Showing posts with label Inspirational Articles AnD Quotes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inspirational Articles AnD Quotes. Show all posts
Stylish Model Saemi Shinohara — Latest Amazing Photo Graphs
Stylish Model Saemi Shinohara — Latest Amazing Photo Graphs
Never Too Late To Be What You Might Have Been
Never Too Late To Be What You Might Have Been
1. “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot
2. “If what you’re doing is not your passion, you have nothing to lose.”
3. “At first dreams seem impossible, then improbable, then inevitable.” – Christopher Reeve
4. “Remembering you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” ~ Steve Jobs.
5. “Do what you love and the money will follow.” – Marsha Sinetar
6. “The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.” – Richard Bach
7. “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who are alive.” – Howard Thurman
8. “All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney
9. “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” – Henry David Thoreau
10. “No matter where you are in life right now, no matter who you are, no matter how old you are – it is never too late to be who you are meant to be.” – Esther & Jerry Hicks
11. “There’s nothing capricious in nature, and the implanting of a desire indicates that its gratification is in the constitution of the creature that feels it.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
12. “Don’t be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so.” – Belva Davis
13. “I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece. I challenge you to join the ranks of those people who live what they teach, who walk their talk.” ~ Tony Robbins
Meaning of Life
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14. “The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
15. “Your goals are the road maps that guide you and show you what is possible for your life.” – Les Brown
16. “Make no small plans for they have no power to stir the soul.” – Niccolo Machiavelli
17. “No dreamer is ever too small; no dream is ever too big.” – Anonymous
18. “Never let your memories be greater than your dreams.” – Doug Ivester
19. “You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period.” – Pursuit of Happyness (Movie)
20. “History shows us that the people who end up changing the world – the great political, social, scientific, technological, artistic, even sports revolutionaries – are always nuts, until they are right, and then they are geniuses.” – John Eliot
21. “You will not do incredible things without an incredible dream.” – John Eliot
22. “Instead of thinking about what you are going to do when you retire, think about how you can do that now and make a living from it.”
Discovering Your Ideal Life
23. “Don’t be pushed by your problems; be led by your dreams.”
24. “Everything you want should be yours: the type of work you want; the relationships you need; the social, mental, and aesthetic stimulation that will make you happy and fulfilled; the money you require for the lifestyle that is appropriate to you; and any requirement that you may (or may not) have for achievement or service to others. If you don’t aim for it all, you’ll never get it all. To aim for it requires that you know what you want” ~ Richard Koch
25. “I am not my memories. I am my dreams.” ~ Terry Hostetler
26. “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – Les Brown
27. “Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.” ~ Albert Einstein
28. “Every second you spend thinking about someone else’s dreams you take time away from your own.” – Yogi Ramen
29. “What the mind can conceive, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill
30. “20 years from now you will be disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the one’s you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover” ~ Mark Twain
1. “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot
2. “If what you’re doing is not your passion, you have nothing to lose.”
3. “At first dreams seem impossible, then improbable, then inevitable.” – Christopher Reeve
4. “Remembering you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” ~ Steve Jobs.
5. “Do what you love and the money will follow.” – Marsha Sinetar
6. “The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.” – Richard Bach
7. “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who are alive.” – Howard Thurman
8. “All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney
9. “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” – Henry David Thoreau
10. “No matter where you are in life right now, no matter who you are, no matter how old you are – it is never too late to be who you are meant to be.” – Esther & Jerry Hicks
11. “There’s nothing capricious in nature, and the implanting of a desire indicates that its gratification is in the constitution of the creature that feels it.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
12. “Don’t be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so.” – Belva Davis
13. “I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece. I challenge you to join the ranks of those people who live what they teach, who walk their talk.” ~ Tony Robbins
Image ©
14. “The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
15. “Your goals are the road maps that guide you and show you what is possible for your life.” – Les Brown
16. “Make no small plans for they have no power to stir the soul.” – Niccolo Machiavelli
17. “No dreamer is ever too small; no dream is ever too big.” – Anonymous
18. “Never let your memories be greater than your dreams.” – Doug Ivester
19. “You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period.” – Pursuit of Happyness (Movie)
20. “History shows us that the people who end up changing the world – the great political, social, scientific, technological, artistic, even sports revolutionaries – are always nuts, until they are right, and then they are geniuses.” – John Eliot
21. “You will not do incredible things without an incredible dream.” – John Eliot
22. “Instead of thinking about what you are going to do when you retire, think about how you can do that now and make a living from it.”
Discovering Your Ideal Life
23. “Don’t be pushed by your problems; be led by your dreams.”
24. “Everything you want should be yours: the type of work you want; the relationships you need; the social, mental, and aesthetic stimulation that will make you happy and fulfilled; the money you require for the lifestyle that is appropriate to you; and any requirement that you may (or may not) have for achievement or service to others. If you don’t aim for it all, you’ll never get it all. To aim for it requires that you know what you want” ~ Richard Koch
25. “I am not my memories. I am my dreams.” ~ Terry Hostetler
26. “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – Les Brown
27. “Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.” ~ Albert Einstein
28. “Every second you spend thinking about someone else’s dreams you take time away from your own.” – Yogi Ramen
29. “What the mind can conceive, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill
30. “20 years from now you will be disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the one’s you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover” ~ Mark Twain
My Life In 10 Years Goals
My Life In 10 Years Goals
1. “In life, as in football, you won’t go far unless you know where the goalposts are.” – Arnold H. Glasgow
2. “When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life.” – Greg Anderson
3. “The most important thing about goals is having one.” – Geoffry F. Abert
4. “The only reason we don’t have what we want in life is the reasons we create why we can’t have them.” ~Tony Robbins
5. “The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” – Bill Copeland
6. “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” – Jim Rohn
7. “Everything is always created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.”
8. “You need a plan to build a house. To build a life, it is even more important to have a plan or goal.” – Zig Ziglar
9. “The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.” ~ Benjamin Mays
10. “People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine.”
11. “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” Napolean Hill
1. “In life, as in football, you won’t go far unless you know where the goalposts are.” – Arnold H. Glasgow
2. “When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life.” – Greg Anderson
3. “The most important thing about goals is having one.” – Geoffry F. Abert
4. “The only reason we don’t have what we want in life is the reasons we create why we can’t have them.” ~Tony Robbins
6. “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” – Jim Rohn
7. “Everything is always created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.”
8. “You need a plan to build a house. To build a life, it is even more important to have a plan or goal.” – Zig Ziglar
9. “The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.” ~ Benjamin Mays
10. “People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine.”
