The young woman who checked out my purchases at Agway earlier this afternoon was wearing a bright yellow sweatshirt with the seal of the University of Rochester, whose one-word motto is MELIORA. One of my favorite English derivatives from a Latin word, ameliorate, comes from this Latin word, meliora, which means better things or, as the university translates, ever better. When you ameliorate something, you make it better in some way. Earlier I had written about the motto of Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT: moniti meliora sequamur (having been warned, let us follow better things).
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