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Topic: O. Henry

Today we remember O. Henry, born William Sidney Porter on this date in 1862. A bookkeeper, licensed pharmacist, ranch hand, musician and artist, O. Henry fled to Honduras in an effort to avoid trial for embezzlement, served three years in prison but was released for good behavior, lost one wife to tuberculosis and another to divorce, and died at 47 of cirrhosis of the liver and complications from diabetes.

O. Henry is remembered for his warm and witty short stories with twist endings. The Gift of the Magi? The Ransom of Red Chief? Thank O. Henry. By the way, the writer's own explanation for how he came by that literary alias traces the surname to a name from the newspaper's society columns. The initial (which may or may not have stood for Olivier), was, according to the writer, the letter most easily written.

O. Henry is credited with the first use of a now-common term. The same man who created a character as "busy as a one-armed man with the nettle rash pasting on wallpaper" also coined the phrase banana republic—a country economically dependent on the export of its fruit. O. Henry originally referred to Honduras as a banana republic. Now that term is used for any number of small dependent countries, usually in the tropics; it is used especially for such a country run by a despot.

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and Web sites including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.