What are the words in this list with no (web-based) citations whatsoever?—are they coined to describe “genetics” of words after the pattern of chromosome and genome?
Streight seems an odd choice — it's marked as obsolete in Webster's dictionary and only appears in the OED's comprehensive listing of spellings for straight/strait (and interestingly, stretch), also indicating obsolescence.
In what way does prodigal find itself incorrectly corrected?
The Royal Society of Chemistry's carefully-considered hangover remedy consists of toast and honey. Quite apart from the nutritional benefits of such a morning-after breakfast, it's certainly a combination that puts a smile on my face.
See tsar—for me, when I came across the fact a few weeks ago, the most surprising of all. I had an attack of poor referencing & wondered if Cæsar might not be an eponym at all but a title like Christ, but the OED has comforted me.
A cross between the idea of an entrepreneur and an odd-job man; or, simply an innovative "quick fix" for a problem. Also refers to a type of home-grown motor vehicle made for necessary transport.
I've known this one for years, and only now — not that I'm particularly surprised — found it's an apocryphal tale. The most complete (and presumably verifiable!) reference I have:
The magazine Punch (May 18, 1844) published a letter from a 17 year old Ms. Catherine Winkworth suggesting that Napier's despatch to Lord E. should have read "Peccavi" (I have sinned). Thus, the famous wordplay was, in fact, a tongue-in-cheek insult.
Not sure what's so objectionable about the pronunciation. Do you use the same kind of sound for both ns? For me it's /'fiŋ-gə-naɪls/. ŋ is "ng", the tongue closed at the back of the palate. A journey forward!
Independent radio producers Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister were curious about how musician of [indie darling nature Sufjan] Stevens writes his songs ... So, they introduced Stevens to the Arkansas town of Brinkley ... not far from where the ivory-billed woodpecker recently was rediscovered.
Collison and Meister spoke with people in the town, then shared the interviews with Stevens. He wrote a song about the ivory-bill, known as the "lord god" or "great god" bird because of its breathtaking appearance.
Can tags be globally hidden, or does one have to do it on a word-by-word basis?
Tags here aren't ever attributed — therefore there's no "hiding" going on. The only link between tag and person is to be found from the person's own user pages. And you can tag any word you like without having to list it.
I was excellently pleased after playing this word copycat for a while in SOWPODS games to find out it had such a concrete (relating to an object; unlike those tricksy ones like el which are letter names, &c.), and a little amusing, meaning.
28. genderless! Curiously, etymonline points out the archaic word wight is not to do with the Isle's Wight. Some speculation on the roots of the ManxMan can be found in this book chapter.
Veda is connected to wit, you're right. The OED's etymological entry for the latter is beautiful: a vast journey across a swathe of Teutonic languages, to Old English, down to the mythical Indo-European, and of course to Sanskrit, taking in quite a tapestry of cognates along the way.
The variety of bird species and that of languages are becoming quite intertwined in my mind, now. Ancestry, migrations… and of course, etymologists and ornithologists; linguaphiles and birdwatchers. Worders and birders.
I don't think I could explain what constitutes a syllable (q.v. for an explanation in a day or two, perhaps) without breaking into linguist-speak of death — but to understand the wobbliness of your theory, note that there are actually two "breaks" of the breath (stops, which you could hold as long as you like) in this word, viz.: te—xt—s!
Simple request: please move the little "processing" throbber next to whichever button has been pressed on each respective page (like it is for commenting), so that one doesn't have to scroll around to see if one's request has been successfully submitted!
edit: I can't find a displaced one, now. If I do I'll point it out. And please bring back the "delete" button for comments!
I think the list description bug has eased itself a bit, but other editing ones still stand: the "more about you" box on my profile is currently choking. It's a symptom of a longstanding bug where sometimes, when a comment contains external links, they vanish upon editing and become no more than text. Which is better than nothing, but still perplexing.
I try to stick with “onvelope”*. Though if one is sufficiently RP I suspect one would say “onv'lope”, which the trusty OED hints at in its /'ɒnv(ə)ləʊp/.
Of course, oikolectchez nous proudly renders the word, quite intentionally, as “onv'lopp” :)
Like Pétaouchnok, another imaginary place in the French language: this one an isolated, backward village, perhaps in beautiful countryside, but still to be scoffed at. Les oies are geese.
Archaic version of Timbuktu (along with other such terms whose transliteration has changed over the years, the older version often carries imperialist overtones); both are used to signify a place very far away indeed.
