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#54215 01/29/02 12:50 PM
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Knowing of the interest here in nautical terms, may I commend today’s M-W Word of the Day, for anyone who hasn’t yet seen it? Although I suspect most of us knew parts of the story, I certainly didn’t know the full thread of grog’s etymological weave...

[…]Based on surface resemblance, you might guess that "logy" (also sometimes spelled "loggy") is related to "groggy," but that's not the case. "Groggy" comes from "Old Grog," the nickname of an English admiral who was notorious for his cloak made of a fabric called grogram, and for adding water to his crew's rum. The sailors called the rum mixture "grog" after the admiral. Because of the effect of grog, "groggy" came to mean "weak and unsteady on the feet or in action..."

http://www.Merriam-Webster.com



So we have this wonderful process of language change by transfer over time:
1. gros grain from the old French, meaning ‘coarse grain’
2. Grogram, (n) a coarse cloth of silk and mohair
3. ‘Old Grog’ (proper noun), passing by popular association to become the nickname for Admiral Vernon (1684–1757) who wore such a cloak
4. Grog (n) a mixture of rum and water - thus passing on again by association to one of his creations (1740)
5. groggy (adj), movement affected by grog
6. groggy (adj), by analogy: punch-drunk or drowsy
7. groggily (adv), and grogginess (n) descriptions of this condition

[/weaving] ~ or maybe not..!




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Sideburns-- has a shorter but similar history..

in the mid 1800 large side whiskers were popular.. a US General Sideburns sported a large bushy set of such whiskers, and they became know as sideburns..

whiskers of that style are no longer stylish, but hair forward of, and lower then the top of the ear continue to be called sideburns.. no matter how long or short.

most women don't have much hair forward of their ears--

before puberty, its easy to tell what hair and what is facial hair..but how do you tell once a man beard comes in? is the texture of the hair different..It seems to be.. but is it gradual or dramatic?
but where does its start to change? and the color can be different.. the change in color is gradual, i know.
(my son has med, ash hair, but his beard is lighter, closer to blond.. except, around his mouth, where it is definately red!)

hirsute men responces are welcome.


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hirsute men responces are welcome.

Jeez, Helen, what is this, a dating agency?

The facial hair starts elongating into sideburns around puberty, and grows more wiry as the hormones kick in - prior to that, there is that charming little descriptive phrase current in the UK at least, referring to this soft growth of hair as bumfluff


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hirsute men responces are welcome.

Or their wives, I hope! My husband has got "dirty blond" hair and his beard is red, with blond parts near his lips. Since his current hairstyle is "apply electric clippers until hair is an even length", and he was wearing sideburns till recently (I just love them!) and I'm the one who gets to do the clipper-ing, I can tell you that the sideburn hair starts just in front of his ears - kind of where a woman's hair ends. It's definitely thicker and coarser than his head hair, which is quite fine and soft. In his case, it's also a completely different colour. Also, I am not "allowed" to do his sideburns - apparently there's more art to it than I am capable of (fine by me!). I just trim his head. My job ends where his sideburns start.


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hirsute men responces are welcome.

In that case, I defer to Faldage

PS Nice post, mav!! Live and learn....


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Oh, my ASp. I was going to let you have this one.


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re:this soft growth of hair as bumfluff and the Xrefer thread--

in US its peach fuzz at least most commonly- but i have heard young boys described as "having no more beard than a newborn's bottom"

lots of baby's get born hairy-- i don't know why or what percentage.. but its not uncommon to see new borns covered with down hair. by the time they are a month old or so, it goes away..


#54222 01/29/02 07:08 PM
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no Caesar am I

Non Caesar sum, said Max.

In case anyone missed it


#54224 01/29/02 08:08 PM
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yes, i really was married, and i did live with a man for 20 years.. but he hated face hair-- he never had a 5 o'clock shadow.. if he had to shave twice in a day, so be it..

so what is an impirial?
Gimme a year, and I might be able to do you an imperial, maybe.
(my son fell a bit far from the tree-- his alter ego name on the net is eli the bearded.)



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