The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Word-a-Day 2008 Calendar (Houghton Mifflin) 4/20/8: aegis
aegis n. 1. Protection: a child whose welfare is now under the aegis of the courts. 2. Sponsorship; patronage: a concert held under the aegis of the parents' association. 3. Guidance, direction, or control: a music program developed under the aegis of the conductor. 4. Greek Mythology The goatskin shield or breastplate of Zeus or Athena. Athena's shield carried at its center the head of Medusa.
I like that this
comes from the mythological story. I've heard the word before, mostly as definition
2 or
3, and remember it from mythology, but didn't associate the two. It's a great word to pepper your vocabulary.
Rating 10/10 goatskins.
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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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