Word of the Day for Sunday, August 26, 2007

gravitas \GRAV-uh-tahs\, noun:

High seriousness (as in a person's bearing or in the treatment of a subject).

At first sight the tall, stooped figure with the hawk-like features and bloodless cheeks, the look of extreme gravitas, seems forbidding and austere, the abbot of an ascetic order, scion of an imperial family who has foresworn the world.
-- John Lehmann, "T.S. Eliot Talks About Himself and the Drive to Create", New York Times, November 9, 1953

And we want to tell our readers about sharp, clever books, utterly lacking in gravitas, that we know will delight them on the beach or the bus.
-- Benjamin Schwarz, "(Some of) the best books of 2001", The Atlantic, December 2001

Gravitas is from the Latin gravitas, "heaviness, seriousness," from gravis, "heavy, serious."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for gravitas

I, for one, am taking all the mulcting of my money with much gravitas... One cannot minimize the gravity of the gravitas that surrounds us... My grave is filled with the gravity of the gravitas of the situation... Make me stop! Please! LOLOL

LOL Lorraine,

Very good.....no need to stop, I think you're on a roll.

Thank you.

Bj

Bj, how do you find time to find all these odd but true words  LOL

A spammer does not realize the gravitas of their actions

Amen,
Gaby

Hi Gaby

Glad to see you.  you are getting good at this.  I really like your sentence, it really fits.

Bj