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AWADmail Issue 541

A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day and Other Tidbits about Words and Language


From: Edie Bonferraro (edieb mailbug.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--emulous
Def: 1. Eager to imitate, equal, or to surpass another. 2. Jealous or envious.

You wrote:

In olden times, people were named according to what they did: Potter, Smith, Miller, and so on. Sometimes they were named for their qualities: Goodman, Wise, etc.

My married name does both: Bonferraro: Good blacksmith. :)

Edie Bonferraro, Rochester, New York


From: Mark W. (markwdp yahoo.com)
Subject: vegete
Def: Lively; active; vigorous.

Funny that it's the base word in a character in dragonball Vegeta, who represents practically infinite vigor.

Mark W., Chicago, Illinois


Email of the Week -- (Brought to you by Oneupmanship -- Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a real loser.)

From: Nalini Sankaranarayanan (NaliniS nds.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--nonesuch
Def: A person or thing without an equal.

This brings to mind the novel The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer. Also, who can forget the hilarious Royal Nonesuch by the King and the Duke in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

Nalini Sankaranarayanan, Bengaluru, India


From: Steve Fry (sfry state-journal.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--nonesuch

Nonesuch is also a place name here in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky.

Steve Fry, Frankfort, Kentucky


From: Clover Batts (bellbatts yahoo.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--nonesuch

There is a limestone cave in Jamaica named Nonsuch.

Clover Batts, Winter Park, Florida


From: Danuta Charland (charland bu.edu)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--nonesuch

Find it of an interest and muze myself by the Nonesuch River that flows in Maine.

Danuta Charland, Boston, Massachusetts


From: David Ferrier (ferrierd shaw.ca)
Subject: nonesuch

The name of the Edmonton unit of the Canadian Naval Reserve is HMCS Nonsuch. For many years I believed the name "non-such" meant the unit had no vessel. Thanks to today's AWAD, I now know the true meaning of the name.

David Ferrier, Edmonton, Canada


From: Susan Saunders (susansaunders2008 btinternet.com)
Subject: Nonesuch

I live near Hampton Court Palace, a beautiful building 'given' to King Henry VIII by Cardinal Wolsey, and extended by the king and his successors. I and many others enjoy visiting Hampton Court today. However, King Henry planned and partly had built an even grander palace at Cheam in Surrey, known, because of its magnificence, as Nonsuch Palace, even though it was still unfinished when the King died in 1547. It was completed, but never lived in for long, unlike Hampton Court, and about 140 years later was given by Charles II to Lady Castlemaine, his mistress, who had it pulled down and the materials sold to pay gambling debts. When I was a child, we knew Nonsuch Park, but never knew there had been a palace there, as the site is now all grassed over. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Susan Saunders, Teddington, UK


A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
For me, words are a form of action, capable of influencing change. -Ingrid Bengis, writer and teacher (b. 1944)

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