Thanks for including me among your bananas, G. I suppose I always hoped my light would be a little bigger, not a macrolight, of course, but, well, something noticeable. *sigh*
The word is ugly, but it is also mispelled (if madeupicals can be mispelled). It should logically be prestifiguratators. "Presdi-" makes no sense at all.
I know it well. Just when you're convinced you'll never be able to learn this damned language, you suddenly find yourself eavesdropping on conversations at the next table with no trouble at all.
The Glagolitic alphabet is lovely and strange. You can still come across it in parts of Croatia. In Istria they sell little ceramic Glagolitic scrolls as tourist souvenirs. The word glagol, by the way, is the Old Slavic word for "word" (today it means "verb" in most Slavic languages).
You've gotta wonder why Amazon decided on this idiotic name. When I link the word "kindle" with books, I think of Nazis and book-burning. Is the idea that our old-fashioned paper books can now be used as kindling? Marketing morons.
This sounds very strange to me. I would say, "till it was 15 years old". I think someone has made a mistake.
By the way, verbs don't have cases; they have tense and mood, among other things (Slavic verbs also have aspect). The standard term is "subjunctive mood". "Case" refers to nouns: nominative, genitive, etc.
The Slovene version of "Erasmus", this is a fairly popular name perhaps because of the historical Baron Erazem Predjamski, who built his castle in a cave and became known as a kind of Robin Hood figure. I gave my cat the (rather rare) female version of this name, Erazma, which seemed to me an excellent name for a cat.
A name one occasionally encounters in Slovenia, perhaps because it is also the name of the hero of Slovenia's national epic (every country has one), The Baptism by the Savica (Krst pri Savici, 1835) by France Prešeren. What is strange about this name is that it means something like "devil's peace". It forms the nickname Črt, which means, yes, "evil spirit".
This is the Slovene calque on Theodore: "God's gift." The short form of the name is Božo, which makes me wonder if the name is at all related to that of Bozo the Clown.
I have always liked this name, but only recently did I realize that the name means "East" (in Old Slavic), and was the equivalent of the Latin name Orientius (the 5th-century St. Orientius was a poet, by the way).
A friend of mine, who is from Fredonia, NY, told me that the Marx Brothers named the Duck Soup country Freedonia because they were upset by the bad reception they received when they did a show in Fredonia, NY, and wanted to make fun of the town.
@ TheSarahEffect: Sorry to hear about the bad experience with your English teacher, who seems to feel it's her/his job to limit rather than expand your vocabulary. I wonder if your teacher knows what "esoteric" means; I certainly wouldn't use it to describe "puissant" – erudite maybe, but not "esoteric".
I pronounce it more or less as you and Chained_bear do: two syllables: PWISS-ent (that "e" is a schwa). I think the French pronunciation would be: pü-i-SÃ, where the "ü" stands for that narrow, unrounded front-of-the-mouth "u", the "i" is as in machine, and the "ã" is a nasal "ah". But when you're speaking English, I strongly recommend using English pronunciations.
C_b, I wasn't aware that "discussion" as a term had become ubiquitous on the Web. Sigh. Of course, my suggestion was meant to encourage just the opposite of ranting. For mean, discussion involves listening and consideration (in both senses of the word); it's a two-way thing, whereas "comments" and "commentary", etc., seem one-way, i.e. "let me tell you what I think about this." That said, you are right, I think, that "comments" is a fairly "neutral" word. Still it would be great if we could come up with something that did actually encourage people to discuss things, since after all Wordie has been the site of many excellent discussions, as well as fuflun-combat, and it would great if people understood that from the get-go.
I think it would be great to have a separate space for actual citations, so we can see how a word is being used, and then have another place for "comments". I suppose "comments" is the standard name for such things, though I would like to see people encouraged to discuss the words and not just comment on them. I would therefore suggest "Discussion" as a header.
Bilby, the question is about where the expression "I'ma/Imma/I'm'a/I'm 'a/I'm a-" comes from, and how it should be spelled, when the "a" particle indicates the immediate future tense (in standard English we would say, "I'm going to let you finish"; Kanye said, "I'm'a let you finish.")
This very question is currently being discussed over at Language Log, Telo. Personally, I don't like the spelling "Imma", which looks like it should rhyme with the word "dimmer" (British received pronunciation). I would vote for "I'm 'a" since it's pretty clear that the "a" is a contraction of "gonna" (I'm going to > I'm gonna > I'm 'na > I'm 'a). I'm not sure Kanye actually pronounces a double "m", but if he does this would have arisen through assimilation of the "n" in "gonna".
Sounds like a great list idea, Erin! I, for one, wouldn't want to see it 86'd. Though if I wanted to nitpick, I'd say that RSVP does have vowels: ɑ�?, ɛ and i�? (twice); it just doesn't have vowel-letters.
Fr., lit. "in yogurt". With the verb chanter this apparently means "in a kind of gibberish that approximates the lyrics", esp. when the lyrics are in a foreign language. See the discussion at Language Log.
Thanks, Erin! I am feeling reassured. Ooh, but I like Molly's idea of a Lexome Project. The best of all possible words! Borges's Library of Babel but with scores of writing systems! Now that would be something.
While I would applaud Wordnik-like efforts in other linguistic communities (Словник, Besednik, Wortnik – would the French Wordnik be named Mo'nique®, by any chance?), I'm not enthused about the idea of segregating the languages. The working language of Wordie is, by and large, English, though conversations in other tongues do occur and are in no way discouraged, but we still talk quite a lot about non-English words: what they mean, how they sound, what Beatles songs they bring to mind (see oplaziti), and so on. Will there still be a place on Wordienik for non-English words, nonce words, symbols, ideograms, glyphs, numerals, and all the different alphabets that some of us find so fascinating, delightful, comical, or horkworthy. What will happen to 42? Or will they be consigned to their own respective versions of Wordnik?
I have liked Wordnik since I first discovered it a few months ago, and the upcoming amalgamation doesn't give me the jitters, not too much at least, largely because John has proved himself time and time again to astonishingly level-headed and responsible for someone who likes to call himself a slack bastard little teapot. So I trust John. And I like Wordnik. And I also know that Wordies are tenaciously protective of what we've got.
But I do have a question. Wordnik seems to have a noticeable bias toward, well, how can I put this, English. And though I love English and even make my living from it, I also deeply appreciate Wordie's (and Wordies') openness to other languages, e.g my Slovene and Russian, as well as Indonesian, Urdu, Chinese, Georgian, a raft of Amerindian and African languages, not to mention the Madeupical tongue, beloved by many of us. So will these possibilities continue in Wordnik? Will we feel compelled to bite our many tongues? Will Wordnik become multilingual? Will it be useful for learners of foreign tongues?
Or perhaps, Wordnik will prove even more adaptive, such as by having links to foreign-language dictionaries? That would be very neat.
Asativum and Bilby, thanks for the suggestions. Lo' and Emily are added, and, via Simon and Garfunkel, Emily reminded me of another American poet whose name has become a byword, so I've added Robert Frost too. Mecca I didn't add, since although it is undoubtedly a byword, this list is reserved for personal names.
We met him again later, at dinner. He had a curious man with him, the Marquis of something or other. … He took us back to his house and name-dropped. '… And I was there when Madame de Gaulle made her famous gaffe, you know. Somebody asked her, "What are you looking forward to when you retire?" "I am looking forward most to a penis," she replied. After a pause somebody said, "Oh, oui, happiness, madame." '
– Joe Orton, The Orton Diaries, ed. John Lahr (London: Methuen, 1986), 176.
Saddam's full name is, according to Wikipedia (a source I distrust, but this information seems correct), Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti. The "Hussein" is actually a patronymic (his father's name) which is being used, for the convenience of the media, as a "last name". "Al-Tikriti" indicates where the family originates (the town of Tikrit). I am not sure about the "Abd al-Majid" part. I used to have an Armenian friend from Baghdad, who told me that his official Iraqi name consisted of his first name + his father's first name + his grandfather's first name. The Armenian family name never came into the picture. So it is a mistake to think of "Hussein" as Saddam's "surname" the way European last names are surnames.
Oh, I would take this in a different direction altogether, to mean something like "attacking by means of suddenly changing your views with the intention of disarming your opponents". Politicians do this a lot:
"The senator said she would support the measure but then opposed it on technical grounds. Her opponent accused her of using luftwaffle tactics."
You could also just say "expression" or even just "eyes". I am not sure that there is anything "cold" about the term facial expression, by the way. "Visage", "aspect", and "countenance" are all rather formal words. "Look" is more colloquial, but can be ambiguous (e.g., it can refer just as well to one's clothes or posture).
Latin-alphabet spellings are confusing things. The Polish (and Czech and Slovak) spelling ch corresponds to the Russian Cyrillic letter х, which is usually transliterated (for English speakers) as kh.
The word Mia is referring to begins with the affricate sound "ch" (in Cyrillic, usually spelt as ч), as in the English word "church" (in Polish spelt as cz, in Czech, Slovak, and the South Slavic languages as �?).
MM, I don't have any strong associations with the names "Fred" or "Eugene", but I suspect that's a generational thing. Also, even for a generation such associations can change pretty quickly. I remember as a kid thinking that Ursula was a sort of dorky name, but then Ursula Andress came along and the name became sexy. I suppose most Americans associate the name Igor with the misshapen servants of mad scientists, but then I've known a few wonderful men named Igor, not to mention the Igor whose host was the subject of a famous lay, so that association has been lost for me.
PU, there is no real reason to think this is Shaw's opinion. It's what his character Henry Higgins says, and I don't think the misogynistic Higgins is really Shaw's mouthpiece here. One should be careful when quoting from plays.
Of course, this quote was the basis of Higgins's song "I'm an Ordinary Man" in the Lerner and Lowe musical My Fair Lady:
Let a woman in your life and your serenity is through,
she'll redecorate your home, from the cellar to the dome,
and then go on to the enthralling fun of overhauling you...
Let a woman in your life, and you're up against a wall,
make a plan and you will find,
that she has something else in mind,
and so rather than do either you do something else that neither likes at all…
I'm sure one of the dictionaries linked to the icons above could help you out, PU. This is not a word I know. But this is the kind of question that makes me wonder if the social-networking generation (generally speaking) knows how to use reference tools or merely relies on twittered opinion.
MM, I suspect the "literal" meaning would be "one who has fled/escaped/run from something". The Slavic root -beg- / -bjeg- relates to the notion of fleeing or escaping; compare the Latin root -fug- (I suspect from the same IE root as -beg-) in words such as fugitive (one who has fled), centrifugal (fleeing the center), refuge (a place one runs back to).
But I am having second thoughts about that "A". I think it might mean "Association" as in "The Gay and Lesbian Association of Mittel-Europa", which would certainly be appropriate to my situation.
I was quite happy to see the kitty with the bagel on its head. But the pic Skip linked to is, well, let's talk about kitties with bagels on their heads.
Sorry to nit-pick, C_B. I'm sure it's fine. Redundancies are a natural part of language, anyway. But I've been overworked recently, so my editorial eagle-eye needs some rest. Thankfully, I am going on vacation for two weeks on Saturday, to the island of Hvar in Dalmatia.
But now I have to find my way out of the copse of texts that are still waiting for me.
Dontcry, I don't think gays would be against Mamie Eisenhower (we have a thing for First Ladies), and I personally have a soft spot for Mr. Ed (I was just singing his theme song a few days ago). And Maine now lets us marry, so I don't want to be against that state. But I'm overwhelmed by all these excellent suggestions!
RT, just coming up with an appropriate name would fulfill the entrance requirements, I think (apart from the more obvious ones).
Actually, friends, this is the name of a new organization I'm starting: Gays and Lesbians Against … but here I can't decide: Mediocre Editing? Marginal Errors? Misguided Euphemisms? Muddled Expressions? Mental Enervation? Midlife Epiphanies? (no, actually, I am for midlife epiphanies) …
Literally "well-arrived" (dobro + došel) + the suffix -ica, which turns this into a concrete noun; hence, "a thing (here, a party or ceremony) associated with a good arrival".
Not to dampen any memories, C_b, but isn't this a bit of a redundant phrase. I mean, can you have a copse of anything other than trees? A copse of pencils?
I love potica, especially on this side of the Julian Alps, but even I had to wonder if this is spam (though the thought of spam potica makes me retch). So, Punca girl, please make some clearly non-spam contributions to Wordie and we'll give you a great big dobrodošlica!
You're probably right, Bilby. Here's a picture of kola�?. It's definitely, cake-ish, more than potica is. But I suppose I have come to think of "cake" as what the Slovenes (and many others) call torta, which is lighter, sweeter, creamier, and certainly not as good for you (except emotionally perhaps) as kola�? or potica.
A question for all you British spellers in the Wordieverse. Why isn't this word spelled *thermometre? Like metre, kilometre, etc. (I would assume the same "American" spelling goes for other measuring devices with names ending in -meter.)
lit. "to lead someone thirsty across water." The meaning is to promise something, in your words and behavior, and then in the end renege on your promise.
A variant of this phrase was used today in the gay magazine blog Narobe in regard to the Slovene government's promise regarding same-sex marriage:
"O tem danes odlo�?ajo na vladi ... mi pa bomo vsemu temu verjeli, ko bomo videli zapisano v zakonu. Žal je bila glbt-skupnost v zadnjih petnajstih letih že ve�?krat žejna pripeljana �?ez lužo."
"The government is deciding on this permitting same-sex marriage today … but we will believe all this when we see it written into law. Sadly, over the last 15 years, the GLBT community has already several times been led thirsty across a puddle."
I love The Mighty Boosh, which probably warrants its own list (by someone who has the DVDs, probably).
But "Christ, you're thick" doesn't seem like a Booshism to me; it's simply the British equivalent to the North American "Boy, you're dumb!" Or am I missing something here, MM?
Obviously, a semi-centaur would have half the number of limbs of a centaur, ergo, this is a creature with three limbs (2 legs and one arm, perhaps?). A creature with two horse legs and two human arms would be, presumably, a dicho-trito-centaur (two thirds of a centaur).
*Hoping Qroqqa or Milo will correct my preposterous Greek prefixes*
LOL, C_b! It took me a minute, but I finally got the Euripedes joke (when I realized Italians were probably involved). But I'm still drawing a blank with Euridice.
I don't think I get it. I know who Eurydice is, so I understand the "looking back with silent tears" reference, and Mentos is a candy, right? (though it sounds like the name of some mythological figure, the Greek god of the mind, perhaps), but am I am not sure what the original reference is to. What am I missing?
It's fascinating what you say about Alabama and Mississippi. My mother, a true Southern belle from Danville, Va., tended to look down on these states as being uncultured, redneck, and crudely racist (as opposed to her own, more genteel racism). But that was thirty years ago. I can see why those in the Deep South would believe Va., N.C. and even Ga. are Yankified (not sure that is true of S.C., though). But once you get outside of the DC suburbs and the Raliegh-Durham-Chapel Hill Silicon triangle, and Atlanta, I think you're still very much in the Old South. That is true even of Southern Maryland and much of the Eastern Shore, as well as rural Delaware. (At least back in the 1990s, it was.)
Chip?! It's more like a plank. Slovenes, too, definitely have a love-hate relationship with those they call južnjaki / Southerners (when they're being polite). But I think the loss of the synthetic "pure instrumental" in Slovene is a little sad.
Well, actually SBC uses the instrumental the way it was originally used (and as it still is used in Russian and most other inflected Slavic languages): without a preposition; the case itself indicates the means or manner by which something is done. The Slovenes, probably influenced by the German use of the preposition mit to indicate means and manner, at some point started appending their own preposition "with", z/s, followed by the noun phrase in the instrumental.
Perhaps a better "literal" translation would be "following the bread on one's belly". It is sort of equivalent to the American expression, "to go where the money is", but the South Slavic phrasing is so much more vivid.
Oh yeah, there is definitely an Old South. Ask any white Virginian (outside of the DC suburbs, which don't really count). Basically, geographically, the "Old South" refers to Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and traditionally, Maryland and Delaware – the Southern states that were among the Thirteen Colonies. But it is more often used to express nostalgia about a fantasized antebellum South evoked by such books as Gone with the Wind, where the (white) men are all honorable, courageous gentlemen, the (white) women all refined Southern belles, the blacks are happy to have such fine, respectable, and kindly people as their masters. Like many of the places in my "States of Mind" list, the Old South never existed except as a dream.
It may not be British in origin; it just seems to me that I wasn't really aware of the term until I started watching British TV on a regular basis. I imagine a good dictionary of slang could resolve the question.
As to why people use it, that's interesting. What you call someone who is pregnant is sort of in the same class as how you describe a couple who live together without "benefit" of official matrimony, and what they call each other. We don't have a simple, casual word for it that doesn't point to the (largely illusory) awkwardness of the situation. The word pregnant seems OK to me, but it does carry a whiff of the biology textbook, complete with line drawings of the associated reproductive organs. Words evoke pictures, and though in most cases pregnancy is of course something we celebrate, people do not want to evoke the biological aspect of it casually. So we have come up with a raft of phrases, from the Bibilical "with child" (which is very nice, I think) to the 20th-century expecting (which is the term I always heard in the 1960s. But today we like to think of ourselves as direct, casual, and nonchalant, if not flippant, when it comes to sexual matters; hence, preggers. But I prefer the more restrained "expecting", though I don't have any real problems with the word "pregnant" either.
And now my standard gratuitous Slovene interpolation: the Slovene word for "pregnant" is nose�?a, which is simply the feminine present participial adjective of the verb nositi, "to carry". So Slovenes say: "She's carrying."
An old Slovene word for "hill" or "smallish mountain ridge". It's found especially in many place names, such as Goriška brda (the Gorizia/Gorica Hills), where many of Slovenia's best wines come from.
Tormented by an unexplained feeling of guilt, a penniless philosophy student forces himself to read the complete works of William McGonagall over and over again.
Hilarious, Fox. Though I would imagine this more as some upper-class English drawing-room farce in which the climax concerned a failed, and rather droll, attempt at matricide.
The self-styled Dr Goofball was, apparently, so chagrined by Wordizens' robust defense of our beloved site that he removed the offending installment from his blog without explanation or apology. But documentation of the events has been faithfully preserved on the git word-page.
Knowing that a number of Wordizens make their living as editors of one sort or another, I thought you would enjoy this delightful quote from copy-editor John E. McIntyre's blog:
The writer: To an editor (well, to some editors), the writer is an annoying inconvenience that nevertheless makes editing possible — the chicken that must be plucked, cleaned, and butchered before it can be turned into a delightful coq au vin. But you do have some obligation to make the text resemble the work of the author, perhaps dusted off and perfumed a little, but still recognizably the author more than you. The text should be not what you would have written, but what the author would have written had he been a better writer.
I wonder if bird could be etymologically related to the Slovene word brdo, which means "hill, small mountain". According to Marko Snoj's Slovene Etymological Dictionary, this word comes from the Old Slavic *bъ"do, meaning also "comb" and more specifically, "weaver's reed" (a comblike tool for keeping the threads separated; this meaning has been retained in the Czech brdo and the Russian бёрдо / byordo. Snoj suggests that the original meaning was "something sharp, a sharp tool, or sharp rocks". He points out that in Latvian, birde means "loom" (the weaving machine), and birds means "weaver's reed". Strangely, he does not take the word back to its IE root, but he suggests that it is related to the Old English bord, meaning "board". I am wondering if the notion of "sharpness" could be behind the English "bird", as in the sharpness of the beak. Just a thought (and another, probably gratuitous, Slovene interpolation from me).
And colloquially, people tend to drop the initial "p", making ti�?, which is also the common slang word for "penis", roughtly equivalent in usage to the English "dick".
Am I right in thinking that this is a distinctly British word? I mean, even if Americans use it, I have the feeling they picked it up from Eastenders or some other British show.
For some reason, Slovene tends to prefer pti�?, the masculine form for "bird", to the feminine ptica, which is more common in other Slavic languages, though this latter form is also used. Perhaps, this is because the German word, Vogel, is masculine (and German was the dominant language in Slovene territory for nearly a thousand years). Neither pti�? nor ptica, by the way, refers specifically to the male or female bird; they are both acceptable as the generic word for "bird".
According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the English word bird is of "uncertain" origin and has no cognate in other Germanic languages. Now that surprised me.
The unreferenced Wikipedia page for this word says that it combines 'the Latin "gossypium" (cotton) and the Swahili "boma" (place of concealment)'. Now that is truly a bizarre hybrid.
This reminds me of Russian, where vegetables are often identified as grammatically singular mass nouns: морковь / morkov' means "carrots", while морковка / morkovka means "a carrot"; горох / gorokh "peas", but горошинка / goroshinka "a pea". In both these (and, I think, other) cases, the singulative is formed with a diminutive suffix.
This list makes me all Christina Aguilera–like and I want to sing a sweet song for all those words that get neglected, scorned, and abused, like moist and ughten and pedagogy.
Oh yes, you're beautiful, no matter what they say… and Goofwad can't bring you down…
The word for bear in the Slavic languages – medved – is in fact a "kenning". Bears, it seems, were sacred animals to the Slavs, who therefore did not dare pronounce the name for "bear", and instead used the phrase "knower of honey" ("med" = "honey", "ved" = "one who knows"). An English cognate might be meadwit.
Edit: See Qroqqa's apt correction. The proper kenning would be honey-eater.
It's an accurate translation. Here's the original:
Переменил не�?колько зан�?тий, лечил�?�? от д-душевного недуга, путеше�?твовал по Европе. В Ро�?�?ию прибыл из �?нглии, 11 декабр�?. С �?ового года �?лужит мило�?ердным братом в больнице дл�? умалишенных «Утоли мои печали».
I like this word; it has a long and venerable tradition. It is excellent, and I will so tag it. Pedestrian words like "teaching" and "education", which coddle the ignorant and talk down to the layman, hardly come close to the beauty of this word and its kin (pedagogical, pedagogue), which proudly display the dignity and valor of the profession they represent. This word belongs on a Yes, yes, yes! list.
The telephone use of "I'm going to let you go now" is that polite American trick of acting like you're doing someone a favor when in fact you are telling them to do something (end the conversation). It is related to the "I need you to" locution (as when a nurse says, "I need you to lift your arm"). In both cases, suggesting that you are doing someone a favor or asking someone to do you a favor is a way of avoiding a direct imperative ("Get off the phone"; "Lift your arm"), which Americans interpret as rude. Similarly, we tend to phrase imperatives as questions: "Why don't you open the window?" "Could you turn down the volume a bit?" There is a deep-seated dislike, it seems, for the grammatical imperative.
Great find, Bilby (I mean the original link). The discussion about Dear Leader News Radio reminds me of the radio that was installed in my dorm room in Leningrad, back in the day. Only one station, of course: Говорит Ленинград / Govorit Leningrad ("Leningrad speaking"). And every hour, the time was announced with the first bars of "Moscow Nights" ("Podmoskovnye vechera"). Talk about earworm! Fortunately, you could turn the radio off.
I once told a prospective boss that if living in LA was a requirement of the job, I wasn't sure I wanted it. He let me work via computer from Baltimore for a year and a half, then moved the company to San Diego. I would have gone there, but by that time I had decided to move to Slovenia.
New Yorkers, by the way, always seemed really friendly – they move at a faster pace than most of the rest of us, but somehow generally know how to keep their feet on the ground.
My first Russian sentence, from dialog on a "Learn Russian" LP, which we were supposed to memorize even before we had any idea what we were saying, was:
Вот �? и приехал в Мо�?кву. Я думаю, что зде�?ь мне понравит�?�?.
Vot ya i priyekhal v Moskvu. Ya dumayu, chto zdes' mne ponravitsya.
What makes Washington different from other cities is that capital-P Politics is the only real industry in the town, and the power shifts every two or four or eight years, so people get jittery, and are especially sycophantic or disdainful, depending on who you are.
As a native Baltimorean, I am, of course, predisposed to hate DC (the rivalry is Homeric). It is a wonderful place to be a tourist, however. In addition to the famous tourist sites, the town also has great theater, art, and food. The natives are fine (this means, largely, the people who work in the service, maintenance, and support industries, most of whom are African American), but the transients and others who make a career in government are notoriously, well, careerist. When you meet someone in a club, for example, rather than asking about your interests or telling you theirs, they will present you with their resume (verbally, of course), and if yours doesn't match it, well, seeya! It's all about who you know, what contacts you can provide, and generally how connected you are to the people in power. Very icky.
Very exciting, Milo. (I assume you are talking about Sakartvelo and not the Peach State.) I was in Tbilisi many, many years ago, and it was wonderful. A beautiful place. We also went to the ancient church in Mtskheta. You gotta love a language that can do things like that. And the alphabet is shapely indeed.
I guess there's no accounting for condiments. (What a great word, by the way!) As for barbecue, I am with Skipvia 100 percent. Though I always put catsup on my Hamburgers, Frankfurters, and Wieners, but not my Berliners or Dresdners (who prefer something even spicier). Oh wait, are talking about food?
When my father once brought up the "gay downfall of Rome" hypothesis, I pointed out that it made much more sense to blame the downfall of Rome on the Christians. After all homosexuality had been celebrated in Rome for centuries, but it wasn't until the Empire became officially Christian that things fell apart completely.
Slovenia is where Italian cuisine meets the German/Austrian and Croato-Bosno-Serbian (i.e. Turco-Balkan) cuisines, with a splash of Hungarian goulash from the country's easter borderlands. So we should be able to find something tasty!
This sounds like a name in a Marx Bros. movie. (Though I must say Walloon sword has a certain something. Isn't CharlesFerdinand our resident Walloon? – If he's not a Habsburg archduke in disguise!)
I poked around the Slovene dictionary and discovered that škarp is there, marked as "usually pl." (i.e. škarpi) and "low vernacular" (code for "people say this at home but don't you dare use it in formal writing"), with the meaning "an old, worn-out shoe" or sometimes (dialectically), just any old shoe.
But next to it was the word škarpa, which is a perfectly respectable word that means "a wall between two different heights of land, to prevent erosion or landslide"; in other words, a scarp or (more commonly) escarpment, which my English dictionary tells me comes from the Italian word scarpa. I think this solves the mystery. When you're soaking up the sauce with you're bread, what you are doing is making a "little scarp", just like on Chained_Bear's beloved fortresses. So you're not doing scarpetta; you are making (i.e. constructing) a scarpetta.
Edit: The escarpment has been repaired. Thanks, Bil!
A low-budget Biblical feature Starring Carlton Feston as the prophet who delivers the message of the not-so-Almighty: "It'd be really nice if thou didst not, y'know like, kill, take things that don't belong to thee, and all that other bad stuff."
Now, let me see if I understand: Czechs find Spanish villages baffling, Germans find Bohemian (i.e. Czech) and Spanish villages baffling, and Anglos find Greek baffling. Very interesting. Slovenes, by the way, also say, To je zame španska vas ("It's a Spanish village to me") to mean "I don't understand a thing about it". (German villages, of course, are typically well-organized and not in the least baffling.)
Interesting citation, Yarb. Gibbon must be using the word in the sense of "disobedient" or perhaps "unruly", if not in the more archaic sense of "wicked".
break (prelom kosti, "break in a bone", prelom besede, "breaking of one's word"); edge, cusp (kmetija na prelomu doline, "a farm at the edge/cusp of the valley"); in printing: page layout (i.e., making the column and page breaks).
So I want to know about the word itself (sorry, guys, that's just the way I am). One translation tool tells me that scarpa means "shoe" in Italian. So when I sponge up the leftover sauce with my bread, am I "doing/making the little shoe"?
I was surprised when I saw the picture, C_b, because I was expecting to see people throwing jelly beans at each other or in some way fighting over jelly beans. I took me a second to realize what you meant by row.
It is a bit of textual gristle, but I had no problem understanding it. A comma might help, as Q. suggests, but I don't think it's necessary. "Espy" is pretentious-cute here, I think. I'd rewrite it this way: "not so much seeing the art galleries or mountain ranges or rivers as seeing the places where cherished friends…" "Espying" could also be replaced by "noticing", which would probably have cleared up any confusion in the first place.
*has to stop self from editing things that no one has asked or is willing to pay to be edited*
… and dykes on bikes! and PFLAG (who always get the loudest cheers)! and leather boys!
*trying to calm down and remember that we're supposed to be post-gay and want houses in the suburbs and official marriages and the right to be open in the army and not just fantasize about men in uniform – but damn, some of those stereotypically queer exuberances are fun*
Yeah, I know June is Gay Pride Month, or if we're being PC, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Month (is that on your list, Rt?), but there's still nothing like looking forward to Pride Day, the parade, and remembering the dramatic events of June 28, 1969. ("You bet, we're revolting!") I can't believe it's been 40 years!
Ha! "Sangfroid the Sanguine" sounds like the name of one of CharlesFerdinand's kings: "In the days of Sangfroid the Sanguine, the country remained at peace for none of his neighbors was able to provoke him to war."
Thanks, Kind-Heartedness! I enjoy your Greek-outs. I have come across (maybe in Heidegger?) the notion of truth as "unconcealedness", and it is interesting, and seems psychologically right, to think of truth as the "opposite" of forgetting.
The art was still valued in certain parts of the US at least as late as the 1970s. I remember going with my parents in 1972 or so to visit relatives in Danville, Virginia, and really enjoying listening to the way people told stories. There was a certain gentility in the way they referred even to things like someone's senility ("she's getting a bit feeble in the head") or alcoholism ("he still likes to take a nip or two now and then"), and I could sense the way they really enjoyed words and the different shades of meaning and emotion that could be conveyed. They were as much concerned with how something was said, and the pleasure they could give their listeners, as with what was being said.
Thanks, C_b! I wonder if other people feel like the art of (face-to-face) conversation is going the way of reading novels and poetry out loud to each other as a form of entertainment and socializing.
A gaffe is a general term for saying something one shouldn't say, something that is a social blunder. It might be something in poor taste, or it might just be the result of ignorance or insensitivity or not thinking before you open your mouth. For example:
"I was so delighted to hear that your son is getting married next month. We all thought he was a 'confirmed bachelor', you know. Who is the lucky girl?"
"His name's Joe, and he's a wonderful young man."
"Oh, I see. Well, times have changed… Excuse me, but I just saw the Cohens and simply must wish them a Merry Christmas."
I am not certain about the value of the Old Slavic ǫ – it's been decades since I studied these things – but I think it was essentially a nasalized o, more or less like the French vowel.
An anecdotalist is someone who is known for telling (hopefully, entertaining) anecdotes. It is a perfectly good word. I don't know how long it has been in English, but it reflects a time, which may seem like ancient history now, when people used to meet face to face and entertain each other by telling amusing stories and having interesting conversations (a person who knew how to keep up their end of a conversation was called a good conversationalist). People do something similar on social-networking sites today, except that they usually don't know who it is they are conversing with and skills at things like conversation and telling amusing anecdotes are not highly valued. Today, it seems, people prefer to tweet at each other.
One who has mastered the art of bullshitting is known as a bullshit artist. Seanahan has given you the proper term for one who is renowned for making up words, but if you are looking for the word for someone who generally makes up stories, you might try fabulist or (if it's a pathological tendency) mythomaniac. I am not sure what you are trying to say by suggesting the word "inpoortatalist". I expect there is a good word for someone who likes to tell stories that are in poor taste (if that is what you are looking for), but it escapes me at the moment.
How cultures interpret words like this is fascinating. In French, sangfroid and, in Russian, хладнокровие (khladnokroviye) are good qualities in a person, both conveying the sense of "cool-headedness"; in English, however, cold-bloodedness is definitely not something you want to encounter. I tend to associate sanguine with sangfroid. I pronounce the word in a way that almost rhymes with penguin (another cool character), so Cole Porter would have to change his tune to make this word fit for me.
No, it's not related to rog (horn). In Slovene, the nasal rounded back vowel of Old Slavic ǫ (which probably sounded like the vowel in the French word mon), developed into o, whereas in the other South Slavic languages (and in East Slavic, too), it developed into u. Compare words like Slovene roka / SBC ruka (arm and hand), Slovene pot / SBC put (path, journey), Slovene posoda / SBC posuda (dish), and many more. The Old Slavic word *rǫg probably meant "ridicule" and is also the origin of the modern Slovene word režati se (to laugh boisterously, guffaw).
Oh, I love this word, just like I love all the words still in use that hark back to medieval concepts about the mind-body-elements-planets relationships: bilious, choleric, melancholic, humorous, saturnine, jovial, mercurial, etc. And I don't think sanguine is pretentious when it's used to mean "optimistic, positive, cheerful, unruffled". Its synonyms don't really convey so directly the same sense that the attitude so discribed relates to something inherent in a person's character. I also like the fact that it comes from a word for "blood" and that it has as a much darker, tragic cousin in the word sanguinary.
Ron Wagner, that may be a quip (though I don't get the joke), but it surely is not an anecdote, which implies a brief story, the recounting of an incident, usually but not necessarily with a humorous "punch line". He used to regale his friends with anecdotes about his college days, but then they all started to avoid him. He wasn't the anecdotalist he thought he was.
Did you make this up, Inked Polyglot? Irregular verbs are only "irregular" in that they follow different rules from the majority. In English, this usually means that there is an alteration in the vowel to indicate the past instead of the addition of the -ed morpheme (and often with the morpheme -en in the past participle. Hence, the sequence twilve, twolve, twilven, modeled perhaps on the verb drive, might be more in keeping with the patterns of English. But I am just a rank amateur when it comes to these things, and I expect (and hope) my colleague Qroqqa might have something to add or correct.
to tell someone something to their face directly, "without beating around the bush"
The same expression is used with such verbs as lagati (se) (to lie), smejati se (to laugh: Punca se mu smeje v brk, "The girl is laughing in his face"), and rogati se (to mock).
"to express in a clear, blunt way one's negative, disapproving attitude toward someone, usually by using words with positive content" (SSKJ) – i.e. to mock, make fun of.
Examples: ti si pa res junak, se mu je rogal; zani�?ljivo se rogati: "You're a real hero," he mocked him; to mock disdainfully.
Having to do with confection made from honey, nuts, and egg white. Having eaten the whole box of candy, she was in a nougatory daze and couldn't understand what he was saying to her.
It's sometime in the mid-'70s and I am sitting in a circle of about 10 people, all much older than me (I'm in my late teens) in a side-room of our evangelical Presbyterian church. I don't really remember now what the occasion was, but the man leading the discussion asks us to state something we like about ourselves. Someone says, "I'm a people person," and then everyone else in the group says the same thing: "I'm a people person too." This surprises me a little. I am not really sure I know what people people are, but am pretty certain I'm not one. When it comes my turn, I say, "I know how to listen," which is true. The man leading the group compliments me on my answer.
"active intellect" sounds plausible, though I would hope most people's intellect would be active, to some degree at least (I know, I know, I'm living in a world of illusion).
I hear this being said by a teacher about a pupil to indicate that the child asks question, is curious about things, and tries to figure things out in logical ways. Another possibility would be a "lively intellect".
I'm sorry, but I can't imagine a bunch of sitcom writers sitting around a table and saying things like, "Maybe we need to stick an analepsis in here. And then here we'll do a prolepsis and show them in a retirement home." These words are good for rhetoricians and literary theoreticians, and they are lovely words, but this parenthetical "(also called…)" leaves open the important question, "By whom?"
From the French word chagrin, but originally from a Turkish word shagri. Apparently, in French, chagrin, in the sense of "embarrassment" is a figurative use of the word, which means, originally, "untanned or rough leather".
One day soon, I fear, someone will name a girlchild this. And her brother will be Liaison. But then at some point she will write her name Li-Aise or Li-Ayse or Li-Ayze, with hearts over the eyes.
I'm pretty sure Roald Dahl is weird. But then, I've always had a thing for Patricia Neal and can't help but take her side.
Gloaming is a wonderful, evocative word that wears its heart on its sleeve. And while it's all about a quality of light, it's connection with darkness and mystery is inescapable. After all, it's twilight – duality, inbetweenness, borderline.
The curious thing about this slang phrase (in Slovene, Croatian, and other Slavic languages) is that the English phrase (if I remember right) is happy ending, not happy end. In other Slovenglish words, the -ing (properly pronounced /-ink/), e.g. miting and filing, so why not here?
I like this. It sounds sort of New Agey: "old awareness", like the awareness of an "old soul", awareness of things we experienced in past lives, awareness of ancestors and their knowledge. I definitely want to celebrate old awareness! And not only for a month!
Thanks, Pro, for your comment on my Slovene idioms list. By the way, if on your travels you ever plan or want to visit Slovenia (just to the east, north, and south of Trieste), let me know!
A resident of the Greek island of Hasbos, known in antiquity as an important source of asbestos (orig. "hasbestos"). Pseudo-Pausanias records that the Hasbian poetesses were said to conduct rituals in which they danced in the flames with one another in fireproof garments and mimicked the rites of Sappho's followers, only to emerge unscathed, much to the chagrin of the poetesses of neighboring Lesbos.
And it's correlative? Discontent inflation – the noticeable increase in frustration caused by not being able to find the information you want on the Internet due to the proliferation of so many idiotic videos, social networking sites, games and blogs. Eventually, you just say, "Geez! I may as well go to the library and look it up in a book! It would take less time."
This is not spam, but a public service to Wordies who collect compendia of unusual words (that is all of us more or less). Grant Barrett is making his Official Dictionary of Unofficial English (2006) available for free as a downloadable .pdf file. Just check out his blog The Lexicographer's Rules.
Interesting, Pro! It does not surprise me that many expressions in Slovene might come from Italian. The Italian influence is still strong in the southwestern and extreme western parts of the country, which were for centuries ruled by Venice. A part of Friuli, where there is still a Slovene-speaking minority, is still called the "Slavic Veneto" (Slavia Veneta) or in Slovene, Beneška Slovenija (Venetian Slovenia).
Thank you, thank you, everyone. To the Irish Fox, it's true: I couldn't have done it without you. Your graciousness in conceding this minor defeat in a truly impressive career of superlative Wordie divertissements is entirely in character. Bilby, you are one of the inspiring spirits of the Wordie aether, and I humbly acknowledge my debt to you. Chained_Bear, it was an honor to limericize your beloved Clovis; may he rest in peace with his gerbilline fore_bears. And to the Archduke Karl Ferdinand (my suspicion is well known that his Excellency has assumed a rather flimsy Belgian incognito), thanks for starting things off with the list of his illustrious Frankish ancestors.
Thanks for your patience, CF (and everyone), with my abnormal Slavophilia. I will try to keep it under control. You're right, Archduke (sorry, I can't resist calling you that – after all, I do live in Carniola). The 5th century is a little too early for at least West Frankish-Slavic interaction. But there was plenty of interaction with other Germanic types, as can be seen by all the Germanic borrowings in Old Slavic.
I second C_B's laughter and appreciation of the list, CF.
(But to return to, um, words, I'm still wondering: if Chlodo- is Germanic, how did it get impaled on the Slavic -mir? Is it possible that the Franks registered the Vlado- as their own beloved Chlodo-?)
Sigh. I guess rogue is another word that joins the "Overused to the point of meaninglessness thanks to its wildfire dash through the Internet" list (one I don't feel like making). Btw, I sort of like the word malware (if it means what I think it does).
I'm guessing those old Franks had trouble with the initial vl- cluster and this was the best they could do with the Slavic name Vladomir ("Ruler of peace").
Delicious, if somewhat turd-looking, Bosno-Serbian minced-meat kebabs, popular as a fast food throughout the former Yugoslavia. The alphabet is a little simpler in Slovenia – no confusing soft ć's – so in Slovene they are spelled �?evap�?i�?i.
Herminafrid! If it's a girl. The name Hermina is still around in Slovenia; it makes the cutest diminuative forms: Minca (the "c" is pronounced like "ts") and Min�?i ("�?" pronounced like "ch"). Minchie Bearspawn!
From the English word suffer. It is used as a noun to mean "misery, the pits." Often used with the verb furati ("to do, engage in, go through") (itself a borrowing from the German führen) to mean "to feel awful" (emotionally, not physically):
Ne vidim ve�? razloga da bi nekdo “fural safr�?, �?e pa to stvar lahko sprejmeš in vidiš, da je vse to�?no tako kot mora biti. ("I don't see a reason anymore why someone should 'go through safr' so long as you can accept the situation and see that everything is just the way it should be.")
A tragic example (and a cautionary one for the United States) of how the image of a particular culture can be entirely altered. A hundred years ago, if you asked non-German Westerners what the sound of German connoted to them, they would have said music and philosophy.
Can you tell us something more, C_B, about these curious records? Are these the (perhaps altered) names of immigrants to the US? Or do you mean that your eyes deceived you? (19th-century handwriting can be very hard to decipher.)
Of course you do, Yarb. But turdiform has been taken, and I'm sure you don't want Reesetee to send a flock of thrushes your way. Just ask Tippi Hedren what that's like. You might try fecaloid, coprolithic, or stercoraceous. But I suspect you just like the sound of turd. Am I right?
Actually, the word you want here is new agey, which means "relating to the New Age movement" (which was very popular in North America in the 1980s). "Agey" by itself doesn't make sense in this context.
In the 8th and 9th centuries, the first vowel in the word svat ("holy") would have been a nasal front vowel, probably pronounced something like the sound in the French word vin, which is why the Franks spelled it -en-. It evolved differently in different Slavic languages, turning into something we usually transliterate as "ja" or "ya" in Russian (e.g. �?в�?той = svjatoj, "holy" – though it's more complicated than that), an a or á in Czech (compare the names Václav and Wenceslaus), the nasal sound iȩ in Polish (święty means "holy"), and a high front e in the South Slavic languages (svet means "holy" in both Slovene and Serbo-Bosno-Croatian).
The second part of the name would in Old Slavic have originally been pronounced more or less pulk (rhyming with the English word hulk), where the "u" stands for a short schwa sound. This meant something like "host" or "army" ("a mass of people"). It is actually a borrowing from a Germanic root that has developed today into folk in English and Volk in German (which makes the Franks' hearing it as a different Germanic word somewhat ironic). This word also developed differently in the different branches of Slavic: polk in East Slavic (e.g. Russian) and South Slavic (e.g. Slovene), and pluk in West Slavic (e.g. Czech).
C_b, I expect your Friend only used "thee". At some point, Quakers stopped saying "thou" and started using "thee" for both the subject and the object of the sentence, I think with the ø-ending form of the verb: Why are thee taking the car to Meeting? It's only a ten-minute walk! Don't thee know how much gas costs? Not surprisingly, the influence of the double-duty you (as both subjective and objective) is pretty strong. It was pretty jarring when I first heard Quakers talking like this, and it was hard not to "correct" them.
This is actually an important word for Slovenes, and there is even a restaurant in Ljubljana's Old Town that goes by this name. The Protestant leader Primož Trubar's Abecedarium (an ABC book to teach people how to read) was one of the first two books printed in Slovene, in 1550. The restaurant is located in a building ("the oldest house in Ljubljana") where Trubar once lived.
Meter of course is helpful for memorizing text, which is certainly a major reason why poets have used it at least since Homer. We shouldn't forget that before the 20th century, poetry was written as more to be performed than read silently. People used to entertain themselves by reading things to each other out loud, whether this was poetry or a serialized novel. To enjoy a writer like Byron, you need to hear his work, and not merely see it on the page.
Don Juan is a long poem (Byron may have called it a novel in verse), not a play, so there are no stage directions. Read a little of it out loud and try to imagine the words being spoken by a brilliant young man, as famous as a rock star and with about as much humility, who wants to overturn all the conventions and expose the hypocrisy of his time, and you might start to get an idea of what it's about.
@ Seanahan – I never said the commas did disturb the flow; that was Mollusque. I agree with you that they don't.
You make a good point about Betty. Either way there could be ambiguity, especially if we replace "Catholic" with "Episcopalian" and "maid" with "writer". But it also matters whether or not we know the author of text does or does not use serial commas:
A. They went to Oregon with Betty, a writer and an Episcopalian priest.
B. They went to Oregon with Betty, a writer, and an Episcopalian priest.
In A, they could have gone to Oregon with 1 (Betty, who is both a writer and a priest) or 3 persons, if we know the text does not use serial commas; but with only 1 person (the admirable Betty), if we know the text always uses serial commas consistently.
In B, they have definitely gone to Oregon with 2 people, if we know the text does not use serial commas; or with either 2 or 3 people, if we know the text always uses serial commas.
So both systems leave room for ambiguity. Life is like that. That is what house styles are for.
I wondered this, too, Nux. But apparently any Mediterranean country can participate. Morocco has been in Eurovision too, and theoretically so could Libya, Syria, and Algeria.
The "rules" of meter may be clearcut enough, but the variations in how poets follow them, or choose to break them, to create the effects they want, are countless and fascinating.
Byron was brilliant in being able to use plain, chatty English, often with great comic effect, as in Don Juan (the name should be pronounced to rhyme with "Ewan"), but he could also write lovely "poetic" poetry, as in "She walks in beauty like the night".
You sound a bit like an old fogey, myth, who complains that poets (i.e. rappers) these days are "massacring" words because they write "gonna" and "witya" instead of "going to" and "with you".
Moll, it seems like you're arguing in favor of inconsistency, i.e. use the Oxford when you need it to clarify the meaning, but otherwise don't use it. And personally, that seems like a reasonable practice to me. As does its reverse: always use the Oxford except in cases where using it confuses the meaning. The only problem is that people usually want rules to live by, write by, and edit by, and the cases where the Oxford confuses things are probably much fewer than where not using it confuses things. So "always use the Oxford comma" seems a better rule than "never use the Oxford comma" and is easier to follow than "use it only when it helps" (because you don't have to figure out when it helps and when it doesn't). I like to avoid Emersonian hobgoblins myself, so inconsistency doesn't usually upset me if I see the reason for it, but for many people these little fellows seem to make good friends.
Contractions like e'er and o'er, as well as spellings like the monosyllabic heav'n and giv'n should not be taken as indications of poets "cheating" or trying to fit square pegs into round holes. For one thing, poets like Byron knew exactly what they were doing when it came to prosody; they dreamed in iambic pentameter in a way few of us can imagine.
As such they were very familiar with the concept of the reduced syllable – a nearly ellided syllable that should not be given the weight even of the unstressed beat in the iambic foot. Often two syllables could be counted as one; this could be indicated with a contraction such as e'er or even (e'en) to th'. The fact that the v sound is involved in a number of these contractions may also tell us that this sound had various qualities to it and could be pronounced differently in different contexts or by different speakers; historically, after all, the letter v represented both a consonant and a vowel (u).
Today many poets no longer count syllables the way they used to (and many still do but don't want us to think they do).
Sadly, I'm not sure people expect anything of poetry these days, or rather, if they do, they expect it to be sentimental or inspiring and so don't really "get" what contemporary poets are writing (as with modern art, they think, "jeez, I could have written that! It doesn't even rhyme!"). Probably a lot of people would love it if more poets were more "poetic".
Myth, don't give up on Shakespeare, Byron, or anyone else just because they don't write as if they were born in 1970. Try to learn their language first (and don't assume it has to be the same as yours), before you judge them. They still have a lot of amazing things to tell us, even though (or perhaps because) they are centuries away from us.
While I probably like commas more than most, I don't hold with the practice of putting them in just because you want to take a breath, or conversely, the idea the you have to take a breath whenever you see a comma. Not all commas are breath-taking. In the case Molly mentions, there is no need to "break the flow" in the sentence "Tom, Dick, and Harry all ordered bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches." I would read this the same way with or without the serial commas. The commas before the ands are merely there because the writer (or editor) finds such commas useful and wants to be consistent. In this particular sentence the serial commas could easily be removed without the ceiling caving in. But I'd keep them because I like the principle of the serial comma. In the sentence, "Tom, Dick and Harry, Mary Jo and Martin, and Bart all went to Des Moines for Frank and Herb's wedding," the Oxford comma helps keep the relationships, well, straight (or not).
Here's a joke Slovenes tell when they want to illustrate the attitude toward neighbors in their country.
Bog vprasa slovenca, "Kaj bi rad? Dam ti kar hoces, s tem, da bo tvoj sosed dobil dvakrat toliko." Slovenec malo pomisli pa rece, "Bogec, iztakni mi oko."
God asks a Slovene, "What would you like? I'll give you whatever you want, only know that your neighbor is going to get twice as much of the same thing." The Slovene thinks a bit, then says, "Okay, Lord, pluck out one of my eyes."
Basically, this word refers to the expression on one's face. But it can also be used as a verb to mean "to allow, to accept" a certain behavior. In this meaning, it is often used in the negative: She could not countenance her husband's gambling. These two meanings are connected if you think that, when you accept something, you can look at it calmly, without getting upset.
I might suggest a few from the Slavic side of things:
- vozhd (or Cyrillically, вождь), which is what adoring fans called Stalin; like Führer, it means "leader", but unlike the German word, it really is reserved for the Great Leader.
- vojvoda or vojevoda or voyevoda (or more Englishy, voivode), the Slavic "duke" (lit., "war-leader" or "warlord") and the origin of the toponym Vojvodina.
– you have tsar, but what about the tsarina (I'm assuming you are eschewing the unchewable cz- spellings).
And a couple obvious ones from across the Adriatic that seem to have escaped: il Duce (last seen in Salò) and the doge, in the company of Mrs. Doge, a.k.a. the dogaress or in Venetian, dogaressa, both fleeing incognito in a gondola.
Yes, you're right, of course, Upper Carniola, to be specific. And I love your list!
But why is this "Stara Kranjska"? The people who lived in the March of Carniola (Kranjska krajina/Krainmark), didn't call it "Old", did they? Or is this a different region from Kranjska?
Slovenes look back to Carantania (independent or semi-autonomous from the late 7th to about the 10th century) as an almost mythic land. This, they say, was the last time the Slovene nation ruled itself until Slovenia gained independence in 1991. In a kind of political nationalist romanticism, they often speak of the 1000-year yoke under the Germans (Austrians).
This still very much exists, both as an Austrian Land (Kärnten) and a Slovene region (Koroška). All of these names come from the long-gone Carantania (in Old Slovene Korotan, which was an autonomous or semi-autonomous Slavic state from the late 7th to about the 10th century.
I don't believe I've ever heard anything other than /ˈbɔɪənt/ (I grew up in the US). My only strong opinion is that one shouldn't pronounce this as spelled, with three syllables: /bu'ɔɪjənt/.
I know this is a fairly common complaint (especially from Vanished One), but can something be done about the excessive tagging on word pages such as admire? This particular case seems to be the result of spamming, but other words are given ridiculously long tags (i.e. whole definitions) or a ridiculously large number of tags out of ignorance from people new to the site, who then simply vanish after making their mess. Can we develop a reasonable protocol for cleaning these pages up a bit?
More specifically, it's a present participle, which is why the dictionaries list it under the verb mesmerize. Today it is probably most often used as a modifier, though sentences such as "Her singing mesmerized the audience" are common enough.
ne- (not) -iz- (out) -pod- (under) -bit- (hit, beat, knock) -en (adj. suffix, here meaning something like -able): unable to have its base knocked out from under it.
There is a transparency to the Slavic languages that I find incredibly beautiful.
*apologizes in advance to Ms. Chained_Bear, for whom I have the greatest respect, and assures her that I would never dream of trying to chew anything the least bit ursine*
You can find this word listed in Middle English Dictionary (U. of Mich. Press, 1997), which you can see via Google Books. There are several citations from between 1200 and 1500. Other spellings are oughten, ohtoun, and uhhtenn, which may give you some idea of how the -ugh was pronounced. Of course, it wasn't pronounced ugg-, but perhaps with a vowel as in bout, and a velar fricative like the ch in the Scottish loch; it seems to rhyme with the Middle English past participle foughten (see below).
It sounds rather nice to me, especially in the cited phrase bothe even and oughten, meaning literally "both evening and morning" and idiomatically "at all times of the day" as in the following couplet:
I think it is probably true that in modern English, the colloquial style, perhaps especially a kind of non-localized, perhaps American-leaning style with certain colloquial markers (like don't) but not others (like the verbal hiccups like, y'know, etc. or highly marked colloquialisms from specific speech communities) is encroaching on the written language. But I am not sure if this is a natural process. To some degree, perhaps. Over the past few decades, especially since the '70s, literary and journalistic writing has become more focused on a personal, first-person voice, which naturally relies on colloquialisms. This may be because postmodernism (and specifically deconstructionism) has seriously put into question any attempt to convey an impersonal, disinterested, objective viewpoint. In the past, authors usually tried to sound authoritative; today they try to sound approachable. This is to a large degree a matter of taste and the Zeitgeist, and it could well change.
"Whom" may well be on its way out, but it's taking its time leaving the language. These things happen over generations. Yarb, you mention the familiar second person singular (thou, thee, thy). Back in the '60s, when I was just a child, my grandparents' generation regularly used thou-forms when addressing God in prayer, but I don't think my parents did, probably because they felt insecure about it (when do you say thou, when do you say thee, and what are we supposed to do with ye?). Back then, most church-goers still used the King James' Version, though there were bands of RSV-users in the congregation. Then, God help us all, sometime in the early '70s the Living Bible reared its modern paraphrasing head, and the colloquial Good News Bible (New Testament only) came on the scene with doodle-like drawings meant to appeal to the guitar-strumming crowd. Times had changed. I looked for thee in the wilderness, but thou wast not to be found, and whom was fighting for its very life.
By the way, I don't think I agree that colloquial speech is necessarily the defining form of language (and I am not sure I know what you mean by "defining form"). That may be increasingly the case with English, at least when it comes to contemporary linguistic scholarship, but it certainly hasn't always been the case (and it is not true of Slovene or, until quite recently, of Russian). There is also a strong conservative undertow in language change, which is created by the written language, particularly as used by writers in the cultural canon, and reinforced by schoolteachers, editors of various kinds, and probably others too, and this is necessary if we are to be able to read and understand the writings of the past, as well as to understand even our contemporaries outside our immediate linguistic community. And I should ask the nasty, though obvious question: which colloquial speech is defining for the language? My Baltimorese? Someone else's Cockney? Another person's Yorkshire speech? Bilby's Strine?
Pleth, it sounds like your flat is proof that you agree with my father's guiding principle (unfortunately for domestic bliss, my mother didn't). Words, thankfully, don't take up as much space as the things my father gathered around him.
Like I said, this could be a generational thing. I agree that it is rarely used in colloquial speech (though it probably is not out of place, and may even be required, in formal speech, such as a commencement address). Of course it is still used in serious writing, especially when the speaker does not want to sound colloquial, where the speaker wants to convey the sense "these are important issues." Colloquial speech is not the only acceptable style in language.
"Whom" has been hanging on by its fingernails for a couple of generations at least, and it has not been helped by stodgy grammarians who insist on its use in places where the common tongue prefers "who", but I think it will survive precisely because it is sometimes needed as the object of a preposition and saying "about who" or "from who" usually sounds as wrong as saying "about he" or "from they".
Then, of course, words like "whom" can also be useful when you want to play the class card. Someone who asks on the telephone: "To whom am I speaking?" may well be sending a slightly different message than the person who asks, "Who am I talking to?"
My father always told me, "Never throw anything away because there may come a time when you'll need it." I believe this applies to words too.
John66bessa, you are confusing two different words. Ingenious means "clever, showing great intelligence or insight." It easy to confuse this with ingenuous because of the noun ingenuity, which does not mean the quality of being ingenuous (that's ingenuousness), but the quality of being clever and inventive (and thus is closer in its meaning to "ingenious").
Ingenuous has nothing to do with ingenuity, though as you suggest, it is related to the idea of being "genuine". Ingenuous people are by nature genuine, in that they do not know how to deceive or be other than they are. "Ingenuous" is a close synonym of "naive". Ingenuous people are honest, but not because they choose to be; it is simply their nature to be. They have not yet learned how to dissemble or lie. But worldly people, i.e. people who understand the way world works and who are not ingenuous, may also be genuine: they may be forthright and honest, but in this case, it is a conscious decision.
We say that someone is disingenuous when they pretend to be ingenuous, i.e. they pretend to know less than they actually do, to be more naive than they actually are. They are deceptive, but in the particular way of pretending to be innocent or ignorant of something.
Curiously, the words genius, ingenious, ingenuity, ingenuous, and genuine are all related in that they share the same Latin root -gen- ("relating to birth"), but they are not derived from or based on one another.
I should have been clearer. "Ask not for who the bell tolls" sounds wrong not only because this is a familiar quotation. "Don't ask who the bell tolls for" sounds perfectly fine to me, though it's lost its solemnity. There are times when we want to use a relative clause in which the relative pronoun follows a preposition – for example when we want to stress a point or add a note of solemnity or perhaps avoid a certain confusion: "This is the person I told you about" is fine, but if you want to say that you worked without complaint night and day for this person even sacrificing your weekends and never heard a word of thanks from him, you might not want to say: "This is the person I worked without complaint night and day for, even sacrificing my weekends, and never heard a word of thanks from." In this case, I would prefer: "This is the person for whom I worked night and day without complaint, even sacrificing my weekends, and from whom I never heard a word of thanks." When you need a form of who to follow a preposition, it will probably be whom. At least to my ear, for who …, concerning who …, with regard to who …, etc. all sound wrong. But I admit, this may be a generational thing.
C_b, I am really sorry to hear about your horrific experience. It is all too common. There was a time, and not very long ago, when the idea of husbands beating their wives provided a staple source of humor ("One of these days, Alice! Pow! Right to the moon!" says Ralph, as the audience explodes in laughter), but that was when the real violence was kept behind the closed doors women and children were always just happening to run into. Making light of such things, as in pseudo-clever slang terms for T-shirts and beer, is probably a way of distracting ourselves from the terrible reality. But I don't see how anyone with an awareness of the power of words can use such terms gleefully.
I sympathize, Rt. Although I find the development of this word's use fascinating, and I am happy to find any reason to research pictures of the young Marlon Brando in a tight-fitting, torn, and rain-drenched T-shirt, I am disturbed by the commercial callousness of this word. I was shocked to find many websites where clothing companies were selling these tank tops as "wifebeaters", often with young female models sporting them with a smile. I find it hard to imagine a young woman saying, unwincingly, to another young woman, "I found a great wifebeater at Macy's today!" But I'm sure it happens all the time. Can you imagine, say, Ray-Ban selling a particlar style of sunglasses as "childmolesters"? "We offer you an extensive sellection of elegant childmolesters!" It's a sickening thought, but no more so than companies proudly selling "wifebeaters".
Lit., "early wound", though in Slovene this sounds a little archaic or poetic, since modern Slovene would say "zgodnja rana". See also oprosti mi moja rano rana.
The varieties of SBC stress, with their different pitches, are worse than Slovene, where no one much cares about pitch anymore (though long v. short still applies).
Thanks for the explanation, MM!
If I wanted to translate this in a way that would make sense to English speakers, I might say: "Forgive me, wound of my young heart" or "... my young heart's wound".
I'm trying to figure out the grammar here. I know that rana rana means early wound" (an etymological curiosity, as Sarra would say: the adj. ran, -a, -o, -i, "early", and the noun rana, "wound", derive from different IE roots). But I don't know which is which here, or why one ran- ends in -o and the other in -a.
Is "rano" the fem. noun "wound" in the vocative case? Which would mean that "rana" is a postpositional adjective. Is the vocative case for adjectives the same form as the nominative? Help me out.
As to the meaning, it does sound strange in English, until you remember all those songs where love is described as a wound. It's really the "early" part that seems odd. Is the idea that the woman is the wound of the speaker's youth?
Correction: Brando wasn't actually wearing a tank top in the movie. But it was a snug white T-shirt with very short sleeves that showed off his fit form and biceps. But Brando's look and performance, which completely redefined the notion of the male sex symbol, did wonders for the allure of the humble white undershirt (especially when it was torn and drenched as he wailed in the rain), and I expect it did influence the name of the tank top.
"23 squidoo" is a silly, squiddy allusion to 23 skiddoo, which was a silly thing people used to say in the 1920s and became an emblem of the decade, as groovy did for the 1960s. I sort of understand the "skiddoo" part here (related maybe to skip and almost certainly to skedaddle), but I have no idea why the number 23 became attached to it.
A nice case of double metonymy: The white tank top worn by Marlon Brando as the violent Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire became so identified with Brando in this role that, in the US, it became known as a "wifebeater". Brando as Kowalski also became famous for crying, "Stella!" (his wife's name); hence the wifebeater tank top became connected with the name Stella, as in the beer.
Actually, I would take this to mean "your breath smells quite nice."
"not half" means "a fair amount of whatever is opposite": "You know, your singing's not half bad" = "You sing rather well." Usually, I think, "not half" is used in a compliment, i.e. with a quality that is considered negative. It is a form of understatement and suggests the speaker's mock surprise at discovering some positive quality in a person. "You know, you're not half dumb." = I'm surprised to discover that you are really rather smart.
I associate this expression in particular with the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. It's the kind of thing Jean Harlow or Carole Lombard would say.
Like I said, I'm not crazy about this word, because at first glance it seems to mean "different from what is normative" (compare heterodox v. orthodox), but I wouldn't out-and-out attack it, since the social theoreticians who use it understand what it is supposed to mean. The idea it describes is not hard to grasp, since almost all of us encounter it everyday: the assumption that the heterosexual model of society is properly privileged (if not the only acceptable model).
Slovene, of course, has a perfectly good word for "friend": prijatelj. But if you want to sound young and hip, you'll say moj frend, moja frendica (fem.), and moji frendi (pl.).
This is a useful term for theoreticians, and there is no reason to disdain it, any more than one would disdain specialized nautical terminology. It's curious the way people seem to admire the specialist jargon from certain fields (military, medical, astrophysical), but get upset when they hear words that convey nuanced notions from the humanities and social sciences (social theory, literary criticism, aesthetics, anthropology, etc.), perhaps from a kind of anti-intellectual populism. The scholars in these fields study ordinary things, like family structure, social prejudices, the workings of the imagination, and while it is true that everyone deals with such things, and hence in a way are also experts on them from a practical perspective, very few people think about these things with any depth or rigor. Those who make it their business to understand the workings of such phenomena do need to develop special terms. I would be the first to agree that these special terms can get out of hand, turning into abstractions that seem to lose all connection with the reality they seek to describe, but in many cases they are useful. I prefer simple, understandable words, but as K&P points out, words like heteronormative are a succinct way to express a fairly complex concept.
I am not a big fan of this word, particularly because here the prefix hetero- means "heterosexual" not "differing" (just as homo- in "homophobia" means "homosexual" not "same"). But within the discipline of cultural theory, this has become an acceptable use. I would, at least in some contexts, prefer the word heterosexualist, but heteronormative has the advantage of sounding neutral, whereas heterosexualist is a more loaded term.
I don't think you all are taking this month seriously enough. We need a time of year to remember the many great sarcasticists who have risked their reputations to make the country safer for smug, shallow, and self-indulgent humor.
Good question, Lea. I don't think there is any difference at all. The New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors (which dictates OUP practice) gives "for ever" as an alternative to "forever". But in US English, I think "for ever" is rare. I almost always write this as one word, forever. The only time I can think of when I would write it as two words would be "for ever and ever", where the second ever is just for emphasis.
Rt, you're welcome to visit anytime! There's always a polka music program somewhere on TV here, and that's not counting the cable station TV Golica devoted 24/7 to Slovene polka music and scantily clad big-breasted Slovene farm girls, with a dash of yodeling.
If I remember correctly (from my experience as the editor of a gay and lesbian newspaper), this word first emerged among lesbians in the early or mid-1990s as a way to describe women who at one time identified themselves as lesbians, perhaps for political reasons, or because it was the thing to do at whatever college they went to, but then eventually "came out" as heterosexual, often leaving their lesbian friends feeling betrayed and hurt (and maybe broken-hearted). The word is not meant to imply that lesbians can be "converted", or even that the "hasbian" was ever really a lesbian. The word carries a large dose of bitterness, I think. It may also reflect the unwillingness of many in the gay and lesbian community to truly accept the idea of bisexuality, particularly before the mid-1990s, which was when bisexual groups began to get organized and demand recognition from lesbian and gay organizations.
The word started as a kind of joke, and I think it is OK to use on that level, but as with many such words, it says as much about the one who uses it as it does about the person who is described by it.
Anna Freud is hired by the King of Siam to psychoanalyze his many children, and in the process learns something about her own animal nature. The musical is known for such hits as: "Getting to know me! Getting to know all about me!" and "Shall We Transfer?"
Classy, in the sense of "stylish" has been around in American English at least since the 1940s. The book British and American English since 1900 by Eric Partridge and John Williams Clark, published in 1951, notes: "British swanky more or less equals American classy" (and that was all I was shown in the snippet view of Google Book Search). But there are lots of examples.
My mother was from Virginia and would say things like "raise a furor" (though she'd pronounce it /fyoo-rah/) and she wasn't talking about bringing up Adolf.
Normally this word means "hike" or, in military usage, "campaign". But recently I have noticed it in news reports in the phrase "strelski pohod", which should be translated as "shooting spree" (strelski means "shooting adj.").
I am not a native German, but I just did a Google search (confined to German pages) for "der Fürher" and nearly all hits were about Hitler, but I did find a Web page for a company that bills itself as "der Führer der Antiquitätenhändler" ("the leader of antiques dealers"), with no obvious National-Socialist connotations, and when I went on to do a search for "der Führer des" ("the leader of the"), I came across many references to leaders of countries, movements, and political parties, including "der Führer des Likud" (which must sound strange to many). And I got over 100 hits for "der Führer der sozialdemokratischen" ("the leader of the Social-Democratic…" So my guess is the "Führer" is still alive and kicking in German. After all, not only does the word "simply" mean "leader", it is also the simplest word for saying "leader", since it derives from the verb führen ("to lead").
But I'd be interested in hearing from a native German.
Doesn't kara mean black in Turkish? (The Serbian nationalist leader who led the first Serbian revolt against the Turks and founded modern Serbia's royal dynasty was called "Karadjordje" – "Black George".) Perhaps that is the origin of the word. I don't think it's Slavic.
Etymologically, this means "one who delights." A nice concept, I think. In this time of ubiquitous professionalization and ultra-specialization, we need more dilletantes to delight us.
By a quirk of etymology, this word in Slovene means not only blue, but also "wise" (in the neuter singular). In Slovene the nasal o of Proto-Slavic evolved into the simple o, whereas in other South Slavic and East Slavic languages, it became u. Hence, "wise" (n.sg.) in SBC is mudro, in Russian, мудро (mudro). Perhaps this is one reason why Slovene and SBC both borrowed the German word blau, reshaping it as plav.
