rolig has looked up 2523 words, created 91 lists, listed 3774 words, written 3035 comments, added 57 tags, and loved 6 words.
Comments by rolig
Comments for rolig
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Oy, count-nouning, Noice.
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Thanks for mirror rim - nice!
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Just stopping by to say you're awesome.
You're awesome. -
Thank you!
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Got the message in my email. You can remove the comment now if you want. Thanks.
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Hi rolig, how can I contact you privately?
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You're fun. :-)
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Hi Rolig --- want to try again? John and Tony edited your list title.
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Hi rolig -- any luck getting word pages to load yet?
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We miss you!
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It was a little easier to do certain things on Wordie--but there are lots of functions here that I'd have wished for there too. If you want to suggest something, we generally post questions/suggestions/bitching/complaining/all-purpose-comments at feedback.
Hope you stick around. :-) -
Yes, rolig -- we miss your wit and rigor. Not to mention the Slovenian updates!
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Nice to see you stopping by, rolig. :-)
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You cannot escape the charge that you have previously engaged in the amazing pastime that is IDENTIFY THE WORDIE.
You are therefore prime target material for inviting to IDENTIFY THE WORDIENIK.
The whole of the bit of Wordnik that joins in on this would be truly honoured should you participate this time round.
Easily find the right page right now because it is currently the most commented on list shown on the Community page. -
"Rolig has added 72 lists containing 3,480 words, 56 comments, 56 tags, 50 favorites, and 2 pronunciations."
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Rolig sneaked in a post a few days ago. :-)
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I miss rolig.
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Rolig! You're back! (Or are you?)
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I was just reading zelena zelena and thinking about how much I appreciate your comments - especially the ones about etymology. Thank you!
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rolig! I miss you!
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Me too! Funny, Pro, I was just coming here to do the same.
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I just wanted to say hi.
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Rolig, just wanted to let you know that there are indeed situations in which moving from certain parts of the site to other parts of the site logs you out. Engineers are working on it. The rest of us are putting wood on the fire.
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I'm unable to hear your pronunciations! I can play the audio files, but they all come across as a few seconds of silence (or white noise). Are you previewing them before saving, just to make sure your microphone's working?
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I hope you'll pronounce some words and phrases in Slovene.
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Thanks for getting back to me on the Czech no/ano question. I was curious because I think Latvian (a Balto-Slavic language) has a word spelled "no," which means something more like "of" or "from."
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Hi rolig, wanted to apologize for the character encoding issues that have appeared on some of your lists. It's my doing--the Wordie database was kind of a mess after a few years not always careful noodling. We did the best we could moving things over, but some characters got a bit mangled.
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Hello helpful rolig,
I had been asking Milosrdenstvi about the etymology of the Czech no/ano, but Milosrdenstvi said that would be probably more up your alley. Any suggestions?
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Thanks for offering to pack her alpaca. That's a big help.
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It would make me extremely happy to come to Slovenia someday. In that case, I will bring some home-made fufluns.
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wow thaz cool
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WOW, crasy comments dude!
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Thank you; a labour of love.
I find your lists and comments unique and noteworthy.
It's hard to know what's a goodly time to reach comment or word quantities here...there's a bizarre absence of date-stamping on Wordie. Does anyone know why? -
Thanks, Pro! I wasn't really paying attention. I have no idea when I hit my fourth chiliad.
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3008 words, rolig! Congratulations! I can't see your recent activity, what's your 3000th entry?
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What does "23" mean? As in "23 squidoo!"
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done.
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Thank you. I don't know why fate hadn't led me to Wordie (and kimchi) earlier.
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I'm a Bosno, actually, though it's always tricky; half the time I tell people Yugoslavian just because that's my sense of things.
I take it you're Slovenian? -
Thank you :) Im still trying to get the whole concept of Wordie :P
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Norsk? :P
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The distinction between 'dis-' and plural '-s' is that the former is derivational, the latter inflectional. The non-existence of a free noun *'scissor' doesn't mean that the bound base 'scissor' can't be used in various ways: by conversion it can be used as a verb; it can take plural endings to become a free noun; and it can be used as a noun in attributive function ('scissor parts').
