#73463
06/19/2002 3:57 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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"Abeyance really means something gaped after (French, bayer, to gape). The allusion is to men standing with their mouths open, in expectation of some sight about to appear." From Dict.Phrase and Fable http://www.bootlegbooks.com/Reference/PhraseAndFable/data/115.html
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#73464
06/19/2002 7:11 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Acme The crisis of a disease. Old medical writers used to divide the progress of a disease into four periods: the ar-che, or beginning; the anabasis, or increase, the acme, or term of its utmost violence, and the pa-rac-me, or decline. Figuratively, the highest point of anything.
"anabasis" as a term for stage of an illness I never heard of before I remember it only from:
Xenophon: Anabasis, or March Up Country
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#73465
06/19/2002 7:18 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Acrobat means one who goes on his extremities , or uses only the tips of his fingers and toes in moving
about. (It is from the two Greek words, akros baino, to go on the extremities of one's limbs.)
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#73466
06/19/2002 8:19 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yes, these are surprises, wwh. Acrobats have always seemed to go to extremeties in my way of thinking. Especially the ones who move upward to flying in the air. It makes me nuts thinking about the things they do, especially the ones who have done so without nets. Nuts without nets. Deaths without nets. Come to think of it, would you still call the person who is a highwire artist an acrobat? And is there any connection between "baino" and the bat itself that truly does go flying through the air with the greatest of ease?
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#73467
06/19/2002 8:20 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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I have never before seen translation of "auto da fé"
Act of Faith (auto da fé) in Spain, is a day set apart by the Inquisition for the punishment of heretics, and
the absolution of those who renounce their heretical doctrines. The sentence of the Inquisition is also so
called; and so is the ceremony of burning, or otherwise torturing the condemned.
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#73468
06/19/2002 8:23 PM
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Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Where in the "a's" are you reading, wwh?
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#73469
06/19/2002 9:31 PM
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Dear WW: I'm at "adore" . It surprised me:
Adore (2 syl.) means to "carry to one's mouth" "to kiss" (ad-os, ad-orare). The Romans performed
adoration by placing their right hand on their mouth and bowing. The Greeks paid adoration to kings by
putting the royal robe to their lips. The Jews kissed in homage: thus God said to Elijah he had 7,000 in
Israel who had not bowed unto Baal, "every mouth which hath not kissed him" (1 Kings xix. 18; see also
Hos. xiii. 2). "Kiss the Son lest He be angry" (Psalm ii. 12), means worship, reverence the Son. Even in
England we do homage by kissing the hand of the sovereign.
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#73470
06/19/2002 9:35 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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I never thought of this before:
Adroit properly means "to the right" (French, à droite). The French call a person who is not adroit
gauche (left-handed), meaning awkward, boorish.
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#73471
06/19/2002 9:47 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Æolic Digamma An ancient Greek letter (F), sounded like our w. Thus oinos with the digamma was
sounded woinos; whence the Latin vinum, our wine. Gamma, or g, hence digamma = double g.
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#73472
06/19/2002 9:59 PM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Affront properly means to stand front to front. In savage nations opposing armies draw up front to front
before they begin hostilities, and by grimaces, sounds, words, and all conceivable means, try to provoke
and terrify their vis-à-vis. When this "affronting" is over, the adversaries rush against each other, and the
fight begins in earnest.
Affront. A salute; a coming in front of another to salute.
"Only, sir, this I must caution you of, in your affront, or salute, never to move your hat." -
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#73473
06/20/2002 3:19 AM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
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Posts: 833 |
I never thought of this before
This is a great thread, Bill! - I had thought of this before - well, had it thought of for me and pointed out to me. Guess perhaps it's a Canajun/French thing. Apparently left-handed people dislike these terms and their definitions....!
Related: the term "sinister," from heraldry, also has to do with the left - and also has bad connotations in modern language. Another term lefties get tweaked about, or so I understand.
Which reminds me of one more thing, non-word related, to do with lefties: I heard once that if a pregnant woman gets an ultrasound to check on the baby's progress, it is more likely the baby will grow up left-handed, because something in the ultra-sound waves affects that portion of the development of the fetus. Anyone know anything more about this?
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
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#73474
06/20/2002 4:06 AM
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Posts: 618
addict
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...something in the ultra-sound waves affects that portion of the development of the fetus.
I doubt it.
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#73475
06/20/2002 1:15 PM
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Dear MG: one of the biggest fallacies in medical research is the old post hoc, propter hoc. I read that about ultrasound affecting handedness in New Scientist. I think it is baloney. If it could change handedness, it could cause other fetal defects, which have not been a problem so far.
