Seldom-Used Words

[AllardChardon]

Edward, I have such a thing in my book. My main character, Madam Gigi, is the owner of a high-class brothel with a dozen lovely ladies of ill-repute in her employ. She is a good governor, fair as well as open minded. I prefer to hang out in her company, back in 1857, whenever possible.

plussage - noun amount over and above another

[oggbashan]

Fellmonger - Someone who deals in animal skins, such as sheepskins.

One of my wife's ancestors was a fellmonger in the early 19th Century. I thought that the term was obsolete but apparently people who work with animal skins are still called fellmongers. They are no longer dealers, but people who prepare the skins for other uses.

Apparently 'fell' comes from the same Germanic root as 'pelt'. Some people in the Middle Ages must have had a really strong accent to turn a 'p' into an 'f'.

[EdwardMidweston]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

Edward, I have such a thing in my book. My main character, Madam Gigi, is the owner of a high-class brothel with a dozen lovely ladies of ill-repute in her employ. She is a good governor, fair as well as open minded. I prefer to hang out in her company, back in 1857, whenever possible.

Yep, I immediately thought of Salon de Seduction when I tripped over the word. Madam Gigi for President!

[CarlusMagnus]

Originally Posted by oggbashan

Apparently 'fell' comes from the same Germanic root as 'pelt'. Some people in the Middle Ages must have had a really strong accent to turn a 'p' into an 'f'.

It and its inverse are, a linguist once told me, a fairly common transformation.

[RjThoughts]

Originally Posted by oggbashan

Fellmonger - Someone who deals in animal skins, such as sheepskins.

One of my wife's ancestors was a fellmonger in the early 19th Century. I thought that the term was obsolete but apparently people who work with animal skins are still called fellmongers. They are no longer dealers, but people who prepare the skins for other uses.

Apparently 'fell' comes from the same Germanic root as 'pelt'. Some people in the Middle Ages must have had a really strong accent to turn a 'p' into an 'f'.

This fits into my mother's maiden name of Szuba:

Polish: nickname for someone who habitually wore a fur-lined coat (szuba), or a metonymic occupational name for a maker of or dealer in such coats

[AllardChardon]

Gentlemen, the switching of "p" for "f" has always interested me, especially in the archaic forms of hand-writing.

Edward, Madam Gigi is not interested in being the leader of the free world at this time, thank you, anyway.

plus fours - noun pl loose sports knickers made four inches longer than ordinary knickers

[oggbashan]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

Gentlemen, the switching of "p" for "f" has always interested me, especially in the archaic forms of hand-writing.

Edward, Madam Gigi is not interested in being the leader of the free world at this time, thank you, anyway.

plus fours - noun pl loose sports knickers made four inches longer than ordinary knickers

Plus fours were trousers mainly for golf that were four inches longer and WIDER over the knee than ordinary. The extra fullness in the knee was important because it gave more freedom of movement in sport.

They were popularised in the UK by Edward, Prince of Wales, who abdicated the throne as Edward VIII and was later the Duke of Windsor (with Wallis Simpson).

[AllardChardon]

Og, now I know exactly what plus fours look like. Thanks for the lovely explanation. Have you seen Madonna's movie about Wallis and Edward? I saw a preview and it looked interesting. There are so many movies about famous English people these days, I find it quite amazing.

plum pudding - noun a boiled or steamed pudding of flour or bread crumbs, raisins, currants, and other fruits, suet, eggs and spices and other flavoring matters

[Handley_Page]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

Og, now I know exactly what plus fours look like. Thanks for the lovely explanation. Have you seen Madonna's movie about Wallis and Edward? I saw a preview and it looked interesting. There are so many movies about famous English people these days, I find it quite amazing.

plum pudding - noun a boiled or steamed pudding of flour or bread crumbs, raisins, currants, and other fruits, suet, eggs and spices and other flavoring matters

If you get the chance to see the film "Tora Tora Tora" there is a scene where the General (played by Jason Robards) is about to go and play Golf on that terrible sunday morning.
He's wearing plus fours.
Take a look

[Xelebes]

hame - antiquated verb meaning to copulate, a more polite choice over the more familiar verb, fuck.

[Handley_Page]

Originally Posted by Xelebes

hame - antiquated verb meaning to copulate, a more polite choice over the more familiar verb, fuck.

Where's that from, please?

[oggbashan]

Originally Posted by Handley_Page

Where's that from, please?

It is related to ham- to hold together, place beside, as in a hame which is a device of two curved pieces of wood used to make a horse harness for pulling.

hame-sucken - the crime (in Scots law) of assaulting a person in his own house or dwelling place (get the connection with intercourse?)

It is used by John Buchan in one of his novels. (I think it was Castle Gay.) The villainous revolutionaries enter a Scots dwelling to covertly assassinate the heir to the throne of their country. They are accused by the grocer Dickson McCunn of hame-sucken and the police are summoned. The revolutionaries leave quietly because they are afraid of adverse publicity (and Dickson McCunn has overstated the penalties for hame-sucken - which are worse than burglary).

[trysail]

ankyle n., a leather thong that was wound around the middle of the shaft of a javelin; athletes would hold the javelin by the thong and when the javelin released this thong unwound giving the javelin a spiraled flight.





