It was pretty to see from the letters, which were evidently
exchanged with some frequency between the young mother and the
grandmother, how the girlish vanity was being weeded out of her
heart by love for her baby. The white "Paduasoy" figured again in the letters, with almost as much vigour as before. In one, it was being made into a christening cloak for the baby. It decked it when it went with its parents to spend a day or two at Arley Hall. It added to its charms...
His letters were a curious contrast to those of his girl-bride. She was evidently rather annoyed at his demands upon her for expressions of love, and could not quite understand what he meant by repeating the same thing over in so many different ways; but what she was quite clear
about was a longing for a white "Paduasoy"--whatever that might be; and six or seven letters were principally occupied in asking her lover to use his influence with her parents (who evidently kept her in good order) to obtain this or that article of dress, more especially the white "Paduasoy."
It was pretty to see from the letters, which were evidently exchanged with some frequency between the young mother and the grandmother, how the girlish vanity was being weeded out of her heart by love for her baby. The white "Paduasoy" figured again in the letters, with almost as much vigour as before. In one, it was being made into a christening cloak for the baby. It decked it when it went with its parents to spend a day or two at Arley Hall. It added to its charms ... ''Cranford''
Now used to mean "grow quickly". But in the original novel, it first appeared (IIRC) in response to a question from a sympathetic adult to a slave child: "Who brought you up?" And poor ignorant Topsy disclaimed all knowledge of her early childhood: "I guess I just growed!"
Wordnet is not accurate, or certainly not complete. "Chador" is mainly used for the all-covering outergarment, usually black, worn by certain observant Muslim women. It is prevalent in Arab countries. It is often worn with a niqab (faceveil) and gloves. Compare with burqa.
A face veil used by some observant Muslim women, leaving only the eyes uncovered. The niqab itself is a small piece of cloth tied on over the headscarf (often known as the hijab, although this word is more accurately translated as "modesty"); cf the burqa, an all-in-one tent-like garment brought to Western attention via Afghanistan. The niqab is particularly prevalent in Arab countries. It is almost invariably black, and is worn with a chador (a loose overgarment) and, often, gloves.
Well, I certainly want it to be open, and to garner as many suggestions as possible (hence the challenge)! It would be great if you could set it up as an open list, if you think that would be a better solution.
An aphrodisiac fruit. Close cousin to the lingonberry of Scandinavia, but can be distinguished by its erect stalk. Original habitat in India; transplanted to California and now spreading.
A sand-fairy, as invented by E. Nesbit for a trilogy of children's novels, in the first of which, "Five Children and It", the psammead is the it. From that first novel: "eyes that were on long horns like a snail’s eyes, and it could move it in and out like telescopes; it had ears like bat’s ears, and its tubby body was shaped like a spider’s and covered with thick soft fur; its legs and arms were furry too, and it had hands and feet like a monkey’s�?.
From Wikipedia:
The Origin of the Psammead: The five children find the Psammead in the gravel-pit, which used to be seashore. There were once many Psammeads but the others died because they got cold and wet. It is the only one of its kind left. It is thousands of years old and remembers Pterodactyls and other ancient creatures. When the Psammeads were around, they granted any wishes, mostly food for the families. The wishes would turn into stone at sunset if they were not used that day, but this doesn't apply to the childrens' wishes because what they wish for is so much more fantastic than the wishes the Psammead granted in the past.
The creature is frighteningly ugly, bad-tempered and is quite malicious, as it deliberately abuses the wishes the children make, causing the results to be alarming and unexpected. The children quickly regret meeting the creature, yet their desires to make more wishes push aside their qualms about the Psammead.
The name Psammead, (pronounced “Sammyadd�? by the children in the story) appears to be an inventive Greek pun coined by Nesbit (from the Greek ψάμμος "sand" after the pattern of dryad, naiad, oread, etc.) upon the name of “Samyaza�? the leader of the Grigori (“Watchers�?, from Greek egrḗgoroi) supernatural creatures of antediluvian myth. Knowing the pun's in-joke, shows the logic at work behind the creature's phobia of water “nasty wet bubbling sea�?, and why the eyes are placed watchfully upon the end of long horns like a snail's eyes.
Twin sister to gonorrhea. An excellent name for a dog, as when you take it for a run in the park and it disappears, you can bellow "Klah -mih -- dee -- yah!" (lovely clear vowels) and be reasonably certain that there won't be lots of other dogs with the same name bounding up, which would not be the case had you named your mutt Fido.
The name of one of the ugly elder sisters in ''King Lear''. Also, an excellent name for a dog, as when you take it for a run in the park and it disappears, you can bellow "Gono -- rrheeee -- ah!" (lovely clear vowels) and be reasonably certain that there won't be lots of other dogs with the same name bounding up, which would not be the case had you named your mutt Fido. See chlamydia.
In chapter 27 of ''Far From the Madding Crowd'', Bathsheba goes to visit her red-coated Captain Troy, who has promised to show her his swordplay. (Stop giggling, this is not a euphemism.) He describes certain cuts and thrusts, and the fair maiden interjects:
Graham Norton is a chat show host in Britain, charming, camp, outrageous, with a late night programme laced with sexuality, not mere innuendo. An American guest expressed surprise on air at what British presenters could get away with. "I even hear people say "fuck" and the editors don't bleep it. Is there any word you're not allowed to use?" Without missing a beat, Norton replied, "Cunt".
"Cun" is a word in a southern French dialect, possibly Occitan, which means "wedge", as in the ancient mechanical tool still in use today to split things. The wedge shape is triangular (and the downward facing equilateral triangle has been used for millenia as shorthand for the female genitalia, and by extension, some would say, the goddess -- see Marija Gimbutas and Old Europe) and the function of the wedge is to transform. A pretty good description of a cunt, no?
Powered by German chocolate ginger biscuits now (what are *they* called? Vanishes down rabbit-tunnel of chasing random associations): I would quite like a FaceBook-like feature that shows you which Wordies are online, but ONLY if people sign up to it, or at the very least can opt out.
Boiled wheat, usually with milk, eggs, dried fruit. Occasionally strengthened with alcohol. Served with meat (cf pudding in the savoury sense) or as a farmhouse breakfast on Christmas Day, way back when in post-medieval England. Also spelled "furmenty", "formity", and other variants. An important plot component in Thomas Hardy's ''The Mayor of Casterbridge''.
A tool in the farrier's armoury: "A driven tool with a tapered, rectangular shaft which is used to punch, clean out, resize, or repitch nail holes in horseshoes. When punching a new nail hole, the pritchel is used only to punch through the bottom of the hole made by the forepunch and/or creaser or fuller. The pritchel should be used when steel horseshoes are at dull red or black heat." -- New Dictionary of Farrier Terms and Technical Language, published by Dave Millwater (There's a lot more there, if anyone else is curious.)
That's OK. Those are lists I've liked the look of; if you want to see mine you have to click somewhere on the top of my page. I still don't know what all the numbers are for, beside each list. Contributors? Contributions? Number of people who have marked it as a favorite?
Are you a fan of ''Cold Comfort Farm''? I have a list on that, I think.
What's a walking bag? And if you took a -cide with you, wouldn't that indicate a penance, like a pilgrimage with peas in one's boots? (For those Wordies too young to realise, that's a pebble-like dried legume, not mushy peas!)
The traffic cop/cones, like all other civil servants in Iceland, are on a go-slow till the bankrupt government figures out how to pay them. They are moonlighting as moden art sculptures at vernissages.
In a healthcare context, can refer to the back of the hand, as in, "Remember to wash your hands: knuckles, wrist, dorsum and all." Plural dorsa or dorsums?
Yes, absolutely. I wasn't making myself clear. A pyxis is a small and often beautifully decorated container, used primarily for cosmetics and perfumes: concentrated sticky non-edible things, i.e. unguents. But I heard an educated person (as opposed to all those illiterate drop-outs who discuss Greek pottery) refer to it as a container for ungulents, a non-existant word. Presumably this person had the word for hoofed mammals echoing in his brain, and it came out more like that than anything else. It amused me.
Hey! Here's a blog of a qallunaaq woman in Iqaluit who is compiling her own dictionary of Inuktitut. (Phrases right next to each other in her lexicon are "Are you drunk?" and "photocopier]".) She gives "nassaq" as two hats, of indeterminate style, and "nasaq" as one (and "nasait" for 3). But she also says that she isn't sure about any of these, and welcomes corrections.
I have a few more ideas. Such is the power of cake.
More roll-over info, esp. for numbers. By all means keep the clean look, but do like xkcd and give us more when we float the mouse. I am not sure what most of the numbers mean. The word's ranking? How many people have entered it? How many lists it is on? How many words link to it?
Features from Wikipedia that I appreciate: redlinks for as-yet-unentered words, which might also flag up misspellings, typos, and alternate spellings -- including pesky half-merged words (why no drawing room? Ah, look at drawing-room instead). To go with that, a preview option, to minimise embarrassing oneself (I am a terrible typist).
