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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
just got this from a hurricane messageboard on ABC.com...always wondered where levee came from (no, I never LIU):
>A levee or levée (from the feminine past participle of the French verb lever, 'to raise') is a natural or artificial embankment or ****, usually earthen, which parallels the course of a river. The word seems to have come into English through its use in colonial Louisiana<
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Holy cow--take a look at Gurunet's second def., #1; do people actually do this?
lev·ee1 (lĕv'ç)
n.
1. An embankment raised to prevent a river from overflowing.
2. A small ridge or raised area bordering an irrigated field.
3. A landing place on a river; a pier.
tr.v., lev·eed, lev·ee·ing, lev·ees.
To provide with a levee.
[French levée, from Old French levee, from feminine past participle of lever, to raise. See lever.]
lev·ee2 (lĕv'ç, lə-vç', -vâ')
n.
1. A reception held, as by royalty, upon arising from bed.
2. A formal reception, as at a royal court.
[From French lever, a rising, from Old French, from lever, to raise, rise. See lever.]
Maybe I'd get up earlier if I had a reception waiting for me...
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Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
John and Yoko held one that went on for several days
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Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
In one of the scenes cut from Hello Dolly, Dolly and her friends donned their jeans and went out and had a gathering at which they built an embankment, for which a tax had been coollected to defray the expenses; the tax was known as --Levi's Levis' Levee Levee Levee.
TEd
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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 500
addict
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addict
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 500 |
The Governor General of Canada holds events called levees, but I don't believe he or she holds them in his or her bedroom.
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Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
And there's one in the first act of Der Rosenkavalier
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Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
:: gets largest foam bat ::
:: beats TEd ::
*bop* *bop* *bop* *bopbop* *bopbopbopbopbopbopbopbop-
bopbopbopbopbopbopbopbopbopbopbopbopbopbop-
bopbopbopbopbopbopbopbopbopbopbopbopbopbopbop*
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
hey Spart, you wanna cut TEd a little slack and cut a few bops? made the screen go all widey... :P
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
hey, Sp'ye? you made my screen go wide with all that boppin'!
-joe <thwack> bfstplk
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Boy, you guys have narrow screens. Or really big fonts. 
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Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Levi's Levis' Levee Levee Levee.
Far be it from me to spoil a sport, but shouldn't that be "Levi's Levis' Levee Levee Levy"?
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
> narrow screens
1024 X 768
> big fonts
thank you very much <smile>
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
>narrow screens
19" FPD
>big fonts
don't talk like that to an OP!
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
Yup. Somewhere deep down inside I knew that, really I did. Just forgot to write it that way! Thanks for catching it!
TEd
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
Interesting that this should come up here. I had also seen (and wondered about) the word in English-language news on the flooding. And later, in a German-language paper I found the phrase..nicht ein Damm, sondern eine Flutwand. quite clearly making a distinction between a dam and a levee.
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