{"id":6651,"date":"2024-03-27T03:01:35","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T03:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=6651"},"modified":"2024-03-27T03:03:35","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T03:03:35","slug":"word-of-the-day-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2024\/03\/27\/word-of-the-day-facility\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Facility"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s word of the day, thanks to the Brittanica Dictionary, is facility. Facility is a noun which means \u201creadiness or ease due to skill, aptitude, or practice,\u201d or \u201cready compliance\u201d or \u201can easy-flowing manner\u201d or \u201cthe quality of being easily or conveniently done or performed\u201d (https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/facility<\/a>). It can also refer to \u201csomething designed, built, installed, etc., to serve a specific function affording a convenience or service\u201d or \u201csomething that permits the easier performance of an action, course of conduct, etc.\u201d or, informally, \u201ca restroom, especially one for use by the public, as in a theater or restaurant\u201d (ibid.). Dictionary.com says that it was \u201cFirst recorded in 1375\u20131425; late Middle English facilite<\/em>, from Middle French or directly from Latin facilit\u0101s<\/em>\u201d (ibid.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Etymonline.com concurs that it entered the language in the \u201cearly 15c., \u2018gentleness, lightness,\u2019 from Old French facilit\u00e9<\/em> \u2018easiness, ease,\u2019 from Latin facilitatem<\/em> (nominative facilitas<\/em>) \u2018easiness, ease, fluency, willingness,\u2019 from facilis<\/em> \u2018easy to do,\u2019 from facere<\/em> <\/em>\u2018to do\u2019 (from PIE root *dhe<\/em>–<\/a> \u2018to set, put\u2019). First in a medical book:
\u201cIf it be nede forto smyte [the head] wi\u00fe a malle, be it done with esynez or facilite [transl. Guy de Chauliac’s Grande Chirurgie<\/em>\u201d [If it is necessary to smite the head with a mallet, let it be done with easiness or facility]. 
\u201cIts sense in English expanded to \u2018opportunity\u2019 (1510s), to \u2018aptitude, ease, quality of being easily done\u2019 (1530s). Meaning \u2018place for doing something\u2019 which makes the word so beloved of journalists and fuzzy writers, first recorded 1872, via notion of \u2018physical means by which (something) can be easily done\u2019\u201d (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/search?q=facility<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The On This Day website told me that Tom Stoppard got married on this date in 1965. It was the first of three marriages for Stoppard, and that doesn\u2019t include a time when he had a live-in partner, so I can\u2019t say that Stoppard\u2019s married life is anything to celebrate. But his work is certainly something to celebrate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stoppard was born in Czechoslovakia, his father a medical doctor employed by a shoe company. His parents were Jews. In 1939, his family fled Europe for Singapore. Threatened by Japan in 1941, the family fled to India, except for Stoppard\u2019s father, who stayed behind to help the British military. The father died when a ship he was on was sunk by the Japanese. In 1945, Stoppard\u2019s mother remarried, this time an English army major whose last name was Stoppard. The major gave his last name to her children, and Stoppard went from being Tom\u00e1\u0161 to Tom (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tom_Stoppard<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stoppard left school before going to university to become a journalist. At the Bristol Evening World, he became a drama critic and began to be involved with the theater. He wrote plays for radio, television, and the stage in the late 50s and early 60s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in 1966, he won acclaim with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead<\/em>. One might describe the play as a cross between Hamlet<\/em> and Waiting for Godot<\/em>. The play focuses on two relatively minor characters from Hamlet<\/em>, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. When we meet them, they are on the road to Elsinore, the royal castle of Denmark, because they have been called by Claudius and Gertrude, the King and Queen, to come find out what is bothering Hamlet, to \u201cglean what afflicts him.\u201d But they are a bit lost and confused, constantly forgetting what it is they are supposed to be doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Act 1, as they travel, they come across the Players, a traveling acting troupe that is also on their way to Elsinore, although their purpose is to make money. Like the players in Shakespeare\u2019s day, in the early 1590s, they are moving about to avoid the plague. In Act 2, R&G are in Elsinore, playing the question game, trying to get something out of Hamlet, and getting themselves confused because nobody is sure which one is which. Act 3 finds them on a boat, sailing to England with Hamlet, carrying a letter to the English king. They have no idea what is in the letter; they are just doing what they are told. Pirates attack the ship, and suddenly they are without Hamlet, though still on a boat bound for England. The play closes with the final scene from Hamlet,<\/em> after Hamlet has been killed by Laertes poison rapier, when the ambassadors from England are introduced to announce that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Horatio assures the remaining Danes that it was not Hamlet who ordered their execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the fun features of the play is that Stoppard actually uses occasional scenes from Shakespeare\u2019s play, taken word for word. But in the context, these scenes seem to take on a whole new meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1975, when I was at Davidson College, I got to play Rosencrantz in a college production of the play. The director, who later became my major professor, asked me if I were planning to audition for the play. I told him I wasn\u2019t sure, and he suggested that I read the play and then decide. I went to the library, got it from the reserve desk, sat in one of the comfy chairs, and started reading. I laughed and laughed. It is probably the funniest play I have ever read. So I did audition and got cast as Rosencrantz. I have to say that it was a delightful experience, one that I\u2019ll never forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later in college, I got cast in Stoppard\u2019s one-act play \u201cThe Real Inspector Hound.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stoppard was also the screenwriter for the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love<\/em>, a romantic comedy about the writing of Romeo and Juliet<\/em>, completely fictional. The movie demonstrates not only Stoppard\u2019s wonderful sense of humor but also his deep knowledge of Shakespeare\u2019s life and works. I remember seeing it at the dollar theater in Clemson. It was packed. There is a boy character in the movie. Shakespeare has a scene with him, and during the scene, the boy is playing with a live mouse. At the end of the scene, the boy obviously gives the mouse to a cat, who has been trying to get it. Shakespeare then asks him his name; he says, \u201cJohn Webster.\u201d I and one other person in the packed house laughed out loud. You see, Webster was in the next generation of playwrights, and his plays exhibit some extreme cruelty and violence, plays like The Duchess of Malfi<\/em>. I\u2019m sure Stoppard knew how funny that was, at least for those of us who are Renaissance drama students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom Stoppard may not have been the best of husbands. Or maybe he was just unlucky in love. I don\u2019t know. But his facility with a pen or a keyboard made him someone to remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s image is of Daniel Radcliffe and Joshua McGuirein in the Old Vic 50th<\/sup> anniversary production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead<\/em> (https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/lifestyle\/lifestyle-news\/rosencrantz-guildenstern-are-dead-theater-984369\/<\/a>). Daniel Radcliffe was, of course, reprising my role as Rosencrantz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s word of the day, thanks to the Brittanica Dictionary, is facility. Facility is a noun which means \u201creadiness or ease due to skill, aptitude, or practice,\u201d or \u201cready compliance\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[238,395,637,284,638],"class_list":["post-6651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","tag-dictionary","tag-etymology","tag-facility","tag-linguistics","tag-stoppard","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6651","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=6651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6653,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6651\/revisions\/6653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}