Wordsmith.org
Posted By: wwh Surprise II - 06/26/02 08:50 PM
Cathay' China, or rather Tartary, the capital of which was Albracca, according to Orlando Furioso. It was called Khita'i by
the Tartars, and China was first entered by Europeans in the Middle Ages from the side of Tartary.

Posted By: belMarduk Re: Surprise II - 06/26/02 08:59 PM
Now Bill, I know this may have nothing to do with the subject at hand but...did the Tartars have anything to do with the raw meat meal being call Tartar?

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/26/02 09:05 PM
Dear belMarduk: I honestly don't know about use of tartar in cream of tartar, or sauces.
I'll look that up separately. Thanks for the suggestion.

Caucus A meeting of citizens in America to agree upon what members they intend to support, and to
concert measures for carrying out their political wishes. The word arose from the caulkers of Boston, who
had a dispute with the British soldiers a little before the Revolution. Several citizens were killed, and
meetings were held at the caulkers' house or calk-house, to concert measures for redress of grievances.

Every year, fairly early in the fall, crows congregate in very large numbers, and make a hell of a racket,
just before the go south. My father used to call that "crow caucus".

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/26/02 09:25 PM
Ceremony When the Romans fled before Brennus, one Albinus, who was carrying his wife and children
in a cart to a place of safety, overtook at Janiculum the Vestal virgins bending under their load, took them
up and conveyed them to Cærë, in Etruria. Here they remained, and continued to perform their sacred
rites, which were consequently called “Cære-monia.” (Livy, v.)
Scaliger says the word comes from cerus=sanctus. Cerus manus= Creator; and Cerco (according to
Varro) is by metathesis for creo. Ceres, according to Scaliger, is also from creo. By this etymology,
“Ceremony” means sacred rites, or solemn acts in honour of the Creator. The great objection to this
etymology is that Cicero, Tacitus, and other classic authors spell the word Cære-monia and not
Cere-monia.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/26/02 10:07 PM
Champerty (Latin, campi partitio, division of the land) is a bargain with some person who undertakes
at his own cost to recover property on condition of receiving a share thereof if he succeeds.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/26/02 10:12 PM
Chancery The part of the Court occupied by the lawyers.
To get a man's head into chancery is to get it under your arm, where you can pummel it as long as you
like, and he cannot get it free without great difficulty. The allusion is to the long and exhausting nature of
a Chancery suit. If a man once gets his head there, the lawyers punish him to their heart's content

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/26/02 10:19 PM
Chapel is the chest containing relics, or the shrine thereof (Latin, capella; French, chape, a cope). The
kings of France in war carried St. Martin's cope into the field, and kept it in a tent as a talisman. The
place in which the cope was kept was called the chapelle, and the keeper thereof the chapelain.

Posted By: of troy Re: Surprise II - 06/26/02 11:00 PM
Steak Tartar was the invention of a restaurantuer, in some big city, could have been NY or chicago, or even Kansas city. (YCLIU)

correctly done, the meat is scraped and you end up with fine red flesh, and left behind, all the connective tissue of the muscle.

Not many places serve it nowdays, and when they do, it is often finely chopped meat. (using the same kind of chopper as ground meat.. that is a very different texture). chopping the meat in a food processor gives it better texture.

Like Pasta Alfredo, and many other dishes, it is a purely modern food item.

Posted By: Keiva Re: Surprise II - 06/26/02 11:12 PM
Steak Tartar was the invention of a restaurantuer, in some big city, could have been NY or chicago, or even Kansas city. (YCLIU)

I got something different upon Look It Up -- but nonetheless would not bet against the story cited above:

The earliest ancestor of the burger can be found in, of all places, medieval Russia. In the 13th century, when nomadic Tartars conquered much of Russia and Eastern Europe, they introduced the region to one of the fastest of foods — chopped raw beef. Inhabitants of the Baltic region developed a taste for the raw meat and began to season it with salt, pepper and onion juice. Thus was born steak tartare. (emphasis added)

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/27/02 12:02 AM
Keiva: you are not welcome to post in AWADtalk.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/27/02 12:20 AM
Charing Cross Not from chère reine, in honour of Eleanor, the dear wife of Edward I., but la chère
reine (the Blessed Virgin). Hence, in the Close Roll, Richard II, part I (1382), we read that the custody of
the falcons at Charryng, near Westminster, was granted to Simon Burley, who was to receive 12d. a day
from the Wardrobe.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/27/02 12:43 AM
Cheese Something choice (Anglo-Saxon, ceos-an, to choose; German, kiesen; French, choisir). Chaucer
says, “To cheese whether she wold him marry or no.”

