{"id":6545,"date":"2024-02-26T23:39:42","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T23:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=6545"},"modified":"2024-02-26T23:41:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T23:41:08","slug":"word-of-the-day-commodious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2024\/02\/26\/word-of-the-day-commodious\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Commodious"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s word of the day is commodious, an adjective that means \u201cspacious and convenient; roomy\u201d or \u201cample or adequate for a particular purpose\u201d (https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/commodious<\/a>). Dictionary.com says that it appeared in English \u201c1375\u20131425; late Middle English <Medieval Latin commodi\u014dsus<\/em>, equivalent to Latin commodi<\/em>(t\u0101s)<\/em> convenience (see commodity<\/a>) + –\u014dsus<\/em> -ous<\/a> (ibid.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Etymonline.com says that commodious entered English in the \u201cearly 15c., \u2018beneficial, convenient,\u2019 from Old French commodios<\/em> and directly from Medieval Latin commodiosus<\/em> \u2018convenient, useful,\u2019 from Latin commodus<\/em> \u2018proper, fit, appropriate, convenient, satisfactory,\u2019 from com<\/em>-, here perhaps an intensive prefix (see com-<\/a>), + modus<\/em> \u2018measure, manner\u2019 (from PIE root *med-<\/a> \u2018take appropriate measures\u2019). Meaning \u2018conveniently roomy, spacious\u2019 is attested from 1550s\u201d (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/search?q=+commodious<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this date in 1881, Jens Hendrik Oliver Djurhuus, called Janus Djurhuus (1881-1948), was born on the Faroe Islands. He is called the first modern Faroese poet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me back up a minute because it may be you don\u2019t know about the Faroe Islands. The Faroe Islands are an archipelago in the North Atlantic. Although a territory of Denmark, it actually lies 200 miles NNW from the UK, about halfway between Norway and Iceland. Archaeologists have found evidence of human settlement going back 2000 years, but the history of the Faroe Islands doesn\u2019t really begin until the 9th<\/sup> century A.D., though even there the history is in the form of Norse sagas rather than what we would consider history. The F\u00e6reyinga saga<\/em> recounts some of that mytho-history, including the settlement of the islands at a time when the King of Norway, Harold Fairhair, was abusing his authority. But it was actually written in Iceland, around the year 1200, and the original manuscript is lost, but parts of the saga appear in other Norse sagas, though the accounts differ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jens Christian Djurhuus (1773-1853), Janus\u2019s grandfather, was the first to write poetry in Faroese. He wrote ballads in the traditional Danish style as well as some satires. Hans Andrias Djurhuus (1883-1951), Janus\u2019s younger brother, was also a well-known poet. In fact, the two were known as the \u00c1arstova brothers after the house they grew up in in Torshavn. Hans is known for his national poetry ad children\u2019s poetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janus Djurhuus left the Faroe Islands for Copenhagen as a young man to study law. He became a lawyer and stayed in Denmark until the late \u201830s, when he returned to the islands. In addition to the law, he studied Latin and Greek and even translated some classical works into Faroese. \u201cHis poetry combines Classical and Norse mythology<\/a>. The language of his poems draws on both modern Faroese and the language of the traditional ballads, as well as ancient and modern poetry in other Scandinavian languages; their rhythm is also influenced by ancient Greek and modern German poetry\u201d (https:\/\/kids.kiddle.co\/Janus_Djurhuus<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, it is very hard to find any of Djurhuus\u2019s poetry in English. I guess I\u2019ll have to go visit the Faroe Islands in order to find some of his poetry. But it\u2019s difficult to get there, and I\u2019m not sure how I would handle the weather. The highs in the summer are not much over 60F. I\u2019m not sure how commodious I would find that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s image is \u201cA view of Torshavn, Faroe Islands, with the historical neighborhood Tinganes in the center,\u201d posted to Flickr by David Stanley (https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/davidstanleytravel\/4902589772<\/a>). Torshavn was the home of Janus Djurhuus and his brother Hans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s word of the day is commodious, an adjective that means \u201cspacious and convenient; roomy\u201d or \u201cample or adequate for a particular purpose\u201d (https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/commodious). Dictionary.com says that it appeared in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[238,395,584,585,284],"class_list":["post-6545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","tag-dictionary","tag-etymology","tag-faroe-islands","tag-janus-djurhuus","tag-linguistics","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6545","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=6545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6547,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6545\/revisions\/6547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}