This morning I realised that 'now that my hands are clean' can't be used to describe a state in which my hands are clean before I dirty them. Thinking on this.
'The suffix -ome- as used in molecular biology refers to a totality of some sort; it is an example of a "neo-suffix" formed by abstraction from various Greek terms in -ωμα, a sequence that does not form an identifiable suffix in Greek.'
"Peacefully understated yet positively twinkling, these increasingly popular Shamballa-style bracelets are artistically influenced by the use of beads as a think-peace in some philosophical traditions..."
bell hooks in 'Eating the Other' (essay) uses 'work' surrounded by quotes in the sense of 'work it' - use something, profit from something (usually your booty) - this is just delicious. Commodity culture... "works" both the idea that racial difference marks one as Other... (and you'll have to read the article to see what the complement to that idea is, because it's both complex and key, so taking it out of context doesn't really work for me)
apparently already had this on my 'miscellanea' list - was it for the reason I wanted to add it now, though? Listed in the sense of being an equivalent part of speech to 'without'. The interesting part is that, like 'less' used in this sense, it (edit: sometimes? My example contradicts this!) seems to imply an active taking-away. Sort of a continuum: without–absent–less. Hmm!
examples for clarification:
"absent any sense of morality" (synonym: 'lacking', pronunciation: /əb'sent/, /æb'sent/)
"£40 less a £10 discount" (synonym: 'minus', prosody de-emphasises the 'less' as it would if it were replaced by 'minus' - try it)
homophonous with the phrase in certain BrE dialects for 'oh, look' or 'here you go'. So there's a joke stuck in my head from the radio once-upon-a-time which is set in the Royal household, TV a-being watched.
a phrase it took me bloody ages to remember. I knew somewhere in my mind there was a phrase somehow complement to 'face like a slapped arse' or 'face like a bulldog licking piss off a nettle', both of which use ugliness as something pretty much thrown onto a face by chance (or misfortune or stupidity…)
The happy complement? I spent a day some weeks ago with an entirely stupid face on thanks to something-or-other ridiculously joyful (I genuinely now don't recall), and had the infuriatingly persistent tip-of-the-tongue/presque vu* moment as to what the word for it actually was, if indeed there was one. I knew it was something like 'happy as a pig in shit', except for faces — and it hit me just now, as they do. Aha!
Interestingly there's this distinction (courtesy of Wiktionary):
The term is ambiguous and may indicate either a genuine broad smile (e.g. smug happiness) or a fake broad smile (e.g. trying to hide or get away with something).
Smug and fake are two sides, but I've a feeling there might be another — an obliviously happy beaming which'd indicate you might as well be eating shit since you don't know what you're doing, or that you do know and you're still happy about it. Exactly that kind of overwhelming blitheness. I might have mistakenly transferred this meaning over from pig in shit (any thoughts?) but I'm happy enough to've resolved that pesky presque vu.
exit stage right wearing shit-eating grin
*this phrase is actually a presque vu for me in itself!
Sv. 'no subject', lit. 'subject is missing'. With samarkand and ardnamurchan, I'm seeing a pattern in my favourite words. (They have nice colours/feels, too)
what a mess - really sorry about the encoding problems in the description since the site move. If anyone can automagic it back without me having to re-research I'd love to hear from you.
heh (this is what we on another site call a 'three post ment' but) I've been in a pub that has 'gulls' and 'buoys' toilets, I think. One of my regulars has 'ducks' and 'drakes'. (I'm a duck!)
'Behind and above, the concha is bounded by the anti-helix (e), a curved fold, which commences above the anti-tragus, being separated from that part by a slight depression, passes upward and forward, bifurcates, and then ends in the groove of the helix.'
I don't think they really are though - would you really say 'I'm going on holiday to Solomon Islands'? Maybe one would, I suppose. But 'I've just bought a house in (the) Ukraine' or 'Didier Drogba is the best-loved footballer in/of/who plays for (the) Ivory Coast'.
How industrious is Satan served. I was formerly one of his active undertemptors and had my influence been equal to my wishes I would have carried all the human race with me. A common drunkard or profligate is a petty sinner to what I was.
synonymous with 'I bet' at the end of a sentence ('lives with his mum, I shouldn't wonder') - where the sentence stress is on the word immediately preceding the 'I'
Edward Elgar tried, at 43, to take up the trombone, but wasn't very good at it:
'He didn’t do it very well and often played a note higher or lower than the one he wanted ... and as he swore every time that happened I got into such a state of hysterics that I didn’t know what to do.
Then he turned on me: 'How can you expect me to play this dodgasted thing if you laugh?''
The remaining broken characters (a small percentage) will most likely remain broken, an unfortunate side effect of my having been sloppy with Wordie's db in the early days.
Does this go too for list descriptions? As I've a recent one that's broken I don't know whether this is an oversight, a to-do or a DB effect that's going to stick around. Thank you for doing all you can to get things up and running already!
Comments on my profile used to have their encoding skewed, but that's been fixed now - hope that means the rest of the text will be fixed incrementally.
'When a noun or an adjective explaining or modifying the subject is used to complete the predicate, it is called an attribute complement. … John Smith is an author. The apple is sweet. … Verbs that require attribute complements are called copulative verbs…'
— Henry Wyman Holmes, Composition and Rhetoric, p340
'The object also may need added words to complete the meaning of the predicate. Such words are called objective complements. They elected Henry captain. He painted the house white.'
— Henry Wyman Holmes, Composition and Rhetoric, p340
This is the one that people always shout at me whenever I mention the uke - if not that, then either 'Leaning on a Lamppost' or 'With my little ukulele in my hand' or, in non-Formby shocker, 'Ukulele Lady'...
After years of scowling at the fact that no-one served an all-day breakfast after approx. 11.30 in the morning, I eventually realised that it's so called as it's meant to last you all day.
You can also get it in a tin. It's probably best if you don't ask.
