duckbill has looked up 1757 words, created 31 lists, listed 439 words, written 95 comments, added 2 tags, and loved 0 words.
Comments by duckbill
Comments for duckbill
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Thank you for the citations and comments (I especially like the quotations from Carlyle). I hope you are having fun here--welcome to Wordnik!
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There is an etymology section. It's at the bottom of each word (not comment) page. See for example window and scroll down to:
American Heritage Dictionary (1)
1. Middle English, from Old Norse vindauga : vindr, air, wind; see wē- in Indo-European roots + auga, eye; see okw- in Indo-European roots.
duckbill commented on the word damfoolishness
"The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts. He ascribes all his failure to get on in the world, all of his congenital incapacity and damfoolishness, to the machinations of werewolves assembled in Wall Street, or some other such den of infamy. "
Aug 19, 2011
duckbill commented on the word arsewisp
A torchecul
May 4, 2011
duckbill commented on the word harri bourriquet
A cry to make asses go faster.
Apr 24, 2011
duckbill commented on the word arsiversy
Upside down; with one's arse uppermost (see arse and topsy turvey).
Apr 24, 2011
duckbill commented on the word exiture
Outlet
Apr 24, 2011
duckbill commented on the word theozoology
Theozoologie oder die Kunde von den Sodoms-Äfflingen und dem Götter-Elektron ("Theozoology, or the Account of the Sodomite Apelings and the Divine Electron")
Apr 24, 2011
duckbill commented on the word ariosophy
See Odinism
Apr 24, 2011
duckbill commented on the word cycloid
Used in the sense of 'manic-depressive' in some literature.
Apr 24, 2011
duckbill commented on the word theopscyhe
"I have suggested that one possible concretization we can give to the concept of God as it has been held over the centuries is as God-in-Man (the Theopsyche as I ventured to label it). The Theopsyche is the island of love, rationality, and protectiveness that an advanced society can produce." - Raymond Cattell, Beyondism, page 78
Apr 24, 2011
duckbill commented on the user sionnach
Thank you for your comment on robidilardic and fanfreluches. Do you know anything about rataconniculation?
Apr 23, 2011
duckbill commented on the list rabelais
This list mostly contains words that are not defined in any dictionary, or used by Rabelais in an unusual or obsolete sense.
Apr 23, 2011
duckbill commented on the word fig
Faith
"swearing by her fig"
Apr 23, 2011
duckbill commented on the word cotyledon
The orifice of the menstrual veins and arteries.
". . . the cotyledons of her matrix were presently loosed, through which the child sprang up and leaped. . ."
Apr 23, 2011
duckbill commented on the word trot
A hag.
Apr 23, 2011
duckbill commented on the word baste
An alternate spelling of basta.
Apr 23, 2011
duckbill commented on the word kyles
The game of skittles
"Stiff drinkers, brave fellows, and good players at the kyles."
Apr 23, 2011
duckbill commented on the word rataconniculation
'Burrowing' (?)
"And if any blame them for this their rataconniculation," &c.
Apr 23, 2011
duckbill commented on the word fanfreluches
Pretentious ornamentation.
Apr 23, 2011
duckbill commented on the word robidilardic
Probably coined from rober (=derober) and lard, with an allusion to the great cat Robilardus (bacon-eater).
"Moreover upon these grounds they have foisted in their Robidilardic, or Lapiturolive law." - Rabelais
Apr 23, 2011
duckbill commented on the word fanfreluches
This probably means conundrums. It appears in Rabelais.
"Antidoted Fanfreluches"
Apr 23, 2011
duckbill commented on the word nax
See wax
"In that book the said genealogy was found written all at length, in a chancery hand, not in paper not in parchment, nor in nax, but in the bark of an elm-tree."
Apr 23, 2011
duckbill commented on the word perennity
No, it is not a portmanteau. It simply comes from Latin perennis.
Apr 23, 2011
duckbill commented on the word frolic
As an adjective:
"It was sweet to see them so frolic."
Apr 23, 2011
duckbill commented on the word frot
"These two did oftentimes do the two-backed beast together, joyfully rubbing and frotting their bacon 'gainst one another, in so far, that at last she became great with child of a fair son, and went with him unto the eleventh month."
Apr 22, 2011
duckbill commented on the word neat
"dried neat's tongues."
Apr 22, 2011
duckbill commented on the word gottish
See Gothic
"His noble leaves appear / Antic and Gottish."
Apr 22, 2011
duckbill commented on the word illustre
Also the opposite of lustre.
Apr 22, 2011
duckbill commented on the word novitiate
he had been deeply initiated into what is called the world, while I was yet in my novitiate
Apr 21, 2011
duckbill commented on the word ludicrosity
I prefer ludicrousness. I like to keep my '-osities' at a minimum in writing.
Apr 20, 2011
duckbill commented on the word gasometer
Whether French or English, it isn't consonant with Greek principles of word formation.
It's just as objectionable in French as in English.
Apr 20, 2011
duckbill commented on the word gasometer
Bilby,
Again, you assume that common usage alone determines legitimacy. That is not so. Incidentally,
"There's no evidence that gasometer is substandard now let alone centuries ago."
As early as 1809 we find William Creighton complaining of "that barbarous improper term Gasometer". The Electric Review (1908) speaks of "that incorrect word gasometer". Elsewhere we find it described as a "misnomer" and a "barbarous hybridism".
Apr 20, 2011
duckbill commented on the word gasometer
Bilby,
The word 'twitteral' is intended to be humourous. It is formed, not by analogy with other words ending in -al, but merely because it rhymes with literal. That it is intended to be funny only supports my argument.
