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What do these mean in the above posts?
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Now wait a cotton-pickin' minute! et'! Did you take a gander at that black-headed gull? Good grief. It's enough that they call the Mexican gray wolf, which is not a gray wolf, a gray wolf. But to call that not-black-headed gull a black-headed gull is preposterous! It has one little bitty dot of black on its mostly white and gray head! These people who name animals are cryptologists, every single last one of 'em! Or they're color blind!
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OP
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What a lot of meanings there are to the word mantle: mantle n. 5ME mantel < OE mentel & OFr mantel, both < L mantellum, mantelum, a cloth, napkin, cloak, mantle < ? Celt6 1 a loose, sleeveless cloak or cape: sometimes used figuratively, in allusion to royal robes of state, as a symbol of authority or responsibility 2 anything that cloaks, envelops, covers, or conceals !hidden under the mantle of night" 3 a small meshwork hood made of a noncombustible substance, such as a thorium or cerium compound, which when placed over a flame, as in a lantern, gives off a brilliant incandescent light 4 the outer wall and casing of a blast furnace, above the hearth 5 MANTEL 6 Anat. old term for the cortex of the cerebrum 7 Geol. a) the layer of the earth‘s interior between the crust and the core b) MANTLEROCK 8 Zool. a) a major part of a mollusk or similar organism consisting of a sheet of epithelial tissue with muscular, neural, and glandular elements: it covers the viscera and foot under the shell of univalve or bivalve mollusks, secretes the shell, and forms the body of cephalopods b) the soft outer body wall of a tunicate or barnacle c) the plumage on the back and folded wings of certain birds when it is all the same color vt. 3tled, 3tling to cover with or as with a mantle; envelop; cloak; conceal vi. 1 to be or become covered, as a surface with scum or froth 2 to spread like a mantle, as a blush over the face 3 to blush or flush 4 Falconry to spread first one wing, then the other, over the outstretched legs: said of a perched hawk
And how few meanings to "dismantle" dismantle vt. 3tled, 3tling 5OFr desmanteller, to take off one‘s cloak: see DIS3 & MANTLE6 1 to strip of covering 2 to strip (a house, ship, etc.) of furniture, equipment, means of defense, etc. 3 to take apart; disassemble —SYN STRIP1 dis[man4tle[ment n. dis[man4tler n.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Isn't there the phrase "a dismantling expression"?
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In reply to:
4 the outer wall and casing of a blast furnace, above the hearth
Do you have mantlepieces in the Americas? And do you use them to display ornaments?
Bingley
Bingley
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sure. and many a fireplace never sees the light of a real fire anymore and has itself become ornamental.
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A hundred years ago, the mantle over the fireplace displayed various memoralilia, with unlit candlesticks and matches on each end. Abive tghe ceter a picture or portrait. Sometimes a sampler stitched by a cherished daughter. It's been a long time since I have seen a sampler. And now the refrigerator door has become the display place.
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Oh, wwh, how funny and true! What a clever observation about the movement from mantle to refrigerator door!
There is a wonderful fireplace mantle at the Dooley House at Maymont here in Richmond. There's a quite a mystery about it. Various scholars and curators have examined it, but cannot unravel what the separate frames of carved wood figures refer to. They suspect folks tales may be the source of the carvings, but they cannot pinpoint the specific tales. I hope I live long enough to see the mystery of the Dooley House mantle solved.
Edit: Why is it mantle for fireplace shelf can be spelled both ways: mantle or mantel? Is there some preference of one over the other?
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Why is nicke; also at times spelled nickle?
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Carpal Tunnel
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I do believe Us Prescriptivists would say that mantel is the only accurate spelling of the shelf above the fireplace, and nickel is the only way to spell the metal.
This of course does not prevent Many People from misspelling the words regularly, under the mistaken impression that they are correct.
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