... Spices were among the premier aphrodisiacs of the day, not least thanks to the author January turned to for his stimulants, 'damned Constantine.' More conventionally known as Constantine the African (ca. 1020-1087), Chaucer's 'cursed monk' was in fact one of the major intellectual figures of the age, his work occupying a central place in the canon of medical studies in European universities until the end of the fifteenth century."
"*Strong spiced and sweetened wines."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 184
Another historical note can be found in comment on unguent.
"The queen of all compound preparations was 'theriac,' a panacea by reason of the extraordinary number, quality, and in many cases, peculiar nature of its ingredients. Theriac began in the classical era as an antidote to poison and then became credited with the power of curing diseases as well as preventing their onset. The most celebrated medieval variety of theriac came from Montpellier, site of one of the most famous medical schools. Montpellier theriac contained no fewer than 83 ingredients, mostly aromatic exotics, and there was an annual ceremony in which these were displayed and then solemnly mixed to assure the public that only genuine substances were used."
Paul Freedman, Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination (New Haven and London: Yale UP, 2008), 68
More about the importance of Montpellier in spice trade history can be found on gingerbread. Also an interesting usage on electuary.
"Around the same time a plan of the Swiss Benedictine monastery of Saint Gall featured a cupboard for storing spices (armarium pigmentorum) attached to the doctor's quarters, its role to complement the locally grown herbs supplied by the garden."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 161
"The best-known medieval medicines, and the lion's share of the spices, belonged to the rich. ... The poor man's theriac, according to Arnald de Vilanova, was garlic. By the twelfth century, the herb-spice differential seems to have been something of a cliché. John of Salisbury (ca. 1110-1180) cites 'an old proverb' that obtained 'among courtiers and physicians everywhere': In return for words we use mountain herbs; For things of value, spices and drugs.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 173
"It is a recurrent motif of the vitae (Lives of the Saints) to find the miracle-working saint having no need of spices, much to the astonishment and chagrin of the spice-reliant doctors. The plot is repeated time and again, the holy man or woman healing an illness that has defeated even the spices of the pigmentarius. ... A little more than a century before Bede's day, when Gregory of Tours sought a metaphor for divine intercession, he could think of none more apt than theriac, a legendary mix of herbs and spices reported to have saved the life of Mithridates VI, a king of Pontus in northern Anatolia who died in 63 B.C.* A hypochondriac, Mithridates took this secret mix every day, and so effective did it prove that when he tried to poison himself his most potent toxins were utterly nullified...
" * The origin, incidentally, of the modern 'treacle.'" --Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 162
"Odd as the idea might seem, then, from the ancient world and through the Middle Ages spices smelled not only of other worlds but of worlds to come. In some unrecoverable sense, just as the wealthy dead smelled of spices, so spices smelled of death. The overlap was particularly pronounced in Latin, since the vocabulary was the same. To prepare a corpse for burial was literally to 'season' or 'spice' it, condire, whence condimentum, or seasoning. Moreover, the materials used on the embalmed were standard kitchen seasonings."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 157-158
"The appeal probably had much to do with the odor of sanctity that by now was a commonplace of the religiosity of medieval Christendom, the spices being seen as proof of God's favor, symbolic evidence of special status. To lie among spices was to lie in the odor of the saints."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 153
"On the demise of the dictator Sulla in 79 B.C., after a slow and hideous death caused by worms devouring his flesh, an effigy of cinnamon was constructed in his image. 'It is said that the women contributed such a vast bulk of spices for the interment that, aside from what was carried on two hundred and ten litters, there was enough to make a large figure of Sulla, and that an image of a lictor (staff bearer) was molded from expensive frankincense and cinnamon.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 148
Another usage/historical note can be found on mephitic. And on balsam. And galbanum. And a nice translated primary source from ca. 900 on perfumer.
"The Egyptians were not alone in sending their dead to an aromatic grave. Although customs varied from one time and place to another, spices, resins, flowers, and aromatics were used by all the major cultures of antiquity, whether the body was mummified, buried, or incinerated.*
" * The Mayans used allspice in embalming."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 148
"The Egyptians were not alone in sending their dead to an aromatic grave. Although customs varied from one time and place to another, spices, resins, flowers, and aromatics were used by all the major cultures of antiquity, whether the body was mummified, buried, or incinerated.*
" * The Mayans used allspice in embalming." --Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 148
"The use of myrrh, balsam, and bdellium* is documented from the early third millennium B.C. When Howard Carter examined the mummy of Tutankhamen, interred almost exactly a century earlier than Ramses, he found that the corpse had been treated with coriander and resins.
" * Bdellium is a gum resin that oozes from one of several shrubs of the genus Commiphora. The dried product resembles impure myrrh."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 147
"In London at the start of the third millennium, the best places to shop for spice tend to be in the poorer, immigrant areas of the city, whereas seven hundred years ago it was the exact reverse, with the business addresses of London's grocers and spicers concentrated in the (then) well-off areas of the City. Spice could be bought from a number of retailers in the wealthy parishes of Saint Pancras, Saint Benet's Sherehog, Milk Street, and Saint Mary-le-Bow; but no spicer saw fit to set up shop in the poorer area of Farringdon. Spices went where the money was."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 136
"In England in 1284, a pound of mace cost 4 s. 7 d., a sum that could also buy three sheep--a whopping outlay for even the better-off peasantry. At much the same time, a pound of nutmeg would buy half a cow."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 136
"In England in 1284, a pound of mace cost 4 s. 7 d., a sum that could also buy three sheep--a whopping outlay for even the better-off peasantry. At much the same time, a pound of nutmeg would buy half a cow."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 136
"A rare exception to the generally upper-class tenor of medieval cookery books is the mid-fifteenth-century Liber cure cocorum, written for those who could afford to practice only economical 'petecure,' literally 'small cooking.'* The preface outlines the principles of cooking on a budget: 'This craft is set forth for poor men, that may not have spicery as they would like.' The history of cooking is the history of class cooking."
"* from the Old French <i>petite queuerie</i>." --Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 136
"One English culinary manuscripts gives details for the preparation of three variants of hippocras, specifying different quantities of spice according to rank and budget: pro rege, pro domino, and, with the least spice of all, pro populo."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 135
"The first known consumer of pepper on whom we can hang a name did not use his spice to season his dinner, for he was long past any pleasures of the flesh. He was, in fact, a corpse: the royal skin and bones of Rameses II, arguably the greatest of Egypt's pharoahs, up whose large, bent nose a couple of peppercorns were inserted not long after his death on July 12, 1224 B.C.
"The upper reaches of the pharoah's nose mark the beginning, for the time being, of one of the most important chapters in the history of spice."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 145
"Of the various sauces, one of the oldest and most popular was black pepper sauce, in which the sharpness of pepper was offset by bread crumbs and vinegar. There was a hotter variant called poivre chaut, hot pepper, and another called poivre aigret, sour pepper, with verjuice and wild apples.... Another perennial favorite, often served with roasted poultry, known as galantyne, was made from bread crumbs, ginger, galangal, sugar, claret, and vinegar." ... One of the most popular sauces across the breadth of medieval Europe was camelyne, so called for its tawny camel color, the keynotes of which were cinnamon, vinegar, garlic, and ginger, mixed with bread crumbs and occasionally raisins. (The name was doubly apt, for much of the cinnamon so consumed would have done time on a camel's back while in transit through Arabia.)"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 112-113
"(The beauty of the pig, so to speak, and the main reason behind its importance to the medieval diet, was that unlike sheep or cows it could be left to fend for itself, foraging on chestnuts and waste, whether in town or country; but even for pigs there was not enough food to go around through the lean months.)"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 109
Additional text, in which this parenthetical is placed, can be found in a comment on November.
"Medieval Europe lacked most of the high-yielding grass and root crops that are today used to feed herds through the winter and enable a year-round supply of fresh meat--the turnip, for instance, was still considered a garden vegetable. ... Only the largest and wealthiest households had either the pasture to keep their herds alive or the storage space to put aside sufficient hay to see them through the winter.
"For all those who lacked this luxury, as soon as the frosts moved in and the pasture died off, a good proportion of the herd had to be slaughtered. Traditionally, the seasonal killing was set for Martinmas, or November 11--for which reason the Anglo-Saxon name for November was 'Blood Month.' What could not be eaten within a few days had to be salted down..."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 109-110
"Medieval Europeans were no more hardened to the taste of putrid meat and fish than we are. The risk of unsafe ingredients was not taken lightly, and by the later Middle Ages municipal authorities across Europe were taking steps to crack down on sellers of bad meat and fish with harsh penalties. In comparison, the modern health inspector is a toothless creature. The pillory was primarily a punishment for crimes committed in the marketplace. ... Anyone willing to believe that medieval Europe lived on a diet of spiced and rancid meat has never tried to cover the taste of advanced decomposition with spices.
"There were, however, other flavors that spices helped surmount. The offending taste was not of putrefaction but of salt, as mentioned earlier. ... What could not be eaten within a few days had to be salted down, with the result that most if not all the meat eaten from November through the spring was dry, chewy, and salty, requiring soaking and prolonged cooking to alleviate the taste. ... The one good word Rabelais can find for salted meat is that it worked up a fearsome thirst, the better to throw down the wine." --Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 109-110
"With the advent of the technology of the bottle and cork in the sixteenth century, the need for spices in wine was abruptly less pressing. Winemaking techniques and the quality of the end result improved. Yet of all of spices' uses in the medieval world, spiced wines were perhaps the most enduring, long outlansting the Middle Ages. Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) enjoyed an occasional glass of hippocras; it even gets a mention in Der Rosenkavalier. Neither clarry nor hippocras has ever quite disappeared, ultimately evolving into the vermouth, glögg, and mulled wine of today--still one of the best ways of dealing with a red on the turn, short of pouring it down the sink.
"Spiced ale, on the other hand, has gone the way of the crossbow and the codpiece. In the Middle Ages, ale really was good for you--comparatively speaking. It was certainly better than the available water, an observation traditionally credited to Saint Arnulphus, bishop of Soissons and abbot of the Benedictine foundation of Oudenbourg, who died in 1087. Arnulphus is the patron saint of brewers, an acknowledgement of his realization that heavy ale drinkers were less afflicted by epidemics than were the rest of the population. Particularly in Europe's densely crowded towns, with their poor drainage and rudimentary public hygiene, untreated water was a daily reality and an extremely effective vector of infection. Though the effect of contaminated water was only dimly appreciated, the medical theory of the day added intellectual respectability to the wariness of water, classing it as wet and cooling and therefore potentially inimical to the body's natural balance of moderate warmth and moisture.... Given that the ale drinker was exposed to fewer microbiological nasties, Arnulphus's bias against water made perfect sense. The upshot was that ale was consumed in prodigious quantities."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 116-117
"In the medieval mind spices and medicines were effectively one and the same. Not all drugs were spices, but all spices were drugs. The identity was reflected in vocabulary: the Late Latin term for spices, (pigmenta) was practically synonymous with medicines, and so it remained through the Middle Ages. Apothecary and spicer were effectively one and the same: 'one who has at hand for sale aromatic spices and all manner of things needful in medicine,' in the words of a fourteenth-century manuscript at Chartres Cathedral. The apothecary took his name from the Greek term for a warehouse where high-value goods such as spices were stored. Even today one Italian word for pharmacist is speziale. He is the direct descendant of the medieval spicer (speciarius), whose wares were among the most sought after and esteemed medicines of the age."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 159
"In wealthier households, the task of juggling these considerations fell to the speciarius, or spicer. Occupying a role midway between pharmacist and in-house health consultant, the spicer was considered an indispensable employee. In 1317, the household of the French king found room (or cash) for only four officers of his chamber: a barber, a tailor, a taster, and a spicer." --Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 125
"This was where spices came, yet again, to the rescue. The medieval popularity of nutmeg owed much to ale's perishability: as the clove and cinnamon were to wine, so the nutmeg was to ale--the context of Chaucer's reference to 'notemuge to putte in ale.' Here too, the medieval palate seems to have developed a virtue out of necessity, acquiring a taste for spiced ale to the point that the addition of spice became expected, even preferred; the spice was used 'wheither it (the ale) be moyste (fresh) or stale,' as Chaucer puts it. ... Some of these spiced ales survived until relatively recently, such as 'Stingo,' a variety of pepper-flavored beer popular in London in the eighteenth century. Russian writers of the nineteenth century mention sbiten', a spiced mead flavored with cardamom and nutmeg." --Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 118
Another usage/historical note can be found in a comment on clarry.
"Writing of the popular clove-flavored wine known as gariofilatum, John of Trevisa summarized the attractions of the spices: 'The virtue of the spices and herbs changes and amends the wine, imparting thereto a singular virtue, rendering it both healthy and pleasant at the same time ... for the virtue of the spices preserves and keeps wines that would otherwise soon go off.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 116
"To a far greater extent than with solid foods, their (spices) use was dictated by a need to preserve against corruption, or at least cover its taste. ... Taken neat, medieval wine could be a harrowing experience, and the problem of foul wine was sufficiently common to inspire all kinds of complaints, as with the man-strangling 'hard, green and faithless' wines of the poet Guiot de Vaucresson. ... Geffroi de Waterford said of the variety known as vernache that it 'tickles without hurting'--faint praise indeed." --Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 114
"This basic template (recipe in comment on hippocras) admitted almost infinite variation. Hippocras could also be made with cloves and nutmeg; another variant called for mace and cardamom. Clarry was much the same as hippocras, the chief difference (though not necessarily) being the use of honey in place of sugar."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 114
"The methods of preparing spiced wine remained much the same throughout the Middle Ages. The basic technique was to mix and grind a variety of spices, which were then added to the wine, red or white, which was then sweetened with sugar or honey and finally filtered through a bag, bladder, or cloth. The latter was known as 'Hippocrates's sleeve,' hence the wine's name, 'hippocras.' A late fourteenth-century book of household management gives the following instructions:
'To make powdered hippocras, take a quarter of very fine cinnamon selected by tasting it, and half a quarter of fine flour of cinnamon, an ounce of selected string ginger (gingembre de mesche), fine and white, and an ounce of grain (of paradise), a sixth of nutmegs and galangal together, and grind them all together. And when you would make your hippocras, take a good half ounce of this powder and two quarters of sugar and mix them with a quart of wine, by Paris measure.'" --Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 113-114
Usage and note on word/culinary origins can be found on gingembras. Also here's more:
"Intermediate markets, such as Montpellier, served as regional suppliers, so that spice merchants from all over southern France would obtain their spices from what functioned as both a wholesale and retail market. Montpellier was known for special preparations made with the spices it acquired from international merchants. Among complex medical compounds, the theriac of Montpellier was particularly prized (see note on theriac for more info such as ingredients). Medieval gingerbread and preserved ginger from Montpellier were sold throughout France and beyond its borders, commanding prices twice as high as comparable confections made anywhere else. Nuremberg was another center for the distribution of spices, in this case for central Europe. To this day the town is famous for its spiced Christmas cakes and gingerbread."
Paul Freedman, <i>Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination</i> (New Haven and London: Yale UP, 2008), 116.
"Typically, these after-dinner spices were candied with sugar and fruit, like the Provencal orengat, fine slices of orange left to soak in sugar syrup for a week or so before being boiled in water, sweetened with honey, and finally cooked with ginger. The convention endured well beyond the medieval period, the candied and jellied fruits served today its direct descendants. Another survivor is gingerbread, which takes its name from the Middle English "gingembras," originally a composition of ginger and other spices. The modern 'bread' bears little resemblance to the original, which was more of a stodgy paste."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 113
More on the association of this baked good with Nuremberg can be found on gingerbread.
"To follow there were desserts such as frumenty, a sweet porridge of wheat boiled in milk and spices, and sugary confections of spices and dried fruits, washed down with spiced wine and ale..."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 105
"Around this time guilds of spicers and pepperers began to crop up across the major towns of Europe. The speciarius became an increasingly common figure on the urban scene; by the thirteenth century he was part of the mercantile establishment. In Oxford in 1264, the shop of one William the Spicer was burned by boisterous students. In London, the Company of the Grocers is still in existence, having grown out of the older guild of the Pepperers; their coat of arms has nine cloves at its center. Guilds such as these were the remote ancestors of the supermarkets of the twenty-first century."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 103
"The medieval mystic dreamed of spices in Paradise; the gourmand, in Cockayne. Indeed, for the true gourmand, Cockayne was Paradise. For as Paradise soothed and delighted the weary spirit, so Cockayne was tailor-made for the empty or, for that matter, the merely greedy stomach. Here the only virtues were gluttony, leisure, and pleasure, the only vices exertion and care. Doing nothing earned a salary, work was penalized, women were rewarded for sleeping around. A decent fart earned half a crown. Even in church the truest form of worship was to stuff oneself. Conveniently, the church itself was edible, its walls made of pastry, fish, and meat and buttressed with puddings."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 98
"Yet if spices were becoming more familiar with every year, it was a familiarity that rested on a network of trade and travel that few could have comprehended. The reality was scarcely less wonderful than the fantasies of Paradise and Cockayne. A Rhineland nobleman int he eleventh century could order furs from Siberia, spices and silks from Byzantium and the Islamic world beyond, pepper from India, ginger from China, and nutmeg and clove from the Moluccas. Individuals such as Nahray ibn Nissim, a Tuinisan Jew settled in Egypt, were dealing in products as diverse as Spanish tin and coral, Moroccan antimony, Eastern spices, Armenian cloths, rhubarb from Tibet, and spikenard from Nepal. By this stage the trading guild known as the Karimis, a group of Jewish spice merchants based in Cairo, had their agents scattered across the Old World, from China in the east to Mali in the west."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 101-102
"Cubeb, or 'tailed' pepper, Piper cubeba,, is a pepper look-alike native to the Indonesian archipelago, popular in medieval times as a seasoning, medicine, and aphrodisiac."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 98n.
"History was repeating itself: a millennium after Rome had first sent its fleets to India and its moralizers had fretted whether spices were corroding its once steely ethics, the same concerns were resurfacing. Just as medieval Europe lived in the long shadow cast by Rome, drawing its water from still-functioning aqueducts and traveling its worn but still-workable roads, conducting its diplomacy and theology in Rome's language, so with its cuisine. The mingled fascination and revulsion spices provoked, the intertwining of taste and distaste, wound back in time as far as the Caesars."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 97.
"The reputation of spices as luxuries confined to kings and great noblemen would begin to change, at a glacier pace, only as the millennium drew to a close. After a flurry of references around the time of Charlemagne, followed by a near century of silence, the trade returned to western Europe on a more solid basis toward the end of the ninth century.
"Driving this increased consumption was a slow stirring of Europe's economy and the steady growth of its population. The revival of the metallurgy and textile industries in central and western Europe and the opening of silver mines in Germany's Harz Mountains went some way to remedying a chronic shortage of the precious metals needed to pay for high-value imports from the East. Increased surpluses in the hands of an emergent landowning class--kings and local strongmen, bishops and monasteries--brought with them a new level of demand for luxuries and the trappings of wealth.
"Meeting this demand brought about one of the pivotal developments in European history. Through trade and travel Europe was exposed to a wider world from which it had been effectively isolated for centuries; and where goods and money flowed, books, people, and ideas followed. Exotic and expensive luxuries were, after piety and war, the chief expenses of the aristocracy. The trade that supplied them sparked a whole 'complex of activities'--economic, political, geographic, and technical--whose effects are still with us. Slowly, surely, Western Christendom developed from a sheltered, isolated backwater into an increasingly confident, assertive culture."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 94-95.
"Via these two writers the Roman kitchen lived on in a strange half life in the halls of the early medieval nobility. Indeed, in one sense both Anthimus and Vinidarius represented an advance on Roman times, since they were aware of the clove, a spice apparently unknown to Apicius. That they were was due to the efforts of unknown others, the crews and merchants of the Arab dhows, Malay outriggers, and Chinese junks pushing east, many thousands of miles away, to the five tiny volcanic islands where the spice grew. By such obscure means the clove appeared in European cuisine the best part of a millennium before any European source makes mention of the Moluccas."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 89
"The sixth-century laws of the Franks, Visigoths, and Alamanni all mention a spicarium, a warehouse where high-value goods were stored. By this route the word entered the ferment of Late Latin and Germanic dialects that in turn evolved into today's Romance languages. Hence, in short, the terminology that persists into the third millennium, at root unchanged since late antiquity: Spanish especia, Portuguese especiaria, French épice, Italian spezia."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 87
"Once Christianity became the official religion of the empire, senior churchmen had access to the cursus publicus, or government post, the imperial network of inns and warehouses supplying food, transport, and accommodation to all senior officials traveling on state business. A warrant granting access to the cursus survives from A.D. 314, addressed to three bishops en route to a church council at Arles. When they arrived at an inn along the route, the bishops could expect to be supplied with lodging, horses, carriages, bread, oil, chicken, eggs, vegetables, beef, pigs, sheep, lamb, geese, pheasants, garum, cumin, dates, almonds, salt, vinegar, and honey, along with an impressive array of spices: pepper, cloves, cinnamon, spikenard, costus, and mastic."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 84
"The merits of the case need not detain us. More interesting is the moralizing thrust, which forms one of the central themes of the history of spice from from the days of imperial Rome practically to our own day. All of these themes would in due course resurface--often, ironically enough, in the form of Christian polemics directed at the decadent empire. As spices were sought after, so too were they seen as an insidious cancer eating away at Rome's personal and public vigor. (How the eastern half of the empire, which survived until 1453, was any less dissolute or less addicted to Eastern luxury than the western half is unclear. With its access to the trans-Eurasian caravan routes, there were more, not fewer, spices in Byzantium.) In this view it was not the barbarians or even the lead pipes but all that spice that caused the fall of Rome."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 83
"So it was that spices failed the moralists' checklist of acceptability on all counts. They were expensive, enfeebling, Eastern, effeminizing. And as if this were not enough, they lacked any evident nutritional value, their sole apparent function being to stimulate the appetite into new excesses of gluttony. Pliny drew these themes together while affecting an air of lofty contempt for the taste for pepper then sweeping the empire...." --Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 82.
"The comedies of Plautus (ca. 254-184 BC) and Terence (ca. 195-ca. 159 BC) are sprinkled through with references to seasonings (condimenta), one of their stock characters the boastful cook who can reel off all the exotic flavors at his disposal: Cilician saffron, Egyptian coriander, Ethiopian cumin, and, most tempting of all, silphium of Cyrene. This North African aromatic, ultimately harvested to extinction, turned Roman gourmets weak at the knees.*
*By the middle of the first century AD, Nero could acquire just one specimen, apparently the last. Thus to his many crimes must be added an extinction." --Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 74
"To modern eyes the most striking use of spices is in a huge variety of sauces, both hot and cold, either cooked as an integral part of the dish or added after cooking. There was a sharp sauce to cut fat.... A digestive sauce helped the meat go down with the sharp-sweet combination.... There was a green sauce of pepper, cumin, caraway, spikenard*, 'all types of mixed green herbs,' dates, honey, vinegar, wine, garum, and oil...."
*Spikenard, Nardostachys jatamansi, a scented grass from which an aromatic oil is extracted, is native to northern India."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 70
"... reliable information is in short supply. The one significant exception is the cookbook known by the unspectacular title of De re coquinaria, or Cookbook, the sole example of the genre to have survived from antiquity. Both the author and the date of composition are unknown, although traditionally it has been ascribed to a certain Apicius, a legendary gourmand of the first century AD."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 69
"Archaeology reinforces the impression of a widespread taste. Silver pepper pots (piperatoria) dating from the early imperial period onward have been found practically all over the Roman world: at Pompeii; to the south in Corfinium and Murmuro in Sicily; at Nicolaevo in Bulgaria; at Cahors, Arles-Trinquetaille, and Saint-Maur-de-Glanfeuil in France." --Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 67
"Further along the Forum are the remains of the horrea piperataria, the spice stores constructed by the emperor Domitian in AD 92.... Two thousand years on, the assiduous visitor can still see the remains of Domitian's pepper warehouse, now no more than a few crumbling, shin-high walls and unimpressive piles of rubble.... They are, frankly, not much to look at, yet if there were such a thing, they would merit a mark on the culinary map of Europe. For the ruins of the horrea mark a beginning of sorts, as the oldest visible reminder of the serious advent of Eastern spices in European cuisine, the beachhead from which spices went on to conquer the palates of the Western world."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 66
"In the time of the emperor Trajan (ruled AD 98-117), spices, collectively known as the pipera, or peppers, were sold in a market built into the flank of the Quirinal Hill, of which several walls and arches are still standing. Until the end of the Middle Ages, the memory of the spices once sold here endured in the name of the ancient road still visible from the Via IV Novembre, like many other ancient names corrupted via the medium of medieval Latin but easily recognizable as the Via Biberatica."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 65-66
"A few weeks' sailing brought the pepper to Rome's great port at Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber. From here it was shipped upriver for distribution and sale in the city's 'Perfumers' Quarter,' the vicus unguentarius."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 65
"During the course of one such crossing a returnee from the Indian voyage carved graffiti that may still be read on the walls of the Wadi Menih: 'C. Numidius Eros made this in the 38th year of Caesar's {Augustus's} rule, returning from India in the month of Pamenoth.' In modern terms the year was 2 BC, the month of February or March, precisely the time when the fleets were expected back on the winds of the winter monsoon."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 65
"Costus is the aromatic root of Sassurea lappa, indigenous to Kashmir from which is extracted a powerful oil widely used in ancient perfumes and unguents." --Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 61n.
"The Romans called at any one of nineteen ports in which, in the words of Periplus, 'great ships sail ... due to the vast quantities of pepper and malabathron.* ... There were spices from the north, costus and nard from the Himalayan foothills, and still others arriving from further east (including, quite possibly, Moluccan cloves and nutmeg, although there are questions over their identification in Rome before the fourth century AD). But it was pepper that was Malabar's chief attraction."
