COVID-19 RESOURCES
LIT CAMS (200 Free Tokens)ADULT TOYSVOD MOVIES

Seldom-Used Words

Status
Not open for further replies.
Aardvark for sexual intercourse? I guess any word is game, well... not any word. I can think of a few quite quickly that would not make the transition, like poopoo, peepee and caca. LOL

praxeology - noun the study of human actions and conduct

I rebooted the computer and have fixed my problems with ********** and adobe, both of which seem to be the current virus hacking agents. I am not running either of those and everything is working just fine.
 
I don't know why those asterixes showed up instead of the word j a v a s c r i p t. Pretty mysterious. I will try and trick my computer this time. I hope it works.
 
...and let's not overlook...

praemunire noun An offense against the English Crown punishable chiefly by forfeiture and originally committed by asserting papal legal supremacy in England.

I guess HP and Og are safe; I haven't heard any papal claims from them...Well, maybe a bit of pontificating...
 
Tio_Narratore said:
...and let's not overlook...

praemunire noun An offense against the English Crown punishable chiefly by forfeiture and originally committed by asserting papal legal supremacy in England.

I guess HP and Og are safe; I haven't heard any papal claims from them...Well, maybe a bit of pontificating...
Click to expand...

Praemunire was a lesser offence. Actually trying to establish papal supremacy in England was High Treason. Guy Fawkes and the rest of the plotters were hung, drawn and quartered for it, but only Guy Fawkes was tortured first because he gave a false identity and refused to name his co-conspirators.

They gave themselves away by trying to start a rebellion which failed miserably. They were not charged with praemunire but with open rebellion against the monarch.

Some of them died in a Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid shootout, the rest were captured and held in the Tower of London before execution. Guy Fawkes was to be executed last, having watched all his co-conspirators being hung, drawn and quartered first. He had a last success. He climbed higher on the scaffold and jumped, breaking his neck in the noose, so was dead before the drawing and quartering.

To be hung, drawn and quartered could be a prolonged death. The hanging was slow strangulation which was ended before death. The drawing was done by cutting open the abdomen and pulling out the intestines. A skilled executioner could make the victim survive for up to 24 hours with the intestines extruded. Finally the living body was cut into four quarters. Quartering was fatal...
 
AllardChardon said:
I don't know why those asterixes showed up instead of the word j a v a s c r i p t. Pretty mysterious. I will try and trick my computer this time. I hope it works.
Click to expand...

Like I said before, Java script is in Lit's censored word list for vBulletin. (It's to keep malicious scripts from running in signatures or locations.)
 
Last edited:
oggbashan said:
Praemunire was a lesser offence. Actually trying to establish papal supremacy in England was High Treason. Guy Fawkes and the rest of the plotters were hung, drawn and quartered for it, but only Guy Fawkes was tortured first because he gave a false identity and refused to name his co-conspirators.

They gave themselves away by trying to start a rebellion which failed miserably. They were not charged with praemunire but with open rebellion against the monarch.

Some of them died in a Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid shootout, the rest were captured and held in the Tower of London before execution. Guy Fawkes was to be executed last, having watched all his co-conspirators being hung, drawn and quartered first. He had a last success. He climbed higher on the scaffold and jumped, breaking his neck in the noose, so was dead before the drawing and quartering.

To be hung, drawn and quartered could be a prolonged death. The hanging was slow strangulation which was ended before death. The drawing was done by cutting open the abdomen and pulling out the intestines. A skilled executioner could make the victim survive for up to 24 hours with the intestines extruded. Finally the living body was cut into four quarters. Quartering was fatal...
Click to expand...

In addition Og, men were usually emasculated before disembowelment with their testicles thrown into a fire before their eyes.:eek:

Women of course were burnt alive, according to Coke, "so that our public decency be not offended."
 
