Depend upon it, child, I’ll never control your choice; but Mr. Marlow whom I have pitched upon, is the son of my old friend, Sir Charles Marlow, of whom you have heard me talk so often.
And truly so am I; for he sometimes whoops like a speaking trumpet—(TONY hallooing behind the scenes)—O, there he goes—a very consumptive figure, truly.
I like the way Ralph Ellison in Invislbe Man adapts this word as the name of the building in which the narrator is introduced to The Brotherhood:
We stopped before an expensive-looking building in a strange part of the city. I could see the word Chthonian on the storm awning stretched above the walk as I got out with the others and went swiftly toward a lobby lighted by dim bulbs set behind frosted glass, going past the uniformed doorman with an uncanny sense of familiarity; feeling now, as we entered a sound-proof elevator and shot away at a mile a minute, that I had been through it all before.
Ellison, Invisible Man, 14
Funny how a mythical allusion works the mind, transforming the subsequent details into something altogether new - making an up-to-now hidden world out of details from the ordinary world. The character is being ushered into an "underground" by going up in an elevator.
From the saloon a call came, long in dying. That was a tuningfork the tuner had that he forgot that he now struck. Acall again. That he now poised that it now throbbed. You hear? It throbbed, pure, purer, softly and softlier, its buzzing prongs. Longer in dying call.
In Grafton street Master Dignam saw a red flower in a toff's mouth and a swell pair of kicks on him and he listening to what the drunk was telling him and grinning all the time.
As he strode past Mr Bloom's dental windows the sway of his dustcoat brushed rudely from its angle a slender tapping cane and swept onwards, having buffeted a thewless body.
-- But wait till I tell you, he said. We had a midnight lunch too after all the jollification and when we sallied forth it was blue o'clock the morning after the night before.
Enter Magee Mor Matthew, a rugged rough rugheaded kern, in strossers with a buttoned codpiece, his nether stocks bemired with clauber of ten forests, a wand of wilding in his hand.
Enter Magee Mor Matthew, a rugged rough rugheaded kern, in strossers with a buttoned codpiece, his nether stocks bemired with clauber of ten forests, a wand of wilding in his hand.
Enter Magee Mor Matthew, a rugged rough rugheaded kern, in strossers with a buttoned codpiece, his nether stocks bemired with clauber of ten forests, a wand of wilding in his hand.
Enter Magee Mor Matthew, a rugged rough rugheaded kern, in strossers with a buttoned codpiece, his nether stocks bemired with clauber of ten forests, a wand of wilding in his hand.
I asked him what he thought of the charge of pederasty brought against the bard. He lifted his hands and said: All we can say is that life ran very high in those days. Lovely!
Catamite.
-- The sense of beauty leads us astray, said beautifulinsadness Best to ugling Eglinton.
-- And we to be there, mavrone, and you to be unbeknownst sending us your conglomerations the way we to have our tongues out a yard long like the drouthy clerics do be fainting for a pussful.
-- That model schoolboy, Stephen said, would find Hamlet's musings about the afterlife of his princely soul, the improbable, insignificant and undramatic monologue, as shallow as Plato's.
-- They buy one and fourpenceworth of brawn and four slices of panloaf at the north city dining rooms in Marlborough street from Miss Kate Collins, proprietress...
-- It was the speech, mark you, the professor said, of a finished orator, full of courteous haughtiness and pouring in chastened diction, I will not say the vials of his wrath but pouring the proud man's contumely upon the new movement.
The Roman, like the Englishman who follows in his footsteps, brought to every new shore on which he set his foot (on our shore he never set it) only his cloacal obsession. He gazed about him in his toga and he said: It is meet to be here. Let us construct a watercloset.
He took a reel of dental floss from his waistcoat pocket and, breaking off a piece, twanged it smartly between two and two of his resonant unwashed teeth.
And just imagine that. Wife and six children at home. And plotting that murder all the time. Those crawthumpers, now that's a good name for them, there's always something shiftylooking about them.
The bungholes sprang open and a huge dull flood leaked out, flowing together, winding through mudflats all over the level land, a lazy pooling swirl of liquor bearing along wideleaved flowers of its froth.
She, she, she. What she? The virgin at Hodges Figgis' window on Monday looking in for one of the alphabet books you were going to write. Keen glance you gave her.
There was a fellow I knew once in Barcelona, queer fellow, used to call it his postprandial. Well: slainte! Around the slabbed tables the tangle of wined breaths and grumbling gorges.
... and on a heath beneath winking stars a fox, red reek of rapine in his fur, with merciless bright eyes scraped in the earth, listened, scraped up the earth, listened, scraped and scraped.
"Language ordered around an absolute Word (logos) which is “masculine�? phallic, systematically excludes, disqualifies, denigrates, diminishes, silences the “feminine�? (Nikita Dhawan).
I’m developing an aesthetic theory which I’m calling the Gurlesque (I’ll explain why a bit later), a theory which emerged organically from my reading a steady stream of books by women poets published in the last several years: women who, like myself, were raised during the feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s.
i think it can go either way ... but i'm partial to "dote" ... with that wierd canadian thingy that i can't imitate in the "o"... btw, i just noticed the dash after the word ... my bad ... but it reminds me to wonder if there's any way to edit the posted word (the way we can edit comments) ... or must one delete the word altogether and repost? ... but that would dump the comments ... hmmm
I've added the plural of "index" just to mark some form of the word's presence on Wordie. There apparently can be no wordie-page for "index" ... since that term always brings one back to the main page. But, for me, the index is one of the coolest parts of a book.
I've got no particular bias against indices, but contemporary indexers seem to prefer "indexes."
An individual is as superb as a nation when he has the qualities which make a superb nation. The soul of the largest and wealthiest and proudest nation may well go half-way to meet that of its poets. Whitman, Preface 1855
A great poem is for ages and ages in common, and for all degrees and complexions, and all departments and sects, and for a woman as much as a man, and a man as much as a woman. A great poem is no finish to a man or woman, but rather a beginning. Whitman, Preface 1855
Clean and vigorous children are jetted and conceiv’d only in those communities where the models of natural forms are public every day. Whitman, Preface 1855
It is also not consistent with the reality of the soul to admit that there is anything in the known universe more divine than men and women. Whitman, Preface 1855
Did you suppose there could be only one Supreme? We affirm there can be unnumber’d Supremes, and that one does not countervail another any more than one eyesight countervails another—and that men can be good or grand only of the consciousness of their supremacy within them. Whitman, Preface 1855
The supernatural of no account, myself waiting my time to be one of the supremes... Song of Myself
Let who may exalt or startle or fascinate or soothe, I will have purposes as health or heat or snow has, and be as regardless of observation. Walt Whitman, Preface 1855
I believe in those winged purposes ... Song of Myself
t is just a single letter of the alphabet, but the hyphenated prefix e- loomed so large in American discourse in 1998 that members and friends of the American Dialect Society at their annual meeting voted it Word (or perhaps Lexical Entity) of the Year, as well as Most Useful and Most Likely to Succeed.
as in soccer mom, the newly significant type of voter courted by both candidates during the presidential campaign. That phrase spun off other designations such as minivan mom and waitress mom.
hiya ... my tenth graders have trouble pronouncing them, too ... the other day one created a sentence something like "When he cut me off in traffic I responded with a string of harsh euphemisms." ... nice oxymoron ... but i've got my work cut out for me ... they also came to believe (thanks to our unclear textbook) that "effete" meant "tired" ... so we ended up with sentences like ... "After running thirty laps and dropping for twenty, we were certainly an effete team."
