A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Tue Jul 1 00:01:08 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--saltant X-Bonus: When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other. -Chinese proverb saltant (SAL-tuhnt) adjective Leaping, jumping, or dancing. [From Latin saltant-, stem of saltans, present participle of saltare (to dance), frequentative of salire (to jump). Other words derived from the same Latin root (salire) are sally, somersault, insult, result, and saute.] "Sarabands that can charm a saltant chap at a danza..." Christian Bok; Eunoia; Coach House Books; 2001. http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1552450929/ws00-20/ This week's theme: miscellaneous words. -------- Date: Wed Jul 2 00:01:08 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--conurbation X-Bonus: A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. -Thomas Mann, novelist, Nobel laureate (1875-1955) conurbation (kon-uhr-BAY-shuhn) noun A large urban area involving several contiguous communities, formed as a result of expansion of neighboring areas. [From con- (together, with) + Latin urb- (city) + -ation.] "Anxious to consolidate St Petersburg as a conurbation, Peter the Great forced his nobles to build second houses on the plots of land he gave them just outside the city." Books And Arts: Country Life; The Russian Summer House; The Economist (London, UK); Jun 21, 2003. "With the conurbation of shanty towns emerging in the area like mushrooms, very soon it might take hours to cross the area. And who says this is the way to develop a city or a nation?" S.B. Akuffo; The Land Use Mess at Kasoa; Accra Mail (Ghana); Oct 03, 2002. This week's theme: miscellaneous words. -------- Date: Thu Jul 3 00:01:08 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--trade-last X-Bonus: The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself. -Robert Green Ingersoll, lawyer and orator (1833-1899) trade-last (TRAYD-last) noun A compliment that a person has heard and offers to repeat to the one complimented in exchange for a compliment made about oneself. [From trade + last.] "A voluptuous brunette in a rose-pink dress and diamonds dragged her down to the arm of her rocker. `I got a trade-last for you, Myra.'" Fannie Hurst (1889-1968); Summer Resources (short story). "`I have a trade-last for you, Ida,' she said. `Mrs. Mallard is in the library, discussing our club, and I heard mother say something awfully nice about you.' `Tell it!' demanded Lloyd. `No, I said a trade-last.' `Oh, fishing for a compliment!' sang Katie." Annie Fellows Johnston (1863-1931); The Little Colonel at Boarding-School. This week's theme: miscellaneous words. -------- Date: Fri Jul 4 00:01:08 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--tardigrade X-Bonus: Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge: fitter to bruise than polish. -Anne Bradstreet, poet (1612-1672) tardigrade (TAR-di-grayd) noun Any of various tiny, slow-moving invertebrates of the phylum Tardigrada. adjective 1. Of or pertaining to the phylum Tardigrada. 2. Slow-moving. [From Latin tardigradus (slow-moving), from tardus (slow) + gradus (stepping). Another animal that is named in the same manner is bustard. Other words derived from the same root are tardy and retard.] "I had an inkling of some subtle spark to which his tardigrade pace served as the perfect foil." Thomas J McCarthy, The Walker, America (New York), Nov 25, 2000. This week's theme: miscellaneous words. -------- Date: Mon Jul 7 00:01:08 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Rx X-Bonus: An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field. -Niels Bohr, physicist (1885-1962) Rx (ahr-EKS) noun 1. A prescription. 2. A solution to a problem. [Abbreviation of Latin recipe (take), imperative of recipere (to take), from re- + capere (to take).] "The Scrubs star dishes about her coworkers' embarrassing pranks and the Rx for romance." Lesley Goober; TV's Resident Cutie; Cosmopolitan (New York); May 2003. "Congressmen recently offered an Rx for sky-high medical malpractice awards by approving a $250,000 cap." Pain vs. Premiums; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Mar 23, 2003. If you ever wondered what that mysterious Rx sign meant in the prescription your doctor wrote, now you know. Going by how often a doctor has to write prescriptions, it's no coincidence it's abbreviated. Rx has a handful of cousins, dx: diagnosis, hx: history, sx: symptoms, and tx: treatment. Doctors and pharmacists ('chemists' for those of you in Commonwealth countries) use a code language and if you were curious to know what your prescription means, check out this decoder: http://mlanet.org/resources/medspeak/medshort.html The rest of the week we'll look at abbreviations and acronyms (words formed from initial letters, such as RADAR) from other