French equivalent of a particular usage of Timbuctoo (now more properly Timbuktu) in English: an imaginary place, its name styled after those of Russian or Ukrainian villages, meaning “very far away indeed”.
"Filiere." Miss F. Frances Lambert. The Hand-book of Needlework. New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1842.
Miss Lambert describes the filiere, or gauge, "as a steel instrument with graduated notches round its edges, distinguished by different figures. It is used by wire-drawers for ascertaining the sizes of their wires, and is applied in a similar manner, for measuring the diameters of netting and knitting needles; thus -- when speaking of the relative size of these needles, they are frequently designated by their corresponding numbers; but, as has been before observed, there appears to be no universal standard."
The word content of a list vanishes from the page when you edit its description (it's still there, if you navigate back to the list page after editing). I also can't seem to delete a list description.
I'm going to make a list of English words-with-all-the-vowels - since we haven't found the English term for them yet, which of panvocálica/pentavocálica (or something else) do you think I should use for its title - and are they plural terms? (I know almost no Spanish!)
curiously, this is one of the phrases which crops up when you Google "intentional malapropism" — this is incidental though, and not a mark of research method!
Ah no, you see, I wanted to try and stress that although the point about t/d in "butter" &c. is a valid one (ah! I've remembered, it's a flap), it's not really the reason why they merge in "iced tea". The sound at the end of a BrE pronunciation of "iced" on its own (well, mine anyway) is an aspirated t after all, and the same thing still occurs.
A cuppa; a brew. Made in a sturdy mug. Milk and two sugars — depending on the builder, of course. The ones I've shared a kettle with take it unsweetened and with just a dash of milk to make it a shade more akin to redbrick than latte, as do I. The most consistent factor among builders' teas is the brew itself: a bag (sometimes two) of household-name blended black tea steeped for a good several minutes, producing plenty of tannins. Strong stuff.
If you asked for "sweet tea" here though, you'd get ordinary hot black (as opposed to green or white or not tea at all!) milky tea which someone would drop a couple of sugars in.
I'd love to experience a proper Southern sweet tea, mind. A spot on the far edge of a vast circle of teas, as far away from sencha as it is from my own comfort — builders' tea.
Through my transatlantic telescope I suspect that I spy a discussion about greaseproof paper here...
Almost nobody pronounces in everyday speech the "(e)d" in "iced tea" and "waxed paper". The d and the t share the same place of articulation (where your tongue goes to rest) so they run together and no sound is repeated. My linguistics is rusty, but this might be a very basic example of assimilation. There's no need to think of it as dropping the t; it's still there, just in a tight embrace with the d.
The idea that waxed paper is somehow not paper amuses me (to me it's exactly like paper, no mystery there — the defining characteristic of paper is not in my mind its suitability for writing but its composition, i.e. various organic fibrous materials, and the common, though obviously widely varied, feel that imparts to the sheets or scraps of it), just as the idea of "sweet tea" as an unquestioned fact not being hot sends my eyebrows up. The first is a deep personal association, the second cultural. O mutability!
from wax paper: "sweet tea" is always cold because that's the salient feature of the tea: it's sweet. Hot tea is not served sweetened. — an abomination to British ears!
Is there any word which covers the same traits (kindness, experience, generosity, maybe a bit of exuberance) in a female? Matronly is too distanced. Language hacks gladly accepted.
as far as I'm aware, the sequence was accepted as an approximation even when the Linotype keyboard was made. I imagine it varies slightly with time and according to dialect/material surveyed.
sorry again! I did see the other entries, whose humour I understood — and yes, I didn't see them in your list. Zug is a new one on me (though vague memories of German words to do with travelling). Off to request a feature to make word-inclusion-in-lists more obvious!
Before all reading go out to poke children's knees in the name of experiment — they do; they're just not yet made of bone. “Ossification is completed about the age of puberty.”—Gray's Anatomy
In general, a peep-hole; also Judas trap, Judas hole; listed as a sense of Judas in the OED. Used, oddly, in photography: the “Judas window” here is a set-up on some older, chiefly manual cameras which (by placement of a tiny mirror) allows the photographer to see in the viewfinder a setting which is made elsewhere on the camera, such as the aperture setting on the lens barrel.