Posted By: inselpeter Re: Surprise II - 06/27/02 02:03 AM
A man may be an ass in whole
by nought but term of art
But be he but a fraction ass
whole, it's his most prominent part


Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/27/02 03:34 PM
Chic Fashionable; comme il faut; the mode. This is an archaic French word in vogue in the seventeenth
century. It really is the Spanish chico, little, also a little boy, and chica, a little girl or darling. Similarly,
wee in Scotch is a loving term of admiration and pride. (Chic is an abbreviation of the German geschickt,
apt, clever.)

I haven't heard the word "chic" lately. It used to irritate me to hear it pronounced "chick".

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/27/02 03:43 PM
Child at one time, meant a female infant, and was the correlative of boy.

“Mercy on `s! A barne, a very pretty barne. A boy or a child, I wonder?”- Shakespeare:
Winter's Tale, iii. 3.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/27/02 03:50 PM
Chiliasts [kiliasts]. Another word for Millenarians; those who believe that Christ will return to this earth
and reign a thousand years in the midst of His saints. (Greek, chilias, a thousand.)

Where have all the silly-assed chiliasts gone?

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/27/02 04:06 PM
Chios (Kios). The man of Chios. Homer, who lived at Chios, near the Ægean Sea. Seven cities claim to
be his place of birth-

“Smyrna, Rhodos, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, Athe'næ.”- Varro.

I know the word "colophon" meaning the publishers identifying emblem on title page of boods, I
did not know it was name of an island. I wonder how the emblem meaning arose.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 04:44 PM
Cue (1 syl.). The tail of a sentence (French, queue), the catch-word which indicates when another actor
is to speak; a hint; the state of a person's temper, as “So-and-so is in a good cue (or) bad cue.”

I think this etymology makes more sense than the one given in my dictionary.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 04:53 PM
Culverin properly means a serpent (Latin, colubrinus, the coluber), but is applied to a long, slender piece
of artillery employed in the sixteenth century to carry balls to a great distance. Queen Elizabeth's “Pocket
Pistol” in Dover Castle is a culverin.

I had a Tory ancestor who made them, but sold them to the British, and had to flee to Halifax and thence to England. When I was a boy, "Go to Halifax!" was a permissible euphemism for "go to Hell".


Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 05:03 PM
Cur A fawning, mean-spirited fellow, a crop-tailed dog (Latin, curtus, crop-tailed. French, court; our
curt). According to forest laws, a man who had no right to the privilege of the chase was obliged to cut
off the tail of his dog. Hence, a degenerate dog or man is called a cur.

I have also read that nobles had peasants' dogs' toenails cut off so that they could not chase deer.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 05:08 PM
Cur A fawning, mean-spirited fellow, a crop-tailed dog (Latin, curtus, crop-tailed. French, court; our
curt). According to forest laws, a man who had no right to the privilege of the chase was obliged to cut
off the tail of his dog. Hence, a degenerate dog or man is called a cur.

My dictionary gives no etymology for "curmudgeon" . The one above makes sense to me.
I have seen the word "curtal" applied to peasants' dogs that had been mutilated.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 05:35 PM
Cynosure (3 syl.). The polar star; the observed of all observers. Greek for dog's tail, and applied to the
constellation called Ursa Minor. As seamen guide their ships by the north star, and observe it well, the
word "cynosure" is used for whatever attracts attention, as "The cynosure of neighbouring eyes" (Milton)

I learned "cynosure" in highschool, but never saw the etymology before.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 07:15 PM
Dagger or Long Cross (†), used for reference to a note after the asterisk (*), is a Roman Catholic
character, originally employed in church books, prayers of exorcism, at benedictions, and so on, to remind
the priest where to make the sign of the cross.

An early example of "markup language".

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 07:20 PM
Dairy A corrupt form of "dey-ery," Middle English deierie and deyyerye, from deye, a dairymaid.