'everyone' can be read as singular or plural. Like 'lego'. Mass noun or count noun. So you can have it both ways - everyone (the mass) can add themselves, or everyone (each component person) can add him/her/themself.
I don't believe in the word 'themself'. We don't have 'oneself' in that context, I reckon, because 'oneself' already has a first-person meaning and can't handle a third-person one on top of that.
Have just noticed first that I like this word quite a bit more than I thought I did; second, that the reason is it's linked in form and so in feeling with words like 'elegant'.
No, eeeeecht. It's a fabulous German word that I think I like best to translate as "proper". "Das ist echt Scheiße" = "That's propershite." as in "a well and truly awful situation".
Current UK slang would translate it as "well", viz. "das ist echt gut" = "that's well good" (innitblud).
but I do remember this one! I wonder if one could describe it as a kind of subjunctive? I haven't got a clue, it's 3.30am. But "falls x" can be translated as "should x (be the case, etc.)"
oddly, one of the all-purpose words that has vanished entirely from my reflexive language centre (see some of the other words in this list). a clutch of explanation from dict.leo.org
file under: German words that crop up when I try to speak another language. Means "but/just/simply/merely". I miss this word in French with a mighty passion.
file under: German words that crop up when I try to speak another language. is a wonderful all-purpose word, although the French donc may have taken its place recently.
I think I have. And no, I'm not. I can only do in kit terms, but I'm proud of learning two-against-three, three-against-four and four-against-five polyrhythms.
Hallo! More specific, indeed. Some homonyms like bank have distinct meanings in the English we speak, but in the Oxford English Dictionary there's a long long note on the origins of bank-the-place-where-we-keep-money, which ends 'The word is thus ultimately identical with BENCH and BANK2, and cognate with BANK1.'
Thank you! I noticed when I was on 1,999 and thought "ooh" but didn't pay any attention to my 2,000th - so I'm not sure which it was. I added a couple of thousand-related words as my 1,000th and 1,001st.
“What do you think of the stimulus package that President Obama is ramming through Congress at the moment?” — somewhere on the BBC World Service the other week
Clearing through my father's papers after he died, I found his photo folder. A real one, made of battered shagreen. In it was a picture of his long-dead brother; one of his father as a young man; one of his wife as a 13-year-old girl with her mother and sister. Pictures of the dead. Pictures of people who could not be seen in reality, ever again, kept private in his desk drawer.
skip, you missed the deliberate irony in that headline!
I am slightly miffed that no-one's reported on my bestickering, long ago, an apostropheless St Philip's Place (also Birmingham). You heard it here first. Or last.
borrowed definition: "riding so hard that your pulling on the bars results in your sitting right on the tip of the saddle. Which would have a rivet on it if it were a proper leather one."
Take the figure in Kennedy’s "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country�? and "we must never negotiate out of fear, but we must never fear to negotiate." The classical rhetoricians called it antimetabole, though modern speechwriters prefer to refer to it as the reversible raincoat.
Comments by sarra
sarra commented on the word çaydanlık
Turkish two-level teapot.
February 9, 2018
sarra commented on the word now that ________
This morning I realised that 'now that my hands are clean' can't be used to describe a state in which my hands are clean before I dirty them. Thinking on this.
July 23, 2013
sarra commented on the word ich schwöre stein und bein
http://www.pm-magazin.de/r/gute-frage/woher-kommt-stein-und-bein-schw%C3%B6ren
June 5, 2013
sarra commented on the list words-to-describe-the-taste-of-food
'like chicken' made me giggle a lot!
April 29, 2013
sarra commented on the word mysa
mysa @ thelocal.se
July 29, 2012
sarra commented on the list sufficient
'The suffix -ome- as used in molecular biology refers to a totality of some sort; it is an example of a "neo-suffix" formed by abstraction from various Greek terms in -ωμα, a sequence that does not form an identifiable suffix in Greek.'
July 27, 2012
sarra commented on the word signal
as an adjective. bleh.
April 11, 2012
sarra commented on the word murky bucket
AND I've only just realised it's a double malapropism, because it goes through merci bouquet!
March 6, 2012
sarra commented on the word please hope me!
I think it's a Metafilter-ism!
December 22, 2011
sarra commented on the word think-peace
"Peacefully understated yet positively twinkling, these increasingly popular Shamballa-style bracelets are artistically influenced by the use of beads as a think-peace in some philosophical traditions..."
December 21, 2011
sarra commented on the word work
bell hooks in 'Eating the Other' (essay) uses 'work' surrounded by quotes in the sense of 'work it' - use something, profit from something (usually your booty) - this is just delicious. Commodity culture... "works" both the idea that racial difference marks one as Other... (and you'll have to read the article to see what the complement to that idea is, because it's both complex and key, so taking it out of context doesn't really work for me)
September 12, 2011
sarra commented on the word absent
apparently already had this on my 'miscellanea' list - was it for the reason I wanted to add it now, though? Listed in the sense of being an equivalent part of speech to 'without'. The interesting part is that, like 'less' used in this sense, it (edit: sometimes? My example contradicts this!) seems to imply an active taking-away. Sort of a continuum: without–absent–less. Hmm!
examples for clarification:
"absent any sense of morality" (synonym: 'lacking', pronunciation: /əb'sent/, /æb'sent/)
"£40 less a £10 discount" (synonym: 'minus', prosody de-emphasises the 'less' as it would if it were replaced by 'minus' - try it)
September 1, 2011
sarra commented on the word deipnosophy
"The noble practice of excelling at dinner parties" (a book subtitle, I think). Oh for god's sake!
September 1, 2011
sarra commented on the word presto chango
presto change-o - this one so strongly recalls the Beano for me!
August 28, 2011
sarra commented on the word sippy cup
Oh, god, I am so so so so so glad it's not just me! Look!
July 17, 2011
sarra commented on the word clutch
only as in 'clutch purse'. 'A clutch of eggs' is fine. 'Clutch' though. RUGHGHHRHGH.
