"Things either progress or retrogress."* -- Peter Ueberroth, (re)new(ed) chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
~~~
* from memory, having heard him say something similar to this on NPR this evening.
Since the name Peter Ueberroth sounds somehow Swiss
, I looked up the word:
retrogress was already in Webster's of 1913 and got 2600 Google hits..
Retrogress, as a verb, dates back at least to 1819, per OED. The definition is a simple to move backwards, to go back. Regress (dating from 1552) is defined as to recede from; to return to a subject or into a former state and is listed as obsolete. The definition to move in a backward direction is given as chiefly Astron.
this way to the Great Egress...
Egress... not to be mixed up with
Ogress
A roundel sable...??? ok, you have me stumped for good
Things either progress or retrogress
why can't we let them continue unchanged? ok maybe they stagnate and that could be called retrogression.. or maybe we just keep making improvements to keep up with the status quo.
Heraldic term, matey. Our Faldage is well up on those ones. Look at various shields until you see a roundel in the colour sable (technical heraldic colour, can't remember if it's anything other than black...)
Yup. Big black disk. Represents a bullet.
"Represents a bullet."
That would be on Schwartzenegger's coat of arms then.
And/or Charleton Heston's
Yep. His name means, in fact, "black roundel."
Edit:Guess I should have added a smiley to this post or a wink or something.
Here ya go, jheem:
I thought his name meant "black harrow". Oh, well.
Egge means harrow. Dunno bout Egger.
In the days of my callow youth, I used to think his surname was tautological.
The en belongs at the end of the first word, not at the beginning of the second.
The
r could be silent or simply a mistake.
Well eggen means to harrow, so I think it's not a great stretch to Egger as harrower. Of course, it could also just be some kind of suffix. Heidegger? Or there could've been a town of Schwarzenegg and Arnold's ancestor were from there ...
>The en belongs at the end of the first word, not at the beginning of the second.
Uh-huh. I was only joking. Even when I made the connexion as a yoot, I never actually believed it.
town of Schwarzenegg - I think you are getting closer: "egg" is a dialectal form of "eck(e)", meaning corner, so it could refer to a corner of an area, or a pointed mountain ("black peak").
surname ... tautological If that means what I'm thinking it might, you are a bad, bad, boy.
Nor really. Neger is standard German for negro.
Neger is slightly more pejorative in German. At least these days.
What's the PC term in German these days? Surely not Afrikan-Amerikanisch.
>bad, bad boy
Well, MrsF, at least I was thoroughly punished by having what was, imo, a slightly amusing pun dissected and dessicated by apparently humourless linguists.
a slightly amusing pun dissected and dessicated by apparently humourless linguists.
Oh, dear me. Was that a jab at yours truly? I die. [sniff]
There, there, nuncle. It'd'a been funnier ifn it weren't so old.
humourless linguists. [snort] Are there any other kind?
Humourless linguist Harrumph®!
I'm never humourless. Humorless, mehbe, but humourless? Never!