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Seldom-Used Words

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Tio_Narratore said:
On the pele towers, Og...

Since they seemed to largely be along borders, do you think their name has any relationship to the 'pale' or 'pallisade' as marking the enclosed, or home, territory?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Shorter Oxford: Peel 1. A stake (rare) ME only, 2. A palisade formed of stakes; a stockade; a stockaded or palisaded (and moated) enclosure 1596; 3. A castle; especially a small castle or tower 1679, 4. The general name, in modern writers, for the massive square towers or fortified dwellings built in the 16th Century in the border counties of England and Scotland, for defence against forays 1726, 5. Hence, the proper name of a place in the Isle of Man 1718. 6. attrib. as peel-house, peel-tower = sense 4. 1505.
 
AllardChardon said:
...

pediment - noun a triangular space forming the gable of a 2-pitched roof in classic architecture; also: a similar form used as a decoration
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The Elgin Marbles in the British Museum were taken from the pediment of the Acropolis in Athens.

A pediment:

pediment.jpg
 
Thank you, Harold, for saying what I was thinking, a mother of four children, three of them boys, living in the forest, near creeks. Talk about dirt.

Og, that might be the perfect pediment to post, posits I.

Handley, thanks to my current research, I agree, the truth shall make you fret!

I never see these anywhere, except in movies or TV, so they are seldom to me;

pedicab - noun a small three-wheeled hooded passenger vehicle that is pedaled
 
I found this grouping interesting;

pedestrian(1) - adj 1. UNIMAGINATIVE, COMMONPLACE 2.a. going or performed on foot b. of or relating to walking

pedestrian(2) - noun a person going on foot: WALKER

pedestrianism - noun 1.a. the practice of walking b. addiction to walking for exercise or recreation 2. the quality or state of being unimaginative or commonplace

Until now, I would not have understood if someone said, "That man has a very pedestrian personality. I would have assumed he was a walker and not a complete bore! Live and learn.
 
So many delightful posts, I can't choose one to quote from, although I did love 'the truth shall make you fret'. It so often does.

I am a bit hesitant about putting this word up, but I think I'm right that it hasn't been posted yet.

Passion

Obviously that word isn't seldom used on here. What intrigues me is its other meaning:

The Passion - as in the sufferings of Christ on the cross.

The intensity of sexual passion seems curiously not, and yet close to, the sufferings of Christ on the cross, perhaps with a hint of the passionate devotion of Christians to following his teachings.

It reminds me too of the nightingale and the rose in Islam, a frequently used trope in religious poetry hinting at great beauty in suffering. I remember once opening the Friday paper (equivalent to Sunday) in Pakistan, and finding they'd printed a poem mentioning the nightingale and the rose. I'd read about classical poems of this kind, I was so delighted to find they were still writing them.
 
NaokoSmith said:
Passion

Obviously that word isn't seldom used on here. What intrigues me is its other meaning:

The Passion - as in the sufferings of Christ on the cross.

...
Click to expand...

This statue, the Ecstasy of St Teresa by Bernini is supposed to portray Christian Passion. This work has been misconstrued many times:

stteresa.jpg


Detail

Ecstasy+of+St.+Theresa+detail.jpg
 
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Og, I adore classical sculpture and this last piece you posted is a true delight. I immediately wanted to know why this angel was holding an arrow, so I got this from Wiki;

The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa has two central sculptural figures, the swooning nun and the angel with the spear, derived from an episode described by Teresa of Avila, a mystical cloistered Discalced Carmelite reformer and nun, in her autobiography, ‘The Life of Teresa of Jesus’ (1515–1582). Her experience of religious ecstasy in her encounter with the angel is described as follows:

“I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying."
 
Naoko, I forgot to thank you for posting passion in the first place, due to being in a bit of a rush. I would rather have not been the one to post these next two, but since it is LIT and all, I felt compelled;

pederast - noun one that practices pederasty

pederasty - noun anal intercourse especially with a boy
 
A Good Saturday to you all!

pedant - noun 1. a schoolmaster esp. in a petty school 2.a. one who parades his learning b. one who is uminaginative or who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge c. a formalist or precisionist in teaching

pedantry - noun 1. pedantic presentation or application of knowledge or learning 2. an instance of pedantry

The first entry is confusing to me. Is a pedant a learned man or not?
 
AllardChardon said:
A Good Saturday to you all!

pedant - noun 1. a schoolmaster esp. in a petty school 2.a. one who parades his learning b. one who is uminaginative or who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge c. a formalist or precisionist in teaching

pedantry - noun 1. pedantic presentation or application of knowledge or learning 2. an instance of pedantry

The first entry is confusing to me. Is a pedant a learned man or not?
Click to expand...

It's more of an educated idiot.
 
mynameisben said:
It's more of an educated idiot.
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An ill-educated parroter of knowledge he doesn't understand.

One of the false friends in translations is pedagogics.

In British English a pedagogue is almost a synonym for pedant, but is more likely to teach by rote learning i.e. the pupils chanting exercises in unison.

In German, pedagogics is the science of how to teach...
 
AllardChardon said:
A Good Saturday to you all!

pedant - noun 1. a schoolmaster esp. in a petty school 2.a. one who parades his learning b. one who is uminaginative or who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge c. a formalist or precisionist in teaching

pedantry - noun 1. pedantic presentation or application of knowledge or learning 2. an instance of pedantry

The first entry is confusing to me. Is a pedant a learned man or not?
Click to expand...

Pedant(2) involves an attitude—not a state of knowledge. (He said, pedantically.:))

This kind of pedant frequently knows much less than he believes he does, so that his pedantic display of knowledge turns out, unknown to him, to be a display of ignorance.