"The dey or farm-woman entered with her pitchers, to deliver the milk for the family." - Scott:
Fair Maid of Perth, chap. xxxii.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 07:24 PM
Daisy Ophelia gives the queen a daisy to signify "that her light and fickle love ought not to expect
constancy in her husband." So the daisy is explained by Greene to mean a Quip for an upstart courtier.
(Anglo-Saxon dages eage, day's eye.)
The word is Day's eye, and the flower is so called because it closes its pinky lashes and goes to sleep
when the sun sets, but in the morning it expands its petals to the light. (See Violet.)

"That well by reason men calle it maie.
The daisie, or else the eie of the daie."
Chaucer

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 08:32 PM

Daughter Greek, thugater, contracted into thugter; Dutch, dogter; German, tochter; Persian, dochtar;
Sanskrit, duhiter; Saxon, dohter; etc.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 08:35 PM
Dauphin The heir of the French crown under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties. Guy VIII., Count of
Vienne, was the first so styled, because he wore a dolphin as his cognisance. The title descended in the
family till 1349, when Humbert II., de la tour de Pisa, sold his seigneurie, called the Dauphiné, to King
Philippe VI. (de Valois), on condition that the heir of France assumed the title of le dauphin.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 09:46 PM
Delaware U.S. America, was granted by charter in 1701 to Lord De la Ware, who first explored the bay
into which the river empties itself.

I didn't know that.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 09:51 PM
Delirium From the Latin lira (the ridge left by the plough), hence the verb de-lirare, to make an irregular
ridge or balk in ploughing. Delirus is one whose mind is not properly tilled or cultivated, a person of
irregular intellect; and delirium is the state of a person whose mental faculties are like a field full of balks
or irregularities. (

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 09:53 PM
Delphi or Delphos. A town of Phocis, famous for a temple of Apollo and for an oracle celebrated in
every age and country. So called from its twin peaks, which the Greeks called brothers (adelphoi).


Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 09:56 PM
Demerit has reversed its original meaning (Latin, demereo, to merit, to deserve). Hence Plautus,
Demertas dare laudas (to accord due praise); Ovid, Numina culta demeruisse; Livy, dernerèri beneficio
civitatem. The de - is intensive, as in "de-mand," "de-scribe," "de-claim," etc.; not the privative deorsum,
as in the word "de-fame."

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 09:58 PM
Demijohn (A). A glass vessel with a large body and small neck, enclosed in wickerwork like a Florence
flask, and containing more than a bottle. (French, dame-jeanne, "Madam Jane," a corruption of
Damaghan, a town in Persia famous for its glass works.)

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 10:03 PM
Demurrage An allowance made to the master or owners of a ship by the freighters for detaining her in
port longer than the time agreed upon. (Latin, demorari, to delay.)

Posted By: of troy Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 11:17 PM
now days, demijohn is commonly used to describe the 5 gallon water jugs commonly used by office water coolers. the new one are plastic, but home vinters used to steal the glass ones on a regular basis, for fermenting wine...

the plasic ones are great for making bottle rockets.. the large interior volume can hold alot of fuel in the form of evaported alcohol, and the narrow neck hold a wick..

done right, they will shoot across the floor a rather high speed, with long blue flames trailing.. they make a most satisfactory whosh! as they take off.. now just how is it that i know this... i can't imagine.. i must have had a first hand encounter sometime..

Posted By: Bean Re: Surprise II - 06/28/02 11:21 PM
Demijohn

In Italian, the same is called a damigiana (dah-mee-jahn-ah). Cool, hey? I never knew the English word until today. Thanks!

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 03:15 PM
Devonshire according to English mythology, is a corruption of Debon's-share. This Debon was one of the heroes who came with
Brute from Troy. One of the giants that he slew in the south coasts of England was Coulin, whom he chased to a vast pit eight
leagues across. The monster trying to leap this pit, fell backwards, and lost his life in the chasm. When Brutus allotted out the
island, this portion became Debon's-share.

"And eke that ample pit, yet far renowned
For the large leap which Debon did compell
Coulin to make, being eight lugs of grownd,
Into the which retourning back he fell ...
In mede of these great conquests by them got
Corineus had that province utmost west ...
And Debon's share was that is Devonshire
Spenser: Faërie Queene, book ii. canto x. 11, 12.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 03:20 PM
Diadem meant, originally, a fillet wound round the head. The diadem of Bacchus was a broad band, which might be unfolded so as to make a veil. Hieronymus, king of Syracuse (B.C. 216-215), wore a diadem. Constantine the Great (306-337) was the first of the Roman emperors who wore a diadem. After his time it was set with rows of pearls and precious stones. (Greek dia-deo, to bind entirely.)

