Seldom-used words - M to A

Learned from a webcomic, of all places:

The trobairitz (Occitan pronunciation: [tɾuβajˈɾits]) were Occitan female troubadours of the 12th and 13th centuries, active from around 1170 to approximately 1260.[1] The word trobairitz was first used in the 13th-century romance Flamenca. It comes from the Provençal word trobar, the literal meaning of which is "to find", and the technical meaning of which is "to compose".[2] The word trobairitz is used very rarely in medieval Occitan, as it does not occur in lyrical poetry, grammatical treatises, or in the biographies of the trobairitz or troubadours.[3] Trobairitz composed, wrote verses, and performed for the Occitan noble courts. They are exceptional in musical history as the first known female composers of Western secular music; all earlier known female composers wrote sacred music.[4] The trobairitz were part of courtly society, as opposed to their lower class counterparts the joglaressas.[5]

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more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trobairitz

The Minnesanger and Meistersanger were the German equivalent of the French troubadors:

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

Harold, that is fascinating. Thanks for posting it here with the link. I had never heard of them before.

Thanks, Og, for the additional information and link to the German version.

lown - adj (15c) dial: CALM, QUIET

Hello, posters. Here we go, again.

lowery also loury - adj (15c) GLOOMY, LOWERING

AllardChardon said:

Hello, posters. Here we go, again.

lowery also loury - adj (15c) GLOOMY, LOWERING

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It ain't even in my dictionary.!

Handley, one never knows why a word is included in one dictionary and not another.

lowering - adj (15c) dark and threatening: GLOOMY <rain pouring down from a ~ sky>

lower also lour(1) - vi (13c) 1. to look sullen: FROWN 2. to be or become dark, gloomy, and threatening <an overcast sky ~ed over the village>

lower also lour(2) - noun (14c) FROWN

A hearty hello to all.

Here are some other interesting definitions for this word;

low(1) - vi (before 12c) MOO

low(2) - noun (1549) the deep sustained sound characteristic esp. of a cow

low or lowe(5) - noun (13c) chiefly Scot: FLAME, BLAZE

AllardChardon said:

A hearty hello to all.

Here are some other interesting definitions for this word;

low(1) - vi (before 12c) MOO

low(2) - noun (1549) the deep sustained sound characteristic esp. of a cow

low or lowe(5) - noun (13c) chiefly Scot: FLAME, BLAZE

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and, presumably, still the opposite of 'High'. . .

And David Low, British Cartoonist:

AllardChardon said:

low(1) - vi (before 12c) MOO

low(2) - noun (1549) the deep sustained sound characteristic esp. of a cow

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"Lowing" survived long past 12c:

Verb

lowing

Present participle of low.

The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes.
But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes. - Away In a Manger

Noun

lowing (plural lowings)

The sound of something that lows.  [quotations ▲]
1918, William Henry Hudson, Far Away and Long Ago

[…] the herd of four or five hundred cattle trotting homewards with loud lowings and bellowings […]

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It is still seldom used by most people, but persists at Christmas.

Weird Harold said:

"Lowing" survived long past 12c:



It is still seldom used by most people, but persists at Christmas.

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12C is when it was FIRST recorded.

Handley, yes, low and high are still opposites.

Og, those cartoons by David Low are very funny. Thanks for posting them.

Harold, I think "Away in a Manger" is the only place I have ever heard lowing used.

Is this one seldom-used?

lovesome - adj (before 12c.) 1. WINSOME, LOVELY 2. AFFECTIONATE, AMOROUS

AllardChardon said:

Handley, yes, low and high are still opposites.

Og, those cartoons by David Low are very funny. Thanks for posting them.

Harold, I think "Away in a Manger" is the only place I have ever heard lowing used.

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Grey's Elegy in a Country Churchyard:

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"

1 The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
2 The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
3 The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
4 And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

5 Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
6 And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
7 Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
8 And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds;

9 Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower
10 The moping owl does to the moon complain
11 Of such, as wandering near her secret bower,
12 Molest her ancient solitary reign.

13 Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,
14 Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,
15 Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,
16 The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

17 The breezy call of incense-breathing morn,
18 The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed,
19 The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,
20 No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.

21 For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
22 Or busy housewife ply her evening care:
23 No children run to lisp their sire's return,
24 Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.

25 Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,
26 Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke;
27 How jocund did they drive their team afield!
28 How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!

29 Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
30 Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
31 Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile,
32 The short and simple annals of the poor.

33 The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
34 And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
35 Awaits alike the inevitable hour.
36 The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

37 Nor you, ye Proud, impute to these the fault,
38 If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise,
39 Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault
40 The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.

41 Can storied urn or animated bust
42 Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
43 Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
44 Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?

45 Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
46 Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
47 Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed,
48 Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.

49 But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page
50 Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll;
51 Chill Penury repressed their noble rage,
52 And froze the genial current of the soul.

53 Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
54 The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
55 Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
56 And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

57 Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast
58 The little tyrant of his fields withstood;
59 Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
60 Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

61 The applause of listening senates to command,
62 The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
63 To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,
64 And read their history in a nation's eyes,

65 Their lot forbade: nor circumscribed alone
66 Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined;
67 Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,
68 And shut the gates of mercy on mankind,

69 The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,
70 To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,
71 Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride
72 With incense kindled at the Muse's flame.

