{"id":4879,"date":"2020-01-24T06:32:59","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T06:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=4879"},"modified":"2020-01-25T02:00:28","modified_gmt":"2020-01-25T02:00:28","slug":"word-of-the-day-parasynonyms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2020\/01\/24\/word-of-the-day-parasynonyms\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Parasynonyms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s word of the day, courtesy of Word Genius, is parasynonym<\/em>, a linguistic term \u201cto describe words with close similarities, but not exactly matching definitions.\u201d According to Wiktionary, it is \u201cA word or phrase that shares similar meanings with another term in some contexts, but not all; a close synonym.\u201d According to Word Genius, it appears in English in the 1960s. It is obviously a compound word derived from the bound morpheme para-<\/em> and the free morpheme synonym<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Para- is a bound morpheme, meaning that it does not appear as a word on its own; it comes from ancient Greek, and it means \u201c\u2019beside, near; issuing from; against, contrary to,\u2019 from PIE *prea<\/em>, from root *per-<\/em> (1) \u2018forward,\u2019 hence \u2018toward, near; against.\u2019” In ancient Greek para<\/em> is a preposition. Synonym<\/em>, according to www.etymonline.com<\/a>, means a “\u2019word having the same sense as another,\u2019 early 15c. (but usually in plural form before 18c., or, if singular, as synonyma<\/em>), from Old French synonyme<\/em> (12c.) and directly from Late Latin synonymum<\/em>, from Greek synonymon<\/em> \u2018word having the same sense as another,\u2019 noun use of neuter of synonymos<\/em> \u2018having the same name as, synonymous,\u2019 from syn-<\/em> \u2018together, same\u2019 (see syn-<\/strong>) + onyma<\/em>, Aeolic dialectal form of onoma<\/em> \u2018name\u2019 (from PIE root *no-men-<\/strong> \u2018name).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two significant things happened on this date in 1924. The first is that Benito Mussolini banned all non-fascist labor unions, according to the OnThisDay website. The second is that the Russian city of St. Petersburg, named for Tsar Peter the Great (r. 1682 to 1725) who founded the city in 1703 and made it his capital, was renamed Leningrad, after the leader of the Boshevik Revolution, Vladimir Lenin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benito Mussolini was a young Marxist in the 1910s and a leader of the Italian Socialist Party, until he was kicked out of the party for advocating interventionism in WWI, in opposition to the party\u2019s official policy of neutrality. He even referred to himself as the Lenin of Italy. In 1919, he adopted the ancient Roman symbol of the fasces<\/em>: \u201ca bound bundle of wooden rods, sometimes including an axe with its blade emerging. The fasces had its origin in the Etruscan civilization and was passed on to ancient Rome, where it symbolized a magistrate’s power and jurisdiction\u201d (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fasces<\/a>). In 1921, he formed the Italian Fascist Party, and he was elected to the Italian Parliament. By 1923, he was the prime minister, though his party had had to form an alliance with other parties. So in that year he arranged to be passed the Acerbo Law, which changed the way elections were carried out in Italy, such that the party with the most popular votes, over 25%, was automatically given 67% of the seats of the Parliament. The purpose of the Acerbo law was, simply, to give the Fascist Party a majority of the MPs (if this sounds like efforts among some American politicians to change the way American elections are decided, you\u2019re probably not far off). By 1925, he made himself Il Duce<\/em> (\u201cThe Leader\u201d), and the Italian fascist state was in full bloom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most people associate fascism with Hitler\u2019s Nazi Germany, but it was Mussolini who started it. While fascism differed from one manifestation to another, some common characteristics are these:<\/p>\n\n\n\n