July 17, 2011
sarra commented on the list complex-emotion--single-word
Thank you! All brilliant! (I reckon if one can feel accidie, one can feel akrasia.)
May 2, 2011
sarra commented on the word focaccia
confused!
April 6, 2011
sarra commented on the word all x and no y
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004375.html
March 27, 2011
sarra commented on the list song-starters
God, not only that, but ice too...
March 12, 2011
sarra commented on the word actual
ev'rything is satisfactual!
March 12, 2011
sarra commented on the word hello
is it me you're looking for?
March 12, 2011
sarra commented on the word woke up
fell out of bed
dragged a comb across my head
March 12, 2011
sarra commented on the word unbelievable
ouch, that was loud.
March 12, 2011
sarra commented on the word unbelievable
DAUWN, DAUWN, DAUWN DANAUWN DANAUWM DAANAANAOUWM, DAUWN DANAAANANAUWN DAUWN etc
March 12, 2011
sarra commented on the word I always do
Tunng - Bullets. Too tired to provide a YouTube link.
March 12, 2011
sarra commented on the word take time
by The Books
March 11, 2011
sarra commented on the word right on time
in twisted song starters: yes, I know it's Ride On Time
March 11, 2011
sarra commented on the word anxiolytic
kept looking at 'aetiology' written on my hand in bad biro and seeing this
March 2, 2011
sarra commented on the word chork
"chork: mid-15c., now Scottish, 'to make the noise which the feet do when the shoes are full of water.' "
http://www.etymonline.com/
February 5, 2011
sarra commented on the word ponti
double-knit fabric, usually some sort of polyester mix, likely the same as ponte di roma (but ponti is what's been in the UK fashion press this year)
December 28, 2010
sarra commented on the list song-starters
I HATE YOU
October 25, 2010
sarra commented on the list song-starters
for me that's sit down, stand up
October 25, 2010
sarra commented on the word flippase
flippase!
October 25, 2010
sarra commented on the word whiskey
Oh, god, oro, that's awful and wonderful.
October 21, 2010
sarra commented on the list song-starters
Pro, you're so vain never does that to me - I don't know it well enough!
October 21, 2010
sarra commented on the word turn around
This one's the WORST.
October 18, 2010
sarra commented on the word fuck you
arf no!
October 18, 2010
sarra commented on the word i'm waiting for
Actually, no, waiting for the man. Earwormed when I'm waiting for the post, or a phone call.
October 18, 2010
sarra commented on the word i'm waiting for
yeps!
October 18, 2010
sarra commented on the word here there and everywhere
Song which quotes the Beatles song in both lyric and tune...
October 18, 2010
sarra commented on the word here there and everywhere
Song starters clue (this one might be impossible): it's not the obvious song, but one which makes reference to it. Anyone know it but me?
October 18, 2010
sarra commented on the word sound
I forgot this is one of the etymological curiosities - wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
October 17, 2010
sarra commented on the word bush doof
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2342#comment-68739
October 7, 2010
sarra commented on the list •open-list-a-fruitless-task-but-oddly-satisfying-on-a-personal-level
I feel like I'm giving a bit too much insight into my life here.
October 6, 2010
sarra commented on the word ER
homophonous with the phrase in certain BrE dialects for 'oh, look' or 'here you go'. So there's a joke stuck in my head from the radio once-upon-a-time which is set in the Royal household, TV a-being watched.
*flick*
*flick*
*flick*
''e'y'are, ER — ER!'
October 4, 2010
sarra commented on the word lego
dontcry: on that note, I'll off 'n' post on ER...
October 4, 2010
sarra commented on the list not-to-do-list
oh, I didn't even read the comments which went before me!
October 1, 2010
sarra commented on the list not-to-do-list
(or this might just be me and I might have to make a separate list)
October 1, 2010
sarra commented on the list not-to-do-list
There's a number of things going on here, I think, and only some of my contributions will be the pun sort. Interesting.
October 1, 2010
sarra commented on the word what the living fuck is THAT
Sources reckon it's about consciousness and eyeballs. This makes sense, I promise (google it)
October 1, 2010
sarra commented on the word substantive
I'm fascinated by this comment (not this one, the other one), whatever it means.
October 1, 2010
sarra commented on the word look and feel
GAAAAKSJGL.ASUMTGKHGLSGJ,.XEJGM;SELWT
BUSWNTVUXD,L.SASDAHSHAAAAAAGGGGHHHH.
October 1, 2010
sarra commented on the word m-brane
Really hoping this exists because science likes terrible puns as much as the rest of us.
September 30, 2010
sarra commented on the word what the living fuck is THAT
Started me thinking about 'the living fuck' ('annoys the living fuck out of me', etc. Is the form related to '(beat/thrash/knock/club/scare/verb) the living daylights out of'? Or instead 'the living God'/'the living Christ'? Ah — I'm thinking as I type here, I think it's indeed the last one. So:
the living Christ : the living fuck :: sweet mother of God : sweet mother of fuck.
Homework: find a word for the anti-mincing of oaths. (see minced oath)
(As this is a public site I should point out I'm a linguist and not an Antichrist.)
September 29, 2010
sarra commented on the list medical-terms-or-linguistic-terms
oh god!
September 29, 2010
sarra commented on the word Frank Sinatra has a cold
(I was really hoping this would be a list, you see. Stradgers id dhe dight. Cub fly with be. Dew York Dew York.)
September 29, 2010
sarra commented on the word Frank Sinatra has a cold
I'b god you uder by skid.
September 29, 2010
sarra commented on the user ruzuzu
Is that a hint or a note of number-synchronicity? If a hint, I'm on Forvo you know!
September 29, 2010
sarra commented on the word shit-eating grin
a phrase it took me bloody ages to remember. I knew somewhere in my mind there was a phrase somehow complement to 'face like a slapped arse' or 'face like a bulldog licking piss off a nettle', both of which use ugliness as something pretty much thrown onto a face by chance (or misfortune or stupidity…)
The happy complement? I spent a day some weeks ago with an entirely stupid face on thanks to something-or-other ridiculously joyful (I genuinely now don't recall), and had the infuriatingly persistent tip-of-the-tongue/presque vu* moment as to what the word for it actually was, if indeed there was one. I knew it was something like 'happy as a pig in shit', except for faces — and it hit me just now, as they do. Aha!
Interestingly there's this distinction (courtesy of Wiktionary):
Smug and fake are two sides, but I've a feeling there might be another — an obliviously happy beaming which'd indicate you might as well be eating shit since you don't know what you're doing, or that you do know and you're still happy about it. Exactly that kind of overwhelming blitheness. I might have mistakenly transferred this meaning over from pig in shit (any thoughts?) but I'm happy enough to've resolved that pesky presque vu.exit stage right wearing shit-eating grin
*this phrase is actually a presque vu for me in itself!
September 29, 2010
sarra commented on the list european-world-systems
gosh, I like this.
September 6, 2010
sarra commented on the word ämne saknas
Sv. 'no subject', lit. 'subject is missing'. With samarkand and ardnamurchan, I'm seeing a pattern in my favourite words. (They have nice colours/feels, too)
August 6, 2010
sarra commented on the word zhuyinwen
http://pinyin.info/news/2010/chinese-characters-like-wow/#comment-599529
July 11, 2010
sarra commented on the word faire schmolitz
can't for the life of me remember what this means. doh!
July 10, 2010
sarra commented on the list peculiarities-of-our-own-languages
bilby - thank you for your comments in particular, as revisiting them now I've found that some of the terms you discussed fit perfectly!
July 10, 2010
sarra commented on the list single-letter-words
what a mess - really sorry about the encoding problems in the description since the site move. If anyone can automagic it back without me having to re-research I'd love to hear from you.
July 10, 2010
sarra commented on the user ruzuzu
heh (this is what we on another site call a 'three post ment' but) I've been in a pub that has 'gulls' and 'buoys' toilets, I think. One of my regulars has 'ducks' and 'drakes'. (I'm a duck!)
July 10, 2010
sarra commented on the user ruzuzu
also, dude, that's a goddamn awesome list of favourites. I got so distracted by the theodolite that I typed 'places' and had to catch myself.
July 10, 2010
sarra commented on the user ruzuzu
I hope I've not disappointed with the progress of ridin' through the desert on a list with no name :)
July 10, 2010
sarra commented on the word whatsisface
I think this can be used for an object as well as a person. Mostly people, though.
July 2, 2010
sarra commented on the word radical geometries
Marcus du Sautoy on Radio 4
June 21, 2010
sarra commented on the list ridin-through-the-desert-on-a-list-with-no-name
hee, thank you, ruzuzuzuzuzu!
June 15, 2010
sarra commented on the word panegyrics
(Peter Day on Business Daily)
June 9, 2010
sarra commented on the word anti-helix
'Behind and above, the concha is bounded by the anti-helix (e), a curved fold, which commences above the anti-tragus, being separated from that part by a slight depression, passes upward and forward, bifurcates, and then ends in the groove of the helix.'
(from an 1853 anatomy)
June 2, 2010
sarra commented on the word meatus
UUUUUGGGGHHHHHHHH.
Also, 'words which don't remotely seem to have the right meaning'.
June 2, 2010
sarra commented on the word you've lost ten rolls of wallpaper
said to someone with one hand on hip
May 25, 2010
sarra commented on the list everyday-home-life
:D
May 20, 2010
sarra commented on the word home straight
not a strait (OED's opinion)
May 8, 2010
sarra commented on the word it's warm
pronounced to rhyme with 'arm'
May 6, 2010
sarra commented on the list ten-year-old-argot
Life was equal parts filth and play, it seems.
Which differences are you thinking of, yarb?
April 30, 2010
sarra commented on the word wick
short for wicked
April 28, 2010
sarra commented on the word blow off
fart
April 28, 2010
sarra commented on the word beans beans good for your heart the more you eat the more you fart
the more you fart the better you feel so let's have beans for every meal
April 28, 2010
sarra commented on the word turn around touch the ground bagsy not me
better than both bagsy and bagsy digsy. Usually used to not be it
April 28, 2010
sarra commented on the word bagsy digsy
better than bagsy
April 28, 2010
sarra commented on the word bagsy
= 'bags I' = 'dibs'
can be conjugated e.g. 'I bagsied that!'
April 28, 2010
sarra commented on the word boff
short for 'boffin' here
April 28, 2010
sarra commented on the word scrap
petty fight
April 28, 2010
sarra commented on the word diss
should really be 'dis', but I just can't bring myself to spell it that way
April 28, 2010
sarra commented on the word idst
If Destroyed Still True.
April 28, 2010
sarra commented on the word blart
oh! In the English Midlands it meant to cry shamefully.
April 28, 2010
sarra commented on the word pʼ tʼsʼ kʼ tʼsʼ pʼ pʼ tʼsʼ kʼ tʼsʼ
ah I messed this up! More phonetically correct version in a bit.
April 20, 2010
sarra commented on the word poddle
syn. of pootle
March 31, 2010
sarra commented on the word jmdm.
jemandem (god's sake!)
March 24, 2010
sarra commented on the word longanimity
found at dict.leo.org as translation for 'Geduld' (patience)
March 24, 2010
sarra commented on the list pervasive-expression--recurrent-descriptors-in-scientific-discourse
Oooooooooooooooh. I think I have some of these.
March 20, 2010
sarra commented on the word ras malai
रसमलाई (Hindi), રસમલાઇ (Gujarati), ਰਸ ਮਲਾਈ (Punjabi) (NB I don't trust my spelling!)