fields. -Anu (garg AT wordsmith.org) -------- Date: Tue Jul 8 00:01:09 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--snafu X-Bonus: The principal contributor to loneliness in this country is television. What happens is that the family 'gets together' alone. -Ashley Montagu, anthropologist and writer (1905-1999) snafu (sna-FOO, SNA-foo) noun A bad situation, especially one resulting from incompetence. adjective Marked by confusion; chaotic. verb tr. To throw into disorder or confusion. [US military acronym from Situation Normal, All F**ked Up, also euphemistically, Situation Normal, All Fouled Up. Note: We've asterisked the F word here to make sure this newsletter doesn't get held by the nanny software.] "But the Burger King snafu is potentially damaging, Cohen said." Scott Leith; Coke on Thin Ice With Burger King; The Monterey Herald (California); Jun 19, 2003. "In a conference call, chief executive Steve Snyder said the snafu was `literally a cut-and-paste error in an Excel spreadsheet that we did not detect ...'" Drew Cullen; Excel Snafu Costs Firm $24m; The Register (UK), Jun 19, 2003. This week's theme: abbreviations and acronyms. -------- Date: Wed Jul 9 00:01:08 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--gulag X-Bonus: Impiety, n. Your irreverence toward my deity. -Ambrose Bierce, writer (1842-1914) [The Devil's Dictionary, 1906] gulag (GOO-lahg) noun 1. The system of forced-labor camp in the former Soviet Union. 2. Any prison or forced-labor camp, especially one for political prisoners. 3. A place of great hardship. [From Russian Gulag, acronym from Glavnoe Upravlenie ispravitel'no-trudovykh LAGere (Chief Administration for Corrective Labour Camps).] "So it was that (Harry Hongda) Wu, without a trial or even a chance to say goodbye to his family, disappeared into the netherworld of the Chinese gulag." Steven W. Mosher; Barbarians In The Gates; Newsday (New York); Feb 20, 1994. "Kariya stands out, not only because he has been a prolific goal scorer throughout his career. For years, he has been fawned over by the Canadian media -- particularly from his hometown of Vancouver -- who saw playing for the Ducks as doing time in the NHL's gulag." Chris Foster; Vision of Cup Is No Longer an Illusion; Los Angeles Times; Jun 5, 2003. This week's theme: abbreviations and acronyms. -------- Date: Thu Jul 10 00:01:06 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--kayo X-Bonus: The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over its government. -Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (1882-1945) kayo (kay-O) noun 1. A knockout in boxing. 2. Someone or something that is extraordinarily attractive or appealing. verb tr. 1. To knock someone out, especially in boxing. 2. To get rid of or to make non-functional. [Pronunciation of KO, abbreviation of Knock Out.] "I suppose the very first post-match exclusive was when Kid Cain told the chap from the Daily Genesis how he had kayoed Sugar Ray Abel in the first. `Am I my brother's keeper?' Nice one, Kid." Frank Keating; 'Heaven will still blame me for something I didn't say'; The Guardian (London, UK); Jul 23, 2001. "Crown Pacific Partners, an Oregon timber company, fell $1.44 to $18.56 after saying timber-price weakness kayoed its plans to sell itself." Greg Heberlein; Fed's Rate Decision Causes 'Big Yawn'; The Seattle Times; Aug 23, 2000. This week's theme: abbreviations and acronyms. -------- Date: Fri Jul 11 00:01:09 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--gestapo X-Bonus: It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all. -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862) gestapo (guh-STAH-po) noun Nazi secret state police notorious for brutality. adjective Employing method similar to Gestapo; marked by brutal suppression. [From German Gestapo, an acronym from GEheime STAats-POlizei (Secret State Police).] "`We felt as a lobby group that we could not be party to these Gestapo proceedings ...' he (Ka Plaatjie) said." Business Day (Johannesburg, South Africa); Nov 8, 2002. "His (Stefan Widomski's) father was a member of the resistance, and the family fled German-occupied Warsaw when a Polish-German friend warned that the Gestapo was after his father." Unto Hämäläinen; Nokia's Man in Moscow; Helsingin Sanomat (Helsinki, Finland); Jun 3, 2003. This week's theme: abbreviations and acronyms. -------- Date: Mon Jul 14 00:01:09 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--charrette X-Bonus: He who would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. -Thomas Paine, philosopher and writer (1737-1809) charrette (shuh-RET) noun 1. A final intense effort to complete a design project. 