It is our Prime Minister's word of the week: moonshot. In relation to an ambition to increase coronavirus testing to 10 million tests a day by 2021. It's not a word I am familiar with so I did some research.
Listening to the advice of MiceElf, I first tried the Urban Dictionary.
"awesome, fantastic, almost impossible to achieve, the best, the reason for success, reaching the highest point, right on target"
whatis.techtarget.com has:
"A moonshot, in a technology context, is an ambitious, exploratory and ground-breaking project undertaken without any expectation of near-term profitability or benefit and also, perhaps, without a full investigation of potential risks and benefits."
Here's Google's definition of a moonshot:
"A project or proposal that:
- Addresses a huge problem
- Proposes a radical solution
- Uses breakthrough technology"
The term "moonshot" derives from the Apollo 11 spaceflight project, which landed the first human on the moon in 1969. "Moonshot" may also reference the earlier phrase "shoot for the moon" meaning aim for a lofty target.
The macmillan dictionary:
"a type of thinking that aims to achieve something that is generally believed to be impossible"
So now I know what our loquacious PM is on about. You learn something new every day! Actually I learned two things today 👍👍
The second was the word librocubicularist, which refers to a person who reads in bed. I'm one. Thanks to Ann Treneman of the Times for that pearl of wisdom.
The impossible we can do right now; miracles take a little longer.
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