51吃瓜 of the Day
hypnopedia
noun
the act or process of learning during sleep by listening to recordings repeatedly.
More about hypnopedia
Hypnopedia 鈥渓earning during sleep by listening to recordings repeatedly鈥� is a compound of the Ancient Greek nouns 丑媒辫苍辞蝉 鈥渟leep鈥� and 辫补颈诲别铆补 鈥渃hild-rearing, education鈥� (compare encyclopedia, from enk媒klios 辫补颈诲别铆补 鈥渃ircular education鈥�). 贬媒辫苍辞蝉 is the Ancient Greek cognate of Latin somnus 鈥渟leep鈥�; because Ancient Greek and Latin are both Indo-European languages, the two languages share hundreds of cognates, and Ancient Greek h often corresponds to Latin s at the beginning of a word (compare hyper- and super-). 笔补颈诲别铆补 comes from 辫补卯蝉 (stem paid-) 鈥渃hild,鈥� which is also the source of the combining form pedo- or ped- in pedantic, pediatrician, and pedology 鈥渢he study of children.鈥� Aldous Huxley is the first known user of hypnopedia in print and may have coined the term for his 1932 novel Brave New World.
how is hypnopedia used?
Babies, from earliest days, are exposed to systematic conditioning, designed to make them like the task they are predestined to perform and to dislike what they will not be able to attain …. Moreover, they are exposed to repetitious slogans鈥攚hether during sleep (hypnopedia) or in waking hours鈥攚hich inculcate in them certain basic values and judgments, which agree with and promote their social roles.
“I just didn’t have the logical aptitudes when I first came. Some things just wouldn’t stick in my head, even in hypnopedia. All the facts in the universe won’t help if you don’t know how to put them together.”
piebald
adjective
having patches of black and white or of other colors; parti-colored.
More about piebald
The 51吃瓜 of the Day is piebald. Piebald is a compound of pie and bald, but not with their normal definitions. The pie in piebald refers to magpies, not to the tasty pastry, and comes from the Latin words for 鈥渕agpie鈥� and 鈥渨oodpecker.鈥� The connection is based on the magpie鈥檚 black and white plumage. The bald element in piebald means 鈥渉aving white on its head,鈥� as in bald eagle. Some linguists identify bald, which most often means 鈥渉airless,鈥� as an old derivative of ball鈥攚ith the shift in definition from 鈥渂all-shaped鈥� to 鈥渟moothed鈥� and then to 鈥渓acking hair.鈥� Other linguists connect bald to modern English blaze, meaning 鈥渨hite mark on an animal鈥檚 face鈥� or 鈥渕ark made on a tree to indicate a trail,鈥� as in recent 51吃瓜 of the Day trailblaze. Piebald was first recorded in English in the 1580s.
how is piebald used?
Piebald has nothing to do with pieing bald people in the face. In fact, piebald describes a physical characteristic found in many domesticated animals. Instead of walking around with the coat of their wild ancestors鈥攐ne that is well adapted for the natural environment and can provide camouflage鈥攄omestic animals show up to the party essentially wearing a colorful suit.
When the storm broke she emerged, a brilliant sunny morning, the light frantic with nowhere to settle. The cattle sensed her coming and shifted, sleep-eyed, red coats made piebald with matted ice and snow. The goats sprang from their shelter, kicking through the fluff, whether in disgust or delight she couldn鈥檛 tell.
dauntless
adjective
fearless; intrepid; bold.
More about dauntless
Dauntless 鈥渇earless, intrepid, bold鈥� is a compound of the verb daunt 鈥渢o overcome with fear鈥� and the combining form -less 鈥渨颈迟丑辞耻迟.鈥� Daunt comes from Old French donter and ultimately Latin 诲辞尘颈迟腻谤别 鈥渢o tame,鈥� a frequentative of 诲辞尘腻谤别, of the same meaning. Frequentative verbs indicate repeated or frequent action, and while English does not create new frequentative verbs today, many verbs ending in -le originally fell into this category; compare bobble from bob, sparkle from spark, and wrestle from wrest. Latin 诲辞尘腻谤别, and therefore daunt, is a distant relative of the words adamant 鈥渦nyielding in opinion鈥� and diamond, which both come from Ancient Greek 诲补尘芒苍 鈥渢o tame.鈥� Thanks to Grimm鈥檚 law, which states that Latin and Ancient Greek d correspond to English t, the English cognate of daunt is the verb tame. Dauntless was first recorded in English circa 1590.
how is dauntless used?
In some ways, kids are better equipped to be dauntless than [we are]. They are myopic to outcomes and consequences. And while it鈥檚 our job as parents to help them develop the foresight necessary to sustain them into independence, we should also take care to equip them against fear of the future.
With the intimate candor of autobiography, Russo-Young recounts the romance between her mothers Sandy and Robin, their dauntless decision to start an unconventional family in the still-small-minded 80s, and the ensuing legal campaign to keep it intact in the face of an external challenge from her biological father.