Comments by bard

  • A word meaning "education" that Chaucer used once - a hapax legomenon - in The Reeve's Tale:

    She was as digne as water in a dich,

    She was as haughty as water in a ditch,

    And ful of hoker and of bisemare.

    And full of disdain and of scorn.

    Hir thoughte that a lady sholde hire spare,

    She thought that a lady should be aloof,

    What for hire kynrede and hir nortelrie

    Considering her family and her education

    That she hadde lerned in the nonnerie.

    Which she had learned in the nunnery.

    September 17, 2008

  • Which is what the French call goût de terroir, the taste of the land. It is robust, boldly flavored, down-to-earth cooking.

    June 19, 2008

  • Also a short story by ZBS... click here to see a flash presentation a fan did of it: Android Sisters

    June 19, 2008

  • Well simply that "meat" or "flesh" is not usually associated with merry-go-rounds and ferris wheels... Giving up meat for Lent is a fairly traditional "sacrifice," but again, celebrating one's sacrifices seems a bit incongruous and dark for a child's entertainment. Of course back in the day, kiddies weren't protected from reality, so it was no big thing, just like gallows events. Disney has done horrible things to our children in shielding them from truth.

    Then again, chili con carne is just not chili worth bothering with. *wink*

    June 17, 2008

  • 1) the small of the waist before the flare of the hips

    2) a derriere, rump or behind.

    June 17, 2008

  • A garland carried before the bier of a maiden.Obs.

    Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants, Her maiden strewments.--Shakespeare

    June 17, 2008

  • A drug mixed with sugar and water or honey into a pasty mass suitable for oral administration. Flavoured cough syrup and medicines for kids are electuaries.

    June 17, 2008

  • It's a place you put people... to forget about 'em!

    Hoggle was quite correct; from the French word oubliez which means 'to forget.' Oh how I do love that movie!

    June 17, 2008

  • Back in the good old days when public executions were common occurrences and even celebrations... this was originally a "gallows" event, which was shortened and eroded down to "gala" over time. A rather gruesome origin for such a cheerful term, rather like "carnival."

    June 17, 2008

  • The best laid plans of mice and men aft gang agley" - often go astray, that is...

    June 17, 2008

  • This is also found as a noun: Any number of small vases in an ancient Roman sepulchre popularly believed to have been a receptacle for the tears of mourners. I find this definition to be particularly elegant and rather touching.

    June 17, 2008

  • A puckered scar

    June 17, 2008

  • A medicine or application that promotes the formation of a cicatrix, and the healing of the wounded part

    June 17, 2008

  • I found this word, and the definition "the tiny bubbles moving up the sides of a pot just as it's about to boil" quite some time ago, but can find no documentation for it now. Sometimes I wonder if I made it up, or imagined the whole thing.

    June 17, 2008