January 2008 Archives
Making and Using Words: neologism (inter alia); hapax
legomenon; bahuvrihi; sniglet; inkhorn terms; meme;
back-formation; portmanteau word (portmanteau)
The Sorcerer, by Gilbert and Sullivan: clarion (clarion call, knell,
lay); escutcheon; comely;
tush (pule); navvy; necromancy (nativity,
puffery); nosology; philology
Eponyms again: Zamboni; Beretta (magazine, biretta); Jacuzzi
(derringer); Quasimodo; axel; salchow; lutz
It’s a jungle out there!: lionize; porcelain; catspaw; cat; lapdog; gallium; boustrophedon
Short words (and similar doublets): shoat/stoat (ermine); muzzy/mazy;
smelt/spelt; scruff/scurf
(pendulous); quirt; tope; swale/sward
Making and Using Words
We’ve
finished our theme of “newness words”. Is there a term meaning “a new word”? Of
course – and we’ll use it to transition to our new theme of “words about making
words and using words”.
neologism – a newly coined word or expression
[Greek
neo new + logos word]
The National Cultural Ministry in
– Benjamin Barber, Jihad vs. McWorld: How
Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World (ellipses omitted)
Bonus word:
inter alia – among other things
hapax legomenon – a word that occurs only once in the
recorded corpus of a given language, a literature, or an author
[Gk.,
lit. "once said"]
The Song of Songs, also called the Song of
Solomon …, is less than three pages long. Almost no other book of the Bible has
inspired such a wild variety of interpretations over the ages. … One reason
there are so many radically divergent interpretations is that the dreamy song
is a Bible translator's nightmare. Hapax legomenon is a Greek
term for words that occur only once in a text, and the song has a higher
proportion of them than any other book of the Bible.
– New York Times, Putting the Sensuality Back in
the Bible's Love Song, Feb. 14, 1998
I
can’t find any simple and complete definition of today’s term, so I’ll try to
explain it.
A
baseball is a type of ball; a cat-lover is a type of lover; in
general, when a compound term ends with a noun, it means a noun of that type.
But
there are exceptions. Sometimes it is a noun with a completely different
meaning: a hatch-back is not a kind of back, and a sweet tooth
isn’t a tooth! And sometimes it's not a noun, but as an adjective: we can speak
of a high-fiber diet, a kick-ass speech, low-impact aerobics, and
an upscale restaurant (but there is no such thing as a fiber diet,
an ass speech, impact aerobics, or a scale restaurant.)
bahuvrihi – a compound word, ending with a noun, that does not
function as a noun of that sort
[Sanskrit
bahuvrihi 'having much rice', which in Sanskrit is a word of this type]
[from a website] Let's say someone calls you
"dogbreath". You could get angry and let them win the verbal duel
with this blunt challenge. Alternatively, you could parry and thrust with this
line: "Is that the best bahuvrihi you can come up
with?" and walk away, leaving the aggressor in mental and spiritual
disarray with no dictionary to shield himself.
Though a workman is a kind of man and
a bluebird is a kind of bird, a cutthroat is not a kind of
throat, nor is a lazybones a kind of bones. Linguists call these bahuvrihi
compounds, from the Sanskrit expression "having much rice."
– Steven Pinker, Words and Rules: The
Ingredients of Language
It
can get interesting if the noun’s plural form is irregular. For example, if a bigfoot
and a sabretooth (each a bakuvrihi creature!) are in combat, and each is
joined by its spouse, is it the bigfoots vs. the sabretooths? Or
is it be the bigfeet vs. the sabreteeth?
sniglet – a humorous coined “word that doesn't appear in the
dictionary, but should’
[The
term “sniglet” was coined by Rich Hall, a cast member on the 1990 TV show “Not
Necessarily the News,” on HBO. The quoted language above is his definition.]
Mark the agent has created a sniglet
for … the time lapse between the moment babies get a shot and the moment they
react. There’s the hiatus, then the crying: it’s a criatus!
