Message-ID: <17152029.1075846791460.JavaMail.evans@thyme> Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 16:04:00 -0800 (PST) From: wsmith@wordsmith.org To: linguaphile@wordsmith.org Subject: A.Word.A.Day--dreary Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-From: Wordsmith X-To: linguaphile@wordsmith.org X-cc: X-bcc: X-Folder: \Susan_Scott_Dec2000_June2001_2\Notes Folders\Notes inbox X-Origin: SCOTT-S X-FileName: sscott5.nsf dreary (DRIR-ee) adjective 1. Dismal; bleak. 2. Boring; dull. [Middle English dreri, bloody, frightened, sad, from Old English dreorig, bloody, sad, from dreor, gore.] "Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake." Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali. This week's theme: words from poetry. ............................................................................ Appreciation is a wonderful thing; it makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well. -Voltaire, philosopher, historian, satirist, dramatist, and essayist (1694-1778) Announcing online chat at Wordsmith. Our first guest will be John Simpson, Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) on Tuesday, December 19, 2000 at 4 PM GMT (11 AM EST U.S.). More details at http://wordsmith.org/chat If you plan to attend the chat, please drop us a line at rsvp@wordsmith.org. Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/dreary.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/dreary.ram