"Letting on don't cost nothing; letting on ain't no trouble; and if it's any object, I don't mind letting on we was at it a hundred and fifty year. HF 35
Blamed if the king didn't have to brace up mighty quick, or he'd a squshed down like a bluff bank that the river has cut under, it took him so sudden... HF 29
I reckoned Tom Sawyer couldn't a done it no neater himself. Of course he would a throwed more style into it, but I can't do that very handy, not being brung up to it. HF 27
... and then they put their arms around each other's necks, and hung their chins over each other's shoulders; and then for three minutes, or maybe four, I never see two men leak the way they done. HF 25
entropy ... o yes, this is a most obvious & necessary one ... it just didn't show up on any of the random pages i was hitting ... my process for listing will be characterized by randomness ... Schwarzgerät ... i'm not sure what to do with certain characteristic proper names ... & yes nymphet is totally Nabokov, but i don't & probably won't have a Nabokov list ... so ...
They became exhausted in imitation of them; and they yaw-yawed in their speech like them; and they served out, with an enervated air, the little mouldy rations of political economy, on which they regaled their disciples. Hard Times, Book the Second, Chapter II
Comments by brtom
Show previous 200 comments...
brtom commented on the word trapes
The daughter, a tall, trapesing, trolloping, talkative maypole ...
Goldsmith, She Stoops, I
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word grumbletonian
Father-in-law has been calling me whelp and hound this half year. Now, if I pleased, I could be so revenged upon the old grumbletonian.
Goldmith, She Stoops, I
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word woundily
They look woundily like Frenchmen.
Goldsmith, She Stoops, I
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word post-chaise
There be two gentlemen in a post-chaise at the door.
Goldsmith, She Stoops, I
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word bastard
Ecod, and when I’m of age, I’ll be no bastard, I promise you. I have been thinking of Bet Bouncer and the miller’s grey mare to begin with.
Goldsmith, She Stoops, I
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word ecod
Ecod, and when I’m of age, I’ll be no bastard, I promise you. I have been thinking of Bet Bouncer and the miller’s grey mare to begin with.
Goldsmith, She Stoops, I
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word widgeon
Let some cry up woodcock or hare,
Your bustards, your ducks, and your widgeons;
But of all the gay birds in the air,
Here’s a health to the Three Jolly Pigeons.
Goldsmith, She Stoops, I
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word bustard
Let some cry up woodcock or hare,
Your bustards, your ducks, and your widgeons;
But of all the gay birds in the air,
Here’s a health to the Three Jolly Pigeons.
Goldsmith, She Stoops, I
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word tête-à-tête
I have just come from one of our agreeable tête-à-têtes.
Goldsmith, She Stoops, I
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word threaten
I have been threatened-I can scarce get it out—I have been threatened with a lover.
Goldsmith, She Stoops, I
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word whimsical
Tell me, Constance, how do I look this evening? Is there anything whimsical about me? Is it one of my well-looking days, child? Am I in face to-day?
Goldsmith, She Stoops, I
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word pitch
Depend upon it, child, I’ll never control your choice; but Mr. Marlow whom I have pitched upon, is the son of my old friend, Sir Charles Marlow, of whom you have heard me talk so often.
Goldsmith, She Stoops, I
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word halloo
And truly so am I; for he sometimes whoops like a speaking trumpet—(TONY hallooing behind the scenes)—O, there he goes—a very consumptive figure, truly.
Goldsmith, She Stoops, I
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word alehouse
Latin for him! A cat and fiddle. No, no; the alehouse and the stable are the only schools he’ll ever go to.
Goldsmith, She Stoops, I
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word quotha
Learning, quotha! a mere composition of tricks and mischief.
Goldsmith, She Stoops, I
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word trumpery
I hate such old-fashioned trumpery.
Goldsmith, She Stoops, I
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word sententious
But why can’t I be moral?—Let me try—
My heart thus pressing—fixed my face and eye—
With a sententious look, that nothing means,
(Faces are blocks in sentimental scenes)
Goldsmith, She Stoops, Prologue
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word plasters
“I’ve that within—for which there are no plasters!"
Goldsmith, She Stoops, Prologue
January 8, 2007
brtom commented on the word chthonic
I like the way Ralph Ellison in Invislbe Man adapts this word as the name of the building in which the narrator is introduced to The Brotherhood:
We stopped before an expensive-looking building in a strange part of the city. I could see the word Chthonian on the storm awning stretched above the walk as I got out with the others and went swiftly toward a lobby lighted by dim bulbs set behind frosted glass, going past the uniformed doorman with an uncanny sense of familiarity; feeling now, as we entered a sound-proof elevator and shot away at a mile a minute, that I had been through it all before.
Ellison, Invisible Man, 14
Funny how a mythical allusion works the mind, transforming the subsequent details into something altogether new - making an up-to-now hidden world out of details from the ordinary world. The character is being ushered into an "underground" by going up in an elevator.
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word chtonic
Did you (or eliot) mean chthonic? cool word ...
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word wink
-- I plunged a bit, said Boylan winking and drinking.
Joyce, Ulysses, 11
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word flagon
Miss Douce reached high to take a flagon, stretching her satin arm, her bust, that all but burst, so high.
Joyce, Ulysses, 11
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word treble
A duodene of birdnotes chirruped bright treble answer under sensitive hands.
Joyce, Ulysses, 11
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word chirrup
A duodene of birdnotes chirruped bright treble answer under sensitive hands.
Joyce, Ulysses, 11
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word duodene
A duodene of birdnotes chirruped bright treble answer under sensitive hands.
Joyce, Ulysses, 11
... twelve notes?
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word tuningfork
From the saloon a call came, long in dying. That was a tuningfork the tuner had that he forgot that he now struck. Acall again. That he now poised that it now throbbed. You hear? It throbbed, pure, purer, softly and softlier, its buzzing prongs. Longer in dying call.
Joyce, Ulysses, 11
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word shopgirl
-- Two pence, sir, the shopgirl dared to say.
Joyce, Ulysses, 11
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word faraway
He see. He drank. With faraway mourning mountain eye. Set down his glass.
Joyce, Ulysses, 11
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word solfa
She took no notice while he read by rote a solfa fable for her, plappering flatly ...
Joyce, Ulysses, 11
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word plapper
She took no notice while he read by rote a solfa fable for her, plappering flatly ...
Joyce, Ulysses, 11
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word doaty
-- Well now, I am, he mused. I looked so simple in the cradle they christened me simple Simon.
-- You must have been a doaty, Miss Douce made answer.
Joyce, Ulysses, 11
... probably a variant of dotty?
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word indignation
Douce gave full vent to a splendid yell, a full yell of full woman, delight, joy, indignation.
Joyce, Ulysses, 11
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word rake
He might be Mulligan. All comely virgins. That brings those rakes of fellows in: her white.
Joyce, Ulysses, 11
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word fogey
I asked that old fogey in Boyd's for something for my skin.
Joyce, Ulysses, 11
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word lithia
Miss Kennedy with manners transposed the teatray down to an upturned lithia crate, safe from eyes, low.
Joyce, Ulysses, 11
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word toff
In Grafton street Master Dignam saw a red flower in a toff's mouth and a swell pair of kicks on him and he listening to what the drunk was telling him and grinning all the time.
Joyce, Ulysses, 10
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word thewless
As he strode past Mr Bloom's dental windows the sway of his dustcoat brushed rudely from its angle a slender tapping cane and swept onwards, having buffeted a thewless body.
