Seldom-Used Words

[Weird Harold]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

runagate - noun archaic a person who has defected

Interesting word -- as one might expect, it is related to Renegade; both being derived from the latin Renegatus.

With fortuitous timing, it is also the title of a poem relevant to Black History Month:

Runagate Runagate by Robert Hayden

"Runagate Runagate," an archaic expression for a runaway slave, opens with especially keen heights of dramatic tension that bring alive the sense of dangerous enterprise and desperate, breathless, and uneven flight that the runaway slaves must have experienced:

Runs falls rises stumbles on from darkness into darkness
and the darkness thicketed with shapes of terror
and the hunters pursuing and the hounds pursuing
and the night cold and the night long and the river
to cross and the jack-muh-lanterns beckoning beckoning
and blackness ahead and when shall I reach that somewhere
morning and keep on going and never turn back and keep on
going
Runagate
Runagate
Runagate
...

From Robert Hayden: A Critical Analysis of His Poetry. Copyright © 1987 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

[AllardChardon]

Ruction was next to ruckus with the same meaning.

ruckle - verb British to make irregular folds in, especially by pressing or twisting

[trysail]

capybara • n. 1. A South American mammal that resembles a giant, long-legged guinea pig. It lives in groups near water and is the largest living rodent. A large population inhabits the Pantanal.







We are talking one big goddamn rat. The damn things are 4 feet long and tip the scales at 80-145 pounds ( 36-66 kg ). That's a bit spooky. The biggest one was 232 pounds! I wouldn't want to run into one of these things on a dark night.

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

[AllardChardon]

The Los Angeles Zoo has a large group of cabybaras and my schools often went there for field trips. They are rather docile. The meir cats are more entertaining, by far.

rozzer - noun British slang a member of a law enforcement agency

[AllardChardon]

I never knew the true definition of this one;

rubberneck also rubbernecker - noun one who travels for pleasure

[Weird Harold]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

I never knew the true definition of this one;

rubberneck also rubbernecker - noun one who travels for pleasure

Not quite the "true" meaning, although it is, perhaps, the original meaning.

Etymology

Coined in the sense of "tourist" in the United States in the late 19th century. A favored Americanism of H.L. Mencken.
[edit] Noun

rubberneck (plural rubbernecks)

1. Someone who engages in rubbernecking, or turning and staring.
2. (US, obsolete) A tourist.
3. Someone or something with a flexible neck.

From other online entries, I would say that one cannot be a real rubberneck unless you're in a moving car.

[AllardChardon]

Thanks, Harold, it is a strange one.

rubicund - adj of a healthy, reddish color

[ishtat]

Originally Posted by Weird Harold

Interesting word -- as one might expect, it is related to Renegade; both being derived from the latin Renegatus.

[/url]

I have found an alternative explanation of runagate which may be interesting. The OED has a quote referring to "thieves,vagabonds and runagates" dated 1677 and suggests the earliest documentation of the word is from 1530.

The separate words run and gate are both Old English in origin and gate is the clue because it has two meanings. A gate can mean :-

1 The thing placed in a gap in a fence or hedge which will open and close.

2 It is an alternative word to street and was commonly used to name important streets in the middle ages in Britain.

Examples include: Kingsgate, Queensgate, Moorgate, Billingsgate, Aldgate(old?), Bishopsgate, Christgate(Canterbury) Almsgate (Wakefield), Gallowsgate, most of which are found in London alone.

Without exception these names are very old and date to when these towns were first established. At that time the towns folk had to look after their own security and the main streets were gated at night; thus their names. Towns of that period were market towns serving rural areas and attracted people who hoped perhaps to make their fortune from the people who came to town to trade their wares.

The alternative explanation of this word suggests that a runagate was a street dweller living on his wits from what they could make on the gates (or street) because it was on the main thoroughfares that they would find the traders coming to buy and sell at market.

It is also pertinent to the idea of a runaway because in the middle ages if a serf or villein could (in theory at least) run away and live within a city's gates for a year he could acquire the rights of a free man.

I think that Christgate in Canterbury (Kent) still has its old gate or at least the arch, and there is another in York but I cannot remember its name.

I don't know whether Harold's or my definition is the correct one but it's fascinating what one word can reveal, and hide at the same time.

