{"id":4774,"date":"2019-12-28T03:48:04","date_gmt":"2019-12-28T03:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=4774"},"modified":"2019-12-28T03:48:08","modified_gmt":"2019-12-28T03:48:08","slug":"word-of-the-day-virulent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2019\/12\/28\/word-of-the-day-virulent\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Virulent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s word of the day, courtesy of WordThink, is virulent, an adjective which means, according to the website, \u201cExtremely severe or harmful in its effects. Bitterly hostile or antagonistic; hateful\u201d (http:\/\/www.wordthink.com\/<\/a>). According to www.dictionary.com<\/a>, it also means 1. \u201cactively poisonous; intensely noxious,\u201d 2. \u201cMedicine\/Medical<\/em>. highly infective; malignant or deadly,\u201d and 3. \u201cBacteriology<\/em>. causing clinical symptoms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to www.etymonline.com<\/a>, the word entered English \u201cc. 1400, in reference to wounds, ulcers, etc., \u2018full of corrupt or poisonous matter,\u2019 from Latin virulentus<\/em> \u2018poisonous,\u2019 from virus<\/em> \u2018poison\u2019 (see virus<\/strong>). Figurative sense of violent, spiteful\u2019 is attested from c. 1600.\u201d By the way, in case you don\u2019t know, the \u201cc.\u201d is an abbreviation of the Latin circa<\/em>, which means \u201caround.\u201d In addition, the Latin virus<\/em> is \u201cprobably from PIE root *weis-<\/em> \u2018to melt away, to flow,\u2019 used of foul or malodorous fluids, with specialization in some languages to \u2018poisonous fluid\u2019 (source also of Sanskrit visam <\/em>\u2018poison,\u2019 visah<\/em> \u2018poisonous;\u2019 Avestan vish-<\/em> \u2018poison;\u2019 Latin viscum <\/em>\u2018sticky substance, birdlime;\u2019 Greek ios <\/em>\u2018poison,\u2019 ixos <\/em>\u2018mistletoe, birdlime;\u2019 Old Church Slavonic vi\u0161nja <\/em>\u2018cherry;\u2019 Old Irish fi <\/em>\u2018poison;\u2019 Welsh gwyar <\/em>\u2018blood\u2019). Main modern meaning \u2018agent that causes infectious disease\u2019 first recorded 1728 (in reference to venereal disease). The computer sense is from 1972.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this date 33 years ago the musical Les Miserables<\/em> (Les Mis<\/em>, for short) opened at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. It ran for eight weeks. It then moved on to New York, where it ran for about 16 years, making it the second longest running Broadway musical, after Cats<\/em>, until Phantom of the Opera<\/em> surpassed it. The musical was adapted from the French novel of the same name by Michel Sch\u00f6nberg, who wrote the music, Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, who wrote the original French lyrics, and Herbert Kretzmer, who wrote the English lyrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how Britannica describes the novel: \u201cSet in the Parisian underworld and plotted like a detective story, the work follows the fortunes of the convict Jean Valjean, a victim of society who has been imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread. A hardened and streetwise criminal upon his release, he eventually softens and reforms, becoming a successful industrialist and mayor of a northern town. Despite this, he is haunted by an impulsive, regretted former crime and is pursued relentlessly by the police inspector Javert. Valjean eventually gives himself up for the sake of his adopted daughter, Cosette, and her husband, Marius\u201d (https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Les-Miserables-novel-by-Hugo<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like most musicals or operas based upon novels, Les Mis<\/em> focuses on just certain parts of the story and acts like a highlight tape of the book. The novel has some really long digressions, including one of the best descriptions of the Battle of Waterloo ever written. But the musical doesn\u2019t try to convey that digression (though it isn\u2019t completely a digression; in fact, there is information about some of the main characters of the novel, like the relationship between Th\u00e9nardier and Marius, that explains some of the plot, but we don\u2019t get that explanation in the musical).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After one of the productions I have seen, the audience booed the actor who played the part of Inspector Javert. I thought that was incredibly unfair. He actually performed very well, so well, in fact, that the audience apparently couldn\u2019t distinguish between the actor and the character. Years ago I met an actor, named Bruce Kuhn, who had performed in the original Broadway production (he described his primary role as third convict from the left). But he also was the understudy for the role of Javert. He talked about his concept of Javert, how Javert was an Old Testament person living in New Testament times, a follower of the OT God of judgment and wrath confronted with Jean Valjean\u2019s NT God of forgiveness and mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But ultimately Javert\u2019s judgment is not justice. His judgment is not God\u2019s judgment but that of the State, the judgment of politicians and bureaucrats who create hierarchies within nations designed to allow them to live off the labors of others. Perhaps Javert\u2019s motivation is pure; perhaps he is not aware of the corruption of the masters he serves. But, as we learned after World War II, following orders is no excuse for injustice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Javert\u2019s thirst for retributive justice, for retribution against Jean Valjean, is virulent. It is poison. We need to replace retributive justice with restorative justice (http:\/\/www.cscsb.org\/restorative_justice\/retribution_vs_restoration.html<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image is Colm Wilkinson and Terrence Mann in Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em> (http:\/\/www.markrobinsonwrites.com\/the-music-that-makes-me-dance\/2015\/8\/22\/the-top-ten-musical-theatre-villains-of-broadway<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s word of the day, courtesy of WordThink, is virulent, an adjective which means, according to the website, \u201cExtremely severe or harmful in its effects. Bitterly hostile or antagonistic; hateful\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4776,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4774\/revisions\/4776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}