Seldom-Used Words

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Following on from a Pocket Venus, here is a pocket Priapus:


684px-musepicardiearcho03sharp.jpg
 
Once again, Og, you astound me with your knowledge of all things ancient. That is a very interesting picture you posted and made me wonder if any women might have used it, in a moment of weakness. I know I would have looked at it lovingly more than once, if it was in my house. Can you tell me a little more about it?

penates - noun pl the Roman gods of the household worshipped in close connection with Vesta and the lares and household genius

I also have no idea what "the lares and household genius" means, if you have the time to explain.
 
This Wiki is about Priapus and shows the image I posted above.

Percidere, puer, moneo; futuere, puella;

barbatum furem tertia poena manet.

Femina si furtum faciet mihi virve puerve,

haec cunnum, caput hic praebeat, ille nates.

Per medios ibit pueros mediasque puellas

mentula, barbatis non nisi summa petet.



I warn you, boy, you will be screwed; girl, you will be fucked;

a third penalty awaits the bearded thief.

If a woman steals from me, or a man, or a boy,

let the first give me her cunt, the second his head, the third his buttocks.

My dick will go through the middle of boys and the middle of girls,

but with bearded men it will aim only for the top.


You are supposed to stroke Priapus as you pass his statue.
 
penates - noun pl the Roman gods of the household worshipped in close connection with Vesta and the lares and household genius

I also have no idea what "the lares and household genius" means, if you have the time to explain.

Lares with Penates and the Household Genius were all part of the family shrine that provided protection to the family members while they were at home, or travelling from it. The household genius was the representation of paterfamilias, the father of the family in a mystical sense.

The Lares and Penates would be present at any formal family event. Although the cult of Lares and Penates was supposed to be superseded by Christianity, the domestic shrines and votive statues to the Virgin Mary, or to a favourite saint are considered a version of the Lares and Penates.

St Christopher medals for travellers might also be a relic of the Lares - protecting family members on their journeys.

In other forms, the tradition of sympathetic magic continued with horseshoes over the front door; Witch bottles; shoes put under the floorboards; child's first tooth; lock of hair; lucky rabbit's foot; Cornish pixie statuettes; four-leafed clover; representations of an eye - all supposed to bring good luck or keep evil spirits away - which is what Lares and Penates were supposed to do.

Some bridal customs also might be traced to the Lares and Penates but bridal customs are a large field by themselves. :)
 
Those Greeks and Romans certainly had a different way of looking at life. In order to stroke that statue, one would have to remove the covering, I suppose. At first look, a person would not necessarily know what was underneath. Was this for secrecy or modesty?

pelorus - noun a navigational instrument resembling a mariner's compass without magnetic needles and having two sight vanes by which bearings are taken
 
Those Greeks and Romans certainly had a different way of looking at life. In order to stroke that statue, one would have to remove the covering, I suppose. At first look, a person would not necessarily know what was underneath. Was this for secrecy or modesty?

Most statues of Priapus were very obvious but many were destroyed by Christians. Statues of Priapus were erected in public places, at crossroads, in public buildings, eating places etc. That particular statuette is unusually modest.

This is a brothel sign from Leptis Magna, Libya:

300px-Brothel_sign_Leptis_Magna_kamiox.jpg


pelorus - noun a navigational instrument resembling a mariner's compass without magnetic needles and having two sight vanes by which bearings are taken

This is the Pelorus from the Museum Ship HMS Belfast.

250px-HMS_Belfast_-_Wheelhouse_-_Pelorus.jpg


A marine Pelorus often includes a compass, probably a gyroscopic one, or if a magnetic one has two or more steel balls mounted close by to adjust for the magnetism of the ship. It can be used for sighting on navigational markers such as buoys or lighthouse.

At the start of any voyage it was very important to adjust and check the compass by sighting on known positions and bearings using the Pelorus.

Satellite navigation has made calibrating the ship's compass much easier.
 
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Og, you are an invaluable contributor to this thread, and I truly appreciate your continuing patience with my inquisitiveness.

Pelops - noun a son of Tantalus served by his father to the gods for food but restored to life by them

A gruesome tale found in a definition. I do love the dictionary.
 


Mind one's p's and q's
This term for "practicing good manners" was first recorded in 1779, but its origin is disputed. One theory cites bartenders who kept track of a customer's bill in terms of pints and quarts, so a conscientious barkeep would "mind" them; in another, children had to be careful to distinguish the mirror-image letters "p" and "q"; in yet another, French dancing masters cautioned pupils to correctly perform the figures "pieds" and "queues," abbreviated or mispronounced into the English letters "p" and "q."









The phrase is neither seldom-used nor obscure. I submit it solely for its interesting etymology which appears in the newest edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms according to NPR.

http://www.npr.org/2013/02/28/173060110/dictionary-of-idioms-gets-everybody-on-the-same-page



 
...This is the Pelorus from the Museum Ship HMS Belfast...

A marine Pelorus often includes a compass, probably a gyroscopic one, or if a magnetic one has two or more steel balls mounted close by to adjust for the magnetism of the ship. It can be used for sighting on navigational markers such as buoys or lighthouse.

At the start of any voyage it was very important to adjust and check the compass by sighting on known positions and bearings using the Pelorus.

Satellite navigation has made calibrating the ship's compass much easier.

Og,
LOL.

