Word for the wise ©
Ours is an age of doubt. Maybe that's why we don't build cathedrals much anymore. And the same goes for the architecture of the mind. How many now read the Summa Theologica of Aquinas or the Divina Commedia by Dante? Certainly can't imagine anyone writing such works anymore. Our glories today are technical and commercial and, inevitably, this has led to a shift in values and language. All this, believe it or not, brings us to V in our ongoing Word for the wise © tour d'alphabet.
vanity comes from the Latin vanus, meaning "empty, without substance", which is the source of the English "evanescent" and "vanish". Under the ethos of conspicuous consumption, what was once seen as a vice is now respectable and vanity has become entirely acceptable since the Industrial Revolution. What began with such feminine accoutrements as vanity case and vanity bag, has extended its reach to vanity (license) plate, vanity publisher and vanity (web) domain. Why, there are even vanity Wikipedia entries.Vanity is the cousin of Pride, another word that does not carry the negative connotations that it once did. Think of Gay Pride, for example. With Pride, we enter the canon of the Seven Deadly Sins. Remember those? Avarice, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Pride, Sloth. Open any magazine today, watch any bunch of TV commercials, and you'll find what amount to endorsements, blatant or latent, of precisely these attributes.
Next week, the seventh Deadly Sin. Why? Because it begins with "W".
