#69707
05/12/2002 7:10 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
When reading it is a pleasure to encounter the lesser used definitions of common words. A couple of my favorites are... [definitions courtesy of Meriam-Webster]
(1) Traffic The commercial exchange of goods; trade. Illegal or improper commercial activity: drug traffic on city streets. Mr. Jones was sent to jail for trafficking in narcotics.
(2) Fell transitive verb: to cut, knock, or bring down: KILL The lumberjack felled the tree with a few strokes of his axe.
[The adjective form, meaning "all at once also or with a single concentrated effort," as in in one fell swoop is another interesting use of "fell." Yet another use of "fell" is to mean "FIERCE, CRUEL, TERRIBLE b : SINISTER, MALEVOLENT (a fell purpose) c : very destructive : DEADLY (a fell disease)." This use of "fell" has a different etymology from the first definition, and is related to the word "felon."]
(3) Terrible: exciting extreme alarm or intense fear; TERRIFYING: formidable in nature; AWESOME a terrible responsibility.
I wonder if anyone else has words of this ilk that they enjoy coming across?
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#69708
05/12/2002 7:32 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
Habit a particular costume or dress.. obs., now, except as a nun's habit. but used in the first bit of text i posted (thank, in part to My dear Mr. Bingley) in the small feast thread.
and
truck to exchange, or barter, (and payment, or even vegetable (ie, a truck farm)) or dealings, I'll have no truck with the likes of him!
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#69709
05/12/2002 8:30 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
``Non amo te, Zabidi, nec possum dicere quare;
Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te.''
by Martial which Tom Brown translated to
I do not like thee, Dr. Fell
The reason why I cannot tell,
But this I know, I know full well,
I do not like thee, Dr. Fell.
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#69710
05/12/2002 9:14 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
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#69711
05/13/2002 1:07 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
Well the past tense of to fall would be the use I encounter more often, but I don't consider to fell to be completely obscure either. As you said, you live in and around logging, so you encounter the phoneme in a different setting there. I am more likely to hear "my grandmother fell three times this month" than "we felled a great spruce tree the other day."
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#69712
05/13/2002 1:18 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
My dictionary says "fall" as a transitive is Dialectical
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#69713
05/14/2002 12:06 AM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200 |
I do not like thee,¹ Dr. Fell
The reason why I cannot tell,
But this I know, I know full well,
I do not like thee,¹ Dr. Fell.
¹[I recall that as "love thee".]
In response, dr. bill:
A doctor fell into a well
And broke his collarbone.
Moral: Doctor, mind the sick
And leave the well alone.
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#69714
05/14/2002 12:50 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
How some things change. I can remember hearing in the twenties a joke about a psychiatrist writing a letter to parents of a of a young lady telling them "she needed more social intercourse". His secretary got him into hot water by typing that as "sexual intercourse". Now that last word is not used for anything else.Imagine trying to tell that joke now.
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#69715
05/14/2002 4:19 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
In reply to:
How some things change. I can remember hearing in the twenties a joke about a psychiatrist writing a letter to parents of a of a young lady telling them "she needed more social intercourse". His secretary got him into hot water by typing that as "sexual intercourse". Now that last word is not used for anything else.Imagine trying to tell that joke now.
No doubt when the girl's father read that he ejaculated "Good lord!" ejaculate: to utter suddenly and vehemently
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#69716
05/15/2002 6:42 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
And what, may I ask, is wrong with ejaculating during social intercourse? It's jest nacheral!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#69717
05/15/2002 7:16 PM
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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 CK Just be sure to operate the right end.
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#69718
05/15/2002 7:18 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Which reminds me of ancient story about King and his jester getting lost in the woods. By the time they were rescued, the king was so hungry he was at his wit's end.
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#69719
05/15/2002 11:38 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
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#69720
05/16/2002 12:27 AM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200 |
Regarding half-wits and wit's end: The Yarn of the 'Nancy Bell' by W. S. Gilbert, before he hooked up with A. Sullivan. (Perhaps of particular interest to the nautically oriented.) http://www.stormy.ca/marine/nancy_bell.html
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#69721
05/16/2002 12:36 AM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200 |
No doubt when the girl's father read that he ejaculated "Good lord!"Kiwi: And what, may I ask, is wrong with ejaculating during social intercourse? It's jest nacheral!Just so, Kiwi. 'tis a normal and desired incident of conversation. [per definition #5 at http://onlinedictionary.datasegment.com/word/conversation]
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#69722
05/16/2002 12:40 AM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200 |
Traffic: The commercial exchange of goods; trade.
As in, "Charge as much as the traffic will bear."
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