#14087
12/30/2000 3:36 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 12
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 12 |
I don't know if chimerical was a word used in A Word A Day, but it is a good one for this theme. Chimerical means absurd; wildly fanciful. It comes from the creature Chimera in Greek mythology, a fire breathing monster with a lion's head, a goat's body and a serpent's tail.
Does anyone have some other words that would fit in with the "Classical Mythology" theme?
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#14088
12/30/2000 6:53 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
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from the same mythology we have the winged horse Pegasus, which would make a good suggestion for the person looking for equine names in another thread....
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#14089
12/31/2000 2:57 AM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
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I don’t have any new word to add to your quest lastday, I simply want to welcome you on Board.
In case you do not get many replies do not be too discouraged. This part of the Board does not show up entirely on my screen (and I have a pretty large screen) so it probably does not show up on most people’s either. Most of the activity is in the top subjects and we rarely see any posting in this section since it is under the heading of OLD weekly themes that have been consolidated. I only found your questions because I was fiddling about and scrolled down.
Come on up top and chat a while. The subjects are quite varied and you are most welcome.
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#14090
12/31/2000 3:29 AM
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good points, bel; and i apologize for introducing a trojan horse into this thread!
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#14091
12/31/2000 10:43 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
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Didn't see a posting from Helen here, tsuwm. But welcome, Lastday. Would you care to explain to me what your homepage is about?  Cheers -
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#14092
01/02/2001 7:31 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 12
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 12 |
My homepage: it is supposed to be about literature. I really started it hoping that it would force me to write something everyday, a self improvement thing. It has not worked as well as I had hoped. But maybe I can updated this week. I hope other people will find it useful.
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#14093
01/02/2001 8:11 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
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I fit this theme in several ways-- Helen is my given name, of troy my prefered screen name, (everywhere), and my last name is griffin-- a mythical creature with the head of an eagle, and the body of lion..
well griffin is the i use... i was born reilly, but by the time i divorced, i had been griffin longer than i was reilly, and i didn't want to have different name than my children-- especialy since i didn't have cusody.. (they were 15 and 17 at the time--)the age where getting it doesn't really matter too much who has offical custody, kid will spend time were they want when they want
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#14094
01/02/2001 9:03 PM
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Posts: 10,542
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the worthless word for the day is: rhadamanthine http://www.quinion.com/words/weirdwords/ww-rha2.htmalso, dictionary.com's word of the day: stentorian which "comes from Stentor, a Greek herald in the Trojan War. According to Homer's Iliad, his voice was as loud as that of fifty men combined." -joe (this space for rent) friday
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#14095
01/02/2001 11:16 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
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Have to agree with Joe Friday on this one - although (had I known of its existence) I might well have applied it, justly or not, to my parents at various times ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#14096
01/03/2001 10:19 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
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That your parents where just and severe? or as loud as 50 mens voices combined? or both?
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#14097
01/04/2001 6:37 AM
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Posts: 3,146
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No, no, it was my uncle who was the sergeant-major. And he never raised his voice ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#14098
01/05/2001 3:54 PM
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>And he never raised his voice ...
That is often scarier.