"*Malabathron is cinnamon leaf, sometimes called 'Indian leaf,' prized on account of its potent aromatic oil. It is the leaf of one of several relatives of cinnamon native to India."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 61
"By the time of the geographer Strabo (ca. 63 BC-ca. AD 24) ... a fleet numbering some 120 ships set off annually for the year-long round-trip to India. The outlines of their journey are described in the document known as the Periplus, a pilot's guide to sailing in the Indian Ocean. Written by an anonymous Greek-speaking sailor sometime in the first century AD, the Periplus describes each step of the journey, identifying which harbors to stop in and which goods to acquire. His readers were the long-distance traders and trampers who serviced the ports and markets in what he calls the Erythraean Sea, by which he meant the huge expanse of water encompassing both the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean beyond."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 59
"The Romans were not the first Europeans to eat pepper, but they were the first to do so with any regularity.... cumin, sesame, coriander, oregano, and saffron are all mentioned in the Greek New Comedy of the fourth and third centuries B.C., but as yet no Eastern spices. It was not that the spices were unknown or that no one had yet thought to eat them, but rather than their exorbitant cost rendered them too precious for consumption by all but the very wealthy. There is a fragment by the Attic poet Antiphanes dating from the fourth century B.C.: 'If a man should bring home some pepper he's bought, they propose a motion that he be tortured as a spy.'--from which not much can be extracted other than a vague allusion to a high cost. Another fragment contains a recipe for an appetizer of pepper, salad leaf, sedge (a grassy flowering herb), and Egyptian perfume." --Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 58-59.
"Galangal is the root of Alpinia officinarum, a native of eastern Asia related to ginger, with a similar though slightly more astringent taste. Still popular in Thai cuisine, it was widely used in Europe in the Middle Ages."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 46 (n)
"Zedoary is an aromatic tuberous root of one of several species of Curcuma, related to ginger and turmeric. It was widely used in medieval medicines and cuisine."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 47
"With toeholds on the tiny islands of Ai and Run, James I was, for a time, proud to style himself 'King of England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Puloway and Puloroon.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 37
"... Taking into account the loss of four of the five ships, the advances paid to the crews, back pay for the survivors, and pensions and rewards for the pilot, it emerges that once the Victoria's 381 bags of cloves had been brought to market the expedition registered a modest net profit. For the investors it was a disappointment, paltry in comparison with the astronomical returns then being enjoyed by the Portuguese in the East; but it was a profit nonetheless. The conclusion must rate as one of accountancy's more dramatic moments: a small holdful of cloves funded the first circumnavigation of the globe."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 36.
"... A mile across the water stands Tidore, Ternate's twin and historic rival, like Ternate a near-perfect volcanic cone, barely ten miles long, its altitude a mere nine meters less: 1,721 meters to Ternate's 1,730. From the summit it is possible to see the other three North Moluccan islands, marching off in a line to the south: Moti, Makian, and Bacan beyond. Together they represent a few dozen square miles in millions of miles of islands and ocean. At the start of the sixteenth century and for millennia beforehand, they were the source of each and every clove consumed on Earth."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 29.
"... For the spices they sought grew on only two tiny archipelagoes, each of which is barely larger than a speck on the best modern map. ... No such maps existed in 1500. To locate them among the sixteen thousand or so islands of the archipelago was to find a needle in a haystack.
The northernmost of those specks is the home of the clove, in what is today the province of Malaku, in the easternmost extremity of Indonesia. Each of the five islands of the North Moluccas is little more than a volcanic cone jutting from the water, fringed by a thin strip of habitable land. From the air, they resemble a row of emerald witches' hats set down on the ocean. Ternate, one of the two principal islands, measures little more than six and a half miles across, tapering at the center to a point more than a mile high. In the phrase of the Elizabethan compiler Samuel Purchas, Ternate's volcano of Gamalama is 'angrie with Nature,' announcing its regular eruptions by spitting Cyclopean boulders into the atmosphere to an altitude of 10,000 meters, like the uncorking of a colossal champagne bottle...."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 28-29
"Dominating the strait of the same name between Sumatra and the Malay peninsula, Malacca was the richest port of the East, its prosperity dependent, like Singapore's today, on a position astride a natural bottleneck. Here Gujarati, Arab, Chinese, and Malay ships came to trade for spices and all the exotica of the East. (The name is probably derived from the Arabic malakat, "market.")."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 26-27.
"Long before then there had been visitors from Mesopotamia: pieces of teak--another attraction of the coast--were found by Leonard Wooley at Ur of the Chaldees, dating from around 600 B.C.*"
"* Contacts may well have been still older. Excavations of Mesopotamian cities of the third millennium B.C. have turned up specimens of the Indian chank, a conch shell found only in the coastal waters of southern India and Sri Lanka."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 16-17.
"By the time of Christ, when da Gama's native Portugal was still a bleak and barren wilderness of Lusitanian tribesmen peering out on the sailless waters of the Atlantic, Greek mariners were arriving in Malabar in such numbers that one recherché Sanskrit name for pepper was yavanesta, "the passion of the Greeks.""
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 17.
"The clove itself grows in clusters colored green through yellow, pink, and finally a deep, russet red. Timing, as with pepper, is everything, since the buds must be harvested before they overripen. For a few busy days of harvest the more nimble members of the community head to the treetops, beating the cloves from the branches with sticks. As the cloves shower down, they are gathered in nets and spread out to dry hardening and blackening in the sun and taking on the characteristic nail-like appearance that gives the spice its name, from the Latin clavus, "nail." The association is common to all major languages. The oldest certain reference to the clove dates from the Chinese Han period (206 BC to AD 220), when the <i>ting-hiang</i> or "nail spice" was used to freshen courtiers' breath in meetings with the emperor." --Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xxi-xxii.
"Broadly, a spice is not an herb, understood to mean the aromatic, herbaceous, green parts of plants. Herbs are leafy, whereas spices are obtained from other parts of the plant: bark, root, flower bud, gums and resins, seed, fruit, or stigma. Herbs tend to grow in temperate climates, spices in the tropics. Historically, the implication was that a spice was far less readily obtainable than an herb--and far more expensive."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xix-xx.
"It is only by viewing spices in terms of this complex overlap of desires and distaste that the intensity of the appetite can be adequately accounted for--why, in other words, the discoverers we learned about in Aldgate Primary School found themselves on foreign shores demanding cinnamon and pepper with the cannons and galleons of Christendom at their backs."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xvii.
"There was a time not long ago when the more straitlaced residents of the Maine coast were liable to hear themselves dismissed as 'too pious to eat black pepper'--a recollection, perhaps subliminal, of a time when spices had been forbidden foods."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xvii.
"This is a diverse and sprawling history spanning several millennia, beginning with a handful of cloves found in a charred ceramic vessel beneath the Syrian desert, where, in a small town in the banks of the Euphrates River, an individual by the name of Puzurum lost his house to a devastating fire. In cosmic terms, this was a minor event: a new house was built over the ruins of the old, and then another, and many others after that; life went on, and on, and on. In due course a team of archaeologists came to the dusty village that now stands atop the ruins where, from the packed and burned earth that had once been Puzurum's home, they extracted an archive of inscribed clay tablets. By a happy accident (for the archaeologists, if not for Puzurum), the blaze that destroyed the house had fired the friable clay tablets as hard as though they had been baked in a kiln, thereby ensuring their survival over thousands of years. A second fluke was a reference on one of the tablets to a local ruler known from other sources, one King Yadihk-Abu. His name dates the blaze, and the cloves, to within a few years of 1721 B.C."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xv.
"Long before the invention of television or the romantic novelist there was the Song of Songs, with its lyrical evocation of the loved one as 'an orchard of pomegranates with all the choicest fruits, henna with nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, with all chief spices.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation _ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xiii.
"Long before the invention of television or the romantic novelist there was the Song of Songs, with its lyrical evocation of the loved one as 'an orchard of pomegranates with all the choicest fruits, henna with nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, with all chief spices.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation _ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xiii.
"Long before the invention of television or the romantic novelist there was the Song of Songs, with its lyrical evocation of the loved one as 'an orchard of pomegranates with all the choicest fruits, henna with nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, with all chief spices.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation _ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xiii.
On the plus side, after this traumatic incident probably 2 years ago, my son has never yet dropped any LEGO piece without immediately flinging himself to the floor to find it before the dog does.
Yes. I started the list sometime while reading book four. I know I'll go back and read them again, though I thought it would be sooner than now, intending to add the words I encounter there.
"He was subsequently retained by the duchy of Lancaster and by the duke of York, whose councilor he became, and for whom he was acting as a mainpernor by bill of the treasurer (Salisbury) at Westminster on 19 July 1454 (as of Middleham) with Witham (in his capacity as chancellor of the Exchequer), as of London."
—A. J. Pollard, Warwick the Kingmaker: Politics, Power and Fame (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007), 87.
How Complex Was Neanderthal Speech? <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/09/22/how_complex_was_neanderthal_speech.html?wpisrc=obnetwork"> (Link to Slate article, originally appeared on Quora)</a>
I just wanted to give this list a boost. I still talk about it. Just told some friends at work about it and how important it is to have a place to enter these manly scents. (We were snorting Play-Doh at the time.)
thanks ry! I like that people are still coming across these lists. I wish I had more time to hang out and make new ones. I was just telling some people in the office about my Loaded Words and Loaded Words Part Deux lists and thinking of a whole bunch of additions...
Hm. I see how that means something, but the additional concept isn't particularly "loaded" with additional meaning. I did add a couple other suggestions, though.
deinonychus, I am so grateful to you for sharing that information. This list is *exactly* the place for sharing that sort of thing, and I'm moved (ahem) that you did so.
I thought your link might be to this article, but I was (delightfully) wrong! Yet another article on the phenomenon! Poo-nomenon! Thank you for enriching our lives. :)
"C.S.S. Virginia struggles to damage the U.S.S. Monitor in this gauche'>gouache">gauche painting which brings to life the drama of close combat with frightening power of armament and devotion to duty." Aside from thinking this is a stupid sentence, I am also pretty sure they meant that the painting is gouache. *eyeroll*
just found this... I assume you mean my Aubrey/Maturin list? I'm sorry it isn't open. But you could always start your own! For a while someone was even keeping lists of the different lists around on various topics... but that seemed a little disappearing-into-myself for me. :) Best wishes!
"Loosely secure 20 to 30 rubber bands at one end with another rubber band (the 30 should all be lying in roughly the same direction). Then push an unsharpened pencil into the secured end of the bundle. Tighten the rubber band that's holding everything together by wrapping it around the bundle a few more times. Finally, use scissors to cut all the looped ends of the bands." (From Disney FamilyFun)
Directions: stir together 1 cup of dry tempera paint with 1 1/2 cups of water and 1/2 teaspoon of liquid dish soap (the soap helps keep the nozzle from clogging). Mix thoroughly, checking that there aren't any lumps. Pour the paints into the spray bottles.
Thanks, Mollyhawk! Yeah, I do have A Sea of Words! I love it. Also got the lobscouse and ... whatever it's called, that book of the disgusting food they ate. I went completely batshit for Aubrey/Maturin. In fact just watched M&C again last night and may start reading these books again! Glad you like the list.
Some HTML, comments on lists, comments on profiles, random word, comments on tags, new lists, contributors, profile list of tags, likeness of yarb carved on Mt Rushmore, content, conversations....
Yeah!!! What if, like, somebody thought up this site, okay, where, like, people could just LIST things. And they could comment on other people's lists. And on other people's words! And other people could, like, talk to them, but about WORDS! They should totally call it something like "wordie."
Still hoping to keep in touch with beloved Wordizens whom I communicate with only on this site. Missing comments, etc. on profiles (etc.) is seriously harshing my mellow.
Also still hoping to continue using this as a research/note-storing site as well as a social one. Not having access to comments is seriously marginalizing my discourse.
*sigh* This is what hurts: in response to the suggestion of a social-only version of Wordnik, which is understandably not in the works:
"Even if we could, it would make Wordnik another soulless flat definitions-only site (and the Internet is full-up on those, or was last time I checked)."
This is true. But it's kind of already become that, for me. :(
May I submit that sionnach's comment found itself happily transported via a copy/paste feature, and, like Alice of the Drink Me/Eat Me fame, became larger in the new box?
Hi all, I've been away on maternity leave for many moons, and before that, insanely busy at work and home, so I just found this page. I logged in to agree with reesetee's comment, then discovered this whole page... that was three hours ago. (Still busy at work, I guess.) I'm heartened to see the continual striving for improvement here, and to see so many of my creaky old-timer buds from the days of yore. But it's also disheartening to see fifteen new things every time I visit--I hardly recognize the ol' place anymore--and wade through all the comments about things not working right--that's after I even find the comments in the first place... and with the page-load times, usually I just say "screw it" and go over to Facebook or some other place. (Which is getting frickin' boring, might I add.)
I do love the dates-on-comments thing. I haven't even poked around enough to see what else I like, though.
So... not sure there's anything actionable or even useful here, but I wanted to throw my coupla pennies in. And say Hi. So... Hi!
Who remembers Johnny Dangerously? "Did you know your last name is an adverb?"
Anyway... Joe Piscopo's character was always calling people fargin iceholes. At one point they show a newspaper quoting him and it's actually spelled that way. I still think this euphemism is better than the actual phrase.
I've been having "eat what I want day" for... well, going on ten months. I tell you, some whiskey-soaked fufluns en flambé sound pretty fargin good right now.
I should just mention, again, that as much as I am not looking forward to labor, I know that on the other side of my travail there's Proctofoam. And that makes me feel just a little bit better.
Ah, now, *that* term belongs on this list! And thank you! It's been a long time since that list (or any of mine, really...) has had any additions. And such a good one.
Last time I changed my answers at the last minute and got more wrong than if I hadn't changed any. So this time I refused to change any, and look! I am firmly in the middle of the herd.
*lends extra tiaras to everyone*
*dons crash helmet with specially-fitted tiara*
*fufluns around on a unicycle*
P.S. I chose wodge because it is a delightful word that makes me think of peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches. And what bear doesn't love those? But I also chose wodge because this game is too damn hard for small bear-brains and I wanted there to be at least ONE easy (I thought) entry. :)
I saw the picture of the building. Didn't look like a mansion at all to me, unless you define mansion as just "large building," but in that case, the Empire State Building is a mansion. Is it not. Therefore... *needs fuflun*
You know, reesetee, I don't think there'll be many changes. Not sure about additions, but I'll keep a list if I come up with any. I think the dearth is because, rather prosaically, we are too exhausted to come up with new ones.
My very serious friend comments on this name: "The "j" is pronounced like a "y." Mjöllner was the name of the Hammer of Thor that was imbued with magical powers, not unlike the dorje in the Buddhist tradition. Actually, Dorje is a good name too. Thor used his hammer to smite the ice giants. It has other meanings too...."
"We don't have any matching examples for how to say ghostbusters upon cue of who you gonna call, but we're constantly adding material, so please check back soon."
Sure, it's expensive till you figure out pounds-per-square-inch. Those greedy bastards had no right! How the hell do they think my tiara looks with all that damn camo around?!
I love this word. However, it always makes me think of a town, Ephrata (pronounced kind of like EFF-erta, though you hardly hear the R at all), near my hometown. And then I always think of this girl at an indoor-guard competition at some huge high school miles and miles away from both Ephrata and my hometown, who misread the sign on the classroom door that was meant for the kids from Ephrata H.S., and said aloud, "Eupharta."
However, I'm distraught over a disabled feature that made life on Wordnik worth living. Why can't I right-click and open a window (on a list, comments, another word, etc.) in a new tab? When I do so, I get a tab window saying "unrecognized request formal."
The same thing happens when I use the back button. Or reload. Why? Why?
Now, I have never been to an unrecognized request formal, but surely it's just like other formals. Right? Surely what I'm wearing today would be appropriate.
Also, the new homepage is cool and all... but it takes forever to load on my super-fast work computer with a T1-whatever connection. I shudder to think of the speed at home on my dinosaur computer. :( Is there an option for dinosaur luddites?
Hm. Paging through a list that's more than 100 words long presents a problem for me at the moment. I'll get the count (e.g. "Words 101 through 200 of 335") but the list that appears is still actually words 1 through 100.
Maybe I clicked it wrong. Or maybe it's really showing all 335 and the numbers, not the list, are what's wrong.
I don't feel qualified to add anything to this list, but I will submit that teh alsome got some serious play at one point. I vaguely recall I had some ulterior purpose for inventing hexadodecaroon too.
For years, those stores will do that to you. "Would you like a bag for that? Thanks for coming in. I'll most likely kill you in the morning." It's important to have something else going on, like learning to fence.
This came up in a staff meeting yesterday, not for any particular newsworthiness but because some people from there might be visiting our workplace soon. And today I saw this news online--very iroquoisy!
Damocritis the stuff; Democritus the dude? I don't know. At this point you'll have to ask Stephen Maturin. It seems he took it with his fictional self to his fictional grave.
"Employed in Repairing the Redoubts & Erecting Battries now within reach of the Enemies Grape Rifflesgrapeshot'>cannons firing grapeshot and wall artillery Pieces."
—Anonymous Letter, “Siege of York & Gloucester Virginia,” September 14–October 17, 1781. Housed in the John D. Rockefeller Library, Williamsburg, Virginia.
I really would prefer if grape riffles meant a kind of flavored icing used on fufluns.
How should I know? On the old Wordie there was a glitch that if you had dupe words on a list and deleted one, it would delete both. So I don't bother with duplicates anymore.
Also, I think that whole concept came up on the Aubrey/Maturin list, which (if you think THIS is a black hole) I recommend not delving too deeply or greedily, because a balrog may come up.
Ah. I was operating on the older definition of smallclothes, meaning anything worn under the outer garments, which would include (for example) a woman's shift and a man's long shirt (long enough that the shirttails covered the crotchal area and almost down to the knees). I know from my very brief days wearing re-enactor clothes (don't ask) that "smallclothes" meant (means?) the whites that go under one's regimental coat, so obviously that could include the close-fitting knee breeches aforesaid.
The difference between ichthyoacanthotoxism, which I misspelled when adding it to my list, and ichthyosarcotoxism is that the former is poisoning resulting from the bite or sting of a fish, while the latter is poisoning resulting from eating a toxic fish.
When I have clothes to wash, I do laundry. I don't think I ever say "launder" as a verb, unless I'm referring to someone's ability or tendency to run illegal funds through a legitimate business.
My understanding is western PA-Ohio folks also say warsh. I know this because someone I work with is from that area and in my job we frequently refer to George Warshington. *nerves grating*
We have been enjoying "The Wire" on DVD. I love that it's such a great show and that it's set in Baltimore--which doesn't get enough attention. The other night was an episode where the gang of cops was all eating crabs at a particularly famous crab restaurant (which I know only from an episode of "No Reservations").
Sorry if this seems completely out of the blue--your comment about Baltimore on another page reminded me of your geographic-ness. :)
On further thought, it is depressing how much of my knowledge comes from TV. *sigh*
Of course all these don't involve what a TSA official recently called "the crotchal area," so I could see if they don't fit those made-up rules in your head.
Re: the coffee bean: "As for this salutiferous berry, of so general a use through all the regions of the east, it is sufficiently known, when prepared, to be moderately hot, and of a very drying attenuating and cleansing quality; whence reason infers, that its decoction must contain many good physical properties, and cannot but be an incomparable remedy to dissolve crudities, comfort the brain, and dry up ill humors in the stomach."
I disagree, rolig. "To daze or render senseless" certainly can apply to the level of complexity in Afghanistan/Pakistan, without there necessarily being a blow to one's head about it. I think the result is similar to the result of a blow to one's head--in the same way people say "I can't think about that right now--it gives me a headache." They don't mean it *literally* hurts their head, but that its complexity is... well... stunning.
Also, as I read definition 2, I think it really only applies/is commonly used in reference to a person's attractiveness, and actually relates to definition 1 in the sense that the person is SO attractive, their beauty SO amazing, that it's as if one is stunned (rendered senseless) to look at them.
I agree the journalist could have found a better term, but this one's rather more neutral than others that could apply here, and given the political undertones of the Af/Pak situation and the fact that the article was about Holbrooke--not the situation itself--the relative neutrality of the term was probably a good thing.
P.S. nice to see these kinds of conversations--and have time to read them. :)
I never tried it. My lactation consultant told me that in her experience working with nursing moms over the years, it hasn't usually resulted in gaining more than around an ounce a day--and while that sounds like a lot, if you're struggling to produce enough milk for your baby, there are other methods that seem to work better for more people. Of course, some women swear by it, so... *shrug*
Maybe it has to do with the "finishing" sound of each word, e.g. "fly" is going to have a long-I sound no matter what follows it, because it's the end of that word. "Ice" wouldn't, because it's the S-sound that finishes that word.
I have only ever seen this word in a modern cookbook featuring medieval recipes, that says "Ask your butcher to chine the joint." "WTF," I thought—first off it's assuming I even have a butcher—and didn't do anything of the kind.
qroqqa (as always) put it better than I could, but I concur: where you mentally place the S-sound has an effect on the preceding vowel.
I think I may have posted a similar conundrum re: "writer" vs. "rider" (for Americans who don't pronounce the T as a T but more like a D). But I can't remember where (and it isn't on either writer or rider).
Interestingly, and most people don't know this, the Nazi government insisted that the Zeppelin company put a swastika on the tail fin. The company put it only on one side of the ship. IIRC, when the ship was ordered to fly over the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the pilot flew in a circle over the gathering as ordered, but turned the ship in such a way that the swastikas were not displayed to the crowd. I honestly can't remember where I read that, but I think it was in the book The Great Dirigibles by John Toland. (Excellent book, BTW.)
P.S. Cool pics of the ship and a short clip of it flying over NYC can be found here.
Wow. Well... I'm just glad he didn't eat the seasoning packet--that would have made him horribly sick. Though, admittedly, if I were a dog, I'd probably just eat the plain noodles, too.
Okay, I know what this word means according to dictionaries, but when a mother says it of her young, rambunctious boys (for example), that's certainly NOT the meaning she's ascribing.
I'm looking for a synonym in the phrase "the poor buggers," that doesn't use the original word I was thinking of ("bastards") and does not sound British ("sods"). Any suggestions?
Probably the better place to post the comment would be on the Ronald Reagan page, but thanks! I think it's posted there now. That way future Wordnikkers will find it. :)
Whereupon I chime in, late as usual, with something completely unrelated based on personal experience, and loaded with qualifiers so as to avoid possiblymaybe someday offending someone who might read this comment, though it will (usually) kill the thread.
That's spectacular. Look how fatty North Dakota and Colorado are! And Texas is nicely marbled...
We used to play a game whenever my mom (or I) made beef cutlets for dinner. I taught Spawn the rule that one could eat one only after identifying a state or nation that its outline resembled.
"Over eight hundred different chemical ingredients have been identified inside the coffee bean, glorying in such names as furfurylthiol, furfuraldehyde, oxazole, and ethylfuraneol. Another, trimthylamin, exists in minute quantities: it is also found in putrefying fish. Like perfume, coffee uses the most outré of ingredients to work its wonders."
—Antony Wild, Coffee: A Dark History (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2004), 193
"During roasting, a series of complex chemical reactions take place that develop the characteristic coffee aroma and flavour. ... The most important change takes place when the interior of the bean becomes hot; by a process known as pyrolosis, the carbohydrates and fat form new molecules, generally known as oils. These contain all the flavour and aroma we associate with coffee...."
—Antony Wild, Coffee: A Dark History (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2004), 193
I learned it from a Civil War journal called The Rebel Yell and the Yankee Hurrah. The gentleman (who was from Maine, if I recall) mentioned that on the march the new recruits had been offered refreshments by locals, and some were "city boys" and didn't know that eating the lights (lungs) of a cow wasn't going to be very satisfying.
Ohhh... good one. Disgusting but satisfying once it's done. I love the gluggy noise of the water actually going DOWN the drain, which is a great sound after you haven't heard it for a while.
Hair catchers work great, but sometimes it takes a while to find an effective one.
I have decided what this word means. When someone is so adorable that they are beyond able-to-be-adored, and the adoration is actually mandatory, person is said to be adoratory.
Interestingly (not), I made a comment on my profile, then went to edit it, and (three times) got the "Oops, we screwed up, please reload" note--which by the way is so small and unobtrusive as to be nearly invisible--and never was able to edit said comment. :(
I believe that it's someone who prays very frequently--an *excessively* pious person (or someone who's ostentatious about their prayer), rather than simply someone who prays. At least, that's what its original meaning was. (19th century?)
You know what I miss? The "search all of Wordie" feature that used to bring up comments, tags, etc. as well as the actual word page. I guess it's not possible here on Wordnik but sometimes I do miss it.
If there are more Ocracoke terms on Wordnik, it'd be great if they were tagged as such. :) Having just visited the place for the first time, I'm fascinated by it and its people.
P.S. Long have I praised the work of abraxas and longed for his return. :(
I am two years behind adoarns. Just read this etymology today in Newsweek, in an article by Joan Huston Hall. Who, by the way, ought to be a wordnikker if she isn't already. :)
"Hannah Griffitts supported the early protests but balked at war. As a loyalist, she lambasted Tom Paine and defended tory womanhood against his aspersions:
Of female Manners never scribble,
Nor with thy Rudeness wound our Ear,
Howe'er thy trimming Pen may quibble,
The Delicate—is not thy Sphere.
—Susan E. Klepp, Revolutionary Conceptions: Women, Fertility, and Family Limitation in America, 1760–1820 (Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press, for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 2009), 92
James Kirke Paulding told Morris Smith Miller that when he was in Washington, he would 'have some potential bouts at the mint juleps' and that he would share 'a secret by which you may get safely home after drinking six bottles. It is by just putting your feet on the edge of the table, by which means the wine is prevented from descending into the legs, thereby making them as drunk as nine pins. I have tried this method several times and do assure you, that ... you may drink up to the chin and afterwards walk home as steady as a church steeple.'
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 133
The earliest concerns about alcohol in America arose in the medical community in the 1740s. Physicians, particularly Philadelphian Benjamin Rush, noted a new disease then called the West Indies dry gripes. Unbeknownst to Rush, the disease was actually lead poisoning that resulted from the use of lead in the stills that West Indies distillers used to create their rum.
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 123
William Roberts advertised in the Maryland Gazette in 1745 that his servant, John Powell, had not in fact run away, but had 'only gone into the country a cider drinking' and was again prepared to repair watches and clocks.
