Hotspur (Henry Percy, son of the earl of Northumberland) is a colourful character in Henry IV Part 1, brilliantly exploited by Shakespeare as a foil for Prince Hal, whose father, King Henry, reflects on the possible exchange of the two sons, wishing that Hotspur were his.
While at least one dictionary says that (only) males stridulate, Darwin showed that stridulating females attract males that have had their antennae removed
In the sense of deceit has been ruled unparliamentary language by the Speaker of the House of Commons during a debate, in October 2013, in which the prime minister apparently accused the leader of the opposition of using dubious reasoning.
Planxty occurs twice in Finnegans Wake: first, as in example 1, in its actual meaning; second, as in example 4, as a typically Joycean play on words, meaning "plenty". I suggest an alternative to a line in the famous song of the book: "Planxty of fun at Finnegans wake."
Wiktionary's definition (n. music - The sounding of two violin strings together by using a sudden strong pressure of the bow) is in a way misleading. A saccade is not necessary for double stopping - if it were several serene examples of violin writing would become unbearable. Triple stopping is another thing, as it it impossible to achieve without this technique. The Brahms violin concerto affords many examples.
In homeoepathy pyrogen, or Pyrogenium, has a specitifc meaning: This remedy was introduced by English homeopathists, prepared from decomposed lean beef allowed to stand in the sun for two weeks and then potentized. The provings and most of the clinical experience have been obtained from this preparation. But, subsequently, Dr. Swan potentized some septic pus, which preparation has also been proved and clinically applied. There does not seem to be any marked difference in their effects. - See more at: http://www.homeopathy.com.pk/boericke/p-q/pyrogenium.php#sthash.6NB6cxUn.dpuf
Valued by men for the scrotum-tightening property first revealed to the world by the author of Ulysses, who, incidentally described the colour of the sea as "snot-green". The Cornish artist Alfred Wallace was similarly irreverent. Visited one day in his house in St Ives by, I think, Ben Nicholson, Wallace said he was painting the sea. How? asked a puzzled Nicholson. Wallace simply pointed to the glass of sea water alongside his easel.
I love the sound of T - and I love the way in which it acts as a rich signifier: (AFTERNOON) TEA, (BUILDERS') TEA), (CHINA, INDIAN) TEA, (GOLF) TEE, TI AS OPPOSED TO VI (in Serbian, with corresponding differentiation in other Slavonic languages), criterion of suitability and other examples that I will allow you to discover for yourselves. Clashes between homophones can be seen in this light.
Something to be circumvented: a sticky situation or problem from which it is almost impossible to escape, which proves that it is entirely possible to end a definition of tar baby without using a preposition.
Richard Strauss wrote an opera about a female Ascian, unsurprsingly called "Die Frau ohne Schatten." An ascian artefact whose purpose is vitiated twice a year by its being on the equator is the gnomon of a sundial.
It's good to have an excuse to allow a few cricket terms an innings. A googly bowled (not thrown, please) by a left-handed bowler is known as a Chinaman while, geographically speaking, a ball pitched by the bowler so accurately that the batsman cannot easily move backwards or forwards to take it in the middle of the bat, instead hitting it with the bottom, is a Yorker; such a ball usually lands on the point along the crease where the bottom of the bat rests when the batsman takes guard, known as the block hole. It is entirely possible, since Brighton (the setting of Greene's Brighton Rock) has a cricket field where Sussex play, that Graham Greene was inspired to entitle his novel, The Third Man, by the fielding position of that name. Lately, with the wearing by some fielders of helmets with visors, the fielder in the position of silly mid-on has moved so close to the batsman that the position could more accurately be renamed suicidal mid-on. Hit for six, which relates to a stroke by which the batsman hits the ball clean over the boundary, scoring six runs, is a common expression derived from the game. Forward and backward (of the crease) are used to nuance the description of the fielding position point and do not imply an evaluation of the player's intelligence. Finally, the popping crease is a line which the rear foot of the bowler must not cross before he releases the ball. It does not go pop like the legendary pea pod, nor for that matter like the weasel. However, violation of the rule about not crossing the popping crease with his trailing foot will immediately provoke the umpire to announce the bowler's misdemeanour by the call: No ball!
I would like to quote two recent uses of humble/humbled. Appearing before a House of Commons committee lately, Rupert Murdoch said that this was the most humble day of his life. On April 10th, 2013, Sir Mark Thatcher said that his mother would have felt humbled by the Queen's attending her funeral, which was due to take place a few days later.
The Latin surdus gave rise to sordino in Italian and sourdine in French, both meaning mute, the device that modifies the sound produced by musical instruments, especially in jazz.
Bungaloider (not to my knowledge ever previously used) could be a convenient word for the builder of bungaloid homes, and perhaps also for a frequenter of wild girl-thronged parties, such as Italy's most famous cruise crooner/prime minister.
Woodwind instruments divide into four categories: those with a single reed (clarinets, saxophones), those with a double reed (oboes and bassoons), recorders and transverse flutes. Control of the double reed is highly demanding of the player's embouchure, and draws upon the contribution of the lips, teeth and jaw. Problems with the jaw are not unusual with oboe players.
In order to quantify the response of birds to experimental manipulations of seed availability and densities of granivorous rodents and ants, we counted granivorous birds and measured diurnal and nocturnal seed removal on 24 plots during winter months in the Chihuahuan Desert. Removal of single, widely spaced millet seeds provided a reliable measure of bird and rodent foraging activity. Avian foraging activity increased in response to supplemental seeds, but decreased in response to long-term removal of all rodents and all ants. Although birds potentially compete for seeds with rodents and ants, these results suggest that, in the long term, indirect facilitation dominates the interactions among all three taxa. The positive effect of the other granivores on birds may be mediated through changes in habitat structure (e.g., reduction in the density of annual plants). The increase of avian foraging in response to seed addition and the high spatial and temporal variance in the patterns of seed removal by birds indicate that in desert habitats granivorous birds use their mobility to find and exploit high concentrations of seeds. Thus, birds may reduce the spatial variation in seed abundance and reduce the densities of seed available to other granivores. The foraging behavior of birds and rodents revealed by these experiments clarifies the response of granivores to experimental manipulations reported earlier, such as the lack of biomass compensation by rodents in response to seed addition.
Short passage or entrance found in Cornish towns, e.g., Penzance; to be distinguished from ope or 'ope, a deaspirated expression of expectation, and from ope, a clipped version of open.
He/she knows his/her tables - said of a child who can instantly and reliably give the answer to, usually, simple multiplication processes, eg, 9 x 6 = 54, or 7 x 8 = 56. The multiplication table needs to be learned by rote, usually by the aid of chanting.
I give another quotation from "Disturbed Ireland - Being the Letters Written During the Winter of 1880-81," in particular for the atmosphere generated by the words of Bernard Becker:
"From the papers the figure turned to a heap as of bank-notes, and there was in the air the chink of money. For the name of this grisly and terribly real spectre is _gombeen_; which, in the Irish tongue, signifies usury.
