Word of the Day
hero
noun
a person noted for courageous acts or nobility of character.
Why we chose hero
Heroes are everywhere right now, and we’re teaming up with Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans to say thank you. Share your message of gratitude with #EveryoneKnowsAHero and @RocketMortgage. Watch below to learn more.
More about hero
The English singular noun hero is formed from the plural heroes, which comes from Latin hērōes, the plural of hērōs “(mythical) hero.” Hērōs comes from Greek hḗrōs (plural hḗrōes) “hero,” a very ancient word that meant many things to the Greeks. A compound noun trisērohei, literally “Thrice Hero,” possibly the name of a deity “Clan Ancestor (?),” appears on a Linear B tablet from Pylos, dating to the 13th century b.c. In the Iliad, hḗrōs means “warrior,” and often little more than “man,” and not a semidivine being. In later Greek, hḗrōs was a semidivine being with his own cult, usually local, the only exception being Hercules (Heracles). (Greek Hērākléēs, also spelled Hērāklês, means “Glory of Hera.” Hḗrā is the Greek feminine form of hḗrōs; she is a daughter of Cronus and sister and wife of Zeus. Her name occurs next to the name of Zeus on the same Mycenaean Greek text, which makes likely the assumption that Hera was already honored as the consort of Zeus.) Unfortunately, hḗrōs and its derivative noun Hḗrā, like 60 percent of Greek vocabulary, have no satisfactory etymology. The various etymologies proposed suffer from various degrees of improbability. Hero entered English in the 16th century.
how is hero used?
Amid all the bleak news about the coronavirus pandemic, it’s important to remember that there are so many heroes in America right now.
Every crisis has its heroes, every disaster its displays of selflessness and sacrifice. … And now, amid the coronavirus pandemic, our health-care workers, doctors, nurses, EMTs and support staff who risk becoming infected themselves—who risk infecting their own families—are making extraordinary sacrifices to care for the rest of us.
force majeure
noun
Law.
an unexpected and disruptive event that may operate to excuse a party from a contract.
More about force majeure
Force majeure, “superior force,” is a legal term in commercial and contract law for an unexpected, disruptive event that may excuse one party or both parties from a contract. The force majeure may be limited to what some jurisdictions term “acts of God,” such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, etc. The force majeure may also be broader in scope, including manmade events such as strikes, riots, crime, or other social unrest. Force majeure is unnaturalized in English; even the pronunciation of majeure is at least partly Frenchified. Force comes from Old French force, from Vulgar Latin fortia, a singular feminine noun use of the neuter plural adjective fortia “strong, robust (things),” from the adjective fortis, forte. Many Latin neuter plural nouns and adjectives, which end in –a, become in the Romance languages feminine collective singular nouns, also ending in –a: for instance, the Latin neuter plural gaudia “joys, delights” (singular gaudium) becomes joie in French and gioia in Italian, both feminine singular nouns. Majeure is the normal French development of Latin major– (the inflectional stem of major, majus “greater”). Force majeure first appears in print in A digest of the civil laws now in force in the territory of Orleans…. (1803)–all of the texts, however, are in French. The first appearance of force majeure in English is in Questions and answers on law: Alphabetically arranged, with references to the most approved authorities, Volume 2 (1841).
how is force majeure used?
What’s more, decisions about whether coronavirus qualifies as a force majeure event will affect entire supply chains, causing a ripple-down effect—one broken obligation, or invocation of the clause, can domino into many others down the line.
All tickets have a force majeure clause, which might get organizers off the hook of paying refunds if the coronavirus is deemed to be “beyond Tokyo 2020’s reasonable control.”
chyron
noun
a text-based graphic overlay displayed at the bottom of a television screen or film frame, as closed captioning or the crawl of a newscast.
More about chyron
Chyron is an altered spelling of earlier Chiron, the name of an electronic graphics platform developed by Systems Resource Corporation, later known as Chyron Corporation. In Greek mythology, Chiron is the name of a wise and beneficent centaur and teacher of Achilles, Asclepius, and others. Chyron entered English in the second half of the 20th century.
how is chyron used?
A good chyron demonstrates sound judgment, clarity, and wit. But the best chyrons are those that accompany segments that demonstrate the same things.
On television, scientists, journalists and chyrons keep warning us that the most important, civic-minded thing to do in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic is to stay away from other people.