Wordsmith.Org

Wordsmith Talk

 About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us  

You are not logged in. [Log In] Wordsmith Talk » Forums » (Old) Weekly themes. (have been consolidated into a single forum above) » Beheading words » ceraunograph
Register User       Forum List       Calendar       Active Topics       Search       FAQ
Page 1 of 2 12>
Topic Options
#84349 - 10/22/02 08:12 PM ceraunograph
wwh Offline
Carpal Tunnel


Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
ceraunograph = instrument for recording thunder and lightning

Would you believe there are half a dozen sites combining pornography
with that word?
Top
#84350 - 10/22/02 09:53 PM Re: ceraunograph
doc_comfort Offline
addict


Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 522
Loc: Australia
ceraunograph = instrument for recording thunder and lightning.
Would you believe there are half a dozen sites combining pornography with that word?

Nothing to see here. Move along please. Especially if you are the gutter police.
Depends on the shape of the instrument
Top
#84351 - 10/23/02 07:16 PM Re: ceraunograph
Wordwind Offline
Carpal Tunnel


Registered: 09/30/01
Posts: 6296
Loc: Piedmont Region of Virginia, U...
Ceraunograph...

Etymology, please.
Top
#84352 - 10/23/02 08:41 PM Re: ceraunograph
wwh Offline
Carpal Tunnel


Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
None of the definitions I could find gave any clue as to etymology. Dammit.
Top
#84353 - 10/26/02 05:49 PM Re: ceraunograph
Sparteye Offline
Pooh-Bah


Registered: 01/05/01
Posts: 1763
Hmmm. I keep finding a seemingly related word, "keraunograph", which is a figure or picture impressed by lightening, with this etymology: Gr. &?; thunderbolt + graph.
Top
#84354 - 10/26/02 06:33 PM Re: ceraunograph
Faldage Offline
Carpal Tunnel


Registered: 12/01/00
Posts: 11424
ceraunograph/keraunograph

When the Romans got a hold of a Greek word with a K (kappa) in it they generally replaced it with a C (which was always hard in the Classical days). The C became softened before an e or an i to, variously, a ch, s or ts sound, depending on the language. Keraunograph is just the more Greek spelling of ceraunograph.
Top
#84355 - 10/28/02 03:58 AM Re: ceraunograph
Wordwind Offline
Carpal Tunnel


Registered: 09/30/01
Posts: 6296
Loc: Piedmont Region of Virginia, U...
And, Sparteye, I've heard of these keraunographs, although I hadn't heard this word before. But I have heard of people standing before a glass window where a bolt of lightning has caused an image to be left there on the glass.


However, there are myths about impressions of trees left on people's skin. What is actually left on the skin of people hit by lightning is apparently a tracing of the moisture on their skin into a tree-like pattern.

I do wish someone could find the etymology of ceraunograph...
Top
#84356 - 02/13/05 07:03 PM Re: ceraunograph
amblypygid Offline
stranger


Registered: 02/13/05
Posts: 3
The word is from keraunos, Gr. for "thunderbolt" (+ graph, to draw, of course).
Top
#84357 - 02/13/05 07:19 PM Re: ceraunograph
maverick Offline
Carpal Tunnel


Registered: 09/15/00
Posts: 4683
Welcome, ambly. Sounds like there should be an etymology for that name too?!
Top
#84358 - 02/13/05 08:42 PM Re: ceraunograph
tsuwm Offline
Carpal Tunnel


Registered: 04/03/00
Posts: 8584
Loc: this too shall pass
>Would you believe there are half a dozen sites combining pornography with that word?

had I been paying more attention "below the fold" when wwh was doing this, I would have pointed out that one of the tricks that webmasters use to generate search hits is to take a word list and make all the words therein into keywords, so that any search for any of those words will generate a hit for that site.

one result of this sort of thing is hits that look like this: ...cerambycidae ceramiaceous ceramography ceratitoidea ceratocystis ceratopsidae ceratopteris ceratosaurus ceratothecal ceraunograph ceraunomancy ceraunophone...

this one happens to come from a list of 12-letter words that turns up when you search for ceraunograph. but if you go to the end of the hits generated for this word and take the link, you may indeed be surprised, and you can search in vain for your word -- because it's embedded in the HTML.

nefarious, eh? but, you never see this with most words because the search algorithms end up sticking those sites at the end of the "hit list". : )

many an obscure word ends up obviousizing this tecnique; i.e., I've seen it a lot researching potential wwftds!
_________________________
joe friday

Top
Page 1 of 2 12>


Hop to:
Forum Stats
6475 Members
16 Forums
12023 Topics
176762 Posts

Max Online: 853 @ 10/23/07 11:39 AM
Who's Online
0 registered and 139 anonymous users online.
details
Newest Members
Beth, Eileen, dnsm4, celtic, Reva
6475 Registered Users
Top Posters
13858
wwh
11424
Faldage
9601
Jackie
8584
tsuwm
6380
AnnaStrophic
6296
Wordwind
6045
etaoin
5365
of troy
4683
maverick
4186
WhitmanO'Neill
May
Su M Tu W Th F Sa
1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31
My Cookies · Mark all read Powered by UBB.threads™ Contact Us · Wordsmith Talk · Top

Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site. Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.

Home | Today's Word | Yesterday's Word | Subscribe | FAQ | Archives | Search | Feedback
Wordsmith Talk | Wordsmith Chat

© 2008 Wordsmith.org