– Judith Newman, You Make Me Feel Like an
Unnatural Woman: The Diary of a New Mother
You
may recall that our quotation for neologism, a few days ago, dealt with
French resistance to popular foreign terms. Back in the 1500s when English was
changing rapidly, there were those who similar opposed Latinate terms coming
into and “polluting” the pure Anglo-Saxon. (Their objection may not have been
entirely linguistic, for at the time
They
coined a beautifully contemptuous phrase for the words they objected to.
Unfortunately, their position was so extreme as to be silly, their position and
their coinage did not catch on. Pity, for it is a wonderful term for
“highfalutin language”.
inkhorn terms – pedantic terms or learned borrowing from foreign tongues
[From the days of quill pens, which unlike modern pens do not carry their own
ink. An inkhorn was a small vessel for ink fastened to the clothing.]
Over the centuries grammar guides and style manuals
have favored Anglo-Saxon pedigree. … This meme started in
– Constance Hale, Sin and Syntax: How to
Craft Wickedly Effective Prose
Bonus Word:
meme – an element of culture passed on by imitation or other
non-genetic means
back-formation – a word that is formed from what appears
to be its derivative
For
example, liaise from liaison, and enthused from enthusiasm.
These two are notable because they jar the ear, but many other words created in
just the same way have become so familiar that you wouldn’t notice: edit
from editor; peddler from peddle; donate from donation; emote
from emotion; accrete from accretion; aesthete from aesthetic;
televise from television.
The
tender-hearted policemen in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance
sympathize with criminals, who are after all human beings like the rest of us.
When the enterprising burglar's
not a-burgling,
When the cut-throat isn't occupied in crime
He loves to hear the little brook a-gurgling
And listen to the merry village chime.
When the coster's finished jumping on his
mother.
He loves to lie a-basking in the sun
Ah, take one consideration with another
A policeman's lot is not a happy one.
When constabulary duty's to be done, to be
done,
A policeman's lot is not a happy one, happy
one.
portmanteau word – a word formed by merging the sounds and
meanings of two different words, as chortle, from chuckle and snort
[portmanteau
(plural portmanteaux)– a large leather suitcase that opens into two
hinged compartments. French portemanteau, from porter to carry + manteau
cloak]
Two
recent examples in the press:
Hey, guess which relic from the 1970s is
back. No, it's not polyester leisure wear. And it's not soft rock. It's stagflation.
… when spiraling inflation joined forces with economic stagnation
-- slow to no growth, combined with rising unemployment -- to create the portmanteau
word economists still use today.
– Motley Fool, Dec. 18, 2007
"Debaucherism," a kind of spring
break for working adults, was the defining North American travel trend of 2007,
according to tourism analysts … . A portmanteau word combining
debauchery and tourism, the hedonistic holiday concept has been taken up by
travellers earning more disposable income … and wanting to get the most out of
life before settling down … . Comprising primarily singles age 25 to 34,
"debaucherists" are said to "travel ... to experience
out-of-control fun, including drinking and non-stop partying." … Historic
city tours are being supplanted by limo-driven tours to local strip clubs
(Sinning in Vegas,
– Spring break
for grown-ups, Montreal Gazette, Dec. 15, 2007
The Sorcerer, by Gilbert and Sullivan
One
of our quotes last week came from Gilbert and Sullivan. This week we’ll take
words from their operetta The Sorcerer. As the curtain rises the villagers
are gathered and they sing in chorus, celebrating the betrothal of Alexis and
his bride-to-be Aline.
Ring forth, ye bells,
With clarion sound –
Forget your knells,
For joys abound.
Forget your notes
Of mournful lay,
And from your throats
Pour joy today.
clarion – loud and clear (noun: a shrill war trumpet)
[clarion call – a strongly
expressed demand for action]
knell – the sound of a bell, especially when rung solemnly for a
death or funeral
[verb (of a bell): to ring
solemnly]
lay – a short lyric or narrative poem intended to be sung
Alexis’s
father congratulates him on his excellent match.
