In certain political circles, they insist on spelling this "nader", as in Ralph, with the same definition!

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.

What are some other useful (or even useless) words for "lowest point"?

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?

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 Þat 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.

What are some other useful (or even useless) words for "lowest point"?

Thisthread®

http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=announcements&Number=56316

Yeah, it's the pits.

Oh, and that was a pit I'd hoped had bottomed-out. Mebbe 'tis better to consider zeniths and acmes...

Bottoms regurgitated,
WordsWin

What are some other useful (or even useless) words for "lowest point"?
"The peak of despair"
"A mountain of debt"

"rock bottom"

rock bottom" = Pygmalion's girlfriend in beginning

"rock bottom" = Pygmalion's girlfriend in beginning

Dr. Bill,

If I were TEd I'd begin to worry about my position as Eminent Punster.

What are some other useful (or even useless) words for "lowest point"?


Maybe abyssal or abysmal, but I'm reminded by a post below of the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities, my favorite of any book.


It was the best of times, it was worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.
In short, the period was so far like the present period that some of its
noisiest authorities insisted on its being recieved, for good or for evil,
in the superlative degree of comparison only.




k

rock bottom

Sure I've told this one before, but it still makes me chuckle.

Many moons ago a local ("shoegazer") band issued a bunch of promotional stickers, which were all over town:

THE REGULAR GUYS

How low can you get?

At the bottom of one of them a wag scribbled:

Lower.

acmes...

Ya been watchin' Road Runner cartoons, Dub Dub?

Ya been watchin' Road Runner cartoons, Dub Dub?

Yeah, Wile E. Coyote--ain't he a blast?

TNT regards,
DubDub

"acme" Then there is the "acne" of perfection, achieved by so many.