2. A preliminary meeting involving stakeholders (citizens, planners, designers, etc.) to brainstorm or to elicit input on a project. [From French charrette (cart), from Old French. How we get from a cart to the above mentioned senses is not clear. It's perhaps from the idea of speed when referring to wheels. Also, according to a story, professors at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris collected students' drawings in a cart and the latter would often jump on the charrette to complete last-minute details.] "Kelty has participated in charrettes, both as a student and a professional. The deadline pressure and the collaboration among participants with different backgrounds gives an edge of intensity to the creative process." Linda Lipp; Creativity in Crunch Time; The News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana); Jun 23, 2003. "Today will be the last day of the charrette. Residents and business owners, as well as potential business owners, are encouraged to attend." Jamie Stockwell; Ideas Under Development for Downtown; The Washington Post; Nov 6, 1999. Guest wordsmith Mary Steer writes: I never gave architecture much thought - beyond admiring some examples and deriding others - until I read a book that changed the way I look not only at buildings, but also at the world. The Most Beautiful House in the World ( http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140105662/ws00-20 ) is architect and writer Witold Rybczynski's memoir of erecting a building (a boat shed, initially), but it explores much more than the basic architectural elements of location, situation, materials and technical method. Rybczynski delves into many related themes, including feng shui, children's building games, famous houses and architects... The Most Beautiful House in the World is, without doubt, one of the most wonderful books in the world - and after reading it, I began to notice my surroundings in a new way. I've also been fascinated by the occasional issues of RIBA's (Royal Institute of British Architects) online magazine that come my way, thanks to my architectural uncle, and this week's theme was inspired by an article in that journal about "charrettes". So many excellent words come from the art of building and the description of buildings - and we have "borrowed" many of them to use as metaphors in daily life. We talk of pain thresholds or of being on the threshold of a new experience; we praise those who may be seen as the cornerstone or keystone of any organisation or endeavour. This week, we sample a few architectural words. Mary Steer (modestgoddessATsympatico.ca) is a freelance writer and artists' model living in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. -------- Date: Tue Jul 15 00:01:08 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--buttress X-Bonus: Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. -Ambrose Bierce, writer (1842-1914) buttress (BUHT-ris) noun 1. An external structure built to support a wall or a building. 2. Something or someone that supports. verb tr. To support or reinforce. [From Middle English butres, from Old French boterez, from bouter (to push against).] Here are pictures of a buttress and a flying buttress: http://www.trp.dundee.ac.uk/research/glossary/buttresspic.html "The largest, oldest trees, which Polish park officials honor as 'monuments to nature,' soar to 180 feet, supported on the moist, muddy soils by buttress-like root structures resembling those found in many rain forests." Dianne Dumanoski; Forest Primeval: Species-Rich Wilderness Offers a Window on Earlier Times; Boston Globe; Apr 13, 1992; "Rasaratnam quotes heads of international development agencies to buttress his case for a new administrative structure outside the present institutions." PK Balachanddran; LTTE May Seek Jettisoning of Lankan Bureaucracy From NEP; The Hindustan Times (New Delhi, India); Jun 25, 2003. This week's theme: words from architecture. -------- Date: Wed Jul 16 00:01:10 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--eaves X-Bonus: It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment. -Ansel Adams, photographer (1902-1984) eaves (eevz) noun Overhanging edge of a roof. [From Middle English eves, from Old English efes. That's where we got the word eavesdrop, from eavesdropper, literally one who stands within the eavesdrop of a house to listen to conversations inside.] "He used the woman's own garden hose and sprayed a few cobwebs out of the eaves - then billed her $3600." Be Wary of These Itinerant Contractors; Edmonton Sun (Canada); Jun 13, 2003. "Morrell had spent significant chunks of the game in the cold shade cast by the eaves of the retracted stadium roof, sitting on the interchange bench." Chloe Saltau; Young Roos on Song in the End; The Age (Melbourne, Australia); Jun 1, 2003. This week's theme: words from architecture. -------- Date: Thu Jul 17 00:01:09 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--pergola X-Bonus: The great tragedy of science -- the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact. -Thomas Huxley, biologist and writer (1825-1895) pergola (PUHR-guh-luh) noun An arbor formed of columns supporting trelliswork on which climbing plants are often trained. [From Italian pergola, from Latin pergula (projecting roof).] Here are pictures of pergolas: http://www.prparchitects.com/hanoverave3.html "The newest addition to the playground is a beautiful wooden pergola, which has seating areas and plants." Class Act: Kirkheaton Primary School; The Huddersfield Daily Examiner (UK); Jun 25, 2003. "The garden consists of a Great War stone surrounded by circular fountains, which in turn are enclosed by pairs of 'book rooms' and pergolas." 