You may recognize that quote as being from the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz. It is the wizard explaining to the scarecrow the true difference between himself and others who may be thought of as "intelligent". It turns out, all you need is a diploma. Now a days you can pick those up for a few bucks on the Internet. This weeks Facile Friday word is the one that jumps out at me when I read that quote ...pusillanimous.
Pronounced pusillanimous. I love how the word rolls off of your tongue. It is the perfect waterfall of pronunciation, effortless and still commanding. Say it with me now...PUsillanimous, puSILLanimous, pusillANimous, pusillanimOUS. When you were a kid, did you ever say a word over and over till it started to sound silly, strange or unfamiliar? That little exercise is why I hate the word slacks so exercise caution when playing with words you use on a regular basis.
Pusillanimous is not a word that is used often though it has popped up throughout history. Spiro Agnew used it to describe what some ultra liberals were doing at the time as "pusillanimous pussyfooting", humorist AP Herbert dissed dictionaries in 1936 as pusillanimous works because he thought they should record what SHOULD be instead of what is in the realm of language. By all accounts, pusillanimous is something that you do not want to be, but if you are ever described as such, you would be thought of as weak, utterly spineless, and with a contemptible lack of courage. From the Greek pusillus, very small, and animus, the soul or mind.
I thought of doing "You might be pusillanimous if:" but decided against it because all I could think of were political examples of spinelessness and/or stupidity and it leaned more to the stupid side. (You might be pusillanimous if you believe that cutting taxes will reduce the deficit. Just an example). I know. I made the right decision.
As always, your mission is to go out into the world and use the Facile Friday word as much as you can. Please do not tell anyone, except a politician, they are pusillanimous as this may inflict mental distress if they happen to actually know what the word means.
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