11. “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” Napolean Hill
Quotes on Past, Present and Future
Quotes on Past, Present and Future
1. “Don’t let the past steal your present” – Cherralea Morgen
2. “One has to live in the present. Whatever is past is gone beyond recall; whatever is future remains beyond one’s reach, until it becomes present. Remembering the past and giving thought to the future are important, but only to the extent that they help one deal with the present.” – S.N. Goenka
3. “It doesn’t matter where you are, you are nowhere compared to where you can go.” ~ Bob Proctor
4. “We are all here for some special reason. Stop being a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future.” – Robin Sharma
6. “Be present – it is the only moment that matters.” Peaceful Warrior
7. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.” – B. Olatunji
8. “Nobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead, that is where your future lies.” ~ Ann Landers
9. “Holding on to anything is like holding on to your breath. You will suffocate. The only way to get anything in the physical universe is by letting go of it. Let go & it will be yours forever”. – Deepak Chopra
Reflecting on Life
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10. Don’t put off living to next week, next month, next year or next decade. The only time you’re ever living is in this moment.
11. “There’s no next time. It’s now or never.”
12. “One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.” – Dale Carnegie
13. “Never let your memories be greater than your dreams.” – Doug Ivester
14. “Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.” ~ Albert Einstein
15. “To create more positive results in your life, replace ‘if only’ with ‘next time’.”
16. “We think about all of our tomorrows, but we don’t know how many they are, so let’s start making the most of our Todays!” ~ Ivana Trump
17. “The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future.” ~ Herbert Spencer
18. “What you are is what you have been. What you’ll be is what you do now.” – Buddha
19. “Everyone faces challenges in life. It’s a matter of how you learn to overcome them and using them to your advantage.”
1. “Don’t let the past steal your present” – Cherralea Morgen
2. “One has to live in the present. Whatever is past is gone beyond recall; whatever is future remains beyond one’s reach, until it becomes present. Remembering the past and giving thought to the future are important, but only to the extent that they help one deal with the present.” – S.N. Goenka
3. “It doesn’t matter where you are, you are nowhere compared to where you can go.” ~ Bob Proctor
4. “We are all here for some special reason. Stop being a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future.” – Robin Sharma
5. The more you take responsibility for your past and present, the more you are able to create the future you seek.
7. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.” – B. Olatunji
8. “Nobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead, that is where your future lies.” ~ Ann Landers
9. “Holding on to anything is like holding on to your breath. You will suffocate. The only way to get anything in the physical universe is by letting go of it. Let go & it will be yours forever”. – Deepak Chopra
Reflecting on Life
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10. Don’t put off living to next week, next month, next year or next decade. The only time you’re ever living is in this moment.
11. “There’s no next time. It’s now or never.”
12. “One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.” – Dale Carnegie
13. “Never let your memories be greater than your dreams.” – Doug Ivester
14. “Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.” ~ Albert Einstein
15. “To create more positive results in your life, replace ‘if only’ with ‘next time’.”
16. “We think about all of our tomorrows, but we don’t know how many they are, so let’s start making the most of our Todays!” ~ Ivana Trump
17. “The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future.” ~ Herbert Spencer
18. “What you are is what you have been. What you’ll be is what you do now.” – Buddha
19. “Everyone faces challenges in life. It’s a matter of how you learn to overcome them and using them to your advantage.”
10 Beautiful Words You Don’t Know
10 Beautiful Words You Don’t Know
There are lots of words that mean or imply “beautiful.” Here’s a list pulled from a thesaurus:
adonic, adorable, aesthetic, alluring, attractive, becoming, blooming, bonny, bright, charming, classy, comely, dainty, dapper, dazzling, delicate, elegant, enchanting, exquisite, fair, fascinating, fine, glamorous, glossy, glowing, gorgeous, graceful, handsome, lovely, magnificent, picturesque, pretty, quaint, refined, resplendent, rosy, seemly, shapely, shining, sparkling, splendid, spotless, spruce, stylish, sublime, superb, svelte, winsome.
My guess is you know these words and their derivatives. But there are others. Consider the following ten words – all of which relate to beauty. The odds are that you’ve not met with them before, unless you’re a committed kalologist.
1. Orchidaceous: Orchidaceous means “like an orchid,” and since orchids are widely regarded as beautiful, it implies exceptional beautiful. But the word is used in other contexts too. It can imply “ostentatious” or even “gaudy”, which fits the appearance of some orchids too, depending on your taste. Indeed, some orchids are, to be quite honest, very much plain-Jane.
As it happens, orchids constitute the largest family of flowering plants there is. There are well over 20,000 naturally occurring species, before you get to the numerous hybrids. They grow just about everywhere on dry land. The tallest orchid variety known to man (that isn’t a vine), called grammatophyllum speciosum, can reach 25 feet in height and has leaves up to 2.5 feet long. It has a flower stalk that can bear 100 flowers and grow to 8 feet. I’d say that was ostentatious, although as I’ve never seen an exemplar, I can’t attest to gaudiness.
Orchid’s are weird indeed, as almost each variety (the vast majority of cases) can only be pollinated by a specific insect or bird, making it highly dependent on its symbiote for survival. They laugh in the general direction of Darwin. How could it be that the most prolific flower of all would choose such a fragile existence. Orchid varieties are peculiarly susceptible to extinction. They die out if the bird or insect they depend on vanishes from their ecosystem.
The word “orchid” derives directly from the Greek “orkhis” which means testicle, and probably refers to the shape of an orchid’s root (for some orchid varieties). The oddly shaped root may explain why orchids were used in ancient and medieval times as aphrodisiacs.
2. Amaranthine. This word is also Greek in origin, from “amarantos” meaning everlasting – literally, not wasting away. The amaranth was, mythically speaking, a flower that grew on Mount Olympus and a symbol of immortality, sacred to Ephesian Artemis.
Aesop tells an endearing story of a conversation between the Rose and the Amaranth, with the Amaranth envying the beauty and sweet scent of the the rose, but the Rose lamenting that “I bloom but for a time, and my petals wither and I die. But your flowers never fade, even when cut; for they are eternal.”
All of which is charming if taken as myth, but a little wide of the actualité. Amaranth is the common name for the Amaranthaceae, known also as pigweed, which sounds a little south of eternally beautiful – although, in its favor, it is believed to have healing properties. In fact there are about 70 species of Amaranth, quite a few of which grow in India, a thousand miles or more from Mount Olympus.
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The globe amaranth is known as the bachelor’s button. You’ve probably encountered the feathery amaranth, also known as as cockscomb or celosia, with its plume-like flowers that range in color from dark crimson to golden yellow. You see them in flower shops. Oddly they are annuals – not even perennials, which is strange for a supposedly eternal flower.
