Word To Use Today: venom.

'But I don't come here for venom!' you may be thinking, quite reasonably enough. 'I get enough of that at home!'

(And at work, and, heaven help us, constantly on the news.)

But the thing is that I can't resist featuring the word venom because it has such a neat derivation.

Still, it does give me the chance to tell you something cheering. I came across a beautiful story recently of a Chinese spider (it goes by the daunting scientific name of Toxeus magnus) that produces milk and suckles its young. It carries on feeding the young spiderlings until after they are are technically independent, too. And it might have as many as thirty six kids.

There. That's rather lovely, isn't it. The details can be found HERE, but I wouldn't recommend them. They don't give that good an impression of those 'higher' and also sometimes venomous life-forms, humans.

Word To Use Today: venom. This word comes from the Old French venim, from then Latin venēnum, which means poison or, astonishingly, love potion. The word is related to venus, which means sexual love.