(cross-posting to1word1day )

(cross-posted from 1word1day )

Dear everyone--comm members, comm posters, and of course the former comm moderator--

Thank you for being here in 2022. We have shared in the joy of linguistics, and that has been one of the positive things this year, I think.

I wish you and yours all the very best in the coming year 2022!

And now for something special, for New Year's Eve:

"...But one English word surely stands above all others from the corners of the dictionary. I mention it all the time, because I’m determined to bring it back. Or bring it anywhere in fact, for it never really enjoyed more than a day in the sun. “Respair” has just one record next to it in the Oxford English Dictionary, from 1525, but its definition is sublime. Respair is fresh hope; a recovery from despair. May 2022 finally be its moment."

A few other interesting words in this article from The Guardian: From respair to cacklefart – the joy of reclaiming long-lost positive words

(...would you believe "cacklefart" means "egg"?! ;))

meretricious [mer-i-trish-uhs]
adjective:
1. Apparently attractive but having no real value, superficially or garishly attractive. tawdry
2. Plausible but false or insincere; specious
3. (archaic) Relating to or characteristic of a prostitute

Examples:

In many ways, it was a meretricious performance, but it was a gifted one in terms of verbal gymnastics.(the Hansard archive, quoted by Cambridge Dictionary</a>)

She was half-angry with him in the carriage, and said something about meretricious manners. (Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers

"Elementary," said he. "It is one of those instances where the reasoner can produce an effect which seems remarkable to his neighbour, because the latter has missed the one little point which is the basis of the deduction. The same may be said, my dear fellow, for the effect of some of these little sketches of yours, which is entirely meretricious, depending as it does upon your retaining in your own hands some factors in the problem which are never imparted to the reader. (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes )

He was a son of God – a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that – and he must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end. (F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby)

Origin:

C17: from Latin merētrīcius, from merētrix prostitute, from merēre to earn money (Collins Dictionary)

Meretricious can be traced back to the Latin verb merēre, meaning "to earn, gain, or deserve." It shares this origin with a small group of other English words, including "merit," meritorious," and "emeritus." But, while these words can suggest some degree of honor or esteem, "meretricious" is used to suggest pretense, insincerity, and cheap or tawdry ornamentation. The Latin merēre is at the root of the Latin noun meretrix, meaning "prostitute," and its related adjective "meretricius" ("of or relating to a prostitute"). The Latin meretricius entered into English as "meretricious" in the 17th century. Shortly after being adopted, "meretricious" also began to be used to indicate things which are superficially attractive but which have little or no value or integrity. (Merriam-Webster)

(reposted from sallymn in 1word1day; many thanks!)

August 29, 2016

Source: https://www.upworthy.com/15-encouraging-phrases-a-spanish-speaker-like-me-would-love-for-you-to-learn?c=reccon3

(I've had to clip out the illustrations, as LJ kept telling me the post is too large; do take a look at the link to the original article ;))
~~
15 encouraging phrases a Spanish speaker like me would love for you to learn.
by Alicia Barron

Learning these simple yet meaningful phrases could make all the difference in the world.
I'm a 38-year-old bilingual Mexican-American, and I recently came to a very interesting realization about non-Spanish speakers.

I meet a lot of people at work, on the street, and in my community who want to make an effort by speaking my native language. It's great. But often, they default to the same handful of phrases: "Hola," "Buenos días," maybe a "Como está" once in a while.

I was chatting with a co-worker recently about my work as a writer. I could tell he was very proud of me. When our chat ended, he said, "Si se puede!" I thought, "Dammit!"

Let me explain: "Si se puede" means "yes we can," and it's a renowned cry of Latino pride made famous by American labor leader and social activist Cesar Chávez way before President Barack Obama made it a slogan. A lot of Latinos love that phrase.
But the phrase is so generic now that it has almost taken away the true meaning of his pride.

That wasn't his fault, of course. I just would've preferred an "I'm really proud of you" instead. Then I immediately felt terrible for thinking that because how could he know that?

Please don't get me wrong: I appreciate it oh-so-much when non-Spanish-speaking people take the time and effort to say something to me in Spanish. But it would be awesome if there were more common phrases floating around society (besides curse words).

So I wanted to offer up some other options for those friendly Spanish-speaking chats you might want to have. Allow me to be your friendly bilingual guide. :)
Here are 15 inclusive phrases in Spanish that I would love to see become part of our shared vernacular:

1. Great job. / Buen trabajo.

Pronounced: boo-en tra-bah-hoe.

All illustrations by Kitty Curran.

This phrase goes a long way, and it's always nice to feel like what you're doing is making a difference.

2. You have a beautiful smile. / Que bella sonrisa.

Pronounced: ke beh-ya sone-ree-sa.

Go ahead, try it; and I guarantee they'll flash those pearly whites even wider.

3. Would you like to be friends? / Quisieras ser mi amigo(a)?

Pronounced: key-see-air-aws sare me amigo (for a male) amiga (for a female)?

This question could spark the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Promise!

4. I appreciate your work. / Aprecio tu trabajo.

Pronounced: aw-pre-see-oh too trah-bah-hoe.

Recognizing someone's hard work — particularly if they're on the job — is a wonderful thing.( Read more... )

woolgathering [wool-gath-er-ing]
noun:
1. Indulgence in aimless thought or dreamy imagining; absent-mindedness.
2. gathering of the tufts of wool shed by sheep and caught on bushes.

