A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

black swan   (BLAK swan)  noun  1.  An unpredictable occurrence that has major consequences.  2.  Something extremely rare.  From the former belief that all swans were white until black swans were discovered in Australia in 1697.  Earliest documented use:  1570.

eupnea  (yoop-NEE-uh)  noun  Normal breathing.  From Greek eu- (good) + pnein (to breathe).   Ultimately from the Indo-European root pneu- (to breathe), which also gave us pneumonia, sneer, sneeze, snort, snore, pneumatic, pneuma, and pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.  Earliest documented use:  1706.  Some counterparts of eupnea are:  apnea (temporary cessation of breathing); dyspnea (difficult or labored breathing); hyperpnea (abnormally deep breathing); hypopnea (abnormally shallow and slow breathing); orthopnea (difficulty breathing except when standing or sitting up); tachypnea (abnormally rapid and shallow breathing); and bradypnea (abnormally slow breathing)

apocryphal   (uh-PAH-kri-fuhl)  adjective  1.  Of dubious authorship or authenticity.  2.  False; erroneous; fictitious.  From Latin apocryphus (secret), from Greek apokruphos (secret, hidden), from apokruptein (to hide away), from apo- (away) + kruptein (to hide).  Earliest documented use:  1590.  “The title ‘When Pigs Fly’ refers to an (apocryphal or not, you decide) episode in the late Crabtree’s youth when a guidance counselor likened his chances of succeeding in show business to the likelihood of flying swine.”  Leah B. Green; Scaled-Down “Pigs” Proves That Size Doesn’t Matter; The Seattle Times; Mar 4, 2005.

Feedback to A.Word.A.Day  From:  Douglas Schocken, MD  Subject:  eupnea  Not enough physicians on your staff.  Platypnea is one of my favorites.  It is the inability to breathe while standing or sitting upright, relieved by lying down.   

The breads most common in the United States--sliced white and whole wheat, rolls in various shapes and sizes, Italian and French bread, bagels and rye bread--are all leavened or raised breads which means the dough rises during its preparation.   As a result, these breads are thick, have a crust that can be crunchy, and a middle that is soft and spongy.  Author Jonathan Swift and Bible commentator Mathew Henry both used the expression "the staff of life" in relation to bread back in the late 17th century.  Scholars believe that raised breads were first introduced in Ancient Egypt around 5000 years ago.  Some form of flatbread (made from cooking dough made from flour and water) is thought to have originated much earlier.  The Egyptians developed the first ovens--a necessary technology for raised bread--using ceramic pottery.    Although they didn't know about microorganisms called yeast, Egyptian bakers did know that a similar process was at work in both breadmaking and beer making and they located bakeries and breweries adjacent to one another.  One theory maintains that it was the addition of ale (the beverage derived from grain fermentation) to the dough that caused it to rise.  In ancient Rome better bread ovens and larger grain mills were developed.  As the need for flour has steadily increased since ancient times, grain mills have continued to get larger and more powerful.  Most grain today is ground into flour in large "roller" mills that utilize metal rollers to crush the seeds.  For thousands of years, however, stones were the main tool for grinding grain.  During much of the last millennium the main milling technology relied on grinding grain between two large circular millstones; one stone remained stationary and the other rotated. For hundreds of years mills were powered by water and wind.  In many parts of the world the most common breads are flat:  the tortilla in Mexico and other countries in Latin America, lavash from central Asia, pappadum and chapatti from India.  Another flatbread with Biblical roots is matzoh, still eaten in Jewish communities during the holiday of Passover, the "Feast of Unleavened Bread."   ©2005 Gary M. Gomer  See pictures at http://professorbread.com/sol.html 

CARTOON HUMOR  “It could be nothing or it could be the beginning of an omelette.”  (Doctor examines Humpty Dumpty’s crack)   “At home he does nothing.”  (Cat works industriously at computer keyboard)  The New Yorker  February 7, 2022   

Jason Epstein, a publishing innovator and bon vivant who helped put the classics in paperback, co-founded The New York Review of Books and worked with such novelists as E.L. Doctorow, Vladimir Nabokov and Philip Roth died on February 4, 2022 at the age of 93.  Once a young bohemian who desired only enough money to have time for reading, he took a job at Doubleday in the early 1950s, joined Random House in 1958 and remained for decades as editorial director.  He became one of the industry's most honored executives, receiving lifetime achievement awards from the National Book Foundation, presenters, of the National Book Award, in 1988; and from the National Book Critics Circle in 2002.   Epstein was not just a man of letters, but of food and drink, whose own books included the memoir “Eating” and whose dining companions ranged from Buster Keaton to Jacqueline Kennedy to the notorious attorney-political operative Roy Cohn.  In “Making It,” a 1967 best-seller about the literary world, Norman Podhoretz wrote affectionately of Epstein’s tastes for imported shoes, first-class travel and “appallingly expensive” restaurants.  Hillel Italie   https://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/celebrities/article258067403.html   

On February 7, 1812, Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England.  In 1833, at the tender age of 21, he submitted his first story (originally titled “A Dinner at Poplar Walk” but published as “Mr. Minns and his Cousin”) to a literary journal, and in 1836, he published his first book, Sketches by Boz, a collection of short pieces he’d written for newspapers and other periodicals.  The collection was enough of a success that his publisher asked “Boz” to try his hand at writing descriptions for a series of “cockney sporting plates” by Robert Seymour, who had died a month after the series began; somewhat accidentally, the result would be Dickens’ first serialized novel, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (now generally called The Pickwick Papers).  It became hugely popular:  only 400 copies of the first installment were printed, but by the fifteenth installment, publishers Chapman and Hall were printing 40,000 copies at a time.  After that, Dickens became a star, and as you probably know, is still regularly counted among the best—and certainly most influential—English language novelists.  Not to mention one of the greatest goths in literary history, due to his love of hanging out in the morgue, his parade of pet ravens (pour one out for Grips I–III), his affinity for writing rain scenes, and his secret bookcase door, which may not exactly be a goth thing but definitely gives Dark Academia vibes.  He also invented a whole host of words that we use all the time (“Butterfingers”! “Sawbones”! “Doormat” to refer to a person!), and probably still reigns as the most creative character-namer in literature.  Literary Hub  February 6, 2022   

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else. - Charles Dickens, novelist (7 Feb 1812-1870)

Dickensian  From Dickens, the surname of Charles Dickens (1812–1870) +‎ -ian (suffix forming adjectives or nouns meaning ‘belonging to, relating to, or like’).  adjective  Dickensian (comparative more Dickensian, superlative most Dickensian)  Of, pertaining to, or created by the English author Charles Dickens.  Similar to Dickens' writing style, especially in commenting on society, or in using emotion, humour, or rich descriptions.  Synonyms:  Dickenesque, Dickensesque, Dickensish, Dickens-like, Dickensy  Reminiscent of the environments and situations most commonly portrayed in Dickens' writings, such as poverty, social injustice, and other aspects of Victorian England.  quotations ▼  synonyms:  Dickenesque, Dickensesque, Dickensish, Dickens-like, Dickensy   noun  Dickensian (plural Dickensians)  A person who admires or studies the works of Charles Dickens.  Synonym:  (archaic) Dickensite   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Dickensian#English 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2492  February 7, 2022