We're back after a brief hiatus with the word "exhaust," a word that has broad application in English—sometimes a verb, sometimes a noun. It's an opportunity to review the idea of a "perfect passive participle," a fundamental grammatical concept observed in Latin words like exhaustus, from which our English word "exhaust" arises. Finally, we consider the character Neddy Merrill from John Cheever's story "The Swimmer." Exhausted at the end of the story, Neddy is just as exhausted as the stirred martinis that he has drunk over a summer afternoon.

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Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

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