A.Word.A.Day--luddite

Wordsmith.org

The Magic of Words

Oct 21, 2010

This week's theme
Eponyms

This week's words
harlequin
stentorian
pharisaical
luddite

Luddites smashing a loom, 1812

Illustrator unknown

Erratum
In yesterday's entry for the word pharisaical, the timeline for the Pharisees should have read: 1st century BCE - 1st century CE.

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

luddite

PRONUNCIATION:

(LUHD-yt)

MEANING:

noun: One who opposes or avoids the use of new technology.

ETYMOLOGY:

After the Luddites, name taken by textile workers in England during 1811-1816 who destroyed machinery that was displacing them. They took the name after one Ned Ludd, whose identity is not clear. Ned Ludd is said to have destroyed, in a fit of insanity, a knitting frame in 1779. In response to the Luddites, the British parliament passed the Frame Breaking Act which made the destroying of knitting frames punishable by death.

USAGE:

"But I'm not a luddite. I'll keep my automatic coffee-maker, my computer, and my automatic dishwasher, thank you!"
Richard Packham; Elaborate Appliances Don't Justify the Cost or the Space; The News-Review (Roseburg, Oregon); Mar 21, 2010.

Explore "luddite" in the Visual Thesaurus.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. -Gilbert Highet, writer (1906-1978)

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