Yes, you are a fortunate young fellow, and I
will not disguise from you that this union with the House of Sangazure realizes
my fondest wishes. Aline is rich, and she comes of a sufficiently old family,
for she is the seven thousand and thirty-seventh in direct descent from Helen
of Troy. True, there was a blot on the escutcheon of that lady –
that affair with
escutcheon – a shield or emblem bearing a coat of arms
blot on one’s escutcheon – a stain on one’s reputation or character
But
sometimes love is not so happy.
Poor little girl! I'm afraid she has
something on her mind. She is rather comely. Time was when
this old heart would have throbbed in double-time at the sight of such a fairy
form! But tush! I am puling!
comely – pleasant to look at; attractive
tush – an exclamation, expressing disapproval, impatience, or
dismissal
pule – to cry weakly or querulously; to whine, complain, whimper
¹ The daughter-mother conversation is
amusing, so I’ll repeat it.
I know not why I love him so;
It is
enchantment, surely!
He’s dry and snuffy, deaf and slow
Ill-tempered, weak and poorly!
He’s ugly, and absurdly dressed,
And
sixty-seven nearly,
He’s everything that I detest,
But if the truth must be confessed,
I
love him very dearly!
My child, be comforted. To such a union
I shall not offer any opposition.
Take him – he’s yours! May you and he be
happy!
But mother dear, he is not yours to give!
That’s true indeed!
He might object!
He might!
But
back to Alexis and Aline. Alexis believes that matrimony is “the panacea for
every earthy ill,” regardless of class lines. He tells Aline:
Alexis: Still I have made some converts to the principle, that men
and women should be coupled in matrimony without distinction of rank. … I have
preached in workhouses, beershops, and Lunatic Asylums, and I have been
received with enthusiasm. I have addressed navvies on the
advantages that would accrue to them if they married wealthy ladies of rank,
and not a navvy dissented!
Aline: Noble fellows! And yet there are those who hold that the
uneducated classes are not open to argument! And what do the countesses say?
Alexis: Why, at present, it can't be denied, the aristocracy hold
aloof.
But
as we shall see tomorrow, Alexis is prepared to resolve that problem!
navvy – a laborer in the excavation and construction of a road or
railway
[from
navigator in the former sense of a one who builds a navigation (a
dialect word for a canal)]
Alexis
has decided to break this impasse by using a philter – love-potion – to cause
all to fall in love. An excellent philter is available from “J. W. Wells &
Co., the old-established Family Sorcerers,” a “most respectable firm.” Alexis
[blue, below] interviews Mr. Wells [brown]:
Good day – I believe you are a Sorcerer.
Yes, sir, we practice Necromancy
in all its branches. We've a choice assortment of wishing-caps, divining-rods, amulets,
charms, and counter-charms. We can cast you a nativity at a low
figure, … Our penny Curse – one of the cheapest things in the trade – is
considered infallible. We have some very superior Blessings, too, but they're
very little asked for. … But our sale of penny Curses, especially on Saturday
nights, is tremendous. We can’t turn ’em out fast enough. …
I believe you advertise a Patent
Oxy-Hydrogen Love-at-first-sight Philtre?
Sir, it is our leading article. (Producing
a phial.)
Now I want to know if you can confidently
guarantee it as possessing all the qualities you claim for it in your
advertisement?
Sir, we are not in the habit of puffing
our goods. Ours is an old-established house with a large family connection, and
every assurance held out in the advertisement is fully realized.
necromancy – 1. witchcraft or black magic 2.
predicting the future by communicating with the dead
nativity – a horoscope for the time of one's birth (among other
meanings, of course)
puffery – hype; exaggerated praise, especially for promotion
Mr.
Wells is truly a marvel!
For he can prophesy
With a wink of his eye,
Peep with security
Into futurity,
Sum up your history,
Clear up a mystery,
Humour proclivity
For a nativity – for a nativity;
He has answers oracular,
Bogies spectacular,
Tetrapods tragical,
Mirrors so magical,
Facts astronomical,
Solemn or comical,
And, if you want it, he
Makes a reduction on taking a quantity!
