Seldom-used words - M to A

[AllardChardon]

Thank you, Handley, that was very helpful. Lobster was slang for fool or dupe, so it makes sense.

Og, without even knowing it, I have made scouse for my family. It's called beef stew here. And NEVER have I heard the Beatles called Scousers before. What a trip, thanks so much for that precious tidbit and teaching me the ins and outs of a language I supposedly speak.

loblolly - noun (1597) 1. dial: a. a thick gruel b. MIRE, MUDHOLE 2. dail: LOUT 3. LOBLOLLY PINE

 

[Handley_Page]

Thank you, Handley, that was very helpful. Lobster was slang for fool or dupe, so it makes sense.

Og, without even knowing it, I have made scouse for my family. It's called beef stew here. And NEVER have I heard the Beatles called Scousers before. What a trip, thanks so much for that precious tidbit and teaching me the ins and outs of a language I supposedly speak.

loblolly - noun (1597) 1. dial: a. a thick gruel b. MIRE, MUDHOLE 2. dail: LOUT 3. LOBLOLLY PINE

If you listen to how Ringo speaks, its a damn-near perfect Scouse accent.
[particularly in Hard Days Night]

Ah, Loblolly.
The Loblolly Boy was the assistant to the surgeon on board a Man 'o War, back in the day. [See HERE ]

 

[oggbashan]

Ah, Loblolly.
The Loblolly Boy was the assistant to the surgeon on board a Man 'o War, back in the day. [See HERE ]

The loblolly boy helped to hold injured sailors down for operations such as amputations, and had the unenviable task of throwing the cut-off limbs overboard (on the lee side of course!).

Wikipedia:

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

Being 'in the hands of the loblolly boy' could mean you were about to lose a limb, or you were sick and being fed slops.


The modern version is a sick berth attendant or medical corpsman.

 

[AllardChardon]

Handley, I happen to own a copy of A Hard Day's Night, the movie, and I do love listening to Ringo's accent and now I know what it is called.

Og and Handley, thank you both for the additional information on loblolly boy.

lobeline - noun (1852) a crystalline alkaloid that is obtained from Indian tobacco and is used chiefly as a respiratory stimulant and as a smoking deterrent

lobelia - noun (1739) 1. any of a genus of widely cultivated plants having terminal clusters of showy lipped flowers 2. leaves and tops of Indian tobacco

 

[AllardChardon]

It is so good to be back here on LIT. My computer crashed and I had to take it into the shop where it stayed for over a week. Now, obviously, it is all fixed and I have returned to my thread.

lobbygow - noun [origin unknown] (1899) an errand boy

 

[oggbashan]

It is so good to be back here on LIT. My computer crashed and I had to take it into the shop where it stayed for over a week. Now, obviously, it is all fixed and I have returned to my thread.

lobbygow - noun [origin unknown] (1899) an errand boy

Welcome back. You've been missed.

While you have been gone I've acquired a new slang dictionary - Cassell's.

It has lobby-gow - [with a hyphen] late 19th Cent to 1970s US - 1. a hanger-on, a messenger, an errand boy, especially one who frequents or works in an opium den or brothel, or a tourist guide in Chinatown, New York City. 2. a Chinese police informant. 3. an insignificant person. From standard [US] English lobby + gow.

The next term is also US:

lobby louse or lobby lizard 1930s a person who loiters in hotel lobbies, usually harassing guests. (compare with lounge-lizard)

 

[AllardChardon]

Og, I am always glad to hear I have been missed. A new slang dictionary, Cassell's, is exciting. What year was it published? Thanks always for posting old words I love learning about.

lob(1) - noun (1508) dial Brit: a dull heavy person

lob (2) - verb (1599) 1. to let hang heavily: DROOP 2. to throw, hit, or propel easily or in a high arc 3. to direct (as a question or comment) so as to elicit a response

lob(3) - noun (1851) a soft high-arching shot, throw, or kick

 

[oggbashan]

Og, I am always glad to hear I have been missed. A new slang dictionary, Cassell's, is exciting. What year was it published? Thanks always for posting old words I love learning about.

