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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Carminative A charm medicine. Magic and charms were at one time the chief “medicines,” and the fact is perpetuated by the word carminative, among others. Carminatives are given to relieve flatulence. (Latin, carmen, a charm.)
I was taught that carminatives were medicines that promoted belching, as the peppermint in many antacids. My bottle of Tums doesn't have it listed, just says 'natural flavor'. I thought that "carminative" meant they made you "sing". Joke on me.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Cassiopeia [the lady in the chair ]. The chief stars of this constellation form the outline of a chair. The lady referred to is the wife of Cepheus (2 syl.), King of Ethiopia. She boasted that the beauty of her daughter Andromeda surpassed that of the sea-nymphs. The sea-nymphs complained to the sea god of this affront, and Andromeda, to appease their wrath, was chained to a rock to be devoured by sea-monsters. Perseus (2 syl.) delivered her, and made her his wife. The vain mother was taken to heaven out of the way, and placed among the stars.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Cassiterides (5 syl.). The tin islands, generally supposed to be the Scilly Islands and Cornwall, but probably the isles in Vigo Bay are meant. It is said that the Veneti procured tin from Cornwall, and carried it to the Isles of Vigo Bay, but kept as a profound secret the place from which they obtained it. The Phoenicians were the chief customers of the Veneti.
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,735 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,735 Likes: 2 |
the US Army Medical Corps errs in using as its symbol a caduceus with two snakes. The caduceus of Aesclapius the god of healing had only one snake
In ancient times [my parasitology professor informed the class lo these many years ago] removing a long parasitic roundworm from under the skin was not simple. If you gave it a yank it would snap and re-grow; the only way to get the whole thing out was to apply a steady gradual pull. (As with Silly Putty.) So the practitioner had to attach one end to a stick, apply gentle tension, and gradually wind the worm around the stick as it slowly emerged. When the last length came out, you had a stick with one coil wrapped around it. Voila! the Caduceus, symbol of the healer.
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
re: The vain mother was taken to heaven out of the way, and placed among the stars.
and hangs upside down in the heavens.. chained to her chair.. as further punishment for her vanity!
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Kernel (Anglo-Saxon, cyrnel, a diminutive of corn; seed in general), whence acorn (the ác or oak corn).
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833 |
I feel like a lone puppy baying at the moon.
Don't worry, Unca Bill, you're not alone in here. It's just...the info is coming in so fast and furious, I for one am having trouble keeping up with it all, let alone commenting on it! - but I AM enjoying it.
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Roman senators were distinguished by their shoes, which were sandalled across the instep and up the ankles.
The Emperor Caligula made his horse, Incitatus, a Roman Senator. I wonder what the horses shoes were like?
dxb
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Joined: Mar 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
The tin islands, generally supposed to be the Scilly Islands
"Scilly" used here means sacred. The word silly, generally taken as similar in meaning to foolish, also means happy or lucky and a "silly" person (what the country folk once called "simple") was thought to be protected and thus in a sense sacred. The English county that I live in used to be known as silly Sussex because of its numerous churches.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
So, silly Sussex would be sacred Sussex? Amazing. I would never have gathered that! Thanks for the information.
And I guess a silly Scicillian there would have been considered to be a sacred Scicillian, yes?
Puts a completely new turn on the phrase "silly goose." Don't suppose geese were considered to be sacred way back then, were they?
Beatific regards, WW
Sorry I don't know how to spell (yet) Scicillian. Don't know whether it has one or two "l's."
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