3. Kalopsia. Kalopsia is the delusion that things are more beautiful than they really are. The immortality that Aesop’s Rose craves may not be as beautiful as the Rose imagines. Certainly Jonathan Swift would dispute the suggestion – and he did, in Gulliver’s Travels (the unexpurgated version). On his travels, Swift’s Gulliver hears mention of the Struldbruggs, and is told that:
“sometimes, though very rarely, a child happened to be born in a family with a red circular spot in the forehead, directly over the left eyebrow, which was an infallible mark that it should never die.”
Gulliver expresses his happiness for those “excellent Struldbruggs, who born exempt from that universal calamity of human nature, have their minds free and disengaged, without the weight and depression of spirits caused by the continual apprehension of death.”
He is, however, soon corrected of this misapprehension..
“…the same gentleman who had been my interpreter said, he was desired by the rest to set me right in a few mistakes… he gave me a particular account of the Struldbruggs among them. He said they commonly acted like mortals, till about thirty years old, after which by degrees they grew melancholy and dejected…When they came to four-score years, which is reckoned the extremity of living in this country, they had not only all the follies and infirmities of other old men, but many more which arose from the dreadful prospects of never dying.”
So much for immortality…
4. Colposinquanonia. ”Handsome is as handsome does,” is an old saw that my mother trotted out with depressign regularlity. A pleasant exterior does not presage an inner purity, but nevertheless, the male forever assesses the female on the basis of exterior qualities; beauty in face and body. In my student days I participated in late night intellectual debates about the essense of female beauty.
One wag from our intellectual clique, provocatively denied the beauty of female breasts with the bald words “Tits are ugly.” He was studying Law at the time and was an effective debater. He argued tenaciously that breasts of themselves had no specific aesthetic attributes. “Just imagine a diembodied tit, sitting right there on the coffee table!” he challenged. Of course we all did, and I confess that, for me at least, the vision failed to appeal in any way.
Nevertheless, until that moment, I had always tended to colposinquanonia – estimating a woman’s beauty, to some degree, according to the aesthetic appeal of her natural pectoral adornments. So the polemic threw me into a mild confusion. It flew in the face of other long but far less academic discussions I had had on whether to assess a woman’s beauty according to her legs or her breasts.
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5. Kalokagathia. Despite that male tendency, quite a few women do not like being admired for their form. I was accused once, by a rather appealing philologist, of oculoplania. She was interested in the intellectual to-and-fro between us. I was – guilty as charged – interested in her breasts. In my defense those breasts would not have attracted me so much had she not dressed to reveal rather than conceal. I suspect she had dressed that evening with the specific intention of introducing “ocuplania” into a conversation with a man.
Ocuplania means “letting one’s eyes wander while assessing someone’s charms” and since that’s the only definition I can find (it’s a rare word) I’m not really sure of what it implies. I can only assume that the word is Victorian and designed to stop a man looking directly at a woman’s breasts even if she thrusts them into his face.
Events demonstrate that I am infected with oculoplania when sufficiently provoked. But no matter what my unruly eyes do, kalokagathia is what impresses me most. Beneath it all, I am programmed to search for a combination of the good and the beautiful in a person. That’s kalokagathia.
6. Euonym. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, it’s true, but if it’s called pigweed, it just doesn’t give the right impression. Names are adverts of a kind, so it’s easy to understand why people in the public eye are wont to change their names when their original name is less than inviting. You could be forgiven for believing you have you’ve no knowledge of any of this list of people:
Alfredo Cocozza, Ehrich Weiss, Rudolpho D’Antonguolla, Asa Yoelson, Arthur Jefferson, William Claude Dukenfield, Frances Gumm, Harlean Carpentier, Laszio Lowenstein, Emmanuel Goldenberg, Virginia McMath, Nathan Birnbaum, Archibald Leach, Walter Palanuik, William Henry Pratt, David Kaminsky, Leonard Slye, Margarita Cansino, Marion Michael Morrison, Issur Danielovitch, Mary Kaumeyer, Betty Joan Perske, Charles Carter, Roy Scherer Jr., Ruby Stevens, Walden Robert Cassotto, Reginald Carey, Bernard Schwartz, Seth Ward, Joe Yule Jr., Vera Jane Palmer, Joseph Levitch, Allen Konigsberg, Camille Javal, Louis Lindley, Michael Shalhoub, Maurice Micklewhite, Raquel Tejada, Susan Kerr Wells, Jerome Silberman, Cherilyn Sarkisian, Leslie Hornby, Alphonso D’Abruzzo, Walter Willison, Krishna Banji, Thomas Mapother IV, Caryn Johnson, Terry Jene Bollea, Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra, Kevin John Fowler, Sylvester Gardenzio and Annie Mae Bullock.
In fact you’ve heard of most, if not all of them, by the names they adopted. They are, in the same order as the previous list:
Mario Lanza, Harry Houdini, Rudolph Valentino, Al Jolson, Stan Laurel, W.C. Fields, Judy Garland, Jean Harlow, Peter Lorre, Edward G. Robinson, Ginger Rogers, George Burns, Cary Grant, Jack Palance, Boris Karloff, Danny Kaye, Roy Rogers, Rita Hayworth, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Dorothy Lamour, Lauren Bacall, Charlton Heston, Rock Hudson, Barbara Stanwyck, Bobby Darin, Rex Harrison, Tony Curtis, Jimmy Dean, Mickey Rooney, Jayne Mansfield, Jerry Lewis, Woody Allen, Brigitte Bardot, Slim Pickens, Omar Sharif, Michael Caine, Raquel Welch, Tuesday Weld, Gene Wilder, Cher, Twiggy, Alan Alda, Bruce Willis, Ben Kingsley, Tom Cruise, Whoopie Goldberg, Hulk Hogan, Meg Ryan, Kevin Spacey, Sylvester Stallone and Tina Turner.
You can make your own judgment as to whether these chosen names qualify as euonyms. A euonym is a beautiful name – or at least a good, proper, or fitting name – for something or someone.
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7. Callipygous. Arguably, the ultimate question of life is: “Does my ass look big in this?” Sadly the answer to the question varies from era to era and from culture to culture. Nowadays, in fashion circles, the sylph-like figure dominates and hence women arrange for their buttocks to look less prominent. Sadly, it’s complicated. Sylphs are great for hanging clothes on, because the clothes hang from them rather than cling to them. However, sylph-like buttocks are generally insufficient in another important context. For decades, women have worn stilletto heels to emphasize their buttocks, well aware of the fact that curvy buttocks are attractive, especially when in motion. Stillettos are specifically designed to emphasize buttocks and to damage flooring.
According to reports, Marylyn Monroe even had her stiletto heels adjusted, so that one heel was shorter than the other. This ensured that her buttocks always swayed to and fro when she walked. In truth, her body needed little assistance as she had the fashionable hourglass shape of her era.
Nowadays her clothes size would be regarded as a little North of perfection. That is, unless she were a Hottentot woman, in which case she would be regarded as excessively thin and unappealing. The Hottentot male much prefers women with excessive fat deposits in the buttocks. He’s not alone, of course, the tendency among primitive tribes pretty much everywhere is to prefer the plumper woman.
