diffluence

Pronounced: DIFF-loo-uhns, noun

Notes: You may had an idea of this word’s meaning (I didn’t)

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Yesterday’s word

The word shermanesque means

• unequivocal, especially in refusing to run for an office
• brutally thorough, especially in defeating someone

First usage

Our word came into usage in the 1910s

Background / Comments

If you thought that our word traces back to the Union general William Tecumseh Sherman. After the American Civil War, he was being considered as a presidential candidate… he was utterly clear on the point: I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected. Thus, our first meaning above: any categorical statement, especially a denial, may be called Shermanesque. Reporters have been known to ask politicians if their announcement not to run for an office is Shermanesque to confirm that they really mean it. The second definition comes from Sherman’s campaigns in Chattanooga and Atlanta during which his army destroyed railroad tracks, bridges, trains, military, and government buildings. On the well-known “March to the Sea”, they destroyed much property on the way to Savannah.