Seldom-Used Words

[AllardChardon]

Thanks, Trysail, for the current information. I certainly liked the look and sound of that word.

retrousse' - adj turned up (~ nose)

 

[Handley_Page]

Thanks, Trysail, for the current information. I certainly liked the look and sound of that word.

retrousse' - adj turned up (~ nose)

I wonder why it is always the nose that's called that.

 

[CarlusMagnus]

Seems unlikely

Many nautical terms start with an a:

Aback; Abeam; Adrift; Aft; Ashore; Awash; Away (lifeboat!); Astern; Ahead; Ahoy; Alee; Aye Aye etc.

Is it because the initial a attracts attention in a noisy environment?

I think it's a long shot that that's the reason. I suppose it's possible that's why the words live on in nautical use, but their form isn't one dictated by nautical concerns. The "a-" is a Middle-English prefix; it can have any of several meanings: on, in, in the direction of, situated at, up, out, or away. It can also be used as an intensifier.

We find it twice in one sentence in Shakespeare: "And gentlemen in England now abed/Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,/..." (Henry V, Act IV, Sc. iii, 64-65).

It seems more likely to me that the frequency with which that prefix appears in (English) nautical terms simply suggests that sailors still use the old words for the things they've been dealing with ever since they began going to sea.

 

[AllardChardon]

I was curious about this one;

retort(3) - noun a vessel in which substances are distilled or decomposed by heat

 

[gravyrug]

I was curious about this one;

retort(3) - noun a vessel in which substances are distilled or decomposed by heat

Yep, originally a piece of alchemical equipment. Those things have been around for a long, long time.

 

[Handley_Page]

I was curious about this one;

retort(3) - noun a vessel in which substances are distilled or decomposed by heat

See:-

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

It can also mean "reply"; a sharpish reply, to be truthful, but a reply none the less. THink of the verbal equivalent of a kick in the shin.

It's also the name of a large vessel used in steel-making

 

[oggbashan]

That definition of Retort was used in the Bronze and Iron Ages for metal working. Archaelogists in the UK frequently find broken retorts as evidence of metal working, sometimes over extensive areas that must have been an industrial zone.

 

[trysail]

dingbat • n., 1. a stupid or eccentric person,
2. a typographical device other than a letter or numeral (such as an asterisk), used to signal divisions in text or to replace letters in a euphemistically presented vulgar word.





Admit it; you thought of Edith Bunker.


Whilst goofing around the other day trying to locate a symbol— to my amazement and delight— I discovered there was a second definition of the word.

 

[oggbashan]

dingbat • n., 1. a stupid or eccentric person,
2. a typographical device other than a letter or numeral (such as an asterisk), used to signal divisions in text or to replace letters in a euphemistically presented vulgar word.





Admit it; you thought of Edith Bunker.


Whilst goofing around the other day trying to locate a symbol— to my amazement and delight— I discovered there was a second definition of the word.

Also the definition of a whole range of fonts available on the internet e.g. Here.

 

[AllardChardon]

Hello, everyone, I am finally back home in California from Tennessee, I am happy to report. It is great to be back here and on here (LIT)! Thanks for the additional information on retort, and, yes, I did think of Edith Bunker when I saw dingbat, how funny is that?

retinue - noun the body of retainers who follow a distinguished person; SUITE

 

[GeekyAsh]

Forsooth - Indeed (often used ironically or to express surprise or indignation): "forsooth, there is no one I trust more".

and

Discombobulate - Verb: To disconcert or confuse (someone)

 

[oggbashan]

Hello, everyone, I am finally back home in California from Tennessee, I am happy to report. It is great to be back here and on here (LIT)! Thanks for the additional information on retort, and, yes, I did think of Edith Bunker when I saw dingbat, how funny is that?

retinue - noun the body of retainers who follow a distinguished person; SUITE

As King Henry VIII, my retinue included the keeper of the close stool (portaloo) who was a very important person to know, because he came closest to the royal personage, and of course although not in my immediate vicinity, the royal headsman who would cut off any traitor's head.

Anne Boleyn asked for a French swordsman for her execution because she considered my headsman incompetent. I accepted her request. After all, it was the last thing I could do for my wife.

I didn't consider my headsman incompetent. All those he executed ended up dead. If they suffered in the process I was not displeased.

As King Og, my retinue included a few hundred concubines.

In medieval and later times, the size of a King's retinue was taken to indicate his status. The larger and more noble his retinue, the more powerful the King appeared. The French Kings took that to excess, requiring almost all the nobility of France to be in constant attendance at Versailles, and needing a large staff of noble courtiers just to get up in the morning.

