Seldom-used words - M to A

[CarlusMagnus]

Thank you, Og, Handley and Harold, for adding to my "mod" entry. I always love to learn more about words.

There is more. The word mod is used in mathematics as short for the word modulo. Two numbers p and q are said to be congruent mod r (or modulo r), if division of the difference p - q by r gives a whole number. The number r in this relationship is called the modulus.

 

[Handley_Page]

There is more. The word mod is used in mathematics as short for the word modulo. Two numbers p and q are said to be congruent mod r (or modulo r), if division of the difference p - q by r gives a whole number. The number r in this relationship is called the modulus.

Also used in Cryptography.

 

[AllardChardon]

Hello Tio, so nice to have you back, and thanks so much for the mortises. It made me think of Dexter, a series I truly enjoyed.

Most informative, Carlus and Handley, and always appreciated.

These two caught my eye;

moderate breeze - noun wind having a speed of 13 to 18 miles per hour

moderate gale - noun wind having a speed of 32 to 38 miles per hour

 

[AllardChardon]

Hello everyone, I hope you are having a great day.

This one was too good to pass up;

mobocracy - noun 1. rule by the mob 2. the mob as a ruling class

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Nice to be back, Allard.

How about:

mobled adj being wrapped or muffled in or as if in a hood.

It might be useful for some of Lit's non-con and bondage tales.

 

[AllardChardon]

Good one, Tio, and one I have never heard before. It is not in my dictionary at all. Thanks for adding it.

mobcap - noun a woman's fancy indoor cap made with a high full crown and often tied under the chin

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Good one, Tio, and one I have never heard before. It is not in my dictionary at all. Thanks for adding it.

mobcap - noun a woman's fancy indoor cap made with a high full crown and often tied under the chin

...and very popular in the 18th and 10th Centuries. My daughters each picked one up as a souvenir at Colonial Williamsburg many years ago.

 

[CarlusMagnus]

Good one, Tio, and one I have never heard before. It is not in my dictionary at all. Thanks for adding it.

mobcap - noun a woman's fancy indoor cap made with a high full crown and often tied under the chin

The word has a very interesting background. Here is what my dictionary says about its origin:

mid 18th cent.: mob, variant of obsolete mab ‘slut.’ The word mob was first used in the sense ‘prostitute’ (mid to late 17th cent.), later denoting a negligee (mid 17th cent. to mid 18th cent).

 

[oggbashan]

Good one, Tio, and one I have never heard before. It is not in my dictionary at all. Thanks for adding it.

mobcap - noun a woman's fancy indoor cap made with a high full crown and often tied under the chin

I would dispute the definition.

That might be appropriate for modern re-enactments, but the original mobcap was basically a cotton bag that covered all or most of the hair, with a ribbon or lace around the opening to fasten it.

It was originally worn by servants doing dusty or dirty work such as cleaning fireplaces, or female farmworkers winnowing grain.

It could be washed and dried quickly. The modern equivalents are sometimes worn by long-haired fast-food staff.

It became a decorative fashionable item for high class women, because it protected their complicated hair arrangements.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Good one, Tio, and one I have never heard before. It is not in my dictionary at all. Thanks for adding it.

mobcap - a woman's fancy indoor cap made with a high full crown and often tied under the chin

I would dispute the definition.

That might be appropriate for modern re-enactments, but the original mobcap was basically a cotton bag that covered all or most of the hair, with a ribbon or lace around the opening to fasten it.

It was originally worn by servants doing dusty or dirty work such as cleaning fireplaces, or female farmworkers winnowing grain.

It could be washed and dried quickly. The modern equivalents are sometimes worn by long-haired fast-food staff.

It became a decorative fashionable item for high class women, because it protected their complicated hair arrangements.

Yes, OG, and when it became fashionable for high class women (mid-18th Century), it also became fancier and made of richer materials than plain cotton.

 

[Handley_Page]

Good one, Tio, and one I have never heard before. It is not in my dictionary at all. Thanks for adding it.

mobcap - noun a woman's fancy indoor cap made with a high full crown and often tied under the chin

According to wiki:-

By the Victorian period, mob caps lingered as the head covering of servants and nurses, and small mob caps, not covering the hair, remained part of these uniforms into the early 20th century.


My mother, who was a nurse in the late 40s and early 50s, wore a 'mob cap'.
traces of the cap can still occasionally be seen in a nurses uniform to this day.

 

[AllardChardon]

Of course, I had no idea when I added mobcap that it would turn into such an informative conversation. Thank you, gentlemen. I recently dressed up as a French upstairs maid (on the cruise, there was a theme-based costume party every night and I wore the maid's outfit for fetish night) and wore a doily folded neatly and pinned down for my mobcap (although at the time, I didn't know that is what it's called).

Mnemosyne - noun the Goddess of memory in Greek mythology and mother of the Muses by Zeus

The first part I knew, the second part, mother of the Muses, I did not.

 

[AllardChardon]

Hello, Lit fans, another week has flown by and its the weekend, already.

Here are an interesting pair I have never heard before;

mizzle(1) - vi chiefly dial: to rain in very fine drops: DRIZZLE

mizzle(2) - vi slang chiefly Brit: to depart suddenly

 

[Handley_Page]

Hello, Lit fans, another week has flown by and its the weekend, already.

