This was a spelling bee in Baltimore, MD. I got some more words from it. I was also impressed
that the kids were asked for definitions. I think it was very rough. Take a look and see what
you think:
http://www.citypaper.com/2002-06-12/feature.htmlRemember this when you hear oldtimers saying today's kids know less than we used to.
One of the kids flunked on seguidilla. I knew it only because in the thirties some public spirited
adults underwrote issue of some classical albums at very low prices. One of the sets I bought
was Bizet's Carmen. I still remember Carmen singing she was going to drink manzanilla and dance
the seguidilla.
seguidilla
n.
5Sp < seguida, a following < seguir, to follow < VL sequere: see prec.6
1 a fast Spanish dance, to the accompaniment of castanets
2 the music for this dance, in 3/4 time
3 a stanza of four to seven short lines, partly assonant, with a distinctive rhythm, orig. sung to this music
that was fun, Bill. thanks!
Wordwind had a thread soon after she joined us, for which I still rejoice, about names of winds.
This is one we missed:
buran
n.
5Russ < Turk6 a strong NE windstorm of the steppes of Russia and Siberia, bringing blizzards in the winter and hot dust in the summer
New to me. I flunk again. Do you?
euhemerism n.
5< L Euhemerus (< Gr Euhcmeros) + 3ISM6 the theory of the Greek writer Euhemerus (4th cent. B.C.) that the gods of mythology were deified human beings; theory that myths are based on traditional accounts of real people and events
euhe$mer[ist
n., adj.
eu[he#mer[is4tic
adj.
burgonet
n.
5Fr bourguignotte, orig., fem. of Bourguignot, Burgundian, after Bourgogne, Burgundy6 a lightweight helmet or steel cap, worn in the 16th cent.
Dear Kay Carlson, wherever you are.........She shocked all the old biddies by wearing one.
cheongsam
n.
5Chin6 a high-necked, closefitting dress with the skirt slit part way up the sides, traditionally worn by Chinese women
I remember this from Dicken's Tale of Two Cities, the French babes sitting knitting,
singing it as more aristocrats were brought to be guillotined.
carmagnole
n.
5Fr, altered (after Carmagnola, town in Piedmont, occupied by revolutionaries in 1792) < older carmignole, kind of cap (dial. carmignola, jacket); prob. ult. < L carminare, to card wool < carmen, a card < carrere: see CARD26
1 the short jacket with wide lapels, or the costume consisting of this jacket, black trousers, a red cap, and tricolored girdle, worn by French Revolutionaries (1792)
2 a lively song and street dance popular during the French Revolution
I mentioned this a while back. In bee hives, the bees block off any space wider than what
they need, or cracks in hive that leak either air or water, with mixture of pine or other
resins. It also keeps some large moth predators from being able to hide. But at times
it is a nuisance to beekeeper when he tries to remove frames to harvest honey. It sticks
the frames to the hive wall or to the cover, and when keeper breaks it loose, the bees
get angry and sting.
Mutual destruction, as anticpated if there were a nuclear war.
0 - il Folletto: Il tipico folletto č stravagante e spensierato, fa spesso scherzi o azioni incomprensibili ed č
completamente distaccato dalle preoccupazioni materiali.
significato: stranezza, infantilismo, spensieratezza, vacanza, distacco dalle preoccupazioni materiali, follia
I can only guess at Italian, but il folletto seems to be prone to folly.
And here's what I got (nothing) from Merriam-Webster:
The word you've entered isn't in the dictionary. Click on a spelling
suggestion below or try again using the Dictionary search box to the right.
Suggestions for folletto:
1. Flotow
2. folates
3. feuilleton
4. folate
5. foulest
6. fullest
7. -fullest
8. Feuillet
9. flota
10. flutey
dysphemism is an expression with connotations that are offensive
How this word got stretched to Cole Porter tune is a very long story.
Beguines and Beghards, members of certain Roman Catholic religious communities for women (Beguines) and men (Beghards) prominent in northwestern Europe from the 12th to the 14th century. They differed from monks and nuns in that most did not take permanent vows, promising only to do good works and not to marry as long as they lived in the community.
"Beguines and Beghards," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Referring to a mythological king Ogyges of Attica or Boethia, in whose reign a great flood occurred.
A biological taxonomic term for marine fishes,e.g. spiny eels.
satori
n.
5Jpn, nominal form of satoru, to understand the truth of6 spiritual enlightenment or illumination: term used esp. in Zen Buddhism
Like porridge. Also used in medical descriptions of various yucky semisolids.
he American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
peripteral
SYLLABICATION:
pe·rip·ter·al
PRONUNCIATION:
p-rptr-l
ADJECTIVE:
Architecture Having a single row of columns on all sides.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin peripteros, from Greek : peri-, peri- + pteron, wing; see pet- in
Appendix I.
FLYING SPICATTO = like regular spiccatto in that the bow bounces, but instead of remaining
stationary-the bow is drawn along the strings as it is bounced producing a virtuoso effect. S McLeod
apolaustic. a. caring only for pleasure.
Ahem:
My daughter got the flying spiccato right away like a natural when she first tried it as a tenth grader with Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra. I'll never forget watching the rehearsal, and hearing the conductor congratulate her on her technique. It's just some coordination that she happened to have, but, still, I felt awfully happy for her.
