Seldom-Used Words

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This one caught my interest;

runcible spoon - noun a sharp-edged fork with three broad curved prongs

It's got a curious etymology ( Edward Lear invented the word solely for use in his well-known poem, The Owl and The Pussycat ). It was strictly a nonsense word until much later when an actual runcible spoon was created so the word would have a meaning.

The Owl and The Pussycat
by Edward Lear

I
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!'


II
Pussy said to the Owl, 'You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?'
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.


III
'Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?' Said the Piggy, 'I will.'
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/ns/pussy.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runcible_spoon

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Citations:runcible_spoon#English

 
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Thank you so much, Trysail, for posting Edward Lear's poem, which I love, of course. I just did not recall his runcible spoon over his "danced by the light of the moon".

A great R word,

rumpus - noun DISTURBANCE, FRACAS
 
I just read an article called "Farthest-ever explosion found at edge of cosmos?" from AP and ran across this;

"This is plonk at the frontier, where we have very little idea what's going on," Richard Ellis, a professor of astronomy at the California Institute of Technology said.

Is this a typo or what is plonk?
 
I just read an article called "Farthest-ever explosion found at edge of cosmos?" from AP and ran across this;

"This is plonk at the frontier, where we have very little idea what's going on," Richard Ellis, a professor of astronomy at the California Institute of Technology said.

Is this a typo or what is plonk?

Plonk is either:

1. Cheap and nasty wine of indeterminate origin*, or

2. A position, from "plonk it down anywhere" therefore "plonked" or "plonk" for an indeterminate position. "I plonked it down somewhere" suggests I dropped it where I stood and have no idea where that is - which is the idea expressed by Professor Ellis - it is placed somewhere right at the edge but where that somewhere is, who knows? Or cares?

*Some French Wine location indicators:

VDQS - Vin Du Qualite Superior - the best, usually including a year of origin.
AOC - Wine from a specific area of France e.g. Bordeaux. A wine can be AOC and VDQS
Vin Du Pays - Wine, not as good as AOC, but from a specific region of France that is not renowned for the best wines.
Vin Du Table - Ordinary everyday wine for drinking with a meal at home when no guests are present. Can also be used for cooking. Beginnings of "Plonk".
Vin De France - Wine, possibly blended, but all of it has been produced in France. Certainly deserving the word "Plonk" and probably less than 2 US dollars a bottle in France.
Vin D'Origin European or various countries - A mixture of "wine" that couldn't be sold under any of the other labels. DO NOT DRINK THIS!!! It is too dreadful to be called plonk and is much cheaper than bottled water.

If buying wine in a French supermarket, anything labelled Vin Du Pays or better is worth trying unless the label suggests otherwise e.g. "Onion Peel", "Donkey's Kick". Vin Du Pays can be found at 2 or 3 Euros a bottle.
 
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Thanks, gentlemen for the explanation of plonk, and thanks, Og, for the breakdown of drinkable wines in Europe. The American wines do not have such distinctions, other than regions, that I know of. But then, I prefer Guinness to anything else on earth.

I used this word while editing my book today and decided to add it to the list;

sashay - verb 1. CHASSE' 2.a. WALK, GLIDE, GO b. to strut or move about in an ostentatious or conspicuous manner c. to proceed or move in a diagonal or sideways manner
 
I never would have put these definitions of the same word together, but now it makes sense;

ruminate - verb 1. to muse upon: CONTEMPLATE 2. to chew repeatedly for an extended period, as in 'chew a cud'
 
thurible - censer

censer - thurible


Gee! Thank you Dictionary!!!



(A thurible is a pot to burn incense in.)
 
thurible - censer

censer - thurible


Gee! Thank you Dictionary!!!



(A thurible is a pot to burn incense in.)

That's a thurible thing your dictionary did to you, Xelebes; I think it should be censered!

Dictionaries are all, ultimately, circular. I wrote a short story about it a number of years ago, but, since it isn't erotic, I won't post it here (even if I can find it).
 
Dictionaries are all, ultimately, circular.