Some way of telling, when I look at a highlighted word, whether it is worth clicking. Maybe hover over and see how many comments it has, or any citations, or the first few words of the latest comment (sort of abbreviated from the main page).
Traditionally, every evening sheep are encouraged to rake out (spread far out to graze) on to the fells and moorland, returning to the lower ground by the next morning. The flock ranges over very large areas, ensuring an even grazing of the available ground. Even within a hefted flock there are subgroups - different groups of sheep on different "cuts" of the hill. At the autumn markets these animals are often listed in the sales catalogue under the name of the farm and the cut they belonged to.
Traditionally, every evening sheep are encouraged to rake out (spread far out to graze) on to the fells and moorland, returning to the lower ground by the next morning. The flock ranges over very large areas, ensuring an even grazing of the available ground. Even within a hefted flock there are subgroups - different groups of sheep on different "cuts" of the hill.
"Hefted" is the term for sheep or cattle that belong to a certain patch of land. A truly hefted flock or herd consists of sheep or cattle which have been bred for generations on the same piece of land, and they always instinctively return to this land.
Hefted animals are frequently more aware of what to do when a severe storm strikes. For instance, on a bad night they might not go out as far on the exposed hills.
I have heard proxitarian, on a par with vegetarian (a human who exercises choice over what to eat) rather than with carnivore (an animal which doesn't).
The main use in British English is to describe a semi-detached house, often of Tudorbethan style. Sandi Toksvig, a BBC presenter of multiple talents, came out of the closet in the mid-1990s, and was dropped like a hot potato by Save the Children, for whom she acted as a sort of ambassador. She exploited this to comedic effect in a stand-up routine, in which she recounted her mother's reaction to the whole hullabaloo: "It's terrible what they said about you in the press! I just can't believe it. They called your house a semi!"
I have a few ideas. What about a spell-check, to offer suggestions, not auto-correct one's typing? Especially for search?
Or if implementing that in the full monty would be too much, what about some hyphen power in the search? If a new user looks for multislacking and finds nothing, could the software suggest multi-slacking? Or if that is too complicated (and I can see it might be, to suggest where to break a word), how about the reverse, i.e. entering the latter and being guided to the former. And could I extend this request to include a space as an additional variable, as well as the hyphen (multi slacking)?
One final request and then I'll go and eat some more of that cake I promised you (lemon polenta, no royal icing): at the top of the page I can see
"BrainyBabe has added 251 words, 17 lists, 225 comments, and 57 tags". I can click on the lists, comments, and tags, and marvel at just how much time I've wasted/spent here in the last few days, but I cannot click on words. Is this a bug or a feature?
As for other requests below, I'm with Jakob Nielsen on the open-in-new-window idea: don't. Don't take control of my computer and make it do things I didn't specifically request it to do.
Shells are classic symbols of the yoni -- think Venus on the half-shell, the slippery flesh of bivalves, the iridescentmother of pearl gleam that coats their inner surface.
James Mann Wordie led an expedition to the Arctic in 1934. The Wordie Ice Shelf in Antarctica is dramatically retreating. What would be the three most important words you would take with you on a polar expedition? (Nouns, adjectives, whimsey, all welcome.)
I've always liked this word, once for being etymologically a blackberry (in fact, I have a Latin-lover friend who calls her email/phone thingie a Morula, just to be different), and once for being more embryonic than an embryo.
When I see others playing with large stuffed objects, I tend to get out of the way. I do see the virtues of the smorgasbord metaphor, though. I'm getting hungry too.
I am charmed by your confession of a "chaste intellectual crush"; no one else has ever done so and it has lifted my day.
I web-wandered over to your site and found myself reading the whole of the Wilbur chronicles: they deserve wider publication! Very funny (except for the twist in the tail.)
My intention was to gather words that are recognisably French, not those that have been fully digested and absorbed into colloquial English, as for instance "entrepreneur" has been. ("The problem with the French is that they have no word for entrepreneur.")
One sign of the word's relatively recent welcome into English would be, as with gite, that Anglophones make an effort to use French pronunciation.
There can be no doubt that it is little incidents like this which are gradually breaking down the inter-racial barriers, and making for a more perfect comity and understanding between the various nations of the world. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Her experiences in London had led her to believe that the best way of not exciting suspicion was to make oneself conspicuous. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Mr Stickle, who was alone, had dined with his customary excess of wisdom, and was feeling, in the transatlantic sense of the expression, good. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
The provincials: those dogged but lumbering fellows who are never quite up with the fashions however much they perspire after them. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
The censorious interest taken by one half of the world in the amorous adventures of the other. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Scales, though he was always spending money, was not at all well off; he did not pay for the house himself. A most obligingbuilding society, which existed solely for the purpose of enabling impecunious Englishmen to feel that their homes were their castles, did that. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Scales, though he was always spending money, was not at all well off; he did not pay for the house himself. A most obligingbuilding society, which existed solely for the purpose of enabling impecunious Englishmen to feel that their homes were their castles, did that. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Scales, though he was always spending money, was not at all well off; he did not pay for the house himself. A most obligingbuilding society, which existed solely for the purpose of enabling impecunious Englishmen to feel that their homes were their castles, did that. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Scales, though he was always spending money, was not at all well off; he did not pay for the house himself. A most obligingbuilding society, which existed solely for the purpose of enabling impecunious Englishmen to feel that their homes were their castles, did that. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Love, the most tactless, the most bohemian of gods, had appeared just when he was not wanted, and smitten Scales boisterously between the shoulder-blades.
-- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Love, the most tactless, the most bohemian of gods, had appeared just when he was not wanted, and smitten Scales boisterously between the shoulder-blades.
-- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Up to now, Dudley Scales had always got on very well with convention; but now that convention quarrelled with his desires, he began to discover that he had no respect for it whatsoever, and never had. To hell with conventions! But on second thoughts, perhaps it need not come to that. Perhaps Yashima would permit herself to be conventionalized. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Up to now, Dudley Scales had always got on very well with convention; but now that convention quarrelled with his desires, he began to discover that he had no respect for it whatsoever, and never had. To hell with conventions! But on second thoughts, perhaps it need not come to that. Perhaps Yashima would permit herself to be conventionalized. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Up to now, Dudley Scales had always got on very well with convention; but now that convention quarrelled with his desires, he began to discover that he had no respect for it whatsoever, and never had. To hell with conventions! But on second thoughts, perhaps it need not come to that. Perhaps Yashima would permit herself to be conventionalized. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Now he tasted the rare and godlike joys of the man who sees his flights of hyperbole come true. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Lady Bellwether was a past mistress in the art of restraining her compliments just one step short of libel (and what's more, could do it just as well in French). -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
A number of young men and maidens were there, engaged in decorating the furniture with unstudied poses, and their interiors with the inevitable cocktails. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
She darted about the room like a charwoman in torment, now straightening a cushion, now folding a Special Racing Edition, now hustling a shameful pile of lingerie behind a modest curtain. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
An excuse is the English people's word for the falsehood they tell when they wish to avoid a social obligation. They do not tell the truth on these occasions, fearing, and with some reason, that the truth would give unnecessary offence. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
She liked to see the crowds, she did; it was the same with a great many others. Indeed, among all those thousands, Yashima herself was perhaps the only one who was actuated by nothing more than vulgar curiosity. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
She liked to see the crowds, she did; it was the same with a great many others. Indeed, among all those thousands, Yashima herself was perhaps the only one who was actuated by nothing more than vulgar curiosity. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
If the county made a habit of shaking hands with chars, however could one know whom not to know? - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
(NB the definite article, meaning the landed gentry)
If the county made a habit of shaking hands with chars, however could one know whom not to know? - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
But independent thought was a dangerous and unpopular diversion. One so often saw it recoil; and then what was the result? - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
He came to a standstill in front of her, and perused her with the expression of an intensely interested haddock. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
He came to a standstill in front of her, and perused her with the expression of an intensely interested haddock. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
One evening, after that meal which the Otchkinsons, observing a finer distinction than the Ramerils, called dinner when they had company, but supper when they were alone... - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
One evening, after that meal which the Otchkinsons, observing a finer distinction than the Ramerils, called dinner when they had company, but supper when they were alone... - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
One evening, after that meal which the Otchkinsons, observing a finer distinction than the Ramerils, called dinner when they had company, but supper when they were alone... - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
People would say of him excusingly that he was a self-made man, the inference being that almost anyone else would have made a better job of it. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
In 1898 he afforded a safety-bicycle. In 1903 he afforded Mrs Otchkinson. In 1907 they jointly afforded George. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
The truth was, the Otchkinsons had risen in the world, and would have felt happier now in a road with a longer pedigree. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
The road into which the car eventualy turned with a hoot of familiarity was quite a new road -- rather a rough diamond. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Everybody in Nostandley has intent and occupied experessions, as though they were bent on sucking the last drop out of life, by some patent process known only to themselves. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
"I can't do two things at once," muttered Mr Otchkinson, recklessly snatching his left hand from the wheel to make sure that the hand-brake was still where it ought to be. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Mrs Otchkinson was good with her car, and invariably offered people lifts unless they asked for them, in which case she argued that they were undesirable characters. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Mrs Otchkinson was good with her car, and invariably offered people lifts unless they asked for them, in which case she argued that they were undesirable characters. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
The illustrious visitor seemed discomposed. She rose from her chair a little too quickly, and pulled off her glove a little too emphatically. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
In the drawing-room sat quite the grandest lady Yashima had yet seen in England. ... Merely to be in the same room as her must surely be a social event of magnitude. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Colonel Gathersoles, O.B.E., was a warrior with his country's colours blazoned all over his face. He had red veins down his nose, a white moustache, and mild blue eyes. The mildness was nature's camouflage. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
Evelyn Waugh's lost novel, in which an incompetent nature writer is mistaken for a round-the-world yaughtsman, and more or less shanghai'd onto a small sailing boat which sets out for the Horn of Africa and never arrives.