…
Barring tautology,
In demonology,
'Lectro-biology,
Mystic nosology,
Spirit philology,
High-class astrology,
Such is his knowledge, he
Isn't the man to require an apology!
nosology –the branch of medical science concerned with the
classification of diseases
[nosos
disease]
philology – the study of the structure, historical development,
and relationships of a language or languages
Eponyms again
We
return to one of my favorite themes: eponyms, or words from people's names.
Zamboni – a machine used to resurface ice rinks
[Frank
J. Zamboni (1901-1988) & Co.,
A
proprietary name, but occasionally used in lower case. For example:
The ice itself will be thicker than normal
NHL ice to accommodate the weight of the zamboni on the temporary
surface.
– News 10NBC (
I knelt beside poor Paul and patted him
down, finding his little Saturday afternoon special – a 6.5mm Beretta
– tucked in the inside pocket of his windbreaker. I took the magazine
out and emptied it, putting the rounds in my pocket. I cleared the chamber, replaced
the magazine, and returned his piece.
– Nelson DeMille,
Beretta – a pistol manufactured by the Beretta company
[The
company was founded in 1526 by gunsmith Mastro Bartolomeo Beretta (1490 –
1565/68).]
The
dictionaries do not have this definition,¹ but I think the word is not used
solely as a trade name. You will find references to a “Beretta” (as opposed to
a “Beretta pistol”), and I think the term would be used only for pistols (not
for rifles or other items made by that company).
Bonus word:
magazine (in this sense) – 1. a chamber holding a supply
of cartridges to be fed automatically to the breech of a gun 2. a store
for arms, ammunition, and explosives
[French
magasin, from an Arabic word meaning ‘storehouse’.]
¹
They list beretta only as a variant of biretta – a hat of the
sort by Roman Catholic clergy: a stiff square cap with three or four ridges
across the crown.
The
last two words, Zamboni and Beretta are two product-name eponyms
for Italians. Here’s a third¹, and like the others, it is arguably still a
trade name.
Jacuzzi – (trademark) a large bath incorporating jets of water
to massage the body
The
term traces to an American father’s love for his son. Italian-born Candido Jacuzzi
(c.1903-1986) was the youngest of seven brothers whose company made submersible
pumps for industry. He son, born 1942, was in infancy crippled by rheumatoid
arthritis, and received regular hydrotherapy treatments at hospitals. Candido
adapted the firm’s pumps for a home-use bath to ease his son’s pain between
treatments.
When he closed his own eyes a vision of a
huge, sun-washed bathroom appeared before him, acres of gleaming marble, steam
rising off a bubbling Jacuzzi, a blinding white pyramid of
meticulously folded towels beneath a window filled with a blue-green sea.
– James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge, Step
on a Crack
¹ I could follow Beretta with another
eponymous pistol, the derringer – “a small pistol with a large bore, very
effective at short range,” says OED. [Invented by
Here’s
an interesting confluence of culture and pop-culture.
Quasimodo – surfing: a maneuver in which the surfer rides
hunched at the front of the board with head down, one arm forward and one arm
[from
the hunchback in Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris (1831), for the
surfer's hunched position]
A
little music, maestro:
Don't be afraid to try the newest sport
around
It's catching on in every city and town
You can do the tricks the surfers do
Just try the Quasimodo and the
Coffin too
Grab your board and go sidewalk surfin' with
me.
– Jan and Dean, Sidewalk Surfin'
Our
recent eponym Zamboni concerned ice for skating. Several ice-skating
jumps are also eponyms: the axel, salchow and lutz, after
skaters Axel R. Paulsen (Norwegian, 1885-1938), Ulrich Salchow
(Swedish, 1877-1949), and Alois Lutz (Austrian [some sources say Swiss],
1898–1918 [but some instead name Gustave Lussi]).
To
explain such things pictures may be better than words, so I'll link you to
videos. Also, I’ve found that dictionary-writers often mis-define sports terms.
