I tend to view all things sacrosanct as worthy of suspicion. If it can't withstand inspection, there's something wrong there.

Then again, the news media generally holding Presidential non-adult children sacrosanct seems a good thing.

I'd say that makes it a different , passive, meaning; to be volunteered takes away the agency of volunteering.

I'd say that Meaning 2 needs a 'willingly' added in there. If someone's doing it, but not willingly, that's not a volunteer, at least in my book.

I remember reading some time ago that volunteerism in America was on the wane. I wonder how that's working out?

I gather that the Din of Gunga should be pronounced to rhyme with green. Now, as to dinning that into my feeble brain, I'll use a different verb. All I need is a pneumatic device to drill that factlet in there.

If I may, I'll follow this linkage up with, "finding political speech that does not at least verge on calumny is a bit of a challenge." Especially this year and so close to a pivotal election here in the US.

Perhaps this is an appropriate opportunity to remind my fellow Agorans of the Unanswered topics? I may have taken it upon myself to work through them, but I haven't appropriated it. Feel free to jump in any time.

Let's hope there is nothing that can subdue our love of language and the Good Words!

Sad, but the first thing that comes to mind when I see this word is those annoying round-abouts along some roads. Drop the 'u' and it works as a musical reference. I guess I'm almost obsolete?

This one goes hand in hand with jingoism, by jingo!

Hmph, my spellcheck likes jingoism, but not jingo. Weird.

Should anyone care to delve further into gemutlich, visit 2007 and 2013, here in the Agora. Time travel, and you don't even have to get out of your chair!

We have to be careful when using excess here. It so often has a pejorative taint to it, that I forgot it also means simply more than. I have had several male relatives who kept their luxuriant manes until advanced age. I'm pretty sure they didn't want any "excess" trimmed!

I've always liked this word. I also like how the phrase it brings to mind should feel odd, but doesn't; 'to foist off on'.

Yes, related to Lusitania, but the area, not the ship, which came much later. This is the Portuguese speaking world. The original Lusitania was so-named by the Romans for the tribe that lived there. It was what is now Portugal and a chunk of Spain.

Here's a Wikipedia entry on Lusitania.

Dabbling with these theres, I had a thought: Cogito, ergo sum - I think, therefore I am. What do you think of the idea, "I think, thereby I am"?

Just to toss this out there, the jerk of jerky (beef) has nothing to do with the jerk of jerky (gait). The latter may be lost in a fog of history, but the former comes from Quechua, meaning dried flesh.