Here is your weekly WOOF collection. In case you missed a day, each word of the week is reiterated here. Enjoy!
Monday: aurītus, aurīta, aurītum (1957 Collins Latin Dictionary): (Latin, adj.) having long ears; attentive [e.g., Ovid Fasti, 6.469: at simul auritis violae demuntur asellis / when at once the violets have been cut away from the long-eared donkeys]
Tuesday: adumbrate (1988 Webster’s New World Dictionary): to outline vaguely; to foreshadow [from the Latin ad, to + umbra, shade]
Wednesday: Gardner, Helen. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages (1971 The New York Times Guide to Reference Materials): a one volume survey, covering ancient to modern art. “Here, the reader can find an explanation of Duchamp’s ‘Mona Lisa’ with a mustache. As daddy of the Dada movement in art, Duchamp was dramatizing the view that art had become too precious and too expensive. Years later, he signed an unaltered print of the ‘Mona Lisa’ and subtitled it, ‘Rasee‘ [French for ‘shaved’].”
Thursday: Mink (1934 Comprehensive Pictorial Encyclopedia): a semi-aquatic mammal resembling a weasel, of genus Putorius; carnivorous and fish-eating; found in Finland, Poland, Russia, and North America.
Friday: Landlocked (1991 Surfin’ary): 1) the state of being too far inland to reach a beach in a reasonable amount of time, for instance from Kansas or Bolivia 2) Also used to describe non-surfers. “There’s no life east of I-5” — a California bumper sticker
Did you manage to correctly decline Monday’s Latin adjective in all of its forms without looking it up? If not, that’s okay — perhaps this article will adumbrate the benefits of knowing your Latin declensions!
Ite disciteque, Amici!
