Seldom-Used Words

[AllardChardon]

Good day, everyone.

We have lots of these in my front and back yards, due to the closeness of the upper Sacramento River, of course.

odonate - noun any of an order (Odonata) of predacious insects comprising the dragonflies and damselflies

 

[Handley_Page]

Good day, everyone.

We have lots of these in my front and back yards, due to the closeness of the upper Sacramento River, of course.

odonate - noun any of an order (Odonata) of predacious insects comprising the dragonflies and damselflies

Twas a pleasant day by the canal. My pal & I were fishing and occasionally catching something. 'Dragon flies' were whizzing about, mostly brown ones.

There's something very, very special about being able to see one close-up, as a big one stopped on my fishing rod. Magic!

 

[AllardChardon]

Handley, the different colored dragonflies here are just amazing to see. So many variations all in one place. Along with the osprey pair that comes back every year and the monarch butterflies that pass by, dragonflies are a real treat to watch.

odium - noun 1.a. the state or fact of being subjected to hatred and contempt as a result of a despicable art or blameworthy situation b. hatred and condemnation marked by loathing or contempt: DETESTATION 2.a. a mark of disgrace or reproach: STIGMA b. disrepute or infamy attached to something: OPPROBRIUM

 

[Handley_Page]

Handley, the different colored dragonflies here are just amazing to see. So many variations all in one place. Along with the osprey pair that comes back every year and the monarch butterflies that pass by, dragonflies are a real treat to watch.

odium - noun 1.a. the state or fact of being subjected to hatred and contempt as a result of a despicable art or blameworthy situation b. hatred and condemnation marked by loathing or contempt: DETESTATION 2.a. a mark of disgrace or reproach: STIGMA b. disrepute or infamy attached to something: OPPROBRIUM

I've never seen that word used. Opprobrium, yes, Odium no.
But it's a useful subtlety.

 

[AllardChardon]

Yes, Handley, the next word is used much more often;

odious - adj exciting or deserving hatred or repugnance

 

[AllardChardon]

Friday already, this has been a fast week for me;

odeum - noun 1. a small roofed theater of ancient Greece and Rome used chiefly for competitions in music and poetry 2. a theater or concert hall

 

[Handley_Page]

Friday already, this has been a fast week for me;

odeum - noun 1. a small roofed theater of ancient Greece and Rome used chiefly for competitions in music and poetry 2. a theater or concert hall

Somewhere that an ODE could be heard, perhaps?
Someone re-used the greek word: ODEON, for cinemas built in the 1930s.

 

[AllardChardon]

Handley, my dictionary says ode means "song" or "to sing", which makes sense, as the first poems or odes were probably sung by minstrels.

odds-on - adj having or viewed as having a better than even chance to win

 

[oggbashan]

Handley, my dictionary says ode means "song" or "to sing", which makes sense, as the first poems or odes were probably sung by minstrels.

odds-on - adj having or viewed as having a better than even chance to win

Which means that the Bookmakers make more money out of those who bet on those odds.

 

[AllardChardon]

Og, that makes perfect sense. The favorite to win will never bring the odds like the long shot.

oddment - noun 1. something left over: REMNANT 2. something odd: ODDITY

 

[Weird Harold]

odium - noun 1.a. the state or fact of being subjected to hatred and contempt as a result of a despicable art or blameworthy situation b. hatred and condemnation marked by loathing or contempt: DETESTATION 2.a. a mark of disgrace or reproach: STIGMA b. disrepute or infamy attached to something: OPPROBRIUM

I've never seen that word used. Opprobrium, yes, Odium no.
But it's a useful subtlety.

odious - adj exciting or deserving hatred or repugnance

It was kind of your dictionary to turn up just the words needed for Congressional actions.

 

[Broadsword66]

Thanks for starting-and minding-this thread. I love it!


A few fun words from my researches into the vocabulary of the mid-nineteenth century American West:

Absquatulate-to high tail it, disappear, run off: “He done absquatulated with all our money.”

Crowbait-an old, worn-out horse: “I know Caleb loves that horse of his, but how long you reckon it’ll be till he figgurs out he’s riding crowbait?”

Roostered –drunk: “He was roostered before he came into this bar.”

Lucifers-old name for matches: “Y’notice he never has him any tobaccy, no rolling papers, nor lucifers, neither; but he’s always got the want for ‘em when somebody else does.”

Muggins-a scoundrel: “His momma was a crib-whore and his daddy’s either a horse thief or a government agent, depending, so nobody should be surprised he’s been a muggings since he come outta her belly, practically.”

Mule-meat of dubious origin: “Don’t know what kind of mule is on this here plate she give us, but there’s something in it looks like it’s still moving, Zebulon.”

 

[AllardChardon]

Welcome, Broadsword66, it is always nice to have another 1800s fan on board. I did use one of those words in my first novel. Lucifer stick matches. A replica company in England makes them now for the re-enacters. I saw a box at a Civil War memorial, when I was in Tennessee a couple of years ago. I haven't ordered myself any as yet, but it is still on my to-do list.

oddity - noun 1. an odd person, thing, event, or trait: ECCENTRICITY 2. the quality or state of being odd

 

[oggbashan]

Yes, Handley, the next word is used much more often;

odious - adj exciting or deserving hatred or repugnance

A common use in UK English is in the phrase:

Comparisons are odious

It means that comparing one person with another can cause offence.

