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Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Magi (noun)
Ma·gi [mey-jahy]

noun plural
1.(sometimes lowercase) the wise men, generally assumed to be three in number, who paid homage to the infant Jesus. Matt. 2:1–12. Compare Balthazar (def 1), Caspar (def 1), Melchior (def 1).
2. (sometimes lowercase) the class of Zoroastrian priests in ancient Media and Persia, reputed to possess supernatural powers.
3. (lowercase) astrologers.

Other Word Forms
Magian adjective
magian adjective

Origin: First recorded in 1175–1225; see Magus

Example Sentences
Nobody can tell you whether any of them knew a Magi from a Musketeer, not to mention that the Roman Empire they worked under was a failed administration.
From Los Angeles Times

The Christian feast day of Epiphany, when observers celebrate the visit to Jesus by the Magi - commonly known as the Three Kings, or Wise Men - is widely celebrated in Spain.
From BBC

“It’s an excessive cost to detain a limited number of migrants”, said Roberto Magi, an MP with the left-wing +Europa party.
From BBC

In some traditions, it celebrates the baptism of Jesus and in others the visit of the Three Magi to the Baby Jesus.
From Seattle Times

The 6 January Christian feast day of Epiphany, when observers celebrate the visit to Jesus by the Magi - commonly known as the Three Kings, or Wise Men - is widely celebrated in Spain.
From BBC

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saturnine [sat-er-nahyn]

adjective

1. sluggish in temperament; gloomy; taciturn.
2. having a sardonic aspect
3. suffering from lead poisoning, as a person.
4. due to absorption of lead, as bodily disorders.
5. born under or influenced astrologically by the planet Saturn

examples
1. But even in that calm gloom, my eyes slowly acclimated to the 14 grandly saturnine paintings, made by Mark Rothko in the late 1960s. New York Times. 21 Feb 2022. "At Mark Rothko's chapel, a composer is haunted by a hero."

2. For two years, she kept them dancing attendance on her--the fair-haired, athletic, good-looking Thord; the saturnine, intelligent, lion-hearted Olaf. "Pattern of Revenge" by John Bude.

origin
It comes ultimately from Sāturnus, name of the Roman god of agriculture, who was often depicted as a bent old man with a stern, sluggish, and sullen nature.

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couchant [kou-chuhnt]

adjective:
1 lying down especially with the head up; crouching
1 (Heraldry) represented as lying on its stomach with its hind legs and forelegs pointed forward.

(click to enlarge)
Examples:

We see Kim getting dressed or undressed, lounging poolside or couchant on beds or 'in my closet in Miami trying on clothes.' (Stephen Burt, Kim, Caitlyn, and the People We Want to See, The New Yorker, July 2015)

As a boy I first scaled this lion couchant by scrambling up the gritstone box of its nose and grabbing handfuls of its mane, namely long, wiry grasses. (Tony Greenbank, Cafe with a view - and a mugful of memories, The Guardian, January 2016)

The centre, which is in the light, is occupied by a couchant lion growling, his one paw on a bundle of arrows, the symbol of the United Provinces. (Sarah Knowles Bolton, Famous European Artists)

It may be seen in various forms on a number of monumental effigies and brasses, usually with the couchant white lion of the house of March as a pendant, but on the accession of Richard III the lion was replaced by his silver boar. (Hope, Sir W H St John, Heraldry for Craftsmen & Designers)

Ahead could be discerned the famous rock, although viewed from an altitude and 'end on' its well-known appearance as a lion couchant was absent. (Percy F Westerman, The Airship Golden Hind)

Origin:
Heraldic couchant ("lying down with the head up") is late 15c, from the French present participle of couch c1300, 'to spread or lay on a surface, to overlay,' from Old French couchier 'to lay down, place; go to bed, put to bed,' from Latin collocare 'to lay, place, station, arrange,' from assimilated form of com 'with, together' + locare 'to place,' from locus 'a place' (Online Etymology Dictionary)

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Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Advent (noun)
ad·vent [ad-vent]

noun
1. a coming into place, view, or being; arrival: the advent of the holiday season.
2. (usually initial capital letter) the coming of Christ into the world.
3. (initial capital letter) the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas, observed in commemoration of the coming of Christ into the world.
4. (usually initial capital letter) Second Coming.

Related Words
arrival, coming, onset

See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com
Synonyms
1. onset, beginning, commencement, start.

