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August 12, 2026
Aug 12, 2026
Word
bosky
adjective
Definition
  1. having abundant trees or shrubs
  2. of or relating to a woods
Example
As we drove away from the city, apartment buildings gave way to homes with yards, then at last to a bosky landscape dominated by tall pines.
Origin
"Bosk," "busk," "bush"-in Middle English these were all variant spellings of a word meaning "shrub." "Bush" is still familiar to the modern ear, and "busk" can still be heard in a few places in the dialects of northern Britain. "Bosk" too survived in English dialects, although it disappeared from the written language, and in the early 17th century it provided the root for the woodsy adjective "bosky." Since its formation, "bosky" has been firmly rooted in our language, and its widespread popularity seems to have resurrected its parental form. By 1815 "bosk" (also spelled "bosque") had reappeared in writing, but this time with the meaning "a small wooded area."
Webster's Dictionary
Idiom
peter out
Dwindle or diminish and come to an end, as in Their enthusiasm soon petered out. The origin of this usage is unknown, but one authority suggests it may refer to the apostle Peter, whose enthusiastic support of Jesus quickly diminished so that he denied knowing him three times during the night after Jesus's arrest. [Mid-1800s]
The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
Fun facts
  1. Hawaii is the only U.S. state that grows coffee commercially.
  2. Ohio is the only U.S. state that does not have a rectangular flag.
Snapple's under-the-cap 'Real Facts'
Artist
Yuan Xikun
Born 1944

Yuan Xikun is a Chinese visual artist and environmental activist. In 2011, Yuan proposed building a giant sculpture composed of sand collected from five of earth's continents and water from its Arctic and Antarctic regions to draw attention to ozone depletion and climate change.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historical figure
Liaquat Ali Khan
Oct 1, 1895 - Oct 16, 1951

Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan, widely known as Quaid-e-Millat and Shaheed-e-Millat, was a Pakistani politician who was one of the leading founding fathers of Pakistan, statesman, lawyer, and political theorist who became the first Prime Minister of Pakistan; he also held cabinet portfolio as the first foreign, defence, and the frontier regions minister from 1947 until his assassination in 1951. Prior to the partition, Khan briefly tenured as the first finance minister in the interim government led by its Governor General Mountbatten.

He was born into an influential aristocratic Muslim family in Karnal, Eastern Punjab on 1 October 1895. Liaquat Ali Khan was educated at the Aligarh Muslim University in India, and then at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Well-educated, he was a democratic political theorist who promoted parliamentarism in India. After first being invited by the Congress Party, he opted for the Muslim League led by influential Mohammad Ali Jinnah who was advocating the eradication of the injustices and ill-treatment meted out to Indian Muslims by the British government.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historic event
Sack of Antwerp
Nov 4, 1576

The Sack of Antwerp, often known as the Spanish Fury at Antwerp, was an episode of the Eighty Years' War. It is the greatest massacre in Belgian history.

On 4 November 1576, mutinying Spanish tercios of the Army of Flanders began the sack of Antwerp, leading to three days of horror among the population of the city, which was the cultural, economic and financial center of the Low Countries. The savagery of the sack led the provinces of the Low Countries to unite against the Spanish crown. The devastation also caused Antwerp's decline as the leading city in the region and paved the way for Amsterdam's rise.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture