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Short words (and similar doublets)

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January 30, 2008, 21:14
wordcrafter
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.”)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 Armenia, where the animal is common.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wordcrafter,
January 31, 2008, 02:15
Richard English
Q. How do you tell the difference between a stoat and a weasel?

A. A weasel is weasily distinguished, whereas a stoat is stoatally different.


Richard English
January 31, 2008, 20:43
wordcrafter
Muzzy and mazy: similar sounds, somewhat similar meanings, but totally unrelated in origin.

muzzy1. mentally confused; muddled 2. blurred; indistinctmazy – like a maze, in design or complexity; labyrinthine
Our illustrative quote is from a poet’s opium dream.
February 01, 2008, 08:17
Duncan Howell
Compare two more similar M-words...

mauzy - 1. 'damp and warm' ( English Dialect Dictionary) 2. 'Of the weather, damp, foggy, misty or close; sometimes with a very light rain or condensation on objects and a cool gentle wind off the sea.' ( Dictionary of Newfoundland English).

"The Caplin Scull (an incredible inshore breeding frenzy of small fish, similar to the grunion run of California. D.H.) is not just a phenomenon of nature, but also a period of the year, and even a special kind of weather - mauzy weather, with high humidity, frequent fogs or drizzles, easterly winds."
-- Harold Horwood, Newfoundland (Toronto: Macmillan, 1969).


maze - v. transitive: to bewilder. v. intransitive: to wander in mind. ( Journal of American Folklore, 1897.

" As foolish as a mazed caplin." (A purely serendipitous tie-in to the previous quote. D.H.)--Devine, Devine's Folk Lore of Newfoundland in Old Words, Phrases and Expressions, Their Origin and Meaning.(St. John's: Robinson, 1937).

"
February 01, 2008, 18:09
wordcrafter
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-fish¹spelt – an ancient and hardy wheat, grown mostly in Europe
¹ Smelt also has another meaning, of course: 'to melt or fuse ores'.
February 02, 2008, 16:42
wordcrafter
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".Bonus word:
pendulous
– hanging down; drooping
February 03, 2008, 19:10
wordcrafter
quirt – a short-handled riding whip with a braided leather lash
February 04, 2008, 11:37
arnie
A possible doublet for this word could be quirl, an alternative spelling of querl,

quote:
v. t. 1. To twirl; to turn or wind round; to coil; as, to querl a cord, thread, or rope.
n. 1. A coil; a twirl; as, the qwerl of hair on the fore leg of a blooded horse.

See http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Querl


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
February 04, 2008, 19:48
wordcrafter
Good idea, arnie! Wish I'd thought of that.

tope – to habitually drink alcohol excessively

The song Have some Madeira, M'dear, by Michael Flanders, tells how an old lecher uses alcohol to seduce a young innocent.Let that be a caution to all you good ladies among our readers!
February 04, 2008, 23:40
Richard English
quote:
tope – to habitually drink alcohol excessively

How can one manage to do that?


Richard English
February 05, 2008, 19:17
wordcrafter
Two kinds of land today, the swale and the sward.

swale1. 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’.]
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
February 10, 2008, 03:09
pearce
quote:
Originally posted by wordcrafter:
Two kinds of land today, the swale and the sward.

swale1. moist or marshy low land 2. a shallow trough-like depression (as along a roadside) that carries overflow water¹

SWALE. There is a beautiful area in North Yorkshire (Englands biggest and arguably best county) called SWALEDALE. The local advertisers describe it: [QUOTE] Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Here you will find Nature at its best. There are high mountains at the head of these valleys whose evocative names such as Blea Barf, Great Shunner Fell and Rogan's Seat echo the voices of the Vikings who settled here over 1,000 years ago.

Sparkling moorland streams cascade down the valley sides through pastures touched by a thousand shades of green. The River Swale, England's fastest flowing river, threads its way through a maze of fields dotted with stone barns.

Over generations the people of these Dales have shaped the landscape and left a legacy of history, folklore and legend. The language of the Vikings can still be heard all around in the local dialect and the village place-names.

The area also boasts hardy Swaledale sheep.
Swale has different meanings. The OED gives 1. timber in laths, planks dating from 1325. 2. Shade, also the cool, the cold from c 1425.    A hollow, low place; esp. U.S., a moist or marshy depression dating from 1584. And a broom or brush without a stick for a handle.
These different meanings beg the origins of the word, deemed uncertain, but mostly of Scandanavian roots such as ON svalar a balcony; and ON svalr meaning cool.

But never mind the dry etymology. Come and see its rural splendours for yourselves.
February 10, 2008, 03:45
arnie
I agree, pearce, Swaledale and the Yorkshire Dales National Park are beautiful. Personally I prefer the slightly more rugged beauty of the Lakeland National Park, but as it's not in Yorkshire I can understand your preference for Swaledale. Wink


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
February 10, 2008, 14:49
shufitz
Is it true that the swales in Wales prevail upon the dales?

(sorry; couldn't resist)
February 10, 2008, 20:32
wordcrafter
greave [pronounced like grieve] – leg armor worn below the knee
[usually plural, since you have two legs. from Old French for ‘shin’]
February 11, 2008, 18:17
wordcrafter
Two words today, to finish the theme.

skerry [pronounced like scary]– a rugged isolated sea-rock; a reef
throe – a severe pang or spasm of pain, as in childbirth

Throe is pronounced like throw; indeed, it was originally spelled similarly, throwe. Each word appears to com from Old English þrawan 'to twist, turn, writhe'. (The þ is an old letter, pronounced th.)
February 14, 2008, 01:53
pearce
quote:
Originally posted by arnie:
I agree, pearce, Personally I prefer the slightly more rugged beauty of the Lakeland National Park, but as it's not in Yorkshire I can understand your preference for Swaledale. Wink


Thanks. I did say ' arguably best county'. We too spend a lot of time in the Lake District, which as an area (not a county per se) is, as Ruskin once observed the most beautiful in the world:
"The first thing which i remember as an event was being taken by my nurse to the brow of Friar's Crag on Derwentwater."
[inscribed on a stone monument on Friar's Crag, which I am sure you have seen many times.]
February 14, 2008, 02:43
arnie
Indeed I have, pearce. For about ten years between the ages of 16 to 25 or so I spent almost every holiday (two or three times a year) fell walking. Most of the time I went to the Lake District, but I also had good times in the Dales and in North Wales.

Now I'm pear-shaped and hardly walk anywhere. Frown


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
February 14, 2008, 02:48
Richard English
I suppose it depends what you like. If you are fond of trees, then Surrey is the UK's most wooded country, closely followed by Sussex, Hampshire and Kent. Over 22% of Surrey's area is woodland.


Richard English