Archibald MacLeish was born May 7, 1892 and died less than a month before his 90th birthday. The American poet, dramatist, and three-time Pulitzer prize-winner was deeply involved in public life, helping to organize UNESCO and serving as Librarian of Congress. Quotations from MacLeish found in the Unabridged Dictionary paint a vivid picture of 20th century life.
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canker verb
"God help that country, cankered deep by doubt"
chirp verb
"wait until the boldest chirps: "It was tonight, dear, wasn't it?"
cocksure adjective
"a people which . . . had been regarded as brash to the point of arrogance, cocksure to the verge of folly, and so wholly certain of its future and itself that travelers wrote books about the national assurance"
darkling adjective
"secret operatives and darkling conspiracies"
dynamic noun
"the generative force, the historical dynamic of their country"
flaw noun
"the wind changed with flaws from westward"
high-hearted adjective
"high-hearted language"
inward noun
"Jefferson puts the inwards of the issue in these terms"
phare noun
"afternoons I walk to the phare"
scourge noun
"the scourge of recurrent unemployment"
secrete verb
"to trust . . . to the facts to secrete a purpose of their own"
semanticize verb
"semanticize this difference between knowledge by poetry and knowledge by abstraction out of existence"
tantamount adjective
"an article of faith, the denial of which is tantamount to treason"
unwieldy adjective
"any word becomes unwieldy . . . when its spread of emotional sail overbalances the lead and oak that ought to carry cargo"
whispering adjective
"music in a quick and whispering rhythm"