Examples:

Really, God thought with annoyance, this woolgathering —at such a moment! (Damon Francis Knight, The Worshippers)

His efforts to explain his success keep wandering off into sunny vales of academic woolgathering (Washington Post, 1998)

Origin:

Woolgathering once literally referred to the act of gathering loose tufts of wool that had gotten caught on bushes and fences as sheep passed by. Woolgatherers must have seemed to wander aimlessly, gaining little for their efforts, for in the mid-16th century "woolgathering" began to appear in figurative phrases such as "my wits (or my mind) went a-woolgathering" - in other words, "my mind went wandering aimlessly." From there, it wasn't long before the word woolgathering came to suggest the act of indulging in purposeless mind-wandering. (Merriam Webster)
~~

Reposted from sallymn at 1word1day; many thanks!

sotto voce (soh-toh voh-chi), adv. or adj., in an undertone, in a low voice

When you say something sotto voce, you say it very quietly. If you're unsure of the lyrics, you can also sing a song sotto voce.

This handy Italian phrase can be used as an adverb: "'Don't look now, but there's an alpaca behind you,' she said sotto voce."

It's also fine to use it as an adjective: "I liked the sotto voce part of your karaoke performance best."

Sotto voce, literally "under the voice," comes from the Latin words subtus, "below," and vocem, "voice."
~~
This is where I saw it, a couple days ago:

I wrote the column for Life letting readers know who I was. It appeared. At the time it seemed an unexceptional enough eight hundred words in the assigned genre, but there was, at the end of the second paragraph, a line so out of synch with the entire Life mode of self-presentation that it might as well have suggested abduction by space aliens:

"We are here on this island in the middle of the Pacific in lieu of filing for divorce."

A week later we happened to be in New York.

"Did you know she was writing it," many people asked John [the author's husband], sotto voce.

Did he know I was writing it?

He edited it.

He took Quintana [their daughter] to the Honolulu Zoo so I could rewrite it.

He drove me to the Western Union office in downtown Honolulu so I could file it.

(from Joan Didion's memoir, "The Year of Magical Thinking")

( A few more short examples: )

cepivorous & alliaphage

Words kindly provided by prettygoodword

~~
Aug. 6th, 2018 | 07:39 am

As well as male okapi and the extinct relatives of both. Ossicones are not antlers or horns, in that they are not made of bone or horn but rather ossified ("bonelike") cartilage, and they remain covered in skin and fur.


Thanks, flickr:sutefanni!

Coined from Latin roots os, bone (or rather its combining form ossi-) + cōnus, cone (originally, apex of a helmet). Also, though I'm sure you don't need me to point this out, it's a lovely word to say. Ossicones!

---L.

(reposted from prettygoodword in 1word1day)

(cross-posting from 1word1day)
~~

Well, this is my last post in this comm in 2017. I'd like to wish everyone here a Happy New Year, and here are some words to impress your friends and family at New Year's ;)
~~


The cork and wire cage are wrapped in foil (the ‘coiffe’), which extends down the neck of the bottle to the ‘collerette’ (neck band fitted on most Champagne bottles).

(source: Champagne Official Website: From Vine to Wine)

Bonus word: muselet: the wire cage to keep the cork on, as you see in the photo here. Also known as "the cage" or "agraffe."

(cross-posting from 1word1day)

Mammothrept, n.

obsolete: a spoiled child

Origin and etymology:

Greek mammothreptos child brought up by his grandmother, from mammē mother, grandmother + -o- + threptos, verbal of trephein to bring up, nourish

(thanks to spikesgirl58 for the word!)

(reposting from 1word1day)

deracinate - v., to pull up by the roots, uproot; displace from one's native environment.


Also, by metaphoric extension, forced resettlement. This would make a pretty good name for an alterna-rock band, of the young & disaffected type, though the word can also have a positive sense of liberating or being liberated from a culture or its norms. The noun form is deracination. Adopted in 1599 (and used soon after by Shakespeare) from French déraciner, from Old French desraciner, de-root, from Latin roots de-, in the sense of undo + radix, root.

Och, and the girls whose poor hearts you deracinate,
Whirl and bewilder and flutter and fascinate
Faith, it's so killing you are, you assassinate, —
Murder’s the word for you, Barney McGee!

—Richard Hovey, Barney McGee

---L.

(reposted from prettygoodword on 1word1day)

Ramfeezled
(ram-FEE-zul’d)
Adjective:
-To be exhausted with work, to be worn out.
-More than just a bit knackered.
Verb (Ramfeezle)
-To wear oneself out.

Scottish

Used in a sentence:
“I’m going to have to cancel our dinner engagement, I’m completely ramfeezled; perhaps tomorrow night?”

Anyone remember "forswunke"?

Looking to go from ramfeezled to refreshed? Order your 2018 Grandiloquent Wall Calendar, and schedule in your vacation posthaste! http://tinyurl.com/2018GrandiloquentCalendar

Source: Grandiloquent Word of the Day FB pg

(cross-posting from 1word1day)

Originally posted by prettygoodword at Thursday word: medicaster( here you are: )

(cross-posting from 1word1day)
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( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Originally posted by med_cat at Friday word: Gherkin