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#14099
01/05/2001 8:18 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
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Yep, he was a Warrant Officer First Class - highest non-commissioned rank in the army. He was a short man - just a bit over 5ft 3in - and giants trembled at his approach. This included all commissioned ranks up to about Major as well as the other ranks ... and everyone over Major listened to what he had to say very carefully. Now THAT is power. I've always aspired to it but never managed to come anywhere near achieving it. 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#14100
04/07/2001 5:24 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
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#14101
04/09/2001 12:00 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Tuesday = Tiu's day
Wednesday = Woden's day
Thursday = Thor's day
Friday = Frigg's day
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#14102
04/09/2001 4:25 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 60
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 60 |
lastday, chimera is also a term from genetics meaning "an organism consisting of two or more tissues of different genetic composition, produced as a result of mutation, grafting, or the mixture of cell populations from different zygotes." (definition swiped from dictionary.com)
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#14103
04/09/2001 10:33 PM
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#14104
04/10/2001 12:46 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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The American Heritage Dictionary summarizes the weekday homage to Germanic gods thusly: The names of the days of our week are based on the ancient astrological notion that the seven celestial bodies (sun, moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn) revolving around the stationary Earth influenced events on Earth and that each the bodies controlled the first hour of the day named after it. The system was brought into Hellenistic (hi of Troy!) Egypt from Mesopotamia. In 321 AD, Constantine the Great grafted the system onto the Roman calendar and declared the sequence: Dies Solis, Dies Lunae, Dies Martis, Dies Mercurii, Dies Iovis, Dies Veneris, and Dies Saturni. The Roman system was adopted throughout western Europe, and in the Germanic languages, including Old English, four of the Roman gods were converted into the corresponding Germanic gods. So: Sunnandaeg, Monandaeg, Tiwesdaeg (the god Tiu, like Mars, was a god of war), Wodensdaeg (the god Woden, like Mercury, was quick and eloquent), Thunresdaeg (the god Thunor (OE) or Thor (ON), like Jupiter, was lord of the sky), Frigedaeg (the goddess Frigg, like Venus, was the goddess of love), and Saeternesdaeg. The same source lists "Tiu" as the Germanic god of war and the sky, and says its source is "OE Tiw. See deiw-" The Indo-European roots index entry for "deiw-" tells us that diew means to shine, and in many derivatives, sky, heaven, god. It also says that "Tiwes" is the genitive of "Tiu." [finally, the answer!] Important derivatives of "deiw" include Tuesday, deity, divine, jovial, July, Jupiter, Zeus, dial, diary, dismal, journey and psychedelic. (Ha! I didn't expect to tie all those terms together today. Thanks, Max, for getting me started on this. )
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#14105
04/10/2001 8:41 PM
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Posts: 3,409
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#14106
04/11/2001 6:26 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
Frigedaeg (the goddess Frigg, like Venus, was the goddess of love)From whence "friggid?"
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#14107
05/08/2001 1:23 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
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and presumably frigging.
Bingley
Bingley
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#14108
05/08/2001 1:41 PM
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In reply to:
What about words derived from other mythologies?
Shaman, djinn, banshee.
Would you believe banshee has made its way into Indonesian? The meaning has changed somewhat though. Transvestism/trans-sexuality is a much more openly acknowledged reality here than in European-derived cultures, and it can be very difficult sometimes to tell the difference. Going back to the nineteen sixties, apparently English speaking foreigners used to call transvestite/trans-sexual prostitutes banshees from their habit of calling out to potential customers. This was then adopted as a slang term by Indonesians in the slightly altered form of banci (pronounced ban-chee). The more neutral term, in case you were wondering, is wadam (a portmanteau word from wanita (woman) and Adam) or waria (again a portmanteau word from wanita and pria (man)).
Bingley
Bingley
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#14109
05/08/2001 4:05 PM
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Posts: 5,400
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I always wondered if the Ozzie/Zild term "sheila" as a generic term for a woman or a girl owes it roots to "Sheila Na Gig" there are several sites about Sheila-- an irish god similar to Kali-- sometime portrayed as old woman, some time with a skull-- not a head-- some times grinning-- (or is it with teeth bared?) and alway with her legs spread and her vulva open.. some images ( many have been destroyed)--i thought this was one of the best.. since it has several images.. (and most are scarier that erotic!) She was a god of Birth/regeneration and of death.. a death head , a sexual inviting vulva... http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~jup/witches/qa/q126.html
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#14110
05/26/2001 1:18 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 12
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 12 |
In reply to:
lastday, chimera is also a term from genetics meaning "an organism consisting of two or more tissues of different genetic composition, produced as a result of mutation, grafting, or the mixture of cell populations from different zygotes."
considering this, I guess this might have been a good word for Words from Medicine as well.