(Are they non-athletic sorts who do not know the sport well enough?) I present
offer my own definitions, offered tentatively but after research. They are for
the skater who does his/her spins counterclockwise, as 90% of skaters do.
To
put it simply: An axel is recognizable because it's the only major jump
in which the skater skates forward as he/(she) jumps into the spin. In a
salchow he skates backwards in a counterclockwise curve that helps start
his counterclockwise spin. In a lutz he skates backward without that
helpful curve; it's usually easy to spot because it begins with a very long
skate straight backwards.
axel – skate forward on left foot on outside edge
(thus curving left, into the spin); jump and spin. Do however many spins plus
a half-spin, so that when you land you are going backward
salchow – skate backward on left foot inside edge (thus
again curving left); jump and spin
lutz – skate backward without that helpful curve; jump off outside
edge and spin
As
I said, an attempted lutz is easily recognizable, because it's usually entered
from a very long and straight backwards glide. But watch the attempt closely.
The skater usually leans left (with only the left foot on the ice) to show the
judges that he/she is on an outside edge, but a notorious cheat is to change to
the inside edge at the last moment, converting the lutz into a much simpler flip.
From
these links, a further click will give you videos of the axel,
lutz
and salchow. Especially helpful videos are at a double-click on
the second axel image, and in the slow-motion lutz and salchow.
It’s a jungle out there!
It’s
a jungle out there! Some people are catty, some are squirrelly, and some are
dog-tired. This week we’ll present “animal words’, though not necessarily
jungle animals.
lionize – to look treat (a person) as a celebrity
From
an old fable of a monkey who wanted to pull some roasting chestnuts out of a
fire, but didn't want to get burned. He tricked a cat into using its paw to get
the nuts. So the cat got the burn and the monkey got the chestnuts. This fable
also gives us the expression “pulling his chestnuts out of the fire”.
The Dillinger case was the crucial link
between the public imagination and
– David Halberstam, The Fifties
Today’s
word, like many this week, is a familiar one presented for its etymology. Did
you know it came from an animal?
porcelain – a white vitrified translucent ceramic
It
sounds rather pig-like or pork-like, doesn't it? English got it from French,
which got it from its Italian name porcellana, which means ‘cowrie
shell’. The ceramic has the same smooth shininess as the shell.
But
why is the shell so named? Porcellana is from porcella, ‘young
sow’. Why? Because the shape of the orifice resembled the vaginas of pigs. I
can offer you a picture of the former,
but not of the latter!
catspaw – a person used to serve the purposes of another, as a dupe or
tool (also, a light breeze that ruffles small areas of a water surface)
From
the fable of a monkey who wanted to some chestnuts that were roasting in a
fire, but did not want to burn his hand. He got a cat to reach in for them. So the
monkey got the chestnuts and the cat got burned.
“Did that woman have
anything to do with the theft of the emeralds?”
“How should I know?
But to be frank, I don’t believe she did. I think she was just a plain fool.
Deacon's catspaw. I'm sure the fellow put her on to find out
about the stuff, but I don’t think she was wise to what she was doing."
– Dorothy L. Sayers, The Nine Tailors
Today’s
word cat is very familiar, but I’ll
tell an interesting story comparing French and English.
To
begin, note that we have familiar words for the male and the female of many
common animals. Thus a horse is either a stallion or a mare, a
dog is a stud or a bitch, and similarly for pig (boar/sow),
a sheep (ram/ewe), a deer (stag/doe), and a chicken (rooster/hen).
In
contrast, the word ‘cat’ is male or female, with has no ordinary word to
specify a female cat. In recent times a word arose with that female meaning
(the word is pussy). And that word later has acquired another meaning, a
sexual one, which I need not specify.
Exactly
the same thing happened in French, where the word for cat is chat
(pronounced ‘shah’, with a silent final -t). There too the word chat
means either gender, with no ordinary word to specify a female chat. The
French, like the English created one. Their nouns have grammatical gender, and
they used their usual gender-forms to convert chat to a feminine form,
and to pronounce it. That gave them chatte (pronounced ‘shaht’, with the
-tt- pronounced) as their word for ‘female cat’. And French chatte
then acquired exactly the same further meaning as the English word pussy.