If you haven’t guessed it by the way, callypigous means having beautiful buttocks, the beauty being seated firmly in the eye of the beholder.
8. Calligyniaphobia. A misoscopist is a hater of beauty, which seems almost paradoxical. Nevertheless the word exists, so we can only presume that there are those to whom it applies. If so they are likely to suffer from calligyniaphobia, which means “the fear of beautiful women.”
But why should we fear beautiful women? The beautiful exterior can harbor an evil interior as was the case with the evil queens in the classic fairy tales “Snow White” and “Sleeping Beauty.” If you’re looking for examples of such in history then perhaps the following qualify:
* Delilah, who brought blindness and death to Samson
* Livia, the beautiful wife of Caesar Augustus and reputedly his poisoner.
* Salome, who requested and recevied the head of John The Baptist as a gift.
* Lucretia Borgia, like Livia, a poisoner by reputation and married to various noblemen in 15th/16th century Italy. She was accused of incest (with her brothers and her father, Pope Alexander VI) and had the distinction of being declared a virgin by the Vatican after she had had a baby.
To this list we could also add women who themselves were not evil but whose influence provoked war. Helen of Troy and Cleopatra are the principal examples. But it’s a digression that doesn’t amount to a hill of beautiful beans really. As a psychological term calligyniaphobia is about shyness and fear of rejection. Most men are programmed to be attracted to beautiful women, but some have not the courage for their pursuit. Actually there’s another word with exactly the same meaning; venustraphobia.
9. Callomania. Where there’s a phobia, there’s bound to be a mania, but before we get into that, by now you should be suspecting that the prefix “cal” has something to do with beauty. It does. The Greek adjective kalon means “good, fine, noble and beautiful.” So, you may wonder whether the name “California” has an etymological link to “kalon.” The answer is “maybe.”
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In 1510, Garci Ordóñez de Montalvo, published a book entitled Las sergas de Esplandián (Exploits of Espladán) a sequel to his New York Times best seller Amadis de Gaula, which was the “Harry Potter” of its day, translated into many other languages, even Hebrew. Everyone read it, even Henry of Navarre and St Ignatius of Loyola. Cervantes referred to it in his writings, having a barber describe it as “the best of all books of this kind.” If was a fantasy about knights, damsels, dragons, giants, wizards and such. The sequel was also widely read, and in it you find references to an imaginary island realm called “California” ruled over by Queen Califia. Let me quote:
To the West of the Indies is an island called California very close to a side of the Earthly Paradise; and it is populated by black women, without any men existing there. They live in the way of the Amazons. They have beautiful and athletic bodies, and are brave and strong. Their island is a fortress with cliffs and rocky shores. Their weapons are golden and so too the harnesses of the wild beasts that they ride, for there is no other metal in that island than gold.
Las sergas de Esplandián was published at the time that Spanish explorers were heading West in considerable numbers hoping to conquer new lands and return with gold. It is suspected that when some such Spaniards reached the Western shores of what is now Mexico and headed North they discovered Baja California, which they guessed to be an island (not having made their way far enough North to realize that it was just a peninsula) and they named it California, even though it was short on black Amazon women in general and gold in particular. Of course if they’d continued North they might have actually found the gold that sparked the California gold rush of 1849. But they didn’t. It wasn’t until 1785 that anyone used the word California to denote that general area in a written record.
How Montalvo came up with the name “California is a complete mystery. It is possible that he took the Greek kalon and mixed it with the Latin fornix meaning brothel, with the intended meaning of “beautiful brothel.” That is, of course, unwarranted speculation. But even if it’s correct, it doesn’t make Montalvo a callomaniac. A callomaniac is someone who’s deluded about their own beauty rather than someoen who’s deluded about the beauty of an imaginary island full of skantily-clan women that’s awash with gold.
10. Callisteia. Callisteia are prizes for beauty, named for the Greek goddess Callisto. When the Greeks have a concept they normally have some derivative god or goddess with a life story to hammer home the idea. In the case of beauty, the appropriate goddess is Callisto, “callistos” literally meaning “most beautiful.”
Callisto used to go hunting with her close friend and goddess, Artemis who was a bit of a tom boy and a virgin to boot; the goddess of the hunt and protectoress of youth. Callisto had promised Artemis that she too would remain a virgin. And she might have, had it not been for Zeus who was a wily seducer. He picked Callisto’s cherry by assuming the form of Artemis. Artemis and Calisto were presumably occasional visitors to the Isle of Lesbos, otherwise Callisto would surely have refused Zeus-disguised-as-Artemis.
Despite being brilliant in the art of seduction, Zeus was utterly useless at concealing his indiscretions from his wife Hera, who was as jealous as a cat and twice as vengeful. In order to protect Callisto, Zeus turned her into a bear. Hera, who was not fooled at all by the rather beautiful bear, let Artemis know that the bear was in fact Callisto, who was now one cherry short of the perfect trifle. Artemis shot her without hesitation.
Zeus, failing as usual to protect the victim of his seductive activities, promptly transformed her into Ursa Major (the constellation of the Great Bear) and placed her in a part of the Northern sky which never dips below the horizon of the Mediterranean sky. He thus made her eternal and immortal.
P.S. I’m sure you worked it out, but in case you didn’t, a kalologist is someone who studies beauty in all its dimensions.
There are lots of words that mean or imply “beautiful.” Here’s a list pulled from a thesaurus:
adonic, adorable, aesthetic, alluring, attractive, becoming, blooming, bonny, bright, charming, classy, comely, dainty, dapper, dazzling, delicate, elegant, enchanting, exquisite, fair, fascinating, fine, glamorous, glossy, glowing, gorgeous, graceful, handsome, lovely, magnificent, picturesque, pretty, quaint, refined, resplendent, rosy, seemly, shapely, shining, sparkling, splendid, spotless, spruce, stylish, sublime, superb, svelte, winsome.
My guess is you know these words and their derivatives. But there are others. Consider the following ten words – all of which relate to beauty. The odds are that you’ve not met with them before, unless you’re a committed kalologist.
1. Orchidaceous: Orchidaceous means “like an orchid,” and since orchids are widely regarded as beautiful, it implies exceptional beautiful. But the word is used in other contexts too. It can imply “ostentatious” or even “gaudy”, which fits the appearance of some orchids too, depending on your taste. Indeed, some orchids are, to be quite honest, very much plain-Jane.
As it happens, orchids constitute the largest family of flowering plants there is. There are well over 20,000 naturally occurring species, before you get to the numerous hybrids. They grow just about everywhere on dry land. The tallest orchid variety known to man (that isn’t a vine), called grammatophyllum speciosum, can reach 25 feet in height and has leaves up to 2.5 feet long. It has a flower stalk that can bear 100 flowers and grow to 8 feet. I’d say that was ostentatious, although as I’ve never seen an exemplar, I can’t attest to gaudiness.