The earliest recorded use of this phrase appears to be by John Lydgate in his Debate between the horse, goose, and sheep, circa 1440:

"Odyous of olde been comparisonis, And of comparisonis engendyrd is haterede."

It was used by several authors later, notably Cervantes, Christopher Marlowe and John Donne.

In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare gave Dogberry the line 'comparisons are odorous'. It seems that he was using this ironically, knowing it to be a misuse of what would have been a well known phrase by 1599 when the play was written.


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[AllardChardon]

Og, thanks for explaining odious and that line from Merry Wives. Not being from England and knowing these things from earliest memory is a real disadvantage to appreciating the Bard in all his humor. Was anyone better at play on words, I wonder?

odalisque - noun a female slave or concubine in a harem

 

[AllardChardon]

Hello, everyone, who reads this thread;

od or odd - interj, often cap [euphemism for God] a mild oath

 

[AllardChardon]

Just a quick post before I disappear, again;

octroi - noun a tax on commodities brought into a town

 

[oggbashan]

Just a quick post before I disappear, again;

octroi - noun a tax on commodities brought into a town

Octroi (an eighth to the King) was one of the taxes that produced the resentment leading to the French Revolution. The nobility and clergy (who were the richest people in France) paid no taxes at all, leaving the merchants and peasants to pay for everything.

 

[AllardChardon]

Og, octroi certainly sounded French and when its definition said it was about taxes, I wondered about its history. Thanks for filling us in. The wealthiest paying no taxes has a familiar ring to it.

octosyllabic - adj consisting of eight syllables or composed of verses of eight syllables

 

[AllardChardon]

Here is a very common word for the 1800s and especially in New Orleans;

octoroon - noun a person of one-eighth Negro ancestry

 

[oggbashan]

Here is a very common word for the 1800s and especially in New Orleans;

octoroon - noun a person of one-eighth Negro ancestry

Octoroon is one of a series of words that have been used in hateful ways.

The progression is Half-Caste, Quadroon, Octoroon.

Some poets, artists and song-writers have considered Half-Castes, particularly Half-Caste women, to be particularly exotic and sensuous, but as far as I know no one celebrated Quadroons or Octoroons.

In Apartheid-era South Africa such distinctions were very important to determining your social status and what you were permitted to do.

Similar distinctions applied to the Jews in Nazi Germany. To work in almost any profession you had to produce proof of Germanic (i.e. non-Jew) parents, grand-parents and great-grandparents. If any of those people had been Jewish, you were counted as a Jew and unable to work in any state regulated profession - which by 1936 meant all. Even writers and poets were unable to get their works published unless they could prove an 'unblemished' Aryan ancestry.

So to be the Jewish equivalent of an Octoroon - one great-grandparent Jewish - you were counted as a Jew, couldn't work for most employers, and were at risk of the Gas Chambers.

 

[ishtat]

Friday already, this has been a fast week for me;

odeum - noun 1. a small roofed theater of ancient Greece and Rome used chiefly for competitions in music and poetry 2. a theater or concert hall

In the ancient Olympics, poetry was an accredited 'sport' the winner being decided (I think) by public acclamation.

 

[AllardChardon]

Og, in my research into early New Orleans, I have found many references to quadroon and, especially, octoroon women, commanding the highest prices in brothels. I can only find one quick reference right now, from Herbert Asbury's The French Quarter;

"From the beginning of their existence in Louisiana, the free people of color maintained a society of their own, in which class lines were as rigidly drawn as among the whites. The griffe ( offspring of a mulatto and a Negro) looked down upon the pure-blooded Negro; the mulatto regarded the griffe with scorn and was in turn spurned by the quadroon; while the octoroon refused to have social relations with any of the others."

I want to thank you for enlightening me about distant Jewish bloodlines and the extra ostracism it incurred in Germany under Hitler. Hiding one's lineage must have been very difficult and so falsified papers would have been at a premium, I suppose.

 

[AllardChardon]

Hello there. Here I am, again;

octavo - noun the size of a piece of paper cut eight from a sheet; also: a book, a page, or paper of this size

 

[oggbashan]

Hello there. Here I am, again;

octavo - noun the size of a piece of paper cut eight from a sheet; also: a book, a page, or paper of this size

That definition of octavo isn't exactly right for a book.

An octavo book is printed with eight pages each side of a single sheet (i.e. 16 pages of text) and then folded three times before stitching.

A quarto - eight pages (four each side) printed on the single sheet and folded twice.

A folio - four pages (two each side) printed on the single sheet and folded once so that each page is half the size of the original sheet.

But except in a general way, those terms don't define the size of the book, because the original piece of paper could be larger or smaller, as could the printing press.

A quarto piece of paper, like foolscap, only became a standard size in the 19th Century.