Seems equally applicable to a car that is so old that, despite the advantage of running on a smoothly surfaced pavement (not the case for early cyclists), it suffers so much from mechanical deterioration that it provides for its passengers the discomforts experienced by those pioneers.
Scrambled egg - British slang for the gold decoration (resembling oak leaves) on the peaks of the caps of senior naval officers. Corresponding police, army and air force ranks have similar decoration in other colours.
Andrew Marvell's ingenious use of the word needs to be seen in its context fully to be appreciated: "Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound/My echoing song; then worms shall try/That long preserv'd virginity/And your quaint honour turn to dust/And into ashes all my lust/The grave's a fine and private place/But none I think do there embrace".
Longfellow alluded to the brough in The Wreck of the Hesperus: Last night the moon had a golden ring and tonight no moon we see. That line constitutes the whole raison d'être of the poem.
The original word, from the Moravian region of the Czech Republic, is written lomčovák. Under the influence of the labial m the initial t sound of č (which has the sound tsh) mutates to p; although the word gets reproduced in English without diacritics, and with e replacing o, as lomcevak, slight alterations of the vowels lead to the pronunciation lumpshavak, as suggested by oroboros.
Choragus and Coryphæus, according to OED, are two posts in the Department of Music at Oxford carrying "modest stipends". They appear to be sinecures. Choregus is an alternative; the spelling varies according to the Greek dialect from which the word is transcribed.
What ho! a generalized, but often approbative or jocular, exclamation, the meaning of which depends on the context. The two tweets already posted shed no light, HO might mean house officer.
In reply to ruzuzu: I think some folks have a tendency to duplicate a preposition for verbal padding: I took it off of the shelf; she took the washing in off of the line (an extreme example, but not impossible, which just means "she took in the washing").
In reply to pterodactyl: "When" shall I pick you up is less specific than "(at) what time"; the answer "this afternoon" is more general than "at 3 pm" Therefore the wording of the question is determined by how specific I wish the answer to be.
Fumeral is an architectural term for a smoke outlet from, usually, the roof of a building. The information about etymology on this page seems to refer to funeral. The fumeral on the Vatican emits either white or black smoke, according to the intended message about the choice of a new Pope.
The comment about congrument reminded me of an architect who attended a funeral service at a crematorium he himself had not designed and remarked, as the smoke from the furnace rose into the sky, and to the mystification of bystanders, "I wish that had been my fumeral".
The gas mantle, which consists of a gas-jet heated metallic mesh coated with a suitable compound, typically oxide, of metals such as calcium and thorium, is candent at a lower temperature than the untreated metal. The source of the gaslight of the Victorian theatre, it is still in use today for illumination.
One day recently I found a newt sheltering under a brick in my garden. The next morning the newt had gone, showing that it had been able to venture forth into freedom again. This is gratifying but does not perhaps enable me to get certification as an animal sanctuary, but merely as "nice to newts" and the garden qualified as a "niche for newts."
Sea trout in the British Isles, which is anadromous in spawning behavior, is also known according to region as sewin in Wales, finnock (Scotland), peal (West Country), mort (North West England) and white trout (Ireland). It is the entry of the fry into the sea that governs the growth and subsequent spawning of this fish, which is genetically identical with brown trout.
From a prayer that I heard around: it's sensible and realistic: "ENDUE THY MINISTERS WITH RIGHTEOUSNESS AND MAKE THY CHOSEN PEOPLE JOYFUL." Fits all faiths.
A lot depends on what sound precedes the final d of a word. If you, pterodactyl, analyse the phrase reduplicated second sight you may notice a difference between the d/s sequences when enunciated. I find that the first d is present, reinforced by the preceding t; the second disappears.
Sutton is a common name for English towns, meaning south town. Examples include the London Borough of Sutton, Sutton Hoo, a famous ship burial in Suffolk, and Sutton Coldfield, now a part of Birmingham (mentioned in Henry IV, Pt.1).
Norton in English place names is an alteration of north town, eg, Kings Norton, Staffordshire; Norton Canes, Staffordshire; Norton Malreward, near Bath.
In UK place names eastern sometimes gets changed to Aston (east town). Steeple Aston (Oxfordshire), many other *** Astons and 37 Aston ***s (eg, Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire) are listed in the 2012 AA Greater Britain and Ireland Road Atlas.
The presence of such a facility has given the name Tuckingmill to a small industrial area lying in a valley about 2 km to the east of Camborne, Cornwall, better known in the 19th century for its tin and copper mining.
The term FriarTuck, with its fairly obvious rhyming slang connotation, found its way into the UK House of Commons during Questions to the Prime Minister (Cameron) last Wednesday (March 27, 2012). Cameron, a Conservative, was accused by Ed Milliband, Labour leader, of "not caring a Friar Tuck" for the less well off; Milliband also derided the idea of a Robin Hood budget that would take from the rich to give to the poor. Normally language of this sort would be ruled in poor taste by the Speaker, but on this occasion, when the gloves were off in the post-Budget period and Millibrand was persuing a clear Robin Hood analogy, the Speaker let the remark pass.
The term FriarTuck, with its fairly obvious rhyming slang connotation, found its way into the UK House of Commons during Questions to the Prime Minister (Cameron) last Wednesday (March 27, 2012). Cameron, a Conservative, was accused by Ed Milliband, Labour leader, of "not caring a Friar Tuck" for the less well off; Milliband also derided the idea of a Robin Hood budget that would take from the rich to give to the poor. Normally language of this sort would be ruled in poor taste by the Speaker, but on this occasion, when the gloves were off in the post-Budget period and Millibrand was persuing a clear Robin Hood analogy, the Speaker let the remark pass.
A Brief Biography of Joseph Priestly gives insight into lunatic: "While in Birmingham, Joseph Priestley became a member of the Lunar Society. This was an informal group that met monthly when the moon was full so that there would be light to drive home by. Naturally they were called, and called themselves,lunatics. The members were successful manufacturers and professional men who shared an interest in stimulating discussions on philosophy and science and almost any subject that was interesting. The participants included James Watt, Matthew Boulton, Erasmus Darwin, and others." From A Brief Biography of Joseph Priestley, Prepared by members and friends of the Unitiarian Universalist Congregation of the Susquehanna Valley (UUCSV), Northumberland, Pennsylvania (http://uucsv.org/priestl.htm)
Batswoman is hard to find on search engines (do you mean batwoman? is the usual query), but the term is alive and well in cricket reporting. Interestingly Claire Taylor, a recent English women's cricket captain, used the term batsman of herself on UK Radio 3 today (she was being interviewed about her musical interests)
In current UK politics the quad is the group of the four politicians David Cameron and George Osborne (Conservative) and Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander (Liberal Democrat) that directs the policy of the coalition that constitutes the UK government.
The Serbian word dupe/дупе is pronounced doo'-peh, means arse ( jennarenn, dontcry Dupa, pterodactyl) and the first vowel is of medium length - better late than never! - but in this series of comments appears to have been confused with dupa. According to my late wife it was regarded as a giggle word by children in the 1940s in Belgrade, to whom is was no more reprehensible an expression than bum or bottom.