Orchid’s are weird indeed, as almost each variety (the vast majority of cases) can only be pollinated by a specific insect or bird, making it highly dependent on its symbiote for survival. They laugh in the general direction of Darwin. How could it be that the most prolific flower of all would choose such a fragile existence. Orchid varieties are peculiarly susceptible to extinction. They die out if the bird or insect they depend on vanishes from their ecosystem.
The word “orchid” derives directly from the Greek “orkhis” which means testicle, and probably refers to the shape of an orchid’s root (for some orchid varieties). The oddly shaped root may explain why orchids were used in ancient and medieval times as aphrodisiacs.
2. Amaranthine. This word is also Greek in origin, from “amarantos” meaning everlasting – literally, not wasting away. The amaranth was, mythically speaking, a flower that grew on Mount Olympus and a symbol of immortality, sacred to Ephesian Artemis.
Aesop tells an endearing story of a conversation between the Rose and the Amaranth, with the Amaranth envying the beauty and sweet scent of the the rose, but the Rose lamenting that “I bloom but for a time, and my petals wither and I die. But your flowers never fade, even when cut; for they are eternal.”
All of which is charming if taken as myth, but a little wide of the actualité. Amaranth is the common name for the Amaranthaceae, known also as pigweed, which sounds a little south of eternally beautiful – although, in its favor, it is believed to have healing properties. In fact there are about 70 species of Amaranth, quite a few of which grow in India, a thousand miles or more from Mount Olympus.
–~~~~~~~~~~~~–
The globe amaranth is known as the bachelor’s button. You’ve probably encountered the feathery amaranth, also known as as cockscomb or celosia, with its plume-like flowers that range in color from dark crimson to golden yellow. You see them in flower shops. Oddly they are annuals – not even perennials, which is strange for a supposedly eternal flower.
3. Kalopsia. Kalopsia is the delusion that things are more beautiful than they really are. The immortality that Aesop’s Rose craves may not be as beautiful as the Rose imagines. Certainly Jonathan Swift would dispute the suggestion – and he did, in Gulliver’s Travels (the unexpurgated version). On his travels, Swift’s Gulliver hears mention of the Struldbruggs, and is told that:
“sometimes, though very rarely, a child happened to be born in a family with a red circular spot in the forehead, directly over the left eyebrow, which was an infallible mark that it should never die.”
Gulliver expresses his happiness for those “excellent Struldbruggs, who born exempt from that universal calamity of human nature, have their minds free and disengaged, without the weight and depression of spirits caused by the continual apprehension of death.”
He is, however, soon corrected of this misapprehension..
“…the same gentleman who had been my interpreter said, he was desired by the rest to set me right in a few mistakes… he gave me a particular account of the Struldbruggs among them. He said they commonly acted like mortals, till about thirty years old, after which by degrees they grew melancholy and dejected…When they came to four-score years, which is reckoned the extremity of living in this country, they had not only all the follies and infirmities of other old men, but many more which arose from the dreadful prospects of never dying.”
4. Colposinquanonia. ”Handsome is as handsome does,” is an old saw that my mother trotted out with depressign regularlity. A pleasant exterior does not presage an inner purity, but nevertheless, the male forever assesses the female on the basis of exterior qualities; beauty in face and body. In my student days I participated in late night intellectual debates about the essense of female beauty.
One wag from our intellectual clique, provocatively denied the beauty of female breasts with the bald words “Tits are ugly.” He was studying Law at the time and was an effective debater. He argued tenaciously that breasts of themselves had no specific aesthetic attributes. “Just imagine a diembodied tit, sitting right there on the coffee table!” he challenged. Of course we all did, and I confess that, for me at least, the vision failed to appeal in any way.
Nevertheless, until that moment, I had always tended to colposinquanonia – estimating a woman’s beauty, to some degree, according to the aesthetic appeal of her natural pectoral adornments. So the polemic threw me into a mild confusion. It flew in the face of other long but far less academic discussions I had had on whether to assess a woman’s beauty according to her legs or her breasts.
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5. Kalokagathia. Despite that male tendency, quite a few women do not like being admired for their form. I was accused once, by a rather appealing philologist, of oculoplania. She was interested in the intellectual to-and-fro between us. I was – guilty as charged – interested in her breasts. In my defense those breasts would not have attracted me so much had she not dressed to reveal rather than conceal. I suspect she had dressed that evening with the specific intention of introducing “ocuplania” into a conversation with a man.
Ocuplania means “letting one’s eyes wander while assessing someone’s charms” and since that’s the only definition I can find (it’s a rare word) I’m not really sure of what it implies. I can only assume that the word is Victorian and designed to stop a man looking directly at a woman’s breasts even if she thrusts them into his face.
Events demonstrate that I am infected with oculoplania when sufficiently provoked. But no matter what my unruly eyes do, kalokagathia is what impresses me most. Beneath it all, I am programmed to search for a combination of the good and the beautiful in a person. That’s kalokagathia.
6. Euonym. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, it’s true, but if it’s called pigweed, it just doesn’t give the right impression. Names are adverts of a kind, so it’s easy to understand why people in the public eye are wont to change their names when their original name is less than inviting. You could be forgiven for believing you have you’ve no knowledge of any of this list of people:
Alfredo Cocozza, Ehrich Weiss, Rudolpho D’Antonguolla, Asa Yoelson, Arthur Jefferson, William Claude Dukenfield, Frances Gumm, Harlean Carpentier, Laszio Lowenstein, Emmanuel Goldenberg, Virginia McMath, Nathan Birnbaum, Archibald Leach, Walter Palanuik, William Henry Pratt, David Kaminsky, Leonard Slye, Margarita Cansino, Marion Michael Morrison, Issur Danielovitch, Mary Kaumeyer, Betty Joan Perske, Charles Carter, Roy Scherer Jr., Ruby Stevens, Walden Robert Cassotto, Reginald Carey, Bernard Schwartz, Seth Ward, Joe Yule Jr., Vera Jane Palmer, Joseph Levitch, Allen Konigsberg, Camille Javal, Louis Lindley, Michael Shalhoub, Maurice Micklewhite, Raquel Tejada, Susan Kerr Wells, Jerome Silberman, Cherilyn Sarkisian, Leslie Hornby, Alphonso D’Abruzzo, Walter Willison, Krishna Banji, Thomas Mapother IV, Caryn Johnson, Terry Jene Bollea, Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra, Kevin John Fowler, Sylvester Gardenzio and Annie Mae Bullock.
