Seldom-used words - M to A

[AllardChardon]

Og, that video of the procedure for lost wax was most interesting and entertaining, too. I do love to watch artisans at work. Thank you.

losel - noun (14c) a worthless person

 

[AllardChardon]

Greetings, posters.

Here is an interesting old word;

lorica - noun (ca. 1706) 1. a Roman cuirass of leather or metal 2. a hard protective case or shell (as of a rotifer)

Of course, I must admit, I don't know what a cuirass or a rotifer are.

 

[oggbashan]

Greetings, posters.

Here is an interesting old word;

lorica - noun (ca. 1706) 1. a Roman cuirass of leather or metal 2. a hard protective case or shell (as of a rotifer)

Of course, I must admit, I don't know what a cuirass or a rotifer are.

Cuirass = hardened leather waistcoat as armour. "cuir" = leather.

http://www.evenlodestudio.com/acatalog/L-armour-moulded-cuirass.jpg

It evolved into the classic Roman lorica:

http://www.royalarmouriesshop.org/images/detailed/0/Lorica_Segmentata_-_Corbridge_Type.jpg

Rotifer = a shallow roasting pot for an open fire, usually a shallow steel or cast iron bowl contracted from French 'roti au feu'. I couldn't find an exact illustration. It is like a large Wok but very heavy, intended to be placed on or over the fire:

http://conniesmithson.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/open-fire-cooking.jpg

 

[CarlusMagnus]

Greetings, posters.

Here is an interesting old word;

lorica - noun (ca. 1706) 1. a Roman cuirass of leather or metal 2. a hard protective case or shell (as of a rotifer)

Of course, I must admit, I don't know what a cuirass or a rotifer are.

That's easily fixed:

Cuirass: https://www.google.com/search?q=cui...hMI36m9nr2FxgIVRBWsCh3c2QA2&biw=1307&bih=1250

Rotifer: https://www.google.com/search?q=Rot...hMI8Iuq272FxgIVghKsCh0GbADv&biw=1307&bih=1250

 

[oggbashan]

That's easily fixed:

Cuirass: https://www.google.com/search?q=cui...hMI36m9nr2FxgIVRBWsCh3c2QA2&biw=1307&bih=1250

Rotifer: https://www.google.com/search?q=Rot...hMI8Iuq272FxgIVghKsCh0GbADv&biw=1307&bih=1250

But the second one isn't the rotifer that was meant.

 

[AllardChardon]

Og, you are right, of course. Thank you for finding the rotifer definition that I was searching for and posting a similar photo.

Carlus, I had the same problem as you when I tried to look up rotifer.

lorgnon - noun (1846) LORGNETTE

lorgnette - noun (1803) a pair of eyeglasses or opera glasses with a handle

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Cuirass = hardened leather waistcoat as armour. "cuir" = leather.

http://www.evenlodestudio.com/acatalog/L-armour-moulded-cuirass.jpg

It evolved into the classic Roman lorica:

http://www.royalarmouriesshop.org/images/detailed/0/Lorica_Segmentata_-_Corbridge_Type.jpg

Rotifer = a shallow roasting pot for an open fire, usually a shallow steel or cast iron bowl contracted from French 'roti au feu'. I couldn't find an exact illustration. It is like a large Wok but very heavy, intended to be placed on or over the fire:

http://conniesmithson.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/open-fire-cooking.jpg

But the second one isn't the rotifer that was meant.

It is the one that was meant, Ogg. "Lorica" in biology refers to the hard protective cases some protozoans, including the rotifers, make for themselves.

I'm not at all sure of your etymology for the cooking pot definition - "roti au feu" refers to cooking food directly over the fire, usually on a rotatable spit. The 'roti' in rotifer comes from Latin 'rota,' for the wheel-like oral opening of the rotifers. Yours might come from roti-fer or 'iron wheel' (what you described does make me think of an old automobile hubcap), but that's as likely an imaginary etymology as is the 'roti-au-feu' derivation.

 

[oggbashan]

It is the one that was meant, Ogg. "Lorica" in biology refers to the hard protective cases some protozoans, including the rotifers, make for themselves.

I'm not at all sure of your etymology for the cooking pot definition - "roti au feu" refers to cooking food directly over the fire, usually on a rotatable spit. The 'roti' in rotifer comes from Latin 'rota,' for the wheel-like oral opening of the rotifers. Yours might come from roti-fer or 'iron wheel' (what you described does make me think of an old automobile hubcap), but that's as likely an imaginary etymology as is the 'roti-au-feu' derivation.

You are probably right, but the roti au feu (rotifer) was used in medieval kitchens. The hubcap? That reminds me of a novel by Richard Powell - Pioneer Go Home! - made into an Elvis movie as Follow That Dream. In the book the hero makes a cooking pot out of two automobile hubcaps.