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#73476
06/20/2002 1:57 PM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
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Ah, Bill, not everyone would agree with you that a change of handedness was a "fetal defect"! Hell, it makes sense to me. The brain runs brain waves, yes? An ultrasound uses waves also, yes? Doesn't seem implausible to me that the latter might interfere with the former. Maybe it does interfere in more ways than we are yet cognizant of - but obviously not deleterious ways (just as the hand thing is not deleterious - just not desirable, to my way of thinking, because unfortunately this is a right-handed world and lefties are at a bit of a disadvantage because of it). The brain is a mysterious and wonderful thing. Perhaps the most curious thing about it, is that we use it, to study it.  Will we ever plumb its depths? I'm guessing no. Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
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#73477
06/20/2002 2:56 PM
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Dear MG: I think that ;if the ultrasound could change one thing it could change more than one. When you speak of waves, remember apples and oranges.
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#73478
06/20/2002 6:09 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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We raised both beef and dairy cows, but never heard this word:
Agist To take the cattle of another to graze at a certain sum. The feeding of these beasts is called agistment. The words are from the Norman agiser (to be levant and couchant, rise up and lie down), because, says Coke, beasts are levant and couchant whilst they are on the land.
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#73479
06/20/2002 6:16 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Agnus-castus A shrub of the Vitex tribe, called agnos (chaste) by the Greeks, because the Athenian ladies, at the feast of
Ceres, used to strew their couches with vitex leaves, as a palladium of chastity. The monks, mistaking agnos (chaste) for agnus (a lamb), but knowing the use made of the plant, added castus to explain its character, making it chaste-lamb. (For another similar blunder, see I.H.S.)
I have heard of the element "palladium" but what does it mean in the quotation?
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#73480
06/20/2002 6:19 PM
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An etymology new to me:
Agog He is all agog, in nervous anxiety; on the qui vive, like a horse in clover. (French, à gogo, or vivre à gogo, to live in clover.)
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#73481
06/20/2002 6:27 PM
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Ague - a fever,usually malariall, marked by regularly occurring chills
Homer a Cure for the Ague It was an old superstition that if the fourth book of the Iliad was laid under the head of a patient suffering from quartan ague it would cure him at once. Serenus Sammonicus, preceptor of Gordian and a noted physician, vouched for this remedy.
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#73482
06/20/2002 10:04 PM
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Posts: 688
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Well, as far as a pregnant woman having ultrasound and that making her babies left handed....I had many sonograms while pregnant with my two right handed children. With my son, I had sonograms every other week for 6 months. I had been in a car accident and broken my back. The repeated tests showed where he was in relation to the break that could not be treated without aborting him. With the aid of a chiropractor and physically manipulating the position of my womb to move him off the tender area, I was able to carry him to full term and deliver by c-section. He and I were definitely both subjected to alot of waves!
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#73483
06/20/2002 10:29 PM
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Posts: 477
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We raised both beef and dairy cows, but never heard this word
I suspect that you always had enough grain/food/grass for your cattle then. I've heard this term used a fair bit - particularly when I was growing up in the country. People who lived in town on small blocks of land would often have the horses that their kids had as pets agisted on properties outside of town. My uncle who has a farm in one of the more arid regions of NSW occasionally agists his animals onto the property of a neighbour, who doesn't have animals, and pays a fee to do this (often in kind, rather than specific monetary amount - the barter system still operates in the country to a degree).
In Oz, the term 'agistment' implies more than just feeding, it includes the pasturing as well. On checking my facts, I find that the Macquarie Australian Dictionary says:
agist
// verb (t) 1. to take in and feed or pasture (livestock) for payment. 2. to lay a public burden, as a tax, on (land or its owner). [Middle English, from Old French à to + giste resting-place]
--agistment, noun
--agistor, noun
Hmmm... interesting!
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#73484
06/21/2002 1:35 AM
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Posts: 11,066 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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...the term "sinister," from heraldry, also has to do with the left - and also has bad connotations in modern language
I seem to recall that way back when, as the Spanish language was evolving from Latin and "dexter" (L. right) became Spanish "derecho," there was sufficient unhappiness with the evil connotations of "sinister" that it was rejected entirely. In seeking a more neutral word for "left" they borrowed from the Basque language up in the Pyrenees mountains, whence the present "izquierda."
Any linguists still participating who can refine my recollection?
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#73485
06/21/2002 12:52 PM
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Sinister got its bad reputation from necessity of using left hand to perform task now performed by toilet paper. Remember the story about the Roman captured by Etruscans, who demonstrated his courage by
holding his right hand in a flame until it was destroyed. He acquired nickname that became added to family
name: "Scaevola" which literally means "shitwing". In those days the left hand had a bad reputation.
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#73486
06/21/2002 3:18 PM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
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"dexter" (L. right)
and to be "dexterous" is seen as a good thing....good for the Spaniards for trying to be fair.
Unca Bill, I did NOT KNOW that disgusting detail! but now it makes me wonder when toilet paper came along? o, and bidets....I know people used to use pages from the Sears catalogue in the dunny/outhouse - when did rolls of toilet paper come to be? and does the bidet predate the roll of loo paper?
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
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#73487
06/21/2002 3:37 PM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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One for Wordwind, the hippopotamiphile:
Behemoth (Hebrew). The hippopotamus; once thought to be the rhinoceros. (See Job xl. 15.)
