Word-Wednesday for May 20, 2026

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for May 20, 2026, the twentieth Wednesday of the year, the ninth Wednesday of spring, the third Wednesday of May, and the one-hundred-fortieth day of the year, with two-hundred twenty-five days remaining.

Wannaska Phenology Update for May 20, 2026
Hummers Have Arrived!
Just back from Florida, southern Mexico and Central America, the first ruby-throated hummingbirds arrived at Word-Wednesday headquarters last Thursday. Archilochus colubris — nenookaasiwag in Anishinaabe — weigh from 2 to 6 g (0.071 to 0.212 oz). Ruby-throated hummingbirds are rapid, squeaky chirpers, which are used primarily by males as threats against other males. During the courtship displays, the male makes a rapid tik-tik tik-tik tik-tik sound with his wings. Amazingly, some birds embark on a nonstop 900-mile journey across the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean from Panama or Mexico to the eastern United States, so get those feeders out there!

May 20 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


May 20 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for May 20, 2026
Sunrise: 5:36am; Sunset: 9:05pm; 2minutes, 23 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 9:01am; Moonset: 1:04am, waxing crescent, 14% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for May 20, 2026
                Average            Record              Today
High             66                     93                     62
Low              43                     20                     46

Morning in May
by Rosalind Brackenbury

Grass grows in the night
and early the mockingbirds begin
their fleet courtships over puddles,
upon wires, in the new green
of the Spanish limes.

Their white-striped wings flash
as they flirt and dive.
Wind in the chimes pulls music
from the air, the sky’s cleared
of its vast complications.

In the pause before summer,
the wild sprouting of absolutely
everything: hair, nails, the mango’s
pale rose pennants, tongues of birds
singing daylong.

Words, even, and sudden embraces,
surprising dreams and things I’d never
imagined, in all these years of living,
one more astonished awakening.

May 20 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Rescue Dog Day
• National Juice Slush Day
• National Pick Strawberries Day
• National Streaming Day
• Emergency Medical Services for Children Day
• Eliza Doolittle Day
• World Metrology Day
• World Bee Day

May 20 Word Pun
Sven told Ula that he was thinking about cremation. “It may be my last hope for a smoking hot body.”


May 20 Word Riddle
Why was Dumbo sad?*


May 20 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
CAIRN, n., A kind of sepulchre which it is no sacrilege to rifle.
This, by the way, is a peculiarity of all ancient tombs, and the learned Dr. Berosus Huggyns (1561) gives it as his opinion that an unknown grave may be plundered without sin in the interest of knowledge as soon as the bones have done "smellynge"—the soul being then all exhaled.

    "The holy dead," said he (nor stayed
    His shovel, apprehensive)
    "Are not offended by my trade,
    Unless themselves offensive."
    He dug—then held his nose and fled,
    With penitent misgiving;
    They were, indeed, "the wholly dead,"
    But their bouquet was living!


May 20 Etymology Word of the Week
silly
/SI-lē/ adj., having or showing a lack of common sense or judgment; absurd and foolish, from Middle English seli, seely, from Old English gesælig "happy, fortuitous, prosperous" (related to sæl "happiness"), from Proto-Germanic sæligas (source also of Old Norse sæll "happy," Old Saxon salig, Middle Dutch salich, Old High German salig, German selig "blessed, happy, blissful," Gothic sels "good, kindhearted").

This is one of the few instances in which an original long e ( ee) has become shortened to i. The same change occurs in breeches, and in the American pronunciation of been, with no change in spelling. [Century Dictionary]

The word's considerable sense development moved it by various streams from "happy" through "blessed;" "pious;" "innocent" (c. 1200), to "harmless," to "pitiable" (late 13c.), "weak" (c. 1300), to "feeble in mind, lacking in reason, foolish" (1570s).

It is a widespread phenomenon that the words for 'innocent', apart from their legal use, develop, through 'harmless, guileless', a disparaging sense 'credulous, naive, simple, foolish.' [Buck]

There may be a further specialization toward "stunned, dazed as by a blow" (1886) as in knocked silly, etc. As a noun, "a silly person," by 1858 in writing for children.

Silly season in journalistic slang is from 1861 (in reference to August and September, when newspapers compensate for a lack of hard news by filling up with trivial stories). The trademark for the toy Silly Putty claims use from July 1949. Sillyism "a silly statement or utterance" is from 1706.

May 20 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1609 William Shakespeare's Sonnets are first published in London.
• 1704 Elias Neau forms school for slaves in NY.
• 1830 First railroad timetable is published in a newspaper, the Baltimore American.
• 1867 British parliament rejects John Stuart Mills' proposals on women's suffrage.
• 1882 Henrik Ibsen's play Ghosts (Gengangere) premieres.
• 1916 Saturday Evening Post cover features Norman Rockwell painting.
• 1992 American rapper Tung Twista raps 597 syllables in under 60 seconds.
• 2000 Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents wins the 1999 Nebula Award for Best Novel.
• 2025 Heart Lamp by Manu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi wins the 2025 International Booker Prize award.

