Merriam-Webster Word of the Day - Demiurge

WORD OF THE DAY January 14, 2018

demiurge    noun | DEM-ee-erj     Definition   : one that is an autonomous creative force or decisive power   Scroll down for more about demiurge       WORD GAMES AND QUIZZES: WEEKLY CHALLENGE   Winter Words Quiz   Winter has returned along with cold weather. Wrap yourself in a blanket and challenge yourself with our 14-question quiz about words relating to winter.     PLAY NOW     Nailed this quiz? We have plenty more to try!  TAKE ME THERE     Plus:   SEE WHAT LOOKUPS ARE TRENDING NOW!         Did You Know?   In the Platonic school of philosophy, the Demiurge is a deity who fashions the physical world in the light of eternal ideas. In the Timaeus, Plato credits the Demiurge with taking preexisting materials of chaos and arranging them in accordance with the models of eternal forms. Nowadays, the word demiurge can refer to the individual or group chiefly responsible for a creative idea, as in "the demiurge behind the new hit TV show." Demiurge derives, via Late Latin, from Greek dēmiourgos, meaning "artisan," or "one with special skill." The demi- part of the word comes from the Greek noun dēmos, meaning "people"; the second part comes from the word for worker, ergon. Despite its appearance, it is unrelated to the word urge.     Examples of DEMIURGE   "But it is difficult to create a world, even a tiny one, and some authors are more successful than others at playing demiurge…." — Sergio Ruzzier, The New York Times, 9 Oct. 2016   "Gladstone, a formidable chancellor though an indifferent prime minister, was certainly an intellectual. Like Churchill, however, he was unclassifiable. Such demiurges transcend categories." — Bruce Anderson, The Daily Telegraph (London), 8 May 2014   Word Family Quiz   Unscramble the letters to create a word based on Greek dēmos that refers to an outbreak of a disease over a wide geographic area: NECMAIPD.   VIEW THE ANSWER           WORDS AT PLAY     10 Words for 'Snow'   Because 200 seemed like overkill   SEE THE FULL LIST

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