Seldom-Used Words

Elfin, I think that through usage qui vive has become a noun in the English language, another way of saying challenge. It was originally a French exclamation, but has been bastardized.

quickset - noun chiefly British: plant cuttings set in the ground to grow especially in a hedge row; also: a hedge or thicket esp. of hawthorn grown from quickset

AllardChardon said:

Og, I posted that last word, even though I knew it and like its sound, because I have never used it in my lifetime. Thanks for the usage tip. I imagine one could say Katarina in Taming of the Shrew had moments of quiesence. Kind of like the calm before a storm, yes?

Click to expand...

Exactly. Anything or anyone that is quiescent needs watching because he/she/it might explode into action at any time.

AllardChardon said:

Elfin, I think that through usage qui vive has become a noun in the English language, another way of saying challenge. It was originally a French exclamation, but has been bastardized.

Click to expand...

It was a sentry's challenge equivalent to 'Who goes there? Stand and be recognised." and on the qui vive means being as alert as a good sentry should be.

AllardChardon said:

quickset - noun chiefly British: plant cuttings set in the ground to grow especially in a hedge row; also: a hedge or thicket esp. of hawthorn grown from quickset

Click to expand...

A quickset hedge is designed to be a barrier against wandering cattle or unwelcome visitors. A good quickset hedge is almost impenetrable and was used before the invention of barbed wire to provide good field boundaries. There is an art to making and maintaining a quickset hedge that is still taught in British Agricultural Colleges.

Unfortunately many such hedges have been removed since the Second World War, but archaelogists have established that some remaining hedge boundaries date back to before the Romans arrived in England.

Og, Thanks for the triple clarification. When I see a hedge, I think of my childhood, because we had them to separate our property from the neighbors in Torrance, CA. Later on, I realized hedges were an English tradition, but never knew it went as far back as that. They do make great fences and mazes, too.

quickie - noun something done or made in less than the usual time; esp: an alcoholic drink hurriedly tossed off

No mention of the quick sex act in my dictionary, that must be slang.

AllardChardon said:

Og, Thanks for the triple clarification. When I see a hedge, I think of my childhood, because we had them to separate our property from the neighbors in Torrance, CA. Later on, I realized hedges were an English tradition, but never knew it went as far back as that. They do make great fences and mazes, too.

quickie - noun something done or made in less than the usual time; esp: an alcoholic drink hurriedly tossed off

No mention of the quick sex act in my dictionary, that must be slang.

Click to expand...

Well, a quickie is someone done or made in less than the usual time...

Indeed, Carl. Very nice definition of the slang term.

quicken- verb 1.a. to make alive: REVIVE b. to cause to be enlivened: STIMULATE 2. archaic a. KINDLE b. to cause to burn more intensely 3. to make more rapid: HASTEN, ACCELERATE (~ed her steps) 4.a. to make (a curve) sharper b. to make (a slope) steeper ~ vi 1. to quicken something 2. to come to life; esp: to enter into a phase of active growth and development {seeds ~ing in the soil} 3. to reach the stage of gestation at which fetal motion is felt 4. to shine more brightly {watched the dawn ~ing in the east} 5. to become more rapid {her pulsed ~ed at the sight}

Quicken 1 b is sometimes a euphemism for use of a riding crop or whip - to quicken a horse (or as in BDSM).

Og, that makes perfect sense and is something that would not have entered my mind. Thanks for always educating me and expanding many words definitions beyond the standard dictionary entries.

quibble(1) - noun 1. an evasion of or shift from the point: EQUIVOCATION 2. a minor objection or criticism

quibble(2) - verb 1. EQUIVOCATE 2. CAVIL, CARP b. BICKER ~ vt to subject to quibbles

I have never heard this one;

questionary - noun a collection of questions: QUESTIONNAIRE

AllardChardon said:

quiescent -adj 1. being at rest: INACTIVE 2. causing no trouble or symptoms

Click to expand...