Joyce, Ulysses, 10
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word primrose
Buck Mulligan's primrose waistcoat shook gaily to his laughter.
Joyce, Ulysses, 10
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word balance
-- I'm sorry, he said. Shakespeare is the happy huntingground of all minds that have lost their balance.
Joyce, Ulysses, 10
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word filberts
-- You can tell Barabbas from me, Ben Dollard said, that he can put that writ where Jacko put the nuts.
He led Father Cowley boldly forward linked to his bulk.
-- Filberts I believe they were, Mr Dedalus said, as he dropped his glasses on his coatfront, following them.
Joyce, Ulysses, 10
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word pinchbeck
Late lieabed under a quilt of old overcoats, fingering a pinchbeck bracelet, Dan Kelly's token.
Joyce, Ulysses, 10
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word lacquey
The lacquey by the door of Dillon's auctionrooms shook his handbell twice again and viewed himself in the chalked mirror of the cabinet.
Joyce, Ulysses, 10
... interesting variant of lackey ...
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word jollification
-- But wait till I tell you, he said. We had a midnight lunch too after all the jollification and when we sallied forth it was blue o'clock the morning after the night before.
Joyce, Ulysses, 10
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word galore
After liquids came solids. Cold joints galore and mince pies.
Joyce, Ulysses, 10
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word swingswong
-- Sacrifizio incruento, Stephen said smiling, swaying his ashplant in slow swingswong from its midpoint, lightly.
Joyce, Ulysses, 10
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word lychgate
The lychgate of a field showed Father Conmee breadths of cabbages, curtseying to him with ample underleaves.
Joyce, Ulysses, 10
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word incontinence
Father Conmee thought of that tyrannous incontinence, needed however for men's race on earth, and of the ways of God which were not our ways.
Joyce, Ulysses, 10
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word arecanut
And smiled yet again in going. He had cleaned his teeth, he knew, with arecanut paste.
Joyce, Ulysses, 10
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word mantilla
Father Conmee doffed his silk hat, as he took leave, at the jet beads of her mantilla inkshining in the sun.
Joyce, Ulysses, 10
January 7, 2007
brtom commented on the word theory
You have brought us all this way to show us a French triangle. Do you believe your own theory?
-- No, Stephen said promptly.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 6, 2007
brtom commented on the word umbrella
A brother is as easily forgotten as an umbrella.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 6, 2007
brtom commented on the word artificer
Fabulous artificer, the hawklike man. You flew. Whereto?
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 6, 2007
brtom commented on the word clauber
Enter Magee Mor Matthew, a rugged rough rugheaded kern, in strossers with a buttoned codpiece, his nether stocks bemired with clauber of ten forests, a wand of wilding in his hand.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 6, 2007
brtom commented on the word codpiece
Enter Magee Mor Matthew, a rugged rough rugheaded kern, in strossers with a buttoned codpiece, his nether stocks bemired with clauber of ten forests, a wand of wilding in his hand.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 6, 2007
brtom commented on the word strossers
Enter Magee Mor Matthew, a rugged rough rugheaded kern, in strossers with a buttoned codpiece, his nether stocks bemired with clauber of ten forests, a wand of wilding in his hand.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 6, 2007
brtom commented on the word kern
Enter Magee Mor Matthew, a rugged rough rugheaded kern, in strossers with a buttoned codpiece, his nether stocks bemired with clauber of ten forests, a wand of wilding in his hand.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 6, 2007
brtom commented on the word gorbellied
-- Saint Thomas, Stephen, smiling, said, whose gorbellied works I enjoy reading in the original ...
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 6, 2007
brtom commented on the word theolologicophilolological
I think you're getting on very nicely. Just mix up a mixture of theolologicophilolological. Mingo, minxi, mictum, mingere.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 6, 2007
brtom commented on the word catamite
I asked him what he thought of the charge of pederasty brought against the bard. He lifted his hands and said: All we can say is that life ran very high in those days. Lovely!
Catamite.
-- The sense of beauty leads us astray, said beautifulinsadness Best to ugling Eglinton.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 6, 2007
brtom commented on the word suspire
-- Lovely! Buck Mulligan suspired amorously.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 6, 2007
brtom commented on the word gombeen
The gombeen woman Eliza Tudor had underlinen enough to vie with her of Sheba.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 6, 2007
brtom commented on the word marchpane
Hot herringpies, green mugs of sack, honeysauces, sugar of roses, marchpane, gooseberried pigeons, ringocandies.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 6, 2007
brtom commented on the word mavrone
-- And we to be there, mavrone, and you to be unbeknownst sending us your conglomerations the way we to have our tongues out a yard long like the drouthy clerics do be fainting for a pussful.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 5, 2007
brtom commented on the word sentimentalist
-- The sentimentalist is he who would enjoy without incurring the immense debtorship for a thing done.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 5, 2007
brtom commented on the word caubeen
Stephen looked down on a wide headless caubeen, hung on his ashplanthandle over his knee.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 5, 2007
brtom commented on the word groatsworth
-- He had a good groatsworth of wit, Stephen said, and no truant memory.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 5, 2007
brtom commented on the word glowworm
John Eglinton looked in the tangled glowworm of his lamp.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 5, 2007
brtom commented on the word schoolboy
-- That model schoolboy, Stephen said, would find Hamlet's musings about the afterlife of his princely soul, the improbable, insignificant and undramatic monologue, as shallow as Plato's.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 5, 2007
brtom commented on the word logos
Hiesos Kristos, magician of the beautiful, the Logos who suffers in us at every moment.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 5, 2007
brtom commented on the word sinkapace
He came a step a sinkapace forward on neatsleather creaking and a step backward a sinkapace on the solemn floor.
Joyce, Ulysses, 9
January 5, 2007
brtom commented on the word nosejam
Rawhead and bloody bones. Flayed glasseyed sheep hung from their haunches, sheepsnouts bloodypapered snivelling nosejam on sawdust.
Joyce, Ulysses, 8
January 3, 2007
brtom commented on the word gobstuff
Every fellow for his own, tooth and nail. Gulp. Grub. Gulp. Gobstuff.
Joyce, Ulysses, 8
January 3, 2007
brtom commented on the word plumb
Molly looks out of plumb.
Joyce, Ulysses, 8
January 3, 2007
brtom commented on the word weggebobbles
Only weggebobbles and fruit.
Joyce, Ulysses, 8
January 3, 2007
brtom commented on the word meshuggah
Meshuggah. Off his chump.
Joyce, Ulysses, 8
January 3, 2007
brtom commented on the word wallop
He did come a wallop, by George. Must have cracked his skull on the cobblestones.
Joyce, Ulysses, 8
January 3, 2007
brtom commented on the word flapdoodle
Time someone thought about it instead of gassing about the what was it the pensive bosom of the silver effulgence. Flapdoodle to feed fools on.
Joyce, Ulysses, 8
January 3, 2007
brtom commented on the word pillion
Sit her horse like a man. Weightcarrying huntress. No sidesaddle or pillion for her, not for Joe.
Joyce, Ulysses, 8
January 3, 2007
brtom commented on the word dotty
-- Who is he if it's a fair question, Mrs Breen asked. Is he dotty?
Joyce, Ulysses, 8
January 3, 2007
brtom commented on the word mulligatawny
Pungent mockturtle oxtail mulligatawny. I'm hungry too.
Joyce, Ulysses, 8
January 3, 2007
brtom commented on the word rolypoly
Hot mockturtle vapour and steam of newbaked jampuffs rolypoly poured out from Harrison's.
