Word: monstrum
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...choice of word is instructive. Its image is not its origin. Monster conjures up a three-headed Cerberus at the gates of Hades. Etymologically, however, the word has few frills. It is related to demonstrate and to remonstrate, and ultimately comes from the Latin monstrum, an omen portending the will of the gods, which is itself linked to the verb monere, to warn. If a city sinned against heaven, heaven sent it a monster. One can argue that the Sphinx, who confronted travelers to Thebes with her famous riddle, was born of some Oedipal crime and performed an important...
...anger or lust or selfishness or greed -- will go on churning out the accursed creatures. Like our forebears, we have got in the habit of monsters. If we are to escape their terror, we must not distort their significance. If they frighten us, we must remember why. Otherwise, monstrum and remonstrance fade from memory, and we gain not even the awful lesson about the darkness that we must each live with and subdue...
...Harvard ! Scholasticus non bustibus, sed defalcatione tuam. Eheu ! religione cashieri dum crankibus et speculatione scripsit. Monstrum horrendum...
| 1 |