March 17, 2010
sarra commented on the list names-of-world-leaders-and-famous-individuals-that-cause-happieness-in-the-saying
I've added approximately a zillion, but hearing every one of these additions on the radio always leads to a happy little repetition from me.
March 12, 2010
sarra commented on the word jonny diamond
Ridiculous but true name of a BBC foreign correspondent.
March 12, 2010
sarra commented on the word Goodluck Jonathan
yes!
March 12, 2010
sarra commented on the word gordon brown
If said in exaggerated Highland accent.
March 12, 2010
sarra commented on the word benedict camberbatch
Oh, dear lord, his full name is Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch. I might hyperventilate.
March 12, 2010
sarra commented on the word benedict camberbatch
Oi! He's Benedict Cumberbatch. And very nice in both name and face, too.
March 12, 2010
sarra commented on the list sometime-definite-article-countries
The man? (The legend?)
March 12, 2010
sarra commented on the list sometime-definite-article-countries
Good one! I don't see that happening with Netherlands, so that's something to chew on.
March 12, 2010
sarra commented on the list sometime-definite-article-countries
Ooh, I was going to remove Vatican, but see here (especially the page title): http://www.vatican.va/
March 12, 2010
sarra commented on the list sometime-definite-article-countries
I don't think they really are though - would you really say 'I'm going on holiday to Solomon Islands'? Maybe one would, I suppose. But 'I've just bought a house in (the) Ukraine' or 'Didier Drogba is the best-loved footballer in/of/who plays for (the) Ivory Coast'.
March 12, 2010
sarra commented on the list sometime-definite-article-countries
That is, I've not heard Seychelles sans article. Does it happen?
March 12, 2010
sarra commented on the list sometime-definite-article-countries
They're plural - I'll add an exception (like Bahamas, Netherlands, Maldives)
March 12, 2010
sarra commented on the word rubicon
before I learnt its metaphorical meaning, this is what 'rubicon' meant to me, and nothing more:
March 1, 2010
sarra commented on the word cob
cob as in round bread roll. A roll or barm etc elsewhere in the country.
February 26, 2010
sarra commented on the word t'ra
or tara, though that never looks right written down. Has the emphasis on the 'ra', more or less, and means 'byee!'
February 26, 2010
sarra commented on the word outdoor
'the outdoor' is the offy, or off-license.
February 26, 2010
sarra commented on the word gully
The passage or alley between two terraced houses. In Sheffield it's a gennel.
February 26, 2010
sarra commented on the list buddhism-2
all fixed, bilby love!
February 18, 2010
sarra commented on the word upekṣā
उपेक्षा (Sanskrit)
note to self: क ka plus ष ṣa makes क्ष kṣa, a lovely ligature!
February 18, 2010
sarra commented on the word dhyāna
ध्यान (Sanskrit)
February 18, 2010
sarra commented on the word saṃsāra
संसार (Sanskrit)
February 18, 2010
sarra commented on the word śūnyatā
शून्यता (Sanskrit)
February 18, 2010
sarra commented on the word vedanā
वेदना (Sanskrit and Pāli)
February 18, 2010
sarra commented on the list buddhism-2
oh no! :(
February 18, 2010
sarra commented on the word palewa
a soapstone
February 15, 2010
sarra commented on the word undertemptors
How industrious is Satan served. I was formerly one of his active undertemptors and had my influence been equal to my wishes I would have carried all the human race with me. A common drunkard or profligate is a petty sinner to what I was.
—John Newton, 1778
February 11, 2010
sarra commented on the word i shouldn't wonder
synonymous with 'I bet' at the end of a sentence ('lives with his mum, I shouldn't wonder') - where the sentence stress is on the word immediately preceding the 'I'
January 13, 2010
sarra commented on the word no man is an island
How did I forget Man?!
January 11, 2010
sarra commented on the word bargain
heh!
January 11, 2010
sarra commented on the word munch
to give mushycuddlekisses to a small child
January 11, 2010
sarra commented on the word peckable
My family used to sing that to me while munching me to death.
January 11, 2010
sarra commented on the word no man is an island
Except:
- Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere
- Sir Joseph Banks
- Abel Tasman
- Alexander I of Russia
- Lloyd Viel Berkner
- Axel Heiberg
- Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville
- Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (I'm assuming here, as it was 'discovered' by Europeans in 1851)
- George Vancouver
- Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst
- Prince Arthur William Patrick, Duke of Connaught
- W. Harris Thurston
- King William IV
- Ellef Ringnes
- Robert Bylot
- Hawaiʻiloa, perhaps]
- Charles, Prince of Wales
- Admiral Robert B. Carney
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Baron Ferdinand von Wrangel
- Sir William Cornwallis
- Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen de Trémarec
- Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount Falkland
- Paul A. Siple
- Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville
- Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn
- William Coats
- Admiral Vasili Chichagov
- Amund Ringnes
- Ivan Lyakhov
- Lawrence of Rome
- Germán Riesco
- William Lyon Mackenzie King
Goodness, I must come back and finish this later. There are ever such a lot of them.
And perhaps even Amerigo Vespucci.
I may have missed a few.
January 8, 2010
sarra commented on the word kyriarchy
or 'words I forgot to list when I first encountered them'
January 8, 2010
sarra commented on the word berth
'but her boat is still moored at its usual berth' (Radio 4 news)
December 20, 2009
sarra commented on the word a bell in every tooth
Welsh phrase. To have a bell in every tooth = be a loudmouth.
December 6, 2009
sarra commented on the word fain
file under 'words I had completely the wrong idea about for years upon years' (along with prodigal, etc)
November 29, 2009
sarra commented on the word dodgasted
Edward Elgar tried, at 43, to take up the trombone, but wasn't very good at it:
'He didn’t do it very well and often played a note higher or lower than the one he wanted ... and as he swore every time that happened I got into such a state of hysterics that I didn’t know what to do.
Then he turned on me: 'How can you expect me to play this dodgasted thing if you laugh?''
