Btw, the picture below may illustrate what Italians believe biscotti to be, but in English I would simply call those cookies (American English) or biscuits (British English). When Americans say "biscotti", they are probably thinking of something like this.
"My names are Saif Al Islam Ghadaffi" – but you can call him Al. The late Al. And not because he never shows up on time. Well, he doesn't, or at least he won't ever again. We hope.
You are right about the examples for alar. If you want to bring that to the attention of the people who manage Wordnik, you should put a comment on the feedback page.
very amusing, Bilby! But in fact, I see it as my sworn duty to speak against Dr Moreau-like experimentation on words that are best left in their natural habitat. (And please do not refer to such hybrid beasts as mormanteaux!)
One of the mysterious words that haunted my childhood, delighting and awing me and, perhaps, nurturing my desire to understand the meanings of words and symbols. Others encountered in my otherwise austere Presbyterian church were IHS, which was both the initials of the first three words of the message in Constantine's vision: In hoc signo vinces as well as the first three letters of Jesus' name, in a kind of Latinized Greek alphabet: IHSOYS, and the intersecting Chi Rho (XP), another Constantinian symbol.
Qroqqa, you're right, of course: the word is ill-formed by traditional standards. But then so are television, heterosexual, and a host of other words. I suppose this is evidence that the element -archy has become, or is becoming, a widely productive suffix, regardless of the etymology of the word it joins to, similar to what happened with -ology decades ago.
Clever, Q. You're saying that today you had a stupiphany about this. It took me a moment to "see what you were doing there" (as the cliche goes). But although I think this is actually a pretty good portmanteau (not only momentarily amusing but also smart, clear, and transferable), I am so sick of the recent portmanteau mania, that I have declared a Moratorium on Portmanteaux (which must never under any circumstances be referred to as a "portmantorium"!).
gangerh, "inRI"? Like the inscription on the Cross? INRI - Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudæorum, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews". Was this a Paschal Freudian slip?
By the way, can one of our Latin scholars answer's mariep's question, which started this whole thing: 'Can this be translated as "Everything in threes is perfect"?'
Thanks, gangerh! And by the way, what does easter in mean? Not to go to church on Easter Sunday? As in: "No, we're skipping the service this year. We thought we'd Easter in."
I second Ptero's bravo, Blafferty! I added snooty, which comes from snoot, of course, and refers to nose-turner-uppers. I see you have snob on the list, and that would seem to make sense by the same logic, but according to the etymological note in the OAD, its origins are obscure and, in fact, "earlier senses conveyed a notion of 'lower status or rank'", which surprised me.
Personally, I would be afraid of stirring up the Furies, especially if you're going to split their name in two. Not nice at all. Instead, I'm going to go with the luck of the Irish (though they haven't been so lucky recently), and add go bragh.
Would "twist" and "twirl" be evocative of twisting and twirling if they didn't mean what they mean? Would a non-English-speaker, upon hearing the word "twist" immediately think of rotation? I suspect that our feeling that these words somehow evoke the idea of spinning and winding may be related to other things, like our sense of the words twine, whirl, etc., as well as the onomatopoeia we associate with the initial w-/wh- sounds, as in wind, whip, whoosh, whizz, etc.
As for what word might be used for such associations, the word you use is good: evocative. I also call them fibrous words.
Thanks, Pro and Qroqqa, for the clarifications. Qroqqa, what did Perseus do (besides cut off Medusa's head, of course) to get himself filtered? Is it that potty mouth of his?
By the way, do you think English sayings, like "Good things come in threes" and "Third time lucky" could go back to this Latin expression? There is a comparable saying in Slovene: "V tretje gre rado", which means something like "third time lucky".
I would punctuate this differently: I heard her say, "Who knew?" – no full stop necessary. But more to the point, this does not really illustrate the backshift, at least not as I understand it. A better illustration would be if she asks, "Who knows about the affair?" one might report this as:
She asked who knew about the affair.
The present tense of the direct speech has been backshifted to the preterite of the reported speech.
Blaff, my sense is that there is no difference in usage, if you mean that the same person would say or write "toward" in certain contexts and "towards" in other contexts. Certainly there is no difference in meaning. As an editor I have no qualms about changing "towards" to "toward" in any context (except in quoted material) -- or vice versa, depending on the style sheet I am using. The same is true for me with regard to other -ward/-wards words. The one exception that springs to mind is the adjective untoward (e.g. "untoward behavior"); I would never use this with an -s. But for me "backward thinking" and "backwards thinking" are equally correct; it all depends on the style sheet.
Curiously, though, I don't think I would ever use "forwards" as an adjective: "forwards thinking" definitely sounds wrong to me. But that might just be me.
There is a strong bias for edited text with Google Ngrams (its results are based on books, newspapers, and magazines), and I suspect that these results are partly, maybe largely, due to the fact that the AP stylebook, among others, insists on -ward spellings. In the spoken language and in non-edited or informal texts, I wonder if you will find the same sharp preference for toward among US speakers. It is not at all unusual for Americans to say towards. Speaking personally, as a Baltimore-born copyeditor trained to follow AP, I usually write toward, but I believe I have always tended to use towards in my speech.
The first list I cared about was "fibrous words", and the first word I commented on (with a citation) was ilex, but I can't figure out what me very first word was, perhaps inveigle.
I came across this word in an unusual way. I was looking for an alternative to the word "look" (in the sense of a "look" into a certain world), and the MS Word Thesaurus gave me "shufti" on its list of synonyms. I had never encountered this word before, but apparently it is British slang (originally military slang) meaning "a quick look around".
Just as you cannot step twice into the same river (as Heraclitus said), you cannot read the same poem more than once – although you can not read the same poem many times over.
Thanks, Yarb, and everyone, for contributing to this topic. I'm particularly interested because in the last year or so I've been getting more requests to translate things into British English, and I thought this might mean not only writing "colour" and "analyse" but also things like "whilst" and "amongst", which goes against my American grain. But now I will revert happily to using "while" and "among" in such texts.
Yarb, do you think "whilst" carries any particular marking? Does it sound especially posh or Etonian to you? Would you be surprised to hear a teenager say it in normal speech?
One of the meanings of "stock" is the broth made from boiling something (meat, bones, vegetables), which is then used as the basis for a soup, gravy, or sauce. Hence, "sauce stock".
PU, you have probably been reading a mix of British- and US-published books. No one in the US, as far as I know, uses single quotation marks (or "inverted commas", as the Brits like to call them) to indicate first-level quotations; the single quotation marks are used (in the US) only for quotes within quotes (i.e. second-level quotations), as in: PU cited the example, "Bilby said, 'My ears are stuck!' "
As for the question of dots and spaces, first I think it is important to distinguish between using ellipsis to indicate omission of content and using it to indicate an unfinished thought or sentence. The example Ruzuzu offers sounds to me like an unfinished sentence, not omission of content. In this case I would use space, three spaced periods, space:
"Then bilby got his ears caught in the frivolous blades of the . . ."
Unless I am forced to use the "ellipsis symbol" MS Word devised, where they scrunch the three periods together in the most unnatural way. Then the space after the word looks strange. So I scrunch the symbol right up to the word:
"Then bilby got his ears caught in the frivolous blades of the…"
In the case of omission of content, it all depends where that omitted content was. If it was in the middle of the sentence, then I use space, three spaced periods, space:
"Then bilby got his ears caught in the . . . blades of the Wordnik copter. What did he expect? The ears were never seen again."
If it comes at the end of the sentence, then I use space, three spaced periods, space, sentence-final period:
"Then bilby got his ears caught in the frivolous blades . . . . What did he expect? The ears were never seen again."
If the omitted text comes after the end of a sentence, then I put in the sentence-final period, space, three spaced dots, space:
"Then bilby got his ears caught in the frivolous blades of the Wordnik copter. . . . The ears were never seen again."
Of course, in both combinations (sentence period + ellipsis; ellipsis + sentence period), MS Word's scrunched up ellipsis makes things ugly, so I use period, space, ellipsis symbol, space for both:
"Then bilby got his ears caught in the frivolous blades. … What did he expect? The ears were never seen again."
"Then bilby got his ears caught in the frivolous blades of the Wordnik copter. … The ears were never seen again."
I've come to think of the "-st" forms as standard for Brits because so many of the British-English texts I edit use them. But I just ran some Google n-gram searches on while/whilst, among/amongst, and amid/amidst for British English, and in all cases the non-st form dominates, though the showings for the -st forms are also quite healthy. When I ran the same searches for American English, the presence of the forms "whilst" and "amongst" is almost at 0 in the latter half of the 20th century (they had greater use in the 19th century), while "amidst" is still fairly competive with "amid".
More comparisons should probably be done to make any definite conclusion, but my sense is that the "-st" forms exist as acceptable unmarked alternatives in British English, without any feeling that they are pretentious.
As for my comment about commas, in British practice, the comma and period normally go outside the quotation marks (whether single or double) when quoting anything less than a complete sentence. Examples:
British style: There is considerable discussion at Wordnik about the "frivolous misuse of Australians". (The period goes outside the partial quote.)
American style: There is considerable discussion at Wordnik about the "frivolous misuse of Australians." (The period goes inside the partial quote – illogically, because it does not belong to the quotation, but Americans like the way it looks anyway.)
but both British and American styles find the following acceptable:
Pterodactyl commented, "I feel a need to do something frivolous with Australians." (The period goes inside because it is part of the complete sentence that is being quoted.)
I believe that "whilst", "amongst" and "amidst" are all quite standard in British English (like putting a comma after a quotation mark), without any of that aura of pretentiousness or foppishness that makes Americans groan and giggle.
That's interesting, Pro. Since the Slovenes and Italians are neighbors, and there are a lot of Italian and Friulian expressions that have made their way into Slovene, I would not have expected the same idiom to have such radically different meanings. I wonder how many faux pas have been committed in the border regions around Trieste and Gorizia.
Ruzuzu, the similarity is not surprising; the Baltic and Slavic languages are fairly close cousins.
lit. "to hold a candle for someone": to expect that someone who is sick will die soon: "… so mati tako oslabeli, da smo jim že držali svečo" (A. Ingolič, "Splavar Franc Vitužnik") / "… Mother had gotten so weak, we knew she didn't have long to live."
In the popular media, in relation to Pakistani governement agencies, the only two possible explanations for bin Laden's being able to live safely in Abbotabad for the past five years.
Thanks for noticing, RT! I do miss the place and the old regulars, as well. So it's nice to stop by once in a while. And the word list function is very useful for me. But I think it was easier to make and maintain a word list, especially a non-English one, on Wordie than it is on Wordnik. Maybe that is something I need to bring up with someone (John?).
In Slovene, this word means "being", as in the Slovene name of Heidegger's Bit in čas (Being and Time). And, it's a feminine noun with -ø ending in the nominative singular and -í ending in the genitive singular!
I just finished reading Armistead Maupin's latest extension to his classic Tales of the City series, Mary Ann in Autumn. It was what I expected: eminently devourable in a day, a low-calorie treat. But it made me realize that, for me and I think for many gay men of my age, 28 Barbary Lane is indeed a state of mind, the home of our "logical" family (as Mrs. Madrigal puts it), where people accept us, care about us, put up with us, understand us, and forgive us our failings. And we all become better for it.
"Ah! If we could only do what we wished!" her friend Mrs. Forman cries wistfully at one point in the story, thus giving voice … to the straitjacket morality that sentences poor Mr. Lucas to a rancorous and pettish dotage.
– David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell, "Introduction", in E. M. Forster, Selected Stories, (New York: Penguin, 2001), xvii; discussing Forster's story "The Road from Colonus".
I just read that this word originates in the Slavic languages, which I hadn't realized. It came into English from German (Pistole), which took it from the Czech word pišt'ala, which means "whistle, flute, wind instrument" – cf. Russian пищаль / pishchal', Slovene piščal, Polish piszczel, piszczałka, all of which refer to a (potentially) musical wind instrument. The ultimate Slavic root is pisk- ("a whistling sound"), which may be related to the English word "pipe", both probably deriving from the onomatopoetic PIE root pi-.
Well, with words that no one really uses or understands, it is not surprising that the only citations available are those that explain what the word means.
Yes, a nice word. But one of the failings of the definitions that Wordnik provides from other sources (e.g. The Century Dictionary) is that it leaves out usage tags and citations. This word, for instance, is marked as "rare" by the Century Dictionary, which also supplies the following wonderful citation from R. Whitlock's Zootomia:
"In short, a suist and selfe-projector (so far as known) is one the world would not care how soon he were gone; and when gone one that heaven will never receive; for thither I am sure he cometh not that would (like him) go thither alone."
I've been out of the country for a decade, so maybe I'm out of touch. But essentially what I hear in McFadden's usage is something like, "Oh, what a stunning war!" And that seems strange. I'm not saying his usage is incorrect; I understand what he means. And there is nothing wrong with describing the AfPak complexity in a way that points to its ability to render one dazed and senseless. The problem here is the dissonance with the more common figurative sense of "stunning", since complexity can also be astoundingly beautiful. In a different context, I wouldn't do this kind of double take, e.g. "Mr. Knightley's stunning rebuke of her treatment of Miss Bates caused Emma to question her judgement about many other things as well."
There is also the problem of mixing metaphors: Can one wrestle with something that is stunning? Isn't the implication of "stunning" – even in its figurative uses – that it leaves you incapacitated, unable to act, speechless (not a good thing for a diplomat, by the way)?
I also thought McFadden's use of the word smacked of a certain journalistic pretentiousness. All of this is just my opinion, my feeling about it. And apparently none of y'all felt that way. Which is fine. But it makes me wonder if I need to adjust my language antennae.
Still, "stunning complexity" is not the best choice if you feel no admiration for the complexity. The first meaning the OED gives is the literal meaning of the word. McFadden did not intend to say that the complexity of the situation literally knocks people out in the way a "stunning blow to the head" would. He was trying to use the word figuratively and in this sense was employing a new meaning of the word, one not listed by the OED: "extremely difficult, daunting, challenging." This would be fine if there did not already exist an established figurative meaning of the word "stunning", which the OED duly records as its second definition: "excellent, first-rate, 'splendid', delightful, etc.". So because we know from news reports that the complexity of the Afghan situation is not delightful, we are left with a certain feeling of dissonance from this collocation: it does not mean the same thing it does in, for example, the phrase: "the stunning complexity of Bach's polyphony." So I find McFadden's usage of the word strange – unless, of course, he meant to say, literally, that the complexity of the situation left Holbrooke dazed, unable to reason, unconscious.
"More recently, Mr. Holbrooke wrestled with the stunning complexity of Afghanistan and Pakistan: how to bring stability to the region while fighting a resurgent Taliban and coping with corrupt governments, rigged elections, fragile economies, a rampant narcotics trade, nuclear weapons in Pakistan, and the presence of Al Qaeda, and presumably Osama bin Laden, in the wild tribal borderlands."
– From the Robert D. McFadden's article on the late Richard Holbrooke, New York Times, 13 Dec 2010.
Here McFadden uses "stunning" to mean something like "extremely daunting", but the word inevitably adds a note of admiration for the complexity of situation, which I find strange. Is this a fairly new usage? Pretentious/hip journalese?
"China's moves to distance itself from Kim are revealed in the latest tranche of leaked US embassy cables published by the Guardian and four international newspapers."
– Simon Tisdall, "Wikileaks cables reveal China 'ready to abandon North Korea'", The Guardian, 29 November 2010
Thanks, C_B. I missed you, too. And Wordie. But I never really got used to Wordnik, I guess, like having to check both capitalized and uncapitalized versions of words. But as a German noun, this one properly needs its capital, I think.
I don't think I would describe a house as "vacuous" -- a face, an expression, a mind, yes, but not a house. For a house I would use the word "vacant". In fact, checking the Oxford American Dictionary, I see that, under "vacuous", the meaning "empty" is marked as "archaic".
I was looking for a single word that could translate the Slovene word poneumljati, "to make stupid", and found this. Unfortunately, it is not listed in dictionaries of current English, so I decided against using it. Instead, I chose the locution "dull the mind of ..." But what a great, and timely word! It needs to be revived. Contemporary society needs this word!
A word I want to remember when I have to translate the Slovene sled, as an alternative to trace, which has become overused in post-Derridean theoretical writings.
Apparently, "Eskimo" is a Red Indian Native American Indigenous American Algonquinian word meaning "raw-flesh eaters", a term one might justifiably use for people who enjoy sushi or steak tartare, so I am not sure why it would be offensive. Certainly, when I was growing up in Baltimore in the 1960s and 1970s, I never heard used in any way that was intended to cause offense. When I lived in Canada in the 1980s, I learned that the indigenous dwellers of the Canadian Arctic preferred to be known as Inuit, while those who lived in Alaska preferred to be called Eskimos, at least by non-Inuktitut-speakers. Perhaps this was because they didn't want people to botch the pronunciation of their ethnonym or because it got on their nerves when someone referred to one of them as "an Inuit" since "Inuit" is a plural form and this should properly be "an Inuk". In any case, there was no suggestion that "Eskimo" was offensive, just that it was not what they called themselves. It annoys me that people get so sensitive when it is clear that no offense is intended. Is it insulting to refer to Angela Merkel as a "German", for example, when she calls herself a "Deutsche"? Should we refer to Japanese people as "Nihonjin"?
It's ironic that this little punctuation mark, which is simply trying to bring things together in order to avoid misunderstandings, should be so divisive.
I had thought that this word must have originally referred to a Polish dance, but apparently the dance originated in Bohemia and the name derives from the Czech word půlka (of which polka would be an earlier spelling), meaning "half-step".
I don't think it's English, gangerh. Some of those hits may be from faulty hyphenations of enervate and coacervate. Where'd you find 55,500 search results for this word? I get only about 7,500 hits on Google.
Ru, it's more the case that hello became a short way of saying "How do you do?" some eighty years ago. And, I'm told, in good British society, the proper reply to "How do you do?" is "How do you do?": it's a polite formal greeting, not a question about the state of one's well-being. But today, the polite way to respond to the greeting, "How are you?" is, as you say, "Fine, thanks." But "Good, thanks," works too, meaning, "the present condition of my life is good, i.e. it's nothing for you to worry about, but thanks for showing even this formal interest."
There is a similar correspondance in the Slavic languages between muscles and mice, e.g. Russian мышца (myshtsa, "muscle") / мышь (mysh', "mouse"); and Slovene mišica ("muscle") / miš ("mouse"), where the suffixes -tsa, -ica form diminutives.
I have seen Prolagus use this a couple of times and am curious about what it means. I could probably look it up in Urban Dictionary, but there's no immediate link and I'm not fully awake yet. So I'll just ask.
My first guess would be: "What's The Big Hurry", but that doesn't fit the circs, so then, remembering BHAG (wasn't that "Big Hairy-Assed Goal"?), I thought, "What The Big Hairy". That took me to "What The Big Harry", but then, who the f--k is Harry? But maybe this is short for WTBHAD: What's The Big Hairy-Assed Deal?. I'm feeling lost.
John, I suspected this was the case and that they weren't lost forever. I am in no rush at the moment, but PNs are a useful tool for noting information about a foreign word (stress, declensions, peculiarities) that would not be of interest to the general Wordnikkery. I don't need them right away, though, but if you think you'll get to them in the next couple of months, that would be dandy.
A few bugs are still lurking in my lists with regard to non-Western Roman characters:
- In pre-Transition entries, the Slovene letter "č" still appears as an unknown character (like this: �?).
- In text describing the list, characters such as "í", "š", and, again, "č" are misencoded (they look like this, respectively: Ã, Å¡, Ä). Curiously, "i" and "š" appear correctly in other environments. (See the list slo: fem. nouns with sg. nom. ending -ø, gen. -í.
- None of my private notes seem to have survived the crossing. These were particularly important to me because they contained a great deal of morphological information about Slovene words, stuff that I didn't want to bore my fellow Wordies with. Can they be found and revived? Or are they lost forever?
Finally, let me say that the Transition has gone rather well. I am impressed, as always, with John's amazing responsiveness and patience (indeed, forbearance) and am glad that he now has a team of able assistants. Wordnik is not yet the breezy pleasure that Wordie was (most of the time), but it is moving in that direction.
Enough with the portmanteaux, please! Who started this juvenile craze? I can't open a webpage without seeing somebody's latest attempt to add a purportedly clever compact neologism to the dictionary. Are people so much in a hurry that they feel it imperative to use one neologistic, barely comprehensible word, a word that usually strikes the recipient as a slip of the tongue or typo (if written), where two or three or four words would convey the intended meaning much more directly and unambiguously. If I saw "qualtify" written out or heard it spoken, my first thought would be, "The poor guy made a mistake, has a speech defect, or simply does not know how to spell."
I would interpret the first sentence MM offers as referring to more than one series, e.g. "The three Star Trek series were on for years before being cancelled." In other words, "series" is not a pluralis tantum word (if that's the right expression) like "scissors" or "bifocals", where the plural form denotes a single referent. It is a singular noun ending in -s that has a ø-inflection in the plural.
I just realized this is a back-formation from self-destruction. After all, there is no word "to destruct". Doesn't someone have a list of back-formations where this belongs?
I expect today's colloquial expression, as in: "That Madge, she's a real piece of work!" comes from the sense of someone who is complex or complicated, not easy to figure out. This is an ironic twist on a phrase whose origin is almost certainly Shakespeare (Hamlet, II, ii): "What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!"
They're not synonyms, Oro; at least in my understanding, synonyms all have to belong to the same language. But they do happen to be cognates; hence the similarity.
I would say that the -ware words (silverware, hardware, earthenware) all tend to be collective nouns and take singular verbs. That doesn't mean, however, that someone cannot distinguish between different "softwares" (in the sense of different "kinds/species of software", not different individual programs) and be perfectly well understood. But this would be an anomalous usage.
The venerable Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika (Dictionary of Standard Slovene) provides the following definition for this adjective (I translate): "being composed of tiny, small particles that do not cling to each other"; it gives the examples sipek pesek ("?? sand"), sipek sneg ("?? snow"). I suppose powdery would work (esp. for "snow"), but is there another word that conveys this sense of tiny, non-viscous dry particles that can slip through your fingers? The expression I needed to translate was "sipek čas" ("?? time"), which clearly meant to evoke the sand in an hourglass. Unable to think of a suitable adjective, I decided on "time slipping away".
FB, thanks for the answer about the log-out. Now another bug, relating to encoding. In words entered in the Wordie Age, the Central European character "č" (c+caron) appears like this: �? (e.g. mrš�?iti), which makes these words impossible to look up. Can this be fixed?
And a related question: in the first days after the Great Transition, I tried to fix the names of two of my lists which contain problematic characters, namely the aforementioned "č" and the Russian letter "я". I was able to rename the lists with a visible "č" character, but now they are unopenable. Clicking on them takes me to the following URLs, both redirecting me to Not-Found-Land (I feel like I've arrived in Goosed Bay). Here are the list names and the URLs
About my pronunciations: I didn't see how to preview them. But in any case, I think my microphone is fried. I am enjoying your pronunciations, by the way.
Prolagus (thanks, Pro) suggested I place this comment here instead of on bugs:
Here's a peculiar bug. I clicked on the Blog, which mentioned an interesting list I thought I'd check out, so I clicked on the list, and when I went to comment on it I discovered I was no longer signed in! Seems like the Blog is the EXIT door.
And, Classically, ars means "art" in Latin. In Slovenia, Radio Slovenia 3, which features mainly classical music and high-culture programming, is called, Radio Ars, which used to crack me up (no pun intended). And their is an upscale chain of shoe stores in Ljubljana, which is also called ARS. Shoecabbages, indeed.
Here's a peculiar bug. I clicked on the Blog, which mentioned an interesting list I thought I'd check out, so I clicked on the list, and when I went to comment on it I discovered I was no longer signed in! Seems like the Blog is the EXIT door.
I would question only the inclusion of commercial names, such as Fiat, Time, and Life, which would basically mean you would include any word that had a magazine or newspaper named after it (Look/look, Times/times, Sun/sun etc.).
How do I know that this doesn't refer to men seceding from something, or to a procession of men, or to men ceasing to exist (a "man-cessation"), or if I simply hear it, to a session of some body at which women are excluded. This tendency to form portmanteau words at the drop of a hat (at a drat!?) really gets my billygoat gruff. No problem, if it's done in jest, but when people start acting like these are serious words, I start getting a little scared.
This almost makes sense. Boston, aka "Beantown" (from the poor Irish immigrants there who made their diet on baked beans, which later became famous in their own right) used to be a very Catholic, very conservative place, so the more risqué traveling theater shows proudly touted that they were "Banned in Boston", but they might have said as well: "Beantown banned it!"
Pro, pretty much any English noun can become a verb – can be verbed, as some would say illustratively – not that that's always a good thing. Please don't umbrage me for saying that.
John, in the first day or so of the Transition, where problems with text-encoding did strange things with my list names, I tried to fix two of them, but only ended up sending these two to the Province of Not-Found-Land. The two lists in question are titled "Pogovorno: Zoran Hočevar, Rožencvet" and "i~je~я~ich~jaz". Can they be fixed? Also, the letter "č" ("c" with a caron) still appears in list names and pre-Transition words as "�?". Can I fix this myself in the list names, or will I only screw things up?
On case-sensitivity: I like the idea of putting the different variants together. After all, sometimes the gap between the uppercased form and the lowercased form is not as wide as in Polish/polish: "The august ruler was born in August." "She enjoyed a cheese danish in the Danish capital." "The morocco-bound tome was shipped to Morocco." "After our turkey dinner, I went with my friend from Turkey to see the latest Tom Cruise flick, and I couldn't believe I paid 12 bucks to see that turkey."
Is this a good place to leave general comments -- or point out bugs -- about the transition?
I just clicked on the word celadon and noticed that my list "paintboxes and rainbows" was not one of the lists noted in the sidebar. And yet, this word is indeed on that list. Will old Wordie lists be listed as listing words in the list sidebar of the Comments section? (Yes, I am trying to see how many forms of the word "list" I can use in one sentence; it's called polyptoton.)
Oops, but now, when I tried to fix a couple more list titles ("i~je~я~ich~jaz" and "pogovorno: Zoran Hočevar, Rožencvet") and then clicked on them, I get the "Not found" page.
By the way, I see that the "č" appears correctly in the comment I just wrote here. And I was able to fix the title of my list "slovenščina" simply by retyping the "č". So I am feeling hopeful.
