Memos by Brian Swichkow

• convey

  Convey is to carry something from one place to another — a load, a signal, an idea — and, in law, to transfer title in property from one owner to another. At the core of the word is a road. It comes...

• motive

  Motive is something — a need, a desire, an interest — that moves a person to act: the inward cause of a deed, as distinct from the deed itself. The word descends from Latin movere, "to move," through...

• manifesto

  Manifesto is a written statement in which a person, group, or government publicly declares its intentions, motives, or views — issued to be read by everyone rather than addressed to anyone. The word...

• antiquarian

  antiquarian is one who collects or studies antiquities, and as a modifier describes what belongs to that pursuit — most familiarly the trade in old books, coins, maps, and objects. The noun appears...

• engine

  Engine names a machine that converts energy into mechanical force and motion — and, more broadly, anything used to effect a purpose, from a railroad locomotive to a piece of software performing a...

• addiction

  Addiction is a compulsive, often uncontrollable dependence on a substance or behavior that persists despite harm — and, in an older and now largely obsolete sense, simply a strong inclination or...

• evangelism

  evangelism is the spreading of a truth or principle through earnest advocacy and personal witness, and in a second recorded sense the militant or crusading zeal with which that spreading is carried...

• sovereign

  Sovereign describes an entity holding supreme authority — answerable to no higher power within its domain — and, as a noun, names the one who holds it: a monarch, a state, or, in modern usage, a...

• accountability

  Accountability is the condition of being answerable — obliged or willing to give an account of one's actions, decisions, and outcomes to someone with standing to ask. The word is a late arrival....

• spendthrift

  A spendthrift is a person who spends money improvidently or wastefully, often to the point where outlay climbs well beyond means. The word serves as an adjective in the same sense. As a modifier it...

• midding

  midding is the tranquil pleasure of being near a gathering but not quite in it — blissfully invisible yet still fully included, with all the thrill of being there and none of the burden of having to...

• mindfulness

  Mindfulness is the practice of holding attention on the present moment with openness, curiosity, and non-judgment — and, by extension, the quality of awareness that practice produces. The word is...

• aggregate

  aggregate is a whole formed by collecting separate units into one mass or sum — and the same word names the act of collecting them and the quality of having been collected. The word carries its...

• manipulation

  manipulation is the handling or operating of something with skill — and, in the sense that now dominates ordinary use, the management of a person or a situation by unfair, insidious, or deceptive...

• recursive

  recursive describes anything defined in terms of itself — a procedure that can repeat itself indefinitely, or a rule whose output becomes its own input. In mathematics and computer science a...

• malinformation

  Malinformation is genuine, factually accurate information that is leaked, stripped of its original context, or timed to inflict harm — truth used as a weapon. The term was coined by Claire Wardle and...

• disinformation

  Disinformation is false information deliberately and often covertly spread in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth. Deliberateness is what separates it from its two neighbors....

• prosperity

  prosperity is the condition of thriving — most commonly economic well-being, and in the older and wider use, success and good fortune in anything desirable. In economics the word names a sustained...

• homestead

  homestead is the house and adjoining land occupied by a family as its home — and, in American law, a residence given specific statutory protection from creditors or from a portion of property tax....

• misinformation

  Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information — false content put into circulation without an intent to deceive, generally by people who believe it is true. Intent is the entire distinction...