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From Brewer: Let the jocks keep their 'rimshot", be a little Latin learned:
Rem Acu You have hit the mark; you have hit the nail on the head. Rem acu tetigisti (Plautus). A phrase
in archery, meaning, You have hit the white, or the bull's-eye.
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Dr Bill, interesting transference of meaning from the bull's-eye to the rim of a drum. Good research!
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From Brewer:
Ricochet [rikko-shay]. Anything repeated over and over again. The fabulous bird that had only one note
was called the ricochet; and the rebound on water termed ducks and drakes has the same name. Marshal
Vauban (1633-1707) invented a battery of rebound called the ricochet battery, the application of which
was ricochet firing.
ricochet
n.
Fr; used first in fable du ricochet (story in which the narrator constantly evades the hearers‘ questions) < ?6
1 the oblique rebound or skipping of a bullet, stone, etc. after striking a surface at an angle
2 a bullet, etc. that ricochets
vi.
3cheted# 73*ad#8 or 3chet#ted 73*et#id8, 3chet#ing 73*a#i%8 or 3chet#ting 73*et#i%8 5Fr ricocher < the n.6 to make a ricochet motion
—SYN SKIP1
I never heard of origin before. I knew it only as describing a bullet hitting a horizontal flat stone
and rebounding.
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From Brewer:
Runcible Spoon (A). A horn spoon with a bowl at each end, one the size of a table-spoon and the other
the size of a tea-spoon. There is a joint midway between the two bowls by which the bowls can be folded
over.
I thought this was a coinage of Edward Lear, in poem Owl and Pussycat. But if this were so, I would
think Brewer would have known it.
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More Brewer.
Sagan of Jerusalem in Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, is designed for Dr. Compton, Bishop of
London; he was son of the Earl of Northampton, who fell in the royal cause at the battle of Hopton
Heath. The Jewish sagan was the vicar of the sovereign pontiff. According to tradition, Moses was
Aaron's sagan.
So, whose vicar was Carl Sagan?
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Brewer:
St. Elmo called by the French St. Elme. The electric light seen playing about the masts of ships in stormy
weather.
An electric current passing through air of sufficient voltage can ionize air molecules
and cause emission of light. Lightning is the extreme manifestation of this.
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Brewer:
Salic Law The law so called is one chapter of the Salian code regarding succession to salic lands, which
was limited to heirs male to the exclusion of females, chiefly because certain military duties were
connected with the holding of those lands. In the fourteenth century females were excluded from the
throne of France by the application of the Salic law to the succession of the crown.
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Brewer:
Salmon (Latin, salmo, to leap). The leaping fish.
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Brewer:
Sandwich A piece of meat between two slices of bread; so called from the Earl of Sandwich (the noted
“Jemmy Twitcher”), who passed whole days in gambling, bidding the waiter bring him for refreshment a
piece of meat between two pieces of bread, which he ate without stopping from play. This contrivance
was not first hit upon by the earl in the reign of George III., as the Romans were very fond of
“sandwiches,” called by them offula
Any one care for an offula Sounds awful to me.. Not clear if singular or plural.Faldage?
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Brewer:
Sandwichman (A). A perambulating advertisement displayer, with an advertisement board before and
behind.
I can remember seeing them in Boston many years ago.
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