Seldom-Used Words

[Tio_Narratore]

Originally Posted by Tio_Narratore

Now I think we're complete, but I'll look and think a bit more. The alphabetical order tells me you found a pretty good reference source. Now, perhaps, we should see if we can work them all into a single Mesoamerican erotic tale...

Aside from a lot of place names, I just have a handful more so far...

chinampa
guacamole
copal
octli
haricot
mescal
teosinte
pulque

Sorry, a few duplicates there...

[AllardChardon]

A fair amount of those words we use seem to be food related which makes a lot of sense.

I remember reading about the origin of the word avocado anad went searching this is what I found;

Etymology of the Word Avocado
Posted Sep 8th, 2006 at 8:42 am in Books, Odds and Ends

"The word avocado originates from a Nahuatl Indian (Aztec) word meaning 'testicle', a reference either to its shape or to its aphrodisiac qualities."

[AllardChardon]

More research into 1857 yielded this;

hogshead (hhd)
a traditional unit of volume for liquids. Originally the hogshead varied with the contents, often being equal to 48 gallons of ale; 54 of beer; 60 of cider; 63 of oil, honey, or wine; or 100 of molasses. In the United States, a hogshead is defined to hold 2 barrels, or 63 gallons; this was the traditional British wine hogshead. It is equal to exactly 14 553 cubic inches, or about 8.422 cubic feet (238.48 liters). In the British imperial system, the hogshead equals 1/2 butt, or 52.5 imperial gallons (8.429 cubic feet, or 238.67 liters). Thus the British imperial and American hogsheads are almost exactly the same size. No one seems to know for sure how this unit got its unusual name.

[trysail]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

More research into 1857 yielded this;

hogshead (hhd)
a traditional unit of volume for liquids. Originally the hogshead varied with the contents, often being equal to 48 gallons of ale; 54 of beer; 60 of cider; 63 of oil, honey, or wine; or 100 of molasses. In the United States, a hogshead is defined to hold 2 barrels, or 63 gallons; this was the traditional British wine hogshead. It is equal to exactly 14 553 cubic inches, or about 8.422 cubic feet (238.48 liters). In the British imperial system, the hogshead equals 1/2 butt, or 52.5 imperial gallons (8.429 cubic feet, or 238.67 liters). Thus the British imperial and American hogsheads are almost exactly the same size. No one seems to know for sure how this unit got its unusual name.

The etymology of hogshead predates 1857 since a hogshead was also the standard shipping quantity for the tobacco trade. In Maryland, there are at least a couple of roads I'm aware of that are named "Rolling Road." Why? During the Colonial period, these roads were used for rolling hogsheads of tobacco to ports and harbors prior to their being loaded aboard the ships that transported them to the mother country.

[Tio_Narratore]

In Yorkshire, when it was under Danelaw, before the Conquest, the standard unit of measure for arable land was the hide. It was the area of land that could be bounded by a continuous thread cut from a single ox's hide. It is fairly close in area to the carucate (Med.Latin), a unit of land equal to what one plough team of oxen could plow in a single day. Interesting how both Danelaw and Roman Law measured their farms on the backs of their draft animals.

[Handley_Page]

Originally Posted by Tio_Narratore

In Yorkshire, when it was under Danelaw, before the Conquest, the standard unit of measure for arable land was the hide. It was the area of land that could be bounded by a continuous thread cut from a single ox's hide. It is fairly close in area to the carucate (Med.Latin), a unit of land equal to what one plough team of oxen could plow in a single day. Interesting how both Danelaw and Roman Law measured their farms on the backs of their draft animals.

And the Norman invaders (huh!) kept the hide as a measure.
See Doomsday Book.

[Tio_Narratore]

Originally Posted by Handley_Page

And the Norman invaders (huh!) kept the hide as a measure.
See Doomsday Book.

I've seen the Domesday Book. Even use it for a lab exercise in social research. In the records for Yorkshire, the Book records arable land in carucates.

Of course, the Norman invaders were Viking descendents as well, William himself being in a direct line from Rollo.

[AllardChardon]

And he was called William the Bastard, I seem to recall. Not a big deal to be a bastard back then. In looking up the origin of bastard and not finding much in my puny dictionary, I found this;

bathos; anti-climax, letdown, overdone pathos.

Never heard this one spoken aloud in my lifetime.

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

And he was called William the Bastard, I seem to recall. Not a big deal to be a bastard back then. In looking up the origin of bastard and not finding much in my puny dictionary, I found this;

bathos; anti-climax, letdown, overdone pathos.

Never heard this one spoken aloud in my lifetime.

So does bathetic mean "like one is guilty"?

[TE999]

Originally Posted by Xelebes

So does bathetic mean "like one is guilty"?

Bathetic:

'Displaying or characterized by bathos'. bathetic emotionalism of soap operas.

[AllardChardon]

Yes, bathos is truly a seldom used word.

pathos - pathetic

bathos - overly pathetic

Did they just sound so much alike the lesser of the two won out and the other was sloughed off like useless skin?

slough or sluff - something that may be shed or cast off

[oggbashan]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

Yes, bathos is truly a seldom used word.

pathos - pathetic

bathos - overly pathetic

Did they just sound so much alike the lesser of the two won out and the other was sloughed off like useless skin?

slough or sluff - something that may be shed or cast off

That is only definition 2 of bathos in my small dictionary.