Oh. I never heard it used in a disparaging way, more with respect and awe. "Sisters are doin' it for themselves", climbing the greasy pole of corporate and literary success. Glitterati definitely has a hint of the dismissive, mwahmwah darling, must dash, got to see my ghostwriter.
John -- (Funnily enough, a cake has been baked for me today, something that happens about, oh, never, so I take that as a Sign, given what I promised you yesterday.) No, not a list of lists, which I can see is provided for under "Your words", but more of a way to nest lists. For example, I could put Loan words from Inuktitut and Loan words from French into a higher-level list called, wait for it, Loan words. I am thinking of Wikipedia's categories, some of which are far from tidy but all of which do,in my experience, help the web-wanderer waste time far more productively.
"At the time of Yashima's arrival, one of the most firmly established institutions in the social life of England was the weekend: that is to say, the law by which, on the fifth or sixth day of the week, those who did work abandoned it, and fled into congenial surroundings to recover, while those who did none bestirred themselves, and went and did none somewhere else." --''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
"But how can that be? They come to delight their eyes with something beautiful," said Yashima, "and they leave it desecrated? That is barbarism." -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
"He searched in his pocket, and offered Yashima a small oblong ivory talisman -- one of those "cards" which the English are in the habit of distributing lavishly among their acquaintance, believing them to be endowed with magical powers of strengthening the bond between giver and recipient, and even, upon occasions, of creating a bond where none previously existed." -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
"Surely in England she would escape into another sphere, a refuge from the inexorable twentieth century, a world that had never heard of Arabia, with its hustle, its dread of not being dernier cri..." -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
For us in 2008, it really only has one meaning. But maybe in his day another meaning was primary, or at least fairly well represented in the mix? (Trying to be generous.)
The fur trade has always been important in Canada, from the days of the voyageurs to post-war fur fox farming (which I believe supported Alice Munro's childhood).
I'm glad to have been the focus of such a thoughtful explanation of Wordie's charms. I am learning tricks bit by bit: I have just realised that I can nest lists by creating a supralist and adding a list title as a "word" within it. I think.
Uh...that was my point. He didn't have much fun, did he? Serial shipwreck victim. Even pissing out the fire in the queen's palace, which should have got him a medal, led to arrest.
Paying partial attention to several things at once, none of which are economically productive. Listening to Radio 4, hanging out on the Wikipedia refdesks, scouring bookshelves for amusements to add to Wordie, wondering what Firefox add-ons to install.
More WWII landgirls join the narrowboats keeping the commodities flowing through England. Offal joins the list of protected products, alongside coal and grain.
Is the spirit of this to nominate a word coined or popularised in 2008, or one which sums up the zeitgeist? Or is it more like the Nobel Prize, that you just keep tactically voting for your favourites year after year until the right one wins, eventually?
Is the spirit of this to nominate a word coined or popularised in 2008, or one which sums up the zeitgeist? Or is it more like the Nobel Prize, that you just keep tactically voting for your favourites year after year until the right one wins, eventually?
Yes, I understand it doesn't matter, but if I enter cletter, not knowing that there is already clettering or clettering stick, then I lose out from not seeing others' contributions, links, citations, etc.
Oh, I forgot: reason C), to demonstrate that one can pronounce French, and that therefore one is a properly brought up middle class person; see Posie Simmonds's modern updating of "Madame Bovary".
I think I just coined this on the spur of the Wordie. Sort of like carbon-neutral, but not as precise. Used of a lifestyle option that produces less carbon dioxide (and presumably less of the other greenhouse gases too) than another, superficially more appealing, option. For example, holidaying "at home", which in British English means in Britain, not literally in one's own home. Taking the train instead of flying. Going vegetarian but not yet vegan in the attempt to minimise anthropogenicclimate change.
A holiday apartment in France, pronounced "jzeet". (Does Wordie support IPA?) The French word is often used by British people, as A) it is several syllables shorter than any reasonable alternative, and B) it handily announces that one is off for a foreign, but relatively carbon-benign, holiday.
First drink of the day at a hunt meet, usually port or brandy. Served not by the hunt servants but by the house staff (e.g. butler or footman) of whoever is hosting the lawner.
Can also refer to the vessel in which the drink is served. It is of a distinctive shape, without handle or foot, designed to be clasped in one gloved hand whilst the other controls the mount. The cup is often in the shape of the quarry, the fox, but may also represent any hunted animal, game or vermin, or the hound.
First drink of the day at a hunt meet, usually port or brandy. Served not by the hunt servants but by the house staff (e.g. butler or footman) of whoever is hosting the lawner.
Can also refer to the vessel in which the drink is served. It is of a distinctive shape, without handle or foot, designed to be clasped in one gloved hand whilst the other controls the mount. The cup is often in the shape of the quarry, the fox, but may also represent any hunted animal, game or vermin, or the hound.
A play on literati, coined in the 1990s? It was used loosely of lipstick lesbians within the chattering classes, i.e. publishing, media, politics, PR, marketing....people paid to go to parties. Retroactively, I suppose it could be applied between the wars to Vita Sackville-West and the Americans in Paris.
An example of telegraphese invented by Evelyn Waugh. The journalists, sent to cover a war in Darkest Africa, are instructed by their editors to investigate the bombing by Italian forces of a hospital run by an international charity and the supposed death of a foreign (i.e. white, i.e. newsworthy) nurse. They travel, with some difficulty, to the town, eager for their scoop, but find nothing amiss. On returning to the capital they cable to London, minimising words in a way even Twitter cannot emulate, "Nurse unupblown".
plashy fen features as semi-purple prose in a newspaper column by an amateur naturalist, the unwilling protagonist of Evelyn Waugh's darkly comic ''Scoop''
A neologism, analogous to the old marine flotsam and jetsam. All the unclaimed stuff that has built up over the years and is now floating around in cyberspace: abandoned email accounts, domain names bought but sitting empty. It's taking up space, and could be dangerous, like those items jettisoned in space that whirl around forever and one day might crash into (and indeed through) a space station.
Yeah, I see that, but I can't even find the good conversations easily. And when I look at the old ones, it is hard to figure out what is idiolect and basically , private banter, and what is intended as wiser / wider (Freudian typo) discourse.
The husband & wife couple that make up CommonCraft are cool people. You never know, they might be able to help you out! (Check out their Halloween spoof.)
Thanks, Prolagus and yarb. I am having fun, but don't know if I will stick around or not. Aside from my lists being an external memory, I can't see easy ways to usefulness. Like, I spent this time adding "Cold Comfort Farm" words, and only later discovered that someone has a list of them already. I appreciate (i.e. understand) that this is a stripped-down site, but don't necessarily appreciate (i.e. like) it. For example, I didn't see your helpful commments till I came looking for them; Wikipedia has welcome messages (not automated) and pings you with new messages. I'm not saying WOrdie should do this, just that I am taking a while to figure out how to get the best from this. Tips?
You don't have to understand French to get the joke of this bilingual (subtitled) video on the perils of cross-cultural non-communication, but it helps to know that the word for the animal "seal" is ''phoque'', pronounced "fuck". The three-minute clip is funny, not vulgar, with a political point. (There's also an 8-minute version with a lot more "fucks" and ''phoques''.) It trades on a special type of false friends, words that are homophones between languages.
Also, and again this is a general point that I don't know where to put, couldn't a list like this be usefully subdivided (or broken?) into newly minted coinages and words the author just hapens to fancy?
It is a wonderful list, and a wonderful novel. But I am just getting used to Wordie, having spent a few hours on it today (when I should have been doing other things, natch). How could I have found your list before half-creating my own? And how can I find, e.g., cletter if the lists are long and non-alphabetical?
Mollocking is the favourite activity of Seth Starkadder of ''Cold Comfort Farm'' by Stella Gibbons. Its exact nature is undefined but it invariably results in the pregnancy of a local maid.
Thanks for the coding tip! I have just read thrugh half these comments, and clearly here is where the action is (my main analogy is Wikipedia -- talk pages I guess). You guys are so civilised! Seeing as how you were discussing wooden stirring spoons, may I introduce you to bishkek and spirtle? The pleasure is mine!