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 122
Camp followers were the wives, children, and prostitutes who followed and supplied the army to make money, assist their husbands, and support the revolution. These women washed, sewed, cooked, and brewed for the troops and nursed them when they were sick and injured. Women had long played a valuable role in provisioning the English and colonial armies and were proud of their work. For example, Martha May stressed her commitment to the army when she wrote to Henry Bouquet in 1758, 'I have been a wife 22 years to have traveled with my husband every place or country the company marched to and have worked very hard ever since I was in the army.' When Mary Cockron applied for a pension in 1837 for her own and her husband's service to the Continental Army, she stated that she 'drew her rations as other soldiers did.'
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 112
Hi y'all. I'm typing in a comment in nested quotation marks (as is my wont), and it comes up without the opening and closing marks (whether they are single or double), and moreover will not let me copy/paste the citation from another entry (as is also my wont). See the poorly-formatted and uncited comment on carouse for visible evidence of my woes.
"I felt very unwell, this whole day," soldiers frequently noted in their journals, "from last night's carouse."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 111
Listen. I don't know where you come from or what you drink normally, reesetee, but if you think something called "cock ale" would taste better with something other than rooster in it, I don't want to drink with you.
I consider stretch marks, and indications of "working boobs" to be my battle scars. I don't want to die well-preserved and perfect-looking. I earned my silver hairs and my stretch marks and my awesome working boobs. :)
Electricblue, I'm sure you didn't expect this kind of response... :) Best wishes.
"Seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century cider presses like John Worlidge's 'ingenio for the grinding of apples' had been expensive and hard to obtain."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 108
"... another author recommended that brewers purchase 'blind thermometers' in which the scale could be hidden in the brewer's or distiller's pocket so that his workers would not learn his methods and be able to found businesses of their own."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 102–103
"In case any men continued to leave alcohol production to women, the new experts assured them that they were wrong. Morrice warned that 'when a butt wants fining down, many appoint a servant girl to perform that office by whom the bungs are left out, and many other acts committed, which all tend to discredit the brewer, although he does not deserve it."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 98
I'm not sure any young servant girl ought properly to know how to fine down a butt.
"Since he would show 'the manner of using the thermometer and saccharometer' 'rendered easy to any capacity,' he established himself as master of the mystery."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 97
"Ball instructed his nephew to build 'a strong crotcy fence] around the trees 'to keep cattle, and horses, from tearing and barking' and killing the orchard trees."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 53
"He sold cords of wood, timber trees, and products from his cooperage, including planking, lathing, clapboards, scantling, siding, heading, fence rails, fence posts, framing, and coffins."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 47
"Most symbolically, Bray owned a money scale and steelyard, or balance beam scale, to weigh and balance accounts. Just as a ring of keys and a pocket were the signs of the housewife's labor in dispensing foodstuffs from cupboards, so the money scale and steelyards were the symbol of the planter-merchant who weighed coins and crops."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 45
"In 1736, an English traveler in the Chesapeake recorded that 'we gathered a fruit, in our route, called a parsimon sic, of a very delicious taste, not unlike a medlar, tho' somewhat larger: I take it to be a very cooling fruit, and the settlers make use of prodigious quantities to sweeten a beer ... which is vastly wholesome.'"
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 38
"Doctors began prescribing cider to sailors in the late seventeenth century because of its supposed antiscorbutic properties."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 31
"...Men and women both drank at the popular outdoor meal called a barbeque, 'an entertainment' that, as one traveler describes, 'generally ends in intoxication.'"
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 18
"Mustering men mixed some of their brandy charcoal, saltpetre, sulfur, cobine nitre, and brandy to make gunpowder."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 17
"The legislature required white men to drill with a militia in case of Indian attacks, and the resulting militia days offered another chance to imbibe.... Alcoholic beverages were such an intrinsic part of the militia muster that boys playing 'militia' ended their games with rounds of drinks."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 16
"'We had several sorts of liquors, namely Virginia red wine and white wine, Irish usquebaugh, brandy, shrub, two sorts of rum, champagne, canary, cherry punch, cider.'"
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 15
"Landon Carter had better luck when he gave his cow 'with the blind staggers' three doses of warm beer with rattlesnake root, after which the cow 'got pretty well and feeds about as usual.'"
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 15
"Rum, wrote traveler Edward Ward, was 'adored by the American English... 'tis held as the comforter of their souls, the preserver of their bodies, the remover of their cares, and promoter of their mirth; and is a sovereign remedy against the grumbling of guts, a kibe-heelchilblain or a wounded conscience, which are three epidemical distempers that afflict the country.'"
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 14
"Planter Landon Carter treated both his daughter and his slaves with alcoholic concoctions. When his daughter, Judy, was sick in 1757, Carter treated her with a 'weak julep of rum with salt tartar and pulvis castor.'"
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 14
"Even colonists with access to milk often avoided it because of fears of 'milk sickness' caused by consuming the milk of cows that had grazed on wild jimson weed."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 12
"Rum or arrack, an alcohol distilled from the fermented sap of palm trees, was mixed with sugar, citrus juice, water, and spices to make punch."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 11
"Persico was a cordial flavored with the crushed kernels of peaches, apricots, or nectarines."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 11
"Red hippocras was made of claret, brandy, sugar, spices, almonds, and new milk."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 11
Usage on perry, where it says it was brewed from pears, and also:
"William Cabell's Amherst County, Virginia plantation fermented 3,000 gallons of cider and fifty hogsheads (at least 2,400 gallons) of peach mobby annually."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 50
"The English brewed perry or mobby from pears, and mead and methelin from fermented honey. Aquavit was a distilled ale, like a whiskey, based on fermented grain. Mum was brewed from wheat; juniper ale was flavored with juniper berries, bay leaves, coriander, and caraway seeds. Buttered ale was ale flavored with cinnamon, sugar, and butter. Cock ale was a mixture of ale and wine, steeped with raisins, cloves, and its namesake, a cooked rooster."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 11
"The introduction of the Hewes (sometimes spelled Hughes) crab apple to the region in the mid-eighteenth century allowed planters to produce a sweeter, slightly cinnamon-tasting cider that lasted longer."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 108
"Small-planter households resented their dependence on large-planter households. Although the Chesapeake continued to lag behind Europe, the arrival during the second half of the eighteenth century of the three-gallon alembic still, a series of improved cider presses, the newly developed Hewes crab apple, and other technologies allowed small-planter households to become more self-sufficient. They developed alcohol trade networks with kin and people of their own kind."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 4
Also,
"The invention of the alembic still, or side distilling, in particular, made the process easier. Side distilling became known in England around 1720, but it was not practiced in the Chesapeake until the 1760s. Before the invention of side distilling, stills were very large and expensive pieces of equipment, and distilling was a complex process...." (103)
Three cheers for freedom of speech for eighteenth-century French encyclopedic smut! The "18th" volume of Diderot's Encyclopedié is the "censored" stuff. NOW ONLINE!! WOOOOOO!!!
You know, this usage is on the word page. Kind of interesting:
Then she desired her not to be sparing with the 'smegma', -- A material like soap, but used in a soft state. -- and to wash her hair as thoroughly as possible. —The Bride of the Nile — Volume 10
I think it matters. If you're defusing, I'd say "the situation" should be the object--as thtownse says, as if the situation were going to explode--but if you want to do something to the tension, it seems like diffuse is the way to go. Tension doesn't really explode.
It does, however, get thick. I mean, I guess so. People say so, anyhow.
Someone needs to read her that Hans Christian Andersen story where the "idiot" wins the princess and the kingdom because he spares the ants from suffering his stupid feet.
I used to purposely keep my stuff right near my computer so whenever the urge struck, I'd play some sweet sweet loudness to wash away the computer blues.
"The brothers, members of the warlike Bosti Khel tribe (a sub-tribe of the Afridis, themselves a sub-tribe of the Pathans), had been implicated in the recent theft of some rifles from a police station."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 245
"When one male hostage protested at the continuous moves one of Akbar's cohorts snarled that 'as long as there is an Afghan prisoner in India or a Feringheeforeign soldier in Afghanistan, so long will we retain you...'"
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 241
"'As no one would fight for the ladies,' she sniffed disapprovingly, obviously referring to the men of the party, 'I determined to be yaghirebellious myself'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 240
"Lady Sale noted matter-of-factly that she herself 'had fortunately only one ball in my arm; three others passed through my poshteen (fur pelisse) near the shoulder without doing me any injury'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 237
I'm reminded of a grade-school classmate who, when tasked with making a poster for the church bazaar, made a delightfully artistic and well-lettered one for a local grocery store that said "Church Bizarre." I thought for sure they wouldn't use it, but they did.
"Although rumblings had been apparent for some time among discontented sepoys (Indian infantrymen) and in the bazaars, few of the ruling political class or the military hierarchy suspected that a widespread uprising would ensue."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 214
"Fanny Duberly received an invitation from the Rao (ruler) of Burj when she accompanied her husband's regiment on campaign through India in 1858. As the only white woman with the column, she was an object of curiosity to the locals as much as they were to her. To her delight, she was invited into the ladies' apartments to meet the ranees (the rao's wives). 'I never saw such a profusion of jewellery in my life,' she marvelled...."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 195
"Mrs Ilbert, arriving in Quebec in 1807, was pleased to learn that even in winter, 'There are frequently very pleasant excursions, made by parties into the country, they are Pic Nic parties where each person takes something towards the Entertainment, they drive to some house a few miles from Quebec, carry a Fidler with them & when they have finished their repast, they rise & dance until they agree upon separating, when the curricles (carriages) are ordered & the parties jovially return to their habitations, some get overturned but no accidents are ever met with but they only fall on a bed of snow, have a roll or two, to the great amusement of the Spectators, get up, shake themselves & resume their Seats.'"
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 193–194
"Copies of Tatler and Vogue, posted by helpful relatives at home, were presented to durzis (tailors) who would be able to produce passable imitations within a few days."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 192
"It was a time when the army was engaged in a fierce campaign against the tribesmen of Waziristan, and every fortnight a new lot of officers came down to Rawalpindi on leave with money to spend. As she admits, 'Even I got worn out, dancing and poodlefakingflirting. . . I'd wear a different evening dress every night—it was like being a debutante.'"
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 191
"It is better to have cheap things, as they get ruined here, and not too long skirts. You want a sort of table d'hote gown for dinner, old summer gowns would do."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 188
"Amid the gaiety and excitement, the dinners and fancy dress parties on board, it was almost easy to forget that they were going to a seat of war, where men had died and were still dying in their scores from cholera, enteric fever, shot and shell. Some ladies, such as Lady Agnes Paget, were married to officers at the front and could therefore escape the label of 'war tourists'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 184
Hey John? Hate to bug you again... is there some reason a lot of my comments are turning up with what looks like three hard line returns after the text? A big yawning chasm of white space that doesn't appear in the "edit" box so I can't delete it? Just wondering.
I would like to announce that I ate a red banana last night and it wasn't bad.
I would also like to announce that I gave Spawn II a bit of banana (for the second time) and he (repeatedly) made a face and stared at me balefully as if I were poisoning him.
Hi John, I haven't checked by adding any words yet, but I did find this wrinkle in the multiple-words-added bug: I can't delete war tourist from this list, and when I click on the word, I get a "not found" page.
Not sure about that distinction, richnotwealthy. I have been adding words by hitting Enter, and just now I did so again and "war tourist" was added four times, instantly.
"Midge Lackie, whose early days as an army wife in Aden had prepared her for almost any surprise, was nonetheless shocked when an acquaintance, a corporal's wife, was evicted from her quarter in Minden in the 1970s. She was sent back to her parents' home in Austria because it transpired she had been holding car key parties while her husband was away."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 159
I had no earthly clue what this was, even after asking several other people. A quick Google search reveals it's a "party" at which all the men (at this time, anyway) would throw their keys into a bowl, the women would pull a set out, and go home/have sex/roast marshmallows or something with the guy whose keys she pulled.
... Gross. (Everyone here knows how much I hate marshmallows.)
"Wellington's Provost Marshal became so infuriated with the women who believed that they could plunder with impunity that he once flogged more than a dozen at a time, giving them 'sax sic and thirty lashes a piece on the bare doup. And it was lang afore it was forgotten on 'em', according to a Highland soldier who witnessed the punishment."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 139
"Bette Viner was lucky enough to be invited to visit the harem of a local Amir when she was living in Aden in the mid-1960s with her brigadier husband. ... But with very few words of common language between them conversation was difficult, and the encounter grew stilted. It was then that Mrs Viner's American friend Olga came to the rescue.
"'She shot to her feet saying, "Gee, I reckon they like to dance." She executed a few gay little steps in the middle of a large Persian rug and fortunately they got the message almost at once. One of the women ducked under an old brass bedstead at the far end of the room and produced an old gramophone with an enormous horn, also some Arabian and Hungarian (Heaven knows how they came to be there) records. Olga jived energetically and was rewarded with a belly dance from an immensely fat servant. I was called upon to perform a short ballet sequence and a young concubine retaliated with a passage from a sinuously seductive looking tribal dance. Our British lady friend flatly refused to make a fool of herself as a solo turn but did condescend to lead a conga round the harem. Everyone joined in except the Amir's wife who remained faithful to her tea kettle, but she smiled happily on us all. The women quickly found out how it was done and shouted and laughed and turned the music up louder and louder. When it was finally time to go the Amir's wife gave us each a gourd of local honey. Our Arab driver, waiting at a distance of about 100 yards, was grinning from ear to ear when he saw us and I realised with horror that the noise we had made must have burst through the slits in the walls in the harem and resounded across the desert.... when I met the Amir a few days later, and he told me that his family had enjoyed our visit very much indeed....'"
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 196–197
"It was the custom for unmarried officers (the majority in those days) to visit the bungalows of the married for drinks on Sunday before lunch and sometimes before dinner on weekdays. I noticed very few came to us and as I knew Squire to be popular, I was anxious. 'Bertie', I asked one friendly youth, 'why don't more people come and see us?' He was embarrassed. 'Well', he finally managed to blurt out, 'It has got about that you read poetry'. 'Bother them all', I thought. 'I have never read it aloud'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 195
Oh my god, Omie Wise. Even *I* wouldn't sing that to my kid!
Ooh! what's that one... Rye Cove! It's about a school burning down. But I don't think anyone dies.
John, I'm changing the list name. As long as I give credit where it's due... right? "In the Pines": I don't think I know that one, but I added it anyway. Who sings it (most famously)?
"A specialized type of cap for toddlers learning to walk was the 'pudding' or padded helmet designed to protect the infant's head in case of a fall. Abigail Adams wrote to a friend in 1766, asking to borrow the quilted 'contrivance' for her little girl 'Nabby,' just beginning to walk. She explained, 'Nabby Bruses her forehead sadly. she is fat as a porpouse and falls heavey.' The affectionate term 'puddin' head' was derived from the pudding caps many toddlers wore. Williamsburg milliners advertised 'Quilted Puddings for Children.'" (Seen here, in an article that also features a picture of said cap.)
That's really interesting, ptero. You know what's most interesting/saddest of all? They hardly had to change any words, especially to the second verse.
You know what else gives me the tingles/chills (well, a lot of songs do, actually) is the song "No Man's Land." I did a Tunie for that one too. I should learn the words better, since I've got a cub who needs lullabye-in' now.
'One of his targets was Margaret Sanger, a nurse who wrote a sex education column, “What Every Girl Should Know,” for a left-wing New York newspaper, The Call. When Comstock banned her column on venereal disease, the paper ran an empty space with the title: “What Every Girl Should Know: Nothing, by Order of the U.S. Post Office.”'
My favorite comment on this comes from Denis Leary impersonating Babe Ruth. "Poor Lou Gehrig... Died of Lou Gehrig's disease. How the hell did he not see that coming?"
I was struck by this line in particular, in the linked article: "Like any other force that stalks by night, Cimex lectularius are known by many names: the mahogany flat; the heavy dragoon; the crimson rambler; the Nachtkrabbler; and, most simply of all, the redcoat."
Well, I should have clarified: they're forvery little kids. The ones who would cry to find their juice boxes are empty because they didn't realize not to squeeze them. Once you are old enough to realize what you're doing, why... then it's fun.
Umbrage, etc. I was trying to say that "putting something on the table" is NOT the same thing as "tabling" it. The first implies immediate discussion; the second, delayed until a later time. Sorry I wasn't more clear. I was eating Cheddar Lit'l Smokies and typing with my mouth full.
Agatehinge, on those rare occasions I put the mustard on the dog, I always roll it around to smear it on the bread anyway. I do not think it worthwhile to risk dropping mustard (which stains) on myself, thereby wasting its precious essence, and would rather offend the H.D. Etiquette Gods instead.
Also, cream cheese? on hot dogs? seriously?
John, that's mighty cute. :) Thanks for posting.
I agree with John---if you're putting chili on your dog, you can put cheese on it. Otherwise... well... I love those cheesy l'il smokies. (Which I have just discovered is actually spelled "Lit'l Smokies," and now I like them less.)
Cheese on/in brats is more acceptable, I think, than cheese on a dog, unless (again) there's chili involved. And I wouldn't put chili on a brat. That's just wrong.
"India to her was home and when at the age of ten she was 'banished', as she saw it, to boarding school in England, along with her younger sister Bets, she was plunged into misery. Like many foreign-born English children she was appalled by her first sight of England.... 'Nothing but mile after mile of squalid, soot-stained walls, warehouses and dingy streets lined with small, grimy terraced houses in which, unbelievably, my native people, Angrezis (English) — "Sahib-log"—actually lived....' Bullied mercilessly at boarding school by the other girls, Mollie and Bets resorted to speaking to each other in Hindustani, which the other pupils could not understand."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 86
"After an uncomfortable journey by dhoolie (a rather humbler kind of litter than a palanquin) into which the monsoon rains had poured she arrived in Dalhousie to find that there were not quarters available."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 71
"... the kitmagar, who corresponds to butler, then appears and I give out lump sugar, ham, biscuits, etc, fill up the decanters and cigarettes and matchboxes and give out dusters and clothes for each man....'"
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 70
"After her husband left for the office after breakfast she began her day 'by visiting the kitchen and seeing a boiling "detchie" (an aluminium pan with no handle) of water. I consider coal and see whether there is permanganate of potash ready to soak the vegetables and whether the earthenware saucers on which the larders stand have been filled with water and disinfectant...'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 69
"Those living abroad often tried to anglicise their dwellings in an effort to recreate a little corner of England.... 'clung rather pathetically to every tradition of Home, disguised their cheap furniture (hired from the Government or a dealer in the bazaar) with flowered cretonnes and made their bungalows look as English as they could'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 68
"The Mutiny Act of 1703 stipulated that soldiers should be billeted in 'inns, livery stables, ale houses, victualling houses, and all houses selling brandy, strong-waters, cyder or metheglin to be drunk on the premises, and in no other, and in no private houses whatsoever'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 61
"A column on the march in India presented a particularly colourful spectacle. Behind the orderly column of soldiers trailed a disorderly, clamorous army of servants, followers and wives. Syces (grooms) rode the officers' spare ponies or drove their gharries (pony traps) while others perched on top of the camels and elephants used to transport heavy baggage. Behind them came the water carriers, grass cutters, cooks, sweepers and washerwomen, bullock carts with squeaking wheels and drivers cracking their whips and shouting curses. The rear guard followed behind, restoring some semblance of military orderliness to the tip of this extraordinary tail."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 56
"If ladies did not want to eat in the mess a cook would bring them meals in their tent and they were usually attended by an ayah (maid) and other domestic servants who would sweep and clean their tents, shooing away unwanted visitors such as rats and cockroaches..." (p. 56)
"'I am not praising myself, dear Mama, but only wish you to know that it is quite possible for a lady to exert herself in this Country. I keep no ayahladies' maid, which diminishes the expenses of our establishment not a little. Hannay often insists on my having one, but I will not indulge in such laziness unless obliged by ill health.'"
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 71
"Even offering a gentleman caller refreshment was out of the question as it was considered 'an act of glaring impropriety in a lady to invite any gentleman to stay and partake of tiffin who is not either a relative or an intimate friend of the family'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 55–56
Putting something on the table always meant, to me, to bring it forward for discussion or examination. Tabling a question is a parliamentary/congressional thing to do, and it means putting it on a table for later discussion. If it helps, think of it as a side table.
Perhaps we should change the idiom to "nightstanding the question."
It would make congressional debates more titillating, anyhow.
I'll have no truck with such products. Buying a Diet Coke over a Diet Pepsi because they'll give one penny out of $1,000 to breast cancer research doesn't make any sense and just pisses me off. I guess it's better than nothing, and does "raise awareness" (a phrase I hate), but I'd rather give my $1.50 to breast cancer research and skip the stupid product in the first place.
"Although the colors of the fruits should blend harmoniously, and the general appearance should be fresh and négligé, arrange them firmly, so that when the dish is moved there will be no danger of an avalanche."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 274
"Have a large firkin, put in a layer of sliced tomatoes, then one of onions, next one of peppers, lastly cabbage; sprinkle over some of the mustard seed, repeat the layers again, and so on.... skim it well and turn it into the firkin. Let it stand twenty-four hours, then pour the whole into a large kettle, and let it boil five minutes; turn into the firkin, and stand away for future use."
—Jane Warren, The Economical Cook Book, ca. 1882, quoted in Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 271
"A more delicious way of cooking a turkey it is impossible to imagine."
—Godey's Lady's Book, December 1885, quoted in —Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 239
"Salsify, or Oyster Plant. After scraping off the outside, parboil it, slice it, dip the slices into a beaten egg and fine bread crums sic, and fry in lard. It is very good boiled, and then stewed a few minutes in milk, with a little salt and butter. Or, make a batter of wheat flour, milk, and eggs; cut the salsify in thin slices, first boiling it tender; put them into the batter with a little salt; drop the mixture into hot fat by spoonfuls. Cook them till of a light brown."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 256
"Underdone meat (foolishly called rare) is getting quite out of fashion, being unwholesome and indigestible, and to most Americans its savour is disgusting. To ladies and children it is always so, and even the English have ceased to like it. It is now seldom seen but at those public tables, where they consider it an object to have as little meat as possible eaten on teh first day, that more may be left for the second day, to be made into indescribable messes, with ridiculous French names, and passed off as French dishes, by the so-called French cook, who is frequently an Irishman."
—Eliza Leslie, Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book, 1857, quoted in Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 239
"Removes: Meat, Game, and Poultry. These are dishes which remove the fish and soup, served upon large dishes, and placed at the top and bottom of the table; great care should be evinced in cooking them, as they are the "pièce de résistance" of the dinner."
—Alexis Soyer, The Modern Housewife, 1857, quoted in Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 236
"Shape in a tablespoon without smoothing much, slip them off into a basket, and fry in smoking hot lard one minute. ... The lard should be hot enough to brown a piece of bread while you count forty."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 232
"If the above method is exactly followed, there will be found no necessity for taking the trouble and enduring the disgust and tediousness of cleaning and preparing a calf's head for mock turtle soup—a very unpleasant process, which too much resembles the horrors of a dissecting room. And when all is done a calf's head is a very insipid article."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985),225
"Take one quart of sour milk, or buttermilk; stir in as much corn meal as will make a pancake batter; take one teacupful of flour, and one teaspoonful of saleratus; beat well together; then add three eggs well beaten...."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 214
"Cocoa shells are also very nutritious and palatable; they must be roasted with the same care as coffee, turned slowly during the operation, but constantly and in a tightly covered cylinder. After being carefully roasted a deep brown, when cool it must be triturated smoothly in a mortar, as much as may be required; when reduced to a paste, and all the little husks removed, then pour over a spoonful of the paste a cupful of boiling water, thus proportioned to the quantity required; then boil it for twenty minutes, stirring, but kept covered; then serve as coffee, diluting with boiling milk or cream, and sugar to the taste; this forms a very agreeable beverage."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 208
Yeah, agreeable. Unless you're the one making it. What a pain in the ass! I'll just have water, please.
"Cream and finely powdered sugar filled in the empty spaces on the table. Desserts were to be served in elegant, usually footed glass or china bowls or compotes, called tazzas in 1851, which were to line the center of the table. These were to be flanked on the sides by lower dishes and plates of dried fruits, nuts, candies, and chocolates, all ornately garnished with flowers, leaves, and vines."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 177
"These dishes were also called the sides, because they lined the sides of the table, as opposed to the ends and the center. Two sides and four kickshaws were considered adequate for four to six people."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 176
"For a three-course meal, according to this scheme, the first course would consist of soup, meat from the soup, and 'kickshaws' (another word for appetizers, derived from the French quelque chose, and used to denote a delicacy, fancy dish, or relish, possibly oysters, anchovies, shrimp, sardines, celery, olives, or pickles)."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 175
"Pie, at least for C. W. Gesner, was emblematic of all that was wrong with America's eating habits:
'We are fond of pies and tarts. We cry for pie when we are infants. Pie in countless varieties waits upon us through life. Pie kills us finally. We have apple-pie, peach-pie, rhubarb-pie, cherry-pie, pumpkin-pie, plum-pie, custard-pie, oyster-pie, lemon-pie, and hosts of other pies. Potatoes are diverted from their proper place as boiled or baked, and made into a nice heavy crust to these pies, rendering them as incapable of being acted upon by the gastric juice as if they were sulphate of baryta, a chemical which boiling vitriol will hardly dissolve. ... How can a person with a pound of green apples and fat dough in his stomach feel at ease?'"
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 172
"Well-trained domestic help was crucial to the successful execution of an elaborate Victorian dinner party. The service bell, a popular affectation, allowed the hostess to get around the rule that she must never speak to the help during the meal: all instructions were given in advance and carried out wordlessly at the genteel tone of the bell."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 153
"Crumbers for cleaning the tablecloth between courses came into widespread use in the 1890s. By that time, most Americans had abandoned the practice of laying two or three cloths on a dinner table, each to be removed after a given course."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 154
"Plant in this boughs of green, bushes, and all the flowers that can be filled in. Nothing is prettier, in the centre of a table, than this little parterre. . . . Variety may be made by adding rocks, vases, and columns to the parterre; vases of flowers, at the corners of the table, may also be added."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 153
Hmm... that's not the meaning I've heard used with this phrase. It seems like it would mean something that's really easy to do (like falling off a log) or smoothly accomplished without much effort. But I suppose it could mean any of several things.
