Seldom-Used Words

Rebarbative

Definition: Unattractive and objectionable.

Pronunciation: Ree-barb-ah-tiv

Origin:

Rebarbative is derived from the Latin word barba meaning beard. From there it moved into French and the word se rebarber which referred to two mean squaring off face to face or beard to beard. This changed into rebarbatif, of the same meaning as the word we know in English today.

FelineFiction said:

Definition: Unattractive and objectionable.

Pronunciation: Ree-barb-ah-tiv

Origin:

Rebarbative is derived from the Latin word barba meaning beard. From there it moved into French and the word se rebarber which referred to two mean squaring off face to face or beard to beard. This changed into rebarbatif, of the same meaning as the word we know in English today.

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That Latin word is also the root of barber and barbarian.

Pssst. (Allard, really apologise for intrusion. ) Just want to ask if anyone (Ogg? Carlus? yourself, dear Lady?) might remember that word for Greek tragic irony, in which a hero's best qualities lead to his tragic downfall. Tragically. If so, could you post it in Willie's Classical Irony thread?

I will be back to post pictures soon! I have to take Piglet to synchronised swimming.

NaokoSmith said:

Pssst. (Allard, really apologise for intrusion. ) Just want to ask if anyone (Ogg? Carlus? yourself, dear Lady?) might remember that word for Greek tragic irony, in which a hero's best qualities lead to his tragic downfall. Tragically. If so, could you post it in Willie's Classical Irony thread?

I will be back to post pictures soon! I have to take Piglet to synchronised swimming.

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Hubris

My dictionary does not say much, here it is;

hubris - noun overweening pride or self-confidence: ARROGANCE

Wiki on the other hand has lots to say;

hubris - also hybris, from ancient Greek ὕβρις, means extreme pride or arrogance. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power.

Ancient Greek origin

In ancient Greek, hubris referred to actions that shamed and humiliated the victim for the pleasure or gratification of the abuser. The term had a strong sexual connotation, and the shame reflected on the perpetrator as well.

Violations of the law against hubris included what might today be termed assault and battery; sexual crimes ranging from rape of women or children to consensual but improper activity, in particular anal sex with a free man or with an unconsenting and/or under-aged boy; or the theft of public or sacred property.

Two well-known cases are found in the speeches of Demosthenes, a prominent statesman and orator in ancient Greece. These two examples occurred when first Midias punched Demosthenes in the face in the theatre (Against Midias), and second when (in Against Conon) a defendant allegedly assaulted a man and crowed over the victim. Yet another example of hubris appears in Aeschines Against Timarchus, where the defendant, Timarchus, is accused of breaking the law of hubris by submitting himself to prostitution and anal intercourse. Aeschines brought this suit against Timarchus to bar him from the rights of political office and his case succeeded.

In Greek literature, hubris usually refers to infractions by mortals against other mortals. Therefore, it is now generally agreed that the Greeks did not generally think of hubris as a religious matter, still less that it was normally punished by the gods.

Aristotle defined hubris as shaming the victim, not because of anything that happened to you or might happen to you, but merely for your own gratification. Hubris is not the requital of past injuries—that is revenge. As for the pleasure in hubris, its cause is this: men think that by ill-treating others they make their own superiority the greater.

Crucial to this definition are the ancient Greek concepts of honour (τιμή, timē) and shame (αἰδώς, aidōs). The concept of honor included not only the exaltation of the one receiving honour, but also the shaming of the one overcome by the act of hubris. This concept of honor is akin to a zero-sum game. Rush Rehm simplifies this definition to the contemporary concept of "insolence, contempt, and excessive violence".

Sorry, I forgot to say Welcome, Feline Fiction. Please excuse me, gardening brain has taken over.

Good day, everyone. One more grueling day in the gardens, preparing beds for planting later this afternoon and I will have accomplished my task. Here is a word that is totally unfamiliar to me;

palter - vi 1. to act insincerely: EQUIVOCATE 2. HAGGLE, CHAFFER

obscure words

empery - area of jurisdiction or rule

I don't think you have the right definition of hubris - hubris is excessive pride, assuming a power that belongs to the gods because of excessive pride. In the classic Greek tragedy, it is the flaw that causes the honorable and powerful (ate) hero to make a move usually reserved to the gods, or against the rule of the gods. You have the part about breaking the rules correct, but I don''t think sex usually enters into it, the gods were rapists, etc. One example is Achilles, who is so angered at his enemy for killing his best friend (and full of pride that he is invincible), that he drags his body around Troy, dishonoring the godly mandate to honor the bodies of your dead heroic enemies. He is punished by having his one vulnerable spot revealed, causing his death. But the HUBRIS is not th misdeed, but the excessive pride of placing yourself above teh gods.

oggbashan said:

Hubris

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The hero's Ate or genuine pride in his own worth, usually bestowed by the gods, but sometimes also justly deserved because of his/her own heroic or honorable acts. such as Achilles invulnerability (except his heel) and his heroic deeds. Because he believes he has been given invulnerability by the gods, he does not believe he can be harmed, even by them, so he makes his one error of disgracing the body of his dead enemy (a big no-no). And here we have it the double irony. His excessive pride (hubris) causes his actions and in the end he also has one weakness, he is not invulnerable in his heel where his mother (a goddess) held him while dipping him in the river Styx. That weakness is revealed to his enemies by the gods as punishment for thinking he was above their power (hubris)

Welcome, robertreams, and thank you for taking the time to explain hubris better than the wiki entry I copied and pasted here. But I must disagree about Gods not raping. What about Leda and the Swan?

palsgrave - noun COUNT PALATINE

Hello everyone, a little more on my last posting;

count palatine - noun 1.a. a count of the Holy Roman Empire having imperial powers in his own domain b. a high judicial official in the Holy Roman Empire 2. the proprietor of a county palatine in England or Ireland

First Known Use of COUNT PALATINE: 1539

Greetings on this full moon lunar eclipse day. I hope it is a pleasant one.