Joyce, Ulysses, 8
January 3, 2007
brtom commented on the word caramel
Our great day, she said. Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Sweet name too: caramel.
Joyce, Ulysses, 8
January 3, 2007
brtom commented on the word ruck
Well out of that ruck I am. Devil of a job it was collecting accounts of those convents.
Joyce, Ulysses, 8
January 3, 2007
brtom commented on the word preen
Swans from Anna Liffey swim down here sometimes to preen themselves. No accounting for tastes.
Joyce, Ulysses, 8
January 3, 2007
brtom commented on the word flitters
Good Lord, that poor child's dress is in flitters. Underfed she looks too.
Joyce, Ulysses, 8
January 3, 2007
brtom commented on the word jujubes
Sitting on his throne, sucking red jujubes white.
Joyce, Ulysses, 8
January 3, 2007
brtom commented on the word crubeen
definition: pig's foot
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word brougham
Hackney cars, cabs, delivery waggons, mail-vans, private broughams, aerated mineral water floats with rattling crates of bottles, rattled, lolled, horsedrawn, rapidly.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word crubeen
Florence MacCabe takes a crubeen and a bottle of double X for supper every Saturday.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word brawn
-- They buy one and fourpenceworth of brawn and four slices of panloaf at the north city dining rooms in Marlborough street from Miss Kate Collins, proprietress...
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word fellaheen
The masters of the Mediterranean are fellaheen today.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word cleft
A dumb belch of hunger cleft his speech.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word bethought
His eyes bethought themselves once more. Witless shellfish swam in the gross lenses to and fro, seeking outlet.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word contumely
-- It was the speech, mark you, the professor said, of a finished orator, full of courteous haughtiness and pouring in chastened diction, I will not say the vials of his wrath but pouring the proud man's contumely upon the new movement.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word nightmare
-- Gave it to them on a hot plate, Myles Crawford said, the whole bloody history.
Nightmare from which you will never awake.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word dicky
An illstarched dicky jutted up and with a rude gesture he thrust it back into his waistcoat.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word shaughraun
We'll paralyse Europe as Ignatius Gallaher used to say when he was on the shaughraun, doing billiardmarking in the Clarence.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word lexicon
-- I want you to write something for me, he said. Something with a bite in it. You can do it. I see it in your face. In the lexicon of youth...
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word beastly
Whose mother is beastly dead.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word cloaca
The Roman, like the Englishman who follows in his footsteps, brought to every new shore on which he set his foot (on our shore he never set it) only his cloacal obsession. He gazed about him in his toga and he said: It is meet to be here. Let us construct a watercloset.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word mazurka
He began to mazurka in swift caricature across the floor on sliding feet past the fireplace ...
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word resonant
He took a reel of dental floss from his waistcoat pocket and, breaking off a piece, twanged it smartly between two and two of his resonant unwashed teeth.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word pedagogue
-- Getououthat, you bloody old pedagogue! the editor said in recognition.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word shite
-- O! Mr Dedalus cried, giving vent to a hopeless groan, shite and onions!
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word arse
- Agonising Christ, wouldn't it give you a heartburn on your arse?
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word conundrum
Martin Cunningham forgot to give us his spellingbee conundrum this morning.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word bob
Three bob I lent him in Meagher's.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word flatulence
Dear Mr Editor, what is a good cure for flatulence?
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word draymen
Grossbooted draymen rolled barrels dullthudding out of Prince's stores and bumped them up on the brewery float.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7
January 2, 2007
brtom commented on the word repose
We are praying now for the repose of his soul. Hoping you're well and not in hell.
Joyce, Ulysses, 6
January 1, 2007
brtom commented on the word galoot
Now who is that lankylooking galoot over there in the macintosh?
Joyce, Ulysses, 6
January 1, 2007
brtom commented on the word grig
Tantalising for the poor dead. Smell of frilled beefsteaks to the starving gnawing their vitals. Desire to grig people.
Joyce, Ulysses, 6
January 1, 2007
brtom commented on the word gumption
Wonder how he had the gumption to propose to any girl.
Joyce, Ulysses, 6
January 1, 2007
brtom commented on the word treacherous
-- The others are putting on their hats, Mr Kernan said. I suppose we can do so too. We are the last. This cemetery is a treacherous place.
Joyce, Ulysses, 6
January 1, 2007
brtom commented on the word latin
Makes them feel more important to be prayed over in Latin.
Joyce, Ulysses, 6
January 1, 2007
brtom commented on the word harpy
Leanjawed harpy, hard woman at a bargain, her bonnet awry.
Joyce, Ulysses, 6
January 1, 2007
brtom commented on the word paltry
Paltry funeral: coach and three carriages.
Joyce, Ulysses, 6
January 1, 2007
brtom commented on the word adelite
Blazing face: redhot. Too much John Barleycorn. Cure for a red nose. Drink like the devil till it turns adelite. A lot of money he spent colouring it.
Joyce, Ulysses, 6
January 1, 2007
brtom commented on the word throstle
Mi trema un poco il. Beautiful on that tre her voice is: weeping tone. A thrust. A throstle. There is a word throstle that expressed that.
Joyce, Ulysses, 6
January 1, 2007
brtom commented on the word uncertain
Mr Dedalus, peering through his glasses towards the veiled sun, hurled a mute curse at the sky.
-- It's as uncertain as a child's bottom, he said.
Joyce, Ulysses, 6
January 1, 2007
brtom commented on the word commodious
Corny might have given us a more commodious yoke, Mr Power said.
Joyce, Ulysses, 6
January 1, 2007
brtom commented on the word windingsheet
Pull it more to your side. Our windingsheet. Never know who will touch you dead. Wash and shampoo. I believe they clip the nails and the hair.
Joyce, Ulysses, 6
January 1, 2007
brtom commented on the word scut
He sped off towards Conway's corner. God speed scut.
Joyce, Ulysses, 5
December 31, 2006
brtom commented on the word loofah
He waited by the counter, inhaling the keen reek of drugs, the dusty dry smell of sponges and loofahs.
Joyce, Ulysses, 5
December 31, 2006
brtom commented on the word electuary
He ought to physic himself a bit. Electuary or emulsion.
Joyce, Ulysses, 5
December 31, 2006
brtom commented on the word massboy
The priest and the massboy stood up and walked off.
Joyce, Ulysses, 5
December 31, 2006
brtom commented on the word crawthumpers
And just imagine that. Wife and six children at home. And plotting that murder all the time. Those crawthumpers, now that's a good name for them, there's always something shiftylooking about them.
Joyce, Ulysses, 5
December 31, 2006
brtom commented on the word bunghole
The bungholes sprang open and a huge dull flood leaked out, flowing together, winding through mudflats all over the level land, a lazy pooling swirl of liquor bearing along wideleaved flowers of its froth.
Joyce, Ulysses, 5
December 31, 2006
brtom commented on the word pickeystone
With careful tread he passed over a hopscotch court with its forgotten pickeystone.
Joyce, Ulysses, 5
December 31, 2006
brtom commented on the word lee
He turned into Cumberland street and, going on some paces, halted in the lee of the station wall.
Joyce, Ulysses, 5
December 31, 2006
brtom commented on the word fagbutt
By Brady's cottages a boy for the skins lolled, his bucket of offal linked, smoking a chewed fagbutt.
Joyce, Ulysses, 5
December 31, 2006
brtom commented on the word jarvey
Hands stuck in his trousers pockets, jarvey off for the day, singing.
Joyce, Ulysses, 4
December 31, 2006
brtom commented on the word dunam
You pay eight marks and they plant a dunam of land for you with olives, oranges, almonds or citrons.
