Today's Broadcast

Topic: Voltaire

Today we mark the birth, in 1694, of Francois-Marie Arouet. Today's birthday boy wrote more than 2,000 books and pamphlets and some 20,000 letters. Imprisoned in the Bastille for his satirical writings about the church and the government, our prolific and politicized writer emerged from those gates with a new pen name: Voltaire.

The name Voltaire is believed to have originated as an anagram of Arouet's Latinized name: Arovet LI. Voltaire may also recognize the syllables—read backwards—of the Arouets' family chateau: Airvault.  And biographer Richard Holmes theorizes that the writer was not blind to the positive associations a reader might make between Voltaire and the terms volte-face—meaning "spinning around to face one's enemies"—and volatile—then meaning "a winged creature." Nor would he have missed the link between the family name Arouet and roué ("a rake"; "a man devoted to sensual pleasure"). 

But the writer-philosopher is remembered for more than his name. Although the phrase most associated with him is apocryphal—"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"—that advocate for civil rights and thoughtful proponent of the French Enlightenment left plenty of other pithy advice. We close with one of our favorites, about tolerance. "Tolerance is . . . the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly; that is the first law of nature."

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.