 

[Instant_Star]

Cattawompuss

A word primarily used in Indiana to mean askew, or caddy cornered.

The ball hit me in the face and knocked my glasses cattawompuss.

 

[CarlusMagnus]

Cattawompuss

A word primarily used in Indiana to mean askew, or caddy cornered.

The ball hit me in the face and knocked my glasses cattawompuss.

In Kansas, it's "cattywompuss".

 

[Instant_Star]

In Kansas, it's "cattywompuss".

I've always presumed we were the only ones who used it lol

 

[Handley_Page]

. . . and of course although not in my immediate vicinity, the royal headsman who would cut off any traitor's head.

Anne Boleyn asked for a French swordsman for her execution because she considered my headsman incompetent. I accepted her request. After all, it was the last thing I could do for my wife.

I didn't consider my headsman incompetent. All those he executed ended up dead. If they suffered in the process I was not displeased.

. . .
The French Kings took that to excess, requiring almost all the nobility of France to be in constant attendance at Versailles, and needing a large staff of noble courtiers just to get up in the morning.

I didn't know Anne Boleyn had asked for the French headsman ("I have such a little neck"). I thought it was Henry's idea, not hers.

And we must not forget the Gentlemen of the Tea-making, complete with "assistant spoon-master" ! (one can have endless fun inventing these posts).

A word from antiquity:-
Vill
A territorial unit; a number of houses and adjacent land. The basic unit of administration under feudal law.

 

[patrick1]

Even us Brits have heard of catawampus, though we acknowledge you Americans originated it

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2011/06/28.html

 

[CarlusMagnus]

Opsimath

How about "opsimath", meaning "a person who begins to learn or study only late in life"?

I can truthfully say that, regarding this word, I am an opsimath.

 

[AllardChardon]

Gentlemen, you make me look good, even in my absence, and I am very grateful for your continued interest.

reticule - noun 1. RETICLE 2. a woman's drawstring bag used especially as a carryall

 

[oggbashan]

Gentlemen, you make me look good, even in my absence, and I am very grateful for your continued interest.

reticule - noun 1. RETICLE 2. a woman's drawstring bag used especially as a carryall

One of Georgette Heyer's heroines complains that she cannot make an elegant reticule from cut-out cardboard and fabric as recommended in 'The Young Englishwoman'.

I have an 1850s volume of that monthly magazine which has designs for elegant millinery and reticules. The editor suggests that any deedy needlewoman can achieve excellent results with a few minutes' work. The editor lied!

The alternative to a reticule was the placket - a pocket suspended from the petticoat waistband and hanging inside the skirt. It was much more secure than a reticule which was more fashionable than useful.

 

[patrick1]

I wondered, seeing where we were in the alphabet, if 'reticule' was, as it were, coming.

It's famous for its supposed sexual signification in the case of Sigmund Freud and his 'patient' Dora, as summarised here:

<< During the session Dora played with a reticule she wore at her waist. As "she lay on the sofa and talked, she kept playing with it-opening it, putting a finger into it, shutting it again, and so on" (p. 76). Freud concluded that this was a symptomatic act that was easy to interpret. The reticule represented her genitals. By playing with it Dora was announcing, confessing, her masturbation. >>

Of course, sometimes a reticule is just a reticule.

Patrick

 

[CarlusMagnus]

Nocent

nocent---Harmful; doing hurt or harm.

From nocere, a Latin verb meaning "to harm". "Nocent" is the predecessor and all-but-vanished positive form of the word "innocent," the prefix in- being a negation.

 

[AllardChardon]

Thank you, Carlus, for the information on nocent and a hearty welcome to our little group. I had no idea that was where innocent came from. And thank you, Patrick and Og, for the additional insight into reticule. I can see why Freud was fascinated by Dora and her reticule. I would love to see that book on how to make them some day, Og.

reticle - noun a system lines, dots, cross hairs, or wires in the focus of the eyepiece of an optical instrument

 

[Tio_Narratore]

And let's not forget the good old endoplasmic reticulum, that network of lines and dots in the cell's cytoplasm that left our minds indelibly marked with the tap-tap-tap-tap-tap ofpencils on paper as we students tried to draw the cells we saw in our high school lab microscopes...

Welcome back, my dearest unspouse.

 

[AllardChardon]

Tio, it is so lovely to see you, again!

restive - adj 1. stubbornly resisting control: BALKY 2. fidgeting about: UNEASY