vesuvian
Wielding a vesuvian and screaming abracadabra, the gadfly said he would lief curse the orotund king as accept his pelf.
- vesuvian: n. A slow-burning match formerly used for lighting cigars; a fusee. |adj. Marked by sudden or violent outbursts: a vesuvian temper.
- abracadabra: 1. A magical charm or incantation having the power to ward off disease or disaster. 2. Foolish or unintelligible talk. WORD HISTORY: “Abracadabra,” says the magician, unaware that at one time the thing to do with the word was wear it, not say it. Abracadabra was a magic word, the letters of which were arranged in an inverted pyramid and worn as an amulet around the neck to protect the wearer against disease or trouble. One fewer letter appeared in each line of the pyramid, until only a remained to form the vertex of the triangle. As the letters disappeared, so supposedly did the disease or trouble. While magicians still use abracadabra in their performances, the word itself has acquired another sense, “foolish or unintelligible talk.”
- gadfly: 1. A persistent irritating critic; a nuisance. 2. One that acts as a provocative stimulus; a goad. 3. Any of various flies, especially of the family Tabanidae, that bite or annoy livestock and other animals.
- lief: adv. Readily; willingly: I would as lief go now as later. |adj. Archaic 1. Beloved; dear. 2. Ready or willing.
- orotund: 1. Pompous and bombastic: orotund talk. 2. Full in sound; sonorous: orotund tones.
- pelf: Wealth or riches, especially when dishonestly acquired.
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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. --Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance"
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