I agree, seanahan, but I can't remember whether taking someone out to the woodshed has to do with sex or punishment (maybe both for some). Can you enlighten me?
I'd love to see more SCBM (BSCM/CSBM/CBSM?) words on Wordie (like mrš!). It's a language I'm picking up in bits and pieces, partly because it occasionally crops up in Slovene texts (often in the form of swear words, which Slovenes claim all derive from army Serbian).
Or perhaps some lesbian Wordie-er. I believe this is a fairly old term among lesbians for a homosexual woman who is attracted to "butch" women (i.e. women who to some degree adopt or possess traditionally masculine gender attributes in manner and dress) but who herself acts and dresses in ways that are considered traditionally feminine. A related term, originating in the late 1980s or early 1990s, is "lipstick lesbian" but I think this has different, and more political, connotations.
A nice tradition. This reminds me of the little dish they have at some checkout counters, "Give a penny, take a penny", though of course that's not really about charity.
You're right that the word "pomo�?nica" means "female helper", but the Marian title in English is "Our Lady, Help of Christians" (see here). Her full title in Slovene is actually "Marija pomo�?nica kristjanov", but people usually just say, "Marija pomagaj", which actually means "Mary, help!"
Also, "Marija pomagaj". One of the most common Slovene titles for the Virgin Mary, represented in a said-to-be-miraculous painting (1814) by Leopold Layer in the Basilica of St. Vitus (St. Guy, Sveti Vid), in Brezje, near Radovljica, in Upper Carniola. In English, this title translates as Our Lady, Help of Christians.
I don't think there is any paradox involved. The word "meaningless" has meaning as a word: "lacking meaning". Hence, it is clearly heterological, because its meaning cannot be applied to the word itself, just as the meaning "long" cannot be applied to the word "long" (because it has only four letters).
And here I thought this was some piece of gossip that, when it gets passed around, people know right away who started it. "You're telling me you heard he's acing the class because he's doing the professor? Oh, I know who's telling those tales. That dish has Miss Sour Grapes' name written all over it!"
Not everything is meaningful, therefore, "meaningless" is meaningful and not autological. But meaning depends on the code being used, and it is human to seek meaning, and therefore to presume the existence of codes we can understand. No one who did not believe in the Virgin Mary or in the ability of spiritual entities to manifest themselves physically in quotidian objects would ever see the BVM in a certain configuration of pancake syrup, which would then be for them meaningless, despite the best efforts of the Mother of God. I am a devout believer in the meaning of "meaningless".
If one finds meaningful patterns in something, how can that something be called meaningless? Is meaning exclusively the product of intention, or do we create meaning by perceiving? If a person sees the image of the Virgin Mary in the syrup on a pancake and takes that as a sign of grace, which subsequently transforms this person's life, was the configuration of the syrup meaningless?
Personally, I don't like the word patternicity, which from the -ic-ity suffixes one would expect to mean the property of tending to possess pattern, not that of tending to perceive pattern.
I'm surprised that cognitive psychologists don't have a term for this notion, since pattern perception is such an intrinsic part of learning. Or perhaps they prefer to use words that are simpler but clearer, if less arcane, like "the tendency to perceive patterns." Or perhaps, they just call it something cumbersomely German, like Gestaltwahrnehmungsfähigkeit.
"In the case of the common word нега, Nabokov has surpassed himself in oddity. It is true that нега has two distinct nuances: voluptuous languor and simple enjoyment; but, instead of using any of the obvious equivalents, Mr. Nabokov has dug up from the dictionary the rare and obsolete mollitude, a word which his readers can never have encountered but which he uses for the first of these meanings; and for the second he has discovered dulcitude. One wonders how Nabokov would translate the last line of Pushkin's famous lyric, published after his death, 'Пора, мой друг, пора'...'В обитель дальную трудов и чи�?тых нег.' 'To a faraway haven of work and pure mollitudes'? 'dulcitudes'?"
– Edmund Wilson, in a scathing review of Nabokov's translation of Eugene Onegin, "The Strange Case of Pushkin and Nabokov," The New York Review of Books 4, no. 12 (July 15, 1965).
Nabokov seems to have developed his own meaning for the word "mollitude", which dictionaries indicate mean "softness, effeminacy, weakness"; he seems, in the quote from Ada, or, Ardor, cited by Yarb, to have in mind something more like the Russian word нега (nega), which in Russian romantic poetry usually refers to sensual pleasure.
Thanks, for the suggestions, MM and C_B, but there doesn't seem to be any evidence that James and John's surname, however delightful, became a common word.
In French, wouldn't a douchebaguette (or more properly, douche-baguette) be a long narrow loaf of bread that one showered with (or perhaps a baguette-shaped sponge)? Could be fun.
I'm part of the generation of gay men who came of age in the early '80s, which is certainly partly why I deplore such sanguine use of the word. But mainly it is because I feel that writers should be aware of the metaphors they play with. I have no objection to the phrase "viral marketing" because it reflects the insidious, parasitical, and ultimately mind-destroying nature of such covert advertising. If the people who do this want to compare their activity to pathological processes, that's fine by me; I see their work as being pathological. What bothers me is the implied celebration of the pathological, especially by someone like this NYT writer who doesn't seem to realize that that is what she is doing. If someone wants to say, "We're dangerous, we're gonna get you, we're viral!", well, that's OK, too; that's just recycled 1970s punk. What bothers me are middle-class writers and businessmen using the word as something positive.
Alternatives? For the meaning, the NYT writer wanted, I'd suggest widespread, inundating, wildfire (also a bad thing to have happen to you, but at least it's out in the open), fast-spreading.
It occurs to me that it is not so much the metaphor itself that bothers me; I'd have no problem if she had written "contagious", for example, though that also implies disease. I suppose it's that for me, viral is still firmly tied to viruses, and I think I want it to stay tied to them.
"The viral popularity of the site propelled the blog’s creators onto the radar of the publishing industry. 'From the first day, we were getting calls from agents,' said Jessica Amason, one of the founders."
– Jenna Wortham, "Public Provides Giggles; Bloggers Get the Book Deal," New York Times, 17 April 2009, here.
A curious use of the word viral to mean "fast-spreading." I know this is a very trendy use, but I find it jarring here. Viruses are something undesirable, something we try to eradicate, whether the issue is physical health or the functioning of a computer program. It seems meretricious to use the word in a context where this negative connotation does not come into play.
Technically, this word refers merely to the quality of wishing something for someone else, but in practice it refers to wishing evil on someone. Not an exact schadenfreude alternative, I know, but it's close.
Bacchanalia, you probably want to put these comments on the appropriate word page (e.g. chode, usa – just click on the word), and not on the list page.
The Slovene version of Schadenfreude, it translates literally as "harm-wishfulness". This is not exactly the same as Schadenfreude, but it generally serves the same purpose. A related word is privoš�?ljivost, which the Dictionary of the Slovene Standard Language describes as the quality of "wishing something on someone, usually something bad or evil."
Just a note on the pronunciation of this Slovene exclamation (which is probably borrowed from English, btw, via the globalization of American television): the letter v in Slovene is often a semi-vowel, and the spelling av represents the diphthong ow, as in the English words how, now, cow and, yes, wow. The initial u- is the best Slovene spelling can do to represent the w sound. You can also occasionally hear people say this word as two syllables, especially when they want to underscore their excitement: oo-OW, which is sort of cute.
I think the proper Italian name might be girasole (apparently it means "sunflowers" and that is what it looks like). The package I bought it in puts an -i on the enc, but then, it's in Slovene. We should ask Prolagus.
I had a stuffed pasta tonight (pre-packaged) that was called girasoli, shaped like silver-dollar-sized suns and filled with basil, mozzarella and tomato (a little caprese salad). This was new to me, but it was very good.
There is always a note of facetiousness in these words with the prefix uber, or more properly, über, or so it seems to me. If not said with irony, they merely betoken a certain naïveté in the speaker. Anything that is truly chic has no need of overstatement, it makes its own case without the aid of prefixes.
Unlike some other primates, lemurs do not have prehensile tails (they cannot hang by their tails from trees like monkeys) but they do have long, wet noses.
In the US, I think this word always refers to an old man, not just any man, and underscores this person's unattractiveness because of his age: How could a babe like Catherine Zeta-Jones marry a geezer like Michael Douglas?
But I have been out of the US for a number of years and watch a lot of British TV, so I'm never 100% about the more subtle cross-pond (transpond?) distinctions.
Hybridity is hardly a shortcoming in this post-postmodern age, and many modern words are macaronic, e.g. television, cyberspace, and many more. But that does not mean hybridity should be encouraged, especially in such a geezer as mesonoxian, which I suspect was invented by some seicento wit for the purpose of displaying his pseudo-erudition or, perhaps, merely to garner guffaws (not unlike the madeupicals of many Wordies). While I am willing to accept this as a word (not that I have any lexicographic authority in the matter), I would caution against its enthusiastic use, and urge instead the simpler and more elegant adjectival use of the word midnight in its place.
And I should point out to Alsanch1 that crepuscular (a fine word, though one to be used sparingly) has nothing to do with midnight, unless of course one is referring to the the subarctic regions at midsummer); it means "relating to twilight".
A friend of mine today forwarded an email to me from someone who was trying to get in touch with me. He had written to my friend this message:
Could you please make sure Rolig gets the following. I sent it earlier, but the internet "MAILER-daemon" said the address wasn't properly configured. I resent it, but please make sure he gets this.
I told him there was no need for resentment just because of some email glitch.
Brings back painful memories. When I lived in Leningrad in the mid-80s, I made a mental list of all the possible public facilities – туалеты (tualety) – (in "foreigner" hotels, certain better restaurants, academic libraries) throughout the center of the city that were acceptable in an emergency. Train station washrooms, however, did not make the list. And I of course I never went anywhere without toilet paper.
Cheboksary? Isn't that the capital of some Finno-Ugric-language-speaking "autonomous republic" (Mari? Komi? – can't remember). What was the bilby doing there?
I agree that it's probably borrowed from a Germanic language; there are quite a few Proto-Slavic words that were borrowed from Germanic (I assume Gothic), e.g. *kъnęgъ, which produced the noble titles кн�?зь (knjaz') in Russian ("prince") and knez in Slovene ("prince" or "duke"), as well as the Czech kněz ("priest"). The Germanic source, *kuningaz, yielded of course the German König and the English king.
One of the leading Slovene pharmaceutical companies is called "Lek", an old Slovene word that means "medicine", and the Slovene word for pharmacy is lekarna. In Russian, лекарь (lekar') is an old word for "doctor", лекар�?тво (lekarstvo) means "medicine", and there is even a verb лечить (le�?it') (showing the usual k > �? palatalization), which means "to treat a disease with medicine". Given the general distribution of this root throughout the Slavic languages (and Slovene and Russian are about as far apart as Slavic languages get in terms of non-Slavic influences), I had always assumed this was a Slavic root. Marko Snoj, in his Slovene Etymological Dictionary, confirms that the word *lek ("medicine") is indeed a Proto-Slavic word, but then writes that it is "usually considered a borrowing from Germanic (compare the Gothic lekeis 'doctor', lekkinon 'to treat with medicine' …), which was itself borrowed from Celtic (compare the Middle Irish líaig 'doctor')."
By the way, in English, you can still come across the word "leech" in the sense of "doctor" in older texts (I think even as late as the 19th century).
What I find curious about this word is that in German it means "ornament, jewelry/jewellery" – a very different connotation indeed from its use in modern American English. I wonder if its establishment in Yiddish as "penis" was the result of a euphemism, like we say "the family jewels".
1992 is nothing compared to the date of the quote I added "about 1 year ago", which was the first use of "nabob" that ever stuck in my then-young mind. (Gosh, I'm old!)
I'm so glad you saw the beautiful Peabody Library. I used to live just a couple blocks away. Too bad about the weather, though. But South Baltimore and Fells Point can be a lot of fun.
I am so pleased, Pro, that my native town could provide you with this hybrid punctuation mark. Baltimore's an interrobangish place, filled with lots of surprises and questions that are always getting mixed up together. I hope you had a good time!
1. to affect powerfully (inspire sorrow, pity; inspire wonder, admiration)
2. to overcome, suffuse, e.g. nova mo�? presunila njeno telo = a new strength flowed through her body; presunil ga je strah pred ljudmi = he was overcome with a fear of people
3. arch. to penetrate, pierce, run through (as with a sword)
Related words
presunljív - 1. moving, pitiful, inspiring (close synonym: ganljiv) 2. penetrating (predirljiv): presunljiv krik = a piercing scream; presunljiv pogled = a penetrating gaze)
This word works only with the main stress on the final syllable and secondary stress on the first syllable, and I would recommend a hyphen: Jewish-ish, pronounced /ˌdʒu�?ɪʃ'ɪʃ/.
The word I prefer (because it better conveys the notion of punishment and not just moving from one status to another) is defrock (and the corresponding verbal noun defrocking). Though perhaps we should worry about priests accused of child molesting being stripped of their frocks.
I often come across the same problem in my editing. One of the people I work with (a Slovene artist) occasionally will refer to to deconstructing buildings, when what she means is pulling them down. I try to explain that the only way to deconstruct a building is to theorize about it (or perhaps build a new construction that in some way analyzes, questions and exposes the underlying structure of the first building). The problem becomes more interesting because my colleague also discusses in her work the deconstruction of modernism, and here, of course, she is talking about deconstruction.
Aw, gee! Thanks, f.a.! And by the way, I particularly enjoyed your strip today, and I don't even know who Gerry Spence is (but I'm glad he's out there).
I haven't compared Onegin translations in a long time, but the last time I did (back in the '80s), Johnston's was by far the best in capturing the spirit of the text. Nabokov's translation is scrupulously accurate as to the concrete meaning of the text, but it is often very idiosyncratic in its word choice and at times rather flat. Nabokov smugly eschews any attempt to convey the original's rhyme scheme or even its meter; I think he secretly wanted to keep the "real" Pushkin to himself. But his two-volume commentary to the text is fascinating and indispensable for any serious Pushkin-lover. I'd recommend Johnston (whose translation came out after Nabokov's and so was spared the Nabokovian disdain he decanted on Walter Arndt, Babette Deutsch, and other predecessors).
Found in a comment by "craig o'donnell" on John McIntyre's copy-editing blog You Don't Say. The point is that mistakes in newspapers are short-lived (newspaper = fishwrap), whereas those in blogs stick around.
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I imagine Ferry felt it was important to preserve Horace's pun, which an English reader with a little knowledge of Latin roots (i.e. ped- = "foot") would easily get (helped along, as in my case, by the semantic and formal resemblance to obsequious). In the following line, of course, "following foot for foot one foot at a time" refers to metrical (iambs, trochees, dactyls, etc.) not anatomical feet. Horace is recommending that poets choose a noble if familiar subject, such as the Trojan War, and then make their own mark on it by doing new things with the poetic form. I wonder if he is talking especially about those Latin poets who were producing more or less free translations from Greek poetry and yet were trying to render the Greek meters as closely possible. Sort of like the many translations of Pushkin I've seen that make this incredible poet sound like some jingle-writer because the translator is applying all sorts of silly tricks to preserve the rhyme scheme and the meter. (Charles Johnston's 1977 translation of Eugene Onegin is a felicitous exception.)
But I (typically) digress. Given the rough tertiary meter of Ferry's verse (and this particular line is a standard amphibrachic in Latin, short-long-short, or in English, unstressed-stressed-unstressed tetrameter), I would expect pedissequous to be pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, with a short i as in disc, roughly /pɛ'dɪsəkwəs/.
John, perhaps I.M. Pei's name has become a byword for modernist architect, as in: "Our architecure program has produced quite a few Peis and a couple of Mieses, too." A more likely plural, however, would be if Pei is understood metonymically: "While everyone else was getting excited about deconstructivist architecture, she devoted herself to the buildings of late modernism and traveled the world photographing Peis and Safdies." Well, it's possible. I guess all I am saying is, give Peis a chance.
Thanks, all. And John's "Son of Samovar" is deliciously psychopathic enough to deserve its own page. John, nobody is listing Son of Samovar. Why don't you?
Jokes are fine, and I know that words change meanings as they migrate. I just hadn't realized samovar had turned into a generalized hot-beverage dispenser. Many borrowings, and samovar is one of them retain their foreignness. I may be out of it, but I find it hard to think of anything as a samovar, except facetiously, unless it is more or less directly associated with the Russian samovar. If there is humor for me in the excerpt John cited (and 30 Rock has not yet reached my Central European hideaway, so I am not familiar with any of the characters), then it is that Toufer himself doesn't know what a samovar is, though he smugly thinks he does. I suspect, however, that the intention was simply to show Toufer's nerdishness in using unusual words. In this case "samovar" actually means "a word only elitists or eggheads use." Which would be OK if the elitist/egghead used it correctly. But this is the kind of faux populism I hate about TV writing, because they usually get it wrong. The other day, for example, in some TV drama, someone who was supposed to be a born-again Christian said something like: "Jesus said" followed by a familar quotation from one of Paul's letters (e.g. "It is more blessed to give than to receive"). A born-again Christian would know this came from Paul and not from Jesus speaking in the Gospels. But the lazy-ass TV writers couldn't be bothered to look it up because they don't really care about accuracy or even about what born-again Christians would really say; they just want a snappy line.
Sorry for the digression. And thanks, Sionnach and Reesetee, for the vote of support.
Sionnach, did you grow up saying (and hearing people say) one-syllable forte? I wonder if the one- vs. two-syllable divide is based on class distinctions or perhaps on the transatlantic rift, or both?
Well argued, Q.! I am an overly educated guy who is thought to be quite articulate and knowledgeable about languages, and I have always said this word with two syllables, with the stress on the first. But a couple of months ago someone whose opinion on such matters I respect said that it should be pronounced as one syllable when it meant "area of particular strength". But I don't believe that I have ever heard anyone say the word that way in the past thirty years. And I am sure that I and my educated friends have all said it disyllabically. Thanks for the confirmation.
But this makes me wonder: is this campaign to get people to say forte monosyllabically a recent fad? Is this a new bugbear?
Samovars dispensing coffee? I think not. Traditional Russians make their coffee the Turkish way, in a little pot over a flame. Samovars are used only for tea.
Sorry for the confusion. The Slovene verb cucati (pronounced /TSU-tsa-ti/) means "to suck"; the label juv. ("juvenile") indicates that it is usually used by or with young children.
"He felt closer to dust, he said, than to light, air or water. There was nothing he found so unbearable as a well-dusted house, and he never felt more at home than in places where things remained undisturbed, muted under the grey, velvety sinter left when matter dissolved, little by little, into nothingness."
– W. G. Sebald, The Emigrants, tr. Michael Hulse (London: Vintage Books, 2002), 161.
Strictly speaking, they mean different things, though it's true that we often condemn things we contemn. To condemn something or is to declare it bad, wicked, etc.; to contemn something is to express disdain for it, to hold it in contempt (which derives, in fact, from the past participle of the Latin verb contemnere, "to scorn", which gives us "contemn").
But you should note that "contemn" is not often used anymore (the Oxford American Dictionary marks it as "archaic"), probably because of this very confusion with "condemn".
No, Maya and Maksim are fairly common Russian names, though the surname Kulpa is unusual. But such things do occur. I have a good friend in Ljubljana named Tadej (the Slovene version of Thaddaeus), which is pronounced a lot like the English word "today". His sister's name is Tamara, with the stress on the second syllable.
I enjoyed the video very much, and it's nice to hear your voice – "fecal carnage" is an interesting, if disturbing phrase. I am not very good at spotting accents, in fact, unless they are rather broad, but I thought your voice sounded American. Maybe it was the way you pronounced the r. I thought Irish accents generally used more of a trilled r.
I once had a friend in St. Petersburg whose name was Maya Kulpa (Ма�? Кульпа), and her brother was Maksim Kulpa (Мак�?им Кульпа). It was hard to resist the temptation to refer to them collectively as Mea Maxima Culpa.
Chained_bear, you loved and cared for her and gave her a home when she felt most abandoned. Wherever she is now, I am sure that love remains for you (with you) and, possibly, for her too.
Yes, in Brazil. I came across this name in a piece I was editing about indigenous communities in the Brazilian state of Acre. The word was written as cupuaçu, but I wondered if there was an English equivalent. And I found cupuassu on Wikipedia (which I don't usually have much confidence in).
My condolences, Chained_bear. It may seem weird, but when my amazing cat Nastasya died a few years ago, I somehow felt that she was now in some way able to look out for me just I had looked out for her.
DJ, what's a theoretical band? Do you perform recitations of Foucault and Žižek? That could be interesting. And I'm also curious about your semi-retired poet status. Do you get semi-retirement benefits? Health care? Is there a semi-retirement poets' community? Twenty-five seems a young age to retire from anything, even semi-retire.
Doesn't it seem likely that Shakespeare was making a joke? Instead of saying simply "Great Ones" (which I think was a set phrase then, as it still is today, for the privileged in society), he was poking fun at such folks by appending the suffix -yer, as if being a Great One was not about character or moral stature, it was simply a profession, like that of lawyers and sawyers. In other words, might not oneyer be a Shakespearean madeupical?
I think I understand, though it's surprising that the adjective humanly has appeared so rarely since Caxton, for it follows the same pattern as godly, womanly, and manly, and indeed, the adjectival suffix -ly seems fairly productive, e.g. a person can act in a doctorly manner; one may look for cousinly support; a woman may show wifely devotion; members of the Religious Society of Friends encourage Quakerly behavior; etc.
Thanks, C_b and ext11, for the sympathy. But this loss occurred a quarter-century ago, so I am no longer grieving, though I am still grateful for this cat's devotion.
Strange. I'm sure I have been hearing people use the phrase "humanly possible" all of my life (and I met Abraham passed 50 a couple of years ago, as Slovenes say). So is this really a "new" word?
I lived with, and learned from, Muffin II, many more years than I had with Muffin, his predecessor, who sadly died from injuries sustained in a road accident at the young age of 3. Nevertheless, he also taught me a thing or two.
Muffin, the first of the name in our household (see Muffin II for his successor), was with us for only a few years. I was seven when we adopted him as a kitten, and he died after sustaining injuries in a road accident (my grandmother suspected the culprit was a motorcyclist) when he was only three. My memories of Muffin are vague, but I know I loved him and was deeply distressed by his passing. He inadvertantly challenged my young belief in the Judeo-Christian god, as taught by my Presbyterian Sunday School, but that is another story.
Prolagus has the right idea. Muffin II was a cat with whom I lived from the age of 10 to 18, and intermittantly after that, until his death at the age of 15 (when I was 25 and in graduate school). Much of what I know about forebearance, loyalty and contemplation I learned from Muffin II.
Thank you, Reesetee, for posting Soto's poem about his dog! I have loved Smart's poem ever since I first came across it some thirty years ago. It has to be the finest thing ever written about a cat; it percolates with love, wonder, and attentive observation.
This list, by the way, is dedicated to the feline members of my own little family, Aglaja and Erazma, each a mixture of gravity and waggery.
Thank you for this, Reesetee. You have inspired me to make a Poetrie with Christopher Smart's ode to his cat Jeoffry. It wouldn't surprise me if Smart's work was what prompted Soto to write this lovely poem to his dog; the two works have a lot in common.
Perhaps the worst thing about this faux pas was not that the word was wrong (actually it's the kind of mistake I would expect a truly diplomatic Russian to overlook, since it's very understandable why someone, even with a good general knowledge of Russian, might think that peregruzka meant "reset" – and in "lazy" or colloquial Russian, people do say peregruzka to mean reboot; Lavrov was being an asshole), but that the word was written in the Latin alphabet, not in the Cyrillic. This is truly disrepectful of Russian as a language. For more on peregruzka / перегрузка v. perezagruzka / перезагрузка, see the discussion at Language Log, to which yours truly made a modest contribution.
Thanks for your suggestion (a week and a half ago!) regarding my question about how to refer the "singular" of a pluralis tantem. I think I understand the notion of a "bound base", but I am not sure that applies to units like *scissor, *hijink, and *trouser, since the -s in the pluralis tantum is not really an affix in the way that dis- is in discombobulate, but a grammatical ending (or perhaps this distinction is irrelevant?). In other words, when we remove the ending from scissors, we still have a hypothetical noun that acts like real nouns in certain ways, notably, it can serve as a verb ("She scissored her way through the crowd") or a modifier ("The scissor pieces lay on the table, waiting to be assembled"). Would lexeme work in such cases?
Nice list! Just what I want first thing in the morning (or afternoon, as the case may be). I see you are already listing the Slovene and BCSM (Bosno-Croato-Serbo-Montenegrin) kava (sans accent), though Serbians seem to prefer kafa (or кафа in Cyrillic spelling). In Russian, coffee would be кофе (transliterated kofe). Also, my friends in Maryland fondly refer to this beverage as java (no matter where the beans originate).
In low-colloquial Slovene, this means "coffee." It almost certainly comes from the German Kaffee by way of the Carinthian dialect, where /a/ tends to be pronounced more or less /o/.
"Glede izjave predsednika Zveze borcev za vrednote NOB Slovenije Janeza Stanovnika, da povojnih pobojev niso izvedli partizani, ampak Jugoslovanska armada, je Drobni�?, sicer �?lan Nove Slovenske zaveze, poudaril, 'naj se Stanovnik ne spreneveda'."
Latin: "the body of offense". In law, this refers to the facts and circumstances constituting a breach of the law. In popular usage, however, this can mean the concrete evidence, such as a corpse.
a somewhat old-fashioned word for an ankle-boot, though in vernacular usage it can also mean any shoe. From the Hungarian csizma (dial. csizsma or Serbian �?izma, both derived from Turkish çizme "boot".
Oh of course actuaries. But what about spammers? What about telemarketers? What about advertisers in general? You know, anyone who tries to convince you to buy something you don't need and don't really even want? Who tries to convince you that you're somehow deficient unless you have their overpriced product that is guaranteed to wear out/run out/break down/go out of style in less than a year so you'll have to get the new and improved version? I have my doubts.
What a silly word. For one thing, these are not "almost enclaves"; they are almost exclaves (unless I've misunderstood what belongs to what). And for another thing, it's ridiculous to use the obscure "pene-" prefix when there are established ways of indicating such things. I would call these "near-exclaves" or, if you insist on a fancy prefix, "quasi-exclave". We don't, for instance, call it a "pene-victory" when a candidate loses by a few votes, or a "pene-fatality" when someone is almost killed.
"And when we were down twenty points in the summer, all the pundits and all the smart folks, they were saying, 'OK, his only chance now is he's got to knee-cap her; he's got to do a Tonya Harding on the frontrunner.'"
– Candidate Barack Obama on the campaign trail in 2008.
a small lizard, especially the kind found sunbathing on rocks in gardens. Slovenes say things like, "Sedimo na soncu in se grejemo kot martin�?ki" ("We're sitting in the sun, warming ourselves like lizards"). The name of this beastie could be literally translated as "little Martin", and Slovene etymologist Marko Snoj says it is probably derived from the name "St. Martin," though the specific connection to the saint is not clear.
Dooty comes from doo-doo (a child's word for what doggies do on the lawn), which is a humorous euphemism for excrement. What Jim Hightower and Phillip Frazer meant was "Horseshit!" (or more precisely, "Horse turds!").
There were signs that the country's armed forces were mobilizing along the Lebanese border. It would be a terrible mistake to assume the dictator's words were idle threats. The U.S. envoy's report made one thing repetitively clear: Syria's serious.
The word is real enough. An osphresiophilia is a strong (perhaps erotic) attraction to certain smells. For Wordizens, the prefix biblio- seems to be in order. While I may sometimes pooh-pooh a word, I would never poo-poo a fellow Wordie.
"Seasons in the Sun" is a bowdlerized English version of a fine, bitterly ironic song by Jacques Brel, "Le Moribond" (The Dying Man). There is a video of Brel singing this song on You-Tube (with English subtitles).
Perhaps putting "substantiality" in quotation marks would have made this clear, though that still leaves the question, "substantial" in what sense? In terms of length (a headline is not really "substantial" in that regard) or in terms of importance? If I quote only a single sentence, but it happens to be the sentence that carries the weight of the whole article, how does this excerpt rank in "substantiality"?
I can still see this being an eggcorn, at least in the mind of the bestower. I'm pretty sure that I used to think these were vocal chords because they're like the chords you play on a guitar. As the dictionary suggests, cord and chord have a long history of being confused. So what started as an eggcorn became, in some circles at least, an OK tree, while for others it still napped in the bud.
Pro, "funny bone" is the vernacular name for the olecranon, that part of the elbow which gives you a funny (wierd) feeling when you accidentally knock it against something.
Cat, you apparently didn't read VictoriaPL's citation from about 1 year ago. No need to repeat comments. By the way, do you like kippling? What about browning?
Oh, Joe! Well, he's another concrete thinker, despite being a lawyer – unlike his Antarctica-roaming wife.
By the way, I don't think I would ever interpret "imperfectible" as meaning "capable of being made imperfect" because there is no verb "to imperfect". I might say, rather, something like "blemishable" (a word that I doubt exists in dictionaries but is perfectly understandable).
"Helmet" has military connotations. "Hard hat" primarily means the headgear worn by construction workers as protection from things falling on them from above. Why did "hard hat" evolve in this context instead of "helmet", since they both mean essentially the same thing: "hard headgear worn as protection"? I suppose it's because workers used to always wear a kind of hat (e.g. to keep dust out of their hair), but in certain areas where there was a chance of things falling from above, they were required to exchange their soft-material hat for a hard hat. People didn't think of calling it a "helmet" because helmets were associated with military combat and sports (another kind of combat), areas very different from labor.
A curious pair: unperfectability and imperfectibility. The first is non-standard, I think, and comes from the English verb "to perfect" (stress on 2nd syllable): perfect + -able (which can be added to almost any transitive verb to produce an adjective) + un- (which can negate pretty much any adjective in English).
In fact, you probably won't find the perfectly plausible perfectable in most standard English dictionaries, and that's because the Latinate perfectible is so well-established, that the -able ending registers as incorrect. Because it derives from Latin, "perfectible" yields the equally Latinate negative imperfectible and hence, imperfectibility.
The variant you suggest, Pro, is not implausible, but because it combines the handy English un- prefix with the Franco-Latinate -ibility suffixes, it seems strange.
Kushner's word unperfectability means essentially the same as imperfectibility, but it has a somewhat ad hoc feeling, representing an instantaneous thought process (is this Belize speaking?) that goes something like this:
1. No one can make the world perfect.
2. The world is not able to be perfected.
3. The world is not "perfect-able."
4. The world is un-perfect-able.
5. The world is characterized by unperfectability.
By having his character say "unperfectability" instead of the standard "imperfectibility", Kushner conveys that the character is thinking in concrete, rather than abstract Scholiastic, terms. Which is sort of the whole point of the Belize v. Louis contrast in the play.
The distinction Bilby suggests has merit, too, I think. The word "imperfectible" probably developed in medieval religious thinking with regard to the question of the perfectibility or imperfectibility of man, given the doctrine of Original Sin. So it does point to an inherent deficiency. "Unperfectability", on the other hand, is, as I suggest, an ad hoc term related to concrete thinking ("Can we perfect this situation? No? Well, okay. How about this other situation then? Maybe we can perfect that. Let's give it a try.") and is not really concerned with inherent deficiencies, only with possibility or impossibility at the moment.
"The shootings of seven people marred Fat Tuesday as ear-piercing gunfire set revelers ducking for cover and brought the final stream of truck floats to a horrifying halt."
From the caption on a Guardian photo showing a utility truck cleaning up after New Orleans' Mardi Gras celebrations.
Somehow this was not the use of "ear-piercing" I was expecting in a report on Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Very sad.
I love the image of this: As you're leaving some scintillating Parisian salon, descending the grand staircase to your waiting coach outside, it hits you: you know just how you should have responded, the perfect, most brilliant retort, to the Chevalier de la Foue's insinuations about your last play (or was he perhaps referring to your relations with that promising young actor at La Comédie française?). But it is too late…
TBT, you would probably have some idea about how the word is spelled, wouldn't you? Often the problematic part of the word comes in the middle or the end (e.g. -able or -ible, -ant or -ent), so you know enough to look the word up and discover the correct spelling. If the word starts in a quirky way, like the name of our friend pterodactyl, then you might indeed be stumped, but after a while you may even start recognizing some of these deceptive spellings, and know that if the word isn't spelled one way then it is probably spelled another way. Most people, I suspect, use dictionaries to confirm or correct spellings they think they know.
God, I hate marketing lingo, especially when it usurps a wonderful, vivid word like turnkey. In my view, this self-promotional usage, and the marketeers who came up with it, are shovel-ready. Do any of these people read books?
*feels himself turning into a curmudgeon; sort of likes it, sort of doesn't*
Zizoo, there are plenty of mismatched (i.e. Greek + Latin elements) words that have been established in contemporary English (e.g. hypersensitive), so hypoflexive has lots of company, however scruffy such company might seem to etymology mavens like me (and, I presume, Qroqqa). If you want to be consistent (though some hold that consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, of course), you could use the Latin prefix sub-, which would give you (I think) sufflexive. Or you could search out the Greek root for "bend" (Qroqqa could help, I bet).
Old-fashioned Oxford University Press prefers the etymologically grounded -ize/-ization (not an Americanism, but in use since the 16th century) to the French-influenced -ise spellings.
