Seldom-Used Words

ishtat said:

Considering that the Kentish Fyrd was within 50 miles of Hastings at the most and whilst Harold waited for them to sort themselves out, he marched his army 200 north miles to Stamford Bridge, fought and defeated Tostig, marched another 200 miles to Hastings where he almost won. And the leaders of the Kentish Fyrd claimed they hadn't time to ready themselves.

My view is that :-

1 Harold and his family (the Godwins) were thoroughly disliked by other English rulers for their greed and perceived disloyalty to the interests of other English lords

2 The leaders in Kent had the sense to realise that they could win simply by backing the winner after the event.

As an aside Og I come from a small town of Berkeley in the West Country where the Saxon Landowner made a similar decision to the Kentish leaders and backed William. As a result his child was married to one of Williams Norman supporters and the same family still owns half the town 950 years later. So backing William the winner was good sense.

Now I will cease the threadjack!

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Why cease the threadjack? It is an interesting discussion.

At the time that Harold marched his semi-professional army to meet Tostig the Kentish Fyrd and other Fyrds didn't exist. They were a citizen militia that had to be summoned to assemble at Maidstone. That took time before 1st class post and e-mail, probably a couple of weeks.

As far as I know, and I may be wrong, the Southern Fyrds were not summoned until after William had landed.

It is interesting to read in the Domesday book just how many Saxon landowners remained landowners after the Conquest. They had a different overlord, of course, but I wonder what criteria were used to decide who stayed and who was dispossessed? If they didn't get to the Battle of Hastings, were they exempt? If they had been killed, were their heirs automatically dispossessed? William needed to reward those who came with him, but that reward could have been overlordships which collected rent and taxes.

It is also interesting to see the decline of property between the Conquest and the collection of data for the Domesday Book. How much of that was due to the Conquest? How much was due to the infighting between Saxons before the Conquest? What is obvious from the Domesday Book is that William won a far poorer country than it had been say ten years before 1066.

Og

PS. I've done some more digging. It seems that what the fyrd was is dubious, but for Hastings Harold summoned 'the nation in arms' which was far more than the fyrd at the time. The Kentish fyrd, which apparently was men-at-arms in the service of Kentish lords, could be summoned for one day to serve within the county's boundaries. For more than one day, or for service outside the county's boundaries, they had to be paid at a high rate. The Kentish fyrd met William within the boundaries of Kent.

Always continue on with your great discussions, gentlemen, for I love to read them in the morning with my coffee. This is all very fascinating for me. The more I know about England before I arrive, the better I will appreciate it, and, of course, several castles built during William's reign will be on the list of places to visit, along with Stonehenge.

Never did I think termagant had such a history, nice to know the possible origins of that one. The T section is full of words I have never encountered in my life. Here is another one;

tergiversate - verb - 1. to abandon one's cause or party, usually to join another 2. to use evasive or deliberately vague language

AllardChardon said:

tergiversate - verb - 1. to abandon one's cause or party, usually to join another 2. to use evasive or deliberately vague language

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Definitions of tergiversate on the Web:

* beat around the bush: be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information
* apostatize: abandon one's beliefs or allegiances
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

* To evade, to equivocate using subterfuge; to deliberately obfuscate; To change sides or affiliation; to apostatize
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tergiversate

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Tergiversate seems to be a recursive word -- a word one uses to accomplish what the word means. I think it is probably a good thing that this one is seldom used.

Thanks again, Harold, for your interest. How about this one;

tenebrous - adj deficient in brightness

AllardChardon said:

Thanks again, Harold, for your interest. How about this one;

tenebrous - adj deficient in brightness

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This refers to Tenebrae the church services at which candles are gradually extinguished.

The Latin origin is the noun Tenebra shadow (tenebrae is the Genetive plural - 'of shadows')

Og

The Ts are truly a treasure trove of treats, how I love alliteration!

tetchy also techy - adj easily annoyed

Here is another goody from the Ts;

tautological - adj characterized by excessive and obfuscatory wordiness

You were not kidding that tautology had a different meaning, a long and very interesting definition. Thanks for the info, Trysail, as I obviously had no idea.

tatterdemalion - noun a person wearing ragged or tattered clothing

Good morning everyone, this one caught my eye;

tartuffe also tartufe - noun a person who practices hypocrisy

tartuffery - noun a show or expression of feelings or beliefs ones does not actually hold or possess

tartuffian - adj of or practicing hypocrisy

AllardChardon said:

Good morning everyone, this one caught my eye;

tartuffe also tartufe - noun a person who practices hypocrisy

tartuffery - noun a show or expression of feelings or beliefs ones does not actually hold or possess

tartuffian - adj of or practicing hypocrisy

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From Moliere's play Tartuffe that mocked hypocritical priests.

