Word of the Day. Post it Here

exchemist said:
My father told me his Yorkshireman grandfather had a cat called Henry Richard Plumbub Straightedge Naomi Whitworth Binns. He kept a shop and this cat had a crucial role as mouser.

If I ever get a cat, I think I shall call it Tibshelf, after a bizarrely named motorway service station on the M1.
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“Tibby,” as a nickname.
 
wegs said:
Nebula

A nebula is a distinct part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. The word also refers to a galaxy other than the Milky Way. (taken from MiriamWebster.com)

Used in a sentence - We were eventually able to see the nebula through the telescope. The closest known nebula to Earth, is the Helix-Nebula.

In English, the word “nebulous” has evolved to describe things that aren’t clear or well-defined, like how a cloud can sometimes obscure our visibility. It’s also used to describe abstract concepts and ideas.

I think “Helix Nebula” would be a great name for a cat, actually.
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I think that is how galaxies were discovered.They were nebulous (ie ,cloudy) appearing small regions in the sky that were later revealed to be galaxies in the same way as our own.

Before then it was presumably assumed that there was just the one galaxy so it must have been quite an eye opener when each of those squidgy dots turned out to be on its own as big as everything that had already been discovered.
 
Broker vs brook (criticism)

I have come across the follwing sentence on the reputable BBC site.

"His critics, of course, responded that the low crime rate was achieved through intimidation, that Castro’s Cuba was – and still remains – a police state which brokered no criticism of its communist-led government, and which rode roughshod over its opponents’ human rights"


www.bbc.com

Cuba's crime rate soars, fuelled by gang crime and drugs

Fidel Castro once said Cuba was the world's safest nation. Now police can't keep the streets safe.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

My first instinct was to think that this was a software generated error and that the intention had been to write " police state which brooked no criticism...." (it being the first time I had come scross it)

However ,a quick search online has showed me that "broker" is indeed used in this sense and so "correct".

Is the use of "broker" in this phrase likely to be a corruption of "brook"? (it does seem as if it may be a lot more common to use "brook" than "broker" but I don't have the numbers to compare )
 
geordief said:
However ,a quick search online has showed me that "broker" is indeed used in this sense and so "correct
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Citation? I've never heard it used that way either. I find only definitions that are synonymous with 'arranged'.

Brooked fits better, as it is synonymous with 'tolerated'.
 
DaveC426913 said:
Citation? I've never heard it used that way either. I find only definitions that are synonymous with 'arranged'.

Brooked fits better, as it is synonymous with 'tolerated'.
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Well the BBC article was the first time I saw it.
So I typed in "brokers no criticism" into google

Ie https://www.google.com/search?q="brokers+no+criticism"&client=ms-android-samsung-rev2&sca_esv=02c44965d6d4b280&sca_upv=1&source=android-browser&sxsrf=ADLYWIJhjaocFxjbviKXbgEBkIi9HSCrDg:1727261825412&ei=gezzZvXyGJHAhbIPgNrI-A4&oq="brokers+no+criticism"&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwIhYiYnJva2VycyBubyBjcml0aWNpc20iMggQABgWGAoYHjILEAAYgAQYhgMYigUyCxAAGIAEGIYDGIoFMgsQABiABBiGAxiKBTIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAFIyRhQgxNYgxNwAXgBkAEAmAGZAaABmQGqAQMwLjG4AQPIAQD4AQGYAgKgAoMCwgIKEAAYsAMY1gQYR5gDAIgGAZAGCJIHAzEuMaAHrAU&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp

and there was more than one page of results on my phone ,most very recent

eg https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/spyware/

North and South Essay Questions

North and South study guide contains a biography of author Elizabeth Gaskell, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.
www.gradesaver.com www.gradesaver.com

and https://dailytrust.com/frsc-and-its-licensing-fiascos/

where the passage reads "FRSC brokers no criticism of their failure despite all their innovations appearing to be exercises in self promotion and revenue generation rather than serious attempts to drastically reduce accidents on our highways."

where that particular phrase is used.
There must be countless others so it seems to have been accepted.

