Word: harmlessness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...plague of insects. Last fortnight in Flushing's Municipal Court, Musician Fox's suing landlords submitted this letter which they had sent him: "The insects you complained of are crickets and no doubt are found in most of the homes and apartments of Bayside. They are harmless, and many people enjoy their chirping; in fact, there was a poem [sic] dedicated to 'The Cricket on the Hearth and in China they put them in cages to hear them sing...
...America's queer coinage (which so often proves ancient currency disinterred)." E. g.- "Racket-a trick, dodge, scheme, game, line of business or action. 1812." "Skirt-A woman. Now vulgar slang, 1560.'' Unlike Sam Johnson, who occasionally winked (as when he defined "lexicographer" as "a harmless drudge") and who occasionally nodded into Latinic somnolence ("Network-anything reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections"), editors of the S. O. E. D. are always serious but try hard not to be too pedantic. Thorough, they give the small word "set"' almost seven long columns...
...Travel Diary of a Philosopher Count Hermann Keyserling records that in Japanese brothels "an atmosphere of harmless cheerfulness prevails . . . just as, in Europe, among children round the Christmas tree...
...most direct method of self-expression to avoid the element of fear induced by tools that the child feels incapable of mastering. Spreading paint with the bare hands was an obvious idea but ordinary paints have obvious disadvantages. Fingerpaints, Miss Shaw's own invention, are made with harmless earth, pigments and a cold-creamy substance, all of which washes instantly off. The mixture is sensuously smooth to the touch, comes in six colors, and may be licked or eaten with impunity...
...followed him to exile in Sardinia, where he was interned. Sardinian Sideshow is the interesting, lively, not too personal account of the year they spent there. Not being considered at first an enemy alien herself, she made a trip to Rome and besieged the authorities in behalf of her harmless husband (a painter). Sitting in anterooms, waiting for audiences, she read most of Tacitus. Unsuccessful, she returned to the sirocco, fleas, dirt and picturesque boredom of Sardinia. Like all Northerners with noses she was chiefly impressed by the smell: "A little rotten seaweed and fish, a great deal of dirt...