I register here today. I come here for learn more about English words and find many good knowledge. I read also of some other websites with helping for learn about English. One website I read of here is called Where Can I Look It Up? When I make click on link, I see lots of pages about English, but I also see word I do not know. The page says proud pieriansipist and my dictionary do not have this word. I try email person who makes page but I get long error message from gmail that says adress is wrong. So I ask here, what is pieriansipist? Thank you.

The Pierian Spring was sacred to the Muses in Greek myth. To drink from the Pierian Spring was to be inspired by the Muses. Perhaps the sip in pieriansipist is a small drink, a sip. That would make a pieriansipist someone who has sipped from the Pierian Spring and therefore slightly inspired by the Muses. Maybe.

this seems to be a pretty good guess, esp. considering the source of the word.

but I can't help but wonder, mutatis mutandis, if there was an ulterior motive behind the OP?

-joe (res ipsa loquitur) friday

I think I have read a poem about drinking from the Pirian spring? Perhaps the webmaster is referring to that?

Thank you faldage. What is mutatis mutandis and OP?

>What is mutatis mutandis and OP?

mutatis mutandis is Latin for, roughly, 'the necessary changes having been made'. I put this because the OP was, if you'll pardon my bluntness, very tortured English.

OP, you may have guessed by now, means Original Post.

p.s. - welcome, raul

tortured English? My English is hurt, or my English makes hurt? I use google translator for words I do not understand good. I know I need practise so I can get improved in my English. Maybe you can give me more web pages like here that will help me get better.

Don't feel bad about not knowing the meaning of that word. It is possibly coined by the user, and even though we linguaphiles can work out what it means (see Faldage's post), 99% of native English speakers also would have no idea.

making [only] the necessary changes:

I register here today. I come here to learn more about English words and I find much good information. I read also of some other websites which can help me to learn about English. One such website is called "Where Can I Look It Up?". When I click on the link, I see lots of pages about English, but I also see a word I do not know. The page says "proud pieriansipist" but my dictionary does not have this word. I try to email the person who made this page but I get a long error message from gmail that says the address is wrong. So I ask here, what is pieriansipist? Thank you. [personally, I would recast everything in past tense.]

raul, this site isn't the best place to learn English syntax and grammar. when we discuss that sort of thing here, the discussions tend to concern the finer points, or even esoterica (hi jim!). but there are always folks about who will help out with a particular bit of writing.

Hi Raul
It is true we can get caught up in the details but it is also a good place to check the meaning of phrases etc. that dictionaries don't cover. I know that when I read in French sometimes translating the words with a dictionary leaves me more confused than I started.

I found that poem Raul. It was by someone called Alexander Pope

"A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
For shallow draughts intoxicate the brain
And drinking largely sobers us again."

I dont know if that's got a link with that made up word you found or not though.

I had forgotten the poem. He olvidado el poema. Me parece que "sip from the Pierian Spring" significa "have a little learning." Un poco de sabiduría es(tá) una cosa peligrosa. A dangerous thing.

Pook is probably right, this is best I can do:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=pierian&btnG=Google+Search

"he olvidado" is "I have forgotten"; "habia olvidado" is what you want.


Here you want "es" as you are speaking about the characteristic of something. The verb "ser" (from which it comes), is used for personality and physical characteristics, as well as other things.

I poked around a bit, and stumbled onto this link: http://www.pierians.org I have no idea if there is any connection, but quite possibly there could be.

perhaps a note of explantion (for the newbies) is in order:

Where Can I Look It Up? is the fine work of our own sjmaxq, who also posted here in the early days as Max Quordepleen. sadly, Max (an anonym) no longer posts here, as he has drastically reduced his online presence*. one thing we noted about Max over the years was his propensity to self-denigration, which somewhat explains my reply to Faldage, above.

*this might also explain the email problem(?)

I think Latishya has the key:

"A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
For shallow draughts intoxicate the brain
And drinking largely sobers us again."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierian_Spring

It could mean someone with a strong interest in the arts or it could have a derogatory implication, perhaps referring to a dabbler or someone with very superficial understanding.

The phrase was first used in the Satiricon written by Petronius (Titus Petronius Arbiter)

"This is the right armour of genius-
"Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring."
Only then pour out your heart."

In 1969 Frederico Fellini made a film, Fellini Satiricon , that was loosely based upon the book. The film is deliberately fragmented and surreal though the androgynous Giton (Max Born) gives the graphic picture of Petronius’ character.

Gracias, dosadormecidos.

When A. learned, it was "se me olvidó", as "it forgot me" or "it was forgotten to me". Regional variations?

A. is correct! It is really weird construction compared to English. I think Faldage's construction is acceptable, if not common. Not being a native speaker, I can't say how it really falls on native ears, but I'd use it if I felt it was the best choice. Maybe I'd get laughed at, who knows? :0)

the film is deliberately fragmented and surreal

Which is quite true to the novel itself, large pieces of it having gone missing.