Ah. And here we hit a slight technical problem.
The word "Quiescent" is used quite a bit on electronics (particularly transistor equipment) to describe the current flowing in a device before the action starts ie., "Quiescent current"

Since Og's away, here's a couple from his Dictionary of Historical Slang:

quiff - noun - 1. A satisfactory result especially an end obtained by means not strictly conventional, a dodge, trick, whence 2. an idea, fancy or suggestion.

quiff - verb - 1. to copulate; hence quiffing - copulation. 2. to do well, to jog along nicely.

quim - the female pudend hence compounds such as quim-bush, quim-whiskers, quim-wig - female pubic hair; quim-stake or quim-wedge - the penis; quim-sticker - a whoremonger, pimp; quim-sticking or quim-wedging, and quimming - sexual intercourse.

quockerwodger - a politician acting under an outsider's orders (from dialect for a string puppet)

quoz - an odd or absurd person or thing.

Why not try these?:

Demure, an adjective meaning "reserved, modest, and shy."
Typically used for a woman and her personality, but I apply it all around when appropriate.

Acquiesce, a verb meaning "to accept reluctantly."

Pallid, an adjective meaning "pale or wan in color."

Chantpleure, a verb meaning "to cry whilst singing." (French)
I love the use of French in any writing, when done correctly. It's very romantic, I think.

Welcome, Cadere, I also love the French language, and jeanne, quockerwodger is too good to be true. I will have to look that one up, like I did with pudend;

pudendum - noun, plural pudenda, the external genital organs of a human being and especially of a woman —usually used in plural

Origin of PUDENDUM
New Latin, singular of Latin pudenda, from neuter plural of pudendus, gerundive of pudēre to be ashamed; First Known Use: 1634

Quockerdodgers

My dictionary does say obsolete by 1887. The word might be. The persons described are not.

Unfortunately for democracy, quockerdodgers are still with us in almost all democratic countries, funded by lobbyists or campaign contributors. Someone else, other than the electors, is pulling politicians' strings.

AllardChardon said:

Welcome, Cadere, I also love the French language

Click to expand...

Do you? Do you speak it? Or, can you at least understand it?

Cadere said:

Do you? Do you speak it? Or, can you at least understand it?

Click to expand...

If she can't I can.

Although my wife winces every time I speak French because my last formal tuition in French was in Australia. I still speak French with a strong Strine accent.

My wife speaks educated Parisian French, so much so that when we are in France it is often assumed that she IS French and had married an English hick.

oggbashan said:

If she can't I can.

Although my wife winces every time I speak French because my last formal tuition in French was in Australia. I still speak French with a strong Strine accent.

My wife speaks educated Parisian French, so much so that when we are in France it is often assumed that she IS French and had married an English hick.

Click to expand...

I can't imagine French spoken in any other accent without it sounding less like French and more like a striking disappointment, eheh!

I speak as much of the language as any American who has taken three years of it in high school would. My mother's side of the family speaks it, though. They are from France. I sorely wish she had taught me, but instead, she kept it to herself and her relatives. My father and I were always left in the dark.

So now I pick up a few French words here and there and use them in my writing.

Picture of a quockerwodger, I think.

I took Spanish instead of French, because I lived close to Mexico in southern California. The main character in my trilogy is French, but speaks English very well. I have decided to learn French on my own, using Barron's 501 French verbs, which includes a CD/Rom. I will never sound like a person born in France, most probably, but, at least, I won't be an "ugly American," when I visit Europe.

Cadere said:

I can't imagine French spoken in any other accent without it sounding less like French and more like a striking disappointment, eheh!

I speak as much of the language as any American who has taken three years of it in high school would. My mother's side of the family speaks it, though. They are from France. I sorely wish she had taught me, but instead, she kept it to herself and her relatives. My father and I were always left in the dark.

So now I pick up a few French words here and there and use them in my writing.

Click to expand...

