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Seldom-used words - M to A

AllardChardon said:
Carlus, I suppose editors know best...
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They certainly think they know best, even though this one has been demonstrably wrong on occasion. But it evens out: So was I.

The most galling thing is that editors don't seem to understand that when you're producing deathless prose, you should produce a lot of it! :devil:
 
Deathless prose, what a great description. Thanks for sharing, Carlus, I am always interested in what authors are doing on here, but rarely read anyone else's work, due to working on my own.

muley also mulley - adj POLLED, HORNLESS; esp: naturally hornless
 
Good Monday to you all.

mulct(1) - noun FINE, PENALTY

mulct(2) - vt 1. to punish by a fine 2.a. to defraud esp. of money: SWINDLE b. to obtain by fraud, duress, or theft

I honestly don't think I have ever seen either of these two in print and yet it is not classed as archaic. Does anyone here use these words currently?
 
AllardChardon said:
Good Monday to you all.

mulct(1) - noun FINE, PENALTY

mulct(2) - vt 1. to punish by a fine 2.a. to defraud esp. of money: SWINDLE b. to obtain by fraud, duress, or theft

I honestly don't think I have ever seen either of these two in print and yet it is not classed as archaic. Does anyone here use these words currently?
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Well, in the 1950s I guess.
Paul Gallico, I believe.

Meanwhile:

mulct (v.) Look up mulct at Dictionary.com
late 15c., "to punish by a fine," from Middle French mulcter "to fine, punish" (15c.), from Latin mulctare, altered from multare "punish, to fine," from multa "penalty, fine," perhaps from Oscan or Samnite [Klein].
Sense of "defraud" is first recorded 1748.
 
Thank you so much, Handley, that word does seem seldom-used.

mugwump - noun 1. a bolter from the Republican party in 1884 2. an independent in politics
 
AllardChardon said:
Thank you so much, Handley, that word does seem seldom-used.

mugwump - noun 1. a bolter from the Republican party in 1884 2. an independent in politics
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Historical Slang:

mugwump - A great man; an important one. From circa 1830 originally and mainly US usage. Perhaps originally colloquial but soon standard English. From the Red Indian for a chief.
 
oggbashan said:
Historical Slang:

mugwump - A great man; an important one. From circa 1830 originally and mainly US usage. Perhaps originally colloquial but soon standard English. From the Red Indian for a chief.
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I've always thought of Mugwump as a "fence-sitter" -- someone who has "his Mug on one side and his Wump on the other." :p

From: www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/harp/0719.html

In an editorial, Curtis summarized the three reasons why he and other reformers opposed Blaine so adamantly: 1) his involvement in various scandals; 2) his imperialist foreign policy; and 3) his record as a spoilsman who resisted civil service reform and reform in general. Curtis and Nast were joined in the 1884 revolt by Nation editor Edwin L. Godkin, former senator and interior secretary Carl Schurz, and other prominent reform-minded liberal Republicans. Those who bolted were nicknamed “Mugwumps,” purportedly an Algonquin name for chief, but derided by regular Republicans as meaning one who sits on a fence, with his “mug” on one side and his “wump” on the other.
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I truly hoped that word would bring forth some discussion and that it did. Many thanks, Og and Harold, for adding the history of the word.

Of the next set, which includes mug and mugger, I am going to list only this one as unknown to me;

mugger(3) - noun one that grimaces esp. before an audience
 
AllardChardon said:
I truly hoped that word would bring forth some discussion and that it did. Many thanks, Og and Harold, for adding the history of the word.

Of the next set, which includes mug and mugger, I am going to list only this one as unknown to me;

mugger(3) - noun one that grimaces esp. before an audience
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Are we to assume that the other definitions of this word are well known?
There are 6 according to my Oxford on-board thing.
:)
 
Handley, my dictionary only had three definitions of mug, the cup, making faces, and attacking another person, and three definitions for mugger, a harmless freshwater crocodile of southeastern Asia, an attacker usually from behind, and the one I posted. Do you have more than that? If so, what am I missing.

mufti(1) - noun a professional jurist who interprets Muslim law

mufti(2) - noun civilian clothes
 
AllardChardon said:
Handley, my dictionary only had three definitions of mug, the cup, making faces, and attacking another person, and three definitions for mugger, a harmless freshwater crocodile of southeastern Asia, an attacker usually from behind, and the one I posted. Do you have more than that? If so, what am I missing.

mufti(1) - noun a professional jurist who interprets Muslim law

mufti(2) - noun civilian clothes
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Here we Go:-

Mugger. A hawker of earthenware.
Mugger. A broad-nosed Indian Crocodile (often venerated).
Mugger. A person who robs another person - with violence.
Mugger. A person who pulls a face or grimaces, particularly to an audience.
Mugger. A person who studies in a concentrated manner
(Hence "mugging up" before an exam)
Mugger. A type of mail used for protecting the inner soles of mountaineering boots
Mugger. An unpleasant person or thing
Mugger. A negligible amount
Mugger. A curse, Damn. Chiefly in imprecations in optative form.
 
Well, Handley, that clinches it. I will start searching for a better dictionary.

In the meantime, I will carry on with the one I have, and this is what I found for today;

Mrs. Grundy - noun one marked by prudish conventionality in personal conduct
 
AllardChardon said:
Well, Handley, that clinches it. I will start searching for a better dictionary.

