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November 30, 2023
Nov 30, 2023
Word
congeries
noun
Definition
aggregation, collection
Example
As we walked past the food stalls our nostrils were assailed by a congeries of exotic, unfamiliar smells.
Origin
What do "epitome," "circus," "tribunal," and "congeries" have in common? All are part of a relatively small collection of English nouns that made the transition from Latin to English unaltered in both spelling and meaning. "Congeries" joined this group in our language in the early 1600s. Latin "congeries" comes from the Latin verb "congerere," which means "to carry or bring together" and which is also the source of our word "congest." In English, "congeries" stands out because it is a singular word with a plural appearance -- and its plural is also spelled "congeries."
Webster's Dictionary
Fun facts
  1. There are about 1 million ants for every person in the world.
  2. Spiny lobsters migrate in groups of 50 or more, forming a conga line on the ocean floor.
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Artist
Georges Seurat
Dec 2, 1859 - Mar 29, 1891

Georges-Pierre Seurat was a French post-Impressionist artist. He is best known for devising the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism as well as pointillism. While less famous than his paintings, his conté crayon drawings have also garnered a great deal of critical appreciation. Seurat's artistic personality combined qualities that are usually supposed to be opposed and incompatible: on the one hand, his extreme and delicate sensibility, on the other, a passion for logical abstraction and an almost mathematical precision of mind. His large-scale work A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte altered the direction of modern art by initiating Neo-impressionism, and is one of the icons of late 19th-century painting.

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Historical figure
Helen Keller
Jun 27, 1880 - Jun 1, 1968

Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The story of Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, was made famous by Keller's autobiography, The Story of My Life, and its adaptations for film and stage, The Miracle Worker. Her birthplace in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, is now a museum and sponsors an annual "Helen Keller Day". Her June 27 birthday is commemorated as Helen Keller Day in Pennsylvania and, in the centenary year of her birth, was recognized by a presidential proclamation from US President Jimmy Carter.

A prolific author, Keller was well-traveled and outspoken in her convictions. A member of the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World, she campaigned for women's suffrage, labor rights, socialism, antimilitarism, and other similar causes. She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1971 and was one of twelve inaugural inductees to the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame on June 8, 2015.

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Historic event
Gallipoli campaign
Feb 19, 1915 - Jan 9, 1916

The Gallipoli campaign, also known as the Dardanelles campaign, the Battle of Gallipoli or the Battle of Çanakkale, was a campaign of the First World War that took place on the Gallipoli peninsula, from 17 February 1915 to 9 January 1916. The Entente powers, Britain, France and Russia, sought to weaken the Ottoman Empire, one of the Central Powers, by taking control of the straits that provided a supply route to Russia. The Allies' attack on Ottoman forts at the entrance of the Dardanelles in February 1915 failed and was followed by an amphibious landing on the Gallipoli peninsula in April 1915 to capture the Ottoman capital of Constantinople.

In January 1916, after eight months' fighting, with approximately 250,000 casualties on each side, the land campaign was abandoned and the invasion force withdrawn. It was a costly defeat for the Entente powers and for the sponsors, especially First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill. The campaign was considered a great Ottoman victory. In Turkey, it is regarded as a defining moment in the history of the state, a final surge in the defence of the motherland as the Ottoman Empire retreated.

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