One of the cows kept at ''Cold Comfort Farm'', the classic satire by Stella Gibbons. Big Business, the bull, services her and her companions Pointless, Aimless, and Feckless.
One of the cows kept at ''Cold Comfort Farm'', the classic satire by Stella Gibbons. Big Business, the bull, services her and her companions Graceless, Pointless, and Feckless.
One of the cows kept at ''Cold Comfort Farm'', the classic satire by Stella Gibbons. Big Business, the bull, services her and her companions Graceless, Aimless, and Pointless.
One of the cows kept at ''Cold Comfort Farm'', the classic satire by Stella Gibbons. Big Business, the bull, services her and her companions Graceless, Aimless, and Feckless.
Actually, the capitals are important. This is the bull kept at ''Cold Comfort Farm'', the classic satire by Stella Gibbons. He services the cows (no straws for AI in those days) with the priceless names of Graceless, Aimless, Feckless and Pointless.
Comments by brainybabe
BrainyBabe commented on the word paduasoy
It was pretty to see from the letters, which were evidently
exchanged with some frequency between the young mother and the
grandmother, how the girlish vanity was being weeded out of her
heart by love for her baby. The white "Paduasoy" figured again in the letters, with almost as much vigour as before. In one, it was being made into a christening cloak for the baby. It decked it when it went with its parents to spend a day or two at Arley Hall. It added to its charms...
--Elizabeth Gaskell, ''Cranford''
March 21, 2010
BrainyBabe commented on the word paduasoy
His letters were a curious contrast to those of his girl-bride. She was evidently rather annoyed at his demands upon her for expressions of love, and could not quite understand what he meant by repeating the same thing over in so many different ways; but what she was quite clear
about was a longing for a white "Paduasoy"--whatever that might be; and six or seven letters were principally occupied in asking her lover to use his influence with her parents (who evidently kept her in good order) to obtain this or that article of dress, more especially the white "Paduasoy."
- Elizabeth Gaskell, ''Cranford''
March 21, 2010
BrainyBabe commented on the word paduasoy
see also padusoy
March 21, 2010
BrainyBabe commented on the word padusoy
see also paduasoy
March 21, 2010
BrainyBabe commented on the word Paduasoy
It was pretty to see from the letters, which were evidently exchanged with some frequency between the young mother and the grandmother, how the girlish vanity was being weeded out of her heart by love for her baby. The white "Paduasoy" figured again in the letters, with almost as much vigour as before. In one, it was being made into a christening cloak for the baby. It decked it when it went with its parents to spend a day or two at Arley Hall. It added to its charms ... ''Cranford''
''
March 20, 2010
BrainyBabe commented on the word grow like top seed
Now used to mean "grow quickly". But in the original novel, it first appeared (IIRC) in response to a question from a sympathetic adult to a slave child: "Who brought you up?" And poor ignorant Topsy disclaimed all knowledge of her early childhood: "I guess I just growed!"
January 3, 2009
BrainyBabe commented on the list eggcorns
frog's born
January 3, 2009
BrainyBabe commented on the word ecomom
Not to be confused with the econowife in Margaret Atwood's ''Handmaid's Tale''.
January 3, 2009
BrainyBabe commented on the word belly pork
See also Belle Epoque.
January 3, 2009
BrainyBabe commented on the word belle epoque
Not to be confused with belly pork.
January 3, 2009
BrainyBabe commented on the word chador
Wordnet is not accurate, or certainly not complete. "Chador" is mainly used for the all-covering outergarment, usually black, worn by certain observant Muslim women. It is prevalent in Arab countries. It is often worn with a niqab (faceveil) and gloves. Compare with burqa.
December 30, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word burqa
Blue in Afghanistan. See also chador for overall billowing cover, and niqab for the faceveil.
December 30, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word niqab
A face veil used by some observant Muslim women, leaving only the eyes uncovered. The niqab itself is a small piece of cloth tied on over the headscarf (often known as the hijab, although this word is more accurately translated as "modesty"); cf the burqa, an all-in-one tent-like garment brought to Western attention via Afghanistan. The niqab is particularly prevalent in Arab countries. It is almost invariably black, and is worn with a chador (a loose overgarment) and, often, gloves.
December 30, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word bursa
From New Dictionary of Farrier Terms and Technical Language by Dave Millwater.
A membrane sac that holds synovial fluid to lubricate moving parts in horse's legs.Example: Navicular Bursa
December 30, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word acid drop
A sarcastic put down, a malignant thrust. (A collection of such sayings by Kenneth Williams.)
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the list •open-list-your-life-in-6-words
milk, OJ, screwdrivers, water, greentea, sloegin
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the list •open-list-your-life-in-6-words
bawl, giggle, scowl, flirt, debate, ponder
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the list •open-list-your-life-in-6-words
compress life into haiku; can't breathe
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the list •open-list-your-life-in-6-words
who what why when where how
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word a book title in the form of a list
Well, I certainly want it to be open, and to garner as many suggestions as possible (hence the challenge)! It would be great if you could set it up as an open list, if you think that would be a better solution.
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word lingamberry
An aphrodisiac fruit. Close cousin to the lingonberry of Scandinavia, but can be distinguished by its erect stalk. Original habitat in India; transplanted to California and now spreading.
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word psammead
A sand-fairy, as invented by E. Nesbit for a trilogy of children's novels, in the first of which, "Five Children and It", the psammead is the it. From that first novel: "eyes that were on long horns like a snail’s eyes, and it could move it in and out like telescopes; it had ears like bat’s ears, and its tubby body was shaped like a spider’s and covered with thick soft fur; its legs and arms were furry too, and it had hands and feet like a monkey’s�?.
From Wikipedia:
The Origin of the Psammead: The five children find the Psammead in the gravel-pit, which used to be seashore. There were once many Psammeads but the others died because they got cold and wet. It is the only one of its kind left. It is thousands of years old and remembers Pterodactyls and other ancient creatures. When the Psammeads were around, they granted any wishes, mostly food for the families. The wishes would turn into stone at sunset if they were not used that day, but this doesn't apply to the childrens' wishes because what they wish for is so much more fantastic than the wishes the Psammead granted in the past.
The creature is frighteningly ugly, bad-tempered and is quite malicious, as it deliberately abuses the wishes the children make, causing the results to be alarming and unexpected. The children quickly regret meeting the creature, yet their desires to make more wishes push aside their qualms about the Psammead.
The name Psammead, (pronounced “Sammyadd�? by the children in the story) appears to be an inventive Greek pun coined by Nesbit (from the Greek ψάμμος "sand" after the pattern of dryad, naiad, oread, etc.) upon the name of “Samyaza�? the leader of the Grigori (“Watchers�?, from Greek egrḗgoroi) supernatural creatures of antediluvian myth. Knowing the pun's in-joke, shows the logic at work behind the creature's phobia of water “nasty wet bubbling sea�?, and why the eyes are placed watchfully upon the end of long horns like a snail's eyes.
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word a book title in the form of a list
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. One of the sequels, A Horse and His Boy.
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word a book title in the form of a list
E. Nesbit's classic children's novel, "Five Children and It", where the "it" in question is a psammead.
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word a book title in the form of a list
The recent American best-seller Eat, Pray, Love.
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word a book title in the form of a list
These can be published books, or ones you would like to see written, or existing books that you think need retitling.
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word chlamydia
Twin sister to gonorrhea. An excellent name for a dog, as when you take it for a run in the park and it disappears, you can bellow "Klah -mih -- dee -- yah!" (lovely clear vowels) and be reasonably certain that there won't be lots of other dogs with the same name bounding up, which would not be the case had you named your mutt Fido.
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word gonorrhea
The name of one of the ugly elder sisters in ''King Lear''. Also, an excellent name for a dog, as when you take it for a run in the park and it disappears, you can bellow "Gono -- rrheeee -- ah!" (lovely clear vowels) and be reasonably certain that there won't be lots of other dogs with the same name bounding up, which would not be the case had you named your mutt Fido. See chlamydia.
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word deathy
In chapter 27 of ''Far From the Madding Crowd'', Bathsheba goes to visit her red-coated Captain Troy, who has promised to show her his swordplay. (Stop giggling, this is not a euphemism.) He describes certain cuts and thrusts, and the fair maiden interjects:
"How murderous and bloodthirsty!"
TO which our dashing captain replies:
"They are rather deathy."
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word cunt
C U next Tuesday -- the title of a recent book on "bad" language.
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word cunt
Graham Norton is a chat show host in Britain, charming, camp, outrageous, with a late night programme laced with sexuality, not mere innuendo. An American guest expressed surprise on air at what British presenters could get away with. "I even hear people say "fuck" and the editors don't bleep it. Is there any word you're not allowed to use?" Without missing a beat, Norton replied, "Cunt".
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word cunt
"Cun" is a word in a southern French dialect, possibly Occitan, which means "wedge", as in the ancient mechanical tool still in use today to split things. The wedge shape is triangular (and the downward facing equilateral triangle has been used for millenia as shorthand for the female genitalia, and by extension, some would say, the goddess -- see Marija Gimbutas and Old Europe) and the function of the wedge is to transform. A pretty good description of a cunt, no?