Joyce, Ulysses, 4
December 31, 2006
brtom commented on the word mrkrgnao
what the cat says to Bloom in Ulysses, chapter 4
December 31, 2006
brtom commented on the word hob
... lifted the kettle off the hob and set it sideways on the fire.
Joyce, Ulysses, 4
December 31, 2006
brtom commented on the word gelid
Gelid light and air were in the kitchen but out of doors gentle summer morning everywhere.
Joyce, Ulysses, 4
December 31, 2006
brtom commented on the word purling
It flows purling, widely flowing, floating foampool, flower unfurling.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word jess
Wrist through the braided jess of her sunshade.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word alphabet
She, she, she. What she? The virgin at Hodges Figgis' window on Monday looking in for one of the alphabet books you were going to write. Keen glance you gave her.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word stereoscope
Flat I see, then think distance, near, far, flat I see, east, back. Ah, see now. Falls back suddenly, frozen in stereoscope.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word trascines
She trudges, schlepps, trains, drags, trascines her load.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word delectation
Morose delectation Aquinas tunbelly calls this, frate porcospino. Unfallen Adam rode and not rutted.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word dogsbody
Dogskull, dogsniff, eyes on the ground, moves to one great goal. Ah, poor dogsbody. Here lies poor dogsbody's body.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word turlehide
A school of turlehide whales stranded in hot noon, spouting, hobbling in the shallows.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word peekaboo
They have tucked it safe among the bulrushes. Peekaboo. I see you. No, the dog. He is running back to them. Who?
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word grike
He climbed over the sedge and eely oarweeds and sat on a stool of rock, resting his ashplant in a grike.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word mole
He lifted his feet up from the suck and turned back by the mole of boulders.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word barbicans
Through the barbicans the shafts of light are moving ever, slowly ever as my feet are sinking, creeping duskward over the dial floor.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word gossoon
Spurned lover. I was a strapping young gossoon at that time, I tell you, I'll show you my likeness one day.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word slainte
There was a fellow I knew once in Barcelona, queer fellow, used to call it his postprandial. Well: slainte! Around the slabbed tables the tangle of wined breaths and grumbling gorges.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word gullet
About us gobblers fork spiced beans down their gullets.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word stogged
A porter-bottle stood up, stogged to its waist, in the cakey sand dough. A sentinel: isle of dreadful thirst.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word fubsy
You prayed to the devil in Serpentine avenue that the fubsy widow in front might lift her clothes still more from the wet street.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word comminated
A garland of grey hair on his comminated head see him me clambering down to the footpace (descende), clutching a monstrance, basiliskeyed.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word bigdrumming
His tuneful whistle sounds again, finely shaded, with rushes of the air, his fists bigdrumming on his padded knees.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word moiety
Cleanchested. He has washed the upper moiety.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word coign
They take me for a dun, peer out from a coign of vantage.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word consubstantial
My consubstantial father's voice. Did you see anything of your artist brother Stephen lately? No?
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word imbecile
By the way go easy with that money like a good young imbecile. Yes, I must.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word omophorion
With beaded mitre and with crozier, stalled upon his throne, widower of a widowed see, with upstiffed omophorion, with clotted hinderparts.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word watercloset
In a Greek watercloset he breathed his last: euthanasia.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word gamp
Number one swung lourdily her midwife's bag, the other's gamp poked in the beach.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word catalectic
A catalectic tetrameter of iambs marching.
Joyce, Ulysses, 3
December 30, 2006
brtom commented on the word coughball
A coughball of laughter leaped from his throat dragging after it a rattling chain of phlegm.
Joyce, Ulysses, 2
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word maladroit
... their heads thickplotting under maladroit silk hats.
Joyce, Ulysses, 2
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word papish
The lodge of Diamond in Armagh the splendid behung with corpses of papishes.
Joyce, Ulysses, 2
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word fillibegs
Mr Deasy stared sternly for some moments over the mantelpiece at the shapely bulk of a man in tartan fillibegs: Albert Edward, Prince of Wales.
Joyce, Ulysses, 2
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word seacold
His seacold eyes looked on the empty bay ...
Joyce, Ulysses, 2
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word laggard
He stood in the porch and watched the laggard hurry towards the scrappy field where sharp voices were in strife.
Joyce, Ulysses, 2
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word morrice
Across the page the symbols moved in grave morrice, in the mummery of their letters, wearing quaint caps of squares and cubes.
Joyce, Ulysses, 2
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word mummery
Across the page the symbols moved in grave morrice, in the mummery of their letters, wearing quaint caps of squares and cubes.
Joyce, Ulysses, 2
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word rapine
... and on a heath beneath winking stars a fox, red reek of rapine in his fur, with merciless bright eyes scraped in the earth, listened, scraped up the earth, listened, scraped and scraped.
Joyce, Ulysses, 2
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word lumberroom
Quickly they were gone and from the lumberroom came the rattle of sticks and clamour of their boots and tongues.
Joyce, Ulysses, 2
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word candescent
Tranquillity sudden, vast, candescent: form of forms.
Joyce, Ulysses, 2
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word jerks
He recited jerks of verse with odd glances at the text ...
Joyce, Ulysses, 2
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word pier
-- Kingstown pier, Stephen said. Yes, a disappointed bridge. The words troubled their gaze.
-- How, sir? Comyn asked. A bridge is across a river.
Joyce, Ulysses, 2
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word gorescarred
Asculum, Stephen said, glancing at the name and date in the gorescarred book.
Joyce, Ulysses, 2
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word obsidian
the obsidian gleam of crow
suzanne, suzzanagig jig
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word uebermensch
My twelfth rib is gone, he cried. I'm the Uebermensch. Toothless Kinch and I, the supermen.
Joyce, Ulysses, 1
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word frogwise
A young man clinging to a spur of rock near him moved slowly frogwise his green legs in the deep jelly of the water.
Joyce, Ulysses, 1
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word consubstantiality
... warring his life long upon the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father ...
Joyce, Ulysses, 1
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word pique
You pique my curiosity, Haines said amiably. Is it some paradox?
Joyce, Ulysses, 1
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word deuced
That one about the cracked lookingglass of a servant being the symbol of Irish art is deuced good.
Joyce, Ulysses, 1
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word junket
Today the bards must drink and junket.
Joyce, Ulysses, 1
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word cuckquean
... their common cuckquean, a messenger from the secret morning.
Joyce, Ulysses, 1
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word begob
Begob, ma'am, says Mrs Cahill, God send you don't make them in the one pot.
Joyce, Ulysses, 1
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word druids
We'll have a glorious drunk to astonish the druidy druids.
Joyce, Ulysses, 1
December 29, 2006
brtom commented on the word bro
i continue to wage war against this term (in relation to me) ... and am never ever too successful ...
December 26, 2006
brtom commented on the word nascent
In theory, this would benefit our nascent major programs as well as the general education curriculum ...
Joseph Duemer, Sharp Sand
December 22, 2006
brtom commented on the word maelstrom
The president is about to escalate himself into a full-scale maelstrom.
Joseph Duemer, Sharp Sand
December 22, 2006
brtom commented on the word phallologocentrism
"Language ordered around an absolute Word (logos) which is “masculine�? phallic, systematically excludes, disqualifies, denigrates, diminishes, silences the “feminine�? (Nikita Dhawan).
found at Introduction to Modern Literary Theory
December 22, 2006
brtom commented on the word gurlesque
I’m developing an aesthetic theory which I’m calling the Gurlesque (I’ll explain why a bit later), a theory which emerged organically from my reading a steady stream of books by women poets published in the last several years: women who, like myself, were raised during the feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s.