"Nižje pogovorno" is a designation Slovene lexicographers give to non-"formal" words that are widely used and understood in conversation (i.e. "pogovorno" – "colloquial") but that indicate a lower level of education or social status (i.e. "nižje" – "lower" or perhaps "vulgar" in the classic sense). In fact many of these words are used by everybody, even university professors, in relaxed, informal settings. Slovenes often refer to such words as doma�?e – "domestic, for the home" – which is a little ironic since the vast majority are German imports (e.g. štant, "a stand or booth", from das Stand), whereas the formal Slovene (Slavic-root) word (here, stojnica) is often less widely used and can sound official and stilted.
In Slovene classes, of course, they never teach you these "low-colloquial" expressions. And in Slovene schools, children are reprimanded when they use them, which, unsurprisingly, has its effects on the character.
Comments by rolig
Show previous 200 comments...
rolig commented on the word fasten brastraps and remove dentures
I can hear Bette Davis saying this.
October 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word razz-ma-tasmanian devil
I know this is not a "proper" STF, but I couldn't resist.
October 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word vavasor
I came across it accidentally, when I was looking up "Valvasor" (a Slovene 17th-century polymath). It was new to me, too.
October 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word vavasor
I'm surprised to see that a certain history-minded bear hasn't listed this word (or vavasory) yet.
October 7, 2009
rolig commented on the list zing-went-the-strings
lovely list. From the Slavic side of the world comes the gusli (Russian) and the similarly named but structurally different gusle (Balkan).
October 6, 2009
rolig commented on the user gangerh
oh wow, I didn't even think of that sense of the word. Thanks, G!
October 6, 2009
rolig commented on the user gangerh
Thanks for including me among your bananas, G. I suppose I always hoped my light would be a little bigger, not a macrolight, of course, but, well, something noticeable. *sigh*
October 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word saunter
Interesting citation at saunterer.
October 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word u-shaped course of development
C'mon guys, I only eavesdrop for language-learning purposes! I would never listen in to your conversations.
*wonders whether Strine is worth the strain*
October 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word presdifigurators
The word is ugly, but it is also mispelled (if madeupicals can be mispelled). It should logically be prestifiguratators. "Presdi-" makes no sense at all.
October 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word u-shaped course of development
oops. Did I say too much?
October 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word u-shaped course of development
I know it well. Just when you're convinced you'll never be able to learn this damned language, you suddenly find yourself eavesdropping on conversations at the next table with no trouble at all.
October 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word wtf
Then there's the McDonald's version: FWT?
October 2, 2009
rolig commented on the list not-quite-as-awful-as-they-sound
The Glagolitic alphabet is lovely and strange. You can still come across it in parts of Croatia. In Istria they sell little ceramic Glagolitic scrolls as tourist souvenirs. The word glagol, by the way, is the Old Slavic word for "word" (today it means "verb" in most Slavic languages).
October 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word kindle
You've gotta wonder why Amazon decided on this idiotic name. When I link the word "kindle" with books, I think of Nazis and book-burning. Is the idea that our old-fashioned paper books can now be used as kindling? Marketing morons.
September 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word subjunctive case
This sounds very strange to me. I would say, "till it was 15 years old". I think someone has made a mistake.
By the way, verbs don't have cases; they have tense and mood, among other things (Slavic verbs also have aspect). The standard term is "subjunctive mood". "Case" refers to nouns: nominative, genitive, etc.
September 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word lemon pledge of allegiance
Thanks, FA! I love the tag! Did you do that?
September 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word erazem
The Slovene version of "Erasmus", this is a fairly popular name perhaps because of the historical Baron Erazem Predjamski, who built his castle in a cave and became known as a kind of Robin Hood figure. I gave my cat the (rather rare) female version of this name, Erazma, which seemed to me an excellent name for a cat.
September 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word �?rtomir
A name one occasionally encounters in Slovenia, perhaps because it is also the name of the hero of Slovenia's national epic (every country has one), The Baptism by the Savica (Krst pri Savici, 1835) by France Prešeren. What is strange about this name is that it means something like "devil's peace". It forms the nickname Črt, which means, yes, "evil spirit".
September 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word božidar
This is the Slovene calque on Theodore: "God's gift." The short form of the name is Božo, which makes me wonder if the name is at all related to that of Bozo the Clown.
September 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word rule of the tablecloth
bureaucracy?
September 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word lemon pledge of allegiance
For a star-spangled shine!
September 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word furniture polish jokes
How many bottles of pine oil does it take to change a lightbulb?
September 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word wordnikie suggestion box
Who's formatting bears? Does C_b know about this?
September 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word sarah
The spelling "Sara" is the "correct" (i.e. standard) spelling of this name in Slovene and other South Slavic languages.
September 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word f2f
My guess would be "female to female" (as in sexual practice).
September 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word iztok
I have always liked this name, but only recently did I realize that the name means "East" (in Old Slavic), and was the equivalent of the Latin name Orientius (the 5th-century St. Orientius was a poet, by the way).
September 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word eschscholtzia
Also spelled eschscholzia – so much simpler.
September 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word fredonia
A friend of mine, who is from Fredonia, NY, told me that the Marx Brothers named the Duck Soup country Freedonia because they were upset by the bad reception they received when they did a show in Fredonia, NY, and wanted to make fun of the town.
September 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word puissant
@ TheSarahEffect: Sorry to hear about the bad experience with your English teacher, who seems to feel it's her/his job to limit rather than expand your vocabulary. I wonder if your teacher knows what "esoteric" means; I certainly wouldn't use it to describe "puissant" – erudite maybe, but not "esoteric".
I pronounce it more or less as you and Chained_bear do: two syllables: PWISS-ent (that "e" is a schwa). I think the French pronunciation would be: pü-i-SÃ, where the "ü" stands for that narrow, unrounded front-of-the-mouth "u", the "i" is as in machine, and the "ã" is a nasal "ah". But when you're speaking English, I strongly recommend using English pronunciations.
September 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word wordnikie suggestion box
C_b, I wasn't aware that "discussion" as a term had become ubiquitous on the Web. Sigh. Of course, my suggestion was meant to encourage just the opposite of ranting. For mean, discussion involves listening and consideration (in both senses of the word); it's a two-way thing, whereas "comments" and "commentary", etc., seem one-way, i.e. "let me tell you what I think about this." That said, you are right, I think, that "comments" is a fairly "neutral" word. Still it would be great if we could come up with something that did actually encourage people to discuss things, since after all Wordie has been the site of many excellent discussions, as well as fuflun-combat, and it would great if people understood that from the get-go.
September 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word least common denominator
The least common denominator would be the most extraordinary one, wouldn't it?
September 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word wordnikie suggestion box
I think it would be great to have a separate space for actual citations, so we can see how a word is being used, and then have another place for "comments". I suppose "comments" is the standard name for such things, though I would like to see people encouraged to discuss the words and not just comment on them. I would therefore suggest "Discussion" as a header.
September 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word imma let you finish
Bilby, the question is about where the expression "I'ma/Imma/I'm'a/I'm 'a/I'm a-" comes from, and how it should be spelled, when the "a" particle indicates the immediate future tense (in standard English we would say, "I'm going to let you finish"; Kanye said, "I'm'a let you finish.")
September 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word uglajen
"respectable; respectability" is perhaps a good choice.
September 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word imma let you finish
This very question is currently being discussed over at Language Log, Telo. Personally, I don't like the spelling "Imma", which looks like it should rhyme with the word "dimmer" (British received pronunciation). I would vote for "I'm 'a" since it's pretty clear that the "a" is a contraction of "gonna" (I'm going to > I'm gonna > I'm 'na > I'm 'a). I'm not sure Kanye actually pronounces a double "m", but if he does this would have arisen through assimilation of the "n" in "gonna".
September 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word third man factor
Could it be Orson Welles on the Riesenrad of life?
September 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word resurection fern
Shouldn't this be resurrection, HH?
September 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word lingnan school
You hearing this, ReeseTee?
September 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word lingnan school
Wow, thanks, MM! I didn't know about this. I love the pictures by Li Fuhong! Very Zen.
September 16, 2009
rolig commented on the list etymologically-awesome
Check out pamphlet. It's one of my favorite etymologies.
September 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word ginkgo
Thanks, Fox! A lovely poem.
September 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word rsvp'd
Sounds like a great list idea, Erin! I, for one, wouldn't want to see it 86'd. Though if I wanted to nitpick, I'd say that RSVP does have vowels: ɑ�?, ɛ and i�? (twice); it just doesn't have vowel-letters.
September 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word wordnikie
If we become Wordnikie, does that mean we're going to get a swoosh?
September 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word rimfire
*guffaw*
Thanks, Froggy, for the chuckle!
September 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word en yaourt
Fr., lit. "in yogurt". With the verb chanter this apparently means "in a kind of gibberish that approximates the lyrics", esp. when the lyrics are in a foreign language. See the discussion at Language Log.
September 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word wordnik
Thanks, Erin! I am feeling reassured. Ooh, but I like Molly's idea of a Lexome Project. The best of all possible words! Borges's Library of Babel but with scores of writing systems! Now that would be something.
September 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word sitsiritsit
And if it is a really short song, then I guess it'd be an itsy-bitsy sitsiritsit.
September 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word wordnik
While I would applaud Wordnik-like efforts in other linguistic communities (Словник, Besednik, Wortnik – would the French Wordnik be named Mo'nique®, by any chance?), I'm not enthused about the idea of segregating the languages. The working language of Wordie is, by and large, English, though conversations in other tongues do occur and are in no way discouraged, but we still talk quite a lot about non-English words: what they mean, how they sound, what Beatles songs they bring to mind (see oplaziti), and so on. Will there still be a place on Wordienik for non-English words, nonce words, symbols, ideograms, glyphs, numerals, and all the different alphabets that some of us find so fascinating, delightful, comical, or horkworthy. What will happen to 42? Or will they be consigned to their own respective versions of Wordnik?
September 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word wordnik
I have liked Wordnik since I first discovered it a few months ago, and the upcoming amalgamation doesn't give me the jitters, not too much at least, largely because John has proved himself time and time again to astonishingly level-headed and responsible for someone who likes to call himself a slack bastard little teapot. So I trust John. And I like Wordnik. And I also know that Wordies are tenaciously protective of what we've got.
But I do have a question. Wordnik seems to have a noticeable bias toward, well, how can I put this, English. And though I love English and even make my living from it, I also deeply appreciate Wordie's (and Wordies') openness to other languages, e.g my Slovene and Russian, as well as Indonesian, Urdu, Chinese, Georgian, a raft of Amerindian and African languages, not to mention the Madeupical tongue, beloved by many of us. So will these possibilities continue in Wordnik? Will we feel compelled to bite our many tongues? Will Wordnik become multilingual? Will it be useful for learners of foreign tongues?
Or perhaps, Wordnik will prove even more adaptive, such as by having links to foreign-language dictionaries? That would be very neat.
September 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word robert frost
See citation at Emily Dickinson.
September 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word emily dickinson
And you read your Emily Dickinson
And I my Robert Frost,
And we note our place with bookmarkers
That measure what we've lost.
Like a poem poorly written
We are verses out of rhythm,
Couplets out of rhyme,
In syncopated time,
Lost in the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
Are the borders of our lives.
– Paul Simo, "The Dangling Conversation" (1966)
September 8, 2009
rolig commented on the list bywords
Asativum and Bilby, thanks for the suggestions. Lo' and Emily are added, and, via Simon and Garfunkel, Emily reminded me of another American poet whose name has become a byword, so I've added Robert Frost too. Mecca I didn't add, since although it is undoubtedly a byword, this list is reserved for personal names.
September 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word o crablouse day! callow! allay!
I don't think having a crablouse day would make me shout Allay! One would also certainly have to question one's callowness.
September 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word penis
We met him again later, at dinner. He had a curious man with him, the Marquis of something or other. … He took us back to his house and name-dropped. '… And I was there when Madame de Gaulle made her famous gaffe, you know. Somebody asked her, "What are you looking forward to when you retire?" "I am looking forward most to a penis," she replied. After a pause somebody said, "Oh, oui, happiness, madame." '
– Joe Orton, The Orton Diaries, ed. John Lahr (London: Methuen, 1986), 176.
September 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word 100204180
brilliant!
August 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word french national anthem
How is this a sweet tooth fairy? It seems like perfectly ordinary description of La Marseillaise.
August 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word arlo guthrie
But maybe you got what you needed, Bil.
August 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word galileo
Saddam's full name is, according to Wikipedia (a source I distrust, but this information seems correct), Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti. The "Hussein" is actually a patronymic (his father's name) which is being used, for the convenience of the media, as a "last name". "Al-Tikriti" indicates where the family originates (the town of Tikrit). I am not sure about the "Abd al-Majid" part. I used to have an Armenian friend from Baghdad, who told me that his official Iraqi name consisted of his first name + his father's first name + his grandfather's first name. The Armenian family name never came into the picture. So it is a mistake to think of "Hussein" as Saddam's "surname" the way European last names are surnames.
August 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word luftwaffle
Oh, I would take this in a different direction altogether, to mean something like "attacking by means of suddenly changing your views with the intention of disarming your opponents". Politicians do this a lot:
"The senator said she would support the measure but then opposed it on technical grounds. Her opponent accused her of using luftwaffle tactics."
August 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word lovelify
Wouldn't this mean "to make something lovely" – as the opposite of uglify?
August 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word stimulatify
What's a "stimulate state", SSS?
August 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word stimulatify
um… isn't this what stimulate means?
August 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word facial expression
You could also just say "expression" or even just "eyes". I am not sure that there is anything "cold" about the term facial expression, by the way. "Visage", "aspect", and "countenance" are all rather formal words. "Look" is more colloquial, but can be ambiguous (e.g., it can refer just as well to one's clothes or posture).
August 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word front sitter
Sionnach, I have no idea what that means.
A clue: this word is also used as a title, e.g. Front-sitter Jane Smith.
August 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word persian apple
I guessed this because of the Russian word for peach, пер�?ик / persik, but Bilby beat me to it.
August 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word sacred rule
You got it, RT!
August 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word chuj
Latin-alphabet spellings are confusing things. The Polish (and Czech and Slovak) spelling ch corresponds to the Russian Cyrillic letter х, which is usually transliterated (for English speakers) as kh.
The word Mia is referring to begins with the affricate sound "ch" (in Cyrillic, usually spelt as ч), as in the English word "church" (in Polish spelt as cz, in Czech, Slovak, and the South Slavic languages as �?).
August 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word little sword
Ah… gladiolus.
August 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word wing-finger
Sorry, Fox, that totally went past me. The pun-receiver in my brain doesn't seem to be working, or maybe I just need sleep.
August 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word sacred rule
My dictionary says shibboleth comes from the Hebrew for "ear of corn", so I don't think that's the password in this case.
August 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word wing-finger
Yes, Fbharjo, of course.
August 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word fred
MM, I don't have any strong associations with the names "Fred" or "Eugene", but I suspect that's a generational thing. Also, even for a generation such associations can change pretty quickly. I remember as a kid thinking that Ursula was a sort of dorky name, but then Ursula Andress came along and the name became sexy. I suppose most Americans associate the name Igor with the misshapen servants of mad scientists, but then I've known a few wonderful men named Igor, not to mention the Igor whose host was the subject of a famous lay, so that association has been lost for me.
August 5, 2009
rolig commented on the list plato-s-plate
Habermas' hover mass?
John Updike's join-up dyke?
Ashbery's ash berry?
Tolstoy's tall story?
August 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word lizst's lists
See list for an example of the same wordplay raised to the next level.
August 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word eugene
I envision Eugene Onegin, but I don't really expect others to.
August 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word little sword
Perhaps you're thinking of spatula.
August 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word testicle
One of these plants is orchid.
August 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word women
PU, there is no real reason to think this is Shaw's opinion. It's what his character Henry Higgins says, and I don't think the misogynistic Higgins is really Shaw's mouthpiece here. One should be careful when quoting from plays.
Of course, this quote was the basis of Higgins's song "I'm an Ordinary Man" in the Lerner and Lowe musical My Fair Lady:
Let a woman in your life and your serenity is through,
she'll redecorate your home, from the cellar to the dome,
and then go on to the enthralling fun of overhauling you...
Let a woman in your life, and you're up against a wall,
make a plan and you will find,
that she has something else in mind,
and so rather than do either you do something else that neither likes at all…
August 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word hircine
I'm sure one of the dictionaries linked to the icons above could help you out, PU. This is not a word I know. But this is the kind of question that makes me wonder if the social-networking generation (generally speaking) knows how to use reference tools or merely relies on twittered opinion.
August 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word eugene
Examples?
August 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word fred
Where are you getting this from, PU?
August 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word hunker down
Molly, surely here "up" is not part of the verb, but rather is part of the prepositional unit "up against".
July 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word izbjeglica
MM, I suspect the "literal" meaning would be "one who has fled/escaped/run from something". The Slavic root -beg- / -bjeg- relates to the notion of fleeing or escaping; compare the Latin root -fug- (I suspect from the same IE root as -beg-) in words such as fugitive (one who has fled), centrifugal (fleeing the center), refuge (a place one runs back to).
July 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word glame
GLAMÉ! I love it.
But I am having second thoughts about that "A". I think it might mean "Association" as in "The Gay and Lesbian Association of Mittel-Europa", which would certainly be appropriate to my situation.
July 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word bagelhead
I was quite happy to see the kitty with the bagel on its head. But the pic Skip linked to is, well, let's talk about kitties with bagels on their heads.
July 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word copse of trees
Sorry to nit-pick, C_B. I'm sure it's fine. Redundancies are a natural part of language, anyway. But I've been overworked recently, so my editorial eagle-eye needs some rest. Thankfully, I am going on vacation for two weeks on Saturday, to the island of Hvar in Dalmatia.
But now I have to find my way out of the copse of texts that are still waiting for me.
July 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word koala humper
Just wait till the PETA folks hear about this!
July 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word glame
Dontcry, I don't think gays would be against Mamie Eisenhower (we have a thing for First Ladies), and I personally have a soft spot for Mr. Ed (I was just singing his theme song a few days ago). And Maine now lets us marry, so I don't want to be against that state. But I'm overwhelmed by all these excellent suggestions!
RT, just coming up with an appropriate name would fulfill the entrance requirements, I think (apart from the more obvious ones).
July 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word glame
Actually, friends, this is the name of a new organization I'm starting: Gays and Lesbians Against … but here I can't decide: Mediocre Editing? Marginal Errors? Misguided Euphemisms? Muddled Expressions? Mental Enervation? Midlife Epiphanies? (no, actually, I am for midlife epiphanies) …
Any other suggestions?
July 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word glame
A gay football player or soldier who's been injured in the leg, perhaps?
July 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word spooky
I love Dusty when she's a-singing this sort of song.
July 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word phuphlunodelphia
I've been waiting two weeks for someone to pick up on this! Welcome back, RT my friend. You were greatly missed.
July 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word iquitarod
Hilarious.
July 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word slough
I love sight rhymes! They're like aural–optical illusions. (See the discussion on eye rhyme.)
July 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word accent
This is excellent! Thanks, Bilby!
July 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word lightening bug
as opposed to a darkening bug?
July 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word dobrodošlica
Malenkost.
July 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word dobrodošlica
Literally "well-arrived" (dobro + došel) + the suffix -ica, which turns this into a concrete noun; hence, "a thing (here, a party or ceremony) associated with a good arrival".
July 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word copse of trees
Not to dampen any memories, C_b, but isn't this a bit of a redundant phrase. I mean, can you have a copse of anything other than trees? A copse of pencils?
July 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word dobrodošlica
welcome party
July 3, 2009
rolig commented on the list punca-s-list
I love potica, especially on this side of the Julian Alps, but even I had to wonder if this is spam (though the thought of spam potica makes me retch). So, Punca girl, please make some clearly non-spam contributions to Wordie and we'll give you a great big dobrodošlica!
July 3, 2009
rolig commented on the list a-crumb-of-comfort
I think the main thing, traditionally, about kola�? is that it is ring-shaped. The word comes from kolo, "wheel".
July 3, 2009
rolig commented on the list a-crumb-of-comfort
You're probably right, Bilby. Here's a picture of kola�?. It's definitely, cake-ish, more than potica is. But I suppose I have come to think of "cake" as what the Slovenes (and many others) call torta, which is lighter, sweeter, creamier, and certainly not as good for you (except emotionally perhaps) as kola�? or potica.
But ciabatta should definitely be here.
July 3, 2009
rolig commented on the list a-crumb-of-comfort
Mmm, poga�?a! And then there's that Slovene specialty, potica. And don't forget kola�?!
July 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word thermometer
Thanks, Q! That was excellent!
July 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word thermometer
So you're saying that a thermometer is a device that thermomets (or thermometes)?
July 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word thermometer
A question for all you British spellers in the Wordieverse. Why isn't this word spelled *thermometre? Like metre, kilometre, etc. (I would assume the same "American" spelling goes for other measuring devices with names ending in -meter.)
Qroqqa? Anyone?
July 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word prepeljati koga žejnega �?ez vodo
lit. "to lead someone thirsty across water." The meaning is to promise something, in your words and behavior, and then in the end renege on your promise.
A variant of this phrase was used today in the gay magazine blog Narobe in regard to the Slovene government's promise regarding same-sex marriage:
"O tem danes odlo�?ajo na vladi ... mi pa bomo vsemu temu verjeli, ko bomo videli zapisano v zakonu. Žal je bila glbt-skupnost v zadnjih petnajstih letih že ve�?krat žejna pripeljana �?ez lužo."
"The government is deciding on this permitting same-sex marriage today … but we will believe all this when we see it written into law. Sadly, over the last 15 years, the GLBT community has already several times been led thirsty across a puddle."
July 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word xer
Surely it should be Gen X-er. Hyphenless xer (pronounced */zer/, */kser/?) makes no sense, except perhaps facetiously.
July 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word putrescible
Oh my god. How horrible.
It was also a bit of a shock to see Stygian gloom used in the lede of a NYT article.
June 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word badinage
Is badinage ever consequential?
June 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word rakkaus
The raucous rakkaus in the Rathaus stirred a ruckus.
June 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word razparati
to pull apart a fabric, unravel; fig. to cause distress: Ta misel mu je razparala srce / "This thought broke unraveled his heart."
June 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word srž
core, heart, essence
June 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word vulcan's badge
I don't think either Venus or Mars was wearing armor when Vulcan got his badge.
June 30, 2009
rolig commented on the list some-prettier-sounding-shakespearean-locations
Nice list, McCaff!
June 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word devil's livery
Curious that these are also the Habsburg colors.
June 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word thick
I love The Mighty Boosh, which probably warrants its own list (by someone who has the DVDs, probably).
But "Christ, you're thick" doesn't seem like a Booshism to me; it's simply the British equivalent to the North American "Boy, you're dumb!" Or am I missing something here, MM?
June 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word poglaviten
first in importance, main.
June 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word wye
I had no idea that the Wye Oak was gone. *Wiping a tear away* Why, O Wye?
June 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word capuchin
But Franciscans have that great city in California, even if things do get a little shaky there from time to time.
June 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word poutine
Also a not so tasty Russian strongman (in a traditional French spelling of the name).
June 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word semi-centaur
Obviously, a semi-centaur would have half the number of limbs of a centaur, ergo, this is a creature with three limbs (2 legs and one arm, perhaps?). A creature with two horse legs and two human arms would be, presumably, a dicho-trito-centaur (two thirds of a centaur).
*Hoping Qroqqa or Milo will correct my preposterous Greek prefixes*
June 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word surmise
This usage ain't in my 'lect.
June 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word all the news that's printed to fit
Cf. the old Soviet press motto, "All the news that fits we print."
June 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word open-list
Right, on the linked page I see big blue spots. And I think I'm awake. At least I should be.
June 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word euridice
LOL, C_b! It took me a minute, but I finally got the Euripedes joke (when I realized Italians were probably involved). But I'm still drawing a blank with Euridice.
June 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word euridice
I don't think I get it. I know who Eurydice is, so I understand the "looking back with silent tears" reference, and Mentos is a candy, right? (though it sounds like the name of some mythological figure, the Greek god of the mind, perhaps), but am I am not sure what the original reference is to. What am I missing?
June 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word open-list
I can see the big black spot!
June 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word bicycle built for two
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do!…
June 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word thingummybob
thingamabob works for me, Pinkl. It's the usual spelling. Though personally, I prefer thingamajig.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word komodo dragon fly
I think you've got yourself a sweet tooth fairy, Strev.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word 42
Wow, Dora is two more than forty! Time sure goes by up the Jacobs ladder at to the level.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word phuphlunodelphia
Philly makes a pitch to become the Wordie capital of the world.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word deep south
Cf. Old South.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word old south
"moonlight and magnolias", exactly! And parasols, verandas, and mint juleps!
It's fascinating what you say about Alabama and Mississippi. My mother, a true Southern belle from Danville, Va., tended to look down on these states as being uncultured, redneck, and crudely racist (as opposed to her own, more genteel racism). But that was thirty years ago. I can see why those in the Deep South would believe Va., N.C. and even Ga. are Yankified (not sure that is true of S.C., though). But once you get outside of the DC suburbs and the Raliegh-Durham-Chapel Hill Silicon triangle, and Atlanta, I think you're still very much in the Old South. That is true even of Southern Maryland and much of the Eastern Shore, as well as rural Delaware. (At least back in the 1990s, it was.)
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word edinbravo
The city fathers thought -burgh was just a little too much like brrr, and so decided to highlight the city's theatre festival instead.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word ljubilanta
Everyone is happy in the Slovene capital.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word s trebuhom za kruhom
Chip?! It's more like a plank. Slovenes, too, definitely have a love-hate relationship with those they call južnjaki / Southerners (when they're being polite). But I think the loss of the synthetic "pure instrumental" in Slovene is a little sad.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word soli pamet
Glad to be of service. I hope you don't think I was trying to salt your mind!
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word s trebuhom za kruhom
Well, actually SBC uses the instrumental the way it was originally used (and as it still is used in Russian and most other inflected Slavic languages): without a preposition; the case itself indicates the means or manner by which something is done. The Slovenes, probably influenced by the German use of the preposition mit to indicate means and manner, at some point started appending their own preposition "with", z/s, followed by the noun phrase in the instrumental.
Perhaps a better "literal" translation would be "following the bread on one's belly". It is sort of equivalent to the American expression, "to go where the money is", but the South Slavic phrasing is so much more vivid.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word soliti pamet
See soli pamet.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word soli pamet
We say this in Slovene, too: soliti pamet.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word pushymuchu
A Seoulful Puss in Boots, perhaps, MM?
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word old south
Oh yeah, there is definitely an Old South. Ask any white Virginian (outside of the DC suburbs, which don't really count). Basically, geographically, the "Old South" refers to Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and traditionally, Maryland and Delaware – the Southern states that were among the Thirteen Colonies. But it is more often used to express nostalgia about a fantasized antebellum South evoked by such books as Gone with the Wind, where the (white) men are all honorable, courageous gentlemen, the (white) women all refined Southern belles, the blacks are happy to have such fine, respectable, and kindly people as their masters. Like many of the places in my "States of Mind" list, the Old South never existed except as a dream.
June 22, 2009
rolig commented on the list archaic-colours
Wonderful list!
June 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word preggers
It may not be British in origin; it just seems to me that I wasn't really aware of the term until I started watching British TV on a regular basis. I imagine a good dictionary of slang could resolve the question.
As to why people use it, that's interesting. What you call someone who is pregnant is sort of in the same class as how you describe a couple who live together without "benefit" of official matrimony, and what they call each other. We don't have a simple, casual word for it that doesn't point to the (largely illusory) awkwardness of the situation. The word pregnant seems OK to me, but it does carry a whiff of the biology textbook, complete with line drawings of the associated reproductive organs. Words evoke pictures, and though in most cases pregnancy is of course something we celebrate, people do not want to evoke the biological aspect of it casually. So we have come up with a raft of phrases, from the Bibilical "with child" (which is very nice, I think) to the 20th-century expecting (which is the term I always heard in the 1960s. But today we like to think of ourselves as direct, casual, and nonchalant, if not flippant, when it comes to sexual matters; hence, preggers. But I prefer the more restrained "expecting", though I don't have any real problems with the word "pregnant" either.
And now my standard gratuitous Slovene interpolation: the Slovene word for "pregnant" is nose�?a, which is simply the feminine present participial adjective of the verb nositi, "to carry". So Slovenes say: "She's carrying."
June 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word brdo
An old Slovene word for "hill" or "smallish mountain ridge". It's found especially in many place names, such as Goriška brda (the Gorizia/Gorica Hills), where many of Slovenia's best wines come from.
June 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word deepthong
Right, where the soundtrack is nothing but oooouuuuu and aaaaaiiiiii and uuuuuiiiiii.
June 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word rime and punishment
Tormented by an unexplained feeling of guilt, a penniless philosophy student forces himself to read the complete works of William McGonagall over and over again.
June 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word clime and punishment
I see you beat me to this by a year, RT. I should have known.
June 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word stab at mater
Hilarious, Fox. Though I would imagine this more as some upper-class English drawing-room farce in which the climax concerned a failed, and rather droll, attempt at matricide.
June 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word beautiful
The self-styled Dr Goofball was, apparently, so chagrined by Wordizens' robust defense of our beloved site that he removed the offending installment from his blog without explanation or apology. But documentation of the events has been faithfully preserved on the git word-page.
June 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word writer
Knowing that a number of Wordizens make their living as editors of one sort or another, I thought you would enjoy this delightful quote from copy-editor John E. McIntyre's blog:
The writer: To an editor (well, to some editors), the writer is an annoying inconvenience that nevertheless makes editing possible — the chicken that must be plucked, cleaned, and butchered before it can be turned into a delightful coq au vin. But you do have some obligation to make the text resemble the work of the author, perhaps dusted off and perfumed a little, but still recognizably the author more than you. The text should be not what you would have written, but what the author would have written had he been a better writer.
June 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word birdo
I wonder if bird could be etymologically related to the Slovene word brdo, which means "hill, small mountain". According to Marko Snoj's Slovene Etymological Dictionary, this word comes from the Old Slavic *bъ"do, meaning also "comb" and more specifically, "weaver's reed" (a comblike tool for keeping the threads separated; this meaning has been retained in the Czech brdo and the Russian бёрдо / byordo. Snoj suggests that the original meaning was "something sharp, a sharp tool, or sharp rocks". He points out that in Latvian, birde means "loom" (the weaving machine), and birds means "weaver's reed". Strangely, he does not take the word back to its IE root, but he suggests that it is related to the Old English bord, meaning "board". I am wondering if the notion of "sharpness" could be behind the English "bird", as in the sharpness of the beak. Just a thought (and another, probably gratuitous, Slovene interpolation from me).
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word marie of romania
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Roumania.
– Dorothy Parker, "Comment" (1937)
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word ti�?
See pti�? for more information.
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word pti�?
And colloquially, people tend to drop the initial "p", making ti�?, which is also the common slang word for "penis", roughtly equivalent in usage to the English "dick".
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word robust
Right, as in, "I'd like you to draw up an effervescent contract with that ebullient author, Mr. Reesetee!"
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word preggers
Am I right in thinking that this is a distinctly British word? I mean, even if Americans use it, I have the feeling they picked it up from Eastenders or some other British show.
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word pti�?
For some reason, Slovene tends to prefer pti�?, the masculine form for "bird", to the feminine ptica, which is more common in other Slavic languages, though this latter form is also used. Perhaps, this is because the German word, Vogel, is masculine (and German was the dominant language in Slovene territory for nearly a thousand years). Neither pti�? nor ptica, by the way, refers specifically to the male or female bird; they are both acceptable as the generic word for "bird".
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word birdo
According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the English word bird is of "uncertain" origin and has no cognate in other Germanic languages. Now that surprised me.
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word gossypiboma
The unreferenced Wikipedia page for this word says that it combines 'the Latin "gossypium" (cotton) and the Swahili "boma" (place of concealment)'. Now that is truly a bizarre hybrid.
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word swineherd
And she mourns a hope that always fails and a love that never can be.
(Qroqqa, the quatrain yearned to be completed!)
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word singulative
This reminds me of Russian, where vegetables are often identified as grammatically singular mass nouns: морковь / morkov' means "carrots", while морковка / morkovka means "a carrot"; горох / gorokh "peas", but горошинка / goroshinka "a pea". In both these (and, I think, other) cases, the singulative is formed with a diminutive suffix.
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word umbrella
I grew up saying "UM-brella", but when I moved to Toronto, friends teased me so much about this, that I trained myself to say "um-BRELL-a".
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word débâcle
Normally in English, debacle.
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word debacle
I like this word better when it's wearing its stylish French accessories: débâcle.
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word lull
No comments in the past two hours. An unusual lull in Wordieland. A little eerie.
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word cards
I love it!
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word beautiful
This list makes me all Christina Aguilera–like and I want to sing a sweet song for all those words that get neglected, scorned, and abused, like moist and ughten and pedagogy.
Oh yes, you're beautiful, no matter what they say… and Goofwad can't bring you down…
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the list x-s-y-where-x-is-not-somebody-s-name
A term I learned from Black Adder: dog's body. Nice list, Sionnach!
