Seldom-Used Words

Status
Not open for further replies.


blue streak • n. (informal),
1. Something moving very fast.
2. A rapid and seemingly interminable stream of words: curse a blue streak.






Blue Streak is also remembered by older Brits as the name of a proposed ballistic missile to maintain a supposed indepndent deterrent. As a project it consumed vast quantities of taxpayers' money before finally expiring as the failed stage 1 of a Europa project that itself was abandoned in the early 70's.
 
Blue Streak is also remembered by older Brits as the name of a proposed ballistic missile to maintain a supposed indepndent deterrent. As a project it consumed vast quantities of taxpayers' money before finally expiring as the failed stage 1 of a Europa project that itself was abandoned in the early 70's.

and it worked first time.
 
Patrick, the verb shanghai brings back memories of Herbert Asbury's The Barbary Coast. Here is one of my favorite sections on this subject;

"Shanghai Kelly's saloon and boarding-house was a three-storey frame structure at No. 33 Pacific Street, between Drum and Davis streets, under part of which tide-water flowed. Kelly preferred to handle bona fide sailors, partly because they were more docile and partly because they was seldom any danger of reprisal, no matter how they were treated. But, in common with his co-workers in the crimping field, he would, if necessary to fill out a crew, shanghai whoever fell into his hands. And for a price he would shanghai any man who enemies wanted him out of the way. Kelly's runners and strong-arm men went into the streets or the dives of the Barbary Coast and blackjacked the men they wanted, or induced them to visit Kelly's saloon. There they were drugged, blackjacked, and dropped through trapdoors, of which there were three in the floor in front of the bar, into a boat which was always tied up to a pillar of the house. In his drugging operations this prince of shanghaiers used the Miss Piggott's Special and also gave his victims a concoction of his own invention, compounded of schnapps and beer and seasoned with opium or laudanum. Besides these quieting doses he used a cigar heavily doped with opium that was known as "the Shanghai Smoke" and was manufactured especially for him by a Chinese cigar-maker."

I adore Asbury, Herbert.
 
A related term, shanghai, of course refers as a verb to a similar practice in the West Coast ports of the USA. A few years ago I went on an interesting tour of cellars and underground passages in Portland Oregon used to shanghai drunken sailors to their destiny aboard ship.

I think, however, that shanghaiing was not done under color of law; pressing certainly was; the latter was a legal way of manning HM's warships.
 
I think I will take care of the word crimp here, since we are on the subject;

crimp(1) - noun a person who entraps or forces men into shipping as sailors or enlisting in an army or navy

crimp(2) - verb to trap into military service

It doesn't say whether crimping was illegal or not, but the word trap does infer without consent.

Shanghai, on the other hand, was not just for military service, but any long voyage that needed men, experienced or not. The shanghaied could always learn the ropes on the way, there was plenty of time.
 
I think I will take care of the word crimp here, since we are on the subject;

crimp(1) - noun a person who entraps or forces men into shipping as sailors or enlisting in an army or navy

crimp(2) - verb to trap into military service

It doesn't say whether crimping was illegal or not, but the word trap does infer without consent.

crimp
1 Used as a term of abuse or reproach. rare.
2 An agent or contractor for unloading coal-ships.
3 Hist. An agent whose business was to entrap men for service in the army, navy, etc., esp. by decoying or pressing them.
Also transf. & fig. (arch.) a deceptive or coercive agent.
crimpage n. (Hist.) a payment made to a crimp for his services


-----------------------------------------------
Excerpted from Oxford Talking Dictionary
Copyright © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.


In his "Sharpe's" books, Bernard Cornwell features our hero (Sharpe) discovering that certain officers are "crimpers" who defraud the Army.

'Crimping' was illegal, but (apparently) done almost with impunity, if onl;y because nobody gave a damn for the cannon fodder of the rank & file soldier.
 
Just to mention that of course these uses of crimp are by extension from its original meaning:

transitive verb

1: to cause to become wavy, bent, or pinched: as
a : to form (leather) into a desired shape
b : to give (synthetic fibers) a curl or wave like that of natural fibers
c : to pinch or press together (as the margins of a pie crust) in order to seal

2: to be an inhibiting or restraining influence on : cramp <sales had been crimped by credit controls — Time>
 
Yes, Patrick, crimp has other meanings. The most used one in my life is the hair fashion device called a crimper. But thanks for clarifying, that is why I put the number next to my entries, indicating other entries.

Handley, from this discussion it seems pressing into service and crimping are the same, both illegal, but socially acceptable. Back to the idea that these men were the lowest of the low and available in a never-ending supply, so what did it matter how they were treated. I am often shocked by the conditions some people survived in, but I imagine that is because I have had such a cushy life in these modern times.

presby- or presbyo- comb form old age
 
That explains so much, Allard!

