Topic: World Kindness Day

Today, in honor of World Kindness Day, we're musing on the power and value of kindness. Two thousand years ago, the Roman philosopher Seneca counseled "Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness." And 200 plus years ago, Samuel Johnson pointed out, "Kindness is in our power, even if fondness is not."

Anyone who's experienced kindness and fondness is familiar with the distinction: fondness is understood as "tender affection;" or "relish," while kindness names "sympathy" or "clemency." Kindness also refers to"an act or instance of being kind," where kind is understood as meaning "friendly; obliging; of a forbearing nature; governed by consideration and compassion; gentle; lenient;" or "arising from or characterized by sympathy or forbearance."

Feeling better already? That's natural enough. And fittingly, the adjective kind originally meant "natural; fitting," or "consistent with nature." This now-obsolete sense was related to the noun kind that shares ancestry with kin and that has now-archaic senses meaning "nature; lineage." We'll end today with a line we're particularly fond of—words from the mouth of Eliot Rosewater, the title character of Kurt Vonnegut's classic God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Mr. Rosewater rehearses his baptismal speech for newborn twins by welcoming them to earth and concluding: "There's only one rule that I know of, babies . . . Goddamnit, you've got to be kind."

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.