logo       

Typhoid Mary: msg#00013

culture.language.word-of-the-day

Subject: Typhoid Mary

****************************************************************
Bring to mind forgotten word acquaintances with
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?thes.htm&2
****************************************************************

The Word of the Day for January 14 is:

Typhoid Mary \TYE-foid-MAIR-ee\ noun
: one that is by force of circumstances a center from
which something undesirable spreads

Example sentence:
"We don't want any Typhoid Marys here," the supervisor
told employees, "so if you have a bad cold, do your coworkers a
favor and stay home."

Did you know?
The original Typhoid Mary was a New York City cook in the
early 1900s who loved her job. Unfortunately, she had been
exposed to typhoid, and although she was immune to the disease
herself, she was able to pass the disease to others by way of
the food she prepared. Health officials identified her as Mary
Mallon, an Irish-born immigrant, and they quarantined her to
stop the spread of the disease. Three years later, Mary was
released with a warning not to cook professionally again. But
in 1915, she was discovered working as a cook at a maternity
hospital identified as the source of a new typhoid outbreak,
and she was forcibly returned to quarantine, where she remained
until her death in 1938.







<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Google Custom Search

News | FAQ | advertise