Seldom-Used Words

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We call it the War of 1812 too. Here it is considered to be an unnecessary and pointless war, a diversion when we were significantly engaged fighting Napoleon in Europe.

C S Forester's Hornblower was based on the naval officer, Rear Admiral George Cockburn, who burned Washington, but because Forester had a significant following in the US, he sent the fictional Hornblower elsewhere. :D


*grins*

We know Rear Admiral George Cockburn et al quite well in these parts.


 
Fascinating reading, gentlemen. I am learning more about a war that happened right here in our Nation's Capitol, than ever before. (I had researched the Battle of New Orleans with Andrew Jackson, when I was choosing that city for the birthplace of the heroine in my books, so I had heard of Cockburn.) Finding out that Jefferson sold 6,000 books from his personal collection to replace the ones lost, when the British burned the Library of Congress, was a real treat. The truth about who saved Washington's portrait was also good to know. Wikipedia is a wonderful research tool. Thanks for posting the links, Og and Trysail.

Another word from Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All;

flibbertigibbet - noun a silly restless person
 
ACEPHALOUS

1: lacking a head or having the head reduced
2: lacking a governing head or chief
 
JackLuis, my grown children have gotten me hooked on Dexter, so when I saw your word, I immediatley thought about him as an acephalator, or a person who beheads.

A great word my mother loved to use;

pronto - adj QUICKLY
 
JackLuis, my grown children have gotten me hooked on Dexter, so when I saw your word, I immediately thought about him as an acephalator, or a person who beheads.

A great word my mother loved to use;

pronto - adj QUICKLY

I discovered a truly terrible, modern, word: Infomercial

I presume it is a portmanteau word from Information, and Commercial.
I make the assumption that it is a way of getting round Rules about "Advertisement" ("It's not an advert; it's an informercial, as it informs more that it advertises"), and other lies.
 
Yes, Handley, infomercials are the late night viewing options for most cable channels across the U.S. The list of products they are informing a person about is too long to contemplate, but I have seen plenty of useless information/commercial advertisements out there.

promiscuous - adj 1. consisting of a hetergeneous mixture 2. not restricted to one class, sort, or person; specif: not restricted to one sexual partner 3. CASUAL, IRREGULAR
 
Chesapeake had always been an unlucky ship. She was the only one of the first six frigates that their designer, Joshua Humphreys, disavowed because of the alterations made to her plan during construction. Unlike the other frigates, which were rated 44 guns, Chesapeake was rated a 36.

Thirty-six guns was a standard, especially in the Royal Navy, armament for frigates---though ships carrying as few as 28 guns could be rated as frigates, and "post ships" carrying as few as 20 guns were sometimes called "frigates".

The five forty-fours mentioned above were sometimes called the American "super-frigates"---not only because of their armament, but because of their extraordinarily sturdy construction. One of them was the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides"), now berthed in Boston Harbor and the oldest frigate still in commission. (I have trod her decks, and I hope someday to tread those of HMS Victory.)

These super-frigates were the inception of a principal followed by the US Navy from then through the Second World War: Don't worry about speed; if your warships are heavily armed and armored, they will be able to go where they please. An enemy will, sooner or later, have to face them at a disadvantage or give up an important objective.
 
Thirty-six guns was a standard, especially in the Royal Navy, armament for frigates---though ships carrying as few as 28 guns could be rated as frigates, and "post ships" carrying as few as 20 guns were sometimes called "frigates".

The five forty-fours mentioned above were sometimes called the American "super-frigates"---not only because of their armament, but because of their extraordinarily sturdy construction. One of them was the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides"), now berthed in Boston Harbor and the oldest frigate still in commission. (I have trod her decks, and I hope someday to tread those of HMS Victory.)

These super-frigates were the inception of a principal followed by the US Navy from then through the Second World War: Don't worry about speed; if your warships are heavily armed and armored, they will be able to go where they please. An enemy will, sooner or later, have to face them at a disadvantage or give up an important objective.

The number of guns on ships of the time were notional. A 36 gun ship might actually carry over 40 guns including bow and stern chasers, but the rating of 36 meant an 'establishment' of crew and equipment that was standard for ships of that classification. Whether the establishment was actually carried? The establishment was what should have been on board. It could be more or less than the recommended figures.

The US 'super-frigates' were not slow. American ship designers for that class of ship were the best in the world at that time, combining greater defensive and offensive capacities with at least equal or even a higher speed than their rivals. They had another advantage - operating close to their ports they didn't have to carry as much stores and equipment as the British ships so were lighter, and because they spent less time at sea their bottoms were cleaner, making equivalent ships faster even without the designers' skill.

