singer
• David Hasselhoff 1952 Actor ("Knight Rider," "Baywatch"), singer, actor, living legend 
• Angela Merkel 1954 - German Chancellor
• Bryan Trottier 1956 - Hockey player
• Nancy Giles 1960
• Regina Belle 1963
• Alex Winter 1965
• Guru (Keith Elam) 1966 - Rapper (Gang Starr)
• Stockley (David "Stokley" Williams) 1967 - Singer (Mint Condition)
• JC (Jarret Cordes, J.C. the Eternal) 1971 - (PM Dawn)
• Kitten Jones 1982