Arielle Greenberg
December 21, 2006
brtom commented on the word kitschy
The trees are wretched splinter-sculptures and the strip malls are alive with kitschy holiday heraldry.
K. Silem Mohammad, lime tree
December 21, 2006
brtom commented on the word pantheon
She reigns
in eventual pantheons
of book store cahiers ...
Raymond Farr, in As/Is
December 21, 2006
brtom commented on the word cleave
... the men carve
the hunted beast
cleaving it
joist to joist.
Rachel Phillips, in As/Is
December 21, 2006
brtom commented on the word trawl
I do not
trawl the web,
rather step
delicately, as if
in a field of
glass.
Mark Young, in As/Is
December 21, 2006
brtom commented on the word monocle
... my monocle bent towards asphalt
Andrew Lundwall, on the communal As/Is
December 21, 2006
brtom commented on the word longitude
Her longitudes are wickedness.
Her anvil is corporeal sorrow.
Raymond Farr, on the communal As/Is
December 21, 2006
brtom commented on the word doughbt—
i think it can go either way ... but i'm partial to "dote" ... with that wierd canadian thingy that i can't imitate in the "o"... btw, i just noticed the dash after the word ... my bad ... but it reminds me to wonder if there's any way to edit the posted word (the way we can edit comments) ... or must one delete the word altogether and repost? ... but that would dump the comments ... hmmm
December 21, 2006
brtom commented on the word doughbt—
. . . and here, dear Reader, one’s got, no doughbt—(it comes out, a yeasty thing)—one’s metaphorickal Panties in a Bunch.
John Latta, Isola di Rifiuti
cool portmanteau
December 20, 2006
brtom commented on the word hypnogogic
...and lingering hypnogogic for sleep
no more cling-clanging bells
to awaken
suzanne, suzannagig jig
December 20, 2006
brtom commented on the word lucent
... the Sun's lucent Orbe ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 20, 2006
brtom commented on the word trumpery
...Embryo's and Idiots, Eremits and Friers
White, Black and Grey, with all thir trumperie.
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 20, 2006
brtom commented on the word beditation
be
beditation
begin
befriend
behest
bedazzle
befrenzy
beget
suzanne, suzannagig jig
December 20, 2006
brtom commented on the word beditations
be
beditation
begin
befriend
behest
bedazzle
befrenzy
beget
suzanne, suzannagig jig
December 20, 2006
brtom commented on the word equanimity
To embrace a truth at the price of one's vanity repays the cost in the coin of equanimity.
Nick Piombino, Fait Accompli
December 19, 2006
brtom commented on the word ensorcelled
in the depths of my spirit
I feel capable of doing just that
of kissing into wakefulness
a man, in parts ensorcelled ...
suzanne, suzannajig gig
December 19, 2006
brtom commented on the word jejune
... Petulance (and its child by Desuetude, Disgust) up against the moronic Starry-Eyed, jejune Rabble-Rouse spitting at the feet of Big Dictum ...
John Latta, Isola di Rifiuti
This is a good example of the amazingly worded wilderness through which Mr. Latta cuts his path ... I think of the jungles of Henri Rousseau ...
December 19, 2006
brtom commented on the word barmy
... that miscible rendering (undistill’d) of sheer barmy Discovery up against hare-brain’d Gossip ...
John Latta, Isola di Rifiuti
December 19, 2006
brtom commented on the word marinated
To be experienced these feelings must settle a bit and then be ...marinated, like an assemblage of tasty spices, meats and potatoes.
Nick Piombino, Fait Accompli
December 19, 2006
brtom commented on the word weeds
And they who to be sure of Paradise
Dying put on the weeds of Dominic,
Or in Franciscan think to pass disguis'd ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 19, 2006
brtom commented on the word yeanling
Dislodging from a Region scarce of prey
To gorge the flesh of Lambs or yeanling Kids ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 19, 2006
brtom commented on the word copious
Hail Son of God, Saviour of Men, thy Name
Shall be the copious matter of my Song ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 19, 2006
brtom commented on the word similitude
Begotten Son, Divine Similitude
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 19, 2006
brtom commented on the word quiver
Then Crown'd again thir gold'n Harps they took,
Harps ever tun'd, that glittering by thir side
Like Quivers hung ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 19, 2006
brtom commented on the word compass
But all ye Gods,
Adore him, who to compass all this dies,
Adore the Son, and honour him as mee.
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 19, 2006
brtom commented on the word dominions
... under thee as Head Supream
Thrones, Princedoms, Powers, Dominions I reduce ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word thrones
... under thee as Head Supream
Thrones, Princedoms, Powers, Dominions I reduce ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word fruition
... and equally enjoying
God-like fruition, quitted all to save
A World from utter loss ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word redeem
So Heav'nly love shall outdoo Hellish hate,
Giving to death, and dying to redeeme,
So dearly to redeem what Hellish hate
So easily destroy'd, and still destroyes ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word filial
His words here ended, but his meek aspect
Silent yet spake, and breath'd immortal love
To mortal men, above which only shon
Filial obedience ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word maugre
I through the ample Air in Triumph high
Shall lead Hell Captive maugre Hell, and show
The powers of darkness bound.
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word atonement
Attonement for himself or offering meet,
Indebted and undon, hath none to bring ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word forfeiture
... on mans behalf
Patron or Intercessor none appeerd,
Much less that durst upon his own head draw
The deadly forfeiture, and ransom set.
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word fealty
Man disobeying,
Disloyal breaks his fealtie, and sinns
Against the high Supremacie of Heav'n ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word ambrosial
Thus while God spake, ambrosial fragrance fill'd
All Heav'n ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word enthrall
... for so
I formd them free, and free they must remain,
Till they enthrall themselves ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word ingrate
... whose fault?
Whose but his own? ingrate, he had of mee
All he could have ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word imbosom'd
On the bare outside of this World, that seem'd
Firm land imbosom'd without Firmament ...
Milton, Paradise Lost, III
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word beatitude
... and from his sight receiv'd
Beatitude past utterance ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word darkling
... as the wakeful Bird
Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal Note.
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word sojourn
Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing,
Escap't the Stygian Pool, though long detain'd
In that obscure sojourn ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word waft
That Satan with less toil, and now with ease
Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light ...
Milton, Paradise Lost II
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word fraught
Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge,
Accurst, and in a cursed hour he hies.
Milton, Paradise Lost II
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word indexes
ah yes, easter eggs ... and the word lists brings up a list of all the lists ...
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word indexes
I've added the plural of "index" just to mark some form of the word's presence on Wordie. There apparently can be no wordie-page for "index" ... since that term always brings one back to the main page. But, for me, the index is one of the coolest parts of a book.
I've got no particular bias against indices, but contemporary indexers seem to prefer "indexes."
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word zealous
Zelo zelatus sum pro Domino Deo exercituum
Vulgate, 1 Kings 19:14
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word eminence
Satan exalted sat, by merit rais'd 5
To that bad eminence ...
Milton, Paradise Lost, II
December 18, 2006
brtom commented on the word cope
So numberless were those bad Angels seen
Hovering on wing under the Cope of Hell ...
Milton, Paradise Lost, I
December 17, 2006
brtom commented on the word mind
The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.
Milton, Paradise Lost, I
December 17, 2006
brtom commented on the word leviathan
... or that Sea-beast
Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim th' Ocean stream ...
