Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Glad to be of assistance. I hope they get to read Lysistrata......

So, today's word is :


pisé

• noun [mass noun] building material of stiff clay or earth, forced between boards which are removed as it hardens.

— origin late 18th cent. : French, literally ‘pounded’, past participle of piser.

And no, it's not French for inebriated.......

........... and I thought it was the plural for that french word for a gents public toilet !

J.R. wrote:........... and I thought it was the plural for that french word for a gents public toilet !

No, that would be pissoirs......which form only part of a public convenience for gentlemen, the other bit being the chiotte(s).....

You will have noted that in Piries Bar there is no separation between the two!

Richard Ruck wrote:

J.R. wrote:........... and I thought it was the plural for that french word for a gents public toilet !

No, that would be pissoirs......which form only part of a public convenience for gentlemen, the other bit being the chiotte(s).....

You will have noted that in Piries Bar there is no separation between the two!

.... and only a door to seperate the two, which one must remember to close when a certain bar-manager is on duty !

J.R. wrote: .... and only a door to seperate the two, which one must remember to close when a certain bar-manager is on duty !

No door between the pissoir and the chiotte, John. An arrangement which is unique to Pirie's (at least in my experience).

This may change, though. Still, I've not heard of anyone perching on the latter while someone has been standing at the former.

Right then, to raise the tone a bit here's today's:

cabochon

• noun - a gem that has been polished but not faceted.

— phrases

en cabochon (of a gem) - polished but not faceted.

— origin mid 16th cent. : from French, diminutive of caboche ‘head’.

My parents gave me a silver ring with a cabochon emerald for my 21st birthday. It's lovely but the stone can get knocked as it's raised above the surface of the setting - mine has a tiny chip in it. I don't know if there's anything you can do to prevent that from happening. Apart from not wear it to do the gardening, lay a brick wall or tile a bathroom possibly! Are there any jewellers or silversmiths on (or related to) the forum?

Thanks Richard - I have sometimes wondered what a cabochon was but never bothered to look it up!!

For the aspiring potters out there:


barbotine

• noun [mass noun] - slip (liquid clay) used to decorate pottery.

— origin mid 19th cent. : from French.

Fletch

• verb [with obj.] - provide (an arrow) with feathers for flight.
• noun - each of the feathered vanes of an arrow: [in combination] a four-fletch arrow.

— origin mid 17th cent. : alteration of fledge, probably influenced by fletcher.

We all looked up the meanings of our surnames about 1969 - always remembered the meaning of the name of Janessa Fletcher!

Munch

Richard Ruck wrote:Fletch

• verb [with obj.] - provide (an arrow) with feathers for flight.
• noun - each of the feathered vanes of an arrow: [in combination] a four-fletch arrow.

— origin mid 17th cent. : alteration of fledge, probably influenced by fletcher.

also often associated with GODBER

and

McKay !

Angela Woodford wrote:We all looked up the meanings of our surnames about 1969 - always remembered the meaning of the name of Janessa Fletcher!

Munch

More than exceptionally useful here.

A very good restauranteur locally cannot understand my name, especially when I phone to book a table but he knows my voice and remembers that, whatever it is, it is the Englishism of my ancestor's name when he, the ancestor, followed Guillaume (Willie - boy) to Hastings - "le Brun".

What does it mean - guess!
As for where I live, le Berrugat is Occitan (the local language which no doubt RR learned from his pillow dictionary) for "the warty one"! That can only refer to the Laffon family, none of the present generation whom I have met having obvious warts (I haven't examined the female of the breed in detail to check )

solifluction

• noun [mass noun] Geology - the gradual movement of wet soil or other material down a slope, especially where frozen subsoil acts as a barrier to the percolation of water.

— origin early 20th cent. : from Latin solum ‘soil’ + fluctio(n-) ‘flowing’, from the verb fluere ‘to flow’.

An easy one for Friday:


pongo

• noun (pl. pongos) - Brit. military slang a soldier (used especially by members of the Royal Navy or RAF).

— origin early 17th cent. (denoting a large African ape): from Congolese mpongo, now used as a genus term in zoology to refer to the gorilla and other apes. The slang sense dates from the early 20th cent.

And also the name of the daddy Dalmatian dog in '101 Dalmatians'.