Definition 1 is "a sudden ludicrous descent from exalted to ordinary matters or style in speech or writing" and that is the definition I use because there is no other word that fits e.g. "During this aria the prima donna exhibited her exquisite coloratura and her cotton panties."

Og

[Handley_Page]

bathos /beths/ n. [Gk = depth. In purely Eng. sense 2 introduced by Pope.]
1 Depth, lowest phase, bottom. rare.
2 Rhet. Ludicrous descent from the elevated to the commonplace; anticlimax.
3 A comedown; an anticlimax; a performance absurdly unequal to the occasion.

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

[AllardChardon]

Well, that goes to show the difference in dictionaries and I need a new one.

I can't wait to tell some drunken hambone in the bar that he is bathetic, but he won't care, anyway.

ham was in there, though, meaning overact - "Ham it up clowns!"

but, alas, no hambone, which I would define as William Shatner. hehehe

[oggbashan]

There is only one really bathetic poet - the famous William McGonagall.

Others have tried to match the splendour of his The Tay Bridge Disaster,

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

but none have shown such consummate bathos.

Some have had flashes of bathetic poetry such as these lines attributed to the Poet Laureate Alfred Austin in On the Illness of The Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward VII :

Across the wires the electric message came:
'He is no better, he is much the same.'

Og

[Verdad]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

William Shatner

That's all one needs to know about bathos right there.

(Well, that and Ogg's illustrations. )

[Tio_Narratore]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

Well, that goes to show the difference in dictionaries and I need a new one.

I can't wait to tell some drunken hambone in the bar that he is bathetic, but he won't care, anyway.

ham was in there, though, meaning overact - "Ham it up clowns!"

but, alas, no hambone, which I would define as William Shatner. hehehe

Originally Posted by Verdad

That's all one needs to know about bathos right there.

(Well, that and Ogg's illustrations. )

Be careful you two, Captain Kirk may be Canada's next Governor-General, and Oog wouldn't want to hear you insult the Queen's Emissary.

[TE999]

Tohubohu:chaos, disorder, confusion. This word has Hebraic origins, much like...

Tsimmis or Tsimmes: fuss, uproar, hullabaloo.

I ran across tohubohu in a book about the lives of the Marx Bros...I thought it was rather fitting given the subject matter.

[AllardChardon]

This afternoon I found;

uxorious - excessively fond of or submissive to a wife

Did Og already post that one in a long list and I missed it? It's a goody.

[Xelebes]

While looking for what might be the modern form of "Ecgtheow", a name found in Beowulf, I came across this word:

Thew - muscle or sinew, usually in plural; well-developed muscle.

[oggbashan]

Originally Posted by Xelebes

While looking for what might be the modern form of "Ecgtheow", a name found in Beowulf, I came across this word:

Thew - muscle or sinew, usually in plural; well-developed muscle.

"mighty thews" appears frequently in Dungeon and Dragon role play, and is the title of a writing game.

"Uxorious" often goes with "tied to wife's apron strings" = female dominated.

Og

[AllardChardon]

And even later last night during research into St. Ferdinand III, the King of Castile and later on Leon, also known as San Fernando, a common saint in America, I found;

consanguinity - which is, of course, from consanguineous or descended from the same ancestor, referring to all that inbreeding of royalty in Europe to keep the bloodlines pure.

Yes, Fernando's parents' marriage was annulled by the Pope Innocent III in 1204 on the grounds of consanguinity after they already produced offspring. That must have been rather inconvenient.

[oggbashan]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

And even later last night during research into St. Ferdinand III, the King of Castile and later on Leon, also known as San Fernando, a common saint in America, I found;

consanguinity - which is, of course, from consanguineous or descended from the same ancestor, referring to all that inbreeding of royalty in Europe to keep the bloodlines pure.

Yes, Fernando's parents' marriage was annulled by the Pope Innocent III in 1204 on the grounds of consanguinity after they already produced offspring. That must have been rather inconvenient.

Inconvenient? Yes.

At one stage in her life, Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth the First, was declared a bastard because her parents' marriage was annulled.

She was later considered legitimate otherwise she couldn't have become Queen.

Og

[AllardChardon]

Yes, Ogg dear, I have heard of the Bastard Queen and the Pope's attempt to have her killed to restore England to Catholicism. They said Anne was not only a witch but incestuous with her brother, the later may or may not have been true. Anne bewitched poor defenseless Henry, I remember reading. That was certainly a convenient excuse for Henry, not unlike the devil made me do it. Elizabeth had to wear that stigmata of sorts until she proved what a capable and devoted Queen she was to Mother England.

I will search for a word, since that is the origin of this thread;

darksome - gloomily somber

Without warning, it suddenly turned into a darksome conversation about the finality of death.

[Xelebes]

Grim (or more commonly used in previous times, Grima) - n. a demon, a bogey-man, a goblin; a dark creature of Anglo-Saxon and/or Saxon origin.