When To Use
What is Advent season?
Advent is the season before Christmas. In many branches of Christianity, Advent consists of the period starting four Sundays before Christmas. Among Christians, Advent is typically considered a season of preparation for the celebration of Christmas that also commemorates the coming of Jesus. The word Advent can also refer to the coming of Jesus into the world (it can also refer to what’s known as Jesus’s Second Coming). Religious rituals for Advent include the lighting of candles on an Advent wreath and the decoration of Jesse trees. Although Christmas is widely celebrated in both religious and secular (nonreligious) ways, Advent is primarily a religious observance. However, Advent calendars are a popular way of marking the days until Christmas even for those who do not celebrate it in religious ways. The similar season observed in anticipation of Easter is known as Lent.

Origin: First recorded in 1125–75; Middle English, from Latin adventus “arrival, approach,” equivalent to ad- “toward” + ven- (stem of venīre “to come”) + -tus suffix of verbal action; ad-

Example Sentences
A foodbank is asking donors to consider trying a "reverse advent calendar" this year – giving 24 items to help provide Christmas hampers to families in need.
Read more on BBC

Many veteran American sailors no longer want to spend months at sea, where until recently they had been largely cut off from communications—though the advent of satellite-internet is changing that.
Read more on The Wall Street Journal

With the advent of increasingly powerful consumer computing devices, cloud computing, and high-bandwidth internet connections, the concept of the metaverse is materializing.
Read more on Barron's

That has brought huge technological leaps to everything from smartphones to cars, as well as the advent of artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT.
Read more on Barron's

The advent of less costly TPUs means it could be undercut on price if other companies were to establish an AI cloud competitor.
Read more on Barron's

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hoatzin [hoh-at-sin, waht-sin]

noun
a blue-faced, crested bird, Opisthocomus hoazin, of the Amazon and Orinoco forests, having as a nestling a large, temporary claw on the second and third digits of the forelimb, for climbing among the tree branches.

examples
After another bird-filled stop, where we saw our first turkey-like hoatzin — whose ungainly size and clumsy movements made us all laugh — we were transferred into two smaller canoes. "Bears, Binoculars, and Bucket Lists: 15 days Birding in Ecuador." New York Times. 26 April 2023.

Conserving the Amazon's vast rainforests protects the planet and helps ensure that jaguars, hoatzins, and all forest dwellers have a home now and into the future. WWF calendar - November 2026

origin
1655–65; ≪ Nahuatl huāctzīn, huāhtzīn name for several hen-sized birds of the Valley of Mexico, apparently applied indiscriminately by early naturalists to similar New World birds

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mantra [man-truh]

noun:
1 (Hindu) a word or formula, as from the Veda, chanted or sung as an incantation or prayer.
1 an often repeated word, formula, or phrase, often a truism

Examples:

Maybe the 'us against the world' mantra is something that can drive the team on towards the heights that they have so far been unable to get to. (Andy Burke, Is there 'entitlement' around Scotland or has Townsend misjudged criticism?, BBC, November 2025)

Maharishi taught a form of meditation derived from the Vedas, the foundation of philosophical thinking in India, known as mantra meditation, in which a person silently sits alone with the eyes closed, and repeats in the mind a sacred Sanskrit mantra that is believed to be endowed with spiritual potency. (Syama Allard, Buddhist mindfulness is all the rage, but Hinduism has a deep meditation tradition too, Hindu American Foundation, May 2021)

Greenland is still a place where 'the weather decides' can be a liberating mantra - once we accept that we're powerless to do anything about the weather, we can give up control. (Gabriel Leigh, Greenland Wants You to Visit. But Not All at Once., New York Times, February 2023)

It was hard to find adequate space to run and stretch and even harder to find a quiet corner for my breathing and mantra ritual. (Ibtihaj Muhammad, Proud)

He was sitting on the ground, his knees drawn up to his chest, and he was chanting the statement like a mantra, but loudly. (Dave Eggers, Zeitoun)

Origin:
1808, 'that part of the Vedas which contains hymns,' from Sanskrit mantra-s 'sacred message or text, charm, spell, counsel,' literally 'instrument of thought,' related to manyate 'thinks,' from PIE root men- 'to think.' Meaning 'sacred text used as a charm or incantation' is by 1900 (Online Etymology Dictionary)

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Hello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means

karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.

The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.

( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )

Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.

On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.

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Tuesday word: Magi

Monday Word: Saturnine

Sunday Word: Couchant

Tuesday word: Advent

Word: Hoatzin

Sunday Word: Mantra

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