Those who have eyes but do not see are, perhaps, inoculate? Although, after writing this comment, I can see confusion with another meaning of inoculate, all because of the various different meanings of that innocent yet intoxicating prefix, in-. Delightfully, the Italian for coronation is incoronazione.
I would dearly love to know the name given to the serifs absent from capital I (India) in the type face that you Wordniki are now reading that ARE REMARKABLY INEFFECTIVE in distinguishing cap. I (India) from l.c. l (el). As for the origins of ooblek, perhaps the learned Dr Seuss was playing on French oublier/oblique in view of the strange properties of non-Newtonian fluids, or maybe he was trying to transform Augenblick into a pseudo-Hungarian word, őblik,but changed it further just in case he was misunderstood by his compositors.
The superluminalneutrinos that puzzled scientists when first reported last year (2011) seem likely to be demoted to the status of phantoms. A faulty connection in the complex apparatus used for the measurements is now thought to be the cause of the problematic result, as was reported in the UK press today.
"Jolted is funny and smart and fast paced. And it's written with real love for that fascinating liminal creature called the young teenager, for whom the sky is always just about to fall."
Tim Wynne-Jones; Electrifying; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Sep 13, 2008.
Change liminal to limeral (back formation from limerance) and would you detect any difference in meaning?. Tennov's claim to lack of etymology doesn't hold water - the source is within her own mind, apparently censored by the substitution of -er- for -in- and the obfuscating suffix -ance.
In past centuries is was common for country estates to be named Beau Repair. Three such estates in west Cornwall were originally so called, but in the course of centuries the names have been corrupted (possibly by a Cornish-speaking population) into - Bareppa, near Falmouth; Barripper,near Camborne (famed for copper and tin mining in the 19th century); and Berepper, near Helston.Other names more easily interpreted are, for instance, Bellevue, Beaudesert (Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, UK) and Belair.
Today I heard a neat play in an exchange on Desert Island Discs (BBC Radio 4) between Sir David Attenborough and Miss Kirsty Young. KY suggested that DA was unimpeachable: DA countered by saying that he was very peachable if you knew how. Both individuals are peaches, of course.
Jeeves was a butler rather than a waiter, but the equally celebrated Sam Weller appears to have worked in the latter capacity before he became Samuel Pickwick's manservant and started entertaining that distinguished gentleman with his Wellerisms.
By extension of the idea, an antonymicon could turn out to be a very curious book indeed because of the chance that any two antonyms of a word could turn out to be synonymous.
Implants made from silicones include breast implants (controversial in Europe in January 2012 because some were filled with unapproved silicone gel), replacement tear ducts and prosthetic testicles (silicojones?).
According to OED douceur entered English from French late in the 14th century, so that it appears not to have been taken in earlier from Norman French.
The idiom, have (one's) heart in (one's) mouth = to be extremely frightened or anxious, is taken a step further by "his heart sank ...", which is an expression of acute dismay or terror, the degree of emotion being indicated by how far his heart sank: into his stomach, or into his boots.
Rhyming slang for heart is jam tart - remember the Queen of Hearts whose baked goods were purloined by the Jack (or was it the Knave?). The phrase is often used by bridge players when referring to the Hearts suit.
When I was attending a boys' secondary school near Birmingham, UK, in the 1950s tart was used unselfconsiously as equivalent to girlfriend or a girl one just took out. Maybe in this usage tart = sweetheart, somewhat counter to the identification with a sex worker of the appropriate gender.
Mellifluous is an example of a word the fantasy of which has overtaken the reality. One imagines honeycomb as it is taken from the hive, dripping with the clear lightly coloured fluid and all the Marie Antoinette stuff, but she ain't going to recover refined honey, still less go out there with her protective suit and visor to harvest the comb from the hive. The fantasy is of a land overflowing with milk and honey, the reality is that these benefits have to be won by the labour of the beekeeper and the milkmaid. Little wonder that mellifluous is generally associated with the quality of the sound of music or of words, spoken or sung.
I notice that very few of the definitions and examples of the use of length refer to the dimension of time, Wine tasters refer to the length of a wine: this means the time for which the taste of the wine lingers on the tongue, indeed within the whole mouth - it is an aspect of mouthfeel. For exceptional wines the taste remains for minutes, even hours and one can go around for a whole day with the memory of a tasted wine seemingly everlastingly present.Such wines not surprisingly command high prices.
The following comment on a French red wine describes it as full-bodied, which is clearly a perception derived from the mouthfeel. "Although the alcohol % is only 13.5 I would normally describe this Madiran as full-bodied, more to do with the tannat grape than the strength of the wine.It is a hearty red & quite rich in flavour.Personally I would give the 2004 another 2 years to soften the tannins more.
There is sometimes a problem in the reporting of accidents that involve phosgene, an extremely reactive chemical reagent that if not properly contained may cause fires and environmental poisoning. A report of an incident in Cornwall this morning set two uses of phosgene in apposition: poison gas and reagent used in the pharmaceutical industry. Such juxtapositions unfortunately invite negative inferences, and people may wonder why a poison gas is being used to manufacture drugs, whereas it would be more useful for their being made aware of the fact that a reagent used in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals can if accidentally released be hazardous, so toxic in fact that it is used as a chemical warfare agent. There is no chemical connection between phosphorus, a non-metallic element, and phosgene, the chemical compound, carbonyl dichloride. The first part of each word, phos-, is merely indicative of the production of light (Greek phos) in certain circumstances.
In the past I have done some chanting. Japanese words are rarely used in English; one example is "Daimoku", meaning "title", the name given to the mantra "Nam(u)-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō" (the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese original language) of Nichiren Buddhism."I take refuge in (devote or submit myself to) the Wonderful Law of the Lotus Flower Sutra" has been suggested as a universal translation.
Redolent and other words connect us to our sensory memories. Proust explored this space; so did Dickens and others who explored the pollution of the 19th century in terms of the sights, smells and sounds of the urban environment; Keats described a vintage "Tasting of Flora and the country green,/Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!" - though his imagery is so powerful that you don't at first notice how he makes tasting do duty for other forms of sensory perception implied by his words, viz hearing, seeing and smelling. Olfaction seems to be the most powerful of these, which perhaps explains why the meaning of redolent has become extended.
The miniature edition of the BBC Radio 4 programme Broadcasting House this morning (4 December 2011) lasted 45 instead of the usual 60 minutes and contained a report of a remarkable microscopic feat, viz the engraving of a list of names on the surface of a single football boot stud, which may cause you to recall the even smaller scale used in the manufacture of silicon chips. It is believed that miniaturists like Nicholas Hillyard worked with exceedingly fine brushes and executed their work under a hand glass.
Bilby, I thought, having some Australian connections, that is was a type of clear, self-adhesive plastics tape for the fair sex, possibly also known as Sellatape.
