tsuwm posted an interesting word today in his daily vocab mailing, but equally interesting were the companion words. Here's a quote he quoted:
"Foursquare... for the garrote, the gallows, and the
guillotine. Auto-da-fé. Decollation. Defenestration.
Drawn and quartered. Disemboweled. Noyade.
Bastinado. Lapidation. Impalement. Firing squad.
Buried alive. Burned at the stake. Or maybe that's
auto-da-fé, I'm not all that up-to-date on the
Inquisition."
- John Gregory Dunne, Nothing Lost
Noyade? I thought of the Salem witches along with their suffering of 'burning at the stake.' Lapidation? I thought of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery."
When you look at the singular list, I wonder what literary and historical associations might pop into your heads.
I hope I have stated the above in as direct and objective manner as possible so that I would not offend anyone. But the list is both fascinating and, naturally, disturbing, and I thought it would be interesting to know your own associations with these barbaric practices.
Noyade Interdite is a 1987 French film in which the ocean keeps coughing up one body at a time, complicating the investigation by Philippe Noiret.
The Defenestration of Prague (1618) touched off the Thirty Years War.
The Decollation of St. John the Baptist.
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/c/caravagg/10/62behead.html
What's bastinado?
Foursquare sounds to me like a kind of church.
I must confess that, for me, defenestrate means to switch to Linux (or MacOS). I have often used it as part of a Usenet signature - "defenestration and spheniscation, the path to salvation."
>spheniscation
execution by exploding penguin on top of the telly??
>spheniscation - execution by exploding penguin on top of the telly??
Used, inaccurately no doubt, to mean, "the act of becoming a penguin."
What's bastinado?
Being caned on the soles of your feet. (Esquisite torture, rightly done, sort of like a marketing offsite at an IT company in Silicon Valley but more pleasant.) Cogante with baton ...
A "bastinado" is a small, padded basket in which one places an illegitimate child to sleep.
Thanks, I think, jheem....
Father Steve, probably not in this context (!) but thanks for your reply, too.
A "bastinado" is a small, padded basket in which one places an illegitimate child to sleep.
You
sure you're not a Bhuddist, Padre? I could have sworn that you were TEd Remington in a previous life ...
Capfka asks: You sure you're not a Bhuddist, Padre?
Everything I know about reincarnation I learned from the 1973 movie "Lost Horizon" in which a Bert Bacharach song says:
The World is a Circle without a beginning,
and nobody knows where it really ends.
Everything depends on where you
are in the circle that never begins.
Nobody knows where the circle ends.
And just because you think you're small,
that doesn't mean that you're small at all.
And just the way a tiny branch is like a tree to a twig,
to someone else you are big.
The World is a Circle without a beginning,
and nobody knows where it really ends.
Woooa!
Everything depends on where you
are in the circle that's spinning around.
Half of the time we are upside down.
And just because they say you're weak,
that doesn't mean you've a weak physique.
And even if they're partly right,
at least they're partially wrong.
To someone else you are strong.
And just because they say you're slow,
that doesn't mean that you're slow, you know.
And even if you're never first,
compared to someone who's last,
they're sure to think you are fast.
The World is a Circle without a beginning,
and nobody knows where it really ends.
Woooa!
Everything depends on where you
are in the cirle that never begins.
Nobody knows where the circle ends.
The World is a Circle that never begins.
Nobody knows where the circle ends.
As the resident, unofficial and unelected champion of Mongol causes (you'll note I did not use the incorrect 'Mongolian'), I thought I'd draw to your attention that Mongols have never heard of Ghengis Khan.
They know their latter day hero as "Chinggis Khan"; with a drawn out accent on the first syllable and "khan" pronounced 'harn' - so it comes out as "CHIIING giss-harn".
...just in case you were laying awake at night wondering...
stales
Except you wouldn't pronounce the R unless you're somehow incapable of pronouncing Rs in those situations. OTOH, the Mongolian (you'll note that I did not use the incorrect 'Mongoloid') receptionist we used to have (she left just last week) pronunced it Temujin.
of the Kurultai, of course. (And for some reason, Temujin pronounced thame-you-chin.)
I like the thought of living in felt tents.
Wonder what the Mongols' word for felt is?
dub-dub, you are so intense.
Our Australian geologist mate stayed in a yurt when he was in Mongolia. Haven't seen him around here for a while.
stayed in a yurt
While looking round the web, I discovered that the Mongolian term for yurt is ger. The former is from a Russian word yurta and is Turkic in origin.
I actually knew that, jheem. It's just that most people don't, and using "yurt" saves explanation.
I actually knew that, jheem.
OK, Capfka. I didn't know it and thought others might not, too. Been meaning to look more closely at the Mongolian language, but just haven't had the time. Did find one online dictionary that was interesting.
The name Temujin may be Turkic in origin or it may be Mongolian, but it seems to mean blacksmith or have something to do with iron.
something to do with ironsounds like Cap...