Month: February 2022

Lithuanian

Lithuanian is the most ancient living Indo-European language. It has many similarities with Slavic languages, but, unlike Russian, it uses the Latin alphabet. In 1864, the ruling Russian government banned the Lithuanian language, but it has since been restored as independent Lithuania’s official language. Lithuanian is spoken by approximately three million people there and by an additional half million around the world. How did Lithuanians obtain books written in Lithuanian during Russian rule? Discuss

losing

idiot strings – Refers to the strings that attach mittens to prevent a child from losing one. More…

in hock – Can be traced to the card game faro, in which the last card in the box was called the hocketty card; when a player bet on a card that ended up in hock, he was at a disadvantage and was himself in hock and at risk of losing his bets. More…

jeopardy – Comes from French ieu parti, “(evenly) divided game” (from Latin jocus partitus, “divided game”), referring originally to chess, in which the chances of winning and losing are balanced. More…

pain – Originally meant punishment for a crime or offense—sometimes by losing one’s head. More…

The Aldershot Bombing (1972)

In revenge for the Bloody Sunday incident of a month earlier in which 13 civil-rights protesters in Northern Ireland were shot dead by British paratroopers, the Official IRA detonated a car bomb at the Hampshire, England, headquarters of the British Army’s 16th Parachute Brigade. The intended targets—soldiers and officers—largely escaped harm, but the bomb did claim the lives of seven civilian staff—a priest, a gardener, and five kitchen workers. How did this influence Official IRA tactics? Discuss

Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, AKA Zitkala-Sa (1876)

Born to a Sioux mother and white father, Bonnin was raised on a reservation in present-day South Dakota. When she was eight, she was sent to a Quaker missionary school for Native Americans and was profoundly affected by the school’s efforts to suppress students’ cultural identity and assimilate them into mainstream American culture. As an adult, she dedicated herself to preserving Native American culture through her writing and political activism. What is the meaning of her pen name, Zitkala-Sa? Discuss

Technophobia

Technophobia—a fear of advanced technology—emerged alongside the mechanical innovations of the Industrial Revolution and became ever more pervasive as inventions ranging from the light bulb to the atomic bomb demonstrated technology’s astounding capabilities. Mild technophobia is quite common—many experience it when facing an unfamiliar computer system at a new job. More acute technophobes see technology as inherently dangerous. What well-known novel was one of the first to tackle technophobia? Discuss

plum

drupe – A fleshy fruit with thin skin and a central stone (e.g. almonds, cherries, plums, olives), it comes from Latin drupa, “overripe olive,” from Greek druppa, “olive.” More…

plum, prune – Plum and prune are ultimately the same word, coming from Greek proumnon. More…

plum job – Relates to the 1600s British term “plum” for 1,000 pounds, meaning a serious amount of money. More…

plum pudding – So named because it was originally made with plums—the word was retained to denote “raisin,” which became the main ingredient. More…

Bengali Language Movement: Police Shoot Student Protesters (1952)

The day that police opened fire on a group of students protesting the exclusion of Bengali as an official language of Pakistan marked a turning point in the Bengali Language Movement. At the time, Pakistan was made up of two provinces, East and West Pakistan. Though East Pakistan was the more populous province, the government favored West Pakistani interests, as evidenced by its attempt to make Urdu the only official language of the dominion. When was Bengali added as an official language? Discuss