All The Words That Are Fit To Learn: August, 2020

Former Marine Maximilian Uriarte published his second graphic novel, titled Battle Born: Lapis Lazuli. It tells the story of a U.S. Marine squad in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban, who are using sales of lapis lazuli, a valuable blue gemstone mined in the Sar-i-Sang mountains, as an important revenue source. Belli is the Latin word for "war," and belligerantem means "warlike."

With a number of highly ranked players opting out of some tournaments, professional Tennis in the age of corona is a strange version of itself. Six of the eight top-ranked women have chosen not to play in the U.S. Open, meaning that the players who do compete will not be facing three out of the four most recent Grand Slam winners. Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka are still playing, but observers say the match will suffer in both quality and importance on the world circuit.

Joe Biden accepted the Democratic nomination for President at the virtual convention held online. He said that President Trump has failed to protect us, and called on voters to trust him with the responsibilities of leading the country. Excoriare is a Latin verb meaning "to skin." In English, excoriate is used metaphorically to describe harsh criticism.

Aleksandr Lukashenko, President of Belarus for the last 27 years, has been accused by his own people and governments around the world of stealing the recent election in which he claimed to have won 80 percent of the vote. Widespread protests ensued, which were met by violent police responses. Sergei Dylevsky, a worker at a tractor factory, has become an unlikely leader of the resistance, calling for strikes and helping to organize the most serious challenge to Lukashenko's rule since it began.

After the Chinese government imposed strict new security laws on Hong Kong, the owner of a pro-democracy bookstore there fled to Taiwan, where he recreated his shop. Taiwan, which the government in Beijing claims is part of China, is a democracy, though it has not formally claimed independence. Juxtapose is a combination of the Latin iuxta, meaning "alongside," with the French poser, "to put."

Christopher Nolan's would-be blockbuster film Tenet will finally open in some countries and select limited-occupation U.S. theaters in late August and early September. Industry observers say that hopes are high that the film will help to jump-start Hollywood's recovery, and also keep cinemas alive after a long shutdown. Critics say the movie is visually spectacular, but emotionally a bit cold. Palindromos is Greek for "running back again."

Last fall the supergiant star Betelgeuse dimmed dramatically, leading many astronomers to speculate that it was about to go supernova, exploding in dramatic fashion and changing the night sky forever. It turns out that the reduction in its luminosity was instead due to a huge ejection of gas and dust that happened to be in our direction, so that this cloud blocked much of the star's light from reaching Earth.

The recent explosion in Beirut did massive physical damage, and also exposed the many weaknesses in a society plagued by corruption and political unrest. This editorial draws parallels between that and what the pandemic has revealed about America, showing how inequality and a dysfunctional government have made a bad problem many times worse than it might have been. A sect is a branch of a larger religion; the word comes from the Latin secta, meaning "following."

New evidence suggests that people who recover from Covid-19 remain immune to it for some time afterwards. A fishing boat out of Seattle with 122 crew aboard suffered from an outbreak that sickened nearly all of them, but three sailors who had previously been infected remained virus-free. This information will be essential in creating an effective vaccine. Thwart is Scandinavian, from the Norse þvert, meaning "across;" think of a bar or a gate blocking your way.

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, the actors who played the title characters in 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and its 1991 sequel, are teaming up again for Bill & Ted Face the Music, which will release on demand at the end of the month. The duo play middle-aged parents partying on and trying to realize their musical ambitions through their daughters in a way that's not bogus.