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Addisonian (ad-uh-SO-nee-uhn) adjective
1. Related to Joseph Addison or his writings. 2. Clear and elegant writing. [After Joseph Addison (1672-1719), English essayist and poet.] 3. Related to Addison's disease, a condition caused by decreased secretion of cortisol. [After Thomas Addison (1793-1860), English physician.] "He (Murray Kempton) enjoyed being in a group of reporters; he liked to try out ideas for columns, dropping fully formed Addisonian sentences into conversation to see which ones got a nod or a laugh. The winners turned up in the next day's paper." David Von Drehle, A Journalist's Singular Voice, The Washington Post, May 6, 1997. Erratum: Monsieur Maginot, the eponymous subject of yesterday's word, was twice French minister of war during the 1920s and 1930s, not during WWII. For more information on the Maginot line, see June 1997 issue of Smithsonian magazine. An abstract of this article by Rudolph Chelminski is available at: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian/issues97/jun97/maginot.html Here is another site: http://www.ifrance.com/letunnel/maginot-e.html -Anu This week's theme: eponyms. ............................................................................ Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. -Will Durant, historian (1885-1981) Feeling information overload? Sign off a few mailing lists. If you wish to unsubscribe from AWAD, send a blank message to wsmith@wordsmith.org with the word unsubscribe in the subject line of your message. Of course, we'd rather you stay with us. After all, it is only a `word' a day. (-: Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/addisonian.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/addisonian.ram
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