How could Krulwich write an article like this without mentioning the atlatl ?

Embarrassed By Your Olympic Javelin: Did Cavemen Do It Better?

...back in prehistoric days, when forest javelin throwers used them, they often added a little booster in the form of a leather thong, called an ankyle, that would set the javelin spinning, getting it to fly further.

Greek Olympians used this thong too, so their throws, presumably, were also enhanced, leaving me to think — and isn't this embarrassing? — that if we could invite a caveman or an original Olympian to watch modern men throw modern javelins, they'd stand there, watch, see these sticks fly up, then down, and think ... what's their problem? We did it better...

-Robert Krulwich

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/20...n-do-it-better

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

[oggbashan]

Originally Posted by trysail

ankyle n., a leather thong that was wound around the middle of the shaft of a javelin; athletes would hold the javelin by the thong and when the javelin released this thong unwound giving the javelin a spiraled flight.

And ignoring the woomera - An Australian Aborigine shaped stick used to project spears further.

[AllardChardon]

Very interesting, but how did the woomera work to make the spear go farther than without it? The thong is easy to grasp, but this long bowl-shaped device has me wondering.

plumply(2) - adv in a wholehearted manner and without hesitation or circumlocution: FORTHRIGHTLY

[Weird Harold]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

...but this long bowl-shaped device has me wondering.

Just going on the description in Og's link, the Woomera is a multi-purpose device.

Like an atlatl, it extends the lever of the throwing arm to impart more force to a thrown spear. Unlike an atlatl, which just imparts more force to a thrown spear, the Woomera also functions as a bowl, a knife, and probably a half-dozen other things. It seems to be an Australian Aborigine's equivalent of a swiss-army knife.

[Tio_Narratore]

Originally Posted by Weird Harold

Just going on the description in Og's link, the Woomera is a multi-purpose device.

Like an atlatl, it extends the lever of the throwing arm to impart more force to a thrown spear. Unlike an atlatl, which just imparts more force to a thrown spear, the Woomera also functions as a bowl, a knife, and probably a half-dozen other things. It seems to be an Australian Aborigine's equivalent of a swiss-army knife.

To add a bit to Harold's excellent description, the woomera, like the atlatl, has a knob at the rear end of it that fits a notch in the base of a spear. The thrower holds the spear thrower by the leading edge, keeping the spear in place with his index finger. As he throws the spear, he releases the spear from his finger and follows through with the spear thrower propelling the spear. It acts as an extension to the arm, adding one mpore lever to increase the thrust. Throwing anything is a matter of levers: consider how you throw things- levering first from your leg, then your hip, then shoulder, elbow, wrist, and lastly, fingers. Fingers are relatively short, though, and don't multiply the force very much. A woomera or other spear thrower adds length to the final levering, thus increasing the force of the throw. The new World spearthrower - the atlatl - often had a perforated stone on it, adding mass to the lever, and thus increasing the force even more.

And, since we're in a word thread, note that "atlatl" is but one of hundreds of Nahuatl words adopted in English. Nahuatl is the language of the Aztecs and other groups in the Valley of Mexico.

[trysail]

feculent adj., full of dregs or fecal matter; foul, turbid, or muddy.

Etymology:
Middle English, from Latin faeculentus, from faec-, faex
First Known Use: 15th century





I am getting old. Once upon a time, I knew the word; now I have to look it up.

[AllardChardon]

Harold and Tio, thanks for the additional information, I can see it all now, thanks to both of you. And I thought the word atlatl did sound like the language of the Aztecs. Thanks for clarifying, Tio.

Trysail, I was recently reading about early New Orleans and it was very feculent at certain times of the year.

plumper(1) - noun an object carried in the mouth to fill out the cheeks

plumper(2) - noun chiefly British a vote for only one candidate when two or more are to be elected to the same office

[EdwardMidweston]

Pandiculation – Stretching and/or yawning

[WaywardandLost]

Gardyloo – Derived from the French shout of “garde à l’eau” (Beware of the water!) when a chamber pot is emptied out of the window into the street below. Particularly associated with Edinburgh’s high tenement buildings

[AllardChardon]

Welcome, WaywardandLost. That is a great word. Do you know when (year) it was first used for such a purpose? Sounds like it has been around for a couple of centuries to me.

plug-ugly - noun THUG, TOUGH,; esp: one hired to intimidate

[WaywardandLost]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

Welcome, WaywardandLost. That is a great word. Do you know when (year) it was first used for such a purpose? Sounds like it has been around for a couple of centuries to me.

plug-ugly - noun THUG, TOUGH,; esp: one hired to intimidate

Thanks for the welcome. From what I could find it was first used in the year 1622.

[oggbashan]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

Welcome, WaywardandLost. That is a great word. Do you know when (year) it was first used for such a purpose? Sounds like it has been around for a couple of centuries to me.

Gardyloo was first recorded (in Edinburgh of course!) in 1771. That does not mean that was when it was first used, but the first known time that it was recorded in print.

[WaywardandLost]

Originally Posted by oggbashan

Gardyloo was first recorded (in Edinburgh of course!) in 1771. That does not mean that was when it was first used, but the first known time that it was recorded in print.

Thanks for the info. What I got was from a website and the info on those is not always that accurate.