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Searching for: +path:about-words +(+date:aug +date:2002)
Viewing 1-25 of 131 matches from 36,116,086 documents1 2 3 4 5 6 | Next
1. Re: Idlewild (& Idlewood) [1]
There are quite a few places in the US named, variously, Idlewild,-e, -wylde, & Idylwild, -e, Idyllwild, -e, etc. Regarding the forms, compare Idlewood, Idylwood, etc. I have not been able to find these placenames anywhere in Canada, Great Britain or Ireland, so they appear to be Americanism. Idyl-, Idyll- probably shows a popular confusion of idle & idyll (the literary form), aided, perhaps by the Old English forms given below, & the entry of the word 'idyllic' into English. Like Idlewood, which seems
2. RE: hard of hearing [1]
> I was reflecting on the strange structure of the phrase > "hard of hearing", referring to hearing problems. ... > If my eyesight is problematic, I don't say, "hard of seeing". > Bob Taxin But you might say: gravel-blind adj. 1. having dim vision. [1590-1600] < Hebrew aiyin-yod-vav-resh [GR]iVa:R = blind based on an aiyin = GR/CR parallel. HaRD of hearing < het-yod-resh-shin XiRa:[D] = deaf based on the ancient T/D dental sound for the shin. [SHeN = tooth, cognate with Latin DeNs] My father often
3. Re: Iterate [1]
On Thursday, August 29, 2002, at 12:48 AM, margl wrote: > DERFB1@aol.com wrote: > > (. I still hear newscasters say > irregardless. There ain't no such word). > > Fred > > Who decided whether there is a word or not? If a lot of people use > it and the rest of us understand the meaning it is a word. This is > how language evolves. If it ain't in the dictionary, it ain't a word. Surely you have played Scrabble? ^+^\ (Actually my spell checker throws an error on "ain't" -- Guess I better train
4. Re: Redoubling (Re: Irritating fairy tales) [1]
----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger Hill" < > In the nursery they might just go bye-byes. > > 'Go bye-byes' in French: 'aller au do-do' > (a 'redoublement' of the initial element > of Fr 'DOrmir' = to sleep, > 'aller au..' = go to..' > > That's Fr do-do, not Eng do-do/doo-doo, > redoubling 'do' < just do it. And for those unfamiliar with French pronunciation, that would be pronounced 'doh-doh', to match the pronunciation of dormir: dohr meer'. dayle
5. Factoid abuse, fillers, airy nothings (Re: Words that have been misconstrued by the popular Media) [1]
CNN institutionalized the abuse of 'factoid' with its hourly factoid feature. The CNN factoid was nothing more than a factette, the kind of thing that used to appear in newspapers of yesteryear as a 'filler' -- to fill a smidgen of unused space at the bottom of a column here and there. 'CNN trivia' would be a better description of what that yawn-off of an organization does. The OED, erroneously in my opinion, credits the coinage of 'factoid' to Norman Mailer. I'd say credit Dwight MacDonald in his Esquire
6. -nesia, -mnesia (Re: Infonesia) [1]
An infonesiac in Bali is an indonesiac -- ? Actually, as they used to say . . . In 'amnesia' the 'a-' is privative; the rest of it derives from 'mnasthai' = to remember -- remember? An 'amnesty' is spoz'd to be a forgetting before a forgiving. So for pedantry's sake, infonesiacs will have render their condition as infoMnesia, rather; if they can remember all those letters, that is. Roger --- Harshawardhan Nimkhedkar wrote: > I found this in an e-zine for internet newbies. > > Quote --- > > Infonesia i
7. Re: hard of hearing [1]
Wasn't Robert asking about structure? 'Hard of hearing' is prepositional where 'short-sighted' or 'near-sighted' are compound adjectives. 'Hard of + noun' paraphrases as 'hard for (x) to + verb'. So 'They are hard of hearing' = 'It is hard for them to hear'. In Early Modern English: 'We are hard of belief' = 'It is hard for us to believe' Analogy sometimes provides (and only sometimes): Few are likely to say 'short of sight' or 'near of sight', but Paul Robeson sang 'tired of living, scared of
8. Re: Mr. Sandman [1]
I always identified Mr. Sandman with the sandy grit you find in the corners (and lower lids) of your eyes when you wake up....as well as the gritty feeling when I and my eyes are very tired. dayle ----- Original Message ----- From: > No No--it's OK. > > And Sammy Davis, Jr. would turn over in his grave if we got rid of the > idea--Mr. Sandman was one of his most famous hits. > > Sometimes, when I was a little kid, and it was getting late, I would get so > tired listening to the grown
9. Tongue Twisters [1]
"How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?" "Three short sword sheaths." And many more here: http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/en.htm -- Just because I have a short attention span doesn't mean I You are visitor number one.
