Re: GENIUS: without the political correctness

Martz (martz@martz.demon.co.uk)
Mon, 13 Jan 1997 21:03:03 +0000


On Mon, 13 Jan 1997, QueeneMUSE@aol.com wrote:

<snip Definitions of genius>

>From the Oxford English:

Genius n. (pl. geniuses or genii)

1 (pl. geniuses)
a. an exceptional intellectual or creative power or other natural
ability or tendency.
b. a person having this.

2 the tutelary spirit of a person, place, institution etc.

3 a person or spirit regarded as powerfully influencing a person for
good or evil.

4 the prevalent feeling or associations etc. of a nation, age, etc.

This is not a "my dictionary is better than yours" post, just an
observation that what order definitions appear in is largely irrelevant.
What is important is what is intended by the usage of a word and I think
it was quite clear from the original post what the author was trying to
say.

BTW Nadia, thanks for making me reach for the dictionary on that one; I
had never come across usage #4 before.

> There's only one thing I know FOR SURE about genius, and that is: you
> don't become one by talking, discussing, or thinking about being one.

Does that mean we've both just disqualified ourselves? ;)

-- 
Martz
martz@martz.demon.co.uk

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