May 20 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1470 Pietro Bembo, Italian writer.
• 1505 Levinus Lemnius, Dutch writer.
• 1547 Melchior Bischoff, German composer.
• 1554 Paolo Bellasio, Italian composer.
• 1593 Jacob Jordaens, Flemish baroque artist.
• 1726 Francis Cotes, English portrait painter.
• 1754 Hans Gram, Danish-American organist, composer.
• 1759 William Thornton, British-American architect.
• 1764 Johann Gottfried Schadow, German sculptor.
• 1799 Honoré de Balzac, French novelist.
• 1806 John Stuart Mill, English philosopher.
• 1812 Gustav Mankell, Moravian-Swedish organist and composer.
• 1822 Emile Erckmann [co-wrote with Alexandre Chatrian using penname Erckmann-Chatrian], French writer.
• 1830 Hector Malot, French writer.
• 1843 Pedro Miguel Marques y Garcia, Spanish violinist and composer.
• 1850 (Joseph) Eaton Faning, British organist and composer.
• 1856 Henri-Edmond Cross [Delacroix], French painter.
• 1876 John Owen Jones, Welsh organist, violist, and composer.
• 1878 Karel Komzák III, Austrian conductor and composer.
• 1882 Sigrid Undset, Danish-born Norwegian writer.
• 1883 Paul Arntzenius, Dutch painter, graphic artist and etcher.
• 1883 Otokar Fischer, Czech playwright and poet.
• 1889 Felix Arndt, American organist, pianist, arranger, and composer.
• 1890 Beniamino Gigli, Italian lyric tenor.
• 1894 Adela Rogers St John "The World's Greatest Girl Reporter", American journalist, screenwriter and author.
• 1898 Joseph Murphy, Irish writer.
• 1899 Aleksander Deyneka, Soviet modernist figurative painter.
• 1902 Hans Sahl, German American anti-Nazi Jewish writer.
• 1903 Jerzy Fitelberg, Polish composer.
• 1904 Margery Allingham, English detective writer.
• 1905 Gerrit Achterberg, Dutch poet.
• 1911 Annie M. G. Schmidt, Dutch writer.
• 1911 Gardner Fox, American science fiction author.
• 1913 Henry Cadbury Brown, English architect.
• 1917 Francis-Paul Demillac [Enyss Djemil], French violinist, composer.
• 1921 Wolfgang Borchert, German writer.
• 1923 Samuel "Sam" Selvon, Trinidad-born writer.
• 1924 Ottokar Domma, Czech writer.
• 1925 Chester Ludgin, American operatic baritone.
• 1927 David Barlow, British composer.
• 1927 Walter Aschaffenburg, German-American composer.
• 1929 André Carolus Cirino, Surinamese indigenous writer.
• 1937 Maria Teresa Horta, Portuguese writer and poet.
• 1938 Astrid Kirchherr, German photographer.
• 1939 María Luisa Ozaita, Spanish pianist, harpsichordist, musicologist, conductor, and composer.
• 1943 Justin Cartwright, British novelist.
• 1943 Martin Honeysett, British cartoonist.
• 1943 Tison Street, American violinist and composer.
• 1955 Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry, Indian poet.
• 1956 Ingvar Ambjørnsen, Norwegian author.
• 1956 William Michaelian, Armenian-American novelist and poet.

Words-I-Looked-Up-This-Week Writer's Challenge 
Write a story or pram from the following words:

• asseverate: /uh-SEV-uh-reyt/ v., to declare or assert something solemnly and emphatically, often with great conviction.
• checkery: /CHECK-uh-ree/ n., a cloth or fabric bearing a pattern of small squares; chequered cloth or fabric.
• dracm: /dram/ n., a unit of weight formerly used by apothecaries, equivalent to 60 grains or one eighth of an ounce.
• erubescent: /er-oo-BES-uhnt/ adj., becoming red or reddish; blushing.
• gallipot: /GAL-ə-pät/ n., a small pot made from glazed earthenware or metal, used by pharmacists to hold medicines or ointments.
• girn: /girn/ v., SCOTTISH, to snarl; to make a grotesque face.
• morto: /MOR-toh/ adj., IRISH, mortified; extremely embarrassed.
• niminy-piminy: /NIM-uh-nee-PIM-uh-nee/ adj., affectedly delicate, overly proper, or excessively refined in a fussy or insincere way.
• pelagic: /pə-LAJ-ik/ adj., relating to the open sea.
• thropple: /THRÄP-əl/ n., throat or windpipe.

May 20, 2026 Word-Wednesday Feature
Word Salad
/wərd SAL-əd/ n., confused or unintelligible mixture of seemingly random words and phrases, often used in psychiatry to describe a symptom of a neurological or mental disorder. The words may or may not be grammatically correct, but they are semantically confused to the point that the listener cannot extract any meaning from them.

Etiologies of word salad expression include dementia, schizophrenia, and anoxic brain injury, where word salads associated with schizophrenia are called schizophasia. Other interesting words associated with word salad expressions include:

• clanging: /KLANG-iNG/ n., a speech pattern that follows rhyming and other sound associations (chaining) rather than meaning.

We are all felines. Siamese cat balls. They stand out. I had a cat, a manx, still around here somewhere. You'll know him when you see him. His name is GI Joe; he's black and white. I have a goldfish too, like a clown. Happy Halloween down. Down.

• logorrhea: /lôɡ-ə-rē-ə/ n., excessive speech that lacks in content, and may be incoherent or compulsive.

What do I do with a comb ... what I do with a comb. Well a comb is a utensil or some such thing that can be used for arranging and rearranging the hair on the head both by men and by women. One could also make music with it by putting a piece of paper behind and blowing through it. Sometimes it could be used in art — in sculpture, for example, to make a series of lines in soft clay. It's usually made of plastic and usually black, although it comes in other colors. It is carried in the pocket or until it's needed, when it is taken out and used, then put back in the pocket. Is that what you had in mind?

• graphorrhea: /graf-ə-RĒ-ə/ n., a communication disorder involving excessive wordiness, incoherent rambling, or frequent digressions in writing, not to be confused with verbosity.

From A Year with Rilke, May 20 Entry
Never Yet Spoken, from Book of Hours I, 12

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for
may for once spring clear
without my contriving.

Sketch 
by Auguste Rodin

Be better than yesterday, 
learn a new word today, 
try to stay out of trouble — at least until tomorrow, 
and write when you have the time.






*He felt irrelephant.