[oggbashan]

Originally Posted by ishtat

...I think that Christgate in Canterbury (Kent) still has its old gate or at least the arch, and there is another in York but I cannot remember its name.

...

Canterbury has its Westgate and the sites of Northgate and Riding Gate are well known. Canterbury Cathedral has its own gate, rebuilt at the town's expense after Wat Tyler's revolt which destroyed the previous one.

Sandwich, Kent still has its Barbican and Fishergate.

Winchelsea, East Sussex still has several gates.

Og

[AllardChardon]

Thank you Ishtat and Og for the explanation and the wonderful pictures. Runagate sounded more like runaway to me than renegade at first glance.

Here is one I found yesterday at the end of the Ts that I must have missed;

tyro - noun 1. one lacking professional skill and ease in a particular pursuit 2. one who is just starting to learn or do something

[Chiara_searches]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

Thank you Ishtat and Og for the explanation and the wonderful pictures. Runagate sounded more like runaway to me than renegade at first glance.

Here is one I found yesterday at the end of the Ts that I must have missed;

tyro - noun 1. one lacking professional skill and ease in a particular pursuit 2. one who is just starting to learn or do something

Thank you for this new word. I get tired of calling myself "newbie."

[AllardChardon]

You are welcome, Chiara.

This one caught my eye and is a great scrabble word when inundated with vowels;

roué - noun an immoral or licentious man

[AllardChardon]

I could not resist listing these two, seldom-used or not;

roustabout - noun one who labors

rough-and-tumble - adj marked by vigorous physical exertion

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by oggbashan

Canterbury has its Westgate and the sites of Northgate and Riding Gate are well known. Canterbury Cathedral has its own gate, rebuilt at the town's expense after Wat Tyler's revolt which destroyed the previous one.

Sandwich, Kent still has its Barbican and Fishergate.

Winchelsea, East Sussex still has several gates.

Og

Edmonton, Canada has all four gates: Northgate, Eastgate, Westgate and Southgate. Southgate and Northgate are the most familiar as they are the ends of the second busiest bus route in the city and both have major malls there. They are normally considered gates as in a pass as opposed to a street.

[Xelebes]

Kith: Who one knows; friends and kin.

[AllardChardon]

Afternoon Everyone. Here is one that I seldom see or hear although there is a lot of it lately in the world;

roister - verb to behave riotously

[trysail]

fulvous • adj. 1. Reddish yellow; tawny. Fulvous is a color, sometimes described as dull reddish-yellow, brownish-yellow or tawny, it can also been likened to a variation of buff, beige or butterscotch. As an adjective it is used in the names of many species of birds, and occasionally other animals, to describe their appearance.





Yet one more word I've never seen before. I stumbled upon this word in Nina Burleigh's Mirage: Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt which is a fascinating account of the brief French occupation of Egypt from 1798-1801. As a child, I learned the role of the Rosetta Stone in Champollion's decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics and because of my later interest in naval history I knew of Nelson's annihilation of the French fleet at Aboukir Bay but I never knew what in hell the French were doing in Egypt in the first place. Subsequent to the military fiasco, many of the French found themselves asking the same question. Likewise, I never understood why, if the French found it, the Rosetta Stone ended up where I last saw it— in the British Museum!


The gender-specific nature of vocabularies invariably amuses me. Women know the names of billions of colors; men know four. Who the hell knows what mauve is?

A fulvous, arid nation bisected by a narrow strip of green fertility, Egypt teemed, surprisingly, with life.

[AllardChardon]

Mauve was all the rage in the 1850s and it is one of my favorite colors. I have a 1890s dress made of mauve silk that is simply stunning.

mauve - from the French form of Malva "mallow") is a pale lavender-lilac color, one of many in the range of purples.

Mauve is more grey and more blue than a pale tint of magenta would be. Many pale wildflowers called "blue" are actually mauve. Sometimes mauve can be considered a dirty pink or a shade of purple.

Mauve can also be described as pale violet.

Another name for this color is mallow.

The first recorded use of mallow as a color name in English was in 1611.

[Weird Harold]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

mauve - ... one of many ... purples.

That reminds me of the quip that men only see in "4-bit sixteen color" while women see in "24-bit True color."

