Seldom-Used Words

[JackLuis]

"Omnishambles" has been named word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary.

The word - meaning a situation which is shambolic from every possible angle - was coined in 2009 by the writers of BBC political satire The Thick of It.

But it has crossed over into real life this year, said the judges.

Okay... what is shambolic then?

[AllardChardon]

Carlus, I actually knew that and just forgot it. High school Spanish was a few year ago now. LOL

Jack, this is what I found;

sham·bol·ic - adj [chiefly British slang] disorderly or chaotic: "[The country's] transportation system is in a shambolic state" (London Sunday Times)

[Probably from alteration of shambles.]

[AllardChardon]

Greetings, contributors. The weekend is here. I hope you have a great one.

One more entry on the coloration of animals;

pie(1) - noun 1. MAGPIE 2. a parti-colored animal

[JackLuis]

Propinquity


In social psychology, propinquity (from Latin propinquitas, "nearness") is one of the main factors leading to interpersonal attraction. It refers to the physical or psychological proximity between people. Propinquity can mean physical proximity, a kinship between people, or a similarity in nature between things ("like-attracts-like"). Two people living on the same floor of a building, for example, have a higher propinquity than those living on different floors, just as two people with similar political beliefs possess a higher propinquity than those whose beliefs strongly differ. Propinquity is also one of the factors, set out by Jeremy Bentham, used to measure the amount of (utilitarian) pleasure in a method known as felicific calculus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propinquity

It's all numbers.

[Handley_Page]

Originally Posted by JackLuis

Propinquity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propinquity

It's all numbers.

Seldom used, but a Very Useful word.

[AllardChardon]

Very nice, JackLuis, thanks for sharing it.

pidgin - noun a simplified speech used for communication between people with different languages, esp: an English-based pidgin used in China ports

Without looking, I would assume pidgin was used by the British East India Company in their opium trade.

[Handley_Page]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

Very nice, JackLuis, thanks for sharing it.

pidgin - noun a simplified speech used for communication between people with different languages, esp: an English-based pidgin used in China ports

Without looking, I would assume pidgin was used by the British East India Company in their opium trade.

It's a good bit wider than that and in Papua New Guinea it is the common language (one might also regard it as an 'official' one.)
THere was a guy on TV the othernight in New Guinea and they were all talking Pidgin

[trysail]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

I never got the connection of the Pied Piper with the colors of his coat, until I read that entry. Another ah-ha moment brought to you by your local dictionary.

piebald(1) adj - 1. of different colors a. spotted or blotched with black and white b. SKEWBALD 2. composed of incongruous parts: HETEROGENEOUS

piebald(2) - noun a piebald animal (as a horse)

Think Velvet Brown (Elizabeth Taylor) riding to victory in the English Grand National at Aintree mounted on the "Pie" in National Velvet


.

[oggbashan]

Originally Posted by Handley_Page

It's a good bit wider than that and in Papua New Guinea it is the common language (one might also regard it as an 'official' one.)
THere was a guy on TV the othernight in New Guinea and they were all talking Pidgin

Prince Charles made a speech in Pidgin

[AllardChardon]

From Wiki;

Pidgin or pidgin language is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the country in which they reside (but where there is no common language between the groups). Fundamentally, a pidgin is a simplified means of linguistic communication, as it is constructed impromptu, or by convention, between individuals or groups of people. A pidgin is not the native language of any speech community, but is instead learned as a second language.

The origin of the word pidgin is uncertain. Pidgin first appeared in print in 1850. The most widely accepted etymology is from the Chinese pronunciation of the English word business.

Another etymology that has been proposed is English pigeon, a bird sometimes used for carrying brief written messages, especially in times prior to modern telecommunications.

The word pidgin, formerly also spelled pigion, originally used to describe Chinese Pidgin English, was later generalized to refer to any pidgin. Pidgin may also be used as the specific name for local pidgins or creoles, in places where they are spoken. For example, the name of the creole language Tok Pisin derives from the English words talk pidgin. Its speakers usually refer to it simply as "pidgin" when speaking English. Likewise, Hawaiian Creole English is commonly referred to by its speakers as "Pidgin".

[AllardChardon]

A good Sunday to you all. Maybe it will include some of the first entry, but not the second;

piddle - vi to act or work idly: DAWDLE

piddling - adj TRIVIAL, PALTRY

[AllardChardon]

Here is a new one on me;

picture hat - noun a woman's dressy hat with a broad brim

I wonder what era this originated in? Now, I will have to look. I am always fishing for fashion and names of things from the 1800s for my writing.

[oggbashan]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

Here is a new one on me;

picture hat - noun a woman's dressy hat with a broad brim

I wonder what era this originated in? Now, I will have to look. I am always fishing for fashion and names of things from the 1800s for my writing.

This seems the best explanation.

[AllardChardon]

Thank you, Og, and so quickly you found it, too. I definitely like the first hat best and will keep a copy of that picture for artistic inspiration, while making myself such a hat. I already have a couple of broad brimmed hats to work.

Pict - noun one of a possibly non-Celtic people who once occupied Great Britain, were in many places displaced by the Britons, carried on continual borders wars with the Romans, and about the 9th century became amalgamated with the Scots

[Handley_Page]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

Thank you, Og, and so quickly you found it, too. I definitely like the first hat best and will keep a copy of that picture for artistic inspiration, while making myself such a hat. I already have a couple of broad brimmed hats to work.