The 'super-frigates' could not fight a ship-of-the-line but they didn't have to. They could outrun any ship-of-the-line on any wind less than a hurricane. In a hurricane fighting a sailing ship was impossible.

Nor were US battleships of WW2 for example slower than their rivals. The Royal Navy made a disastrous mistake with battlecruisers pre WW1. They were intended to be armed sufficiently to deal easily with any opponent who could match their speed, and fast enough to keep out of the way of battleships. The designers of battleships soon made them as fast as battlecruisers, making the battlecruisers vulnerable because their armour could not withstand the firepower of battleships and could no longer outrun them. Jutland showed that battlecruisers were a flawed idea.

Most US battleships and cruisers of WW2 were as heavily armoured as British equivalents and were as fast. The only British ships with a significant advantage over their US equivalents were the fleet aircraft carriers. The Royal Navy's carriers had armoured flight decks which coped better with Japanese Kamikaze attacks
 
The Royal Navy made a disastrous mistake with battlecruisers pre WW1. They were intended to be armed sufficiently to deal easily with any opponent who could match their speed, and fast enough to keep out of the way of battleships. The designers of battleships soon made them as fast as battlecruisers, making the battlecruisers vulnerable because their armour could not withstand the firepower of battleships and could no longer outrun them. Jutland showed that battlecruisers were a flawed idea.

Most US battleships and cruisers of WW2 were as heavily armoured as British equivalents and were as fast. The only British ships with a significant advantage over their US equivalents were the fleet aircraft carriers. The Royal Navy's carriers had armoured flight decks which coped better with Japanese Kamikaze attacks

And if Jutland was not enough, the fate of HMS Hood and her company made the point regarding the battlecruisers much more than doubly clear. It should not have happened.

I think the USN did not consider the RN a potential enemy. The Japanese Yamato-class battleships were specifically designed as a counter to the USN's pre-WWII battleships. They were a closely guarded secret, and probably would have caused a great deal of consternation in the USN if that secret had been broached in, say, 1940.

The armored flight decks of the RN's carriers were a significant advantage. Just as the armor carried by American fighter planes later in the war gave them a significant advantage over the unarmored Japanese fighters.
 
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I truly love spending time reading your posts, before posting myself, gentlemen. I learn so much. Thanks for the lively discussion. Please, carry on, even though I am going to add an entry, and this is a different kind of boat altogether;

promenade deck - noun an upper deck or an area on a deck of a passenger ship where passengers promenade
 
There are promenades on land as well, with a rather well-known one in Brooklyn Heights overlooking Manhattan and the East River, and another in Nice (the word is French, for 'walk'), la Promenade des Anglais, on the Mediterranean. I'm not sure if it's reserved for the English, though...
 
Yes, Tio, one of the definitions for promenade was a designated walkway. I just like the boat version better, especially the idea of floating down the Mississippi on a steamboat. That would be ideal on a early Spring day.

prolocutor - noun 1. one who speaks for another: SPOKESMAN 2. presiding officer: CHAIRMAN
 
This is a bit tacky, but I signed up for Dictionary.com's Word of the Day. Here's some I never heard of:

auscultation \aw-skuhl-TEY-shuhn\, noun:
The act of listening to sounds within the body as a method of diagnosis

depone \dih-POHN\, verb:
To testify under oath; depose.

piacular \pahy-AK-yuh-ler\, adjective:
1. Expiatory; atoning; reparatory.
2. Requiring expiation; sinful or wicked.

screed \skreed\, noun:
1. A long discourse or essay, especially a diatribe.
2. An informal letter, account, or other piece of writing.
3. Building Trades. A. A strip of plaster or wood applied to a surface to be plastered to serve as a guide for making a true surface. B. A wooden strip serving as a guide for making a true level surface on a concrete pavement or the like. C. A board or metal strip dragged across a freshly poured concrete slab to give it its proper level.
4. British Dialect. A fragment or shred, as of cloth.
5. Scot. A. A tear or rip, especially in cloth. B. A drinking bout.
verb:
1. Scot. To tear, rip, or shred, as cloth.

Screed justs sounds so wicked cool. Like an alien enemy or a demonic foe.

The Screed warship swept out of the lagrange point asteroid field and powered up weapons as the colony ship committed to the re-entry orbit.
 