Daily Telegraph article
November 26, 2009
sarra commented on the word tamale
♪♫ Hot tamales and they're red hot! Yes, she's got 'em for sale... ♫♪ (Robert Johnson)
November 24, 2009
sarra commented on the word incremental
The remaining broken characters (a small percentage) will most likely remain broken, an unfortunate side effect of my having been sloppy with Wordie's db in the early days.
Does this go too for list descriptions? As I've a recent one that's broken I don't know whether this is an oversight, a to-do or a DB effect that's going to stick around. Thank you for doing all you can to get things up and running already!
November 12, 2009
sarra commented on the word bugs
Comments on my profile used to have their encoding skewed, but that's been fixed now - hope that means the rest of the text will be fixed incrementally.
November 12, 2009
sarra commented on the word comments
Also, recently looked up: vajayjay and well-laid. Should I be posting this on synchronicity? ;)
November 12, 2009
sarra commented on the word comments
oh phew! I couldn't find the comments or lists at all - now I can. Thank goodness not as much has been lost as I thought.
November 12, 2009
sarra commented on the word attribute complement
'When a noun or an adjective explaining or modifying the subject is used to complete the predicate, it is called an attribute complement. … John Smith is an author. The apple is sweet. … Verbs that require attribute complements are called copulative verbs…'
— Henry Wyman Holmes, Composition and Rhetoric, p340
November 2, 2009
sarra commented on the word objective complement
'The object also may need added words to complete the meaning of the predicate. Such words are called objective complements. They elected Henry captain. He painted the house white.'
— Henry Wyman Holmes, Composition and Rhetoric, p340
November 2, 2009
sarra commented on the word hollow land
?
October 25, 2009
sarra commented on the word outsarrageous
hee!
October 21, 2009
sarra commented on the word ij
A ligature, like æ. In Dutch crossword puzzles you get only one square for an ij.
October 20, 2009
sarra commented on the word ackee
sal'fish and
October 20, 2009
sarra commented on the word ¥
GODDAMN THIS. FIX?
October 20, 2009
sarra commented on the word by-your-leave
without so much as a…
OED (oddly, unhyphenated): 'An expression of apology for not having asked permission; the asking of permission.'
October 20, 2009
sarra commented on the word e
e (Vietnamese): to fear.
October 20, 2009
sarra commented on the word tertile
You know 'quartile' and 'percentile', right? 'Tertile' is analogous (if that helps).
October 16, 2009
sarra commented on the word jaga
Indonesian: guard/watchman (v rough idea)
September 28, 2009
sarra commented on the word when i’m cleaning windows
This is the one that people always shout at me whenever I mention the uke - if not that, then either 'Leaning on a Lamppost' or 'With my little ukulele in my hand' or, in non-Formby shocker, 'Ukulele Lady'...
September 22, 2009
sarra commented on the word five foot two, eyes of blue
First recorded by the California Ramblers in 1925, my file says.
September 22, 2009
sarra commented on the word tip-toe through the tulips
Singing 'Girlfriend in a Coma' to the tune of this one is pure joy.
September 22, 2009
sarra commented on the word crazy g
So good they named him twice?
September 22, 2009
sarra commented on the word i think you'll find
Perfectly, terribly, often unbearably patronising phrase, such that I don't quite believe it's ever possible to utter it innocently.
September 22, 2009
sarra commented on the word all day breakfast
After years of scowling at the fact that no-one served an all-day breakfast after approx. 11.30 in the morning, I eventually realised that it's so called as it's meant to last you all day.
You can also get it in a tin. It's probably best if you don't ask.
September 18, 2009
sarra commented on the word fuck-off
?
September 8, 2009
sarra commented on the word fuck-off
adj. meaning 'big'
September 8, 2009
sarra commented on the word bent
Name for an enormous number of grasses commonly used for lawns. My favourite is creeping bent, though upland bent is a close second.
September 4, 2009
sarra commented on the word add me
'everyone' can be read as singular or plural. Like 'lego'. Mass noun or count noun. So you can have it both ways - everyone (the mass) can add themselves, or everyone (each component person) can add him/her/themself.
I don't believe in the word 'themself'. We don't have 'oneself' in that context, I reckon, because 'oneself' already has a first-person meaning and can't handle a third-person one on top of that.
August 30, 2009
sarra commented on the word bod gatherers
Or any God-free recruitment drive as well, actually.
August 27, 2009
sarra commented on the word bod gatherers
God botherers out on on their usual recruitment drive.
August 27, 2009
sarra commented on the word foots
'Is this custom or term British?' shows how it's grammatical.
Never heard of them though.
August 27, 2009
sarra commented on the list one-word-band-names
Make one up? Damn. I was going to be a sly cad and add 'The The' and 'Duran Duran' (and their covers band, 'Duran Duran Duran')
August 27, 2009
sarra commented on the word courgettes
yes - but in a different country :)
August 23, 2009
sarra commented on the word bandstand palmistry
Like this one.
August 22, 2009
sarra commented on the word egalitarian
Have just noticed first that I like this word quite a bit more than I thought I did; second, that the reason is it's linked in form and so in feeling with words like 'elegant'.
August 20, 2009
sarra commented on the list words-that-rhyme-with-larynx
Not allowed!
August 18, 2009
sarra commented on the list words-that-rhyme-with-larynx
here's why there's nothing even close to it in English English, apart from pharynx: http://forvo.com/word/larynx
August 18, 2009
sarra commented on the word ramsj
Dutch for 'remaindered book'
July 30, 2009
sarra commented on the word smar
"a grass that grows wild around Marrakech"
July 28, 2009
sarra commented on the word banyan
The banyan's Ficus benghalensis, c_b.
The Banyan tree is named after "banians" or Hindu traders who carryout their business under the tree. (source)
July 28, 2009
sarra commented on the word ¡no pasarán!
They shall not pass, used internationally as an anti-fascist slogan. More info on origins and usage.
