A.Word.A.Day--hippocrene

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Mar 26, 2020

This week’s theme
Terms originating in horses

This week’s words
horse marine
chevalier
unhorse
hippocrene

Story of Minerva - The Muses Showing Minerva Hippocrene Waters of the River that Brings Out Pegasus, 1696

Art: René-Antoine Houasse

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Hippocrene

PRONUNCIATION:

(HIP-uh-kreen, -kree-nee)

MEANING:

noun: Poetic or literary inspiration.

ETYMOLOGY:

In Greek mythology, Hippocrene was a spring on Mt. Helicon and was created by a stroke of Pegasus’s hoof. From Greek hippos (horse) + krene (fountain, spring). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ekwo- (horse), which also gave us equestrian, equitant, hippodrome, and hippology. Earliest documented use: 1598.

USAGE:

“But, instead of merely serving as bistros for coffee and cake connoisseurs, these cafés also serve as a Hippocrene of sorts for writers to brew up inspiration.”
Nida Sayed; Riverside Rendezvous; The Times of India (New Delhi); Jun 14, 2015.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. -Viktor Frankl, author, neurologist and psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor (26 Mar 1905-1997)

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