With
that in mind, recall the old Peter Sellers movie A Shot in the Dark, set
in
The
title is a bilingual pun on A Chatte in the Dark!
Today’s
word has a figurative sense that goes well with our recent word catspaw.
lapdog –
literal: a small pampered pet dog
figurative: a person who is completely under the influence of
another
As head of the powerful Senate Select Committee
on Intelligence he’d let the CIA get away with whatever it wanted. There did
not seem to be any action too extreme … . He had been Carter Gray's champion or
lapdog, depending on how one looked at it, for years.
– David Baldacci, Stone Cold
Some
say the lapdog has a less-than-savory origin. “The lapdogs of Tudor Europe were
… vital to human comfort and health … . Lapdogs attracted fleas from their
owners' bodies, thus lessening the human diseases and discomfort spread by
these scourges.” (D. Caroline Coile, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels)
I
try not to repeat a prior word-of-the-day. But this one bears a tale worth the
retelling for those who not with us when it appeared more than five years.
gallium – one of the chemical elements, with an unusual property.
Mercury is the only element which is liquid at room temperature, but gallium is
close. Its melting-point (under 86° F.) is so low that it will melt on a warm
day, or even when held in the hand. It was discovered is 1875 by the French
chemist Paul-Emile LeCoq.
LeCoq
claimed that he chose the name gallium in honor of his country
The
web indicates that French dictionaries typically cite the 'rooster' etymology,
while English language dictionaries give the '
You
pays yer money, you takes yer choice. I personally don’t buy for a moment the
story that Mr. LeCoq innocently did not have “rooster” in mind.
We’ll
end the week of animal-words with seriously obscure term. The concept, though,
is simple.
Jonathan
Swift, in Gulliver's Travels, describe- the Lilliputans’ writing: "But their manner of
Writing is very peculiar, being neither from the Left to the Right, like the
Europeans; nor from the Right to the Left, like the Arabians; nor from up to
down, like the Chinese; nor from down to up, like the Cascagians; but aslant
from one Corner of the Paper to the other, like Ladies in England."
But
there’s another way to proceed. Consider: when you mow a lawn, you don’t cut
each row north-to-south. You mow one row north-to-south, then return mowing
south-to-north, and continue alternating direction in alternate rows. A farmer
plows a field the same way.
And
so did ancient farmers, whose plows were drawn by oxen. Thus the Greek term
meaning “ox-turning” is used to name this sort of back-and-forth method, as
used in writing.
boustrophedon – writing in which the lines run alternately from right
to left and from left to right
The
ancient Greeks originally wrote right-to-left, as in Hebrew and Arabic; later
switched to boustrophedon; and finally settled on left-to-right writing around
500 B.C.
[question:] Most streets are numbered from
one end with odd numbers on one side and even on the other so that No 1 is
opposite No 2. However, some streets, particularly ones laid out in the
Georgian period, go down one side in sequence and back up the other. When did
the shift occur and why?
[answer:] Georgian suburban planning created
the elegant squares and boulevards of areas such as Mayfair in
– The Times, Nov. 1, 2007
Short words (and similar doublets)
This
week I was conflicted between two themes: “short words”, and “pairs of
confusingly-similar words”. To resolve that, I decided to do both Our theme
will be former, but some of the daily entries will also meet the latter: they
will be a pair of similar-sounding short words. We’ll begin with such a
pair that also continues last week’s ‘animal’ theme.
shoat – a young pig (just after weaning)
stoat – an ermine (a
small weasel-like carnivore), in its brown summer coat. ("The ermine …
[has] a very high metabolic rate which makes it a very effective and agile
hunter. However, its slim body shape dictates that it must eat often to
survive.”)
When Augustus came out on the porch the blue
pigs were eating a rattlesnake – not a very big one. … They were having a fine
tug-of-war with it, and its rattling days were over. The sow had it by the
neck, and the shoat had the tail.
– Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove
A golden-headed duck, startled from its
slumber in the reeds, paddled off downstream as fast as if a stoat
were on its tail …
– Kate Furnivall, The Russian Concubine
By
the way, ermine is a toponym; that
is, a word from a place-name. The word ermine is derived from the Latin
form of
Muzzy and mazy: similar sounds, somewhat similar meanings, but
totally unrelated in origin.
muzzy – 1. mentally confused; muddled 2. blurred;
indistinct
Phoebe felt muzzy and
depressed as she sipped her first cup of morning coffee.
– Susan Elizabeth Phillips, It Had to Be
You
mazy – like a maze, in design or complexity; labyrinthine
Our
illustrative quote is from a poet’s opium dream.
And ‘mid these dancing rocks at once and
ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy
motion
Through wood and dale, the sacred river ran,
Then reach’d the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And ‘mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), Kubla
Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream
You
probably think spelt and smelt are the past tenses of to spell
and to smell. Well, they are – but they also are foods: a grain and
fish. I wonder if anyone has ever made a meal of smelt and spelt?
smelt
– a small silvery food-fish (Smelt also has another meaning, of course:
'to melt or fuse ores'.)
Oh, why does man pursue the smelt?
It has no valuable pelt,
It boasts of no escutcheon royal,
It yields no ivory or oil,
Its life is dull, its death is tame,
A fish as humble as its name.
Yet take this salmon somewhere else.
And bring me half a dozen smelts.
–
spelt
– an ancient and hardy wheat, grown mostly in
Spelt, an ancient whole
grain and kind of wheat that's long been popular in
– Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Feb. 1, 2007
(ellipses omitted)
Two
body-words today:
scruff – the back of a person’s or animal’s neck
scurf – dandruff (or other skin-flakes formed as fresh skin develops
below)
[from
Old English for 'cut to shreds']
Interestingly,
scurf is the source of the
word scruffy, "shabby and untidy or dirty".
"So that’s your idea of
gratitude?" he screamed. "So that’s how you feel after everything
I’ve done for you? Everyone told me that crudeness and selfishness was all I
could expect for lifting a cheap little alley cat by the scruff
of her neck!"
– Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
"What is it you wanted to see me
about?” While Sir Claude tried to remember, the Queen had time to notice the
thin reef of dandruff that that gathered beneath his coat collar, the egg
stains on his tie and the drift of scurf that lay in his large pendulous
ear.
– Alan Bennett, The Uncommon Reader
Bonus word:
pendulous – hanging down; drooping
quirt – a short-handled riding whip with a braided leather lash
More than once, according to Felice, the
Captain had taken a bullwhip to his lady, and more than once, she had taken the
same bullwhip to him-not to mention quirts, buggy whips, or
anything else that lay to hand.
– Larry McMurtry, Comanche Moon
tope – to habitually drink alcohol excessively
The
song Have some
Unaware of the wiles of the snake in the
grass
And the fate of the maiden who topes,
She lowered her standards by raising her
glass,
Her courage, her eyes and his hopes.
Let
that be a caution to all you good ladies among our readers!
Two
kinds of land today, the swale and the sward.
swale – 1. moist or marshy low land 2. a shallow
trough-like depression (as along a roadside) that carries overflow water¹
sward – an expanse of grass turf (also, the upper soil layer
of soil, esp. when grass-covered)
[from
Old English meaning ‘skin, rind’ (of bacon, etc.). Greensward
means ‘grass-covered turf’.]
The issue began as a result of complaints
from Balsam Road residents April and Joe Comazzolo, who say they have spent
five years dealing with backyard flooding after a neighbour blocked a drainage swale
that runs through the neighbourhood.
–
Now they … entered a new residential section
that skirted a substantial wood with tall trees and paths through it.
Blackthorne found it vastly enjoyable to be out of the streets, the well-tended
sward soft underfoot, the track wandering through the trees.
– James Clavell, Shogun
¹ further meanings:
paralleling #1: a shallow depression
on a golf fairway or green
paralleling #2: a trough between
ridges on a beach, paralleling the coastline