It's a bit difficult to see because in English bases almost always have free existence: unlike in Latin or Greek where there's no such thing as simply the 'word for' X, but rather a bound base with obligatory complex inflexion. -
I thought of "interstice" in terms of something "standing", but it has a sense of "liminality" also. Thanks for the suggestion.
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On *scissor, *underpant, *hijink—sorry, I only saw this yesterday—I've had a look through a couple of books and the closest I can find is the CGEL term bound base. They distinguish bases from affixes, so 'lighthouses' contains bases 'light' and 'house', and 'disperse' and 'discombobulate' contain bound bases, ones that can't exist as words once the affix 'dis' is removed. Some pluralia tantum bound bases have some marginal independent (or loosely-bound) existence in attributive constructions, as in 'trouser leg', 'scissor blade'.
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Thanks for your help, rolig
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Oh, good point! I probably should have spelled it with an apostrophe. I created a new entry for b'icicle. Much funnier! Thanks!
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Oh, good point! I probably should have spelled it with an apostrophe. I created a new entry for b'icicle. Much funnier! Thanks!
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*32-tooth smile*
Phantom Limb is waiting for you. -
Witajcže K'nam, I'm a 5th generation Texan whose family came from Reichswald Hoyerswerda Germany in 1854. Unfortunately I know nothing about either Sorbian dialect/language.
I'm only really able to answer anything about my Sorbian ancestors from right at and after the time they left Lusatia Germany.
rolig commented on the word pahljača
This is the Slovene word for a fan (the old kind of folding fan people, women especially, or rather, ladies) would use to cool themselves on hot days. I like the way it sounds. It sounds cool (in both sense of the word): the puff of pah- with the release of -ljača.
May 16, 2013
rolig commented on the word hebetude
Someone needs to create a tude list. I'd do it myself if it weren't for this damn hebetude going around.
Apr 30, 2013
rolig commented on the word villeggiatura
And for the effeminate villeggiatura—
Rife with more horns than hounds—she hath the chase,
So animated that it might allure a
Saint from his beads to join the jocund race;
Even Nimrod's self might leave the plains of Dura,
And wear the Melton jacket for a space:—
If she hath no wild boars, she hath a tame
Preserve of Bores, who ought to be made game.
— Byron, Don Juan Canto 13
"She" is England. Byron is describing the fall hunting season in the English countryside.
Apr 25, 2013
rolig commented on the word notch
Come again?
Apr 25, 2013
rolig commented on the word gorgeous gorges
The tourist agency drives them every day to a different natural wonder in the mountainous country: cliffs and ravines, rivers and streams sparkling in sunshine. There is always something else to be oohed at, photographed, and always some arduous narrow trail to be followed to get to the breathtaking vista. It is beautiful but exhausting. The group is bloated from the beauty, as every day it gorges gorgeous gorges.
Apr 24, 2013
rolig commented on the word macedoine
Not to be compared, however, with the macedoine of Macedonia, the doyenne of macedoines.
Apr 21, 2013
rolig commented on the word guerdon
Of all tales 't is the saddest – and more sad,
Because it makes us smile: his hero 's right,
And stil pursues the right; – to curb the bad
His only object, and 'gainst odds to fight
His guerdon: 't is his virtue makes him mad!
But his adventures form a sorry sight;
A sorrier still is the great moral taught
By that real epic unto all who have thought.
– Byron, Don Juan, Canto 13 (about Don Quixote, aka Don Kwix-oat)
Apr 21, 2013
rolig commented on the word bedraggled
Thanks, Pro! It's interesting how some words are only used in certain contexts.
Mar 28, 2013
rolig commented on the word bedraggled
Pro! First - Hi! It's been a long time.
Second: Is that any different from saying "drenched in sweat"?
Third: I always associate "bedraggled" with being wet, though being in a generally miserable-looking state is essential too. It would sound strange to me to say: "Gene Kelly was cheerfully bedraggled as he celebrated the joys of crooning in precipitation."
Mar 27, 2013
rolig commented on the word qiviut
"To wear the arctic fox
you have to kill it. Wear
qiviut — the underwool of the arctic ox –
pulled off it like a sweater;
your coat is warm; your conscience, better."