10. Tighter than a Tick [1]
We went out to dinner at one of the Casinos for my birthday yesterday eve. We were with another couple and after eating we played the games. A remark was made that the slots were "tighter than a tick". We discussed the remark on the way home. I believe it is due to the fact that a tick will pull blood out of an animal and gorge itself until is about ready to "pop" hence "tighter than a tick". Does that seem to be the answer? Fred In warm Las Vegas
11. Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names [1]
Thank you, Totally funny. Fred Barber In cooling down Las Vegas
12. Re: Re and re- [1]
For the same reason the dictionary shows public and republic - these are words having many different meanings not connected necessarily to each other. Words not shown in the dictionary are those where "re" simply adds tthe meaning "again" to the original word. Anything else, gramps? Bruce. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lee Quinn" To: Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2002 2:43 PM Subject: Re: Re and re- > > Oh yeh! > > Why does my dictionary show "pub
13. The horse's mouth [1]
You can tell the age of a horse by its teeth--the teeth never lie. My granddad raised lots of horses in his time--he could tell within +4 or 5 months the year a horse was born. Fred B In warm Las Vegas (111 F right now and it is 6:30 PM) ================== > > Can anybody enlighten me about the phrase "This is coming straight from the > horse's mouth" ? > > So it means a rumor that you get from an insider source, but just what was > in that horse's mouth originally? Thinking about it conjures up som
14. Idle appeal (Re: More idle) [1]
Keyword you missed in '75 places' was 'places'. With your usual pedestrianism you also miss a more interesting point by a couple of thousand light years; namely, or place-namely, Idlewild's popular appeal. Like, the masses dig that element Idle-, don't you know, so what is the nature that appeal? Just a few Florida counties have six places tagged either Idlewild, Idylwild, or Idlewilde, including an Idle Wild Airport. Fla has a Lake Idle, too. Maryland has seven Idlewilds or variants thereof, and three
15. Re: more idle [1]
Roger says - > > With your usual pedestrianism you also > miss a more interesting point by a couple of > thousand light years; namely, or place-namely, > Idlewild's popular appeal. > Thank you for your belittling and sarcastic remark. It says a lot about your personality. Roger, do you think it is possible to share our information and knowledge, with a little understanding that we are not all as intelligent as you make yourself out to be? I'm sorry I bore you, Roger. That can be fixed easily. Bruce.