So... a presbytery is an old folks home for assisted living, and those Presbyterians are followers of aged and incapacitated leaders.
 
Yes, I found that combination form very interesting myself, Tio.

Basically my dictionary says that presbytery is the part of the church reserved for the officiating clergy and Presbyterian is a Protestant Christian Church that is presbyterian in government and traditionally Calvinistic in doctrine. Whereas a presbyter is a Christian priest or an Elder.

Now, what all this has to do with old...
 
Yes, I found that combination form very interesting myself, Tio.

Basically my dictionary says that presbytery is the part of the church reserved for the officiating clergy and Presbyterian is a Protestant Christian Church that is presbyterian in government and traditionally Calvinistic in doctrine. Whereas a presbyter is a Christian priest or an Elder.

Now, what all this has to do with old...

What, one might ask, does "elder" have to do with "old"? :)
 
Yes, Patrick, crimp has other meanings. The most used one in my life is the hair fashion device called a crimper. But thanks for clarifying, that is why I put the number next to my entries, indicating other entries.

Handley, from this discussion it seems pressing into service and crimping are the same, both illegal, but socially acceptable. Back to the idea that these men were the lowest of the low and available in a never-ending supply, so what did it matter how they were treated. I am often shocked by the conditions some people survived in, but I imagine that is because I have had such a cushy life in these modern times.

presby- or presbyo- comb form old age

Not quite. Shanghai-ing was illegal, crimping was illegal, but pressing was altogether legal. It was illegal only when men who were "protected" were pressed nonetheless by less than scrupulous captains and their press gangs.
 
Carlus, that is what I thought initially, that pressing was legal. In practice, there seems to be little difference. Please explain what "protected" means. Yes, elder and old age have the same definition, but in a church an Elder does not have to be elder. Senior in rank, rather than years, I would assume.
 
Yes Carlus, an elder may be old, but it is relative. A 5 year-old is the elder to her 3 year-old brother, but we would hardly consider her old, would we?
 
Carlus, that is what I thought initially, that pressing was legal. In practice, there seems to be little difference. Please explain what "protected" means. Yes, elder and old age have the same definition, but in a church an Elder does not have to be elder. Senior in rank, rather than years, I would assume.

Certain men, even men with a background as seamen, were formally protected from being pressed because the Admiralty considered them essential in the work they were doing. Sailors employed by the Navy Yard in certain skilled jobs---like making rope---come to mind. Seamen employed on some important private vessels might also be protected. The catch was that those men usually had to carry their protection documents with them at all times, press-gangs being rather unlikely to believe a seaman's given word. The book I mentioned in an earlier post explains this in some detail.

The press was an early form of what we now call conscription or "the draft". When the US was drafting men for the Army, some were "deferred", for one reason or another, and not eligible to be drafted for service. A man's "protection" amounted to a deferment in our more modern terminology.

Yes, in a church an Elder doesn't have to be elder. But the words are the same, and the former derives, historically, from the latter. And, in a church, a Presbyter, need not be (whatever the adjectival form of the word) presbyter.
 
I hope everyone is having a good day. It continues to rain in my area.

prepense - adj deliberated or planned beforehand: PREMEDITATED
 
In posting, I forgot to say, Thank You, Carlus, for the fine explanation of pressing into service.
 
I thought the same thing, Handley, and was amazed no one mentioned it, after I posted prepuce;

invest - vt 1.a. to array in the symbols of office or honor b. to furnish with power or authority c. to grant someone control or authority over: VEST 2. to cover completely: ENVELOP 3. CLOTHE, ADORN 4. to surround with troops or ships so as to prevent escape or entry 5. to endow with a quality or characteristic: INFUSE

Back to context as the clue, I would suppose, with so many meanings.
 
Partook.

Maybe this doesn't belong here. But I have always heard 'partake', and I heard it so often that I wasn't even aware that it had a past tense.
 
Hoi, hoi u embleer Hrair, M'salon ule hraka vair

Translation

Hoi Hoi, the stinking thousand, they stalk us when we stop to pass our droppings.


I've been reading watership down :D
 
Good day all. Here is one that had meanings I never knew;

preen(1) - noun 1. dial chiefly British: PIN 2. BROOCH

preen(2) - vt chiefly Scottish PIN

preen(3) - verb 1. to trim or dress with a bill 2. to dress or smooth (oneself) up: PRIMP 3. to pride or congratulate (oneself) for achievement ~ vt 1. to make oneself sleek 2. GLOAT, SWELL
 
Another week has flown by, and here it is, the weekend. I hope you have a lovely one.

pree - vt to taste tentatively: SAMPLE
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top