June 18, 2009
rolig commented on the list kenny-kens-kenning
You're right, Qroqqa! Thanks! I should have checked with Marko Stroj's Slovene Etym. Dict. first.
June 17, 2009
rolig commented on the list kenny-kens-kenning
The word for bear in the Slavic languages – medved – is in fact a "kenning". Bears, it seems, were sacred animals to the Slavs, who therefore did not dare pronounce the name for "bear", and instead used the phrase "knower of honey" ("med" = "honey", "ved" = "one who knows"). An English cognate might be meadwit.
Edit: See Qroqqa's apt correction. The proper kenning would be honey-eater.
June 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word assuage my sorrows
It's an accurate translation. Here's the original:
Переменил не�?колько зан�?тий, лечил�?�? от д-душевного недуга, путеше�?твовал по Европе. В Ро�?�?ию прибыл из �?нглии, 11 декабр�?. С �?ового года �?лужит мило�?ердным братом в больнице дл�? умалишенных «Утоли мои печали».
The novel is online
June 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word pedagogy
I like this word; it has a long and venerable tradition. It is excellent, and I will so tag it. Pedestrian words like "teaching" and "education", which coddle the ignorant and talk down to the layman, hardly come close to the beauty of this word and its kin (pedagogical, pedagogue), which proudly display the dignity and valor of the profession they represent. This word belongs on a Yes, yes, yes! list.
June 17, 2009
rolig commented on the list kimee143_4life-yahoo-com-s-list
hello???
June 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word bedinner
Don't you mean "bebeveraged", RT?
June 17, 2009
rolig commented on the list prosie-a-squeeze-of-the-hand
Thanks for this, Madmouth. It's bizarre, wonderful, a little gross, and somehow delightfully ingenuous all at the same time.
June 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word let you go
The telephone use of "I'm going to let you go now" is that polite American trick of acting like you're doing someone a favor when in fact you are telling them to do something (end the conversation). It is related to the "I need you to" locution (as when a nurse says, "I need you to lift your arm"). In both cases, suggesting that you are doing someone a favor or asking someone to do you a favor is a way of avoiding a direct imperative ("Get off the phone"; "Lift your arm"), which Americans interpret as rude. Similarly, we tend to phrase imperatives as questions: "Why don't you open the window?" "Could you turn down the volume a bit?" There is a deep-seated dislike, it seems, for the grammatical imperative.
June 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word toronto
Yikes! I have a degree from U. of Toronto! But I think it's real.
*Rummaging through old files, looking for diploma*
June 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word orwell v huxley
Great find, Bilby (I mean the original link). The discussion about Dear Leader News Radio reminds me of the radio that was installed in my dorm room in Leningrad, back in the day. Only one station, of course: Говорит Ленинград / Govorit Leningrad ("Leningrad speaking"). And every hour, the time was announced with the first bars of "Moscow Nights" ("Podmoskovnye vechera"). Talk about earworm! Fortunately, you could turn the radio off.
June 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word ityphallic
Perhaps this was supposed to be itty-bitty-phallic?
June 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word urodynamics
What, no pictures?
June 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word the road less travelled
Seems a bit frosty to me.
June 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word matrices
So what would be the plural of asterix?
June 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word ۞
Yes. The great nipple. We are one.
June 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word kiwipedia
It's all so terribly wrong! I thought this would be something about New Zealand.
June 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word leaving the roast
I would never leave the roast; the brussels sprouts maybe, but not the roast.
June 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word you can visit washington dc if you want, that stinking rat-hole
I once told a prospective boss that if living in LA was a requirement of the job, I wasn't sure I wanted it. He let me work via computer from Baltimore for a year and a half, then moved the company to San Diego. I would have gone there, but by that time I had decided to move to Slovenia.
New Yorkers, by the way, always seemed really friendly – they move at a faster pace than most of the rest of us, but somehow generally know how to keep their feet on the ground.
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word the pen is on the table
My first Russian sentence, from dialog on a "Learn Russian" LP, which we were supposed to memorize even before we had any idea what we were saying, was:
Вот �? и приехал в Мо�?кву. Я думаю, что зде�?ь мне понравит�?�?.
Vot ya i priyekhal v Moskvu. Ya dumayu, chto zdes' mne ponravitsya.
Well, here I am having just arrived in Moscow. I think I will like it here.
This line has stuck in my head for close to forty years. Why, oh why, couldn't they have used Pushkin or Akhmatova?
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word chesapeake bay
DC: Of course, Natty Bo! I'd forgotten that nickname.
C_B: Old Bay! I brought a big box of it with me to Slovenia.
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word you can visit washington dc if you want, that stinking rat-hole
What makes Washington different from other cities is that capital-P Politics is the only real industry in the town, and the power shifts every two or four or eight years, so people get jittery, and are especially sycophantic or disdainful, depending on who you are.
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word you can visit washington dc if you want, that stinking rat-hole
As a native Baltimorean, I am, of course, predisposed to hate DC (the rivalry is Homeric). It is a wonderful place to be a tourist, however. In addition to the famous tourist sites, the town also has great theater, art, and food. The natives are fine (this means, largely, the people who work in the service, maintenance, and support industries, most of whom are African American), but the transients and others who make a career in government are notoriously, well, careerist. When you meet someone in a club, for example, rather than asking about your interests or telling you theirs, they will present you with their resume (verbally, of course), and if yours doesn't match it, well, seeya! It's all about who you know, what contacts you can provide, and generally how connected you are to the people in power. Very icky.
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word chesapeake bay
Now I can't get the old National Beer jingle out of my head: Brewed on the shores (beat) of the Chesapeake Baaaay!
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word ღ
Very exciting, Milo. (I assume you are talking about Sakartvelo and not the Peach State.) I was in Tbilisi many, many years ago, and it was wonderful. A beautiful place. We also went to the ancient church in Mtskheta. You gotta love a language that can do things like that. And the alphabet is shapely indeed.
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word barbecue
I guess there's no accounting for condiments. (What a great word, by the way!) As for barbecue, I am with Skipvia 100 percent. Though I always put catsup on my Hamburgers, Frankfurters, and Wieners, but not my Berliners or Dresdners (who prefer something even spicier). Oh wait, are talking about food?
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word fah
This, apparently, is the translation – according to my Systran Language Technologies Widget. All together now, boys and girls:
I give, if I give something you
King is the king who was of
Me is in order to ago say "to me"�?
the famous one "to me"�? after me
Sol is the sun in forehead to me
If just she is not here
and not I say you not
and so return to Do.
June 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word fah
I always thought la was something of a cop-out, frankly. "A note to follow so." Gimme a break.
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word polish
Named after the infamous Felix Dzerzhinsky (Dzierżyński).
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word gay downfall of the roman empire
When my father once brought up the "gay downfall of Rome" hypothesis, I pointed out that it made much more sense to blame the downfall of Rome on the Christians. After all homosexuality had been celebrated in Rome for centuries, but it wasn't until the Empire became officially Christian that things fell apart completely.
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word krofi
Slovenia is where Italian cuisine meets the German/Austrian and Croato-Bosno-Serbian (i.e. Turco-Balkan) cuisines, with a splash of Hungarian goulash from the country's easter borderlands. So we should be able to find something tasty!
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word krofi
OK, no krofi then!
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word financial tsunami
Now, this is two words, Skip, and you know it.
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word web 2.0
It depends on your definition of word. But this is really sad, I think. I might just have to stay in bed today.
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word is the pope a catholic
Isn't hey for horses?
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word pappenheimer
This sounds like a name in a Marx Bros. movie. (Though I must say Walloon sword has a certain something. Isn't CharlesFerdinand our resident Walloon? – If he's not a Habsburg archduke in disguise!)
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word july
If you've spent all your Julies in Reykjavik, don't worry. Iceland is so broke I hear they're accepting Pennies now.
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word �?, š, and ž
Absolutely.
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word lake bled
Click on image search to make sure.
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word oklahomo!
I swear I didn't know about that. But of course it's obvious.
June 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word fata morgana
One of my favorite passages from Pasternak, from the poem that begins "Се�?тра мо�? — жизнь…" ("My sister – life…"):
Мига�?, морга�?, но �?п�?т где–то �?ладко,
И фата–морганой любима�? �?пит
Тем ча�?ом, как �?ердце, плеща по площадкам,
Вагонными дверцами �?ыплет в �?тепи.
And here's a more or less serviceable translation:
Winking, blinking, people sleep sweetly somewhere,
and my love, like a fata-morgana, sleeps,
while my heart, splashing across train platforms,
scatters carriage doors over the steppe.
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word naughty
Right, C_B, but not to be confused with "Atta Xerxes!", which is how the Old Persians praised their kids and dogs when they did something clever.
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word scarpetta
I poked around the Slovene dictionary and discovered that škarp is there, marked as "usually pl." (i.e. škarpi) and "low vernacular" (code for "people say this at home but don't you dare use it in formal writing"), with the meaning "an old, worn-out shoe" or sometimes (dialectically), just any old shoe.
But next to it was the word škarpa, which is a perfectly respectable word that means "a wall between two different heights of land, to prevent erosion or landslide"; in other words, a scarp or (more commonly) escarpment, which my English dictionary tells me comes from the Italian word scarpa. I think this solves the mystery. When you're soaking up the sauce with you're bread, what you are doing is making a "little scarp", just like on Chained_Bear's beloved fortresses. So you're not doing scarpetta; you are making (i.e. constructing) a scarpetta.
Edit: The escarpment has been repaired. Thanks, Bil!
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word scarpetta
Thanks, Pro! We're counting on you.
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word the silence of the lamps
A Beat poet burns the midnight oil but still finds he has nothing to say.
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word arsy-versy
Also arsy-varsy.
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word from hare to eternity
An animated bio-pic about a lowly tortoise who wins immortality by beating an overly confident lagomorph in a race.
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word the tin commandments
A low-budget Biblical feature Starring Carlton Feston as the prophet who delivers the message of the not-so-Almighty: "It'd be really nice if thou didst not, y'know like, kill, take things that don't belong to thee, and all that other bad stuff."
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word das sind für mich böhmische dörfer
Now, let me see if I understand: Czechs find Spanish villages baffling, Germans find Bohemian (i.e. Czech) and Spanish villages baffling, and Anglos find Greek baffling. Very interesting. Slovenes, by the way, also say, To je zame španska vas ("It's a Spanish village to me") to mean "I don't understand a thing about it". (German villages, of course, are typically well-organized and not in the least baffling.)
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word scarpetta
By the way, "arsiversy", Yarb? Is this a synonym for bass-ackward? (Though I would make it arsiverse as an adjective.)
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word naughty
Interesting citation, Yarb. Gibbon must be using the word in the sense of "disobedient" or perhaps "unruly", if not in the more archaic sense of "wicked".
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word prelom
break (prelom kosti, "break in a bone", prelom besede, "breaking of one's word"); edge, cusp (kmetija na prelomu doline, "a farm at the edge/cusp of the valley"); in printing: page layout (i.e., making the column and page breaks).
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word scarpetta
So I want to know about the word itself (sorry, guys, that's just the way I am). One translation tool tells me that scarpa means "shoe" in Italian. So when I sponge up the leftover sauce with my bread, am I "doing/making the little shoe"?
June 10, 2009
rolig commented on the user Prolagus
Seriously, Pro, you're invited to visit anytime.
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word bush-hogging
Brilliant idea, Ithaca!
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word scarpetta
Absolutely, Pro! I just have to figure out how to say this in Slovene.
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word immanent
Not to be confused with imminent.
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word scarpetta
I always do scarpetta, if the sauce is tasty. Why should it be considered rude?
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word titmouse
Sounds to me like an urban legend in the making.
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word that's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind
Yes, quite.
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word the bards
Horror ensues when a peaceful town on Bodega Bay is attacked by poets.
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word dial r for murder
The perfect murder backfires when the man Tony hired to kill his wife proves to be dyslexic.
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word nigella
Madmouth, you should put "if the internet can't give it to you, you've gotta give it to the internet!" on a T-shirt!
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word jelly bean row
I was surprised when I saw the picture, C_b, because I was expecting to see people throwing jelly beans at each other or in some way fighting over jelly beans. I took me a second to realize what you meant by row.
June 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word na zdravje
What Slovenes say to a sneeze (and also as a toast). "To health!"
June 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word sidecar
It's much better than having the Village People cavort there.
June 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word sidecar
Some of these cocktails I recognize from old movies (now hearing Carole Lombard in my head).
June 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word espy
It is a bit of textual gristle, but I had no problem understanding it. A comma might help, as Q. suggests, but I don't think it's necessary. "Espy" is pretentious-cute here, I think. I'd rewrite it this way: "not so much seeing the art galleries or mountain ranges or rivers as seeing the places where cherished friends…" "Espying" could also be replaced by "noticing", which would probably have cleared up any confusion in the first place.
*has to stop self from editing things that no one has asked or is willing to pay to be edited*
June 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word machediting
I just added a new tag.
June 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word λάθε βιώσας
Greek-out is Milo's description, for the record. But I'll be happy to tag this page as such.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word machediting
I suspected something like that. Did you explain this on the word page for flaggot, Pro? If not, you should.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word bimarian
Cool!
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word machediting
I'm not sure I know what that means, Pro. It's been some eight years since I last attended a Pride Parade in the US.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word λάθε βιώσας
I hesitate to comment further on this motto, thus contributing to its rise to the top of the list, which would be ironic, to say the least.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word bimarian
I believe this refers to a heresy in which Mary Magdalene is accorded equal status to Mary, the mother of Jesus.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word λάθε βιώσας
Yay! Let's hear it for multialphabeticalism!
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word machediting
*smacks lips* Thanks, Rt!
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word machediting
… and dykes on bikes! and PFLAG (who always get the loudest cheers)! and leather boys!
*trying to calm down and remember that we're supposed to be post-gay and want houses in the suburbs and official marriages and the right to be open in the army and not just fantasize about men in uniform – but damn, some of those stereotypically queer exuberances are fun*
Yeah, I know June is Gay Pride Month, or if we're being PC, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Month (is that on your list, Rt?), but there's still nothing like looking forward to Pride Day, the parade, and remembering the dramatic events of June 28, 1969. ("You bet, we're revolting!") I can't believe it's been 40 years!
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word nonchalant
Only oxymoronically, I suspect.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word machediting
With pencils that are all the colors of the Rainbow Flag, of course! (Only 26 more days till Gay Pride Day!)
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word machediting
Is this short for "macho editing"?
(Now I've done it. The Village People are cavorting in my head.)
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the list onomatopoeia-that-best-describes-you-greatest-hits-vol1
I still have my pride, Rt. (I think, er, hope, um, somewhere… *grits teeth*)
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the user reesetee
Welcome back, Rt! You were missed!
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word sanguine
Ha! "Sangfroid the Sanguine" sounds like the name of one of CharlesFerdinand's kings: "In the days of Sangfroid the Sanguine, the country remained at peace for none of his neighbors was able to provoke him to war."
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word anecdotalist
That's something I have always loved about the South.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word λάθε βιώσας
Thanks, Kind-Heartedness! I enjoy your Greek-outs. I have come across (maybe in Heidegger?) the notion of truth as "unconcealedness", and it is interesting, and seems psychologically right, to think of truth as the "opposite" of forgetting.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word anecdotalist
The art was still valued in certain parts of the US at least as late as the 1970s. I remember going with my parents in 1972 or so to visit relatives in Danville, Virginia, and really enjoying listening to the way people told stories. There was a certain gentility in the way they referred even to things like someone's senility ("she's getting a bit feeble in the head") or alcoholism ("he still likes to take a nip or two now and then"), and I could sense the way they really enjoyed words and the different shades of meaning and emotion that could be conveyed. They were as much concerned with how something was said, and the pleasure they could give their listeners, as with what was being said.
June 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word λάθε βιώσας
Just curious: is láthe related to Lethe, the river of oblivion?
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word anecdotalist
Thanks, C_b! I wonder if other people feel like the art of (face-to-face) conversation is going the way of reading novels and poetry out loud to each other as a form of entertainment and socializing.
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word λάθε βιώσας
Uav! I like this.
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word down
And in faux manor names such as "Upson Downs" (as in Auntie Mame).
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word anecdotalist
A gaffe is a general term for saying something one shouldn't say, something that is a social blunder. It might be something in poor taste, or it might just be the result of ignorance or insensitivity or not thinking before you open your mouth. For example:
"I was so delighted to hear that your son is getting married next month. We all thought he was a 'confirmed bachelor', you know. Who is the lucky girl?"
"His name's Joe, and he's a wonderful young man."
"Oh, I see. Well, times have changed… Excuse me, but I just saw the Cohens and simply must wish them a Merry Christmas."
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word aghast
So, then, this word must be related to ghastly. But probably not to ghost, I would guess. Verrry interrresting.
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word anecdotalist
Hmm… wouldn't a gaffeur (which I like!) be someone who is known for making gaffes? (Joe Biden comes to mind.)
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word i had not thought death had undone so many
So was Ciardi borrowing from Eliot, who may have been thinking of the line in Dante?
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word rogati se
I am not certain about the value of the Old Slavic ǫ – it's been decades since I studied these things – but I think it was essentially a nasalized o, more or less like the French vowel.
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word anecdotalist
An anecdotalist is someone who is known for telling (hopefully, entertaining) anecdotes. It is a perfectly good word. I don't know how long it has been in English, but it reflects a time, which may seem like ancient history now, when people used to meet face to face and entertain each other by telling amusing stories and having interesting conversations (a person who knew how to keep up their end of a conversation was called a good conversationalist). People do something similar on social-networking sites today, except that they usually don't know who it is they are conversing with and skills at things like conversation and telling amusing anecdotes are not highly valued. Today, it seems, people prefer to tweet at each other.
One who has mastered the art of bullshitting is known as a bullshit artist. Seanahan has given you the proper term for one who is renowned for making up words, but if you are looking for the word for someone who generally makes up stories, you might try fabulist or (if it's a pathological tendency) mythomaniac. I am not sure what you are trying to say by suggesting the word "inpoortatalist". I expect there is a good word for someone who likes to tell stories that are in poor taste (if that is what you are looking for), but it escapes me at the moment.
June 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word sanguine
How cultures interpret words like this is fascinating. In French, sangfroid and, in Russian, хладнокровие (khladnokroviye) are good qualities in a person, both conveying the sense of "cool-headedness"; in English, however, cold-bloodedness is definitely not something you want to encounter. I tend to associate sanguine with sangfroid. I pronounce the word in a way that almost rhymes with penguin (another cool character), so Cole Porter would have to change his tune to make this word fit for me.
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word rogati se
No, it's not related to rog (horn). In Slovene, the nasal rounded back vowel of Old Slavic ǫ (which probably sounded like the vowel in the French word mon), developed into o, whereas in the other South Slavic languages (and in East Slavic, too), it developed into u. Compare words like Slovene roka / SBC ruka (arm and hand), Slovene pot / SBC put (path, journey), Slovene posoda / SBC posuda (dish), and many more. The Old Slavic word *rǫg probably meant "ridicule" and is also the origin of the modern Slovene word režati se (to laugh boisterously, guffaw).
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word conflabbit
What in tarnation is that young'un going on about with these words old people use?
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word sanguine
Oh, I love this word, just like I love all the words still in use that hark back to medieval concepts about the mind-body-elements-planets relationships: bilious, choleric, melancholic, humorous, saturnine, jovial, mercurial, etc. And I don't think sanguine is pretentious when it's used to mean "optimistic, positive, cheerful, unruffled". Its synonyms don't really convey so directly the same sense that the attitude so discribed relates to something inherent in a person's character. I also like the fact that it comes from a word for "blood" and that it has as a much darker, tragic cousin in the word sanguinary.
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word cosset
Poor lamb!
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word rogati se
Certainly not. I rarely mock, and then only in the nicest sort of way.
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word anecdotalist
Ron Wagner, that may be a quip (though I don't get the joke), but it surely is not an anecdote, which implies a brief story, the recounting of an incident, usually but not necessarily with a humorous "punch line". He used to regale his friends with anecdotes about his college days, but then they all started to avoid him. He wasn't the anecdotalist he thought he was.
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word twilve
Did you make this up, Inked Polyglot? Irregular verbs are only "irregular" in that they follow different rules from the majority. In English, this usually means that there is an alteration in the vowel to indicate the past instead of the addition of the -ed morpheme (and often with the morpheme -en in the past participle. Hence, the sequence twilve, twolve, twilven, modeled perhaps on the verb drive, might be more in keeping with the patterns of English. But I am just a rank amateur when it comes to these things, and I expect (and hope) my colleague Qroqqa might have something to add or correct.
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word v brk povedati
lit. "to tell someone something to their mustache"
to tell someone something to their face directly, "without beating around the bush"
The same expression is used with such verbs as lagati (se) (to lie), smejati se (to laugh: Punca se mu smeje v brk, "The girl is laughing in his face"), and rogati se (to mock).
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word rogati se
"to express in a clear, blunt way one's negative, disapproving attitude toward someone, usually by using words with positive content" (SSKJ) – i.e. to mock, make fun of.
Examples: ti si pa res junak, se mu je rogal; zani�?ljivo se rogati: "You're a real hero," he mocked him; to mock disdainfully.
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word conflabbit
Do old people use only one word, Flannelophile?
June 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word nougatory
Bilby, our brilliance crossed paths at the same moment, it seems.
May 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word nougatory
Having to do with confection made from honey, nuts, and egg white. Having eaten the whole box of candy, she was in a nougatory daze and couldn't understand what he was saying to her.
May 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word megaflicks
An excellent example of how the font you choose can make all the difference.
May 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word people people
The plural of people person.
May 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word people person
It's sometime in the mid-'70s and I am sitting in a circle of about 10 people, all much older than me (I'm in my late teens) in a side-room of our evangelical Presbyterian church. I don't really remember now what the occasion was, but the man leading the discussion asks us to state something we like about ourselves. Someone says, "I'm a people person," and then everyone else in the group says the same thing: "I'm a people person too." This surprises me a little. I am not really sure I know what people people are, but am pretty certain I'm not one. When it comes my turn, I say, "I know how to listen," which is true. The man leading the group compliments me on my answer.
May 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word intellect
"active intellect" sounds plausible, though I would hope most people's intellect would be active, to some degree at least (I know, I know, I'm living in a world of illusion).
I hear this being said by a teacher about a pupil to indicate that the child asks question, is curious about things, and tries to figure things out in logical ways. Another possibility would be a "lively intellect".
May 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word a baa fetched finny ring roll romp
I love it! But I can't get the words out of my head that seem to rhyme with this: 'Tis a far far better thing I do …
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word analepsis
I'm sorry, but I can't imagine a bunch of sitcom writers sitting around a table and saying things like, "Maybe we need to stick an analepsis in here. And then here we'll do a prolepsis and show them in a retirement home." These words are good for rhetoricians and literary theoreticians, and they are lovely words, but this parenthetical "(also called…)" leaves open the important question, "By whom?"
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the list my-modern-job-in-the-past
Darjeeling, darling? Or maybe something stronger?
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word shagreen
From the French word chagrin, but originally from a Turkish word shagri. Apparently, in French, chagrin, in the sense of "embarrassment" is a figurative use of the word, which means, originally, "untanned or rough leather".
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word hoyden
This word may be related, etymologically, to heathen. Very interesting.
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word darjeeling
Tea is an expression of endearment! Especially on the Porch!
Darjeeling, darling? With honey, sweetie? Or would you rather have camomile, мила�??
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word liaise
One day soon, I fear, someone will name a girlchild this. And her brother will be Liaison. But then at some point she will write her name Li-Aise or Li-Ayse or Li-Ayze, with hearts over the eyes.
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word gloaming
I'm pretty sure Roald Dahl is weird. But then, I've always had a thing for Patricia Neal and can't help but take her side.
Gloaming is a wonderful, evocative word that wears its heart on its sleeve. And while it's all about a quality of light, it's connection with darkness and mystery is inescapable. After all, it's twilight – duality, inbetweenness, borderline.
*hurries off to start a new list*
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word hepi end
The curious thing about this slang phrase (in Slovene, Croatian, and other Slavic languages) is that the English phrase (if I remember right) is happy ending, not happy end. In other Slovenglish words, the -ing (properly pronounced /-ink/), e.g. miting and filing, so why not here?
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word old awareness
See Old Awareness Month.
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word old awareness month
I like this. It sounds sort of New Agey: "old awareness", like the awareness of an "old soul", awareness of things we experienced in past lives, awareness of ancestors and their knowledge. I definitely want to celebrate old awareness! And not only for a month!
May 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word fufluns
Fufluna is only 6 1/2 hours away from me! (Etruscan Fufluna is Italian Populonia.) I've got directions and I'll soon be on my way.
May 27, 2009
rolig commented on the user zaggan
I was referring to your comment on my profile page ("wow thaz cool"). But ice cubes are nice too.
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the user Prolagus
Thanks, Pro, for your comment on my Slovene idioms list. By the way, if on your travels you ever plan or want to visit Slovenia (just to the east, north, and south of Trieste), let me know!
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the user zaggan
What's cool, Zag (if I may call you Zag)?
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word objection
The opposite of subjection.
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word hasbian
A resident of the Greek island of Hasbos, known in antiquity as an important source of asbestos (orig. "hasbestos"). Pseudo-Pausanias records that the Hasbian poetesses were said to conduct rituals in which they danced in the flames with one another in fireproof garments and mimicked the rites of Sappho's followers, only to emerge unscathed, much to the chagrin of the poetesses of neighboring Lesbos.
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word content inflation
And it's correlative? Discontent inflation – the noticeable increase in frustration caused by not being able to find the information you want on the Internet due to the proliferation of so many idiotic videos, social networking sites, games and blogs. Eventually, you just say, "Geez! I may as well go to the library and look it up in a book! It would take less time."
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word time flies like an era
© rolig 2008.
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word flies
Or as I like to say: Time flies like an era.
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word oklahomo!
Your standard boy-meets-boy plot set in the cornfields: Oh, what a beautiful morning!
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word unofficial english
This is not spam, but a public service to Wordies who collect compendia of unusual words (that is all of us more or less). Grant Barrett is making his Official Dictionary of Unofficial English (2006) available for free as a downloadable .pdf file. Just check out his blog The Lexicographer's Rules.
May 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word insomnia
That reminds me of Anna Akhmatova's poem, "The Cellar of Memory" (Подвал памяти, 1940), which concludes:
Well, let's go home!
But where's my home and where's my reason?
Ну, идем домой!
Но где мой дом и где рассудок мой?
(A note for clarity: "reason" here means the capacity for rational thought, not "a reason to do something.")
May 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word bamf!
*ducks at the sound of saurian wings*
May 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word brez dlake na jeziku
Interesting, Pro! It does not surprise me that many expressions in Slovene might come from Italian. The Italian influence is still strong in the southwestern and extreme western parts of the country, which were for centuries ruled by Venice. A part of Friuli, where there is still a Slovene-speaking minority, is still called the "Slavic Veneto" (Slavia Veneta) or in Slovene, Beneška Slovenija (Venetian Slovenia).
May 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word brez dlake na jeziku
lit. "without a hair on the tongue"
used with verbs of communication, this means "without mincing words": frankly, directly, forthrightly
May 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word mallee bull
That bull is rather, um, well bolloxed.
May 25, 2009
rolig commented on the list onomatopoeia-that-best-describes-you-greatest-hits-vol1
You're absolutely right. Thanks. *still resisting it*
May 25, 2009
rolig commented on the list onomatopoeia-that-best-describes-you-greatest-hits-vol1
I am resisting the urge to change my "onomatapoeia" entry just so I can get on this list.
May 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word x-sampa
I can't help but think of Kafka.
May 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word carrefour
@ Poetche - it's the right use if you don't want people to know where you live. Otherwise, intersection would probably be the more effective choice.
May 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word chlodovech
Thank you, thank you, everyone. To the Irish Fox, it's true: I couldn't have done it without you. Your graciousness in conceding this minor defeat in a truly impressive career of superlative Wordie divertissements is entirely in character. Bilby, you are one of the inspiring spirits of the Wordie aether, and I humbly acknowledge my debt to you. Chained_Bear, it was an honor to limericize your beloved Clovis; may he rest in peace with his gerbilline fore_bears. And to the Archduke Karl Ferdinand (my suspicion is well known that his Excellency has assumed a rather flimsy Belgian incognito), thanks for starting things off with the list of his illustrious Frankish ancestors.
May 24, 2009
rolig commented on the list merovingians
Better not tell Hermina, Pro.
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word chlodovech
*bows to the left* *bows to the right* *bows to the middle*
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word chlodovech
Well, this is more Bilby's thing. But here's a first attempt:
I once had a gerbil named Clovis
whose passion for Hovis cake drove us
mad till we bought him
a cookbook and taught him
to make it: He knows where the stove is!
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word chlodovech
*grooaaan* Hovis - proboscis?! I think you should check the date on your license, Fox.
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word �?evap�?i�?i
The Slovene spelling of the Bosno-Serbian ćevap�?ići, from the same Turkish root as kebab.
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the user madmouth
Congratulations on reaching 1000 comments! And in such a short time! Your contributions are much appreciated and enjoyed.
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the list words-i-needed-at-the-time
Then you should be just fine on Wordie, Middlesmith.
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word chlodomir
Thanks for your patience, CF (and everyone), with my abnormal Slavophilia. I will try to keep it under control. You're right, Archduke (sorry, I can't resist calling you that – after all, I do live in Carniola). The 5th century is a little too early for at least West Frankish-Slavic interaction. But there was plenty of interaction with other Germanic types, as can be seen by all the Germanic borrowings in Old Slavic.
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word crazy rasberry ant
This reminds me of my Great Aunt Ellie and her bizarre homemade preserves (a.k.a. Ellie's jellies) that made you wonder where she picked her berries.
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word chlodomir
I second C_B's laughter and appreciation of the list, CF.
(But to return to, um, words, I'm still wondering: if Chlodo- is Germanic, how did it get impaled on the Slavic -mir? Is it possible that the Franks registered the Vlado- as their own beloved Chlodo-?)
May 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word mr ass itch
What's that tag someone (Reesetee?) uses to warn people to look away? Definitely applies here.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word malware
A rare case where contemporary coinage corresponds with traditional morphemes: mal- ("evil, bad") + -ware ("articles for sale, commodities").
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word rogue anti-virus software
Sigh. I guess rogue is another word that joins the "Overused to the point of meaninglessness thanks to its wildfire dash through the Internet" list (one I don't feel like making). Btw, I sort of like the word malware (if it means what I think it does).
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word hoe
Very funny. But my hoe seems rather slow today, or no wait, that's my brain.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word chlodomir
I'm guessing those old Franks had trouble with the initial vl- cluster and this was the best they could do with the Slavic name Vladomir ("Ruler of peace").
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the list merovingians
I thought chilperic was one of those ingredients in Indian food that gave you gastrointestinal woes.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word ćevap�?ići
Delicious, if somewhat turd-looking, Bosno-Serbian minced-meat kebabs, popular as a fast food throughout the former Yugoslavia. The alphabet is a little simpler in Slovenia – no confusing soft ć's – so in Slovene they are spelled �?evap�?i�?i.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the list merovingians
Herminafrid! If it's a girl. The name Hermina is still around in Slovenia; it makes the cutest diminuative forms: Minca (the "c" is pronounced like "ts") and Min�?i ("�?" pronounced like "ch"). Minchie Bearspawn!
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word jeopardy
Could you put that in the form of a question, Q?
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word drogo
Yo mama's so ugly St. Drogo turned in his halo.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word safr
From the English word suffer. It is used as a noun to mean "misery, the pits." Often used with the verb furati ("to do, engage in, go through") (itself a borrowing from the German führen) to mean "to feel awful" (emotionally, not physically):
Ne vidim ve�? razloga da bi nekdo “fural safr�?, �?e pa to stvar lahko sprejmeš in vidiš, da je vse to�?no tako kot mora biti. ("I don't see a reason anymore why someone should 'go through safr' so long as you can accept the situation and see that everything is just the way it should be.")
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word koljeno
This is curious. I wonder if the linking idea is that of turning. Compare the Slavic root for "wheel" (kol-).
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the list blitzkrieg
A tragic example (and a cautionary one for the United States) of how the image of a particular culture can be entirely altered. A hundred years ago, if you asked non-German Westerners what the sound of German connoted to them, they would have said music and philosophy.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word far niente
"To do nothing" (Italian). See Pushkin quote on inutility.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word euroturds
Are you talking about ćevap�?ići, by any chance? I always thought they looked a little fecaloid.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word whensoas
No, Sean, he's the one looking out.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word shewhore
But where does she sell seashells?
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the list merovingians
I don't know. Gogo Bearspawn sounds pretty good to me.
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word drogo
He is also a hobbit, and more specifically the father of Frodo!
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word buttasorry
Butta noa needa to apologiza!
(Sorry, Pro, no offense intended. For the record, I have the utmost admiration for Italian culture and the Italian people.)
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word shazam
It was Gomer's favorite, too!
May 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word woodwose
@ Ptero, thanks for the chuckle. There was always something a little eerie about Mr. Wilson.
@ Qroqqa: so if a wizard's magic involved torching a statue to bring it to life, we could say: He burned the statue alive. Interesting.
@ Bilby, I'll keep my thoughts to myself about that.