Milton, Paradise Lost I
December 17, 2006
brtom commented on the word glutenous
Next this marble venom'd seat
Smear'd with gumms of glutenous heat
I touch with chaste palms moist and cold,
Now the spell hath lost his hold ...
Milton, Comus
December 16, 2006
brtom commented on the word vermeil
What need a vermeil-tinctured lip for that
Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the Morn?
Milton, Comus
December 16, 2006
brtom commented on the word budge
O foolishnes of men! that find their ears
To those budge doctors of the Stoick Furr,
And fetch their precepts from the Cynick Tub,
Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence.
Milton, Comus
December 16, 2006
brtom commented on the word nepenthe
Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone,
In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena
Is of such power to stir up joy as this ...
Milton, Comus
December 16, 2006
brtom commented on the word julep
And first behold this cordial Julep here
That flames, and dances in his crystal bounds
With spirits of balm, and fragrant Syrops mixt.
Milton, Comus
December 16, 2006
brtom commented on the word margent
Sweet Echo, sweetest Nymph that livst unseen
Within thy airy shell
By slow Meander's margent green ...
Milton, Comus
December 16, 2006
brtom commented on the word rife
This is the place, as well as I may guess,
Whence eev'n now the tumult of loud Mirth
Was rife, and perfet in my list'ning ear...
Milton, Comus
December 16, 2006
brtom commented on the word glozing
I under fair pretence of friendly ends,
And well plac't words of glozing courtesie
Baited with reasons not unplausible
Wind me into the easie-hearted man,
And hugg him into snares.
Milton, Comus
December 16, 2006
brtom commented on the word finny
The Sounds, and Seas with all their finny drove
Now to the Moon in wavering Morrice move ...
Milton, Comus
December 16, 2006
brtom commented on the word whelming
Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide
Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world
Milton, Lycidas
December 15, 2006
brtom commented on the word boots
Alas! What boots it with uncessant care
To tend the homely slighted Shepherds trade ...
Milton, Lycidas
December 15, 2006
brtom commented on the word blasted
O Fairest flower no sooner blown but blasted Milton, On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough
December 15, 2006
brtom commented on the word froth-becurlèd
And sought to hide his froth-becurlèd head Milton, PARAPHRASE ON PSALM CXIV.
December 15, 2006
brtom commented on the list de-verb-this-word
transition?
December 13, 2006
brtom commented on the word jehovah
If nature will not tell the tale
Jehovah told to her
Can human nature not survive
Without a listener?
Emily Dickinson, from J. 1748
December 12, 2006
brtom commented on the word bliss
The wildest largest passions, bliss that is utmost, sorrow that is utmost, become him well—pride is for him ...
Whitman, "In Sing the Body Electric"
December 11, 2006
brtom commented on the word limpid
Limitless limpid jets of love hot and enormous
Whitman, "I Sing the Body Electric"
December 11, 2006
brtom commented on the word nimbus
This is the female form;
A divine nimbus exhales from it from head to foot ...
Whitman, "I Sing the Body Electric"
December 11, 2006
brtom commented on the word discorrupt
And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the Soul Whitman, "I Sing the Body Electric"
December 11, 2006
brtom commented on the word engirth
The armies of those I love engirth me, and I engirth them ... Whitman, "I Sing the Body Electric"
December 11, 2006
brtom commented on the word unpent
The unpent enthusiasm—-the wild cheers of the crowd for their favorites Whitman, "Drum-Taps"
December 11, 2006
brtom commented on the word aromas
About my body for me, and your body for you, be hung our divinest aromas; Whitman, "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"
December 11, 2006
brtom commented on the word peruse
Consider, you who peruse me, whether I may not in unknown ways be looking upon you ... Whitman, "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"
December 11, 2006
brtom commented on the word float
Suspend here and everywhere, eternal float of solution! Whitman, "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"
December 11, 2006
brtom commented on the list words-of-the-years
strikes me how ... mostly ... these are real ugly words
December 10, 2006
brtom commented on the word methusalem-numskull
I lay you'll be the Methusalem-numskull of creation before ever I ask you--or the likes of you. HF 33
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word billowy
Cushion me soft ... rock me in a billowy drowse ... Whitman, Song of Myself
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word chant
I chant a new chant of dilation or pride ... Whitman, Song of Myself
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word higgle
The pedlar sweats with his pack on his back -- the purchaser higgles about the odd cent. Whitman, Song of Myself
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word affectionate
The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it. Whitman, Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word nation
An individual is as superb as a nation when he has the qualities which make a superb nation. The soul of the largest and wealthiest and proudest nation may well go half-way to meet that of its poets. Whitman, Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word brawny
The English language befriends the grand American expression—it is brawny enough, and limber and full enough. Whitman, Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word poem
A great poem is for ages and ages in common, and for all degrees and complexions, and all departments and sects, and for a woman as much as a man, and a man as much as a woman. A great poem is no finish to a man or woman, but rather a beginning. Whitman, Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word glut
The prudence of the greatest poet answers at last the craving and glut of the soul, puts off nothing ... Whitman, Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word chatter
... the ghastly chatter of a death without serenity or majesty ... Whitman, Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word jetted
Clean and vigorous children are jetted and conceiv’d only in those communities where the models of natural forms are public every day. Whitman, Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word outre
Of ornaments to a work nothing outre can be allow’d ... Whitman, Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word ridiculous
Of the human form especially, it is so great it must never be made ridiculous. Whitman, Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word hiatus
He sees health for himself in being one of the mass—he sees the hiatus in singular eminence. Whitman, Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word divine
It is also not consistent with the reality of the soul to admit that there is anything in the known universe more divine than men and women. Whitman, Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word nakedness
The innocence and nakedness are resumed—they are neither modest nor immodest. Whitman, Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word kosmos
They shall be Kosmos, without monopoly or secrecy, glad to pass anything to any one—hungry for equals night and day. Whitman, Preface 1855
Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son ... Song of Myself
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word supremes
Did you suppose there could be only one Supreme? We affirm there can be unnumber’d Supremes, and that one does not countervail another any more than one eyesight countervails another—and that men can be good or grand only of the consciousness of their supremacy within them. Whitman, Preface 1855
The supernatural of no account, myself waiting my time to be one of the supremes... Song of Myself
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word purposes
Let who may exalt or startle or fascinate or soothe, I will have purposes as health or heat or snow has, and be as regardless of observation. Walt Whitman, Preface 1855
I believe in those winged purposes ... Song of Myself
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word simplicity
The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity. Walt Whitman, Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word consistence
The greatest poet forms the consistence of what is to be, from what has been and is. Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word plumb
The fruition of beauty is no chance of miss or hit—it is as inevitable as life—it is exact and plumb as gravitation.
Whitman, Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word jar
Nothing can jar him—suffering and darkness cannot—death and fear cannot. Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word baulks
What baulks or breaks others is fuel for his burning progress to contact and amorous joy. Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word persiflage
The time straying toward infidelity and confections and persiflage he withholds by steady faith. Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word broadcast
Here at last is something in the doings of man that corresponds with the broadcast doings of the day and night. Preface 1855
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word podcast
http://www.oup.com/us/brochure/NOAD_podcast/?view=usa
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word truthiness
and Merriam-Webster Word of the Year 2006
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word red state
red state, blue state, purple state
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word y2k.
Word of the Year 1999 was Y2K.
Word of the 1990s Decade was web.
Word of the Twentieth Century was jazz.