...

My Cassell Dictionary of Slang (edited by Jonathon Green) was first published in 1988. I have the Book Club softback reprint of 1989. It is as large as my Concise Oxford Dictionary.

It seems to include all the words in my other slang dictionaries and is as up-to-date as it can be including slang current in the 1980s.

 

[AllardChardon]

Og, that sounds like a good edition to own. I will look for one as soon as funds allow. Please jump in anytime with any new or old slang words to entertain us all.

loanword - noun (1869) a word taken from another language and at least partly naturalized

 

[Samuelx]

This ought to be good...

 

[Handley_Page]

Og, that sounds like a good edition to own. I will look for one as soon as funds allow. Please jump in anytime with any new or old slang words to entertain us all.

loanword - noun (1869) a word taken from another language and at least partly naturalized

You mean, like "Schadenfreude" ?

 

[AllardChardon]

Handley, since I did not know the definition of schadenfreude, I looked it up and it is from the German Schaden for damage and Freude for joy, meaning enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others, which you already knew. The answer to your question is yes, I think. This is what I found at About Education, a website;

"A threefold distinction derived from German is applied by scholars to loan words on the basis of their degree of assimilation in the new host language. A Gastwort ('guest word') retains its original pronunciation, spelling, and meaning. Examples are passé from French, diva from Italian, and leitmotiv from German. A Fremdwort ('foreign word') has undergone partial assimilation, as have French garage and hotel. Garage has developed a secondary, Anglicized pronunciation ('garrij') and can be used as a verb; hotel, originally pronounced with a silent 'h,' as the older formulation an hotel shows, has for some time been pronounced like an English word, with the 'h' being sounded. Finally, a Lehnwort ('loan word') has become a virtual native in the new language with no distinguishing characteristics. Loan word is thus an example of itself."
(Geoffrey Hughes, A History of English Words. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2000)

 

[oggbashan]

Loan Words into French

The Academie Française is constantly battling against foreign words, usually unsuccessfully.

In the 1980s I belonged to a French Circle evening class. For three hours once a week we would talk nothing but French, discussing various topics, usually current news.

But sometimes we were asked to give a talk to the group about our hobbies or interests. I had given several such talks, more than most of the group, because I don't mind making a fool of myself. But the class leader/teacher knew I was working with computers. Could I give a talk about using computers? In French of course.

At the time I had a cheap laptop (very crude by modern standards) that was cheap because although sold in the UK it had a French keyboard and the software was in French too.

I prepared the talk and brought my laptop to show:

The Operating System C/PM,
Wordprocessing with WordStar,
Spreadsheets with SuperCalc, and
Databases with Dbase.

I gave my talk. Unusually there were no interruptions, and no questions.

Why?

They hadn't understood me. They weren't computer literate in English and ALL the French computer terms were those defined by the Academie Française. The group had never heard those terms. I was asked to repeat my talk at another session, but this time in ENGLISH!

Fast forward twenty years or so until Windows came along.

Most French computers were supplied with Windows. The default settings brought up the opening screen and desktop in French. The wordprocessor, the spreadsheet, and the database all started in French. The first thing most French users did to their computer was to change the settings to US English.

Why?

The French didn't understand or know the terms defined by the Academie Française!

Almost all French computer users work in the US English settings even if they are typing French with a French keyboard. And if anything goes wrong with their computer, the first error messages are in French but anything serious has an English error message. They HAVE to know the English terminology to work a French language computer.

The Academie Française is not impressed. So many English computing terms are used as the norm in French conversation, manuals and text books that their genuine French words are almost unknown.

 

[Handley_Page]

The Academie Française is constantly battling against foreign words, usually unsuccessfully.