— Marianne Moore, "The Arctic Ox (Or Goat)"
Mar 27, 2013
rolig commented on the word frfotajke
Colloquial Slovene for "wings", as in chicken wings. A cute word derived from the onomatopoetic word "frfotati" – "to flutter", hence: "flutterers".
Mar 8, 2013
rolig commented on the list distinguishing-marks
Great list, hernesheir! I added a few: the obvious signature and tag, as well as crest and tell (in the sense of a sign that someone is lying), though I'm not sure that this last one fits with the idea of the list. With open lists, especially, I think it's wise to say what sort of words you're looking for.
Jan 7, 2013
rolig commented on the word truant
I love the older sense of truant, as "stray, displaced, wandering", used by George Eliot in this passage from The Mill on the Floss, describing the Red Deeps, an area of hollows and hills where Maggie Tulliver enjoyed taking her walks. The place, she says, had a charm for Maggie:
especially in summer, when she could sit in the grassy hollow under the shadow of a branching ash, stooping aslant from the steep above her, and listen to the hum of insects, like tiniest bells on the garment of Silence, or see the sunlight piercing the distant boughs, as if to chase and drive home the truant heavenly blue of the wild hyacinths.
— George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (1860), Book V, chap. 1, "In the Red Deeps"
Dec 31, 2012
rolig commented on the user ry
Thanks for the "evanid" suggestion, ry!
Dec 31, 2012
rolig commented on the word Wiener sausage
Those crazy mathematicians. Wiener, indeed.
Aug 23, 2012
rolig commented on the word množica
Slovene: "crowd, multitude"
Aug 23, 2012
rolig commented on the list prolaguss-bucket-list
Pro, good luck on your future endeavors! Have you got something lined up? Returning to Italy? Drop me a line if you're interested in visiting neighboring Slovenia!
Aug 2, 2012
rolig commented on the word spirit level
By 1979, "gay" in the sense of "homosexual" was already widespread among gays and lesbians themselves, so I expect that there is a play on words going on here. Bishop was a lesbian, who like most lesbians of her generation had to be very discreet; it may indeed be the case that this poem about freedom and escape (from the mirror!) indicates a new acceptance of her own homosexuality.
Jul 25, 2012
rolig commented on the word spirit level
Sonnet
- by Elizabeth Bishop
Caught—the bubble
in the spirit-level,
a creature divided;
and the compass needle
wobbling and wavering,
undecided.
Freed—the broken
thermometer's mercury
running away;
and the rainbow-bird
from the narrow bevel
of the empty mirror,
flying wherever
it feels like, gay!
1979
Jul 23, 2012
rolig commented on the list words-to-describe-bad-arguments
specious, meretricious
Jul 12, 2012
rolig commented on the word scratchish
I thought mortal enemy of polish is russish, or maybe germanish.
Jul 12, 2012
rolig commented on the word effulgent
That is hardly surprising, dailyword. This is a word that a lot of aspiring poets use when they are human.
Jun 5, 2012
rolig commented on the word pyrrhic
The sense you mention, alasdair17, pertains to the noun phrase Pyrrhic victory, not to the word pyrrhic per se, which is why I do not give it here. I do, however, provide it under "Pyrrhic victory" (note the capital "P", which I prefer since in this sense the word derives from the proper noun Pyrrhus). By the way, there really was no need to use four question marks in a row. I hope you have calmed down a little.
Jun 5, 2012
rolig commented on the word macabre
Were the Maccabees especially macabre?
Jun 2, 2012
rolig commented on the word rampid
As far as I can tell, "rampid" is (still) non-standard English. People often use it (mistakenly, I would say) for "rampant". The standard phrase is "run rampant".
Jun 2, 2012
rolig commented on the word codename
"According to anonymous senior administration sources quoted in the New York Times, Obama decided to speed up a programme first launched by his predecessor, George W Bush, codenamed Olympic Games, whose aim was to use computer viruses to attack Iran's nuclear enrichment programme."
– Peter Beaumont, "Obama 'sped up cyber-attacks on Iran's nuclear programme'", The Guardian, 1 June 2012.