I am not a little puzzled to find duress and auspice linked together as "Related words/same context". They are virtual antonyms. So what is the relation?
I am not a little puzzled to find duress and auspice linked together as "Related words/same context". They are virtual antonyms. So what is the relation?
Carrick is one of the six districts of the county of Cornwall, a peninsula that forms the SW extremity of England and stretches from Lands End eastwards for about 75 miles to the Tamar, a river which constitutes the greater part of the boundary between Cornwall and Devon northwards from Plymouth. Carrick is named after the Carrick Roads, a splendid deep water (over 16 fathoms) anchorage in the estuary of the River Fal. However, the Roads are not named after the Portuguese ships that may have frequented them in the 16th and 17th centuries, but after a geographical feature in the mouth of the estuary (which is a drowned river valley), called nowadays the Black Rock (ie, bare, not covered with seaweed), but when the Cornish language was spoken, carrek dhu.
During the 1970s I was the editor of a trade journal published in London, entitled 'The Flavour Industry', which later vaingloriously advanced itself to 'International Flavours and Food Additives', although its implicit claim to have moved outside the boundaries of the UK was, to say the least, spurious. The relation of mouthfeel to impressions of dryness, graininess, mouthcoating and viscosity sums up the range of perceptions pretty well. However we need to distinguish between the mouthfeel of liquids and of semisolids,which is immediately perceptible (Coke and champagne, Pepsi and Perrier, and clear soup and custard offer interesting comparisons and contrasts) and of solid foods like meat, fruit and bread, which must be mixed with saliva and chewed to give a changing mouthfeel to the food being chewed until it reaches a consistency that is felt to be suitable for swallowing. A whole range of mouthfeel sensations is found in the practice of diagnostic wine tasting, where dryness means lack of sugar, puckering is the reaction of the mouth to excessive acidity and tannin, and mouthcoating and viscosity must be translated, in the tasting of wine to be laid down or further matured, into estimates of acidity, sugar levels, tannin, and “body”, and potential for improving with age. MSG is an example of a food additive that improves mouthfeel as well as being a flavour enhancer. We must not forget too the importance of ones ears as well as the impact between ones teeth and the food in the crunching of nuts, celery, crisp biscuits, crackers, cornflakes - and toast!
Boon, derived from Norse, by itself means a favour (pray grant me this boon: let my son live); the term boon companion means a good companion, boon in this case being derived from French bon
Comments by michaelt42
michaelt42 commented on the word toise
Is anyone aware if in French the fathom aspect of toise is used in the English sense of "understand"?
December 14, 2014
michaelt42 commented on the word hotspur
Hotspur (Henry Percy, son of the earl of Northumberland) is a colourful character in Henry IV Part 1, brilliantly exploited by Shakespeare as a foil for Prince Hal, whose father, King Henry, reflects on the possible exchange of the two sons, wishing that Hotspur were his.
August 21, 2014
michaelt42 commented on the word oxter
Not to be confused with oxer, a stock-proof fence.
August 5, 2014
michaelt42 commented on the word oenopole
This is modeled on bibliopole, but perhaps there is already a word for wineseller?
July 25, 2014
michaelt42 commented on the word cauteous
How did cauteous get into Wordnik. I am the third to look it up, so it must have started somewhere.
June 13, 2014
michaelt42 commented on the word stridulate
While at least one dictionary says that (only) males stridulate, Darwin showed that stridulating females attract males that have had their antennae removed
March 26, 2014
michaelt42 commented on the word whiskerando
I'll buy the Sheridan theory!
February 11, 2014
michaelt42 commented on the list loan-words-from-french
How abut the topical quenelle?
January 24, 2014
michaelt42 commented on the word embonpoint
I waas amused to find that embonpoint was used in the quoted translation of Hippocrates. How did the Academie Anglaise permit this?
January 24, 2014
michaelt42 commented on the word megrim
Megrim, also megrim sole, is a flatfish found in Cornish (UK) waters.
December 29, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word con
In the sense of deceit has been ruled unparliamentary language by the Speaker of the House of Commons during a debate, in October 2013, in which the prime minister apparently accused the leader of the opposition of using dubious reasoning.
October 30, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the user twistage
List less or list fewer?
October 30, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word drinkard
But note a resemblance to the words "stinkard", "dullard", etc.
October 30, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the list words-some-people-can-t-pronounce-no-matter-how-often-they-try
George Bush used to be ribbed for noocular; I reckon it's very common but also not readily detected.
October 30, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the list words-some-people-can-t-pronounce-no-matter-how-often-they-try
Terpsichore dances to a beat of four!
October 30, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the list words-some-people-can-t-pronounce-no-matter-how-often-they-try
Even some TV cooks get tagliatelle wrong. And lasagne gets apparently singularised to lasagna , even before the horsemeat scandal in Europe
October 30, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the list words-some-people-can-t-pronounce-no-matter-how-often-they-try
As most people cannot differentiate in their pronunciation between presence and presents, one or the other deserves a place in this list
October 30, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word barney
Rhymes with Barney
Me and Barney
Jealously barnied on the jarney
Over a tempting sarnie
(Spontaneous grotesque verse)
October 30, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word armrest
Unfortunately an arm(s)rest is hardly ever at arms' length.
June 17, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word planxty
Planxty occurs twice in Finnegans Wake: first, as in example 1, in its actual meaning; second, as in example 4, as a typically Joycean play on words, meaning "plenty". I suggest an alternative to a line in the famous song of the book: "Planxty of fun at Finnegans wake."
June 17, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word saccade
Interesting quote from Will Self, knitandpurl. I wonder where Will was when he saw this panorama of his life - or has he implicitly redefined saccade?
June 12, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word saccade
Wiktionary's definition (n. music - The sounding of two violin strings together by using a sudden strong pressure of the bow) is in a way misleading. A saccade is not necessary for double stopping - if it were several serene examples of violin writing would become unbearable. Triple stopping is another thing, as it it impossible to achieve without this technique. The Brahms violin concerto affords many examples.
June 12, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word pyrogen
I don't know about water, but electricity is forever Amber.
June 6, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word pyrogen
In homeoepathy pyrogen, or Pyrogenium, has a specitifc meaning: This remedy was introduced by English homeopathists, prepared from decomposed lean beef allowed to stand in the sun for two weeks and then potentized. The provings and most of the clinical experience have been obtained from this preparation. But, subsequently, Dr. Swan potentized some septic pus, which preparation has also been proved and clinically applied. There does not seem to be any marked difference in their effects. - See more at: http://www.homeopathy.com.pk/boericke/p-q/pyrogenium.php#sthash.6NB6cxUn.dpuf
June 5, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word gite
I expect to find 'gite' in printed matter, but I prefer to write "gîte", longhand or on the keyboard.
May 27, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word malebolgian
Sounds a bit different to the Rift Valley.