I noticed this too. I can put the cursor in the box and use the arrow keys to get where I want to go, but this is rather cumbersome compared to using my little scroll wheel that I love so much.
OED: 1. lit. A man of prayer; one who prays for the soul or spiritual welfare of another.
c1230 Ancr. R. 356 Beon ores beodemon. c1425 WYNTOUN Cron. IX. xxvii. 99 His Bede-men ai suld be..And pray for hym. 1538 LATIMER Serm. & Rem. (1845) 412 The prior of Worcester, is your orator and beadsman. c1540 Thrie Priests of Peblis, Welcum my beidmen, my blesse, and al my beild. 1591 SHAKES. Two Gent. I. i. 18 Commend thy grieuance to my holy prayers, For I will be thy beadesman, Valentine. 1647 WARD Simp. Cobler (1843) 62 As fervent a Beadsman for your welfare. 1869 FREEMAN Norm. Conq. (1876) III. ii. 28 His friend and bedesman, Abbot Eadwine.
2. One paid or endowed to pray for others; a pensioner or almsman charged with the duty of praying for the souls of his benefactors. Hence in later times; a. in England: An almsman, an inmate of an almshouse; (so also beadswoman: see BEAD n. 3); b. in Scotland: A public almsman or licensed beggar (into which position ‘the King's Bedesmen’ finally sank.)
Well, I gave up adding to mine after realizing the nightmare-having potential of reading about gladiators and all the ways they killed and tortured people and animals. Eugh.
But I started with that Wikipedia list too. I think it was the featured article the day I made the list. Who knew there were so many distinct classes of torturers?
The first time I heard it was when jennarenn said "I love Great Big Sea! Mad props!" on one of my lists. So now when I hear it, I always think of 1) jennarenn, and 2) Great Big Sea. Both of which make me very happy... so screw you people who don't like making me happy! *sticks out tongue*
Not to take these comments even further from the list on which they are posted, but... John, don't let kad read that other horrifying list of mine, okay? Please?
Yarb... I'm sorry to hear you're Elizabethan because ... those people didn't... umm... well... they wore the same clothes all the time and... umm... they didn't bathe much.
Interestingly--at least to me--the description of how to make it, below, doesn't match the pictures on Flickr. I think that's because, as that site explains, the pictures are actually of Charlotte royale rather than Charlotte russe (which is described below and doesn't seem like it would look like brains).
No idea, but the front page has some interesting images from Flickr. One of which led me to this site, upon which all charlotte desserts look like brains, but which also contains some more historical information about this type of dessert.
I thought it was also/could be written like this: ¥, which explains why so many signs say "Ye Olde Slamdammerie," because in Old English it would have been "¥e Olde Cholmondeley," pronounced like "The Old Featherstonehaugh," but people think it looks older with a ¥ so they use a Y.
Thanks for yours too, John. Like I said, I do realize you all are working hard. At *least* as hard as I'm working, I'm guessing. :) Thanks for your continuing efforts.
"Clear, potable water is a phenomenon of the twentieth century. Nineteenth-century cookbooks of the 1850s and 1860s usually included directions for purifying water, using different methods of filtration (sand and charcoal) or chemical additives such as alum. Bottled waters offered to many an appealing alternative to city water. Apollinaris—a popular mineral water—was listed on the most elegant menus as a beverage choice, often alongside the stronger beverages."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 139
"Cone or loaf sugar was the most highly refined and sweetest form of sugar. Women used sugar nippers to cut lumps from the cone for the sugar bowl, or else pounded the lumps into a fine powder to serve with fruit or sweets. As granulated sugar became available in the 1890s, sugar nippers became obsolete."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 124
Also, quoted in the above,
"The cutting of this cone of sugar into lumps of equal size and regular shape was distinctly the work of the mistress and daughters of the house. It was too exact and too dainty a piece of work to be entrusted to clumsy and wasteful servants."
I have to make this someday. It sounds teh alsome.
"Charlotte russe was one of the most impressive desserts that could have been served at the time and was mentioned frequently in accounts of dinner and dessert parties during the late nineteenth century. Catharine Beecher volunteered two different recipes for it, describing it as a combination of rich custard and tall sponge cake. One was to slice one inch from the bottom of the cake, turn it over onto its top in a mold and scoop out the insides, leaving one-inch walls. The cavity was then filled with the custard, the bottom slice replaced, adn the whole chilled. It could then be turned out on a cake plate and ornamented with frosting or candy sugar flowers."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 115
"Salad was one of the most pervasive French influences during the early nineteenth century, and it rapidly became an integral part of any dinner. It was often preceded by the word 'French,' to identify it as a green, leafy salad dressed with oil and vinegar, mashed egg yolk, and a little mustard, as distinct from the chicken or lobster salads, which were also quite common. ... In the event that one encountered salad when dining at a hotel, Eliza Leslie warned her readers that salad was dressed usually by the gentlemen, not the ladies. The gentleman was to 'mix up the dressing on a separate plate, and then add it to the lettuce, and offer it around, as he chose.'"
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 113
"Sardines were another high-status food, perhaps because, as one of the first canned foods available, they remained 'exotic.' They were frequently listed in cookbooks as a recommended 'kickshaw' (side dish or relish) during the soup course. Special sardine boxes were manufactured for serving them, often graced with a swimming fish on the sides or as a finial on the lid."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 111–112
"Common celery was considered a high-status food by middle-class Americans in the late nineteenth century; originally native to Europe, Asia, and Africa, celery had a distinguished history traceable to Homer's Odyssey as Apium graveolens. It was first used as food in sixteenth-century France, although only as a flavoring; by the mid-seventeenth century, the stalks and leaves were sometimes dressed with oil and eaten. The plant was improved during the eighteenth century, and its use became more common among the wealthy. Growing it was labor-intensive; it had to be blanched, or surrounded by built-up piles of soil, to preserve the whiteness and sweetness of its stalks. In accord with its status, celery was given a prominent position on the table by means of special celery stands or vases. These were usually made of either decorated glass or silver—both luxury materials—and could be tall, footed, vaselike forms or low baskets.... By 1900, the tall celery stands were nearly completely out of fashion, as celery lost its cachet. These low stands relegated celery to a much less prominent position on the landscape of the tabletop, and their appearance was parallelled by the development in the 1880s of a new, easier-to-grow, self-blanching, commercial variety of celery, which ... made it a much more ordinary household vegetable."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 110–111
"When bananas were broadly introduced in the 1880s, tableware designers and glass manufacturers quickly responded by producing special footed serving bowls, called banana bowls or banana boats, which carefully cradled a bunch of bananas."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 108
"As early as 1864, Eliza Leslie had written, 'It is very ungraceful to eat an orange at table, unless having cut a bit off the top, you eat the inside with a teaspoon.' Within twenty years, this advice had been transformed into a specialized spoon with a small bowl and pointed tip for eating oranges.... Other orange-related tableware introduced in the 1890s included orange cups—footed dishes with corkscrew or spear devices for holding the halved orange in place—and orange knives, 'in table and pocket sizes.'"
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 109
"Cookbooks frequently recommended sardines, a canned delicacy usually imported from Europe, as a 'kickshaw' (relish) to be served during the soup course at dinner. Sardines were considered elegant enough to merit their own special serving utensils."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 111
gguuuuuuuuhhhh!!! Every other comment on the front page is a god$#%@ned spammer. !!! I know everyone at Wordnik is working very hard and has many things to do... *steam coming out of ears at spammers*
"In 1848, a letter written by a pottery manufacturer to his agent described a shipment of light-blue printed dinnerware, which included twelve dozen flat plates (ten-inch dinner plates), twelve dozen soup plates, eight dozen 'twifflers' (smaller plates, about eight inches in diameter), six dozen 'muffins' (plates smaller yet, between four inches and seven inches in diameter), twety-four hot-water plates and stoppers (plates similar to a modern child's feeding dish, with a receptacle for hot water to keep food warm), two root dishes (probably open serving bowls), four 'cover dishes' (covered serving bowls), eighteen 'dishes' (this term was used for platters) in seven different sizes...."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 80
"The term 'd'oyley' (now 'doily') derives from the famous late-seventeenth-century London draper D'Oyley, who was a supplier of the materials for the inexpensive woolen mats or small, often fringed, napkins that were used during the fruit and dessert course to wipe ones fingers after the dinner napkins had been removed. The Workmen's Guide further defined the term. Doilies, it suggested, 'may be either white or colored, and are sometimes open, of six nails square; they are generally fringed.' The idea was to protect the white dinner napkins from fruit stains.
By the late nineteenth century, doilies were often brought out with the finger bowls and were used either as napkins or to protect the bare table after the tablecloth had been removed prior to the fruit course."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 72
"A typical late-nineteenth-century sideboard would also have displayed cut glass, examples of hand-painted French or German porcelain, 'antique' German or Italian glass, a German beer stein, a brass samovar, or a decorative piece of pottery—possibly Delft or majolica."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 68
"Since carpeting was usually one of the most expensive household acquisitions, crumb cloths ... or druggets were often laid under the dining table to protect against spills."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 61
"The contrast was apparent even in the lighting fixtures: a 'very rich ormolu gas chandelier' and a 'splendid 6-light ormolu chandelier' were found in the parlors, while the dining room below was furnished merely with an unadorned 'gas pendant.'"
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 53
Hmm. Are you sure it isn't more commonly spelled "Ima" or perhaps ima? To me, this spelling looks like it's pronounced with a short I, like someone's trying to say "Emma" and really screwing up.
Well, apparently your tongue may be ONLY dry or pickled. Furry, forked, pierced, or still attached ones, according to this text, I surmise, are not permitted.
If your tongue is a dry one, soak it in water all night; but if a pickled one, only wash it well, and put it in cold water; (the dry one will take three hours boiling, the pickled one two hours and a half) when it is done peel the skin and cut the outside of the root off, put it in a dish, and garnish with carrots and sprigs of greens, or whole turneps sic boiled."
—Richard Briggs, The New Art of Cookery, According to the Present Practice; being a Complete Guide to all Housekeepers, on a Plan Entirely New, Consisting of Thirty-Eight Chapters... (Philadelphia: Printed for W. Spotswood, R. Campbell, and B. Johnson, M.DCC.XCII), 119.
I think there should be a word for Facebook rage. You know, the kind that results from someone's compulsion to 1) post unrelated angry political content on someone's status, and 2) to continue posting long rants against one's friends' friends, even though you don't know them and a Facebook status is (probably) not a good place for reasoned political debate.
Yes, I know that small pasta shapes are available, but I'm talking about the actual box that says "pastina" on it and contains small star-shaped pasta. You know, the kind I had as a child.
Guess I'll look for a box next time I'm in the old stomping grounds.
I can't seem to find this anymore. Do they still make it? The little star-shaped things? This was a coming-home-from-kindergarten lunch that Mom used to make.
Crush Rice Krispies™ in a Ziploc™ bag with a rolling pin (or bottle of cheap wine™). Dip chicken parts in melted butter, then in crushed Rice Krispies™. Bake at 350 for however long one bakes chicken parts.
John, is there a way to search for lists (by title, say) and I'm not seeing it? It annoys me to scroll through my own seventy bazillion lists to find one in particular, but at least that's do-able; finding someone else's list that way is just about impossible.
"Why Ireland has no snakes," by a zoologist at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. (Not that we didn't already know this, but there's some other interesting information therein.)
"Rio's lawmen are once again confronting favela drug lords; six of the meanest slums have been declared bandit-free, including the infamous Cidade de Deus (City of God). In a city of 1,000 favelas, half of which are rotten with trafficantes that's a drop in the ocean...."
—Mac Margolis, "Brazil Purifies the 'City of God,' Newsweek, January 25, 2010
"Sometime between 2004 and 2009, he attended two dinners sponsored by the mainstream, fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, but he wasn't impressed. He went to eat 'their famous mansafrice with meat,' not to hear their ideas, he told his wife. He spoke openly of wanting to visit 'places of jihad.'"
—Mark Hosenball, Sami Yousafzai, and Adem Demir, "Anatomy of a Double-Cross," Newsweek, January 18, 2010
"He has softened the Bush-era rhetoric and turned down the volume on what a former CIA chieftain once called 'the Mighty Wurlitzer,' a mythical organ that blasts out the music of American salvation and superiority."
—Evan Thomas and Stuart Taylor Jr., "Obama vs. Obama," Newsweek, January 18, 2010
"There was a good chance that the coach would be detained—was sure to be slow, bogged down on the miry roads.
Speaking of coaches—his heart gave a sickly leap at the sight of a battered-looking carriage standing in the porte cochere, which he thought belonged to the doctor."
—Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone (New York: Delacorte Press, 2009), 244
"She had yet another mask, he saw, this one a stiff thing made of basket withes lined with layers of soft cotton cloth. She fitted this gently to Henry's face and, saying something inaudible to him, took up her dropping bottle."
—Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone (New York: Delacorte Press, 2009), 751
"'Why the devil should this trusdair take your son?' Buccleigh rolled down his window and stuck his head out.... 'And why, for the sake of all holy, bring him here?'"
—Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone (New York: Delacorte Press, 2009), 723
"The little engraver betrayed no particular discomfort under this basilisk stare and went on telling me about the response when he had published the bound edition of the Encyclopedia—the King had somehow happened to see the plates of the "Womb" section and had ordered those pages to be torn out of the book, the ignorant German blatherskite!—but when the waiter came to take his order, he ordered both a very expensive wine and a large bottle of good whisky."
—Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone (New York: Delacorte Press, 2009), 644
"'Ungrateful!' Abram said, his face congested. 'And what should we be grateful for, then? For having soldiers foisted upon us?'
'Oh, foisted, is it?' cried Mr. Ormiston in righteous indignation. 'Such a word! And if it means what I think it does, young man, you should get down on your knees and thank God for such foistingness! Who do you think saved you all from being scalped by red Indians or overrun by the French? And who do you think paid for it all, eh?'
This shrewd riposte drew cheers....
'That is absolute ... desolute ... stultiloquy,' began Abram, puffing up his insignificant chest like a scrawny pigeon...."
—Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone (New York: Delacorte Press, 2009), 323
"Two studies last year in the NEJMNew England Journal of Medicine showed that vertebroplasty, in which cement is inserted through a needle into the spine to stabilize vertebrae, is no more effective at reducing pain and disability than fake surgery (anesthesia, small incision for the needle, no cement). That suggests it is the hope and expectations of patients, not the procedure, that help. Yet about 170,000 vertebroplasties are done every year, at a typical cost of $5,000."
—Sharon Begley, "This Won't Hurt a Bit," Newsweek, March 15, 2010
"Many principals don't even try to weed out the poor performers (or they transfer them to other schools in what's been dubbed the 'dance of the lemons'). Year after year, about 99 percent of all teachers in the United States are rated 'satisfactory' by their school systems; firing a teacher invites a costly court battle with the local union."
—Evan Thomas and Pat Wingert, "Why We Can't Get Rid of Failing Teachers," Newsweek, March 15, 2010
"At least 40 other countries--from Belarus and Georgia to India, Pakistan and Russia--have begun to build, buy, and deploy unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, showcasing their efforts at international weapons expos.... In the last six months alone, Iran has begun production on a pair of weapons-ready surveillance drones, while China has debuted the Pterodactyl and Sour Dragon, rivals to America's Predator and Global Hawk."
—P.W. Singer, "Defending Against Drones," Newsweek, March 8, 2010, p. 38
I never heard these, actually. That might be because when I was there it was a generation ago. I never actually heard anyone saying barbie when I was there, except in a self-consciously stereotypical Aussie way. To me it seemed far more of a word they trotted out to please the tourists. But again, this was a generation ago. *shakes head in wonder*
oh no!! so sorry for your loss, dontcry! I'm with Pro--I hope one day your memories of him outshine your sense of loss. Even though words are not much help right now... :(
Listen, I have more than 250 lists, and there's no way on God's green earth I could remember them all, or if they're all intact. But when I have some time in the next year or two, assuming they're still there, I'm gonna make a list of my lists. And then list that on my list of weird lists. *disappears into self*
Seriously, I might make a list of my lists, in Word or something.
Well, horse is okay, as words go. But I don't think it can really compare to, say, ibex or kinkajou. But wombat is on this list, as well as several others; koala is cool too; they are both on my Australia list. :) Thanks for the input! You might also like this list: the (chained) unbearable cuteness of beings, by skipvia. (Will this link work? Dunno.)
The cool thing about the list is if you click on each word, then "comments," there's a link to some cuteness or other.
Our local supermarket (I think most of them, actually) carries non-Cavendish bananas, and also plantains. And much good may it do you all, since bananas are disgusting.*
Though you're all welcome to do your grocery shopping here. I won't interfere in Wordnik-inspired banana-buying sprees.
*I actually put one in a smoothie this morning and didn't hurl. Go figure.
I think this is the title of a book, and I think it was about the public education system, or something. I remember seeing the cover ages ago, when my sister was reading it for class.
yarb, that was my first answer. He didn't think that was good enough so I came up with the vowel answer. That kept him busy. It was kind of like ... having a bored toddler, and giving him a box of Kleenex so he can pull out the tissues and amuse himself while you get some work done.
P.S. as to the original question, I do say "Chill-ay." I think that's how many Americans say it, as opposed to "Chill-y," which I seem to hear more often from Brits, and is how I pronounced it before I ever heard the word spoken (as a kid). I just thought "Chill-ay" was the way it spozed to be. As to why, I think the back-formation idea (from "Chilean") makes the most sense to me.
Just as hibakusha describes individuals who survived the atomic bombings of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, this term describes individuals who survived both bombings. (Seen in Wikipedia article about hibakusha.)
I had a similar length-of-vowel-sound conversation with a linguist many years ago. We were discussing how Americans can tell the difference between the spoken words "writing" and "riding," since he was mocking the American penchant for pronouncing "t" like "d," e.g. "budder"* rather than "butter." I suggested it was the length of the long-I sound, but it was a wild guess on my part.
* still one of the more hilarious sounds when a Brit tries to say it as an American would. Another example is to have an Australian pronounce the American-style R in "dork."
"These men, women, and children who were exposed to the bomb are the hibakusha. This status entitles one to a monthly allowance from the government as compensation for injuries, since many of them have lingering health problems from which they will never recover."
In the Wikipedia article on this term, I saw this quote:
'There is considerable discrimination in Japan against the hibakusha. It is frequently extended toward their children as well: socially as well as economically. "Not only hibakusha, but their children, are refused employment," says Mr. Kito. "There are many among them who do not want it known that they are hibakusha."'
Hey! Duct tape?? I clicked Pro's link and found this:
Did you know that duct tape also causes light? It is caused by the breaking of the glue bonds, and you can see it if you pull a piece off the roll in a dark room. (The light is pretty dim). Look right where the tape joins the roll, on the sticky side.
"Home-grown actors like Michael J. Fox and William Shatner mocked their countrymen's penchant for politeness (we're sorry) and obsession with its vast territory (we dream big)."
Because it's wrong. It was Catherine O'Hara who mocked her countrymen's penchant for politeness. Yet she didn't even get a mention here. F@#$ing Canadians!!
It's not on hold at my house. Or rather my cubicle. Where I spent most of yesterday afternoon bouncing around after eating handsfuls of Tootsie Rolls from Halloween 2008. YAH YAH YAH YAH!!! :)
"In a self-interview in 1956, Robert Penn Warren asked himself, 'Are you a gradualist on the matter of segregation?' To which he answered: 'If by gradualist you mean a person who would create delay for the sake of delay, then no. If by gradualist you mean a person who thinks it will take ... time for an educational process, preferably a calculated one, then yes.... It's a silly question, anyway, to ask if somebody is a gradualist. Gradualism is all you'll get. History, like nature, knows no jumps. Except the jump backward, maybe.'"
—Jon Meacham, "The System's Not to Blame; We Are," Newsweek, Feb. 22, 2010
"When Lehman ended its 14-year-run as a public company with a bagel (a stock worth zero), some $45 billion in shareholder value had been destroyed. The other capers didn't end much better for shareholders. Bear Stearns was rescued from bageldom when JPMorgan bought it at a fire-sale price with the help of the Federal Reserve."
I like vang-couver too. But I don't pronounce Vancouver that way. Are there other resident Vancouverites aboard the good ship SS Wordnik? My nephew used to live there, but he's gone all Salinger on us.
I didn't see the original, since it was nuked before I was subjected to it, but I found this yarbism on the "previous comments" screen and thought we should save it:
“Call it unoriginal if you want, but there's a lot to be said for traditional, "missionary" spam, and it'll never go out of fashion.”
I was a pavlova virgin until I lived in Australia, and, though I developed a taste for Vegemite and other beastly confections there, frankly I still think pavlova's gross.
That's for me too, reesetee. But I think it's because (below) John said they disabled links for the time being. (Or maybe that was only supposed to be in list descriptions...?)
"In fact, only half her attention was focused on the heavyset gentleman's murmured remarks to his helot, a small young woman in an overall too big for her, with pink streaks in her hair."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 976
"The ductus arteriosus is a small blood vessel that in the fetus joins the aorta to the pulmonary artery. Babies have lungs, of course, but prior to birth don't use them; all their oxygen comes from the placenta, via the umbilical cord. Ergo, no need for blood to be circulated to the lungs, save to nourish the developing tissue—and so the ductus arteriosus bypasses the pulmonary circulation.
At birth, though, the baby takes its first breath, and oxygen sensors in this small vessel cause it to contract—and close permanently. With the ductus arteriosus closed, blood heads out from the heart to the lungs, picks up oxygen, and comes back to be pumped out to the rest of the body. A neat and elegant system—save that it doesn't always work properly."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 922
"... a sense of danger communicates itself among people in a confined setting: hospital emergency room, surgical suite, train car, ship; urgency flashes from one person to the next without speech, like the impulse down a neuron's axon to the dendrites of another."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 804
"'Mrs. Fraser brought the child,' Mrs. Tolliver explained eagerly. 'It was laid catty-wumpus, but she brought it so cleverly, and made it breathe—we thought 'twas dead, it was so still, but it wasn't! Isn't that wonderful, Tolly?'"
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 777
"It was only the mercy of God that it hadn't been worse—that, and Claire's rage, which had interrupted the attack, as everyone stopped to watch the engrossing spectacle of her hatcheling her assailant like a bundle of flax."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 765
"The side of my face felt as though it were on fire, and jolts of pain shot through the trigeminal nerve with each heartbeat, making the muscles twitch and the eye water terribly."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 735
"The public houses, taverns, ordinaries, and pothouses in Charlotte were doing a roaring business, as delegates, spectators, and hangers-on seethed through them, men of Loyalist sentiments collecting in the King's Arms, those of rabidly opposing views in the Blue Boar, with shifting currents of the unallied and undecided eddying to and fro, purling through the Goose and Oyster, Thomas's ordinary, the Groats, Simon's, Buchanan's, Mueller's, and two or three nameless places that barely qualified as shebeens."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 729
"The light touched the decanter and the drink within glowed like a chrysoberyl."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 711
And,
"Below, the object glittered up at us, serene and glowing, its beauty at last revealed. A faceted clear stone, the color of golden sherry, half the size of my thumbnail.
'Chrysoberyl,' Jamie said softly, a hand on my back.... 'D'ye think it will serve?'"
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 930
"Gordon, a shy boy of about seventeen, was betrothed to a Quaker girl from Woolam's Mill; he'd been round the day before to 'thig'—beg small bits of household goods in preparation for his marriage."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 699
"I remembered what Fergus had said, in answer to Jamie's instructions: 'I remember how this game is played.' So did I, and spicules of ice began to form in my blood."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 688
"Bree leaned in beside me, and her eyes widened at sight of hte small brown blotch. It was about the size of a farthing, quite round, just above the hairline toward the back of his head, behind the left ear.
'What is it?' she asked, frowning....
'I'm fairly sure it's all right,' I assured her, after a quick inspection. 'It looks like what's called a nevus—it's something like a flat mole, usually quite harmless.'"
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 680–681
"... breathing in the smell of the pictures—the smell of oils and charcoal, gesso, paper, canvas, linseed and turpentine, a full-bodied ghost that floated out of its wicker casket...."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 645
I am not involved in running the site, of course, but my guess is that it isn't so much the difficulty that's causing the delay, but the number of things (many of them, perhaps, very difficult) that are on the list ahead of the items you mentioned. The gang at Wordnik surely is human, despite evidence to the contrary, and can only do so much in a day. As John pointed out often on Wordie, sometimes fixing or upgrading one thing resulted in three things "breaking."
I see your frustration and raise you a nostalgia. But I'm sure John and co. are working as hard as they can. I do hope you pop back in now and then and say hello!
"'Ye call them sidhe in the Gaelic. The Cherokee call them the Nunnahee. And the Mohawk have names for them, too—more than one. But when I heard Eats Turtles tell of them, I kent at once what they were. It's the same—the Old Folk.'"
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 608
"It was a pity that she hadn't a casting rod or tied flies—but still worth a try. Caddis flies weren't the only things that rose hungry at twilight, and voracious trout had been known to strike at almost anything that floated in front of them...."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 603
"The humped mound of the beaver lodge was reflected in still water, and on the far bank she could see the agitated judderings of a couple of willow saplings, evidently in the process of being consumed."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 603
"I was seeing in vivid memory the slides of Entameba, greedy pseudopodia flowing in slow-motion appetite. Water, I heard water flowing; it lived in water, though only the cystic form was infective..."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 561
Comments by chained_bear
Show previous 200 comments...
chained_bear commented on the word electuary
"He drinks hippocras, clarry, and vernage*
Hot spices to kindle his lust,
And many an electuary full fine,
Such as the accursed monk, damned Constantine,
Has written in his book,
De Coitu--To eat them all he did not eschew.
... Spices were among the premier aphrodisiacs of the day, not least thanks to the author January turned to for his stimulants, 'damned Constantine.' More conventionally known as Constantine the African (ca. 1020-1087), Chaucer's 'cursed monk' was in fact one of the major intellectual figures of the age, his work occupying a central place in the canon of medical studies in European universities until the end of the fifteenth century."
