Seldom-Used Words

[Virtual_Burlesque]

I was unable to locate the beginning of a discussion about the "Blue Peter

This was from a link provided by Handley_Page about International Signal Flags. See below.

See:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_maritime_signal_flags
Please note the Yellow Flag, "Q". (Quebec)
"My vessel is 'healthy' and I request free pratique."

also reputed to be a place in a house where guests could vomit safely to make way for more food.

According to Cecil Adams, you're in distinguished company, but none-the-less, incorrect.

http://*******.com/3h5x3p


Since we have drifted into a nautical mood, instead of the usual naughty mood, here are some degrees of cast offs at sea.

Flotsam is floating wreckage of a ship or its cargo.

Jetsam is part of a ship, equipment or cargo that is purposefully cast overboard.

Lagan is cargo cast into the sea with a buoy attached in the hope that it may be reclaimed.

Derelict is part of a ship or its cargo on the bottom with no hope of being salvaged.

Unfortunately, I have never felt any need to employ "lagan" in speech, or in writing, and am now merely showing off my erudition. The other three terms I do use occasionally, and I hope, correctly.

Like flotsam and jetsam, there is also a considerable difference between foofaraw and furbellows.

Foofaraw: Excessive or flashy ornamentation, or fuss over a trifling matter.

Furbelows: Decorations or trimming on a woman’s petticoat or dress, almost always used in the plural, and in conjunction with the word "frills" -- "frills and furbelows" -- from the French word "falbala" for a flounce.

 

[AllardChardon]

Virtual B, I am so glad you shared the information on the vomitorium, I also thought it was the place to vomit. The true explanation was very enlightening. And thanks for furbelows, as well. Being an historical erotica writer dealing with 1850s, I will use it.

recondite - adj 1. archaic: hidden from sight:CONCEALED 2. incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge: DEEP 3. of, relating to, or dealing with something little known or obscure

 

[Handley_Page]

According to Cecil Adams, you're in distinguished company, but none-the-less, incorrect.

http://*******.com/3h5x3p


Lagan is cargo cast into the sea with a buoy attached in the hope that it may be reclaimed.

Derelict is part of a ship or its cargo on the bottom with no hope of being salvaged.

Thank you for the pointer about the speedy exit.

"Langan" must be the right phrase for the package when drug smugglers leave their filthy cargo just off-shore. . . .

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

"Langan" must be the right phrase for the package when drug smugglers leave their filthy cargo just off-shore. . . .

You are the bright one! I never thought of that. And if AllardChardon writes a story where barrels of brandy or packages of tea are floated in on the morning tide, she may be able to use it, too.

Anyone interested in Late Georgian-Early Regency slang should check out the "1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose" at Project Gutenberg.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5402

Where you will learn that a Caper Merchant or Hop Merchant is a dancing master, Fustian is bombastic language, and a Thwack is a great blow with a stick across the shoulders. But you must take some care what you use, or how it is presented, or your readers will never discover that a Public Man is a bankrupt, or a Public Ledger is a prostitute, because she is open to all parties.

 

[CarlusMagnus]

Virtual B, I am so glad you shared the information on the vomitorium, I also thought it was the place to vomit. The true explanation was very enlightening. And thanks for furbelows, as well. Being an historical erotica writer dealing with 1850s, I will use it.

recondite - adj 1. archaic: hidden from sight:CONCEALED 2. incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge: DEEP 3. of, relating to, or dealing with something little known or obscure

A recondite word indeed; better, maybe, than esoteric, or even arcane, in that respect.

 

[AllardChardon]

Hello everyone. Here is a French word that caught my eye this morning;

réclame - noun 1. public acclaim: VOGUE 2. SHOWMANSHIP

 

[AllardChardon]

I am going to stay with the French theme for a bit longer, even though I seem to be alone in my appreciation of their language, at times. I might have posted this before, and, if so, please excuse me;

recherche' - adj 1.a. EXQUISITE, CHOICE b. EXOTIC, RARE 2. excessively refined: PRECIOUS 3. OVERBLOWN, PRETENTIOUS

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Rechauffé 1. a warmed-over dish of food; 2. a rehash


(And, as an aside on your theme francaise, Allard, did you know that the English "cherries" is back-formed from the French "cerise?")

 

[AllardChardon]

Tio, you took my next post, you clever guy! I forgive you completely.

recension - noun 1. a critical revision of a text 2. a text established by critical revision

 

[AllardChardon]

Here is an odd word for the day;

rebarbative - adj CRABBED, REPELLENT

 

[AllardChardon]

Here is a word you would think I would recognize, but I didn't;

rearward(1) - noun REAR; esp: the rear division (as of an army)

rearward(2) - adj 1. located at, near, or toward the rear 2. directed toward the rear: BACKWARD

rearward(3) also rearwards - adv at, near, or toward the rear: BACKWARD

 

[AllardChardon]

I usually do not post twice in one day without encouragement, but I meant to post this one long ago and forgot;

so·be·it - conjunction archaic if it be so that; provided that

Dated 1583, from so be it, a rare survival of the English subjunctive

The heart of his friend cared little whither he went, sobeit he were not too much alone. H. W. Longfellow

 

[Handley_Page]

I usually do not post twice in one day without encouragement, but I meant to post this one long ago and forgot;

so·be·it - conjunction archaic if it be so that; provided that

Dated 1583, from so be it, a rare survival of the English subjunctive

The heart of his friend cared little whither he went, sobeit he were not too much alone. H. W. Longfellow

Strange use of the words there, I find. The two ways do not mean the same, I'm thinking.
"So Be It" is an acceptance of some state or other that cannot be altered.
It seems strange to see it all as one word and used as Longfellow did it.