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 04:10 PM
Diploma literally means something folded (Greek). Diplomas used to be written on parchment, folded,
and sealed. The word is applied to licences given to graduates to assume a degree, to clergymen, to
physicians, agents, and so on.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 04:11 PM
Diplomacy The tact, negotiations, privileges, etc. of a diplomatist, or one who carries a diploma to a
foreign court to authorise him to represent the Government which sends him out.


Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 04:15 PM
Disaster is being under an evil star (Greek, dus-aster, evil star). An astrological word.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 04:18 PM
Discipline (A). A scourge used by Roman Catholics for penitential purposes.

"Before the cross and altar a lamp was still burning, and on the floor lay a small discipline or
penitential scourge of small cord and wire, the lashes of which were stained with recent blood."
- Sir W Scott: The Talisman. chap. iv

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 04:20 PM
Discord means severance of hearts (Latin, discorda). It is the opposite of concord, the coming together
of hearts. In music it means disagreement of sounds, as when a note is followed by another which is
disagreeable to a musical ear. (See Apple.)


Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 04:23 PM
Dispute (2 syl.) means, literally, to "lop down" (Latin, dis-puto); debate means to "knock down" (French,
débattre); discuss means to "shake down" (Latin, dis-quatio); object' is to "cast against" (Latin,
ob-jacio); contend is to "pull against" (Latin, contendo); quarrel is to throw darts at each other (Welsh,
cwarel, a dart); and wrangle is to strain by twisting (Swedish, vränga; Anglo-Saxon, wringan).


Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 04:25 PM
Distemper means an undue mixture. In medicine a distemper arises from the redundancy of certain
secretions or morbid humours. The distemper in dogs is an undue quantity of secretions manifested by a
running from the eyes and nose. (Latin, dis-tempero, to mix amiss.)
Applied to painting, the word is from another source, the French détremper (to soak in water), because
the paints, instead of being mixed with oil, are mixed with a vehicle (as yolk of eggs or glue) soluble in
water.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 04:33 PM
Divine Pagan (The). Hypatia, who presided over the Neoplatonic School at Alexandria. She was
infamously torn to pieces (A.D. 415) by a Christian mob, not without the concurrence of the Archbishop
Cyril.

One of the few female scientists of antiquity.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 08:04 PM
Doff is do-off, as "Doff your hat." So don is do-ou, as "Don your clothes." Dup is do-up, as "Dup the
door" (q.v.).

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 08:27 PM
Dorset Once the seat of a British tribe, calling themselves Dwr-trigs (water-dwellers). The Romans
colonised the settlement, and Latinised Dwr-trigs into Duro-triges. Lastly came the Saxons, and
translated the original words into their own tongue, dor-sætta (water-dwellers).


Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 08:30 PM
Doss A hassock stuffed with straw; a bed - properly, a straw bed; whence the cant word for a
lodging-house is a dossingken. Dossel is an old word for a bundle of hay or straw, and dosser for a straw
basket. These words were common in Elizabeth's reign. The French dossier means a "bundle."

Doss-house (A). A cheap lodging-house where the poorer classes sleep on bundles of straw. (See above.)
In the New Review (Aug., 1894) there is an article entitled "In a Woman's Doss-house," which throws
much light on the condition of the poor in London.


Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 08:57 PM
Dovetail Metaphorically, to fit on or fit in nicely; to correspond. It is a word in carpentry, and means the
fitting one board into another by a tenon in the shape of a dove's tail, or wedge reversed.


Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 09:11 PM

Doxy A baby; a plaything; a paramour. In the West of England babies are called doxies.

I somewhere a long time ago read that "doxie" meant a prostitute who solicited sailors
on the docks as they disembarked. The only support I could find for this is below:


1839
Marriages at Stepney Church

The author casts a satirical eye on wedding customs, as practised
at St. Dunstan's, Stepney, in 1839: an unfortunate young couple
caught by the bride's parents, couples married en masse, tars and
doxies
and bigamous marriages. The source of the article was not
given.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 09:24 PM
Drake means the "duck-king." The old English word end means a duck, and end-ric becomes 'dric,
drake. Similarly the German tauber-rich is a male dove, and ganse-rich, a male goose, or gander.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 10:24 PM
Druid A chief priest (Celtic, der, superior; wydd, priest or instructor). In Taliesin we read, Bûm gwydd
yngwarth an (at length I became a priest or wydd). It was after this period that the wydds were divided
into two classes, the Der-wydds and the Go-wydds (Druids and Ovidds). Every chief had his druid, and
every chief druid was allowed a guard of thirty men (Strabo). The order was very wealthy. (Not derived
from the Greek drus, an oak.)