The Academie Française is not impressed. So many English computing terms are used as the norm in French conversation, manuals and text books that their genuine French words are almost unknown.

If all else fails; Read the bloody Manual !

 

[AllardChardon]

I must apologize for not welcoming Samuelx, I got side-tracked by Handley's question. Please excuse me.

Og, what a great story and a perfect example of the "old way" still trying to have sway over the "new". We really can't stop the evolution of language and should not try at all. Thank you for sharing your experience, you teach me so much about European culture with your posts.

To continue in a similar vein;

loan translation - noun (1917) a compound, derivative, or phrase that is introduced into a language through translation of the constituents of a term in another language (as superman from German Übermensch)

 

[AllardChardon]

This word is entirely new to me, no matter how old it may be;

loaning - noun (14c) 1. dial Brit: LANE 2. dial Brit: a milking yard

 

[AllardChardon]

Hello, posters.

Here is a lovely looking word;

lixiviate - vt (1758) to extract a soluble constituent from (a solid mixture) by washing or percolation

 

[Handley_Page]

Hello, posters.

Here is a lovely looking word;

lixiviate - vt (1758) to extract a soluble constituent from (a solid mixture) by washing or percolation

Also "Impregnate with Lye."

But how are we going to use it ?

 

[Weird Harold]

Hello, posters.

Here is a lovely looking word;

lixiviate - vt (1758) to extract a soluble constituent from (a solid mixture) by washing or percolation

Also "Impregnate with Lye."

But how are we going to use it ?

A bath scene?

 

[AllardChardon]

Handley and Harold, my first thought was the coffee percolator my mother used when I was a child, but that does not solve the usage problem. Maybe, it only makes it worse.

I did not know the full extent of this word's meaning;

livid - noun 1. discolored by bruising: BLACK-AND-BLUE <the ~ traces of the sharp scourges — Abraham Cowley> 2. ASHEN, PALLID <this cross, thy ~ face, thy pierced hands and feet — Walt Whitman> 3. reddish <a fan of gladiolas blushed ~ under the electric letters — Truman Capote> 4. very angry: ENRAGED <was ~ at his son's disobedience>

 

[AllardChardon]

A pleasant Sunday greeting to you all;

live-forever - noun (1597) SEDUM - compare STONECROP

I had to look them both up.

 

[oggbashan]

A pleasant Sunday greeting to you all;

live-forever - noun (1597) SEDUM - compare STONECROP

I had to look them both up.

My front garden Sedum is in full bloom. The bees are loving it. But we call it Ice-Plant.

 

[AllardChardon]

Og, iceplant reminds me of my youth and the blissfully lazy summers days I spent at Hermosa Beach, just seven miles from my hometown of Torrance, CA. Iceplant grows everywhere along the southern California beaches.

littoral(1) -adj (ca. 1656) of, relating to, or situated or growing on or near a shore esp. of the sea

littoral(2) - noun (1828) a coastal region; esp: the shore zone between high tide and low tide points

 

[oggbashan]

Og, iceplant reminds me of my youth and the blissfully lazy summers days I spent at Hermosa Beach, just seven miles from my hometown of Torrance, CA. Iceplant grows everywhere along the southern California beaches.

littoral(1) -adj (ca. 1656) of, relating to, or situated or growing on or near a shore esp. of the sea

littoral(2) - noun (1828) a coastal region; esp: the shore zone between high tide and low tide points

The adjective is often applied to flora and fauna. I have difficulty growing some plants because I am so close to the sea. The garden flowers have to tolerate salt and strong winds. Iceplants (Sedum) are happy in that situation.

Some years we have grown tomatoes in the raised beds in our front garden. When we harvest them, they are ready-salted, one of the advantages of being littoral....

 

[AllardChardon]

Og, salty sea-air seasoned tomatoes, straight from your garden. How delightful.

little theater - noun (1912) a small theater for low-cost dramatic productions designed for a relatively limited audience