The lack of a hyphen in "codenamed" (read "code-named") here is annoying. I initially read this as "co-denamed" and imagined Bush and Obama together "denaming" this programme as Olympic Games. Why do people hate hyphens? Hyphens are our friends!
Jun 1, 2012
rolig commented on the word gripeing
This is a misspelling. Note that the correct spelling is griping. As a general rule, verbs that end in a silent -e, drop the -e when the ending -ing is added. There are exceptions (the only ones that come to mind are dyeing, to distinguish it from dying, and ageing, though here many prefer aging) – but "gripeing" is not one of them.
Jun 1, 2012
rolig commented on the word erinaceus
The adjective exists, only it is spelled differently: erinaceous. Feel free to use this word, spelled correctly with the adjectival -ous suffix, to describe any hedgehoggy acquaintances you may have.
May 21, 2012
rolig commented on the word sublime
Outstanding! Thank you, Ruzuzu, for this.
*feeling a little sad, and a little curmudgeonly about the fact that modern dictionaries don't make references like "the leap of Curtius into the chasm, or the death of the martyr Stephen". Today it's all about quantifiable information with little thought to knowledge and none to wisdom.*
May 19, 2012
rolig commented on the word cloud-built
Interesting, mtc. Baratynsky's "wondrous city" has a very different connotation than "Cloud Cuckoo Land", but the latter certainly belongs on my states-of-mind-from-absurdistan-to-zion list.
Ruzuzu, Baratynsky and I go way back. I was introduced to him by Pushkin and Nabokov, with an added endorsement from Brodsky.
May 15, 2012
rolig commented on the word Cloud Cuckoo Land
Originally mentioned by a character in Aristophanes' play The Birds.
May 15, 2012
rolig commented on the word cloud-built
I love the Century Dictionary.
Btw, in my real life I am translating the poems of the Russian poet Yevgeny Baratynsky. Here is one that seems appropriate:
Now and then a wondrous city
from floating clouds will coalesce,
but the wind need only touch it,
and it’s gone without a trace.
Thus the momentary inventions
of poetic fantasy
vanish at the merest breath of
meaningless activity.
(1829)
Translated by Rawley Grau
May 15, 2012
rolig commented on the word MacGuffin
Coined by none other than Alfred Hitchcock. I placed this on my bywords list (for now at least) because this sounds like a person's name; presumably the MacGuffin in movie could be an (unnamed) character.
Feb 24, 2012
rolig commented on the user RamonaF
As someone who doesn't play violent role-playing video games I am not interested in having my images taken anywhere near WOW, thank you. And if I want any jism-layered group montages (especially of the fraternity variety), I know a few select websites where to find them.
And by the way, SPAM ALERT!!!!
Feb 16, 2012
rolig commented on the word Pied Piper
I think the Piper is called "pied" because he wears clothes made of different colored patches, like a harlequin.
Feb 5, 2012
rolig commented on the word auroch
Sadly, in his notes to Lolita (The Annotated Lolita), the otherwise seemingly erudite Alfred Appel Jr. believes that "auroch" is the singular of "aurochs", a word Nabokov uses in the all-important penultimate sentence of the novel.
Feb 5, 2012
rolig commented on the word turpid
"I loved you. I was a pentapod monster, but I loved you. I was despicable and brutal, and turpid, and everything, mais je t'amais, je t'amais!"
Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, ch. 32.
Feb 5, 2012
rolig commented on the word pornography
"In modern times the term 'pornography' connotes mediocrity, commercialism, and certain strict rules of narration. Obscenity must be mated with banality because every kind of aesthetic enjoyment has to be entirely replaced by simple sexual stimulation which demands the traditional word for direct action on the patient. … Thus, in pornographic novels, action has to be limited to the copulation of clichés. Style, structure, imagery should never distract the reader from his tepid lust."
— Vladimir Nabokov, "On a Book Entitled Lolita"
Feb 5, 2012
rolig commented on the word klarnica
2010, kakovostno, suho, Vipavska dolina, Mansus - družinsko posestvo Makovec, Brje na Vipavskem 79, SI-5263 Dobravlje
Jan 29, 2012
rolig commented on the word pinela
A dry white wine indigenous to the Vipava valley in Slovenia (according to the Slovene Wikipedia, for what it's worth, this variety was first mentioned in 1324). The excellent bottle I tried (2006 vintage) came from the Sončni škol cellar in Renče.