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word cauliflory
Description of the ears of an old boxer.
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word cauliflory
Description of the ears of an old boxer.
December 29, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word features
Powered by German chocolate ginger biscuits now (what are *they* called? Vanishes down rabbit-tunnel of chasing random associations): I would quite like a FaceBook-like feature that shows you which Wordies are online, but ONLY if people sign up to it, or at the very least can opt out.
December 28, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word frumenty
Boiled wheat, usually with milk, eggs, dried fruit. Occasionally strengthened with alcohol. Served with meat (cf pudding in the savoury sense) or as a farmhouse breakfast on Christmas Day, way back when in post-medieval England. Also spelled "furmenty", "formity", and other variants. An important plot component in Thomas Hardy's ''The Mayor of Casterbridge''.
December 28, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word the day that one wishes the whole christmas season was over
Some people have a shorter attention span than others.
December 28, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word the opposite of the runt of the litter
What is the word for the biggest baby in a group? I started this list so we can ask for help.
December 28, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word pritchel
A tool in the farrier's armoury: "A driven tool with a tapered, rectangular shaft which is used to punch, clean out, resize, or repitch nail holes in horseshoes. When punching a new nail hole, the pritchel is used only to punch through the bottom of the hole made by the forepunch and/or creaser or fuller. The pritchel should be used when steel horseshoes are at dull red or black heat." -- New Dictionary of Farrier Terms and Technical Language, published by Dave Millwater (There's a lot more there, if anyone else is curious.)
December 28, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word athole brose
Yes, I checked, but brose gives no hint as to its composition.
December 28, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word browser-agnostic
A website that operates smoothly, no matter what browser is used.
December 28, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word plain vanilla
As in Project Gutenberg e-texts: no formatting, browser-agnostic material.
December 28, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word onan
See onanism. Dorothy Parker named her canary Onan, because he spilled his seed upon the ground.
December 28, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word athole brose
What's a brose? Anything like ambrosia?
December 28, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word savage
"like being savaged by a dead sheep" -- British political insult
December 28, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the user BrainyBabe
@Yarb, thanks, I see that, but I *think* I was thinking of something else, some other display of numbers next to words or lists.
December 28, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the user BrainyBabe
That's OK. Those are lists I've liked the look of; if you want to see mine you have to click somewhere on the top of my page. I still don't know what all the numbers are for, beside each list. Contributors? Contributions? Number of people who have marked it as a favorite?
Are you a fan of ''Cold Comfort Farm''? I have a list on that, I think.
December 28, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word wordie polar challenge
What's a walking bag? And if you took a -cide with you, wouldn't that indicate a penance, like a pilgrimage with peas in one's boots? (For those Wordies too young to realise, that's a pebble-like dried legume, not mushy peas!)
December 27, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word pyxis
The traffic cop/cones, like all other civil servants in Iceland, are on a go-slow till the bankrupt government figures out how to pay them. They are moonlighting as moden art sculptures at vernissages.
December 27, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the user garyth123
Welcome to Wordie! I got started about a week ago, and look how far I got....
December 27, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word dorsum
In a healthcare context, can refer to the back of the hand, as in, "Remember to wash your hands: knuckles, wrist, dorsum and all." Plural dorsa or dorsums?
December 26, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word verb
Corio - Possibly with symbols.
Telegram from Mark Twain , ignorant of new book sales, to publisher: ?
Publisher to Mark Twain: !
December 26, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word expressions for merry christmas in various languages
Oh dear, I thought it was a list. What did I do wrong? (Lemon polenta cake almost demolished.)
December 26, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word pyxis
Wikipedia says:
A pyxis (plural pyxides) is a type of Greek pottery used by women to hold cosmetics, trinkets or jewellery.
December 26, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word pyxis
Yes, absolutely. I wasn't making myself clear. A pyxis is a small and often beautifully decorated container, used primarily for cosmetics and perfumes: concentrated sticky non-edible things, i.e. unguents. But I heard an educated person (as opposed to all those illiterate drop-outs who discuss Greek pottery) refer to it as a container for ungulents, a non-existant word. Presumably this person had the word for hoofed mammals echoing in his brain, and it came out more like that than anything else. It amused me.
December 26, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word sporran
Wasn't it referred to on the Johnny Carson Show as "that hairy thing Scotsmen have below their kilt"?
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word pyxis
Too funny. I swear I just heard this referred to as a container for ungulents. Presumably a mishearing of ungulate.
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word pyxis
Too funny. I swear I just heard this referred to as a container for ungulents.
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word nasaaq
Hey! Here's a blog of a qallunaaq woman in Iqaluit who is compiling her own dictionary of Inuktitut. (Phrases right next to each other in her lexicon are "Are you drunk?" and "photocopier]".) She gives "nassaq" as two hats, of indeterminate style, and "nasaq" as one (and "nasait" for 3). But she also says that she isn't sure about any of these, and welcomes corrections.
Nunavut newbie
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word expressions for merry christmas in various languages
Have a cool Yule.
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word expressions for merry christmas in various languages
Joyeux Noel.
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word expressions for merry christmas in various languages
Bonus points for IPA and correct accents where necessary.
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word features
I have a few more ideas. Such is the power of cake.
More roll-over info, esp. for numbers. By all means keep the clean look, but do like xkcd and give us more when we float the mouse. I am not sure what most of the numbers mean. The word's ranking? How many people have entered it? How many lists it is on? How many words link to it?
Features from Wikipedia that I appreciate: redlinks for as-yet-unentered words, which might also flag up misspellings, typos, and alternate spellings -- including pesky half-merged words (why no drawing room? Ah, look at drawing-room instead). To go with that, a preview option, to minimise embarrassing oneself (I am a terrible typist).
Some way of telling, when I look at a highlighted word, whether it is worth clicking. Maybe hover over and see how many comments it has, or any citations, or the first few words of the latest comment (sort of abbreviated from the main page).
That's enough for now.
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word cut
Traditionally, every evening sheep are encouraged to rake out (spread far out to graze) on to the fells and moorland, returning to the lower ground by the next morning. The flock ranges over very large areas, ensuring an even grazing of the available ground. Even within a hefted flock there are subgroups - different groups of sheep on different "cuts" of the hill. At the autumn markets these animals are often listed in the sales catalogue under the name of the farm and the cut they belonged to.
From the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic, in The Guardian
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word rake out
Traditionally, every evening sheep are encouraged to rake out (spread far out to graze) on to the fells and moorland, returning to the lower ground by the next morning. The flock ranges over very large areas, ensuring an even grazing of the available ground. Even within a hefted flock there are subgroups - different groups of sheep on different "cuts" of the hill.
From the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic, in The Guardian
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word hefted
"Hefted" is the term for sheep or cattle that belong to a certain patch of land. A truly hefted flock or herd consists of sheep or cattle which have been bred for generations on the same piece of land, and they always instinctively return to this land.
Hefted animals are frequently more aware of what to do when a severe storm strikes. For instance, on a bad night they might not go out as far on the exposed hills.
From the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic, in The Guardian
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word locavore
I have heard proxitarian, on a par with vegetarian (a human who exercises choice over what to eat) rather than with carnivore (an animal which doesn't).
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word semi
The main use in British English is to describe a semi-detached house, often of Tudorbethan style. Sandi Toksvig, a BBC presenter of multiple talents, came out of the closet in the mid-1990s, and was dropped like a hot potato by Save the Children, for whom she acted as a sort of ambassador. She exploited this to comedic effect in a stand-up routine, in which she recounted her mother's reaction to the whole hullabaloo: "It's terrible what they said about you in the press! I just can't believe it. They called your house a semi!"
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word feng shui
I pronounce it geomancy.
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word geomancy
The perfectly good English word for what is more widely known as feng shui
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word features
I have a few ideas. What about a spell-check, to offer suggestions, not auto-correct one's typing? Especially for search?
Or if implementing that in the full monty would be too much, what about some hyphen power in the search? If a new user looks for multislacking and finds nothing, could the software suggest multi-slacking? Or if that is too complicated (and I can see it might be, to suggest where to break a word), how about the reverse, i.e. entering the latter and being guided to the former. And could I extend this request to include a space as an additional variable, as well as the hyphen (multi slacking)?
One final request and then I'll go and eat some more of that cake I promised you (lemon polenta, no royal icing): at the top of the page I can see
"BrainyBabe has added 251 words, 17 lists, 225 comments, and 57 tags". I can click on the lists, comments, and tags, and marvel at just how much time I've wasted/spent here in the last few days, but I cannot click on words. Is this a bug or a feature?
As for other requests below, I'm with Jakob Nielsen on the open-in-new-window idea: don't. Don't take control of my computer and make it do things I didn't specifically request it to do.
Thank you and merry merry!
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word yonic
Shells are classic symbols of the yoni -- think Venus on the half-shell, the slippery flesh of bivalves, the iridescent mother of pearl gleam that coats their inner surface.
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word doss
Groan! Was it a very bad cold that kept her awake?