I'm going to leave it to you to explain "Swinging the compass," deviation tables and compass adjustment.


Satellite navigation has made "mariners" hopelessly dependent on GPS. I'm of the opinion that were the GPS system somehow disabled, fully 99% of the folk on the water these days couldn't find their arse much less their way across oceans. No one is learning the art of navigation.



 

Og,
LOL.

I'm going to leave it to you to explain "Swinging the compass," deviation tables and compass adjustment.


I think I'll swing the lead on that one. Any sensible explanation of pre GPS navigation would take too long for this thread.

Locally we have had some hapless sailors attempting voyages well beyond their capacity.

A few years ago a man set off from Essex in his newly bought ancient catamaran to circumnavigate the UK. He had been told that his catamaran was sold as "needing repair and renovation". As he left the harbour master told him in very strong language that he was wholly incompetent to leave the harbour but they were pleased to see him gone.

The RNLI dragged him off a sandbank a few hours later. They told him to make for the nearest port and stay there, but no, he wanted to continue. He wrecked his catamaran on our beach during the night and had to be dragged off the wreckage by a passing dog walker.

His navigational aids? An out of date UK road atlas and a child's toy compass. The compass wasn't much use to him. He didn't know which way pointed North and he thought he had come ashore near Great Yarmouth instead of the North Kent Coast.
 
Greetings, contributors. What a lively exchange I find here!

Carlus, in a moment of weakness is the polite way of saying, in a moment of unbridled sexual need. I could never be lonely for an object, I reserve that for the real thing.

Ps and Qs, Trysail, I have heard all of those, and I am going with pints and quarts because they are the most fun.

Very funny story, Og, thanks for sharing it. It is odd how once we become dependent on something new, we can't seem to live without it, ever again, like cell phones. There was life before radio, but who can remember that! LOL

pellucid - adj 1. admitting maximum passage of light without diffusion or distortion 2. reflecting light evenly from all surfaces 3. extremely easy to understand
 
I think I'll swing the lead on that one. Any sensible explanation of pre GPS navigation would take too long for this thread.

Locally we have had some hapless sailors attempting voyages well beyond their capacity.

His navigational aids? An out of date UK road atlas and a child's toy compass. The compass wasn't much use to him. He didn't know which way pointed North and he thought he had come ashore near Great Yarmouth instead of the North Kent Coast.


I recall reading of one similar idiot who's Nav Aids included an AA book. He was rescued in the Irish Sea: three times. It got so bad that they took his boat off him and impounded it until he took the necessary course with Yaughting fraternity.
 
Good day, posters. I hope you enjoy the month of March.

pelisse - noun 1. a long cloak or coat made of fur or lined or trimmed with fur 2. a woman's loose lightweight cloak with wide collar and fur trimming
 
I recall reading of one similar idiot who's Nav Aids included an AA book. He was rescued in the Irish Sea: three times. It got so bad that they took his boat off him and impounded it until he took the necessary course with Yaughting fraternity.

I live near the Rocky Mountains. We have similar stories about ignorant, under-equipped hikers who must be rescued from the high country—frequently when someone accidentally realizes that those hikers have gone somewhere but haven't returned.

The main difference seems to be that you can't take away someone's feet and impound them until they've taken adequate training.
 
I live near the Rocky Mountains. We have similar stories about ignorant, under-equipped hikers who must be rescued from the high country—frequently when someone accidentally realizes that those hikers have gone somewhere but haven't returned.

The main difference seems to be that you can't take away someone's feet and impound them until they've taken adequate training.

My favorite is the deer hunter I once helped rescue after he'd spent two days and nights wandering around the northwoods of Michigan. About the time we began thinking he'd become the victim of one of those idiots who shoot at noises in the brush, we found a very cold, hungry, frightened hunter who kept babbling that his compass pointed the same way no matter which way he turned. It turns out he had a cheap piece-o'-krap compass about the size of a quarter and it was inletted into his rifle stock, about an inch from the gunbarrel, which was made of magnet-attracting steel.
 
My favorite is the deer hunter I once helped rescue after he'd spent two days and nights wandering around the northwoods of Michigan.
It turns out he had a cheap piece-o'-krap compass about the size of a quarter and it was inletted into his rifle stock, about an inch from the gunbarrel, which was made of magnet-attracting steel.

Well, science and art don't always go together. . . .
Poor sap!
 
...

pellucid - adj 1. admitting maximum passage of light without diffusion or distortion 2. reflecting light evenly from all surfaces 3. extremely easy to understand

Pellucidar is a fantasy World created by Edgar Rice Burroughs (he of Tarzan of the Apes and John Carter of Mars) that is inside the Earth.

I don't think Pellucidar is pellucid.
 
Where I live, annually people travel from far and wide, to climb Mt. Shasta, some barely surviving, others not. The locals are not silly enough to go up the 14,000 foot high weather beacon of a volcano in iffy weather.

Carlus, in my thinking you are mistaking horniness with loneliness. If I am lonely, nothing but another person will satisfy that, but it is not the case with horniness, or at least mine, anyway.

Another clothing word;

pelerine - noun a woman's narrow cape of fabric or fur usually with long ends hanging down in front
 
Carlus, I prefer to think of loneliness as an emotional longing and horniness as a physical urge, sometimes, not to be denied. We women can hide our excitement more effectively than men.

pelagic - adj of, relating to, or living or occurring in the open sea: OCEANIC
 
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