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August 17, 2026
Aug 17, 2026
Word
frowsy
adjective
Definition
  1. musty, stale
  2. having a slovenly or uncared-for appearance
Example
"Just a little effort and elbow grease applied to a frowsy courtyard, patio or side yard will reap rewards year round." (Elizabeth Bettendorf, St. Petersburg Times [Florida], April 6, 2007)
Origin
The exact origins of this approximately 330-year-old word may be lost in some frowsy, old book somewhere, but some etymologists have speculated that "frowsy" (also spelled "frowzy") shares a common ancestor with the younger, chiefly British word "frowsty," a synonym of "frowsy" in both its senses. That ancestor could be the Old French word "frouste," meaning "ruinous" or "decayed," or the now mostly obsolete English word "frough" or "frow," meaning "brittle" or "fragile." The English dramatist Thomas Otway is the first person (as far as we know) to have used "frowsy" in print. In his comedy "The Souldier's Fortune," published in 1681, the character Beau refers to another character as "a frouzy Fellmonger."
Webster's Dictionary
Idiom
clay pigeon
A person easily duped or taken advantage of, as in You're a clay pigeon for all of those telephone fund-raisers. The term alludes to the clay pigeon of trapshooting, which replaced the use of live birds in this sport in the 1860s. Its transfer to figurative use in the first half of the 1900s probably is explained by the much older slang use of pigeon for "dupe."
The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
Fun facts
  1. The official taxonomic classification for llamas is Llama glama.
  2. In 2003, a 6-year-old from Naples, FL was ticketed for not having a permit for her lemonade stand.
Snapple's under-the-cap 'Real Facts'
Artist
Angelica Kauffman
Oct 30, 1741 - Nov 5, 1807

Maria Anna Angelika Kauffmann RA, usually known in English as Angelica Kauffman, was a Swiss Neoclassical painter who had a successful career in London and Rome. Remembered primarily as a history painter, Kauffmann was a skilled portraitist, landscape and decoration painter. She was, along with Mary Moser, one of the two female founding members of the Royal Academy in London in 1768.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historical figure
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria
Jan 5, 1614 - Nov 20, 1662

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, younger brother of Emperor Ferdinand III, was an Austrian soldier, administrator and patron of the arts.

He held a number of military commands, with limited success, and served as Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, before returning to Vienna in 1656. Despite being nominated as Holy Roman Emperor after Ferdinand's death in 1657, he stood aside in favour of his nephew Leopold I.

His main interest was in art, and he patronised artists including David Teniers the Younger, Frans Snyders, Peter Snayers, Daniel Seghers, Peter Franchoys, Frans Wouters, Jan van den Hoecke and Pieter Thijs. His collection of 17th century Venetian and Dutch paintings are now held by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historic event
Sharpeville massacre

The Sharpeville massacre occurred on 21 March 1960, at the police station in the South African township of Sharpeville in Transvaal.

After a day of demonstrations against pass laws, a crowd of about 7,000 protesters went to the police station. The South African Police opened fire on the crowd, killing 69 people and injuring 180 others. Sources disagree as to the behaviour of the crowd; some state that the crowd was peaceful, while others state that the crowd had been hurling stones at the police, and that the shooting started when the crowd started advancing toward the fence around the police station. There were 249 casualties in total, including 29 children. Many were shot in the back as they fled.

The massacre was photographed by photographer Ian Berry, who initially believed the police were firing blanks. In present-day South Africa, 21 March is celebrated as a public holiday in honour of human rights and to commemorate the Sharpeville massacre.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture