Word of the day

[Richard Ruck]

Bog oak - isn't that the stuff that's been preserved for thousands of years (or possibly more)?

Kshatriya

• noun a member of the second of the four great Hindu castes, the military caste. The traditional function of the Kshatriyas is to protect society by fighting in wartime and governing in peacetime.

— origin late 18th cent. : from Sanskrit ksatriya, from kshatra ‘rule, authority’.

[Katharine]

Bog oak - isn't that the stuff that's been preserved for thousands of years (or possibly more)?

I think so!

[Richard Ruck]

Thursday already - so much for me being consistent!

Anyway, another one to ponder:

nim

• noun [mass noun] - a game in which two players alternately take one or more objects from one of a number of heaps, each trying to take, or to compel the other to take, the last remaining object.

— origin early 20th cent. : apparently from archaic nim ‘to take’ or from German nimm! ‘take!’, imperative of nehmen.

[Katharine]

I have had great fun getting students to devise strategies for this in my Maths Fun Clubs over the years. Strange to say, now that I work in a finance office instead, I still miss Maths Fun!

[Angela Woodford]

Maths Fun??? A superb oxymoron, anyway...

[Katharine]

I didn't teach you, Angela dear. The clubs were voluntary and in at least one case out of school hours but I still had to limit numbers!! They were clamouring to join, in Brunei they had never met a teacher quite like me!!! The school Deputy Headmaster was not quite so enamoured of me, I didn't fit his ideas of a Maths teacher but he could not argue with the exam grades my students achieved in external exams.

[Great Plum]

Thursday already - so much for me being consistent!

Anyway, another one to ponder:

nim

• noun [mass noun] - a game in which two players alternately take one or more objects from one of a number of heaps, each trying to take, or to compel the other to take, the last remaining object.

— origin early 20th cent. : apparently from archaic nim ‘to take’ or from German nimm! ‘take!’, imperative of nehmen.

I have a friend of mine who is known as Nimmy (sometimes Nim) whose name is really Naomi...

[Richard Ruck]

Thursday already - so much for me being consistent!

Anyway, another one to ponder:

nim

• noun [mass noun] - a game in which two players alternately take one or more objects from one of a number of heaps, each trying to take, or to compel the other to take, the last remaining object.

— origin early 20th cent. : apparently from archaic nim ‘to take’ or from German nimm! ‘take!’, imperative of nehmen.

I have a friend of mine who is known as Nimmy (sometimes Nim) whose name is really Naomi...

So do I. She's always known as Nim.

[Richard Ruck]

Something musical (well, almost) today:


harmolodics

• plural noun [treated as sing.] a form of free jazz in which musicians improvise simultaneously on a melodic line at various pitches.

— derivatives

harmolodic

adjective - — origin 1970s : coined by the American saxophonist Ornette Coleman (born 1930) and said to be a blend of harmony, movement, and melodic.

[Richard Ruck]

Back again....

A word appropriate to last Saturday:

dop

• noun (S. African informal) - a drink, especially of brandy or other spirits.

• a tot of liquor.

— origin South African Dutch, ‘shell, husk’.

[J.R.]

Back again....

A word appropriate to last Saturday:

dop

• noun (S. African informal) - a drink, especially of brandy or other spirits.

• a tot of liquor.

— origin South African Dutch, ‘shell, husk’.

Trust you to find a short word connected to alcohol, Richard !!!

[Richard Ruck]

Trust you to find a short word connected to alcohol, Richard !!!

Thanks! Although I've been familiar with 'gin' for quite a few years now....

So, for today:

boulle

• noun [mass noun] - brass, tortoiseshell, or other material cut to make a pattern and used for inlaying furniture: [as modifier] boulle cabinets.

— origin early 19th cent. : from French boule, from the name of André Charles Boulle (1642–1732), French cabinetmaker. The variant buhl is apparently a modern Germanized spelling.

[Richard Ruck]

Back to music:

ranchera

• noun [mass noun] - a type of Mexican country music typically played with guitars and horns.

• [count noun] a ranchera tune or song.

— origin 1980s : from Spanish cancion ranchera ‘farmers' songs’.

[Richard Ruck]

Country matters today:

battue

• noun [mass noun] - the driving of game towards hunters by beaters.

• [count noun] a shooting party arranged so that beaters can drive the game towards the hunters.

— origin early 19th cent. : from French, feminine past participle of battre ‘to beat’, from Latin battuere.

[Richard Ruck]

Monday again......

A musical instrument today:


tamburitza

• noun a kind of long-necked mandolin played in Croatia and neighbouring countries.

— origin Serbo-Croat, diminutive of tambura tamboura.