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Topic: John Harvard

English clergyman and scholar John Harvard was born on this date in 1607. His birthplace was South London, near the bridge; he died in Charlestown outside of Boston, at age 31, leaving half of his not insubstantial holdings to a college in New Towne, later known as Cambridge. A few years later, the college was named after Harvard in explicit recognition of the benefactor whose philanthropy (both in funding and in books) made the school the irrefutable educational leader in the New World.

If it weren't for his bequest, Harvard might well be little more than a footnote to history. A Puritan, he came to America perhaps as an emissary of religion, and perhaps to escape the sad history—the deaths of his mother, father, siblings, and step-siblings—that had left him the sole heir to his family's fortune.

Today we shared Harvard's legacy with a look at a few of the 100 plus words in our lexicon that share his birth year. We began with birthplace, which first appeared in print in 1607, and went on to include insubstantial; explicit; irrefutable, footnote; and emissary.

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and Web sites including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.

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