|
|
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1
stranger
|
OP
stranger
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1 |
When I first saw your opening statement, I immediately thought of a great quote from Robert Heinlein: A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. -Robert A. Heinlein I doubt this week's words are THAT diversified, but still...  Thank you, again, for so many great words and great quotes. Spaggis
Courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other. ~Samuel Johnson
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,922 Likes: 3
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,922 Likes: 3 |
I certainly can never hope to be that well diversified.
Welcome.
----please, draw me a sheep----
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
I copied your post and PM'ed it to Anu, Hag-I-mean-Spaggis.  He seldom/never reads this board as far as I know. Welcome to you.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1
stranger
|
|
stranger
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1 |
Today's word, jactitation, made me think of a slang term that my middle school students used to use (I've been teaching elementary school recently, and I haven't heard the term). The slang term is "jack," and I have heard it used as "stealing" ("He jacked my pencil!") and as "annoying" or "teasing" ("I'm just jackin' with ya.")
I'm guessing that the "stealing" sense is a shortened form of "highjacked," but I'm wondering whether the "annoying" sense is a shortened form of jactitation.
Thanks for years of great words!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1
stranger
|
|
stranger
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1 |
Another usage for 'bagman' is an assistant. Certainly it is used in this context in the Police. For fans of crime fiction, Sergeant Lewis could be described as Chief Inspector Morse's bagman. It was a slightly disparaging term, implying that the assistant's main function was to carry his boss's briefcase.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,922 Likes: 3
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,922 Likes: 3 |
Today's word, jactitation, made me think of a slang term that my middle school students used to use (I've been teaching elementary school recently, and I haven't heard the term). The slang term is "jack," and I have heard it used as "stealing" ("He jacked my pencil!") and as "annoying" or "teasing" ("I'm just jackin' with ya.")
I'm guessing that the "stealing" sense is a shortened form of "highjacked," but I'm wondering whether the "annoying" sense is a shortened form of jactitation.
.
Thanks for years of great words! I taught high school for decades. Term "jacked" as you describe it with middle school students was in use years ago here.
Last edited by LukeJavan8; 05/25/10 03:36 PM.
----please, draw me a sheep----
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 655
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 655 |
Same here.
Also as a substitute for the f-word as in the phrase, "Dude, that is like so jacked up."
Also as a substitute for the phrase "fired up" as in, "Dude, I am like so jacked up over this concert."
Absent the explanation for one's jackedness, this phrase references a drug-induced condition involving one of the amphetamines, which themselves are sometimes called "jack" for the effect they have: "Dude, I am like so jacked [up]."
And note the intentional avoidance of any contractions, which seems to be a means of adding emphasis in this (surprisingly long-lived) argot.
"I don't know which is worse: ignorance or apathy. And, frankly, I don't care." - Anonymous
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Welcome, Sammie and Clive. I'm wondering whether the "annoying" sense is a shortened form of jactitation.
Maybe drifted over from jerk, as in jerking your chain?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
jactitation, to me, looks like a frequentitive of jactation. ; )
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1
stranger
|
|
stranger
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1 |
Although Mr. Garg presents “tabby” as a “word with many unrelated meanings” and suggests the meanings for females derive from the name Tabitha, I’m suspicious. It’s all too common for women to be associated with animals (for example, think “bitch,” going all the way back to Semonides, not to mention the rest of his entire catalog of women based on animal-types). We have been taught to think of cats as quintessentially feminine: we remember the “cat on a hot tin roof” and have learned that women are “catty” and possess a “pussy.” In a more than $1 billion global business, the Japanese have marketed “Hello Kitty” products to girls and young women. (In 2010 Bank of America brought out a Hello Kitty debit card to teach girls 10-15 years old “to learn great money-management skills.” ) Thus, it seems more likely that the word “tabby” derived its application to females as the result of all too familiar and dehumanizing associations. What struck me especially, though, was the uncommented use of the term “spinster,” a word I had thought would be characterized by now as dated or derogatory. But when I looked it up in my American Heritage Dictionary (copyright 1985-91, it’s the “revised edition” of the 1976 version), it was similarly listed without any suggestion that it had become outmoded or offensive in meaning: a spinster is “1. A woman who has remained single beyond the conventional age for marrying; 2. An unmarried woman; 3. A woman whose occupation is spinning.” Additional terms were listed but not defined: “spinsterhood,” “spinsterish.” Apparently the negative associations with “spinster” were assumed to be commonly held and understood. Even worse, when I looked up “tabby” in the same dictionary, the meanings included “old maid,” and “a prying woman; gossip.” I am happy to report, however, that both the Oxford American Dictionary (Version 1.0.2, Copyright Apple Computer 2005) that is part of my software and the dictionary that is part of my Microsoft Office 2008 suite are more enlightened. They inform us that the term “spinster” should be regarded as “derogatory” or “offensive” and “dated”; even the female occupational spinner of yarn has become “archaic.” (For more, see my blog on this topic: "Of Words and Women: Dictionaries and their Discontents" at http://www.fembio.org/biographie.php/fra...ir-discontents/Cheers, RJH
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,412
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
927
guests, and
4
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