"*Strong spiced and sweetened wines."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 184
Another historical note can be found in comment on unguent.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word theriac
Paul Freedman, Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination (New Haven and London: Yale UP, 2008), 68
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word vernage
Usage/historical note on electuary.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word armarium pigmentorum
"Around the same time a plan of the Swiss Benedictine monastery of Saint Gall featured a cupboard for storing spices (armarium pigmentorum) attached to the doctor's quarters, its role to complement the locally grown herbs supplied by the garden."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 161
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word garlic
Interesting historical note/usage on theriac.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word theriac
"The best-known medieval medicines, and the lion's share of the spices, belonged to the rich. ... The poor man's theriac, according to Arnald de Vilanova, was garlic. By the twelfth century, the herb-spice differential seems to have been something of a cliché. John of Salisbury (ca. 1110-1180) cites 'an old proverb' that obtained 'among courtiers and physicians everywhere': In return for words we use mountain herbs; For things of value, spices and drugs.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 173
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word pigmentarius
Usage/historical note can be found on theriac.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word theriac
"It is a recurrent motif of the vitae (Lives of the Saints) to find the miracle-working saint having no need of spices, much to the astonishment and chagrin of the spice-reliant doctors. The plot is repeated time and again, the holy man or woman healing an illness that has defeated even the spices of the pigmentarius. ... A little more than a century before Bede's day, when Gregory of Tours sought a metaphor for divine intercession, he could think of none more apt than theriac, a legendary mix of herbs and spices reported to have saved the life of Mithridates VI, a king of Pontus in northern Anatolia who died in 63 B.C.* A hypochondriac, Mithridates took this secret mix every day, and so effective did it prove that when he tried to poison himself his most potent toxins were utterly nullified...
" * The origin, incidentally, of the modern 'treacle.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 162
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word condimentum
"Odd as the idea might seem, then, from the ancient world and through the Middle Ages spices smelled not only of other worlds but of worlds to come. In some unrecoverable sense, just as the wealthy dead smelled of spices, so spices smelled of death. The overlap was particularly pronounced in Latin, since the vocabulary was the same. To prepare a corpse for burial was literally to 'season' or 'spice' it, condire, whence condimentum, or seasoning. Moreover, the materials used on the embalmed were standard kitchen seasonings."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 157-158
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word saints
"The appeal probably had much to do with the odor of sanctity that by now was a commonplace of the religiosity of medieval Christendom, the spices being seen as proof of God's favor, symbolic evidence of special status. To lie among spices was to lie in the odor of the saints."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 153
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word cinnamon
Interesting usage/historical note on cinnamon used in burial rites in ancient Rome can be found on frankincense.
Another one, unrelated (obviously) to burial rites, on Coca-Cola.
Another on galbanum.
As for how cinnamon was packed for long-distance transport/trade, see note on fondaci. On its freshness, gum arabic.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word frankincense
"On the demise of the dictator Sulla in 79 B.C., after a slow and hideous death caused by worms devouring his flesh, an effigy of cinnamon was constructed in his image. 'It is said that the women contributed such a vast bulk of spices for the interment that, aside from what was carried on two hundred and ten litters, there was enough to make a large figure of Sulla, and that an image of a lictor (staff bearer) was molded from expensive frankincense and cinnamon.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 148
Another usage/historical note can be found on mephitic. And on balsam. And galbanum. And a nice translated primary source from ca. 900 on perfumer.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word allspice
"The Egyptians were not alone in sending their dead to an aromatic grave. Although customs varied from one time and place to another, spices, resins, flowers, and aromatics were used by all the major cultures of antiquity, whether the body was mummified, buried, or incinerated.*
" * The Mayans used allspice in embalming."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 148
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word spices
"The Egyptians were not alone in sending their dead to an aromatic grave. Although customs varied from one time and place to another, spices, resins, flowers, and aromatics were used by all the major cultures of antiquity, whether the body was mummified, buried, or incinerated.*
" * The Mayans used allspice in embalming."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 148
More on spices used in burial can be found on frankincense and saints.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word myrrh
Interesting historical note/usage on bdellium. Another on galbanum, and a translated primary source from ca. 900 on perfumer.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word bdellium
"The use of myrrh, balsam, and bdellium* is documented from the early third millennium B.C. When Howard Carter examined the mummy of Tutankhamen, interred almost exactly a century earlier than Ramses, he found that the corpse had been treated with coriander and resins.
" * Bdellium is a gum resin that oozes from one of several shrubs of the genus Commiphora. The dried product resembles impure myrrh."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 147
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word spice
"In London at the start of the third millennium, the best places to shop for spice tend to be in the poorer, immigrant areas of the city, whereas seven hundred years ago it was the exact reverse, with the business addresses of London's grocers and spicers concentrated in the (then) well-off areas of the City. Spice could be bought from a number of retailers in the wealthy parishes of Saint Pancras, Saint Benet's Sherehog, Milk Street, and Saint Mary-le-Bow; but no spicer saw fit to set up shop in the poorer area of Farringdon. Spices went where the money was."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 136
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word nutmeg
"In England in 1284, a pound of mace cost 4 s. 7 d., a sum that could also buy three sheep--a whopping outlay for even the better-off peasantry. At much the same time, a pound of nutmeg would buy half a cow."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 136
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word mace
"In England in 1284, a pound of mace cost 4 s. 7 d., a sum that could also buy three sheep--a whopping outlay for even the better-off peasantry. At much the same time, a pound of nutmeg would buy half a cow."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 136
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word petecure
"A rare exception to the generally upper-class tenor of medieval cookery books is the mid-fifteenth-century Liber cure cocorum, written for those who could afford to practice only economical 'petecure,' literally 'small cooking.'* The preface outlines the principles of cooking on a budget: 'This craft is set forth for poor men, that may not have spicery as they would like.' The history of cooking is the history of class cooking."
"* from the Old French <i>petite queuerie</i>."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 136
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word hippocras
"One English culinary manuscripts gives details for the preparation of three variants of hippocras, specifying different quantities of spice according to rank and budget: pro rege, pro domino, and, with the least spice of all, pro populo."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 135
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word pharoah
Interesting historical note on Rameses II can be found on peppercorn.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word peppercorn
"The first known consumer of pepper on whom we can hang a name did not use his spice to season his dinner, for he was long past any pleasures of the flesh. He was, in fact, a corpse: the royal skin and bones of Rameses II, arguably the greatest of Egypt's pharoahs, up whose large, bent nose a couple of peppercorns were inserted not long after his death on July 12, 1224 B.C.
"The upper reaches of the pharoah's nose mark the beginning, for the time being, of one of the most important chapters in the history of spice."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 145
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word galantyne
Usage/historical note on poivre chaut.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word camelyne
Usage/historical note on poivre chaut.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word verjuice
Usage/historical note on poivre chaut.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word poivre aigret
Usage/historical note on poivre chaut.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word poivre chaut
"Of the various sauces, one of the oldest and most popular was black pepper sauce, in which the sharpness of pepper was offset by bread crumbs and vinegar. There was a hotter variant called poivre chaut, hot pepper, and another called poivre aigret, sour pepper, with verjuice and wild apples.... Another perennial favorite, often served with roasted poultry, known as galantyne, was made from bread crumbs, ginger, galangal, sugar, claret, and vinegar." ... One of the most popular sauces across the breadth of medieval Europe was camelyne, so called for its tawny camel color, the keynotes of which were cinnamon, vinegar, garlic, and ginger, mixed with bread crumbs and occasionally raisins. (The name was doubly apt, for much of the cinnamon so consumed would have done time on a camel's back while in transit through Arabia.)"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 112-113
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word pig
"(The beauty of the pig, so to speak, and the main reason behind its importance to the medieval diet, was that unlike sheep or cows it could be left to fend for itself, foraging on chestnuts and waste, whether in town or country; but even for pigs there was not enough food to go around through the lean months.)"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 109
Additional text, in which this parenthetical is placed, can be found in a comment on November.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word turnip
Interesting usage/historical note can be found in comment on November.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word November
"Medieval Europe lacked most of the high-yielding grass and root crops that are today used to feed herds through the winter and enable a year-round supply of fresh meat--the turnip, for instance, was still considered a garden vegetable. ... Only the largest and wealthiest households had either the pasture to keep their herds alive or the storage space to put aside sufficient hay to see them through the winter.
"For all those who lacked this luxury, as soon as the frosts moved in and the pasture died off, a good proportion of the herd had to be slaughtered. Traditionally, the seasonal killing was set for Martinmas, or November 11--for which reason the Anglo-Saxon name for November was 'Blood Month.' What could not be eaten within a few days had to be salted down..."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 109-110
(More can be found on spices.)
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word salt
Interesting usage/historical note on spices.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word spices
"Medieval Europeans were no more hardened to the taste of putrid meat and fish than we are. The risk of unsafe ingredients was not taken lightly, and by the later Middle Ages municipal authorities across Europe were taking steps to crack down on sellers of bad meat and fish with harsh penalties. In comparison, the modern health inspector is a toothless creature. The pillory was primarily a punishment for crimes committed in the marketplace. ... Anyone willing to believe that medieval Europe lived on a diet of spiced and rancid meat has never tried to cover the taste of advanced decomposition with spices.
"There were, however, other flavors that spices helped surmount. The offending taste was not of putrefaction but of salt, as mentioned earlier. ... What could not be eaten within a few days had to be salted down, with the result that most if not all the meat eaten from November through the spring was dry, chewy, and salty, requiring soaking and prolonged cooking to alleviate the taste. ... The one good word Rabelais can find for salted meat is that it worked up a fearsome thirst, the better to throw down the wine."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 109-110
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word Spiced ale
See usage, explanation, etc. in comment on clarry.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word clarry
"With the advent of the technology of the bottle and cork in the sixteenth century, the need for spices in wine was abruptly less pressing. Winemaking techniques and the quality of the end result improved. Yet of all of spices' uses in the medieval world, spiced wines were perhaps the most enduring, long outlansting the Middle Ages. Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) enjoyed an occasional glass of hippocras; it even gets a mention in Der Rosenkavalier. Neither clarry nor hippocras has ever quite disappeared, ultimately evolving into the vermouth, glögg, and mulled wine of today--still one of the best ways of dealing with a red on the turn, short of pouring it down the sink.
"Spiced ale, on the other hand, has gone the way of the crossbow and the codpiece. In the Middle Ages, ale really was good for you--comparatively speaking. It was certainly better than the available water, an observation traditionally credited to Saint Arnulphus, bishop of Soissons and abbot of the Benedictine foundation of Oudenbourg, who died in 1087. Arnulphus is the patron saint of brewers, an acknowledgement of his realization that heavy ale drinkers were less afflicted by epidemics than were the rest of the population. Particularly in Europe's densely crowded towns, with their poor drainage and rudimentary public hygiene, untreated water was a daily reality and an extremely effective vector of infection. Though the effect of contaminated water was only dimly appreciated, the medical theory of the day added intellectual respectability to the wariness of water, classing it as wet and cooling and therefore potentially inimical to the body's natural balance of moderate warmth and moisture.... Given that the ale drinker was exposed to fewer microbiological nasties, Arnulphus's bias against water made perfect sense. The upshot was that ale was consumed in prodigious quantities."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 116-117
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word speziale
Usage notes in comments on speciarius and spicer.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word spicer
See another interesting usage on speciarius. Also grossarii which will move you to cubebs, and also grocer and apothecary, and unguent.
"In the medieval mind spices and medicines were effectively one and the same. Not all drugs were spices, but all spices were drugs. The identity was reflected in vocabulary: the Late Latin term for spices, (pigmenta) was practically synonymous with medicines, and so it remained through the Middle Ages. Apothecary and spicer were effectively one and the same: 'one who has at hand for sale aromatic spices and all manner of things needful in medicine,' in the words of a fourteenth-century manuscript at Chartres Cathedral. The apothecary took his name from the Greek term for a warehouse where high-value goods such as spices were stored. Even today one Italian word for pharmacist is speziale. He is the direct descendant of the medieval spicer (speciarius), whose wares were among the most sought after and esteemed medicines of the age."
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word speciarius
"In wealthier households, the task of juggling these considerations fell to the speciarius, or spicer. Occupying a role midway between pharmacist and in-house health consultant, the spicer was considered an indispensable employee. In 1317, the household of the French king found room (or cash) for only four officers of his chamber: a barber, a tailor, a taster, and a spicer."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 125
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word ale
Usage and recipe (of a sort) in comment on spiced ale and more on clarry.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word spiced ale
"This was where spices came, yet again, to the rescue. The medieval popularity of nutmeg owed much to ale's perishability: as the clove and cinnamon were to wine, so the nutmeg was to ale--the context of Chaucer's reference to 'notemuge to putte in ale.' Here too, the medieval palate seems to have developed a virtue out of necessity, acquiring a taste for spiced ale to the point that the addition of spice became expected, even preferred; the spice was used 'wheither it (the ale) be moyste (fresh) or stale,' as Chaucer puts it. ... Some of these spiced ales survived until relatively recently, such as 'Stingo,' a variety of pepper-flavored beer popular in London in the eighteenth century. Russian writers of the nineteenth century mention sbiten', a spiced mead flavored with cardamom and nutmeg."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 118
Another usage/historical note can be found in a comment on clarry.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word gariofilatum
"Writing of the popular clove-flavored wine known as gariofilatum, John of Trevisa summarized the attractions of the spices: 'The virtue of the spices and herbs changes and amends the wine, imparting thereto a singular virtue, rendering it both healthy and pleasant at the same time ... for the virtue of the spices preserves and keeps wines that would otherwise soon go off.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 116
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word vernache
"To a far greater extent than with solid foods, their (spices) use was dictated by a need to preserve against corruption, or at least cover its taste. ... Taken neat, medieval wine could be a harrowing experience, and the problem of foul wine was sufficiently common to inspire all kinds of complaints, as with the man-strangling 'hard, green and faithless' wines of the poet Guiot de Vaucresson. ... Geffroi de Waterford said of the variety known as vernache that it 'tickles without hurting'--faint praise indeed."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 114
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word clarry
"This basic template (recipe in comment on hippocras) admitted almost infinite variation. Hippocras could also be made with cloves and nutmeg; another variant called for mace and cardamom. Clarry was much the same as hippocras, the chief difference (though not necessarily) being the use of honey in place of sugar."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 114
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word gingembre de mesche
Usage note on hippocras.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word hippocras
"The methods of preparing spiced wine remained much the same throughout the Middle Ages. The basic technique was to mix and grind a variety of spices, which were then added to the wine, red or white, which was then sweetened with sugar or honey and finally filtered through a bag, bladder, or cloth. The latter was known as 'Hippocrates's sleeve,' hence the wine's name, 'hippocras.' A late fourteenth-century book of household management gives the following instructions:
'To make powdered hippocras, take a quarter of very fine cinnamon selected by tasting it, and half a quarter of fine flour of cinnamon, an ounce of selected string ginger (gingembre de mesche), fine and white, and an ounce of grain (of paradise), a sixth of nutmegs and galangal together, and grind them all together. And when you would make your hippocras, take a good half ounce of this powder and two quarters of sugar and mix them with a quart of wine, by Paris measure.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 113-114
Additional note(s) on clarry.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word gingerbread
Usage and note on word/culinary origins can be found on gingembras. Also here's more:
"Intermediate markets, such as Montpellier, served as regional suppliers, so that spice merchants from all over southern France would obtain their spices from what functioned as both a wholesale and retail market. Montpellier was known for special preparations made with the spices it acquired from international merchants. Among complex medical compounds, the theriac of Montpellier was particularly prized (see note on theriac for more info such as ingredients). Medieval gingerbread and preserved ginger from Montpellier were sold throughout France and beyond its borders, commanding prices twice as high as comparable confections made anywhere else. Nuremberg was another center for the distribution of spices, in this case for central Europe. To this day the town is famous for its spiced Christmas cakes and gingerbread."
Paul Freedman, <i>Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination</i> (New Haven and London: Yale UP, 2008), 116.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word orengat
Usage note in comment on gingembras.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word gingembras
"Typically, these after-dinner spices were candied with sugar and fruit, like the Provencal orengat, fine slices of orange left to soak in sugar syrup for a week or so before being boiled in water, sweetened with honey, and finally cooked with ginger. The convention endured well beyond the medieval period, the candied and jellied fruits served today its direct descendants. Another survivor is gingerbread, which takes its name from the Middle English "gingembras," originally a composition of ginger and other spices. The modern 'bread' bears little resemblance to the original, which was more of a stodgy paste."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 113
More on the association of this baked good with Nuremberg can be found on gingerbread.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word frumenty
"To follow there were desserts such as frumenty, a sweet porridge of wheat boiled in milk and spices, and sugary confections of spices and dried fruits, washed down with spiced wine and ale..."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 105
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word speciarius
"Around this time guilds of spicers and pepperers began to crop up across the major towns of Europe. The speciarius became an increasingly common figure on the urban scene; by the thirteenth century he was part of the mercantile establishment. In Oxford in 1264, the shop of one William the Spicer was burned by boisterous students. In London, the Company of the Grocers is still in existence, having grown out of the older guild of the Pepperers; their coat of arms has nine cloves at its center. Guilds such as these were the remote ancestors of the supermarkets of the twenty-first century."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 103
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word Cockayne
"The medieval mystic dreamed of spices in Paradise; the gourmand, in Cockayne. Indeed, for the true gourmand, Cockayne was Paradise. For as Paradise soothed and delighted the weary spirit, so Cockayne was tailor-made for the empty or, for that matter, the merely greedy stomach. Here the only virtues were gluttony, leisure, and pleasure, the only vices exertion and care. Doing nothing earned a salary, work was penalized, women were rewarded for sleeping around. A decent fart earned half a crown. Even in church the truest form of worship was to stuff oneself. Conveniently, the church itself was edible, its walls made of pastry, fish, and meat and buttressed with puddings."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 98
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word Karimis
"Yet if spices were becoming more familiar with every year, it was a familiarity that rested on a network of trade and travel that few could have comprehended. The reality was scarcely less wonderful than the fantasies of Paradise and Cockayne. A Rhineland nobleman int he eleventh century could order furs from Siberia, spices and silks from Byzantium and the Islamic world beyond, pepper from India, ginger from China, and nutmeg and clove from the Moluccas. Individuals such as Nahray ibn Nissim, a Tuinisan Jew settled in Egypt, were dealing in products as diverse as Spanish tin and coral, Moroccan antimony, Eastern spices, Armenian cloths, rhubarb from Tibet, and spikenard from Nepal. By this stage the trading guild known as the Karimis, a group of Jewish spice merchants based in Cairo, had their agents scattered across the Old World, from China in the east to Mali in the west."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 101-102
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word cubeb
"Cubeb, or 'tailed' pepper, Piper cubeba,, is a pepper look-alike native to the Indonesian archipelago, popular in medieval times as a seasoning, medicine, and aphrodisiac."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 98n.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word spices
"History was repeating itself: a millennium after Rome had first sent its fleets to India and its moralizers had fretted whether spices were corroding its once steely ethics, the same concerns were resurfacing. Just as medieval Europe lived in the long shadow cast by Rome, drawing its water from still-functioning aqueducts and traveling its worn but still-workable roads, conducting its diplomacy and theology in Rome's language, so with its cuisine. The mingled fascination and revulsion spices provoked, the intertwining of taste and distaste, wound back in time as far as the Caesars."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 97.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word spice trade
"The reputation of spices as luxuries confined to kings and great noblemen would begin to change, at a glacier pace, only as the millennium drew to a close. After a flurry of references around the time of Charlemagne, followed by a near century of silence, the trade returned to western Europe on a more solid basis toward the end of the ninth century.
"Driving this increased consumption was a slow stirring of Europe's economy and the steady growth of its population. The revival of the metallurgy and textile industries in central and western Europe and the opening of silver mines in Germany's Harz Mountains went some way to remedying a chronic shortage of the precious metals needed to pay for high-value imports from the East. Increased surpluses in the hands of an emergent landowning class--kings and local strongmen, bishops and monasteries--brought with them a new level of demand for luxuries and the trappings of wealth.
"Meeting this demand brought about one of the pivotal developments in European history. Through trade and travel Europe was exposed to a wider world from which it had been effectively isolated for centuries; and where goods and money flowed, books, people, and ideas followed. Exotic and expensive luxuries were, after piety and war, the chief expenses of the aristocracy. The trade that supplied them sparked a whole 'complex of activities'--economic, political, geographic, and technical--whose effects are still with us. Slowly, surely, Western Christendom developed from a sheltered, isolated backwater into an increasingly confident, assertive culture."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 94-95.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word clove
"Via these two writers the Roman kitchen lived on in a strange half life in the halls of the early medieval nobility. Indeed, in one sense both Anthimus and Vinidarius represented an advance on Roman times, since they were aware of the clove, a spice apparently unknown to Apicius. That they were was due to the efforts of unknown others, the crews and merchants of the Arab dhows, Malay outriggers, and Chinese junks pushing east, many thousands of miles away, to the five tiny volcanic islands where the spice grew. By such obscure means the clove appeared in European cuisine the best part of a millennium before any European source makes mention of the Moluccas."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 89
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word spezia
Historical note about the word origins in comment on spicarium.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word épice
Historical note about the word origins in comment on spicarium.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word especiaria
Historical note about the word origins in comment on spicarium.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word especia
Historical note about the word origins in comment on spicarium.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word spicarium
"The sixth-century laws of the Franks, Visigoths, and Alamanni all mention a spicarium, a warehouse where high-value goods were stored. By this route the word entered the ferment of Late Latin and Germanic dialects that in turn evolved into today's Romance languages. Hence, in short, the terminology that persists into the third millennium, at root unchanged since late antiquity: Spanish especia, Portuguese especiaria, French épice, Italian spezia."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 87
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word mastic
Usage note in comment on cursus publicus.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word cursus publicus
"Once Christianity became the official religion of the empire, senior churchmen had access to the cursus publicus, or government post, the imperial network of inns and warehouses supplying food, transport, and accommodation to all senior officials traveling on state business. A warrant granting access to the cursus survives from A.D. 314, addressed to three bishops en route to a church council at Arles. When they arrived at an inn along the route, the bishops could expect to be supplied with lodging, horses, carriages, bread, oil, chicken, eggs, vegetables, beef, pigs, sheep, lamb, geese, pheasants, garum, cumin, dates, almonds, salt, vinegar, and honey, along with an impressive array of spices: pepper, cloves, cinnamon, spikenard, costus, and mastic."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 84
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word spices
"The merits of the case need not detain us. More interesting is the moralizing thrust, which forms one of the central themes of the history of spice from from the days of imperial Rome practically to our own day. All of these themes would in due course resurface--often, ironically enough, in the form of Christian polemics directed at the decadent empire. As spices were sought after, so too were they seen as an insidious cancer eating away at Rome's personal and public vigor. (How the eastern half of the empire, which survived until 1453, was any less dissolute or less addicted to Eastern luxury than the western half is unclear. With its access to the trans-Eurasian caravan routes, there were more, not fewer, spices in Byzantium.) In this view it was not the barbarians or even the lead pipes but all that spice that caused the fall of Rome."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 83
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word spice
"So it was that spices failed the moralists' checklist of acceptability on all counts. They were expensive, enfeebling, Eastern, effeminizing. And as if this were not enough, they lacked any evident nutritional value, their sole apparent function being to stimulate the appetite into new excesses of gluttony. Pliny drew these themes together while affecting an air of lofty contempt for the taste for pepper then sweeping the empire...."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 82.
December 2, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word silphium
"The comedies of Plautus (ca. 254-184 BC) and Terence (ca. 195-ca. 159 BC) are sprinkled through with references to seasonings (condimenta), one of their stock characters the boastful cook who can reel off all the exotic flavors at his disposal: Cilician saffron, Egyptian coriander, Ethiopian cumin, and, most tempting of all, silphium of Cyrene. This North African aromatic, ultimately harvested to extinction, turned Roman gourmets weak at the knees.*
*By the middle of the first century AD, Nero could acquire just one specimen, apparently the last. Thus to his many crimes must be added an extinction."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 74
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word garum
Usage note in comment on spikenard.
Another on acetum.
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word spikenard
"To modern eyes the most striking use of spices is in a huge variety of sauces, both hot and cold, either cooked as an integral part of the dish or added after cooking. There was a sharp sauce to cut fat.... A digestive sauce helped the meat go down with the sharp-sweet combination.... There was a green sauce of pepper, cumin, caraway, spikenard*, 'all types of mixed green herbs,' dates, honey, vinegar, wine, garum, and oil...."
*Spikenard, Nardostachys jatamansi, a scented grass from which an aromatic oil is extracted, is native to northern India."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 70
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word De re coquinaria
"... reliable information is in short supply. The one significant exception is the cookbook known by the unspectacular title of De re coquinaria, or Cookbook, the sole example of the genre to have survived from antiquity. Both the author and the date of composition are unknown, although traditionally it has been ascribed to a certain Apicius, a legendary gourmand of the first century AD."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 69
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word piperatoria
"Archaeology reinforces the impression of a widespread taste. Silver pepper pots (piperatoria) dating from the early imperial period onward have been found practically all over the Roman world: at Pompeii; to the south in Corfinium and Murmuro in Sicily; at Nicolaevo in Bulgaria; at Cahors, Arles-Trinquetaille, and Saint-Maur-de-Glanfeuil in France."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 67
Not to be confused with horrea piperataria.
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word horrea piperataria
Not to be confused with piperatoria, or pepper pots.
