Today is election day in UK, when the citizens of the country choose their new government. You can read all about how the elections work here. You wouldn’t think that dress codes of ancient Rome would affect the elections of today, but they do! Millie Slavidou explains.
Today is a good day to think about the word ‘candidate’. I rather like the etymology of this one.
It comes from Latin candidus, which is the past participle* of candidare, which meant ‘to make white, to make bright’.
Not because of whitewashing whatever the candidates might have said or done! It was because in ancient Rome candidates who wanted to be elected either to the Senate or any other office wore white robes.
If we take it one step further back, to a root meaning ‘white, shining’, we find that ‘candle’ is a cognate.**
The past particle is the past form of the verb that can also be used as an adjective, like “a fallen tree”. In the case above, the adjective is like saying ‘whitened’ in English. Other examples of past particles are:
verb: bite
past particle: bitten
example: a bitten apple
verb: choose
past particle: chosen
example: aa chosen present
verb: crash
past particle: crashed
example: a crashed bicycle
A cognate is a distant relative, a word ultimately from the same root. Like a third cousin. Here are some examples of cognates.
Book is related to beech. Well, actually, book means beech! Both come from Germanic word meaning beech tree, Buche.
Germanic runes were originally inscribed on tablets made of beech wood. Modern German for book is Buch!
WOOL and FLANNEL are distant cognates. Today, fashion stores often describe plaid shirts as ‘flannel’, but it is actually a soft woven fabric, originally made of wool, but now often cotton or synthetic. You might have a flannel pyjamas, which are lovely and cosy in the winter!
Today’s featured image is Marasmiellus candidus, a type of mushroom. You will often find the word ‘candidus’ used in botany or biology to describe something that is white, such as crocus candidus or the white woodpecker Melanerpes Candidus. There is even a white monkey called Propithecus candidus.
Lions are felines, which means that they are members of the same wider family as cats. Indeed, they are frequently referred to as “large cats” or something similar.
They live on plains and savanna in Africa and India, where the sun beats down on the grassland so that it fades, withers and turns yellow – just the colour of a lion, which helps to camouflage it, so that it can blend in with its surroundings and stay hidden.
The Hunter
Lions are predators, which means they hunt and kill other animals for their meat. The hunting is usually the task of the lioness, while the male lion provides protection from other lions.
They will generally hunt zebras, antelopes, impala, and even giraffes, hippos and young elephants. The lioness may need to attack quickly, before the prey can run away, and the lion can reach amazing speeds of up to 56 km/h (around 30 mph).
The Pride
Lions generally live in family groups known as prides. This may be made up of between 7 and 10 animals.
A lioness will normally give birth to a litter of three cubs, although occasionally there may be as many as six. These are blind at birth, and remain so for the first two weeks of life, just like kittens!
Lifespan and Population
When a lion lives in the wild, forced to compete for food, and to fight with other lions, and survive in times when prey may be scarce, it has a life expectancy of around 15 years.
However, lions in captivity, that do not have to fight for their territory and have a ready food supply and medical attention may live up to 30 years – double their wild cousins!
The lion population is in decline, which means that there are fewer and fewer. In Africa, there are an estimated 39,000 lions, whereas in Asia the number stands at just 400.
