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August 26, 2026
Aug 26, 2026
Word
revanche
noun
Definition
revenge; especially : a usually political policy designed to recover lost territory or status
Example
Soon after losing the northern territory to the invading army, the king began drafting a plan of revanche to get it back.
Origin
"Revanche" first appeared in English in the mid-19th century, deriving, along with our noun "revenge," from the Middle French verb "revenchier" ("to revenge"). The word developed its specific political application in the years following the Franco-German War (1870-71), which resulted in France losing the territory known as Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. (The territory was returned to France following World War I and then twice switched hands again during World War II.) Although "revanche" appears occasionally in English today, you are more likely to encounter its relatives "revanchism," which refers to a government's policy of revanche, and "revanchist," referring to a follower of such a policy. These words did not appear in English until the 20th century.
Webster's Dictionary
Idiom
sow one's wild oats
Behave foolishly, immoderately, or promiscuously when young, as in Brad has spent the last couple of years sowing his wild oats, but now he seems ready to settle down. This expression alludes to sowing inferior wild oats instead of good cultivated grain, the verb sowing ---that is, "planting seed"---in particular suggesting sexual promiscuity. [Mid-1500s]
The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
Fun facts
  1. A gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds.
  2. Potatoes have more chromosomes than humans.
Snapple's under-the-cap 'Real Facts'
Artist
Giovanni Battista Moroni
1520 - Feb 5, 1578

Giovanni Battista Moroni was an Italian painter of the Late Renaissance period. He also is called, Giambattista Moroni. Best known for his elegantly realistic portraits of the local nobility and clergy, he is considered one of the great portrait painters of sixteenth century Italy.

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Historical figure
Hugo Black
Feb 27, 1886 - Sep 25, 1971

Hugo Lafayette Black was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist who served as a U.S. Senator from 1927 to 1937 and as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1937 to 1971. A member of the Democratic Party and a devoted New Dealer, Black endorsed Franklin D. Roosevelt in both the 1932 and 1936 presidential elections. Having gained a reputation in the Senate as a reformer, Black was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Roosevelt and confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 63 to 16. He was the first of nine Roosevelt nominees to the Court, and he outlasted all except for William O. Douglas.

The fifth longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history, Black was one of the most influential Supreme Court justices in the 20th century.

He is noted for his advocacy of a textualist reading of the United States Constitution and of the position that the liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights were imposed on the states by the Fourteenth Amendment. During his political career Black was regarded as a staunch supporter of liberal policies and civil liberties.

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Historic event
Battle of Antietam

The Battle of Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, was a battle of the American Civil War, fought on September 17, 1862, between Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac, near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek. Part of the Maryland Campaign, it was the first field army–level engagement in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. It was the bloodiest day in United States military history, with a combined tally of 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing.

After pursuing the Confederate general Robert E. Lee into Maryland, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan of the Union Army launched attacks against Lee's army, in defensive positions behind Antietam Creek. At dawn on September 17, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's corps mounted a powerful assault on Lee's left flank. Attacks and counterattacks swept across Miller's Cornfield, and fighting swirled around the Dunker Church. Union assaults against the Sunken Road eventually pierced the Confederate center, but the Federal advantage was not followed up. In the afternoon, Union Maj.

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