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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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today's word from dictionary.com, which includes this citation:
The body politic produces noisome and unseemly substances, among which are politicians.
--P. J. O'Rourke, "No Apparent Motive," The Atlantic, November 2002
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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 I detect a distinct odor from that body...
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Body politic not annoy some, annoy all.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I liked the comedian's (can't remember his name) comment about breaking the word down to understand it. "Poly- is a math term which means many. And a tic is a blood sucking insect."
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555 |
I recently came across a very nice word, which is a perfect synonym for noisome. Mephitic. If Phoebe (from Friends) was an AWADer, her cat might have been a mephitic mephistopheles, what!
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Joined: Jun 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
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You can't beat PJ for stringing the words together, can you?
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Posts: 11,123 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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her cat might have been a mephitic mephistopheles, what!
Isn't there already a mephitis mephitica, a.k.a. the common skunk? translated from the Latin as "the smelliest of the smelly"?
mentioned in of all places When Worlds Collide/After Worlds Collide, by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie, ca. 1936 I think
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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So how did we wind up with noisome meaning smelly when noisy refers to sound?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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What kind of a noise annoys an oyster? My dictionary says "noisome" is aphetic for annoy,
neaning the "a" got dropped.And skunks are Mustelidae.
Mephitis mephitis.
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newbie
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newbie
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I read a few post about "noisome" but I still don't understand what does noisome means. Does "body politic" means metaphorically speaking "party" - ask you about the above Krzysztof from Poland.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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it seems noisome needs some clarification:
A) the root is noy (as in annoy); probably not related to noise.
B) only one sense has to do specifically with smell; to wit,
1. Harmful, injurious, noxious
Suche bookes, writinges,..teachinges, and instructions, as be pestiferous, and noysome. - Henry VIII
2. Offensive to the sense of smell; ill-smelling.
His blind and aged father..lay in a noisome dungeon, while he enjoyed the free air. - Mary Shelly, Frankenstein
3. Disagreeable, unpleasant, offensive.
Even such a noisome thing as a collection of postage stamps. - William James, Talks to Teachers
4. Annoying, troublesome. Obs. rare.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Krzysztof, the body politic is an old-fashioned expression meaning the state, or politicians in general.
Bingley
Bingley
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