30 Things to Do in Dublin Before You Die; Dublin Daily (Ireland); Jun 18, 2003. This week's theme: words from architecture. -------- Date: Fri Jul 18 00:01:08 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--quoin X-Bonus: Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world. -George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950) quoin (koin, kwoin) noun 1. An external angle of a wall; outer corner. 2. One of the stones or bricks forming such an angle: cornerstone. 3. A wedge-shaped block. verb tr. 1. To build a corner with distinctive blocks. 2. To secure metal type with a quoin (in printing). [Variant of coin.] Here are pictures of quoins: http://www.google.com/search?q=quoin&&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch "Built between 1805 and 1813, they are white-columned and green-shuttered, with white stone quoins. And painted a giddy pink." Sarah Ferrell; Nassau's Quieter Pleasures; The New York Times; Jan 6, 2002. "It's the Tudor, an imposing, nine-story building of brick and rough-hewn stone, accented with smooth brownstone lintels and quoins, swelled fronts and sides." Marilyn Jackson; Lapping up Luxury on Beacon Street; The Boston Herald; Jun 7, 2003. This week's theme: words from architecture. -------- Date: Mon Jul 21 00:31:08 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--beestings X-Bonus: To confront a person with his own shadow is to show him his own light. -Carl G. Jung, psychiatrist (1875-1961) beestings (BEE-stingz) noun, also beastings, biestings First milk produced by a mammal, especially a cow, after giving birth. Also known as colostrum or foremilk. [From Middle English bestynge, from Old English bysting.] "Two thriving calves she suckles twice a day, And twice besides her beestings never fail To store the dairy with a brimming pail." Publius Vergilius Maro (translated by John Dryden); The Works of Virgil. Recently my daughter turned six and received a magic kit as a birthday present. She was visibly excited, "Now I can be like Harry Potter!" She opened the cardboard box and a bunch of strings, ribbons, playing cards, and a few other earthly objects came tumbling down. She asked me to read the accompanying instructions. I explained, "You tie one end of the ribbon to the black string and hide it behind your shirt collar. Then you pull the string with one hand and the ribbon magically appears!" She looked at me incredulously, "That's not magic! You have to hide the ribbon first." Well, it took some explaining that that's how the magic worked. The disappointment was palpable. The Easter Bunny is already dead. Eventually, the Tooth Fairy and Santa will also give way. She's growing up and growing wiser. That's the price we pay to grow up. One day, she'll be old enough to weave her own magic. The Tooth Fairy and friends will come alive for her again as they did for us when she was born. And the cycle will continue. Meanwhile, we're in no hurry. This week's words are somewhat like that magic. These unusual, out-of-this-world words aren't what they appear to be. They play a trick on us but a closer look reveals the secret. There are neither bees nor stings in beestings. Look for more words like that this week. -Anu (garg AT wordsmith.org) -------- Date: Tue Jul 22 00:01:09 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--pythoness X-Bonus: Tears are not arguments. -Machado de Assis, writer (1839-1908) pythoness (PIE-thuh-nis) noun 1. A woman with the power of divination. 2. The priestess of Apollo at Delphi in Greek mythology. [Ultimately from Greek puthon (python).] "The coffee finds nothing else in the sack, and so it attacks these delicate and voluptuous linings; it acts like a food and demands digestive juices; it wrings and twists the stomach for these juices, appealing as a pythoness appeals to her god ..." Honore de Balzac; The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee; 1830s. (translated from the French by Robert Onopa) "For this was a time when women were privileged, when female narratologists had skills greatly revered, when there were pythonesses, abbesses and sibyls in the world of narratology, who revealed mysteries and kept watch at the boundaries of correctness." A S Byatt; The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye; The Paris Review (Flushing, New York); Winter 1994. This week's theme: words that aren't what they appear to be. -------- Date: Wed Jul 23 00:01:09 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--lambent X-Bonus: The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. -Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) lambent (LAM-buhnt) adjective 1. Flickering lightly over a surface. 