#74691
07/01/2002 3:08 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
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Entelechy The kingdom of Queen Quintessence in the famous satirical romance of Rabelais called
the History of Gargantua and Pantagruel'. Pantagruel and his companions went thither in search
of the Holy Bottle. It may be called the city of speculative science.
The word is used to express the realisation of a beau ideal. Lovers have preconceived notions of human perfections, and imagine that they see the realities in the person beloved, who is the entelechy of their beau ideal.
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#74692
07/01/2002 3:16 PM
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Enthusiast is one who believes that he himself is in God, or that God is in him (Greek, en theos). Our word inspired is very
similar, being the Latin in spiritu (in the spirit).
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#74693
07/01/2002 3:18 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Ephebi Youths between the age of eighteen and twenty were so called at Athens. (Greek, arrived at puberty.)
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#74694
07/01/2002 3:22 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
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Our word inspired is very similar, being the Latin in spiritu (in the spirit).
What does that say about perspire? I'd thought the -spire- root concerned breath ("respiration").
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#74695
07/01/2002 3:22 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Episode (3 syl.) is the Greek epieis-odos (coming in besides - i.e. adventitious), meaning an adventitious tale introduced into the main story.
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#74696
07/01/2002 3:24 PM
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Epistle is something sent to another. A letter sent by messenger or post. (Greek, epi-stello.)
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#74697
07/01/2002 3:39 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Excalibur (Ex cal [ce] liber [atus]). Liberated from the stone. The sword which Arthur drew out of the stone, whereby he proved himself to be the king. (See Sword.)
As many times as I read the King Arthur stories, I never heard this before.
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#74698
07/01/2002 3:44 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Excelsior Aim at higher things still. It is the motto of the New York State, and has been made popular by Longfellow's poem so named. Used also as the synonym of super-excellent.
When I was a boy, all my father's medicines came packed with fine square cross-sectioned strands of
pine, which was called "excelsior". i could not understand the Longfellow poem: Shades of night were
falling fast, when through an Alpine village passed a youth whose banner bore this strange device:
Excelsior"
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#74699
07/01/2002 5:07 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Farthing A fourth part. Penny pieces used to be divided into four parts, thus, farthing, and two a halfpenny. (Anglo-Saxon,
feor- thung.)
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#74700
07/01/2002 5:12 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Fascination means "slain or overcome by the eyes." The allusion is to the ancient notion of
bewitching by the power of the eye. (Greek, baskaino, i.e. phaesi kaino, to kill with the eyes. See Valpy: Etymology of Greek Words, p. 23, col. 1; Latin. fascino.) (See Evil Eye.)
Joke on me. I thought it had something to do with the fasces, the bundle of rods carried as
symbol of the power of the consuls.
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#74701
07/01/2002 5:18 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Fast Girl or Young Lady (A) is one who talks slang, assumes the airs of a knowing one, and has
no respect for female delicacy and retirement. She is the ape of the fast young man.
I hope and pray that no AWADtalk members are "fast girls". Good for a laugh.Rember, the Dictionary
of Phrase and Fable from which these items were taken is over a hundread years old.
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#74702
07/01/2002 5:23 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Fata Morgana A sort of mirage occasionally seen in the Straits of Messina. Fata is Italian for a "fairy," and the fairy Morgana
was the sister of Arthur and pupil of Merlin. She lived at the bottom of a lake, and dispensed her treasures to whom she liked.
She is first introduced in the Orlando Innamorato as "Lady Fortune," but subsequently assumes her witch-like attributes. In
Tasso her three daughters are introduced.
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#74703
07/01/2002 7:31 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Fey Predestined to early death. When a person suddenly changes his wonted manner of life,
as when a miser becomes liberal, or a churl good-humoured, he is said in Scotch to be fey,
and near the point of death.
My dictionary still gives this as the first meaning, but I have only seen it used in the second
meaning striange, unusual, otherworldly
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#74704
07/01/2002 7:47 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Fi or Fie! An exclamation indicating that what is reproved is dirty or indecent. The dung of many animals, as the boar, wolf,
fox, marten, and badger, is called fiants, and the "orificium anale" is called a fi, a word still used in Lincolnshire.
(Anglo-Norman, fay, to clean out; Saxon, afylan, to foul: our defile or file, to make foul; filth, etc.)
The old words, fie-corn (dross corn), fi-lands (unenclosed lands), fi-mashings (the dung of any wild beast), etc., are
compounds of the same word.
Fie on Keiva.
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#74705
07/01/2002 8:07 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Findon Haddocks Haddocks smoked with green wood. (See Sir W. Scott: The Antiquary, xxvi.)
Findon or Finnon is a village some six miles south of Aberdeen, where haddocks are cured.