May 21, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word thalassotherapy
Valued by men for the scrotum-tightening property first revealed to the world by the author of Ulysses, who, incidentally described the colour of the sea as "snot-green". The Cornish artist Alfred Wallace was similarly irreverent. Visited one day in his house in St Ives by, I think, Ben Nicholson, Wallace said he was painting the sea. How? asked a puzzled Nicholson. Wallace simply pointed to the glass of sea water alongside his easel.
May 14, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word bombilate
"The entire building was bombilating like a cicada."
Matt Cantor; Some Cures for Noisy Neighbors; The Berkeley Daily Planet (California); Oct 9, 2008.
Actually, cicadas stridulate.
May 12, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word signifier
I love the sound of T - and I love the way in which it acts as a rich signifier: (AFTERNOON) TEA, (BUILDERS') TEA), (CHINA, INDIAN) TEA, (GOLF) TEE, TI AS OPPOSED TO VI (in Serbian, with corresponding differentiation in other Slavonic languages), criterion of suitability and other examples that I will allow you to discover for yourselves. Clashes between homophones can be seen in this light.
May 8, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word tar baby
Something to be circumvented: a sticky situation or problem from which it is almost impossible to escape, which proves that it is entirely possible to end a definition of tar baby without using a preposition.
May 8, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word ascian
Richard Strauss wrote an opera about a female Ascian, unsurprsingly called "Die Frau ohne Schatten." An ascian artefact whose purpose is vitiated twice a year by its being on the equator is the gnomon of a sundial.
May 7, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word cutting-tool
I wonder in which section of the workshop you might find one?
May 1, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word googly
It's good to have an excuse to allow a few cricket terms an innings. A googly bowled (not thrown, please) by a left-handed bowler is known as a Chinaman while, geographically speaking, a ball pitched by the bowler so accurately that the batsman cannot easily move backwards or forwards to take it in the middle of the bat, instead hitting it with the bottom, is a Yorker; such a ball usually lands on the point along the crease where the bottom of the bat rests when the batsman takes guard, known as the block hole. It is entirely possible, since Brighton (the setting of Greene's Brighton Rock) has a cricket field where Sussex play, that Graham Greene was inspired to entitle his novel, The Third Man, by the fielding position of that name. Lately, with the wearing by some fielders of helmets with visors, the fielder in the position of silly mid-on has moved so close to the batsman that the position could more accurately be renamed suicidal mid-on. Hit for six, which relates to a stroke by which the batsman hits the ball clean over the boundary, scoring six runs, is a common expression derived from the game. Forward and backward (of the crease) are used to nuance the description of the fielding position point and do not imply an evaluation of the player's intelligence. Finally, the popping crease is a line which the rear foot of the bowler must not cross before he releases the ball. It does not go pop like the legendary pea pod, nor for that matter like the weasel. However, violation of the rule about not crossing the popping crease with his trailing foot will immediately provoke the umpire to announce the bowler's misdemeanour by the call: No ball!
May 1, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word humble
I would like to quote two recent uses of humble/humbled. Appearing before a House of Commons committee lately, Rupert Murdoch said that this was the most humble day of his life. On April 10th, 2013, Sir Mark Thatcher said that his mother would have felt humbled by the Queen's attending her funeral, which was due to take place a few days later.
April 10, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word surd
The number expressing the golden section is a surd, as commented on by jaime_d.
March 14, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word surd
The Latin surdus gave rise to sordino in Italian and sourdine in French, both meaning mute, the device that modifies the sound produced by musical instruments, especially in jazz.
March 14, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word balmaiden
Better to say "employed in the metal mining industries " of Cornwall; balmaidens did not work underground.
March 5, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word uaoie
Bungaloider (not to my knowledge ever previously used) could be a convenient word for the builder of bungaloid homes, and perhaps also for a frequenter of wild girl-thronged parties, such as Italy's most famous cruise crooner/prime minister.
February 27, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word droog
The Russian word phonetically transcribed as droog is written thus in Cyrillic characters: друг. This is an amendment of billifer's comment.
February 25, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the user evabernice
Customers will be able to see all the Tyres. Therefore not only spam, but comprehensive spam.
February 15, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word embouchure
Woodwind instruments divide into four categories: those with a single reed (clarinets, saxophones), those with a double reed (oboes and bassoons), recorders and transverse flutes. Control of the double reed is highly demanding of the player's embouchure, and draws upon the contribution of the lips, teeth and jaw. Problems with the jaw are not unusual with oboe players.
February 15, 2013
michaelt42 commented on the word graminivorous
Not to be confused with granivorous, which means feeding on seeds.
August 3, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word granivorous
Ecology © 1991 Ecological Society of America
Abstract:
In order to quantify the response of birds to experimental manipulations of seed availability and densities of granivorous rodents and ants, we counted granivorous birds and measured diurnal and nocturnal seed removal on 24 plots during winter months in the Chihuahuan Desert. Removal of single, widely spaced millet seeds provided a reliable measure of bird and rodent foraging activity. Avian foraging activity increased in response to supplemental seeds, but decreased in response to long-term removal of all rodents and all ants. Although birds potentially compete for seeds with rodents and ants, these results suggest that, in the long term, indirect facilitation dominates the interactions among all three taxa. The positive effect of the other granivores on birds may be mediated through changes in habitat structure (e.g., reduction in the density of annual plants). The increase of avian foraging in response to seed addition and the high spatial and temporal variance in the patterns of seed removal by birds indicate that in desert habitats granivorous birds use their mobility to find and exploit high concentrations of seeds. Thus, birds may reduce the spatial variation in seed abundance and reduce the densities of seed available to other granivores. The foraging behavior of birds and rodents revealed by these experiments clarifies the response of granivores to experimental manipulations reported earlier, such as the lack of biomass compensation by rodents in response to seed addition.
August 3, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word demirep
Demimondaine a tad less hot..
July 18, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word demimondaine
Similar in meaning to demirep , but sexually more adventurous, perhaps.
July 18, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word shitstorm
The German Scheissensturm exists but just doesn't get used. Warum?
June 9, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word gozunder
Like GHibbs I too need a goznutunder.
June 5, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word cockernonie
In other words, a hair extension or implant, fortunately not toxic.
June 5, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word grexit
The Telegraph, a UK newspaper, has been writing about a possible Greek exit from the euro, which it calls a Grexit.
June 3, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word scatty
Nice if you would share the context of scatty with us, ShanShen!
June 3, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word curious
"All things counter, original, spare, strange" (Gerard Manley Hopkins: Pied Beauty) presents us with four perfectly selected synonyms of curious.
June 3, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word curious
I recall a line from Walt Whitman's poem "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" (1859), set to music by Frederick Delius in "Sea Drift" --
... And every day I, a curious boy, never too close, never disturbing them, Cautiously peering, absorbing, translating.
(them - a pair of nesting sea birds)
June 3, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word ope
Examples citing P ope Benedict are exemplary.
June 2, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word ope
Short passage or entrance found in Cornish towns, e.g., Penzance; to be distinguished from ope or 'ope, a deaspirated expression of expectation, and from ope, a clipped version of open.