 

[AllardChardon]

Handley, it really isn't all that strange, when you consider that sobeit is archaic, now. Samuel Clemens liked it and used it on occasion. I predominately read period literature (1850 and earlier) to assist in the language-style transition before composing my prose. I find it here and there and, I must admit, I love it.

rearhorse - noun MANTIS

 

[AllardChardon]

I never knew there was a term for this, but I should have known there was;

real presence - noun (often cap R & P): the doctrine that Christ is actually present in the Eucharist

 

[trysail]

batture • n., [F., fr. battre to beat. ] An elevated river bed or sea bed.






There are lots of reasons to pay attention to current events; learning new words is but one of them.

...In the netherworld of the batture between the levee and the Mississippi River near New Orleans, there is a small community built on stilts. Locals call them "camps": a dozen eccentric structures — some rundown, some handsome, all handmade — clinging to the river side of the great dike.

One man has been fighting for years to claim this land, which he says belongs to his family, but those living on the batture don't seem too worried about losing their homes...

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/17/140553646/on-the-edge-in-mississippi-residents-cling-to-land

 

[AllardChardon]

Thanks, Trysail, I am always interested in happenings around New Orleans.

razz(1) - noun [short for razzberry (sound of contempt), alter. of raspberry: RASPBERRY

razz(2) - vt RIDICULE, TEASE

The saying "Don't razz me," comes from the sound. That is news to me.

 

[Handley_Page]

I wonder if Razzamataz is connected to "RAZZ".
It sounds like it should, somehow, but my little Oxford Dict does not mention it:-

razzmatazz /razmtaz/ n. & a. colloq. (orig. US). Also razzama- /raz()m-/. [Perh. alt. of prec.]
(Of or pertaining to) a type of ragtime or early or sentimental jazz music;
(of, pertaining to, or characterized by) showy, insincere, or extravagant publicity, display, etc.

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

 

[AllardChardon]

My dictionary says;

razzmatazz - noun 1. RAZZLE-DAZZLE 2. DOUBLE-TALK 3. VIM, ZING

razzle-dazzle - noun 1. a state of confusion or hilarity 2. a confusing or colorful often gaudy action or display

 

[trysail]

duff • n., A stiff flour pudding often flavoured with currants, citron, etc., and boiled in a cloth bag ( plum duff ) [Dialectal variation of dough.].
2. n., Decaying leaves and branches covering a forest floor.
3. n., Fine coal; slack.
4. n., (slang) The buttocks.
5. n., (slang Medicine / Gynaecology & Obstetrics— up the duff ) pregnant [Northern English variant of dough].
6. v.(tr.), (slang) to change the appearance of or give a false appearance to (old or stolen goods); fake.
7. v.(tr.), (slang Law) Austral— to steal (cattle), altering the brand.
8. v.(tr.), (Individual Sports & Recreations) sclaff (Golf informal ) to bungle (a shot) by hitting the ground behind the ball [hence, a duffer ].
9. adj., (Brit. informal) bad or useless, as by not working out or operating correctly; dud, a duff idea, a duff engine.








Readers of Patrick O'Brian's popular Napoleonic War/"Nelson's Navy" series featuring "Lucky" Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin will be thoroughly familiar with the first definition above. Duff is hardly a seldom-used or obscure word; however, what is seldom-used and obscure about it is the British slang adjectival usage as in "9" above.

The brouhaha over the Times Atlas seems to be developing legs, with NSIDC denying any involvement in the errors. But if not NSIDC, then who was it that supplied the duff data?

Maurizio Morabito has been examining the amusing possibility that the source was Wikipedia.


http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2011/9/20/atlas-mounting.html

 

[AllardChardon]

Very interesting, Trysail. Duff is a word from my never-used catalog. I shall attempt to remedy that. I could use duff for buttocks in my writing, if it was frequently-used in the 1850s, that is.

razee - noun a wooden ship with the upper deck cut away

 

[oggbashan]

Very interesting, Trysail. Duff is a word from my never-used catalog. I shall attempt to remedy that. I could use duff for buttocks in my writing, if it was frequently-used in the 1850s, that is.

razee - noun a wooden ship with the upper deck cut away

Why were decks cut away?

Cutting down upper decks of sailing ships made them faster and more manoeuverable. Three famous shipwrecks, the Vasa, the Mary Rose and the Royal George, would not have happened if they had been razees. Their top hamper made them unstable.

The Spanish ships of the Armada had much higher decks than the English ships and could not match the English fleet's speed and handiness. Many of the Armada's wrecks during their journey around the North of Scotland were caused because the wind acting on their high sides made them vulnerable in storms.

 

[AllardChardon]

Thank you, Og. I knew someone would enlighten us all as to why decks were cut away. There are usually good reasons for humans to do specific things.

For example, I found out on my tours of southern plantations that the sparkle and glitter on candlesticks, frames, mirrors, vases and such was a way of seeing where to walk after nightfall. The candle or lamp held up in front would reflect the gilded furnishings and show the way. I used to think they were just being glamorous.

raw-boned - adj having little flesh: GAUNT

 

[Handley_Page]

9. adj., (Brit. informal) bad or useless, as by not working out or operating correctly; dud, a duff idea, a duff engine.

however, what is seldom-used and obscure about it is the British slang adjectival usage as in "9" above.

These days, the word "Duff", indicating broken or bad, is not as uncommon as one might think. It's used, for example, in the military (probably being a word that can be used in front of officers). Naturally, it;s also used by ex-RAF types who had it drill into them (= us).

 

[AllardChardon]

I have always found these two words at odds;

ravish - vt 1.a. to seize or take away by violence b. to transport with emotion c. RAPE, VIOLATE 2. PLUNDER, ROB

ravishing - adj unusually attractive, pleasing, or striking