What Is Ethos?

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Several weeks ago, Jeff Goins discussed Balancing the Soul and Schedule of a Creative Life with Emily Freeman on his Portfolio Life podcast ( a fabulous podcast, by the way).  The episode tackles difficult issues like finding margin and focusing on craft, and Jeff used the word ethos. I was pretty sure I knew what it meant, but I wanted to learn more about it.

If you like learning about words, join in the Wondrous Words Wednesday meme. Visit Kathy at Bermuda Onion to link up your post or see other word nerdy posts.

Ethos \’ē-thas\noun from the Greek ethos, custom, character
The distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, or institution

Examples:

  • The ethos of the Apple business model combines art with engineering.
  • Donald Trump exudes an ethos of arrogance.
  • It’s important not to let the hustle of modern life override my creative ethos.
This garden gate demonstrates a nature loving ethos.
This garden gate demonstrates a nature loving ethos.

 

Word Nerd Workout

Try using ethos in a sentence.  How have you heard this word used?

Don’t forget to visit other Wondrous Words Wednesday posts!

Banned Book Week Giveaway Winner

Thanks to everyone who visited and commented on Five Things You Should Know About Banned Books.  Readers shared interesting experiences with book banning – please check out the discussion if you haven’t already.  I used a random number generator to pick a winner; congrats to Elizabeth at Thoughts From an Evil Overlord! Elizabeth wins a Barnes and Nobel gift card  – maybe she’ll get a book that’s been banned!  😉

Elizabeth, please send your mailing address to julia dot tomiak at gmail dot com so I can ship your prize!

Thanks for stopping by!

Julia

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julia Tomiak
I believe in the power of words to improve our lives, and I help people find interesting words to read. Member of SCBWI.

7 Comments

  1. Congratulations to Elizabeth too!

    I was not familiar with the word “ethos”….shows my lack of education I guess, but I love your Donald Trump sentence!

    Here is my attempt at a sentence.
    My closest friends share an ethos of trust worthiness and loyalty.

  2. I’ve actually been thinking about the ethos of my book club friends even though I wasn’t using the word ethos. The ethos of my book club friends is different from that of my other friends in that, when talking about life in general, they tend to use bookish references as opposed to online, TV, movie references, etc. Conversations may be about any topic, but a book club friend will usually interject a “that reminds me of X, a character in a particular book.” I find well-read people live in the books they’ve read as well as the daily lives they lead. That’s the ethos I see. (I hope that fit.)

  3. Ethos has a little broader meaning than I thought it did. Here’s my try at a sentence: It would be easy to cheat on a test in Mrs. Fuller’s class, but Kristen’s ethos prevent her from doing so.

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