73 Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
74 Their sober wishes never learned to stray;
75 Along the cool sequestered vale of life
76 They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

77 Yet even these bones from insult to protect
78 Some frail memorial still erected nigh,
79 With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked,
80 Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.

81 Their name, their years, spelt by the unlettered muse,
82 The place of fame and elegy supply:
83 And many a holy text around she strews,
84 That teach the rustic moralist to die.

85 For who to dumb Forgetfulness a prey,
86 This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned,
87 Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
88 Nor cast one longing lingering look behind?

89 On some fond breast the parting soul relies,
90 Some pious drops the closing eye requires;
91 Ev'n from the tomb the voice of nature cries,
92 Ev'n in our ashes live their wonted fires.

93 For thee, who mindful of the unhonoured dead
94 Dost in these lines their artless tale relate;
95 If chance, by lonely Contemplation led,
96 Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate,

97 Haply some hoary-headed swain may say,
98 'Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn
99 'Brushing with hasty steps the dews away
100 'To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.

101 'There at the foot of yonder nodding beech
102 'That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,
103 'His listless length at noontide would he stretch,
104 'And pore upon the brook that babbles by.

105 'Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,
106 'Muttering his wayward fancies he would rove,
107 'Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn,
108 'Or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love.

109 'One morn I missed him on the customed hill,
110 'Along the heath and near his favourite tree;
111 'Another came; nor yet beside the rill,
112 'Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he;

113 'The next with dirges due in sad array
114 'Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne.
115 'Approach and read (for thou can'st read) the lay,
116 'Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn.'

The Epitaph

117 Here rests his head upon the lap of earth
118 A youth to fortune and to fame unknown.
119 Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth,
120 And Melancholy marked him for her own.

121 Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
122 Heaven did a recompense as largely send:
123 He gave to Misery all he had, a tear,
124 He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wished) a friend.

125 No farther seek his merits to disclose,
126 Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
127 (There they alike in trembling hope repose)
128 The bosom of his Father and his God.

Og, that is a lovely poem. Thanks so much for adding it. When was it written?

love-lock - noun (1592) a long lock of hair variously worn (as over the front of the shoulder) esp. by men in the 17th and 18th centuries

AllardChardon said:

Og, that is a lovely poem. Thanks so much for adding it. When was it written?

love-lock - noun (1592) a long lock of hair variously worn (as over the front of the shoulder) esp. by men in the 17th and 18th centuries

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It was published in 1751, written some periods before that.

AllardChardon said:

Og, that is a lovely poem. Thanks so much for adding it. When was it written?

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People are still arguing about it:

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

It was first published in 1751 but might have been written, in some form, in 1742, and revised in 1750 - Read the Wikipedia link for more details.

It is one of the best known English poems.

AllardChardon said:

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love-lock - noun (1592) a long lock of hair variously worn (as over the front of the shoulder) esp. by men in the 17th and 18th centuries

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Still worn by women. There were several love-locks on show in last night's Eurovision Song Contest (along with some awful music!).

Thank you, Og, for posting the link to Grey's Elegy. It was a very interesting article about the origin of the ode and I can see why it is an English favorite. Women still wear lovelocks? I am surprised by that. How are they attached?

love-in-a-mist - noun (ca. 1760) an Old World annual herb of the buttercup family having usually blue or white flowers enveloped in numerous finely dissected bracts

AllardChardon said:

Thank you, Og, for posting the link to Grey's Elegy. It was a very interesting article about the origin of the ode and I can see why it is an English favorite. Women still wear lovelocks? I am surprised by that. How are they attached?

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They are normally natural hair, grown or styled long on one side. That is what lovelocks were when men wore them.

These are examples:

Nice one, Ogg.

AllardChardon said:

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love-in-a-mist - noun (ca. 1760) an Old World annual herb of the buttercup family having usually blue or white flowers enveloped in numerous finely dissected bracts

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



Then there is love-lies-bleeding:

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

Og, I have seen that hair style on women for years and never knew it was called love-locks. Thank you so much for adding the pictures, they really help. And speaking of pictures, the love-in-a-mist and love-lies-bleeding photos are spectacular.

love apple - noun (1578) TOMATO

Hello, Lit fans.

lovat - noun [prob. fr. T. A. Fraser, Lord Lovat +1875 Scot. nobleman who popularized muted tweeds] (1907) a predominately dusty color mixture (as of green) in fabrics

AllardChardon said:

Hello, Lit fans.

lovat - noun [prob. fr. T. A. Fraser, Lord Lovat +1875 Scot. nobleman who popularized muted tweeds] (1907) a predominately dusty color mixture (as of green) in fabrics

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This should be a Lovat tartan, a sept of Clan Fraser:

Og, what a beautiful tartan that is, too. Thanks for posting it.

lovage - noun (14c.) any of several aromatic perennial herbs of the carrot family; esp: a European herb (Levisticum officinale) sometimes cultivated for use in medicine esp. as a diuretic and in cookery usu. as a flavoring agent