Thanks for your comment, John. I'm impressed that things look as much like Wordie as they do. I am sure you will keep trying to work out all the bugs, including the apparent difficulties imposed by the Cyrillic alphabet and even certain characters in the Central European Latin alphabets (like "č"). It is amusing that Hindi and Chinese characters should appear in my "slovenščina" list. When I click on such words, I get the message, "Disallowed key characters in global data", which curiously points to the different meanings of the word global. Good luck with finding an effective bug spray.
"Marshall aid" refers to money the United States made available to European countries for rebuilding after World War II. The plan was designed by the U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall, hence the name.
Hi, Ru, sorry to take so long in replying. I can't help you with the origin of the Czech ano, I'm sorry to say. Historically, the Slavic "yes" was da, though in some languages, under the influence of German (I'm guessing), it became ja (in Slovene) or jo (in colloquial Czech).
Slovene and other South Slavic languages, sort of like Georgian I suppose, have an affix to indicate place. In the case of Slovene, it's the suffix -iš�?e:
igriš�?e – "playground" or "playing field", from the verb igrati, "to play";
pokopališ�?e – "cemetery", from the verb pokopati, "to bury";
letališ�?e - "airport", from the noun letalo, "airplane", which comes from the verb letati, "to fly";
težiš�?e – "center of gravity", from the verb težiti, "to be heavy, to weigh down on";
gledališ�?e – "theater", from the verb gledati, "to look".
This last is particularly interesting in comparison with its Croatian counterpart, kazalište, "theater", from kazati, "to show" (an older meaning; in modern Croatian, this means "to say").
I was copyediting a text today and came across this expression and thought, "Why, that's a Sweet Tooth Fairy! No, wait, it's a Perfect Sweet Tooth Fairy!"
MM, the "might" referred to the possibility of your disdaining not only the bigots (which I am sure you do) but also the overanxious liberals who worry about never offending anyone, even those who would like to implement Shariah law in Ontario. By the way, I never take umbrage; there's so much of it around that it's pretty near worthless to me.
My ad hoc coinage for a symbol composed of punctuation marks, often called "emoticon", a word I cannot love (I'm not especially fond of the phenomenon itself either).
Well, it did occur to me that MM might (justifiably, perhaps) disdain both the bigots on Youtube and the so-called "pussies" (sorry, C_b; I know, people who use the word "pussies" like this are dicks) whose zeal for multiculturalism extends even to considering whether to allow the practice of Shariah law (which is a current issue in Canada, which I believe is where MM grew up). And there is, by the way, plenty of evidence that Miss Mouth has a fondness for provocative, non–politically correct words and phrases. My point was merely to register a dislike for the whole "dangerous agenda" argument. I certainly am not interested in policing any Wordie content. But part of the freedom of Wordie is the freedom to say "I don't like this and here's why" without anyone feeling like they're being either censored or censured.
There is a similar thing in Slovene (and other Slavic languages), whereby certain place names take the preposition "na" (lit. "on/at"), while most take the preposition "v" ("in"). The most interesting example, perhaps, is with the city of Vienna, which in Slovene is called Dunaj, a name that comes from the old Slavic name of the Danube River. So one says, e.g. Živijo v Berlinu ("They live in Berlin") but Živijo na Dunaju ("They live in Vienna"). With the latter, the original idea was that one was saying, "They live on the Danube", which obviously meant in the capital of the empire.
Well, MM, you should put it in quotation marks if it's a quote; that would at least indicate that it is not necessarily your view. I admit that I don't know how to interpret the punctoglyph "-_-": does that mean sarcasm?
Unfortunately, with political and social discourse in America (especially, and of course especially on the Internet) sinking to new depths everyday, it's getting more and more difficult to tell the difference between sarcasm, hyperbole, intentional insult, strategic prevarication, disinformation, sheer ignorance and downright nastiness. What tends to stand out, however, because it's so rare, is serious, respectful, informed and well-considered comment.
I object to the whole clause "who are letting their country get taken over by the Islamic Agenda"; I remember when people started talking about the "gay agenda". The fact is that the people who talk in such terms are usually doing so to promote their own agenda of fear- and hate-mongering, as a way of ensuring that people who think like them (i.e. narrow-mindedly, selfishly, unimaginatively, naively) stay in charge of things.
What is that famous Italian (I think it's Italian) saying that goes something like "the translator is a traitor" or "translation is betrayal"? I bet you know it, Pro.
Btw, I once had a brilliant professor who was Czech. He generally spoke excellent English, but in one lecture at least he kept referring th "haffazard" events (with the stress on the third syllable). I should perhaps have quietly informed him of the correct pronunciation after the lecture, but it was so cute I wanted to start saying it myself.
Theory (a) seems like clever retrofitting. Back in the day (my day, the early 90s), in bars you tended to hear "twinkie" (perhaps because sweet and empty-headed = sweet and empty calories?) as much as "twink"; the short form really developed more as a category of porn on the internet (where character is rarely evident) than as a description of a certain kind of actual person.
In Hindu philosophy, avatar is the bodily manifestation, or incarnation, of a released soul or deity. It's a shame how this word has become diluted, not to say cheapened, by computer jargon.
In English, kh is a digraph in khan, Kharkov, and Khrushchev, where it conventionally represents the voiceless velar fricative /x/ in other languages, though in English it is usually pronounced as the voiceless velar plosive /k/.
In Croatian dictionaries, Lj and Nj are listed separately, and I think that in an alphabetized list, the word lutka would come before the word ljubav (since Lj comes after L). Also you see vertical signs like this in Zagreb:
K
NJ
I
Ž
A
R
A
(knjižara - "bookstore").
I would guess that this practice (including the treatment of the digraph dž as a single letter) stems from the effort to create a one-to-one correspondence between the Croatian Latin alphabet and the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, where lj=љ, nj=њ, and dž=џ.
Slovene, by the way, can't be bothered with Serbian Cyrillic correspondences and treats all its digraphs as two letters for the purposes of alphabetization.
My guess would be that it came into English via Latin, which took it from Greek (Θωμᾶς), though orginally it's an Aramaic name meaning "twin". In any case, that "h" was part of a digraph representing the Greek letter theta.
Fun list! I would question, however, the inclusion of Thomas, where "Th" is still a digraph (two letters representing one phoneme), just as "ch" is still a digraph in "character". An interesting case is threshold, where "sh" represents "sh + h".
Molly is right. In Dutch, this is a digraph, two letters that together represent one phoneme. English digraphs are ch, sh, th, ph (in "phone" but not in "upholstery"), among many others. Some languages consider certain digraphs as single letters, such as Dutch with ij, German with ß (= ∫ + s), Czech with ch, Croatian with lj and nj, and Russian with ы. I don't know if there is a special term for such cases, however.
HH is right: the singular form is aurochs, and according to my dictionary (useful things, dictionaries), the plural is the same, like deer. One aurochs, two aurochs, many aurochs. I would label this form a misspelling (and in fact I have done so).
Thanks for including me among your bananas, G. I suppose I always hoped my light would be a little bigger, not a macrolight, of course, but, well, something noticeable. *sigh*
The word is ugly, but it is also mispelled (if madeupicals can be mispelled). It should logically be prestifiguratators. "Presdi-" makes no sense at all.
I know it well. Just when you're convinced you'll never be able to learn this damned language, you suddenly find yourself eavesdropping on conversations at the next table with no trouble at all.
The Glagolitic alphabet is lovely and strange. You can still come across it in parts of Croatia. In Istria they sell little ceramic Glagolitic scrolls as tourist souvenirs. The word glagol, by the way, is the Old Slavic word for "word" (today it means "verb" in most Slavic languages).
You've gotta wonder why Amazon decided on this idiotic name. When I link the word "kindle" with books, I think of Nazis and book-burning. Is the idea that our old-fashioned paper books can now be used as kindling? Marketing morons.
This sounds very strange to me. I would say, "till it was 15 years old". I think someone has made a mistake.
By the way, verbs don't have cases; they have tense and mood, among other things (Slavic verbs also have aspect). The standard term is "subjunctive mood". "Case" refers to nouns: nominative, genitive, etc.
The Slovene version of "Erasmus", this is a fairly popular name perhaps because of the historical Baron Erazem Predjamski, who built his castle in a cave and became known as a kind of Robin Hood figure. I gave my cat the (rather rare) female version of this name, Erazma, which seemed to me an excellent name for a cat.
A name one occasionally encounters in Slovenia, perhaps because it is also the name of the hero of Slovenia's national epic (every country has one), The Baptism by the Savica (Krst pri Savici, 1835) by France Prešeren. What is strange about this name is that it means something like "devil's peace". It forms the nickname Črt, which means, yes, "evil spirit".
This is the Slovene calque on Theodore: "God's gift." The short form of the name is Božo, which makes me wonder if the name is at all related to that of Bozo the Clown.
I have always liked this name, but only recently did I realize that the name means "East" (in Old Slavic), and was the equivalent of the Latin name Orientius (the 5th-century St. Orientius was a poet, by the way).
A friend of mine, who is from Fredonia, NY, told me that the Marx Brothers named the Duck Soup country Freedonia because they were upset by the bad reception they received when they did a show in Fredonia, NY, and wanted to make fun of the town.
@ TheSarahEffect: Sorry to hear about the bad experience with your English teacher, who seems to feel it's her/his job to limit rather than expand your vocabulary. I wonder if your teacher knows what "esoteric" means; I certainly wouldn't use it to describe "puissant" – erudite maybe, but not "esoteric".
I pronounce it more or less as you and Chained_bear do: two syllables: PWISS-ent (that "e" is a schwa). I think the French pronunciation would be: pü-i-SÃ, where the "ü" stands for that narrow, unrounded front-of-the-mouth "u", the "i" is as in machine, and the "ã" is a nasal "ah". But when you're speaking English, I strongly recommend using English pronunciations.
C_b, I wasn't aware that "discussion" as a term had become ubiquitous on the Web. Sigh. Of course, my suggestion was meant to encourage just the opposite of ranting. For mean, discussion involves listening and consideration (in both senses of the word); it's a two-way thing, whereas "comments" and "commentary", etc., seem one-way, i.e. "let me tell you what I think about this." That said, you are right, I think, that "comments" is a fairly "neutral" word. Still it would be great if we could come up with something that did actually encourage people to discuss things, since after all Wordie has been the site of many excellent discussions, as well as fuflun-combat, and it would great if people understood that from the get-go.
I think it would be great to have a separate space for actual citations, so we can see how a word is being used, and then have another place for "comments". I suppose "comments" is the standard name for such things, though I would like to see people encouraged to discuss the words and not just comment on them. I would therefore suggest "Discussion" as a header.
Bilby, the question is about where the expression "I'ma/Imma/I'm'a/I'm 'a/I'm a-" comes from, and how it should be spelled, when the "a" particle indicates the immediate future tense (in standard English we would say, "I'm going to let you finish"; Kanye said, "I'm'a let you finish.")
This very question is currently being discussed over at Language Log, Telo. Personally, I don't like the spelling "Imma", which looks like it should rhyme with the word "dimmer" (British received pronunciation). I would vote for "I'm 'a" since it's pretty clear that the "a" is a contraction of "gonna" (I'm going to > I'm gonna > I'm 'na > I'm 'a). I'm not sure Kanye actually pronounces a double "m", but if he does this would have arisen through assimilation of the "n" in "gonna".
Sounds like a great list idea, Erin! I, for one, wouldn't want to see it 86'd. Though if I wanted to nitpick, I'd say that RSVP does have vowels: ɑ�?, ɛ and i�? (twice); it just doesn't have vowel-letters.
Fr., lit. "in yogurt". With the verb chanter this apparently means "in a kind of gibberish that approximates the lyrics", esp. when the lyrics are in a foreign language. See the discussion at Language Log.
Thanks, Erin! I am feeling reassured. Ooh, but I like Molly's idea of a Lexome Project. The best of all possible words! Borges's Library of Babel but with scores of writing systems! Now that would be something.
While I would applaud Wordnik-like efforts in other linguistic communities (Словник, Besednik, Wortnik – would the French Wordnik be named Mo'nique®, by any chance?), I'm not enthused about the idea of segregating the languages. The working language of Wordie is, by and large, English, though conversations in other tongues do occur and are in no way discouraged, but we still talk quite a lot about non-English words: what they mean, how they sound, what Beatles songs they bring to mind (see oplaziti), and so on. Will there still be a place on Wordienik for non-English words, nonce words, symbols, ideograms, glyphs, numerals, and all the different alphabets that some of us find so fascinating, delightful, comical, or horkworthy. What will happen to 42? Or will they be consigned to their own respective versions of Wordnik?
I have liked Wordnik since I first discovered it a few months ago, and the upcoming amalgamation doesn't give me the jitters, not too much at least, largely because John has proved himself time and time again to astonishingly level-headed and responsible for someone who likes to call himself a slack bastard little teapot. So I trust John. And I like Wordnik. And I also know that Wordies are tenaciously protective of what we've got.
But I do have a question. Wordnik seems to have a noticeable bias toward, well, how can I put this, English. And though I love English and even make my living from it, I also deeply appreciate Wordie's (and Wordies') openness to other languages, e.g my Slovene and Russian, as well as Indonesian, Urdu, Chinese, Georgian, a raft of Amerindian and African languages, not to mention the Madeupical tongue, beloved by many of us. So will these possibilities continue in Wordnik? Will we feel compelled to bite our many tongues? Will Wordnik become multilingual? Will it be useful for learners of foreign tongues?
Or perhaps, Wordnik will prove even more adaptive, such as by having links to foreign-language dictionaries? That would be very neat.
Asativum and Bilby, thanks for the suggestions. Lo' and Emily are added, and, via Simon and Garfunkel, Emily reminded me of another American poet whose name has become a byword, so I've added Robert Frost too. Mecca I didn't add, since although it is undoubtedly a byword, this list is reserved for personal names.
We met him again later, at dinner. He had a curious man with him, the Marquis of something or other. … He took us back to his house and name-dropped. '… And I was there when Madame de Gaulle made her famous gaffe, you know. Somebody asked her, "What are you looking forward to when you retire?" "I am looking forward most to a penis," she replied. After a pause somebody said, "Oh, oui, happiness, madame." '
– Joe Orton, The Orton Diaries, ed. John Lahr (London: Methuen, 1986), 176.
Saddam's full name is, according to Wikipedia (a source I distrust, but this information seems correct), Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti. The "Hussein" is actually a patronymic (his father's name) which is being used, for the convenience of the media, as a "last name". "Al-Tikriti" indicates where the family originates (the town of Tikrit). I am not sure about the "Abd al-Majid" part. I used to have an Armenian friend from Baghdad, who told me that his official Iraqi name consisted of his first name + his father's first name + his grandfather's first name. The Armenian family name never came into the picture. So it is a mistake to think of "Hussein" as Saddam's "surname" the way European last names are surnames.
Oh, I would take this in a different direction altogether, to mean something like "attacking by means of suddenly changing your views with the intention of disarming your opponents". Politicians do this a lot:
"The senator said she would support the measure but then opposed it on technical grounds. Her opponent accused her of using luftwaffle tactics."
You could also just say "expression" or even just "eyes". I am not sure that there is anything "cold" about the term facial expression, by the way. "Visage", "aspect", and "countenance" are all rather formal words. "Look" is more colloquial, but can be ambiguous (e.g., it can refer just as well to one's clothes or posture).
Latin-alphabet spellings are confusing things. The Polish (and Czech and Slovak) spelling ch corresponds to the Russian Cyrillic letter х, which is usually transliterated (for English speakers) as kh.
The word Mia is referring to begins with the affricate sound "ch" (in Cyrillic, usually spelt as ч), as in the English word "church" (in Polish spelt as cz, in Czech, Slovak, and the South Slavic languages as �?).
MM, I don't have any strong associations with the names "Fred" or "Eugene", but I suspect that's a generational thing. Also, even for a generation such associations can change pretty quickly. I remember as a kid thinking that Ursula was a sort of dorky name, but then Ursula Andress came along and the name became sexy. I suppose most Americans associate the name Igor with the misshapen servants of mad scientists, but then I've known a few wonderful men named Igor, not to mention the Igor whose host was the subject of a famous lay, so that association has been lost for me.
PU, there is no real reason to think this is Shaw's opinion. It's what his character Henry Higgins says, and I don't think the misogynistic Higgins is really Shaw's mouthpiece here. One should be careful when quoting from plays.
Of course, this quote was the basis of Higgins's song "I'm an Ordinary Man" in the Lerner and Lowe musical My Fair Lady:
Let a woman in your life and your serenity is through,
she'll redecorate your home, from the cellar to the dome,
and then go on to the enthralling fun of overhauling you...
Let a woman in your life, and you're up against a wall,
make a plan and you will find,
that she has something else in mind,
and so rather than do either you do something else that neither likes at all…
I'm sure one of the dictionaries linked to the icons above could help you out, PU. This is not a word I know. But this is the kind of question that makes me wonder if the social-networking generation (generally speaking) knows how to use reference tools or merely relies on twittered opinion.
MM, I suspect the "literal" meaning would be "one who has fled/escaped/run from something". The Slavic root -beg- / -bjeg- relates to the notion of fleeing or escaping; compare the Latin root -fug- (I suspect from the same IE root as -beg-) in words such as fugitive (one who has fled), centrifugal (fleeing the center), refuge (a place one runs back to).
But I am having second thoughts about that "A". I think it might mean "Association" as in "The Gay and Lesbian Association of Mittel-Europa", which would certainly be appropriate to my situation.
I was quite happy to see the kitty with the bagel on its head. But the pic Skip linked to is, well, let's talk about kitties with bagels on their heads.
Sorry to nit-pick, C_B. I'm sure it's fine. Redundancies are a natural part of language, anyway. But I've been overworked recently, so my editorial eagle-eye needs some rest. Thankfully, I am going on vacation for two weeks on Saturday, to the island of Hvar in Dalmatia.
But now I have to find my way out of the copse of texts that are still waiting for me.
Dontcry, I don't think gays would be against Mamie Eisenhower (we have a thing for First Ladies), and I personally have a soft spot for Mr. Ed (I was just singing his theme song a few days ago). And Maine now lets us marry, so I don't want to be against that state. But I'm overwhelmed by all these excellent suggestions!
RT, just coming up with an appropriate name would fulfill the entrance requirements, I think (apart from the more obvious ones).
Actually, friends, this is the name of a new organization I'm starting: Gays and Lesbians Against … but here I can't decide: Mediocre Editing? Marginal Errors? Misguided Euphemisms? Muddled Expressions? Mental Enervation? Midlife Epiphanies? (no, actually, I am for midlife epiphanies) …
Literally "well-arrived" (dobro + došel) + the suffix -ica, which turns this into a concrete noun; hence, "a thing (here, a party or ceremony) associated with a good arrival".
Not to dampen any memories, C_b, but isn't this a bit of a redundant phrase. I mean, can you have a copse of anything other than trees? A copse of pencils?
I love potica, especially on this side of the Julian Alps, but even I had to wonder if this is spam (though the thought of spam potica makes me retch). So, Punca girl, please make some clearly non-spam contributions to Wordie and we'll give you a great big dobrodošlica!
You're probably right, Bilby. Here's a picture of kola�?. It's definitely, cake-ish, more than potica is. But I suppose I have come to think of "cake" as what the Slovenes (and many others) call torta, which is lighter, sweeter, creamier, and certainly not as good for you (except emotionally perhaps) as kola�? or potica.
A question for all you British spellers in the Wordieverse. Why isn't this word spelled *thermometre? Like metre, kilometre, etc. (I would assume the same "American" spelling goes for other measuring devices with names ending in -meter.)
lit. "to lead someone thirsty across water." The meaning is to promise something, in your words and behavior, and then in the end renege on your promise.
A variant of this phrase was used today in the gay magazine blog Narobe in regard to the Slovene government's promise regarding same-sex marriage:
"O tem danes odlo�?ajo na vladi ... mi pa bomo vsemu temu verjeli, ko bomo videli zapisano v zakonu. Žal je bila glbt-skupnost v zadnjih petnajstih letih že ve�?krat žejna pripeljana �?ez lužo."
"The government is deciding on this permitting same-sex marriage today … but we will believe all this when we see it written into law. Sadly, over the last 15 years, the GLBT community has already several times been led thirsty across a puddle."
I love The Mighty Boosh, which probably warrants its own list (by someone who has the DVDs, probably).
But "Christ, you're thick" doesn't seem like a Booshism to me; it's simply the British equivalent to the North American "Boy, you're dumb!" Or am I missing something here, MM?
Obviously, a semi-centaur would have half the number of limbs of a centaur, ergo, this is a creature with three limbs (2 legs and one arm, perhaps?). A creature with two horse legs and two human arms would be, presumably, a dicho-trito-centaur (two thirds of a centaur).
*Hoping Qroqqa or Milo will correct my preposterous Greek prefixes*
LOL, C_b! It took me a minute, but I finally got the Euripedes joke (when I realized Italians were probably involved). But I'm still drawing a blank with Euridice.
I don't think I get it. I know who Eurydice is, so I understand the "looking back with silent tears" reference, and Mentos is a candy, right? (though it sounds like the name of some mythological figure, the Greek god of the mind, perhaps), but am I am not sure what the original reference is to. What am I missing?
It's fascinating what you say about Alabama and Mississippi. My mother, a true Southern belle from Danville, Va., tended to look down on these states as being uncultured, redneck, and crudely racist (as opposed to her own, more genteel racism). But that was thirty years ago. I can see why those in the Deep South would believe Va., N.C. and even Ga. are Yankified (not sure that is true of S.C., though). But once you get outside of the DC suburbs and the Raliegh-Durham-Chapel Hill Silicon triangle, and Atlanta, I think you're still very much in the Old South. That is true even of Southern Maryland and much of the Eastern Shore, as well as rural Delaware. (At least back in the 1990s, it was.)
Chip?! It's more like a plank. Slovenes, too, definitely have a love-hate relationship with those they call južnjaki / Southerners (when they're being polite). But I think the loss of the synthetic "pure instrumental" in Slovene is a little sad.
Well, actually SBC uses the instrumental the way it was originally used (and as it still is used in Russian and most other inflected Slavic languages): without a preposition; the case itself indicates the means or manner by which something is done. The Slovenes, probably influenced by the German use of the preposition mit to indicate means and manner, at some point started appending their own preposition "with", z/s, followed by the noun phrase in the instrumental.
Perhaps a better "literal" translation would be "following the bread on one's belly". It is sort of equivalent to the American expression, "to go where the money is", but the South Slavic phrasing is so much more vivid.
Oh yeah, there is definitely an Old South. Ask any white Virginian (outside of the DC suburbs, which don't really count). Basically, geographically, the "Old South" refers to Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and traditionally, Maryland and Delaware – the Southern states that were among the Thirteen Colonies. But it is more often used to express nostalgia about a fantasized antebellum South evoked by such books as Gone with the Wind, where the (white) men are all honorable, courageous gentlemen, the (white) women all refined Southern belles, the blacks are happy to have such fine, respectable, and kindly people as their masters. Like many of the places in my "States of Mind" list, the Old South never existed except as a dream.
It may not be British in origin; it just seems to me that I wasn't really aware of the term until I started watching British TV on a regular basis. I imagine a good dictionary of slang could resolve the question.
As to why people use it, that's interesting. What you call someone who is pregnant is sort of in the same class as how you describe a couple who live together without "benefit" of official matrimony, and what they call each other. We don't have a simple, casual word for it that doesn't point to the (largely illusory) awkwardness of the situation. The word pregnant seems OK to me, but it does carry a whiff of the biology textbook, complete with line drawings of the associated reproductive organs. Words evoke pictures, and though in most cases pregnancy is of course something we celebrate, people do not want to evoke the biological aspect of it casually. So we have come up with a raft of phrases, from the Bibilical "with child" (which is very nice, I think) to the 20th-century expecting (which is the term I always heard in the 1960s. But today we like to think of ourselves as direct, casual, and nonchalant, if not flippant, when it comes to sexual matters; hence, preggers. But I prefer the more restrained "expecting", though I don't have any real problems with the word "pregnant" either.
And now my standard gratuitous Slovene interpolation: the Slovene word for "pregnant" is nose�?a, which is simply the feminine present participial adjective of the verb nositi, "to carry". So Slovenes say: "She's carrying."
An old Slovene word for "hill" or "smallish mountain ridge". It's found especially in many place names, such as Goriška brda (the Gorizia/Gorica Hills), where many of Slovenia's best wines come from.
Tormented by an unexplained feeling of guilt, a penniless philosophy student forces himself to read the complete works of William McGonagall over and over again.
Hilarious, Fox. Though I would imagine this more as some upper-class English drawing-room farce in which the climax concerned a failed, and rather droll, attempt at matricide.
The self-styled Dr Goofball was, apparently, so chagrined by Wordizens' robust defense of our beloved site that he removed the offending installment from his blog without explanation or apology. But documentation of the events has been faithfully preserved on the git word-page.
Knowing that a number of Wordizens make their living as editors of one sort or another, I thought you would enjoy this delightful quote from copy-editor John E. McIntyre's blog:
The writer: To an editor (well, to some editors), the writer is an annoying inconvenience that nevertheless makes editing possible — the chicken that must be plucked, cleaned, and butchered before it can be turned into a delightful coq au vin. But you do have some obligation to make the text resemble the work of the author, perhaps dusted off and perfumed a little, but still recognizably the author more than you. The text should be not what you would have written, but what the author would have written had he been a better writer.
I wonder if bird could be etymologically related to the Slovene word brdo, which means "hill, small mountain". According to Marko Snoj's Slovene Etymological Dictionary, this word comes from the Old Slavic *bъ"do, meaning also "comb" and more specifically, "weaver's reed" (a comblike tool for keeping the threads separated; this meaning has been retained in the Czech brdo and the Russian бёрдо / byordo. Snoj suggests that the original meaning was "something sharp, a sharp tool, or sharp rocks". He points out that in Latvian, birde means "loom" (the weaving machine), and birds means "weaver's reed". Strangely, he does not take the word back to its IE root, but he suggests that it is related to the Old English bord, meaning "board". I am wondering if the notion of "sharpness" could be behind the English "bird", as in the sharpness of the beak. Just a thought (and another, probably gratuitous, Slovene interpolation from me).
And colloquially, people tend to drop the initial "p", making ti�?, which is also the common slang word for "penis", roughtly equivalent in usage to the English "dick".