The root is more commonly seen personified (dosser, not to be confused with tosser) or rendered in bricks (dosshouse).
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word wordie polar challenge
Hot water bottle, huskie, brr
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word wordie polar challenge
James Mann Wordie led an expedition to the Arctic in 1934. The Wordie Ice Shelf in Antarctica is dramatically retreating. What would be the three most important words you would take with you on a polar expedition? (Nouns, adjectives, whimsey, all welcome.)
December 25, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the list wordie-challenge
Thanks for the invitation! But now what do I do? I am not the sort to challenge anyone to a duel!
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word morula
I've always liked this word, once for being etymologically a blackberry (in fact, I have a Latin-lover friend who calls her email/phone thingie a Morula, just to be different), and once for being more embryonic than an embryo.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word arctic lorry
This is what I thought they wer actually called! So Wordie has disillusioned me at long last!
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word cliterati
When I see others playing with large stuffed objects, I tend to get out of the way. I do see the virtues of the smorgasbord metaphor, though. I'm getting hungry too.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the user sionnach
I am charmed by your confession of a "chaste intellectual crush"; no one else has ever done so and it has lifted my day.
I web-wandered over to your site and found myself reading the whole of the Wilbur chronicles: they deserve wider publication! Very funny (except for the twist in the tail.)
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word artic
Oh! I always thought it referred to the refridgerated ones, you know, for supermarkets.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the list loan-words-from-french
My intention was to gather words that are recognisably French, not those that have been fully digested and absorbed into colloquial English, as for instance "entrepreneur" has been. ("The problem with the French is that they have no word for entrepreneur.")
One sign of the word's relatively recent welcome into English would be, as with gite, that Anglophones make an effort to use French pronunciation.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word plashy
Oh! It had never occured to me! Did Waugh go in for that sort of wordplay?
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word last year's bird nest
Stiff upper lip?
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word plashy
"He's supposed to have a particularly high-class style: 'Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole' ... would that be it?"
"Yes," said the Managing Editor. "That must be good style."
-- Scoop
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the list loan-words-from-french
"Village"? Really? I don't see it, myself.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word comity
There can be no doubt that it is little incidents like this which are gradually breaking down the inter-racial barriers, and making for a more perfect comity and understanding between the various nations of the world. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word conspicuous
Her experiences in London had led her to believe that the best way of not exciting suspicion was to make oneself conspicuous. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word johnnie
"an airman johnnie" - a passing nameless chap who happens to have an airplane
-- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word good
Ie a euphemism for drunk.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word good
Mr Stickle, who was alone, had dined with his customary excess of wisdom, and was feeling, in the transatlantic sense of the expression, good. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word provincial
The provincials: those dogged but lumbering fellows who are never quite up with the fashions however much they perspire after them. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word public opinion
The censorious interest taken by one half of the world in the amorous adventures of the other. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word impecunious
Scales, though he was always spending money, was not at all well off; he did not pay for the house himself. A most obliging building society, which existed solely for the purpose of enabling impecunious Englishmen to feel that their homes were their castles, did that. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word obliging
Scales, though he was always spending money, was not at all well off; he did not pay for the house himself. A most obliging building society, which existed solely for the purpose of enabling impecunious Englishmen to feel that their homes were their castles, did that. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word well off
Scales, though he was always spending money, was not at all well off; he did not pay for the house himself. A most obliging building society, which existed solely for the purpose of enabling impecunious Englishmen to feel that their homes were their castles, did that. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word building society
Scales, though he was always spending money, was not at all well off; he did not pay for the house himself. A most obliging building society, which existed solely for the purpose of enabling impecunious Englishmen to feel that their homes were their castles, did that. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word luvvy
Actors, esp. pl. luvvies. British coloquialism, but not slang.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word mwah
Especially the air kiss of luvvies, ie actors.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word bohemian
Love, the most tactless, the most bohemian of gods, had appeared just when he was not wanted, and smitten Scales boisterously between the shoulder-blades.
-- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word smitten
Love, the most tactless, the most bohemian of gods, had appeared just when he was not wanted, and smitten Scales boisterously between the shoulder-blades.
-- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word exigencies
Their own careers being at the most dilettante affairs, they were free from such exigencies themselves.
-- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word dilettante
Their own careers being at the most dilettante affairs, they were free from such exigencies themselves.
-- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word second thoughts
Up to now, Dudley Scales had always got on very well with convention; but now that convention quarrelled with his desires, he began to discover that he had no respect for it whatsoever, and never had. To hell with conventions! But on second thoughts, perhaps it need not come to that. Perhaps Yashima would permit herself to be conventionalized. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word convention
Up to now, Dudley Scales had always got on very well with convention; but now that convention quarrelled with his desires, he began to discover that he had no respect for it whatsoever, and never had. To hell with conventions! But on second thoughts, perhaps it need not come to that. Perhaps Yashima would permit herself to be conventionalized. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word conventionalized
Up to now, Dudley Scales had always got on very well with convention; but now that convention quarrelled with his desires, he began to discover that he had no respect for it whatsoever, and never had. To hell with conventions! But on second thoughts, perhaps it need not come to that. Perhaps Yashima would permit herself to be conventionalized. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word supplant
It was another matter to supplant her in the part of a corpse at a mock funeral. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word hyperbole
Now he tasted the rare and godlike joys of the man who sees his flights of hyperbole come true. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word past mistress
See also past master.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word past mistress
Lady Bellwether was a past mistress in the art of restraining her compliments just one step short of libel (and what's more, could do it just as well in French). -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word inevitable
A number of young men and maidens were there, engaged in decorating the furniture with unstudied poses, and their interiors with the inevitable cocktails. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word charwoman
See also char.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word charwoman
She darted about the room like a charwoman in torment, now straightening a cushion, now folding a Special Racing Edition, now hustling a shameful pile of lingerie behind a modest curtain. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word excuse
An excuse is the English people's word for the falsehood they tell when they wish to avoid a social obligation. They do not tell the truth on these occasions, fearing, and with some reason, that the truth would give unnecessary offence. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word double whiskies
His strength was as the strength of ten double whiskies. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word connubial
Their connubial dialogue was one continuous rattle of changed subjects. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word golf
Golf, though it has many merits as a game, has few as a religion. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word actuated
She liked to see the crowds, she did; it was the same with a great many others. Indeed, among all those thousands, Yashima herself was perhaps the only one who was actuated by nothing more than vulgar curiosity. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word vulgar curiosity
She liked to see the crowds, she did; it was the same with a great many others. Indeed, among all those thousands, Yashima herself was perhaps the only one who was actuated by nothing more than vulgar curiosity. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word dissipation
A life monotonous even in its dissipations. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word county
If the county made a habit of shaking hands with chars, however could one know whom not to know? - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
(NB the definite article, meaning the landed gentry)
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word char
If the county made a habit of shaking hands with chars, however could one know whom not to know? - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word independent thought
But independent thought was a dangerous and unpopular diversion. One so often saw it recoil; and then what was the result? - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word haddock
He came to a standstill in front of her, and perused her with the expression of an intensely interested haddock. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word peruse
He came to a standstill in front of her, and perused her with the expression of an intensely interested haddock. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word distinction
One evening, after that meal which the Otchkinsons, observing a finer distinction than the Ramerils, called dinner when they had company, but supper when they were alone... - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word supper
One evening, after that meal which the Otchkinsons, observing a finer distinction than the Ramerils, called dinner when they had company, but supper when they were alone... - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word dinner
One evening, after that meal which the Otchkinsons, observing a finer distinction than the Ramerils, called dinner when they had company, but supper when they were alone... - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word cliterati
That's all right then....
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word self-made
People would say of him excusingly that he was a self-made man, the inference being that almost anyone else would have made a better job of it. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word jointly
In 1898 he afforded a safety-bicycle. In 1903 he afforded Mrs Otchkinson. In 1907 they jointly afforded George. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word red-letter day
Rises in salary had been the landmarks in his life, the clues to its red-letter days. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word seemliness
These people walked upon a tightrope of seemliness and propriety. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word nanny
"Children, look what Mummy's brought! A new Nanny! Come and say 'How do you do?'" - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
(Note the use of "nanny" instead of "nurse" -- what would Nancy Mitford have said about its U-ness?)