Gr. agelastos, not laughing; ultimately from gelaein, to laugh. Coined by the French Renaissance writer Rabelais, or so the source quoted in the OED suggests.
rather than its mundane meaning of "amuse", I like its subtleties: to entertain his presence, to entertain such an idea, &c. — etymologically "to hold mutually"
If it helps, I read the fact somewhere when I was quite small and started looking up the length of the "set" entry in rather a lot of dictionaries afterward :)
The word set has a multitude of definitions in the English language (464 separate definitions according to the Oxford English Dictionary, making it the word with the highest number of definitions; its full definition contains over 10,000 words making it the longest definition in the OED).
It'd be grand if on the "n wordies list word" page, after each name, it was shown exactly *what* list (if any) the word is included in.
That said, I don't quite understand the point of a general word list, especially since we have a separate "favourites" list - mine's only full of words I had to add so they would exist on Wordie, and I'm sure those are rapidly becoming scarce!
Comments by sarra
Show previous 200 comments...
sarra commented on the word supercalliwhat
*-???i-???gi-l*c-???i-??i-??c????
Clued enough? :)
Hyphens to aid the eye only — they're not, of course, integral to the word.
December 18, 2007
sarra commented on the list words-you-will-be-incorrectly-corrected-on
Amused by the idea of your odd looks :)
December 18, 2007
sarra commented on the list ome-is-where-the-heart-is
What are the words in this list with no (web-based) citations whatsoever?—are they coined to describe “genetics” of words after the pattern of chromosome and genome?Ah! I now have found your comments on lexisphere.
December 18, 2007
sarra commented on the list words-you-will-be-incorrectly-corrected-on
Streight seems an odd choice — it's marked as obsolete in Webster's dictionary and only appears in the OED's comprehensive listing of spellings for straight/strait (and interestingly, stretch), also indicating obsolescence.
In what way does prodigal find itself incorrectly corrected?
December 18, 2007
sarra commented on the word cancrine
Latin cancrīnus, from cancer, crab. See, for a musical application, cancrizans.
December 17, 2007
sarra commented on the word cancrizans
A canon (musical) which contains a reversal of its own theme. From Latin cancriz�?re, to walk backwards; see cancrine.
December 17, 2007
sarra commented on the word veisalgia
Coined in 2000 in a journal article: The Alcohol Hangover — Weise et al. 132 (11): 897 — Annals of Internal Medicine
December 17, 2007
sarra commented on the word hangover
The Royal Society of Chemistry's carefully-considered hangover remedy consists of toast and honey. Quite apart from the nutritional benefits of such a morning-after breakfast, it's certainly a combination that puts a smile on my face.
http://www.rsc.org/AboutUs/News/PressReleases/2005/HangoverAvoidance.asp
The upmarket name for a hangover is veisalgia.
December 17, 2007
sarra commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous
See tsar—for me, when I came across the fact a few weeks ago, the most surprising of all. I had an attack of poor referencing & wondered if Cæsar might not be an eponym at all but a title like Christ, but the OED has comforted me.
December 16, 2007
sarra commented on the word tsar
Derived, as is kaiser, from Cæsar—first Caius Julius, Roman emperors thereafter being Cæsars, and figuratively, later, any emperor also.
(This English spelling became standard after being chosen by the Times newspaper at the end of the nineteenth century.)
December 16, 2007
sarra commented on the word masti
In current Hindi usage, a word meaning mischievous, playful fun.
In Urdu and Persian, a word connected to Sufism, meaning a state of abandon to God.
December 15, 2007
sarra commented on the word jugaad
ज�?गाद (Devan�?garī)
A cross between the idea of an entrepreneur and an odd-job man; or, simply an innovative "quick fix" for a problem. Also refers to a type of home-grown motor vehicle made for necessary transport.
http://www.dinkercharak.com/mgt/jugaad.htm
Perhaps similar to bricolage.
Among many, many other things, there is a company called Jugaad making "mastiful things" to be found in eco-conscious shops of the UK.
December 15, 2007
sarra commented on the word loath
Loath is loath to be misspelt with an e.
December 15, 2007
sarra commented on the list monovocalics
*falls over with joy*
December 15, 2007
sarra commented on the list quiz-time-4
Oh gosh, now I understand 4 but my knowledge is lacking! My survey says—Ellison?
December 15, 2007
sarra commented on the list at-least-two-apostrophes-or-your-money-back
Gosh, if you're counting grocer's apostrophe's, you could go miles with this list...
P.S. Either you've missed some clues, or you choose to be judicious!
December 15, 2007
sarra commented on the list loquy
Very very well spotted! I remember reading it a lot as I inferred what it meant, but forgot to add it.