First glance: ?????? Then I took it apart and started chuckling... Gracias privilegiodedestribuirmierda... he he he he ;0)

LLOL!!!

Aha.
Off topic, great movies, the Fellini ones.

mutatis mutandis was one of William F. Buckley Jr.'s favorite locutions. I always figgered it meant "all things being equal."

"all things being equal."

That would be ceteris paribus (link). OTOH, mutatis mutandis (i.e., the inverse meaningwise "with the necessary changes", link) is a whole 'nother thing. The two words are different forms of the Latin verb muto (whence also English mutant) 'to modify, change'.

heh! something seems to have prodded ol' max into action.

-joe (a nudge 's good as a wink) friday

something seems to have prodded ol' max into action

And he's using it as his avatar on another word board that persiflage and protocol prohibit me from mentioning.

Upon reading the discussion of the Pierian Spring, Piers Plowman popped into mind. Now that I've looked it up, I realize that it's one of those important literary works that I might have been able to identify on a test but didn't read. It actually sounds interesting. All right, time warp time!

Perian + sip + -ist]
a dabbler in learning: one who learns a little about
many subjects, or 'sips' from the Pierian spring (a
source of knowledge and inspiration, from the Muses)

"A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
For shallow draughts intoxicate the brain
And drinking largely sobers us again"
- Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism

For a detailed discussion see:
http://www.wpuniverse.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26928&perpage=10&pagenumber=1

So much for persifaldge and protocol.

It reminds me of a similar sentiment expressed by the father of modern Western Science, Sir Francis Bacon:

"A little philosophy inclineth a man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds to religion."

I wonder if he was also influenced by the Pierian Springs concept. (Though obviously not by the poem which was several centuries later).

this post, or actually the signature line thereof, gave me a big .

-joe (it's a long and sordid story) friday

And Nuncle has a ž in his handle.

What language does ž come from and how do you say it?

It is indeed very droll. And I notice he mentions "our" Kate Burridge, whose linguistic performances I like to watch on our Public Broadcaster's TV show Can We Help.

Why do y'all keep calling him Nuncle? Was that a previous handle of his?

Why do y'all keep calling him Nuncle?

During the time I first came to this board, I kept a blog called Uncle Jazzbeau's Gallimaufrey (link) which has since gone dormant. My userid at that time was jheem, and my nickname became Nuncle.

What language does ž come from and how do you say it?

The letter ž shows up in the Czech and Slovak languages. It is pronounced like the z in azure and the g in garage (in some varieties of English); it is the voiced counterpart of the sh in ship. In Czech, the little fillip on top of the z is called a háček, or little hook, (link). Another name for it is caron. My first name, James, is pronounced /džejmz/ which backwards is zmježd.

[Fixed typo.]

it's spreading like wildfire

-joe (pieriansipist, that is) friday

I pronounce it more like the z in azure. (^_^)

You could also transliterate it as zh as in Marshal Zhukov if you can't be bothered finding the keystrokes to produce ž.


That answers my next question, but I have another.

Are you a professor of linguistics?

Zhukov

The letter in Zhukov's name is one of my favorite in the Cyrillic alpahbet: Ж.

if you can't be bothered finding the keystrokes to produce ž

A single keystroke (6, you press Shift-6 for the digit) if you have a Slovak keyboard installed.

Are you a professor of linguistics?

No. I used to be an adjunct professor of computer science for a while back before the Internet economic bubble burst. My degree in linguistics is an AB, but I have continued reading and studying the field since leaving the old alma mater. I work as a technical writer and programmer in the computer industry.

Your favourite being?


Heh, heh. And if, like 99.999...% of the world, you don't?

I got it by copy and pasting out of the character map.

Your favourite being?

It's a toss-up between щ /ʃtʃ/ and ы /ɨ/. The former occurs in most Slavic languages, but also in Genoese Italian, e.g., scciêppâ /ʃtʃø'pa/ 'to explode' and the latter is not to be confused with /ɯ/ (the dot-less Turkish ı).

99.999...%

An ex-colleague of mine is a Slovak, and his wife was trying to teach me a little Slovak. The Ethnologue database puts Slovak speakers at just over 5 million. Out of a total of 6 billion people that would be 6000 to 5 that would be less than 8/100th of a percent. Unless I've most likely got my math wrong.

I got it by copy and pasting out of the character map.

That works, too.

So I was pretty close then

You have to take into account that not every Slovak has a computer and not every Slovak with a computer has a Slovak keyboard installed...

not every Slovak has a computer and not every Slovak with a computer has a Slovak keyboard installed

Yes, as well as some non-Slovaks have a Slovak keyboard installed. There's at least one I know in one of your categories and one in mine.