Some more than others, and at least one deliberately so:

Endless Loop: See Loop, Endless
Loop, Endless: See Endless Loop

The above has been the definition given for and endless loop ever since programming got its own dictionaries. :p

Censer and Thurible probably aren't a deliberate recursion, just the inevitable effect of too many contributors and not enough editors.
 
Some more than others, and at least one deliberately so:

Endless Loop: See Loop, Endless
Loop, Endless: See Endless Loop

The above has been the definition given for and endless loop ever since programming got its own dictionaries. :p

Censer and Thurible probably aren't a deliberate recursion, just the inevitable effect of too many contributors and not enough editors.


Some more directly than others, but, since they all have to define words in other words, any trip from definition to defining the definition will end up back where it started. The only way out is a dictionary that defines words without recourse to words. Visual dictionaries do that, but they have a limited lexicon. We might expand the genre to include aural, tactile, olfactory, and flavored dictionaries, but we might still argue that examples, or even exemplars, are not truly definitions.
 
Excellent discussion, gentlemen. Welcome, Kikori.

rugose - adj 1. full of wrinkles (~ cheeks) 2. having the veinlets sunken and the spaces between elevated (~ leaves of the sage)
 
Speaking of rugs... I met a man, whose last name was Ruggles, one of the hairiest men I have ever met. I asked him if his name reflected his human rug-like hair patterns and he said no. I said, "Let's look it up in the dictionary," and it said rug-like, but now I cannot find that definition anywhere to prove it! Oh well.
 
Speaking of rugs... I met a man, whose last name was Ruggles, one of the hairiest men I have ever met. I asked him if his name reflected his human rug-like hair patterns and he said no. I said, "Let's look it up in the dictionary," and it said rug-like, but now I cannot find that definition anywhere to prove it! Oh well.

Thats too funny! lol
 
Under rugged I found this;

rugged - adj ME rug 1. obs SHAGGY, HAIRY and then the other 5 entries
 

Uh, oh. It's Scripps National Spelling Bee time and that always means that a plethora of obscure and interesting words bubble to the surface.


tchotchke n., knickknack, trinket.

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis n., a pneumoconiosis caused by inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust.

pickelhaube n., a spiked helmet worn by German soldiers.

hypozeuxis n., use of a series of parallel clauses (as in `I came, I saw, I conquered').

abatis n., a line of defense consisting of a barrier of felled or live trees with branches (sharpened or with barbed wire entwined) pointed toward the enemy.

appoggiatura n., an embellishing note usually written in smaller size.

stromuhr n., an instrument to measure viscous substances.

fackeltanz n., a royal wedding dance.

isarithm n., a line drawn on a map connecting points having the same numerical value of some variable.

hidrosis n., the process of the sweat glands of the skin secreting a salty fluid.

fustanella n., a skirt worn by men in some Balkan countries.

caprifig n., wild variety of the common fig used to facilitate pollination of certain figs.

meperidine n., a synthetic narcotic drug (trade name Demerol) used to treat pain.

immanent adj., of a mental act performed entirely within the mind.

schwa n., a neutral middle vowel; occurs in unstressed syllables.

Weissnichtwo n., an indefinite, unknown, or imaginary place, from Weissnichtwo, imaginary city in the satirical work Sartor Resartus (1833-34) by Thomas Carlyle, from German weiss nicht wo [ (I) know not where ].



http://www.npr.org/2011/06/01/136827976/spelling-bee-pregame-why-are-some-words-so-hard
 
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Thanks, Og, I should have known that you would have known! Here is one I knew and one I did not;

ruckus - noun (probably a blend of ruction and rumpus) ROW, DISTURBANCE

ruction - noun (perhaps by shortening and altering the french insurrection) 1. a noisy fight 2. DISTURBANCE, UPROAR
 
Thanks, Og, I should have known that you would have known! Here is one I knew and one I did not;

ruckus - noun (probably a blend of ruction and rumpus) ROW, DISTURBANCE

ruction - noun (perhaps by shortening and altering the french insurrection) 1. a noisy fight 2. DISTURBANCE, UPROAR


My Father used to use the term Ructions, but it always implied that the person causing the said ruction was going to be administered some punishment; i.e., there would be 'consequences'.
 
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