A WORD A DAY.

Southland Times, Issue 21576, 14 December 1931, Page 8

A WORD A DAY.

DISTILL. The process of distillation may be briefly described as the condensation of vapours into fluids. In the distillation of water, for instance, the artificial method is to bring the water to a boil and pass the steam through a coil which is cooled. Impurities, if any, are left behind. In the natural method, illustrated by the formation of dew, the vapours coming from the ground and plants are condensed on cool surfaces. Dew, incidentally, is distilled most rapidly in calm weather, under an unclouded sky, and on bodies that freely radiate heat. We derive “distill” (also spelled “distil”) from the Latin distillare, “to drop or trickle down,” compounded of de, “down,” and stillare, “to drop”—from stilla, “drop.” Dis-till is accented on the second syllable; sound each i as in it. “My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as lhe small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass.” (Deuteronomy 32:2.) OTIOSE. For H.J.B. Whatever is unemployed or idle may be described as otiose; and because such idleness is liable to lead into indolence, a common definition for our word is “without use or effect, useless, futile, functionless.” The word, which seems to have made its first English appearance in 1794, is derived from the Latin otiosus, “unemployed,” an extension of otium, “leisure.” Advocates of more leisure wall find little comfort in this word unless they are willing to spend such time profitably. Leisure should not be allowed to lead into otiosity. Note carefully the pronunciation of o-ti-ose, which is accented on the first syllable and sounds as though spelled o-shi-os; each o is long as in old, i as in it. "Otiose prisoners were called a liability to the State.”