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N in Spanish, has sometimes a mark over it, thus- ñ. This mark is called a tilde, and alters the sense and pronunciation of a word. Thus, “pena” means punishment, but “peña,” a rock.
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N added to Greek words ending in a short vowel to lengthen it “by position,” and “1” added to French words beginning with a vowel, when they follow a word ending with a vowel (as si l'on for si on), is called N or L “ephelcystic” (tagged-on); Greek, epi helko.
"ephelcystic" seems a word that might be fun to find a use for. Any volunteers?
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nth or nth plus One, in University slang, means to the utmost degree. Thus, Cut to the nth means wholly unnoticed by a friend. The expression is taken from the index of a mathematical formula, where n stands for any number, and n + 1, one more than any number.
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Nabob' (generally called Nabob). Corruption of the Hindu word nawab, the plural of naib. An administrator of a province and commander of the Indian army under the Mogul Empire. These men acquired great wealth and lived in Eastern splendour, so that they gave rise to the phrase, “Rich as the nawâb,” corrupted into “Rich as a nabob. ” In England we apply the phrase to a merchant who has attained great wealth in the Indies, and has returned to live in his native country.
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Nag A horse. This is an example of n of the article joined to the following noun, as in the word newt = an ewt. (Danish and Norwegian, og; Anglo-Saxon, eoh or eh; Latin, eq[uus]; Dutch, negge.) Taylor (1630) has naggon, as-
“Wert thou George with thy naggon, That foughtest with the draggon.”
Shakespeare's naunt and nuncle are mine-aunt and mine-uncle.
I wondered where "nuncle" came from
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Naga Serpents; the king of them is Sesha, the sacred serpent of Vishnu. (Hindu mythology.)
In Kipling's story about Riki-tiki-tavi the mongoose kills a cobra named "Nag".
And "Naja" is species name for cobra. (not sure "species" is right word)
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Naiads Nymphs of lakes, fountains, rivers, and streams. Related to "natare" = to swim
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O nuncle, court holy-water in a dry house is better than this rain-water out o’ door. Good nuncle, in; ask thy daughters’ blessing. Here’s a night pities neither wise men nor fools. [/Lear]
And ephelcystically, interesting word that, Bill – "ephelcystic" had me reading it as eff-el-SIS-tic, but I guess from the Latin etymology it’s probably more like ep-hel-KISS-tik. Can you confirm?
I like the sound of this word to describe a social hanger-on, too ~ just a shame no auditor would likely understand!
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Name Fairies are extremely averse to having their names known, indeed there seems to be a strange identity between personality and name. Thus we are forbidden to take God's “name in vain,” and when Jacob wrestled with the angel, he was anxious to know his opponent's name. (Compare the Greek onoma and the Latin anima.)
It seems to be instinctual to be concerned that letting somebody know you name gives them some power over you. Witness how few people use their name here in AWADtalk. Bill (see how brave I am)
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Napiers Bones A method invented by Baron Napier, of Merchiston, for shortening the labour of trignometrical calculations. Certain figures are arranged on little slips of paper or ivory, and simply by shifting these slips the result required is obtained. They are called bones because the baron used bone or ivory rods instead of cardboard.
If I remember correctly, Napier was one of the first people to use logarithms to simplify multiplication. His "bones" were precursor of slide rule, which few AWADtalk participants ever used. What a blessing electronic calculators are.
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