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word horrea piperataria
"Further along the Forum are the remains of the horrea piperataria, the spice stores constructed by the emperor Domitian in AD 92.... Two thousand years on, the assiduous visitor can still see the remains of Domitian's pepper warehouse, now no more than a few crumbling, shin-high walls and unimpressive piles of rubble.... They are, frankly, not much to look at, yet if there were such a thing, they would merit a mark on the culinary map of Europe. For the ruins of the horrea mark a beginning of sorts, as the oldest visible reminder of the serious advent of Eastern spices in European cuisine, the beachhead from which spices went on to conquer the palates of the Western world."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 66
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word Via Biberatica
"In the time of the emperor Trajan (ruled AD 98-117), spices, collectively known as the pipera, or peppers, were sold in a market built into the flank of the Quirinal Hill, of which several walls and arches are still standing. Until the end of the Middle Ages, the memory of the spices once sold here endured in the name of the ancient road still visible from the Via IV Novembre, like many other ancient names corrupted via the medium of medieval Latin but easily recognizable as the Via Biberatica."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 65-66
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word vicus unguentarius
"A few weeks' sailing brought the pepper to Rome's great port at Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber. From here it was shipped upriver for distribution and sale in the city's 'Perfumers' Quarter,' the vicus unguentarius."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 65
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word Pamenoth
Usage note in comment on Wadi Menih.
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word Wadi Menih
"During the course of one such crossing a returnee from the Indian voyage carved graffiti that may still be read on the walls of the Wadi Menih: 'C. Numidius Eros made this in the 38th year of Caesar's {Augustus's} rule, returning from India in the month of Pamenoth.' In modern terms the year was 2 BC, the month of February or March, precisely the time when the fleets were expected back on the winds of the winter monsoon."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 65
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word nard
Another usage note in comment on malabathron.
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word costus
"Costus is the aromatic root of Sassurea lappa, indigenous to Kashmir from which is extracted a powerful oil widely used in ancient perfumes and unguents."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 61n.
Another usage note in comment on malabathron and cursus publicus.
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word malabathron
"The Romans called at any one of nineteen ports in which, in the words of Periplus, 'great ships sail ... due to the vast quantities of pepper and malabathron.* ... There were spices from the north, costus and nard from the Himalayan foothills, and still others arriving from further east (including, quite possibly, Moluccan cloves and nutmeg, although there are questions over their identification in Rome before the fourth century AD). But it was pepper that was Malabar's chief attraction."
"*Malabathron is cinnamon leaf, sometimes called 'Indian leaf,' prized on account of its potent aromatic oil. It is the leaf of one of several relatives of cinnamon native to India."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 61
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word Periplus
"By the time of the geographer Strabo (ca. 63 BC-ca. AD 24) ... a fleet numbering some 120 ships set off annually for the year-long round-trip to India. The outlines of their journey are described in the document known as the Periplus, a pilot's guide to sailing in the Indian Ocean. Written by an anonymous Greek-speaking sailor sometime in the first century AD, the Periplus describes each step of the journey, identifying which harbors to stop in and which goods to acquire. His readers were the long-distance traders and trampers who serviced the ports and markets in what he calls the Erythraean Sea, by which he meant the huge expanse of water encompassing both the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean beyond."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 59
--
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word sesame
Comment on pepper, and a mind-blowing historical note on coriander.
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word coriander
Comment on pepper. Also usage/historical note on sacrament.
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word oregano
Comment on pepper
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word saffron
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word cumin
Comment on pepper, and a mind-blowing (at least to me) historical note on coriander.
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word pepper
"The Romans were not the first Europeans to eat pepper, but they were the first to do so with any regularity.... cumin, sesame, coriander, oregano, and saffron are all mentioned in the Greek New Comedy of the fourth and third centuries B.C., but as yet no Eastern spices. It was not that the spices were unknown or that no one had yet thought to eat them, but rather than their exorbitant cost rendered them too precious for consumption by all but the very wealthy. There is a fragment by the Attic poet Antiphanes dating from the fourth century B.C.: 'If a man should bring home some pepper he's bought, they propose a motion that he be tortured as a spy.'--from which not much can be extracted other than a vague allusion to a high cost. Another fragment contains a recipe for an appetizer of pepper, salad leaf, sedge (a grassy flowering herb), and Egyptian perfume."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 58-59.
November 30, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word galangal
"Galangal is the root of Alpinia officinarum, a native of eastern Asia related to ginger, with a similar though slightly more astringent taste. Still popular in Thai cuisine, it was widely used in Europe in the Middle Ages."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 46 (n)
November 28, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word zedoary
"Zedoary is an aromatic tuberous root of one of several species of Curcuma, related to ginger and turmeric. It was widely used in medieval medicines and cuisine."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 47
November 28, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word Puloroon
"With toeholds on the tiny islands of Ai and Run, James I was, for a time, proud to style himself 'King of England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Puloway and Puloroon.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 37
November 28, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word clove
"... Taking into account the loss of four of the five ships, the advances paid to the crews, back pay for the survivors, and pensions and rewards for the pilot, it emerges that once the Victoria's 381 bags of cloves had been brought to market the expedition registered a modest net profit. For the investors it was a disappointment, paltry in comparison with the astronomical returns then being enjoyed by the Portuguese in the East; but it was a profit nonetheless. The conclusion must rate as one of accountancy's more dramatic moments: a small holdful of cloves funded the first circumnavigation of the globe."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 36.
November 28, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word Bacan
Additional text on pages Ternate and Tidore.
November 28, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word Makian
Additional text on pages Ternate and Tidore.
November 28, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word Moti
Additional text on pages Ternate and Tidore.
November 28, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word Tidore
(Additional text on page for Ternate.)
"... A mile across the water stands Tidore, Ternate's twin and historic rival, like Ternate a near-perfect volcanic cone, barely ten miles long, its altitude a mere nine meters less: 1,721 meters to Ternate's 1,730. From the summit it is possible to see the other three North Moluccan islands, marching off in a line to the south: Moti, Makian, and Bacan beyond. Together they represent a few dozen square miles in millions of miles of islands and ocean. At the start of the sixteenth century and for millennia beforehand, they were the source of each and every clove consumed on Earth."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 29.
November 28, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word Ternate
"... For the spices they sought grew on only two tiny archipelagoes, each of which is barely larger than a speck on the best modern map. ... No such maps existed in 1500. To locate them among the sixteen thousand or so islands of the archipelago was to find a needle in a haystack.
The northernmost of those specks is the home of the clove, in what is today the province of Malaku, in the easternmost extremity of Indonesia. Each of the five islands of the North Moluccas is little more than a volcanic cone jutting from the water, fringed by a thin strip of habitable land. From the air, they resemble a row of emerald witches' hats set down on the ocean. Ternate, one of the two principal islands, measures little more than six and a half miles across, tapering at the center to a point more than a mile high. In the phrase of the Elizabethan compiler Samuel Purchas, Ternate's volcano of Gamalama is 'angrie with Nature,' announcing its regular eruptions by spitting Cyclopean boulders into the atmosphere to an altitude of 10,000 meters, like the uncorking of a colossal champagne bottle...."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 28-29
November 28, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word malakat
"Dominating the strait of the same name between Sumatra and the Malay peninsula, Malacca was the richest port of the East, its prosperity dependent, like Singapore's today, on a position astride a natural bottleneck. Here Gujarati, Arab, Chinese, and Malay ships came to trade for spices and all the exotica of the East. (The name is probably derived from the Arabic malakat, "market.")."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 26-27.
November 28, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word chank
"Long before then there had been visitors from Mesopotamia: pieces of teak--another attraction of the coast--were found by Leonard Wooley at Ur of the Chaldees, dating from around 600 B.C.*"
"* Contacts may well have been still older. Excavations of Mesopotamian cities of the third millennium B.C. have turned up specimens of the Indian chank, a conch shell found only in the coastal waters of southern India and Sri Lanka."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 16-17.
November 28, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word yavanesta
"By the time of Christ, when da Gama's native Portugal was still a bleak and barren wilderness of Lusitanian tribesmen peering out on the sailless waters of the Atlantic, Greek mariners were arriving in Malabar in such numbers that one recherché Sanskrit name for pepper was yavanesta, "the passion of the Greeks.""
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 17.
November 28, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word clove
"The clove itself grows in clusters colored green through yellow, pink, and finally a deep, russet red. Timing, as with pepper, is everything, since the buds must be harvested before they overripen. For a few busy days of harvest the more nimble members of the community head to the treetops, beating the cloves from the branches with sticks. As the cloves shower down, they are gathered in nets and spread out to dry hardening and blackening in the sun and taking on the characteristic nail-like appearance that gives the spice its name, from the Latin clavus, "nail." The association is common to all major languages. The oldest certain reference to the clove dates from the Chinese Han period (206 BC to AD 220), when the <i>ting-hiang</i> or "nail spice" was used to freshen courtiers' breath in meetings with the emperor."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xxi-xxii.
November 26, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word spice
"Broadly, a spice is not an herb, understood to mean the aromatic, herbaceous, green parts of plants. Herbs are leafy, whereas spices are obtained from other parts of the plant: bark, root, flower bud, gums and resins, seed, fruit, or stigma. Herbs tend to grow in temperate climates, spices in the tropics. Historically, the implication was that a spice was far less readily obtainable than an herb--and far more expensive."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xix-xx.
November 26, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word spice
"It is only by viewing spices in terms of this complex overlap of desires and distaste that the intensity of the appetite can be adequately accounted for--why, in other words, the discoverers we learned about in Aldgate Primary School found themselves on foreign shores demanding cinnamon and pepper with the cannons and galleons of Christendom at their backs."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xvii.
November 26, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word pepper
"There was a time not long ago when the more straitlaced residents of the Maine coast were liable to hear themselves dismissed as 'too pious to eat black pepper'--a recollection, perhaps subliminal, of a time when spices had been forbidden foods."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xvii.
November 26, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word Puzurum
"This is a diverse and sprawling history spanning several millennia, beginning with a handful of cloves found in a charred ceramic vessel beneath the Syrian desert, where, in a small town in the banks of the Euphrates River, an individual by the name of Puzurum lost his house to a devastating fire. In cosmic terms, this was a minor event: a new house was built over the ruins of the old, and then another, and many others after that; life went on, and on, and on. In due course a team of archaeologists came to the dusty village that now stands atop the ruins where, from the packed and burned earth that had once been Puzurum's home, they extracted an archive of inscribed clay tablets. By a happy accident (for the archaeologists, if not for Puzurum), the blaze that destroyed the house had fired the friable clay tablets as hard as though they had been baked in a kiln, thereby ensuring their survival over thousands of years. A second fluke was a reference on one of the tablets to a local ruler known from other sources, one King Yadihk-Abu. His name dates the blaze, and the cloves, to within a few years of 1721 B.C."
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xv.
November 26, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word Moluccas
Ternate, Tidore, Moti, Makian, Bacan
November 26, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word moidores
"We can still appreciate the nostalgia of John Masefield's poem 'Cargoes,' with its
'Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amethysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation_ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xiv.
November 26, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word myrrh
"Long before the invention of television or the romantic novelist there was the Song of Songs, with its lyrical evocation of the loved one as 'an orchard of pomegranates with all the choicest fruits, henna with nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, with all chief spices.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation _ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xiii.
November 26, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word calamus
"Long before the invention of television or the romantic novelist there was the Song of Songs, with its lyrical evocation of the loved one as 'an orchard of pomegranates with all the choicest fruits, henna with nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, with all chief spices.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation _ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xiii.
Another usage/note can be found on galbanum.
November 26, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word nard
"Long before the invention of television or the romantic novelist there was the Song of Songs, with its lyrical evocation of the loved one as 'an orchard of pomegranates with all the choicest fruits, henna with nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, with all chief spices.'"
--Jack Turner, _Spice: The History of a Temptation _ (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), xiii.
November 26, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word the head of a knockoff-LEGO X-man (Cyclops)
On the plus side, after this traumatic incident probably 2 years ago, my son has never yet dropped any LEGO piece without immediately flinging himself to the floor to find it before the dog does.
July 1, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word sleuth
Quite likely the ugliest goddamn word ever. I hate it even more than I hate "moist."
February 29, 2016
chained_bear commented on the word Verdachtspunkt
"There's something here," the officials told him. "We need to get at it." They said that it was ein Verdachtspunkt--a point of suspicion. Nobody used the word 'bomb.'" Adam Higginbotham, "There Are Still Thousands of Tons of Unexploded Bombs in Germany, Left Over from World War II," Smithsonian Magazine, Jan 2016 (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/seventy-years-world-war-two-thousands-tons-unexploded-bombs-germany-180957680/?no-ist)
February 17, 2016
chained_bear commented on the list the-aubrey-maturin-list-i-m-gonna-make-someday
Yes. I started the list sometime while reading book four. I know I'll go back and read them again, though I thought it would be sooner than now, intending to add the words I encounter there.
May 25, 2015
chained_bear commented on the word meeting skipvia
I thought I was the only one who had dreams of meeting skipvia.
September 16, 2014
chained_bear commented on the list cold-steel
Say! I forgot I had this one! :)
June 24, 2014
chained_bear commented on the word scat
Why is wombat scat square? this article asks (http://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/wombat-scat.htm). So it doesn't roll away.
June 2, 2014
chained_bear commented on the list long-s-examples
Don't forget "purfuit of happinefs."
June 2, 2014
chained_bear commented on the list long-s-examples
I can be all over this fhit, if you want. I work with 18th-century textf all the time.
June 2, 2014
chained_bear commented on the word drogo
Nobody else has commented on this? After Game of Thrones and all? Sheesh.
May 30, 2014
chained_bear commented on the word tramontane
You are really good at this.
May 30, 2014
chained_bear commented on the list not-funny
Was it rather ha, ha, ha? I'll see if I can find it.
May 30, 2014
chained_bear commented on the word wapentake
"The five wapentake courts were administered by the steward of Middleham who, as bailiff, acted in place of the sheriff of Yorkshire in the liberty."
—A. J. Pollard, Warwick the Kingmaker: Politics, Power and Fame (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007), 113.
April 22, 2014
chained_bear commented on the word mainpernor
"He was subsequently retained by the duchy of Lancaster and by the duke of York, whose councilor he became, and for whom he was acting as a mainpernor by bill of the treasurer (Salisbury) at Westminster on 19 July 1454 (as of Middleham) with Witham (in his capacity as chancellor of the Exchequer), as of London."
—A. J. Pollard, Warwick the Kingmaker: Politics, Power and Fame (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007), 87.
April 22, 2014
chained_bear commented on the word noli me tangere
This one's pretty fun too...
April 11, 2014
chained_bear commented on the word moro reflex
This really is one of the best pages on the Internet. Wow.
"I'm fucking pro-mitts, anti-swaddling, you wretch!" is one of the best sentences in the history of English, also.
*sigh*
April 11, 2014
chained_bear commented on the word ruzuzu
Ruzuzu, I cannot figure this fucking site out anymore. I did add epileptic lagomorph driving for you. Feel free to adopt it.
April 11, 2014
chained_bear commented on the word Neanderthal
How Complex Was Neanderthal Speech? <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/09/22/how_complex_was_neanderthal_speech.html?wpisrc=obnetwork"> (Link to Slate article, originally appeared on Quora)</a>
October 9, 2013
chained_bear commented on the list mandles-candles-for-men
I just wanted to give this list a boost. I still talk about it. Just told some friends at work about it and how important it is to have a place to enter these manly scents. (We were snorting Play-Doh at the time.)
October 8, 2013
chained_bear commented on the list may-or-may-not-be-specific-but-it-s-definitely-not-excrement
thanks for the suggestion, bilby.
September 17, 2013
chained_bear commented on the word loaf of asiago bread he got off the counter
To be fair, he left about five slices in the bag.
September 17, 2013
chained_bear commented on the word 1-quart bag of thawing raw roasted garlic meatballs
This isn't counting the ones he hid under the couch.
September 17, 2013
chained_bear commented on the word fecal transplant
Here's a more recent article about the same procedure: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/09/10/216553408/microbe-transplants-treat-some-diseases-that-drugs-cant-fix
September 17, 2013
chained_bear commented on the list the-deadliest-catch
Heh heh! No I'm not.
July 17, 2013
chained_bear commented on the word fecal shield
Jesus, deinonychus! I can't un-see that!!! IT'S FREAKY AS HELL!!
*adds it to list*
July 12, 2013
chained_bear commented on the list mythic-america
thanks ry! I like that people are still coming across these lists. I wish I had more time to hang out and make new ones. I was just telling some people in the office about my Loaded Words and Loaded Words Part Deux lists and thinking of a whole bunch of additions...
July 4, 2013
chained_bear commented on the word gold, solid gold
You need to read this article to get why it's on this list.
February 5, 2013
chained_bear commented on the list specific-excrement
This is also pretty fun.
February 5, 2013
chained_bear commented on the word fantods
Congratulations to fantods for making it onto the 2013 Wayne State Word Warriors list of words that should be used more often. Seen here.
January 31, 2013
chained_bear commented on the list specific-excrement
Eew! Added.
January 31, 2013
chained_bear commented on the list nasa
Wow, thanks! I totally forgot I even had this list! :)
January 31, 2013
chained_bear commented on the word monkey slug caterpillar
As seen in this article. Eew.
January 23, 2013
chained_bear commented on the list loaded-words-part-deux-two-words-that-together-make-one-load
It's just as well I don't usually interact with those folks, then. :)
January 21, 2013
chained_bear commented on the list loaded-words-part-deux-two-words-that-together-make-one-load
Hm. I see how that means something, but the additional concept isn't particularly "loaded" with additional meaning. I did add a couple other suggestions, though.
January 17, 2013
chained_bear commented on the list specific-excrement
Ain't that the truth.
January 16, 2013
chained_bear commented on the list specific-excrement
deinonychus, I am so grateful to you for sharing that information. This list is *exactly* the place for sharing that sort of thing, and I'm moved (ahem) that you did so.
I thought your link might be to this article, but I was (delightfully) wrong! Yet another article on the phenomenon! Poo-nomenon! Thank you for enriching our lives. :)
January 15, 2013
chained_bear commented on the word abuwtiyuw
Featured article of the day on Wikipedia.org today (here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abuwtiyuw).
November 8, 2012
chained_bear commented on the word fox news obsessed with lone Black Panther
Seen here: http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/11/fox-news-obsessed-with-lone-black-panther-148638.html?hp=lh_b10
November 7, 2012
chained_bear commented on the word gauche
"C.S.S. Virginia struggles to damage the U.S.S. Monitor in this gauche'>gouache">gauche painting which brings to life the drama of close combat with frightening power of armament and devotion to duty."
Aside from thinking this is a stupid sentence, I am also pretty sure they meant that the painting is gouache. *eyeroll*
October 8, 2012
chained_bear commented on the word feathers
http://xkcd.com/1104/
September 18, 2012
chained_bear commented on the list boxing
Is it bad that my first thought on seeing your comment, ruzuzu, was of clinchpoop? *off to read some archival funnies*
August 21, 2012
chained_bear commented on the user WilliamBG
Or this one, the mother (in size only) of all O'Brian lists (that I know of). Enjoy.
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/the-aubrey-maturin-list-i-m-gonna-make-someday
August 21, 2012
chained_bear commented on the list •-wordie-pro
*sigh*
August 21, 2012
chained_bear commented on the list dog-breeds-according-to-simon-schuster-s-guide-1980
How interesting. Have you also read Simon & Schuster's guide from 1980?
August 21, 2012
chained_bear commented on the user chained_bear
Indeed, ruzuzu, I do. *sigh*
Isn't Benedict Cumberbatch dreamy with his black hair and his insolent self-centered bastardy?
August 8, 2012
chained_bear commented on the word tenaille
And, four years later, I found this nifty list that I may someday cross-check with this other list: link.
July 20, 2012
chained_bear commented on the user oriel
Yeah... on the odd occasions I return to Wordnik, I read the recent comments and I'm usually glad to leave again... :(
Nice to see you again, though, bilby. (And ruzuzu, of course.)
July 20, 2012
chained_bear commented on the user Yachtie
just found this... I assume you mean my Aubrey/Maturin list? I'm sorry it isn't open. But you could always start your own! For a while someone was even keeping lists of the different lists around on various topics... but that seemed a little disappearing-into-myself for me. :) Best wishes!
July 18, 2012
chained_bear commented on the list the-aubrey-maturin-list-i-m-gonna-make-someday
oh, thanks! I think it's already on the list though! (at least when I went to add it, it looked like it!) dumb-chalder
July 18, 2012
chained_bear commented on the word owl fruit decorators
Seen here. Thanks to reesetee.
May 26, 2012
chained_bear commented on the word fruit and vegetable decorators
As seen here. with thanks to reesetee for pointing it out.
May 26, 2012
chained_bear commented on the word priapic elves
‘priapic elves’ has been looked up 0 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.
March 22, 2012
chained_bear commented on the word artillery dispersed ice cream ingredients
Or, as the military refers to it, ADICI, or "I scream you scream."
March 5, 2012
chained_bear commented on the list •an-arsenal-for-civil-defunse-open-list
WTF is wrong with that woman?!
March 5, 2012
chained_bear commented on the list international-house-of-fufluns
I hate bananas in general.
March 5, 2012
chained_bear commented on the word Dred Scoot
This is my favorite typo ever. EVER. Except when I entered it, and Wordnik asked, "Did you mean deed scoot?"
February 21, 2012
chained_bear commented on the list •things-that-get-way-more-fun-when-you-add-a-g-to-them
Man. I haven't seen this list in forever. And it still cracks me gup.
February 8, 2012
chained_bear commented on the word paint with a homemade rubber-band brush
"Loosely secure 20 to 30 rubber bands at one end with another rubber band (the 30 should all be lying in roughly the same direction). Then push an unsharpened pencil into the secured end of the bundle. Tighten the rubber band that's holding everything together by wrapping it around the bundle a few more times. Finally, use scissors to cut all the looped ends of the bands." (From Disney FamilyFun)
February 4, 2012
chained_bear commented on the word let him color with markers or paint on coffee filters, then use a spray bottle of water
Helps if you flatten the filters overnight first. Also tape them down before coloring.
February 4, 2012
chained_bear commented on the word tempera paint in spray bottles
Directions: stir together 1 cup of dry tempera paint with 1 1/2 cups of water and 1/2 teaspoon of liquid dish soap (the soap helps keep the nozzle from clogging). Mix thoroughly, checking that there aren't any lumps. Pour the paints into the spray bottles.
February 4, 2012
chained_bear commented on the word washable paint, cut-up sponges, paper in gallon Ziploc bag for no-mess painting
Directions: lightly dampen sponge pieces and apply paint to either side. Put in Ziploc bag with paper and seal bag. Turn kid loose.
February 4, 2012
chained_bear commented on the list the-aubrey-maturin-list-i-m-gonna-make-someday
Thanks, Mollyhawk! Yeah, I do have A Sea of Words! I love it. Also got the lobscouse and ... whatever it's called, that book of the disgusting food they ate. I went completely batshit for Aubrey/Maturin. In fact just watched M&C again last night and may start reading these books again! Glad you like the list.
January 3, 2012
chained_bear commented on the word spinops
Seen here. Thanks to reesetee, who posted it on Facebook.
December 6, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list features
Some HTML, comments on lists, comments on profiles, random word, comments on tags, new lists, contributors, profile list of tags, likeness of yarb carved on Mt Rushmore, content, conversations....
December 6, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word sellate
Reesetee, this is a word for your "It Has a Name?" list, I think.
December 6, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list features
Can I just second a bunch of these, seeing as ruzuzu, yarb, hernesheir, and bilby have done all the work?
December 6, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word occupy Wordnik
I freaked out. I mean, I Just freaked the fuck out. It says "show all 200 of my lists" over on the right. I have 260 lists. I thought I lost 60 lists.
I have *GOT* to find a way to archive my stuff. This is crazy.
October 28, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word comments
Yeah!!! What if, like, somebody thought up this site, okay, where, like, people could just LIST things. And they could comment on other people's lists. And on other people's words! And other people could, like, talk to them, but about WORDS! They should totally call it something like "wordie."
October 28, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word new interface
To quote George Thomason (Thomas Georgeson) of A Fish Called Wanda, "Un-be-fucking-liev-a-ble!!!"
October 28, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word alatricial
God. I see these things *all over* Wall Street.
October 24, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word new interface
p.s. I want my content back.
October 20, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word new interface
Sionnach, are you trying to tell me that Facebook is less private than your comments on Wordnik? ;)
WHY, for the love of PETE, whoever he IS, does this site still take FOREVER to LOAD?!
October 20, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word new interface
Still hoping to keep in touch with beloved Wordizens whom I communicate with only on this site. Missing comments, etc. on profiles (etc.) is seriously harshing my mellow.
Also still hoping to continue using this as a research/note-storing site as well as a social one. Not having access to comments is seriously marginalizing my discourse.
September 28, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word sausage party
I think this happened on sausage fest some time ago.
September 28, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word continuous United States
Seen here.
August 24, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Teutonic plates
Seen here.
August 24, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word tectonic
Seen here, "Teutonic plates." Love it.
August 24, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word rush limbaugh
Hey, do you know what the difference is between Rush Limbaugh and the Hindenburg?
*waits patiently*
August 24, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word juddering
*judders citations in ruzuzu's face*
Sorry. Don't know what came over me.
August 24, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Italian post office
There. No longer an orphan.
August 23, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word coupling
Ah. British. Okay, thanks.
Still a hideous, hideous word. I'd sooner watch a soap opera called "Probe."*
* No I wouldn't.
August 23, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word juddering
Me? No, no. You must mean Mrs. Gabaldon.
August 23, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word coupling
Isn't (or wasn't) this also the name of an Australian soap opera?
August 22, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word new interface
*sigh* This is what hurts: in response to the suggestion of a social-only version of Wordnik, which is understandably not in the works:
"Even if we could, it would make Wordnik another soulless flat definitions-only site (and the Internet is full-up on those, or was last time I checked)."
This is true. But it's kind of already become that, for me. :(
August 17, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word umbrage
Eeew! Dontcry, can you really secrete umbrage?!
May I submit that sionnach's comment found itself happily transported via a copy/paste feature, and, like Alice of the Drink Me/Eat Me fame, became larger in the new box?
August 16, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word new interface
Hi all, I've been away on maternity leave for many moons, and before that, insanely busy at work and home, so I just found this page. I logged in to agree with reesetee's comment, then discovered this whole page... that was three hours ago. (Still busy at work, I guess.) I'm heartened to see the continual striving for improvement here, and to see so many of my creaky old-timer buds from the days of yore. But it's also disheartening to see fifteen new things every time I visit--I hardly recognize the ol' place anymore--and wade through all the comments about things not working right--that's after I even find the comments in the first place... and with the page-load times, usually I just say "screw it" and go over to Facebook or some other place. (Which is getting frickin' boring, might I add.)