Jan 29, 2012
rolig commented on the word hryvnya
The difference between the spellings hryvnia and hryvnya for the Ukrainian гривня is one of English transliteration, specifically how to transliterate the Ukrainian Cyrillic letter я. In both transliterations the letter before the "a" does not represent a separate syllable, but only the softening (palatalization) of the "n". Other possible renderings would be "hryvnja", "hryvňa", "hryvn'a", and "hryvña", since the letter "j", the caron, the apostrophe, and the tilde are all conventional ways (in separate systems) of indicating such palatalization. Curiously, the Oxford American Dictionary gives "hryvna" as its main headword (despite indicating the iotization of the a in its pronunciation guide), with "hryvnia" as an "also". (I can understand why it might make sense to reserve the y-transliteration for the Ukrainian vowel "y"/"и", though the same argument can be made for preserving "i" for the Ukrainian vowel "i".)
LesHerasymchuk is right, though, about the history of the Ukrainian language: both Ukrainian and Russian (as well as Belorusian) come from Old East Slavic (the language of the medieval state known as Kievan Rus); Ukrainian does not come from Russian. In terms of continuity, it is more accurate to say that Russian comes from Old Ukrainian (though linguists don't usually use that anachronistic term, preferring instead "Old East Slavic"). And it is also true that Russian was profoundly influenced by Church Slavonic, a by-product of Old Bulgaro-Macedonian (a South Slavic language). I don't know whether modern Ukrainian has been as deeply influenced by Church Slavonic.
Jan 21, 2012
rolig commented on the word Vegetable Lamb of Tartary
Which is the correctly cased form, yarb? I would guess the lowercase barometz, since this is the name of a type of (mythical) entity (like unicorn), not a personal name (like Pegasus).
Jan 21, 2012
rolig commented on the list ada-or-ardor-vladmir-nabokov
Well, since it's Nabokov, there could well be a Slavic solution. In Slovene the verb gugati means "to rock"; a gugalnik is a rocking chair, while a gugalnica is a swing. The Russian word for "to rock or swing" is different (качаться / kachat'sya), but I wondered anyway if there was a cognate. It turns out that Dahl's mid-19th-c. dictionary includes the word гугала / gugala (from a northern Russian dialect) which means "swing" (noun) and, indeed, the verb гугаться / gugat'sya, "to swing". So I would suggest that Nabokov playfully Englished this as "google", meaning something like "sway back and forth".
Jan 20, 2012
rolig commented on the list stuffie-you-haven-t-lived
Jenn, I love the list but don't understand the title: "You haven't lived unitl you've had…" Is that it? Am I missing something idiomatic?
Jan 16, 2012
rolig commented on the word -trix
Ah, Ru! This -trix is for dames.
Jan 12, 2012
rolig commented on the word erazma
Erazma / Erasma (2004– ), a.k.a. Razmica, Razmička, Razma-Taz, Tazma-Raz, Tazma, Razi, or just Raz.
Jan 12, 2012
rolig commented on the word aglaja
Aglaja / Aglaia (2004– ), a.k.a. Glajca, Glajko, Glajkica, Glajka, Glajči, Glajči-Glu, or just Glaj.
Jan 12, 2012
rolig commented on the word nastasya
My beautiful, beloved, sweet-spirited, wise and deeply mourned feline companion Nastasya / Настасья (1986–2003), a.k.a. Nastenka, Nastechka, Nastka, Nastusya, Nusya, Nuska, Nus / Настенька, Настечка, Настка, Настусья, Нусья, Нуська, Нусь, or more formally, Anastasia / Анастасия.
Jan 12, 2012
rolig commented on the word gam
A curious choice as a collective for an order of gamless mammals!
Jan 11, 2012
rolig commented on the word Maecenas
In Russian and Slovene and, I expect, many other languages this name has become a common noun referring to a patron of the arts, especially someone who supports a particular artist, writer, or art institution.
Jan 5, 2012