It feels wrong (meaningless inless you already know the "brooks" usage and yet it is there

I wonder how long this usage has existed?

Maybe it happened when economics became a sexy preoccupation with the general population (well my father studied economics but it seems to be the number one preoccupation in general elections these days even though we are supposedly better off)
 
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on·o·mat·o·poe·ia
/ˌänəˌmädəˈpēə,ˌänəˌmadəˈpēə/
noun

  1. the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g. cuckoo, sizzle ).
    "a relatively large number of bird names arise by onomatopoeia"
    • the use of onomatopoeia for literary effect.
      "the language in her picture books is notable for its playfulness and onomatopoeia
 
Gawdzilla Sama said:
on·o·mat·o·poe·ia
/ˌänəˌmädəˈpēə,ˌänəˌmadəˈpēə/
noun

  1. the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g. cuckoo, sizzle ).
    "a relatively large number of bird names arise by onomatopoeia"
    • the use of onomatopoeia for literary effect.
      "the language in her picture books is notable for its playfulness and onomatopoeia
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Yes "onoma(ato)" means "name" in Greek and "poeia" is related to "poein" ="to make" from which the english word "poem" is derived (explained to the my class some 60 years ago).

What is not onomatopoeic is the norwegian expression "god fart" which means "safe journey" and not some kind of a smelly expletive.:)

("fare (thee) well" presumably meant "travel well" once and we have "thorougfare" "fareway" etc etc)
 
When the production company was filming an early John Wayne movie a German company "hitched a ride" so to speak by sharing costs so as to be allowed to shoot along with the US producers. Prof. Randy Roberts, Purdue, discussed this in his class on film history.

The US name was "The Big Trail".

The German's called their product "Die Grosse Farht."

I giggled too much in class, sorry.
 
geordief said:
where the passage reads "FRSC brokers no criticism of their failure despite all their innovations appearing to be exercises in self promotion and revenue generation rather than serious attempts to drastically reduce accidents on our highways."

where that particular phrase is used.
There must be countless others so it seems to have been accepted.

It feels wrong (meaningless inless you already know the "brooks" usage and yet it is there

I wonder how long this usage has existed?
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I don't know. I am not a fan of the "usage == accepted" method of new word grading. I grant the evolution of language, I guess I just set my bar higher than that.

I haven't found any dictionary definition that offers this one.

Just because some people have used it doesn't make it right. Otherwise we'd be buried in a mountain of lexical monstrosities like "supposably" and "per say".

Sometimes (especially in the 21st century), people are just wrong.
 
exchemist said:
I think it's more (or also?) route or path, isn't it? I believe a trip out is "ausfahrt" and Ascension Day is Himmelfahrt.
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I'll go with the posted signs on the autobahn. I once had a job for the USN that required I do strange things to strange people in strange places and the indoctrination included a sign that said "25 Fahrt". It could be read as "Go fünfundzwanzig fahrt."?
 
DaveC426913 said:
I don't know. I am not a fan of the "usage == accepted" method of new word grading. I grant the evolution of language, I guess I just set my bar higher than that.

I haven't found any dictionary definition that offers this one.

Just because some people have used it doesn't make it right. Otherwise we'd be buried in a mountain of lexical monstrosities like "supposably" and "per say".

Sometimes (especially in the 21st century), people are just wrong.
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Or ,like the broken clock or the scientific crank they will eventually be right.

There is a site that lists when a word came to be first used and how often it was used down the years after that but I don't think phrases or idioms are listed and so I have no idea when this "broker no criticism" thing started.

The instances I saw were recent .

If it is classed as an error ,could it be a kind of malapropism?
 
Broken (i.e. "stopped") clocks are never right because keeping time is a progression. They can make no claim as to "getting it right!"
 
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