“Behold! in plaited mail,
Behemoth rears his head.”
Thomson: Summer, 709, 710.
The word is generally, but incorrectly, pronounced Behemoth; but Milton, like Thomson, places the
accent on the second syllable.
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#73488
06/21/2002 4:03 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Belfry A military tower, pushed by besiegers against the wall of a besieged city, that missiles may be
thrown more easily against the defenders. Probably a church steeple is called a belfry from its
resemblance to these towers, and not because bells are hung in it. (French, beffroi, a watch-tower, Old
French, berfreit, belefreit, from German, berg-frit, bergen, to protect, frit [vride], a place fenced in for
security.)
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#73489
06/21/2002 4:14 PM
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“Beacons were lighted upon crags and eminences; the bells were rung backwards in the
churches; and the general summons to arm announced an extremity of danger.”- Sir W. Scott.
The Betrothed. chap. iii.
How in hell can you ring a bell backwards?
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#73490
06/21/2002 5:32 PM
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Bevy A bevy of ladies. A throng or company; properly applied to roebucks, quails, and pheasants. Timid
gregarious animals, in self-defence, go down to a river to drink in bevies or small companies. Ladies, from
their timidity, are placed in the same category (Italian, bevere, to drink)
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#73491
06/21/2002 5:35 PM
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Biæum in rhetoric, means converting the proof into a disproof. As thus: That you were the murderer is
proved by your being on the spot at the time. Reply: Just the contrary, if I had been the guilty person
most certainly I should have run away. (Greek, biaion.)
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#73492
06/21/2002 5:45 PM
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Bias The weight in bowls (bowling balls) which makes them deviate from the straight line; hence any favourite idea or
pursuit, or whatever predisposes the mind in a particular direction.
Bowls are not now loaded, but the bias depends on the shape of the bowls. They are flattened on one
side, and therefore roll obliquely.
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#73493
06/21/2002 7:53 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Bird of Este The white eagle, thecognisance of the house.
A word not in my dictionary, but quite possibly a useful addition to logo,icon, symbol and emblem
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#73494
06/21/2002 8:05 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Bitter End (The ). A outrance; with relentless hostility; also applied to affliction, as, “she bore it to the
bitter end,” meaning to the last stroke of adverse fortune. “All Thy waves have gone over me, but I have
borne up under them to the bitter end.” Here “bitter end” means the end of the rope. The “bitter-end” is a
sea term meaning “that part of the cable which is “abaft the bitts.” When there is no windlass the cables
are fastened to bitts, that is, pieces of timber so called; and when a rope is payed out to the bitter-end, or
to these pieces of timber, all of it is let out, and no more remains. However, we read in Prov. v. 4, “Her
end is bitter as wormwood,” which, after all, may be the origin of the phrase.
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#73495
06/21/2002 8:58 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Black Maria The black van which conveys prisoners from the police courts to jail. The French call a
mud-barge a “Marie-salope.” The tradition is that the van referred to was so called from Maria Lee, a
negress, who kept a sailors' boarding house in Boston. She was a woman of such great size and strength
that the unruly stood in dread of her, and when constables required help, it was a common thing to send
for Black Maria, who soon collared the refractory and led them to the lock-up. So a prison-van was called
a “Black Maria.”
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#73496
06/21/2002 9:09 PM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Black Sea So called from the abounding black rock in the extensive coal-fields between the Bosphorus
and Heracle'a.
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#73497
06/24/2002 1:30 AM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Boa Pliny says the word is from bos (a cow), and arose from the supposition that the boa sucked the milk of cows.
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#73498
06/24/2002 1:48 AM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Lorena did it
Bobbit If it isn't weel bobbit we'll bob it again. If it is not done well enough, we will try again. To bob is to dance, and
literally the proverb means, “If it is not well danced, we will dance over again.”
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#73499
06/24/2002 2:10 AM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Bolero A Spanish dance; so called from the name of the inventor.
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#73500
06/24/2002 1:22 PM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Bosh A Persian word meaning nonsense. It was popularised in 1824 by James Morier in his Adventures of Hajji Baba of
Ispahan, a Persian romance. (Turkish, bosh lakerdi, silly talk.)
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#73501
06/24/2002 1:36 PM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Botch A patch. Botch and patch are the same word; the older form was bodge, whence boggle. (Italian pezzo, pronounced patzo.) (this shows how old the text is. To me "botch" means to spoil or do badly.)
Bother i.e. pother (Hibernian). Halliwell gives us blother, which he says means to chatter idly.
“ `Sir,' cries the umpire, `cease your pother,
The creature's neither one nor t'other.' ”
The Irish bódhar (buaidhirt, trouble), or its cognate verb, to deafen, seems to be the original word.
(again, to me bother means to disturb, annoy.)
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#73502
06/24/2002 4:10 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Boudoir properly speaking, is the room to which a lady retires when she is in the sulks. (French, bouder,
to pout or sulk.)
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