Seldom-used words - M to A

[Weird Harold]

I'm thinking about raised beds too. Raised beds look so professional and rustic, and I believe they give the slugs a little more pause for thought.

Nah. Raised beds just provide pests Dinner With a View.

 

[Handley_Page]

Nah. Raised beds just provide pests Dinner With a View.

That's it, then. Look out the Chemistry Lab.

 

[oggbashan]

Back to words...

Copper-bottomed

British naval ships of the 18th and 19th century spent more time afloat and at sea than almost every other navy. Their wooden hulls were vulnerable to accumulating weed and marine borers that could damage the hull. But using thick copper plates below the waterline meant that the weed didn't attach ao strongly, would peel off when the ship began to move, and the borers couldn't penetrate to the wood.

http://www.oldcopper.org/special_topics/hms_victory_copper_sheathing.php

It also meant they were faster through the water than similar ships that were not copper-bottomed and had accumulations of weed.

When wooden merchant ships were also copper-bottomed they were less likely to rot or leak. Copper-bottomed took on a new meaning - a first class ship run by a competent shipping line and therefore lower marine insurance rates. Copper-bottomed extended to mean a first class (= low) insurance or financial risk, so shares in a copper-bottomed company were low risk but low dividend, stable but unexciting.

 

[trysail]

What Did Thomas Bowdler Bowdlerize? (from OED)


http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/07/bowdlerize/

​

 

[AllardChardon]

Trysail, thank you for posting that article on Thomas Bowlder. Censorship has lasted as long as there was something to censor.

Naoko, we have slugs too. Every morning I can see their trails of slime on my flower leaves. I sympathize.

Og, copper-bottom boats, which ended up meaning first-class, sounds perfectly normal. We humans love the best of everything, whether we can afford it or not.

This sounds so interesting;

lazy tongs - noun plural (1836) a series of jointed and pivoted bars capable of great extension used to pick up or handle something at a distance

 

[oggbashan]

...

This sounds so interesting;

lazy tongs - noun plural (1836) a series of jointed and pivoted bars capable of great extension used to pick up or handle something at a distance

lazy tongs were often used in working hot metal - in forges or furnaces.

http://assets2.merriam-webster.com/mw/static/art/dict/thumb/lazytong.gif

They were extensively used when rivetting ships' hulls to pick up and position red hot rivets.

But I use a modern version daily - a litter picker - because I have difficulty when bending. I can pick up small objects dropped on the floor, or even larger objects if they are not too heavy.

http://images.caraselledirect.com/500w/garden/deluxe_litter_picker.jpg

I have several - one upstairs, one downstairs, and one in each car. The most sophisticated ones have built in magnets at the tip to pick up small metal objects.

 

[AllardChardon]

That's funny, Og. The first picture is familiar but I have not seen a pair in years. The second picture is what we call a "trash picker-upper" I have one in orange plastic with a black claw. Our local elementary school used to pass them out to the older kids and lead them on a long walk around the neighborhood,picking up trash once a year on Earth Day. That's how I got mine.

lazaretto or lazaret also lazarette - noun (1549) 1. usually lazaretto: an institution (as a hospital) for those with contagious diseases 2. a building or a ship used for detention in quarantine 3. usually lazaret or lazarette: a space in a ship between decks used as a storeroom

 

[CarlusMagnus]

Any sort of copper wire is probable even cheaper; it would just take a little effort to strip the insulation and expose the wire. Short lengths might even be available for free around any construction site.

Fairly lengthy pieces are available for free if you have any extension cords or old appliances that you intend to retire…

 

[oggbashan]

Fairly lengthy pieces are available for free if you have any extension cords or old appliances that you intend to retire…

See post #1873 above - copper doesn't work as a slug deterrent.

 

[Weird Harold]

See post #1873 above - copper doesn't work as a slug deterrent.

It does if you leave the plug on one of those old extension cords and keep it plugged in. It works to keep gardeners, pets, and stray children off your plants too.

 

[CarlusMagnus]

See post #1873 above - copper doesn't work as a slug deterrent.

Yeah—someday I'll learn that I shouldn't reply to an individual post before I've caught up on the whole thread…

 

[AllardChardon]

It was a lengthy slug discussion, I must say, but I don't mind. Everyone is free to talk about whatever they like, as long as it remains polite.

I did find this to be an interesting entry;

lazar - noun (14c) a person afflicted with a repulsive disease; specif: LEPER

 

[Handley_Page]

It was a lengthy slug discussion, I must say, but I don't mind. Everyone is free to talk about whatever they like, as long as it remains polite.

I did find this to be an interesting entry;

lazar - noun (14c) a person afflicted with a repulsive disease; specif: LEPER

I see from Wiki that 'Lazar the Serb' built the first known mechanical clock in Moscow (1404).
I seem to remember (but cannot find) a reference to a Lazar also being a room in a building.

 

[CarlusMagnus]

I see from Wiki that 'Lazar the Serb' built the first known mechanical clock in Moscow (1404).
I seem to remember (but cannot find) a reference to a Lazar also being a room in a building.