2. Softly glowing. 3. Marked by lightness or grace (in an expression) [From Latin lambent, stem of lambens, present participle of lambere (to lick).] "What started sometime in 1999 like a lambent flame snowballed into a big political conflagration and consequently entered a new chapter last Thursday with the decision of a faction of the party to decamp to the Alliance for Democracy (AD)." Tokunbo Adedoja; Plateau PDP: The Battle Enters a New Chapter; This Day (Lagos, Nigeria); May 27, 2002. "With that, he (Richard Hawley) launches into Baby, You're My Light, a grown-up love song of delicate beauty, featuring a lambent melody and a sonorous, deep vocal." Alexis Petridis; Richard Hawley; The Guardian (London, UK); May 21, 2003. This week's theme: words that aren't what they appear to be. -------- Date: Thu Jul 24 00:01:09 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--redoubt X-Bonus: Whenever you're called on to make up your mind, / and you're hampered by not having any, / the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find, / is simply by spinning a penny. / No - not so that chance shall decide the affair / while you're passively standing there moping; / but the moment the penny is up in the air, / you suddenly know what you're hoping. -Piet Hein, poet and scientist (1905-1996) redoubt (ri-DOUT) noun 1. A small, usually temporary fortification to defend a position. 2. Stronghold; refuge. [From French redoute, from Italian ridotto, from Medieval Latin reductus (refuge), past participle of Latin reducere (to lead back), from re- + ducere (to lead). The words conduct, produce, introduce, reduce, seduce, ductile - all are from the same Latin root.] "Annetta Nunn was only four years old in 1963, when thousands of Birmingham residents defied Connor's men and their nightsticks, attack dogs and fire hoses, got themselves arrested, filled the jails and brought an end to segregation in Jim Crow's strongest redoubt." David M. Halbfinger; A Black Woman Sits in Bull Connor's Seat; The New York Times; May 3, 2003. "Anti-Taliban ground forces and punishing U.S. air strikes pushed remaining Qaida fighters from their final mountain redoubt over the weekend and 'ended the role of Afghanistan as a haven for terrorist activity,' the U.S. secretary of state, Colin Powell, said Sunday." Brian Knowlton; Qaida 'Destroyed,' Powell Asserts But as Mountain Redoubt Falls, bin Laden Remains at Large; International Herald Tribune (France); Dec 17, 2001. This week's theme: words that aren't what they appear to be. -------- Date: Fri Jul 25 00:01:08 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--archimage X-Bonus: There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government. -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790) archimage (AHR-kuh-mayj) noun A great magician. [From Greek archi- (principal, chief) + Latin magus (magician).] "One of his ancestors, Sweyn Bettercnut, was an archimage who used demons to perform his magic." Charlene Evans; From Asimov, Wishes Better Unwished; Houston Chronicle (Texas); Jul 30, 1989. "Friday some of my Stanford University Turkish friends will respond unfavorably to this essay, as they have in past years. They will explain that an Armenian archimage and his fabricating wand are at it once more, waving up a fairy tale portrayal." Chris Guzelian; Turkey Must Officially Recognize Armenian Genocide; The Stanford Daily (California); Apr 24, 2003. This week's theme: words that aren't what they appear to be. -------- Date: Mon Jul 28 00:01:11 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--desultory X-Bonus: I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone. -Bjarne Stroustrup, computer science professor, designer of C++ programming language (1950- ) desultory (DES-uhl-tor-ee) adjective 1. Marked by absence of a plan; disconnected; jumping from one thing to another. 