July 21, 2009
sarra commented on the word pungent
Gosh, a word I haven't heard for years and now found I newly dislike. The 'ung' makes it sound like the smell of cannabis.
Also, Google ad for flatulence-filtering underwear? Such wonders are there in the world...
July 20, 2009
sarra commented on the word mind-your-own-business
Soleirolia soleirolii, plant of the nettle family, also known as baby's tears, angel's tears, peace-in-the-home, pollyanna vine, mother of thousands, the Corsican curse, and Irish moss.
July 20, 2009
sarra commented on the word literary
NOT "LITERY". The number of times I've heard this on the radio, out of the mouths of otherwise well-spoken individuals. For shame.
July 20, 2009
sarra commented on the word unprecedented
not bloody pronounced "unpresidented"
July 20, 2009
sarra commented on the word fada
properly síneadh fada: the acute accent as used in Irish
July 3, 2009
sarra commented on the word aspen
beautiful WordNet definition
July 1, 2009
sarra commented on the word happen
'That is so' (''appen it is'). Yorkshire dialect.
June 22, 2009
sarra commented on the word toll, ein anderer macht’s
"Great, someone else is doing it."
The joke? Have a look at the first letter of each word...
June 18, 2009
sarra commented on the word squamous
I'm totally puzzled as to how I actually knew that, now.
June 18, 2009
sarra commented on the word tabata
tabatas: Tabata intervals, named after the head of the team who devised them. http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/tabataintervals.html
June 17, 2009
sarra commented on the word the pen is on the table
hehehe, I like that, pro.
June 16, 2009
sarra commented on the word yottsu-ijo wa kaze no moto
Fourth sneeze means you have a cold!
June 16, 2009
sarra commented on the word san-kenashi
...third sneeze means disparagement. Then yottsu-ijo wa kaze no moto...
June 16, 2009
sarra commented on the word ni-kusashi
...two sneezes for criticism. Then san-kenashi...
June 16, 2009
sarra commented on the word ichi home
One sneeze for praise. Then ni-kusashi...
June 16, 2009
sarra commented on the word afiat bahsheh
Ah, I have this transliterated differently at afiyat bashe.
June 16, 2009
sarra commented on the word elahi shokr
The response to being blessed for a sneeze in Iran. See afiyat bashe.
June 16, 2009
sarra commented on the word afiyat bashe
'I wish you good health', said after a sneeze. The response? Elahi shokr, 'Thank God for my health!'
'In Iran one sneeze is bad luck but a second sneeze clears the slate and everyone is relieved. So, like seeing magpies!'
June 16, 2009
sarra commented on the word macrocéphalie
"la concentration de la population urbaine dans les villes les plus importantes d'un pays"
June 15, 2009
sarra commented on the word bredren
Rastafarian/Jamaican. Brothers. Kinship or peer bonds.
June 14, 2009
sarra commented on the word blud
goodness, unlisted. UK slang. Blood, as in bredren, as in mate. Sounds more like bled. Phoneticise our vowel please researchers. (Not you.)
June 14, 2009
sarra commented on the word echt
No, eeeeecht. It's a fabulous German word that I think I like best to translate as "proper". "Das ist echt Scheiße" = "That's proper shite." as in "a well and truly awful situation".
Current UK slang would translate it as "well", viz. "das ist echt gut" = "that's well good" (innit blud).
June 14, 2009
sarra commented on the word falls
but I do remember this one! I wonder if one could describe it as
a kind of subjunctive?I haven't got a clue, it's 3.30am. But "falls x" can be translated as "should x (be the case, etc.)"NB context of this comment is strictly German
June 14, 2009
sarra commented on the word gleich
another one I don't remember at all in any meaningful, rootsy way — how? Surely in four years of German learning I must have used it quite enough.
June 14, 2009
sarra commented on the word noch
oddly, one of the all-purpose words that has vanished entirely from my reflexive language centre (see some of the other words in this list). a clutch of explanation from dict.leo.org
June 14, 2009
sarra commented on the word nur
file under: German words that crop up when I try to speak another language. Means "but/just/simply/merely". I miss this word in French with a mighty passion.
June 14, 2009
sarra commented on the word jetzt
file under: German words that crop up when I try to speak another language. Means "now".
June 14, 2009
sarra commented on the word woche
file under: German words that crop up when I try to speak another language. Means "week".
June 14, 2009
sarra commented on the word also
file under: German words that crop up when I try to speak another language. is a wonderful all-purpose word, although the French donc may have taken its place recently.
June 14, 2009
sarra commented on the word stunden
file under: German words that crop up when I try to speak another language. Means "hours".
June 14, 2009
sarra commented on the word anderthalb
file under: German words that crop up when I try to speak another language. Means "one and a half".
June 14, 2009
sarra commented on the word 'fuck me!' said the duchess, more in hope than in anger
Must be said with the correct inflection: 'Fuck me!' meaning 'Gosh, what a surprise!'.
June 10, 2009
sarra commented on the word das sind für mich böhmische dörfer
German equivalent of the Czech 'to je pro mne španělská vesnice', or 'I'm sorry, I haven't a clue'. Lit. 'they're Bohemian villages to me'.
June 10, 2009
sarra commented on the word to je pro mne španělská vesnice
'I'm sorry, I haven't a clue' in Czech. Lit. 'it's just a Spanish village to me'.
June 10, 2009
sarra commented on the word alhamdulillah
'Thanks be to God!'
Response to a sneeze in Arabic.
June 8, 2009
sarra commented on the word velona
The response to a sneeze in Madagascar. Means 'alive!'.
June 8, 2009
sarra commented on the word chicken-yawn
Chicken-yawn comes before cock-crow. It's that early, you see.
June 5, 2009
sarra commented on the word rebelote
discussion sur 'rebelot(t)e'
May 31, 2009
sarra commented on the word x-sampa
God yes. Hurrah for you!
May 25, 2009
sarra commented on the word ouagadougou
un nom tel superb!
