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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
This was in the Quinion citation. It's obsolete for fur trader. Did fur used to be fell? Also, I did not know the meaning of fey, as given in the Straight Dope site. I'd always thought it did mean otherworldly, but not particularly associated with death. And, speaking of sayings, I wrote to someone that I had cooked "up a storm" the other day. My mother always used that expression. Is this common in other places, to mean "a lot"? Hmm, come to think of it, it usually means to do a lot in one fell swoop! 
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
Funny, I'd always thought that it was Catullus. Must have been thrown in by the teacher after Odi et Amo, hence the confusion. http://www.latinteach.com/latinlit.html
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Jackie: "cooking up a storm" I believe owes its origin to superstition of sailors that they could induce favorable winds by suitable rituals which took many forms. And careless behaviour could prevent desired weather from coming.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Birds of prey can swoop, but I seem to remember that the falconers call it a "stoop". I have a couple times seen peregrine falcons stoop on a pigeon, with an explosion of feathers awesome to behold. And I remember Oliver Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer" but never knew in what sense the word was used in the title. I invite members to express opinions on that while I finish reading the play to find out.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
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ah, but do they call themselves fellmongers, or fur dealers? or taxidermist? tanners? or what?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Okay! now will some one tell me what slipe wools are?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
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