{"id":7352,"date":"2026-05-19T02:16:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T02:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=7352"},"modified":"2026-05-19T02:19:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T02:19:47","slug":"word-of-the-day-rarefy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2026\/05\/19\/word-of-the-day-rarefy\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Rarefy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s word of the day, thanks to some extent to the Words Coach (https:\/\/www.wordscoach.com\/dictionary<\/a>), is rarefy<\/em>. Pronounced \/ \u02c8r\u025b\u0259r \u0259\u02ccfa\u026a \/, it means \u201cto make rare or rarer; make less dense\u201d or \u201cto make more refined, spiritual, or exalted\u201d (https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/rarefy<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This verb first appears in English in the \u201clate 14c., rarefien<\/em>, \u2018make thin, reduce the density of,\u2019 from Old French rarefier<\/em> (14c.) and directly from Medieval Latin rarificare<\/em>, from Latin rarefacere<\/em> \u2018make thin, make rare,\u2019 from rarus<\/em> \u2018rare, thin\u2019 (see rare<\/strong><\/a> (adj.1)) + facere<\/em> \u2018to make\u2019 (from PIE root *dhe-<\/strong><\/a> \u2018to set, put\u2019). Intransitive sense of \u2018become less dense\u2019 is from 1650s\u201d (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/word\/rarefy<\/a>). On another page on the Etymonline website, we find that rarify<\/em> is \u201ccommon but incorrect spelling of rarefy<\/strong>,\u201d which is especially interesting since the classical Latin spelling is rarefacere<\/em>, but the Medieval Latin has the i<\/em>, rarifacere<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this date in 1593, \u201cPlaywright Thomas Kyd’s accusations of heresy lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe\u201d (https:\/\/www.onthisday.com\/events\/may\/18<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christopher \u201cKit\u201d Marlowe (1564-1593) was a poet, playwright, and translator and a contemporary of William Shakespeare. His best known plays are Doctor Faustus<\/em>, Tamburlaine<\/em>, The Jew of Malta<\/em>, and Edward II<\/em>. All of them are, in a way, predecessors of Shakespeare plays, except for perhaps Doctor Faustus<\/em>, which is unique. But Edward II is an early history play, similar to Shakespeare\u2019s history plays, especially Richard II<\/em>. His most famous poems are \u201cHero and Leander\u201d and \u201cThe Passionate Shepherd to His Love,\u201d which receives a response in \u201cThe Nymph\u2019s Reply to the Shepherd\u201d by Sir Walter Raleigh (although I understand that writing a response to the Passionate Shepherd was somewhat of a school exercise).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Marlowe Society, \u201cMarlowe was a child of the English Renaissance and the Reformation, which was also that troubled period called by the great scholar Dame Frances Yates, \u201cthe false dawn of the Enlightenment\u201d, which was doomed to suppression and delay. He shared his birth year, 1564, with Galileo (and with Shakespeare, but that fact is never mentioned by the Shakespearean academic authors). It was a dangerous time in which to express an eager interest in the new scientific discoveries that were exciting the minds of intellectuals all over Europe. In England Sir Walter Raleigh and the young (9th) Earl of Northumberland, Henry Percy (also born in 1564), led a group of intellectuals, a select band of advanced thinking noblemen, courtiers and educated commoners, including mathematicians, astronomers, voyagers who had explored the New World, geographers, philosophers and poets. They formed an esoteric club nicknamed \u201cThe School of Night\u201d which met secretly to discuss this forbidden knowledge, always \u2018behind closed doors\u2019. Marlowe became a member of this close circle, who were called Free-Thinkers and were all stigmatised as \u201cAtheists\u201d in order to blacken them in the eyes of the ignorant\u201d (https:\/\/www.marlowe-society.org\/christopher-marlowe\/life\/the-free-thinkers\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to his being a writer, Marlowe may also have been a spy. The Marlowe Society says, \u201cLord Burghley, Queen Elizabeth\u2019s chief minister who, together with her Secretary of State, Sir Francis Walsingham, was said to rule the land with the Queen as the Head of all, was also Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. As such he used the University as his recruiting ground to enlist bright, patriotic young men to serve as secret agents. Evidently Marlowe was picked out for this service, which was vitally important, in this age of Catholic versus Protestant political intrigue, an age of political assassinations, directed against the Heads of States\u201d (https:\/\/www.marlowe-society.org\/christopher-marlowe\/life\/government-agent\/<\/a>). Walsingham in particular was known as Elizabeth\u2019s spy master.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marlowe was just 29 when he died: \u201cOn 30 May 1593 a murder was said to have been committed in a room that had been hired for a private meeting in a respectable house in Deptford, owned by Dame Eleanor Bull. It was not a tavern as is often alleged. Dame Bull had Court connections. Her sister, Blanche, was the god-daughter of Blanche Parry, who had been the much loved nanny of the infant Elizabeth and was a \u2018cousin\u2019 of Lord Burghley\u2019s. Now widowed, Dame Bull hired out rooms and served meals. It was likely that her home was a safe house for Government Agents\u201d (https:\/\/www.marlowe-society.org\/christopher-marlowe\/life\/death-in-deptford\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles Nicholl published The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe<\/em> in 1995. Here is what the Amazon blurb says: \u201cHere, in a tour de force of scholarship and ingenuity, Charles Nicholl penetrates four centuries of obscurity to reveal not only a complex and unsettling story of entrapment and betrayal, chimerical plot and sordid felonies, but also a fascinating vision of the underside of the Elizabethan world\u201d (https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Reckoning-Murder-Christopher-Marlowe\/dp\/0226580245<\/a>). The book reads almost like a modern thriller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The saddest part of the story is that Marlowe was truly a great writer, and his death at 29 was a great loss for English literature. So in remembrance of Kit Marlowe, here is \u201cThe Passionate Shepherd to His Love\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we will sit upon the Rocks,
Seeing the Shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow Rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing Madrigals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I will make thee beds of Roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of Myrtle;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty Lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A belt of straw and Ivy buds,
With Coral clasps and Amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Shepherds\u2019 Swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s image is a \u201cPurported portrait of Marlowe. This painting was discovered at Marlowe\u2019s old rooms during renovations at Cambridge in 1952. Is it really Marlowe? Check out the story at The Marlowe Studies<\/em>\u201d (https:\/\/www.faust.com\/books\/authors\/christopher-marlowe\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s word of the day, thanks to some extent to the Words Coach (https:\/\/www.wordscoach.com\/dictionary), is rarefy. Pronounced \/ \u02c8r\u025b\u0259r \u0259\u02ccfa\u026a \/, it means \u201cto make rare or rarer; make less […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[995,238,395,284,994],"class_list":["post-7352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","tag-christopher-marlowe","tag-dictionary","tag-etymology","tag-linguistics","tag-rarefy","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7352","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=7352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7354,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7352\/revisions\/7354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}