Edited for PS: I wonder whether the animal rotifers were named after the armour or the cooking pot?

 

[Tio_Narratore]

You are probably right, but the roti au feu (rotifer) was used in medieval kitchens. The hubcap? That reminds me of a novel by Richard Powell - Pioneer Go Home! - made into an Elvis movie as Follow That Dream. In the book the hero makes a cooking pot out of two automobile hubcaps.

There's No Plate Like Chrome for the Hollandaise


And maybe a bit of both, as Canadians are wont to compromisedly say...

roti - fer --- iron roaster. referring to the vessel's material (cast iron) and the mode of cooking (directly over the fire, rather than indirect heat as in an oven).

 

[oggbashan]

There's No Plate Like Chrome for the Hollandaise

That is why in Pioneer Go Home the hero used TWO hubcaps - so that the food didn't run out through the valve holes.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

That is why in Pioneer Go Home the hero used TWO hubcaps - so that the food didn't run out through the valve holes.

good thinking.

I came up with what I think is a better, if not correct, etymology. See above.

 

[Handley_Page]

So a Rotifer is a small cauldron or similar, then ?

 

[oggbashan]

So a Rotifer is a small cauldron or similar, then ?

Probably not. Tio has a better source than I do.

If my version of rotifer is right, it is a minor, obsolete use from the French, not in English usage.

It might be correct in Canadian

 

[CarlusMagnus]

Probably not. Tio has a better source than I do.

If my version of rotifer is right, it is a minor, obsolete use from the French, not in English usage.

It might be correct in Canadian

Having worked in a building beside biologists for 30 years, I'd heard only of the the living kind of rotifer. Ogg's may well be the one that was meant—but my kind is still a rotifer.

 

[CarlusMagnus]

Having worked in a building beside biologists for 30 years, I'd heard only of the the living kind of rotifer. Ogg's may well be the one that was meant—but my kind is still a rotifer.

The lorica of the rotifer (Is there a song title there? Maybe a title for a Lit. story?) clearly comes from the Latin word for a soldier's cuirass. The scientist who named it was almost certainly classically educated.

 

[oggbashan]

Having worked in a building beside biologists for 30 years, I'd heard only of the the living kind of rotifer. Ogg's may well be the one that was meant—but my kind is still a rotifer.

And your kind is probably the correct rotifer, but that definition doesn't really help someone to know what a lorica was originally.

 

[oggbashan]

Og, that video of the procedure for lost wax was most interesting and entertaining, too. I do love to watch artisans at work. Thank you.

losel - noun (14c) a worthless person

Derivation - means one who is lost, or possibly "a loser".

But it has a modern use in Dungeons and Dragons as The Losel is an orc-baboon crossbreed. Though roughly humanoid, they are little more than tool-using animals in many respects. Their name means "lost ones."

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

One artist's depiction of a D&D Losel:

http://www.canonfire.com/wiki/images/1/17/Losel00.jpg

Byron used the word losel:



Whilome in Albion's isle there dwelt a youth,
Who ne in virtue's ways did take delight;
But spent his days in riot most uncouth,
And vex'd with mirth the drowsy ear of Night.
Oh, me! in sooth he was a shameless wight,
Sore given to revel and ungodly glee;
Few earthly things found favour in his sight
Save concubines and carnal companie,
And flaunting wassailers of high and low degree.
Childe Harold was he hight:
-- but whence his name
And lineage long, it suits me not to say;
Suffice it, that perchance they were of fame,
And had been glorious in another day;
But one sad losel soils a name for aye,
However mighty in the olden time;
Nor all that heralds rake from coffin'd clay,
Nor florid prose, nor honied lies of rhyme,
Can blazon evil deeds or consecrate a crime.

Lord Byron, from Childe Harold, Canto I36

 

[CarlusMagnus]

Byron used the word losel:


Whilome in Albion's isle there dwelt a youth,
Who ne in virtue's ways did take delight;
But spent his days in riot most uncouth,
And vex'd with mirth the drowsy ear of Night.
Oh, me! in sooth he was a shameless wight,
Sore given to revel and ungodly glee;
Few earthly things found favour in his sight
Save concubines and carnal companie,
And flaunting wassailers of high and low degree.
Childe Harold was he hight:
-- but whence his name
And lineage long, it suits me not to say;
Suffice it, that perchance they were of fame,
And had been glorious in another day;
But one sad losel soils a name for aye,
However mighty in the olden time;
Nor all that heralds rake from coffin'd clay,
Nor florid prose, nor honied lies of rhyme,
Can blazon evil deeds or consecrate a crime.

