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Seldom-Used Words

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AllardChardon said:
Yes, Handley, it said "amateur" was a synonym. I had heard dilettante before, but never really knew the definition, as with many words, I have come to realize, through this thread.

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The prime fictional example of a dilettante was Lord Peter Wimsey from Dorothy L Sayers novels. He was a dilettante of detection (and also incunabula).

Although dilettante is assumed to be an amateur, many dilettantes have/had considerable knowledge in their own field and were/are capable of holding their own in academic discussion with professionals. Sometimes, if they were seriously rich and could afford to devote the majority of their time to it, they were better informed than the professionals.

The 18th and 19th Centuries produced numerous highly intelligent dilettantes in England for example W G Grace for Cricket. A 20th Century one was W G Audry, author of the Thomas the Tank Engine Books, a qualified steam engine driver AND a Church of England Bishop.

Edited for: In today's The Times there is an obituary of a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Although he had no formal qualifications he became a world expert on items made from base metals, writing 20 academic books on various metal collectors items e.g. swords and daggers, and becoming a senior member of several learned societies. When diagnosed with Alzheimer's he successfully regained/retained many of his mental functions by re-learning Classical Greek and German.
 
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Taking the Mickey, Pt 2.

To Tease, Make fun of, to Mock, to Trick.
To make mischief of, or for.
 
Very interesting reading, gentlemen. I tried to get here yesterday, but the page would not load for some reason. So, fortunately, I am able to return here today to continue this thread. For a minute, I feared "the powers that be" might have yanked LIT off the net. Not very likely, I know, but this is a site I would miss, if they did.

pokeweed - noun a course American perrennial herb with racemose white flowers, dark purple juicy berries, a poisonous root, and young shoots sometimes used as potherbs
 
Good to know, Trysail. I should have known it was just cleaning time. And that usually does take longer than expected, somehow.

poke bonnet - noun a woman's bonnet with a projecting brim at the front
 
And then there's always pokē, a raw fish salad that's wildly popular in Hawaii.
(Pokē is the Hawaiian verb for "slice."
 
AllardChardon said:
Good to know, Trysail. I should have known it was just cleaning time. And that usually does take longer than expected, somehow.

poke bonnet - noun a woman's bonnet with a projecting brim at the front
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My grandmother used to make poke bonnets for the girls in our family, although they seldom wore them. Granny used them while working in the garden. They keep the hair free of dust and shield the eyes from the sun.
 
Yes, JackLuis, they were very common headgear for women for many years in everything they did, from Sunday school to weeding the garden. People did not bathe as often as today and that included washing their hair. Braids, buns, scarves, bonnets, all kept the hair cleaner, longer.

There are several pokes that we all know, including the poking or protruding sometimes found in the front of young men's trousers, but here is one I was not familiar with;

poke(1) - noun BAG, SACK
 
AllardChardon said:
There are several pokes that we all know, including the poking or protruding sometimes found in the front of young men's trousers, but here is one I was not familiar with;

poke(1) - noun BAG, SACK
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This might account for "A pig in a poke".
To buy sight unseen, a risky business and likely to result in disappointment.
 
Handley, if you are talking about a hotdog wrapped in a biscuit with the ends poking out, we call it "pig in a blanket", here. This is something that was served as a lunch item for school cafeterias in my day and my grown childrens'.

poison pen - adj written with malice and spite and usually anonymously
 
AllardChardon said:
Handley, if you are talking about a hotdog wrapped in a biscuit with the ends poking out, we call it "pig in a blanket", here. This is something that was served as a lunch item for school cafeterias in my day and my grown childrens'.
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The expression 'to buy a pig in a poke' is ancient in the UK. Apparently market traders used to sell piglets for fattening up. As piglets are notoriously wriggly they would put it into a leather bag - a poke - for the purchaser to take home. But fraudsters would do a switch, and the poke wouldn't contain a valuable pig but a stray dog or cat - worthless.

The pig in a poke expression was extended to cover any sight-unseen purchase. Fraudsters still practise the switcheroo. A favourite one is to offer a cheap, possibly stolen, laptop to drunks in a pub. The laptop would always be sold in its case. Once the drunk gets home, he (almost always a he) would find that the case contained a block of wood or something about the weight of a laptop. The drunk would have 'bought a pig in a poke'.

Edited for PS.
We had a famous pig in a poke episode locally about 25 years ago. Our local villains decided that there was money to be made from importing hard core obscene videos from The Netherlands. They arranged to collect them by boat, after dark, in the Thames Estuary from a ship heading for London. They had paid cash in advance, met the ship, and the supply of videos was passed to them.

On the way back to shore, they were intercepted by a Customs and Excise boat, acting on information received. They were arrested but never got their day in court. On examination, the Customs and Excise discovered that the obscene videos were secondhand ex-rental family movies in Dutch. No obscenity law had been broken, and importation of low value secondhand videos didn't require any customs duty to be paid.

