please help!

i can't remember the word for "the first thing one sees in the morning" OR "the first thing one sees upon waking".

i came across such a word several years ago in english class. it was a 'word for the day' sort of thing.

i'd very much appreciate any help. wanted to use it for something i am writing so a speedy response would really make my day. thank you!

Reveille?

Welcome, isea!

Interesting word, Richard. I hadn't heard it before.

Welcome, Isea.

Reveille would be the first thing you hear in the morning, if you're in the army. It's the wake-up bugle call. I don't think I've ever yeard a word for the first thing you see in the morning.

"Alarm" would be another word for the first thing heard.

Other than that, the only things I can think of would be "dawn" or "daybreak" or the light. Probably not what you were looking for. Now I'm curious. I hope someone knows this word.

Wordmatic

How about an eye-opener!

The actual concept ("the first thing you see upon waking") I don't think we have a word for. It sounds like something the Germans would have a word for.

thank you all for welcoming me, and for all the word suggestions.

i got in touch with our high school english beadle and she doesn't remember either. i'm beginning to wonder if this obsession is simply a product of my overactive imagination.

i'd like to keep trying, though. i've stumbled upon a listing of unusual words and am slowly trying to go through each entry. haha, it's crazy but at least i'll pick up a bunch of other new words along the way.

the url is: http://phrontistery.info/ihlstart.html

Yes, that's a great site. There are some others with unusual words, such as Worthless Word for the Day (wwftd) or Luciferous Logolepsy or tiscali (Hutchinson's Dictionary) or the Third Edition of the Grandiloquent Dictionary. BTW, the latter has been updated recently.

I've always wondered why Hutchinson's Dictionary is also called tiscali. Does anyone know? Aren't they the same?

I've always wondered why Hutchinson's Dictionary is also called tiscali.

AFAIK, Tiscoli is a European ISP (link) and they host Hutchinson's Dictionary. It's like saying that Wordcraft and Infopop or the American Heritage dictionary and Bartleby are the same thing.

The closest word I can think of is first-foot which means the first person one meets after setting out on a special journey.

I've not heard of first-foot. Interesting. For example, it would be the first person I met after getting off a plane in France? Those first meetings often are unforgettable, aren't they? I remember someone from Paris and someone from London.

Are there other online dictionaries of rare words that I've missed?

First-fotting in the UK means the first person across your threshold in the New Year. It has been a tradition in my circle that the first-footer should be carrying a piece of coal - which I see, on checking the invaluable Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-Foot is common enough.

quote:

First-fotting in the UK means the first person across your threshold in the New Year. It has been a tradition in my circle that the first-footer should be carrying a piece of coal

In my house we require that it be a mortgage payment.

qualtagh means "the first person you meet after leaving your house on some special occasion. Also, the first person entering a house on New Year’s Day" in Erin McKean's Weird and Wonderful Words. It seems to be from Manx quaaltagh "first-footer" from taghyrt "to happen".

I thought I had seen such a term in Jungian psychology, but couldn't find it. Nevertheless, here's a list of terms that would have been dandy for the Bluffing Game had I kept my mouth shut! http://www.terrapsych.com/jungdefs.html

I forgot about quaaltagh, goofy. I just put it in Onelook, and I see it's in Phrontistry, Grandiloquent Dictionary, and Wordcraft's Dictionary. Glad to see the latter!

quote:

It seems to be from Manx quaaltagh "first-footer" from taghyrt "to happen".

That it's Gaelic might explain why the first-footing custom is stronger in the North of England and in Scotland.