Here are an interesting pair I have never heard before;

mizzle(1) - vi chiefly dial: to rain in very fine drops: DRIZZLE

mizzle(2) - vi slang chiefly Brit: to depart suddenly

You think that's all, Madam?

mizzle /mz()l/ n.2 slang. E20. [f. MIZZLE v.2] A disappearance, a vanishing act.

such as: do a mizzle: depart suddenly, vanish

mizzle /mz()l/ Complain, whimper; whine fretfully.


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

 

[AllardChardon]

Thank you, Handley, for adding to the two mizzles I posted. Such an interesting word. Off to a wedding today, so I could be suffered a hangover tomorrow.

mittimus - noun a warrant of commitment to prison

 

[CarlusMagnus]

Thank you, Handley, for adding to the two mizzles I posted. Such an interesting word. Off to a wedding today, so I could be suffered a hangover tomorrow.

mittimus - noun a warrant of commitment to prison

The first person plural present of the Latin verb mittere, to send. Literally, we send.

 

[Handley_Page]

Thank you, Handley, for adding to the two mizzles I posted. Such an interesting word. Off to a wedding today, so I could be suffered a hangover tomorrow.

mittimus - noun a warrant of commitment to prison

And according to my little Oxford, here's the rest of it:-

mittimus L, lit. 'we send', the first wd of the writ in Latin.]
A n. 1 Law. a A writ to transfer records from one court to another.
b A warrant committing a person to prison.
A dismissal from office; a notice to quit.
(Chiefly in get one's mittimus, be dismissed. colloq. & dial).
A magistrate. joc. rare.
B v.t. Commit to prison by a warrant. rare.

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

 

[NaokoSmith]

Allard, I suppose you haven't been able to get along to this exhibition/garden? It sounds really fun.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/35558d8c-0818-11e4-9afc-00144feab7de.html#axzz37zto9Qi4

I wonder if there's a connection between Mohock and Mohawk ?

Slang words for criminals often have ethnic origins: Hooligan (the O'Hoolihan Irish family name), Street Arabs.

Another fabric word for Naoko, which happens to be one of my favs;

mohair - noun a fabric or yarn made wholly or in part of the long silky hair of the Angora goat; also: this hair

I have a pair of mohair socks I knitted up when we went to London last year.

mageira: A woman's sublimination of sexual desire through cooking.

I love this word!

moko[/B] - a pheasant accidently shot before the start of the shooting season. From 1860

that's hilarious that there's a word for that!

I brought in the word meld, which we are using when we play cards - it's when someone has put down a set of cards and you get a card which is part of the set so you can stick yours down on top, that's melding.

 

[AllardChardon]

Carlus and Handley, thank you for posting additional information on mittimus.

Naoko, I have never been to New York, but I do have a trip planned for this November and I will try and make it to see some of those lovely flowers you posted. I do love to visit to beautiful gardens of all kinds, indoors and out.

mitraileuse - noun 1. breech-loading machine gun with a number of barrels 2. MACHINE GUN

 

[Handley_Page]

Carlus and Handley, thank you for posting additional information on mittimus.

Naoko, I have never been to New York, but I do have a trip planned for this November and I will try and make it to see some of those lovely flowers you posted. I do love to visit to beautiful gardens of all kinds, indoors and out.

mitraileuse - noun 1. breech-loading machine gun with a number of barrels 2. MACHINE GUN

37 in one example although between 16 and 50 is probably more accurate). This weapon was ten years before Gatling !.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Naoko, I have never been to New York, but I do have a trip planned for this November and I will try and make it to see some of those lovely flowers you posted. I do love to visit to beautiful gardens of all kinds, indoors and out.

What a shame - I think the exhibition finished start of September. Maybe there will be books and things from it, tho.

I've come back with some mamaluke and Marie sleeves - from Regency dresses. Delightfully illustrated here.

 

[AllardChardon]

Handley, I was most intrigued by this early machine gun, so thank you for adding a bit more information about it.

Naoko, what a lovely post this morning to read and look at, thanks so much for the fashion information on sleeves. I love sleeves like that and even have a long white dress with a few puffs on the sleeves, not as many as those, but it gives a nice appearance, anyway. Now, I know what to call them.

mithridate - noun an antidote against poison; esp: an electuary held to be effective against poison

mithridatism - noun tolerance to a poison acquired by taking gradually increased doses of it

The Dread Pirate Roberts in The Princess Bride did the same thing, or so he said.

 

[NaokoSmith]

The Dread Pirate Roberts in The Princess Bride did the same thing, or so he said.

A friend bought Piglet The Princess Bride for her birthday and we all really enjoyed it! although Piglet was a bit worried when they said a naughty word (I forget which one it was, LOL). She anxiously asked permission of her other friend's mum before taking it for a sleepover viewing.

 

[Handley_Page]

A friend bought Piglet The Princess Bride for her birthday and we all really enjoyed it! although Piglet was a bit worried when they said a naughty word (I forget which one it was, LOL). She anxiously asked permission of her other friend's mum before taking it for a sleepover viewing.

It's a film with loads of little jokes and visuals. Added all up, it's a damn funny film:

"My names is Diego Montoya.
You killed my father.
Prepare to die."

 

[CarlusMagnus]

mithridatism - noun tolerance to a poison acquired by taking gradually increased doses of it

Victor Hugo's Les Misérables contains a famous example of mithridatism, by which method Jean Valjean saves the prosecutor's father from the prosecutor's wife's efforts to poison him (the father).