Seldom-Used Words

Tio_Narratore said:

Let's not overlook...

plenum n. 1 a. A space or all space every part of which is full of matter b (1) a condition in which the pressureof air in an enclosed space is greater than that of the atmospheric pressure (2) and enclosed space in which such a condition exists 2. a general assembly of all members esp. of a legislative body 3. the quality or state of being full.

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AllardChardon said:

plenary inspiration - noun inspiration in all subjects dealth with

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venturi - noun: a short tube with a tapering constriction in the middle that causes an increase in the velocity of flow of a fluid and a corresponding decrease in fluid pressure and that is used especially in measuring fluid flow or for creating a suction (as for driving aircraft instruments or drawing fuel into the flow stream of a carburetor)

intubation; insertion of a tube into an external or internal orifice of the body for the purpose of adding or removing fluids or air.

I first saw it used here:

"Palin seems to be going for a 1990's Janeane Garofalo look. I think Garofalo wore it better, although I would intubate them both." [HekmagaJuximaxx, in response to a Sarah Palin story on Huff Post, 8/29/12]

I am definitely going to work it into a future story somehow.

rj

Hello everyone. For Americans, Happy Labor Day. For the rest of the world, you celebrated Worker's Day on May 1.

pleiad - noun a group of usually seven illustrious or brilliant persons or things

Welcome, rjordon, nice to have you aboard.

A little more on pleiad;

Origin of PLEIAD

French Pléiade, a group of seven 16th century French poets, from Middle French, and a group of seven tragic poets of ancient Alexandria, from Greek
First Known Use: circa 1839

The capitalised plural Pleiades refers to a cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus, commonly spoken of as seven, though only six are visible. The name arising from classical mythology, the seven daughters of Atlas and half sisters of the Hyades, placed among the stars to save them from the pursuit of Orion. (He being the one with the big long sword ) One of them (the Lost Pleiad ) hides, either from grief or shame.

Thank you, thefishfryer, for the additional information and welcome to this thread.

More on the same subject from Wiki;

"The Alexandrian Pleiad is the name given to a group of seven Alexandrian poets and tragedians in the 3rd century BC (Alexandria was at that time the literary center of the Mediterranean) working in the court of Ptolemy II Philadelphus. The name derives from the seven stars of the Pleiades star cluster.

There are several conflicting lists of the greatest poets of the Alexandrian age (traditionally ascribed to Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace), which include the "Alexandrian Pleiad", some with tragic poets, other which include lyric or epic poets. The following members are usually always included in the "Alexandrian Pleiad":

Homerus the younger, son of Andromachus, from Byzantium, associated with "Tragic pleiad"
Philiscus of Corcyra
Lycophron
Alexander Aetolus, tragic poet
Sositheus of Alexandria, dramatist
Aeantides, a poet traditionally associated with the "Tragic pleiad"

The other members are variously:

Theocritus, who wrote the bucolic poems
Aratus, who wrote the Phaenomena and other poems
Nicander
Apollonius, who wrote the Argonautica
Sosiphanes of Syracuse, tragic poet

Later uses

The name "Pléiade" was adopted in 1323 by a group of fourteen poets (seven men and seven women) in Toulouse and is used as well to refer to the group of poets around Pierre de Ronsard and Joachim du Bellay in France in the 16th century (see "La Pléiade"). In modern times, "pleiad" is also used as a collective noun for a small group of brilliant or eminent persons."

Why I find this subject worthy of further investigation is a mystery to me, but here is some more, anyway;

La Pléiade is the name given to a group of 16th-century French Renaissance poets whose principal members were Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay and Jean-Antoine de Baïf. The core group of the French Renaissance "Pléiade" were young French poets, who met at the Collège de Coqueret, where they studied under the famous Hellenist and Latinist scholar Jean Dorat; they were generally called the "Brigade" at the time. Ronsard was regarded as the leader of the "Brigade", and remained the most popular and well-known poet of the group. The Pleiade's "manifesto" was penned by Joachim du Bellay (La Défense et illustration de la langue française 1549). In it, Du Bellay detailed a literary program of renewal and revolution. The group aimed to break with earlier traditions of French poetry (especially Marot and the grands rhétoriqueurs), and, maintaining that French (like the Tuscan of Petrarch and Dante) was a worthy language for literary expression, to attempt to ennoble the French language by imitating the Ancients.

Let's not forget (though we probably should) the contemporary UFO cult, the "Pleidians."

Tio, I have read, "Bringers of the Dawn" and been to mediations where mother ships hovered overhead, so I am quite aware of the beings from that constellation, although I would not call them a "cult" by any means. The Pleiadians are one of the friendliest of the alien races. The Reptilians and the Greys are not as nice, I have heard said.

One last posting on the poetic groups of the same name;

The 14th century Toulouse Pléiade (Main article: Consistori del Gay Saber) had seven male poets; Bernart de Panassac, Guillaume de Lobra, Béringuier de Saint-Plancart, Pierre de Mejanaserra, Guillaume de Gontaut, Pierre Camo, Bernard Oth: and seven female poets; Catherine Fontaine, Bernarde Deupie, Claude Ligonne, Audiette Peschaira, Esclarmonde Spinète, Johanne Perle, Françoise Marie (later replaced by Paule de Viguier).

