September 14, 2014 Sunday "Whoops" "wingding" "wimpish" "witch of Agnesi"

Reading the Merriam Webster Dictionary Backwards

September 14, 2014  Sunday

blog address: Readingthedictionarybackwards.blogspot.com

email: ishmaelish36@blogspot.com

You can find my other blog of pediatric anecdotes, poetry, artwork and literature at ishmaelish36.blogspot.com

If any readers have comments or anecdotes about the words, please share them.  It would be fun to have a dialogue.  Glenn

Whoops:  oops

wingding: [origin unknown]   wild, lavish party


     It seems to me that the "W's" have great sounds, onomatopoeic, such as wispish, wingding and whoops.

     I will create a category in the index (see the first post) of words of 'unknown origin' which I think is fascinating.    

wispish:
 
    resembling a wisp (insubstantial,frail, slight)
 

witch of Agnesi: \ah 'yay zee\

    a mathematical formula, the curve of which (so to speak), on the x y coordinates, resembles a witch's hat.

This simple phrase about a mathematically formula really peaked my interest, so I did some investigating.  Interestingly, the mathematician responsible for this is a female (hallelujah) named Maria Gaetana Agnesi, b. 1718.

The Witch of Agnesi with labeled points

Now this diagram is confusing…from wikipedia…but the line of the Witch of Agnesi is the beautifully curved line from P to M, like a gentle hill.












     Maria's biography is truly astounding:
     She was born in 1718 to the wealthiest family in Milan, Italy.  She was a child prodigy, speaking seven languages at age eleven, giving a lecture, in Latin, on the right of women to be educated.  Gloria Steinem would be proud.  They say that she was very shy and also  very beautiful.  She was a  philosopher as well as a professor of mathematics.  She also became very spiritual, desiring to join a convent (but was not allowed to), and treating the poor and the sick in her family's home.
     Wow...