16. Re: re-sent vs resent [1]
On Wednesday, August 28, 2002, at 01:42 PM, cristobal wrote: > One of the cardinal rules of communication largely ignored (or lost?) > to > modern style is avoidance of the first person pronouns. When sentences > are > recast to affect a higher tone, many other faults seem to correct > themselves in due course. Uhh... What do you mean by that? -- Just because I have a short attention span doesn't mean I You are visitor num
17. Re: Schoolyard [1]
> My dictionary shows Schoolyard as one word for Canada and the USA. > > However schoolyard is not used in the UK. > > I believe the word "yard" has a slightly different meaning there, than it > does here in the Colonies. > In Britain a yard is always a paved area, never a lawn or garden. But I don't think that difference affects the meaning of "schoolyard," unless the colonial definition is quite different from what I'm thinking of. I went to school in Lancashire - we always referred to the playground as
18. Surname Idle (Re: Idlewild (& Idlewood)) [1]
'Geography' says 75 places in the U.S. are named Idlewild. Langdale's 'Topographical Dictionary of Yorkshire' lists the village of Idle, West Riding, near Bradford. Ireland: A lakeside cottage in Londonderry, N. Ireland, named Idlewild. Derived from -- ? I.e., no reason to assume that an Irish cottage named Idlewild is a source of trans-Atlantic placenames. Surname IDLE: Idle 1. English: habitation name from a place in W. Yorks., perhaps named with a derivative of OE 'idel'. OE 'idel'
19. Diamond dust, then and now [1]
A lyrical weather observer on the web describes the visual effect of 'diamond dust', not from De Beers or Andy Warhol but as ice crystals falling from a clear sky in late afternoon sunlight, and 'sun pillars' formed by the crystals 'dancing in low skies' -- in winter, somewhere on the Canadian scene. Elswhere, Austria: '...sundogs ... produced by ice crystals called 'diamond dust' in very cold air at ground level. The name arises because individual crystals are sometimes so close that they glint and fla
20. 'repurpose' [1]
The following post was posted on another email list (wwwac, a web developers list), where someone replied and told me that 'about-words' is a much more appropriate list for this type of question. So here I am and here's my post :) ### I got into an argument earlier tonight with a friend of mine who expressed outrage at the existance of the word 'Repurpose'. Her argument was that since 'purpose' is not a verb, sticking a 're-' prefix on it does not make it a verb, ergo the word should probably not e
21. Hebrew origin of Indo-European ? [1]
> Here we go again with the almost-but-not-quite > would-be Hebrew origin of Indo-European. Just for the record, izzy has *never* proposed a "Hebrew origin for IE". What is commonly called Hebrew (by most linguists) is far too recent to be a precursor of IE. Izzy *does* believe in the monogenesis of language and therefore does believe in the existence of a common precursor for IE and AA (Afro-Asiatic) languages. This is generally known as the Nostratic hypothesis, of which several varieties exist. If
22. Words not in dictionary [1]
Bruce, They have also left out "marginal man". It is in my old 1956 dictionary, but not in my 1994. Brobdingnagian is still there. Fred > > Here are a few words I came across in my readings this past > couple of weeks - none of them are in Merriam-Webster's 3rd > Unabridged. > > truckwise > > cyberflick > > semisheer > > tiptoer > > > And so it goes. > > Bruce.
23. Re: Idlewild ? [1]
Greater Dublin, The Boyne Valley, Idle Wilde Evidently it is Irish--my search rendered the above and talked about a cafe. There is a mountain area in southern Calif. called that as well. It is near San Jacinto Mountain i
24. Infonesia [1]
I found this in an e-zine for internet newbies. Quote --- Infonesia is the inability to remember where you saw or heard an item of information. The condition is usually temporary but can recur frequently, and is more common in "information societies." Possibly the most pernicious form of infonesia is Webinternesia, which is the inability to remember which Web site you saw an item of information on. A person who is racking their brain to remember the information source could properly be termed an infones
25. Re: Re and re- [1]
Oh yeh! Why does my dictionary show "publican" and "republican?" GrampsQ, with a shy smile ============================== At 01:38 PM 8/28/02 -0400, "Bruce Todd" wrote: >Merriam Webster gives three cases when one would use re- instead >of re when adding this prefix to a word - > >1 - when the word is capitalized - i.e., re-Christianize > >2 - when the word could be confused with another word, as re-sent >vs resent > >3 - when the word already has a "re" element attached, as >re-reco
Viewing 1-25 of 131 matches from 36,116,086 documents1 2 3 4 5 6 | Next

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