Word of the Day

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Today's Word: hoi polloi

This week's theme: The Masses

hoi polloi

(noun) [hoi' pah-LOI]

1. the common people; the masses: "We may have less down time, but today, the hoi polloi have access to services and technology that kings of the past did not even dream of."

Origin

Approximately 1837; from Greek, 'hoi': from the + 'polloi': the people, literally, the many, from 'polys.'

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"Well, call me over-excited. Call me sentimental too. Call me worse if you want: I'll only keep lobbing it back till I get bored. But with all of this in mind I'm going to embrace Saturday's amazing match as a reason to be cheerful about my homeland. As a game of football it reaffirmed everything the FA Cup is meant to be about, all the adventure, drama and unpredictability inherent in a sudden death competition that, in its early stages at least, gives the hoi polloi a chance to tumble the aristocracy. For all the erosion of its status in recent years, no other nation embraces its knock-out competition and those fantastic qualities the way we do."

Dave Hill. "You'll never blow bubbles alone: Saturday's FA Cup Final was far far more than a great game of football," The [UK] Guardian (May 15, 2006).

"Nor is America's high culture more easily accepted than its pop -- at least not by the cultural elites. A fine example is how the art critics of two distinguished German newspapers, Süddeutsche Zeitung (leftish) and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (centrist), dealt with an exhibit of 200 pieces from the Museum of Modern Art in Berlin in 2004. More than a million visitors stood in line, many for up to nine hours, to view the objets from across the Atlantic. Yet the fervor of the hoi polloi mattered little to their betters, whose comments ran the gamut from contempt to conspiracy.

The opening shots were fired by the Suddeutsche Zeitung of Munich. Without having seen the collection, its critic aimed his volley straight against imperial America. Regurgitating a standard piece of European ressentiment, the author insinuated that what America has in the way of culture is not haute, and what is haute is not American. (Or as Adolf Hitler is said to have declared, 'A single Beethoven symphony contains more culture than all that America has ever created.')"

Josef Joffe. "The Perils of Soft Power," [The Way We Live Now] The New York Times Magazine (May 14, 2006).

"But elaborate table decor isn't just for those making windfall profits. These days, you can find chargers -- those large, decorative platters that are the hallmark of a properly attired table -- even at places where the hoi polloi shop: Target, Wal-Mart, Big Lots.

The upper-crust of society has always set ostentatious tables, says Brian Joyce, co-owner of Flourish Floral Productions in Winter Park.

'But it's not just for the elite anymore,' says Joyce. Increasingly, he and business partner Richard Streitler are designing ornate tables for small weddings and even house parties.

...'Thanks to the Internet, we can source things from all across the country. We can have the hottest trends shipped in from California, New York, Chicago,' he says. 'Grandeur is coming back.'"

Jean Patteson. "Tabletop decor lends panache to events: Companies transform tables into works of art." The [Orlando] Sentinel (May 12, 2006).

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