I haven't had finnan haddie for years. How about you, wow?
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#74706
07/01/2002 8:26 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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I used to fall
In love with all
Those boys who call
On young cuties
But now I find
I'm all inclined
To keep my mind
On my duties
Since I've begun to share
In such a sweet love affair
Though I'm in love, I'm not above
A date with a duke or a caddie
It's just a pose, 'cause my baby knows
That my heart belongs to daddy
When some good scout, invites me out
To dine om some fine finnan haddie
My baby's sure, his love is secure
Cause my heart belongs to daddy
Yes my heart belongs to daddy
So I simply couldn't be bad
Yes I'm gonna marry daddy
Da-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ad
If you feel romantic laddy
Let me warn you right from the start
That my heart belongs to daddy
And my daddy belongs to my heart
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#74707
07/01/2002 8:34 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Fir-cone on the Thyrsus. The juice of the fir-tree (turpentine) used to be
mixed by the Greeks with new wine to make it keep; hence it was adopted as one of
the symbols of Bacchus.
A lecturer on biochemistry told us Roman ladies drank small amounts of turpentine, because
it made their urine smell like lavender. Perhaps this is how they learned it. But when I
asked the lecturer for whose benefit the lavender odor was, he had no answer.
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#74708
07/01/2002 8:56 PM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 475
addict
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addict
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 475 |
douglas adams, 'fir cone is an anagram of conifer, now don't tell me thats a coincidence!'
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#74709
07/02/2002 2:59 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Flotsam and Jetson Waifs found in the sea or on the shore. "Flotsam,"
goods found floating on the sea after a a wreck."Jetson," or Jetsam, things
thrown out of a ship to lighten it. (Anglo-Saxon, flotan, to float; French,
jeter, to throw out.) (See Ligan.)
My dictionary does give meaning of "waif" = anything found by chance that
does not have an owner, but I have never seen it used except to mean
a homeless parentless child.
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#74710
07/02/2002 3:04 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Flowers at Funerals The Greeks crowned the dead body with flowers, and placed flowers
on the tomb also. The Romans decked the funeral couch with leaves and flowers, and
spread flowers, wreaths, and fillets on the tomb of friends. When Sulla was buried as
many as 2,000 wreaths were sent in his honour. Most of our funeral customs are derived
from the Romans; as dressing in black, walking in procession, carrying insignia on the bier,
raising a mound over the grave, called tumulus, whence our tomb.
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#74711
07/02/2002 3:07 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Fluke Hap-hazard. In billiards it means playing for one thing and getting another.
Hence an advantage gained by luck more than by skill or judgment.
(German, glück, chance, our luck.)
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#74712
07/02/2002 3:14 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Flunkey A livery servant. (Old French, flanquier, a henchman.)
H:enchman interests me. I believe, but have not been able to confirm,
that it derives from "hengist" meaning a knight's horse. When a knight
was in a street crowded with people, he had to have a trusted
servant, lead his horse by holding the side of the bridal, so knight
could that both hands free to defend himself from possible assassination
attempt.
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#74713
07/02/2002 3:30 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Fogie or Fogey. An old fogey. Properly an old military pensioner. This term is derived
from the old pensioners of Edinburgh Castle, whose chief occupation was to fire the
guns, or assist in quelling street riots. (Allied to fogat, phogot, voget, foged, fogde, etc.)
Spelled fogy, an old fogy is an old man out of touch with progress. In WWII, a captain
in grade for several years was entitled to wear small dark elevated emblems called fogies
on his bars that indicated his length of time in that grade, and seniority over other captains.
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#74714
07/02/2002 3:47 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Font in printing, sometimes called Fount, a complete set of type of any one size,
with all the usual points and accents; a font consists of about 100,000 characters.
The word is French, fonte, from fondre (to melt or cast).
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#74715
07/02/2002 3:51 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Foolscap A corruption of the Italian foglio-capo (folio-sized sheet). The error must have been very ancient, as the water-mark
of this sort of paper from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century was a fool's head, with cap and bells.
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#74716
07/02/2002 3:57 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Foot-lights To appear before the foot-lights. On the stage, where a row of lights is
placed in front along the floor to lighten it up.
I still remember the Christmas play in highschool, when one of the teachers thought
the footlights were not sufficient illuminaton, and turned a bright spotlite from
backstage onto a girl in angel costume, making it very clear that she had no
underwear on.
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#74717
07/02/2002 4:04 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Fourth Estate of the Realm (The). The daily press. The most powerful of all.
Burke, referring to the Reporters' Gallery, said,
"Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, more important than them all."
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#74718
07/02/2002 7:07 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Frangipani A powerful Roman family. So called from their benevolent distribution of bread during a famine.