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word pedigree
The truth was, the Otchkinsons had risen in the world, and would have felt happier now in a road with a longer pedigree. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word rough diamond
The road into which the car eventualy turned with a hoot of familiarity was quite a new road -- rather a rough diamond. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word patent process
Everybody in Nostandley has intent and occupied experessions, as though they were bent on sucking the last drop out of life, by some patent process known only to themselves. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word recklessly
"I can't do two things at once," muttered Mr Otchkinson, recklessly snatching his left hand from the wheel to make sure that the hand-brake was still where it ought to be. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word undesirable characters
Mrs Otchkinson was good with her car, and invariably offered people lifts unless they asked for them, in which case she argued that they were undesirable characters. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word to offer a lift
Mrs Otchkinson was good with her car, and invariably offered people lifts unless they asked for them, in which case she argued that they were undesirable characters. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word paradoxical
Would she ever understand this paradoxical people, Yashima thought. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word discomposed
The illustrious visitor seemed discomposed. She rose from her chair a little too quickly, and pulled off her glove a little too emphatically. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word drawing room
See citation at drawing-room.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word drawing-room
See also drawing room.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word drawing-room
See also drawingroom.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word drawing-room
In the drawing-room sat quite the grandest lady Yashima had yet seen in England. ... Merely to be in the same room as her must surely be a social event of magnitude. - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word a penny piece
Night and day he toiled to unseat the emissary of the powers of evil; and he never received a penny piece for his trouble; he did it all for the sheer hate of the thing. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word the sheer hate of the thing
Night and day he toiled to unseat the emissary of the powers of evil; and he never received a penny piece for his trouble; he did it all for the sheer hate of the thing. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word night and day
Night and day he toiled to unseat the emissary of the powers of evil; and he never received a penny piece for his trouble; he did it all for the sheer hate of the thing. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word camouflage
Colonel Gathersoles, O.B.E., was a warrior with his country's colours blazoned all over his face. He had red veins down his nose, a white moustache, and mild blue eyes. The mildness was nature's camouflage. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word inadvertence
"A certain City gentleman, a man of exemplary character and simple tastes, modest, retiring, industrious, friend to animals, ex-scoutmaster, and good son to his mother, had absent-mindedly issued to the public an alarming amount of debenture scrip which, through some clerical inadvertence, was worth less than the paper it was printed on." -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word debenture scrip
"A certain City gentleman, a man of exemplary character and simple tastes, modest, retiring, industrious, friend to animals, ex-scoutmaster, and good son to his mother, had absent-mindedly issued to the public an alarming amount of debenture scrip which, through some clerical inadvertence, was worth less than the paper it was printed on." -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word absent-mindedly
"A certain City gentleman, a man of exemplary character and simple tastes, modest, retiring, industrious, friend to animals, ex-scoutmaster, and good son to his mother, had absent-mindedly issued to the public an alarming amount of debenture scrip which, through some clerical inadvertence, was worth less than the paper it was printed on." -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word simple tastes
"A certain City gentleman, a man of exemplary character and simple tastes, modest, retiring, industrious, friend to animals, ex-scoutmaster, and good son to his mother, had absent-mindedly issued to the public an alarming amount of debenture scrip which, through some clerical inadvertence, was worth less than the paper it was printed on." -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word city gentleman
"A certain City gentleman, a man of exemplary character and simple tastes, modest, retiring, industrious, friend to animals, ex-scoutmaster, and good son to his mother, had absent-mindedly issued to the public an alarming amount of debenture scrip which, through some clerical inadvertence, was worth less than the paper it was printed on." -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word exemplary
"A certain City gentleman, a man of exemplary character and simple tastes, modest, retiring, industrious, friend to animals, ex-scoutmaster, and good son to his mother, had absent-mindedly issued to the public an alarming amount of debenture scrip which, through some clerical inadvertence, was worth less than the paper it was printed on." -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word phrases from british novels, between the wars
phrases from british novels, between the wars (the list)
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word lipstick lesbian
Aka designer dyke. Attractive gay woman. Doesn't wear dungarees.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word cliterati
No offense meant. Reclaim the streets, and the gutters and margins.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word sloop
Evelyn Waugh's lost novel, in which an incompetent nature writer is mistaken for a round-the-world yaughtsman, and more or less shanghai'd onto a small sailing boat which sets out for the Horn of Africa and never arrives.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word evelyn waugh words
Evelyn Waugh Words (the list)
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word retox
Go out and get drunk again. To undo the work of the strenuous detox.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word cliterati
Oh. I never heard it used in a disparaging way, more with respect and awe. "Sisters are doin' it for themselves", climbing the greasy pole of corporate and literary success. Glitterati definitely has a hint of the dismissive, mwah mwah darling, must dash, got to see my ghostwriter.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word nunatak
If it is a word used in Antarctica, what is its connection to Inuktitut?
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the list supralist
John -- (Funnily enough, a cake has been baked for me today, something that happens about, oh, never, so I take that as a Sign, given what I promised you yesterday.) No, not a list of lists, which I can see is provided for under "Your words", but more of a way to nest lists. For example, I could put Loan words from Inuktitut and Loan words from French into a higher-level list called, wait for it, Loan words. I am thinking of Wikipedia's categories, some of which are far from tidy but all of which do,in my experience, help the web-wanderer waste time far more productively.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word weekend
"At the time of Yashima's arrival, one of the most firmly established institutions in the social life of England was the weekend: that is to say, the law by which, on the fifth or sixth day of the week, those who did work abandoned it, and fled into congenial surroundings to recover, while those who did none bestirred themselves, and went and did none somewhere else." --''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word barbarism
"But how can that be? They come to delight their eyes with something beautiful," said Yashima, "and they leave it desecrated? That is barbarism." -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word scrumptious
"How scrumptious!" she cried. "I say, you must come and stay with us. Come now!" - ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word business card
"He searched in his pocket, and offered Yashima a small oblong ivory talisman -- one of those "cards" which the English are in the habit of distributing lavishly among their acquaintance, believing them to be endowed with magical powers of strengthening the bond between giver and recipient, and even, upon occasions, of creating a bond where none previously existed." -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word dernier cri
"Surely in England she would escape into another sphere, a refuge from the inexorable twentieth century, a world that had never heard of Arabia, with its hustle, its dread of not being dernier cri..." -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word fee
"Do you never burn to hold the gorgeous West in fee?" -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the list supralist
Oh, bum. And there I thought I was getting to grips with Wordie. *Sigh*
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word gibbous
For us in 2008, it really only has one meaning. But maybe in his day another meaning was primary, or at least fairly well represented in the mix? (Trying to be generous.)
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the list supralist
Hmm. Well, I can see that I put my lists in the comments by mistake, but it should be OK with them above, right?
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word anne of green sables
Oops!
The fur trade has always been important in Canada, from the days of the voyageurs to post-war fur fox farming (which I believe supported Alice Munro's childhood).
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word glitterati
Especially the more educated subset thereof; mega-famous writers. Coined from literati; see also cliterati.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word cliterati
I assume it was coined after glitterati (or gliterati), celebrity writers.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the user BrainyBabe
I'm glad to have been the focus of such a thoughtful explanation of Wordie's charms. I am learning tricks bit by bit: I have just realised that I can nest lists by creating a supralist and adding a list title as a "word" within it. I think.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the list cold-comfort-farm
Thank you for the assistance!
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word chit
A mere chit of a girl.
December 24, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word gulliver's travails
Uh...that was my point. He didn't have much fun, did he? Serial shipwreck victim. Even pissing out the fire in the queen's palace, which should have got him a medal, led to arrest.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word the goosewood cookbook
Makes about as much sense as the original
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word anne of green sables
The mischievous tomboy goes in for fur-dying.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word travels with a monkey
Robert Louis Stevenson doesn't get far in the Cevannes, as he finds his luggage is still at the last inn.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word gulliver's travails
Oh, wait, that's what the original was.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word eats, shoots and leases
Property development in the wild west of China, with deals sealed over dim sum, guns on the table.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word manny
A male nanny.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word jake eyre
The difficulties of being a manny.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word tense and sensibility
So much depends on finding the right man.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word prude and prejudice
No more clinging white shirts!
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word fuck of pook's hill
Fertility rites blessed by Robin Goodgfellow, onthe warm flanks of the Vale of the White Horse
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word the potted unicorn
Roger McGough, abridged.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word now we are sexy
Christopher Robin grows up, but continues to visit the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word the young visitors
Daisy Ashford turns ten and improves her spelling.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word multi-slacking
Paying partial attention to several things at once, none of which are economically productive. Listening to Radio 4, hanging out on the Wikipedia refdesks, scouring bookshelves for amusements to add to Wordie, wondering what Firefox add-ons to install.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word baking cocoa for kingsley amis
Wendy Cope, employed by Amis pere, tediously crystalises a hot drink.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word the mootstone
Was the birthday jewel ever stolen? Master storyteller Wilkie Collins leaves us on the edge of our chaises longues.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word earthbitch
"A lesbian is the rage of all women condensed to the point of explosion."(1970 essay). Ecofeminist Anne Cameron gets really, really angry.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word hives of girls and women
Alice Munro's lyrical description of beekeeping as a metaphor for all human relationships; rural Ontario as a microcosm for the buzzy world.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word the vi'lent traveller in london
Chiang Yee, acknowledged master of calligraphy, turns to martial arts to vent his frustrations with the casual racism of mid-century Britain.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word jeeves and the lard boiled egg
Wodehouse's light romp through some new hangover cures.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word maidens' tripe
More WWII landgirls join the narrowboats keeping the commodities flowing through England. Offal joins the list of protected products, alongside coal and grain.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word old comfort farm
Stella Gibons revisits the Starkadders, only to find the farm has now been retrofitted with central heating and turned into a B&B.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word tales of the geek heroes
Athena springs fully-grown from the head of Zeus, thus doubling processing capacity at one fell swoop.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word urethra
Snork!
