Words from the Heart

Image by sassy mom via Flickr Today, we observe the 23rd World AIDS Day.  Are we any closer to a cure? Is AIDS awareness more prevalent? For the answers to these questions, let's look at the World Health Organizations statistics.   According to the WHO - "An estimated 2.7 million people worldwide were newly infected with HIV in 2010. An estimated 390 000 children were newly infected with HIV in 2010; 30% fewer than the peak of 560,000 annual new infections in children in 2002 and 2003. Since 2001, annual HIV incidence has fallen in 33 countries, 22 of them in  sub-Saharan Africa. However, incidence is accelerating again in Eastern Europe and Central Asia after having slowed in the early 2000s, and new infections are on the rise in the Middle East and North Africa. The number of AIDS-related deaths worldwide is steadily decreasing from a peak of 2.2 million in 2005 to an estimated 1.8 million in 2010. " photo credit: Wikipedia   In addition, "More than 95...

There are some words that I have found to be interesting. Words which cause you to want to know more or sound musical when you speak them or look as if they are a complete story unto themselves. Words like calliope, rutabaga, serendipity or peregrine. Sabbath has intrigued me since I first heard it. You seldom hear this word, unless it is spoken in the context of religion. Where did it come from? What is the meaning? Why are we still using it today? Sabbath comes from the Old English sabat - the seventh day of the week observed by the Jews of the day (about 950) as a day of rest; borrowed from Latin sabbatum , from Greek sabbaton , from Hebrew shabbath , from shabath he rested. Sabbath was applied to the first day of the week (Sunday) about 1410. The spelling with double b is first recorded about 1280, and that with th though recorded before 1382, did not become widespread before the 1500's. (Resource: The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, Robert Barnhart, Ed., ...