June 2, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word table
He/she knows his/her tables - said of a child who can instantly and reliably give the answer to, usually, simple multiplication processes, eg, 9 x 6 = 54, or 7 x 8 = 56. The multiplication table needs to be learned by rote, usually by the aid of chanting.
May 21, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word gombeen
I give another quotation from "Disturbed Ireland - Being the Letters Written During the Winter of 1880-81," in particular for the atmosphere generated by the words of Bernard Becker:
"From the papers the figure turned to a heap as of bank-notes, and there was in the air the chink of money. For the name of this grisly and terribly real spectre is _gombeen_; which, in the Irish tongue, signifies usury.
May 21, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word bone-shaker
Seems equally applicable to a car that is so old that, despite the advantage of running on a smoothly surfaced pavement (not the case for early cyclists), it suffers so much from mechanical deterioration that it provides for its passengers the discomforts experienced by those pioneers.
May 9, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word scrambled
Scrambled egg - British slang for the gold decoration (resembling oak leaves) on the peaks of the caps of senior naval officers. Corresponding police, army and air force ranks have similar decoration in other colours.
May 4, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the user 1125801144
Re 'stripe' : I could well have written that Anchorage were thrashed.
April 27, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word quaint
Andrew Marvell's ingenious use of the word needs to be seen in its context fully to be appreciated: "Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound/My echoing song; then worms shall try/That long preserv'd virginity/And your quaint honour turn to dust/And into ashes all my lust/The grave's a fine and private place/But none I think do there embrace".
April 17, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word radiate
In broadcasting radio or television programmes are radiated.
April 17, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word brough
I suppose that one use of brough is to reduce the character count of a tweet.
April 17, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word brough
Longfellow alluded to the brough in The Wreck of the Hesperus: Last night the moon had a golden ring and tonight no moon we see. That line constitutes the whole raison d'être of the poem.
April 17, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word trivaginate
Female kangaroos are endowed with three vaginae, ie, they are trivaginate, and they also possess an additional uterus.
April 17, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word kangaroo
Female kangaroos are trivaginate and possess two uteri.
April 17, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word funeral
ruzuzu, thanks very much.
April 15, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word lomcevak
The original word, from the Moravian region of the Czech Republic, is written lomčovák. Under the influence of the labial m the initial t sound of č (which has the sound tsh) mutates to p; although the word gets reproduced in English without diacritics, and with e replacing o, as lomcevak, slight alterations of the vowels lead to the pronunciation lumpshavak, as suggested by oroboros.
April 15, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word choragus
Choragus and Coryphæus, according to OED, are two posts in the Department of Music at Oxford carrying "modest stipends". They appear to be sinecures. Choregus is an alternative; the spelling varies according to the Greek dialect from which the word is transcribed.
April 15, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word what ho
What ho! a generalized, but often approbative or jocular, exclamation, the meaning of which depends on the context. The two tweets already posted shed no light, HO might mean house officer.
April 15, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word whart ho
Probably an error for what ho.
April 15, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word what time
In reply to ruzuzu: I think some folks have a tendency to duplicate a preposition for verbal padding: I took it off of the shelf; she took the washing in off of the line (an extreme example, but not impossible, which just means "she took in the washing").
April 15, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word what time
In reply to pterodactyl: "When" shall I pick you up is less specific than "(at) what time"; the answer "this afternoon" is more general than "at 3 pm" Therefore the wording of the question is determined by how specific I wish the answer to be.
April 15, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word fumeral
Fumeral is an architectural term for a smoke outlet from, usually, the roof of a building. The information about etymology on this page seems to refer to funeral. The fumeral on the Vatican emits either white or black smoke, according to the intended message about the choice of a new Pope.
April 15, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word funeral
The comment about congrument reminded me of an architect who attended a funeral service at a crematorium he himself had not designed and remarked, as the smoke from the furnace rose into the sky, and to the mystification of bystanders, "I wish that had been my fumeral".
April 15, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word ccvcccvcc
ccvcccvcc could be interpreted as the number sequence 205300195.
April 15, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the list oxymorons
This list shows that some oxymorons are more oxymoronic than others
April 13, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word candent
The gas mantle, which consists of a gas-jet heated metallic mesh coated with a suitable compound, typically oxide, of metals such as calcium and thorium, is candent at a lower temperature than the untreated metal. The source of the gaslight of the Victorian theatre, it is still in use today for illumination.
April 13, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word sanctuary
One day recently I found a newt sheltering under a brick in my garden. The next morning the newt had gone, showing that it had been able to venture forth into freedom again. This is gratifying but does not perhaps enable me to get certification as an animal sanctuary, but merely as "nice to newts" and the garden qualified as a "niche for newts."
April 12, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word anadromous
Sea trout in the British Isles, which is anadromous in spawning behavior, is also known according to region as sewin in Wales, finnock (Scotland), peal (West Country), mort (North West England) and white trout (Ireland). It is the entry of the fry into the sea that governs the growth and subsequent spawning of this fish, which is genetically identical with brown trout.
April 12, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the list contronympho
Mute (person, swan): muted (musical instrument, eg, the solo horn at the end of Beethoven's Pastoral symphony).
April 12, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word endue
From a prayer that I heard around: it's sensible and realistic: "ENDUE THY MINISTERS WITH RIGHTEOUSNESS AND MAKE THY CHOSEN PEOPLE JOYFUL." Fits all faiths.
April 9, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word second
A lot depends on what sound precedes the final d of a word. If you, pterodactyl, analyse the phrase reduplicated second sight you may notice a difference between the d/s sequences when enunciated. I find that the first d is present, reinforced by the preceding t; the second disappears.
April 9, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word spelt
Spelt is a grain, barley is for malting, oats is/are for horses (Dr Johnson) and pure sublimated sulphur comes in the form of flowers.
April 9, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word limber
Willow is limber timber.
April 7, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word Sutton
Sutton is a common name for English towns, meaning south town. Examples include the London Borough of Sutton, Sutton Hoo, a famous ship burial in Suffolk, and Sutton Coldfield, now a part of Birmingham (mentioned in Henry IV, Pt.1).
April 4, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word norton
Norton in English place names is an alteration of north town, eg, Kings Norton, Staffordshire; Norton Canes, Staffordshire; Norton Malreward, near Bath.
April 4, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word west
"West town" in UK place names often becomes Weston, eg Allweston, Dorset.
April 4, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word eastern
In UK place names eastern sometimes gets changed to Aston (east town). Steeple Aston (Oxfordshire), many other *** Astons and 37 Aston ***s (eg, Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire) are listed in the 2012 AA Greater Britain and Ireland Road Atlas.
April 3, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word turd
Leading seaman's insult to new National Serviceman: You're going around like a turd in a trance (Royal Navy, ca. 1955).
April 3, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word tucking-mill
The presence of such a facility has given the name Tuckingmill to a small industrial area lying in a valley about 2 km to the east of Camborne, Cornwall, better known in the 19th century for its tin and copper mining.
April 1, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word patisserie
Something that deserves a place in a pâtisserie is krémes, a Hungarian vanilla flavoured sweet based on eggs.
