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I've heard and seen the phrase "wax lyrical" used a bit lately. I kind of understand what it means in context ... but what does wax have to do with lyrics?
Hev
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Carpal Tunnel
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more at EKESo if [like you and me, Max  ] you cannot carry a tune, do you eke lyrical?With my voice, perhaps EEK or ICK would be the proper term.
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Carpal Tunnel
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The first recordings were made on wax, and wax for a decade or more meant to record some music, and one could according have waxed lyrics. In the stories about knights in armor, they were said frequentluy to have waxed wroth. So I think it was Groucho Marx who made a joke about Roth getting tired of being waxed, and striking back.
He's waxing wroth! "
" Well, why don't you have Roth wax him for a change? "
~ Groucho Marx
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With that edit, dr. bill, the details come back to me. It's from Horsefeathers, where Groucho plays the president of a university. The set-up line is, "The Dean is waxing wroth!"
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Ah, yes...to wax or wan...and never the twain shall meet!
But seriously, hev...you can also wax poetic, and we speak of the waxing moon or the wax of the moon (also the wan of the moon).
It does seem that wax holds a positive connotation, though...for instance, we don't usually say, wax illiterate, although I suppose you could.
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And there's the opposite sincere, allegedly meaning without wax.I've seen this debunked, but don't remember where.
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No sincere does mean with out wax.. in alchemey, a precursor to real chemisty, to really turn lead into gold, was to be sincere.
And to be insincere was to use a small gold ball, wrapped in wax, and coated with lead dust.
a ball like that could be tossed into a fire, and "emerge" as gold.. that was a charlatan trick. sincere -- with out wax, was true alchemy!(an oxymoron!)
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I really like both words wax and wane--and use 'em both a lot.
But the wax word has always bothered me because I think of wax as something that decreases. I mean, you burn that candle and the wax disappears.
That is until The Whale Wax information disclosed on Animal Safari.
Suddenly I got it! Wax in the whale's ear really does grow and grow and grow, doesn't it!! And now I can transfer the meaning of wax to all places where ear wax grows.
So, whenever you're in a frilly, creative, gushing kind of mood--or even a contemplative, soft, easing-out kind of mood--and you're thinking you're waxing poetic, just imagine that great big glob of whale's earwax growing there beneath the Seven Seas. That image should add a precious little dimension to your poetic self-awareness!
Best regards,
WhaleWax
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old hand
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Waxing Whales.
...to waxing fears and waning years
came man to the garden sea.
to kill the sighs, primeval cries,
the tears of the plankton sea
The great tears of the plankton sea.
-part of a companion poem for the most excellent musical composition And God Created Great Whales by Alan Hovaness
who intergrated the recorded cries and deep bellows of the Blue Whale into the piece. Moving.
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