In fact you’ve heard of most, if not all of them, by the names they adopted. They are, in the same order as the previous list:
Mario Lanza, Harry Houdini, Rudolph Valentino, Al Jolson, Stan Laurel, W.C. Fields, Judy Garland, Jean Harlow, Peter Lorre, Edward G. Robinson, Ginger Rogers, George Burns, Cary Grant, Jack Palance, Boris Karloff, Danny Kaye, Roy Rogers, Rita Hayworth, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Dorothy Lamour, Lauren Bacall, Charlton Heston, Rock Hudson, Barbara Stanwyck, Bobby Darin, Rex Harrison, Tony Curtis, Jimmy Dean, Mickey Rooney, Jayne Mansfield, Jerry Lewis, Woody Allen, Brigitte Bardot, Slim Pickens, Omar Sharif, Michael Caine, Raquel Welch, Tuesday Weld, Gene Wilder, Cher, Twiggy, Alan Alda, Bruce Willis, Ben Kingsley, Tom Cruise, Whoopie Goldberg, Hulk Hogan, Meg Ryan, Kevin Spacey, Sylvester Stallone and Tina Turner.
You can make your own judgment as to whether these chosen names qualify as euonyms. A euonym is a beautiful name – or at least a good, proper, or fitting name – for something or someone.
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7. Callipygous. Arguably, the ultimate question of life is: “Does my ass look big in this?” Sadly the answer to the question varies from era to era and from culture to culture. Nowadays, in fashion circles, the sylph-like figure dominates and hence women arrange for their buttocks to look less prominent. Sadly, it’s complicated. Sylphs are great for hanging clothes on, because the clothes hang from them rather than cling to them. However, sylph-like buttocks are generally insufficient in another important context. For decades, women have worn stilletto heels to emphasize their buttocks, well aware of the fact that curvy buttocks are attractive, especially when in motion. Stillettos are specifically designed to emphasize buttocks and to damage flooring.
According to reports, Marylyn Monroe even had her stiletto heels adjusted, so that one heel was shorter than the other. This ensured that her buttocks always swayed to and fro when she walked. In truth, her body needed little assistance as she had the fashionable hourglass shape of her era.
Nowadays her clothes size would be regarded as a little North of perfection. That is, unless she were a Hottentot woman, in which case she would be regarded as excessively thin and unappealing. The Hottentot male much prefers women with excessive fat deposits in the buttocks. He’s not alone, of course, the tendency among primitive tribes pretty much everywhere is to prefer the plumper woman.
If you haven’t guessed it by the way, callypigous means having beautiful buttocks, the beauty being seated firmly in the eye of the beholder.
8. Calligyniaphobia. A misoscopist is a hater of beauty, which seems almost paradoxical. Nevertheless the word exists, so we can only presume that there are those to whom it applies. If so they are likely to suffer from calligyniaphobia, which means “the fear of beautiful women.”
But why should we fear beautiful women? The beautiful exterior can harbor an evil interior as was the case with the evil queens in the classic fairy tales “Snow White” and “Sleeping Beauty.” If you’re looking for examples of such in history then perhaps the following qualify:
* Delilah, who brought blindness and death to Samson
* Livia, the beautiful wife of Caesar Augustus and reputedly his poisoner.
* Salome, who requested and recevied the head of John The Baptist as a gift.
* Lucretia Borgia, like Livia, a poisoner by reputation and married to various noblemen in 15th/16th century Italy. She was accused of incest (with her brothers and her father, Pope Alexander VI) and had the distinction of being declared a virgin by the Vatican after she had had a baby.
To this list we could also add women who themselves were not evil but whose influence provoked war. Helen of Troy and Cleopatra are the principal examples. But it’s a digression that doesn’t amount to a hill of beautiful beans really. As a psychological term calligyniaphobia is about shyness and fear of rejection. Most men are programmed to be attracted to beautiful women, but some have not the courage for their pursuit. Actually there’s another word with exactly the same meaning; venustraphobia.
9. Callomania. Where there’s a phobia, there’s bound to be a mania, but before we get into that, by now you should be suspecting that the prefix “cal” has something to do with beauty. It does. The Greek adjective kalon means “good, fine, noble and beautiful.” So, you may wonder whether the name “California” has an etymological link to “kalon.” The answer is “maybe.”
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In 1510, Garci Ordóñez de Montalvo, published a book entitled Las sergas de Esplandián (Exploits of Espladán) a sequel to his New York Times best seller Amadis de Gaula, which was the “Harry Potter” of its day, translated into many other languages, even Hebrew. Everyone read it, even Henry of Navarre and St Ignatius of Loyola. Cervantes referred to it in his writings, having a barber describe it as “the best of all books of this kind.” If was a fantasy about knights, damsels, dragons, giants, wizards and such. The sequel was also widely read, and in it you find references to an imaginary island realm called “California” ruled over by Queen Califia. Let me quote:
To the West of the Indies is an island called California very close to a side of the Earthly Paradise; and it is populated by black women, without any men existing there. They live in the way of the Amazons. They have beautiful and athletic bodies, and are brave and strong. Their island is a fortress with cliffs and rocky shores. Their weapons are golden and so too the harnesses of the wild beasts that they ride, for there is no other metal in that island than gold.
Las sergas de Esplandián was published at the time that Spanish explorers were heading West in considerable numbers hoping to conquer new lands and return with gold. It is suspected that when some such Spaniards reached the Western shores of what is now Mexico and headed North they discovered Baja California, which they guessed to be an island (not having made their way far enough North to realize that it was just a peninsula) and they named it California, even though it was short on black Amazon women in general and gold in particular. Of course if they’d continued North they might have actually found the gold that sparked the California gold rush of 1849. But they didn’t. It wasn’t until 1785 that anyone used the word California to denote that general area in a written record.
How Montalvo came up with the name “California is a complete mystery. It is possible that he took the Greek kalon and mixed it with the Latin fornix meaning brothel, with the intended meaning of “beautiful brothel.” That is, of course, unwarranted speculation. But even if it’s correct, it doesn’t make Montalvo a callomaniac. A callomaniac is someone who’s deluded about their own beauty rather than someoen who’s deluded about the beauty of an imaginary island full of skantily-clan women that’s awash with gold.
10. Callisteia. Callisteia are prizes for beauty, named for the Greek goddess Callisto. When the Greeks have a concept they normally have some derivative god or goddess with a life story to hammer home the idea. In the case of beauty, the appropriate goddess is Callisto, “callistos” literally meaning “most beautiful.”
Callisto used to go hunting with her close friend and goddess, Artemis who was a bit of a tom boy and a virgin to boot; the goddess of the hunt and protectoress of youth. Callisto had promised Artemis that she too would remain a virgin. And she might have, had it not been for Zeus who was a wily seducer. He picked Callisto’s cherry by assuming the form of Artemis. Artemis and Calisto were presumably occasional visitors to the Isle of Lesbos, otherwise Callisto would surely have refused Zeus-disguised-as-Artemis.