There is a whole range of different accents and dialects in France, as there are different ways of speaking American. You would never confuse a Texan with someone from Boston.

The most polite description of my spoken French is that I sound like a 1930s dock labourer from Marseilles - coarse and uneducated - but that my vocabulary is like a mid-18th century gentleman (i.e. seriously out of date!).

I collect and read French Revolutionary material. I have 60 newspapers from the 1780s and 1790s and contemporary accounts of the Revolution, not reprints but books published at the time. Although I only studied French for 10 years, from ages 8 to 18, while my wife continued her studies to qualify and practise as a teacher of French, I can read ancient French faster and more accurately than she can. She's better than me for 19th and 20th Century French. We're equally good, or equally incompetent, at 21st Century French, especially the kids' slang. Listening to a French pop radio station is really difficult but then so is listening to some of the UK pop stations supposedly broadcasting in English!

When we go to Northern France, which we do often, we are used to the local accent but we find it easier to understand Parisians who speak more standard French.

From my house, driving to the car ferry in Dover, it takes me about three hours to be in the centre of Calais, including time to check in at the port of Dover. After that, it is about 5 hours driving to Paris.

Some of my neighbours go to Calais or Boulonge just for an evening meal. Many go shopping in Cite Europe, a shopping mall on the edge of Calais, close to the Channel Tunnel. More of our local children go to EuroDisney than to Florida. They don't mind if Mickey Mouse sometimes speaks French.

A few years ago there was a reunion of Canadian WWII veterans who met in Dover and then went across to Calais and the North French coast which was liberated by the Canadians. Canadian French sounds nothing like French French but they managed to understand each other.

However I do sometimes have difficulty. One day I went to Calais on my own. My wife wanted me to bring two things back with me. The first was a copy of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" but in French. The second was the words and music of a French Carol "Il est né le divin enfant".

The Caterpillar caused hilarity. I didn't know the French for caterpillar. The bookstore assistant didn't know the English word. I had to draw a caterpillar and a butterfly and try to explain the book. At the time it hadn't been translated into French anyway so I was trying to buy a book that didn't exist.

After walking miles around Calais I gave up looking for a music shop and went into a bar near the waterfront for a cold lager. As I started to drink I was a shop window reflected in the mirror behind the bar. There were guitars in that window. I put my lager down and rushed across the road. They had a copy of the Carol as sheet music for an electronic organ. My lager was still cold when I returned to it. I was relieved. At least I had one of her items, the least likely, because I was trying to buy a Christmas Carol in May.

AllardChardon said:

I took Spanish instead of French, because I lived close to Mexico in southern California.

Click to expand...

Hmn. Spanish. I never really felt attached to the language as much as I enjoy French and German, although it's pretty practical over in America, especially with the rising Latino population.
Strange, though. I find written Spanish to be appealing just to look over and more of a sore to hear, whereas I find German--which most people criticize for its brusque sound--to be distressingly terrible to read, yet pleasing to hear.

Although some Spanish words I do like.

Caballero, for one. It means "gentleman," but specifically for a Spanish or Mexican sir. In the southwest of the States, it means "horseman."

oggbashan said:

[...]

Click to expand...

Quite the anecdote, no? I feel obligated to reply with one of my own.

Sadly, I don't have any adventures involving France, even though I could probably afford a trip there. I am not into French literature for the sole reason that I cannot understand it, eheh! Perhaps if translated, I'd find a few French authors to add to my list of choice, but then I'd feel that it takes the "French" from "French literature." It won't feel as genuine to me, I suppose. I'm a fickle lot, really, I must admit! Language shouldn't take from the subject matter, but it's just my jealousy of people who can read it in its original text, I'm sure.

Yes, I do enjoy the sound of Parisian French. For me, it is what comes to mind when one mentions the language. "Standard French," if you will? It sounds quite musical to me when spoken by a native. I just like the inflections in the voice. But--you know--one tends to notice these things when they can't understand what someone's saying.

