Word of the day

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Now I'm worried about the Devon move. Really worried! What will happen to my shape? I don't want my bottom flat on one side and increased on the other - so that rather prevents me applying for that milkmaid job, curse it!



And now Philip's SE Asia researches have left him tired and emotional!

Munch

Won't you also (like Lakeland and fell sheep) need one leg (well, two legs in the case of the sheep) shorter than the other, to compensate for the slope?
Midget, Cath, DBTS, how do you cope?



xx

[J.R.]

I know a joke about a Devonian milk-maid and a cow hand !

[cj]

Now I'm worried about the Devon move. Really worried! What will happen to my shape? I don't want my bottom flat on one side and increased on the other - so that rather prevents me applying for that milkmaid job, curse it!



And now Philip's SE Asia researches have left him tired and emotional!

Munch

Won't you also (like Lakeland and fell sheep) need one leg (well, two legs in the case of the sheep) shorter than the other, to compensate for the slope?
Midget, Cath, DBTS, how do you cope?



xx

I have a pain in my leg - it's obviously the muscles contracting to accommodate the inclines which are more pronounced here at the edge of Dartmoor than where we previously lived. We could club together to buy Munch and her husband a pair of built up shoes (they can share them as you only need one each) as their moving present.

[Ajarn Philip]

We could club together to buy Munch and her husband a pair of built up shoes (they can share them as you only need one each) as their moving present.

Yes, but if one's wearing the left shoe and the other the right, they'll have to walk in opposite directions...

[Ajarn Philip]

Lurching awkwardly away from Devonian behinds, and leaving with regret a topic close to my heart - pert bottoms - I bring you, Ladies and Gentlemen, without further ado, today's 'term' of the day:

yod-dropping

I confess I can't find a specific definition in a recognised dictionary (though I haven't looked very hard), so just trust me, eh?

It sounds like something nasty left by a Himalayan bovine, but is in fact the practice of dropping the 'y' sound (or /j/ if you're familiar with the phonetic alphabet) from a word. The best example I can think of is the Norfolk dialect, viz. Bernard Matthews turkey advert, in which he says 'They're bootiful,' rather than the usual pronunciation.

[midget]

In Devon, they go to a fooneral in Bood, and the go to look at the voo.

[cj]

In Devon, they go to a fooneral in Bood, and the go to look at the voo.

[Richard Ruck]

Morning, all!

Yet another word you'll be using on a daily basis:


hypallage

• noun Rhetoric - a transposition of the natural relations of two elements in a proposition, for example in the sentence ‘Melissa shook her doubtful curls’.

— origin late 16th cent. : via late Latin from Greek hupallage, from hupo ‘under’ + allassein ‘to exchange’.

[J.R.]

Morning, all!

Yet another word you'll be using on a daily basis:


hypallage

• noun Rhetoric - a transposition of the natural relations of two elements in a proposition, for example in the sentence ‘Melissa shook her doubtful curls’.

— origin late 16th cent. : via late Latin from Greek hupallage, from hupo ‘under’ + allassein ‘to exchange’.

So does that refer to a certain type of relations in the County of Norfolk then, Richard ?

[Richard Ruck]

Friday at last - France vs. Ireland tonight, England vs. Samoa tomorrow (tremble) and then the Late Summer Ball tomorrow. Better do some work first, though......

So, an ecclesiastical offering today:

chrism

• noun [mass noun] a mixture of oil and balsam, consecrated and used for anointing at baptism and in other rites of Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican Churches.

— origin Old English , from medieval Latin crisma, ecclesiastical Latin chrisma, from Greek khrisma ‘anointing’, from khriein ‘anoint’.

[Richard Ruck]

Eolithic

• adjective Archaeology - dated relating to or denoting a period at the beginning of the Stone Age, preceding the Palaeolithic and characterized by the earliest crude stone tools.

• [as noun] (the Eolithic) the Eolithic period.
— origin late 19th cent. : from French éolithique, from Greek eos ‘dawn’ + lithikos (from lithos ‘stone’).

[Richard Ruck]

An unusual one today:

auxotroph

• noun Biology - a mutant organism (especially a bacterium or fungus) that requires a particular additional nutrient which the normal strain does not.

— derivatives - auxotrophic - adjective.

— origin 1950s : from Latin auxilium ‘help’ + Greek trophos ‘feeder’.

So, next time you're down the pub and someone challenges you (as they undoubtedly will!) to come up with a word which has both a Latin and a Greek root you can trot this one out, instead of boring old 'television'.

[Richard Ruck]

Sorry, I should try to be more consistent with this....

No excuses today, though, as I'm sitting at home waiting for Boiler Repair Man to grace me with his presence.

caracole

• noun a half turn to the right or left by a horse.

• verb [no obj., with adverbial of direction] (of a horse) perform a caracole.

— origin early 17th cent. : from French caracole, caracol ‘snail's shell, spiral’.

[Richard Ruck]

Back to architecture today:

cruck

• noun Brit. - either of a pair of curved timbers extending from ground level to the transverse beam or ridge of a roof and forming a structure frame in a medieval timber-framed house: [as modifier] a cruck barn.

— origin late 16th cent. : variant of crook.

[Katharine]

Back to architecture today:

cruck

• noun Brit. - either of a pair of curved timbers extending from ground level to the transverse beam or ridge of a roof and forming a structure frame in a medieval timber-framed house: [as modifier] a cruck barn.

— origin late 16th cent. : variant of crook.

Now that is a word I know! We have a local woodcraftsman (don't know which single word could describe him) who has been building this way. He is into using timber in its natural form.

We have the most beautiful three legged chair that he made. When we bought it, we were given a letter describing just where each piece of timber came from. I can remember the pegs holding part of it together are bog oak, I'd have to search out the letter to find the rest of the details.