Word of the Week: Churchill-Approved Words from the Blitz
- juliegilkison
- Nov 10, 2020
- 2 min read
The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson is most certainly going to be on both of our Top 10 of 2020 lists. It's the meticulously researched true account of Churchill and his inner circle during the Blitz of WWII. He was a superb leader during a tumultuous time who led his country through a period of pure devastation and destruction with words of hope and persistence. He was also deeply flawed (as politicians are) and had quite a few idiosyncrasies.
Churchill was also a voracious reader, writer, painter, and of course--speaker. He's even credited with the use of the words "summit," and "traitor!" Through the Hillsdale College Churchill Project, it's been determined that Churchill's works (letters, memos, papers, The Churchill Documents, and books) includes 20 million words, 6 million of which are from speeches alone. It's fitting for this post then that one of Churchill's more famous, but not always attributed, quotes reads:
"Words are the only things that last forever."
fusty (adj.) fus·ty|\ ˈfə-stē
impaired by age or dampness; rigidly old-fashioned or reactionary
"Immediately after accepting his new post, Beaverbrook began clashing with the Air Ministry, which he saw as fusty and hidebound in its approach not just to building aircraft but also to deploying and equipping them."
puerile (adj.) pu·er·ile|\ ˈpyu̇(-ə)r-əl
childish, immature, adolescent
"For the first time since I have known her I found her definitely tedious and puerile."
apolaustically (adv.) ap·o·laus·ti·ca·lly|\ ¦apə¦lȯstik(ə-)lē \
devoted to enjoyment
"He and Peck dined 'apolaustically' as Colville put it, using a ten-penny word meaning,'with great enjoyment.' "
coventrate (v.) cov·en·trate|\ ˈkə-vən-trē
to devastate from above with bombs
"The raid destroyed 2,294 buildings and damaged 45,704 more, such thorough devastation that it gave rise to a new word,'coventration' to describe the effect of the massed air raids."
catafalques (n.) cat·a·falque|\ ˈka-tə-ˌfȯ(l)k
an ornamental structure sometimes used in funerals for the lying in state of the body
"---A particularly gruesome, and common, rumor in circulation during the week before Christmas held,'that large numbers of corpses in bombed public shelters are to remain there, the shelters being bricked up to form catafalques.' "
If you haven't yet read The Splendid and the Vile, check out our review, check it out on Bookshop, and stay tuned for an ode to Erik Larson very soon!
This is great. Of course I am constantly attempting to continue to educate myself but I didn't expect to get so much help from your Blog. I now, recognize I probably have become fusly since I became a septuagenarian. But I was unaware of my condition until I read this weeks Blog. Unaware because I never knew the word. Thanks