Not necessarily seldom-used, but great words for erotica writers;

palpitant - adj TREMBLING, THROBBING

palpitate - vi to beat rapidly and strongly: THROB

AllardChardon said:

Greetings on this full moon lunar eclipse day. I hope it is a pleasant one.

Not necessarily seldom-used, but great words for erotica writers;

palpitant - adj TREMBLING, THROBBING

palpitate - vi to beat rapidly and strongly: THROB

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Actually, some of us erotica writers do use palpitate.

From Charlie and Mindy:

When the kiss ended, I looked into her eyes. I could feel my heartbeat accelerating. Still holding her close, I said, "You make my heart palpate."

She put her head on my chest. I could feel her shaking. For a moment, I didn't understand.

And then, stifling her giggles, she said, "You moron! Hearts palpitate, or throb. 'Palpate' means 'touch' or 'feel'. Your hands have been palpating my boobs. Very nicely, I might add."

"Oh," I said, drawing her into another kiss.

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Follow the link below to find the story.

Carlus, yes I am sure erotica writers use them both at times;

palpable - adj 1. capable of being touched or felt: TANGIBLE 2. easily perceptible: NOTICEABLE 3. easily perceptible by the mind: MANIFEST

palpate - vt to examine by touch esp. medically

Here is one I have neither read or heard before;

palmy - adj 1. abounding in or bearing palms 2. FLOURISHING, PROSPEROUS

AllardChardon said:

Hello everyone, a little more on my last posting;

count palatine - noun 1.a. a count of the Holy Roman Empire having imperial powers in his own domain b. a high judicial official in the Holy Roman Empire 2. the proprietor of a county palatine in England or Ireland

First Known Use of COUNT PALATINE: 1539

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Andorra is ruled by two princes, Counts Palatine, the President of France and the Bishop of Urguel.

The oddity is that the democratically elected President of France becomes a hereditary Monarch as Count of Foix and Co-Prince of Andorra while he remains President of France.

Og, and I suppose there is a different hat for each title. That's a lot of hats to wear at the same time. hehe

Here is a word which might have been posted before, I neglected to check first;

palmiped - noun WEB-FOOTED

AllardChardon said:

Og, and I suppose there is a different hat for each title. That's a lot of hats to wear at the same time. hehe

Here is a word which might have been posted before, I neglected to check first;

palmiped - noun WEB-FOOTED

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Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has many titles. She is technically Queen Elizabeth I in Scotland. She is also Lord of the Isle of Man and has several titles in the Channel Islands.

Her roles as Queen of Canada and Australia are separate from her role as Queen of the UK.

Back to palmiped. Many years ago a friend's girlfriend was palmiped. Her toes were joined together by small webs. Apparently it is not uncommon. She considered it useful because she never got sand between her toes, nor Athletes Foot. They were very pretty toes.



I understand that it is likely that over the next 100,000 years or so we humans may all evolve to become palmiped like her as we don't use toes as our remote ancestors did.

Og, that is interesting. So, palmipedness is on the rise? I knew one friend, who had webbed toes, and it always seemed like he could swim faster in the ocean than the rest of us because of it. I never thought about it increasing in the population, especially due to lack of use. For me, it was always an aquatic advantage and one that was closer to the mermaids and mermen's fins than my toes. I always wanted to be a mermaid, when I was young, and this was long before Ariel and what Disney did for the whole mermaid world. I used to ask my mother to tie my feet together to swim in my auntie's pool in Palm Springs. Mother resisted, until she saw I did it myself and could swim perfectly well with my feet tied together.

palmer - noun a person wearing two crossed palm leaves as a sign of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land

It is a rainy Memorial Day here, so I will be inside more than usual today. Here is another unknown word to me in the palm section;

palmary - adj OUTSTANDING, BEST

The sun came out and it is a lovely day.

pall-mall - noun a 17th century game in which a 4 inch wooden ball is driven with a mallet; also: the alley in which it is played

AllardChardon said:

The sun came out and it is a lovely day.

pall-mall - noun a 17th century game in which a 4 inch wooden ball is driven with a mallet; also: the alley in which it is played

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New Oxford Dictionary: 16th and 17th Century game in which a boxwood ball was driven through an iron ring suspended at the end of an alley.

The London street Pall-Mall was on the site of a Pall-Mall alley. See where my book was printed.



But the game was played in haste and in a confused manner - pell-mell.

Most interesting, Og. Thanks for sharing it. I love how public has a k at the end and often the s is replaced by the f, both indicators of its age.

pell-mell - adv 1. in mingled confusion or disorder 2. in confused haste: HEADLONG

AllardChardon said:

Most interesting, Og. Thanks for sharing it. I love how public has a k at the end and often the s is replaced by the f, both indicators of its age.

pell-mell - adv 1. in mingled confusion or disorder 2. in confused haste: HEADLONG

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That's not an 'f'.
It's called a "long S" and there seems to be no ASCII character for it, nor can I find a Unicode.
See Wiki.

As I recall what my Dad told me 60 odd years ago, it is an English character similar in action to the German B (more like a Beta) which is pronounced like a double S.
There are Victorian gravestones in my local churchyard where the mason has cut the long S, particularly in the word 'Blessed'.