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the list italian-names-i-really-thought-i-saw-when-scanning-200-year-old-handwritten-vital-records
Can you tell us something more, C_B, about these curious records? Are these the (perhaps altered) names of immigrants to the US? Or do you mean that your eyes deceived you? (19th-century handwriting can be very hard to decipher.)
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word quell
What a lovely word. It magnificently holds inside itself the quiet it seeks to establish.
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word fecaloid
Copromorphic! Shit-shaped! But not and never ever turdiform. That has been reserved.
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word pitta sordida
And to the honor of such a nomination all I can say is: Uav!
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word hmla
The Russian word is мгла (mgla). Slovenes "cheat" and stick in a vowel: megla, as do the Croats, Bosnians, and Serbs: magla.
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word pitta sordida
What did Mr. T have against this little fellow? He was always calling these birds "fools".
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word turdiform
Of course you do, Yarb. But turdiform has been taken, and I'm sure you don't want Reesetee to send a flock of thrushes your way. Just ask Tippi Hedren what that's like. You might try fecaloid, coprolithic, or stercoraceous. But I suspect you just like the sound of turd. Am I right?
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word features
Maybe newbies shouldn't be allowed to tag words until they have gone through a tagging tutorial with VanishedOne.
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word turdiform
Try turd-shaped or turdlike, yarb. Turdiform is for the birds!
May 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word woodwose
I see your point, but still, it's curious that "burned alive" = "burned to death".
May 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word woodwose
Isn't it curious that when we say that someone was burned alive we mean that they died.
May 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word agey
Actually, the word you want here is new agey, which means "relating to the New Age movement" (which was very popular in North America in the 1980s). "Agey" by itself doesn't make sense in this context.
May 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word hermitary
Thanks for pointing me to this website, Nuxiy.
May 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word spelling
Gosh, remember when there used to be copy-editors?
May 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word swentibold
In the 8th and 9th centuries, the first vowel in the word svat ("holy") would have been a nasal front vowel, probably pronounced something like the sound in the French word vin, which is why the Franks spelled it -en-. It evolved differently in different Slavic languages, turning into something we usually transliterate as "ja" or "ya" in Russian (e.g. �?в�?той = svjatoj, "holy" – though it's more complicated than that), an a or á in Czech (compare the names Václav and Wenceslaus), the nasal sound iȩ in Polish (święty means "holy"), and a high front e in the South Slavic languages (svet means "holy" in both Slovene and Serbo-Bosno-Croatian).
The second part of the name would in Old Slavic have originally been pronounced more or less pulk (rhyming with the English word hulk), where the "u" stands for a short schwa sound. This meant something like "host" or "army" ("a mass of people"). It is actually a borrowing from a Germanic root that has developed today into folk in English and Volk in German (which makes the Franks' hearing it as a different Germanic word somewhat ironic). This word also developed differently in the different branches of Slavic: polk in East Slavic (e.g. Russian) and South Slavic (e.g. Slovene), and pluk in West Slavic (e.g. Czech).
May 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word whom
C_b, I expect your Friend only used "thee". At some point, Quakers stopped saying "thou" and started using "thee" for both the subject and the object of the sentence, I think with the ø-ending form of the verb: Why are thee taking the car to Meeting? It's only a ten-minute walk! Don't thee know how much gas costs? Not surprisingly, the influence of the double-duty you (as both subjective and objective) is pretty strong. It was pretty jarring when I first heard Quakers talking like this, and it was hard not to "correct" them.
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word abecedarium
This is actually an important word for Slovenes, and there is even a restaurant in Ljubljana's Old Town that goes by this name. The Protestant leader Primož Trubar's Abecedarium (an ABC book to teach people how to read) was one of the first two books printed in Slovene, in 1550. The restaurant is located in a building ("the oldest house in Ljubljana") where Trubar once lived.
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word boys in the bandwagon
Some really enthusiastic twinkies, perhaps.
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word swentibold
Too bad the name never caught on in the West. I think it means something like "Holy Army".
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word e'er
Meter of course is helpful for memorizing text, which is certainly a major reason why poets have used it at least since Homer. We shouldn't forget that before the 20th century, poetry was written as more to be performed than read silently. People used to entertain themselves by reading things to each other out loud, whether this was poetry or a serialized novel. To enjoy a writer like Byron, you need to hear his work, and not merely see it on the page.
Don Juan is a long poem (Byron may have called it a novel in verse), not a play, so there are no stage directions. Read a little of it out loud and try to imagine the words being spoken by a brilliant young man, as famous as a rock star and with about as much humility, who wants to overturn all the conventions and expose the hypocrisy of his time, and you might start to get an idea of what it's about.
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word swentibold
Interesting that they should have taken a Slavic name.
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word oxford comma
@ Seanahan – I never said the commas did disturb the flow; that was Mollusque. I agree with you that they don't.
You make a good point about Betty. Either way there could be ambiguity, especially if we replace "Catholic" with "Episcopalian" and "maid" with "writer". But it also matters whether or not we know the author of text does or does not use serial commas:
A. They went to Oregon with Betty, a writer and an Episcopalian priest.
B. They went to Oregon with Betty, a writer, and an Episcopalian priest.
In A, they could have gone to Oregon with 1 (Betty, who is both a writer and a priest) or 3 persons, if we know the text does not use serial commas; but with only 1 person (the admirable Betty), if we know the text always uses serial commas consistently.
In B, they have definitely gone to Oregon with 2 people, if we know the text does not use serial commas; or with either 2 or 3 people, if we know the text always uses serial commas.
So both systems leave room for ambiguity. Life is like that. That is what house styles are for.
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word study ball
Apalling. Just what kids need to encourage them to love learning. What a ball!
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word stolon
I wonder if the Russian word �?твол (stvol), meaning "tree trunk", is related to this.
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word eurovision
I wondered this, too, Nux. But apparently any Mediterranean country can participate. Morocco has been in Eurovision too, and theoretically so could Libya, Syria, and Algeria.
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word rolig
That's me!
May 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word eurovision
Not ugh, Nux. Ughten. A new day dawns.
May 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word eurovision
Nux, the Beatles-mad gangerh is playing with you.
May 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word e'er
Thanks, Qroqqa! Clear and informative comments, as always.
May 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word e'er
The "rules" of meter may be clearcut enough, but the variations in how poets follow them, or choose to break them, to create the effects they want, are countless and fascinating.
Byron was brilliant in being able to use plain, chatty English, often with great comic effect, as in Don Juan (the name should be pronounced to rhyme with "Ewan"), but he could also write lovely "poetic" poetry, as in "She walks in beauty like the night".
You sound a bit like an old fogey, myth, who complains that poets (i.e. rappers) these days are "massacring" words because they write "gonna" and "witya" instead of "going to" and "with you".
May 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word membritude
French is so analytic (linguistically speaking)!
May 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word oxford comma
Moll, it seems like you're arguing in favor of inconsistency, i.e. use the Oxford when you need it to clarify the meaning, but otherwise don't use it. And personally, that seems like a reasonable practice to me. As does its reverse: always use the Oxford except in cases where using it confuses the meaning. The only problem is that people usually want rules to live by, write by, and edit by, and the cases where the Oxford confuses things are probably much fewer than where not using it confuses things. So "always use the Oxford comma" seems a better rule than "never use the Oxford comma" and is easier to follow than "use it only when it helps" (because you don't have to figure out when it helps and when it doesn't). I like to avoid Emersonian hobgoblins myself, so inconsistency doesn't usually upset me if I see the reason for it, but for many people these little fellows seem to make good friends.
May 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word eurasia
That's an awful lot of people to be at war with.
May 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word hazmat
This word, by the way, has always sounded like Turkish to me.
May 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word hazmat
"booger hooks"?
May 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word debase
Nice, Mediagrey, but I think you mean "the debased direction". "Debase" is a verb, not an adjective.
May 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word berlin
First we take Manhattan; then we take Berlin!
– Leonard Cohen
May 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word eurasia
Eurasia stretches from Portugal to Korea. So who is "we"?
May 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word e'er
Contractions like e'er and o'er, as well as spellings like the monosyllabic heav'n and giv'n should not be taken as indications of poets "cheating" or trying to fit square pegs into round holes. For one thing, poets like Byron knew exactly what they were doing when it came to prosody; they dreamed in iambic pentameter in a way few of us can imagine.
As such they were very familiar with the concept of the reduced syllable – a nearly ellided syllable that should not be given the weight even of the unstressed beat in the iambic foot. Often two syllables could be counted as one; this could be indicated with a contraction such as e'er or even (e'en) to th'. The fact that the v sound is involved in a number of these contractions may also tell us that this sound had various qualities to it and could be pronounced differently in different contexts or by different speakers; historically, after all, the letter v represented both a consonant and a vowel (u).
Today many poets no longer count syllables the way they used to (and many still do but don't want us to think they do).
Sadly, I'm not sure people expect anything of poetry these days, or rather, if they do, they expect it to be sentimental or inspiring and so don't really "get" what contemporary poets are writing (as with modern art, they think, "jeez, I could have written that! It doesn't even rhyme!"). Probably a lot of people would love it if more poets were more "poetic".
Myth, don't give up on Shakespeare, Byron, or anyone else just because they don't write as if they were born in 1970. Try to learn their language first (and don't assume it has to be the same as yours), before you judge them. They still have a lot of amazing things to tell us, even though (or perhaps because) they are centuries away from us.
May 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word oxford comma
While I probably like commas more than most, I don't hold with the practice of putting them in just because you want to take a breath, or conversely, the idea the you have to take a breath whenever you see a comma. Not all commas are breath-taking. In the case Molly mentions, there is no need to "break the flow" in the sentence "Tom, Dick, and Harry all ordered bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches." I would read this the same way with or without the serial commas. The commas before the ands are merely there because the writer (or editor) finds such commas useful and wants to be consistent. In this particular sentence the serial commas could easily be removed without the ceiling caving in. But I'd keep them because I like the principle of the serial comma. In the sentence, "Tom, Dick and Harry, Mary Jo and Martin, and Bart all went to Des Moines for Frank and Herb's wedding," the Oxford comma helps keep the relationships, well, straight (or not).
May 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word stara kranjska
Wikipedia is changeable (check it again) and not to be trusted.
May 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word iztakniti
to pull out; to unplug; to pluck out (an eye).
Here's a joke Slovenes tell when they want to illustrate the attitude toward neighbors in their country.
Bog vprasa slovenca, "Kaj bi rad? Dam ti kar hoces, s tem, da bo tvoj sosed dobil dvakrat toliko." Slovenec malo pomisli pa rece, "Bogec, iztakni mi oko."
God asks a Slovene, "What would you like? I'll give you whatever you want, only know that your neighbor is going to get twice as much of the same thing." The Slovene thinks a bit, then says, "Okay, Lord, pluck out one of my eyes."
May 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word oxford comma
Useful, efficient, and clear.
May 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word pue
stinky jargon
May 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word countenance
Basically, this word refers to the expression on one's face. But it can also be used as a verb to mean "to allow, to accept" a certain behavior. In this meaning, it is often used in the negative: She could not countenance her husband's gambling. These two meanings are connected if you think that, when you accept something, you can look at it calmly, without getting upset.
No, the word has nothing to do with counting.
May 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word appropriciate
I think the word you are looking for is "appropriate" – which means "correct, suitable, right".
May 16, 2009
rolig commented on the list take-me-to-your-whosit
I might suggest a few from the Slavic side of things:
- vozhd (or Cyrillically, вождь), which is what adoring fans called Stalin; like Führer, it means "leader", but unlike the German word, it really is reserved for the Great Leader.
- vojvoda or vojevoda or voyevoda (or more Englishy, voivode), the Slavic "duke" (lit., "war-leader" or "warlord") and the origin of the toponym Vojvodina.
– vladika, the title of the Prince-Bishop of the Principality of Montenegro.
– you have tsar, but what about the tsarina (I'm assuming you are eschewing the unchewable cz- spellings).
And a couple obvious ones from across the Adriatic that seem to have escaped: il Duce (last seen in Salò) and the doge, in the company of Mrs. Doge, a.k.a. the dogaress or in Venetian, dogaressa, both fleeing incognito in a gondola.
May 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word stara kranjska
Yes, you're right, of course, Upper Carniola, to be specific. And I love your list!
But why is this "Stara Kranjska"? The people who lived in the March of Carniola (Kranjska krajina/Krainmark), didn't call it "Old", did they? Or is this a different region from Kranjska?
May 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word membritude
So what do people say when they want to express the idea that, for instance, a club has a limited membership?
May 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word korotan
See comments on Koroška and Carantania.
May 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word carantania
Slovenes look back to Carantania (independent or semi-autonomous from the late 7th to about the 10th century) as an almost mythic land. This, they say, was the last time the Slovene nation ruled itself until Slovenia gained independence in 1991. In a kind of political nationalist romanticism, they often speak of the 1000-year yoke under the Germans (Austrians).
May 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word koroška
This still very much exists, both as an Austrian Land (Kärnten) and a Slovene region (Koroška). All of these names come from the long-gone Carantania (in Old Slovene Korotan, which was an autonomous or semi-autonomous Slavic state from the late 7th to about the 10th century.
May 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word membritude
In what language, CF?
May 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word spona
used in the plural, spone, this means "constraints, bonds, strictures, limitations, confines, etc."
administrativne, politi�?ne, duhovne spone ("administrative, political, spiritual constraints")
osvoboditev od spon trga ("liberation from the constraints of the marketplace")
May 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word stara kranjska
Where I call home! (Kranjska, or Carniola, that is.)
May 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word styria
and the English name of a Land in present-day Austria (Steiermark) as well as a region in Slovenia (Štajerska).
May 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word buoyant
I don't believe I've ever heard anything other than /ˈbɔɪənt/ (I grew up in the US). My only strong opinion is that one shouldn't pronounce this as spelled, with three syllables: /bu'ɔɪjənt/.
May 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word regret
No, that was Frank.
May 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word che palle
What bollocks! (Would that work?)
May 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word opportunity
When opportunity knocks, you shouldn't ask questions!
May 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word bugs
I know this is a fairly common complaint (especially from Vanished One), but can something be done about the excessive tagging on word pages such as admire? This particular case seems to be the result of spamming, but other words are given ridiculously long tags (i.e. whole definitions) or a ridiculously large number of tags out of ignorance from people new to the site, who then simply vanish after making their mess. Can we develop a reasonable protocol for cleaning these pages up a bit?
May 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word gagster
Don't you mean, "it feels good to be a gangsta" (i.e. the rap spelling for "gangster" – someone who is part of a crime gang)?
A gagster is someone who tells or writes jokes (gags).
May 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word opportunity
knock, knock
May 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word amatuer
Vary sadd. Capturing data, indeed, no mind whether people can read what you write. Here's a sweet tooth fairy for them: ama-tuer les mots
May 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word regret
I did what I had to do, and did it all to get attention.
May 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word regret
Regrets? I have a few, but then again, too few to mention.
May 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word fear and lathing in las vegas
A journalist and lawyer go wild with woodworking as they explore the grotesque heart of the American dream by making furniture.
May 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word sulless
soulless perhaps?
May 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word thougtless
should be thoughtless
May 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word mesmerizing
More specifically, it's a present participle, which is why the dictionaries list it under the verb mesmerize. Today it is probably most often used as a modifier, though sentences such as "Her singing mesmerized the audience" are common enough.
May 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word neizpodbiten
You found me out, B.
May 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word neizpodbiten
It's quite logical when you break it into parts:
ne- (not) -iz- (out) -pod- (under) -bit- (hit, beat, knock) -en (adj. suffix, here meaning something like -able): unable to have its base knocked out from under it.
There is a transparency to the Slavic languages that I find incredibly beautiful.
May 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word grisly gristly grizzly
a horrific and unchewable piece of ursine meat
*apologizes in advance to Ms. Chained_Bear, for whom I have the greatest respect, and assures her that I would never dream of trying to chew anything the least bit ursine*
May 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word chequered past participle
I know a few of these. And they know who they are.
May 12, 2009
rolig commented on the list gas-music-from-jupiter
Great list title, yarb!
May 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word apple shampoo
Peach shampoo would make sense though. Or kiwifruit shampoo. Or perhaps here "apple" is a euphemism for a certain part of the male anatomy.
*Wonders if someone makes a special shampoo for that area*
*Hopes my suggestion might restore reesetee's taste for apples*
May 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word ughten v matinal crepuscule
See discussion at ughten.
May 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word ughten
You can find this word listed in Middle English Dictionary (U. of Mich. Press, 1997), which you can see via Google Books. There are several citations from between 1200 and 1500. Other spellings are oughten, ohtoun, and uhhtenn, which may give you some idea of how the -ugh was pronounced. Of course, it wasn't pronounced ugg-, but perhaps with a vowel as in bout, and a velar fricative like the ch in the Scottish loch; it seems to rhyme with the Middle English past participle foughten (see below).
It sounds rather nice to me, especially in the cited phrase bothe even and oughten, meaning literally "both evening and morning" and idiomatically "at all times of the day" as in the following couplet:
Thretti dayes … he had foughten
With-outen rest bothe euen & oughten.
May 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word cricket
That's not cricket, CF!
May 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word neizpodbiten
irrefutable, unshakable: neizpodbitna resnica – "irrefutable truth"
May 12, 2009
rolig commented on the list wildfeed
Whichbe, thanks for this! I love the cats!
May 12, 2009
rolig commented on the user rolig
Thanks, Pro! I wasn't really paying attention. I have no idea when I hit my fourth chiliad.
May 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word organized crime against nature
Obviously, the collective activities of the Velvet Mafia.
May 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word crime against nature
No prob, Pro! It's the least I can do for the Family (a.k.a. the Velvet Mafia – which has given me the idea for a new sweet tooth fairy).
May 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word ughten
Agreed, MM. But what about matinal crepuscule?
May 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word gegenstand
That's why we call them objects!
May 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word brinner
Perhaps the three-in-one combo should be brunner? (I'll let someone else add it.)
May 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word apple shampoo
Why would anyone want to shampoo apples? Or is this some sort of synthetic manure (sham poo) for apple orchards?
May 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word ughten
Curious word. Where does it come from? I wonder how it's pronounced, OOH-ten? UF-ten? It probably sounds nicer than it looks.
May 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word velutinous
Lovely word, Yarb! And a great quote!
May 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word whom
I think it is probably true that in modern English, the colloquial style, perhaps especially a kind of non-localized, perhaps American-leaning style with certain colloquial markers (like don't) but not others (like the verbal hiccups like, y'know, etc. or highly marked colloquialisms from specific speech communities) is encroaching on the written language. But I am not sure if this is a natural process. To some degree, perhaps. Over the past few decades, especially since the '70s, literary and journalistic writing has become more focused on a personal, first-person voice, which naturally relies on colloquialisms. This may be because postmodernism (and specifically deconstructionism) has seriously put into question any attempt to convey an impersonal, disinterested, objective viewpoint. In the past, authors usually tried to sound authoritative; today they try to sound approachable. This is to a large degree a matter of taste and the Zeitgeist, and it could well change.
May 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word whom
"Whom" may well be on its way out, but it's taking its time leaving the language. These things happen over generations. Yarb, you mention the familiar second person singular (thou, thee, thy). Back in the '60s, when I was just a child, my grandparents' generation regularly used thou-forms when addressing God in prayer, but I don't think my parents did, probably because they felt insecure about it (when do you say thou, when do you say thee, and what are we supposed to do with ye?). Back then, most church-goers still used the King James' Version, though there were bands of RSV-users in the congregation. Then, God help us all, sometime in the early '70s the Living Bible reared its modern paraphrasing head, and the colloquial Good News Bible (New Testament only) came on the scene with doodle-like drawings meant to appeal to the guitar-strumming crowd. Times had changed. I looked for thee in the wilderness, but thou wast not to be found, and whom was fighting for its very life.
By the way, I don't think I agree that colloquial speech is necessarily the defining form of language (and I am not sure I know what you mean by "defining form"). That may be increasingly the case with English, at least when it comes to contemporary linguistic scholarship, but it certainly hasn't always been the case (and it is not true of Slovene or, until quite recently, of Russian). There is also a strong conservative undertow in language change, which is created by the written language, particularly as used by writers in the cultural canon, and reinforced by schoolteachers, editors of various kinds, and probably others too, and this is necessary if we are to be able to read and understand the writings of the past, as well as to understand even our contemporaries outside our immediate linguistic community. And I should ask the nasty, though obvious question: which colloquial speech is defining for the language? My Baltimorese? Someone else's Cockney? Another person's Yorkshire speech? Bilby's Strine?
May 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word whom
Pleth, it sounds like your flat is proof that you agree with my father's guiding principle (unfortunately for domestic bliss, my mother didn't). Words, thankfully, don't take up as much space as the things my father gathered around him.
May 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word whom
Like I said, this could be a generational thing. I agree that it is rarely used in colloquial speech (though it probably is not out of place, and may even be required, in formal speech, such as a commencement address). Of course it is still used in serious writing, especially when the speaker does not want to sound colloquial, where the speaker wants to convey the sense "these are important issues." Colloquial speech is not the only acceptable style in language.
"Whom" has been hanging on by its fingernails for a couple of generations at least, and it has not been helped by stodgy grammarians who insist on its use in places where the common tongue prefers "who", but I think it will survive precisely because it is sometimes needed as the object of a preposition and saying "about who" or "from who" usually sounds as wrong as saying "about he" or "from they".
Then, of course, words like "whom" can also be useful when you want to play the class card. Someone who asks on the telephone: "To whom am I speaking?" may well be sending a slightly different message than the person who asks, "Who am I talking to?"
My father always told me, "Never throw anything away because there may come a time when you'll need it." I believe this applies to words too.
May 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word ingenuous
John66bessa, you are confusing two different words. Ingenious means "clever, showing great intelligence or insight." It easy to confuse this with ingenuous because of the noun ingenuity, which does not mean the quality of being ingenuous (that's ingenuousness), but the quality of being clever and inventive (and thus is closer in its meaning to "ingenious").
Ingenuous has nothing to do with ingenuity, though as you suggest, it is related to the idea of being "genuine". Ingenuous people are by nature genuine, in that they do not know how to deceive or be other than they are. "Ingenuous" is a close synonym of "naive". Ingenuous people are honest, but not because they choose to be; it is simply their nature to be. They have not yet learned how to dissemble or lie. But worldly people, i.e. people who understand the way world works and who are not ingenuous, may also be genuine: they may be forthright and honest, but in this case, it is a conscious decision.
We say that someone is disingenuous when they pretend to be ingenuous, i.e. they pretend to know less than they actually do, to be more naive than they actually are. They are deceptive, but in the particular way of pretending to be innocent or ignorant of something.
Curiously, the words genius, ingenious, ingenuity, ingenuous, and genuine are all related in that they share the same Latin root -gen- ("relating to birth"), but they are not derived from or based on one another.
May 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word whom
I should have been clearer. "Ask not for who the bell tolls" sounds wrong not only because this is a familiar quotation. "Don't ask who the bell tolls for" sounds perfectly fine to me, though it's lost its solemnity. There are times when we want to use a relative clause in which the relative pronoun follows a preposition – for example when we want to stress a point or add a note of solemnity or perhaps avoid a certain confusion: "This is the person I told you about" is fine, but if you want to say that you worked without complaint night and day for this person even sacrificing your weekends and never heard a word of thanks from him, you might not want to say: "This is the person I worked without complaint night and day for, even sacrificing my weekends, and never heard a word of thanks from." In this case, I would prefer: "This is the person for whom I worked night and day without complaint, even sacrificing my weekends, and from whom I never heard a word of thanks." When you need a form of who to follow a preposition, it will probably be whom. At least to my ear, for who …, concerning who …, with regard to who …, etc. all sound wrong. But I admit, this may be a generational thing.
May 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word agnostic
I just don't know.
May 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word whom
It's hardly defunct, and there are contexts where it is still unavoidable. "Ask not for who the bell tolls" just doesn't work.
May 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word acquiese
But I don't. Because it should be spelled acquiesce.
May 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word wifebeater
C_b, I am really sorry to hear about your horrific experience. It is all too common. There was a time, and not very long ago, when the idea of husbands beating their wives provided a staple source of humor ("One of these days, Alice! Pow! Right to the moon!" says Ralph, as the audience explodes in laughter), but that was when the real violence was kept behind the closed doors women and children were always just happening to run into. Making light of such things, as in pseudo-clever slang terms for T-shirts and beer, is probably a way of distracting ourselves from the terrible reality. But I don't see how anyone with an awareness of the power of words can use such terms gleefully.
May 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word rana rana
@ MM: Yes, "stara rana" (lit. "old wound") is a set phrase for what in English would be "a sore point".
@ the Archduke Karl Ferdinand: I think the common frog is Ribbet ribbet.
May 8, 2009
rolig commented on the list savage-love--2
Did you catch this week's Savage Love, where Dan suggests a definition for between the hedges?
Great list, btw! You might also want to include some of Savage's abbreviations, e.g. GGG, DTMFA, etc.
May 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word wifebeater
I sympathize, Rt. Although I find the development of this word's use fascinating, and I am happy to find any reason to research pictures of the young Marlon Brando in a tight-fitting, torn, and rain-drenched T-shirt, I am disturbed by the commercial callousness of this word. I was shocked to find many websites where clothing companies were selling these tank tops as "wifebeaters", often with young female models sporting them with a smile. I find it hard to imagine a young woman saying, unwincingly, to another young woman, "I found a great wifebeater at Macy's today!" But I'm sure it happens all the time. Can you imagine, say, Ray-Ban selling a particlar style of sunglasses as "childmolesters"? "We offer you an extensive sellection of elegant childmolesters!" It's a sickening thought, but no more so than companies proudly selling "wifebeaters".
May 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word rana rana
Lit., "early wound", though in Slovene this sounds a little archaic or poetic, since modern Slovene would say "zgodnja rana". See also oprosti mi moja rano rana.
May 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word wifebeater
So what does he wear when he beats her? (Sorry, gangerh, I couldn't resist.)
May 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word oprosti mi moja rano rana
The varieties of SBC stress, with their different pitches, are worse than Slovene, where no one much cares about pitch anymore (though long v. short still applies).
Thanks for the explanation, MM!
If I wanted to translate this in a way that would make sense to English speakers, I might say: "Forgive me, wound of my young heart" or "... my young heart's wound".
May 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word oprosti mi moja rano rana
I'm trying to figure out the grammar here. I know that rana rana means early wound" (an etymological curiosity, as Sarra would say: the adj. ran, -a, -o, -i, "early", and the noun rana, "wound", derive from different IE roots). But I don't know which is which here, or why one ran- ends in -o and the other in -a.
Is "rano" the fem. noun "wound" in the vocative case? Which would mean that "rana" is a postpositional adjective. Is the vocative case for adjectives the same form as the nominative? Help me out.
As to the meaning, it does sound strange in English, until you remember all those songs where love is described as a wound. It's really the "early" part that seems odd. Is the idea that the woman is the wound of the speaker's youth?
Fascinating.
May 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word wifebeater
Correction: Brando wasn't actually wearing a tank top in the movie. But it was a snug white T-shirt with very short sleeves that showed off his fit form and biceps. But Brando's look and performance, which completely redefined the notion of the male sex symbol, did wonders for the allure of the humble white undershirt (especially when it was torn and drenched as he wailed in the rain), and I expect it did influence the name of the tank top.
May 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word wifebeater
No need to bellow. Here you go. *hands C_b a beer* And come on in out of the rain, f'godsake.
May 6, 2009
rolig commented on the user jfk
"23 squidoo" is a silly, squiddy allusion to 23 skiddoo, which was a silly thing people used to say in the 1920s and became an emblem of the decade, as groovy did for the 1960s. I sort of understand the "skiddoo" part here (related maybe to skip and almost certainly to skedaddle), but I have no idea why the number 23 became attached to it.
May 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word wifebeater
A nice case of double metonymy: The white tank top worn by Marlon Brando as the violent Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire became so identified with Brando in this role that, in the US, it became known as a "wifebeater". Brando as Kowalski also became famous for crying, "Stella!" (his wife's name); hence the wifebeater tank top became connected with the name Stella, as in the beer.
May 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word not half
How do you Brits keep all your halves sorted? And are we supposed to know who Alan Freeman is? Is he fluffy? A fluffer?
May 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word shambulls
Stock market rallies that turn out to be blips before another steep decline (i.e. sham bulls that are really bears).
May 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word not half
"Suddenly / I'm not half the man I used to be" = "I am not at all the person used to be" = "I am a completely different person."
May 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word not half
Interesting, yarb. The Oxford American says of the expression "not half":
1. not nearly: he is not half such a fool as they thought. which I take to mean he is not the fool they thought he was
2. INFORMAL not at all: the players are not half bad. which I take to mean the players are very good
I suspect that you are right that this is a US/Brit distinction (not sure where Canada falls in this).
May 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word not half
Actually, I would take this to mean "your breath smells quite nice."
"not half" means "a fair amount of whatever is opposite": "You know, your singing's not half bad" = "You sing rather well." Usually, I think, "not half" is used in a compliment, i.e. with a quality that is considered negative. It is a form of understatement and suggests the speaker's mock surprise at discovering some positive quality in a person. "You know, you're not half dumb." = I'm surprised to discover that you are really rather smart.
I associate this expression in particular with the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s. It's the kind of thing Jean Harlow or Carole Lombard would say.
May 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word heteronormative
Like I said, I'm not crazy about this word, because at first glance it seems to mean "different from what is normative" (compare heterodox v. orthodox), but I wouldn't out-and-out attack it, since the social theoreticians who use it understand what it is supposed to mean. The idea it describes is not hard to grasp, since almost all of us encounter it everyday: the assumption that the heterosexual model of society is properly privileged (if not the only acceptable model).
May 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word frend
Slovene, of course, has a perfectly good word for "friend": prijatelj. But if you want to sound young and hip, you'll say moj frend, moja frendica (fem.), and moji frendi (pl.).
May 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word keš
Slovene slang for "money" (< Eng. "cash").
"Maš keš, nimaš keš, to je pomembno. Kao. Ampak �?e ne znaš živeti, ti ne pomaga ves keš tega sveta."
– Renata Ažman, Japajade (Ljubljana: Tuma, 2005), 14.
"You have money, you don't money – that's important. Maybe. But if you don't know how to live, not all the money in the world will help you."
May 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word fer
In Slovene, you'll hear: "To ni fer!" (That's not fair.)
May 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word bed
In Slovene slang, this means "bad".
May 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word frendica
A female frend.
May 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word lajf
Commonly heard in the phrase: "To je lajf!" (That's life!)
May 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word cotton pickin'
Interesting phrase. Any idea where it comes from?
May 4, 2009
rolig commented on the list etymological-curiosities
Sarra! Nice to see you back here. I thought you had abandoned this list, which is one of my favorites.
May 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word heteronormative
This is a useful term for theoreticians, and there is no reason to disdain it, any more than one would disdain specialized nautical terminology. It's curious the way people seem to admire the specialist jargon from certain fields (military, medical, astrophysical), but get upset when they hear words that convey nuanced notions from the humanities and social sciences (social theory, literary criticism, aesthetics, anthropology, etc.), perhaps from a kind of anti-intellectual populism. The scholars in these fields study ordinary things, like family structure, social prejudices, the workings of the imagination, and while it is true that everyone deals with such things, and hence in a way are also experts on them from a practical perspective, very few people think about these things with any depth or rigor. Those who make it their business to understand the workings of such phenomena do need to develop special terms. I would be the first to agree that these special terms can get out of hand, turning into abstractions that seem to lose all connection with the reality they seek to describe, but in many cases they are useful. I prefer simple, understandable words, but as K&P points out, words like heteronormative are a succinct way to express a fairly complex concept.
I am not a big fan of this word, particularly because here the prefix hetero- means "heterosexual" not "differing" (just as homo- in "homophobia" means "homosexual" not "same"). But within the discipline of cultural theory, this has become an acceptable use. I would, at least in some contexts, prefer the word heterosexualist, but heteronormative has the advantage of sounding neutral, whereas heterosexualist is a more loaded term.
May 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word national sarcastics awareness month
I don't think you all are taking this month seriously enough. We need a time of year to remember the many great sarcasticists who have risked their reputations to make the country safer for smug, shallow, and self-indulgent humor.
May 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word for ever
Good question, Lea. I don't think there is any difference at all. The New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors (which dictates OUP practice) gives "for ever" as an alternative to "forever". But in US English, I think "for ever" is rare. I almost always write this as one word, forever. The only time I can think of when I would write it as two words would be "for ever and ever", where the second ever is just for emphasis.
May 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word scrapple
They used to serve this to us in my elementary school. It always managed to make a bad day worse.
May 3, 2009
rolig commented on the list weird-names-for-common-things
Micturition.
May 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word national accordion awareness month
Rt, you're welcome to visit anytime! There's always a polka music program somewhere on TV here, and that's not counting the cable station TV Golica devoted 24/7 to Slovene polka music and scantily clad big-breasted Slovene farm girls, with a dash of yodeling.
May 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word fashion vasion
Sure it does: azure.
May 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word national accordion awareness month
In Slovenia, it is National Accordion Awareness Month every month of the year.
May 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word june is turkey lovers' month
Istanbul is particularly lovely in June.
May 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word celibacy awareness month
Once when I asked a friend how his love life was, he replied: "Celibate."
I was surprised: "Celibate?" I asked.
"Sure," he said. "You know. Sell a bit, give a bit away."