Despite being brilliant in the art of seduction, Zeus was utterly useless at concealing his indiscretions from his wife Hera, who was as jealous as a cat and twice as vengeful. In order to protect Callisto, Zeus turned her into a bear. Hera, who was not fooled at all by the rather beautiful bear, let Artemis know that the bear was in fact Callisto, who was now one cherry short of the perfect trifle. Artemis shot her without hesitation.
Zeus, failing as usual to protect the victim of his seductive activities, promptly transformed her into Ursa Major (the constellation of the Great Bear) and placed her in a part of the Northern sky which never dips below the horizon of the Mediterranean sky. He thus made her eternal and immortal.
P.S. I’m sure you worked it out, but in case you didn’t, a kalologist is someone who studies beauty in all its dimensions.
12 Greek Words You Should Know
12 Greek Words You Should Know
Along with Latin, Greek is probably the language that most influenced other languages around the world. Many English words derive directly from Greek ones, and knowing their origin and meaning is important.
Below you will find 12 Greek words that are commonly used in our society. The next time you hear someone saying “Kudos to you,” you will know where it comes from.
1. Acme
The highest point of a structure. The peak or zenith of something. One could say that Rome reached the acme of its power on 117 AD, under the rule of Trajan.
The acme of modular, factory-built, passively safe reactor design, however, is found in South Africa. People there have been experimenting with so-called pebble-bed reactors for decades. (The Economist)
2. Acropolis
Acro means edge or extremity, while polis means city. Acropolis, therefore, refers to cities that were built with security purposes in mind. The word Acropolis is commonly associated with Greece’s capital Athens, although it can refer to any citadel, including Rome and Jerusalem.
The Beijing Olympics torch relay reached the ancient Acropolis in Athens on Saturday amid heavy police security and brief demonstrations by small groups of protesters. (New York Times)
3. Agora
The Agora was an open market place, present in most cities of the ancient Greece. Today the term can be used to express any type of open assembly or congregation.
The most characteristic feature of each settlement, regardless of its size, was a plaza—an open space that acted as a cemetery and may have been a marketplace. It was also, the archaeologists suspect, a place of political assembly, just as the agora in an ancient Greek city was both marketplace and legislature. (The Economist)
4. Anathema
Anathema is a noun and it means a formal ban, curse or excommunication. It can also refer to someone or something extremely negative, disliked or damned. Curiously enough, the original Greek meaning for this word was “something offered to the gods.”
Some thinkers argue that while collaboration may work for an online encyclopedia, it’s anathema to original works of art or scholarship, both of which require a point of view and an authorial voice. (USA Today)
5. Anemia
Anemia refers to a condition characterized by a qualitative or quantitative deficiency of the red blood cells (or of the hemoglobin). Over the years, however, the term started to appear in other contexts, referring to any deficiency that lies at the core of a system or organization.
In comments to the Dallas Morning News, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, the lone dissenter in last week’s decision to keep the federal funds target at 2%, said the U.S. faces “a sustained period of anemia” and that “in the second half of this year we will broach zero growth.” Last week Fisher wanted higher rates, his fifth-straight dissent in favor of tighter policy. (The Wall Street Journal)
6. Ethos
Translated literally from the Greek, ethos means “accustomed place.” It refers to a disposition or characteristics peculiar to a specific person, culture or movement. Synonyms include mentality, mindset and values.
Consumerism needs this infantilist ethos because it favors laxity and leisure over discipline and denial, values childish impetuosity and juvenile narcissism over adult order and enlightened self-interest, and prefers consumption-directed play to spontaneous recreation. (Los Angeles Times)
7. Dogma
Dogma refers to the established belief or set of principles held by a religion, ideology or by any organization. Dogmas are also authoritative and undisputed. Outside of the religious context, therefore, the term tends to carry a negative connotation. Notice that the plural is either dogmata or dogmas.
It’s not a new type of web, it’s just where the web has got to – it’s also a terrific excuse for much chatter on the blogging circuit, and a huge amount of dogmatism. (Financial Times)
8. Eureka
The exclamation Eureka is used to celebrate a discovery, and it can be translated to “I have found!”. It is attributed to the famous Greek mathematician Archimedes. While taking a bath, he suddenly realized that the water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged. He got so excited with the discovery that he left his home and started to run and shout “Eureka!” through the streets of Syracuse.
Those eureka moments in the shower or on the bus when something suddenly starts to make sense only happen if you keep plugging away. (The Guardian)
9. Genesis
Genesis means birth or origin. There are many synonyms for this word, including beginning, onset, start, spring, dawn and commencement. Genesis is also the name of the first book of the Bible.
And when Mr McCain headed to the safe shoals of policy wonkery, Mr Obama flayed his idea of calling for a commission to investigate the genesis of the financial crisis as the resort of politicians who don’t know what else to do. (The Economist)
10. Phobia
Many people wrongly think that a phobia is a fear. In reality it is more than that. Phobia is an irrational and exaggerated fear of something. The fear can be associated with certain activities, situations, things or people.
Poorer communities have a phobia of undercooked food. Very advanced societies enjoy their fish and meat either raw or very close to it. To the French their idea of cooking a steak is so perfunctory one might as well hack the thing off the cow and tuck in. (Financial Times)
11. Plethora
You have a plethora when you go beyond what is needed or appropriate. It represents an excess or undesired abundance.
In California, for example, some neighborhoods have been blighted by the plethora of empty homes. Joe Minnis, a real estate agent for Prudential California, knows foreclosed homes in San Bernardino that have been systematically stripped, trashed and tagged by gang members. (Business Week)
12. Kudos
Kudos means fame or glory, usually resulting from an important act or achievement. It is interesting to notice that in Greek and in the Standard British English, Kudos is a singular noun. Inside the United States, however, it is often used in a plural form (e.g., You deserve many kudos for this accomplishment!)
They deserve the kudos because they could be deemed responsible for the marked improvement in the commercials during Super Bowl XL last night. (New York Times)
Along with Latin, Greek is probably the language that most influenced other languages around the world. Many English words derive directly from Greek ones, and knowing their origin and meaning is important.
Below you will find 12 Greek words that are commonly used in our society. The next time you hear someone saying “Kudos to you,” you will know where it comes from.
The highest point of a structure. The peak or zenith of something. One could say that Rome reached the acme of its power on 117 AD, under the rule of Trajan.
The acme of modular, factory-built, passively safe reactor design, however, is found in South Africa. People there have been experimenting with so-called pebble-bed reactors for decades. (The Economist)
2. Acropolis
Acro means edge or extremity, while polis means city. Acropolis, therefore, refers to cities that were built with security purposes in mind. The word Acropolis is commonly associated with Greece’s capital Athens, although it can refer to any citadel, including Rome and Jerusalem.
