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#11892 12/03/00 12:11 PM
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I discovered this word recently then lost the source. I may have spelled it incorrectly, but it is supposed to describe filler words in speech, such as er, um, like, and you know. Is it an actually word? I found it in a book of word lists I happened to be scanning at the library.

Thank you, wise ones.

Da'vid

Carpe rutila


Carpe whatever
#11893 12/03/00 04:22 PM
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according to the Penguin Dictionary of Psychology, embolalia (only two els) is simply "meaningless babbling". it would seem that someone borrowed this pathological term for other use; the "skb" wordlist, which can be found online, gives this looong and authoritative looking entry: "embolalia (n.) - the use of virtually meaningless filler words, phrases, or stammerings (or so-called hesitation-forms) in speech, whether as unconscious utterings while arranging one's thoughts or as a vacuous, inexpressive mannerism (W)" I'll have to ask him what his "W" source is, as I can't find his key [much of the skb list comes from Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words, but not this one]

and, as long as I'm being expansive, here are some other interesting -lalias:

coprolalia - the uncontrollable use of obscene language
echolalia - the often pathological repetition of what is said by other people as if echoing them
glossolalia - speaking in tongues


#11894 12/04/00 07:02 AM
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Okay, (a) I'm ignorant, and (b) I'll bite. What's carpe rutila? I translate it as "grabbing or seizing red" or something like that - given that I don't have a Latin dictionary handy. Carpe diem, I get. Maybe I'm just tired. Or stupid.






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#11895 12/04/00 08:33 AM
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Just a play on the wornout Carpe diem. I write garden humour, hence "Carpe rutila" -- seize the spade/shovel.

Cheers,

David

Carpe rutila


Carpe whatever
#11896 12/04/00 09:14 AM
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Just a play on the wornout Carpe diem. I write garden humour, hence "Carpe rutila" -- seize the spade/shovel.

Oh. Shouldn't it be carpe pala or maybe batillum? Rutila is just red or something which is red. I think I've heard of rutila being used to refer to a clay (maybe red?) that some potters use, but that use may be unconnected.

But it's a long time since I studied the language. I just missed having Cicero as a tutor in rhetoric because the old beggar up and died. So I had to drop Latin and take geography instead. Now, where was I?

A pala was carried by legionnaires following the Marian army reforms (although for all I know they may have been carried by them before that).



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#11897 12/04/00 10:57 AM
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Ah, I'm afraid I'm not a latin scholar, Captain. I used a Latin/English dictionary on the net and came up with the following:
pala spade, peel for putting bread in the oven.
rutila a spade, shovel.

Another one gave me rutrum.

For red it gives:
puniceus purple, red.
puniceus reddish.
rubor redeness, blush, modesty, shame, disgrace.
rufus red, ruddy.
rutilus red, golden, auburn.

Gosh, it's almost as bad as English!

"Bury him? And what am I supposed to dig the hole with, Brutus."
"Use the ........, you fool!"


This is the site for the dictionary http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/Latin/

Carpe rutila


Carpe whatever
#11898 12/04/00 11:36 AM
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The Lewis & Short Latin dictionary at the Perseus site http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/lexindex?lookup=rutilus#1&db=ls&type=exact&options=Sort+Results+Alphabetically&lang=la&formentry=0 gives the meanings "red (inclining to golden yellow)" and "shining, glittering".

The words that have "spade" in the entry are gradus, pala, rutrum, vanga .

Bingley


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#11899 12/04/00 05:01 PM
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Hmm. Well, I'm perfectly prepared to believe that my Latin is rusty (red).

Actually I've always loved the expression "S/he knows where all the bodies are buried". The reply (in a British comedy show, referred to elsewhere on this list as a "Britcom"), was "And s/he even knows where they keep the shovel".

Thanks for the Latin on-line dictionary URLs, people. I've always been too stingy to buy a Latin dictionary ...



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#11900 12/04/00 11:00 PM
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Yes, solrep, I found rutila, n. - a spade in another Latin online wordlist, as well as rutilus, adj = red, golden, auburn (rutila would be the feminine form of the adjective; rutilus the masculine.)

One thing to watch, though, if you want to continue using your sign-off is the case of the noun, rutila. If it is being seized, it needs to take the accusative case, which, assuming it's a regular feminine noun, would be rutilam.

So, carpe rutilam.

Actually, I rather like it as "seize the red". Goes well with my usual email sign-off of "Cheers".

Oh, and I'm no Latin scholar either, just a nitus-pickerus.


#11901 12/04/00 11:18 PM
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Wow, and I thougth I was being so smart. Guess I'll have to study Latin (tudysay atinlay?). Thanks, everyone, for your gracious enlightenment.

Carpe rutila -- seize the red ... geranium. That's it, red geranium. Fits the gardening theme perfectly.












Carpe whatever


Carpe whatever
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