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OP
OP
Thank you in advance!!
Here's the quotations:
The journey to Angleton's lair takes us up and along — he normally works out of a gloomy basement on the other side of the hollowed-out block of prime London real estate that is occupied by the Laundry......
The north wing is still dry. Over there, people are still at work, oblivious to the charred zombies lying on the scorched, soaked, thaumaturgically saturated wing next door. We catch a few odd stares — myself, soaked and battered in my outdoors gear, DI Sullivan in the wreckage of an expensive grey suit, oversized handgun clenched in a death grip at her side — but wisely or otherwise, nobody asks me to fix the Internet or demands to know why we're tracking muddy water through Human Resources.
“A fellow I used to know, his name was Ulyanov, once said something rather profound,do you know.” Angleton looks like the cat that’s swallowed the canary – and the feet are sticking out of the side of his mouth; he wants me to know this, whatever it is. “Let your enemies sell you enough rope to hang them with.”
the Counter-Possession Unit
Josephine is aghast. “You call this a government department?”
“Worse things happen in parliament every day of the year, my dear.” Now that the proximate threat is over, Angleton looks remarkably imperturbable; right now I doubt he’d turn her into a frog even if she started yelling at him.
takes us up and along I think this means literally what it said. If you're being led from (out of) a basement you're most likely going UP stairs or whatever; and along probably means along a walkway, or some distance.
thaumaturgically I had to look this one up. I first found "Perhaps you meant: thaumaturgical". So I looked up thaumaturgical and found "1. pertaining to a thaumaturge or to thaumaturgy.
2. having the powers of a thaumaturge."
Finally I got to thaumaturge and found: a worker of wonders or miracles; magician. These were from Dictionary.com.
So thaumaturgically means magically.
wisely or otherwise Otherwise, here, means not wisely. To ask the speaker "to fix the Internet" might have been wise if he had that capability; if he didn't, then asking him to do that would have been unwise.
I honestly don't know where the cat that’s swallowed the canary came from, but it's an old saying. It refers to someone denying that he's done something when there is clear evidence that he has. If a cartoon cat has swallowed (eaten) the canary, he will shake his head "no" to his owner's questioning whether he ate it, but yellow feathers--or in your case, feet-- sticking out of the side of his mouth tell the owner he did eat it.
the Counter-Possession Unit I Googled this, and to my surprise it's not what I thought it would be. Here is what I found; I can't verify that this is the true definition but I think it is: the Counter-Possession Unit of SOE that dealt with demon-ridden Abwehr agents. This is somebody's blog or something, apparently quoting from something.
Ok--I found another Google listing that offers: occult intelligence agency.
turn her into a frog Your book must have a lot of magic in it! This refers to a magic spell. There is a fairy tale called The Frog Prince, where the prince had been turned into a frog by the evil witch, and only when a princess kisses him can he turn back into his rightful form.
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This is a wonderful dictionary.
And Refdesk is a fantastic site for all kinds of information--and fun.
but to call OneLook a dictionary is a bit misleading - it's more an index of a whole bunch of online dictionaries (and other resources, such as Wikipedia).
OP
think Sylvester and Tweety Bird.
----please, draw me a sheep----
Thanks, tsuwm, and you're right of course; dunno what I was thinking.
But don't stop posting your questions here Vincent
Wouldn't thaumaturgical have made a good hogwash word for our game guys!
Truly, especially in sci fi dealing with wizards and alchemy.
I believe I remember it once in "Merlin", and thought to myself,
"great writing". (Merlin being a current TV series on SyFy channel.)
----please, draw me a sheep----
I have been reading about its origin and it first came into use when talking about saints and their seemingly ability to work miracles.(From the Greek word thauma, meaning miracle or marvel.) No wonder it later came to be about magicians and magic.
I wonder if I will remember it now?
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