Am I right in thinking that this is a distinctly British word? I mean, even if Americans use it, I have the feeling they picked it up from Eastenders or some other British show.
For some reason, Slovene tends to prefer pti�?, the masculine form for "bird", to the feminine ptica, which is more common in other Slavic languages, though this latter form is also used. Perhaps, this is because the German word, Vogel, is masculine (and German was the dominant language in Slovene territory for nearly a thousand years). Neither pti�? nor ptica, by the way, refers specifically to the male or female bird; they are both acceptable as the generic word for "bird".
According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the English word bird is of "uncertain" origin and has no cognate in other Germanic languages. Now that surprised me.
The unreferenced Wikipedia page for this word says that it combines 'the Latin "gossypium" (cotton) and the Swahili "boma" (place of concealment)'. Now that is truly a bizarre hybrid.
This reminds me of Russian, where vegetables are often identified as grammatically singular mass nouns: морковь / morkov' means "carrots", while морковка / morkovka means "a carrot"; горох / gorokh "peas", but горошинка / goroshinka "a pea". In both these (and, I think, other) cases, the singulative is formed with a diminutive suffix.
This list makes me all Christina Aguilera–like and I want to sing a sweet song for all those words that get neglected, scorned, and abused, like moist and ughten and pedagogy.
Oh yes, you're beautiful, no matter what they say… and Goofwad can't bring you down…
The word for bear in the Slavic languages – medved – is in fact a "kenning". Bears, it seems, were sacred animals to the Slavs, who therefore did not dare pronounce the name for "bear", and instead used the phrase "knower of honey" ("med" = "honey", "ved" = "one who knows"). An English cognate might be meadwit.
Edit: See Qroqqa's apt correction. The proper kenning would be honey-eater.
It's an accurate translation. Here's the original:
Переменил не�?колько зан�?тий, лечил�?�? от д-душевного недуга, путеше�?твовал по Европе. В Ро�?�?ию прибыл из �?нглии, 11 декабр�?. С �?ового года �?лужит мило�?ердным братом в больнице дл�? умалишенных «Утоли мои печали».
I like this word; it has a long and venerable tradition. It is excellent, and I will so tag it. Pedestrian words like "teaching" and "education", which coddle the ignorant and talk down to the layman, hardly come close to the beauty of this word and its kin (pedagogical, pedagogue), which proudly display the dignity and valor of the profession they represent. This word belongs on a Yes, yes, yes! list.
The telephone use of "I'm going to let you go now" is that polite American trick of acting like you're doing someone a favor when in fact you are telling them to do something (end the conversation). It is related to the "I need you to" locution (as when a nurse says, "I need you to lift your arm"). In both cases, suggesting that you are doing someone a favor or asking someone to do you a favor is a way of avoiding a direct imperative ("Get off the phone"; "Lift your arm"), which Americans interpret as rude. Similarly, we tend to phrase imperatives as questions: "Why don't you open the window?" "Could you turn down the volume a bit?" There is a deep-seated dislike, it seems, for the grammatical imperative.
Great find, Bilby (I mean the original link). The discussion about Dear Leader News Radio reminds me of the radio that was installed in my dorm room in Leningrad, back in the day. Only one station, of course: Говорит Ленинград / Govorit Leningrad ("Leningrad speaking"). And every hour, the time was announced with the first bars of "Moscow Nights" ("Podmoskovnye vechera"). Talk about earworm! Fortunately, you could turn the radio off.
I once told a prospective boss that if living in LA was a requirement of the job, I wasn't sure I wanted it. He let me work via computer from Baltimore for a year and a half, then moved the company to San Diego. I would have gone there, but by that time I had decided to move to Slovenia.
New Yorkers, by the way, always seemed really friendly – they move at a faster pace than most of the rest of us, but somehow generally know how to keep their feet on the ground.
My first Russian sentence, from dialog on a "Learn Russian" LP, which we were supposed to memorize even before we had any idea what we were saying, was:
Вот �? и приехал в Мо�?кву. Я думаю, что зде�?ь мне понравит�?�?.
Vot ya i priyekhal v Moskvu. Ya dumayu, chto zdes' mne ponravitsya.
What makes Washington different from other cities is that capital-P Politics is the only real industry in the town, and the power shifts every two or four or eight years, so people get jittery, and are especially sycophantic or disdainful, depending on who you are.
As a native Baltimorean, I am, of course, predisposed to hate DC (the rivalry is Homeric). It is a wonderful place to be a tourist, however. In addition to the famous tourist sites, the town also has great theater, art, and food. The natives are fine (this means, largely, the people who work in the service, maintenance, and support industries, most of whom are African American), but the transients and others who make a career in government are notoriously, well, careerist. When you meet someone in a club, for example, rather than asking about your interests or telling you theirs, they will present you with their resume (verbally, of course), and if yours doesn't match it, well, seeya! It's all about who you know, what contacts you can provide, and generally how connected you are to the people in power. Very icky.
Very exciting, Milo. (I assume you are talking about Sakartvelo and not the Peach State.) I was in Tbilisi many, many years ago, and it was wonderful. A beautiful place. We also went to the ancient church in Mtskheta. You gotta love a language that can do things like that. And the alphabet is shapely indeed.
I guess there's no accounting for condiments. (What a great word, by the way!) As for barbecue, I am with Skipvia 100 percent. Though I always put catsup on my Hamburgers, Frankfurters, and Wieners, but not my Berliners or Dresdners (who prefer something even spicier). Oh wait, are talking about food?
When my father once brought up the "gay downfall of Rome" hypothesis, I pointed out that it made much more sense to blame the downfall of Rome on the Christians. After all homosexuality had been celebrated in Rome for centuries, but it wasn't until the Empire became officially Christian that things fell apart completely.
Slovenia is where Italian cuisine meets the German/Austrian and Croato-Bosno-Serbian (i.e. Turco-Balkan) cuisines, with a splash of Hungarian goulash from the country's easter borderlands. So we should be able to find something tasty!
This sounds like a name in a Marx Bros. movie. (Though I must say Walloon sword has a certain something. Isn't CharlesFerdinand our resident Walloon? – If he's not a Habsburg archduke in disguise!)
I poked around the Slovene dictionary and discovered that škarp is there, marked as "usually pl." (i.e. škarpi) and "low vernacular" (code for "people say this at home but don't you dare use it in formal writing"), with the meaning "an old, worn-out shoe" or sometimes (dialectically), just any old shoe.
But next to it was the word škarpa, which is a perfectly respectable word that means "a wall between two different heights of land, to prevent erosion or landslide"; in other words, a scarp or (more commonly) escarpment, which my English dictionary tells me comes from the Italian word scarpa. I think this solves the mystery. When you're soaking up the sauce with you're bread, what you are doing is making a "little scarp", just like on Chained_Bear's beloved fortresses. So you're not doing scarpetta; you are making (i.e. constructing) a scarpetta.
Edit: The escarpment has been repaired. Thanks, Bil!
A low-budget Biblical feature Starring Carlton Feston as the prophet who delivers the message of the not-so-Almighty: "It'd be really nice if thou didst not, y'know like, kill, take things that don't belong to thee, and all that other bad stuff."
Now, let me see if I understand: Czechs find Spanish villages baffling, Germans find Bohemian (i.e. Czech) and Spanish villages baffling, and Anglos find Greek baffling. Very interesting. Slovenes, by the way, also say, To je zame španska vas ("It's a Spanish village to me") to mean "I don't understand a thing about it". (German villages, of course, are typically well-organized and not in the least baffling.)
Interesting citation, Yarb. Gibbon must be using the word in the sense of "disobedient" or perhaps "unruly", if not in the more archaic sense of "wicked".
break (prelom kosti, "break in a bone", prelom besede, "breaking of one's word"); edge, cusp (kmetija na prelomu doline, "a farm at the edge/cusp of the valley"); in printing: page layout (i.e., making the column and page breaks).
So I want to know about the word itself (sorry, guys, that's just the way I am). One translation tool tells me that scarpa means "shoe" in Italian. So when I sponge up the leftover sauce with my bread, am I "doing/making the little shoe"?
I was surprised when I saw the picture, C_b, because I was expecting to see people throwing jelly beans at each other or in some way fighting over jelly beans. I took me a second to realize what you meant by row.
It is a bit of textual gristle, but I had no problem understanding it. A comma might help, as Q. suggests, but I don't think it's necessary. "Espy" is pretentious-cute here, I think. I'd rewrite it this way: "not so much seeing the art galleries or mountain ranges or rivers as seeing the places where cherished friends…" "Espying" could also be replaced by "noticing", which would probably have cleared up any confusion in the first place.
*has to stop self from editing things that no one has asked or is willing to pay to be edited*
… and dykes on bikes! and PFLAG (who always get the loudest cheers)! and leather boys!
*trying to calm down and remember that we're supposed to be post-gay and want houses in the suburbs and official marriages and the right to be open in the army and not just fantasize about men in uniform – but damn, some of those stereotypically queer exuberances are fun*
Yeah, I know June is Gay Pride Month, or if we're being PC, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Month (is that on your list, Rt?), but there's still nothing like looking forward to Pride Day, the parade, and remembering the dramatic events of June 28, 1969. ("You bet, we're revolting!") I can't believe it's been 40 years!
Ha! "Sangfroid the Sanguine" sounds like the name of one of CharlesFerdinand's kings: "In the days of Sangfroid the Sanguine, the country remained at peace for none of his neighbors was able to provoke him to war."
Thanks, Kind-Heartedness! I enjoy your Greek-outs. I have come across (maybe in Heidegger?) the notion of truth as "unconcealedness", and it is interesting, and seems psychologically right, to think of truth as the "opposite" of forgetting.
The art was still valued in certain parts of the US at least as late as the 1970s. I remember going with my parents in 1972 or so to visit relatives in Danville, Virginia, and really enjoying listening to the way people told stories. There was a certain gentility in the way they referred even to things like someone's senility ("she's getting a bit feeble in the head") or alcoholism ("he still likes to take a nip or two now and then"), and I could sense the way they really enjoyed words and the different shades of meaning and emotion that could be conveyed. They were as much concerned with how something was said, and the pleasure they could give their listeners, as with what was being said.
Thanks, C_b! I wonder if other people feel like the art of (face-to-face) conversation is going the way of reading novels and poetry out loud to each other as a form of entertainment and socializing.
A gaffe is a general term for saying something one shouldn't say, something that is a social blunder. It might be something in poor taste, or it might just be the result of ignorance or insensitivity or not thinking before you open your mouth. For example:
"I was so delighted to hear that your son is getting married next month. We all thought he was a 'confirmed bachelor', you know. Who is the lucky girl?"
"His name's Joe, and he's a wonderful young man."
"Oh, I see. Well, times have changed… Excuse me, but I just saw the Cohens and simply must wish them a Merry Christmas."
I am not certain about the value of the Old Slavic ǫ – it's been decades since I studied these things – but I think it was essentially a nasalized o, more or less like the French vowel.
An anecdotalist is someone who is known for telling (hopefully, entertaining) anecdotes. It is a perfectly good word. I don't know how long it has been in English, but it reflects a time, which may seem like ancient history now, when people used to meet face to face and entertain each other by telling amusing stories and having interesting conversations (a person who knew how to keep up their end of a conversation was called a good conversationalist). People do something similar on social-networking sites today, except that they usually don't know who it is they are conversing with and skills at things like conversation and telling amusing anecdotes are not highly valued. Today, it seems, people prefer to tweet at each other.
One who has mastered the art of bullshitting is known as a bullshit artist. Seanahan has given you the proper term for one who is renowned for making up words, but if you are looking for the word for someone who generally makes up stories, you might try fabulist or (if it's a pathological tendency) mythomaniac. I am not sure what you are trying to say by suggesting the word "inpoortatalist". I expect there is a good word for someone who likes to tell stories that are in poor taste (if that is what you are looking for), but it escapes me at the moment.
How cultures interpret words like this is fascinating. In French, sangfroid and, in Russian, хладнокровие (khladnokroviye) are good qualities in a person, both conveying the sense of "cool-headedness"; in English, however, cold-bloodedness is definitely not something you want to encounter. I tend to associate sanguine with sangfroid. I pronounce the word in a way that almost rhymes with penguin (another cool character), so Cole Porter would have to change his tune to make this word fit for me.
No, it's not related to rog (horn). In Slovene, the nasal rounded back vowel of Old Slavic ǫ (which probably sounded like the vowel in the French word mon), developed into o, whereas in the other South Slavic languages (and in East Slavic, too), it developed into u. Compare words like Slovene roka / SBC ruka (arm and hand), Slovene pot / SBC put (path, journey), Slovene posoda / SBC posuda (dish), and many more. The Old Slavic word *rǫg probably meant "ridicule" and is also the origin of the modern Slovene word režati se (to laugh boisterously, guffaw).
Oh, I love this word, just like I love all the words still in use that hark back to medieval concepts about the mind-body-elements-planets relationships: bilious, choleric, melancholic, humorous, saturnine, jovial, mercurial, etc. And I don't think sanguine is pretentious when it's used to mean "optimistic, positive, cheerful, unruffled". Its synonyms don't really convey so directly the same sense that the attitude so discribed relates to something inherent in a person's character. I also like the fact that it comes from a word for "blood" and that it has as a much darker, tragic cousin in the word sanguinary.
Ron Wagner, that may be a quip (though I don't get the joke), but it surely is not an anecdote, which implies a brief story, the recounting of an incident, usually but not necessarily with a humorous "punch line". He used to regale his friends with anecdotes about his college days, but then they all started to avoid him. He wasn't the anecdotalist he thought he was.
Did you make this up, Inked Polyglot? Irregular verbs are only "irregular" in that they follow different rules from the majority. In English, this usually means that there is an alteration in the vowel to indicate the past instead of the addition of the -ed morpheme (and often with the morpheme -en in the past participle. Hence, the sequence twilve, twolve, twilven, modeled perhaps on the verb drive, might be more in keeping with the patterns of English. But I am just a rank amateur when it comes to these things, and I expect (and hope) my colleague Qroqqa might have something to add or correct.
to tell someone something to their face directly, "without beating around the bush"
The same expression is used with such verbs as lagati (se) (to lie), smejati se (to laugh: Punca se mu smeje v brk, "The girl is laughing in his face"), and rogati se (to mock).
"to express in a clear, blunt way one's negative, disapproving attitude toward someone, usually by using words with positive content" (SSKJ) – i.e. to mock, make fun of.
Examples: ti si pa res junak, se mu je rogal; zani�?ljivo se rogati: "You're a real hero," he mocked him; to mock disdainfully.
Having to do with confection made from honey, nuts, and egg white. Having eaten the whole box of candy, she was in a nougatory daze and couldn't understand what he was saying to her.
It's sometime in the mid-'70s and I am sitting in a circle of about 10 people, all much older than me (I'm in my late teens) in a side-room of our evangelical Presbyterian church. I don't really remember now what the occasion was, but the man leading the discussion asks us to state something we like about ourselves. Someone says, "I'm a people person," and then everyone else in the group says the same thing: "I'm a people person too." This surprises me a little. I am not really sure I know what people people are, but am pretty certain I'm not one. When it comes my turn, I say, "I know how to listen," which is true. The man leading the group compliments me on my answer.
"active intellect" sounds plausible, though I would hope most people's intellect would be active, to some degree at least (I know, I know, I'm living in a world of illusion).
I hear this being said by a teacher about a pupil to indicate that the child asks question, is curious about things, and tries to figure things out in logical ways. Another possibility would be a "lively intellect".
I'm sorry, but I can't imagine a bunch of sitcom writers sitting around a table and saying things like, "Maybe we need to stick an analepsis in here. And then here we'll do a prolepsis and show them in a retirement home." These words are good for rhetoricians and literary theoreticians, and they are lovely words, but this parenthetical "(also called…)" leaves open the important question, "By whom?"
From the French word chagrin, but originally from a Turkish word shagri. Apparently, in French, chagrin, in the sense of "embarrassment" is a figurative use of the word, which means, originally, "untanned or rough leather".
One day soon, I fear, someone will name a girlchild this. And her brother will be Liaison. But then at some point she will write her name Li-Aise or Li-Ayse or Li-Ayze, with hearts over the eyes.
I'm pretty sure Roald Dahl is weird. But then, I've always had a thing for Patricia Neal and can't help but take her side.
Gloaming is a wonderful, evocative word that wears its heart on its sleeve. And while it's all about a quality of light, it's connection with darkness and mystery is inescapable. After all, it's twilight – duality, inbetweenness, borderline.
The curious thing about this slang phrase (in Slovene, Croatian, and other Slavic languages) is that the English phrase (if I remember right) is happy ending, not happy end. In other Slovenglish words, the -ing (properly pronounced /-ink/), e.g. miting and filing, so why not here?
I like this. It sounds sort of New Agey: "old awareness", like the awareness of an "old soul", awareness of things we experienced in past lives, awareness of ancestors and their knowledge. I definitely want to celebrate old awareness! And not only for a month!
Thanks, Pro, for your comment on my Slovene idioms list. By the way, if on your travels you ever plan or want to visit Slovenia (just to the east, north, and south of Trieste), let me know!
A resident of the Greek island of Hasbos, known in antiquity as an important source of asbestos (orig. "hasbestos"). Pseudo-Pausanias records that the Hasbian poetesses were said to conduct rituals in which they danced in the flames with one another in fireproof garments and mimicked the rites of Sappho's followers, only to emerge unscathed, much to the chagrin of the poetesses of neighboring Lesbos.
And it's correlative? Discontent inflation – the noticeable increase in frustration caused by not being able to find the information you want on the Internet due to the proliferation of so many idiotic videos, social networking sites, games and blogs. Eventually, you just say, "Geez! I may as well go to the library and look it up in a book! It would take less time."
This is not spam, but a public service to Wordies who collect compendia of unusual words (that is all of us more or less). Grant Barrett is making his Official Dictionary of Unofficial English (2006) available for free as a downloadable .pdf file. Just check out his blog The Lexicographer's Rules.
Interesting, Pro! It does not surprise me that many expressions in Slovene might come from Italian. The Italian influence is still strong in the southwestern and extreme western parts of the country, which were for centuries ruled by Venice. A part of Friuli, where there is still a Slovene-speaking minority, is still called the "Slavic Veneto" (Slavia Veneta) or in Slovene, Beneška Slovenija (Venetian Slovenia).
Thank you, thank you, everyone. To the Irish Fox, it's true: I couldn't have done it without you. Your graciousness in conceding this minor defeat in a truly impressive career of superlative Wordie divertissements is entirely in character. Bilby, you are one of the inspiring spirits of the Wordie aether, and I humbly acknowledge my debt to you. Chained_Bear, it was an honor to limericize your beloved Clovis; may he rest in peace with his gerbilline fore_bears. And to the Archduke Karl Ferdinand (my suspicion is well known that his Excellency has assumed a rather flimsy Belgian incognito), thanks for starting things off with the list of his illustrious Frankish ancestors.
Thanks for your patience, CF (and everyone), with my abnormal Slavophilia. I will try to keep it under control. You're right, Archduke (sorry, I can't resist calling you that – after all, I do live in Carniola). The 5th century is a little too early for at least West Frankish-Slavic interaction. But there was plenty of interaction with other Germanic types, as can be seen by all the Germanic borrowings in Old Slavic.
I second C_B's laughter and appreciation of the list, CF.
(But to return to, um, words, I'm still wondering: if Chlodo- is Germanic, how did it get impaled on the Slavic -mir? Is it possible that the Franks registered the Vlado- as their own beloved Chlodo-?)
Sigh. I guess rogue is another word that joins the "Overused to the point of meaninglessness thanks to its wildfire dash through the Internet" list (one I don't feel like making). Btw, I sort of like the word malware (if it means what I think it does).
I'm guessing those old Franks had trouble with the initial vl- cluster and this was the best they could do with the Slavic name Vladomir ("Ruler of peace").
Delicious, if somewhat turd-looking, Bosno-Serbian minced-meat kebabs, popular as a fast food throughout the former Yugoslavia. The alphabet is a little simpler in Slovenia – no confusing soft ć's – so in Slovene they are spelled �?evap�?i�?i.
Herminafrid! If it's a girl. The name Hermina is still around in Slovenia; it makes the cutest diminuative forms: Minca (the "c" is pronounced like "ts") and Min�?i ("�?" pronounced like "ch"). Minchie Bearspawn!
From the English word suffer. It is used as a noun to mean "misery, the pits." Often used with the verb furati ("to do, engage in, go through") (itself a borrowing from the German führen) to mean "to feel awful" (emotionally, not physically):
Ne vidim ve�? razloga da bi nekdo “fural safr�?, �?e pa to stvar lahko sprejmeš in vidiš, da je vse to�?no tako kot mora biti. ("I don't see a reason anymore why someone should 'go through safr' so long as you can accept the situation and see that everything is just the way it should be.")
A tragic example (and a cautionary one for the United States) of how the image of a particular culture can be entirely altered. A hundred years ago, if you asked non-German Westerners what the sound of German connoted to them, they would have said music and philosophy.
Can you tell us something more, C_B, about these curious records? Are these the (perhaps altered) names of immigrants to the US? Or do you mean that your eyes deceived you? (19th-century handwriting can be very hard to decipher.)
Of course you do, Yarb. But turdiform has been taken, and I'm sure you don't want Reesetee to send a flock of thrushes your way. Just ask Tippi Hedren what that's like. You might try fecaloid, coprolithic, or stercoraceous. But I suspect you just like the sound of turd. Am I right?
Actually, the word you want here is new agey, which means "relating to the New Age movement" (which was very popular in North America in the 1980s). "Agey" by itself doesn't make sense in this context.
In the 8th and 9th centuries, the first vowel in the word svat ("holy") would have been a nasal front vowel, probably pronounced something like the sound in the French word vin, which is why the Franks spelled it -en-. It evolved differently in different Slavic languages, turning into something we usually transliterate as "ja" or "ya" in Russian (e.g. �?в�?той = svjatoj, "holy" – though it's more complicated than that), an a or á in Czech (compare the names Václav and Wenceslaus), the nasal sound iȩ in Polish (święty means "holy"), and a high front e in the South Slavic languages (svet means "holy" in both Slovene and Serbo-Bosno-Croatian).
The second part of the name would in Old Slavic have originally been pronounced more or less pulk (rhyming with the English word hulk), where the "u" stands for a short schwa sound. This meant something like "host" or "army" ("a mass of people"). It is actually a borrowing from a Germanic root that has developed today into folk in English and Volk in German (which makes the Franks' hearing it as a different Germanic word somewhat ironic). This word also developed differently in the different branches of Slavic: polk in East Slavic (e.g. Russian) and South Slavic (e.g. Slovene), and pluk in West Slavic (e.g. Czech).
C_b, I expect your Friend only used "thee". At some point, Quakers stopped saying "thou" and started using "thee" for both the subject and the object of the sentence, I think with the ø-ending form of the verb: Why are thee taking the car to Meeting? It's only a ten-minute walk! Don't thee know how much gas costs? Not surprisingly, the influence of the double-duty you (as both subjective and objective) is pretty strong. It was pretty jarring when I first heard Quakers talking like this, and it was hard not to "correct" them.
This is actually an important word for Slovenes, and there is even a restaurant in Ljubljana's Old Town that goes by this name. The Protestant leader Primož Trubar's Abecedarium (an ABC book to teach people how to read) was one of the first two books printed in Slovene, in 1550. The restaurant is located in a building ("the oldest house in Ljubljana") where Trubar once lived.
Meter of course is helpful for memorizing text, which is certainly a major reason why poets have used it at least since Homer. We shouldn't forget that before the 20th century, poetry was written as more to be performed than read silently. People used to entertain themselves by reading things to each other out loud, whether this was poetry or a serialized novel. To enjoy a writer like Byron, you need to hear his work, and not merely see it on the page.
Don Juan is a long poem (Byron may have called it a novel in verse), not a play, so there are no stage directions. Read a little of it out loud and try to imagine the words being spoken by a brilliant young man, as famous as a rock star and with about as much humility, who wants to overturn all the conventions and expose the hypocrisy of his time, and you might start to get an idea of what it's about.
@ Seanahan – I never said the commas did disturb the flow; that was Mollusque. I agree with you that they don't.
You make a good point about Betty. Either way there could be ambiguity, especially if we replace "Catholic" with "Episcopalian" and "maid" with "writer". But it also matters whether or not we know the author of text does or does not use serial commas:
A. They went to Oregon with Betty, a writer and an Episcopalian priest.
B. They went to Oregon with Betty, a writer, and an Episcopalian priest.
In A, they could have gone to Oregon with 1 (Betty, who is both a writer and a priest) or 3 persons, if we know the text does not use serial commas; but with only 1 person (the admirable Betty), if we know the text always uses serial commas consistently.
In B, they have definitely gone to Oregon with 2 people, if we know the text does not use serial commas; or with either 2 or 3 people, if we know the text always uses serial commas.
So both systems leave room for ambiguity. Life is like that. That is what house styles are for.
I wondered this, too, Nux. But apparently any Mediterranean country can participate. Morocco has been in Eurovision too, and theoretically so could Libya, Syria, and Algeria.
The "rules" of meter may be clearcut enough, but the variations in how poets follow them, or choose to break them, to create the effects they want, are countless and fascinating.
Byron was brilliant in being able to use plain, chatty English, often with great comic effect, as in Don Juan (the name should be pronounced to rhyme with "Ewan"), but he could also write lovely "poetic" poetry, as in "She walks in beauty like the night".
You sound a bit like an old fogey, myth, who complains that poets (i.e. rappers) these days are "massacring" words because they write "gonna" and "witya" instead of "going to" and "with you".
Moll, it seems like you're arguing in favor of inconsistency, i.e. use the Oxford when you need it to clarify the meaning, but otherwise don't use it. And personally, that seems like a reasonable practice to me. As does its reverse: always use the Oxford except in cases where using it confuses the meaning. The only problem is that people usually want rules to live by, write by, and edit by, and the cases where the Oxford confuses things are probably much fewer than where not using it confuses things. So "always use the Oxford comma" seems a better rule than "never use the Oxford comma" and is easier to follow than "use it only when it helps" (because you don't have to figure out when it helps and when it doesn't). I like to avoid Emersonian hobgoblins myself, so inconsistency doesn't usually upset me if I see the reason for it, but for many people these little fellows seem to make good friends.
