novazembla

Comments by novazembla

• novazembla commented on the word shank

  Urban Dictionary has many definitions, which boil down to 'a weapon used in prison' or the act of attacking someone with such a weapon.

  June 2, 2009

• novazembla commented on the word horracious

  A friend of mine accidentally coined this term when she tried to say "horrendous" but couldn't quite manage it. The second half: from "audacious," or ?

  June 2, 2009

• novazembla commented on the word casí

  Spanish word for "almost," "nearly."

  June 2, 2009

• novazembla commented on the word henriad

  Shakespeare scholars' term for his second historical tetralogy: Richard II; Henry IV, Part 1; Henry IV, Part 2; and Henry V.

  June 2, 2009

• novazembla commented on the word encomienda

  "The encomienda is a trusteeship labour system that was employed by the Spanish crown during the Spanish colonization of the Americas and the Philippines." (source)

  Nasty concept but fun to say. I love that it suggests "eating up" (comiendo).

  June 2, 2009

• novazembla commented on the word reconquista

  "The term Reconquista (in English, 'reconquest') was popularized by Mexican writers Carlos Fuentes and Elena Poniatowska to describe the demographic and cultural presence of Mexicans into the Southwestern United States." (source)

  June 2, 2009

• novazembla commented on the word i had not thought death had undone so many

  Circling and circling, it seemed to scorn all pause.

  So it ran on, and still behind it pressed

  a never-ending rout of souls in pain

  I had not thought death had undone so many

  as passed before me in that mournful train.

  -Dante's Inferno, Canto III: The Gate of Hell (Ciardi translation)

  Unreal City

  Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,

  A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,

  I had not thought death had undone so many.

  -T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

  June 2, 2009

• novazembla commented on the word the vasty deep

  Glendower:

  I can call spirits from the vasty deep.

  Hotspur:

  Why, so can I, or so can any man;

  But will they come when you do call for them?

  -Henry IV, Part 1

  June 2, 2009

• novazembla commented on the word ojalá

  Etymology: From Arabic وشاء الله (wa-š�?’ all�?h) ‘and may God will it’. Compare inshallah, Portuguese oxalá. (source)

  June 2, 2009

• novazembla commented on the word picnic, lightning

  "My very photogenic mother died in a freak accident (picnic, lightning)"

  -Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita; chapter 2

  June 2, 2009

• novazembla commented on the word all adam's apple and heart

  But instead of contenting myself with some such plausible explanation of this summons, I imagined all sort of horrors, and had to fortify myself with a pint of my "pin" before I could face the interview. Slowly, all Adam's apple and heart,

  I went up the steps of the scaffold.

  -Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita; chapter 11

  June 2, 2009

• novazembla commented on the word trading futures

  a high-powered occupation with an ominous ring to it. whose futures? traded to whom?

  June 2, 2009

• novazembla commented on the word con favor de dios

  a constant refrain during my time in Mexico.

  June 2, 2009

• novazembla commented on the word i was the shadow of the waxwing slain

  I was the shadow of the waxwing slain

  By the false azure in the windowpane;

  I was the smudge of ashen fluff -- and I

  Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky.

  -Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire: the first line of John Shade's poem.

  June 2, 2009