This is certainly no pauciloquacious list.
December 15, 2007
sarra commented on the word tamil
Much better, thank you!
December 15, 2007
sarra commented on the word sanskrit
In the Devan�?garī script, संस�?कृतम�? (saṃskṛtam)
December 15, 2007
sarra commented on the word tamil
In its own script: தமிழ
December 15, 2007
sarra commented on the word peccavi
I've known this one for years, and only now — not that I'm particularly surprised — found it's an apocryphal tale. The most complete (and presumably verifiable!) reference I have:
The magazine Punch (May 18, 1844) published a letter from a 17 year old Ms. Catherine Winkworth suggesting that Napier's despatch to Lord E. should have read "Peccavi" (I have sinned). Thus, the famous wordplay was, in fact, a tongue-in-cheek insult.
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ/2005-11/1132988836
December 15, 2007
sarra commented on the word plosive
polyplosivity!
December 15, 2007
sarra commented on the list at-least-two-apostrophes-or-your-money-back
I can't stop. Daft ha'p'orth am I. (It's even 'a'p'orth round our way.)
December 15, 2007
sarra commented on the list at-least-two-apostrophes-or-your-money-back
Two more! One is that if you have bos'n's you can have cap'n's. T'other's from Yorkshire. ;)
December 15, 2007
sarra commented on the list at-least-two-apostrophes-or-your-money-back
sha'n't is fine, as it was once shalln't.
I di'n't see one I might sometimes use in there. I also like wu'n't (for possibly both of wouldn't and won't), but that's rocky dialect ground.
Unfortunately you oughtn't've had tam'o'shanter: it should really be tam-o'-shanter (there's nothing missing before the o, so it doesn't warrant an apostrophe). Wanting spaces are rock 'n' roll and fish 'n' chips, though these could stay. And add pick 'n' mix!
December 15, 2007
sarra commented on the list chromonyms-3
You'll have to tell me what you had in mind, if someone else doesn't guess.
December 15, 2007
sarra commented on the word fingernails
Not sure what's so objectionable about the pronunciation. Do you use the same kind of sound for both ns? For me it's /'fiŋ-gə-naɪls/. ŋ is "ng", the tongue closed at the back of the palate. A journey forward!
December 14, 2007
sarra commented on the list quiz-time-4
hahaha! 18. crotchety!
December 14, 2007
sarra commented on the word dishabille
Ouch. Wasn't aware this was a legitimate variation. My future self (wanting to make a correction) has possibly been saved some embarrassment.
December 13, 2007
sarra commented on the list chromonyms-3
8) lac, I think.
Oh, and 7) cobalt?
December 13, 2007
sarra commented on the word lord god bird
Oh, I didn't post the quote to rubbish your etymology; in fact, I should have edited the "breathtaking appearance" part out!
December 13, 2007
sarra commented on the list chromonyms-3
An intriguing quiz — I'll be reading a lot about this!
December 13, 2007
sarra commented on the word headless body in topless bar
bing!
December 13, 2007
sarra commented on the word lord god bird
The song is available, freely and in full, on NPR's page about the story.
December 13, 2007
sarra commented on the word mulgara
Tags here aren't ever attributed — therefore there's no "hiding" going on. The only link between tag and person is to be found from the person's own user pages. And you can tag any word you like without having to list it.December 11, 2007
sarra commented on the word mulgara
Lists are better for thumbing one's nose at particular words.
December 10, 2007
sarra commented on the list quiz-time-4
hmm!
December 9, 2007
sarra commented on the word zo
I was excellently pleased after playing this word copycat for a while in SOWPODS games to find out it had such a concrete (relating to an object; unlike those tricksy ones like el which are letter names, &c.), and a little amusing, meaning.
December 8, 2007
sarra commented on the list quiz-time-4
13. haplography. ugh! I had to Google.
23. syllabub
28. genderless! Curiously, etymonline points out the archaic word wight is not to do with the Isle's Wight. Some speculation on the roots of the Manx Man can be found in this book chapter.
December 8, 2007
sarra commented on the word petrel
Veda is connected to wit, you're right. The OED's etymological entry for the latter is beautiful: a vast journey across a swathe of Teutonic languages, to Old English, down to the mythical Indo-European, and of course to Sanskrit, taking in quite a tapestry of cognates along the way.
The variety of bird species and that of languages are becoming quite intertwined in my mind, now. Ancestry, migrations… and of course, etymologists and ornithologists; linguaphiles and birdwatchers. Worders and birders.