Contractions like e'er and o'er, as well as spellings like the monosyllabic heav'n and giv'n should not be taken as indications of poets "cheating" or trying to fit square pegs into round holes. For one thing, poets like Byron knew exactly what they were doing when it came to prosody; they dreamed in iambic pentameter in a way few of us can imagine.
As such they were very familiar with the concept of the reduced syllable – a nearly ellided syllable that should not be given the weight even of the unstressed beat in the iambic foot. Often two syllables could be counted as one; this could be indicated with a contraction such as e'er or even (e'en) to th'. The fact that the v sound is involved in a number of these contractions may also tell us that this sound had various qualities to it and could be pronounced differently in different contexts or by different speakers; historically, after all, the letter v represented both a consonant and a vowel (u).
Today many poets no longer count syllables the way they used to (and many still do but don't want us to think they do).
Sadly, I'm not sure people expect anything of poetry these days, or rather, if they do, they expect it to be sentimental or inspiring and so don't really "get" what contemporary poets are writing (as with modern art, they think, "jeez, I could have written that! It doesn't even rhyme!"). Probably a lot of people would love it if more poets were more "poetic".
Myth, don't give up on Shakespeare, Byron, or anyone else just because they don't write as if they were born in 1970. Try to learn their language first (and don't assume it has to be the same as yours), before you judge them. They still have a lot of amazing things to tell us, even though (or perhaps because) they are centuries away from us.
While I probably like commas more than most, I don't hold with the practice of putting them in just because you want to take a breath, or conversely, the idea the you have to take a breath whenever you see a comma. Not all commas are breath-taking. In the case Molly mentions, there is no need to "break the flow" in the sentence "Tom, Dick, and Harry all ordered bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches." I would read this the same way with or without the serial commas. The commas before the ands are merely there because the writer (or editor) finds such commas useful and wants to be consistent. In this particular sentence the serial commas could easily be removed without the ceiling caving in. But I'd keep them because I like the principle of the serial comma. In the sentence, "Tom, Dick and Harry, Mary Jo and Martin, and Bart all went to Des Moines for Frank and Herb's wedding," the Oxford comma helps keep the relationships, well, straight (or not).
Here's a joke Slovenes tell when they want to illustrate the attitude toward neighbors in their country.
Bog vprasa slovenca, "Kaj bi rad? Dam ti kar hoces, s tem, da bo tvoj sosed dobil dvakrat toliko." Slovenec malo pomisli pa rece, "Bogec, iztakni mi oko."
God asks a Slovene, "What would you like? I'll give you whatever you want, only know that your neighbor is going to get twice as much of the same thing." The Slovene thinks a bit, then says, "Okay, Lord, pluck out one of my eyes."
Basically, this word refers to the expression on one's face. But it can also be used as a verb to mean "to allow, to accept" a certain behavior. In this meaning, it is often used in the negative: She could not countenance her husband's gambling. These two meanings are connected if you think that, when you accept something, you can look at it calmly, without getting upset.
I might suggest a few from the Slavic side of things:
- vozhd (or Cyrillically, вождь), which is what adoring fans called Stalin; like Führer, it means "leader", but unlike the German word, it really is reserved for the Great Leader.
- vojvoda or vojevoda or voyevoda (or more Englishy, voivode), the Slavic "duke" (lit., "war-leader" or "warlord") and the origin of the toponym Vojvodina.
– you have tsar, but what about the tsarina (I'm assuming you are eschewing the unchewable cz- spellings).
And a couple obvious ones from across the Adriatic that seem to have escaped: il Duce (last seen in Salò) and the doge, in the company of Mrs. Doge, a.k.a. the dogaress or in Venetian, dogaressa, both fleeing incognito in a gondola.
Yes, you're right, of course, Upper Carniola, to be specific. And I love your list!
But why is this "Stara Kranjska"? The people who lived in the March of Carniola (Kranjska krajina/Krainmark), didn't call it "Old", did they? Or is this a different region from Kranjska?
Comments by rolig
Show previous 200 comments...
rolig commented on the word papophthegm
A saying attributed to a pope.
May 30, 2011
rolig commented on the word biscotti
Btw, the picture below may illustrate what Italians believe biscotti to be, but in English I would simply call those cookies (American English) or biscuits (British English). When Americans say "biscotti", they are probably thinking of something like this.
May 29, 2011
rolig commented on the word Saif Al Islam Ghadaffi
"My names are Saif Al Islam Ghadaffi" – but you can call him Al. The late Al. And not because he never shows up on time. Well, he doesn't, or at least he won't ever again. We hope.
May 29, 2011
rolig commented on the user biocon
You are right about the examples for alar. If you want to bring that to the attention of the people who manage Wordnik, you should put a comment on the feedback page.
May 29, 2011
rolig commented on the word pleasantly plump
A set phrase, and one of the many euphemisms for fat.
May 29, 2011
rolig commented on the word stupiphany
very amusing, Bilby! But in fact, I see it as my sworn duty to speak against Dr Moreau-like experimentation on words that are best left in their natural habitat. (And please do not refer to such hybrid beasts as mormanteaux!)
May 27, 2011
rolig commented on the word penes
I think you might have read that wrong, HH. What I saw a moment ago on Wiktionary was this: "(chiefly sciences) Plural form of penis"
May 27, 2011
rolig commented on the word INRI
One of the mysterious words that haunted my childhood, delighting and awing me and, perhaps, nurturing my desire to understand the meanings of words and symbols. Others encountered in my otherwise austere Presbyterian church were IHS, which was both the initials of the first three words of the message in Constantine's vision: In hoc signo vinces as well as the first three letters of Jesus' name, in a kind of Latinized Greek alphabet: IHSOYS, and the intersecting Chi Rho (XP), another Constantinian symbol.
May 27, 2011
rolig commented on the word puerarchy
Qroqqa, you're right, of course: the word is ill-formed by traditional standards. But then so are television, heterosexual, and a host of other words. I suppose this is evidence that the element -archy has become, or is becoming, a widely productive suffix, regardless of the etymology of the word it joins to, similar to what happened with -ology decades ago.
May 27, 2011
rolig commented on the word puerarchy
puer is Latin for "boy"; hence, puerile.
May 26, 2011
rolig commented on the word stupiphany
Clever, Q. You're saying that today you had a stupiphany about this. It took me a moment to "see what you were doing there" (as the cliche goes). But although I think this is actually a pretty good portmanteau (not only momentarily amusing but also smart, clear, and transferable), I am so sick of the recent portmanteau mania, that I have declared a Moratorium on Portmanteaux (which must never under any circumstances be referred to as a "portmantorium"!).
May 26, 2011
rolig commented on the list things-clouds-do
Poor Bilby! Perhaps a melodious earworm from Joni Mitchell (or if you prefer, Judy Collins) might help?
In any case, a few suggestions for the list:
block the sun
rain and snow on everyone
get in the way
May 25, 2011
rolig commented on the list sweet-tooth-fairy-dominoes
gangerh, "inRI"? Like the inscription on the Cross? INRI - Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudæorum, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews". Was this a Paschal Freudian slip?
May 25, 2011
rolig commented on the word omne trinum perfectum
By the way, can one of our Latin scholars answer's mariep's question, which started this whole thing: 'Can this be translated as "Everything in threes is perfect"?'
May 24, 2011
rolig commented on the list sweet-tooth-fairy-dominoes
Thanks, gangerh! And by the way, what does easter in mean? Not to go to church on Easter Sunday? As in: "No, we're skipping the service this year. We thought we'd Easter in."
May 24, 2011
rolig commented on the list sweet-tooth-fairy-dominoes
Erin go bragh burning out of the closet – sounds like a chapter from the life story of a couple of people I know.
May 24, 2011
rolig commented on the list phonestheme--dr--the-pull-of-gravity
Love your phonestheme lists, Ptero!
May 24, 2011
rolig commented on the list snose-words
I second Ptero's bravo, Blafferty! I added snooty, which comes from snoot, of course, and refers to nose-turner-uppers. I see you have snob on the list, and that would seem to make sense by the same logic, but according to the etymological note in the OAD, its origins are obscure and, in fact, "earlier senses conveyed a notion of 'lower status or rank'", which surprised me.
May 24, 2011
rolig commented on the list sweet-tooth-fairy-dominoes
What, by the way, does east erin refer to?
Personally, I would be afraid of stirring up the Furies, especially if you're going to split their name in two. Not nice at all. Instead, I'm going to go with the luck of the Irish (though they haven't been so lucky recently), and add go bragh.
May 24, 2011
rolig commented on the word twirl
Would "twist" and "twirl" be evocative of twisting and twirling if they didn't mean what they mean? Would a non-English-speaker, upon hearing the word "twist" immediately think of rotation? I suspect that our feeling that these words somehow evoke the idea of spinning and winding may be related to other things, like our sense of the words twine, whirl, etc., as well as the onomatopoeia we associate with the initial w-/wh- sounds, as in wind, whip, whoosh, whizz, etc.
As for what word might be used for such associations, the word you use is good: evocative. I also call them fibrous words.
May 23, 2011
rolig commented on the word omne trinum perfectum
Thanks, Pro and Qroqqa, for the clarifications. Qroqqa, what did Perseus do (besides cut off Medusa's head, of course) to get himself filtered? Is it that potty mouth of his?
By the way, do you think English sayings, like "Good things come in threes" and "Third time lucky" could go back to this Latin expression? There is a comparable saying in Slovene: "V tretje gre rado", which means something like "third time lucky".
May 23, 2011
rolig commented on the word omne trinum perfectum
Shouldn't this be omne trium perfectum (see the online Latin Dictionary)?
May 23, 2011
rolig commented on the word perfect
Foxy, that sounds like something Sylvester the Cat might say (or I am thinking of Daffy Duck?).
*wonders if Fox is brushing up on his Deutsch*
May 22, 2011
rolig commented on the word perfect
But "Per-fuckin-fection!" might work, eh? Note the nice alliteration.
May 22, 2011
rolig commented on the word perfect
But do people now say "Per-fuckin-fect!"?
*not sorry that I'm a little out of it*
May 22, 2011
rolig commented on the list sweet-tooth-fairy-dominoes
There are some wonderful segments here: killing fields of gold fish!
May 22, 2011
rolig commented on the list sweet-tooth-fairy-dominoes
and joy
May 22, 2011
rolig commented on the word hosterage
Bravo, Fox!
May 20, 2011
rolig commented on the word backshift
I would punctuate this differently: I heard her say, "Who knew?" – no full stop necessary. But more to the point, this does not really illustrate the backshift, at least not as I understand it. A better illustration would be if she asks, "Who knows about the affair?" one might report this as:
She asked who knew about the affair.
The present tense of the direct speech has been backshifted to the preterite of the reported speech.
May 20, 2011
rolig commented on the word toward
Blaff, my sense is that there is no difference in usage, if you mean that the same person would say or write "toward" in certain contexts and "towards" in other contexts. Certainly there is no difference in meaning. As an editor I have no qualms about changing "towards" to "toward" in any context (except in quoted material) -- or vice versa, depending on the style sheet I am using. The same is true for me with regard to other -ward/-wards words. The one exception that springs to mind is the adjective untoward (e.g. "untoward behavior"); I would never use this with an -s. But for me "backward thinking" and "backwards thinking" are equally correct; it all depends on the style sheet.
Curiously, though, I don't think I would ever use "forwards" as an adjective: "forwards thinking" definitely sounds wrong to me. But that might just be me.
May 19, 2011
rolig commented on the word toward
There is a strong bias for edited text with Google Ngrams (its results are based on books, newspapers, and magazines), and I suspect that these results are partly, maybe largely, due to the fact that the AP stylebook, among others, insists on -ward spellings. In the spoken language and in non-edited or informal texts, I wonder if you will find the same sharp preference for toward among US speakers. It is not at all unusual for Americans to say towards. Speaking personally, as a Baltimore-born copyeditor trained to follow AP, I usually write toward, but I believe I have always tended to use towards in my speech.
May 19, 2011
rolig commented on the list things-clouds-do
Excellent list, Ptero. I have "favorited" it – which I rarely do.
May 19, 2011
rolig commented on the word fibrous words
The first list I created that I cared about. It's here.
May 18, 2011
rolig commented on the list first-lists
The first list I cared about was "fibrous words", and the first word I commented on (with a citation) was ilex, but I can't figure out what me very first word was, perhaps inveigle.
May 18, 2011
rolig commented on the word shufti
I came across this word in an unusual way. I was looking for an alternative to the word "look" (in the sense of a "look" into a certain world), and the MS Word Thesaurus gave me "shufti" on its list of synonyms. I had never encountered this word before, but apparently it is British slang (originally military slang) meaning "a quick look around".
May 18, 2011
rolig commented on the word stang
ſufferin' ſuccotaſh!
May 18, 2011
rolig commented on the word deciding not to read that Wisława Szymborska poem
Just as you cannot step twice into the same river (as Heraclitus said), you cannot read the same poem more than once – although you can not read the same poem many times over.
May 16, 2011
rolig commented on the word whilst
Thanks, Yarb, and everyone, for contributing to this topic. I'm particularly interested because in the last year or so I've been getting more requests to translate things into British English, and I thought this might mean not only writing "colour" and "analyse" but also things like "whilst" and "amongst", which goes against my American grain. But now I will revert happily to using "while" and "among" in such texts.
May 16, 2011
rolig commented on the word whilst
Yarb, do you think "whilst" carries any particular marking? Does it sound especially posh or Etonian to you? Would you be surprised to hear a teenager say it in normal speech?
May 16, 2011
rolig commented on the word whilst
Thanks, friend.
May 15, 2011
rolig commented on the list sweet-tooth-fairy-dominoes
One of the meanings of "stock" is the broth made from boiling something (meat, bones, vegetables), which is then used as the basis for a soup, gravy, or sauce. Hence, "sauce stock".
May 15, 2011
rolig commented on the word whilst
PU, you have probably been reading a mix of British- and US-published books. No one in the US, as far as I know, uses single quotation marks (or "inverted commas", as the Brits like to call them) to indicate first-level quotations; the single quotation marks are used (in the US) only for quotes within quotes (i.e. second-level quotations), as in: PU cited the example, "Bilby said, 'My ears are stuck!' "
As for the question of dots and spaces, first I think it is important to distinguish between using ellipsis to indicate omission of content and using it to indicate an unfinished thought or sentence. The example Ruzuzu offers sounds to me like an unfinished sentence, not omission of content. In this case I would use space, three spaced periods, space:
"Then bilby got his ears caught in the frivolous blades of the . . ."
Unless I am forced to use the "ellipsis symbol" MS Word devised, where they scrunch the three periods together in the most unnatural way. Then the space after the word looks strange. So I scrunch the symbol right up to the word:
"Then bilby got his ears caught in the frivolous blades of the…"
In the case of omission of content, it all depends where that omitted content was. If it was in the middle of the sentence, then I use space, three spaced periods, space:
"Then bilby got his ears caught in the . . . blades of the Wordnik copter. What did he expect? The ears were never seen again."
If it comes at the end of the sentence, then I use space, three spaced periods, space, sentence-final period:
"Then bilby got his ears caught in the frivolous blades . . . . What did he expect? The ears were never seen again."
If the omitted text comes after the end of a sentence, then I put in the sentence-final period, space, three spaced dots, space:
"Then bilby got his ears caught in the frivolous blades of the Wordnik copter. . . . The ears were never seen again."
Of course, in both combinations (sentence period + ellipsis; ellipsis + sentence period), MS Word's scrunched up ellipsis makes things ugly, so I use period, space, ellipsis symbol, space for both:
"Then bilby got his ears caught in the frivolous blades. … What did he expect? The ears were never seen again."
"Then bilby got his ears caught in the frivolous blades of the Wordnik copter. … The ears were never seen again."
May 15, 2011
rolig commented on the word whilst
I've come to think of the "-st" forms as standard for Brits because so many of the British-English texts I edit use them. But I just ran some Google n-gram searches on while/whilst, among/amongst, and amid/amidst for British English, and in all cases the non-st form dominates, though the showings for the -st forms are also quite healthy. When I ran the same searches for American English, the presence of the forms "whilst" and "amongst" is almost at 0 in the latter half of the 20th century (they had greater use in the 19th century), while "amidst" is still fairly competive with "amid".
More comparisons should probably be done to make any definite conclusion, but my sense is that the "-st" forms exist as acceptable unmarked alternatives in British English, without any feeling that they are pretentious.
As for my comment about commas, in British practice, the comma and period normally go outside the quotation marks (whether single or double) when quoting anything less than a complete sentence. Examples:
British style: There is considerable discussion at Wordnik about the "frivolous misuse of Australians". (The period goes outside the partial quote.)
American style: There is considerable discussion at Wordnik about the "frivolous misuse of Australians." (The period goes inside the partial quote – illogically, because it does not belong to the quotation, but Americans like the way it looks anyway.)
but both British and American styles find the following acceptable:
Pterodactyl commented, "I feel a need to do something frivolous with Australians." (The period goes inside because it is part of the complete sentence that is being quoted.)
May 15, 2011
rolig commented on the word whilst
I believe that "whilst", "amongst" and "amidst" are all quite standard in British English (like putting a comma after a quotation mark), without any of that aura of pretentiousness or foppishness that makes Americans groan and giggle.
May 14, 2011
rolig commented on the list sweet-tooth-fairy-dominoes
Hans + device = hand device, maybe? Pro?
May 11, 2011
rolig commented on the list sweet-tooth-fairy-dominoes
peace?
May 11, 2011
rolig commented on the list sweet-tooth-fairy-dominoes
arrest
May 10, 2011
rolig commented on the word držati svečo komu
That's interesting, Pro. Since the Slovenes and Italians are neighbors, and there are a lot of Italian and Friulian expressions that have made their way into Slovene, I would not have expected the same idiom to have such radically different meanings. I wonder how many faux pas have been committed in the border regions around Trieste and Gorizia.
Ruzuzu, the similarity is not surprising; the Baltic and Slavic languages are fairly close cousins.
May 10, 2011
rolig commented on the word držati svečo komu
lit. "to hold a candle for someone": to expect that someone who is sick will die soon: "… so mati tako oslabeli, da smo jim že držali svečo" (A. Ingolič, "Splavar Franc Vitužnik") / "… Mother had gotten so weak, we knew she didn't have long to live."
May 10, 2011
rolig commented on the word complicity v incompetence
In the popular media, in relation to Pakistani governement agencies, the only two possible explanations for bin Laden's being able to live safely in Abbotabad for the past five years.
May 10, 2011
rolig commented on the user Prolagus
Thanks, Pro. I do poke my nose in from time to time. Hope you're doing well.
May 9, 2011
rolig commented on the user reesetee
Thanks for noticing, RT! I do miss the place and the old regulars, as well. So it's nice to stop by once in a while. And the word list function is very useful for me. But I think it was easier to make and maintain a word list, especially a non-English one, on Wordie than it is on Wordnik. Maybe that is something I need to bring up with someone (John?).
May 1, 2011
rolig commented on the word žvrkljati
No, indeed, you wouldn't want to confuse them.
May 1, 2011
rolig commented on the word izlužiti
izlúžiti to extract
izlúžen extracted
May 1, 2011
rolig commented on the word žvrkljati
žvrkljáti to beat, whisk (e.g. eggs); to make a gurgling or squeaking sound
Related words:
razžvrkljáti: to beat thoroughly
May 1, 2011
rolig commented on the word žvrklja
žr'klja whisk, beater (traditional wooden utensil)
May 1, 2011
rolig commented on the word kozica
kozíca pan for cooking, stewing, and frying (also ponev)
May 1, 2011
rolig commented on the list slavic-languages-spelling-bee-list
Here are a couple more words with Slavic origins: pistol and gherkin. Feel free to pilfer from my slavonicisms list.
March 23, 2011
rolig commented on the word gvišn
In colloquial Slovene: "of course, certainly" (from German Gewiss)
March 8, 2011
rolig commented on the word bit
In Slovene, this word means "being", as in the Slovene name of Heidegger's Bit in čas (Being and Time). And, it's a feminine noun with -ø ending in the nominative singular and -í ending in the genitive singular!
March 8, 2011
rolig commented on the word ograda
animal pen, usually surrounded by a mortarless stone wall or hedge.
March 2, 2011
rolig commented on the word brozga
slush (plundra).
March 2, 2011
rolig commented on the word till
Actually, until is long for till. "Till" came first.
February 28, 2011
rolig commented on the word postavljati se
postávljam se s čim pred kom, nad čim, nedov.; postáviti se, dov. to flaunt, show off; put oneself above someone, think oneself superior to someone
postávljam se komu po robu, nedov. to oppose someone, set oneself against someone
February 13, 2011
rolig commented on the word ubadati se
ubádam se s čem, nedov. struggle with, grapple with, have a hard time with
February 13, 2011
rolig commented on the word kolobocija
kolobócija confusion, mess, disorder; predicament, problem
February 13, 2011
rolig commented on the word 28 Barbary Lane
I just finished reading Armistead Maupin's latest extension to his classic Tales of the City series, Mary Ann in Autumn. It was what I expected: eminently devourable in a day, a low-calorie treat. But it made me realize that, for me and I think for many gay men of my age, 28 Barbary Lane is indeed a state of mind, the home of our "logical" family (as Mrs. Madrigal puts it), where people accept us, care about us, put up with us, understand us, and forgive us our failings. And we all become better for it.
February 9, 2011
rolig commented on the word Dulcinea
For this name's use as a byword, see dulcinea.
February 5, 2011
rolig commented on the word vault
This word often slips my mind in the sense of "leap", e.g. "With her new novel, she has vaulted to the top ranks of pedestrian writers."
February 3, 2011
rolig commented on the word pettish
"Ah! If we could only do what we wished!" her friend Mrs. Forman cries wistfully at one point in the story, thus giving voice … to the straitjacket morality that sentences poor Mr. Lucas to a rancorous and pettish dotage.
– David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell, "Introduction", in E. M. Forster, Selected Stories, (New York: Penguin, 2001), xvii; discussing Forster's story "The Road from Colonus".
February 3, 2011
rolig commented on the word pistol
I just read that this word originates in the Slavic languages, which I hadn't realized. It came into English from German (Pistole), which took it from the Czech word pišt'ala, which means "whistle, flute, wind instrument" – cf. Russian пищаль / pishchal', Slovene piščal, Polish piszczel, piszczałka, all of which refer to a (potentially) musical wind instrument. The ultimate Slavic root is pisk- ("a whistling sound"), which may be related to the English word "pipe", both probably deriving from the onomatopoetic PIE root pi-.
January 29, 2011
rolig commented on the word suist
Well, with words that no one really uses or understands, it is not surprising that the only citations available are those that explain what the word means.
January 19, 2011
rolig commented on the word suist
Yes, a nice word. But one of the failings of the definitions that Wordnik provides from other sources (e.g. The Century Dictionary) is that it leaves out usage tags and citations. This word, for instance, is marked as "rare" by the Century Dictionary, which also supplies the following wonderful citation from R. Whitlock's Zootomia:
"In short, a suist and selfe-projector (so far as known) is one the world would not care how soon he were gone; and when gone one that heaven will never receive; for thither I am sure he cometh not that would (like him) go thither alone."
January 19, 2011
rolig commented on the word odeum
This is the source of the name Odeon (Odéon), which was given to major theaters in Paris, Vienna, and other European capitals.
Not to be confused with odium!
January 1, 2011
rolig commented on the user thalvers
Thanks for your suggestion of shrapnel to my Surprisingly Eponymous list! Sorry it's taken me 9 months to respond.
December 28, 2010
rolig commented on the word parentheses
What idiot wrote that definition?
December 23, 2010
rolig commented on the list helpful-hints-to-avoid-unit-confusion
… and another rather obvious one: googol and Google and Gogol
December 22, 2010
rolig commented on the list helpful-hints-to-avoid-unit-confusion
tesla and Tulsa? joule and jowl? And in the spirit of the holidays: centiliter and Santa litter
December 22, 2010
rolig commented on the word meh
Czech (if given a pretentious, quasi-native pronunciation, of course)
December 17, 2010
rolig commented on the word stunning
I've been out of the country for a decade, so maybe I'm out of touch. But essentially what I hear in McFadden's usage is something like, "Oh, what a stunning war!" And that seems strange. I'm not saying his usage is incorrect; I understand what he means. And there is nothing wrong with describing the AfPak complexity in a way that points to its ability to render one dazed and senseless. The problem here is the dissonance with the more common figurative sense of "stunning", since complexity can also be astoundingly beautiful. In a different context, I wouldn't do this kind of double take, e.g. "Mr. Knightley's stunning rebuke of her treatment of Miss Bates caused Emma to question her judgement about many other things as well."
There is also the problem of mixing metaphors: Can one wrestle with something that is stunning? Isn't the implication of "stunning" – even in its figurative uses – that it leaves you incapacitated, unable to act, speechless (not a good thing for a diplomat, by the way)?
I also thought McFadden's use of the word smacked of a certain journalistic pretentiousness. All of this is just my opinion, my feeling about it. And apparently none of y'all felt that way. Which is fine. But it makes me wonder if I need to adjust my language antennae.
December 16, 2010
rolig commented on the word stunning
Still, "stunning complexity" is not the best choice if you feel no admiration for the complexity. The first meaning the OED gives is the literal meaning of the word. McFadden did not intend to say that the complexity of the situation literally knocks people out in the way a "stunning blow to the head" would. He was trying to use the word figuratively and in this sense was employing a new meaning of the word, one not listed by the OED: "extremely difficult, daunting, challenging." This would be fine if there did not already exist an established figurative meaning of the word "stunning", which the OED duly records as its second definition: "excellent, first-rate, 'splendid', delightful, etc.". So because we know from news reports that the complexity of the Afghan situation is not delightful, we are left with a certain feeling of dissonance from this collocation: it does not mean the same thing it does in, for example, the phrase: "the stunning complexity of Bach's polyphony." So I find McFadden's usage of the word strange – unless, of course, he meant to say, literally, that the complexity of the situation left Holbrooke dazed, unable to reason, unconscious.
December 16, 2010
rolig commented on the word stunning
I find the following usage of the word strange:
"More recently, Mr. Holbrooke wrestled with the stunning complexity of Afghanistan and Pakistan: how to bring stability to the region while fighting a resurgent Taliban and coping with corrupt governments, rigged elections, fragile economies, a rampant narcotics trade, nuclear weapons in Pakistan, and the presence of Al Qaeda, and presumably Osama bin Laden, in the wild tribal borderlands."
