[Image]I recently signed up for The Word of the Day daily emails from Dictionary.com.
One word I received is a bit curious:
pusillanimous \pyoo-suh-LAN-uh-muhs\, adjective:
Lacking in courage and resolution; contemptibly fearful; cowardly.
Evil, unspeakable evil, rose in our midst, and we as a people were too weak, too indecisive, too pusillanimous to deal with it.-- Kevin Myers, "An Irishman's Diary", Irish Times, October 20, 1999
Under the hypnosis of war hysteria, with a pusillanimous Congress rubber-stamping every whim of the White House, we passed the withholding tax.-- Vivien Kellems, Toil, Taxes and Trouble
You are now anxious to form excuses to yourself for a conduct so pusillanimous.-- Ann Radcliffe, The Italian
Pusillanimous comes from Late Latin pusillanimis, from Latin pusillus, "very s[Image]mall, tiny, puny" + animus, "soul, mind."
I think we all use the shorter, 5 letter version of pusillanimous more often, don’t cha???
Happy Monday.
- The Mountain Cat
posted by The Mountain Cat at 6:53 AM on Aug 4, 2008
12 Comments
Close this window Jump to comment formAhh, but if we use "pusillanimous" we could offend a lot of people without them even knowing they'd been offended!
August 4, 2008 at 8:08 AM
I never knew the origin of the slang term. I learn so much at YJKOBT.
August 4, 2008 at 8:20 AM
Thanks! Now when children are around I can call people 'puny souls'.
August 4, 2008 at 8:53 AM
Very interesting...'fraidy cat', 'pussy cat' - now I see...!
August 4, 2008 at 9:10 AM
Puny souls! HA!!!
Well, YLSNED...
you learn something new every day...
August 4, 2008 at 9:11 AM
Don't cha wish your girlfriend was pusillanimous like me? Don't cha?
ROTFL!
August 4, 2008 at 9:23 AM
I'll have to write this word down and practice it. Insulting people using fancy words is a lot more fun than using the slang.
August 4, 2008 at 10:20 AM
The shorter five letter word? Pusil? ; ) Cheers!!
August 4, 2008 at 11:03 AM
I had to check to see if you made it up!
August 4, 2008 at 1:16 PM
Or, as I sometimes call it "PussyBoy". That's an 8 letter word.
August 4, 2008 at 2:32 PM
Hi Mountain Cat!
August 4, 2008 at 2:58 PM
Is that a Pussy Willow?
August 4, 2008 at 4:58 PM