April 1, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word famelic
I remember from the period around 1950 in the UK a proprietary medicine called Famel, which was, as far as I can remember, a children's cough sirop.
April 1, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word tuck
The term Friar Tuck, with its fairly obvious rhyming slang connotation, found its way into the UK House of Commons during Questions to the Prime Minister (Cameron) last Wednesday (March 27, 2012). Cameron, a Conservative, was accused by Ed Milliband, Labour leader, of "not caring a Friar Tuck" for the less well off; Milliband also derided the idea of a Robin Hood budget that would take from the rich to give to the poor. Normally language of this sort would be ruled in poor taste by the Speaker, but on this occasion, when the gloves were off in the post-Budget period and Millibrand was persuing a clear Robin Hood analogy, the Speaker let the remark pass.
April 1, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word friar
The term Friar Tuck, with its fairly obvious rhyming slang connotation, found its way into the UK House of Commons during Questions to the Prime Minister (Cameron) last Wednesday (March 27, 2012). Cameron, a Conservative, was accused by Ed Milliband, Labour leader, of "not caring a Friar Tuck" for the less well off; Milliband also derided the idea of a Robin Hood budget that would take from the rich to give to the poor. Normally language of this sort would be ruled in poor taste by the Speaker, but on this occasion, when the gloves were off in the post-Budget period and Millibrand was persuing a clear Robin Hood analogy, the Speaker let the remark pass.
April 1, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word lunatic
A Brief Biography of Joseph Priestly gives insight into lunatic: "While in Birmingham, Joseph Priestley became a member of the Lunar Society. This was an informal group that met monthly when the moon was full so that there would be light to drive home by. Naturally they were called, and called themselves,lunatics. The members were successful manufacturers and professional men who shared an interest in stimulating discussions on philosophy and science and almost any subject that was interesting. The participants included James Watt, Matthew Boulton, Erasmus Darwin, and others." From A Brief Biography of Joseph Priestley, Prepared by members and friends of the Unitiarian Universalist Congregation of the Susquehanna Valley (UUCSV), Northumberland, Pennsylvania (http://uucsv.org/priestl.htm)
March 19, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word yarka
Yarka (Cyrillic ярка) is the femine form of the adjective, used predicatively. Another meaning of ярка is ewe lamb.
March 19, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word batswoman
Batswoman is hard to find on search engines (do you mean batwoman? is the usual query), but the term is alive and well in cricket reporting. Interestingly Claire Taylor, a recent English women's cricket captain, used the term batsman of herself on UK Radio 3 today (she was being interviewed about her musical interests)
March 19, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word kerosene
The slang word for kerosene in Australia and New Zealand is 'kero' (Land's Edge:A Coastal Memoir, by Tim Winton).
March 19, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word quad
In current UK politics the quad is the group of the four politicians David Cameron and George Osborne (Conservative) and Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander (Liberal Democrat) that directs the policy of the coalition that constitutes the UK government.
March 18, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word dupa
The Serbian word dupe/дупе is pronounced doo'-peh, means arse ( jennarenn, dontcry Dupa, pterodactyl) and the first vowel is of medium length - better late than never! - but in this series of comments appears to have been confused with dupa. According to my late wife it was regarded as a giggle word by children in the 1940s in Belgrade, to whom is was no more reprehensible an expression than bum or bottom.
March 4, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word oculate
Those who have eyes but do not see are, perhaps, inoculate? Although, after writing this comment, I can see confusion with another meaning of inoculate, all because of the various different meanings of that innocent yet intoxicating prefix, in-. Delightfully, the Italian for coronation is incoronazione.
March 4, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word future
The future for the Russian Federation may be unpredictable but seems to lie along the Ulitsa Putina.
March 4, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word inflatable
Overheard in Newlyn, Cornwall, recently: "I'm not your type - I'm not inflatable."
March 4, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word inflation
the cost of air in the tires (Annie Proulx, The Shipping News).
March 4, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word oobleck
I would dearly love to know the name given to the serifs absent from capital I (India) in the type face that you Wordniki are now reading that ARE REMARKABLY INEFFECTIVE in distinguishing cap. I (India) from l.c. l (el). As for the origins of ooblek, perhaps the learned Dr Seuss was playing on French oublier/oblique in view of the strange properties of non-Newtonian fluids, or maybe he was trying to transform Augenblick into a pseudo-Hungarian word, őblik,but changed it further just in case he was misunderstood by his compositors.
March 2, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word superluminal
The superluminal neutrinos that puzzled scientists when first reported last year (2011) seem likely to be demoted to the status of phantoms. A faulty connection in the complex apparatus used for the measurements is now thought to be the cause of the problematic result, as was reported in the UK press today.
February 23, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word limerence
"Jolted is funny and smart and fast paced. And it's written with real love for that fascinating liminal creature called the young teenager, for whom the sky is always just about to fall."
Tim Wynne-Jones; Electrifying; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Sep 13, 2008.
Change liminal to limeral (back formation from limerance) and would you detect any difference in meaning?. Tennov's claim to lack of etymology doesn't hold water - the source is within her own mind, apparently censored by the substitution of -er- for -in- and the obfuscating suffix -ance.
February 13, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word beau
In past centuries is was common for country estates to be named Beau Repair. Three such estates in west Cornwall were originally so called, but in the course of centuries the names have been corrupted (possibly by a Cornish-speaking population) into - Bareppa, near Falmouth; Barripper,near Camborne (famed for copper and tin mining in the 19th century); and Berepper, near Helston.Other names more easily interpreted are, for instance, Bellevue, Beaudesert (Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, UK) and Belair.
February 3, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word peach
Today I heard a neat play in an exchange on Desert Island Discs (BBC Radio 4) between Sir David Attenborough and Miss Kirsty Young. KY suggested that DA was unimpeachable: DA countered by saying that he was very peachable if you knew how. Both individuals are peaches, of course.
February 3, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word sciamachy
Sciamachy just about sums up Don Quixote's behavior towards windmills.
February 2, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word waiter
Jeeves was a butler rather than a waiter, but the equally celebrated Sam Weller appears to have worked in the latter capacity before he became Samuel Pickwick's manservant and started entertaining that distinguished gentleman with his Wellerisms.
January 30, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word synonymicon
By extension of the idea, an antonymicon could turn out to be a very curious book indeed because of the chance that any two antonyms of a word could turn out to be synonymous.
January 30, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word perp
Powerful weed.
January 18, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word silicone
Implants made from silicones include breast implants (controversial in Europe in January 2012 because some were filled with unapproved silicone gel), replacement tear ducts and prosthetic testicles (silicojones?).
January 6, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the list zoosphere-s-words
Zoosphere is a good word to use for all life in the universe.
January 3, 2012
michaelt42 commented on the word douceur
According to OED douceur entered English from French late in the 14th century, so that it appears not to have been taken in earlier from Norman French.