May 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word hasbian
If I remember correctly (from my experience as the editor of a gay and lesbian newspaper), this word first emerged among lesbians in the early or mid-1990s as a way to describe women who at one time identified themselves as lesbians, perhaps for political reasons, or because it was the thing to do at whatever college they went to, but then eventually "came out" as heterosexual, often leaving their lesbian friends feeling betrayed and hurt (and maybe broken-hearted). The word is not meant to imply that lesbians can be "converted", or even that the "hasbian" was ever really a lesbian. The word carries a large dose of bitterness, I think. It may also reflect the unwillingness of many in the gay and lesbian community to truly accept the idea of bisexuality, particularly before the mid-1990s, which was when bisexual groups began to get organized and demand recognition from lesbian and gay organizations.
The word started as a kind of joke, and I think it is OK to use on that level, but as with many such words, it says as much about the one who uses it as it does about the person who is described by it.
May 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word national bird feeding month
American birds (or rather, bald eagles as the national bird) get only one month to be fed in?!
April 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word the king and id
Anna Freud is hired by the King of Siam to psychoanalyze his many children, and in the process learns something about her own animal nature. The musical is known for such hits as: "Getting to know me! Getting to know all about me!" and "Shall We Transfer?"
April 30, 2009
rolig commented on the list new-and-unholy-coinage
Classy, in the sense of "stylish" has been around in American English at least since the 1940s. The book British and American English since 1900 by Eric Partridge and John Williams Clark, published in 1951, notes: "British swanky more or less equals American classy" (and that was all I was shown in the snippet view of Google Book Search). But there are lots of examples.
April 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word findguru
Smells like spam to me.
April 29, 2009
rolig commented on the list new-and-unholy-coinage
It's about time someone made this list. Thanks, MM! (Though some of these – e.g. hubby, classy, celeb – are probably a little old for this list.)
April 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word housewife
That's sweet. We love you, too, Bilby. And in Slovenia we would vote for you.
*relieved that the chocolate is being handed out and not, um, dispensed.*
April 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word führer
My mother was from Virginia and would say things like "raise a furor" (though she'd pronounce it /fyoo-rah/) and she wasn't talking about bringing up Adolf.
April 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word pohod
Normally this word means "hike" or, in military usage, "campaign". But recently I have noticed it in news reports in the phrase "strelski pohod", which should be translated as "shooting spree" (strelski means "shooting adj.").
April 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word führer
When I heard this word as a child, in movies or on TV, I always thought people were saying "the Furor", which makes sense of course.
April 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word housewife
Are you voting (Slovene) or loving (Serbo-Bosno-Croatian), Bil?
April 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word führer
I am not a native German, but I just did a Google search (confined to German pages) for "der Fürher" and nearly all hits were about Hitler, but I did find a Web page for a company that bills itself as "der Führer der Antiquitätenhändler" ("the leader of antiques dealers"), with no obvious National-Socialist connotations, and when I went on to do a search for "der Führer des" ("the leader of the"), I came across many references to leaders of countries, movements, and political parties, including "der Führer des Likud" (which must sound strange to many). And I got over 100 hits for "der Führer der sozialdemokratischen" ("the leader of the Social-Democratic…" So my guess is the "Führer" is still alive and kicking in German. After all, not only does the word "simply" mean "leader", it is also the simplest word for saying "leader", since it derives from the verb führen ("to lead").
But I'd be interested in hearing from a native German.
April 29, 2009
rolig commented on the word gara
I expect the Hindi word you mention has the same Turkic origins, via the Moguls.
April 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word pickle
Weirdnet Definition No. 4 is a bit overstated, I think. How do they come up with these things?
April 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word gara
Doesn't kara mean black in Turkish? (The Serbian nationalist leader who led the first Serbian revolt against the Turks and founded modern Serbia's royal dynasty was called "Karadjordje" – "Black George".) Perhaps that is the origin of the word. I don't think it's Slavic.
April 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word speech
There's a problem with your link, Rt.
April 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word dilettante
Etymologically, this means "one who delights." A nice concept, I think. In this time of ubiquitous professionalization and ultra-specialization, we need more dilletantes to delight us.
April 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word aretha apithy
How can anyone be apithetic about the Queen of Soul?
April 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word smrt
Oh, that could be fun.
April 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word smrt
I'm not sure I'd want to get on a transit system called SMRT.
April 27, 2009
rolig commented on the list the-quirks-of-sbc
Great list! Thanks!
April 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word probisvijet
Very cool.
April 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word modro
By a quirk of etymology, this word in Slovene means not only blue, but also "wise" (in the neuter singular). In Slovene the nasal o of Proto-Slavic evolved into the simple o, whereas in other South Slavic and East Slavic languages, it became u. Hence, "wise" (n.sg.) in SBC is mudro, in Russian, мудро (mudro). Perhaps this is one reason why Slovene and SBC both borrowed the German word blau, reshaping it as plav.
April 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word curses make the fox fat
That that there?
April 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word bunkica
a little bump
April 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word curses make the fox fat
Which that?
April 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word sex imagery probe may be extended
Sounds painful.
April 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word antidistablishantarianism
This is not what you think it is.
April 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word hissy-skip
What a seamstress throws when she really gets upset.
April 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word cocksbod
This must be revived.
April 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word woodshedding
I agree, seanahan, but I can't remember whether taking someone out to the woodshed has to do with sex or punishment (maybe both for some). Can you enlighten me?
April 26, 2009
rolig commented on the user madmouth
I'd love to see more SCBM (BSCM/CSBM/CBSM?) words on Wordie (like mrš!). It's a language I'm picking up in bits and pieces, partly because it occasionally crops up in Slovene texts (often in the form of swear words, which Slovenes claim all derive from army Serbian).
April 26, 2009
rolig commented on the list rabelation
I've danced around Rabelais since college, but you two have inspired me. He's going on my amazon list.
April 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word femme
Or perhaps some lesbian Wordie-er. I believe this is a fairly old term among lesbians for a homosexual woman who is attracted to "butch" women (i.e. women who to some degree adopt or possess traditionally masculine gender attributes in manner and dress) but who herself acts and dresses in ways that are considered traditionally feminine. A related term, originating in the late 1980s or early 1990s, is "lipstick lesbian" but I think this has different, and more political, connotations.
April 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word paracetamol
What Americans call acetaminophen.
April 26, 2009
rolig commented on the list stuffie-poetrie-tunie-listings
Added:
Poetrie: For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry…
Hymnie: Lift Every Voice and Sing
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word god's portion
A nice tradition. This reminds me of the little dish they have at some checkout counters, "Give a penny, take a penny", though of course that's not really about charity.
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word marija pomo�?nica
You're right that the word "pomo�?nica" means "female helper", but the Marian title in English is "Our Lady, Help of Christians" (see here). Her full title in Slovene is actually "Marija pomo�?nica kristjanov", but people usually just say, "Marija pomagaj", which actually means "Mary, help!"
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word marija pomagaj
"Our Lady, Help of Christians" (see Marija pomo�?nica).
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word marija pomo�?nica
Also, "Marija pomagaj". One of the most common Slovene titles for the Virgin Mary, represented in a said-to-be-miraculous painting (1814) by Leopold Layer in the Basilica of St. Vitus (St. Guy, Sveti Vid), in Brezje, near Radovljica, in Upper Carniola. In English, this title translates as Our Lady, Help of Christians.
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word hysterosalpingography
Ah, so salpingo- refers to the tubes.
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word hysterosalpingography
Hystero- means "uterus" and -graphy means "writing, or, record-making", but what does -salpingo- (from salpinx?) mean?
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word patternicity
I don't think there is any paradox involved. The word "meaningless" has meaning as a word: "lacking meaning". Hence, it is clearly heterological, because its meaning cannot be applied to the word itself, just as the meaning "long" cannot be applied to the word "long" (because it has only four letters).
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word signature dish
And here I thought this was some piece of gossip that, when it gets passed around, people know right away who started it. "You're telling me you heard he's acing the class because he's doing the professor? Oh, I know who's telling those tales. That dish has Miss Sour Grapes' name written all over it!"
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word patternicity
Not everything is meaningful, therefore, "meaningless" is meaningful and not autological. But meaning depends on the code being used, and it is human to seek meaning, and therefore to presume the existence of codes we can understand. No one who did not believe in the Virgin Mary or in the ability of spiritual entities to manifest themselves physically in quotidian objects would ever see the BVM in a certain configuration of pancake syrup, which would then be for them meaningless, despite the best efforts of the Mother of God. I am a devout believer in the meaning of "meaningless".
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word wikipodia
See wikipodium.
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word wikipodium
A Wikipedia entry which some anonymous Wikieditor uses (not always overtly) to put forward their personal beliefs. (pl.: wikipodia)
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word pinniped
*reciting:*
"We seek him here, we seek him there …"
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the list peach-plum-pear
Silly Piñata!
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word official wordie historian
What is this a euphemism for, C_B?
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word patternicity
If one finds meaningful patterns in something, how can that something be called meaningless? Is meaning exclusively the product of intention, or do we create meaning by perceiving? If a person sees the image of the Virgin Mary in the syrup on a pancake and takes that as a sign of grace, which subsequently transforms this person's life, was the configuration of the syrup meaningless?
Personally, I don't like the word patternicity, which from the -ic-ity suffixes one would expect to mean the property of tending to possess pattern, not that of tending to perceive pattern.
I'm surprised that cognitive psychologists don't have a term for this notion, since pattern perception is such an intrinsic part of learning. Or perhaps they prefer to use words that are simpler but clearer, if less arcane, like "the tendency to perceive patterns." Or perhaps, they just call it something cumbersomely German, like Gestaltwahrnehmungsfähigkeit.
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word seric
Compare serigraphy – silkscreening.
April 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word pinniped
Sometimes I wish English didn't fancy things up with Latinate words. How much better it would be if we called these animals finfoots.
April 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word chiasmus
But don't forget what Heraclitus said: "Character is destiny."
April 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word the sixth sensei
The Karate Kid sees dead people.
April 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word astasia
She's understated, moll?
April 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word mollitude
"In the case of the common word нега, Nabokov has surpassed himself in oddity. It is true that нега has two distinct nuances: voluptuous languor and simple enjoyment; but, instead of using any of the obvious equivalents, Mr. Nabokov has dug up from the dictionary the rare and obsolete mollitude, a word which his readers can never have encountered but which he uses for the first of these meanings; and for the second he has discovered dulcitude. One wonders how Nabokov would translate the last line of Pushkin's famous lyric, published after his death, 'Пора, мой друг, пора'...'В обитель дальную трудов и чи�?тых нег.' 'To a faraway haven of work and pure mollitudes'? 'dulcitudes'?"
– Edmund Wilson, in a scathing review of Nabokov's translation of Eugene Onegin, "The Strange Case of Pushkin and Nabokov," The New York Review of Books 4, no. 12 (July 15, 1965).
Nabokov seems to have developed his own meaning for the word "mollitude", which dictionaries indicate mean "softness, effeminacy, weakness"; he seems, in the quote from Ada, or, Ardor, cited by Yarb, to have in mind something more like the Russian word нега (nega), which in Russian romantic poetry usually refers to sensual pleasure.
April 23, 2009
rolig commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous
Thanks, for the suggestions, MM and C_B, but there doesn't seem to be any evidence that James and John's surname, however delightful, became a common word.
April 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word douchebaguette
In French, wouldn't a douchebaguette (or more properly, douche-baguette) be a long narrow loaf of bread that one showered with (or perhaps a baguette-shaped sponge)? Could be fun.
April 22, 2009
rolig commented on the word labiovelarize
I would say that the main stress falls on the fourth syllable, with the secondary stress on the first. It's a double dactyl to me:
' _ _ ' _ _
la-bi-o-ve-la-rize
April 21, 2009
rolig commented on the word alumnus
Qroqqa, do you have a list for these words where you contemplate their etymology?
April 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word viral
I'm part of the generation of gay men who came of age in the early '80s, which is certainly partly why I deplore such sanguine use of the word. But mainly it is because I feel that writers should be aware of the metaphors they play with. I have no objection to the phrase "viral marketing" because it reflects the insidious, parasitical, and ultimately mind-destroying nature of such covert advertising. If the people who do this want to compare their activity to pathological processes, that's fine by me; I see their work as being pathological. What bothers me is the implied celebration of the pathological, especially by someone like this NYT writer who doesn't seem to realize that that is what she is doing. If someone wants to say, "We're dangerous, we're gonna get you, we're viral!", well, that's OK, too; that's just recycled 1970s punk. What bothers me are middle-class writers and businessmen using the word as something positive.
Alternatives? For the meaning, the NYT writer wanted, I'd suggest widespread, inundating, wildfire (also a bad thing to have happen to you, but at least it's out in the open), fast-spreading.
It occurs to me that it is not so much the metaphor itself that bothers me; I'd have no problem if she had written "contagious", for example, though that also implies disease. I suppose it's that for me, viral is still firmly tied to viruses, and I think I want it to stay tied to them.
April 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word viral
Good point, Yarb!
But it's appalling nonetheless. And a thoughtful writer should reflect on the implications of such a term.
April 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word medel
Coincidentally, this adjective, which can mean "dull, confused" is pronounced a lot like the English word "muddle".
From the definition in the SSKJ:
dull, dim (medla lu�?); vague (neopredeljen, neizdelan: medla slutnja); confused (zmeden: medla glava, medla zavest); weak in health (slaboten); weak in force (medla dež, medel veter)
April 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word viral
"The viral popularity of the site propelled the blog’s creators onto the radar of the publishing industry. 'From the first day, we were getting calls from agents,' said Jessica Amason, one of the founders."
– Jenna Wortham, "Public Provides Giggles; Bloggers Get the Book Deal," New York Times, 17 April 2009, here.
A curious use of the word viral to mean "fast-spreading." I know this is a very trendy use, but I find it jarring here. Viruses are something undesirable, something we try to eradicate, whether the issue is physical health or the functioning of a computer program. It seems meretricious to use the word in a context where this negative connotation does not come into play.
April 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word black poodle
In Goethe's Faust, a black poodle is a manifestation of Mephistopheles. Do you think there's a connection?
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word fantolioni
Sorry about that. I've put in a different link, to the whole website and not just the image. Maybe that'll work. I'm not a pirate, really! Arrrrgh!
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word fantolioni
I fixed the link, c_b. Sorry about that. Give it another try.
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word privoš�?ljivost
Technically, this word refers merely to the quality of wishing something for someone else, but in practice it refers to wishing evil on someone. Not an exact schadenfreude alternative, I know, but it's close.
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the list jewels-in-your-mouth
Bacchanalia, you probably want to put these comments on the appropriate word page (e.g. chode, usa – just click on the word), and not on the list page.
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the user madmouth
To madmouth: Fate is like that.
To C_B and Pro: I suppose my passions for Baltimoriana and Ljubljaniana (and more generally Sloveniana) can seem confusing.
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word škodoželjnost
The Slovene version of Schadenfreude, it translates literally as "harm-wishfulness". This is not exactly the same as Schadenfreude, but it generally serves the same purpose. A related word is privoš�?ljivost, which the Dictionary of the Slovene Standard Language describes as the quality of "wishing something on someone, usually something bad or evil."
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word fantolioni
Brooding and sexy, like this.
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word uav
Just a note on the pronunciation of this Slovene exclamation (which is probably borrowed from English, btw, via the globalization of American television): the letter v in Slovene is often a semi-vowel, and the spelling av represents the diphthong ow, as in the English words how, now, cow and, yes, wow. The initial u- is the best Slovene spelling can do to represent the w sound. You can also occasionally hear people say this word as two syllables, especially when they want to underscore their excitement: oo-OW, which is sort of cute.
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word fagottini
Thanks, bil!
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word fagottini
I think the proper Italian name might be girasole (apparently it means "sunflowers" and that is what it looks like). The package I bought it in puts an -i on the enc, but then, it's in Slovene. We should ask Prolagus.
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word depillatory
Very funny, molusqque!
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word squidoo
23 squidoo!
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word fagottini
I had a stuffed pasta tonight (pre-packaged) that was called girasoli, shaped like silver-dollar-sized suns and filled with basil, mozzarella and tomato (a little caprese salad). This was new to me, but it was very good.
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word uber-chic
There is always a note of facetiousness in these words with the prefix uber, or more properly, über, or so it seems to me. If not said with irony, they merely betoken a certain naïveté in the speaker. Anything that is truly chic has no need of overstatement, it makes its own case without the aid of prefixes.
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the user madmouth
No, I'm an American, but I live in Slovenia. Welcome to Wordie!
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word put a sock in it
You mean you're štumfed, don't you, strev?
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the word štumf
The colloquial Slovene word for "sock", from the German Strumpf. In Standard Slovene, the word is nogavica.
April 18, 2009
rolig commented on the list things-that-roll-things-one-rolls-or-things-one-finds-in-a-roll
you gotta do better than that
*chuckles anyway*
April 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word mean people
I don't expect anyone will want to adopt this one.
April 17, 2009
rolig commented on the list things-that-roll-things-one-rolls-or-things-one-finds-in-a-roll
But not on demand.
April 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word tod
In Slovene: one of the three words for "there":
tam means "at that place": Tam so bili vsi njegovi prijatelji. ("All his friends were there.")
tja means "to that place": Gremo tja naslednji teden. ("We're going there next week.")
tod means "through that place, along that way": Vsak dan hiti tod mimo. ("He hurries past there every day.")
April 17, 2009
rolig commented on the user madmouth
Are you Croatian, madmouth?
April 17, 2009
rolig commented on the list disemvoweled
One of my favorite words, the soughing vrh means "summit" or "top" in Slovene, as well as in its cousin tongue, Croato-Bosno-Montenegro-Serbian.
April 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word pulchritude
Pulcher? I hardly know'er!
April 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word voilà
Similar to the wonderful Russian word вот (vot) and the colloquial Slovene evo (pronounced /'ɛvɔ/). The best English can do is there's/there're.
April 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word drower
It all sounds rather Kinbotish to me.
April 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word humuhumunukunukuapua'a
For the general enjoyment, the song mentioned below is here.
April 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word lanzallamas
And here I thought this was another one of those obscure Catholic holidays (maybe in honor of St. Mario Lanza?).
April 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word garrotte
No, I wouldn't to confuse these.
But I though you said you really enjoyed doing the gavotte!
April 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word vole
Not (necessarily) to be confused with love. Unless, of course, you happen to be a vole.
April 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word lemur
And then there's another big-eyed tropical species of lemur, the Lamour dorothia (see here and here).
April 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word chainik
*Singing to self:*
I'm a little chainik, short and stout!
Here is my handle, here is my spout!
When I get all steamed up, hear me shout!
Tip me over and pour me out!
April 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word lemur
Unlike some other primates, lemurs do not have prehensile tails (they cannot hang by their tails from trees like monkeys) but they do have long, wet noses.
– from the Lemurs.us website, "Lemur Basics".
April 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word lemur
I always defer to the lemur allure.
April 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word geezer
In the US, I think this word always refers to an old man, not just any man, and underscores this person's unattractiveness because of his age: How could a babe like Catherine Zeta-Jones marry a geezer like Michael Douglas?
But I have been out of the US for a number of years and watch a lot of British TV, so I'm never 100% about the more subtle cross-pond (transpond?) distinctions.
April 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word mesonoxian
I expect it does, C_b. As hybrid inkhorns go, an age of nearly four centuries seems to qualify this word as a geezer.
April 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word ira
The name of my housemate Jon's easy-going orange tabby in the late 1970s.
April 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word mesonoxian
Hybridity is hardly a shortcoming in this post-postmodern age, and many modern words are macaronic, e.g. television, cyberspace, and many more. But that does not mean hybridity should be encouraged, especially in such a geezer as mesonoxian, which I suspect was invented by some seicento wit for the purpose of displaying his pseudo-erudition or, perhaps, merely to garner guffaws (not unlike the madeupicals of many Wordies). While I am willing to accept this as a word (not that I have any lexicographic authority in the matter), I would caution against its enthusiastic use, and urge instead the simpler and more elegant adjectival use of the word midnight in its place.
And I should point out to Alsanch1 that crepuscular (a fine word, though one to be used sparingly) has nothing to do with midnight, unless of course one is referring to the the subarctic regions at midsummer); it means "relating to twilight".
April 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word raster
In Slovene: printmaking screen, hatching
April 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word resent
A friend of mine today forwarded an email to me from someone who was trying to get in touch with me. He had written to my friend this message:
Could you please make sure Rolig gets the following. I sent it earlier, but the internet "MAILER-daemon" said the address wasn't properly configured. I resent it, but please make sure he gets this.
I told him there was no need for resentment just because of some email glitch.
April 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word bizarre paschal ovine confectionery dispenser diorama
Is he grumpy because he has to wear a Santa cap on Easter, perhaps?
April 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word crastinate
I assumed WWFTD had something to do with flowers.
April 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word bumfuck nowhere
You're thinking of my "States of Mind" list. Added.
April 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word magnificent obsession
No pun necessary.
April 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word jesu, joey of man's desiring
Forget the 'roos.
I'm sure that back in the day Matt LeBlanc was the object of more than one man's desiring.
April 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word wile
"Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."
– Ephesians 6:11 (KJV)
The Contemporary English Version (1999) renders this verse as follows:
"Put on all the armor that God gives, so you can defend yourself against the devil's tricks."
I prefer "wiles"; it's so much wilier.
April 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word bathroom v washroom v restroom v wc
Brings back painful memories. When I lived in Leningrad in the mid-80s, I made a mental list of all the possible public facilities – туалеты (tualety) – (in "foreigner" hotels, certain better restaurants, academic libraries) throughout the center of the city that were acceptable in an emergency. Train station washrooms, however, did not make the list. And I of course I never went anywhere without toilet paper.
Cheboksary? Isn't that the capital of some Finno-Ugric-language-speaking "autonomous republic" (Mari? Komi? – can't remember). What was the bilby doing there?
April 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word whipped cream
". . . Do you like cooking, Phil?" "Not really.
I can't abide its cruelty."
"Cruelty, Phil?" "Right—you don't merely
Pop corns, you beat eggs, wilfully
Stone cherries, whip cream, chop and skewer,
Are happier when cheese is bluer—
And then there's batter, rack of lamb,
And squash and mace. . . ad nauseam.
No. Violence and exploitation
Of co-comestibles would be
A sin. My conscience troubles me
With delicate denunciation:
Far better not to cook, and starve
In purity, than baste and carve."
– Vikram Seth, The Golden Gate, Ch. 8, stanza 12
April 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word rolig
Wow! (Or as Slovenes spell it: uav!)
I feel the love.
Thanks, Bilby and Sionnach! You guys are certainly two of the reasons I'm here!
April 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word leech
I agree that it's probably borrowed from a Germanic language; there are quite a few Proto-Slavic words that were borrowed from Germanic (I assume Gothic), e.g. *kъnęgъ, which produced the noble titles кн�?зь (knjaz') in Russian ("prince") and knez in Slovene ("prince" or "duke"), as well as the Czech kněz ("priest"). The Germanic source, *kuningaz, yielded of course the German König and the English king.
April 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word schmuck
That's hilarious, Sionnach!
April 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word leech
One of the leading Slovene pharmaceutical companies is called "Lek", an old Slovene word that means "medicine", and the Slovene word for pharmacy is lekarna. In Russian, лекарь (lekar') is an old word for "doctor", лекар�?тво (lekarstvo) means "medicine", and there is even a verb лечить (le�?it') (showing the usual k > �? palatalization), which means "to treat a disease with medicine". Given the general distribution of this root throughout the Slavic languages (and Slovene and Russian are about as far apart as Slavic languages get in terms of non-Slavic influences), I had always assumed this was a Slavic root. Marko Snoj, in his Slovene Etymological Dictionary, confirms that the word *lek ("medicine") is indeed a Proto-Slavic word, but then writes that it is "usually considered a borrowing from Germanic (compare the Gothic lekeis 'doctor', lekkinon 'to treat with medicine' …), which was itself borrowed from Celtic (compare the Middle Irish líaig 'doctor')."
By the way, in English, you can still come across the word "leech" in the sense of "doctor" in older texts (I think even as late as the 19th century).
April 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word schmuck
What I find curious about this word is that in German it means "ornament, jewelry/jewellery" – a very different connotation indeed from its use in modern American English. I wonder if its establishment in Yiddish as "penis" was the result of a euphemism, like we say "the family jewels".
April 9, 2009
rolig commented on the list whether-tis-nobler-words-from-hamlet
Other verbal Hamlet associations, at least for me, are:
Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered.
HAMLET: Methinks it is like a weasel.
POLONIUS: It is backed like a weasel.
HAMLET: Or like a whale?
POLONIUS: Very like a whale.
What a piece of work is a man … the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!
April 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word triaca
At your service.
April 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word blue
TBT, I think Ruskin was talking about the Deity, not some weight-loss method.
April 8, 2009
rolig commented on the word nabob
1992 is nothing compared to the date of the quote I added "about 1 year ago", which was the first use of "nabob" that ever stuck in my then-young mind. (Gosh, I'm old!)
April 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word interrobang
I'm so glad you saw the beautiful Peabody Library. I used to live just a couple blocks away. Too bad about the weather, though. But South Baltimore and Fells Point can be a lot of fun.
April 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word no glove no love
One I remember from Canada in the '80s is Don't forget to wear your rubbers!
April 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word interrobang
I am so pleased, Pro, that my native town could provide you with this hybrid punctuation mark. Baltimore's an interrobangish place, filled with lots of surprises and questions that are always getting mixed up together. I hope you had a good time!
April 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word sionnachern comfort
Added.
Have one on me, sionnach!
April 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word sionnachern comfort
Shouldn't they be serving this down at the Wordie Arms (or whatever the name of our tavern is – I'm blanking at the moment)?
April 6, 2009
rolig commented on the list yiddishkeit
I am so glad you made this list, John! Thanks!
April 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word noodnik
Also spelled nudnik (where you'll see my comment about it's Slavic roots).
April 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word nudje
This word has Slavic origins: see nudnik.
April 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word drevi
this evening being used less often today
Related word
drévišnji – this evening's
April 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word davi
this morning being used less often today
Related word
dávišnji – this morning's
April 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word chon
Also spelled jun: a monetary unit of North Korea (one 100th part of a won).
Also spelled jeon: a monetary unit of South Korea (one 100th part of a won).
April 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word sok
Actually, some Slovenes do use this word to mean "soft drink", though it's usually meaning is "juice" (as in most Slavic languages, I think).
April 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word 42
I see that there are only 12 days left. (Wordies, please! Try to control your asses!)
April 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word presuniti
1. to affect powerfully (inspire sorrow, pity; inspire wonder, admiration)
2. to overcome, suffuse, e.g. nova mo�? presunila njeno telo = a new strength flowed through her body; presunil ga je strah pred ljudmi = he was overcome with a fear of people
3. arch. to penetrate, pierce, run through (as with a sword)
Related words
presunljív - 1. moving, pitiful, inspiring (close synonym: ganljiv) 2. penetrating (predirljiv): presunljiv krik = a piercing scream; presunljiv pogled = a penetrating gaze)
April 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word jewishish
This word works only with the main stress on the final syllable and secondary stress on the first syllable, and I would recommend a hyphen: Jewish-ish, pronounced /ˌdʒu�?ɪʃ'ɪʃ/.
Bilby, that's just pure ridiculousiness.
April 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word engayify
I don't see any reason for the prefix here. Wouldn't gayify do just as well?
April 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word laicization
The word I prefer (because it better conveys the notion of punishment and not just moving from one status to another) is defrock (and the corresponding verbal noun defrocking). Though perhaps we should worry about priests accused of child molesting being stripped of their frocks.
April 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word deconstruction
I often come across the same problem in my editing. One of the people I work with (a Slovene artist) occasionally will refer to to deconstructing buildings, when what she means is pulling them down. I try to explain that the only way to deconstruct a building is to theorize about it (or perhaps build a new construction that in some way analyzes, questions and exposes the underlying structure of the first building). The problem becomes more interesting because my colleague also discusses in her work the deconstruction of modernism, and here, of course, she is talking about deconstruction.
April 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word pedissequous
Thanks, seanahan! If there's one thing I know, it's how to ramble on.
April 3, 2009
rolig commented on the user frogapplause
Aw, gee! Thanks, f.a.! And by the way, I particularly enjoyed your strip today, and I don't even know who Gerry Spence is (but I'm glad he's out there).
April 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word disgruntled employee benefits
good one, strev!
April 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word pedissequous
I haven't compared Onegin translations in a long time, but the last time I did (back in the '80s), Johnston's was by far the best in capturing the spirit of the text. Nabokov's translation is scrupulously accurate as to the concrete meaning of the text, but it is often very idiosyncratic in its word choice and at times rather flat. Nabokov smugly eschews any attempt to convey the original's rhyme scheme or even its meter; I think he secretly wanted to keep the "real" Pushkin to himself. But his two-volume commentary to the text is fascinating and indispensable for any serious Pushkin-lover. I'd recommend Johnston (whose translation came out after Nabokov's and so was spared the Nabokovian disdain he decanted on Walter Arndt, Babette Deutsch, and other predecessors).
April 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word frankly my deer
I don't give a ham (except in my acting, of course).
April 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word you can't wrap fish in a blog
Found in a comment by "craig o'donnell" on John McIntyre's copy-editing blog You Don't Say. The point is that mistakes in newspapers are short-lived (newspaper = fishwrap), whereas those in blogs stick around.
April 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word intense
*Chuckling* Thanks for the smiles.
April 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word bibliosphresiophilia
Attention all hi-tech-loving bibliopresiophiliacs! There's a new product on the market just for you!
"Does your Kindle leave you feeling like there’s something missing from your reading experience?
Have you been avoiding e-books because they just don’t smell right?
If you’ve been hesitant to jump on the e-book bandwagon, you’re not alone. Book lovers everywhere have resisted digital books because they still don’t compare to the experience of reading a good old fashioned paper book.
But all of that is changing thanks to Smell of Books™, a revolutionary new aerosol e-book enhancer.
Now you can finally enjoy reading e-books without giving up the smell you love so much. With Smell of Books™ you can have the best of both worlds, the convenience of an e-book and the smell of your favorite paper book."
Get it here!
April 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word supplanter
James comes from Jacob, who in the Bible (Genesis, ch. 27) supplanted his older twin brother Esau (it's a great story!).
April 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word pizda
Thanks for the explanation, artm!
April 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word pedissequous
I imagine Ferry felt it was important to preserve Horace's pun, which an English reader with a little knowledge of Latin roots (i.e. ped- = "foot") would easily get (helped along, as in my case, by the semantic and formal resemblance to obsequious). In the following line, of course, "following foot for foot one foot at a time" refers to metrical (iambs, trochees, dactyls, etc.) not anatomical feet. Horace is recommending that poets choose a noble if familiar subject, such as the Trojan War, and then make their own mark on it by doing new things with the poetic form. I wonder if he is talking especially about those Latin poets who were producing more or less free translations from Greek poetry and yet were trying to render the Greek meters as closely possible. Sort of like the many translations of Pushkin I've seen that make this incredible poet sound like some jingle-writer because the translator is applying all sorts of silly tricks to preserve the rhyme scheme and the meter. (Charles Johnston's 1977 translation of Eugene Onegin is a felicitous exception.)
But I (typically) digress. Given the rough tertiary meter of Ferry's verse (and this particular line is a standard amphibrachic in Latin, short-long-short, or in English, unstressed-stressed-unstressed tetrameter), I would expect pedissequous to be pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, with a short i as in disc, roughly /pɛ'dɪsəkwəs/.
April 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word pianistan
Brilliant, Bilb.
March 31, 2009
rolig commented on the word peis
John, perhaps I.M. Pei's name has become a byword for modernist architect, as in: "Our architecure program has produced quite a few Peis and a couple of Mieses, too." A more likely plural, however, would be if Pei is understood metonymically: "While everyone else was getting excited about deconstructivist architecture, she devoted herself to the buildings of late modernism and traveled the world photographing Peis and Safdies." Well, it's possible. I guess all I am saying is, give Peis a chance.
March 31, 2009
rolig commented on the word samovar
Thanks, all. And John's "Son of Samovar" is deliciously psychopathic enough to deserve its own page. John, nobody is listing Son of Samovar. Why don't you?
March 31, 2009
rolig commented on the word samovar
Jokes are fine, and I know that words change meanings as they migrate. I just hadn't realized samovar had turned into a generalized hot-beverage dispenser. Many borrowings, and samovar is one of them retain their foreignness. I may be out of it, but I find it hard to think of anything as a samovar, except facetiously, unless it is more or less directly associated with the Russian samovar. If there is humor for me in the excerpt John cited (and 30 Rock has not yet reached my Central European hideaway, so I am not familiar with any of the characters), then it is that Toufer himself doesn't know what a samovar is, though he smugly thinks he does. I suspect, however, that the intention was simply to show Toufer's nerdishness in using unusual words. In this case "samovar" actually means "a word only elitists or eggheads use." Which would be OK if the elitist/egghead used it correctly. But this is the kind of faux populism I hate about TV writing, because they usually get it wrong. The other day, for example, in some TV drama, someone who was supposed to be a born-again Christian said something like: "Jesus said" followed by a familar quotation from one of Paul's letters (e.g. "It is more blessed to give than to receive"). A born-again Christian would know this came from Paul and not from Jesus speaking in the Gospels. But the lazy-ass TV writers couldn't be bothered to look it up because they don't really care about accuracy or even about what born-again Christians would really say; they just want a snappy line.
