Seldom-Used Words

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The weekend has arrived, I hope you enjoy yours;

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

Not totally unlike Ohio's Cuyahoga River in the 1960s?

How about pastafazool - n. a surprisingly taste dish made from beans, veggies, and pasta

("When the stars make you drool

Just like a pasta fazool, that's amore")
 
That is funny, Edward. I make Pasta Fazool at home often, only mine is without the tomatoes. My mother-in-law made it for me, after we watched Moonstruck and I wanted to make that eggs in toast breakfast afterwards, as well as Pasta Fazool. It is one of la cocina povera, or the humble cuisine, of Italy, which I interpret to be poor man's food. Pasta and beans were cheap and plentiful all year round, after all.

This next word reminds me of Henry VIII;

phlebotomy - noun the letting of blood in the treatment of disease: VENESECTION
 
This next word reminds me of Henry VIII;

phlebotomy - noun the letting of blood in the treatment of disease: VENESECTION


Methinks you fail to give credit to modern day phlebotomists who secure the blood samples critically necessary for physicians to diagnose and monitor numerous conditions discoverable by blood chemistry analysis. These include LDL, HDL, total cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, iron, prostate specific antigens, hemoglobin, WBC, RBC, etc.


 
True enough, Trysail, but I don't think of them as blood-letters; blood samplers is more like it. They bled Poor Henry almost to death in an effort to relieve his gout. But what did Henry do while he was being letted, he ate rich foods, sweets and drank alcohol, known causes of gout, but not back then, unfortunately.

phiz - noun FACE
 
True enough, Trysail, but I don't think of them as blood-letters; blood samplers is more like it. They bled Poor Henry almost to death in an effort to relieve his gout. But what did Henry do while he was being letted, he ate rich foods, sweets and drank alcohol, known causes of gout, but not back then, unfortunately.

phiz - noun FACE

From Physiognomy.
Not so much the face, rather the expression thereon.

A cursive for a face might include Phisog "Get your Phisog out of my desk" or something like it, to someone taking an excess of interest in something on the desk or whatever.
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True enough, Trysail, but I don't think of them as blood-letters; blood samplers is more like it. They bled Poor Henry almost to death in an effort to relieve his gout. But what did Henry do while he was being letted, he ate rich foods, sweets and drank alcohol, known causes of gout, but not back then, unfortunately.

phiz - noun FACE

From Physiognomy.
Not so much the face, rather the expression thereon.

A cursive for a face might include Phisog "Get your Phisog out of my desk" or something like it, to someone taking an excess of interest in something on the desk or whatever.
.
 
Handley, whether face or expression on the face, I had never hear the word before, nor this next one;

philter or philtre - noun 1. a potion, drug, or charm held to have the power to excite sensual passion 2. a potion credited with magical power
 
Handley, whether face or expression on the face, I had never hear the word before, nor this next one;

philter or philtre - noun 1. a potion, drug, or charm held to have the power to excite sensual passion 2. a potion credited with magical power

A philtre is the essential ingredient of the plot of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Sorcerer. The sorcerer, John Wellington Wells, introduces the love philtre into the tea pot at the village fete - with unfortunate effects!

The Incantation

John Wellington Wells "Love Philtre - We've quantities of it."
 
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Og, I thoroughly enjoyed the Gilbert & Sullivan links and the garden links you posted several days ago. That is the wonderful part about England and most of Europe, it is much older than 1857 and can still be visited today.

philospher's stone - noun an imaginary stone, substance, or chemical preparation believed to have the power of transmuting baser meatls into gold and sought for by alchemists
 
Og, I thoroughly enjoyed the Gilbert & Sullivan links and the garden links you posted several days ago. That is the wonderful part about England and most of Europe, it is much older than 1857 and can still be visited today.

philospher's stone - noun an imaginary stone, substance, or chemical preparation believed to have the power of transmuting baser meatls into gold and sought for by alchemists

"Philosopher's stone" is also a widespread name for an organic psychedellic(Psilocybe Tampanensis) which contains elevated levels of hallucinogenic alkaloids. Although commonly thought of as a form of "magic mushrooms," philosopher's stones are technically not mushrooms at all.
 
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philospher's stone - noun an imaginary stone, substance, or chemical preparation believed to have the power of transmuting baser metals into gold and sought for by alchemists

Oh the stone wasn't imaginary; only the power it possessed.

PS. The address "Number seventy Simmery Axe" was real.
Look up "St Mary Axe" on a London Map.
 
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PS. The address "Number seventy Simmery Axe" was real.
Look up "St Mary Axe" on a London Map.

You can rent office space at 70 St Mary Axe

The current building is too modern for John Wellington Wells.

St Mary Axe features in Tom Holt's novels too, based on Gilbert's John Wellington Wells.

The former church of St Mary Axe was dedicated to St. Mary, St. Ursula and her 11,000 Virgins.. The 'Axe' referred to the coat of arms of the Skinners Company, patrons of the church. Or not. The axe may refer to Saint Ursula and her 11 virgins, or an 11-year-old virgin, or 11,000 virgins.

Its parish was merged with St Andrew Undershaft which still exists. 'Undershaft' refers to the ancient Maypole which was erected beside St Andrew until 1517.
 
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Carlus, I had no idea there was a pyschedelic drug out there with the name philosopher's stone. Thank you for sharing it.

Og, all the links you posted were very interesting indeed. I have been reading about Elizabethan nobility lately and was amazed at the amount of money that was spent on livery. I looked up the meaning and understand it a bit better now.

philosophe - noun one of the deistic or materialistic writers and thinkers of the 18th century Enlightenment
 
Carlus, I had no idea there was a pyschedelic drug out there with the name philosopher's stone. Thank you for sharing it.

Og, all the links you posted were very interesting indeed. I have been reading about Elizabethan nobility lately and was amazed at the amount of money that was spent on livery. I looked up the meaning and understand it a bit better now.

philosophe - noun one of the deistic or materialistic writers and thinkers of the 18th century Enlightenment

A 21st century philosophe might write "I Tweet, therefore you betta recognize"
 
How about this one?

philoprogenitive - noun 1. tending to produce offspring: PROLIFIC 2. of, relating to, or characterized by love of offspring
 
Good day, posters.

Philomel - noun NIGHTINGALE

Philomela - noun an Athenian princess who was raped and deprived of her tongue by her brother-in-law Tereus and according to Ovid subsequently transformed into a nightingale
 
Rj, I had to search the thread before posting that little peach of a word to make sure someone else had not already done so.

philistine - noun 1. cap: a native or inhabitant of ancient Philistia 2. often cap: a. a crass prosaic often priggish individual guided by material rather than intellectual or artistic values: BABBITT b. one uninformed in a special area of knowledge
 
Rj, I had to search the thread before posting that little peach of a word to make sure someone else had not already done so.

philistine - noun 1. cap: a native or inhabitant of ancient Philistia 2. often cap: a. a crass prosaic often priggish individual guided by material rather than intellectual or artistic values: BABBITT b. one uninformed in a special area of knowledge

I've never been called a philogynist but I have been called a Philistine LOL
 
phillimore - noun: a person who has disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

I'm not certain this one is in the dictionary but it's used by Sherlockians, who borrowed it from The Problem of Thor Bridge, in which Watson alludes to a James Phillimore who, "...stepping back into his own house to get his umbrella, was never more seen in this world."
 
Phillimore and Babbitt both have literary roots. Babbitt is an entry, though.

Babbitt - noun [George F. Babbitt], a character in the novel Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis (1922)]: a business or professional man who conforms unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards
 
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