December 12, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word heart
The idiom, have (one's) heart in (one's) mouth = to be extremely frightened or anxious, is taken a step further by "his heart sank ...", which is an expression of acute dismay or terror, the degree of emotion being indicated by how far his heart sank: into his stomach, or into his boots.
December 7, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word tart
Rhyming slang for heart is jam tart - remember the Queen of Hearts whose baked goods were purloined by the Jack (or was it the Knave?). The phrase is often used by bridge players when referring to the Hearts suit.
December 7, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word tart
When I was attending a boys' secondary school near Birmingham, UK, in the 1950s tart was used unselfconsiously as equivalent to girlfriend or a girl one just took out. Maybe in this usage tart = sweetheart, somewhat counter to the identification with a sex worker of the appropriate gender.
December 7, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word mellifluous
Mellifluous is an example of a word the fantasy of which has overtaken the reality. One imagines honeycomb as it is taken from the hive, dripping with the clear lightly coloured fluid and all the Marie Antoinette stuff, but she ain't going to recover refined honey, still less go out there with her protective suit and visor to harvest the comb from the hive. The fantasy is of a land overflowing with milk and honey, the reality is that these benefits have to be won by the labour of the beekeeper and the milkmaid. Little wonder that mellifluous is generally associated with the quality of the sound of music or of words, spoken or sung.
December 7, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word length
I notice that very few of the definitions and examples of the use of length refer to the dimension of time, Wine tasters refer to the length of a wine: this means the time for which the taste of the wine lingers on the tongue, indeed within the whole mouth - it is an aspect of mouthfeel. For exceptional wines the taste remains for minutes, even hours and one can go around for a whole day with the memory of a tasted wine seemingly everlastingly present.Such wines not surprisingly command high prices.
December 6, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word mouthfeel
The following comment on a French red wine describes it as full-bodied, which is clearly a perception derived from the mouthfeel. "Although the alcohol % is only 13.5 I would normally describe this Madiran as full-bodied, more to do with the tannat grape than the strength of the wine.It is a hearty red & quite rich in flavour.Personally I would give the 2004 another 2 years to soften the tannins more.
December 6, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word phosgene
There is sometimes a problem in the reporting of accidents that involve phosgene, an extremely reactive chemical reagent that if not properly contained may cause fires and environmental poisoning. A report of an incident in Cornwall this morning set two uses of phosgene in apposition: poison gas and reagent used in the pharmaceutical industry. Such juxtapositions unfortunately invite negative inferences, and people may wonder why a poison gas is being used to manufacture drugs, whereas it would be more useful for their being made aware of the fact that a reagent used in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals can if accidentally released be hazardous, so toxic in fact that it is used as a chemical warfare agent. There is no chemical connection between phosphorus, a non-metallic element, and phosgene, the chemical compound, carbonyl dichloride. The first part of each word, phos-, is merely indicative of the production of light (Greek phos) in certain circumstances.
December 6, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word daimio
In the past I have done some chanting. Japanese words are rarely used in English; one example is "Daimoku", meaning "title", the name given to the mantra "Nam(u)-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō" (the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese original language) of Nichiren Buddhism."I take refuge in (devote or submit myself to) the Wonderful Law of the Lotus Flower Sutra" has been suggested as a universal translation.
December 5, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word redolent
Redolent and other words connect us to our sensory memories. Proust explored this space; so did Dickens and others who explored the pollution of the 19th century in terms of the sights, smells and sounds of the urban environment; Keats described a vintage "Tasting of Flora and the country green,/Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!" - though his imagery is so powerful that you don't at first notice how he makes tasting do duty for other forms of sensory perception implied by his words, viz hearing, seeing and smelling. Olfaction seems to be the most powerful of these, which perhaps explains why the meaning of redolent has become extended.
December 4, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word miniature
The miniature edition of the BBC Radio 4 programme Broadcasting House this morning (4 December 2011) lasted 45 instead of the usual 60 minutes and contained a report of a remarkable microscopic feat, viz the engraving of a list of names on the surface of a single football boot stud, which may cause you to recall the even smaller scale used in the manufacture of silicon chips. It is believed that miniaturists like Nicholas Hillyard worked with exceedingly fine brushes and executed their work under a hand glass.
December 4, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word jentacular
Wordnik's Word of the Day today, 1st December 2011. It arrived on my computer at 0946, timed to perfection for those of us that live in the UK.
December 1, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word duress
Bilby, I thought, having some Australian connections, that is was a type of clear, self-adhesive plastics tape for the fair sex, possibly also known as Sellatape.
December 1, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word duress
I am not a little puzzled to find duress and auspice linked together as "Related words/same context". They are virtual antonyms. So what is the relation?
December 1, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word auspice
I am not a little puzzled to find duress and auspice linked together as "Related words/same context". They are virtual antonyms. So what is the relation?
December 1, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word carrick bends
Carrick is one of the six districts of the county of Cornwall, a peninsula that forms the SW extremity of England and stretches from Lands End eastwards for about 75 miles to the Tamar, a river which constitutes the greater part of the boundary between Cornwall and Devon northwards from Plymouth. Carrick is named after the Carrick Roads, a splendid deep water (over 16 fathoms) anchorage in the estuary of the River Fal. However, the Roads are not named after the Portuguese ships that may have frequented them in the 16th and 17th centuries, but after a geographical feature in the mouth of the estuary (which is a drowned river valley), called nowadays the Black Rock (ie, bare, not covered with seaweed), but when the Cornish language was spoken, carrek dhu.
November 30, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word mouthfeel
During the 1970s I was the editor of a trade journal published in London, entitled 'The Flavour Industry', which later vaingloriously advanced itself to 'International Flavours and Food Additives', although its implicit claim to have moved outside the boundaries of the UK was, to say the least, spurious. The relation of mouthfeel to impressions of dryness, graininess, mouthcoating and viscosity sums up the range of perceptions pretty well. However we need to distinguish between the mouthfeel of liquids and of semisolids,which is immediately perceptible (Coke and champagne, Pepsi and Perrier, and clear soup and custard offer interesting comparisons and contrasts) and of solid foods like meat, fruit and bread, which must be mixed with saliva and chewed to give a changing mouthfeel to the food being chewed until it reaches a consistency that is felt to be suitable for swallowing. A whole range of mouthfeel sensations is found in the practice of diagnostic wine tasting, where dryness means lack of sugar, puckering is the reaction of the mouth to excessive acidity and tannin, and mouthcoating and viscosity must be translated, in the tasting of wine to be laid down or further matured, into estimates of acidity, sugar levels, tannin, and “body”, and potential for improving with age. MSG is an example of a food additive that improves mouthfeel as well as being a flavour enhancer. We must not forget too the importance of ones ears as well as the impact between ones teeth and the food in the crunching of nuts, celery, crisp biscuits, crackers, cornflakes - and toast!
November 30, 2011
michaelt42 commented on the word boon
Boon, derived from Norse, by itself means a favour (pray grant me this boon: let my son live); the term boon companion means a good companion, boon in this case being derived from French bon
December 1, 2010