Sorry for the digression. And thanks, Sionnach and Reesetee, for the vote of support.
March 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word forte
Sionnach, did you grow up saying (and hearing people say) one-syllable forte? I wonder if the one- vs. two-syllable divide is based on class distinctions or perhaps on the transatlantic rift, or both?
March 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word forte
Well argued, Q.! I am an overly educated guy who is thought to be quite articulate and knowledgeable about languages, and I have always said this word with two syllables, with the stress on the first. But a couple of months ago someone whose opinion on such matters I respect said that it should be pronounced as one syllable when it meant "area of particular strength". But I don't believe that I have ever heard anyone say the word that way in the past thirty years. And I am sure that I and my educated friends have all said it disyllabically. Thanks for the confirmation.
But this makes me wonder: is this campaign to get people to say forte monosyllabically a recent fad? Is this a new bugbear?
March 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word twelfth
It's three consonant sounds: /l/, /f/, and /th/; another ordinal with three consonant sounds is sixth: /k/, /s/, and /th/.
March 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word samovar
Samovars dispensing coffee? I think not. Traditional Russians make their coffee the Turkish way, in a little pot over a flame. Samovars are used only for tea.
March 30, 2009
rolig commented on the word cucati
Sorry for the confusion. The Slovene verb cucati (pronounced /TSU-tsa-ti/) means "to suck"; the label juv. ("juvenile") indicates that it is usually used by or with young children.
March 27, 2009
rolig commented on the list words-that-are-also-movies
Hitchcock had a predilection for one-word titles. I added a few of his. Didn't see that John had already listed Psycho. Sorry.
March 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word cucati
to suck juv.
March 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word cucek
cur
March 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word sinter
"He felt closer to dust, he said, than to light, air or water. There was nothing he found so unbearable as a well-dusted house, and he never felt more at home than in places where things remained undisturbed, muted under the grey, velvety sinter left when matter dissolved, little by little, into nothingness."
– W. G. Sebald, The Emigrants, tr. Michael Hulse (London: Vintage Books, 2002), 161.
March 23, 2009
rolig commented on the word contemn
Strictly speaking, they mean different things, though it's true that we often condemn things we contemn. To condemn something or is to declare it bad, wicked, etc.; to contemn something is to express disdain for it, to hold it in contempt (which derives, in fact, from the past participle of the Latin verb contemnere, "to scorn", which gives us "contemn").
But you should note that "contemn" is not often used anymore (the Oxford American Dictionary marks it as "archaic"), probably because of this very confusion with "condemn".
March 20, 2009
rolig commented on the word marljiv
diligent, persistent
March 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word varljiv
deceptive, misleading
< varati, "to cheat"
March 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word s trebuhom za kruhom
lit. "with the belly after bread". This means "go abroad to make a living".
Ni mi bilo treba s trebuhom za kruhom. ("I didn't have to go abroad to make a living.")
March 19, 2009
rolig commented on the word erin go braugh
Not to be confused with the slogan of the 1970s Irish Feminist Action Committee, which was Erin Go Braughless!
March 18, 2009
rolig commented on the user nuxiy
No, I'm not Norwegian, and in fact, I didn't know that my handle meant anything in Norwegian until a couple weeks ago. But thanks for asking.
And welcome to Wordie! If you have any questions, just ask.
March 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word spectacles, testicle, watch 'n wallet
Nor does this person have an ear for dactyls.
March 17, 2009
rolig commented on the word mea culpa
I guess I attract them.
March 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word metaphier
Does this mean there is a verb "to metaphy"? Ugh. I always thought that "the thing known" was what we called the metaphor.
March 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word abraham
In Slovene, "to meet" or "see" Abraham (srečati/videti Abrahama) means to reach your 50th birthday.
March 15, 2009
rolig commented on the list happenstance-2
Nice list! I added a couple. But I'm curious about the word newton being here. Is this something to do with fortuitously falling fruit?
March 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word mea culpa
No, Maya and Maksim are fairly common Russian names, though the surname Kulpa is unusual. But such things do occur. I have a good friend in Ljubljana named Tadej (the Slovene version of Thaddaeus), which is pronounced a lot like the English word "today". His sister's name is Tamara, with the stress on the second syllable.
March 15, 2009
rolig commented on the word bizarre spheniscidine confectionery dispenser videorama
I enjoyed the video very much, and it's nice to hear your voice – "fecal carnage" is an interesting, if disturbing phrase. I am not very good at spotting accents, in fact, unless they are rather broad, but I thought your voice sounded American. Maybe it was the way you pronounced the r. I thought Irish accents generally used more of a trilled r.
March 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word irokeza
The Mohawk hairstyle is still popular in Ljubljana, only here it is called irokeza, from the word Irokez (Iroquois).
March 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word mea culpa
I once had a friend in St. Petersburg whose name was Maya Kulpa (Ма�? Кульпа), and her brother was Maksim Kulpa (Мак�?им Кульпа). It was hard to resist the temptation to refer to them collectively as Mea Maxima Culpa.
March 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word muffin ii
Chained_bear, you loved and cared for her and gave her a home when she felt most abandoned. Wherever she is now, I am sure that love remains for you (with you) and, possibly, for her too.
March 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word smu�?
ski (n.)
March 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word bizarre spheniscidine confectionery dispenser videorama
Was that your voice in the video, Sionnach? It didn't sound Irish.
March 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word cupuassu
Yes, in Brazil. I came across this name in a piece I was editing about indigenous communities in the Brazilian state of Acre. The word was written as cupuaçu, but I wondered if there was an English equivalent. And I found cupuassu on Wikipedia (which I don't usually have much confidence in).
March 14, 2009
rolig commented on the word muffin ii
My condolences, Chained_bear. It may seem weird, but when my amazing cat Nastasya died a few years ago, I somehow felt that she was now in some way able to look out for me just I had looked out for her.
March 13, 2009
rolig commented on the user djsalinger
DJ, what's a theoretical band? Do you perform recitations of Foucault and Žižek? That could be interesting. And I'm also curious about your semi-retired poet status. Do you get semi-retirement benefits? Health care? Is there a semi-retirement poets' community? Twenty-five seems a young age to retire from anything, even semi-retire.
March 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word cupuassu
Theobroma grandiflorum. Also known as (in Spanish) cupuasú, copoasú, cacao blanco, and (in Portuguese) cupuaçu, pupu, pupuaçu.
A tree (and its fruit) in the eastern Amazonian rain forest. See description here.
March 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word oneyer
Doesn't it seem likely that Shakespeare was making a joke? Instead of saying simply "Great Ones" (which I think was a set phrase then, as it still is today, for the privileged in society), he was poking fun at such folks by appending the suffix -yer, as if being a Great One was not about character or moral stature, it was simply a profession, like that of lawyers and sawyers. In other words, might not oneyer be a Shakespearean madeupical?
March 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word humanly
I think I understand, though it's surprising that the adjective humanly has appeared so rarely since Caxton, for it follows the same pattern as godly, womanly, and manly, and indeed, the adjectival suffix -ly seems fairly productive, e.g. a person can act in a doctorly manner; one may look for cousinly support; a woman may show wifely devotion; members of the Religious Society of Friends encourage Quakerly behavior; etc.
March 13, 2009
rolig commented on the list odorific
A couple more: earthy, musky. And two adjectives that mean "relating to the sense of smell" are olfactory (general) and osphretic (more technical).
March 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word muffin ii
Thanks, C_b and ext11, for the sympathy. But this loss occurred a quarter-century ago, so I am no longer grieving, though I am still grateful for this cat's devotion.
March 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word humanly
Strange. I'm sure I have been hearing people use the phrase "humanly possible" all of my life (and I met Abraham passed 50 a couple of years ago, as Slovenes say). So is this really a "new" word?
March 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word muffin ii
I lived with, and learned from, Muffin II, many more years than I had with Muffin, his predecessor, who sadly died from injuries sustained in a road accident at the young age of 3. Nevertheless, he also taught me a thing or two.
March 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word muffin
Muffin, the first of the name in our household (see Muffin II for his successor), was with us for only a few years. I was seven when we adopted him as a kitten, and he died after sustaining injuries in a road accident (my grandmother suspected the culprit was a motorcyclist) when he was only three. My memories of Muffin are vague, but I know I loved him and was deeply distressed by his passing. He inadvertantly challenged my young belief in the Judeo-Christian god, as taught by my Presbyterian Sunday School, but that is another story.
March 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word muffin ii
Prolagus has the right idea. Muffin II was a cat with whom I lived from the age of 10 to 18, and intermittantly after that, until his death at the age of 15 (when I was 25 and in graduate school). Much of what I know about forebearance, loyalty and contemplation I learned from Muffin II.
March 12, 2009
rolig commented on the list poetrie-for-i-will-consider-my-cat-jeoffry…
Thank you, Reesetee, for posting Soto's poem about his dog! I have loved Smart's poem ever since I first came across it some thirty years ago. It has to be the finest thing ever written about a cat; it percolates with love, wonder, and attentive observation.
This list, by the way, is dedicated to the feline members of my own little family, Aglaja and Erazma, each a mixture of gravity and waggery.
March 12, 2009
rolig commented on the list poetrie-nelson-my-dog
Thank you for this, Reesetee. You have inspired me to make a Poetrie with Christopher Smart's ode to his cat Jeoffry. It wouldn't surprise me if Smart's work was what prompted Soto to write this lovely poem to his dog; the two works have a lot in common.
March 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word slosh
"sloshing in his grave"? Was Amis buried in a swamp?
March 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word seriph
*sings to self: "… but I did not kill the cherubim …"*
March 12, 2009
rolig commented on the word you gave her the fish
I take it sanguinary revenge is quite different from sanguine revenge.
March 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word peregruzka v perezagruzka
See peregruzka for context.
March 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word peregruzka
Perhaps the worst thing about this faux pas was not that the word was wrong (actually it's the kind of mistake I would expect a truly diplomatic Russian to overlook, since it's very understandable why someone, even with a good general knowledge of Russian, might think that peregruzka meant "reset" – and in "lazy" or colloquial Russian, people do say peregruzka to mean reboot; Lavrov was being an asshole), but that the word was written in the Latin alphabet, not in the Cyrillic. This is truly disrepectful of Russian as a language. For more on peregruzka / перегрузка v. perezagruzka / перезагрузка, see the discussion at Language Log, to which yours truly made a modest contribution.
March 11, 2009
rolig commented on the list how-am-i-bored-let-me-count-the-ways
Some people say "I'm bored out of my skull." But I don't.
March 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word cowgirl, a long way from home
But apparently not in "afraid", at least not the first one.
March 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word �?uza
jail
syn.: je�?a, zapor
March 11, 2009
rolig commented on the word ploh
plank, board: "a rather thick, flat piece of wood from a tree trunk that has been sawed lengthwise" (SSKJ).
March 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word writing on the wall
Hurry up, Bilby! Others are waiting to use the loo!
March 10, 2009
rolig commented on the word seriph
But who shot the seraph?
March 10, 2009
rolig commented on the user qroqqa
Thanks for your suggestion (a week and a half ago!) regarding my question about how to refer the "singular" of a pluralis tantem. I think I understand the notion of a "bound base", but I am not sure that applies to units like *scissor, *hijink, and *trouser, since the -s in the pluralis tantum is not really an affix in the way that dis- is in discombobulate, but a grammatical ending (or perhaps this distinction is irrelevant?). In other words, when we remove the ending from scissors, we still have a hypothetical noun that acts like real nouns in certain ways, notably, it can serve as a verb ("She scissored her way through the crowd") or a modifier ("The scissor pieces lay on the table, waiting to be assembled"). Would lexeme work in such cases?
March 9, 2009
rolig commented on the word kafa
Coffee in Serbian (in Cyrillic: кафа).
March 8, 2009
rolig commented on the list coffee-house
I know. It's right up there with "Please" and "Thank you." Indispensable.
March 7, 2009
rolig commented on the list coffee-house
Nice list! Just what I want first thing in the morning (or afternoon, as the case may be). I see you are already listing the Slovene and BCSM (Bosno-Croato-Serbo-Montenegrin) kava (sans accent), though Serbians seem to prefer kafa (or кафа in Cyrillic spelling). In Russian, coffee would be кофе (transliterated kofe). Also, my friends in Maryland fondly refer to this beverage as java (no matter where the beans originate).
March 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word kofe
In low-colloquial Slovene, this means "coffee." It almost certainly comes from the German Kaffee by way of the Carinthian dialect, where /a/ tends to be pronounced more or less /o/.
March 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word kava
Accentless, this is coffee in Slovene, as well as in BCSM (Bosno-Croato-Serbo-Montenegrin).
March 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word sprenevedati se
to play innocent; be disingenuous
"Glede izjave predsednika Zveze borcev za vrednote NOB Slovenije Janeza Stanovnika, da povojnih pobojev niso izvedli partizani, ampak Jugoslovanska armada, je Drobni�?, sicer �?lan Nove Slovenske zaveze, poudaril, 'naj se Stanovnik ne spreneveda'."
Tj. L./STA, "Stanovnik: Poboji so se dogajali pod Titovim poveljstvom" Stanovnik: The massacres happened under Tito's command, Delo.si, 6 March 2009
Related words:
sprenevédav – disingenuous
sprenevéda – a false appearance of innocence, ignorance; disingenuity
Concerning the statement of the president of the Alliance of Fighters for the Values of the National Liberation Struggle of Slovenia, Janez Stanovnik, that it was not the Partisans who carried out the post-war massacres, but the Yugoslav army, (Anton) Drobni�?, a member of the New Slovenia Alliance, said emphatically, "Stanovnik shouldn't play innocent."
March 7, 2009
rolig commented on the word misled
Wait, wasn't Antietam a character in The Whyzard of Odds?
(I think wizened is standardly WIZZ-end.)
March 6, 2009
rolig commented on the user Prolagus
Congratulations!
March 6, 2009
rolig commented on the list •-don-t-mean-a-tingo
So none of these words or phrases got that swingo, is that what you're saying, Pro?
March 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word corpus delicti
Latin: "the body of offense". In law, this refers to the facts and circumstances constituting a breach of the law. In popular usage, however, this can mean the concrete evidence, such as a corpse.
March 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word corpus delecti
It should be corpus delicti – Latin for "body of offense," used in law to mean the facts and circumstances constituting a breach of the law.
March 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word ¡ cupcakes !
Oh my god. Sugar rush.
March 6, 2009
rolig commented on the user Prolagus
What recent achievement, Pro? Did I miss something? Are congratulations in order? On order? Out of order?
March 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word �?ižma
also �?ižem
a somewhat old-fashioned word for an ankle-boot, though in vernacular usage it can also mean any shoe. From the Hungarian csizma (dial. csizsma or Serbian �?izma, both derived from Turkish çizme "boot".
"U pizda. Sem ga le prizadel. Morda celo razmišlja, da bi mi �?ižmo zabil v ksiht." Oh fuck. Now I'd gone and hurt his feelings. Maybe he was even thinking about shoving his boot in my face.
– Zoran Ho�?evar, Za znoret (Ljubljana: DZS, 1999), 53.
March 6, 2009
rolig commented on the list lifeforms-with-which-id-like-to-communicate
Oh of course actuaries. But what about spammers? What about telemarketers? What about advertisers in general? You know, anyone who tries to convince you to buy something you don't need and don't really even want? Who tries to convince you that you're somehow deficient unless you have their overpriced product that is guaranteed to wear out/run out/break down/go out of style in less than a year so you'll have to get the new and improved version? I have my doubts.
March 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word 'substantial doubt' for gm future
Whew! For a moment I thought this referred to Gay Male.
March 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word button
Oh, wow. That's beautiful. A good choice for a first unequivocal word.
March 6, 2009
rolig commented on the list lifeforms-with-which-id-like-to-communicate
Did you not know, Lea, that the name "William Shatner" is merely code: Lama Silent Whir. That's powerful energy.
March 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word mysterious maple syrup (smeared on head)
Right. And who do you think benefits most from global warming? They're already planning tourist resorts on Hudson's Bay.
March 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word mysterious maple syrup (smeared on head)
It's another Canadian plot. Like Mary Pickford and Lorne Greene and SNL, not to mention gay marriage. Be warned.
March 6, 2009
rolig commented on the word impactful
This word always makes me think of car crashes.
March 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word pene-enclave
What a silly word. For one thing, these are not "almost enclaves"; they are almost exclaves (unless I've misunderstood what belongs to what). And for another thing, it's ridiculous to use the obscure "pene-" prefix when there are established ways of indicating such things. I would call these "near-exclaves" or, if you insist on a fancy prefix, "quasi-exclave". We don't, for instance, call it a "pene-victory" when a candidate loses by a few votes, or a "pene-fatality" when someone is almost killed.
March 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word tonya harding
"And when we were down twenty points in the summer, all the pundits and all the smart folks, they were saying, 'OK, his only chance now is he's got to knee-cap her; he's got to do a Tonya Harding on the frontrunner.'"
– Candidate Barack Obama on the campaign trail in 2008.
March 5, 2009
rolig commented on the word pandiculate
My condolences to your feral dog, Jack-Joseph.
March 4, 2009
rolig commented on the user sionnach
Congratulations on your sesquidecamillennial* accomplishment!
*I have no idea if this is a real word, but it seems right.
March 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word brutus
Oh, crap, I meant to say, "But Bill is such an honorable man…" I got my Shakes_bear all mixed up.
March 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word pants
"The pants that can be explained are not the real pants."
March 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word brutus
But Frank is such an honourable man…
March 4, 2009
rolig commented on the word osmophobia
Something smells funny about that definition, Bilby.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word martin�?ek
a small lizard, especially the kind found sunbathing on rocks in gardens. Slovenes say things like, "Sedimo na soncu in se grejemo kot martin�?ki" ("We're sitting in the sun, warming ourselves like lizards"). The name of this beastie could be literally translated as "little Martin", and Slovene etymologist Marko Snoj says it is probably derived from the name "St. Martin," though the specific connection to the saint is not clear.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word shepherd's hut
Slovene style, see this and this from the mountain Velika Planina, near Ljubljana.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word brutus
Despite Weirdnet's second definition, it seems to me that Brutus's name has become a byword for a treacherous friend. Et tu, Brute?
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word sherris
Nice. This makes me wonder if sherry is a back-formation (from sherris, from vino de Jerez Xeres'>Xeres).
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word dooties
You might want to check out this clip. (I think the word is usually used in the plural; probably "doo-doos" became "dooties.")
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word dooties
What don't you get, Bilbo?
Dooty comes from doo-doo (a child's word for what doggies do on the lawn), which is a humorous euphemism for excrement. What Jim Hightower and Phillip Frazer meant was "Horseshit!" (or more precisely, "Horse turds!").
Is this an Americanism?
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word syria's serious
There were signs that the country's armed forces were mobilizing along the Lebanese border. It would be a terrible mistake to assume the dictator's words were idle threats. The U.S. envoy's report made one thing repetitively clear: Syria's serious.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word osphresiophilia
Very nice. Horrible in its way, but very nice.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word open the door see mountain
This is nice. I might use this.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word mariquita
Lice R Uš!
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word osphresiophilia
A strong attraction to certain smells.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the list gil-blas
The word is real enough. An osphresiophilia is a strong (perhaps erotic) attraction to certain smells. For Wordizens, the prefix biblio- seems to be in order. While I may sometimes pooh-pooh a word, I would never poo-poo a fellow Wordie.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word apophasis
"I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him . . ."
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word bibliosphresiophilia
A strong attraction to the odor of books. There is clear evidence that this is a chronic condition among Wordies.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the list gil-blas
The diagnosis, I believe, would be chronic bibliosphresiophilia. I'm not sure there's a cure.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word me and you and a dog named boo
The original Brel version is quite good. It's not an earworm to be afraid of.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word love
Lea, I just now noticed your pun! Voletile! Very nice.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word me and you and a dog named boo
"Seasons in the Sun" is a bowdlerized English version of a fine, bitterly ironic song by Jacques Brel, "Le Moribond" (The Dying Man). There is a video of Brel singing this song on You-Tube (with English subtitles).
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word boulder count
Somehow I am reminded of the bizarre ursine confectionery dispenser diorama.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word oldest english words
Especially if one has studied Anglo-Saxon. The BBC article makes it sound like 1000 years ago is as distant as 10,000 years ago.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the list jun-woo-2
If you are commenting about a word, the comment should be on the word page, not the list page.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the user jwsniper
TOO LATE?
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word love
calm and fun/nice, I like it. On the other hand, a Russian friend pronounces my name Ролик (Rólik), which means "ball bearing" in her language…
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word appendice
Brilliant suggestion, c_b! Maybe if it keeps on happening you could mutter, "dick… s," and then when challenged, explain (if you still have your job).
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word substantiality
Perhaps putting "substantiality" in quotation marks would have made this clear, though that still leaves the question, "substantial" in what sense? In terms of length (a headline is not really "substantial" in that regard) or in terms of importance? If I quote only a single sentence, but it happens to be the sentence that carries the weight of the whole article, how does this excerpt rank in "substantiality"?
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word love
I didn't know that, Lea, that's really nice!
Pro, I only said that for the joke. I do have a lovely boyfriend, who's not at all volish. But it's true about the cats. They're well-fed.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word substantiality
Terrible. I thought the NYT was one of the few papers left that still had copy-editors.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word viola del pensiero
How Petrarchian.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word appendice
grooaannn
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word love
I always get this confused with vole. No wonder it's so hard finding keeping a boyfriend. But on the other hand, my cats are well-fed.
*Sings: "Lookin' for vole in all the wrong places…"*
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word vocal chords
I can still see this being an eggcorn, at least in the mind of the bestower. I'm pretty sure that I used to think these were vocal chords because they're like the chords you play on a guitar. As the dictionary suggests, cord and chord have a long history of being confused. So what started as an eggcorn became, in some circles at least, an OK tree, while for others it still napped in the bud.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word vocal chords
According to the Oxford American Dictionary, the 2nd definition of "chord (2)" is:
ANATOMY: variant spelling of cord :: spinal chord.
And the etymological note reads:
ORIGIN: mid-16th century. (in the anatomical sense): a later spelling (influenced by Latin chorda 'rope') of CORD.
March 3, 2009
rolig commented on the word pansy
This is also called "stepmother" in Slovene: ma�?eha.
Edit: And in Russian, "Annie's little eyes": анютины глазки (anyútiny glázki)
March 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word kipple
Ah, but you will one day. We all will.
March 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word imaginary
Well, it can be done; it just takes some imagination.
The revery alone will do…
March 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word me and you and a dog named boo
Does this bring back any (painful) memories?
See the tree, how big it's grown,
But friend, it hasn't been too long
It wasn't big…
"Honey" would be my submission in this category.
March 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word olecranon
Pro, "funny bone" is the vernacular name for the olecranon, that part of the elbow which gives you a funny (wierd) feeling when you accidentally knock it against something.
March 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word kipple
Cat, you apparently didn't read VictoriaPL's citation from about 1 year ago. No need to repeat comments. By the way, do you like kippling? What about browning?
March 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word spheniscine
"Of or pertaining to the Spheniscidae; spheniscomorphic." – The Century Dictionary.
Penguin-like, penguinesque, penguiny, penguinish.
March 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word spheniscidine
I prefer the simpler spheniscine (from The Century Dictionary).
March 2, 2009
rolig commented on the word unperfectability
Oh, Joe! Well, he's another concrete thinker, despite being a lawyer – unlike his Antarctica-roaming wife.
By the way, I don't think I would ever interpret "imperfectible" as meaning "capable of being made imperfect" because there is no verb "to imperfect". I might say, rather, something like "blemishable" (a word that I doubt exists in dictionaries but is perfectly understandable).
March 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word phthisicky
Related to or affected by phthisis.
March 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word uš
louse: head lice (naglavne uši), pubic lice (sramne uši); also, any small leaf-eating garden pests (listne uši); a worthless, exploitative person
Related words:
ušiv – lousy, covered in lice
Expressions:
denarja ima kot bera�?/cigan uši - he's got money like a beggar/gypsy has lice
fant jé kot uš – the boy eats like a louse (he eats a lot)
March 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word thrush
Strange that Wierdnet cites the disease before the songbird.
March 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word febuary
Not to be confused with the very different Hamburger Universität für Wirtschaft und Politik (Hamburg University of Economics and Politics), which is now part of the University of Hamburg.
March 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word þ
Ouch! I think I've got one of these in my side!
March 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word see you next tuesday
Urban Dictionary provides a different definition.
March 1, 2009
rolig commented on the word hard hat
"Helmet" has military connotations. "Hard hat" primarily means the headgear worn by construction workers as protection from things falling on them from above. Why did "hard hat" evolve in this context instead of "helmet", since they both mean essentially the same thing: "hard headgear worn as protection"? I suppose it's because workers used to always wear a kind of hat (e.g. to keep dust out of their hair), but in certain areas where there was a chance of things falling from above, they were required to exchange their soft-material hat for a hard hat. People didn't think of calling it a "helmet" because helmets were associated with military combat and sports (another kind of combat), areas very different from labor.
February 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word unperfectability
A curious pair: unperfectability and imperfectibility. The first is non-standard, I think, and comes from the English verb "to perfect" (stress on 2nd syllable): perfect + -able (which can be added to almost any transitive verb to produce an adjective) + un- (which can negate pretty much any adjective in English).
In fact, you probably won't find the perfectly plausible perfectable in most standard English dictionaries, and that's because the Latinate perfectible is so well-established, that the -able ending registers as incorrect. Because it derives from Latin, "perfectible" yields the equally Latinate negative imperfectible and hence, imperfectibility.
The variant you suggest, Pro, is not implausible, but because it combines the handy English un- prefix with the Franco-Latinate -ibility suffixes, it seems strange.
Kushner's word unperfectability means essentially the same as imperfectibility, but it has a somewhat ad hoc feeling, representing an instantaneous thought process (is this Belize speaking?) that goes something like this:
1. No one can make the world perfect.
2. The world is not able to be perfected.
3. The world is not "perfect-able."
4. The world is un-perfect-able.
5. The world is characterized by unperfectability.
By having his character say "unperfectability" instead of the standard "imperfectibility", Kushner conveys that the character is thinking in concrete, rather than abstract Scholiastic, terms. Which is sort of the whole point of the Belize v. Louis contrast in the play.
The distinction Bilby suggests has merit, too, I think. The word "imperfectible" probably developed in medieval religious thinking with regard to the question of the perfectibility or imperfectibility of man, given the doctrine of Original Sin. So it does point to an inherent deficiency. "Unperfectability", on the other hand, is, as I suggest, an ad hoc term related to concrete thinking ("Can we perfect this situation? No? Well, okay. How about this other situation then? Maybe we can perfect that. Let's give it a try.") and is not really concerned with inherent deficiencies, only with possibility or impossibility at the moment.
February 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word ear-piercing
"The shootings of seven people marred Fat Tuesday as ear-piercing gunfire set revelers ducking for cover and brought the final stream of truck floats to a horrifying halt."
From the caption on a Guardian photo showing a utility truck cleaning up after New Orleans' Mardi Gras celebrations.
Somehow this was not the use of "ear-piercing" I was expecting in a report on Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Very sad.
February 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word l'esprit de l'escalier
I love the image of this: As you're leaving some scintillating Parisian salon, descending the grand staircase to your waiting coach outside, it hits you: you know just how you should have responded, the perfect, most brilliant retort, to the Chevalier de la Foue's insinuations about your last play (or was he perhaps referring to your relations with that promising young actor at La Comédie française?). But it is too late…
February 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word seán Ó duibhir an ghleanna
More lyrical, I think, only in its easy rhyme and dull meter; your first translation is much more moving and vivid.
February 28, 2009
rolig commented on the word vrniti komu milo za drago
to get even with s.o.
(lit.: "to give back sweet for dear")
February 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word dictionary
Very funny, Fox. Maybe s/he was being facetious, but I suspect the latter.
February 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word dictionary
TBT, you would probably have some idea about how the word is spelled, wouldn't you? Often the problematic part of the word comes in the middle or the end (e.g. -able or -ible, -ant or -ent), so you know enough to look the word up and discover the correct spelling. If the word starts in a quirky way, like the name of our friend pterodactyl, then you might indeed be stumped, but after a while you may even start recognizing some of these deceptive spellings, and know that if the word isn't spelled one way then it is probably spelled another way. Most people, I suspect, use dictionaries to confirm or correct spellings they think they know.
February 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word turnkey
God, I hate marketing lingo, especially when it usurps a wonderful, vivid word like turnkey. In my view, this self-promotional usage, and the marketeers who came up with it, are shovel-ready. Do any of these people read books?
*feels himself turning into a curmudgeon; sort of likes it, sort of doesn't*
February 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word hypoflexive
Zizoo, there are plenty of mismatched (i.e. Greek + Latin elements) words that have been established in contemporary English (e.g. hypersensitive), so hypoflexive has lots of company, however scruffy such company might seem to etymology mavens like me (and, I presume, Qroqqa). If you want to be consistent (though some hold that consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, of course), you could use the Latin prefix sub-, which would give you (I think) sufflexive. Or you could search out the Greek root for "bend" (Qroqqa could help, I bet).
Edit: hypotropic?
February 27, 2009
rolig commented on the word marionberry
And the official berry of the US Southeastern state of North Carolina is, of course, the mayberry.
February 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word misspelling notices
With Wordie PRO!, if you happen to list a misspelling (e.g. synechdoche), you will receive a gentle notification, such as:
SYNECHDOCHE is a misspelling. Do you really want to list it?
(With Wordie EXECUTIVE, you will also be provided with the correct spelling.)
February 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word synechdoche
I suppose if one had WORDIE PRO, one might receive a gentle notice when one lists a misspelled word, to the effect:
"SYNECHDOCHE is a misspelling. Do you wish to continue listing it?"
February 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word recreance
ERASMUS
When he protested, not too solemnly,
That for a world's achieving maintenance
The crust of overdone divinity
Lacked ailment, they called it recreance;
And when he chose through his own glass to scan
Sick Europe, and reduced, unyieldingly,
The monk within the cassock to the man
Within the monk, they called it heresy.
And when he made so perilously bold
As to be scattered forth in black and white,
Good fathers looked askance at him and rolled
Their inward eyes in anguish and affright;
There were some of them did shake at what was told,
And they shook best who knew that he was right.
– Edwin Arlington Robinson
February 26, 2009
rolig commented on the word brazilianisation
Old-fashioned Oxford University Press prefers the etymologically grounded -ize/-ization (not an Americanism, but in use since the 16th century) to the French-influenced -ise spellings.
February 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word šparati
The Slovene colloquial word comes from German, of course: sparen, "to save"
February 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word murinus
jerry-like
February 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word malifulous
Try again, TBT. Don't get in a sweat, be mellow, and use a dictionary.
February 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word špas
fun
February 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word šparati
to save (money), be thrifty
February 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word špricati
1. to spray
2. to play hooky (one who does this is a špricar)
from G. spritzen
pf.: špricniti
February 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word šravfati
to screw, from G. schrauben
February 25, 2009
rolig commented on the word paczki
Like this, Qroqqa? pączki
February 24, 2009
rolig commented on the list slo-nižje-pogovorno-v-sskj
"Nižje pogovorno" is a designation Slovene lexicographers give to non-"formal" words that are widely used and understood in conversation (i.e. "pogovorno" – "colloquial") but that indicate a lower level of education or social status (i.e. "nižje" – "lower" or perhaps "vulgar" in the classic sense). In fact many of these words are used by everybody, even university professors, in relaxed, informal settings. Slovenes often refer to such words as doma�?e – "domestic, for the home" – which is a little ironic since the vast majority are German imports (e.g. štant, "a stand or booth", from das Stand), whereas the formal Slovene (Slavic-root) word (here, stojnica) is often less widely used and can sound official and stilted.
In Slovene classes, of course, they never teach you these "low-colloquial" expressions. And in Slovene schools, children are reprimanded when they use them, which, unsurprisingly, has its effects on the character.
February 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word stopinja
stopínja
footprint; step (in walking); degree (of temperature)
Not to be confused with:
stopnja (stôpnja) – stage, level; phase; extent, degree; power (in mathematics); degree (in grammar)
stopnica (stopníca) – step (in a flight of steps, stairs)
colloquial: štenga
stopniš�?e (stopníš�?e) - staircase
February 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word stopnja
stôpnja
stage, level; phase; extent, degree; power (in mathematics); degree (in grammar)
Not to be confused with:
stopnica (stopníca) – step (in a flight of steps, stairs)
colloquial: štenga
stopniš�?e (stopníš�?e) - staircase
stopinja (stopínja) – footprint; step (in walking); degree (of temperature)
February 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word stopnica
stopníca
step (in a flight of steps, stairs)
colloquial: štenga
Not to be confused with:
stopnišče (stopníšče) - staircase
stopnja (stôpnja) – stage, level; phase; extent, degree; power (in mathematics); degree (in grammar)
stopinja (stopínja) – footprint; step (in walking); degree (of temperature)
February 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word štenga
step (non-fig.)
standard Slovene: stopnica
February 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word štefnjati
to browse, rummage, search through
standard Slovene: stikati, iskati
February 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word šlic
fly (in pants)
standard Slovene: razporek
February 24, 2009
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