Good morning, digital neighbors! Happy Tuesday, friends & refugees, early birds & later dayers, conversants & lurkers, PHAM & misfits, free thinkers & questioners, ADD irregulars & WSN curators, curmudgeons & curmudgeonesses! More words from The Little Book of Lost Words.
Today’s lost word should resonate with many of us outliers of the great social experiment in compliance known as Covid-19. Those of us who questioned the efficacy of masks and declined to join the mass hysteria of the day, who pushed back against the bleating mantra of “safe and effective,” or who were repeatedly told “it could have been so much worse if I hadn’t been vaccinated,” know well the abundance of mumpsimus in life.
It is so hard for people to escape group-think and herd-feel once they have surrendered to it. Many who were wrong have never come to terms with acknowledging their surrender to fear and irrational compliance. I doubt they have reflected on the error of their ways — it is a hard thing to admit you were wrong when humility has no place in your heart. Many will simply wait for the next invitation to group-think and prepare to rejoin the herd.
Mumpsimus noun | muhmp-si-muhs Sixteenth century, English
A stubborn person who refuses to change their mind despite being proven wrong.
“Only the most stubborn mumpsimus joins the Flat Earth Society.”
— Joe Gillard, The Little Book of Lost Words: Collywobbles, Snollygosters, and 86 Other Surprisingly Useful Terms Worth Resurrecting
Photo from the book of a mumpsimus (sort of a curmudgeony chap, but clearly too stubborn to be a curmudgeon)
Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...
Padre - Tom Miller invites you to a Coffee Talk, Speakeasies, Schmoozes, Tea Times, Afterhours and other gatherings.
https://teams.live.com/meet/93792382189049?p=DiBHsYfuECPgDrG7vO
2026 Coffee Talk with the ADD Irregulars
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