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stranger
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stranger
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I found the word "bibliobibuli" under the entry "read too much, people who" in The Writers Digest Flip Dictionary, but I couldn't find this word in any other dictionary I tried. I couldn't find a root for "bibuli" either. Anyone know anything about it?
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Carpal Tunnel
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although found in tsuwm's wwftd(!) http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/abc.htm#B, here's from WordSpy: bibliobibuli
noun. People who read too much and so are generally oblivious to world around them.
Example Citation:
"There are people who read too much: bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as other men are drunk on whiskey or religion. They wander through this most diverting and stimulating of worlds in a haze, seeing nothing and hearing nothing."
—H. L. Mencken, Minority Report: H. L. Mencken's Notebooks
Backgrounder:
This word shows up often in collections of interesting and unusual words (though rarely in conversation!). It's a combination of "biblio-" (Greek: comb. form of book) and a variant of "biblulous" (Latin: "Freely or readily drinking").
Subject Categories:
Culture - Books and Magazines
Language - Insults
Posted on April 12, 1997
http://www.wordspy.com/words/bibliobibuli.aspwelcome to the board, biblio! 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Hi Biblio I prefer to think of myself as a bibliophile or perhaps a bibliomet (biblio + gourmet). I can quit anytime I want to. i just don't want to, so there 
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Carpal Tunnel
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actually, this is a nonce word, coined by Mencken especially for the occasion; as per WordSpy, it's not encountered much outside of word collections.
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Carpal Tunnel
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word collections
I like collecting bibelots. They take up much less space than tchotchkes.
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Pooh-Bah
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tchotchkes
Sounds like a Yiddish word? New to me, what does it mean please?
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tchotchkes Yep, it's Yiddish, dixbie. on your next trip, skip Texas and come to NYBBC did a wonderful 8-part (I think) series in the late 70s or early 80s called "The Story of English." I borrowed the tapes from the library last year. I was cool with the Yiddish influence; got seriously befuddled in an earlier episode with speakers of two totally separate dialects in the north of English engaging in a bit of horse-trading. They managed.
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Carpal Tunnel
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two totally separate dialects in the north of English engaging in a bit of horse-trading
The lovely AnnaS misremembers slightly. It was two separate languages: English and Danish, as spoke over a thousand years ago. They discovered that they had many roots in common but the declensional endings were miles apart. They decided to drop the declensional endings and instead to use word order to indicate case. Quantum leap in the development of the language we know and love and argue interminably about.
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Pooh-Bah
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tchotchkes
Yep, it's Yiddish, dixbie
OK. Thanks. But what does it *mean?
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Carpal Tunnel
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But what does it *mean?Oh, I thought that was clear from the context  . It means knick-knacks. Do you have that word in your version of our beloved language?
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Carpal Tunnel
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...knickknacks, gimcracks, gewgaws, whigmaleeries; we have wonderful choices for whatnots.
tchotchke (TCHOCH-keh), being Yiddish, suffers from the usual gimcrack transliteration, including (but not limited to) tsatske, tsatskele, and tchotchkele. Rosten (Joy of Yiddish) prefers tsatske (TSAHTS-keh). from Polish: tsatsko, "a toy" or "a beautiful, useless thing."
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Carpal Tunnel
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"a beautiful, useless thing."
Kinda like Jennifer Lopez or Arnold Schwarzengger, ¿yes?
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Carpal Tunnel
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I thought the second half of "bibliobibuli" was a play on
"bibulous" meaning addicted to alcohol.
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Carpal Tunnel
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bill, I guess this (see eta's post) got lost amongst the gimcrackery on the mantle:
It's a combination of "biblio-" (Greek: comb. form of book) and a variant of "biblulous" (Latin: "Freely or readily drinking").
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear tsuwm: thanks for pointing that out.
Did anyone every tell you you are a bit of a shit?
You may recall that when I have noticed errors you made,
I send you a PM.
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addict
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Dr. Bill, I wouldn't so much call this an error as a "chopped liver/mantle" event, such as we all good-naturedly point out to each other with relative frequency on the Board. At least that's how I read it.
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Carpal Tunnel
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>I wouldn't so much call this an error as a "chopped liver/mantle" event..
and this would be a double-decaf coffee and...; see my gimcrackery on the mantle comment. <VBG>
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yes, that was a good use of "mantle," tsuwm. Let us remember that wwh is somewhat crotchety, and, if he lived in England, he'd have a hard time rhyming 'bit' with 'shite.'
Wouldn't you, Dr Bill?
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Carpal Tunnel
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>You may recall that when I have noticed errors you made,
I send you a PM.
but for one *very notable exception, which was not even any of my doing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Let us remember that wwh is somewhat crotchety,
In the same way that the Sun is somewhat warm and the cosmos somewhat large.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Hmm--I read Dr. Bill's post as having an emphasis on the word thought, as in (aha), "I thought the second half of "bibliobibuli" was a play on
"bibulous" meaning addicted to alcohol."
Edit--I find that I tend to give Dr. Bill a bit of extra leeway regarding errors: in addition to not seeing anything very well, he posted one time that he has particular difficulty reading text in blue.
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Carpal Tunnel
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But we love 'em just the same, don't we?
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Carpal Tunnel
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>But we love 'em just the same, don't we?
As the Fong reminded me, if the shoe doesn't fit, I won't wear it.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I won't wear it
Or either you must acquit, one.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ohmigawd, how funny!!! How I would love to have seen that! Ow, ow, my stomach!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Hello Biblio!
Welcome aBoard! You started an interesting thread on your first try - congratulations. Do stay with us and contribute.
often.
One thing that interests me : did you lurk about and read before jumping in or did you just leap off the end of the pier, so to speak, as I did?
Aloha, wow
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thus becoming a peerless member.
Bingley
Bingley
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Carpal Tunnel
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Groan-nn!
But let me add my belated welcome, Biblio.
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journeyman
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I found the word "bibliobibuli" under the entry "read too much, people who"
What's the singular of bibliobibuli? Bibliobibulum?
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Carpal Tunnel
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the singular of bibliobibuli
Whadda they, don't teach you no Latin in law school?
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Carpal Tunnel
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went out with the "Paper Chase"
Well, I knew they din't never taught you to pernounce it, but, geesh, seems like you could dope out a few grammar rules.
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Carpal Tunnel
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we just cite it
So as far as you know, when you say qui tacet consentire videtur you're really saying, "I'll shut up now and let you hang my client."
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Pooh-Bah
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The lovely AnnaS misremembers slightly. It was two separate languages: English and Danish, as spoke over a thousand years ago. They discovered that they had many roots in common but the declensional endings were miles apart. They decided to drop the declensional endings and instead to use word order to indicate case. Quantum leap in the development of the language we know and love and argue interminably about.
No we don't. And that's "argue about interminably" to you, buster ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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No we don't
What you mean we?
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stranger
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stranger
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Thanks, everyone, for your help! I'm sorry I didn't check in earlier.
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Carpal Tunnel
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"It is often forgotten that (dictionaries) are artificial
repositories, put together well after the languages they
define. The roots of language are irrational and of a
magical nature."
-Jorge Luis Borges, Prologue to "El otro, el mismo."
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