– From the Robert D. McFadden's article on the late Richard Holbrooke, New York Times, 13 Dec 2010.
Here McFadden uses "stunning" to mean something like "extremely daunting", but the word inevitably adds a note of admiration for the complexity of situation, which I find strange. Is this a fairly new usage? Pretentious/hip journalese?
December 14, 2010
rolig commented on the word tranche
"China's moves to distance itself from Kim are revealed in the latest tranche of leaked US embassy cables published by the Guardian and four international newspapers."
– Simon Tisdall, "Wikileaks cables reveal China 'ready to abandon North Korea'", The Guardian, 29 November 2010
November 30, 2010
rolig commented on the word Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentat
Thanks, C_B. I missed you, too. And Wordie. But I never really got used to Wordnik, I guess, like having to check both capitalized and uncapitalized versions of words. But as a German noun, this one properly needs its capital, I think.
November 3, 2010
rolig commented on the word Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentat
German for "attempt on the life of the Hottentot prince's aunt".
November 3, 2010
rolig commented on the list x-marks-the-spot
Hi, Reesetee! How about matrix, executrix, and editrix?
October 31, 2010
rolig commented on the word vacuous
I don't think I would describe a house as "vacuous" -- a face, an expression, a mind, yes, but not a house. For a house I would use the word "vacant". In fact, checking the Oxford American Dictionary, I see that, under "vacuous", the meaning "empty" is marked as "archaic".
October 31, 2010
rolig commented on the word Uz
"Job is a monotheist but not an Israelite; he lives in 'the land of Uz,' which Alter glosses as 'a never-never land somewhere to the east.'
– Adam Kirsch, "Counter-Revelations", review of The Wisdom Books, new translations of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes by Robert Alter (Norton & Co.), on The New Republic book review website "The Book", http://www.tnr.com/book/review/counter-revelations-wisdom-books-robert-alter
October 26, 2010
rolig commented on the word duncify
I was looking for a single word that could translate the Slovene word poneumljati, "to make stupid", and found this. Unfortunately, it is not listed in dictionaries of current English, so I decided against using it. Instead, I chose the locution "dull the mind of ..." But what a great, and timely word! It needs to be revived. Contemporary society needs this word!
October 26, 2010
rolig commented on the word vestige
A word I want to remember when I have to translate the Slovene sled, as an alternative to trace, which has become overused in post-Derridean theoretical writings.
September 6, 2010
rolig commented on the word up
I like the fact that in Slovene up (a noun) means "hope".
August 24, 2010
rolig commented on the word casemate
In Ljubljana Castle, the Kazemate – Casemates, in the plural – have been turned into a hall for art exhibitions and concerts.
August 20, 2010
rolig commented on the word zlasati
to pull someone's hair; to quarrel
August 16, 2010
rolig commented on the word savory
In Slovene, šetraj. My boyfriend discovered this herb growing wild on the island of Brač.
July 18, 2010
rolig commented on the word gherkin
This word came into English via Dutch or German from the Polish word for "cucumber", ogorek.
June 17, 2010
rolig commented on the word kotaliti
kotalíti, -lím; kotalèč
to roll (sthg)
kotalíti se
to move along awkwardly, with difficulty; shuffle, toddle, waddle, etc.
June 16, 2010
rolig commented on the word prekucniti
prekúcniti, -nem; prekúcnjen
to overturn, topple; to revolutionize
Related words:
prekúc – overturning, somersault
prekucíja – revolution, coup
June 16, 2010
rolig commented on the word dimnikar postane gospodar
lit., "the chimney sweep becomes the master" - a reversal of roles.
June 9, 2010
rolig commented on the word zadrleskniti
to slam shut; from drlesk, a loud sharp noise.
June 9, 2010
rolig commented on the word neusmiljen
merciless, remorseless
February 13, 2010
rolig commented on the word neizprosen
a possible synonym would be neusmiljen, "merciless, remorseless".
February 13, 2010
rolig commented on the word eskimo
Apparently, "Eskimo" is a Red Indian Native American Indigenous American Algonquinian word meaning "raw-flesh eaters", a term one might justifiably use for people who enjoy sushi or steak tartare, so I am not sure why it would be offensive. Certainly, when I was growing up in Baltimore in the 1960s and 1970s, I never heard used in any way that was intended to cause offense. When I lived in Canada in the 1980s, I learned that the indigenous dwellers of the Canadian Arctic preferred to be known as Inuit, while those who lived in Alaska preferred to be called Eskimos, at least by non-Inuktitut-speakers. Perhaps this was because they didn't want people to botch the pronunciation of their ethnonym or because it got on their nerves when someone referred to one of them as "an Inuit" since "Inuit" is a plural form and this should properly be "an Inuk". In any case, there was no suggestion that "Eskimo" was offensive, just that it was not what they called themselves. It annoys me that people get so sensitive when it is clear that no offense is intended. Is it insulting to refer to Angela Merkel as a "German", for example, when she calls herself a "Deutsche"? Should we refer to Japanese people as "Nihonjin"?
December 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word Hedwig
Yes, milord! What a fine-looking judicial owl. Thanks, Bilby, for brightening my day (and not for the first time)!
December 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word ice-cream
It's ironic that this little punctuation mark, which is simply trying to bring things together in order to avoid misunderstandings, should be so divisive.
December 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word polka
I had thought that this word must have originally referred to a Polish dance, but apparently the dance originated in Bohemia and the name derives from the Czech word půlka (of which polka would be an earlier spelling), meaning "half-step".
December 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word ervate
I don't think it's English, gangerh. Some of those hits may be from faulty hyphenations of enervate and coacervate. Where'd you find 55,500 search results for this word? I get only about 7,500 hits on Google.
December 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word good
Ru, it's more the case that hello became a short way of saying "How do you do?" some eighty years ago. And, I'm told, in good British society, the proper reply to "How do you do?" is "How do you do?": it's a polite formal greeting, not a question about the state of one's well-being. But today, the polite way to respond to the greeting, "How are you?" is, as you say, "Fine, thanks." But "Good, thanks," works too, meaning, "the present condition of my life is good, i.e. it's nothing for you to worry about, but thanks for showing even this formal interest."
December 14, 2009
rolig commented on the list robots--famous
Wait a sec. Karel Čapek wasn't a robot; he just invented the word.
December 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word soviesque
Shouldn't this be Sovietesque? The suffix -esque usually does not involve clipping final letters/phonemes.
December 8, 2009
rolig commented on the list lewis-carrol
If you're referring to the author of Alice in Wonderland, that's Lewis Carroll, with two l's.
December 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word muscle
There is a similar correspondance in the Slavic languages between muscles and mice, e.g. Russian мышца (myshtsa, "muscle") / мышь (mysh', "mouse"); and Slovene mišica ("muscle") / miš ("mouse"), where the suffixes -tsa, -ica form diminutives.
December 5, 2009
rolig commented on the list etymologically-awesome
another curious etymology belongs to muscle.
December 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word ciao bella!
And what would you say to a cute guy in a gay bar?
December 5, 2009
rolig commented on the list words-that-sound-dirty-but-really-aren-t
But reesetee, cummingtonite doesn't sound awful at all; it sounds like something to look forward to.
December 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word puritan purist
That's the same thing you call a broken middle finger in Queens.
December 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word WTBH
Thanks, I should have gotten that, but then, I'm not British, so "bloody" doesn't necessarily spring to mind. WTFH would be my dialect.
But now I'm wondering if WTBHAG is a sweet tooth fairy?
December 2, 2009
rolig commented on the user Prolagus
I've got a question for you on WTBH.
December 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word WTBH
I have seen Prolagus use this a couple of times and am curious about what it means. I could probably look it up in Urban Dictionary, but there's no immediate link and I'm not fully awake yet. So I'll just ask.
My first guess would be: "What's The Big Hurry", but that doesn't fit the circs, so then, remembering BHAG (wasn't that "Big Hairy-Assed Goal"?), I thought, "What The Big Hairy". That took me to "What The Big Harry", but then, who the f--k is Harry? But maybe this is short for WTBHAD: What's The Big Hairy-Assed Deal?. I'm feeling lost.
December 2, 2009
rolig commented on the user feedback
John, I suspected this was the case and that they weren't lost forever. I am in no rush at the moment, but PNs are a useful tool for noting information about a foreign word (stress, declensions, peculiarities) that would not be of interest to the general Wordnikkery. I don't need them right away, though, but if you think you'll get to them in the next couple of months, that would be dandy.
December 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word illustrated sweet tooth fairy
well done, Gangerh, FrogApplause and Co.! I am very impressed.
December 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word umbrage
Ta, Bil.
December 1, 2009
rolig commented on the user feedback
A few bugs are still lurking in my lists with regard to non-Western Roman characters:
- In pre-Transition entries, the Slovene letter "č" still appears as an unknown character (like this: �?).
- In text describing the list, characters such as "í", "š", and, again, "č" are misencoded (they look like this, respectively: Ã, Å¡, Ä). Curiously, "i" and "š" appear correctly in other environments. (See the list slo: fem. nouns with sg. nom. ending -ø, gen. -í.
- None of my private notes seem to have survived the crossing. These were particularly important to me because they contained a great deal of morphological information about Slovene words, stuff that I didn't want to bore my fellow Wordies with. Can they be found and revived? Or are they lost forever?
Finally, let me say that the Transition has gone rather well. I am impressed, as always, with John's amazing responsiveness and patience (indeed, forbearance) and am glad that he now has a team of able assistants. Wordnik is not yet the breezy pleasure that Wordie was (most of the time), but it is moving in that direction.
December 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word qualtify
Enough with the portmanteaux, please! Who started this juvenile craze? I can't open a webpage without seeing somebody's latest attempt to add a purportedly clever compact neologism to the dictionary. Are people so much in a hurry that they feel it imperative to use one neologistic, barely comprehensible word, a word that usually strikes the recipient as a slip of the tongue or typo (if written), where two or three or four words would convey the intended meaning much more directly and unambiguously. If I saw "qualtify" written out or heard it spoken, my first thought would be, "The poor guy made a mistake, has a speech defect, or simply does not know how to spell."
December 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word umbrage
What or who is JKR, PotentiallyEmphatic?
December 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word series
I would interpret the first sentence MM offers as referring to more than one series, e.g. "The three Star Trek series were on for years before being cancelled." In other words, "series" is not a pluralis tantum word (if that's the right expression) like "scissors" or "bifocals", where the plural form denotes a single referent. It is a singular noun ending in -s that has a ø-inflection in the plural.
December 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word autocomplete
I would vote for doing away with autocomplete entirely. It's really annoying.
November 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word self-destruct
I just realized this is a back-formation from self-destruction. After all, there is no word "to destruct". Doesn't someone have a list of back-formations where this belongs?
November 28, 2009
rolig commented on the user john
Thanks, John!
November 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word piece of work
I expect today's colloquial expression, as in: "That Madge, she's a real piece of work!" comes from the sense of someone who is complex or complicated, not easy to figure out. This is an ironic twist on a phrase whose origin is almost certainly Shakespeare (Hamlet, II, ii): "What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!"
November 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word mien
They're not synonyms, Oro; at least in my understanding, synonyms all have to belong to the same language. But they do happen to be cognates; hence the similarity.
November 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word software
I would say that the -ware words (silverware, hardware, earthenware) all tend to be collective nouns and take singular verbs. That doesn't mean, however, that someone cannot distinguish between different "softwares" (in the sense of different "kinds/species of software", not different individual programs) and be perfectly well understood. But this would be an anomalous usage.
November 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word Askatoon
A city in Askatchewan.
November 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word bol
If Wordnik weren't capital-equipped, I would guess this was Bol, a beautiful beach on the Dalmatian island of Brač.
November 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word sipek
The venerable Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika (Dictionary of Standard Slovene) provides the following definition for this adjective (I translate): "being composed of tiny, small particles that do not cling to each other"; it gives the examples sipek pesek ("?? sand"), sipek sneg ("?? snow"). I suppose powdery would work (esp. for "snow"), but is there another word that conveys this sense of tiny, non-viscous dry particles that can slip through your fingers? The expression I needed to translate was "sipek čas" ("?? time"), which clearly meant to evoke the sand in an hourglass. Unable to think of a suitable adjective, I decided on "time slipping away".
November 22, 2009
rolig commented on the user feedback
FB, thanks for the answer about the log-out. Now another bug, relating to encoding. In words entered in the Wordie Age, the Central European character "č" (c+caron) appears like this: �? (e.g. mrš�?iti), which makes these words impossible to look up. Can this be fixed?
And a related question: in the first days after the Great Transition, I tried to fix the names of two of my lists which contain problematic characters, namely the aforementioned "č" and the Russian letter "я". I was able to rename the lists with a visible "č" character, but now they are unopenable. Clicking on them takes me to the following URLs, both redirecting me to Not-Found-Land (I feel like I've arrived in Goosed Bay). Here are the list names and the URLs
Pogovorno: Zoran Hočevar, Rožencvet: http://www.wordnik.com/lists/pogovorno-zoran-hoÄevar-i-rožencvet-i
i~je~я~ich~jaz: http://www.wordnik.com/lists/i-je-Ñ-ich-jaz
Any help would be appreciated.
November 22, 2009
rolig commented on the user uselessness
About my pronunciations: I didn't see how to preview them. But in any case, I think my microphone is fried. I am enjoying your pronunciations, by the way.
November 22, 2009
rolig commented on the user feedback
Prolagus (thanks, Pro) suggested I place this comment here instead of on bugs:
Here's a peculiar bug. I clicked on the Blog, which mentioned an interesting list I thought I'd check out, so I clicked on the list, and when I went to comment on it I discovered I was no longer signed in! Seems like the Blog is the EXIT door.
November 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word arse
And, Classically, ars means "art" in Latin. In Slovenia, Radio Slovenia 3, which features mainly classical music and high-culture programming, is called, Radio Ars, which used to crack me up (no pun intended). And their is an upscale chain of shoe stores in Ljubljana, which is also called ARS. Shoecabbages, indeed.
November 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word bugs
Here's a peculiar bug. I clicked on the Blog, which mentioned an interesting list I thought I'd check out, so I clicked on the list, and when I went to comment on it I discovered I was no longer signed in! Seems like the Blog is the EXIT door.
November 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word wordnikkers
Are wordknickers now available from the merchandising department? I'd buy me a pair. Boxers, please.
November 20, 2009
rolig commented on the list capitonyms-and-capitonyms
I would question only the inclusion of commercial names, such as Fiat, Time, and Life, which would basically mean you would include any word that had a magazine or newspaper named after it (Look/look, Times/times, Sun/sun etc.).
November 19, 2009
rolig commented on the list capitonyms-and-capitonyms
Great list, Ru! I love "Tangier/tangier" – never considered that before.
November 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word synecdouche
Doesn't someone have a list of words that are waiting to be defined? Any suggestions for this one?
November 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word flaccid
I have always pronounced this to rhyme with "acid", and I see that the New Oxford American Dictionary acknowledges both pronunciations.
November 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word mancession
How do I know that this doesn't refer to men seceding from something, or to a procession of men, or to men ceasing to exist (a "man-cessation"), or if I simply hear it, to a session of some body at which women are excluded. This tendency to form portmanteau words at the drop of a hat (at a drat!?) really gets my billygoat gruff. No problem, if it's done in jest, but when people start acting like these are serious words, I start getting a little scared.
November 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word beantownbandit
This almost makes sense. Boston, aka "Beantown" (from the poor Irish immigrants there who made their diet on baked beans, which later became famous in their own right) used to be a very Catholic, very conservative place, so the more risqué traveling theater shows proudly touted that they were "Banned in Boston", but they might have said as well: "Beantown banned it!"
November 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word cake
Pro, pretty much any English noun can become a verb – can be verbed, as some would say illustratively – not that that's always a good thing. Please don't umbrage me for saying that.
November 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word tantalize
Oroboros, for anyone who loves etymology and morphology, that word is like fingernails on a blackboard. What is -nypo- supposed to mean?
November 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word my own private idaho potato
A movie that gives a very different meaning to the term "couch potato".
November 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word comments
John, in the first day or so of the Transition, where problems with text-encoding did strange things with my list names, I tried to fix two of them, but only ended up sending these two to the Province of Not-Found-Land. The two lists in question are titled "Pogovorno: Zoran Hočevar, Rožencvet" and "i~je~я~ich~jaz". Can they be fixed? Also, the letter "č" ("c" with a caron) still appears in list names and pre-Transition words as "�?". Can I fix this myself in the list names, or will I only screw things up?
November 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word Sue Pine
And she does it on her back.
November 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word comments
On case-sensitivity: I like the idea of putting the different variants together. After all, sometimes the gap between the uppercased form and the lowercased form is not as wide as in Polish/polish: "The august ruler was born in August." "She enjoyed a cheese danish in the Danish capital." "The morocco-bound tome was shipped to Morocco." "After our turkey dinner, I went with my friend from Turkey to see the latest Tom Cruise flick, and I couldn't believe I paid 12 bucks to see that turkey."
November 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word comments
Is this a good place to leave general comments -- or point out bugs -- about the transition?
I just clicked on the word celadon and noticed that my list "paintboxes and rainbows" was not one of the lists noted in the sidebar. And yet, this word is indeed on that list. Will old Wordie lists be listed as listing words in the list sidebar of the Comments section? (Yes, I am trying to see how many forms of the word "list" I can use in one sentence; it's called polyptoton.)
November 12, 2009
rolig commented on the user john
Oops, but now, when I tried to fix a couple more list titles ("i~je~я~ich~jaz" and "pogovorno: Zoran Hočevar, Rožencvet") and then clicked on them, I get the "Not found" page.
November 11, 2009
rolig commented on the user john
By the way, I see that the "č" appears correctly in the comment I just wrote here. And I was able to fix the title of my list "slovenščina" simply by retyping the "č". So I am feeling hopeful.
November 11, 2009
rolig commented on the user john
Thanks for your comment, John. I'm impressed that things look as much like Wordie as they do. I am sure you will keep trying to work out all the bugs, including the apparent difficulties imposed by the Cyrillic alphabet and even certain characters in the Central European Latin alphabets (like "č"). It is amusing that Hindi and Chinese characters should appear in my "slovenščina" list. When I click on such words, I get the message, "Disallowed key characters in global data", which curiously points to the different meanings of the word global. Good luck with finding an effective bug spray.
November 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word u.s. marshall aid
"Marshall aid" refers to money the United States made available to European countries for rebuilding after World War II. The plan was designed by the U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall, hence the name.
November 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word glans
pl. glandes (two syllables), thus, "They delighted in rubbing their glandes together" scans as an anapestic tetrameter.
November 10, 2009
rolig commented on the user ruzuzu
Hi, Ru, sorry to take so long in replying. I can't help you with the origin of the Czech ano, I'm sorry to say. Historically, the Slavic "yes" was da, though in some languages, under the influence of German (I'm guessing), it became ja (in Slovene) or jo (in colloquial Czech).
November 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word fireplace fender bender
Slovene and other South Slavic languages, sort of like Georgian I suppose, have an affix to indicate place. In the case of Slovene, it's the suffix -iš�?e:
igriš�?e – "playground" or "playing field", from the verb igrati, "to play";
pokopališ�?e – "cemetery", from the verb pokopati, "to bury";
letališ�?e - "airport", from the noun letalo, "airplane", which comes from the verb letati, "to fly";
težiš�?e – "center of gravity", from the verb težiti, "to be heavy, to weigh down on";
gledališ�?e – "theater", from the verb gledati, "to look".
This last is particularly interesting in comparison with its Croatian counterpart, kazalište, "theater", from kazati, "to show" (an older meaning; in modern Croatian, this means "to say").
November 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word u.s. marshall aid
I was copyediting a text today and came across this expression and thought, "Why, that's a Sweet Tooth Fairy! No, wait, it's a Perfect Sweet Tooth Fairy!"
November 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word strawberry's.
Do you mean you hate strawberries (the plural of "strawberry") or some store/café/place of business called "Strawberry's"?
November 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word enure
an alternative spelling of inure.
November 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word victualry
Great! I'm adding this to my "pocketful of -ry" list.
October 31, 2009
rolig commented on the word enow
It's enow or enever, Milo.
October 31, 2009
rolig commented on the word cartagena, spain
The ruthless plundering of place names is an ancient practice.
October 31, 2009
rolig commented on the word punctoglyph
I would say it's a good example, moll.
October 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word ethnomasochism
Sure, Pro, take whatever you need.
October 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word ethnomasochism
MM, the "might" referred to the possibility of your disdaining not only the bigots (which I am sure you do) but also the overanxious liberals who worry about never offending anyone, even those who would like to implement Shariah law in Ontario. By the way, I never take umbrage; there's so much of it around that it's pretty near worthless to me.
October 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word punctoglyph
My ad hoc coinage for a symbol composed of punctuation marks, often called "emoticon", a word I cannot love (I'm not especially fond of the phenomenon itself either).
October 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word ethnomasochism
Well, it did occur to me that MM might (justifiably, perhaps) disdain both the bigots on Youtube and the so-called "pussies" (sorry, C_b; I know, people who use the word "pussies" like this are dicks) whose zeal for multiculturalism extends even to considering whether to allow the practice of Shariah law (which is a current issue in Canada, which I believe is where MM grew up). And there is, by the way, plenty of evidence that Miss Mouth has a fondness for provocative, non–politically correct words and phrases. My point was merely to register a dislike for the whole "dangerous agenda" argument. I certainly am not interested in policing any Wordie content. But part of the freedom of Wordie is the freedom to say "I don't like this and here's why" without anyone feeling like they're being either censored or censured.
October 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word the hague
There is a similar thing in Slovene (and other Slavic languages), whereby certain place names take the preposition "na" (lit. "on/at"), while most take the preposition "v" ("in"). The most interesting example, perhaps, is with the city of Vienna, which in Slovene is called Dunaj, a name that comes from the old Slavic name of the Danube River. So one says, e.g. Živijo v Berlinu ("They live in Berlin") but Živijo na Dunaju ("They live in Vienna"). With the latter, the original idea was that one was saying, "They live on the Danube", which obviously meant in the capital of the empire.
October 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word train stations of the crossword puzzle
an elaboration on Bilby's stations of the crossword puzzle.
October 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word stations of the crossword puzzle
I am familiar with this from rail travel – which, I guess, would be train stations of the crossword puzzle.
October 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word ethnomasochism
Well, MM, you should put it in quotation marks if it's a quote; that would at least indicate that it is not necessarily your view. I admit that I don't know how to interpret the punctoglyph "-_-": does that mean sarcasm?
Unfortunately, with political and social discourse in America (especially, and of course especially on the Internet) sinking to new depths everyday, it's getting more and more difficult to tell the difference between sarcasm, hyperbole, intentional insult, strategic prevarication, disinformation, sheer ignorance and downright nastiness. What tends to stand out, however, because it's so rare, is serious, respectful, informed and well-considered comment.
October 29, 2009
rolig commented on the user ruzuzu
No prob. I'm nothing if not helpful.
October 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word ethnomasochism
I object to the whole clause "who are letting their country get taken over by the Islamic Agenda"; I remember when people started talking about the "gay agenda". The fact is that the people who talk in such terms are usually doing so to promote their own agenda of fear- and hate-mongering, as a way of ensuring that people who think like them (i.e. narrow-mindedly, selfishly, unimaginatively, naively) stay in charge of things.
October 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word elixir
Elixir? 'E 'ardly knows 'er!
October 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word traduce
What is that famous Italian (I think it's Italian) saying that goes something like "the translator is a traitor" or "translation is betrayal"? I bet you know it, Pro.
October 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word paratactic
I don't see what's paratactic about the example the reviewer cites.
October 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word ida dunham-fershore
A girl with a roving eye.
October 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word auroch
The standard spelling is aurochs, which is both the singular and plural forms of this word: one aurochs, two aurochs, many aurochs.
October 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word aloysius
A curious case in which the combination oy is pronounced as two separate vowels.
October 22, 2009
rolig commented on the list looks-like-a-digraph-but-isn-t
Btw, I once had a brilliant professor who was Czech. He generally spoke excellent English, but in one lecture at least he kept referring th "haffazard" events (with the stress on the third syllable). I should perhaps have quietly informed him of the correct pronunciation after the lecture, but it was so cute I wanted to start saying it myself.
October 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word twink
Theory (a) seems like clever retrofitting. Back in the day (my day, the early 90s), in bars you tended to hear "twinkie" (perhaps because sweet and empty-headed = sweet and empty calories?) as much as "twink"; the short form really developed more as a category of porn on the internet (where character is rarely evident) than as a description of a certain kind of actual person.
October 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word mother of all deadbeat dads gets 6 months in prison
Should she really be punished for what her children did?
October 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word severed head offers few answers
Stupid severed head.
October 21, 2009
rolig commented on the list •open-list-plural-looking-singular-nouns
Isn't scissors a pluralis tantum? "The scissors are lying on the table." NOT "The scissors is lying on the table."
October 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word avatar
In Hindu philosophy, avatar is the bodily manifestation, or incarnation, of a released soul or deity. It's a shame how this word has become diluted, not to say cheapened, by computer jargon.
October 21, 2009
rolig commented on the list looks-like-a-digraph-but-isn-t
In English, kh is a digraph in khan, Kharkov, and Khrushchev, where it conventionally represents the voiceless velar fricative /x/ in other languages, though in English it is usually pronounced as the voiceless velar plosive /k/.
October 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word ij
In Croatian dictionaries, Lj and Nj are listed separately, and I think that in an alphabetized list, the word lutka would come before the word ljubav (since Lj comes after L). Also you see vertical signs like this in Zagreb:
K
NJ
I
Ž
A
R
A
(knjižara - "bookstore").
I would guess that this practice (including the treatment of the digraph dž as a single letter) stems from the effort to create a one-to-one correspondence between the Croatian Latin alphabet and the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, where lj=љ, nj=њ, and dž=џ.
Slovene, by the way, can't be bothered with Serbian Cyrillic correspondences and treats all its digraphs as two letters for the purposes of alphabetization.
October 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word carbon copy editor
I've known a few of these.
October 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word cooling off period furniture polish
This is a sweet tooth fairy godmother!
October 20, 2009
rolig commented on the list looks-like-a-digraph-but-isn-t
My guess would be that it came into English via Latin, which took it from Greek (Θωμᾶς), though orginally it's an Aramaic name meaning "twin". In any case, that "h" was part of a digraph representing the Greek letter theta.