If that ship were torn or ripped, then screed would be correct, but as a proper name, it might confuse your readers. It does sound good, I agree, emipet. Thanks for the contributions and I don't think signing up for the word du jour is tacky at all. Whatever it takes to learn this language we speak better is my mission. So many people have such limited vocabularies these days that if you have a decent sized one, you stand out as an intellectual. Which is fine with me.

Another S word from the same section caught my eye;

scrannel - adj HARSH, UNMELODIOUS
 
Yes, Tio, one of the definitions for promenade was a designated walkway. I just like the boat version better, especially the idea of floating down the Mississippi on a steamboat. That would be ideal on a early Spring day.

Oh. I think then you haven't spent the many happy idle hours I've spent, in cities by the Mediterranean, or Aegean, or indeed the Black Sea, watching people promenade: an excellent sport, both the promenading in one's finery, and the people-watching, the latter ideally with a glass of something local and alcoholic in hand :)

Patrick
 
This is a bit tacky, but I signed up for Dictionary.com's Word of the Day. Here's some I never heard of:

auscultation \aw-skuhl-TEY-shuhn\, noun:
The act of listening to sounds within the body as a method of diagnosis

...

Auscultation is normally practised with a stethescope. Before the stethescope's invention the doctor might put his ear to the patient's chest, or use a flexible piece of wood, sometimes shaped like a trumpet.

The invention of a stethescope and the use of auscultation was used by Rudyard Kipling in the episode Marklake Witches in his book Rewards and Fairies.
 
Auscultation is normally practised with a stethescope. Before the stethescope's invention the doctor might put his ear to the patient's chest, or use a flexible piece of wood, sometimes shaped like a trumpet.


Osculation - the act of kissing.

Winning a Motion Pictures Academy Award often culminates in statutory osculation.
 
True enough, Patrick, I have not visited those promenades, but I hope to.

Og, I have never really thought about a doctor, who didn't have a stethescope hanging around his neck or when such instrument was invented. That is the trouble with things from my earliest memory. In my mind, there was no before, even though I know there was, as a historian. Some things are so commonplace as to be completely overlooked. Take the word con-federate. Do you think in all these years my own feeble mind would see the con separate from the federate and get its true meaning. Not until that big "AHA!" moment, when the clouds clear and vision arrives. Anti-federal. Perfect for the proponets of states' rights.

Ben, the entire Oscar audience is under the spell of statutory adoration in the hopes of osculations de oro.

prolix - adj 1. unduly prolonged or drawn out 2. given to verbosity and diffuseness in speaking or writing: LONG-WINDED
 
Good morrow, posters all.

prolepsis - noun ANTICIPATION: as a. the representation or assumption of a future act or development as if presently existing or accomplished b. the application of an adjective to a noun in anticipation of the result of the action of the verb (as in "while yon slow oxen turn the furrowed plain")
 
I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. Here's a mouthful;

prolegomenon - noun prefatory remarks; specif: a formal essay or critical discussion serving to introduce and interpret an extended work
 
Pros from Historical Slang

promoter - fool catcher

prop - verb. to hit; knock down. Pugilistic

(kick away the) prop - To be hanged.

(alter the) property - to disguise oneself

pros, pross - water-closet. Oxford and Cambridge universities up to 1860

prowl - 1. to womanize; 2. to wait for 'the ghost to walk' theatrical - meaning to wait to see if you are going to be paid for your acting; 3. to go about looking for something to steal.

Hugh Prowler
- A generalised nickname for a thief or highwayman mid C16-C17
 
Hugh Prowler is a great one, Og. I am sure I can fit that name on some strange character in one of my books and probably get away with it. LOL

projet - noun 1. PLAN; esp: a draft of a proposed measure or treaty 2. a projected or proposed design
 
Good morrow, posters all.

prolepsis - noun ANTICIPATION: as
a. the representation or assumption of a future act or development as if presently existing or accomplished
b. the application of an adjective to a noun in anticipation of the result of the action of the verb (as in "while yon slow oxen turn the furrowed plain")

I recall that modern management techniques use this quite a lot.
 
Thar makes sense, Handley. I was trying to figure out how it was used, when I posted it. This is for Punxsutawney Phil;

prognosticate - vt 1. to fortell from signs or symptoms: PREDICT, PHOPHESY 2. FORESHOW, PRESAGE
 
A Happy Sunday wish to you all;

prog(1) - vt to search about; esp: FORAGE

prog(2) - noun FOOD, VICTUALS
 
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