An article about pearls mentions a couple words apparently not yet used in AWAD. Nacre, and nacreous. Not new to most of us, I would guess. The substance pearls are made of, and a somewhat poetic word for its appearance.

I'm familiar with nacre and nacreous. Isn't "orient" a word that has to do with pearls? Something just popped up in my head and said, "Oh, there's 'orient,' too..."

But I can't remember what it had to do with pearls other than the obvious, but I don't think the obvious is it.

WW

PS: I love pearls--to think a snarly, recalcitrant old bivalve can produce that perfect sphere blows me right out of the water.

to think a snarly, recalcitrant old bivalve can produce that perfect sphere
"Irritation" as a productive force

Nacreous are the uses of adversity.

PS: I love pearls--to think a snarly, recalcitrant old bivalve can produce that perfect sphere blows me right out of the water.

Axtually, I prefer oysters blown right out of the water - especially Bluff oysters (*sob). A little lemon and ahhhhh, the perfection! [drooling -e]

Said the Walrus to the Carpenter......

Dear wwh,

But that walrus did show some kind of reverence for those little oysters before he 'et 'em. At least he appreciated what he was about to consume. So, I've a soft spot in my heart for the walrus and the oysters, too. Love how the Disney artists put little bonnets on 'em.

And no take on "orient"? I'll have to look it up today.

Best regards,
WordWalrus

But I can't remember what it had to do with pearls other than the obvious
I'm stumped, Wordwind. What is "obvious" about the connection between the word "Orient" and a pearl? Apart from the similarity between the shape of an oyster and the shape of an oriental's eye, what oriental orientation does an oyster ornamentalize?

Dear Plutarch,

It's always good to see you here, by the way.

Orient and the obvious: There's all that pearl-diving in the Orient. I read an article from National Geographic years ago about some women who dived for pearls. They were champion breath-holders. I can't recall which island they dived from--it may have been northeastern Honshu--but it may have been a different island altogether.

But the word "orient" in connection with pearls I think was more than locale. Orient may have had to do with the luster. Not sure. It's been a long time since I read the article on pearls and pearl diving.

Best regards,
WordWalrus

Nacre, and nacreous... somewhat poetic word[s] for [their] appearance.

Yet ugly words if stripped of their denotation. Nacreous sounds like it should relate to the appearance of a festering wound.

Nacreous sounds like it should relate to the appearance of a festering wound.

it does in some ways, since the pearl (and mother of pearl) is formed by specialized cells at the edge of the oyster, and a pearl of is an attempt by the oyster to seal of an irritant. a pearl is evidence of a festering irritant!

crossing thread, the cruciverbalist on the board all knew nacre-- its a fairly common crossword word.. along with Nick and Nora's Dog, (Asta) or FDR's dog (Fala), just as we know what a wapiti is!
an elk

Dear of Troy:

What an ox-bowed river we follow so often here on AWAD! Hearing you bring in wapiti and the elk--while my mind is thinking of oysters and pearls and looking now at the lovely pearl ring my daughter found in Japan -- this lustrous, nacreous, pearly river (to be in an overdone kind of disposition today) makes me think of:

My dentist. (Pearly whites! Not really...) But: My dentist! He goes elk hunting once a year in Wyoming in some great mountains there that look like huge jagged molars of a great giant. And he took a wapiti tooth say that three times and turn around: wapiti tooth/wapiti tooth/wapiti tooth... and had it made into a ring for his wife. I don't think I'd like a wapiti tooth ring, however--sad to think of such a great beast slain, though these hunters always say they're preserving nature by doing so.

Anyway, just interesting to see how things go around and flow around from pearls to oysters to elk and back a little to wapiti rings of elks' pearly whites.

WW

>My dentist

dear dubster,
irredentist

Dear tsuwm: is an irre dentist the same as einer verrückten Zahnartzt?

Instead of the ring, he could have had a real conversation piece, a whang leather cane made.