The Consistori del Gay (or Gai) Saber, "Consistory of the Gay Science"), commonly called the Consistori de Tolosa (pronounced "Consistory of Toulouse") today, was a poetic academy founded at Toulouse in 1323 to revive and perpetuate the lyric school of the troubadours.

The Consistori was founded by seven literary men of the bourgeoisie, who composed a manifesto, in Old Occitan verse, pledging to award prizes to poetry in the troubadouresque style and emulating the language of classical period of the troubadours (roughly 1160–1220). The academy was originally called the Consistori dels Sept Trobadors ("Consistory of the Seven Troubadours") or Sobregaya Companhia dels Set (VII) Trobadors de Tolosa ("Overjoyed Company of the seven troubadours of Toulouse"). In its efforts to promote an extinct literary koiné over the evolving dialects of the fourteenth century, the Consistori went a long way to preserving the troubadours' memory for posterity as well as bequeathing to later scholarship an encyclopaedic terminology for the analysis and historiography of Occitan lyric poetry. Chaytor believed that the Consistori "arose out of informal meetings of poets held in earlier years".

The Consistori was governed by a chancellor and seven judges or mantenedors (maintainers). In 1390 John I of Aragon, one of the earliest Renaissance humanists to sit on a European throne, established the Consistori de Barcelona in imitation of the Toulousain academy.

The Consistori held an annual poetry contest at which one contestant, the "most excellent poet" (plus excellen Dictador), would receive the violeta d'aur (golden violet) for the poem or cançó judged the best. The other prizes, awarded for particular poetic forms, were similarly floral, leading later scholars to label the competitions the Jocs Florals. The best dança earned its creator a flor de gaug d'argen fi (a fine silver marigold), and the best sirventés, pastorèla or vergièra garnered a flor d'ayglentina d'argen (a silver dog rose).

I've always enjoyed taking showers with the Pleiades; it is quite a show

I am not sure what you mean by that one, Tio, dear.

Sorry, just a bit of astronomical humour...The Pleiades meteor shower is one of the showiest each year, and since the Pleiadeans areso nicely into love and such...I thought a shared shower might be a good approach... Meanwhile, back to the words seldom used...

Tio, I thought it was the Perseid meteor showers that were the showiest. Those are the ones that we watch here on the West Coast anyway.

pledget - noun a compress or pad used especially to apply medication to or absorb discharges from a wound or ulcer

Greetings, posters.

plectrum - noun plural a small thin piece (as of ivory or metal) used to pluck a stringed instrument

AllardChardon said:

Greetings, posters.

plectrum - noun plural a small thin piece (as of ivory or metal) used to pluck a stringed instrument

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An eight-letter synonom for pick?

AllardChardon said:

Tio, I thought it was the Perseid meteor showers that were the showiest. Those are the ones that we watch here on the West Coast anyway.

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Yes, the Perseids are the major. The Pleiades is quite small, actaully...Je le regret

thefishfryer said:

The capitalised plural Pleiades refers to a cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus, commonly spoken of as seven, though only six are visible. The name arising from classical mythology, the seven daughters of Atlas and half sisters of the Hyades, placed among the stars to save them from the pursuit of Orion. (He being the one with the big long sword ) One of them (the Lost Pleiad ) hides, either from grief or shame.

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An interesting sidelight: The word subaru means, to the Japanese, the Pleiades. See the auto manufacturer's logo.

Carlus, thanks for that bit of information. Their logo totally makes sense now.

plebs - noun plural 1. the common people of ancient Rome 2. the general populace

AllardChardon said:

Carlus, thanks for that bit of information. Their logo totally makes sense now.

plebs - noun plural 1. the common people of ancient Rome 2. the general populace

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Hence: plebiscite - the direct vote of all the electors of a state on an important question e.g. a change in the constitution.

Yes, Og, and I might as well finish off this section;

pleb - noun PLEBIAN

plebe - noun a freshman at a military or naval academy

plebian(1) - noun 1. a member of the Roman plebs 2. one of the common people

plebian(2) - adj 1. of or relating to plebians 2. crude or coarse in manner or style: COMMON

From Historical slang:

pleb or plebs - At Westminster School, a tradesman's son: Pejorative mid C19 - C20 slightly obsolete.

plebbish, plebbishness - Plebeian (character or condition) caddish(ness).

Og, those are just lovely slightly-derogatory terms to use on someone appropriately at times.

In the next section we find;

pleasureless - adj affording no pleasure

He was not only a man, who engaged in pleasureless conversation, but exacerbated this trait with his constant plebbishness.

In Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe, the Peers of the Realm sing about vulgar Plebs, Base Canaille and Hoi Polloi (greek for the common people).

They are demonstrating their traditional Public School education by using Latin, French and Greek. Of course the joke is on them, because the audience know exactly what they mean.

oggbashan said:

In Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe, the Peers of the Realm sing about vulgar Plebs, Base Canaille and Hoi Polloi (greek for the common people).

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And it's always amusing to here the vulgar Plebs using Hoi Polloi inappropriately to mean the "upper class".

Hoi polloi is such a grand term by itself.

pleasantry - noun 1. an agreeable playfulness in conversation: BANTER 2. a humoroius act or speech: JEST