Word of the Past Millennium was she.
http://www.americandialect.org/index.php/amerdial/1999_words_of_the_year_word_of_the_1990s_word_of_the_20th_century_word_of_t/
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word e-
t is just a single letter of the alphabet, but the hyphenated prefix e- loomed so large in American discourse in 1998 that members and friends of the American Dialect Society at their annual meeting voted it Word (or perhaps Lexical Entity) of the Year, as well as Most Useful and Most Likely to Succeed.
http://www.americandialect.org/index.php/amerdial/1998_words_of_the_year/
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word mom
as in soccer mom, the newly significant type of voter courted by both candidates during the presidential campaign. That phrase spun off other designations such as minivan mom and waitress mom.
http://www.americandialect.org/index.php/amerdial/1996_words_of_the_ye/
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word nonnamous
... and I see we hadn't no time to lose. So Tom said, now for the nonnamous letters. HF 39
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word out-superintend
He could out-superintend any boy I ever see. He knowed how to do everything. HF 38
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word wool-gethering
your wool-gethering memory HF 37
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the word sluicing
...and then she went to sluicing out coffee with one hand and cracking the handiest child's head with her thimble with the other... HF 37
December 9, 2006
brtom commented on the list sophomoric
hiya ... my tenth graders have trouble pronouncing them, too ... the other day one created a sentence something like "When he cut me off in traffic I responded with a string of harsh euphemisms." ... nice oxymoron ... but i've got my work cut out for me ... they also came to believe (thanks to our unclear textbook) that "effete" meant "tired" ... so we ended up with sentences like ... "After running thirty laps and dropping for twenty, we were certainly an effete team."
December 8, 2006
brtom commented on the word letting on
"Letting on don't cost nothing; letting on ain't no trouble; and if it's any object, I don't mind letting on we was at it a hundred and fifty year. HF 35
December 8, 2006
brtom commented on the word clew
S'pose he don't do nothing with it? ain't it there in his bed, for a clew, after he's gone? and don't you reckon they'll want clews? HF 35
December 8, 2006
brtom commented on the word putrified
"I was most putrified with astonishment when you give me that smack." HF 33
December 8, 2006
brtom commented on the list banned
These are words I would prefer not to find in my students' formal papers or speeches.
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word shut
I'd seen all I wanted to of them, and wanted to get entirely shut of them. HF 31
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word sand
She was the best girl I ever see, and had the most sand. HF 29
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word bilin'
"The whole bilin' of 'm 's frauds! Le's duck 'em! le's drown 'em!"
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word cravats
... for if the excited fools hadn't let go all holts and made that rush to get a look we'd a slept in our cravats to-night ... HF 30
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word livers
... and it most scared the livers and lights out of me. HF 29
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word blister
Well, I never see anything like that old blister for clean out-and-out cheek. HF 29
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word squshed
Blamed if the king didn't have to brace up mighty quick, or he'd a squshed down like a bluff bank that the river has cut under, it took him so sudden... HF 29
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word nuts
It was nuts for the crowd, though maybe not for the king's friends HF 29
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word googling
... like a jug that's googling out buttermilk ... HF 29
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word muggins
Why, you talk like a muggins. HF 28
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word girafft
I never see such a girafft as the king was for wanting to swallow everything. HF 27
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word style
I reckoned Tom Sawyer couldn't a done it no neater himself. Of course he would a throwed more style into it, but I can't do that very handy, not being brung up to it. HF 27
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word bounden
so it's my bounden duty ... HF 28
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word pison
Well, the funeral sermon was very good, but pison long and tiresome HF 27
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word smouch
Then the king 'll get it again, and it 'll be a long day before he gives anybody another chance to smouch it from him. HF 27
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word dasn't
I dasn't do it. HF 26
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word hive
I'll hive that money for them or bust. HF 26
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word bile
They can't bile that amount of water away off there at the sea. HF 26
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word valley
The king said the cubby would do for his valley -- meaning me. HF 26
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word cubby
The king said the cubby would do for his valley -- meaning me. HF 26
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word orgies
"...and so it's fitten that his funeral orgies sh'd be public." HF 25
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word diseased
... and help set up with the ashes of the diseased ... HF 25
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word slush
...all that kind of rot and slush ... HF 25
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word leak
... and then they put their arms around each other's necks, and hung their chins over each other's shoulders; and then for three minutes, or maybe four, I never see two men leak the way they done. HF 25
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word dissentering
... a dissentering minister ... HF 24
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word thickest
,,, but these are the ones that Peter was thickest with ... HF 24
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word duds
The king's duds was all black ... HF 24
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word gaudy
I reckoned the poor king was in for a gaudy time of it with the audience ... HF23
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word dickens
"... and then shin for the raft like the dickens was after you!" HF 23
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word sold
"We are sold -- mighty badly sold. But we don't want to be the laughing stock of this whole town, I reckon ... HF 23
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word custom
... it can have all of my custom every time. HF 22
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word hump
...and then how the horses did lean over and hump themselves! HF 22
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word bully
It was a real bully circus. HF 22
December 7, 2006
brtom commented on the word blame
You must be a blame' fool. HF 16
December 5, 2006
brtom commented on the word tuck
... but when he says this it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me. HF 16
December 5, 2006
brtom commented on the word hawking
But other times they just lazy around, or go hawking--just hawking and sp-- Sh!--d'you hear a noise? HF 14
December 5, 2006
brtom commented on the word prime
The seegars was prime. HF 14
December 5, 2006
brtom commented on the list sophomoric
i. e. grade 10
December 4, 2006
brtom commented on the word gwyne
that is, "going"
December 4, 2006
brtom commented on the word bymeby
that is, "by and by"
December 4, 2006
brtom commented on the word haggled
I catched a catfish and haggled him open with my saw ...
December 4, 2006
brtom commented on the word brotherhood
i use it only in context of the male branch (my experience) of the carmelite order ... no slight intended to the sisters
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the word gianture
J. 641, Franklin 707
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the word optizan
J. 329, Franklin 608
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the word bluppen
Watch while I bluppen the stale gray dawn.
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the word ondivorant
No one should approach our dear ondivorant Nicholas for the next few hours.
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the word linqwap
It's linqwap ... there between the second and third molars.
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the user brtom
no no... yr good ... & i'm an english teacher ... and i write obscure pomes at http://brtom.typepad.com/one/
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the user brtom
a writer? ... must be ... if ... but you pose a ... my head is ... imploding ... a savage parlor ... sorry
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the word vuposin
The vuposin kept me indoors all week.
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the word expagulator
David has been the most notorious expagulator of our time.
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the list whitmanian
good ones ... thanks!
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the word sniboluous
A sniboluous gale blew in from the gutter.
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the word prompillent
Erich's prompillent maneuvers kept him in the lobby.
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the word alligavate
We shall not alligavate; we shall not presume.
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the word erx
Not even the domestic polecat notices the erx anymore.
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the word glitensor
The glitensor slipped in my fingers and startled the President.
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the word condurvent
Propelled by his condurvent manner, we spun off to The Container Store.
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the word nymphet
from The Crying of Lot 49 ... clearly a nod to Nabokov
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the list pynchonesque
entropy ... o yes, this is a most obvious & necessary one ... it just didn't show up on any of the random pages i was hitting ... my process for listing will be characterized by randomness ... Schwarzgerät ... i'm not sure what to do with certain characteristic proper names ... & yes nymphet is totally Nabokov, but i don't & probably won't have a Nabokov list ... so ...
thanks for dropping by, guys ...
December 3, 2006
brtom commented on the word yaw-yawed
They became exhausted in imitation of them; and they yaw-yawed in their speech like them; and they served out, with an enervated air, the little mouldy rations of political economy, on which they regaled their disciples. Hard Times, Book the Second, Chapter II
December 3, 2006
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