Seldom-Used Words

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Can I remind you of
Phosgene ?
A poison gas which was used in WW1.
It's also the side effect of the heating of Carbon Tetrachloride, which was used as a fire extinguisher until the 1970s.
It smells horrible !
 
Welcome, lycan_hitch.

Handley, that is so funny. I saw phosgene and its chemical definition, but did not think much of it and, therefore, passed it by. Thanks for showing me why that word should be posted here.

phonology - noun 1. the science of speech sounds including esp. the history and theory of sound changes in a language or in two or more related languages 2. the phonetics and phonemics of a language at a particular time
 
I saw this one and figured it meant to do with the study of records, but I was wrong;

phonography - noun 1. spelling based on pronounciation 2. a system of shorthand writing based on sounds
 
I saw this one and figured it meant to do with the study of records, but I was wrong;

phonography - noun 1. spelling based on pronounciation 2. a system of shorthand writing based on sounds

Think of a "phoneme", a unit of sound which is irreducible.
Almost anything with phon. . . is to do with sound.
 
Think of a "phoneme", a unit of sound which is irreducible.
Almost anything with phon. . . is to do with sound.

not quite irreducible...A phoneme is the minimum meaningful sound unit in a language. The contrast between sounds that signals a difference in meaning (e.g. /pin/ vs. /bin/) may in fact cover a range of sounds. In the case of pin-bin in English, a difference in aspiration of the bilabial unvoiced explosive (/p/) makes no difference in meaning, whereas it is significant in Urdu, for example.
 
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Yes, Handley and Tio, I can see that phono means sound, and many phon words are about language, but in the middle of all that phon stuff is the next word and the reason I thought my last entry was something it wasn't;

phonograph - noun an instrument for reproducing sounds by means of the vibration of a stylus or needle following a spiral groove on a revolving disc or cylinder
 
All this time and I forgot an important word: PRANG.

to Crash or Damage.
Old WW2 pilots talked of a "Wizard prang" meaning a tremendous crash.
Prang also means an accident (not necessarily fatal or terminal).
"I've pranged the car": being in an accident.
 
phonograph - noun an instrument for reproducing sounds by means of the vibration of a stylus or needle following a spiral groove on a revolving disc or cylinder

The original phonograph (sound WRITER) was a cylinder device for recording sound on to a tin foil cylinder that could then be played back, but not very often before the sound degraded. The shellac cylinders were mass produced so that customers could repeatedly play music and many such cylinders can still be played today.

The gramophone was a later device and used flat shellac discs, usually at a speed of 78 rpm, although some were recorded at 80 rpm. I have about twenty such records that were produced by the Gramophone and Typewriter Company before 1900 in Hanover. I use a 1970s transcription deck to play the classical recordings but I have one dreadful 'Farmyard Quartet' that I will play on a wind-up clockwork gramophone.

The 'Farmyard Quartet' has survived because it was so awful that it was rarely played. Think 'Old MacDonald's Farm' performed by the village drunkards...
 
Thanks, Handley, for introducing me to an entirely new word.

Og, I have seen the old gramophones and 78 rpm records, very thick, indeed, and have heard of the cylinders, but this is the first time I learned about 80 rpm records. The Farmyard Quartet sounds perfectly horrible. LOL

phonogram - noun 1. a character or smybol used to represent a word, syllable, or phoneme 2. a succession of orthographic letters that occurs with the same phonetic value in several words (as the ight in bright, light, flight)
 
Og, I have seen the old gramophones and 78 rpm records, very thick, indeed, and have heard of the cylinders, but this is the first time I learned about 80 rpm records. The Farmyard Quartet sounds perfectly horrible. LOL

...

I have about 1,000 78 (and 80) rpm records. During our summer festival I play some of them on a wind up gramophone and let modern children operate it. One or two records get broken each year through normal wear and tear but I have many duplicates and almost all are available as CD transcriptions or on YouTube. How many worn copies do I need of 'White Christmas'?