I do love the dates-on-comments thing. I haven't even poked around enough to see what else I like, though.
So... not sure there's anything actionable or even useful here, but I wanted to throw my coupla pennies in. And say Hi. So... Hi!
August 16, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word cake or death
Very well! Give him... cake!
August 16, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word penilize
I could've sworn I had a list somewhere of misspellings I saw in actual work documents. Couldn't find it. Anyway, just saw this one.
Edit: Ho! Here it is.
August 16, 2011
chained_bear commented on the user hernesheir
You are a hottie with a naughty body.
June 26, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word edgar
That may well be, hernesheir, but my first thought is of Edgar Hansen. :)
June 2, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list important-concepts-i-learned-from-watching-m-a-s-h
Indeed. As seen here. Schweet.
June 2, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list important-concepts-i-learned-from-watching-m-a-s-h
Dontcry, I remember that scene very well! It isn't the first one I think of, but then there are so many others...
May 23, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list first-lists
zuzu, would that were true.
May 20, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination
As reesetee says, it's just pants! Or... maybe... PANCE.
May 20, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word fargin
Who remembers Johnny Dangerously? "Did you know your last name is an adverb?"
Anyway... Joe Piscopo's character was always calling people fargin iceholes. At one point they show a newspaper quoting him and it's actually spelled that way. I still think this euphemism is better than the actual phrase.
May 14, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word eat what you want day
I've been having "eat what I want day" for... well, going on ten months. I tell you, some whiskey-soaked fufluns en flambé sound pretty fargin good right now.
May 14, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word svilf
Blahaha!! I forgot all about this.
May 14, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word proctofoam
I should just mention, again, that as much as I am not looking forward to labor, I know that on the other side of my travail there's Proctofoam. And that makes me feel just a little bit better.
May 14, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word spraint
See also spraints. Which you'd think, if you're an otter and you're going poo, you'd probably do more than one spraint anyhow. Right? Right?
May 13, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word spraints
See also spraint. Apparently otters can poo just one little bit of poo at a time. What a skill!!
May 13, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list name-calling-for-fun-and-profit
Ah, now, *that* term belongs on this list! And thank you! It's been a long time since that list (or any of mine, really...) has had any additions. And such a good one.
"Buck up your courage-bags, boys!"
May 11, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word sad
So hopelessly behind on comments that I will never, ever catch up and don't have time even to try. Missing my Wordnik buddies. :-(
May 10, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
It has taken me six days to read this page.
Last time I changed my answers at the last minute and got more wrong than if I hadn't changed any. So this time I refused to change any, and look! I am firmly in the middle of the herd.
*lends extra tiaras to everyone*
*dons crash helmet with specially-fitted tiara*
*fufluns around on a unicycle*
P.S. I chose wodge because it is a delightful word that makes me think of peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches. And what bear doesn't love those? But I also chose wodge because this game is too damn hard for small bear-brains and I wanted there to be at least ONE easy (I thought) entry. :)
May 10, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list •open-list-the-holy-pantheon-of-wtf
Please. Add it!
May 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word the rutting delinquent of Wordnik
"Were you looking for the rut delinquent of Wordnik? NO.
See comments on horndog.
May 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word lugubrious
He obviously never met my dog. (EIGHT!! Boo-yah!)
May 2, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word compound
I saw the picture of the building. Didn't look like a mansion at all to me, unless you define mansion as just "large building," but in that case, the Empire State Building is a mansion. Is it not. Therefore... *needs fuflun*
May 2, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
*fufluns all around, just because*
May 2, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list cringeworthy-hair-beauty-salons
"Hair Today" and "Rapunzel's." "Shear Genius," "Shear Magic" and any number of "Shear" whatevers.
April 29, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Spreadsheet's done! Not that my results will be any better than they were last time...
bilby -- sinistral
blafferty -- hidelugged
dontcry -- tear-resistant
erinmckean -- calepinerienne
fbharjo -- harlequin
frindley -- mediæval
frogapplause -- heartstringsplucker
gangerh -- emordnilap
hernesheir -- balsamaceous
mollusque -- I wanted to say emordnilap. I'm gonna say od instead, then kick myself later.
oroboros -- hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophile. And if it's not, it should be.
PossibleUnderscore -- chrestomathic
Prolagus -- panda. Again, if it's not, it should be. As huggable as any extinct lagomorph could be.
pterodactyl -- mortsafe
reesetee -- present
ruzuzu -- slopseller
seanahan -- prodigal
sionnach -- boggy
Wordnicolina -- greenhorn?
Wordplayer -- ascian?
yarb -- queasy?
April 28, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Oh shit, I never finished my spreadsheet. Wait till I get home tonight!!
April 27, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Love Will Tear Us Apart party banner
Seen here.
April 23, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list areas-of-responsibility-vis-a-vis-our-progeny
You know, reesetee, I don't think there'll be many changes. Not sure about additions, but I'll keep a list if I come up with any. I think the dearth is because, rather prosaically, we are too exhausted to come up with new ones.
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list open-list--what-to-name-chained-bears-newest-cub
And one of my friends did say that any name with diacritical marks gets 2 points...
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Dorje
See Mjöllner.
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Mjöllner
My very serious friend comments on this name: "The "j" is pronounced like a "y." Mjöllner was the name of the Hammer of Thor that was imbued with magical powers, not unlike the dorje in the Buddhist tradition. Actually, Dorje is a good name too. Thor used his hammer to smite the ice giants. It has other meanings too...."
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Easter eggs
(psst!! Link please!)
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word how to say ghostbusters upon cue of who you gonna call
"We don't have any matching examples for how to say ghostbusters upon cue of who you gonna call, but we're constantly adding material, so please check back soon."
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word situations in which the size of one's ass is key
See comments on my list, at right, for an explanation. That is, if you feel you really need one....
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list note-to-self--dont-name-your-daughter-this
Ooh! You should pillage from this list and this list. I mean, if you want to. :)
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word wordnikstack
Wordniknack is pretty cool.
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Easter eggs
Seen here. Who knew they were spheres?
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list open-list--what-to-name-chained-bears-newest-cub
reesetee... you forgot Broccolino.
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Epaphroditus Champion
... this was a real person.
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list open-list--what-to-name-chained-bears-newest-cub
I see no vegetable-based names at all on this list. Add away! ;)
Edit: I mean... except for Kale.
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Sceotend
According to my friend, this name means "Archer."
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Sceadu
According to my friend, this name means "Shadow." ... Isn't this a better name for a cat?
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Raedan
According to my friend, this name means "Advises."
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Larcwide
According to my friend, this name means "Council." (I wonder if he meant to say "Counsel"?)
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Iuwine
According to my friend, this name means "Friend."
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Isen
According to my friend, this name means "Iron."
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Baby
You know, nobody puts this person in a corner.
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Thaddeus Charles
... for Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner.
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Sarah Angelina
... for the Grimké sisters.
April 21, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list roman-gladiators
Around :50, I was muttering, "Omigosh omigosh omigosh omigosh..." That's teh alsome, Pro. Thanks!
(p.s. apropos of nothing... isn't the Roman one spelled Colosseum?)
April 19, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list roman-gladiators
Wow, really? I actually stopped working on this list because I got grossed/creeped out. But I'm still glad I made it. :)
April 19, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
reesetee, I've spent the last few years developing an immunity to adding words to lists.
April 19, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word shittle
Discussion/explanation can be seen here.
April 19, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list selected-terms-from-i-falconer-s-new-universal-dictionary-of-the-marine-i
Yes, I found it hard to stop adding terms! I think you can find this on Google Books if you want more. :)
April 18, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Iroquoisy
You're probably looking for iroquoisy.
April 14, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Black Sunday Storm
There's a Woody Guthrie song about that day.
April 14, 2011
chained_bear commented on the user chained_bear
Umm...?
April 6, 2011
chained_bear commented on the user chained_bear
Sure, it's expensive till you figure out pounds-per-square-inch. Those greedy bastards had no right! How the hell do they think my tiara looks with all that damn camo around?!
April 6, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word scanno
Also the town my great-grandmother was born in. :)
April 6, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list movies-in-my-pants
You know what? You're right.
March 23, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list specific-excrement
ruzuzu, that's disgusting. Added. :)
March 23, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word beanbag bullet
If these weren't real, and real disturbing, they ought to be in the Arsenal of Civil Defunse.
March 17, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
I'll play, despite my earlier protests, but only if there's no poop-slinging. (bilby...) ;)
March 17, 2011
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
Hey. Hey. I don't wear dresses unless in extreme duress--like the late months of pregnancy, or someone's damn wedding.
Don't call it wordshowers. That feels spiky.
March 17, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Angolatitan adamastor
Far as I can tell, this is the 600th word on my Dinosaurs list. :)
Newly discovered; this news seen in this article.
March 17, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word dolsot bulgogi bibimbap
Goddamn, this s#$% is some good-ass s#$%. I haven't had Korean food in way too long. *sniff*
March 10, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word skip
*wonders if Skip dispenses curling tips to his sugar-making buddies*
March 10, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Fat Tuesday
Fat Tuesday. Though in my case, I don't see how that's different from any other day.
March 10, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word revere
I thought it was herdshos.
March 10, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Eupharta
See Euphrates.
March 10, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Euphrates
I love this word. However, it always makes me think of a town, Ephrata (pronounced kind of like EFF-erta, though you hardly hear the R at all), near my hometown. And then I always think of this girl at an indoor-guard competition at some huge high school miles and miles away from both Ephrata and my hometown, who misread the sign on the classroom door that was meant for the kids from Ephrata H.S., and said aloud, "Eupharta."
March 10, 2011
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
It would also be cool, if there's going to be a formal, if you could let us know ahead of time. It's pure chance I wore a nice dress today. *pouts*
P.S. On the bright side, thanks for recognizing my request!
March 10, 2011
chained_bear commented on the user chained_bear
Across the site, in IE8.
(I just tried Firefox and it doesn't do it there! Instead, every last blessed comment is in bold type. Grr.)
March 10, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word fuckwaddery
Seen in the first line of page 2 of this article.
March 10, 2011
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
Nice new homepage!
However, I'm distraught over a disabled feature that made life on Wordnik worth living. Why can't I right-click and open a window (on a list, comments, another word, etc.) in a new tab? When I do so, I get a tab window saying "unrecognized request formal."
The same thing happens when I use the back button. Or reload. Why? Why?
Now, I have never been to an unrecognized request formal, but surely it's just like other formals. Right? Surely what I'm wearing today would be appropriate.
Also, the new homepage is cool and all... but it takes forever to load on my super-fast work computer with a T1-whatever connection. I shudder to think of the speed at home on my dinosaur computer. :( Is there an option for dinosaur luddites?
March 10, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word prohibition of death
Seen here, with thanks to Prolagus. :)
March 3, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word laser tits
But laser elbows and laser kneecaps would be way more fun.
March 2, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word a coordinated amphibian attack
Or that Australian eco-horrible film, Cane Toads.
February 24, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word toilet gloves
I refuse.
February 24, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word a coordinated amphibian attack
Just saw this in a document I was editing about the War of 1812. Priceless mental images arose.
February 24, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word laser tits
hernesheir, tits are not always, or even often, entirely... uhh... symmetrical.
I'll leave it at that.
February 24, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Brontomerus mcintoshi
With thanks to Prolagus, here is an article about this new (?) "thunder-thighs" dinosaur.
I guess I mean "newly discovered species of" rather than "new."
February 24, 2011
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
Hm. Paging through a list that's more than 100 words long presents a problem for me at the moment. I'll get the count (e.g. "Words 101 through 200 of 335") but the list that appears is still actually words 1 through 100.
Maybe I clicked it wrong. Or maybe it's really showing all 335 and the numbers, not the list, are what's wrong.
Signed, Too Lazy to Actually Count 335 Words.
February 14, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word woobie
We also spell this wubby.
February 14, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word complisult
Also insultiment.
February 14, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list glossary-of-wordnikian
I have collected some on my list "Favorite Words that Aren't Really Words." Only, they're not all my coinages. :)
I don't feel qualified to add anything to this list, but I will submit that teh alsome got some serious play at one point. I vaguely recall I had some ulterior purpose for inventing hexadodecaroon too.
Npydyuan invented nosestickinery, which I love.
Would reesetee's "Only on Wordie/Wordnik" list be helpful, at all? If nothing else, it's a hoot to read.
February 14, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Sea mink
Fucking capital letters!
February 10, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word neovison macrodon
sea mink.
February 10, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list prehistoric-and-extinct-mammals-n-stuff
For years, those stores will do that to you. "Would you like a bag for that? Thanks for coming in. I'll most likely kill you in the morning." It's important to have something else going on, like learning to fence.
February 10, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word muffin man
But do you know the fuflun man? He lives on Dreary Lane. (It's one street over from Drury.)
February 9, 2011
chained_bear commented on the user bilby
I love fuflunderwear. It's soooooo sooooooft and icing-full.
February 9, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list prehistoric-and-extinct-mammals-n-stuff
Well, not anymore, of course--habitat destruction. Have you seen a fireswamp lately? I didn't think so.
February 9, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list prehistoric-and-extinct-mammals-n-stuff
I don't think so... Neither are Rodents of Unusual Size, though, so you can't really count this as complete.
February 9, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word insultiment
Seen here, it's an insult dressed up like a compliment. Complementing the apolobuke.
February 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word apolobuke
Apology + rebuke. Seen here. Complements the insultiment nicely.
February 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Moton Museum
This came up in a staff meeting yesterday, not for any particular newsworthiness but because some people from there might be visiting our workplace soon. And today I saw this news online--very iroquoisy!
February 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word iroquoisy
Moton Museum. Seriously.
February 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word confectio damocritis
Damocritis the stuff; Democritus the dude? I don't know. At this point you'll have to ask Stephen Maturin. It seems he took it with his fictional self to his fictional grave.
February 1, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Kateri Tekakwitha
... Did I say that? I don't even *know* Leonard Cohen.
February 1, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word gravel in the urine
... One of these things is not like the other.
Wait...
None of these things is really at all like any of the others.
February 1, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list lost-for-word
... Cheetoism?
February 1, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list master-and-commander
Confectio Damocritis.
February 1, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list we-have-saints-for-your-complaints
May God and the saints (and the Virgin Mary, as an extra helper) preserve you, sionnach.
February 1, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list correctly-spelled-words-that-look-like-misspellings-of-other-words
This is a great list idea!
February 1, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word pencilina
Great. Now I'll spend the rest of the day singing that song from 1776: Pencilinaaaaa, pencilinaaaaa... refuuuuuse to uuuuuuuse ... the pennnnn!
February 1, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word grape riffle
You were actually looking for grape riffles. No, trust me—you were.
January 28, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word grape riffles
I don't know. Were you looking for grape riffle?
January 28, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list master-and-commander
Have you seen this book? Great fun. Not as much as the actual novels, but easier to lug around.
January 28, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word sal ammoniac
... do you smell something on this page?
January 28, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word confectio Damocritis
Of all the damn things to be Iroquoisy.
January 28, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Kateri Tekakwitha
I love the list this is on. What a delightful page.
January 28, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list we-have-saints-for-your-complaints
At last!!! At last, someone made me the perfect list!! Oh please let it be comprehensive, please, please, please...
January 28, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word gravel in the urine
Yes! Spawn wanted to adopt Drogo as a confirmation name.
January 28, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word hardware
I've heard it too. I hereby corroborate.
January 28, 2011
chained_bear commented on the user chained_bear
*sings* Thanks, frindley!
January 27, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word confectio Damocritis
Why the hell not? Confectio Damocritis to you too.
January 26, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word confectio Damocritis
Either that, or it means "same to you." (Making it slightly more useful in everyday conversation, at least with non-Wordnikkers.)
January 26, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Aubrey Maturin
Aw, confectio Damocritis to you too.
... That must be what that phrase means. It must mean "fufluns with grape riffles on top." Hm. Learn something every day.
January 26, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Aubrey Maturin
Good. As soon as I figure out what the hell that means, you'll get some.
January 26, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Aubrey Maturin
Would you like your fuflun with grape riffles on top?
January 26, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word grapeshot
Also, just for fun, see grape riffles.
January 26, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word grape riffles
"Employed in Repairing the Redoubts & Erecting Battries now within reach of the Enemies Grape Riffles grapeshot'>cannons firing grapeshot and wall artillery Pieces."
—Anonymous Letter, “Siege of York & Gloucester Virginia,” September 14–October 17, 1781. Housed in the John D. Rockefeller Library, Williamsburg, Virginia.
I really would prefer if grape riffles meant a kind of flavored icing used on fufluns.
January 26, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list medieval-horse-related-words-listed-by-a-non-horse-knowledgeable-person
*tenting fingers* Mwahahahaha...
January 19, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list medieval-horse-related-words-listed-by-a-non-horse-knowledgeable-person
You might try checking out this site for a definition.
January 19, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word New Amsterdam
See Old New York.
January 17, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Old New York
milos... Mister Adams, leave me a-LOOOOOOOONE!!
January 17, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word jenny-ass
If you can't believe it isn't listed, can you believe there's a perfect list for it?
January 11, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list names-for-the-third-stomach-of-a-ruminant
That's what I always say.
January 11, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list here-i-dreamt-i-was-an-archetype
It's hard not to love a dancing bear.
January 11, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word skirling
Not me, pterodactyl, though I have heard caterwauling used to describe pipes too. :)
January 11, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Istanbul
But now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople.
January 11, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Old New York
Why'd they change it?
January 11, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Constantinople
So, if you have a date in Constantinople...?
January 11, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list •unexpected-pronunciation-now-with-public-access
How should I know? On the old Wordie there was a glitch that if you had dupe words on a list and deleted one, it would delete both. So I don't bother with duplicates anymore.
January 5, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list mom-speak
Citrul'? (short for citrulo? I don't know if I spelled that right.) Also holy rollers.
January 5, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Rick Steves is majestic
Seen here.
January 5, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word balrog
Yarb's definition can be found in the comments on this list.
January 5, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list looking-words-up-is-time-consuming-dangerous-and-leads-to-too-many-lists
Also, I think that whole concept came up on the Aubrey/Maturin list, which (if you think THIS is a black hole) I recommend not delving too deeply or greedily, because a balrog may come up.
January 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list below-the-belt
Ah. I was operating on the older definition of smallclothes, meaning anything worn under the outer garments, which would include (for example) a woman's shift and a man's long shirt (long enough that the shirttails covered the crotchal area and almost down to the knees). I know from my very brief days wearing re-enactor clothes (don't ask) that "smallclothes" meant (means?) the whites that go under one's regimental coat, so obviously that could include the close-fitting knee breeches aforesaid.
January 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list looking-words-up-is-time-consuming-dangerous-and-leads-to-too-many-lists
Well, no, because I still haven't found out WTF it is.
January 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list below-the-belt
Not all smallclothes are worn below the belt, however.
January 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word warshington
(Holy shit. Four years ago??)
January 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word ichthyosarcolite
A fossil bivalve shell of the genus Caprinella (OED).
January 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word ichthyoacanthotoxism
Also misspelled (by me---thank you very much, I'll be here all week) as icthyoacanthotoxism.
January 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word icthyoacanthotoxism
The difference between ichthyoacanthotoxism, which I misspelled when adding it to my list, and ichthyosarcotoxism is that the former is poisoning resulting from the bite or sting of a fish, while the latter is poisoning resulting from eating a toxic fish.
January 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word launder
When I have clothes to wash, I do laundry. I don't think I ever say "launder" as a verb, unless I'm referring to someone's ability or tendency to run illegal funds through a legitimate business.
My understanding is western PA-Ohio folks also say warsh. I know this because someone I work with is from that area and in my job we frequently refer to George Warshington. *nerves grating*
January 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list below-the-belt
Oh, I already have a couple lists about the crotchal area.
Wait... that's not what you meant.
January 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the user milosrdenstvi
We have been enjoying "The Wire" on DVD. I love that it's such a great show and that it's set in Baltimore--which doesn't get enough attention. The other night was an episode where the gang of cops was all eating crabs at a particularly famous crab restaurant (which I know only from an episode of "No Reservations").
Sorry if this seems completely out of the blue--your comment about Baltimore on another page reminded me of your geographic-ness. :)
On further thought, it is depressing how much of my knowledge comes from TV. *sigh*
January 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word fake bus stop
This is brilliant. I wonder how many other elegantly simple solutions are out there that could improve countless people's lives.
January 4, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list below-the-belt
gaiters? spatterdashes? or their shortened version, spats? legwarmers?
Of course all these don't involve what a TSA official recently called "the crotchal area," so I could see if they don't fit those made-up rules in your head.
January 3, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Janet's method
I suppose it's somewhat better (though probably as ineffective) as squirting mercury up one's penis (the old treatment for syphilis).
January 3, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word sjostygg
This is incredibly useful.
January 3, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word Priestley's mass
... eeeeeeeeyeeeeeeeww ...
January 3, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word coffee bean
Interesting comment about coffee beans on salutiferous.
January 3, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word coffee
Interesting comment can be found on salutiferous.
January 3, 2011
chained_bear commented on the word salutiferous
Re: the coffee bean: "As for this salutiferous berry, of so general a use through all the regions of the east, it is sufficiently known, when prepared, to be moderately hot, and of a very drying attenuating and cleansing quality; whence reason infers, that its decoction must contain many good physical properties, and cannot but be an incomparable remedy to dissolve crudities, comfort the brain, and dry up ill humors in the stomach."
—Coffee-Houses Vindicated, 1675, seen here.
January 3, 2011
chained_bear commented on the list we-three-kings
Hee! See of Orient are. (It's on another list--one I completely forgot about!)
December 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word stunning
When I went to the liquor store* in Boston, I couldn't believe the wide variety of beverages. I was Pakistunned.
*See packie.
December 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word bear-proof
*(hacking cough)*
December 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word actuopalynology
Yes. Yes, we do.
December 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word stunning
I disagree, rolig. "To daze or render senseless" certainly can apply to the level of complexity in Afghanistan/Pakistan, without there necessarily being a blow to one's head about it. I think the result is similar to the result of a blow to one's head--in the same way people say "I can't think about that right now--it gives me a headache." They don't mean it *literally* hurts their head, but that its complexity is... well... stunning.
Also, as I read definition 2, I think it really only applies/is commonly used in reference to a person's attractiveness, and actually relates to definition 1 in the sense that the person is SO attractive, their beauty SO amazing, that it's as if one is stunned (rendered senseless) to look at them.
I agree the journalist could have found a better term, but this one's rather more neutral than others that could apply here, and given the political undertones of the Af/Pak situation and the fact that the article was about Holbrooke--not the situation itself--the relative neutrality of the term was probably a good thing.
P.S. nice to see these kinds of conversations--and have time to read them. :)
December 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word scumbled
Seen in this New York Times article.
December 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word muculent
Wow. A word to describe how I've been feeling lately.
December 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word bear-proof
Nothing can stop me!! Grrrr!!
December 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word TSA
Here's my underwear.
November 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list out-to-sea
salee rover. I seem to have lost the ability to add to this list. :-(
November 19, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Kentucky Man Forced To Eat His Own Beard In Fight Over Lawnmower
Aaaaagh!
November 19, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Harmenszoon
(psst... is it Rembrandt?)
November 19, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user reesetee
... or when they're swooping your head in spring. The fuckers.
November 19, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word non sequitur
It sounds like this: blrbth thrbl? Nmi-nmi-nm.
November 19, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list dutchly-things
Cole slaw!!
November 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word the united states of america
You know, ████████ is probably the single best comment I've seen on Wordie.
November 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word fail kale
I want a picture.
November 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word guilloche
Also seen in this nifty article.
November 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word fenugreek
I never tried it. My lactation consultant told me that in her experience working with nursing moms over the years, it hasn't usually resulted in gaining more than around an ounce a day--and while that sounds like a lot, if you're struggling to produce enough milk for your baby, there are other methods that seem to work better for more people. Of course, some women swear by it, so... *shrug*
November 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word hi there!
"Were you looking for H.I. there?"
(Is this feature the Wordnik.com version of WeirdNet?)
November 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word fenugreek
Hork if you like. It is also used as an herbal supplement by women who need to increase their milk supply.
November 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word flyswatter
Excellent point, leather-ears. Very cogently put.
November 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word flyswatter
Maybe it has to do with the "finishing" sound of each word, e.g. "fly" is going to have a long-I sound no matter what follows it, because it's the end of that word. "Ice" wouldn't, because it's the S-sound that finishes that word.
I bet qroqqa has something better.
November 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word rinderpest
Now declared eradicated, according to this article in the NY Times.
November 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Cape Horn voice
Okay, really it should be cape horn voice.
November 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word bananabird overseer
ring ring ring ring ring ring ring, banana-birrrrrd...
November 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word chine
I have only ever seen this word in a modern cookbook featuring medieval recipes, that says "Ask your butcher to chine the joint." "WTF," I thought—first off it's assuming I even have a butcher—and didn't do anything of the kind.
Recipes are more like guidelines anyway.
November 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Shoeverine
Teh alsome, John. Thanks.
November 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word flyswatter
qroqqa (as always) put it better than I could, but I concur: where you mentally place the S-sound has an effect on the preceding vowel.
I think I may have posted a similar conundrum re: "writer" vs. "rider" (for Americans who don't pronounce the T as a T but more like a D). But I can't remember where (and it isn't on either writer or rider).
November 8, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Hindenburg
Interestingly, and most people don't know this, the Nazi government insisted that the Zeppelin company put a swastika on the tail fin. The company put it only on one side of the ship. IIRC, when the ship was ordered to fly over the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the pilot flew in a circle over the gathering as ordered, but turned the ship in such a way that the swastikas were not displayed to the crowd. I honestly can't remember where I read that, but I think it was in the book The Great Dirigibles by John Toland. (Excellent book, BTW.)
P.S. Cool pics of the ship and a short clip of it flying over NYC can be found here.
November 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Hindenberg
The ship (and the person) are actually spelled Hindenburg.
