Seldom-Used Words

[trysail]

Riprap is not "obsolete" around Britain's sea coasts. It is frequently used for coastal protection to break up the force of the waves.

Because it is piled randomly instead of being cemented in place it will move when battered by large waves unlike a conventional concrete wall which could break. If riprap is really shifted by a severe storm it can be moved back into place.

Locally we have several lengths of riprap wave defences made of large granite boulders. An artist decided that she would use one of the boulders to create a sculpture for our seafront gardens. She intended to make it into a complete three-dimensional Turk's Head Knot. Unfortunately she had never worked with granite before. After eighteen months of work and breaking many power tools she produced a Turk's Head Knot emerging from a granite boulder. It is an attractive sculpture and has one significant advantage - it is vandal-proof (and immovable).

Good catch, Og. I missed that.

Riprap is ubiquitous here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riprap

 

[AllardChardon]

Good to know, dear Gentlemen. I have never heard the term riprap here in America, so maybe it is only obsolete here. I am only posting the fourth entry of this word;

4rip - noun 1. a worn-out worthless horse 2. a dissolute person: LIBERTINE

 

[oggbashan]

riprap was used as a filler inside castle walls between the outer and inner layers of cut stone masonry. If the outer skin of the castle wall was breached, the riprap would move to plug the hole.

Bodiam Castle in Sussex, one of the last castles built in traditional style instead of being a gunnery fort, had an innovation with its riprap. The riprap was covered with lime mortar which sets when exposed to the air. The lime mortar was sealed into the walls and therefore did NOT set. It still hasn't set today, 600 years after the castle was built.

The idea was that if the outer skin of the wall was breached, not only would the riprap move to plug the hole, but the lime mortar, now exposed to the air, would set to lock the riprap in place, rather like a self-sealing car tyre. Contemporary cannon and other wall breaching machines such as ballistas and trebuchets were not accurate enough to hit the same place consistently so each impact would be in a different place. The riprap and lime mortar would begin to automatically repair each hole as soon as it was made.

Riprap is useful.

An aside: Dry stone walls, such as are found in Yorkshire, despite appearances are not riprap. Each stone is carefully selected and placed to form a wall that is strong yet yielding to wind pressure and frost/thaw conditions. The stones move but when the pressure is released they will return to their original position. Making or repairing a dry stone wall is an art. Many years ago I was taught some of the simpler techniques so that I could repair a wall if I damaged it by climbing over it. It took three days to learn the 'simple' parts.

 

[patrick1]

The obsoleteness of riprap has been greatly exaggerated. Google finds over 3m hits. There's a poem by Gary Snyder, a fine American poet I've loved since my youth, who is 82 but still going strong, not obsolete, as far as I know, I think it gave its name to a collection too:

'Riprap' by Gary Snyder

Lay down these words
Before your mind like rocks.
placed solid, by hands
In choice of place, set
Before the body of the mind
in space and time:
Solidity of bark, leaf or wall
riprap of things:
Cobble of milky way,
straying planets,
These poems, people,
lost ponies with
Dragging saddles --
and rocky sure-foot trails.
The worlds like an endless
four-dimensional
Game of Go.
ants and pebbles
In the thin loam, each rock a word
a creek-washed stone
Granite: ingrained
with torment of fire and weight
Crystal and sediment linked hot
all change, in thoughts,
As well as things.

Patrick

 

[Handley_Page]

Fopnoodle: A Fool. (from Dr Johnson's Dictionary).

It is interesting because the word FOP (taken from the name of the Lord Foppington) meant to describe "one who is excessively fashionable", the noble Lord being of that persuasion (Restoration comedy)

 

[AllardChardon]

Thank you Og and Patrick for the additional information on riprap. Little did I know its true importance. Handley, I knew the term fop for dandy, but did not understand its origin. Now, I will have to look up Lord Foppington. In the meantime;

ripping - adj EXCELLENT, SWELL

Who says swell anymore? That one is more likely obsolete in reality. haha

 

[AllardChardon]

Good day, everyone.

ringent - adj GAPING; esp. having lips parted like an open mouth

 

[AllardChardon]

This one makes sense and sounds good at the same time;

rimland - noun a region at the periphery of the heartland

 

[AllardChardon]

It is nice to be back at LIT;

rillstone - noun VENTIFACT

I had to look up ventifact to solve this mystery.