Modern kids don't know what LPs and 45s are, and heavy, fragile 78s are 'weird'. 'Where's the plug? Where's the speaker? You put a sock in it to make it quieter? You're kidding me."

My precious recordings are early opera singers: Chaliapin, Terrazini, Nellie Melba, Clara Butt etc. I handle those with care because the discs are over 110 years old yet still playable.
 
110 years old and still playable, that is a testament to good care. I actually miss 45s. They were so much fun to stack up, ten high, and watch them drop to be played, one by one. Great memories of even better music at pre-teen parties swirling in my head...

phoneme - noun a member of the set of the smallest units of speech that serve to distinguish one utterance from another in a language or dialect (the p of English pin and the f of English fin are two different phonemes)
 
I have about twenty such records that were produced by the Gramophone and Typewriter Company before 1900 in Hanover. I use a 1970s transcription deck to play the classical recordings but I have one dreadful 'Farmyard Quartet' that I will play on a wind-up clockwork gramophone.

The 'Farmyard Quartet' has survived because it was so awful that it was rarely played. Think 'Old MacDonald's Farm' performed by the village drunkards...

I have about 1,000 78 (and 80) rpm records. During our summer festival I play some of them on a wind up gramophone and let modern children operate it. One or two records get broken each year through normal wear and tear but I have many duplicates and almost all are available as CD transcriptions or on YouTube. How many worn copies do I need of 'White Christmas'?

Modern kids don't know what LPs and 45s are, and heavy, fragile 78s are 'weird'. 'Where's the plug? Where's the speaker? You put a sock in it to make it quieter? You're kidding me."

My precious recordings are early opera singers: Chaliapin, Terrazini, Nellie Melba, Clara Butt etc. I handle those with care because the discs are over 110 years old yet still playable.

PLEASE put the Farmyard Quartet up to You Tube.
I down-loaded some early stuff (Tennyson reading his own poem?) and ran them through MAGIX to remove the hiss & scratches.
You get all the aged feel, but as from a newly-pressed record.

And as for Chaliapin. Gimee Gimee
 
Og, you are a wonderful contributor to this thread!

I had to add this next one;

phoenix - noun a legendary bird represented by ancient Egyptians as living five or six centuries, being consumed in fire by its own act, and rising in youthful freshness from its own ashes

Yes, I was thrilled that J. K. Rowling used the phoenix so effectively in her Harry Potter series.
 


pavane n., 1— a stately court dance by couples that was introduced from southern Europe into England in the 16th century

2— music for the pavane; also: music having the slow duple rhythm of a pavane


Etymology:
Middle French pavane, from Italian dialect pavana, from feminine of pavano of Padua, from Pava (Tuscan Padova) Padua

First Known Use: 1535





I can't help but wonder how many readers of Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity bothered to look up this word when they found it in the text.



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


 
SmittenKitten, welcome to this wordy thread.

During my research into the travels of my characters in Book Two, I was looking into London of 1857 and found the Chelsea Physic Garden by chance. What a charming, medicinal garden from 1673, built after the great fire of 1661, I believe is correct. I immediately put it on my list of places Madam Gigi has permission to visit while in London.

Phoebus - noun APOLLO
 
..

During my research into the travels of my characters in Book Two, I was looking into London of 1857 and found the Chelsea Physic Garden by chance. What a charming, medicinal garden from 1673, built after the great fire of 1661, I believe is correct. I immediately put it on my list of places Madam Gigi has permission to visit while in London.

...

Link to the Chelsea Physic Garden:
http://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/

The Garden Museum just by the entrance to the Archbishop of Canterbury's London residence Lambeth Palace is an interesting diversion.

