today is a good day to die
/tʊˈdeɪ ɪz ə ˈɡʊd deɪ tə ˈdaɪ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.87 in modern English
31
Scrabble Score
20
Letters
2
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
proverb
An expression of willingness, even eagerness, to give one’s life for a cause.
proverb
An expression indicating that one should not live with any regrets, or tasks left undone.
Example Sentences
- "Junkies brag about the "rush" of mainlined heroin or inhaled crack cocaine; I'll put the rush of danger up against any drug. I wasn't kidding when I told Bouton it was a good day to die. Any day is a good day to die. As long as you go down fighting."
- "We will keep safe the heritage of this country. And if someday we must die to serve this cause, well, then, it will be a good day to die."
- "Otherwise, small business owners like those in the construction industry will have to be prescient, as well as politically and financially astute, in deciding if today is a good day to die."
- "To be given the strength to live without regrets, without the feeling that you should be doing something more, something different. To make today''' a good day to die. To gain fulfillment not with length of time, but with quality."
- "The main thing is to die after having truly lived, after leaving behind a contribution. Socrates lived fully and was perfectly content to let go when the time came. As the Native American saying goes, "Today is a good day to die.""
- "In the native tradition of the Pacific Northwest there is a saying: "Today is a good day to die." What it means, of course, is that today is a good day to live completely. If you were lying on that hospital bed right now, what would be on that short list?"
Etymology
The phrase is frequently attributed to the Oglala Lakota war leader Crazy Horse (c. 1842 – 1877), though this is inaccurate as the earliest published reference, in the edition on August 14, 1881 of the Leavenworth Times, attributes it to the Oglala Lakota chief Low Dog (c. 1846 – 1894).
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /tʊˈdeɪ ɪz ə ˈɡʊd deɪ tə ˈdaɪ/
- British English: /təˈdeɪ ɪz ə ˈɡʊd deɪ tuː ˈdaɪ/