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 10:30 PM
Dublin (the Irish dubh-linn, the "black pool"). The chief part of the city stands on land reclaimed from
the river Liffey or the sea

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 10:34 PM
Ducat A piece of money; so called from the legend on the early Sicilian pieces: Sit tibi, Christe, datus,
quem tu regis, istë ducatus (May this duchy [ducat-us ] which you rule be devoted to you, O Christ).


Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 10:37 PM
Ducks and Drakes The ricocheting or rebounding of a stone thrown from the hand to skim along the
surface of a pond or river.

Somebody mentioned this pastime a couple days ago. Was it you,IP?

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 10:40 PM
Dude A masher. One who renders himself conspicuous by affectation of dress, manners, and speech.
The word was first familiarised in London in 1881, and is a revival of the old word dudes (clothes). We
have several derivations, as dudder, one who sells dress-pieces; duddery, a rag-shop; duddle, to wrap up
warmly (Halliwell), etc. It is not of American origin.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 10:42 PM
Dudgeon (The). The handle of a dagger, at one time made of box-wood root, called "dudgeon-wood;" a
dagger with such a handle. Shakespeare does not say, "and on the blade o' the dudgeon gouts of blood,"
but "on the blade and dudgeon . . ," both blade and handle.


Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/29/02 10:44 PM
Duds Old clothes, tattered garments (Gaelic, dud, a rag; Dutch, tod; Italian, tozzi). A dudder or dudsman
is a scarecrow, or man of straw dressed in cast off garments to fray birds; also a pedlar who sells duds or
gown-pieces. (Compare the Greek duo, to put on [clothes]; Latin, in-duo, to clothe.)


Posted By: grump Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 02:57 PM
wwh wrote (in some other post, but I'm too lazy to wade through them all to find the right one just now):
>> quarrel is to throw darts at each other (Welsh, cwarel, a dart) <<
which raises two questions I'd like to know more about:
1. There are precious few words in English from Welsh. More examples please!
2. WHY has there been so little borrowing from Welsh to English? The nations in question are not exactly at opposite ends of the earth!
Cheers, Ch.S.


Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 03:39 PM
Dear Grump: Maverick, who left when Keiva committed his dastardly deed (along with 40 others)
was our only Welch knowledgeable contributor. I am sure there are dozens of words taken from
Welch that give no clue as to their origin. One that comes to mind is "crowder" an ancient
word for "fiddle player" that I have seen as a family name. I'll look for some more. Thanks for
the suggestion.

PS: here is a URL to Worldwidewords.com that might interest you:

[url]www.quinion.com/words/articles/welsh.htm]/url]

Posted By: grump Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 05:40 PM
wwh wrote:
>>Maverick, who left when Keiva committed his dastardly deed (along with 40
others)<<
Being new here, I have no idea what this means or what the dynamics on this list are... I have a feeling I'm about to find out PDQ...
Thanks, wwh, for the URL (Quinion, on Welsh words)
Ch.S.

Posted By: Keiva Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 05:45 PM
>"I'm about to find out PDQ..."
ain't sayin' nuthin'

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 05:59 PM
Keiva: you were banned from AWADtalk for starting a flame war and refusing to quit.
You got re-instated by threatening to sue Wordsmith. You are contemptible.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 06:05 PM
Dear Grump: here is another URL about Celtic languages:

http://member.rivernet.com.au/manxman/Celts/languages.htm

If it doesn't work when you click on it, use edit,copy,,,,,edit,paste

Posted By: of troy Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 07:13 PM
why are you surprized?
Being new here, I have no idea what this means or what the dynamics on this list are... I have a feeling I'm about to find out PDQ...

hardly anyone comes to a bulletin board with out reading a few posts.. and there have been many expressing our desire for keiva to leave, and why.

and yesterday, the same comment was post 3 times in your kill two bird with one stone thread.. so why you are playing dumb ?

