Seldom-Used Words

I will admit, my grown children bought me the Deadwood series on Blue Ray and I watch it often. I agree with the Doc about hoopleheads referring to the Scandinavian prospectors seeking gold in the Black Hills. Whether it was used to describe these folks back east is a mystery to me, though. Was it, in fact, a slang word created in the mining camps and used almost exclusively there, like so many others?

pyrocotton - noun cellulose nitrate containing about 12.6 percent nitrogen and used in smokeless powders

Appetence: NOUN:
A strong craving or desire.
A tendency or propensity.
A natural attraction or affinity.
He had an appetence for sniffing underwear.


diegesis means narrative or recital. In literature it describes parts of a story that are directly told or narrated, what we call telling around here.

Mimesis is its counterpart, and refers to showing what's happening in a story.

Film is considered diegetic by its very nature. The way the film is edited and presented is really a form of narration.

Milt is fish semen. I've seen it used to describe human semen as well. (It's good to remember that pollen is plant semen as well.)

And now we have smexy, which means smart and sexy, and even swexy, for sweet and sexy. Spexy, for sexy and wearing glasses, is still pretty rare.

Thank you, Doc, for contributing those great words. I happen to be all of the new words you listed, smexy, swexy and specy all at the same time. hehehe There is a great title for a book (or a song) in there, somewhere.

pyriform - adj having the form of a pear

Here is one that completely confused me;

pyemia - noun purulent septicemia

AllardChardon said:

Here is one that completely confused me;

pyemia - noun purulent septicemia

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Sepsis
a severe infectious disease affecting man and animals caused by the entry of pyogenic microorganisms and their toxins into the blood and tissues. The causative agents of sepsis are most often streptococci and staphylococci; less common causative agents are pneumococci, colon bacillus, and other microorganisms.

It's difficcult to track down a single reference for purulent septicemia and esecially difficult to find something that doesn't bury you in seldom used words.

In short, purulent septicemia is an (staph) infection that produces a discharge -- pus.

AllardChardon said:

Here is one that completely confused me;

pyemia - noun purulent septicemia

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Pyemia (also sp Pyaemia) was in use in the late 19-early 20th century to describe what today would just be called pyrogenic septicemia. Just like lumbago, ague, and catarrh (a great word!) were once used as terms for what we'd today just call lover back pain, intermittent fever, and a head cold.

(There's a good lexicon of archaic medical terms here.)

More Words:
Olisbos: a dildo (which word supposedly derives from the Italian "diletto" or "little darling.") Also known as a bienfaiteur or "benefactor" in French.

Cataphilist: A male submitting to a female, especially one who derives sexuoerotic pleasure from being dominated by a woman , usually a wife.

Vincilagnia: Sexuoerotic arousal from bondage ; the desire to possess women rendered helpless by fetters, such as ropes, tape or chains.

(All 3 above from Sex Lexis Dictionary of Sex Words, a staggering resource.)

Thanks, again, Doc, for the wonderful words and fantastic references with links. You are a treasure. This next one defines itself;

puzzleheaded - adj having or based on confused attitudes or ideas

Greetings, everyone. I hope your day is going well.

put-up - adj underhandedly arranged: PRECONCERTED

put-upon - adj taken advantage of

Good morrow, gentlefolks.

puttee - noun 1. a cloth strip wrapped around the leg from ankle to knee 2. a leather legging secured by a strap or catch or by laces

AllardChardon said:

Greetings, everyone. I hope your day is going well.

put-up - adj underhandedly arranged: PRECONCERTED

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A put-up is also an emergency folding bed for unexpected guests, a convertible settee, a camp bed or an inflatable mattress. It has to be 'put-up'.

AllardChardon said:

Good morrow, gentlefolks.

puttee - noun 1. a cloth strip wrapped around the leg from ankle to knee 2. a leather legging secured by a strap or catch or by laces

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Puttees were standard wear for WWI British troops in the trenches of the Western Front. They were intended to keep the mud out of the boots.

When hiking in Australia, I wore ex-US Army canvas puttees to keep insect life and thorny vegetation away from my lower legs. The US Army used them to keep unpleasant wildlife away from the legs in thick jungle in New Guinea.

Og, here is a picture of Native American woman's beaded buckskin leggings from the 1800s. My late husband and I used to hike in rough backcountry and we always wore protective waterproof gators, a modernized version of the same idea.

AllardChardon said:

Og, here is a picture of Native American woman's beaded buckskin leggings from the 1800s. My late husband and I used to hike in rough backcountry and we always wore protective waterproof gators, a modernized version of the same idea.

View attachment 1103767

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gaiters • n., 1. a covering of cloth or leather for the ankle and instep and sometimes also the lower leg, worn over the shoe or boot, 2. a cloth or leather shoe with elastic insertions at the sides, 3. an overshoe with a fabric top.






