sycophantic (sik/sy-uh-FAN-tik) adjective  Excessively flattering or fawning, especially in an attempt to win favor or gain advantage.  

[From Latin sycophanta (informer, slanderer), from Greek sykophantes (informer, slanderer), from sykon (fig) + phainein (to show).   Earliest documented use: 1698.]  

NOTES:  How did the meaning of sycophant shift from "fig-shower" to "informer" and then to "flatterer"?  There are two main theories, though neither is confirmed.  One theory suggests that the word originally referred to someone who informed against the theft or illegal export of figs in ancient Athens.  The other theory suggests it referred to someone who made the fig sign, an ancient hand gesture considered rude or accusatory in some cultures, but a good luck or fertility symbol in others.  If the former is correct, when the word entered the English language its meaning shifted from "informer" to "flatterer".  Both denote insincerity, as an informer curries favor with someone while secretly betraying them.  A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg  October 24, 2024  

diachronic (dy-uh-KRON-ik) adjective  Relating to changes occurring over time.  [From Greek dia- (across) + khronos (time).  Earliest documented use:  1857.]  https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/diachronic 

NOTES:  Diachronic analysis considers how something, such as a language or culture, evolves over time.  This contrasts with a synchronic approach, which examines a phenomenon at a specific point in time. https://wordsmith.org/words/diachronic.html  

dictionary attack (plural dictionary attacks)  noun  (computing, cryptography)  An attempt to illegally access a computer network, website, etc., that uses a list of words (from a dictionary) to try to guess decryption keys or passwords. [from 1980s]   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dictionary_attack#English  

Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau published their formal proposal for the World Wide Web on November 12, 1990.  

November 8, 2024  An AI robot’s painting of British computer scientist and codebreaker Alan Turing has sold for $1.08 million, becoming the most valuable artwork by a humanoid robot ever to change hands at auction and raising new questions about the role of artificial intelligence in art.  The sale price far exceeded the pre-auction estimate of $120,000-$180,000, with the work attracting 27 bids before going to an undisclosed buyer, according to Sotheby’s, which handled the sale in New York.  The painting, titled “AI God:  Portrait of Alan Turing,” was created by Ai-Da, a humanoid robot artist with a black bob and robotic arms, which communicates using large language models and was invented by British gallerist Aidan Meller.  https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/08/style/ai-da-portrait-alan-turing-record-sale-intl-scli/index.html 

Frank Auerbach, a towering figure of British art history who plotted new paths for painting with his thick, smeary portraits, died on November 11, 2024 in London at 93.  Auerbach’s paintings of a select group of models redefined portraiture, a genre that has traditionally lent itself to psychological clarity and close attention to detail.  But starting in the 1950s, Auerbach began making portraits of people close to him that were so dense with paint that they bordered on abstraction.  Facial features faded into way into swirls of grey, and roiled backgrounds threatened to consume the sitters posed before them.  https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/frank-auerbach-british-painter-dead-1234723626/ 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2875  November 13, 2024