{"id":504,"date":"2018-08-03T14:11:28","date_gmt":"2018-08-03T18:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/?p=504"},"modified":"2018-08-03T14:11:28","modified_gmt":"2018-08-03T18:11:28","slug":"word-of-the-week-soporific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/2018\/08\/03\/word-of-the-week-soporific\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Week! Soporific"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2018\/08\/soporific.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-507\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2018\/08\/soporific-300x225.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2018\/08\/soporific-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2018\/08\/soporific-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2018\/08\/soporific-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2018\/08\/soporific.jpeg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Here we have a perfect word for late summer, and just today I heard a BBC reporter use it to describe the weather in a small Cuban town. Weather that hot and humid makes one drowsy, which is the nature of anything soporific.<\/p>\n<p>This word can also be used to describe the actions of certain drugs. John Locke, in an example from the OED Online, noted the &#8220;<span class=\"quotationKeyword\">soporifick<\/span>&#8221; virtue of opium as early as 1690.<\/p>\n<p>With school soon to begin, we might note that our word can describe the effect of a boring anecdote or lecture. The OED catches that usage well with an example from 1727, &#8220;Hibernian matrons thus of old, Their <span class=\"quotationKeyword\">soporific<\/span> stories told.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So it&#8217;s more than boring. Not everything that bores you makes you drop off.\u00a0 But in order to keep you awake, I&#8217;ll end now. I&#8217;m feeling rather drowsy myself.<\/p>\n<p>This blog will continue all summer, so nominate a word by e-mailing me (jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu) or leaving a comment below.<\/p>\n<p>See all of our Words of the Week\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/tag\/word-of-the-week\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>image courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Drowsy.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wikipedia<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here we have a perfect word for late summer, and just today I heard a BBC reporter use it to describe the weather in a small Cuban town. Weather that hot and humid makes one drowsy, which is the nature of anything soporific. This word can also be used to describe the actions of certain &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/2018\/08\/03\/word-of-the-week-soporific\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Word of the Week! Soporific<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":589,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2516,1172,1,2520],"tags":[2522],"class_list":["post-504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-writing","category-language","category-uncategorized","category-usage","tag-word-of-the-week"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcsCNV-88","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/589"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}