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#11902 12/05/00 07:39 AM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpe rutila -- seize the red ... geranium

Well, carpe pelargonium is at least grammatical. Even carpe geranium I guess, but I understand that real gardeners only call them "Pelargonium".



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#11903 12/05/00 09:34 AM
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Ah, yes, REAL gardeners may call them pelargonium, but only if the REAL gardener is referring to a pelargonium. If the plant in question is indeed a geranium, then a REAL gardener would call it so. The problem arises because pelargoniums are marketed as geranium and referred to as such by 90% of the population, and it has become tiresome explaining the difference. Having said that, I'm not sure if there is a RED geranium so I stand corrected.


Carpe whatever


Carpe whatever
#11904 12/05/00 11:36 AM
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"Bury him? And what am I supposed to dig the hole with, Brutus."
"Use the ........, you fool!"


So the Romans didn't call a spade a spade?
No wonder the Empire didn't last.

Speaking of which, I saw a great Bestie (Steve Best) greetings card.
One cat shouts at another: "Oi! No bollocks!".
Caption: "Thomas liked to call a speyed a speyed."

Arf



#11905 12/05/00 01:25 PM
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old hand
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"Thomas liked to call a speyed a speyed."

Shona

If it's just a typo you can pour beer on my head in January, but if not, I'm interested in the use of 'speyed', since I would tend to spell it 'spayed'. Wassup?


#11906 12/05/00 01:46 PM
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Dear Fish and Shanks ... a mistake in spelling with Speyed/Spayed... ... After what MaxQ went through following my error with Deity/Diety I can say only : Heaven help you.
wow


#11907 12/05/00 01:51 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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>I'm interested in the use of 'speyed', since I would tend to spell it 'spayed'. Wassup?

by false analogy (a common error in English <8^) with gray/grey?


#11908 12/05/00 02:43 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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= Seize the Shona!!


From http://www.webenglishteacher.com/text/latinseizures.txt:

LATIN SEIZURES

a. Carpe Diem--Seize the Day

b. Carpet Diem--Seize the carpet

c. Carpayment Diem --Seize the checkbook

d. Carpe Duh--Seize an idiot

e. Carp Diem--Fish of the day

f. Crampy Diem--Seize the Midol

g. Carpe Diet--Seize the rice cake

h. Carpal Diem--Seize the knuckles

i. Carpe Dig'Em--Seize the chips 'n dip

j. Carpe Carp--Seize the fish

k. Carpe diem--Complain daily

l. Carpe per diem--Seize the check

m. Carpe canem--Seize the dog

n. Carpe Dime--Seize the paycheck

o. Carpe Daemler--Seize the Mercedes

p. Carpe devo--Seize the record

q. Carpe calypso--Seize the DAY-O

r. Sharpei diem--Seize the wrinkled dog





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Carpal Tunnel
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Shona:

This is a GREAT pun (but anatomically a bit inaccurate since spaying has to do with ovaries, not bollocks.) And it's even better when you look up the word spay and discover that it arises "< ME spayen < Ofr. espeer, to cut with a sword < espee, sword < Lat. spatha. See spathe." And then you go to the derivation of spade (as in shovel) and find that it comes from old English spadu. Though in the dictionary at hand this explanation of the shovel word's origin stops there, I'd have to assume it comes from the latin spatha also.

Also of interest is the botanical spathe, which is the part of a jack-in-the-pulpit that looks almost like a parasol, and partially enclosing the spadix, a clublike spike bearing minute flowers. BUT! Spadix comes not from the same root but from the latin word spadix, a broken-off palm branch, derived from a similar Greek word.

Now WHY does this fascinate me so much? Do I need to get a life????

And you MUST run this through Aenigma and see what it gives back!!!



TEd
#11910 04/02/01 09:53 AM
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A pala was carried by legionnaires following the Marian army reforms

Is "Marian" a typo for "Maorian" CK? I have visions of a "1066 and all that" corruption of history taking place here!


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spay
This is closer to the subject of the thread than one would think, since, in the Baltimore variant of English (and, I suspect in a lot of other places in the U.S. as well), "spay" is pronounced "spade", as in, "They had the dog spaded last week."


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