i am a bit edgy.. every time there is a flare up, and there are flare ups because Keiva who was banned, and forced his way back by threats and extortion, is still posting here a whole bunch of 'new' posters appear... and start threads, and add to threads, and play dumb... and wonder what is going on.. and ask 'innocent questions' and up starts the flames again..
your question sets my teeth on edge. (of course i could be wrong, and time will tell...)


keiva complained in time past that many of the long time posters were rude and drove away others... but he has single handed driven away 30+ old time people and almost as many new ones.. some of us die hards remain, and refuse to let his evil prevail..

every time he posts, we remind him, he is not wanted here.

but don't believe me.. read for yourself what Anu Garg had to say.
http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=announcements&Number=72021&page=2
Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 07:14 PM
Echidna (E-kid'-na). Half-woman, half-serpent. She was mother of the Chimæra, the many-headed dog Orthos, the hundred-headed dragon of the Hesperides, the Colchian dragon, the Sphinx, Cerberos, Scylla, the Gorgons, the Lernæan hydra, the vulture that gnawed away the liver of Prometheus, and the Nemean lion. (Hesiod.)

I wonder how this name came to be applied to the spiny anteater of Australia.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 07:45 PM
Edhilingi The aristocratic class among the Anglo-Saxons; the second rank were termed the Frilingi; and the third the Lazzi, (Anglo-Saxon, ædele or edele, noble; free-ling, free-born. Ricardo says of the third class, they were the "unwilling to work, the dull" - quos hodie lazie dicimus.)

The etymology of 'lazy' which I never heard of before.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 07:54 PM
Effrontery Out-facing, rude persistence, and overbearing impudence. (Latin, ef-frons, i.e. ex-frons, out-face.)

The behaviour of Keiva in continuing to post in AWADtalk, where he is not welcome.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 08:15 PM
Eleven (Anglo-Saxon, ændlefene, aend = ain, lefene = lef, left). One left or one more after counting ten (the fingers of the two hands). Twelve is Twa lef (two left); all the other teens up to 20 represent 3, 4, 5, etc. + ten. It would seem that at one time persons did not count higher than twelve, but in a more advanced state they required higher numbers, and introduced the"teen" series, omitting eleven and twelve, which would be enteen and twateen.

Posted By: Keiva Re: echidna - 06/30/02 08:31 PM
Echidna (E-kid'-na). Half-woman, half-serpent. ... I wonder how this name came to be applied to the spiny anteater of Australia.

American Heritage Dictionary:
echidna: [animal] having a spiny coat, slender snout, and an extensible sticky tongue used for catching insects. Also called spiny anteater. ETYMOLOGY: Latin, adder, viper, from Greek ekhidna, from ekhis.
Picture at http://www.sandiegozoo.org/images/animals/echidna.jpg

The echidna is one of only two species in a very exclusive group of mammals called monotremes, the other being the platypus. Itself an interesting word.
Posted By: of troy Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 08:50 PM
Keiva: Now matter how you post, you cannot cnange the fact that you
used extortion to obtain re-instatement after being banned for starting
a flamewarand refusing to stop adding fuel to it. You are contemptible.

See what Anu Garg had to say….
http://
wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=announcements&Number=72021



Posted By: Keiva Re: echidna - 06/30/02 08:52 PM
P.S. With all due respect, I question the etymology I just quoted for echidna.

Another source, http://www.geocities.com/etymonline/e1etym.htm, something similar, including I.E. *angwhi- "snake, eel." However, it also has the following entry:

echinoderm - 1835, from Mod.L. Echinodermata, from Gk. ekhinos "sea urchin," originally "porcupine, hedgehog" + derma (gen. dermatos) (emphases added)

And that echidna pictures certainly resembles a porcupine, does it not? or the type of sea urchin pictured in the link below:
http://www.humboldt.edu/~natmus/NorthcoastNature/Tidepools/purple-urchin.jpg

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 08:53 PM
Keiva: you are very much unwelcome to post in AWADtalk.
You were banned for starting a flamewar, and refusing to
stop adding fuel to the fire. You were base enough to use
phony threats of a lawsuit to intimidate Wordsmith enough
to have him re-instate you. You are unpeakably contemptible.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 09:59 PM
Eliminate (4 syl.). To turn out of doors; to turn out of an equation everything not essential to its conditions. (Latin, e limine,out of doors.)