December 8, 2007
sarra commented on the list wallah
a cook's assistant is a slip of the keyboard?
I can't believe you've not got round to the chai(-)wallah yet — most important for me!
December 7, 2007
sarra commented on the list fibrous-words
A wonderful use of fibrous, for one. These are my favourite kinds of words.
December 5, 2007
sarra commented on the word texts
I don't think I could explain what constitutes a syllable (q.v. for an explanation in a day or two, perhaps) without breaking into linguist-speak of death — but to understand the wobbliness of your theory, note that there are actually two "breaks" of the breath (stops, which you could hold as long as you like) in this word, viz.: te—xt—s!
December 5, 2007
sarra commented on the word sxw�?št'qá
sxʷ�?št'qá?
December 5, 2007
sarra commented on the word features
It didn't appear after my first edit, but I did a test one now and lo, there it is. I feel compelled to leave it for posterity though.
December 5, 2007
sarra commented on the word envelope
Maybe they don't need veloping?
December 5, 2007
sarra commented on the word hobosexual
I may well speak of hobosexuals if I had a code in de doze.
December 5, 2007
sarra commented on the word texts
Jeff — sixths, thousandths; glimpsed, jinxed; prompts, tempts (attempts &c.); adjuncts, conjuncts, precincts, instincts… If you allow liquids, then twelfths, sculpts, mulcts, waltzed and warmths too. However, sixths seems to be the only other one I've found which doesn't rely on a nasal at the beginning of the cluster, and it seems you're looking solely for unvoiced consonant clusters here. Linguistic convention does count all these types as valid four-consonant clusters.
Naturally, there's also contexts, pretexts &c.
(I'll probably only amuse myself in pointing out that sixths and twelfths are consonant intervals)
December 5, 2007
sarra commented on the word features
Simple request: please move the little "processing" throbber next to whichever button has been pressed on each respective page (like it is for commenting), so that one doesn't have to scroll around to see if one's request has been successfully submitted!
edit: I can't find a displaced one, now. If I do I'll point it out. And please bring back the "delete" button for comments!
December 4, 2007
sarra commented on the word bugs
I think the list description bug has eased itself a bit, but other editing ones still stand: the "more about you" box on my profile is currently choking. It's a symptom of a longstanding bug where sometimes, when a comment contains external links, they vanish upon editing and become no more than text. Which is better than nothing, but still perplexing.
December 4, 2007
sarra commented on the word envelope
I try to stick with “onvelope”*. Though if one is sufficiently RP I suspect one would say “onv'lope”, which the trusty OED hints at in its /'ɒnv(ə)ləʊp/.
Of course, oikolect chez nous proudly renders the word, quite intentionally, as “onv'lopp” :)
*no pun intended
December 4, 2007
sarra commented on the word nøstepinne
Norwegian (Bokmål; the Nyorsk is nystepinne) for “little nest-stick” — a simple tool of turned wood used to wind balls of wool by hand.
Also known as a nøstepinde, as in these instructions for using one, but this may well be an error as Norwegian has no pinde.
December 4, 2007
sarra commented on the word clitic
tragically, this would be the most apropos entry in my linguistics is sexy list yet
December 3, 2007
sarra commented on the word diphthong
in an amp(h)itheatre!
December 3, 2007
sarra commented on the word lemniskate
I've always imagined that lollerskates would cause the wearer to rofl. Which would make it quite difficult to successfully lemniskate.
November 28, 2007
sarra commented on the word lemniskate
bravo!
November 28, 2007
sarra commented on the word lemniscate
Describes a certain kind of figure-of-eight mathematical curve, an example of which is the infinity sign ∞.
The Latin root is lēmniscus, from the Greek λημνίσκος, lêmniskos, both referring to ribbons.
November 28, 2007
sarra commented on the word lemniscatic
Roughly, figure-of-eight shaped; found in the mathematical study of elliptic functions.
cf. lemniscate
November 28, 2007
sarra commented on the word species
actually, the OED specifies only two variants: /'spi�?ʃi�?z/ and /'spi�?ʃɪi�?z/ — that is, not a "speesees" in sight!
November 27, 2007
sarra commented on the word trifouillis-les-oies
Like Pétaouchnok, another imaginary place in the French language: this one an isolated, backward village, perhaps in beautiful countryside, but still to be scoffed at. Les oies are geese.