Pict - noun one of a possibly non-Celtic people who once occupied Great Britain, were in many places displaced by the Britons, carried on continual borders wars with the Romans, and about the 9th century became amalgamated with the Scots

"The Picts and the Scots". Remember, they were not the same!
See here.

[AllardChardon]

I met a man a few years ago in Eugene, Oregon, who said he was a Pict. I knew nothing of it at the time, so he explained a bit to me. Very fascinating history. I wish I recorded it. Anyway, he looked alot like the picture at the bottom of the page you added, except that he was fair-haired. He wasn't a tall man, but he was attractive in an elfish sort of way. His wife also had Pict blood and his many children had those adorable pointed ears. Rather convincing.

Pickwickian - adj 1. marked by simplicity and generosity 2. intended or taken in a sense other than the obvious or literal one

[ishtat]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

Carlus, I actually knew that and just forgot it. High school Spanish was a few year ago now. LOL

Jack, this is what I found;

sham·bol·ic - adj [chiefly British slang] disorderly or chaotic: "[The country's] transportation system is in a shambolic state" (London Sunday Times)

[Probably from alteration of shambles.]

Shambles was originally a Butchers shambles or slaughtering place. It was often just a street next to the butchers shop or market place. Obviously it was a very messy place in the medaevil period. A number of old English towns have streets called Shambles, the best known being York which was formerly the site of an animal slaughtering market. Now it is twee souvenir shops for tourists.

A number of Elizabethan/Jacobean period plays refer to particular battles as shambles because they ended in the butchery of the losing side (particularly during the religious wars)

[Handley_Page]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

I met a man a few years ago in Eugene, Oregon, who said he was a Pict. I knew nothing of it at the time, so he explained a bit to me. Very fascinating history. I wish I recorded it. Anyway, he looked alot like the picture at the bottom of the page you added, except that he was fair-haired. He wasn't a tall man, but he was attractive in an elfish sort of way. His wife also had Pict blood and his many children had those adorable pointed ears. Rather convincing.

Pickwickian - adj 1. marked by simplicity and generosity 2. intended or taken in a sense other than the obvious or literal one

The work of Dickens was often used to describe someone.
If I could find the song, I'd link it

[AllardChardon]

Ishtat, that makes perfect sense. The one thing about slaughter houses and their descriptions on paper is that One cannot truly address the horrible smell in words.

Handley, yes a little more research yielded this;

Origin of PICKWICKIAN -Samuel Pickwick, character in the novel Pickwick Papers (1836–37) by Charles Dickens - First Known Use: 1836

and also this;

The discovery of obesity hypoventilation syndrome is generally attributed to the authors of a 1956 report of a professional poker player who, after gaining weight, became somnolent and fatigued and prone to fall asleep during the day, as well as developing edema of the legs suggesting heart failure. The authors coined the condition "Pickwickian syndrome" after the character Joe from Dickens' The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1837), who was markedly obese and tended to fall asleep uncontrollably during the day. This report, however, was preceded by other descriptions of hypoventilation in obesity. In the 1960s, various further discoveries were made that led to the distinction between obstructive sleep apnea and sleep hypoventilation.

[AllardChardon]

Four days without posting to my main thread. That is some kind of record for me.

pickthank - noun archaic SYCOPHANT

[trysail]

nociceptor n., A sensory receptor that responds to pain. Nociceptors are sensory neurons that are found in any area of the body that can sense pain either externally or internally. External examples are in tissues such as skin (cutaneous nociceptors), cornea and mucosa. Internal nociceptors are in a variety of organs, such as the muscle, joint, bladder, gut and continuing along the digestive tract. The cell bodies of these neurons are located in either the dorsal root ganglia or the trigeminal ganglia. The trigeminal ganglia are specialized nerves for the face, whereas the dorsal root ganglia associate with the rest of the body. The axons extend into the peripheral nervous system and terminate in branches to form receptive fields.


Etymology:
Latin nocre, to hurt ; see nocent + (re)ceptor











The word was used in a discussion of pain. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Receptor_(biochemistry)

[AllardChardon]

Hello everyone. Yet another use for a common word that I had no idea existed;

pickle(1) - noun 1. a solution or bath for preserving or cleaning as a: a brine or vinegar solution in which foods are preserved b: any of various baths used in industrial cleaning or processing 2. a dissicult situation: PLIGHT 3. an article of food that has been preserved in brine or in vinegar

pickle(2) - vt to treat, preserve, or clean in or with a pickle

pickle(3) - noun (perhaps from Scottish pickle, which mean to trifle, pilfer) 1. Scot: GRAIN, KERNEL 2. Scot: a small quantity

[Emily124]

Perhaps others are familiar with this word/compound, but I just learned of it recently:

Holus-bolus- adverb all at once; altogether.

[AllardChardon]

Emily, that is a new one for me. Thanks for posting it.

I knew of the first definition for this next word, but not the second;

pickings - noun plural 1. gleanable or eatable fragments: SCRAPS 2. yield or return for effort expended

[Tio_Narratore]

You probably are familiar with the second meaning from the fairly common phrase "easy pickings," usually referring to people who are good targets for scammers, but also used for any benefits that are easy to acquire.

Hi, Allard!