2. Digressing from the main subject; random. [From Latin desultorius (leaping, pertaining to a circus rider who jumps from one horse to another), from desilire (to leap down), from salire (to jump). Other words derived from the same Latin root (salire) are sally, somersault, insult, result, saute, salient, and our recent friend, saltant.] "The green lobby complained, and the media covered the story in a desultory way, but everyone continued to behave as though there was lots of time." Gwynne Dyer; Climate Change: Not Clear on the Concept; Monday Morning (Beirut, Lebanon); Jul 13, 2003. "For most of the match, the play could be described as either dazzling or desultory." Roy Masters; Origin Hopes Have Hit Man Flannery Going in For the Kill; Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Jun 2, 2003. It's a sign of our historical dependence on horses that our language is filled with terms, idioms, and other references about them. When the locomotive came out, it was called, what else, an iron horse. Today, we use many horse-related terms metaphorically, from horse-trading (hard bargaining) to horse sense (common sense). A political candidate might be a stalking horse (one used to conceal the candidacy of another or to divide votes) while another might turn out to be a dark horse (one who is unexpectedly nominated). One might change horses in midstream (to change opinion in the middle of action) or ride on two horses (have two allegiances or follow two courses) and, in fact, that's how today's word, desultory, came about. Circus riders literally leap from horse to horse or ride two horses together. Earlier they were called desultors. While there are dozens of terms obviously related to horses, there are many many others where the connection is not so apparent. We'll spend a week or two looking at some of these, paying special attention to the etymologies. -Anu (garg AT wordsmith.org) -------- Date: Tue Jul 29 00:01:11 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--equitant X-Bonus: Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by hitting back. -Piet Hein, poet and scientist (1905-1996) equitant (EK-wi-tuhnt) adjective Straddling; overlapping, as the leaves of some plants, such as irises. [From Latin equitant-, stem of equitans, present participle of equitare (to ride), from equit-, stem of eques (horseman), from equus (horse).] A picture of equitant leaves: http://www.life.uiuc.edu/plantbio/digitalflowers/Iridaceae/5.htm "You can shower an equitant orchid daily or even twice daily, but never leave its roots standing in water." Elvin McDonald; Carnation Crisis: The Flowers Have Wilted, But Hope Lives; Chicago Tribune; Jun 4, 1989. This week's theme: words of horse-related origins. -------- Date: Wed Jul 30 00:01:09 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--tattersall X-Bonus: Those who failed to oppose me, who readily agreed with me, accepted all my views, and yielded easily to my opinions, were those who did me the most injury, and were my worst enemies, because, by surrendering to me so easily, they encouraged me to go too far... I was then too powerful for any man, except myself, to injure me. -Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France (1769-1821) tattersall also Tattersall (TAT-uhr-sawl, -suhl) noun 1. A pattern of squares formed by dark lines on a light background. 2. A cloth with this pattern. adjective Having a tattersall pattern. [After Tattersall's, a horse market in London, where such patterns were common on horse blankets. The market was named after Richard Tattersall, an auctioneer (1724-1795).] "Too much? Perhaps. There were moments when the tweed and tattersall layers, puffed with motley fur and mixed with crepe, vintage-print skirts, seemed stuffy and overdreamed." Cathy Horyn; Four Women Swagger In Milan; The New York Times; Mar 5, 2003. "I was futzing with the hinges on the front-yard gate on a Saturday afternoon, my tattersall shirtsleeves rolled up and mind off in Oklahoma, when I noticed Fido in the California shade, snoozing ..." Ron Hansen; My Kid's Dog; Harper's Magazine (New York); Mar 2003. This week's theme: words of horse-related origins. -------- Date: Thu Jul 31 00:01:09 EDT 2003 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--spavined X-Bonus: Say oh wise man how you have come to such knowledge? Because I was never ashamed to confess my ignorance and ask others. -Johann Gottfried Von Herder, critic and poet (1744-1803) spavined (SPAV-ind) adjective 1. Suffering from spavin, a disease involving swelling of hock joints in a horse. 2. Old; decrepit; broken-down. [From Middle English, from Old French espavain (swelling).] "So, you see, we are at the bar off the lobby of the Peace Hotel in Shanghai. At the bandstand is the oldest, most spavined jazz band in existence, playing what is advertised as Dixieland. These guys are so bad they are good." Allan Fotheringham; One Innocent in Shanghai; Maclean's (Toronto, Canada); Oct 23, 2000. "If they ever praise each other's bad drawings, or broken-winded novels, or spavined verses, nobody ever supposed it was from admiration; it was simply a contract between themselves and a publisher or dealer." Oliver Wendell Holmes; The Long Jolt on Public Opinion; The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table; 1858. This week's theme: words of horse-related origins.