I can't remember the work... Might have been Wagner. I'll ask her when she gets home for T'giving break tonight.
An interval of two octaves, or a fifteenth; — called also bisdiapason.
That's a new one for me! I think I'll drop it on our music itinerant tomorrow to see whether she's ever heard of it.
Wonder whether Musick's heard of this one?
I have heard of diapason, especially as it relates to organ pipes, but never bisdiapason.
our music itinerant
that is so sad... every school(and all children) deserve a full time music teacher with their own room. one of the true disgraces of American public school funding.
Oh, I didn't explain the itinerant part well.
You see, our school is the largest in Chesterfield County. I am the resident music teacher, but I can only give a weekly music lesson to about 700 of our 1,100 students. We have a music itinerant with whom I work, and she picks up the classes for the other 400 students.
Chesterfield guarantees that elementary school-aged children will have a formal music lesson once a week.
You must realize that this is not enough. To have a well-grounded Kodaly program, for instance, the children would need music at last twice a week.
But I'm happy to meet with them weekly and try to make best use of the time by dividing the lesson this way:
Orchestral listening...8 to 10 minutes
Applied music theory through singing...15 minutes
Dance related to musical concepts...about 15 minutes
Reading exercises...5 to 10 minutes
(In 4th and 5th grades, we study recorder for approximately half the year instead of singing.)
I'd say our music offerings (elementary level) are probably about average for the nation. Since I do not have the luxury of reinforced lessons that classroom teachers have in that my lessons are a week apart, I salivate over the thought that somewhere in the US I could have met the same group of students twice a week.
you sound like a wonderful teacher. your students are lucky to have you!
it is a real shame that there is not enough staff to meet the students twice a week; music and the skills learned(not all musical!) are so critical to the child and the world.
someday we'll learn...
The marvel is that the whole curriculum has been increased so much. I personally
hope the time lost to study of geography has been made up by an increase in
quantity and quality of teaching I got in music.
This is just my opinion, but:
I think geography needs to be taught rigorously in at least 4th - 6th grades as a separate subject. The way things go here, geography is included in social studies, which is fine and good. The kids get to study the interplay between geographical points of fact and the movement of cultures. Lots of connections.
But I also think geography needs to be taught as a separate discipline, in-depth according to grade level, at least by 4th grade. When I was in elementary school--about 1955 through 1961 (1st - 6th grade)--we did study geography as a separate discipline in the upper elementary grade levels. It was one of my favorite subjects. And we also studied geography as part of social studies, but that experience simply wasn't as in-depth. By having a separate geography book, studying specific geographical areas, learning about political divisions of those areas as well as natural divisions (topography), natural products, climate, names of rivers and lakes and other bodies of water, an so on, I think we came to a better, elementary understanding of what geography encompasses. And it's another subject offering that will allow more children to do well. I always enjoyed studying geography more than history. Still do. I don't mind reading about history through geography, but most history books have put me to sleep in short order.
Ikebana, the ancient art of Japanese flower arrangement, addresses a special relationship with
nature. It is an art that depends on the most exacting visual and spiritual discipline. It is an art
learned through years of study. Through ikebana we perceive and examine our relationship to
nature and art. Ikebana is both boundary and bridge.
Maybe a bit late for this, Dr. Bill, but I can translate the Italian bit:
a "folletto": a typical "folletto" is extravagant and thoughtless, often plays jokes or makes incomprehensible motions and is completely detached from material worries.
I think it sounds like a psychological term.
My brother's best friend's parents are Japanese. The mother is now blind, but she still continues arranging flowers, as she has done all her life. She claims she can "feel" the colours. It seems weird and amazing to me.
A word only a dedicated entomologist would know:
Campodeiform. Head prognathous. Body somewhat slender and dorsoventrally flatenned. Three pair of well developed thoracic
legs. Usually with cerci and with antennae well developed. Present in some families of Coleoptera, Neuroptera, and Trichoptera.
Active predators.
A martial arts weapon, loosely classed as form of blackjack. Two strong foot long wood pieces
connected by a short chain.
'Entrecote' means 'between the ribs' and
refers to a steak cut from the rib section of beef, specifically between the ninth and eleventh ribs. ...
Just for you, AS:
Brazilian Barbecue - Churrasco. ... The only seasoning was coarse salt and each gaúcho had
his own churrasco knife which he used to cut pieces of meat from the spit. ...
http://www.maria-brazil.org/barbecue.htm
I think geography needs to be taught rigorously in at least 4th - 6th grades as a separate subject.
Geography was taught as a separate subject in my fourth-sixth grades (1950-52), but by then it was too late. My knowledge of names and places had come from doing jigsaw puzzles - United States (half-inch plywood), The World (quarter-inch plywood), Dominion of Canada (pressed cardboard). As a result I can't tell which one is Colorado and which is Wyoming when I look at a map: same size, same shape. But I know all the other ones. Now I'm not nearly as adept - a lot of the names have been changed, and faster than new puzzles can come out! I certainly couldn't find any good ones for my own kids, more's the pity.
An excellent free reference for matters geographical is The CIA's World Factbook. You can use it online or download it. A Very nifty little (or not so little -130MB) tool.
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
My husband has a set of "beginner nunchucks". Instead of wooden ends, they are PVC pipes covered in foam. I guess they hurt a lot less when you miss and whack yourself in the head!