As for my adventures, I switch between America and Britain, flying over from one to the other every few years to reside with my grandparents. My mother's side is in America, my father's side in England.

Upsettingly, the only thing my mother taught me in French was French cuisine. Even cuisine is French--how fitting! Anyway, I don't find it a total loss as I can at least cook a few fine dishes for my friends and grand relatives.

Og, what a great story. Thanks for sharing. Did you ever find out what caterpillar was in French? I read that book to my children many times over the years.

querulous - adj 1. habitually complaining 2. FRETFUL, WHINING

Some how, for some reason, I feel the urge to collect the words and definitions into a Composition notebook, to use later as the themes for 250/500/1000/2000 word short stories.

I agree, RJ, there are alot of good words in this thread. That is one of the reasons I keep it going, along with some help from my friends;

quern - noun a primitive hand mill for grinding grain

Cadere said:

Hmn. Spanish. I never really felt attached to the language as much as I enjoy French and German, although it's pretty practical over in America, especially with the rising Latino population.
Strange, though. I find written Spanish to be appealing just to look over and more of a sore to hear, whereas I find German--which most people criticize for its brusque sound--to be distressingly terrible to read, yet pleasing to hear.

Although some Spanish words I do like.

Caballero, for one. It means "gentleman," but specifically for a Spanish or Mexican sir. In the southwest of the States, it means "horseman."



Quite the anecdote, no? I feel obligated to reply with one of my own.

Sadly, I don't have any adventures involving France, even though I could probably afford a trip there. I am not into French literature for the sole reason that I cannot understand it, eheh! Perhaps if translated, I'd find a few French authors to add to my list of choice, but then I'd feel that it takes the "French" from "French literature." It won't feel as genuine to me, I suppose. I'm a fickle lot, really, I must admit! Language shouldn't take from the subject matter, but it's just my jealousy of people who can read it in its original text, I'm sure.

Yes, I do enjoy the sound of Parisian French. For me, it is what comes to mind when one mentions the language. "Standard French," if you will? It sounds quite musical to me when spoken by a native. I just like the inflections in the voice. But--you know--one tends to notice these things when they can't understand what someone's saying.

As for my adventures, I switch between America and Britain, flying over from one to the other every few years to reside with my grandparents. My mother's side is in America, my father's side in England.

Upsettingly, the only thing my mother taught me in French was French cuisine. Even cuisine is French--how fitting! Anyway, I don't find it a total loss as I can at least cook a few fine dishes for my friends and grand relatives.

Click to expand...

I took French in high school. Why? Because I have relatives in Montreal and suburbs, Quebec City and Louisiana. I wanted to better understand them at family functions like reunions, weddings and funerals.

AllardChardon said:

I agree, RJ, there are alot of good words in this thread. That is one of the reasons I keep it going, along with some help from my friends;

quern - noun a primitive hand mill for grinding grain

Click to expand...

Primitive? Primitive technology? Yes. Primitive as in ancient? Yes. Primitive as in obsolete? No.

Hand Querns were used in the UK up to the early part of the 20th Century to avoid paying a miller to grind your corn. They can be seen in rural museums and antique shops. Last year when on a visit to a restored watermill I was able to use a hand quern. It was effective, but it was hard work to keep it rotating smoothly while feeding the grain into it. The watermill did the same task much more smoothly and could cope with many times the capacity of the hand quern.

Querns are still used in many parts of Africa as the main method of creating flour from grain. Possession of a quern is a sign of moderate wealth.

Og, that is what my dictionary said. I have seen hand grinders over the years. I made notice of the antique variety in the movie Dances with Wolves.

I was given a baby food grinder with my first child. All I had to do was fill the container with the same food we were eating for dinner, and it would grind it up and hold it on the top portion for feeding. One of the best things I ever received and I used it with all four kids. I never bought a single jar of baby food.

Currently, I use an electric coffee grinder every morning.

querist - noun INQUIRER