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stranger
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In certain political circles, they insist on spelling this "nader", as in Ralph, with the same definition!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear statwomanma: Ralph Nader seems to have an equal number of admirers and enemies. So strongly do those who despise him feel, that it is restraint on their part to do nothing more than use a mocking reference to his name. When I first learned about him, I strongly suspected he was mentally ill. I have to say now that I must have been wrong.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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What are some other useful (or even useless) words for "lowest point"?
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old hand
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old hand
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In certain political circles, they insist on spelling this "nader", as in Ralph, with the same definition!That's precisely what I thought when I saw today's word!  Great (or is it grate) minds in the same gutter? While politically allied with Ralph, I think of Jim Hightower and Molly Ivins in Zenith terms! What surprised me is that nadir had a French connection, and did not come directly into English through Arabic. I understand the Spanish connections of Arabic words, but how French?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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From Takeourword.com Issue 89
This word comes ultimately from Arabic nador, and there are cognates in
Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian nadir "opposite to". Its earliest
meaning in English was "a point in the heavens diametrically opposite to some
other point, especially to the sun." Chaucer used it in 1391: "The nadir of
the sonne is thilke degree Şat is opposit to the degree of the sonne, in the 7
signe, as thus, euery degree of aries bi ordre is nadir to euery degree of
libra by ordre." By the 15th century the word had taken on the meaning
"The point of the heavens diametrically opposite to the zenith; the point
directly under the observer." It is not until the late 18th century that we
find the word used in its figurative sense of "the lowest point (of anything);
the place or time of greatest depression or degradation," as in this quote
from Henry Hallam's History of Literature: "The seventh century is the
nadir of the human mind in Europe.
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Oh, and that was a pit I'd hoped had bottomed-out. Mebbe 'tis better to consider zeniths and acmes...
Bottoms regurgitated,
WordsWin
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old hand
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old hand
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What are some other useful (or even useless) words for "lowest point"?
"The peak of despair"
"A mountain of debt"
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addict
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addict
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