Word of the Day: Might and Mite
Might
might / mīt
noun (no plural)
1. superior power or force
Neither the military might nor the economic and technological development makes a nation great.
Pandurang Shastri Athavale, 1920 – 2003
2. physical strength
Whatever you do, do with all your might.
Latin Proverb
verb
1. past tense of may
For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, ‘It mighthave been’.
John Greenleaf Whittier, 1807 – 1892
Mite
mite / mīt
noun
1. a small or tiny spider or tick of the order Acarina, some species are parasitic and often carry disease and others damage crops or stored food
Because of the varroa mite, wild honey bees are now, for all practical purposes, extinct in the United States.
From “The Beekeeper’s Lament: How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed America” by Hannah Nordhaus, ? –
2. a small amount of money or donation
Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distresses of every one, and let your hand give in proportion to your purse; remembering always the estimation of the widow’s mite, but, that it is not every one who asketh that deserveth charity; all, however, are worthy of the inquiry, or the deserving may suffer.
George Washington, 1732 – 1799
3. a small amount
Just a little every day
That’s the way
Children learn to read and write
Bit by bit and mite by mite.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1850 – 1919
4. a small object, particle, grain, person or thing
Think of the totality of all Being, and what a mite of it is yours; think of all time, and the brief fleeting instant of it that is allotted to yourself; think of Destiny, and how puny a part of it you are.
Marcus Aurelius, 121 – 180
5. a coin of a very small denomination
The widow who paid in the two mites was poorer than any human, but she outdid them all.
Saint John Chrysostom, 347 – 407
Thank you for including the Dictionary Project in the good work you do in your club. In my club, we have provided Dictionaries for third-grade students for enough years that now we are having former students help us to present dictionaries each year. They are often returning to the same classrooms that they were third-grade students. Teachers plead every year for us to NEVER quit this valuable project. They tell us that students NEED paper books to learn to read, to learn to do research and to do independent study. Please send me pictures of your presentations and tell me about your visits to the schools to give dictionaries to the students. To be included in our newsletter you can send me your stories at DG.2019@5630mail.org.
