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AWADmail Issue 170

A Weekly Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages

From: Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org)
Subject: Wordsmith online chat

Next month: Discuss evolution of language with Guy Deutscher, author of The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention. August 20, 2005, 11 AM Pacific [GMT -7].

See you there!

From: Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org)
Subject: Interesting stories from the net

It's Back to the Drawling Bard:
timesonline.co.uk

The Last Comanche Code Talker Dies:
twincities.com

I'm Not Female, Hear Me Roar:
smh.com.au

From: Mike Pope (mpopeATmicrosoft.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--pantheon

It was Milton, I believe, who coined a kind of antonym to "pantheon," namely pandemonium, the capital for denizens of the underworld and by extension, I suppose, it has come to mean the type of environment one might expect of such a place. Not that we say "pantheon broke out" or the like. :-)

From: Mary Feeney (mmfeeneyATaol.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--lido

I intuited its British meaning from having spent 6 months in Malta, but I always thought it simply meant "beach" in Italian because in our seaside neighborhood the lido was the private Italian beach. It featured a spa-like enclosure filled with sea water.

I'll never forget the sight of two Italian ladies in their 60s, with turbans, sunglasses, and big earrings, relaxing on inner tubes with a tray floating in front of them, talking and gesticulating while drinking espresso. La dolce vita indeed!

From: Barry McSweeney (barry.mcsweeneyAToceanfree.net) Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--palatine

In Ireland the Palatine community are descendants of people who historically came from the Rheinland-Pfalz region of Germany in 1709 to settle in County Limerick. Many Palatine surnames survive in the local community, such as Orr, Bovenizer, Muller, Teskey, etc.

From: Stannous Flouride (stanflourideATsbcglobal.net)
Subject: Ahh Roma!

A few years ago I spent two months in Roma before and after working at an archeological dig down near Cumae (west of Napoli). These words have brought back those wonderful memories. I felt rich with time, able to spend an entire day in one museum if I chose and then to go back later if I wanted. I will never travel any other way again and am looking forward to spending two months in Paris next spring.

From: Lee Duncan (leeclevercatATaol.com)
Subject: smoking (re: Pantheon

Reading about the smokers of Italy reminded me of a Canadian comedian who says that "People smoke in Quebec as if it's a cure for cancer."

From: Emily Bott (palakaAThawaii.rr.com)
Subject: cigarettes

In Athens I asked the head waiter in the hotel dining room for a table in the no-smoking section. He simply removed the ash tray from my table. Yecch!

A closed mind is like a closed book: just a block of wood. -Chinese Proverb