October 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word auroch
there is more than one internet?
October 20, 2009
rolig commented on the list looks-like-a-digraph-but-isn-t
Fun list! I would question, however, the inclusion of Thomas, where "Th" is still a digraph (two letters representing one phoneme), just as "ch" is still a digraph in "character". An interesting case is threshold, where "sh" represents "sh + h".
October 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word ij
Molly is right. In Dutch, this is a digraph, two letters that together represent one phoneme. English digraphs are ch, sh, th, ph (in "phone" but not in "upholstery"), among many others. Some languages consider certain digraphs as single letters, such as Dutch with ij, German with ß (= ∫ + s), Czech with ch, Croatian with lj and nj, and Russian with ы. I don't know if there is a special term for such cases, however.
October 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word auroch
HH is right: the singular form is aurochs, and according to my dictionary (useful things, dictionaries), the plural is the same, like deer. One aurochs, two aurochs, many aurochs. I would label this form a misspelling (and in fact I have done so).
October 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word planemo
This also means "we pounce!" in Slovene!
October 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word zajeziti
lit. to block, dam
fig. to curb
October 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word fasten brastraps and remove dentures
I can hear Bette Davis saying this.
October 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word razz-ma-tasmanian devil
I know this is not a "proper" STF, but I couldn't resist.
October 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word vavasor
I came across it accidentally, when I was looking up "Valvasor" (a Slovene 17th-century polymath). It was new to me, too.
October 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word vavasor
I'm surprised to see that a certain history-minded bear hasn't listed this word (or vavasory) yet.
October 7, 2009
rolig commented on the list zing-went-the-strings
lovely list. From the Slavic side of the world comes the gusli (Russian) and the similarly named but structurally different gusle (Balkan).
October 6, 2009
rolig commented on the user gangerh
oh wow, I didn't even think of that sense of the word. Thanks, G!
October 6, 2009
rolig commented on the user gangerh
Thanks for including me among your bananas, G. I suppose I always hoped my light would be a little bigger, not a macrolight, of course, but, well, something noticeable. *sigh*
October 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word saunter
Interesting citation at saunterer.
October 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word u-shaped course of development
C'mon guys, I only eavesdrop for language-learning purposes! I would never listen in to your conversations.
*wonders whether Strine is worth the strain*
October 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word presdifigurators
The word is ugly, but it is also mispelled (if madeupicals can be mispelled). It should logically be prestifiguratators. "Presdi-" makes no sense at all.
October 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word u-shaped course of development
oops. Did I say too much?
October 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word u-shaped course of development
I know it well. Just when you're convinced you'll never be able to learn this damned language, you suddenly find yourself eavesdropping on conversations at the next table with no trouble at all.
October 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word wtf
Then there's the McDonald's version: FWT?
October 2, 2009
rolig commented on the list not-quite-as-awful-as-they-sound
The Glagolitic alphabet is lovely and strange. You can still come across it in parts of Croatia. In Istria they sell little ceramic Glagolitic scrolls as tourist souvenirs. The word glagol, by the way, is the Old Slavic word for "word" (today it means "verb" in most Slavic languages).
October 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word kindle
You've gotta wonder why Amazon decided on this idiotic name. When I link the word "kindle" with books, I think of Nazis and book-burning. Is the idea that our old-fashioned paper books can now be used as kindling? Marketing morons.
September 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word subjunctive case
This sounds very strange to me. I would say, "till it was 15 years old". I think someone has made a mistake.
By the way, verbs don't have cases; they have tense and mood, among other things (Slavic verbs also have aspect). The standard term is "subjunctive mood". "Case" refers to nouns: nominative, genitive, etc.
September 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word lemon pledge of allegiance
Thanks, FA! I love the tag! Did you do that?
September 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word erazem
The Slovene version of "Erasmus", this is a fairly popular name perhaps because of the historical Baron Erazem Predjamski, who built his castle in a cave and became known as a kind of Robin Hood figure. I gave my cat the (rather rare) female version of this name, Erazma, which seemed to me an excellent name for a cat.
September 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word �?rtomir
A name one occasionally encounters in Slovenia, perhaps because it is also the name of the hero of Slovenia's national epic (every country has one), The Baptism by the Savica (Krst pri Savici, 1835) by France Prešeren. What is strange about this name is that it means something like "devil's peace". It forms the nickname Črt, which means, yes, "evil spirit".
September 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word božidar
This is the Slovene calque on Theodore: "God's gift." The short form of the name is Božo, which makes me wonder if the name is at all related to that of Bozo the Clown.
September 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word rule of the tablecloth
bureaucracy?
September 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word lemon pledge of allegiance
For a star-spangled shine!
September 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word furniture polish jokes
How many bottles of pine oil does it take to change a lightbulb?
September 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word wordnikie suggestion box
Who's formatting bears? Does C_b know about this?
September 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word sarah
The spelling "Sara" is the "correct" (i.e. standard) spelling of this name in Slovene and other South Slavic languages.
September 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word f2f
My guess would be "female to female" (as in sexual practice).
September 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word iztok
I have always liked this name, but only recently did I realize that the name means "East" (in Old Slavic), and was the equivalent of the Latin name Orientius (the 5th-century St. Orientius was a poet, by the way).
September 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word eschscholtzia
Also spelled eschscholzia – so much simpler.
September 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word fredonia
A friend of mine, who is from Fredonia, NY, told me that the Marx Brothers named the Duck Soup country Freedonia because they were upset by the bad reception they received when they did a show in Fredonia, NY, and wanted to make fun of the town.
September 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word puissant
@ TheSarahEffect: Sorry to hear about the bad experience with your English teacher, who seems to feel it's her/his job to limit rather than expand your vocabulary. I wonder if your teacher knows what "esoteric" means; I certainly wouldn't use it to describe "puissant" – erudite maybe, but not "esoteric".
I pronounce it more or less as you and Chained_bear do: two syllables: PWISS-ent (that "e" is a schwa). I think the French pronunciation would be: pü-i-SÃ, where the "ü" stands for that narrow, unrounded front-of-the-mouth "u", the "i" is as in machine, and the "ã" is a nasal "ah". But when you're speaking English, I strongly recommend using English pronunciations.
September 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word wordnikie suggestion box
C_b, I wasn't aware that "discussion" as a term had become ubiquitous on the Web. Sigh. Of course, my suggestion was meant to encourage just the opposite of ranting. For mean, discussion involves listening and consideration (in both senses of the word); it's a two-way thing, whereas "comments" and "commentary", etc., seem one-way, i.e. "let me tell you what I think about this." That said, you are right, I think, that "comments" is a fairly "neutral" word. Still it would be great if we could come up with something that did actually encourage people to discuss things, since after all Wordie has been the site of many excellent discussions, as well as fuflun-combat, and it would great if people understood that from the get-go.
September 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word least common denominator
The least common denominator would be the most extraordinary one, wouldn't it?
September 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word wordnikie suggestion box
I think it would be great to have a separate space for actual citations, so we can see how a word is being used, and then have another place for "comments". I suppose "comments" is the standard name for such things, though I would like to see people encouraged to discuss the words and not just comment on them. I would therefore suggest "Discussion" as a header.
September 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word imma let you finish
Bilby, the question is about where the expression "I'ma/Imma/I'm'a/I'm 'a/I'm a-" comes from, and how it should be spelled, when the "a" particle indicates the immediate future tense (in standard English we would say, "I'm going to let you finish"; Kanye said, "I'm'a let you finish.")
September 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word uglajen
"respectable; respectability" is perhaps a good choice.
September 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word imma let you finish
This very question is currently being discussed over at Language Log, Telo. Personally, I don't like the spelling "Imma", which looks like it should rhyme with the word "dimmer" (British received pronunciation). I would vote for "I'm 'a" since it's pretty clear that the "a" is a contraction of "gonna" (I'm going to > I'm gonna > I'm 'na > I'm 'a). I'm not sure Kanye actually pronounces a double "m", but if he does this would have arisen through assimilation of the "n" in "gonna".
September 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word third man factor
Could it be Orson Welles on the Riesenrad of life?
September 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word resurection fern
Shouldn't this be resurrection, HH?
September 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word lingnan school
You hearing this, ReeseTee?
September 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word lingnan school
Wow, thanks, MM! I didn't know about this. I love the pictures by Li Fuhong! Very Zen.
September 16, 2009
rolig commented on the list etymologically-awesome
Check out pamphlet. It's one of my favorite etymologies.
September 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word ginkgo
Thanks, Fox! A lovely poem.
September 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word rsvp'd
Sounds like a great list idea, Erin! I, for one, wouldn't want to see it 86'd. Though if I wanted to nitpick, I'd say that RSVP does have vowels: ɑ�?, ɛ and i�? (twice); it just doesn't have vowel-letters.
September 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word wordnikie
If we become Wordnikie, does that mean we're going to get a swoosh?
September 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word rimfire
*guffaw*
Thanks, Froggy, for the chuckle!
September 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word en yaourt
Fr., lit. "in yogurt". With the verb chanter this apparently means "in a kind of gibberish that approximates the lyrics", esp. when the lyrics are in a foreign language. See the discussion at Language Log.
September 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word wordnik
Thanks, Erin! I am feeling reassured. Ooh, but I like Molly's idea of a Lexome Project. The best of all possible words! Borges's Library of Babel but with scores of writing systems! Now that would be something.
September 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word sitsiritsit
And if it is a really short song, then I guess it'd be an itsy-bitsy sitsiritsit.
September 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word wordnik
While I would applaud Wordnik-like efforts in other linguistic communities (Словник, Besednik, Wortnik – would the French Wordnik be named Mo'nique®, by any chance?), I'm not enthused about the idea of segregating the languages. The working language of Wordie is, by and large, English, though conversations in other tongues do occur and are in no way discouraged, but we still talk quite a lot about non-English words: what they mean, how they sound, what Beatles songs they bring to mind (see oplaziti), and so on. Will there still be a place on Wordienik for non-English words, nonce words, symbols, ideograms, glyphs, numerals, and all the different alphabets that some of us find so fascinating, delightful, comical, or horkworthy. What will happen to 42? Or will they be consigned to their own respective versions of Wordnik?
September 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word wordnik
I have liked Wordnik since I first discovered it a few months ago, and the upcoming amalgamation doesn't give me the jitters, not too much at least, largely because John has proved himself time and time again to astonishingly level-headed and responsible for someone who likes to call himself a slack bastard little teapot. So I trust John. And I like Wordnik. And I also know that Wordies are tenaciously protective of what we've got.
But I do have a question. Wordnik seems to have a noticeable bias toward, well, how can I put this, English. And though I love English and even make my living from it, I also deeply appreciate Wordie's (and Wordies') openness to other languages, e.g my Slovene and Russian, as well as Indonesian, Urdu, Chinese, Georgian, a raft of Amerindian and African languages, not to mention the Madeupical tongue, beloved by many of us. So will these possibilities continue in Wordnik? Will we feel compelled to bite our many tongues? Will Wordnik become multilingual? Will it be useful for learners of foreign tongues?
Or perhaps, Wordnik will prove even more adaptive, such as by having links to foreign-language dictionaries? That would be very neat.
September 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word robert frost
See citation at Emily Dickinson.
September 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word emily dickinson
And you read your Emily Dickinson
And I my Robert Frost,
And we note our place with bookmarkers
That measure what we've lost.
Like a poem poorly written
We are verses out of rhythm,
Couplets out of rhyme,
In syncopated time,
Lost in the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
Are the borders of our lives.
– Paul Simo, "The Dangling Conversation" (1966)
September 8, 2009
rolig commented on the list bywords
Asativum and Bilby, thanks for the suggestions. Lo' and Emily are added, and, via Simon and Garfunkel, Emily reminded me of another American poet whose name has become a byword, so I've added Robert Frost too. Mecca I didn't add, since although it is undoubtedly a byword, this list is reserved for personal names.
September 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word o crablouse day! callow! allay!
I don't think having a crablouse day would make me shout Allay! One would also certainly have to question one's callowness.
September 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word penis
We met him again later, at dinner. He had a curious man with him, the Marquis of something or other. … He took us back to his house and name-dropped. '… And I was there when Madame de Gaulle made her famous gaffe, you know. Somebody asked her, "What are you looking forward to when you retire?" "I am looking forward most to a penis," she replied. After a pause somebody said, "Oh, oui, happiness, madame." '
– Joe Orton, The Orton Diaries, ed. John Lahr (London: Methuen, 1986), 176.
September 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word 100204180
brilliant!
August 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word french national anthem
How is this a sweet tooth fairy? It seems like perfectly ordinary description of La Marseillaise.
August 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word arlo guthrie
But maybe you got what you needed, Bil.
August 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word galileo
Saddam's full name is, according to Wikipedia (a source I distrust, but this information seems correct), Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti. The "Hussein" is actually a patronymic (his father's name) which is being used, for the convenience of the media, as a "last name". "Al-Tikriti" indicates where the family originates (the town of Tikrit). I am not sure about the "Abd al-Majid" part. I used to have an Armenian friend from Baghdad, who told me that his official Iraqi name consisted of his first name + his father's first name + his grandfather's first name. The Armenian family name never came into the picture. So it is a mistake to think of "Hussein" as Saddam's "surname" the way European last names are surnames.
August 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word luftwaffle
Oh, I would take this in a different direction altogether, to mean something like "attacking by means of suddenly changing your views with the intention of disarming your opponents". Politicians do this a lot:
"The senator said she would support the measure but then opposed it on technical grounds. Her opponent accused her of using luftwaffle tactics."
August 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word lovelify
Wouldn't this mean "to make something lovely" – as the opposite of uglify?
August 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word stimulatify
What's a "stimulate state", SSS?
August 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word stimulatify
um… isn't this what stimulate means?
August 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word facial expression
You could also just say "expression" or even just "eyes". I am not sure that there is anything "cold" about the term facial expression, by the way. "Visage", "aspect", and "countenance" are all rather formal words. "Look" is more colloquial, but can be ambiguous (e.g., it can refer just as well to one's clothes or posture).
August 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word front sitter
Sionnach, I have no idea what that means.
A clue: this word is also used as a title, e.g. Front-sitter Jane Smith.
August 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word persian apple
I guessed this because of the Russian word for peach, пер�?ик / persik, but Bilby beat me to it.
August 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word sacred rule
You got it, RT!
August 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word chuj
Latin-alphabet spellings are confusing things. The Polish (and Czech and Slovak) spelling ch corresponds to the Russian Cyrillic letter х, which is usually transliterated (for English speakers) as kh.
The word Mia is referring to begins with the affricate sound "ch" (in Cyrillic, usually spelt as ч), as in the English word "church" (in Polish spelt as cz, in Czech, Slovak, and the South Slavic languages as �?).
August 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word little sword
Ah… gladiolus.
August 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word wing-finger
Sorry, Fox, that totally went past me. The pun-receiver in my brain doesn't seem to be working, or maybe I just need sleep.
August 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word sacred rule
My dictionary says shibboleth comes from the Hebrew for "ear of corn", so I don't think that's the password in this case.
August 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word wing-finger
Yes, Fbharjo, of course.
August 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word fred
MM, I don't have any strong associations with the names "Fred" or "Eugene", but I suspect that's a generational thing. Also, even for a generation such associations can change pretty quickly. I remember as a kid thinking that Ursula was a sort of dorky name, but then Ursula Andress came along and the name became sexy. I suppose most Americans associate the name Igor with the misshapen servants of mad scientists, but then I've known a few wonderful men named Igor, not to mention the Igor whose host was the subject of a famous lay, so that association has been lost for me.
August 5, 2009
rolig commented on the list plato-s-plate
Habermas' hover mass?
John Updike's join-up dyke?
Ashbery's ash berry?
Tolstoy's tall story?
August 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word lizst's lists
See list for an example of the same wordplay raised to the next level.
August 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word eugene
I envision Eugene Onegin, but I don't really expect others to.
August 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word little sword
Perhaps you're thinking of spatula.
August 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word testicle
One of these plants is orchid.
August 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word women
PU, there is no real reason to think this is Shaw's opinion. It's what his character Henry Higgins says, and I don't think the misogynistic Higgins is really Shaw's mouthpiece here. One should be careful when quoting from plays.
Of course, this quote was the basis of Higgins's song "I'm an Ordinary Man" in the Lerner and Lowe musical My Fair Lady:
Let a woman in your life and your serenity is through,
she'll redecorate your home, from the cellar to the dome,
and then go on to the enthralling fun of overhauling you...
Let a woman in your life, and you're up against a wall,
make a plan and you will find,
that she has something else in mind,
and so rather than do either you do something else that neither likes at all…
August 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word hircine
I'm sure one of the dictionaries linked to the icons above could help you out, PU. This is not a word I know. But this is the kind of question that makes me wonder if the social-networking generation (generally speaking) knows how to use reference tools or merely relies on twittered opinion.
August 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word eugene
Examples?
August 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word fred
Where are you getting this from, PU?
August 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word hunker down
Molly, surely here "up" is not part of the verb, but rather is part of the prepositional unit "up against".
July 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word izbjeglica
MM, I suspect the "literal" meaning would be "one who has fled/escaped/run from something". The Slavic root -beg- / -bjeg- relates to the notion of fleeing or escaping; compare the Latin root -fug- (I suspect from the same IE root as -beg-) in words such as fugitive (one who has fled), centrifugal (fleeing the center), refuge (a place one runs back to).
July 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word glame
GLAMÉ! I love it.
But I am having second thoughts about that "A". I think it might mean "Association" as in "The Gay and Lesbian Association of Mittel-Europa", which would certainly be appropriate to my situation.
July 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word bagelhead
I was quite happy to see the kitty with the bagel on its head. But the pic Skip linked to is, well, let's talk about kitties with bagels on their heads.
July 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word copse of trees
Sorry to nit-pick, C_B. I'm sure it's fine. Redundancies are a natural part of language, anyway. But I've been overworked recently, so my editorial eagle-eye needs some rest. Thankfully, I am going on vacation for two weeks on Saturday, to the island of Hvar in Dalmatia.
But now I have to find my way out of the copse of texts that are still waiting for me.
July 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word koala humper
Just wait till the PETA folks hear about this!
July 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word glame
Dontcry, I don't think gays would be against Mamie Eisenhower (we have a thing for First Ladies), and I personally have a soft spot for Mr. Ed (I was just singing his theme song a few days ago). And Maine now lets us marry, so I don't want to be against that state. But I'm overwhelmed by all these excellent suggestions!
RT, just coming up with an appropriate name would fulfill the entrance requirements, I think (apart from the more obvious ones).
July 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word glame
Actually, friends, this is the name of a new organization I'm starting: Gays and Lesbians Against … but here I can't decide: Mediocre Editing? Marginal Errors? Misguided Euphemisms? Muddled Expressions? Mental Enervation? Midlife Epiphanies? (no, actually, I am for midlife epiphanies) …
Any other suggestions?
July 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word glame
A gay football player or soldier who's been injured in the leg, perhaps?
July 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word spooky
I love Dusty when she's a-singing this sort of song.
July 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word phuphlunodelphia
I've been waiting two weeks for someone to pick up on this! Welcome back, RT my friend. You were greatly missed.
July 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word iquitarod
Hilarious.
July 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word slough
I love sight rhymes! They're like aural–optical illusions. (See the discussion on eye rhyme.)
July 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word accent
This is excellent! Thanks, Bilby!
July 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word lightening bug
as opposed to a darkening bug?
July 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word dobrodošlica
Malenkost.
July 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word dobrodošlica
Literally "well-arrived" (dobro + došel) + the suffix -ica, which turns this into a concrete noun; hence, "a thing (here, a party or ceremony) associated with a good arrival".
July 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word copse of trees
Not to dampen any memories, C_b, but isn't this a bit of a redundant phrase. I mean, can you have a copse of anything other than trees? A copse of pencils?
July 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word dobrodošlica
welcome party
July 3, 2009
rolig commented on the list punca-s-list
I love potica, especially on this side of the Julian Alps, but even I had to wonder if this is spam (though the thought of spam potica makes me retch). So, Punca girl, please make some clearly non-spam contributions to Wordie and we'll give you a great big dobrodošlica!
July 3, 2009
rolig commented on the list a-crumb-of-comfort
I think the main thing, traditionally, about kola�? is that it is ring-shaped. The word comes from kolo, "wheel".
July 3, 2009
rolig commented on the list a-crumb-of-comfort
You're probably right, Bilby. Here's a picture of kola�?. It's definitely, cake-ish, more than potica is. But I suppose I have come to think of "cake" as what the Slovenes (and many others) call torta, which is lighter, sweeter, creamier, and certainly not as good for you (except emotionally perhaps) as kola�? or potica.
But ciabatta should definitely be here.
July 3, 2009
rolig commented on the list a-crumb-of-comfort
Mmm, poga�?a! And then there's that Slovene specialty, potica. And don't forget kola�?!
July 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word thermometer
Thanks, Q! That was excellent!
July 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word thermometer
So you're saying that a thermometer is a device that thermomets (or thermometes)?
July 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word thermometer
A question for all you British spellers in the Wordieverse. Why isn't this word spelled *thermometre? Like metre, kilometre, etc. (I would assume the same "American" spelling goes for other measuring devices with names ending in -meter.)
Qroqqa? Anyone?
July 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word prepeljati koga žejnega �?ez vodo
lit. "to lead someone thirsty across water." The meaning is to promise something, in your words and behavior, and then in the end renege on your promise.
A variant of this phrase was used today in the gay magazine blog Narobe in regard to the Slovene government's promise regarding same-sex marriage:
"O tem danes odlo�?ajo na vladi ... mi pa bomo vsemu temu verjeli, ko bomo videli zapisano v zakonu. Žal je bila glbt-skupnost v zadnjih petnajstih letih že ve�?krat žejna pripeljana �?ez lužo."
"The government is deciding on this permitting same-sex marriage today … but we will believe all this when we see it written into law. Sadly, over the last 15 years, the GLBT community has already several times been led thirsty across a puddle."
July 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word xer
Surely it should be Gen X-er. Hyphenless xer (pronounced */zer/, */kser/?) makes no sense, except perhaps facetiously.
July 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word putrescible
Oh my god. How horrible.
It was also a bit of a shock to see Stygian gloom used in the lede of a NYT article.
June 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word badinage
Is badinage ever consequential?
June 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word rakkaus
The raucous rakkaus in the Rathaus stirred a ruckus.
June 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word razparati
to pull apart a fabric, unravel; fig. to cause distress: Ta misel mu je razparala srce / "This thought broke unraveled his heart."
June 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word srž
core, heart, essence
June 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word vulcan's badge
I don't think either Venus or Mars was wearing armor when Vulcan got his badge.
June 30, 2009
rolig commented on the list some-prettier-sounding-shakespearean-locations
Nice list, McCaff!
June 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word devil's livery
Curious that these are also the Habsburg colors.
June 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word thick
I love The Mighty Boosh, which probably warrants its own list (by someone who has the DVDs, probably).
But "Christ, you're thick" doesn't seem like a Booshism to me; it's simply the British equivalent to the North American "Boy, you're dumb!" Or am I missing something here, MM?
June 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word poglaviten
first in importance, main.
June 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word wye
I had no idea that the Wye Oak was gone. *Wiping a tear away* Why, O Wye?
June 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word capuchin
But Franciscans have that great city in California, even if things do get a little shaky there from time to time.
June 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word poutine
Also a not so tasty Russian strongman (in a traditional French spelling of the name).
June 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word semi-centaur
Obviously, a semi-centaur would have half the number of limbs of a centaur, ergo, this is a creature with three limbs (2 legs and one arm, perhaps?). A creature with two horse legs and two human arms would be, presumably, a dicho-trito-centaur (two thirds of a centaur).
*Hoping Qroqqa or Milo will correct my preposterous Greek prefixes*
June 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word surmise
This usage ain't in my 'lect.
June 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word all the news that's printed to fit
Cf. the old Soviet press motto, "All the news that fits we print."
June 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word open-list
Right, on the linked page I see big blue spots. And I think I'm awake. At least I should be.
June 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word euridice
LOL, C_b! It took me a minute, but I finally got the Euripedes joke (when I realized Italians were probably involved). But I'm still drawing a blank with Euridice.
June 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word euridice
I don't think I get it. I know who Eurydice is, so I understand the "looking back with silent tears" reference, and Mentos is a candy, right? (though it sounds like the name of some mythological figure, the Greek god of the mind, perhaps), but am I am not sure what the original reference is to. What am I missing?
June 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word open-list
I can see the big black spot!
June 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word bicycle built for two
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do!…
June 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word thingummybob
thingamabob works for me, Pinkl. It's the usual spelling. Though personally, I prefer thingamajig.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word komodo dragon fly
I think you've got yourself a sweet tooth fairy, Strev.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word 42
Wow, Dora is two more than forty! Time sure goes by up the Jacobs ladder at to the level.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word phuphlunodelphia
Philly makes a pitch to become the Wordie capital of the world.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word deep south
Cf. Old South.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word old south
"moonlight and magnolias", exactly! And parasols, verandas, and mint juleps!
It's fascinating what you say about Alabama and Mississippi. My mother, a true Southern belle from Danville, Va., tended to look down on these states as being uncultured, redneck, and crudely racist (as opposed to her own, more genteel racism). But that was thirty years ago. I can see why those in the Deep South would believe Va., N.C. and even Ga. are Yankified (not sure that is true of S.C., though). But once you get outside of the DC suburbs and the Raliegh-Durham-Chapel Hill Silicon triangle, and Atlanta, I think you're still very much in the Old South. That is true even of Southern Maryland and much of the Eastern Shore, as well as rural Delaware. (At least back in the 1990s, it was.)
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word edinbravo
The city fathers thought -burgh was just a little too much like brrr, and so decided to highlight the city's theatre festival instead.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word ljubilanta
Everyone is happy in the Slovene capital.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word s trebuhom za kruhom
Chip?! It's more like a plank. Slovenes, too, definitely have a love-hate relationship with those they call južnjaki / Southerners (when they're being polite). But I think the loss of the synthetic "pure instrumental" in Slovene is a little sad.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word soli pamet
Glad to be of service. I hope you don't think I was trying to salt your mind!
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word s trebuhom za kruhom
Well, actually SBC uses the instrumental the way it was originally used (and as it still is used in Russian and most other inflected Slavic languages): without a preposition; the case itself indicates the means or manner by which something is done. The Slovenes, probably influenced by the German use of the preposition mit to indicate means and manner, at some point started appending their own preposition "with", z/s, followed by the noun phrase in the instrumental.