Uh, oh. Revenge of the homonym.

Yes, dear Trysail, I did mean gaiters, not gators, as in alligators, for leggings. If one wore alligators, there would be no need for leggings (no more legs).

There were so many of these often-used words, I decided to list them together without definitions for a change;

put about

put across

put away

put by

put down

put-down

put in

put off

put on

put-on (1 & 2)

put out

put over

Here is a word I have heard, never used, and did not know the true meaning of;

putative - adj 1. commonly accepted or supposed 2. assumed to exist or to have existed

trysail said:

gaiters • n., 1. a covering of cloth or leather for the ankle and instep and sometimes also the lower leg, worn over the shoe or boot, 2. a cloth or leather shoe with elastic insertions at the sides, 3. an overshoe with a fabric top.

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These are the sort of things I recall as a young airman; being worn (in white), by the Military Police).

http://www.endicotts.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=781&osCsid=74ee96111964378918664c4feafb6a67

Yes, indeed, the puttee, gaiter or legging is a very useful item of clothing that protects the wearer from all sorts of hazards, like briar bushes and snakes.

pussyfoot - vi 1. to tread or move warily or stealthily 2. to refrain from committing oneself

Pussyfooting = ftw

So here's mine, I call dibs, but still feel free:

nepenthe: n, ne-pen-the : 1. A legendary drug of ancient times, used as a remedy for grief. 2. Something that eases sorrow or pain. 3. Grief-banishing drug

That is a great word, Payday, and deserved a little more research from Wiki;

Nepenthe means "that which chases away sorrow". In the Odyssey, Nepenthes pharmakon (i.e. an anti-sorrow drug) is a magical potion given to Helen by the Egyptian queen Polidamma. It quells all sorrows with forgetfulness.

Many scholars think that nepenthe might have been an opium preparation, perhaps similar to laudanum. Alternatively, some believe it could have been an Egyptian wormwood elixir (see absinthe, history).

As described in literature the effects of nepenthe are similar to those of opiates. The therapeutic and side effect profile of nepenthe as reported may also very well be the result of some form of belladonna-type anticholinergic being present, that drug being well known for its amnesia and other properties, the former of which is considerably more potent than opium in this respect, and belladonna or separated alkaloids, especially scopolamine, were widely used in surgery and medical and dental procedures for many years before medium and short acting benzodiazepines such as alprazolam, diazepam, chlordiazepoxide, midazolam and others. The opioid-amnesic combinations are available from pharmaceutical companies or can be mixed on site; often third and fourth ingredients such as potentiators and anti-histamines are present as well. When used with morphine and a benzodiazepine mixture, scopolamine can be used for its broad spectrum of effects including decreasing glandular secretions like saliva.

Blivet
( n ) Something unimportant or indescribable. We need a blivet to get this thing to work and I have no idea what kind. (circa 1940's)

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From the Historical Dictionary of American Slang

I always considered Blivet to have to be capitalized.
In the sixty's we used the term for 500 gallon fuel bladders.

Until Charlie got good with his mortars.
Then we called them "Conflagrations, with explosions!

Welcome.

AllardChardon said:

That is a great word, Payday, and deserved a little more research from Wiki;

Nepenthe means "that which chases away sorrow". In the Odyssey, Nepenthes pharmakon (i.e. an anti-sorrow drug) is a magical potion given to Helen by the Egyptian queen Polidamma. It quells all sorrows with forgetfulness.

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Yup, I've been trudging my way through The Odyssey, and it's taking me forever (stupid translated English). But I saw that phrase, with no idea what it meant, and had to throw it in here after I looked it up.

So, would blivet now = doohickey?

This section was a merry little romp;

puss - noun 1. CAT 2. GIRL

pussy(1) - noun 1. PUSS 2. akin to the pussy willow

pussy(2) - adj full of or resembling pus

pussy(3) - var of PURSY

pursy(1) - adj 1.a. short-winded esp. because of corpulence b. FAT 2. characterized by or arising from arrogance of wealth, self-indulgence, or luxury

pursy(2) - adj 1. PUCKERED 2. PURSE-PROUD

purse-proud - adj proud because of one's wealth

AllardChardon said:

This section was a merry little romp;


pussy(2) - adj full of or resembling pus

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This one has a different pronunciation in British English as pus-y.

Og, and rightfully so! It is interesting that puss is listed for a girl, but pussy for a girl's vagina is not. The Slang dictionary has that entry, most assuredly.

I forgot to list;

puss(2) - noun slang FACE

AllardChardon said:

Og, and rightfully so! It is interesting that puss is listed for a girl, but pussy for a girl's vagina is not. The Slang dictionary has that entry, most assuredly.

I forgot to list;

puss(2) - noun slang FACE

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Interesting one, that. We'd say "mush".
So a "slap in the puss" would translate as "a slap in the mush".