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• resolution •

Pronunciation: re-zê-lu-shên • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A dedicated promise or firm commitment or decision to do something. 2. A formal decision, rule, or law. 3. A solution or means of ending a problem oneself. 4. Reduction of a substance to its elementary constituents, as the resolution of sunlight into different colors. 5. Fineness of detail, as a high-resolution video screen. 6. Coming together and clarification, as the resolution of the plot of a novel.

Notes: Today's Good Word is the noun of the verb resolve, which can also be used as a noun meaning "firm commitment", as to carry out your New Year's resolutions with resolve. The verb has several adjectives, including resolutive and resolvable, usually referring to problems or substances that can be resolved. Resolutional is a new adjective now used quite widely in referring to the resolution of video screens: high-resolutional screens.

In Play: alphaDictionary's resolutions for 2015 are to avoid words like today's with so many meanings and not to make any more resolutions. Others will continue to make resolutions to lose weight, give up smoking, and the like. Some resolutions have the force of law: "Did you hear about the Congressional resolution to make April Fool's Day a national holiday?" A resolution to avoid partisan conflict in Congress would be more useful.

Word History: Despite the fact that New Year's resolutions tend to tie us down, the word originates in the Latin verb resolvere "to untie", made up of re- "again" + solvere "to loosen, untie". Solvere comes from Proto-Indo-European leu- "to loosen, divide" with an ancient prefix su- "apart," giving su-leu-, which evolved into Latin solv- plus the verbal endings like the infinitive ending -ere seen here. The same root came to Germanic without the prefix but with a suffix -s, filtering down to us as lose and less. It also turned up in Old Norse as louss "loose", which we borrowed from the Vikings as our very own adjective, loose.

Perhaps the roots of resolution still play a role in New Year's resolutions. While they may "tie us down" to doing something, quite often they are made about giving something up. That is to say, untying ourselves from something; smoking (quit), sloth (exercise), gluttony (diet), ignorance (read), etc.

That makes a lot of sense, slava. Good thinking.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, ALL

Slava, as we pastors say, "that'll preach!"
HNY to everybody in sight and out of sight!