In the meantime, I will carry on with the one I have, and this is what I found for today;

Mrs. Grundy - noun one marked by prudish conventionality in personal conduct
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Grundy

This excerpt from an Australian newspaper reveals the possibility that Hampton Court's Mrs Grundy was a real-life moral regulator who had an impact upon London society, or at least upon the residents of Hampton Court:

Ernest Law, chief historian of Hampton Court, points out that a "Mrs Grundy" did really exist. "That lady was, as a fact, embodied in the housekeeper of that name at Hampton Court Palace in the late 'forties and early 'fifties of last century. Her fame is perpetuated in a dark space — one of the mystery chambers of the palace — the door of which is rarely opened, and which is still known as 'Mrs Grundy's Gallery.' Here she impounded any picture or sculpture which she considered unfit for exhibition in the State rooms; and here she kept them under lock and key in defiance of the authority and protests of the Queen's surveyor of pictures. The story goes that on one occasion the First Commissioner of Works, on a visit of inspection, sent for Mrs Grundy. In answer to the First Commissioner's request, she declined to open the door for him. It was not until the early 1900s that a leaden statue of Venus, which had been sent from Windsor, and was stored in Mrs Grundy's Gallery, was brought forth to adorn Henry VIII's pond garden. "What would Mrs Grundy say?"
 
Og, you are such a wealth of information. Is Mrs. Grundy's Gallery still keeping treasures from the world's view?

I am going to add this one, because I like the way it sounds;

moxie - noun 1. slang: ENERGY 2. slang: COURAGE
 
AllardChardon said:
Og, you are such a wealth of information. Is Mrs. Grundy's Gallery still keeping treasures from the world's view?

...
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Yes, and No.

Mrs Grundy's gallery still exists at Hampton Court as a small room, but it is empty.

However, all UK Museums and Galleries tend to have overtly erotic works in the reserve collections instead of on public view, because of the number of schools who visit.

Most are available to researchers, on request.

But what would have offended Mrs Grundy was much less offensive than modern eyes can see.

I have a small book of reproductions of Matisse's erotic drawings. They could not be on public display where children might come.
 
Og, it makes sense that adults would want to protect children from such works of art. I am even more curious about what has been hidden from view, what I might have missed in the galleries I have visited, because they were not displayed. Too bad only researchers are allowed to see them.

Now, we come to mow, which has two meanings that were unknown to me;

mow(3) - noun GRIMACE

mow(4) - vi to make grimaces
 
AllardChardon said:
Og, it makes sense that adults would want to protect children from such works of art. I am even more curious about what has been hidden from view, what I might have missed in the galleries I have visited, because they were not displayed. Too bad only researchers are allowed to see them.

...
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When I visited Pompeii in the early 1960s, some wall paintings were covered up and only to be seen by enlightened adults (at an extra fee, of course). Now they are freely reproduced. They included ritual flogging as a sexual initiation rite.

Earlier this year I visited the remains of a massive Roman Palace at Fishbourne in Sussex. Some of the mosaics were mildly erotic but are now explained, even to children who ask.

We have come a long way since the Victorian era when Shakespeare was Bowdlerised to remove sexual references unsuitable for children (and women!).
 
Og, I did not realize that Shakespeare was Bowdlerised, until you mentioned it, and then I had to look up Thomas Bowdler to see what he did. Simply amazing that anyone had the gall to edit Shakespeare, for the sake of the innocent children and naïve women. It was thought that men could handle the original script just fine, I would suppose.

mouton - noun processed sheepskin that has been sheared and dyed to resemble beaver or seal
 
I decided to add this word for the definitions and because I have been accused of being such;

mouthy - adj 1. excessively talkative: GARROLOUS 2. BOMBASTIC
 
AllardChardon said:
I decided to add this word for the definitions and because I have been accused of being such;

mouthy - adj 1. excessively talkative: GARROLOUS 2. BOMBASTIC
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I think that's "garrulous."

And your dictionary misses the factor of impudence that the word mouthy often connotes.
 
Yes, that is true. I hit the O instead of the U and did not check before posting. Thanks for the correction, Carlus. Impudent and verbose talker is closer to mouthy, yes?

Mousquetaire - noun a French musketeer; esp: one of the royal musketeers of the 17th and 18th centuries conspicuous for their daring and their dandified dress
 
AllardChardon said:
Yes, that is true. I hit the O instead of the U and did not check before posting. Thanks for the correction, Carlus. Impudent and verbose talker is closer to mouthy, yes?
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Just so.

Impudent is particularly fitting for this forum, being derived from pudere, to be ashamed. This Latin word is also the root of the English word pudendum, (pl. pudenda) a person's external genitals, esp. a woman's. It's another word my editor forbade—not that I was really considering its use. It arose in discussion of words that are acceptable substitutes in more formal circumstances for certain four-letter words that authors commonly use here on Literotica.
 
I agree with you, Carlus, impudent is a great word for this site. Og introduced me to pudendum a while back, which I still find amusing. Makes me think of pudding for some reason. LOL

mountebank - noun 1. a person who sells quack medicines from a platform 2. a boastful unscrupulous pretender: CHARLATAN
 
AllardChardon said:
I agree with you, Carlus, impudent is a great word for this site. Og introduced me to pudendum a while back, which I still find amusing. Makes me think of pudding for some reason. LOL
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John Sandford, author of the Prey series of detective series centered around Lucas Davenport, once wrote of Lucas, in the course of getting ready to Do It with a woman, that he reached for her "thermal pudding". It's such an apt phrase that I found myself using it (OK—plagiarizing it!) in one chapter of my "Charlie & Mindy" series. So maybe you're not the only one!
 
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