Perfectly OT: Languishing words
- Tom Dowling
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- Tell us something.: Well, I've been a contributor and visitor to this site since 2001. At one time or another, one of my photographs was the opening page photograph. My teacher was Bill Ochs. I play the Penny Whistle. Not a lot else to say.
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- antstastegood
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- Walden
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Game of chicken?Tom Dowling wrote:I think people say gauntlet in instances when the correct word is gantlet (i.e., when describing passing between two lines of, for example, your enemies, who are free to strike you as you pass. This is called running the..........?
Anyone want to weigh in?
Tom D.
Reasonable person
Walden
Walden
- Zubivka
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Wouldn't that punishment be the gantlet, while throwing a (the?) gauntlet is challenging someone to a duel?Tom Dowling wrote:I think people say gauntlet in instances when the correct word is gantlet (i.e., when describing passing between two lines of, for example, your enemies, who are free to strike you as you pass. This is called running the..........?
Anyone want to weigh in?
It's true: I read it on Internet.
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There were two historical defenestrations, the one in Prague that started the Thirty Years War (which actually lasted 47 years), and an earlier one which sparked a rebellion of Hussites.
A word people use often but almost inevitably mispronounce is forte. Used in the sense of one's greatest strength or strongest point it should be pronounced "fôrt." It refered originally to the strongest part of a sword's blade, near the hilt. The weakest point is in the middle to the point - the foible. The other forte, pronounced "for-tay," is an Italian word meaning "loud." The original, full name for the piano was the pianoforte - the "softloud."
Here endeth the lesson.
Are any of you
scions of antidisestablishmentarianism?
A word people use often but almost inevitably mispronounce is forte. Used in the sense of one's greatest strength or strongest point it should be pronounced "fôrt." It refered originally to the strongest part of a sword's blade, near the hilt. The weakest point is in the middle to the point - the foible. The other forte, pronounced "for-tay," is an Italian word meaning "loud." The original, full name for the piano was the pianoforte - the "softloud."
Here endeth the lesson.
Are any of you
scions of antidisestablishmentarianism?
- Zubivka
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Touché... But thank thee indeed!Kevin L. Rietmann wrote:A word people use often but almost inevitably mispronounce is forte. Used in the sense of one's greatest strength or strongest point it should be pronounced "fôrt." It refered originally to the strongest part of a sword's blade, near the hilt. The weakest point is in the middle to the point - the foible.
It's true: I read it on Internet.
- emmline
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Gantlet is an alternative spelling of Gauntlet, which can mean the double line of tormentors (or well-wishers, as in a wedding) in addition to its protective hand covering meaning.Tom Dowling wrote:I think people say gauntlet in instances when the correct word is gantlet (i.e., when describing passing between two lines of, for example, your enemies, who are free to strike you as you pass. This is called running the..........?
Anyone want to weigh in?
Tom D.
Argumentative types will be subject to vapulation.
- Dalberon
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I am rather fond of the word <b>Bugger</b>. Anyone in Europe may think its common, but I rarely hear it and love to say. "Bugger this".
A little off this topic thats off topic I like sayings too.
"I feel like I did shrooms and got eaten by a bear"
"I feel like a bruised turd"
And my favorite Normism of all time...when asked Hows the world treating you...
"Like a baby treats a diaper."
Guess I have lots of good sayings for hangovers. *blech*
A little off this topic thats off topic I like sayings too.
"I feel like I did shrooms and got eaten by a bear"
"I feel like a bruised turd"
And my favorite Normism of all time...when asked Hows the world treating you...
"Like a baby treats a diaper."
Guess I have lots of good sayings for hangovers. *blech*
-Tom
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You *do* realize what it actually means (or at least originally meant), right?Dalberon wrote:I am rather fond of the word <b>Bugger</b>. Anyone in Europe may think its common, but I rarely hear it and love to say. "Bugger this".
<i>The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.</i>
- Dalberon
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You mean a sodomist...or is it sodomite? :roll: In british comody it is used as slang very much like american terms such as "Screw this". I also rather enjoy the british phrase "get stuffed"TelegramSam wrote:You *do* realize what it actually means (or at least originally meant), right?Dalberon wrote:I am rather fond of the word <b>Bugger</b>. Anyone in Europe may think its common, but I rarely hear it and love to say. "Bugger this".
-Tom
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- fancypiper
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- markv
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How about this one.
Moot as a verb, specifically: To discuss by way of exercise; to argue for
practice; to propound and discuss in a mock court.
Bloomfield was prone to moot about various and sundry topics on the message board.
Mark V.
Moot as a verb, specifically: To discuss by way of exercise; to argue for
practice; to propound and discuss in a mock court.
Bloomfield was prone to moot about various and sundry topics on the message board.
Mark V.
Fairy tales are more than true: not because
they tell us that dragons exist, but because
they tell us that dragons can be beaten.
G. K. Chesterton
they tell us that dragons exist, but because
they tell us that dragons can be beaten.
G. K. Chesterton
- Bloomfield
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47 years? Now if you told me that the 100-Years War actually lasted 116 years, I'd agree. But 1618-1648 seems like thirty years all right. Maybe you are counting different events? You agree that the defenestration on May 23, 1618 is the start, so if not the Westphalian Peace of October 1648, what are you counting as the end date? (What happened in 1665?)Kevin L. Rietmann wrote:There were two historical defenestrations, the one in Prague that started the Thirty Years War (which actually lasted 47 years), and an earlier one which sparked a rebellion of Hussites.
As a side note, some might be interested to hear that the three defenestrees (hehehe), who sailed out of Castle Hradshin (sp?) in Prague to start the Bohemian Rebellion and the Thiry-Years War, survived: they landed in a heap of refuse.
/Bloomfield
- Bloomfield
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I deprecate the tendency in (American) English to turn everything into verbs. Some of the heinous examples include "parenting", "task," as in "We have tasked Nano to provide light entertainment"... I could think of more examples but I don't want to because it makes my teeth itch.markv wrote:How about this one.
Moot as a verb, specifically: To discuss by way of exercise; to argue for
practice; to propound and discuss in a mock court.
Bloomfield was prone to moot about various and sundry topics on the message board.
Mark V.
So, please join me in regarding the verb moot as moot.
/Bloomfield