Perhaps a better "literal" translation would be "following the bread on one's belly". It is sort of equivalent to the American expression, "to go where the money is", but the South Slavic phrasing is so much more vivid.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word soliti pamet
See soli pamet.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word soli pamet
We say this in Slovene, too: soliti pamet.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word pushymuchu
A Seoulful Puss in Boots, perhaps, MM?
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word old south
Oh yeah, there is definitely an Old South. Ask any white Virginian (outside of the DC suburbs, which don't really count). Basically, geographically, the "Old South" refers to Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and traditionally, Maryland and Delaware – the Southern states that were among the Thirteen Colonies. But it is more often used to express nostalgia about a fantasized antebellum South evoked by such books as Gone with the Wind, where the (white) men are all honorable, courageous gentlemen, the (white) women all refined Southern belles, the blacks are happy to have such fine, respectable, and kindly people as their masters. Like many of the places in my "States of Mind" list, the Old South never existed except as a dream.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the list archaic-colours
Wonderful list!
June 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word preggers
It may not be British in origin; it just seems to me that I wasn't really aware of the term until I started watching British TV on a regular basis. I imagine a good dictionary of slang could resolve the question.
As to why people use it, that's interesting. What you call someone who is pregnant is sort of in the same class as how you describe a couple who live together without "benefit" of official matrimony, and what they call each other. We don't have a simple, casual word for it that doesn't point to the (largely illusory) awkwardness of the situation. The word pregnant seems OK to me, but it does carry a whiff of the biology textbook, complete with line drawings of the associated reproductive organs. Words evoke pictures, and though in most cases pregnancy is of course something we celebrate, people do not want to evoke the biological aspect of it casually. So we have come up with a raft of phrases, from the Bibilical "with child" (which is very nice, I think) to the 20th-century expecting (which is the term I always heard in the 1960s. But today we like to think of ourselves as direct, casual, and nonchalant, if not flippant, when it comes to sexual matters; hence, preggers. But I prefer the more restrained "expecting", though I don't have any real problems with the word "pregnant" either.
And now my standard gratuitous Slovene interpolation: the Slovene word for "pregnant" is nose�?a, which is simply the feminine present participial adjective of the verb nositi, "to carry". So Slovenes say: "She's carrying."
June 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word brdo
An old Slovene word for "hill" or "smallish mountain ridge". It's found especially in many place names, such as Goriška brda (the Gorizia/Gorica Hills), where many of Slovenia's best wines come from.
June 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word deepthong
Right, where the soundtrack is nothing but oooouuuuu and aaaaaiiiiii and uuuuuiiiiii.
June 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word rime and punishment
Tormented by an unexplained feeling of guilt, a penniless philosophy student forces himself to read the complete works of William McGonagall over and over again.
June 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word clime and punishment
I see you beat me to this by a year, RT. I should have known.
June 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word stab at mater
Hilarious, Fox. Though I would imagine this more as some upper-class English drawing-room farce in which the climax concerned a failed, and rather droll, attempt at matricide.
June 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word beautiful
The self-styled Dr Goofball was, apparently, so chagrined by Wordizens' robust defense of our beloved site that he removed the offending installment from his blog without explanation or apology. But documentation of the events has been faithfully preserved on the git word-page.
June 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word writer
Knowing that a number of Wordizens make their living as editors of one sort or another, I thought you would enjoy this delightful quote from copy-editor John E. McIntyre's blog:
The writer: To an editor (well, to some editors), the writer is an annoying inconvenience that nevertheless makes editing possible — the chicken that must be plucked, cleaned, and butchered before it can be turned into a delightful coq au vin. But you do have some obligation to make the text resemble the work of the author, perhaps dusted off and perfumed a little, but still recognizably the author more than you. The text should be not what you would have written, but what the author would have written had he been a better writer.
June 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word birdo
I wonder if bird could be etymologically related to the Slovene word brdo, which means "hill, small mountain". According to Marko Snoj's Slovene Etymological Dictionary, this word comes from the Old Slavic *bъ"do, meaning also "comb" and more specifically, "weaver's reed" (a comblike tool for keeping the threads separated; this meaning has been retained in the Czech brdo and the Russian бёрдо / byordo. Snoj suggests that the original meaning was "something sharp, a sharp tool, or sharp rocks". He points out that in Latvian, birde means "loom" (the weaving machine), and birds means "weaver's reed". Strangely, he does not take the word back to its IE root, but he suggests that it is related to the Old English bord, meaning "board". I am wondering if the notion of "sharpness" could be behind the English "bird", as in the sharpness of the beak. Just a thought (and another, probably gratuitous, Slovene interpolation from me).
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word marie of romania
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Roumania.
– Dorothy Parker, "Comment" (1937)
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word ti�?
See pti�? for more information.
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word pti�?
And colloquially, people tend to drop the initial "p", making ti�?, which is also the common slang word for "penis", roughtly equivalent in usage to the English "dick".
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word robust
Right, as in, "I'd like you to draw up an effervescent contract with that ebullient author, Mr. Reesetee!"
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word preggers
Am I right in thinking that this is a distinctly British word? I mean, even if Americans use it, I have the feeling they picked it up from Eastenders or some other British show.
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word pti�?
For some reason, Slovene tends to prefer pti�?, the masculine form for "bird", to the feminine ptica, which is more common in other Slavic languages, though this latter form is also used. Perhaps, this is because the German word, Vogel, is masculine (and German was the dominant language in Slovene territory for nearly a thousand years). Neither pti�? nor ptica, by the way, refers specifically to the male or female bird; they are both acceptable as the generic word for "bird".
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word birdo
According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the English word bird is of "uncertain" origin and has no cognate in other Germanic languages. Now that surprised me.
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word gossypiboma
The unreferenced Wikipedia page for this word says that it combines 'the Latin "gossypium" (cotton) and the Swahili "boma" (place of concealment)'. Now that is truly a bizarre hybrid.
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word swineherd
And she mourns a hope that always fails and a love that never can be.
(Qroqqa, the quatrain yearned to be completed!)
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word singulative
This reminds me of Russian, where vegetables are often identified as grammatically singular mass nouns: морковь / morkov' means "carrots", while морковка / morkovka means "a carrot"; горох / gorokh "peas", but горошинка / goroshinka "a pea". In both these (and, I think, other) cases, the singulative is formed with a diminutive suffix.
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word umbrella
I grew up saying "UM-brella", but when I moved to Toronto, friends teased me so much about this, that I trained myself to say "um-BRELL-a".
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word débâcle
Normally in English, debacle.
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word debacle
I like this word better when it's wearing its stylish French accessories: débâcle.
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word lull
No comments in the past two hours. An unusual lull in Wordieland. A little eerie.
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word cards
I love it!
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word beautiful
This list makes me all Christina Aguilera–like and I want to sing a sweet song for all those words that get neglected, scorned, and abused, like moist and ughten and pedagogy.
Oh yes, you're beautiful, no matter what they say… and Goofwad can't bring you down…
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the list x-s-y-where-x-is-not-somebody-s-name
A term I learned from Black Adder: dog's body. Nice list, Sionnach!
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the list kenny-kens-kenning
You're right, Qroqqa! Thanks! I should have checked with Marko Stroj's Slovene Etym. Dict. first.
June 17, 2009
rolig commented on the list kenny-kens-kenning
The word for bear in the Slavic languages – medved – is in fact a "kenning". Bears, it seems, were sacred animals to the Slavs, who therefore did not dare pronounce the name for "bear", and instead used the phrase "knower of honey" ("med" = "honey", "ved" = "one who knows"). An English cognate might be meadwit.
Edit: See Qroqqa's apt correction. The proper kenning would be honey-eater.
June 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word assuage my sorrows
It's an accurate translation. Here's the original:
Переменил не�?колько зан�?тий, лечил�?�? от д-душевного недуга, путеше�?твовал по Европе. В Ро�?�?ию прибыл из �?нглии, 11 декабр�?. С �?ового года �?лужит мило�?ердным братом в больнице дл�? умалишенных «Утоли мои печали».
The novel is online
June 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word pedagogy
I like this word; it has a long and venerable tradition. It is excellent, and I will so tag it. Pedestrian words like "teaching" and "education", which coddle the ignorant and talk down to the layman, hardly come close to the beauty of this word and its kin (pedagogical, pedagogue), which proudly display the dignity and valor of the profession they represent. This word belongs on a Yes, yes, yes! list.
June 17, 2009
rolig commented on the list kimee143_4life-yahoo-com-s-list
hello???
June 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word bedinner
Don't you mean "bebeveraged", RT?
June 17, 2009
rolig commented on the list prosie-a-squeeze-of-the-hand
Thanks for this, Madmouth. It's bizarre, wonderful, a little gross, and somehow delightfully ingenuous all at the same time.
June 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word let you go
The telephone use of "I'm going to let you go now" is that polite American trick of acting like you're doing someone a favor when in fact you are telling them to do something (end the conversation). It is related to the "I need you to" locution (as when a nurse says, "I need you to lift your arm"). In both cases, suggesting that you are doing someone a favor or asking someone to do you a favor is a way of avoiding a direct imperative ("Get off the phone"; "Lift your arm"), which Americans interpret as rude. Similarly, we tend to phrase imperatives as questions: "Why don't you open the window?" "Could you turn down the volume a bit?" There is a deep-seated dislike, it seems, for the grammatical imperative.
June 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word toronto
Yikes! I have a degree from U. of Toronto! But I think it's real.
*Rummaging through old files, looking for diploma*
June 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word orwell v huxley
Great find, Bilby (I mean the original link). The discussion about Dear Leader News Radio reminds me of the radio that was installed in my dorm room in Leningrad, back in the day. Only one station, of course: Говорит Ленинград / Govorit Leningrad ("Leningrad speaking"). And every hour, the time was announced with the first bars of "Moscow Nights" ("Podmoskovnye vechera"). Talk about earworm! Fortunately, you could turn the radio off.
June 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word ityphallic
Perhaps this was supposed to be itty-bitty-phallic?
June 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word urodynamics
What, no pictures?
June 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word the road less travelled
Seems a bit frosty to me.
June 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word matrices
So what would be the plural of asterix?
June 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word ۞
Yes. The great nipple. We are one.
June 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word kiwipedia
It's all so terribly wrong! I thought this would be something about New Zealand.
June 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word leaving the roast
I would never leave the roast; the brussels sprouts maybe, but not the roast.
June 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word you can visit washington dc if you want, that stinking rat-hole
I once told a prospective boss that if living in LA was a requirement of the job, I wasn't sure I wanted it. He let me work via computer from Baltimore for a year and a half, then moved the company to San Diego. I would have gone there, but by that time I had decided to move to Slovenia.
New Yorkers, by the way, always seemed really friendly – they move at a faster pace than most of the rest of us, but somehow generally know how to keep their feet on the ground.
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word the pen is on the table
My first Russian sentence, from dialog on a "Learn Russian" LP, which we were supposed to memorize even before we had any idea what we were saying, was:
Вот �? и приехал в Мо�?кву. Я думаю, что зде�?ь мне понравит�?�?.
Vot ya i priyekhal v Moskvu. Ya dumayu, chto zdes' mne ponravitsya.
Well, here I am having just arrived in Moscow. I think I will like it here.
This line has stuck in my head for close to forty years. Why, oh why, couldn't they have used Pushkin or Akhmatova?
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word chesapeake bay
DC: Of course, Natty Bo! I'd forgotten that nickname.
C_B: Old Bay! I brought a big box of it with me to Slovenia.
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word you can visit washington dc if you want, that stinking rat-hole
What makes Washington different from other cities is that capital-P Politics is the only real industry in the town, and the power shifts every two or four or eight years, so people get jittery, and are especially sycophantic or disdainful, depending on who you are.
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word you can visit washington dc if you want, that stinking rat-hole
As a native Baltimorean, I am, of course, predisposed to hate DC (the rivalry is Homeric). It is a wonderful place to be a tourist, however. In addition to the famous tourist sites, the town also has great theater, art, and food. The natives are fine (this means, largely, the people who work in the service, maintenance, and support industries, most of whom are African American), but the transients and others who make a career in government are notoriously, well, careerist. When you meet someone in a club, for example, rather than asking about your interests or telling you theirs, they will present you with their resume (verbally, of course), and if yours doesn't match it, well, seeya! It's all about who you know, what contacts you can provide, and generally how connected you are to the people in power. Very icky.
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word chesapeake bay
Now I can't get the old National Beer jingle out of my head: Brewed on the shores (beat) of the Chesapeake Baaaay!
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word ღ
Very exciting, Milo. (I assume you are talking about Sakartvelo and not the Peach State.) I was in Tbilisi many, many years ago, and it was wonderful. A beautiful place. We also went to the ancient church in Mtskheta. You gotta love a language that can do things like that. And the alphabet is shapely indeed.
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word barbecue
I guess there's no accounting for condiments. (What a great word, by the way!) As for barbecue, I am with Skipvia 100 percent. Though I always put catsup on my Hamburgers, Frankfurters, and Wieners, but not my Berliners or Dresdners (who prefer something even spicier). Oh wait, are talking about food?
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word fah
This, apparently, is the translation – according to my Systran Language Technologies Widget. All together now, boys and girls:
I give, if I give something you
King is the king who was of
Me is in order to ago say "to me"�?
the famous one "to me"�? after me
Sol is the sun in forehead to me
If just she is not here
and not I say you not
and so return to Do.
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word fah
I always thought la was something of a cop-out, frankly. "A note to follow so." Gimme a break.
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word polish
Named after the infamous Felix Dzerzhinsky (Dzierżyński).
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word gay downfall of the roman empire
When my father once brought up the "gay downfall of Rome" hypothesis, I pointed out that it made much more sense to blame the downfall of Rome on the Christians. After all homosexuality had been celebrated in Rome for centuries, but it wasn't until the Empire became officially Christian that things fell apart completely.
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word krofi
Slovenia is where Italian cuisine meets the German/Austrian and Croato-Bosno-Serbian (i.e. Turco-Balkan) cuisines, with a splash of Hungarian goulash from the country's easter borderlands. So we should be able to find something tasty!
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word krofi
OK, no krofi then!
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word financial tsunami
Now, this is two words, Skip, and you know it.
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word web 2.0
It depends on your definition of word. But this is really sad, I think. I might just have to stay in bed today.
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word is the pope a catholic
Isn't hey for horses?
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word pappenheimer
This sounds like a name in a Marx Bros. movie. (Though I must say Walloon sword has a certain something. Isn't CharlesFerdinand our resident Walloon? – If he's not a Habsburg archduke in disguise!)
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word july
If you've spent all your Julies in Reykjavik, don't worry. Iceland is so broke I hear they're accepting Pennies now.
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word �?, š, and ž
Absolutely.
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word lake bled
Click on image search to make sure.
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word oklahomo!
I swear I didn't know about that. But of course it's obvious.
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word fata morgana
One of my favorite passages from Pasternak, from the poem that begins "Се�?тра мо�? — жизнь…" ("My sister – life…"):
Мига�?, морга�?, но �?п�?т где–то �?ладко,
И фата–морганой любима�? �?пит
Тем ча�?ом, как �?ердце, плеща по площадкам,
Вагонными дверцами �?ыплет в �?тепи.
And here's a more or less serviceable translation:
Winking, blinking, people sleep sweetly somewhere,
and my love, like a fata-morgana, sleeps,
while my heart, splashing across train platforms,
scatters carriage doors over the steppe.
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word naughty
Right, C_B, but not to be confused with "Atta Xerxes!", which is how the Old Persians praised their kids and dogs when they did something clever.
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word scarpetta
I poked around the Slovene dictionary and discovered that škarp is there, marked as "usually pl." (i.e. škarpi) and "low vernacular" (code for "people say this at home but don't you dare use it in formal writing"), with the meaning "an old, worn-out shoe" or sometimes (dialectically), just any old shoe.
But next to it was the word škarpa, which is a perfectly respectable word that means "a wall between two different heights of land, to prevent erosion or landslide"; in other words, a scarp or (more commonly) escarpment, which my English dictionary tells me comes from the Italian word scarpa. I think this solves the mystery. When you're soaking up the sauce with you're bread, what you are doing is making a "little scarp", just like on Chained_Bear's beloved fortresses. So you're not doing scarpetta; you are making (i.e. constructing) a scarpetta.
Edit: The escarpment has been repaired. Thanks, Bil!
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word scarpetta
Thanks, Pro! We're counting on you.
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word the silence of the lamps
A Beat poet burns the midnight oil but still finds he has nothing to say.
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word arsy-versy
Also arsy-varsy.
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word from hare to eternity
An animated bio-pic about a lowly tortoise who wins immortality by beating an overly confident lagomorph in a race.
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word the tin commandments
A low-budget Biblical feature Starring Carlton Feston as the prophet who delivers the message of the not-so-Almighty: "It'd be really nice if thou didst not, y'know like, kill, take things that don't belong to thee, and all that other bad stuff."
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word das sind für mich böhmische dörfer
Now, let me see if I understand: Czechs find Spanish villages baffling, Germans find Bohemian (i.e. Czech) and Spanish villages baffling, and Anglos find Greek baffling. Very interesting. Slovenes, by the way, also say, To je zame španska vas ("It's a Spanish village to me") to mean "I don't understand a thing about it". (German villages, of course, are typically well-organized and not in the least baffling.)
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word scarpetta
By the way, "arsiversy", Yarb? Is this a synonym for bass-ackward? (Though I would make it arsiverse as an adjective.)
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word naughty
Interesting citation, Yarb. Gibbon must be using the word in the sense of "disobedient" or perhaps "unruly", if not in the more archaic sense of "wicked".
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word prelom
break (prelom kosti, "break in a bone", prelom besede, "breaking of one's word"); edge, cusp (kmetija na prelomu doline, "a farm at the edge/cusp of the valley"); in printing: page layout (i.e., making the column and page breaks).
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word scarpetta
So I want to know about the word itself (sorry, guys, that's just the way I am). One translation tool tells me that scarpa means "shoe" in Italian. So when I sponge up the leftover sauce with my bread, am I "doing/making the little shoe"?
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the user Prolagus
Seriously, Pro, you're invited to visit anytime.
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word bush-hogging
Brilliant idea, Ithaca!
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word scarpetta
Absolutely, Pro! I just have to figure out how to say this in Slovene.
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word immanent
Not to be confused with imminent.
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word scarpetta
I always do scarpetta, if the sauce is tasty. Why should it be considered rude?
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word titmouse
Sounds to me like an urban legend in the making.
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word that's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind
Yes, quite.
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word the bards
Horror ensues when a peaceful town on Bodega Bay is attacked by poets.
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word dial r for murder
The perfect murder backfires when the man Tony hired to kill his wife proves to be dyslexic.
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word nigella
Madmouth, you should put "if the internet can't give it to you, you've gotta give it to the internet!" on a T-shirt!
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word jelly bean row
I was surprised when I saw the picture, C_b, because I was expecting to see people throwing jelly beans at each other or in some way fighting over jelly beans. I took me a second to realize what you meant by row.
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word na zdravje
What Slovenes say to a sneeze (and also as a toast). "To health!"
June 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word sidecar
It's much better than having the Village People cavort there.
June 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word sidecar
Some of these cocktails I recognize from old movies (now hearing Carole Lombard in my head).
June 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word espy
It is a bit of textual gristle, but I had no problem understanding it. A comma might help, as Q. suggests, but I don't think it's necessary. "Espy" is pretentious-cute here, I think. I'd rewrite it this way: "not so much seeing the art galleries or mountain ranges or rivers as seeing the places where cherished friends…" "Espying" could also be replaced by "noticing", which would probably have cleared up any confusion in the first place.
*has to stop self from editing things that no one has asked or is willing to pay to be edited*
June 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word machediting
I just added a new tag.
June 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word λάθε βιώσας
Greek-out is Milo's description, for the record. But I'll be happy to tag this page as such.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word machediting
I suspected something like that. Did you explain this on the word page for flaggot, Pro? If not, you should.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word bimarian
Cool!
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word machediting
I'm not sure I know what that means, Pro. It's been some eight years since I last attended a Pride Parade in the US.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word λάθε βιώσας
I hesitate to comment further on this motto, thus contributing to its rise to the top of the list, which would be ironic, to say the least.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word bimarian
I believe this refers to a heresy in which Mary Magdalene is accorded equal status to Mary, the mother of Jesus.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word λάθε βιώσας
Yay! Let's hear it for multialphabeticalism!
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word machediting
*smacks lips* Thanks, Rt!
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word machediting
… and dykes on bikes! and PFLAG (who always get the loudest cheers)! and leather boys!
*trying to calm down and remember that we're supposed to be post-gay and want houses in the suburbs and official marriages and the right to be open in the army and not just fantasize about men in uniform – but damn, some of those stereotypically queer exuberances are fun*
Yeah, I know June is Gay Pride Month, or if we're being PC, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Month (is that on your list, Rt?), but there's still nothing like looking forward to Pride Day, the parade, and remembering the dramatic events of June 28, 1969. ("You bet, we're revolting!") I can't believe it's been 40 years!
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word nonchalant
Only oxymoronically, I suspect.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word machediting
With pencils that are all the colors of the Rainbow Flag, of course! (Only 26 more days till Gay Pride Day!)
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word machediting
Is this short for "macho editing"?
(Now I've done it. The Village People are cavorting in my head.)
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the list onomatopoeia-that-best-describes-you-greatest-hits-vol1
I still have my pride, Rt. (I think, er, hope, um, somewhere… *grits teeth*)
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the user reesetee
Welcome back, Rt! You were missed!
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word sanguine
Ha! "Sangfroid the Sanguine" sounds like the name of one of CharlesFerdinand's kings: "In the days of Sangfroid the Sanguine, the country remained at peace for none of his neighbors was able to provoke him to war."
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word anecdotalist
That's something I have always loved about the South.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word λάθε βιώσας
Thanks, Kind-Heartedness! I enjoy your Greek-outs. I have come across (maybe in Heidegger?) the notion of truth as "unconcealedness", and it is interesting, and seems psychologically right, to think of truth as the "opposite" of forgetting.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word anecdotalist
The art was still valued in certain parts of the US at least as late as the 1970s. I remember going with my parents in 1972 or so to visit relatives in Danville, Virginia, and really enjoying listening to the way people told stories. There was a certain gentility in the way they referred even to things like someone's senility ("she's getting a bit feeble in the head") or alcoholism ("he still likes to take a nip or two now and then"), and I could sense the way they really enjoyed words and the different shades of meaning and emotion that could be conveyed. They were as much concerned with how something was said, and the pleasure they could give their listeners, as with what was being said.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word λάθε βιώσας
Just curious: is láthe related to Lethe, the river of oblivion?
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word anecdotalist
Thanks, C_b! I wonder if other people feel like the art of (face-to-face) conversation is going the way of reading novels and poetry out loud to each other as a form of entertainment and socializing.
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word λάθε βιώσας
Uav! I like this.
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word down
And in faux manor names such as "Upson Downs" (as in Auntie Mame).
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word anecdotalist
A gaffe is a general term for saying something one shouldn't say, something that is a social blunder. It might be something in poor taste, or it might just be the result of ignorance or insensitivity or not thinking before you open your mouth. For example:
"I was so delighted to hear that your son is getting married next month. We all thought he was a 'confirmed bachelor', you know. Who is the lucky girl?"
"His name's Joe, and he's a wonderful young man."
"Oh, I see. Well, times have changed… Excuse me, but I just saw the Cohens and simply must wish them a Merry Christmas."
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word aghast
So, then, this word must be related to ghastly. But probably not to ghost, I would guess. Verrry interrresting.
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word anecdotalist
Hmm… wouldn't a gaffeur (which I like!) be someone who is known for making gaffes? (Joe Biden comes to mind.)
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word i had not thought death had undone so many
So was Ciardi borrowing from Eliot, who may have been thinking of the line in Dante?
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word rogati se
I am not certain about the value of the Old Slavic ǫ – it's been decades since I studied these things – but I think it was essentially a nasalized o, more or less like the French vowel.
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word anecdotalist
An anecdotalist is someone who is known for telling (hopefully, entertaining) anecdotes. It is a perfectly good word. I don't know how long it has been in English, but it reflects a time, which may seem like ancient history now, when people used to meet face to face and entertain each other by telling amusing stories and having interesting conversations (a person who knew how to keep up their end of a conversation was called a good conversationalist). People do something similar on social-networking sites today, except that they usually don't know who it is they are conversing with and skills at things like conversation and telling amusing anecdotes are not highly valued. Today, it seems, people prefer to tweet at each other.
One who has mastered the art of bullshitting is known as a bullshit artist. Seanahan has given you the proper term for one who is renowned for making up words, but if you are looking for the word for someone who generally makes up stories, you might try fabulist or (if it's a pathological tendency) mythomaniac. I am not sure what you are trying to say by suggesting the word "inpoortatalist". I expect there is a good word for someone who likes to tell stories that are in poor taste (if that is what you are looking for), but it escapes me at the moment.
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word sanguine
How cultures interpret words like this is fascinating. In French, sangfroid and, in Russian, хладнокровие (khladnokroviye) are good qualities in a person, both conveying the sense of "cool-headedness"; in English, however, cold-bloodedness is definitely not something you want to encounter. I tend to associate sanguine with sangfroid. I pronounce the word in a way that almost rhymes with penguin (another cool character), so Cole Porter would have to change his tune to make this word fit for me.
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word rogati se
No, it's not related to rog (horn). In Slovene, the nasal rounded back vowel of Old Slavic ǫ (which probably sounded like the vowel in the French word mon), developed into o, whereas in the other South Slavic languages (and in East Slavic, too), it developed into u. Compare words like Slovene roka / SBC ruka (arm and hand), Slovene pot / SBC put (path, journey), Slovene posoda / SBC posuda (dish), and many more. The Old Slavic word *rǫg probably meant "ridicule" and is also the origin of the modern Slovene word režati se (to laugh boisterously, guffaw).
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word conflabbit
What in tarnation is that young'un going on about with these words old people use?
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word sanguine
Oh, I love this word, just like I love all the words still in use that hark back to medieval concepts about the mind-body-elements-planets relationships: bilious, choleric, melancholic, humorous, saturnine, jovial, mercurial, etc. And I don't think sanguine is pretentious when it's used to mean "optimistic, positive, cheerful, unruffled". Its synonyms don't really convey so directly the same sense that the attitude so discribed relates to something inherent in a person's character. I also like the fact that it comes from a word for "blood" and that it has as a much darker, tragic cousin in the word sanguinary.
