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Joined: Jul 2004
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stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 11 |
What is that word that means to read by flashlight?
Thanks! Also, thanks for the other question I asked this week--you're the best!
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
nambulist?
like in somnambulist?!
or funambulist??
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Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067 |
-ambulist means someone walking around, not someone using a flashlight. somnia (sleeping), + ambulist = somnambulist, sleep walker.
There is no single word that means to read by flashlight.
Reading whilst walking would be Lectioambulism I suppose. Or perhaps Ambulolection? Or maybe Ambulacrosis if reading out aloud.
Last edited by The Pook; 10/31/08 07:32 AM.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
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There is no single word that means to read by flashlight. try this Librocubicularist
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Aug 2005
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
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I wondered if nambulist mean something like a former somebody's type three word, then I figured it was a reanalysis of an ambulist, but now I guess The Pook got it and it's a combining term of some kind. Throwing all caution to the wind and hoping in his heart of hearts to be the author of a dord: Latin for 'under the covers' might be sub stragulo, 'to read' is legere, but 'by means of a flashlight' is anybody's guess. I mean the Romans didn't have electricity. 'Torch' is fax, facis, but 'reading under the bedding by means of a torch', sub stragulo cum face legens, sounds like a formula for burning down the domus. For 'flashlight', how about fax electralis. An imperial Roman would have no idea what you were talking about, "Amber toruch?", but a modern person might think it had something to do with light by static electricity. At least the covers wouldn't burn down the mansio. How about just 'he reads while lying (in bed)'? Maybe cubitante (in lecto) legit. Nope, a Roman might think that somebody was reading while have sexual intercourse. It's hopeless! While pondering this though, I was struck by the coincidence that the words for 'amber', 'bed', and 'reading' all contain -lect-. Cum electro in lecto lector 'a reader in bed with amber (beads)'. Now for the dordist (aka nambulist) entry: electrolectolection. Feh! ugly as a centurion's bunions.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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"All right," said the bookseller amiably. "Miss Chapman, you take the book up with you and read it in bed if you want to. Are you a librocubicularist?"
Titania looked a little scandalized.
"It's all right, my dear," said Helen. "He only means are you fond of reading in bed. I've been waiting to hear him work that word into the conversation. He made it up, and he's immensely proud of it." - Christopher Morley, The Haunted Bookshop - joe (topically apt) friday
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Throwing all caution to the wind YOU?! 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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Reading under the covers with a flashlight (what the Brits call a torch) carries with it a certain measure of clandestiny. This maybe should be carried into the single word. How bout sticking a crypto- in there somewhere.
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Joined: Feb 2008
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067 |
ha ha ha, very good.
And someone reading The Silence of the Lambs in bed would be...? cum lecter in lectro lector?
PS. We Aussies also say 'torch' in preference to 'flashlight' - and it's pronounced non-rhotically - tawch
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