November 19, 2007
sarra commented on the word timbuctoo
(or Timbucktoo)
Archaic version of Timbuktu (along with other such terms whose transliteration has changed over the years, the older version often carries imperialist overtones); both are used to signify a place very far away indeed.
November 19, 2007
sarra commented on the word pétaouchnok
/pe.ta.uʃ.nɔk/
French equivalent of a particular usage of Timbuctoo (now more properly Timbuktu) in English: an imaginary place, its name styled after those of Russian or Ukrainian villages, meaning “very far away indeed”.
November 19, 2007
sarra commented on the word prime-ministerial
for premenstrual; no. 8 in a series of collected intentional malapropisms
November 19, 2007
sarra commented on the word filière
"Filiere." Miss F. Frances Lambert. The Hand-book of Needlework. New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1842.
Miss Lambert describes the filiere, or gauge, "as a steel instrument with graduated notches round its edges, distinguished by different figures. It is used by wire-drawers for ascertaining the sizes of their wires, and is applied in a similar manner, for measuring the diameters of netting and knitting needles; thus -- when speaking of the relative size of these needles, they are frequently designated by their corresponding numbers; but, as has been before observed, there appears to be no universal standard."
-- http://www.librarycompany.org/HookBook/case8labels.htm (c&p)
November 14, 2007
sarra commented on the list freerice-words-to-learn
oh good grief. You've got me hooked. Half-learnt languages (French, German, Latin) have never been so useful.
November 14, 2007
sarra commented on the list remnants-of-a-catholic-childhood
hee. Have you seen my analogue? A less rich tradition, to be sure.
November 9, 2007
sarra commented on the word isometric
Not to be confused with biometric, as the UK press/political establishment seem to have been doing lately.
November 8, 2007
sarra commented on the word bugs
The word content of a list vanishes from the page when you edit its description (it's still there, if you navigate back to the list page after editing). I also can't seem to delete a list description.
October 25, 2007
sarra commented on the user frangarnes
I'm going to make a list of English words-with-all-the-vowels - since we haven't found the English term for them yet, which of panvocálica/pentavocálica (or something else) do you think I should use for its title - and are they plural terms? (I know almost no Spanish!)
October 25, 2007
sarra commented on the word i resemble that remark
for I resent that remark; no. 7 in a series of collected intentional malapropisms (and one I can't believe I forgot!)
October 25, 2007
sarra commented on the word none of your beeswax
for none of your business; no. 6 in a series of collected intentional malapropisms
curiously, this is one of the phrases which crops up when you Google "intentional malapropism" — this is incidental though, and not a mark of research method!
October 25, 2007
sarra commented on the list words-that-rhyme-with-larynx
without stopping to look it up, I think it's a rhyme on an unstressed syllable (in this case "ynx").
October 24, 2007
sarra commented on the word waxed paper
Ah no, you see, I wanted to try and stress that although the point about t/d in "butter" &c. is a valid one (ah! I've remembered, it's a flap), it's not really the reason why they merge in "iced tea". The sound at the end of a BrE pronunciation of "iced" on its own (well, mine anyway) is an aspirated t after all, and the same thing still occurs.
real linguists are free to correct me!
I hope I'm inducing some linguistics mumble effect here ;)
October 23, 2007
sarra commented on the word builders' tea
A cuppa; a brew. Made in a sturdy mug. Milk and two sugars — depending on the builder, of course. The ones I've shared a kettle with take it unsweetened and with just a dash of milk to make it a shade more akin to redbrick than latte, as do I. The most consistent factor among builders' teas is the brew itself: a bag (sometimes two) of household-name blended black tea steeped for a good several minutes, producing plenty of tannins. Strong stuff.
Also found in greasy spoons or caffs.
October 23, 2007
sarra commented on the word sweet tea
If you asked for "sweet tea" here though, you'd get ordinary hot black (as opposed to green or white or not tea at all!) milky tea which someone would drop a couple of sugars in.
I'd love to experience a proper Southern sweet tea, mind. A spot on the far edge of a vast circle of teas, as far away from sencha as it is from my own comfort — builders' tea.
October 23, 2007
sarra commented on the word waxed paper
Through my transatlantic telescope I suspect that I spy a discussion about greaseproof paper here...
Almost nobody pronounces in everyday speech the "(e)d" in "iced tea" and "waxed paper". The d and the t share the same place of articulation (where your tongue goes to rest) so they run together and no sound is repeated. My linguistics is rusty, but this might be a very basic example of assimilation. There's no need to think of it as dropping the t; it's still there, just in a tight embrace with the d.