Frangipani. A delicious perfume, made of spices, orris-root, and musk, in imitation of real Frangipani. Mutio Frangipani, the
famous Italian botanist, visited the West Indies in 1493. The sailors perceived a delicious fragrance as they neared Antigua, and
Mutio told them it proceeded from the Plumeria Alba. The plant was re-named Frangipani, and the distilled essence received
the same name.
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#74719
07/02/2002 7:10 PM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Frantic Brain-struck (Greek, phren, the heart as the seat of reason), madness being a disorder of the understanding.
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#74720
07/02/2002 7:20 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Friar's Heel The outstanding upright stone at Stonehenge is so called. Geoffrey of Monmouth says the devil bought the stones
of an old woman in Ireland, wrapped them up in a wyth, and brought them to Salisbury plain. Just before he got to Mount
Ambre the wyth broke, and one of the stones fell into the Avon, the rest were carried to the plain. After the fiend had fixed
them in the ground, he cried out, "No man will ever find out how these stones came here." A friar replied, "That's more than
thee canst tell," whereupon the foul fiend threw one of the stones at him and struck him on the heel. The stone stuck in the
ground, and remains so to the present hour.
I have seen the "heel stone" in pictures by never knew how it got its name.
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#74721
07/02/2002 7:41 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
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Funny Bone A pun on the word humerus. It is the inner condyle of the humerus; or,
to speak untechnically, the knob, or enlarged end of the bone terminating where
the ulnar nerve is exposed at the elbow; the crazy bone. A knock on this bone at
the elbow produces a painful sensation.
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#74722
07/02/2002 7:44 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Furbelow A corruption of falbala, a word in French, Italian, and Spanish to signify
a sort of flounce.
Not to be confused with the pubic hair.
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#74723
07/02/2002 7:49 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Futile (2 syl.) is that which will not hold together; inconsistent. A futile scheme is
a design conceived in the mind which will nothold good in practice. (Latin, futio,
to run off like water, whence futilis (See Scheme.)
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#74724
07/02/2002 7:53 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
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Gabardine' (3 syl.). A Jewish coarse cloak. (Spanish, gavardina, a long coarse cloak.)
Dear of troy: a fabric not named for place of origin. Put a mark on the wall.
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#74725
07/02/2002 8:10 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
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Galaxy (The). The "Milky Way." A long white luminous track of stars which seems
to encompass the heavens like a girdle.According to classic fable, it is the path to
the palace of Zeus (1 syl.) or Jupiter. (Greek, gala, milk, genitive, galaktos.)
A galaxy of beauty. A cluster, assembly, or coterie of handsome women.
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#74726
07/02/2002 8:45 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
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Gammut or Gamut g (hard). It is gamma ut, "ut" being the first word in the
Guido-von-Arrezzo scale of ut, re mi, fa, sol, la. In the eleventh century the
ancient scale was extended a note below the Greek proslambanomy note
(our A), the first space of the bass staff. The new note was termed g (gamma),
and when "ut" was substituted by Arrezzo the "supernumerary" note was called
gamma or ut, or shortly gamm' ut - i.e. "G ut." The gammut, therefore, properly
means the diatonic scale beginning in the bass clef with "G."
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#74727
07/02/2002 8:56 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Gargouille or Gargoil (g hard). A water-spout in church architecture. Sometimes alsospelt
Gurgoyle. They are usually carved into some fantastic shape, such as a dragon's head,
through which the water flows. Gargouille was the great dragon that lived in the Seine,
ravaged Rouen, and was slain by St. Romanus, Bishop of Rouen, in the seventh century.
(See Dragon.)
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#74728
07/02/2002 9:04 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Gaunt (g hard). John of Gaunt. The third son of Edward III.; so called from
Ghent, in Flanders, the place of his birth.
Note the pronunciation of "Ghent".
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#74729
07/02/2002 10:17 PM
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Posts: 13,858
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Gauntlet (g hard). To run the gantlet. To be hounded on all sides. Corruption of gantlope,
the passage between two files of soldiers. (German, ganglaufen or gassenlaufen.) The
reference is to a punishment common among sailors. If a companion had disgraced himself,
the crew, provided with gauntlets or ropes' ends, were drawn up in two rows facing each
other, and the delinquent had to run between them, while every man dealt him, in passing,
as severe a chastisement as he could.
The custom exists among the North American Indians. (See Fenimore Cooper
I can remember reading references to this, and the name never made sense to me.
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#74730
07/02/2002 10:33 PM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Genoa from the Latin, genu (the knee); so called from the bend made there by the Adriatic. The whole
of Italy is called a man's leg, and this is his knee.
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