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Tuesday 6 March 2018

Thing Not To Be Today: delible.

We describe biros or pens as indelible, but the equally useful word delible has vanished from our consciousness. It's a shame.

The Oxford English Dictionary refers to the delible stain of departed souls, which is a true but terrifying thought.

What is a computer image but a delible stain...?

What is a life but a memory...?

...well, in both cases, quite a lot, actually.

But only if you do something about it, like writing a play

File:Shakespeare Droeshout 1623.jpg
engraving by Martin Drieshout

 or having a child:

File:Lady Jennie Spencer-Churchill (1854-1921) (C).jpg
Jenny Spencer-Churchill

 or inventing a cure for smallpox:

File:Edward Jenner. Pastel by John Raphael Smith. Wellcome L0026138.jpg
Edward Jenner by John Rapheal Smith

or invading a country:

File:King of the Eburones - Marble Julius Caesar.jpg
Julius Caesar


...err...okay. 

Perhaps you can take the delible thing a bit too far...

Thing To Be Today: delible. This word comes from the Latin delēre, to destroy.


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