#71570
05/28/2002 12:04 PM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 4
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 4 |
In certain political circles, they insist on spelling this "nader", as in Ralph, with the same definition!
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#71571
05/28/2002 12:22 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 statwomanma: Ralph Nader seems to have an equal number of admirers and enemies. So strongly do those who despise him feel, that it is restraint on their part to do nothing more than use a mocking reference to his name. When I first learned about him, I strongly suspected he was mentally ill. I have to say now that I must have been wrong.
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#71572
05/28/2002 12:24 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
What are some other useful (or even useless) words for "lowest point"?
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#71573
05/28/2002 12:30 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
In certain political circles, they insist on spelling this "nader", as in Ralph, with the same definition!That's precisely what I thought when I saw today's word!  Great (or is it grate) minds in the same gutter? While politically allied with Ralph, I think of Jim Hightower and Molly Ivins in Zenith terms! What surprised me is that nadir had a French connection, and did not come directly into English through Arabic. I understand the Spanish connections of Arabic words, but how French?
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#71574
05/28/2002 12:46 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 |
From Takeourword.com Issue 89
This word comes ultimately from Arabic nador, and there are cognates in
Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian nadir "opposite to". Its earliest
meaning in English was "a point in the heavens diametrically opposite to some
other point, especially to the sun." Chaucer used it in 1391: "The nadir of
the sonne is thilke degree Şat is opposit to the degree of the sonne, in the 7
signe, as thus, euery degree of aries bi ordre is nadir to euery degree of
libra by ordre." By the 15th century the word had taken on the meaning
"The point of the heavens diametrically opposite to the zenith; the point
directly under the observer." It is not until the late 18th century that we
find the word used in its figurative sense of "the lowest point (of anything);
the place or time of greatest depression or degradation," as in this quote
from Henry Hallam's History of Literature: "The seventh century is the
nadir of the human mind in Europe.
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#71576
05/29/2002 3:10 AM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320 |
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#71577
05/29/2002 8:38 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Oh, and that was a pit I'd hoped had bottomed-out. Mebbe 'tis better to consider zeniths and acmes...
Bottoms regurgitated,
WordsWin
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#71578
05/29/2002 11:34 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
What are some other useful (or even useless) words for "lowest point"?
"The peak of despair"
"A mountain of debt"
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#71579
05/29/2002 8:10 PM
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688 |
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#71580
05/29/2002 8:28 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 |
rock bottom" = Pygmalion's girlfriend in beginning
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#71581
05/29/2002 8:36 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
"rock bottom" = Pygmalion's girlfriend in beginningDr. Bill, If I were TEd I'd begin to worry about my position as Eminent Punster.
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#71582
05/29/2002 8:47 PM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
What are some other useful (or even useless) words for "lowest point"?
Maybe abyssal or abysmal, but I'm reminded by a post below of the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities, my favorite of any book.
It was the best of times, it was worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.
In short, the period was so far like the present period that some of its
noisiest authorities insisted on its being recieved, for good or for evil,
in the superlative degree of comparison only.
k
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#71583
05/29/2002 9:08 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
rock bottom
Sure I've told this one before, but it still makes me chuckle.
Many moons ago a local ("shoegazer") band issued a bunch of promotional stickers, which were all over town:
THE REGULAR GUYS
How low can you get?
At the bottom of one of them a wag scribbled:
Lower.
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#71584
05/29/2002 9:21 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
acmes...Ya been watchin' Road Runner cartoons, Dub Dub?
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#71585
05/29/2002 9:23 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Ya been watchin' Road Runner cartoons, Dub Dub?
Yeah, Wile E. Coyote--ain't he a blast?
TNT regards,
DubDub
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#71586
05/29/2002 9:45 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 |
"acme" Then there is the "acne" of perfection, achieved by so many.
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