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#14111
05/26/2001 4:10 AM
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nymphs, and all the subclasses thereof, such as dryads.
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#14112
06/05/2001 6:28 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 618
addict
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addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 618 |
As far as I can tell, just about anything would be good for Words from Medicine.
Rapport was established superficially.
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#14113
11/06/2001 12:14 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
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#14114
11/06/2001 2:28 PM
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I think I recall reading somewhere that Stentor, while useful, was not really admired by the Greeks, and regarded as a loudmouth. Off on a tangent, an idea we get from mythology is the use of a ball of string to find way back out of a maze, after Ariadne's giving Theseus a ball of string to escape from the Labyrinth, after slaying the Minotaur. But our word "clue" apparently is not the Greek word. Who remembers that? I don't. There are a lot of mythology sites. Here is a fairly good one to start with: http://www.oup-usa.org/sc/0195143388/glossaries/phrase_s.html
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#14115
11/06/2001 8:53 PM
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And the stentees were all those poor suckers who had to listen to him.
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#14116
11/06/2001 10:25 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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I took this quote out of URL above, because it might interest others as it did me, to learn etymology of word "sphinx" I had also forgotten there was more than one sphinx
The sphinx terrorized Thebes before the arrival of Oedipus (see Oedipal Complex). She was a hybrid
creature with the head of a woman, body of a lion, wings of an eagle, and the tail of a serpent. She
punished those who failed to answer her riddle with strangulation (the Greek verb sphingein means to
strangle). At some point the Greek sphinx became associated with Egyptian iconography, in which the
sphinx had a lion's body and a hawk's or man's head. When we liken someone to a sphinx, we have in
mind the great riddler of the Greeks and not the Egyptian conception. A sphinx is an inscrutable person,
given to enigmatic utterances (the Greek word ainigma means a riddle).
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#14117
11/07/2001 12:12 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
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#14118
11/07/2001 12:57 AM
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Posts: 13,858
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Dear WW: The Greeks put masks on the actors to keep them from developing a star cult and fancy salaries.
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#14119
11/07/2001 2:58 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
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What is more perplexing is how long it took Oedipus to figure out the fact that he had murdered his father.
He knew he'd offed the king. He jus din't know it was his daddy.
Course, since daddy had tried to off him, it was sort of time delayed self-defense.
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#14120
11/07/2001 4:40 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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I onder,which bothered Oedipus the more, patricide or incest?
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#14121
11/07/2001 9:01 PM
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 387
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 387 |
I would be more bothered by the incest. He dedn't know it was his father, and dad wasn't alive to remind him all the time after he found out. Anyway incest is grosser.
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#14122
11/07/2001 11:21 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
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#14123
11/08/2001 12:59 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
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Dear WW: one case in which a young man's having a middle-aged mistress was not a good idea.
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#14124
11/08/2001 3:11 AM
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
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Mistress, Bill? I understood that he married her. Otherwise, what gain? Didn't he gain control of all that was his father's by marrying his mother? The tragedy is that it would have all been his anyway with only a little patience, which it seems his was a little askew?
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#14125
11/08/2001 12:59 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
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Oed didn't know that he'd offed the king.
I guess it all depends on whose version of the story you listen to (Rashomon anyone?); according to Graves it wasn't like that at all (but then what was?).
The -ology site wasn't really an -ology site, just a semiconvenient way of listing a whole bunch all at once. You can do the same thing with *gry to find all the words that M-W recognizes that end in gry. If you're hungry enough and it doesn't make you too angry.
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#14126
11/08/2001 1:30 PM
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Posts: 6,296
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Faldage: My reference for Oed was Sophocles...
And, yes, it wasn't an ology site per se, but it was a site to access ologies and no one had even gotten me that close. I wonder whether siteology is a fast-growing study?
WW
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