{"id":6295,"date":"2023-12-15T03:05:45","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T03:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=6295"},"modified":"2023-12-15T03:11:32","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T03:11:32","slug":"word-of-the-day-genial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2023\/12\/15\/word-of-the-day-genial\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Genial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s word of the day, courtesy of Merriam-Webster, is genial<\/em>. This adjective means \u201cwarmly and pleasantly cheerful; cordial,\u201d or \u201cfavorable for life, growth, or comfort; pleasantly warm; comfortably mild.\u201d According to www.etymonline.com<\/a>, the word entered the English language in the \u201c1560s, \u2018pertaining to marriage,\u2019 from Latin genialis<\/em> \u2018pleasant, festive,\u2019 originally \u2018pertaining to marriage rites,\u2019 from genius<\/em> \u2018guardian spirit,\u2019 with here perhaps a special sense of \u2018tutelary deity of a married couple,\u2019 from PIE *gen(e)-yo<\/strong>-, from root *gene<\/strong>– \u2018give birth, beget,\u2019 with derivatives referring to procreation and familial and tribal groups. Originally used in English in the Latin literal sense; meaning \u2018cheerful, friendly\u2019 is by 1746.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is interesting to me that the word derives from a Latin word that refers to a spirit, and the same root gives us the words genius<\/em> and genie<\/em>, although the latter word actually comes to English through French, and the French word has its own interesting etymology: \u201cused in French translation of \u2018Arabian Nights\u2019 to render Arabic jinni<\/em>, singular of jinn<\/em>, which it accidentally resembled\u201d (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/search?q=genie<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we are less than two weeks from Christmas Day, a holiday that, today, is both secular and religious. While Hallowe\u2019en has become a very popular holiday in the USA, I would guess that Christmas is still most people\u2019s favorite holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of my favorite things to do at Christmas is to reread (or relisten to) Charles Dickens\u2019s A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas<\/em>. I don\u2019t reread very many books\u2014The Bible, The Lord of the Rings<\/em>, The Chronicles of Narnia<\/em>, maybe a few others\u2014but even those I reread only occasionally. I reread A Christmas Carol<\/em> every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The English word ghost<\/em> comes from an Old English word that was usually used to translate the Latin word spiritus<\/em>, meaning spirit. It would have  been perfectly understandable had Dickens used spirit<\/em> or even genius<\/em> instead of ghost<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to share a particular passage, from Stave 3. Dickens divided the novella into five \u201cstaves.\u201d A stave<\/em> in prosody, or the study of poetry, means a division in a poem or a song, like a verse, so it is appropriate for a novel that he calls a Christmas Carol<\/em>. Here\u2019s the passage:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sight of these poor revellers appeared to interest the Spirit very much, for he stood with Scrooge beside him in a baker\u2019s doorway, and taking off the covers as their bearers passed, sprinkled incense on their dinners from his torch. And it was a very uncommon kind of torch, for once or twice when there were angry words between some dinner-carriers who had jostled each other, he shed a few drops of water on them from it, and their good humour was restored directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs there a peculiar flavour in what you sprinkle from your torch?\u201d asked Scrooge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is. My own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWould it apply to any kind of dinner on this day?\u201d asked Scrooge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo any kindly given. To a poor one most.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy to a poor one most?\u201d asked Scrooge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause it needs it most.\u201d (Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol<\/em> [Wisehouse Classics – with original illustrations] p. 36. Wisehouse. Kindle Edition.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ghost or spirit is genial, and the spice he puts upon the food of the dinner-getters is likewise genial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image today is courtesy of the Dickens Project. The website says,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dickens took great care in the appearances of A Christmas Carol, calling for the production of four full-page hand-colored steel engravings and four wood engravings. He employed as his illustrator John Leech, who was one of the best known \u201ccomic illustrators\u201d of the time. From existing correspondence, we know that Dickens discussed the illustrations with Leech very carefully. Though we know he approved them, we don\u2019t know if Dickens explicitly told Leech which scenes to illustrate (https:\/\/dickens.ucsc.edu\/resources\/teachers\/carol\/illustrations.html<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope you are having a genial Advent season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s word of the day, courtesy of Merriam-Webster, is genial. This adjective means \u201cwarmly and pleasantly cheerful; cordial,\u201d or \u201cfavorable for life, growth, or comfort; pleasantly warm; comfortably mild.\u201d According […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[462,395,461,284,239],"class_list":["post-6295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","tag-christmas-carol","tag-etymology","tag-genial","tag-linguistics","tag-words","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6295","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=6295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6298,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6295\/revisions\/6298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}