I will always be stunned by the degree of torture we humans have subjected upon ourselves with the proper reasons stated to justify the actions. I could never have thought up such torture and wonder how others did, and all of it on public display.

prattle(1) - verb 1. PRATE 2. to utter meaningless sounds suggestive of the chatter of children ~ vt: to say lightly and artlessly: BABBLE

prattle(2) - noun 1. trifling or empty talk 2. a sound that is meaningless, repetitive, and suggestive of the chatter of children

Thanks, Harold, I finally understand what you meant.
 
But then,

praties was an Irish vernacular term for potatoes, as in the song, "The Praties, They Grow Small."
 
Thanks for that little bit of odd information, Tio, you are a wealth of such knowledge.

pratfall - noun 1. a fall on the buttocks 2. a humiliating mishap or blunder
 
Not odd information to me, Allard; all is merely information until its relationship to other information is found. For example, that song is to an older melody, but reflects the Great Famine, and tells something of the people, their condition, and our wider history...

The Praties they grow small over here, over here;
The praties they grow small over here.
The praties they grow small
and we dig them in the fall;
We eat them coats and all, over here.

The "over here" ties those in Ireland to those already emigrated, and that the praties are small and the people "eat them coats and all" tells much about the role of the root in defining worth and well-being in 1840s Eire. Even that the crop is called "praties" conveys a sense of the role of potatoes to the farmers; it seems a warm, familiar nickname that bespeaks a central domestic role for the tubers. From there, one can spin off into the nature of the potato and its development as an Irish crop. Domesticated in the Andes, it is adapted to rocky, sparse soil, and suitable for the scrub land that the British Lords left for the natives of Erin while they took the best meadow and pastureland for their own uses.

A little oddity...

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

(from William Blake - Auguries of Innocence)

Yes, a little oddity, and in it a whole world...
 
Tio, I did not mean to sound flippant about the odds and ends of your extensive knowledge, at all. Please excuse me if I came off that way. As far as older songs, lyrics and the like goes, you have exceeded my limited expectations, not to mention all sorts of knowledge about American history and some Canadian, too.

To give credit where credit is due, the wonderful posters of this thread, who contribute far more than dictionary entries, make this thread fascinating.

THANK YOU, ALL!

prate(1) - verb to talk long and idly: CHATTER ~ vt: to utter foolishly: BABBLE

prate(2) - noun the act of prating
 
Good day, everyone. Here is another double entry P word;

prank(1) - noun TRICK: a. obs: a malicious act b. a ludricrous or mildly mischievious act

prank(2) - verb 1. to dress or adorn gaily or showily 2. ADORN, SPANGLE ~ vi: to make ostentatious show
 
AllardChardon said:
Good day, everyone. Here is another double entry P word;

prank(1) - noun TRICK: a. obs: a malicious act b. a ludricrous or mildly mischievious act
Click to expand...

Oops! Sorry, dear. I hate to say it, but: The word is mischievous, and it's a three-syllable word—with the accent on the first syllable.
 
gra·cious/ˈgrāSHəs/

Adjective: Courteous, kind, and pleasant, esp. toward someone of lower social status.
Exclamation: Expressing polite surprise.
Synonyms: kind - merciful - kindly - benignant

Thought I'd include this as it can be hard to find on the AH, except here. :kiss:
 
Thank you for correcting me, Carlus. I do like to be correct and I have often spelled that word wrong.

JackLuis, that is a very sweet thing to say about this thread. That is what I like about it. Very little drama, here.

An entry I have never heard and am not sure I understand the meaning of;

pralltriller - noun a musical mordent using the upper auxiliary note
 
Thanks, HP, and John Mc had the quite the voice as well...

Allard, I didn't consider your comment flippant. I, do, however, like to see the relationships among all these things, and could write a whole essay, perhaps bokk, even novels based on that one little odd word. And likely on any little odd word. It is the relationships that give things meaning; otherwise they're just trivia. Fun, perhaps, but the grain of sand is even more fun when you can see a world in it.

It is nice, as well, to have such a graciously civil thread here; it provides a welcome contrast to the vitriolic ones.
 
