SOME WORDS FROM PEOPLE'S NAMES

MASOCHISM

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1835-1895) was an Austrian novelist who described an abnormal mental condition in which a person derived pleasure in being abused and punished by someone he loved. The word masochism is often used more broadly to mean self-torture. A masochist is a person who enjoys tormenting himself.

MAUSOLEUM

Mausolus was the king of Caria, a country in Asia Minor. After his death, his wife Artemisia erected an enormous and beautiful tomb which was ranked as one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. The word mausoleum is now used not only for a large tomb, but for any large structure whose cheerless aspect suggests a tomb.

MESMERIZE

F. A. Mesmer (1734-1815) created a sensation in Vienna and Paris about 1775 by his assertion that there existed a power which he called animal magnetism. At first, the name mesmerism was given to this power; the later term is hypnotism. To mesmerize means to hypnotize.

THE TAJ MAHAL - Agra, India

An elegy in marble!

The Taj Mahal, one of the world's most beautiful buildings, was scheduled to be torn down in the 1830s so that its marble facing could be removed and shipped to London for sale by auction to the landed English gentry. Wrecking machinery was moved into the garden grounds and work about to begin when word came from London not to proceed. The first auction of marble facades of Indian monuments and edifices had been a failure, and it would not be worth it to tear down the two-hundred-year-old mausoleum.