Og

Og, I truly expected this to be someone's name in some ancient literary work and that YOU would be the one to tell me who it was. I could have looked it up myself, but I so love interacting with you that I left it as it was. Thanks for being so prompt!

swash - verb 1. to walk with exaggerated or unnatural motions expressive of self-importance or self-display 2. to hurl or scatter liquid upon 3. to flow or move with a low, slapping sound

Did someone add buckler to swash to get the pirate image just right?

AllardChardon said:

Og, I truly expected this to be someone's name in some ancient literary work and that YOU would be the one to tell me who it was. I could have looked it up myself, but I so love interacting with you that I left it as it was. Thanks for being so prompt!

swash - verb 1. to walk with exaggerated or unnatural motions expressive of self-importance or self-display 2. to hurl or scatter liquid upon 3. to flow or move with a low, slapping sound

Did someone add buckler to swash to get the pirate image just right?

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"some ancient literary work"? Ouch!

Moliere is a treasure of world literature, nearly esteemed as much as Shakespeare.

swashbuckler noun 1. Swaggering adventurer or blustering ruffian; 2. a film, book, etc. portraying swashbuckling characters.

Og

Truly, I did not mean any offense to Moliere. Tartuffe just had that kind of older ring to it is all I meant.

supererogative - adj not required, necessary, or warranted by the circumstances of the case

AllardChardon said:

...

supererogative - adj not required, necessary, or warranted by the circumstances of the case

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Like going large with a McDonald's meal when you are not hungry.

This one is not seldom used, but I love the sheer sound of it as it rolls off the tongue;

superciliousness - noun the quality of being arrogant

super implies "superior to"or "over". I wonder what the root word is ?

supercilious

Supercilious is Latin in origin and literally means, over or above the eyebrow. More reasonably it describes the attitude of one who has reponded to a comment or situation by raising their eyebrow either sarcastically or in contempt.

Your supercilium is your eyebrow ridge.

ishtat said:

Supercilious is Latin in origin and literally means, over or above the eyebrow. More reasonably it describes the attitude of one who has reponded to a comment or situation by raising their eyebrow either sarcastically or in contempt.

Your supercilium is your eyebrow ridge.

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That's really interesting. I'm a big fan of anatomical terms not commonly used in every day language. One of my favorites is "popliteal fassa." It's the area behind the knee. It's fun to say...and fun to nibble.

Since it appears that the words are coming in alphabetical order, I suspect that I am doing it wrong. but, this is pretty close in the alphabet. Perhaps I can get away with it.

sesquipedalian - Adj - Having many sylables, or given to or characterized by the use of long words.

And, if you would forgive me for completely throwing the alphabetization out the window, This is rapidly becoming my favorite word.

Callipygian - Adj, having perfectly proportioned buttocks, or perhaps, a perfect posterior.

Dave

Umbratile: A person who prefers to remain indoors; a Couch Potato.

The alphabet thing was an entertainment choice of mine. I only have a Roget's Thesaurus II to work with at my Mom's house, which is limited at best, and started from the Zs for a change of pace.

The supercilious information is surprising to me, I reply while raising one eyebrow...neither sarcastically nor contemptuously. hehe

sundry - adj 1. consisting of a number of different kinds 2. not limited to a single class 3. consisting of an indefinitely small number that is more than two or three but less than many

What's The Longest Word In The English Language?
Robert Krulwich
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2...-longest-word-in-the-english-language?ps=cprs

The longest word?

Well, that depends on what we mean by "word." If a word is coined just to be long, like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, should that count?...

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...Science writer Sam Kean, in his book The Disappearing Spoon, worked really hard on this and after much sleuthing, he landed on a word that comes not from dancing English nannies but from virus-hunting scientists. It's a protein, found in a virus, but this is a very dangerous, economically important virus, the first ever discovered...

otherwise known as the dreaded tobacco mosaic virus.

It appeared in all its lettery splendor in 1964 in a reference source for chemists, "Chemical Abstracts." It is one thousand, one hundred and eighty five letters long. So as Sam says, "Take a breath," and...

...

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...Sam found it in the Oxford English Dictionary. Their longest non-technical word is:

It's a disease. Or rather, it's slang for the disease you get when you inhale silicon dioxide which makes it hard to breathe. Unfortunately it was created to win a puzzle contest in 1935 and therefore doesn't pass some peoples' test for "real" words...

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Thomas Love Peacock, whom I had previously mentioned in posts above in this thread, used these words in his novel Headlong Hall, Chapter 11:

osteoarchaematosplanchnondroneuromuelous

osseocarnisanguineoviscericartilaginonervomedullary

Both words describe the human body. He said that the second word was "a more intelligible term".

og

I learn something new just about everyday on the thread and today is no exception. Thanks, contributors. Long words are not really my thing but long things definitely are... hehehe

I never knew the real definition of this one, due to its over-used description of a woman;

sultry - adj 1. marked by much heat 2. damp and warm