Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Moi ... Never Opposed to BBC

Today's Word "Remonstrant"

remonstrant \reh-MAHN-strehnt\ (adjective) - In a state of vigorously objecting to, earnestly aggrieved by or opposed to something.

"The remonstrant set of Russel's jaw convinced Andre that she could never persuade him to give her the remote control for the TV."

From Medieval Latin remonstrare, "to demonstrate." The Latin monstrare "to show" comes from the same stem as monstrum "portent, monster" from monere "to warn." The Proto-Indo-European root is *men-/mon- "think" from which we also get "mental" and the suffix "-ment." Historically, the Remonstrants were a 17th-century group of Dutch Protestants who formally stated the grounds of their dissent from orthodox Calvinism in a document called 'The Remonstrance.' They still survive as a small group in the Netherlands that has been a liberalizing influence on Calvinist doctrine. This word belongs to a large family: "remonstrance" and "remonstration" are the action nouns and "remonstrator," the agent noun. "Remonstrative" is another adjective signifying the activity, rather than the state, of "remonstrate," the verb. A remonstrative letter then is one in which you actively remonstrate (strongly protest) against something the addressee is responsible for. The letter expresses your state of remonstrance hence you become a remonstrant, since the adjective may also be used as a noun.

1 comment:

  1. Oh my, yes! I look for them every day too. Nothing better.

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