The Beijing Olympics torch relay reached the ancient Acropolis in Athens on Saturday amid heavy police security and brief demonstrations by small groups of protesters. (New York Times)
The Agora was an open market place, present in most cities of the ancient Greece. Today the term can be used to express any type of open assembly or congregation.
The most characteristic feature of each settlement, regardless of its size, was a plaza—an open space that acted as a cemetery and may have been a marketplace. It was also, the archaeologists suspect, a place of political assembly, just as the agora in an ancient Greek city was both marketplace and legislature. (The Economist)
4. Anathema
Anathema is a noun and it means a formal ban, curse or excommunication. It can also refer to someone or something extremely negative, disliked or damned. Curiously enough, the original Greek meaning for this word was “something offered to the gods.”
Some thinkers argue that while collaboration may work for an online encyclopedia, it’s anathema to original works of art or scholarship, both of which require a point of view and an authorial voice. (USA Today)
Anemia refers to a condition characterized by a qualitative or quantitative deficiency of the red blood cells (or of the hemoglobin). Over the years, however, the term started to appear in other contexts, referring to any deficiency that lies at the core of a system or organization.
In comments to the Dallas Morning News, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, the lone dissenter in last week’s decision to keep the federal funds target at 2%, said the U.S. faces “a sustained period of anemia” and that “in the second half of this year we will broach zero growth.” Last week Fisher wanted higher rates, his fifth-straight dissent in favor of tighter policy. (The Wall Street Journal)
6. Ethos
Translated literally from the Greek, ethos means “accustomed place.” It refers to a disposition or characteristics peculiar to a specific person, culture or movement. Synonyms include mentality, mindset and values.
Consumerism needs this infantilist ethos because it favors laxity and leisure over discipline and denial, values childish impetuosity and juvenile narcissism over adult order and enlightened self-interest, and prefers consumption-directed play to spontaneous recreation. (Los Angeles Times)
7. Dogma
Dogma refers to the established belief or set of principles held by a religion, ideology or by any organization. Dogmas are also authoritative and undisputed. Outside of the religious context, therefore, the term tends to carry a negative connotation. Notice that the plural is either dogmata or dogmas.
It’s not a new type of web, it’s just where the web has got to – it’s also a terrific excuse for much chatter on the blogging circuit, and a huge amount of dogmatism. (Financial Times)
8. Eureka
The exclamation Eureka is used to celebrate a discovery, and it can be translated to “I have found!”. It is attributed to the famous Greek mathematician Archimedes. While taking a bath, he suddenly realized that the water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged. He got so excited with the discovery that he left his home and started to run and shout “Eureka!” through the streets of Syracuse.
Those eureka moments in the shower or on the bus when something suddenly starts to make sense only happen if you keep plugging away. (The Guardian)
9. Genesis
Genesis means birth or origin. There are many synonyms for this word, including beginning, onset, start, spring, dawn and commencement. Genesis is also the name of the first book of the Bible.
And when Mr McCain headed to the safe shoals of policy wonkery, Mr Obama flayed his idea of calling for a commission to investigate the genesis of the financial crisis as the resort of politicians who don’t know what else to do. (The Economist)
10. Phobia
Many people wrongly think that a phobia is a fear. In reality it is more than that. Phobia is an irrational and exaggerated fear of something. The fear can be associated with certain activities, situations, things or people.
Poorer communities have a phobia of undercooked food. Very advanced societies enjoy their fish and meat either raw or very close to it. To the French their idea of cooking a steak is so perfunctory one might as well hack the thing off the cow and tuck in. (Financial Times)
11. Plethora
You have a plethora when you go beyond what is needed or appropriate. It represents an excess or undesired abundance.
In California, for example, some neighborhoods have been blighted by the plethora of empty homes. Joe Minnis, a real estate agent for Prudential California, knows foreclosed homes in San Bernardino that have been systematically stripped, trashed and tagged by gang members. (Business Week)
12. Kudos
Kudos means fame or glory, usually resulting from an important act or achievement. It is interesting to notice that in Greek and in the Standard British English, Kudos is a singular noun. Inside the United States, however, it is often used in a plural form (e.g., You deserve many kudos for this accomplishment!)
They deserve the kudos because they could be deemed responsible for the marked improvement in the commercials during Super Bowl XL last night. (New York Times)
ABCD of Achievement
ABCD of Achievement
S = Stop Procrastination.
A = Avoid negative sources, people, things and habits.
R = Read, study and learn about everything important in life.
T = Take control of your own destiny.
H = Hard working and Honest
I = Ignore those who try to discourage you.
K = Keep on trying, no matter how hard it seems.
A = Avoid negative sources, people, things and habits.
A void negative sources, people, things and habits.
Believe in yourself.
C onsider things from every angle.
Don't give up and don't give in.
Enjoy life today, yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come.
Family and Friends are hidden treasures. Seek them and enjoy their riches.
Give more than you planned to give.
H ang on to your dreams.
Ignore those who try to discourage you.
J ust do it!
K eep on trying, no matter how hard it seems.
I t will get better.
L ove yourself first and foremost.
Make it happen.
N ever lie, cheat or steal. Always strike a fair deal.
Open your eyes and see things as they really are.
Practice makes perfect.
Quitters never win and winners never quit.
R ead, study and learn about everything important in life.
S top Procrastination.
T ake control of your own destiny.
Understand yourself in order to understand others.
Visualize it.
Want it more than anything.
X ccelerate your efforts.
You are unique, nothing can replace you.
Zero in on your target, and go for it!!
S = Stop Procrastination.
A = Avoid negative sources, people, things and habits.
R = Read, study and learn about everything important in life.
T = Take control of your own destiny.
H = Hard working and Honest
I = Ignore those who try to discourage you.
K = Keep on trying, no matter how hard it seems.
A = Avoid negative sources, people, things and habits.
Believe in yourself.
C onsider things from every angle.
Don't give up and don't give in.
Enjoy life today, yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come.
Family and Friends are hidden treasures. Seek them and enjoy their riches.
Give more than you planned to give.
H ang on to your dreams.
Ignore those who try to discourage you.
J ust do it!
K eep on trying, no matter how hard it seems.
I t will get better.
L ove yourself first and foremost.
Make it happen.
N ever lie, cheat or steal. Always strike a fair deal.
Open your eyes and see things as they really are.
Practice makes perfect.
Quitters never win and winners never quit.
R ead, study and learn about everything important in life.
S top Procrastination.
T ake control of your own destiny.
Understand yourself in order to understand others.
Visualize it.
Want it more than anything.
X ccelerate your efforts.
You are unique, nothing can replace you.
Zero in on your target, and go for it!!
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