Word of the Day. Post it Here

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

  1. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    I found this definition of "Baroque" on Answers.com

    It didn't quote the author, which seems a bit rough,
    but he's obviously a smart bod.
    It has three words which I wasn't sure about.
    (probably more, but I don't want to look too stupid)
    Encomia, Catafalque and Epithalamia.


    ....................."By this account, baroque designates art and architecture from c. 1580 to c. 1750, and is a proselytizing Catholic art and grandiose power statement adopted by kings, emperors, popes, and other aspiring absolutists. Its multimedia forms were thought to be monumental, exuberant, unstable, theatrical, and metamorphic. Its psychology was self-aware, mystical, manipulative, melodramatic, and playful. Its subjects ranged from the abject to the sublime, from caricatures to idealized portraits, from sexualized ecstasies to bloody dismemberings. Its modes of expression were encomia, catafalques, and epithalamia; its key symbols the mask, the labyrinth, and the telescope and microscope."

    Encomia: lavish praise
    From Greek enkomium, a speech praising a victory

    Catafalque: A decorated platform on which a coffin rests during the funeral of a very important person.
    From Latin Catafalca

    Epithalamia: An ode celebrating a wedding.
    From Greek Epithalamios, of a wedding.
     
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  3. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    He's probably an employee or under contract to the website. I know from experience that underlings never get credit for their profound thinking or their masterful writing.
    Good for you for giving us the definitions and etymologies! Three more in one day. You get bonus points for that.
    You never look stupid for admitting that you don't know something. But it is really easy to look stupid for pretending you do when you don't. I think it was Commander Data on Star Trek:TNG who said the following, although he was probably quoting some famous scientist and philosopher like Lord Kelvin:
    My wife, an unsung philosopher herself, says that religion is the precise opposite of science. Men invent religions, she says, so that we will never, ever, have to answer a question with "I don't know."

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    As a musician, I think of baroque music, the 17th-century school of what we now call early "classical" music. As Wikipedia defines it, "The final period of dominance of imitative counterpoint, where different voices and instruments echo each other but at different pitches, sometimes inverting the echo, and even reversing thematic material." In Bach's music, coming at the end of the Baroque era, I hear a bridge between it and the styles that followed it. Wiki gives a pretty fair description of the entire baroque movement, speaking to its inspirations as well as its forms.
    And since this thread demands an etymology:

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  5. Oli Heute der Enteteich... Registered Senior Member

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    In addition to which, baroque has now taken on the further meaning of over-gilded, or tweaked to the point of uselessness.
    E.g. Mary Kaldor's book The Baroque Arsenal.
    In architecture it's sometimes used as a derogatory epithet.

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  7. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    I've found the original author and it is a man called Philip Sohm.
    One of his books on Amazon which had an rrp of £40 is now offered for sale at over £265 from two different sellers.
    (I might try the library)

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-li...4295137?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188575909&sr=1-2

    You don't have to read much of his stuff before realising that he has something special to say. I don't mind people who talk like a walking dictionary, so long as what they have to say is worth the effort.
     
  8. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    It was the Catholic reply to Puritanism.
    Over the top certainly.
    The more gold, the more scrolls and intricacies the better.

    In these days of swedish furniture,
    Feng Shui ,and anti-clutter,
    it couldn't be more out of fashion.
     
  9. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    33,264
    "Elevision

    The act of people in an elevator staring up, uncomfortably, at the numbers as they light up when the car moves. Practiced out of nervousness.

    When the elevator began moving, silence ensued as each person practiced their elevision."
     
  10. draqon Banned Banned

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    35,006
    obsession
     
  11. Oli Heute der Enteteich... Registered Senior Member

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    Aaaaargh! Ikea! Noooooo!
     
  12. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    "couching distance"

    "The distance one can reach without leaving the couch or sofa.

    That job is too far; it's not within couching distance.

    I can't reach the remote control because it's not in couching distance."
     
  13. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Hmm? If that's your contribution, you have to provide the definition and etymology. And since it's a common word we'll expect you to put a very interesting slant on it.

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  14. shorty_37 Go! Canada Go! Registered Senior Member

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    Bullshit

    A bulls feces

    What come's out of many ppl's mouths when they speak

    Its what you have to deal with at work most days
     
  15. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    A familiar word, with a good etymology

    Dapple
    A spot on an animal is the earlier meaning, though it has been extended to describe an area of irregular shadow, as in 'a dappled orchard'.

    Etymology
    Icelandic depill (a spot or dot; a dog with spots over its eyes is also called a depill). The original sense is 'a little pool' from Norse dapi (a pool), allied to the Danish dialect duppa (a hole where water collects), and Swedish dialect depp (a pool).

    From
    http://www.viking.no/e/england/e-viking_words_2.htm

    Depill would be a good name to use for a dog with spots over its eyes.
     
  16. redarmy11 Registered Senior Member

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    Oomlaters, n. Very large Chumbawambas.
     
  17. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    And what, pray tell, is a "Chumbawamba" of merely ordinary size?
     
  18. redarmy11 Registered Senior Member

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    A patent nonsense.
     
  19. Pandaemoni Valued Senior Member

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    3,634
    Smoot
    A unit of length equal to 5 feet, 7 inches.

    Etymology

    This unit was invented by students at MIT, based on the height of their classmate, Oliver Smoot (class of '62). The length of the Harvard Bridge in Boston is famously 364.4 smoots plus an ear (the ear is allegedly the width of the earhole in the side of the football helmet the victim was wearing when he was rolled over the bridge). This measurement was made (and the unit invented) as a result of a fraternity prank in 1958 during which Oliver Smoot was actually used to measure out that distance. It is commemorated by smoot marks that MIT students repaint every few years; the tradition even survived the demolition and rebuilding of the bridge in the late 1980s. The Boston police have been known to use smoot markers to indicate accident locations on the bridge. Apparently Smoot's experience as a unit of measurement led to a life-long career; he eventually became Chairman of the Board of the American National Standards Institute, and later President of the International Organization for Standardization.
     
  20. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    This is a Sticky, so please don't forget the rules. We've got the definition of all of these words, so now please give us some etymologies, at least for a couple of them. That might be challenging because the website you copied this from doesn't list them.

    Profanity, even soft profanity, is discouraged on this subforum because by its nature it attracts people from many countries who have diverse cultural standards and I don't want to scare them off. However, we can discuss and analyze soft profanity because that is linguistics. Etymologies will be satisfactory.

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  21. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    "errorist"

    " Someone who repeatedly makes mistakes. Says stuff he believes is true, but anyone with common sense can see he's wrong. A dumbass.

    Bush is talking on tv again. What a fucking errorist."
     
  22. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    It could just apply to his use of the language.
     
  23. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    It wasn't a post of a new word
    it was an answer to your question about what the original post by redarmy meant.
    I deliberately chose a piece with fairly inoffensive synonyms,
    but yes you are correct and it is possible that someone particularly sensitive could find them upsetting.
    Deletion probably best.
    I'm not here to scare people off.
     
    Last edited: Sep 4, 2007

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