The world's toughest language game gets even tougher.
Apr 11, 2025
This week’s theme
Toponyms
This week’s words
Black-eyed Sue and Sweet Poll of Plymouth taking leave of their lovers who are going to Botany Bay
Art: Robert Sayer & Co, 1792
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg
Botany Bay
PRONUNCIATION:
(BOT-uh-nee BAY)
MEANING:
noun: A place of exile, punishment, or hard labor.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Botany Bay, south of Sydney, Australia. Earliest documented use: 1789.
NOTES:
In 1770 Captain James Cook landed on the southeast coast of Australia.
Among his crew were two botanists who were so impressed by the diversity of
plant life, they dubbed the area Botany Bay. Talk about putting down roots!
When the British government sent its first fleet of convicts to colonize
Australia in 1787, Botany Bay was their original destination. However, upon
arrival, they found the land less than ideal for settlement (not exactly the
Garden of Eden), so they moved a bit north to Sydney Cove. Still, the name
Botany Bay stuck as shorthand for exile. For example, Worcester College at
Oxford earned the nickname Botany Bay because it lay on the remote edge of
London.
USAGE:
“Corrupt companies, incompetent governmental agencies, and gutless
politicians are the real culprits. There must be a Botany Bay where
these characters can be exiled.”
Jim Dooley; For Whom Amnesty Tolls; The News Press (Fort Myers,
Florida); Jul 17, 2007.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
No greater mistake can be made than to think that our institutions are
fixed or may not be changed for the worse. ... Increasing prosperity tends
to breed indifference and to corrupt moral soundness. Glaring inequalities
in condition create discontent and strain the democratic relation. The
vicious are the willing, and the ignorant are unconscious instruments of
political artifice. Selfishness and demagoguery take advantage of liberty.
The selfish hand constantly seeks to control government, and every increase
of governmental power, even to meet just needs, furnishes opportunity for
abuse and stimulates the effort to bend it to improper uses. ... The peril
of this nation is not in any foreign foe! We, the people, are its power,
its peril, and its hope! -Charles Evans Hughes, jurist and statesman (11
Apr 1862-1948)
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