I'm planning to do a wwftd theme on words which I've culled from these very fora; words such as Patavinity and mysterium, or gloriette and ausculation.... maybe some wwftd subscribers will come and have a look here as a result.

so if you have some favorites that you've discovered or shared here, toss them out again -- I'm sure I've missed some.

http://members.aol.com/tsuwm/

Well, shoot, tsuwm, there are cardiotocogram and cardiotocograph, but I don't think that's the kind you're lookin' for! However, there are treasures stored here. Do you want us to show whatever we've culled on this thread or at the AOL address?

>on this thread or at the AOL address?

are you trying to tell me that you've got access to my web page?!

http://members.aol.com/tsuwm/

Dear tsuwm: How about words that are not rare, but used infrequently enough that many people forget them, such as "eleemosynary"? I must have looked that up a dozen times.

It was The Word for Today about six years ago. Does that disqualify it?

or one that i tripped over twice this weekend-- weir... i sort of know what it is. but i don't think we much use the word in US-- and riparian word specialist out there who can tell me the word we use for a weir? i think it would be a spill dam, but....

who can tell me the word we use for a weir?
durn good question, Helen. I think (assuming you're not talking about the usage of "weir" that relates to fish) that "sluice dam" is closer, but still not quite right.
http://www.bioquaticsupply.com/html/lkword_w.htm

Yes, Mrs Bucket (bouquet! that is!) used the word in the episode i watch saturday night, in the meaning of # 3 from your sited defination


WEIR—(1) A dam in a river to stop and raise the water, for the purpose of conducting it
to a mill, forming a fishpond, or the like. When uncontrolled, the weir is termed a
fixed-crest weir. (2) A fence of stakes, brushwood, or the like, set in a stream, tideway,
or inlet of the sea, for taking fish. (3) A device for determining the quantity of water
flowing over it from measurements of the depth of water over the crest or sill and known
dimensions of the device. (4) A bank or levee built to hold a river in its bed, or to direct it
into a new bed. (5) (Water Quality) A wall or obstruction used to control the flow from
settling tanks and clarifiers to assure a uniform flow rate and avoid Short-Circuiting. Types
of weirs include:

[1] Broad-crested;
[2] Sharp-crested;
[3] Drowned; and
[4] Submerged.
and then a friend, looking down on the Hudson river (near Bear Mt) thought he saw on in the river... which startled me.. in early days, explorers thought the Hudson might be the northwest passage since unlike most of the river on the east coast of US, it did not have a waterfull as it passed through the mountains.. so, i sort of thought of a weir as some sort of slight dam... to contol rapids, or flow..

turns out he saw a causeway for RR tracks running parallel to the river... but still an odd word to hear twice in 24 hours...

How about words that are not rare, but used infrequently enough that many people forget them, such as "eleemosynary"? ...It was The Word for Today about six years ago. Does that disqualify it?

no, that wouldn't disqualify it -- I steal words from all over. but I used eleemosynary as a wwftd in Nov. 1994; *that disqualifies it (at least for now). :)

Many rivers on the US East Coast have weirs in the sense of a device for catching fish. They are v-shaped lines of rocks, with the point of the V downstream, and they tend to divert larger fish through an opening at the point. I learned many years ago that those on the Rappahanock between Remington and Fredericksburg were built by "native Americans" long before the great invasion.

It's interesting that they have survived all these years through centuries of flooding and wars. It's also interesting that almost invariably the point of the V is in the center of the river. If I were building one I'd put that opening closer to one shore or the other. Perhaps there were enough people living on both sides of the rivers that putting the opening in the center worked best for all concerned. Or perhaps there's a physical reason why those with the point in the center survived over the years.

almost invariably the point of the V is in the center of the river
Ted, I have two guesses: 1.) Perhaps the opening wasn't in the center of the river then (in other words, the river moved, over the centuries); 2.)if it was deliberately built in the center, I bet it has something to do with the current helping to "encourage" the fish to move through.
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tsuwm, I haven't had time to look through old threads, though I'm sure there've been new words I have known and loved. So the only one I can think of is pie-poudre/powder.
I still have a thing for hemidemisemiquaver--it just makes me smile!

It figures that in the building of fish weirs the apex of the "V" would be in the center, because the builders started on each side, and worked toward the middle, unless there was much more useful material on one side.