Lord Byron, from Childe Harold, Canto I36

And a lovely collection of other seldom-used words:


whilome—at times

ne—never

sooth—truth

wight—person

hight—named

aye—always, or still. Not the expression of assent made by sailors in the phrase "Aye, aye, sir." Pronounced to rhyme with the word day (as Byron clearly knew—look at his rhyming), and not to rhyme with by, as in the expression of assent. The phrase for aye means "forever".

 

[AllardChardon]

How I love to return after a few days gone (off partying with a great band) and find so many good posts to read. You are all the best of contributors and I appreciate your posts immensely.

I must add this one, seldom-used or not, because I have always love mermaids;

Lorelei - noun (1865) a siren of Germanic legend whose singing lures Rhine River boatmen to destruction on a reef

 

[oggbashan]

How I love to return after a few days gone (off partying with a great band) and find so many good posts to read. You are all the best of contributors and I appreciate your posts immensely.

I must add this one, seldom-used or not, because I have always love mermaids;

Lorelei - noun (1865) a siren of Germanic legend whose singing lures Rhine River boatmen to destruction on a reef

Not a legend but an enduring fictional character:

In 1801, German author Clemens Brentano composed his ballad Zu Bacharach am Rheine as part of a fragmentary continuation of his novel Godwi oder Das steinerne Bild der Mutter. It first told the story of an enchanting female associated with the rock. In the poem, the beautiful Lore Lay, betrayed by her sweetheart, is accused of bewitching men and causing their death. Rather than sentence her to death, the bishop consigns her to a nunnery. On the way thereto, accompanied by three knights, she comes to the Lorelei rock. She asks permission to climb it and view the Rhine once again. She does so and falls to her death; the rock still retained an echo of her name afterwards. Brentano had taken inspiration from Ovid and the Echo myth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorelei

 

[AllardChardon]

Thank you, Og, for correcting my dictionary and enlightening me. I thought Lore Lay was a siren and a Rhinemaiden, but I see now that she is based on a human woman. When I was in Hawaii, I bought a hula-girl figurine for my dashboard and her name was Lorelei. How funny!

I am posting this next word for its archaic first definition, which is new to me;

lore(1) - noun 1. archaic: something that is taught: LESSON 2. something that is learned: a. knowledge gained through study or experience b. traditional knowledge or belief 3. a particular body of knowledge or tradition

 

[Handley_Page]

Thank you, Og, for correcting my dictionary and enlightening me. I thought Lore Lay was a siren and a Rhinemaiden, but I see now that she is based on a human woman. When I was in Hawaii, I bought a hula-girl figurine for my dashboard and her name was Lorelei. How funny!

You been watching "Space Cowboys" ?

 

[oggbashan]

Thank you, Og, for correcting my dictionary and enlightening me. I thought Lore Lay was a siren and a Rhinemaiden, but I see now that she is based on a human woman. When I was in Hawaii, I bought a hula-girl figurine for my dashboard and her name was Lorelei. How funny!

...

The Rhinemaidens are Wagner's invention based on water sprites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinemaidens

Until recently, most opera singers appearing as Rhinemaidens were Rubenesque ladies of substantial stature and embonpoint because they had to have powerful voices to project their singing in an opera house without microphones. More modern productions have cast attractive young ladies in the roles.

The Lorelei and the Rhinemaidens are relatively modern fictional creations without basis in older legends.

 

[AllardChardon]

Handley, no I haven't watched Space Cowboys. Is there a hula girl figurine in that show?

Og, the link to the Rhinemaidens is very informative (I do love Wiki), but the illustrations are fantastic. Thank you so much for posting it. Nymphs, water sprites, mermaids and the like are among my favorite images to gaze upon. I spent many hours in my Aunt's swimming pool in Palm Springs, pretending to be a mermaid (after I asked my mother if I could tie my feet together in a crossed position to simulate a tail).

It is the second definition of this word that caught my eye;

lordosis - noun (1704) 1. abnormally increased inward curvature of the lower region of the spine resulting in a concave back as viewed from the side - compare KYPHOSIS 2. a mating posture of some sexually receptive female mammals (as rats) in which the head and rump are raised and the back is arched downward

I never thought of myself as having anything in common with female rats, but I guess I do! haha

 

[oggbashan]

It is the second definition of this word that caught my eye;

lordosis - noun (1704) 1. abnormally increased inward curvature of the lower region of the spine resulting in a concave back as viewed from the side - compare KYPHOSIS 2. a mating posture of some sexually receptive female mammals (as rats) in which the head and rump are raised and the back is arched downward

I never thought of myself as having anything in common with female rats, but I guess I do! haha

I have some lordosis as a result of long-standing ankylosing spondilitis but altering my spine curvature to mimic definition 2 would be impossible.