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word cosset
Poor lamb!
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word rogati se
Certainly not. I rarely mock, and then only in the nicest sort of way.
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word anecdotalist
Ron Wagner, that may be a quip (though I don't get the joke), but it surely is not an anecdote, which implies a brief story, the recounting of an incident, usually but not necessarily with a humorous "punch line". He used to regale his friends with anecdotes about his college days, but then they all started to avoid him. He wasn't the anecdotalist he thought he was.
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word twilve
Did you make this up, Inked Polyglot? Irregular verbs are only "irregular" in that they follow different rules from the majority. In English, this usually means that there is an alteration in the vowel to indicate the past instead of the addition of the -ed morpheme (and often with the morpheme -en in the past participle. Hence, the sequence twilve, twolve, twilven, modeled perhaps on the verb drive, might be more in keeping with the patterns of English. But I am just a rank amateur when it comes to these things, and I expect (and hope) my colleague Qroqqa might have something to add or correct.
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word v brk povedati
lit. "to tell someone something to their mustache"
to tell someone something to their face directly, "without beating around the bush"
The same expression is used with such verbs as lagati (se) (to lie), smejati se (to laugh: Punca se mu smeje v brk, "The girl is laughing in his face"), and rogati se (to mock).
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word rogati se
"to express in a clear, blunt way one's negative, disapproving attitude toward someone, usually by using words with positive content" (SSKJ) – i.e. to mock, make fun of.
Examples: ti si pa res junak, se mu je rogal; zani�?ljivo se rogati: "You're a real hero," he mocked him; to mock disdainfully.
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word conflabbit
Do old people use only one word, Flannelophile?
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word nougatory
Bilby, our brilliance crossed paths at the same moment, it seems.
May 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word nougatory
Having to do with confection made from honey, nuts, and egg white. Having eaten the whole box of candy, she was in a nougatory daze and couldn't understand what he was saying to her.
May 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word megaflicks
An excellent example of how the font you choose can make all the difference.
May 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word people people
The plural of people person.
May 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word people person
It's sometime in the mid-'70s and I am sitting in a circle of about 10 people, all much older than me (I'm in my late teens) in a side-room of our evangelical Presbyterian church. I don't really remember now what the occasion was, but the man leading the discussion asks us to state something we like about ourselves. Someone says, "I'm a people person," and then everyone else in the group says the same thing: "I'm a people person too." This surprises me a little. I am not really sure I know what people people are, but am pretty certain I'm not one. When it comes my turn, I say, "I know how to listen," which is true. The man leading the group compliments me on my answer.
May 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word intellect
"active intellect" sounds plausible, though I would hope most people's intellect would be active, to some degree at least (I know, I know, I'm living in a world of illusion).
I hear this being said by a teacher about a pupil to indicate that the child asks question, is curious about things, and tries to figure things out in logical ways. Another possibility would be a "lively intellect".
May 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word a baa fetched finny ring roll romp
I love it! But I can't get the words out of my head that seem to rhyme with this: 'Tis a far far better thing I do …
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word analepsis
I'm sorry, but I can't imagine a bunch of sitcom writers sitting around a table and saying things like, "Maybe we need to stick an analepsis in here. And then here we'll do a prolepsis and show them in a retirement home." These words are good for rhetoricians and literary theoreticians, and they are lovely words, but this parenthetical "(also called…)" leaves open the important question, "By whom?"
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the list my-modern-job-in-the-past
Darjeeling, darling? Or maybe something stronger?
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word shagreen
From the French word chagrin, but originally from a Turkish word shagri. Apparently, in French, chagrin, in the sense of "embarrassment" is a figurative use of the word, which means, originally, "untanned or rough leather".
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word hoyden
This word may be related, etymologically, to heathen. Very interesting.
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word darjeeling
Tea is an expression of endearment! Especially on the Porch!
Darjeeling, darling? With honey, sweetie? Or would you rather have camomile, мила�??
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word liaise
One day soon, I fear, someone will name a girlchild this. And her brother will be Liaison. But then at some point she will write her name Li-Aise or Li-Ayse or Li-Ayze, with hearts over the eyes.
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word gloaming
I'm pretty sure Roald Dahl is weird. But then, I've always had a thing for Patricia Neal and can't help but take her side.
Gloaming is a wonderful, evocative word that wears its heart on its sleeve. And while it's all about a quality of light, it's connection with darkness and mystery is inescapable. After all, it's twilight – duality, inbetweenness, borderline.
*hurries off to start a new list*
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word hepi end
The curious thing about this slang phrase (in Slovene, Croatian, and other Slavic languages) is that the English phrase (if I remember right) is happy ending, not happy end. In other Slovenglish words, the -ing (properly pronounced /-ink/), e.g. miting and filing, so why not here?
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word old awareness
See Old Awareness Month.
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word old awareness month
I like this. It sounds sort of New Agey: "old awareness", like the awareness of an "old soul", awareness of things we experienced in past lives, awareness of ancestors and their knowledge. I definitely want to celebrate old awareness! And not only for a month!
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word fufluns
Fufluna is only 6 1/2 hours away from me! (Etruscan Fufluna is Italian Populonia.) I've got directions and I'll soon be on my way.
May 27, 2009
rolig commented on the user zaggan
I was referring to your comment on my profile page ("wow thaz cool"). But ice cubes are nice too.
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the user Prolagus
Thanks, Pro, for your comment on my Slovene idioms list. By the way, if on your travels you ever plan or want to visit Slovenia (just to the east, north, and south of Trieste), let me know!
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the user zaggan
What's cool, Zag (if I may call you Zag)?
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word objection
The opposite of subjection.
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word hasbian
A resident of the Greek island of Hasbos, known in antiquity as an important source of asbestos (orig. "hasbestos"). Pseudo-Pausanias records that the Hasbian poetesses were said to conduct rituals in which they danced in the flames with one another in fireproof garments and mimicked the rites of Sappho's followers, only to emerge unscathed, much to the chagrin of the poetesses of neighboring Lesbos.
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word content inflation
And it's correlative? Discontent inflation – the noticeable increase in frustration caused by not being able to find the information you want on the Internet due to the proliferation of so many idiotic videos, social networking sites, games and blogs. Eventually, you just say, "Geez! I may as well go to the library and look it up in a book! It would take less time."
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word time flies like an era
© rolig 2008.
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word flies
Or as I like to say: Time flies like an era.
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word oklahomo!
Your standard boy-meets-boy plot set in the cornfields: Oh, what a beautiful morning!
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word unofficial english
This is not spam, but a public service to Wordies who collect compendia of unusual words (that is all of us more or less). Grant Barrett is making his Official Dictionary of Unofficial English (2006) available for free as a downloadable .pdf file. Just check out his blog The Lexicographer's Rules.
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word insomnia
That reminds me of Anna Akhmatova's poem, "The Cellar of Memory" (Подвал памяти, 1940), which concludes:
Well, let's go home!
But where's my home and where's my reason?
Ну, идем домой!
Но где мой дом и где рассудок мой?
(A note for clarity: "reason" here means the capacity for rational thought, not "a reason to do something.")
May 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word bamf!
*ducks at the sound of saurian wings*
May 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word brez dlake na jeziku
Interesting, Pro! It does not surprise me that many expressions in Slovene might come from Italian. The Italian influence is still strong in the southwestern and extreme western parts of the country, which were for centuries ruled by Venice. A part of Friuli, where there is still a Slovene-speaking minority, is still called the "Slavic Veneto" (Slavia Veneta) or in Slovene, Beneška Slovenija (Venetian Slovenia).
May 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word brez dlake na jeziku
lit. "without a hair on the tongue"
used with verbs of communication, this means "without mincing words": frankly, directly, forthrightly
May 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word mallee bull
That bull is rather, um, well bolloxed.
May 25, 2009
rolig commented on the list onomatopoeia-that-best-describes-you-greatest-hits-vol1
You're absolutely right. Thanks. *still resisting it*
May 25, 2009
rolig commented on the list onomatopoeia-that-best-describes-you-greatest-hits-vol1
I am resisting the urge to change my "onomatapoeia" entry just so I can get on this list.
May 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word x-sampa
I can't help but think of Kafka.
May 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word carrefour
@ Poetche - it's the right use if you don't want people to know where you live. Otherwise, intersection would probably be the more effective choice.
May 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word chlodovech
Thank you, thank you, everyone. To the Irish Fox, it's true: I couldn't have done it without you. Your graciousness in conceding this minor defeat in a truly impressive career of superlative Wordie divertissements is entirely in character. Bilby, you are one of the inspiring spirits of the Wordie aether, and I humbly acknowledge my debt to you. Chained_Bear, it was an honor to limericize your beloved Clovis; may he rest in peace with his gerbilline fore_bears. And to the Archduke Karl Ferdinand (my suspicion is well known that his Excellency has assumed a rather flimsy Belgian incognito), thanks for starting things off with the list of his illustrious Frankish ancestors.
May 24, 2009
rolig commented on the list merovingians
Better not tell Hermina, Pro.
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word chlodovech
*bows to the left* *bows to the right* *bows to the middle*
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word chlodovech
Well, this is more Bilby's thing. But here's a first attempt:
I once had a gerbil named Clovis
whose passion for Hovis cake drove us
mad till we bought him
a cookbook and taught him
to make it: He knows where the stove is!
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word chlodovech
*grooaaan* Hovis - proboscis?! I think you should check the date on your license, Fox.
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word �?evap�?i�?i
The Slovene spelling of the Bosno-Serbian ćevap�?ići, from the same Turkish root as kebab.
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the user madmouth
Congratulations on reaching 1000 comments! And in such a short time! Your contributions are much appreciated and enjoyed.
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the list words-i-needed-at-the-time
Then you should be just fine on Wordie, Middlesmith.
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word chlodomir
Thanks for your patience, CF (and everyone), with my abnormal Slavophilia. I will try to keep it under control. You're right, Archduke (sorry, I can't resist calling you that – after all, I do live in Carniola). The 5th century is a little too early for at least West Frankish-Slavic interaction. But there was plenty of interaction with other Germanic types, as can be seen by all the Germanic borrowings in Old Slavic.
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word crazy rasberry ant
This reminds me of my Great Aunt Ellie and her bizarre homemade preserves (a.k.a. Ellie's jellies) that made you wonder where she picked her berries.
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word chlodomir
I second C_B's laughter and appreciation of the list, CF.
(But to return to, um, words, I'm still wondering: if Chlodo- is Germanic, how did it get impaled on the Slavic -mir? Is it possible that the Franks registered the Vlado- as their own beloved Chlodo-?)
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word mr ass itch
What's that tag someone (Reesetee?) uses to warn people to look away? Definitely applies here.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word malware
A rare case where contemporary coinage corresponds with traditional morphemes: mal- ("evil, bad") + -ware ("articles for sale, commodities").
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word rogue anti-virus software
Sigh. I guess rogue is another word that joins the "Overused to the point of meaninglessness thanks to its wildfire dash through the Internet" list (one I don't feel like making). Btw, I sort of like the word malware (if it means what I think it does).
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word hoe
Very funny. But my hoe seems rather slow today, or no wait, that's my brain.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word chlodomir
I'm guessing those old Franks had trouble with the initial vl- cluster and this was the best they could do with the Slavic name Vladomir ("Ruler of peace").
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the list merovingians
I thought chilperic was one of those ingredients in Indian food that gave you gastrointestinal woes.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word ćevap�?ići
Delicious, if somewhat turd-looking, Bosno-Serbian minced-meat kebabs, popular as a fast food throughout the former Yugoslavia. The alphabet is a little simpler in Slovenia – no confusing soft ć's – so in Slovene they are spelled �?evap�?i�?i.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the list merovingians
Herminafrid! If it's a girl. The name Hermina is still around in Slovenia; it makes the cutest diminuative forms: Minca (the "c" is pronounced like "ts") and Min�?i ("�?" pronounced like "ch"). Minchie Bearspawn!
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word jeopardy
Could you put that in the form of a question, Q?
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word drogo
Yo mama's so ugly St. Drogo turned in his halo.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word safr
From the English word suffer. It is used as a noun to mean "misery, the pits." Often used with the verb furati ("to do, engage in, go through") (itself a borrowing from the German führen) to mean "to feel awful" (emotionally, not physically):
Ne vidim ve�? razloga da bi nekdo “fural safr�?, �?e pa to stvar lahko sprejmeš in vidiš, da je vse to�?no tako kot mora biti. ("I don't see a reason anymore why someone should 'go through safr' so long as you can accept the situation and see that everything is just the way it should be.")
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word koljeno
This is curious. I wonder if the linking idea is that of turning. Compare the Slavic root for "wheel" (kol-).
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the list blitzkrieg
A tragic example (and a cautionary one for the United States) of how the image of a particular culture can be entirely altered. A hundred years ago, if you asked non-German Westerners what the sound of German connoted to them, they would have said music and philosophy.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word far niente
"To do nothing" (Italian). See Pushkin quote on inutility.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word euroturds
Are you talking about ćevap�?ići, by any chance? I always thought they looked a little fecaloid.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word whensoas
No, Sean, he's the one looking out.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word shewhore
But where does she sell seashells?
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the list merovingians
I don't know. Gogo Bearspawn sounds pretty good to me.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word drogo
He is also a hobbit, and more specifically the father of Frodo!
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word buttasorry
Butta noa needa to apologiza!
(Sorry, Pro, no offense intended. For the record, I have the utmost admiration for Italian culture and the Italian people.)
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word shazam
It was Gomer's favorite, too!
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word woodwose
@ Ptero, thanks for the chuckle. There was always something a little eerie about Mr. Wilson.
@ Qroqqa: so if a wizard's magic involved torching a statue to bring it to life, we could say: He burned the statue alive. Interesting.
@ Bilby, I'll keep my thoughts to myself about that.
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the list italian-names-i-really-thought-i-saw-when-scanning-200-year-old-handwritten-vital-records
Can you tell us something more, C_B, about these curious records? Are these the (perhaps altered) names of immigrants to the US? Or do you mean that your eyes deceived you? (19th-century handwriting can be very hard to decipher.)
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word quell
What a lovely word. It magnificently holds inside itself the quiet it seeks to establish.
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word fecaloid
Copromorphic! Shit-shaped! But not and never ever turdiform. That has been reserved.
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word pitta sordida
And to the honor of such a nomination all I can say is: Uav!
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word hmla
The Russian word is мгла (mgla). Slovenes "cheat" and stick in a vowel: megla, as do the Croats, Bosnians, and Serbs: magla.
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word pitta sordida
What did Mr. T have against this little fellow? He was always calling these birds "fools".
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word turdiform
Of course you do, Yarb. But turdiform has been taken, and I'm sure you don't want Reesetee to send a flock of thrushes your way. Just ask Tippi Hedren what that's like. You might try fecaloid, coprolithic, or stercoraceous. But I suspect you just like the sound of turd. Am I right?
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word features
Maybe newbies shouldn't be allowed to tag words until they have gone through a tagging tutorial with VanishedOne.
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word turdiform
Try turd-shaped or turdlike, yarb. Turdiform is for the birds!
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word woodwose
I see your point, but still, it's curious that "burned alive" = "burned to death".
May 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word woodwose
Isn't it curious that when we say that someone was burned alive we mean that they died.
May 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word agey
Actually, the word you want here is new agey, which means "relating to the New Age movement" (which was very popular in North America in the 1980s). "Agey" by itself doesn't make sense in this context.
May 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word hermitary
Thanks for pointing me to this website, Nuxiy.
May 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word spelling
Gosh, remember when there used to be copy-editors?
May 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word swentibold
In the 8th and 9th centuries, the first vowel in the word svat ("holy") would have been a nasal front vowel, probably pronounced something like the sound in the French word vin, which is why the Franks spelled it -en-. It evolved differently in different Slavic languages, turning into something we usually transliterate as "ja" or "ya" in Russian (e.g. �?в�?той = svjatoj, "holy" – though it's more complicated than that), an a or á in Czech (compare the names Václav and Wenceslaus), the nasal sound iȩ in Polish (święty means "holy"), and a high front e in the South Slavic languages (svet means "holy" in both Slovene and Serbo-Bosno-Croatian).
The second part of the name would in Old Slavic have originally been pronounced more or less pulk (rhyming with the English word hulk), where the "u" stands for a short schwa sound. This meant something like "host" or "army" ("a mass of people"). It is actually a borrowing from a Germanic root that has developed today into folk in English and Volk in German (which makes the Franks' hearing it as a different Germanic word somewhat ironic). This word also developed differently in the different branches of Slavic: polk in East Slavic (e.g. Russian) and South Slavic (e.g. Slovene), and pluk in West Slavic (e.g. Czech).
May 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word whom
C_b, I expect your Friend only used "thee". At some point, Quakers stopped saying "thou" and started using "thee" for both the subject and the object of the sentence, I think with the ø-ending form of the verb: Why are thee taking the car to Meeting? It's only a ten-minute walk! Don't thee know how much gas costs? Not surprisingly, the influence of the double-duty you (as both subjective and objective) is pretty strong. It was pretty jarring when I first heard Quakers talking like this, and it was hard not to "correct" them.
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word abecedarium
This is actually an important word for Slovenes, and there is even a restaurant in Ljubljana's Old Town that goes by this name. The Protestant leader Primož Trubar's Abecedarium (an ABC book to teach people how to read) was one of the first two books printed in Slovene, in 1550. The restaurant is located in a building ("the oldest house in Ljubljana") where Trubar once lived.
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word boys in the bandwagon
Some really enthusiastic twinkies, perhaps.
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word swentibold
Too bad the name never caught on in the West. I think it means something like "Holy Army".
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word e'er
Meter of course is helpful for memorizing text, which is certainly a major reason why poets have used it at least since Homer. We shouldn't forget that before the 20th century, poetry was written as more to be performed than read silently. People used to entertain themselves by reading things to each other out loud, whether this was poetry or a serialized novel. To enjoy a writer like Byron, you need to hear his work, and not merely see it on the page.
Don Juan is a long poem (Byron may have called it a novel in verse), not a play, so there are no stage directions. Read a little of it out loud and try to imagine the words being spoken by a brilliant young man, as famous as a rock star and with about as much humility, who wants to overturn all the conventions and expose the hypocrisy of his time, and you might start to get an idea of what it's about.
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word swentibold
Interesting that they should have taken a Slavic name.
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word oxford comma
@ Seanahan – I never said the commas did disturb the flow; that was Mollusque. I agree with you that they don't.
You make a good point about Betty. Either way there could be ambiguity, especially if we replace "Catholic" with "Episcopalian" and "maid" with "writer". But it also matters whether or not we know the author of text does or does not use serial commas:
A. They went to Oregon with Betty, a writer and an Episcopalian priest.
B. They went to Oregon with Betty, a writer, and an Episcopalian priest.
In A, they could have gone to Oregon with 1 (Betty, who is both a writer and a priest) or 3 persons, if we know the text does not use serial commas; but with only 1 person (the admirable Betty), if we know the text always uses serial commas consistently.
In B, they have definitely gone to Oregon with 2 people, if we know the text does not use serial commas; or with either 2 or 3 people, if we know the text always uses serial commas.
So both systems leave room for ambiguity. Life is like that. That is what house styles are for.
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word study ball
Apalling. Just what kids need to encourage them to love learning. What a ball!
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word stolon
I wonder if the Russian word �?твол (stvol), meaning "tree trunk", is related to this.
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word eurovision
I wondered this, too, Nux. But apparently any Mediterranean country can participate. Morocco has been in Eurovision too, and theoretically so could Libya, Syria, and Algeria.
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word rolig
That's me!
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word eurovision
Not ugh, Nux. Ughten. A new day dawns.
May 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word eurovision
Nux, the Beatles-mad gangerh is playing with you.
May 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word e'er
Thanks, Qroqqa! Clear and informative comments, as always.
May 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word e'er
The "rules" of meter may be clearcut enough, but the variations in how poets follow them, or choose to break them, to create the effects they want, are countless and fascinating.
Byron was brilliant in being able to use plain, chatty English, often with great comic effect, as in Don Juan (the name should be pronounced to rhyme with "Ewan"), but he could also write lovely "poetic" poetry, as in "She walks in beauty like the night".
You sound a bit like an old fogey, myth, who complains that poets (i.e. rappers) these days are "massacring" words because they write "gonna" and "witya" instead of "going to" and "with you".
May 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word membritude
French is so analytic (linguistically speaking)!
May 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word oxford comma
Moll, it seems like you're arguing in favor of inconsistency, i.e. use the Oxford when you need it to clarify the meaning, but otherwise don't use it. And personally, that seems like a reasonable practice to me. As does its reverse: always use the Oxford except in cases where using it confuses the meaning. The only problem is that people usually want rules to live by, write by, and edit by, and the cases where the Oxford confuses things are probably much fewer than where not using it confuses things. So "always use the Oxford comma" seems a better rule than "never use the Oxford comma" and is easier to follow than "use it only when it helps" (because you don't have to figure out when it helps and when it doesn't). I like to avoid Emersonian hobgoblins myself, so inconsistency doesn't usually upset me if I see the reason for it, but for many people these little fellows seem to make good friends.
May 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word eurasia
That's an awful lot of people to be at war with.
May 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word hazmat
This word, by the way, has always sounded like Turkish to me.
May 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word hazmat
"booger hooks"?
May 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word debase
Nice, Mediagrey, but I think you mean "the debased direction". "Debase" is a verb, not an adjective.
May 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word berlin
First we take Manhattan; then we take Berlin!
– Leonard Cohen
May 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word eurasia
Eurasia stretches from Portugal to Korea. So who is "we"?
May 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word e'er
Contractions like e'er and o'er, as well as spellings like the monosyllabic heav'n and giv'n should not be taken as indications of poets "cheating" or trying to fit square pegs into round holes. For one thing, poets like Byron knew exactly what they were doing when it came to prosody; they dreamed in iambic pentameter in a way few of us can imagine.
As such they were very familiar with the concept of the reduced syllable – a nearly ellided syllable that should not be given the weight even of the unstressed beat in the iambic foot. Often two syllables could be counted as one; this could be indicated with a contraction such as e'er or even (e'en) to th'. The fact that the v sound is involved in a number of these contractions may also tell us that this sound had various qualities to it and could be pronounced differently in different contexts or by different speakers; historically, after all, the letter v represented both a consonant and a vowel (u).
Today many poets no longer count syllables the way they used to (and many still do but don't want us to think they do).
Sadly, I'm not sure people expect anything of poetry these days, or rather, if they do, they expect it to be sentimental or inspiring and so don't really "get" what contemporary poets are writing (as with modern art, they think, "jeez, I could have written that! It doesn't even rhyme!"). Probably a lot of people would love it if more poets were more "poetic".
Myth, don't give up on Shakespeare, Byron, or anyone else just because they don't write as if they were born in 1970. Try to learn their language first (and don't assume it has to be the same as yours), before you judge them. They still have a lot of amazing things to tell us, even though (or perhaps because) they are centuries away from us.
May 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word oxford comma
While I probably like commas more than most, I don't hold with the practice of putting them in just because you want to take a breath, or conversely, the idea the you have to take a breath whenever you see a comma. Not all commas are breath-taking. In the case Molly mentions, there is no need to "break the flow" in the sentence "Tom, Dick, and Harry all ordered bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches." I would read this the same way with or without the serial commas. The commas before the ands are merely there because the writer (or editor) finds such commas useful and wants to be consistent. In this particular sentence the serial commas could easily be removed without the ceiling caving in. But I'd keep them because I like the principle of the serial comma. In the sentence, "Tom, Dick and Harry, Mary Jo and Martin, and Bart all went to Des Moines for Frank and Herb's wedding," the Oxford comma helps keep the relationships, well, straight (or not).
May 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word stara kranjska
Wikipedia is changeable (check it again) and not to be trusted.
May 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word iztakniti
to pull out; to unplug; to pluck out (an eye).
Here's a joke Slovenes tell when they want to illustrate the attitude toward neighbors in their country.
Bog vprasa slovenca, "Kaj bi rad? Dam ti kar hoces, s tem, da bo tvoj sosed dobil dvakrat toliko." Slovenec malo pomisli pa rece, "Bogec, iztakni mi oko."
God asks a Slovene, "What would you like? I'll give you whatever you want, only know that your neighbor is going to get twice as much of the same thing." The Slovene thinks a bit, then says, "Okay, Lord, pluck out one of my eyes."
May 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word oxford comma
Useful, efficient, and clear.
May 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word pue
stinky jargon
May 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word countenance
Basically, this word refers to the expression on one's face. But it can also be used as a verb to mean "to allow, to accept" a certain behavior. In this meaning, it is often used in the negative: She could not countenance her husband's gambling. These two meanings are connected if you think that, when you accept something, you can look at it calmly, without getting upset.
No, the word has nothing to do with counting.
May 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word appropriciate
I think the word you are looking for is "appropriate" – which means "correct, suitable, right".
May 16, 2009
rolig commented on the list take-me-to-your-whosit
I might suggest a few from the Slavic side of things:
- vozhd (or Cyrillically, вождь), which is what adoring fans called Stalin; like Führer, it means "leader", but unlike the German word, it really is reserved for the Great Leader.
- vojvoda or vojevoda or voyevoda (or more Englishy, voivode), the Slavic "duke" (lit., "war-leader" or "warlord") and the origin of the toponym Vojvodina.
– vladika, the title of the Prince-Bishop of the Principality of Montenegro.
– you have tsar, but what about the tsarina (I'm assuming you are eschewing the unchewable cz- spellings).
And a couple obvious ones from across the Adriatic that seem to have escaped: il Duce (last seen in Salò) and the doge, in the company of Mrs. Doge, a.k.a. the dogaress or in Venetian, dogaressa, both fleeing incognito in a gondola.
May 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word stara kranjska
Yes, you're right, of course, Upper Carniola, to be specific. And I love your list!
But why is this "Stara Kranjska"? The people who lived in the March of Carniola (Kranjska krajina/Krainmark), didn't call it "Old", did they? Or is this a different region from Kranjska?
May 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word membritude
So what do people say when they want to express the idea that, for instance, a club has a limited membership?
May 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word korotan
See comments on Koroška and Carantania.
May 15, 2009
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