It is in an old church. In the garden/graveyard is the tomb of Captain Bligh, he of Mutiny on the Bounty, and a former very unpopular Governor of New South Wales. But during his lifetime he was known as 'Breadfruit Bligh' because he discovered and popularised the use of Breadfruit. He was a competent Botanist and discovered many plants then unknown to science. When he was set adrift from HMS Bounty the crew threw his plant samples overboard. But he went back...

The Garden Museum didn't really appreciate the tomb, which is prominent in their garden, until I pointed out that Captain Bligh is really significant to Botany - and gardening! Of course, some of the decorations on his tomb are Breadfruit.
 
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Link to the Chelsea Physic Garden:
http://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/

The Garden Museum just by the entrance to the Archbishop of Canterbury's London residence Lambeth Palace is an interesting diversion.

It is in an old church. In the garden/graveyard is the tomb of Captain Bligh, he of Mutiny on the Bounty, and a former very unpopular Governor of New South Wales. But during his lifetime he was known as 'Breadfruit Bligh' because he discovered and popularised the use of Breadfruit. He was a competent Botanist and discovered many plants then unknown to science. When he was set adrift from HMS Bounty the crew threw his plant samples overboard. But he went back...

The Garden Museum didn't really appreciate the tomb, which is prominent in their garden, until I pointed out that Captain Bligh is really significant to Botany - and gardening! Of course, some of the decorations on his tomb are Breadfruit.


As Og is well aware, William Bligh accomplished one of the most amazing feats in the history of seamanship by safely piloting the Bounty's open launch across 3,600 miles of the South Pacific, thus saving himself and the eighteen men cast adrift by the mutineers.


Bligh's feat is comparable to Shackleton's extraordinary success in saving the survivors of the Endurance.


He is remembered for the Bounty episode but his exceptional small boat voyage is largely forgotten. Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall are best known as the authors of the 1934 best-seller Mutiny On The Bounty but the companion volume Men Against The Sea concerning Bligh's voyage to safety in the Bounty's launch is equally interesting.


___________
BTW, breadfruit is good stuff. I recall the first time I encountered it; I thought I was eating mashed potatoes when I was informed that 'twas breadfruit I was so enthusiastically downing.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bligh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Shackleton






 
Link to the Chelsea Physic Garden:
http://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/

The Garden Museum just by the entrance to the Archbishop of Canterbury's London residence Lambeth Palace is an interesting diversion.

It is in an old church. In the garden/graveyard is the tomb of Captain Bligh, he of Mutiny on the Bounty, and a former very unpopular Governor of New South Wales. But during his lifetime he was known as 'Breadfruit Bligh' because he discovered and popularised the use of Breadfruit. He was a competent Botanist and discovered many plants then unknown to science. When he was set adrift from HMS Bounty the crew threw his plant samples overboard. But he went back...

The Garden Museum didn't really appreciate the tomb, which is prominent in their garden, until I pointed out that Captain Bligh is really significant to Botany - and gardening! Of course, some of the decorations on his tomb are Breadfruit.

Bligh was also a far-more-than-competent seaman. I've read his account of the mutiny and his ensuing voyage across the Pacific in an open boat. In spite of the hardships he and his men endured, he lost only one man. The only comparable voyage that comes to my mind is that of Shackleton from the Weddell Sea to New Georgia.
 
Bligh was also a far-more-than-competent seaman. I've read his account of the mutiny and his ensuing voyage across the Pacific in an open boat. In spite of the hardships he and his men endured, he lost only one man. The only comparable voyage that comes to my mind is that of Shackleton from the Weddell Sea to New Georgia.

I see that I should read ahead before I respond to a message in a thread...
 
Thank you, gentlemen, for such wonderful information.

While I was reading about the Physic Garden, originally named the Apothecaries’ Garden, it said Captain Bligh would dock at the garden wharf and unload his botanical specimens right there. I immediately thought of his breadfruit.

Phoebe - noun ARTEMIS
 
The weekend has arrived, I hope you enjoy yours;

Phlegethon - noun a river of Hades in Greek mythology containing fire instead of water
 
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