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 10:05 PM
Emblem is a picture with a hidden meaning, the meaning is "cast into" or "inserted in" the
visible device. Thus, a balance is an emblem of justice, white of purity, a sceptre of sovereignty.
(Greek, en-ballo, which gives the Greek emblema.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 10:08 PM
Embryo means that which swells inside something (Greek, en-bru'o, which gives the Greek embruon);
hence the child in the womb; the rudiment in a plant before it shows itself in a bud;
an idea not developed, etc.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 10:10 PM

Emmet contracted into Ant thus, Em't, ent, ant (Anglo-Saxon, æmete).

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 10:44 PM
Emolument Literally, that which comes out of the mill. (Latin, e-mola.) It originally meant toll on what was ground

And I know it only as fancy term for salary.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 10:55 PM
Empyrean According to Ptolemy, there are five heavens, the last of which is pure elemental fire and the seat of deity; this fifth
heaven is called the empyrean (from the Greek en-pur, in fire). (See Heaven.)

"Now had the Aln ighty Father from above,
From the pure empyrean where He sits
High throned above all height, bent down his
eye." Milton: Paradise Lost, iii. 56-58.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 11:09 PM
Enfilade (French) means literally to spin out; to put thread in [a needle], as enfiler une aiguille; to string beads by putting them on a thread, as enfiler des perles. Soldiers being compared to thread, we get the following metaphors: to go through a place as thread through a needle - to string artillery by placing it in
a line and directing it against an enemy; hence, to scour or rake with shot.

I think this explanation is a bit off. From Military Medicine I remember that enfilade means to have a
file of column of the enemy in a line, with our artillery in line with it, so that instead of "killing two birds
with one stone" it may be possible to kill hundreds of the enemy because aiming is so easy, and shots
both high and low will hit target.

I am reminded of old timer who boasted of shooting a couple dozen starlings that were on a telephone line
perfectly enfiladed so that just about every pellet of his shotgun shell hit a bird. Starlings were very much
hated in those days for driving away more desirable songbirds.

Posted By: wwh Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 11:16 PM
England Verstegan quaintly says that Egbert was "chiefly moved" to call his kingdom England "in
respect of Pope Gregory's changing the name of Engelisce into Angellyke. " And this "may have
moved our kings upon their best gold coins to set the image of an angel." (Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities concerning ... the English Nation, p. 147.)
The Angles migrated from the east of the Elbe to Schleswig (between the Jutes and the Saxons).
They passed over in great numbers to Britain during the 5th century, and in time established the
kingdoms of the heptarchy.

Posted By: Keiva Re: starlings - 06/30/02 11:18 PM
"Starlings were very much hated in those days for driving away more desirable songbirds," says dr. bill.

Starlings were very much hated in the dorm I inhabited as a college freshman. Starlings massed in the ivy covering the building's walls, and their continuous cawing racket went on for hours, deep into the night, loud enough to prevent sleep. Worse than a neighbor with a loud stereo. Abominable birds.

The problem has since been solved in the only way found feasible: the ivy has been removed.

This was at Yale. Did you Hahvahdites have the same experience 'midst your ivy-covered walls, dr. bill?

Posted By: of troy Re: starlings - 06/30/02 11:27 PM
Keiva: Now matter how you post, you cannot cnange the fact that you used extortion to obtain re-instatement after being banned for starting a flamewarand refusing to stop adding fuel to it. You are contemptible.

See what Anu Garg had to say….
http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=announcements&Number=72021



Posted By: wwh Re: starlings - 06/30/02 11:28 PM
Keiva: You are absolutely indecent in you forcing your unwelcome presence on us.

Posted By: grump Re: Surprise II - 06/30/02 11:50 PM
Helen of Troy wrote:
>>>
hardly anyone comes to a bulletin board with out reading a few posts.. and there have been many expressing our desire for keiva to leave, and why. and yesterday, the same comment was post 3 times in your kill two bird with one stone thread.. so why you are playing dumb ?
>>>

Holy moly guys and gals, I had no idea what a rats'-nest I was wading into. The "hardly anyone" you refer to is me. I fired in a post in hope of enlightenment, and got it: "grow two trees from one seed" now replaces "kill two birds with on stone" in my usage.
Thanks to all who helped. I'm outta here now, and will leave you all to your pleasant squabbles, which I don't understand and don't want to.
Cheers, Ch.S.

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