Definitions of quip on the Web:

* epigram: a witty saying
* gag: make jokes or quips; "The students were gagging during dinner"
* wisecrack: witty remark
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

[AllardChardon]

This one is new t me;

rogation - noun a formula of words used in praying

[AllardChardon]

Anyone know this one?

roborant - adj producing or stimulating physical, mental, or emotional vigor

roborant - noun a medicine that restores or increases vigor

[ishtat]

Originally Posted by oggbashan

Canterbury has its Westgate and the sites of Northgate and Riding Gate are well known. Canterbury Cathedral has its own gate, rebuilt at the town's expense after Wat Tyler's revolt which destroyed the previous one.

Og

In my earlier post I was in error in suggesting there was a street in Canterbury called Christgate. In fact this is the name of the Cathedral gate; I thought it opened onto a street of the same name but in fact the street it leads to is called Burrgate.

I have been further told but cannot confirm that the Burr suffix is of the same origin as bury in Canterbury and refers to the non ecclesiastical bury (in modern spelling borough).

However, that is not the main reason for my post; I am following up Og's reference to Riding gate. Riding means transporting oneself on the back of a horse, camel, ass etc. but it also means a local government area. In this sense it came into English from old Norse as Thriding or thirding. Thus Englands largest county, Yorkshire, had 3 Ridings, North, West and East but never South.

Developing this idea slightly, consider the word ridden, normally it is defined in most dictionaries as the past participle of ride. But we also say flea-ridden or disease-ridden meaning, infested with or full of fleas or disease. Yet when we rid ourselves of something we clear it away or dispose of it. Interestingly a number of major dictionaries do not have this second definition of ridden at all as a separate word.

[oggbashan]

Originally Posted by ishtat

In my earlier post I was in error in suggesting there was a street in Canterbury called Christgate. In fact this is the name of the Cathedral gate; I thought it opened onto a street of the same name but in fact the street it leads to is called Burrgate.

I have been further told but cannot confirm that the Burr suffix is of the same origin as bury in Canterbury and refers to the non ecclesiastical bury (in modern spelling borough).

However, that is not the main reason for my post; I am following up Og's reference to Riding gate. Riding means transporting oneself on the back of a horse, camel, ass etc. but it also means a local government area. In this sense it came into English from old Norse as Thriding or thirding. Thus Englands largest county, Yorkshire, had 3 Ridings, North, West and East but never South.

Developing this idea slightly, consider the word ridden, normally it is defined in most dictionaries as the past participle of ride. But we also say flea-ridden or disease-ridden meaning, infested with or full of fleas or disease. Yet when we rid ourselves of something we clear it away or dispose of it. Interestingly a number of major dictionaries do not have this second definition of ridden at all as a separate word.

Topic 1:

Burgate (one 'r') was one of Canterbury's gates. I presume it meant "town gate". The "burghmote" mentioned in the article I've linked to, was the town council. Canterbury still has its burghmote horn which is sounded at the formal annual meetings of Canterbury City Council. Originally it was used to summon the members of the burghmote.

Riding Gate had no connection with the Yorkshire sub-divisions 'Ridings' because the Kentish equivalent was a hundred. Riding gate was so-called because either 1. It was made of red Roman brick and is derived from Anglo-Saxon for 'Red Gate' or 2. It was the road gate on Watling Street, later the A2, which now avoids Canterbury on a bypass.

Topic 2:

Flea-ridden; disease-ridden - I always understood those words to use the past participle of ride because fleas ride on your body (or dog, cat etc.) and disease can be considered to be riding the person who is infected by germs, bacteria, viruses riding on the affected parts of the body.

Og

PS. Edited several times to correct information.

[AllardChardon]

Thank you Ishtat and Og for the morning English history lesson. I love every one of them. I wish I had something to contribute, but alas, I know not if America has a single gate.

I like the sound of this one;

ritzy - adj slang catering to, used by, or admitting only the wealthy or socially superior

[oggbashan]

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

Thank you Ishtat and Og for the morning English history lesson. I love every one of them. I wish I had something to contribute, but alas, I know not if America has a single gate.

I like the sound of this one;

ritzy - adj slang catering to, used by, or admitting only the wealthy or socially superior

From The Ritz Hotel, Paris and The Ritz Hotel, London which were supposed only to admit the upper social classes.

The real upper classes originally considered the London Ritz too flashy and parvenu and continued to patronise older more established hotels but were eventually won over by the excellence of the cuisine.

Og