That the word 'gasometer' appears in dictionaries is hardly relevant. Dictionaries merely describe how people use the language, whether standard or substandard, not how they ought to use it. For the latter we consult style guides.
Apr 20, 2011
duckbill commented on the word gasometer
PossibleUnderscore,
I anticipated your argument and addressed it in a previous message. I make a distinction between living English and dead English, and explain when Latin and Greek rules of word formation are to be followed, and when they are to be ignored. The loosening of all the rules which have hitherto governed the English language is one reason why English literature is in such a hopeless muddle today.
Apr 20, 2011
duckbill commented on the word niveous
Cinabar becomes red by the acid exhalation of sulphur, which otherways presents a pure and niveous white. - Brown.
Apr 20, 2011
duckbill commented on the word gasometer
I don't think so. Words can live on even when the constituent parts of them are dead. For example, although the word tidal is very much alive, the -al suffix is no longer living English. To determine this we need only try to connect it to a word of English derivation, say, the word 'hill'. The result, hillal, is clearly a monstrosity. I would argue that -o-, in the same way, is not part of our living language, even though it occurs (correctly or incorrectly) in many English words; and so any new words which make use of this connecting element ought to follow Greek rules of word formation.
Apr 20, 2011
duckbill commented on the word gasometer
Yarb, Bilby,
In forming new words one should always make a distinction between suffixes and root words which, though originally Greek or Latin, are now living English, and those which are dead. As examples of the former, -able and -dis may be given, whilst -ous, -ance, and -o- are examples of the latter. Living suffixes can be used with some freedom to form new words, even if contrary to the original rules of Latin or Greek word formation, or connected to words of Anglo-Saxon derivation, without injury to propriety. Dead affixes, though they still appear in many words (coined when the affixes were still 'living'), would be out of place in any new words. Example: hittance, strikance, keepance. These coinages wouldn't work because -ance is no longer a living English suffix; if it is to be used at all, it should be with Latin words and in strict accordance with the rules of Latin word formation. Similarly, the Greek -o- is not living English.
Apr 20, 2011
duckbill commented on the word gasometer
Bilby,
Because it is bad Greek. It is so formed as to outrage that language's principles of word formation. Word-making should be done by those who know how to do it, not by laymen or engineers who know no Latin and less Greek. Literate speakers of English are generally not to be found in workshops and manufactories.
Apr 19, 2011
duckbill commented on the user feedback
1.) Wornik should include an etymology section for each word. Etymonline is the best online resource for English etymology.
2.) Wordnik should incorporate supplementary dictionaries and glossaries for obscure and rare words. The inclusion of Samuel Johnson's dictionary would also be an improvement.
3.) The 'Examples' section should include usages taken from Project Gutenberg. Too often you get examples about the word, usu. from personal websites.
Apr 19, 2011
duckbill commented on the word gasometer
Bilby,
Whoever coined the term was either shameless or knew nothing of word formation. The classical connecting vowel -o- is quite out of place at the end of gas. 'Gas metre' should have been used instead of the present monstrosity.
This is only one example of a number of illiterate formations ending in 'meter' - speedometer, floodometer, &c.
Apr 19, 2011
duckbill commented on the word slabberdegullion
1. A filthy, slobbering person; a sloven, a villain, a fiend, a louse.
2. A worthless person.
3. A drunk, and/or an alcoholic
Apr 19, 2011
duckbill commented on the word womb-brother
A brother on the mother's side, but by a different father.
"Edmund of Haddam (was) womb-brother to King Henry the Sixth."
Apr 19, 2011
duckbill commented on the word gasometer
A barbarism, avoided by those seeking to speak literate English.
Apr 19, 2011
duckbill commented on the word deportment
We speak of a person's CARRIAGE in public, and of his DEPORTMENT in private life.
Apr 19, 2011
duckbill commented on the word oakum
Cords untwisted and reduced to hemp, with which, mingled with pitch, leaks are stopped.
They make their oakum, wherewith they chalk the seams of the ships, of old seer and weather beaten ropes, when they are over spent and grown so rotten as they serve for no other use but to make rotten oakum, which moulders and washes away with ever sea as the ships labour and are tossed. Ral.
Some drive old oakum thro’ each seam and rift;
Their left hand does the calking-iron guide;
The rattling mallet with the right they lift. Dryden.
Dr. Johnson
Apr 19, 2011
duckbill commented on the word behold
Behold denotes a looking with interest or fixed observation.
To see, on the other hand, can be the result of either voluntary or involuntary looking. The flash of lightning is only just seen and disappears.
Curiosity prompts us to look, interest causes us to behold, and nature enables us to see.
Charles Smith, Synonyms Discriminated
Apr 19, 2011
duckbill commented on the word perspicacity
Quickness of sight.
Apr 19, 2011
duckbill commented on the word vulcano
Earth calcin’d, flies off into the air; the ashes of burning mountains, in vulcano’s, will be carried to great distances.
Apr 19, 2011
duckbill commented on the word uxorious
Towards his queen he was nothing uxorious, nor scarce indulgent; but companionable and respective. Bacon.
That uxorious king, whose heart, though large,
Beguil’d by fair idolatresses, fell
To idols foul. Milton’s Paradise Lost.
How would’st thou insult,
When I must live uxorious to thy will
In perfect thraldom, how again betray me? Milton.
Apr 19, 2011
duckbill commented on the word yeanling
All the yeanlings which were streak’d and pied,
Should fall as Jacob’s hire.
Shakespeare.
Apr 19, 2011
duckbill commented on the word higgledy-piggeldy
A cant word, corrupted from higgle, which denotes any confused mass, as higglers carry a huddle of provisions together.
Apr 19, 2011