The local villains were embarrassed. :D
 
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Og, thank you for the history on "a pig in a poke". It seems perfectly logical, the way you describe the illegal practice. It is a good idea never to buy anything while drunk.

point-de-vice - adj (archaic) marked by punctilious attention to detail : METICULOUS
 
A couple of military terms that I have never heard before;

point d'appui - noun foundation or base especially for a military operation

poilu - noun a French soldier, especially: a front line soldier in World War I
 
In honor of the 2012 Open Championship (aka British Open)

Definition of POT
  1. a : a usually rounded metal or earthen container used chiefly for domestic purposes (as in cooking or for holding liquids or growing plants); also : any of various technical or industrial vessels or enclosures resembling or likened to a household pot <the pot of a still> b : potful <a pot of coffee>
  2. : an enclosed framework of wire, wood, or wicker for catching fish or lobsters
  3. a : a large amount (as of money) b (1) : the total of the bets at stake at one time (2) : one round in a poker game c : the common fund of a group
  4. : ruin <gone to pot>
  5. British : a shot in snooker in which a ball is pocketed
  6. : a vessel for urination and defecation: as a : toilet 3b b : potty


Pothole==
  1. a : a circular hole formed in the rocky bed of a river by the grinding action of stones or gravel whirled round by the water b : a sizable rounded often water-filled depression in land
  2. : a pot-shaped hole in a road surface
  3. : a usually minor difficulty or setback <hit a pothole in her comeback attempt>


Pothole bunker (pot bunker) == A "pot bunker," a k a "pothole bunker," is a small, round but very deep bunker with steep faces. Pot bunkers are most commonly found on links golf courses.
 
I have experienced this before without knowing this name for it and it was not pleasant;

pogonip - noun (Southern Paiute) a dense winter fog containing frozen particles that is formed in the deep mountain valleys of the westen U.S.
 
Good day, everyone. Here is one I know and I am sure you do, too, but it is such a goody, I had to post it;

poetic justice - noun an outcome in which vice is punished and virtue rewarded usually in a manner peculiarly or ironically appropriate
 
A couple more from the poet section;

poetess - noun a female poet

poetaster - noun an inferior poet
 
AllardChardon said:
A couple more from the poet section;

poetess - noun a female poet

poetaster - noun an inferior poet
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I notice, with some alarm, that on some Radio Programmes on our BBC (particularly Woman's Hour) , they do not 'do' poetess. They only do Poet, regardless of gender.
And the chunk recited indicated a student of McGonagall.
 
Handley_Page said:
I notice, with some alarm, that on some Radio Programmes on our BBC (particularly Woman's Hour) , they do not 'do' poetess. They only do Poet, regardless of gender.
And the chunk recited indicated a student of McGonagall.
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Part of our de-genderizing the language. We haven't used 'actress' for a long time. For the most part, I detest the loss of words, but these are not to mourn. We've earlier abandoned such as 'jewess' and 'negress,' and rightly so, seeing as we never had a 'britoness' or a 'canuckess.'

For the ultimate in inane and irrelevant use of a 'feminine' form, you might consider the sports teams of the University of Winnipeg. It was once common to name the female teams at the universites with a 'feminine' dimunitive of the male names. The Univ of Manitoba, for example, had the 'Bisons' and the 'Bisonettes.' The Univ of Winnipeg men's teams were called the 'Wesmen;' the women's were, quite ridiculously, the 'Wesmenettes.'
 
Og, thank you for posting the information on the worst poet in Britain, William McGonagal. I had never heard of him or his poems and it was quite amusing to read about him.

Yes, Handley and Tio, the world has changed in regard to the feminine form for words in English. The Latin based words have a better chance at surviving the change. There is one that will probably last forever, though, princess. I can't see ir disappearing ever, with so many little girls, who would like to be one. LOL

poesy - noun 1.a. a poem or body of poems b. POETRY 2. poetic inspiration
 
Here is a funny one;

Podunk - noun a small, unimportant, and isolated town

Sounds like where I live, except for the isolation part. Interstate Five is very close, but without a car to drive away from here, Castella can be very isolated.
 
AllardChardon said:
Here is a funny one;

Podunk - noun a small, unimportant, and isolated town

Sounds like where I live, except for the isolation part. Interstate Five is very close, but without a car to drive away from here, Castella can be very isolated.
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There are actual towns named Podunk, Allard. The earliest reference to "Podunk" was in an 1840 book. Mark Twain later nade use of it in the more modern sense.
The name comes from a New England Algonquin word meaning "marshy place," so it's not hard to see how there was a town named that in Connecticut and another in New York, both originally in marshy areas near rivers.
Now, you're not at all in a marshy area, and the local language is Wintu, definitely not an Algonquin tongue, but part of the Penutian Family (which may be related to the Uto-Aztecan). You'll have to ask them for a new name to denote the characteristics of your town.

(and my IM doesn't seem to be working; I can't help you out of your isolation.)
 
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True enough, Tio, this is not a marshy place at all, but heavily forested with soil that drains easily, due to the rocky underlayer. Castella is a suitable name, especailly with Castle Crags looming over us. I do love it here, even when it is hot, like every day for the last two weeks!

podgy - adj PUDGY
 
AllardChardon said:
True enough, Tio, this is not a marshy place at all, but heavily forested with soil that drains easily, due to the rocky underlayer. Castella is a suitable name, especailly with Castle Crags looming over us. I do love it here, even when it is hot, like every day for the last two weeks!

podgy - adj PUDGY
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If I recall correctly. Castella is only about 40 miles or so from Redding, which is hotter than the Seventh Circle of Hell.

pudify (verb): to cause feelings of shame or guilt

(sorry, my bold still isn't working, for some arcane reason
 
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