But seriously... not to be confused with ureter.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word gibbous
I hadn't picked up on that. Maybe he was thinking of the fourth definition, about the bulge.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the list supralist
Phrases from British novels, between the wars
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word wordie word of the year 2008
I nominate blet, just because I like it.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word wordie word of the year 2008
Is the spirit of this to nominate a word coined or popularised in 2008, or one which sums up the zeitgeist? Or is it more like the Nobel Prize, that you just keep tactically voting for your favourites year after year until the right one wins, eventually?
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word wordie word of the year 2008
Is the spirit of this to nominate a word coined or popularised in 2008, or one which sums up the zeitgeist? Or is it more like the Nobel Prize, that you just keep tactically voting for your favourites year after year until the right one wins, eventually?
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the list supralist
Evelyn Waugh words
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word gibbous
Opposite of crescent. Collocates with wax and wane.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the user Prolagus
Thanks for the welcome. I don't really speak Italian, but I do understand it somewhat.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the user BrainyBabe
Yes, I understand it doesn't matter, but if I enter cletter, not knowing that there is already clettering or clettering stick, then I lose out from not seeing others' contributions, links, citations, etc.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word ghits
Also kGhits, MGhits; noted with erratic capitalisation.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word gite
Oh, I forgot: reason C), to demonstrate that one can pronounce French, and that therefore one is a properly brought up middle class person; see Posie Simmonds's modern updating of "Madame Bovary".
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word gite
Thanks for the IPA! How does one do that?
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word carbon-benign
I think I just coined this on the spur of the Wordie. Sort of like carbon-neutral, but not as precise. Used of a lifestyle option that produces less carbon dioxide (and presumably less of the other greenhouse gases too) than another, superficially more appealing, option. For example, holidaying "at home", which in British English means in Britain, not literally in one's own home. Taking the train instead of flying. Going vegetarian but not yet vegan in the attempt to minimise anthropogenic climate change.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word gite
A holiday apartment in France, pronounced "jzeet". (Does Wordie support IPA?) The French word is often used by British people, as A) it is several syllables shorter than any reasonable alternative, and B) it handily announces that one is off for a foreign, but relatively carbon-benign, holiday.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word ghit
Usually plural, as in " 'gubernatoric hubris' was a Googlewhack, but now it gets three ghits."
Also kGhits, MGhits, etc. Capitalisation yet to be solidified by use.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word stirrup cup
First drink of the day at a hunt meet, usually port or brandy. Served not by the hunt servants but by the house staff (e.g. butler or footman) of whoever is hosting the lawner.
Can also refer to the vessel in which the drink is served. It is of a distinctive shape, without handle or foot, designed to be clasped in one gloved hand whilst the other controls the mount. The cup is often in the shape of the quarry, the fox, but may also represent any hunted animal, game or vermin, or the hound.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word stirrup cup
First drink of the day at a hunt meet, usually port or brandy. Served not by the hunt servants but by the house staff (e.g. butler or footman) of whoever is hosting the lawner.
Can also refer to the vessel in which the drink is served. It is of a distinctive shape, without handle or foot, designed to be clasped in one gloved hand whilst the other controls the mount. The cup is often in the shape of the quarry, the fox, but may also represent any hunted animal, game or vermin, or the hound.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word cliterati
A play on literati, coined in the 1990s? It was used loosely of lipstick lesbians within the chattering classes, i.e. publishing, media, politics, PR, marketing....people paid to go to parties. Retroactively, I suppose it could be applied between the wars to Vita Sackville-West and the Americans in Paris.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word unupblown
An example of telegraphese invented by Evelyn Waugh. The journalists, sent to cover a war in Darkest Africa, are instructed by their editors to investigate the bombing by Italian forces of a hospital run by an international charity and the supposed death of a foreign (i.e. white, i.e. newsworthy) nurse. They travel, with some difficulty, to the town, eager for their scoop, but find nothing amiss. On returning to the capital they cable to London, minimising words in a way even Twitter cannot emulate, "Nurse unupblown".
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word plashy
plashy fen features as semi-purple prose in a newspaper column by an amateur naturalist, the unwilling protagonist of Evelyn Waugh's darkly comic ''Scoop''
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word lawner
OK, thank you for the tip. Hope you will join in with the Waugh list!
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word vagina
Not to be conflated with vulva.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word dotsam and netsam
A neologism, analogous to the old marine flotsam and jetsam. All the unclaimed stuff that has built up over the years and is now floating around in cyberspace: abandoned email accounts, domain names bought but sitting empty. It's taking up space, and could be dangerous, like those items jettisoned in space that whirl around forever and one day might crash into (and indeed through) a space station.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the user BrainyBabe
Yeah, I see that, but I can't even find the good conversations easily. And when I look at the old ones, it is hard to figure out what is idiolect and basically , private banter, and what is intended as wiser / wider (Freudian typo) discourse.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word netsam
Seen as a somewhat cutesy but useful and euphonious neologistic pair: dotsam and netsam.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word dotsam
Seen as a somewhat cutesy but useful and euphonious neologistic pair: dotsam and netsam.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word mornington crescent
It's also a famous game on Radio 4 a comedy programme.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the list •-wordie-for-dummies
The husband & wife couple that make up CommonCraft are cool people. You never know, they might be able to help you out! (Check out their Halloween spoof.)
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the user BrainyBabe
Thanks, Prolagus and yarb. I am having fun, but don't know if I will stick around or not. Aside from my lists being an external memory, I can't see easy ways to usefulness. Like, I spent this time adding "Cold Comfort Farm" words, and only later discovered that someone has a list of them already. I appreciate (i.e. understand) that this is a stripped-down site, but don't necessarily appreciate (i.e. like) it. For example, I didn't see your helpful commments till I came looking for them; Wikipedia has welcome messages (not automated) and pings you with new messages. I'm not saying WOrdie should do this, just that I am taking a while to figure out how to get the best from this. Tips?
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word fuck
You don't have to understand French to get the joke of this bilingual (subtitled) video on the perils of cross-cultural non-communication, but it helps to know that the word for the animal "seal" is ''phoque'', pronounced "fuck". The three-minute clip is funny, not vulgar, with a political point. (There's also an 8-minute version with a lot more "fucks" and ''phoques''.) It trades on a special type of false friends, words that are homophones between languages.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the list cold-comfort-farm
Also, and again this is a general point that I don't know where to put, couldn't a list like this be usefully subdivided (or broken?) into newly minted coinages and words the author just hapens to fancy?
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the list cold-comfort-farm
It is a wonderful list, and a wonderful novel. But I am just getting used to Wordie, having spent a few hours on it today (when I should have been doing other things, natch). How could I have found your list before half-creating my own? And how can I find, e.g., cletter if the lists are long and non-alphabetical?
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word mollock
Mollocking is the favourite activity of Seth Starkadder of ''Cold Comfort Farm'' by Stella Gibbons. Its exact nature is undefined but it invariably results in the pregnancy of a local maid.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word cold comfort
Not much comfort at all. See the classic satire ''Cold Comfort Farm'' by Stella Gibbons.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word something nasty in the woodshed
What Ada Doom saw when she was a girl in Stella Gibbons's classic satire ''Cold Comfort Farm''.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the user chained_bear
Thanks for the coding tip! I have just read thrugh half these comments, and clearly here is where the action is (my main analogy is Wikipedia -- talk pages I guess). You guys are so civilised! Seeing as how you were discussing wooden stirring spoons, may I introduce you to bishkek and spirtle? The pleasure is mine!
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the user chained_bear
Thanks! Seeing as how you were discussing wooden stirring spoons, may I introduce you to bishkek and spirtle? The pleasure is mine!
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word graceless
One of the cows kept at ''Cold Comfort Farm'', the classic satire by Stella Gibbons. Big Business, the bull, services her and her companions Pointless, Aimless, and Feckless.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word aimless
One of the cows kept at ''Cold Comfort Farm'', the classic satire by Stella Gibbons. Big Business, the bull, services her and her companions Graceless, Pointless, and Feckless.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word feckless
One of the cows kept at ''Cold Comfort Farm'', the classic satire by Stella Gibbons. Big Business, the bull, services her and her companions Graceless, Aimless, and Pointless.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word pointless
One of the cows kept at ''Cold Comfort Farm'', the classic satire by Stella Gibbons. Big Business, the bull, services her and her companions Graceless, Aimless, and Feckless.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word big business
Actually, the capitals are important. This is the bull kept at ''Cold Comfort Farm'', the classic satire by Stella Gibbons. He services the cows (no straws for AI in those days) with the priceless names of Graceless, Aimless, Feckless and Pointless.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word clettering
See first entry at cletter.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word cletter
To cletter is to clean the dishes by scraping them with a dry stick. Adam is a 90 year old farmhand and this is one of his main indoor activities.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word clettering
Adam Lambsbreath, the aged retainer of Cold Comfort Farm, would cletter in the kitchen for hours.
December 23, 2008
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