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Sunday, 3 July 2016

Word Not To Use Today: bipolar.

Bipolar is the current adjective of choice to describe someone whose moods swing from such wild enthusiasm to such extreme despair that rational decisions are often impossible.

The condition used to be called manic-depression, but bipolar is now entrenched as the more sensitive, polite and understanding term.

It can be a truly horrible condition, both for the sufferer and those around him. But bipolar...

...don't poles, whether magnetic or geographic or electrical, and however distant they are from each other, always appear to be exactly the same?

I understand that for this reason some sufferers prefer the term manic-depressive.

Word To Use Today: pole. This word comes from the Latin polus, the end of an axis, from the Greek polos, pivot, axis. It's related to the Greek kuklos, which means circle.

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