{"id":6508,"date":"2024-02-17T23:52:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-17T23:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=6508"},"modified":"2024-02-17T23:54:47","modified_gmt":"2024-02-17T23:54:47","slug":"word-of-the-day-capricious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2024\/02\/17\/word-of-the-day-capricious\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Capricious"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s word of the day, courtesy of The Dictionary Project, is capricious<\/em>. Capricious<\/em> means \u201ccharacterized by sudden, impulsive changes in thoughts or actions; led by whims; impulsive; unpredictable,\u201d according to the newsletter. Dictionary.com defines it as \u201csubject to, led by, or indicative of a sudden, odd notion or unpredictable change; erratic\u201d and then adds \u201cfanciful or witty\u201d as an obsolete definition, meaning that nobody uses it this way anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It entered the language in the \u201c1590s, \u2018humorous;\u2019 c. 1600, \u2018apt to change the mind suddenly, fickle,\u2019 from French capricieux<\/em> \u2018whimsical\u2019 (16c.), from Italian capriccioso<\/em>, from capriccio<\/em> (see caprice<\/a>)\u201d (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/word\/capricious#etymonline_v_27684<\/a>). The etymology for caprice<\/em> says, \u201c\u2019sudden change or start of the mind without apparent motive,\u2019 1660s, from French caprice<\/em> \u2018whim\u2019 (16c.), from Italian capriccio<\/em> \u2018whim,\u2019 originally \u2018a shivering,\u2019 a word of uncertain origin. Some guesses from 19c. are that it is from capro<\/em> \u2018goat,\u2019 with reference to frisking, from Latin capreolus<\/em> \u2018wild goat,\u2019 or that the Italian word is connected with capo<\/em> \u2018head\u2019 + riccio<\/em> \u2018curl, frizzled,\u2019 literally \u2018hedgehog\u2019 (from Latin ericius<\/em>). The notion in this case would be of the hair standing on end, hence a person shivering in fear\u201d (ibid.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, it is interesting that the adjective entered the language before the noun even though it looks like the adjective is derived from the noun. Second, it is interesting that the word seems to have meant one thing for a brief time before it began to mean something else. Third, you might notice how linguists don\u2019t always know exactly where a word came from, that they are just guessing. Finally, I like the notion that a word describing human behavior may have originally come from a word that described an animal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this date in 1958, the New York Herald Tribune Syndicate published Johnny Hart\u2019s comic strip B.C.<\/em> for the first time. Hart had marketed the strip to other newspapers unsuccessfully until then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnny Hart (1931-2007) was a life-long cartoonist, publishing work for the first time while he was serving in Korea in Stars and Stripes<\/em>, the daily newspaper (and now website) of the US Armed Forces. After returning from Korea, he had individual cartoons published in magazines like The Saturday Evening Post<\/em>. He also had other jobs, like in a restaurant, while he was developing his career as a cartoonist. He created B.C.<\/em> in 1957.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that he got the idea for B. C.<\/em> from a coworker, and that his wife gave him the title. He also described the title character as being like himself, \u201cplaying the \u2018patsy.\u2019 The other major characters \u2014 Peter, Wiley, Clumsy Carp, Curls, and Thor \u2014 were patterned after friends and co-workers\u201d (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/B.C._(comic_strip)<\/a>). There were also anthropomorphic animals, including dinosaurs, specifically velociraptors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to animator Ed Benedict, in 1960, Hart was approached by Hannah-Barbera about doing a prime time series version of B.C<\/em>. But the talks fell through, and Hannah-Barbera produced a different show with cavemen-type characters called The Flintstones<\/em> (loosely based on Jackie Gleason\u2019s The Honeymooners<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnny Hart died in 2007, but his grandchildren took over the writing and drawing of the cartoon, though it is now syndicated by Creative Syndicate. The sad thing is that comic strips are not as popular as they once were because fewer and fewer people read newspapers. In the last three months, two of the biggest newspapers in the country, the Washington Post<\/em> and the Los Angeles Times<\/em>, have announced massive layoffs. But you can catch the most recent strips at this website: https:\/\/www.gocomics.com\/bc\/2024\/02\/17<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also find books with the old strips in them. You may find them clever and witty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think I can put up an image of one of the B.C. strips because of potential copyright infringement, but I can share this image of a now out-of-print book by Johnny Hart that you can find on Amazon. Enjoy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s word of the day, courtesy of The Dictionary Project, is capricious. Capricious means \u201ccharacterized by sudden, impulsive changes in thoughts or actions; led by whims; impulsive; unpredictable,\u201d according to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[567,238,395,284],"class_list":["post-6508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","tag-comic-strip","tag-dictionary","tag-etymology","tag-linguistics","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6508","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=6508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6511,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6508\/revisions\/6511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}