Yes, Tio, we give meaning to everything in our lives. My parents were both oil painters, and to this day the smell of turpentine makes me happy. Brings back happy memories. Words do the same thing, except many words are very old and have a long history in their own right. I truly enjoy your knowledge of such.

I had to look this one up;

mordent - noun a musical ornament made by quick alternation of a principal tone with the tone below
 
AllardChardon said:
Fascinating reading, gentlemen. I am learning more about a war that happened right here in our Nation's Capitol, than ever before. ... Wikipedia is a wonderful research tool. Thanks for posting the links, Og and Trysail.
Click to expand...

American History = Awesome

AllardChardon said:
flibbertigibbet - noun a silly restless person
Click to expand...

:heart:


Handley_Page said:
The UK military have a word like that:

SCRAN. Food, a meal, often taken in haste with little or no thought in preparation.
Click to expand...

AllardChardon said:
Scran does not sound appetizing at all, Handley. Of course, snack is not much better, but I am used to that one.
Click to expand...

hardtack (hard tack) - noun : A hard cracker used as food in lieu of perishables, made from flour and water with salt optional.

A major staple of Civil War Union combatants, it was named for the British slang for pilot bread, shipbiscuits, or wafers; though long lasting, cheap grain, or flour, and water crackers date back farther than the 13th Century and are still eaten today.

All variations of these crackers (or biscuits) are extremely hard. Some of the variations of hardtack were given the name 'tooth breaker' or 'tooth duller'.

Confederate soldiers, on the other hand:

hoe cakes (Johnnie Cake, dodgers) - noun : cornmeal flatbread, Native American in origin. Eaten predominently by Confererates during the Civil War, made from cornmeal, salt, and water.

the wiki said:
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term hoecake first occurs in 1745, and the term is used by American writers such as Joel Barlow and Washington Irving. The origin of the name is the method of preparation: field hands often cooked it on a shovel or hoe held to an open flame. Hoes designed for cotton fields were large and flat with a hole for the long handle to slide through; the blade would be removed and placed over a fire much like a griddle.
Click to expand...

But there are two versions of the recipe. One version, like hardtack, is cheap and simple, but the 'rich' version of the recipe is as follows:

2 cups of cornmeal
2/3 cup of milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
butter
molasses

-Mix ingredients into a stiff batter and form eight biscuits.
Then
-Bake on a lightly greased sheet at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until brown.
Or
-Spoon the batter into hot cooking oil in a frying pan over a low flame. Remove the corn dodgers and let cool on a paper towel.
Then
-Spread with butter or molasses or both

:)
 
Last edited:
Payday, that is very interesting, indeed. I will probably try to make those hoe cakes soon, as I am a big baker of cornbread to go with soup. The recipes are similar, but cornbread has eggs and flour added. I would suppose from my recent research that the molasses put upon the hoecakes might have been sorghum syrup, which was much more plentiful during the Civil War years. Sherman's men talked about pouring out gallons of sorghum on their raids.

I had to post this one;

praline - noun a confection of nut kernels: a. almonds roasted in boiling sugar until brown and crisp b. a patty of creamy brown sugar and pecan meats
 
Alphamegamia- 1. Sexual arousal from partners of different age groups. 2. Marriage between an older man and a younger woman.
 
brontide noun a low rumbling sound of distant thunder.

borborygmus noun a rumbling sound caused by the movement of gas passing through the intestines.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

THROBBS
ABC Exhausting, though not Exhaustive
Replies
7
Views
6K
dombeotch
D
amicus
AllardChardon & SeverusMax (Writerly)
Replies
13
Views
435
D_K_Moon
D_K_Moon
B
The Lie
Replies
12
Views
529
Rosebud
Rosebud
krastner
Criminalize Alchol ans Legalize POT
Replies
10
Views
326
krastner
krastner
fgarvb1
2257 Regulations
Replies
3
Views
579
Brinnie
Brinnie
Back
Top