An example is to be found in the kind of person who chides you for using a preposition to end a sentence with. ("Errant pedantry, up with which I shall not put," Winston Churchill is alleged to have said about this.)

Another is the person who forbids you to ever split an infinitive. (Fowler has an interesting entry in this regard.)
 
2 A person who parades or reveres excessively academic learning or technical knowledge; a person excessively concerned with trifling details or insisting on strict adherence to formal rules or literal meaning.
Also, a person obsessed by a theory, a doctrinaire.
L16. B attrib. or as adj. Pedantic. arch. E17.

---------------------------------------------------------
Excerpted from Oxford Talking Dictionary
Copyright © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

I always thought that a Pedant was one who insisted on one course and deliberately failed to admit any alternative.
 
Handley_Page said:
2 A person who parades or reveres excessively academic learning or technical knowledge; a person excessively concerned with trifling details or insisting on strict adherence to formal rules or literal meaning.
Also, a person obsessed by a theory, a doctrinaire.
L16. B attrib. or as adj. Pedantic. arch. E17.

---------------------------------------------------------
Excerpted from Oxford Talking Dictionary
Copyright © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

I always thought that a Pedant was one who insisted on one course and deliberately failed to admit any alternative.
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Our friend Amicus, who has recently surfaced again on the GB, is a great example of a pedant.
 
Excellent job, gentlemen, for explaining what a pedant is. Amicus was the perfect example, Og.

Carlus, I did notice that you did both things you were explaining not to do, such as ending with a preposition and spliting an ifinitive. How totally unconventional of you!

I have to add this one, just because I was one of those young girls in the 50s, who wore these and called them such;

pedal pushers - noun pl women's and girls' calf-length trousers
 
AllardChardon said:
Excellent job, gentlemen, for explaining what a pedant is. Amicus was the perfect example, Og.

Carlus, I did notice that you did both things you were explaining not to do, such as ending with a preposition and spliting an ifinitive. How totally unconventional of you!

I have to add this one, just because I was one of those young girls in the 50s, who wore these and called them such;

pedal pushers - noun pl women's and girls' calf-length trousers
Click to expand...

Well, it's pedants who say we shouldn't do those things. I was trying not to be pedantic. :D

The point is that those pedants are wrong.
 
Yes, Carlus, I understand your meaning. I was just having a little fun with you and you weren't pedantic at all.

I am skipping over pedagogy and all similar entries, due to an earlier discussion, which said it all, thanks to Og.

This next one is used, but I wanted to post it, anyway;

pecuniary - adj 1. consisting of or measured in money 2. of, or relating to money: MONETARY
 
I am heading out to the garden, because today is a warm and wonderfully spring-like day. Before I go, I wanted to leave a better seldom-used word than the last one, and this one I rarely see or hear;

peculate - vt EMBEZZLE
 
AllardChardon said:
I am heading out to the garden, because today is a warm and wonderfully spring-like day. Before I go, I wanted to leave a better seldom-used word than the last one, and this one I rarely see or hear;

peculate - vt EMBEZZLE
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Yes, but it implies on a grand scale (ie., whole countries, etc..)
Whilst an embezzler defrauds a firm, his peculations may be reported.
 
AllardChardon said:
I have to add this one, just because I was one of those young girls in the 50s, who wore these and called them such;

pedal pushers - noun pl women's and girls' calf-length trousers
Click to expand...

I love pedal pushers. I used to have some such fetching pink and white gingham ones. Hey, summer is coming and I can go to the shops and get some, now I've got a bit of a job again! I hope they're in fashion this year, I had to walk through M&S with dark glasses on last year when I didn't have a job and they had some such lovely ones on the racks.

Allard, I don't know if you follow this gardening writer. I think you would enjoy his article this week about a gardening grand dame in Australia who had a roman orgy for one party with over '60s dancing a cancan on the terrace.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/080fc158-81a5-11e2-904c-00144feabdc0.html
It made me look forward to being 60!

Is this one seldom-used enough? Am I allowed
pedalo
a small human-powered paddlecraft.
 
NaokoSmith said:
I love pedal pushers. I used to have some such fetching pink and white gingham ones. Hey, summer is coming and I can go to the shops and get some, now I've got a bit of a job again! I hope they're in fashion this year, I had to walk through M&S with dark glasses on last year when I didn't have a job and they had some such lovely ones on the racks.

.
Click to expand...

When I was at school (many moons ago), the young ladies who came to our Youth Club wore a tight-ish sort of long shorts which they called "Matador Pants".

What goes around comes around, I guess.
 
Handley_Page said:
When I was at school (many moons ago), the young ladies who came to our Youth Club wore a tight-ish sort of long shorts which they called "Matador Pants".

What goes around comes around, I guess.
Click to expand...

I love pedal pushers and Matador Pants because you can wear them if you're a little shortbread biscuit like I am, and they still look good.
:rose:
 
NaokoSmith said:
I love pedal pushers. I used to have some such fetching pink and white gingham ones. Hey, summer is coming and I can go to the shops and get some, now I've got a bit of a job again! I hope they're in fashion this year, I had to walk through M&S with dark glasses on last year when I didn't have a job and they had some such lovely ones on the racks.

Allard, I don't know if you follow this gardening writer. I think you would enjoy his article this week about a gardening grand dame in Australia who had a roman orgy for one party with over '60s dancing a cancan on the terrace.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/080fc158-81a5-11e2-904c-00144feabdc0.html
It made me look forward to being 60!

Is this one seldom-used enough? Am I allowed
pedalo
a small human-powered paddlecraft.
Click to expand...

I believe it's rarely used in the States, but it's the usual term here in Quebec.
 
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