According to the dictionary built into my Mac: ORIGIN Middle English: from medieval Latin lazarus, with biblical allusion to Lazarus, the name of a beggar covered in sores (Luke 16:20).

According to the dictionary on my phone, the name Lazarus is Late Latin, from Greek Lazaros, from Hebrew El'āzār.

 

[AllardChardon]

Very nice, Handley and Carlus. Please forgive my intermittent attendance. Summer has a way of making all things out of doors more attractive than winter to me, especially with the river and creek so nearby.

layerage - noun (1902) the practice, art, or process of rooting plants by layering

 

[Handley_Page]

layerage - noun (1902) the practice, art, or process of rooting plants by layering

Not that I understood that.

 

[oggbashan]

Not that I understood that.

Look at brambles. Where a long piece of bramble touches the ground it sprouts roots that anchor it again. Some other plants can do the same if part of them is in contact with earth e.g. strawberries.

So if you lay plant stems down they can root to provide new plants that can be cut from the original stem.

 

[Handley_Page]

Look at brambles. Where a long piece of bramble touches the ground it sprouts roots that anchor it again. Some other plants can do the same if part of them is in contact with earth e.g. strawberries.

So if you lay plant stems down they can root to provide new plants that can be cut from the original stem.

You may gather that I'm no gardener.

 

[AllardChardon]

A perfect explanation, Og, and it must have answered Handley's query nicely. I have both brambles and strawberries and they do a great job of creeping along.

Another entry for the fabric-lovers;

lawn(2) - noun (15c) a fine sheer linen or cotton fabric of plain weave that is thinner than cambric

 

[NaokoSmith]

I do apologise for bringing slugs in raised beds in here, Allard . I must resuscitate my Garden Shed thread. However I am very grateful for all the helpful advice and won't waste my money on buying up copper wiring - instead I'll have a think about Harold's electrifying suggestion

I was going to bring in lisle stockings, but I see Allard has already explained that lisle is a kind of cotton thread. I've always found the idea of 'lisle stockings' intriguing, were they particularly durable? I know from knitting socks that you have to be careful about what yarn you use. If you make socks from pure wool, the heels wear thin very quickly, it's best to use a yarn that has a small amount of manmade fibre in it.

Lawn and cambric dresses, too, sound so elegant. I've just been re-reading Georgette Heyer's Venetia, full of dimity frocks. Ben Jonson wrote of another Venetia - a lady who lived (very successfully!) more for pleasure than virtue:

Sitting, and ready to be drawn,
What makes these velvets, silks, and lawn,
Embroideries, feathers, fringes, lace,
Where every limb takes like a face?

Send these suspected helps, to aid
Some form defective, or decayed;
This beauty, without falsehood fair,
Needs naught to clothe it but the air,
The Picture of The Body.

 

[NaokoSmith]

lazy tongs - noun plural (1836) a series of jointed and pivoted bars capable of great extension used to pick up or handle something at a distance

I forgot to add, on these, that I just bought for one of my young nieces a novelty box of sweets that has plastic lazy tongs in the shape of a crocodile head on it!

And on copper-bottomed, my aunt used to call my brother Copper Bottom, because his name is Nicholas ("Nickelass" )

 

[oggbashan]

I was going to bring in lisle stockings, but I see Allard has already explained that lisle is a kind of cotton thread. I've always found the idea of 'lisle stockings' intriguing, were they particularly durable? I know from knitting socks that you have to be careful about what yarn you use. If you make socks from pure wool, the heels wear thin very quickly, it's best to use a yarn that has a small amount of manmade fibre in it.

...

Cotton Lisle was used for opaque stockings but silk was preferable until nylon stockings were available. Cotton Lisle is still used for men's socks - comfortable and hard wearing.

From a sock retailer's website:

Cotton Lisle

Cotton lisle is loved for its superior strength and durability. Twisted an extra twist per inch than ordinary yarns in one direction with a second thread twisted at the same rate in the opposite direction, these two strands are then twisted together to create one combined cotton lisle thread.

 

[NaokoSmith]

From a sock retailer's website:

Cotton Lisle

Cotton lisle is loved for its superior strength and durability. Twisted an extra twist per inch than ordinary yarns in one direction with a second thread twisted at the same rate in the opposite direction, these two strands are then twisted together to create one combined cotton lisle thread.

I wonder if I could knit with it ... I suppose it would be hard on the fingers. Cotton usually is. I must have a google and see if it's available in skeins.

 

[Handley_Page]

I wonder if I could knit with it ... I suppose it would be hard on the fingers. Cotton usually is. I must have a google and see if it's available in skeins.

It's damned thin thread !

 

[NaokoSmith]

It's damned thin thread !

I can't find lisle cotton , although I have found some other hand-spun sock cottons in a range of colours and artiness. I will continue to search, it would be rather fun to knit a pair of very fine cotton socks.

Here is a picture of a pair I once knitted for Somebody , with a combined pattern of fishscales and bonbons.

http://images4-e.ravelrycache.com/uploads/Anthropologixmum/211847303/DSC_1682_medium2.jpg