The idea that waxed paper is somehow not paper amuses me (to me it's exactly like paper, no mystery there — the defining characteristic of paper is not in my mind its suitability for writing but its composition, i.e. various organic fibrous materials, and the common, though obviously widely varied, feel that imparts to the sheets or scraps of it), just as the idea of "sweet tea" as an unquestioned fact not being hot sends my eyebrows up. The first is a deep personal association, the second cultural. O mutability!
October 23, 2007
sarra commented on the word sweet tea
from wax paper: "sweet tea" is always cold because that's the salient feature of the tea: it's sweet. Hot tea is not served sweetened. — an abomination to British ears!
October 23, 2007
sarra commented on the word avuncular
might do the trick!
October 15, 2007
sarra commented on the word avuncular
Is there any word which covers the same traits (kindness, experience, generosity, maybe a bit of exuberance) in a female? Matronly is too distanced. Language hacks gladly accepted.
October 15, 2007
sarra commented on the word etaoin shrdlu
as far as I'm aware, the sequence was accepted as an approximation even when the Linotype keyboard was made. I imagine it varies slightly with time and according to dialect/material surveyed.
October 13, 2007
sarra commented on the word bhaji
very droll. I approve. ;)
October 13, 2007
sarra commented on the user john
I think I've mentioned this before but it's come up again: we really need to show on a word's page which lists it's seen in!
October 5, 2007
sarra commented on the word metamophoses
my keen eye is really down lately; I feel like covering my tracks ;)
October 5, 2007
sarra commented on the word zugma
sorry again! I did see the other entries, whose humour I understood — and yes, I didn't see them in your list. Zug is a new one on me (though vague memories of German words to do with travelling). Off to request a feature to make word-inclusion-in-lists more obvious!
October 5, 2007
sarra commented on the word metamophoses
no; more than one of them!
October 5, 2007
sarra commented on the word tremendous
oroboros: pft!
October 5, 2007
sarra commented on the word kneecap
Before all reading go out to poke children's knees in the name of experiment — they do; they're just not yet made of bone. “Ossification is completed about the age of puberty.”—Gray's Anatomy
October 5, 2007
sarra commented on the word etaoin shrdlu
Once etched into one's mind, makes a game of Hangman quite predictable... (though I found I'd memorised it by accident and not for that purpose!)
The full sequence on the Linotype keyboard is etaoin shrdlu cmfwyp vbgkqj xz.
October 4, 2007
sarra commented on the word zugma
it's actually zeugma, sorry!
October 4, 2007
sarra commented on the word trufax
playground-ish slang of unknown origin, now more often to be seen wild on the internet, viz.:
October 4, 2007
sarra commented on the word sarnie
We also call them sammiches :)
October 4, 2007
sarra commented on the word minger
Or no g depending on regional accent: standard is /'mɪŋə/
October 4, 2007
sarra commented on the word slough of despond
I've always taken “slough of despond” to be a humorous phrase or perhaps an intentional malapropism for some more respectable phrase I wasn't familiar with; I'm surprised to find it's from the Pilgrim's Progress!
There is (quite apart from the actual famously despondent Slough) a real Slough of Despond, near Wiarton in Ontario, Canada. This could be it.
October 4, 2007
sarra commented on the word izard
A type of ibex (a wild goat); can also be spelt isard or izzard, which has another meaning (q.v.)
Could conceivably be the answer to an infuriatingly tedious cryptic crossword clue about Christmas lizards, of course.
October 4, 2007
sarra commented on the word izzard
Not just a surname but an archaic name for the letter Z.
Also a variant of izard.
October 4, 2007
sarra commented on the word judas window
definition from doubletongued.org
In general, a peep-hole; also Judas trap, Judas hole; listed as a sense of Judas in the OED. Used, oddly, in photography: the “Judas window” here is a set-up on some older, chiefly manual cameras which (by placement of a tiny mirror) allows the photographer to see in the viewfinder a setting which is made elsewhere on the camera, such as the aperture setting on the lens barrel.
October 3, 2007
sarra commented on the list definitions-without-words
Wonderfully (by which I mean—self-referentially!), Gastwörte also describes these — German for "guest-words" (singular Gastwort). Or Fremdwort, or Lehnwort depending on exactly how they're used: this article from the Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language is enlightening, if to be believed.
calque is also brilliant: what happens when a foreign phrase is translated and used literally.
