Word of the Day. Post it Here

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by Captain Kremmen, Aug 16, 2007.

  1. wegs Matter and Pixie Dust Valued Senior Member

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    Ewww! But, interesting that is where the word “cleaver” comes from, and why meat butchers often use them. I don’t personally own a cleaver.
     
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  3. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    So a meat cleaver could also be called an uncleaver.
     
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  5. geordief Valued Senior Member

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    Someone trying to be a little too cleaver?
     
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  7. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Hashish just means "grass" in Arabic. I remember the sheikh coming to visit our new blending plant in Riyadh, pointing to a patch by the admin block and saying "Fiy hashish."

    But no doubt also means grass in the euphemistic sense too.

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  8. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    So does that mean the Isle of Wight and the Isle of Man have the same meaning?
     
  9. geordief Valued Senior Member

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    Don't think so:
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man

    "The Old Irish form of the name is Manau or Mano. Old Welsh records named it as Manaw, also reflected in Manaw Gododdin, the name for an ancient district in north Britain along the lower Firth of Forth.[22] The oldest known reference to the island calls it Mona, in Latin (Julius Caesar, 54 BC); in the 1st century AD, Pliny the Elder records it as Monapia or Monabia, and Ptolemy (2nd century) as Monœda (Mοναοιδα, Monaoida) or Mοναρινα (Monarina), in Koine Greek. Later Latin references have Mevania or Mænavia (Orosius, 416),[23] and Eubonia or Eumonia by Irish writers. It is found in the Sagas of Icelanders as Mön.[24]"

    In Ireland ,the Bord na Mona is the semi state board overseeing the Peat Industry but that is probably a linguistic coincidence and I doubt that the IoM was renowned for its peat resources at any time.

    Think I may have heard that the Isle of Wight does refer to Man but have no idea why
     
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  10. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    I'm guessing if a cleaver chopped something in half it would NOT be uncleaver in the situation since what it cut apart was a single unit ie not two unit cleaved together

    Chop two units apart, sure you have just used a uncleaver

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  11. geordief Valued Senior Member

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    If a butcher split a cow's cloven hoof it would be an unclovener.

    Or if they split two hooves that were tied together (unless they just used a knife)
     
  12. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    Looked it up

    Cloven hoof is (middle) two toes which have grown to be the main supporting digits of the animal

    The two have not become one ie one has not withered away while the other gained (but they have fused (or cloven together). The space between the two claws is called the interdigital cleft

    The outer digits have withered away but not totally disappeared

    From Wikipedia
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clo... hoof, cleft hoof,, gazelles, goats and sheep.

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  13. wegs Matter and Pixie Dust Valued Senior Member

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    Cleave also means to stick, bind together, adhere to, stay very close.

    He was cleaving to her, for they were now one, and nothing could tear them apart.

    ** ~~ Cue dramatic music ~~**
     
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  14. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    I was just thinking about that the other day. (I have a rich, full life, don't I?) A so-called "cloven hoof" isn't cut apart; it's stuck together. Now that we know the other meaning of "cleave", it makes sense.
     
  15. geordief Valued Senior Member

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  16. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    Huh is more a what

    Hrmph more I don't think so

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  17. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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  18. geordief Valued Senior Member

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  19. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    You caught the smell of that also

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  20. geordief Valued Senior Member

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    Is midwifery the study of the Little Women of the Middle Earth?
     
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  21. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    Certainly sounds like it would be correct reasoning

    It's currently 01:30 Friday 21 Oct and my hospital provided wake up phone call will happen about 08:30. I should be able to manage some sleep before then

    So I took the opportunity to look up the origin of the word

    Mrs Wikipedia gives

    The word derives from Old English mid, "with", and wif, "woman", and thus originally meant "with-woman", that is, the person who is with the woman (mother) at childbirth.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid...derives from Old,woman (mother) at childbirth.

    I found out there is no male version of the word, but since the meaning is the person who is with the woman (mother) at childbirth how could there be?

    I was very content to be called Midwife when I graduated

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  22. geordief Valued Senior Member

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    Remember when I worked in Scotland...the women were familiarly called "wifeys"
     
  23. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    Wouldn't that be "entwifery"?
     

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