May 23, 2009
sarra commented on the list language-of-drums
Spoke too soon… four against five is tricky.
May 23, 2009
sarra commented on the list language-of-drums
I think I have. And no, I'm not. I can only do in kit terms, but I'm proud of learning two-against-three, three-against-four and four-against-five polyrhythms.
May 23, 2009
sarra commented on the word talea
also related to isorhythms
May 22, 2009
sarra commented on the list deprefixed-words
'fixed' words, innit? ;)
May 4, 2009
sarra commented on the word heteronormative
I like the word, and I do use it. Hallo too, rolig!
May 4, 2009
sarra commented on the list etymological-curiosities
Hallo! More specific, indeed. Some homonyms like bank have distinct meanings in the English we speak, but in the Oxford English Dictionary there's a long long note on the origins of bank-the-place-where-we-keep-money, which ends 'The word is thus ultimately identical with BENCH and BANK2, and cognate with BANK1.'
May 3, 2009
sarra commented on the word furlongs per fortnight
whimsical measure of speed
April 18, 2009
sarra commented on the word lire quelque chose à tête reposée
(Fr.) to read something at one's leisure, lit. with rested head
April 18, 2009
sarra commented on the list quaint-pronunciation
mundi tuesdi wensdi thursdi freyedi satdi sundi. But I was actually thinking of 'wed'nsday', whether -day or -di.
April 16, 2009
sarra commented on the word pardi
note to self
April 14, 2009
sarra commented on the user Telofy
Love your 'also on'. Gave me a smiling pleased giggle.
April 11, 2009
sarra commented on the user Telofy
Thank you! I noticed when I was on 1,999 and thought "ooh" but didn't pay any attention to my 2,000th - so I'm not sure which it was. I added a couple of thousand-related words as my 1,000th and 1,001st.
Ah, hold on, I can work it out… justiciable! The thousandth was millenary. (Followed by mother of thousands)
April 11, 2009
sarra commented on the word pentachoron
ow ow my brain ow.
April 10, 2009
sarra commented on the word god's green earth
I'm no Christian, but why/what/how on God's green earth…? is too good a phrase to miss out on.
April 5, 2009
sarra commented on the word arwygyll
OED: 'obs. derivative form of EARWIG; cf. OE. eárwicasga and mod. Suffolk dial. arrawiggle, and see WIGGLE v.'
Just brilliant.
March 27, 2009
sarra commented on the word sabo
Not sure how accurate this is, but a preliminary reference: http://www.organicearrings.com/Materials_Info___Sources.html
March 17, 2009
sarra commented on the word sono
Not sure how accurate this is, but a preliminary reference: http://www.organicearrings.com/Materials_Info___Sources.html
March 17, 2009
sarra commented on the word omega stategy
er stRategy?
March 12, 2009
sarra commented on the word bobbins
"rubbish"
March 4, 2009
sarra commented on the word buffing
"to buff is to remove graffiti"
March 4, 2009
sarra commented on the word bird
When we were at 6th form we used to refer to our boyfriends as our birds. (from a talkboard — surprised and pleased me)
March 3, 2009
sarra commented on the word snow-blind
I've not seen it used in this way before, but it's just perfect:
I want a Netbook and having been looking at different ones for a few days, but am now snow-blind from all the reviews.
(also snowblind)
February 27, 2009
sarra commented on the word ramming
See stimulus package. Yes.
February 27, 2009
sarra commented on the word stimulus package
“What do you think of the stimulus package that President Obama is ramming through Congress at the moment?” — somewhere on the BBC World Service the other week
February 27, 2009
sarra commented on the word bugs
A lot of the Wordie links on the RSS feed seem to be to lists which don't exist? e.g.:
beavers build dams -> http://wordie.org/lists/198837
where do you go to my lovely -> http://wordie.org/lists/129220
unbirdly -> http://wordie.org/lists/198568
etc.
February 19, 2009
sarra commented on the word shagreen
Clearing through my father's papers after he died, I found his photo folder. A real one, made of battered shagreen. In it was a picture of his long-dead brother; one of his father as a young man; one of his wife as a 13-year-old girl with her mother and sister. Pictures of the dead. Pictures of people who could not be seen in reality, ever again, kept private in his desk drawer.
Michael Bywater in the Independent
February 13, 2009
sarra commented on the word tantalize
Click the little "OE" icon above and be enlightened!
February 4, 2009
sarra commented on the word ärans och hjältarnas språk
Swedish, "the language of honour and of heroes". Comes from an Esaias Tegnérs poem of 1817 & is used nowadays with a smile of slight irony, I think.
February 2, 2009
sarra commented on the word apostrophe
skip, you missed the deliberate irony in that headline!
I am slightly miffed that no-one's reported on my bestickering, long ago, an apostropheless St Philip's Place (also Birmingham). You heard it here first. Or last.
February 2, 2009
sarra commented on the word on the rivet
borrowed definition: "riding so hard that your pulling on the bars results in your sitting right on the tip of the saddle. Which would have a rivet on it if it were a proper leather one."
January 27, 2009
sarra commented on the word perineum
o_O
January 25, 2009
sarra commented on the word minulla on nuha
kiitos bilby!
January 24, 2009
sarra commented on the word reversible raincoat
Take the figure in Kennedy’s "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country�? and "we must never negotiate out of fear, but we must never fear to negotiate." The classical rhetoricians called it antimetabole, though modern speechwriters prefer to refer to it as the reversible raincoat.
Geoff Nunberg at Language Log
January 24, 2009
sarra commented on the word ik ben verkouden
I am becolden. *snuiven, kuchen*
January 24, 2009
sarra commented on the word flunssa
THE FLU
January 24, 2009
sarra commented on the word minulla on nuha
i have a cold. :(
(You can also say "minussa on nuha", lit. "in me there is a cold")
January 24, 2009
sarra commented on the user bilby
January 24, 2009
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