October 3, 2007
sarra commented on the list definitions-without-words
loanword?
October 3, 2007
sarra commented on the word selvage
Wikipedia: selvage denim
A variation is selvedge.
September 29, 2007
sarra commented on the list intentional-malapropisms
possibly we ought to have a second list for foreign-language phrases rendered into English — it seems almost a different concept!
July 6, 2007
sarra commented on the word murky bucket
for merci beaucoup; no. 5 in a series of collected intentional malapropisms
July 4, 2007
sarra commented on the word spaniard in the works
for spanner in the works; no. 4 in a series of collected intentional malapropisms
July 3, 2007
sarra commented on the word cast asparagus
for cast aspersions; no. 3 in a series of collected intentional malapropisms
July 3, 2007
sarra commented on the word cast nasturtiums
for cast aspersions; no. 2 in a series of collected intentional malapropisms
July 3, 2007
sarra commented on the word devil's avocado
for devil's advocate; no. 1 in a series of collected intentional malapropisms
July 3, 2007
sarra commented on the word agelast
Gr. agelastos, not laughing; ultimately from gelaein, to laugh. Coined by the French Renaissance writer Rabelais, or so the source quoted in the OED suggests.
July 2, 2007
sarra commented on the word crotchet
♩
July 2, 2007
sarra commented on the word quaver
♪
July 2, 2007
sarra commented on the list words-to-spread
the idea: useful words for concepts people tend to say "I wish there were a word for that!" about — often, there is!
June 12, 2007
sarra commented on the word clotted
“clotted prose”: wonderfully evocative!
May 3, 2007
sarra commented on the word norfolk
English Norfolk rhymes (loosely) with “poor luck”!
May 3, 2007
sarra commented on the word stand
“a stand of oaks”
April 29, 2007
sarra commented on the word coriander
in British English, coriander is the leaf, also known as cilantro, dhania and Chinese parsley.
April 20, 2007
sarra commented on the word ect.
…“Latin for ‘I'm ignorant and I don't know it’”—everything2
April 16, 2007
sarra commented on the word sebkhet
?
April 11, 2007
sarra commented on the word paternoster
a kind of circular lift. One's first words upon stepping into one of these may well be a pleasingly coincidental “Oh my God!”.
March 8, 2007
sarra commented on the word pluke
onomatopoeia for the noise it makes when it pops? ;)
March 3, 2007
sarra commented on the word copesetic
perhaps you mean copacetic?edit-happy fingers! This is a legitimate variation!March 1, 2007
sarra commented on the word achi kochi
�?��?��?��?�, 'here and there'. Japanese onomatopoeia.
February 28, 2007
sarra commented on the word hikikomori
�?��??�?�もり (I hope!)
February 28, 2007
sarra commented on the word �?��??�?�もり
hikikomori
February 28, 2007
sarra commented on the word cryptogam
not a typographical slip for cryptogram. Gr. kryptos, hidden + gamos, marriage — one whose reproduction is mysterious: a flowerless, seedless plant.
February 28, 2007
sarra commented on the word entertain
rather than its mundane meaning of "amuse", I like its subtleties: to entertain his presence, to entertain such an idea, &c. — etymologically "to hold mutually"
January 18, 2007
sarra commented on the word snarlatan
:D
January 4, 2007
sarra commented on the word obseqious
I'm afraid that would be obsequious!
December 27, 2006
sarra commented on the word set
If it helps, I read the fact somewhere when I was quite small and started looking up the length of the "set" entry in rather a lot of dictionaries afterward :)
December 13, 2006
sarra commented on the list tongue-twisters
preshrunk shirts
December 13, 2006
sarra commented on the word set
WikipediaDecember 13, 2006
sarra commented on the list word-words
Now, tell us, why is "Synonym" the only capitalised Word I've seen on the whole site? It's most jarring!
December 11, 2006
sarra commented on the list words-some-people-can-t-pronounce-no-matter-how-often-they-try
itinerary!
December 9, 2006
sarra commented on the list lizzy-s-words
It's bibulous - I've never heard the word, but knew it must be related to imbibe, &c., so that gave me search fodder!
December 9, 2006
sarra commented on the user john
It'd be grand if on the "n wordies list word" page, after each name, it was shown exactly *what* list (if any) the word is included in.
That said, I don't quite understand the point of a general word list, especially since we have a separate "favourites" list - mine's only full of words I had to add so they would exist on Wordie, and I'm sure those are rapidly becoming scarce!
December 8, 2006