 

[patrick1]

Rillstone as a surname, however, is taken to derive from a village not far from where I live, in the Yorkshire Dales, mostly known as Rylstone.

Here's more: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Rillstone

The women's institute of Rylstone and District were the ones who posed nude for an alternative calendar, which was the source of the show and film 'Calendar Girls'.

Patrick

 

[AllardChardon]

Patrick, I saw the film on those "Calendar Girls" and I enjoyed it very much. Thanks for the additional information.

riley - adj 1. TURBID 2. ANGRY

 

[AllardChardon]

This one was a favorite of my Mom's;

rigamarole - noun 1. confused or meaningless talk 2. a complex and ritualistic procedure

 

[AllardChardon]

This one is for future use in book three of my series, when gold is discovered outside Denver, CO, in early 1858;

riffle(3) - noun 1.a. any of various contrivances (as blocks or rails) laid on the bottom of a sluice or launder to make a series of grooves or interstices to catch and retain a mineral (as gold) b. a groove or interstice so formed 2. a cleat or bar fastened to an inclined surface in a gold-washing apparatus to catch and hold mineral grains

 

[Andaho]

Aglet or Agglet: [iNOUN[/i]The hard piece of plastic at the end of a shoelace.

Such an under-used word.

 

[AllardChardon]

Welcome, Andaho. This one reminds me of my late Father, a multi-talented jazz musician;

riff(2) - noun an ostinato phrase in jazz typically supporting a solo imorivisation

 

[AllardChardon]

Of course, that odd word in my last post was supposed to be improvisation;

ridotto - noun a public entertainment consisting of music and dancing often in masquerade popular in 18th century England

 

[UltimateSwitch]

Auscultate (The act of listening to internal organs, specifically with a stethescope)

 

[AllardChardon]

Good one, Ultimate. In looking up ridicule, I found the word twit used as a definition. This is not what I thought twit meant at all;

twit - vt 1. to subject to light ridicule or reproach: RALLY 2. to make fun of as a fault

 

[AllardChardon]

Does anyone know this one;

rickey - noun a drink containing liquor, lime juice, sugar, and soda water; also: a similar drink without liquor

 

[UltimateSwitch]

Never heard that one

Macron-The Horizontal line above a vowel to show a long sound.

Just found that one...I love it when there are names for things like that...

 

[UltimateSwitch]

http://www.islandnet.com/~egbird/dict/m.htm You might like this!

 

[Weird Harold]

Good one, Ultimate. In looking up ridicule, I found the word twit used as a definition. This is not what I thought twit meant at all;

twit - vt 1. to subject to light ridicule or reproach: RALLY 2. to make fun of as a fault

I take it you were used to the noun form?

One can twit someone else and it's just fun. One can be a twit and suck all of the fun out of everything.

 

[Handley_Page]

Good one, Ultimate. In looking up ridicule, I found the word twit used as a definition. This is not what I thought twit meant at all;

twit - vt 1. to subject to light ridicule or reproach: RALLY 2. to make fun of as a fault

Well, for us, to call someone a 'Twit' is a politely expressed term of anything but endearment. It's almost an insult.
It's the sort of word you'd use in polite society, carrying a meaning far beyond the letters alone.

 

[BONNIEBREA]

I managed to work xoloitzcuintli into a story.

 

[seniyajw]

I think I'll just lay here and enjoy you setting the pace. Feel free to trot, if you like, or gallop, or alternate. (and I love the way your breasts bounce as you ride).