November 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentat
:-)
November 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentat
Rolig, I agree with the capping, and I've had the same difficulty. I see a couple of "old" Wordizens on Facebook but it's not the same.
November 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
Is it just me, or is the option/pulldown menu to add a word to your lists not appearing on word pages right now?
Edit: Nevermind. It's me.
November 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentat
Rolig. How I've missed you. *yoinks word*
(note: it's also listed under its non-capitalized version, hottentottenpotentatentantenattentat)
November 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Girl Famous for Having Hiccups Charged with Murder
That's an amazing accomplishment--to have one's hiccups charged with murder. How do I do that?
November 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word necropants
I should not have clicked on this page.
November 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Hindenburg
I'm going to tell a political joke now, so if you don't like those, cover your eyes.
Q: What's the difference between Rush Limbaugh and the Hindenburg?
A: One is a gigantic Nazi gasbag, and the other is an airship.
November 2, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word temporal slices of spacetime worms
Dude!! I found a Diet of Worms joke!!! My people... :)
November 2, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word eaty
This describes my twenty-pound dog. See the hopes and dreams of a neighborhood of trick-or-treaters.
November 2, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word the hopes and dreams of a neighborhood of trick-or-treaters
My dog is so eaty!!
November 2, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list lost-for-word
Keyboard plaque sounds like exactly what it is.
November 2, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Captain Kangaroo
Can see a clip here. I remember this show.
October 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Captain Thunderpants
Seen on this Wordnik page.
October 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word tapir
LOL Tapirs. I kid you not. (Note: Not surprisingly, they are unfunny.)
October 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word I don't care what the captain said.
Yeah? Do you get your lovin' in the evenin' time?
October 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Captain Noah
"Send your picturrrres... to dear old Captain Noaaaaaaaah...
Send todaaaaaaaay, send riiiiight awaaaaaaaaay..." (Very bad recording here.) Totally SFW.
October 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Captain Crunch
Truly, it's more correctly spelled Cap'n Crunch. But that's stupid, so we should let it slide. :)
October 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list things-my-twenty-pound-dog-has-eaten
Wow. Well... I'm just glad he didn't eat the seasoning packet--that would have made him horribly sick. Though, admittedly, if I were a dog, I'd probably just eat the plain noodles, too.
October 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word rally to restore sanity
I was going to, but can't. That doesn't mean that I don't know about a dozen people who *are* going. Post pictures!
October 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list things-my-twenty-pound-dog-has-eaten
Really? That's the one that got you?
October 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word the hopes and dreams of a neighborhood of trick-or-treaters
A.K.A. a bunch of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Almond Joys, and Milk Duds.
October 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word off-putting
This whole conversation is extremely off-putting.
October 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word bugger
Okay, I know what this word means according to dictionaries, but when a mother says it of her young, rambunctious boys (for example), that's certainly NOT the meaning she's ascribing.
I'm looking for a synonym in the phrase "the poor buggers," that doesn't use the original word I was thinking of ("bastards") and does not sound British ("sods"). Any suggestions?
I also found this interesting conversation.
October 25, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word poop-lantern
I like the usage on the front page: "as big as a seventy-four's poop-lantern."
October 25, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user bilby
Probably the better place to post the comment would be on the Ronald Reagan page, but thanks! I think it's posted there now. That way future Wordnikkers will find it. :)
October 21, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list song-starters
don't you is definitely one for me too. can't get no and I try are ones I find particularly annoying.
There are also a ton of Stan Freberg-related ones for me. Really? is one. Sit down is another.
Does anyone remember Schoolhouse Rock? Carefully?
October 21, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word boneless, skinless violin
... still, I would hope that all violins are boneless and skinless. *worried*
October 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Stolpersteine
Singular is Stolperstein. More info here.
October 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Stolperstein
I just learned about Stolperstein (plural Stolpersteine) today. Fascinating. More info here.
October 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Sanctimommy
It isn't just the media.
October 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pants
Interesting headline here.
October 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word remarkable link
At this point, I decide I love this page, only instead of "love," I type <3 and then ask someone how to make that little heart symbol.
October 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word nacelle
I know this from Star Trek.
October 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user derekjet89
No, cuz he's a wanker.
October 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word remarkable link
Whereupon I chime in, late as usual, with something completely unrelated based on personal experience, and loaded with qualifiers so as to avoid possibly maybe someday offending someone who might read this comment, though it will (usually) kill the thread.
October 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user rgsertge
Wanker.
October 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word adams's rules
... That's about right.
October 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word cartocacoethes
That's spectacular. Look how fatty North Dakota and Colorado are! And Texas is nicely marbled...
We used to play a game whenever my mom (or I) made beef cutlets for dinner. I taught Spawn the rule that one could eat one only after identifying a state or nation that its outline resembled.
We actually still play this game.
October 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list on-a-rock-and-jelly-rolltop-desk
Cool! LOTD! Thanks for the hat-tip! :)
October 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word picking up black walnuts
... actually I rather like that confession. It seems a fine punctuation.
October 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word coffee
"In the libretto of J.S. Bach's 'Coffee Cantata' (1732) a young bourgeois German woman threatens her father:
No lover shall woo me
Unless I have his pledge
Written in the marriage settlement,
That he will allow me
To drink coffee when I please."
—Antony Wild, Coffee: A Dark History (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2004), 146
October 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word trimthylamin
Usage can be found on furfurylthiol.
October 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word ethylfuraneol
Usage can be found on furfurylthiol.
October 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word oxazole
Usage can be found on furfurylthiol.
October 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word furfuraldehyde
Usage can be found on furfurylthiol.
October 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word furfurylthiol
"Over eight hundred different chemical ingredients have been identified inside the coffee bean, glorying in such names as furfurylthiol, furfuraldehyde, oxazole, and ethylfuraneol. Another, trimthylamin, exists in minute quantities: it is also found in putrefying fish. Like perfume, coffee uses the most outré of ingredients to work its wonders."
—Antony Wild, Coffee: A Dark History (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2004), 193
October 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pyrolosis
"During roasting, a series of complex chemical reactions take place that develop the characteristic coffee aroma and flavour. ... The most important change takes place when the interior of the bean becomes hot; by a process known as pyrolosis, the carbohydrates and fat form new molecules, generally known as oils. These contain all the flavour and aroma we associate with coffee...."
—Antony Wild, Coffee: A Dark History (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2004), 193
October 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word what the living fuck is THAT
I learned it from a Civil War journal called The Rebel Yell and the Yankee Hurrah. The gentleman (who was from Maine, if I recall) mentioned that on the march the new recruits had been offered refreshments by locals, and some were "city boys" and didn't know that eating the lights (lungs) of a cow wasn't going to be very satisfying.
October 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word the George Clooney of noodles
see pappardelle.
October 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word slaveocracy
See also slavocracy.
October 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word slavocracy
Also spelled slaveocracy.
October 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list an-echo-in-the-bone
Awesome, Marcela!
You might want to pillage from this list too, if it's helpful.
October 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word fixing metatags on downloaded music
I do this all the time. Thanks for listing, frindley.
October 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list •open-list-a-fruitless-task-but-oddly-satisfying-on-a-personal-level
Nonsense. That's the essence of Wordnik. :) It's just less obvious to stalkers than it would be on Facebook.
October 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word jellied eels
Odd. I rather like eel when it's NOT jellied. Then it's most definitely not like eating brains.
Not that I would know, or anything.
October 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word casu marzu
Asativum, what about protective headgear?! Didn't it fight back?!
October 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word iballs
accidentally invented here. Sorry.
October 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word what the living fuck is THAT
I believe the lights are generally the lungs. Which kind of makes sense... if one has the lights (lungs) scared out of one, one can't breathe.
But I agree the consciousness/eyeballs angle works better.
And I almost typed "iballs." What a stupid word.
October 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list •open-list-a-fruitless-task-but-oddly-satisfying-on-a-personal-level
Ohhh... good one. Disgusting but satisfying once it's done. I love the gluggy noise of the water actually going DOWN the drain, which is a great sound after you haven't heard it for a while.
Hair catchers work great, but sometimes it takes a while to find an effective one.
October 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list end-in-kin
Very well then. Thanks!
September 28, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list end-in-kin
fbharjo, isn't it either Algonkian or Algonquin?
September 28, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word slutspurt
...eeew...
September 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word drek
... Could it be any more specific?
September 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list creative-onomatopoeia
Lovely! Thanks for sharing. That pretty much nails this list, doesn't it? :)
September 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word adoratory
I have decided what this word means. When someone is so adorable that they are beyond able-to-be-adored, and the adoration is actually mandatory, person is said to be adoratory.
September 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user chained_bear
P.S. I got rather a load of guff for those tags, by the way.
September 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
Interestingly (not), I made a comment on my profile, then went to edit it, and (three times) got the "Oops, we screwed up, please reload" note--which by the way is so small and unobtrusive as to be nearly invisible--and never was able to edit said comment. :(
September 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user chained_bear
Uhh... that's right...
*suspicious*
Are you stalking me?
September 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word What am I, the fucking Oracle
See bilboquet.
September 2, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word u-ie
We always said "chuck a u-ie" (east coast USA). But then, we were strange people.
August 28, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word God-botherer
I believe that it's someone who prays very frequently--an *excessively* pious person (or someone who's ostentatious about their prayer), rather than simply someone who prays. At least, that's what its original meaning was. (19th century?)
August 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word thesaurused
Overheard in a meeting today: "'Click on' can't be thesaurused."
August 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word CMV
also cytomegalovirus.
August 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word wrongest
OED has wronger but not wrongest. But it does have wrong-foot: "2. fig. To disconcert by an unexpected move; to catch unprepared."
August 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Candwich
Now, now. Prolagus loves those!
August 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word herb
Errrrrrb!
By the way, speaking of "h," "an historian" drives me batshit. It's "a historian."
Errrrrrb!
August 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word DARE
I really wanted to buy the thing, but each volume is about $120. Check your local library!
August 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
You know what I miss? The "search all of Wordie" feature that used to bring up comments, tags, etc. as well as the actual word page. I guess it's not possible here on Wordnik but sometimes I do miss it.
August 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user Prolagus
*wonders if that sentence has ever been uttered before in the history of the world*
August 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word boba fett
For future reference... here.
August 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pizer
If there are more Ocracoke terms on Wordnik, it'd be great if they were tagged as such. :) Having just visited the place for the first time, I'm fascinated by it and its people.
P.S. Long have I praised the work of abraxas and longed for his return. :(
August 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word hey
Hey, I didn't know it was chiefly southern.
August 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word No, I don't know him
Subtle, but never gets old.
Dad: "Do you know Smith?"
Me: "What's his name?"
Dad: "Who?"
Me: "Smith."
Dad: "No, I don't know him."
August 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Moo!
It works with other things too. Like interrupting cheese.
August 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word DARE
If you haven't visited their website yet, I hope you will.
August 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word annulus
This word, to me at least, is disconcerting in its vague seaminess.
August 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word skeevy
I am two years behind adoarns. Just read this etymology today in Newsweek, in an article by Joan Huston Hall. Who, by the way, ought to be a wordnikker if she isn't already. :)
August 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list punch-lines
My favorite was a friend of mine's; she used to say, "So the Chinese guy jumps out of the closet and yells, 'Supplies!'"
August 2, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word strangely orange snack appreciation day
reesetee, your abhorrence for perfectly innocent root vegetables is beyond unreasonable. Umbrage! Umbrage, I say! Harrumph!
June 25, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word BaGOK
This is the sound chickens make. Yes it is.
Yes it is.
Yes it is.
(see coccodè.)
June 24, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word strangely orange snack appreciation day
Like circus peanuts?
*gags*
June 24, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word bubukle
One... Barrrdolph.
June 22, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list hernesheir-apparent
... no, you're right. It has never been. (More's the pity. I wanna know what that would look like.)
June 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
oops, sorry I posted on the wrong page.
June 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word chlorosis
Iron-deficiency anemia associated with puberty.
June 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word smalledge
Wild parsley or wild celery, formerly used medicinally.
June 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Thomas Paine
"Hannah Griffitts supported the early protests but balked at war. As a loyalist, she lambasted Tom Paine and defended tory womanhood against his aspersions:
—Susan E. Klepp, Revolutionary Conceptions: Women, Fertility, and Family Limitation in America, 1760–1820 (Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press, for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 2009), 92
June 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word as drunk as nine pins
James Kirke Paulding told Morris Smith Miller that when he was in Washington, he would 'have some potential bouts at the mint juleps' and that he would share 'a secret by which you may get safely home after drinking six bottles. It is by just putting your feet on the edge of the table, by which means the wine is prevented from descending into the legs, thereby making them as drunk as nine pins. I have tried this method several times and do assure you, that ... you may drink up to the chin and afterwards walk home as steady as a church steeple.'
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 133
June 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word West Indies dry gripes
The earliest concerns about alcohol in America arose in the medical community in the 1740s. Physicians, particularly Philadelphian Benjamin Rush, noted a new disease then called the West Indies dry gripes. Unbeknownst to Rush, the disease was actually lead poisoning that resulted from the use of lead in the stills that West Indies distillers used to create their rum.
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 123
June 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word cider
William Roberts advertised in the Maryland Gazette in 1745 that his servant, John Powell, had not in fact run away, but had 'only gone into the country a cider drinking' and was again prepared to repair watches and clocks.
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 122
June 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word camp follower
Camp followers were the wives, children, and prostitutes who followed and supplied the army to make money, assist their husbands, and support the revolution. These women washed, sewed, cooked, and brewed for the troops and nursed them when they were sick and injured. Women had long played a valuable role in provisioning the English and colonial armies and were proud of their work. For example, Martha May stressed her commitment to the army when she wrote to Henry Bouquet in 1758, 'I have been a wife 22 years to have traveled with my husband every place or country the company marched to and have worked very hard ever since I was in the army.' When Mary Cockron applied for a pension in 1837 for her own and her husband's service to the Continental Army, she stated that she 'drew her rations as other soldiers did.'
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 112
June 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word bugs
Hi y'all. I'm typing in a comment in nested quotation marks (as is my wont), and it comes up without the opening and closing marks (whether they are single or double), and moreover will not let me copy/paste the citation from another entry (as is also my wont). See the poorly-formatted and uncited comment on carouse for visible evidence of my woes.
June 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word carouse
"I felt very unwell, this whole day," soldiers frequently noted in their journals, "from last night's carouse."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 111
June 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user chained_bear
I love that thing. I like visiting my profile to see it. :)
June 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word flaming or lead-filled cupcake mailing list wannabe
*disappears into self*
June 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Si ursus essem, ursus fabulans essem
If I were a bear... oh wait.
I am rather fabulans, if I do say so.
June 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word national doughnut day
Its chief weapon is surprise.
June 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word stenobothrus
Rats. I was hoping this was some kind of dinosaur for my plethora of dinosaur-themed lists.
Is it hateful because it's the kind that went around swarming and eating farmers' crops in the 1800s?
June 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word perry
Listen. I don't know where you come from or what you drink normally, reesetee, but if you think something called "cock ale" would taste better with something other than rooster in it, I don't want to drink with you.
June 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word national doughnut day
But only the carob-flavored ones.
June 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list b-see--the-eyes-have-it-b
Mphhmmm?*
*Sorry, I'm eating some popcorn from Chicago and can't hear you over the crunching. What's this about peeling eyeballs? That weirds me out.
June 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word cock ale
Usage (and other alcoholic drink names) on perry.
June 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word perry
Yes, actually there's a comment about this on cock ale. That capital-letters thing is really crimping my game.
June 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word eczema
Those Merriam bastards...
June 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word my boobs aren't perky
my boobs aren't perky in Slovenian: moje joške niso vesele.
*pointedly ignoring Prolagus's question* ;)
June 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word seltzer bottle
...With purple mountains majesty above the two cents plain!!
—Stan Freberg
June 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word eczema
Those American Heritage Dictionary bastards...
June 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word isabelle
... Isabella of Australia? Or Austria?
June 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word mother's wrist
See De Quervain's tenosynovitis. Also called washerwoman's sprain.
June 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word washerwoman's sprain
See De Quervain's tenosynovitis. Also called mother's wrist.
June 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word de Quervain's thyroiditis
A different condition, but found when looking up De Quervain's tenosynovitis.
June 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Finkelstein test
See De Quervain's tenosynovitis.
June 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word De Quervain's tenosynovitis
Found here. Though I think the "D" in de should not be capped. My bad.
June 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user frogapplause
I just visited my profile for the first time in ages. Thank you so much, happy frog! :)
June 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pampooties
Seen here, in an article about the oldest leather shoe ever found. (Thanks Prolagus.)
June 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list everything-i-hate-about-me
Time itself is a battle, plethora. Some days, surviving with your sanity intact is enough of a fight. :)
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word woylie
AWWWWW!!
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list everything-i-hate-about-me
I consider stretch marks, and indications of "working boobs" to be my battle scars. I don't want to die well-preserved and perfect-looking. I earned my silver hairs and my stretch marks and my awesome working boobs. :)
Electricblue, I'm sure you didn't expect this kind of response... :) Best wishes.
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word ingenio
"Seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century cider presses like John Worlidge's 'ingenio for the grinding of apples' had been expensive and hard to obtain."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 108
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word blind thermometer
"... another author recommended that brewers purchase 'blind thermometers' in which the scale could be hidden in the brewer's or distiller's pocket so that his workers would not learn his methods and be able to found businesses of their own."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 102–103
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word butt
"In case any men continued to leave alcohol production to women, the new experts assured them that they were wrong. Morrice warned that 'when a butt wants fining down, many appoint a servant girl to perform that office by whom the bungs are left out, and many other acts committed, which all tend to discredit the brewer, although he does not deserve it."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 98
I'm not sure any young servant girl ought properly to know how to fine down a butt.
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word saccharometer
"Since he would show 'the manner of using the thermometer and saccharometer' 'rendered easy to any capacity,' he established himself as master of the mystery."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 97
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word crotcy
"Ball instructed his nephew to build 'a strong crotcy fence] around the trees 'to keep cattle, and horses, from tearing and barking' and killing the orchard trees."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 53
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word lathing
Usage on scantling.
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word scantling
"He sold cords of wood, timber trees, and products from his cooperage, including planking, lathing, clapboards, scantling, siding, heading, fence rails, fence posts, framing, and coffins."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 47
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word steelyard
"Most symbolically, Bray owned a money scale and steelyard, or balance beam scale, to weigh and balance accounts. Just as a ring of keys and a pocket were the signs of the housewife's labor in dispensing foodstuffs from cupboards, so the money scale and steelyards were the symbol of the planter-merchant who weighed coins and crops."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 45
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word vastly wholesome
Usage on medlar.
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word medlar
"In 1736, an English traveler in the Chesapeake recorded that 'we gathered a fruit, in our route, called a parsimon sic, of a very delicious taste, not unlike a medlar, tho' somewhat larger: I take it to be a very cooling fruit, and the settlers make use of prodigious quantities to sweeten a beer ... which is vastly wholesome.'"
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 38
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word antiscorbutic
"Doctors began prescribing cider to sailors in the late seventeenth century because of its supposed antiscorbutic properties."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 31
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word barbeque
"...Men and women both drank at the popular outdoor meal called a barbeque, 'an entertainment' that, as one traveler describes, 'generally ends in intoxication.'"
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 18
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word cobine nitre
"Mustering men mixed some of their brandy charcoal, saltpetre, sulfur, cobine nitre, and brandy to make gunpowder."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 17
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word militia
"The legislature required white men to drill with a militia in case of Indian attacks, and the resulting militia days offered another chance to imbibe.... Alcoholic beverages were such an intrinsic part of the militia muster that boys playing 'militia' ended their games with rounds of drinks."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 16
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word canary
"'We had several sorts of liquors, namely Virginia red wine and white wine, Irish usquebaugh, brandy, shrub, two sorts of rum, champagne, canary, cherry punch, cider.'"
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 15
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word blind staggers
"Landon Carter had better luck when he gave his cow 'with the blind staggers' three doses of warm beer with rattlesnake root, after which the cow 'got pretty well and feeds about as usual.'"
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 15
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word rum
A fine quotation on kibe-heel.
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word kibe-heel
"Rum, wrote traveler Edward Ward, was 'adored by the American English... 'tis held as the comforter of their souls, the preserver of their bodies, the remover of their cares, and promoter of their mirth; and is a sovereign remedy against the grumbling of guts, a kibe-heel chilblain or a wounded conscience, which are three epidemical distempers that afflict the country.'"
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 14
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pulvis castor
Usage on salt tartar.
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word salt tartar
"Planter Landon Carter treated both his daughter and his slaves with alcoholic concoctions. When his daughter, Judy, was sick in 1757, Carter treated her with a 'weak julep of rum with salt tartar and pulvis castor.'"
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 14
June 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word jimson weed
And of course it grows in Virginia, where Jamestown is located. :)
June 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word milk sickness
"Even colonists with access to milk often avoided it because of fears of 'milk sickness' caused by consuming the milk of cows that had grazed on wild jimson weed."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 12
June 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word arrack
"Rum or arrack, an alcohol distilled from the fermented sap of palm trees, was mixed with sugar, citrus juice, water, and spices to make punch."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 11
June 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word persico
"Persico was a cordial flavored with the crushed kernels of peaches, apricots, or nectarines."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 11
June 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word hippocras
"Red hippocras was made of claret, brandy, sugar, spices, almonds, and new milk."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 11
June 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word methelin
Usage on perry.
June 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word mobby
Usage on perry, where it says it was brewed from pears, and also:
"William Cabell's Amherst County, Virginia plantation fermented 3,000 gallons of cider and fifty hogsheads (at least 2,400 gallons) of peach mobby annually."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 50
June 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word perry
"The English brewed perry or mobby from pears, and mead and methelin from fermented honey. Aquavit was a distilled ale, like a whiskey, based on fermented grain. Mum was brewed from wheat; juniper ale was flavored with juniper berries, bay leaves, coriander, and caraway seeds. Buttered ale was ale flavored with cinnamon, sugar, and butter. Cock ale was a mixture of ale and wine, steeped with raisins, cloves, and its namesake, a cooked rooster."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 11
June 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Hewes crab apple
Usage on alembic.
Also,
"The introduction of the Hewes (sometimes spelled Hughes) crab apple to the region in the mid-eighteenth century allowed planters to produce a sweeter, slightly cinnamon-tasting cider that lasted longer."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 108
June 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word hewes crab apple
See Hewes crab apple.
June 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word alembic
"Small-planter households resented their dependence on large-planter households. Although the Chesapeake continued to lag behind Europe, the arrival during the second half of the eighteenth century of the three-gallon alembic still, a series of improved cider presses, the newly developed Hewes crab apple, and other technologies allowed small-planter households to become more self-sufficient. They developed alcohol trade networks with kin and people of their own kind."
—Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 4
Also,
"The invention of the alembic still, or side distilling, in particular, made the process easier. Side distilling became known in England around 1720, but it was not practiced in the Chesapeake until the 1760s. Before the invention of side distilling, stills were very large and expensive pieces of equipment, and distilling was a complex process...." (103)
June 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word my boobs aren't perky
my boobs aren't perky in Icelandic: bobbingar mín eru ekki perky
June 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Diderot
Three cheers for freedom of speech for eighteenth-century French encyclopedic smut! The "18th" volume of Diderot's Encyclopedié is the "censored" stuff. NOW ONLINE!! WOOOOOO!!!
June 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word my boobs aren't perky
my boobs aren't perky in Hebrew: הציצים שלי הם לא עליז
June 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user hernesheir
Ahh, f#$% them. :) That's what Wordnik is for. Well... that's what Wordie was for, anyhow.
June 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user hernesheir
Thanks for the pile of stuff you added. I love when I stop by and the front page is riddled with hernesheir-isms. :) So much fun to read!
June 2, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word bottled water
What an unfortunate website: tappening.com. (Should we tell them?)
June 1, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list movies-ive-seen
Yes.
And No, I will not use your stupid website to keep track of the movies I've seen. Can't you see I have a perfectly good list on Wordnik?
June 1, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word smegma
You know, this usage is on the word page. Kind of interesting:
Then she desired her not to be sparing with the 'smegma', -- A material like soap, but used in a soft state. -- and to wash her hair as thoroughly as possible. —The Bride of the Nile — Volume 10
May 28, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list geoffrey-chaucer-hath-a-blog
Every time I see this I want to sing, "E-I, E-I-O!"
May 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word has a hot guy's name
Seen here.
May 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word tagliolini
Also tagliulini.
May 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word quadrucci
*yoink* Thanks bilby!
May 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word fischioni rigati
Usage/citation on quadrucci.
May 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word fischioni lisci
Usage/citation on quadrucci.
May 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word boconotti
Usage/citation on quadrucci.
May 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word tagliulini
Citation/usage on quadrucci.
May 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word peck
Sadly, that line of Madmartigan's is all in the delivery.
May 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word porbeagle
... this is rather greater than the sum of its parts. Or should I say, rather more bizarre.
May 25, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word descant
"... Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity...."
Richard III, William Shakespeare
May 25, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word moro reflex
I do. I just ran into him at the coffee maker. Hard.
May 25, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word mediatic trinity
blahahaha!
Yeah, sionnach. You should really try to be more, you know, clear.
*looking for the "like" button on Eurotrash assmarmot*
May 20, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word ant patrol
It ain't the size, reesetee, it's the number. Eugh.
May 20, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word defuse
Right. So you're dissipating tension, or defusing a situation.
May 19, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word defuse
I think it matters. If you're defusing, I'd say "the situation" should be the object--as thtownse says, as if the situation were going to explode--but if you want to do something to the tension, it seems like diffuse is the way to go. Tension doesn't really explode.
It does, however, get thick. I mean, I guess so. People say so, anyhow.
May 19, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user princesscotto
Well, welcome to Wordnik, but you're not likely to find someone to do your homework for you. :)
May 19, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word accordion, autoharp, birdseye maple banjo ukulele
well, the things I kept near my computer were a fife and a set of drumsticks and practice pad.
May 19, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word ant patrol
Someone needs to read her that Hans Christian Andersen story where the "idiot" wins the princess and the kingdom because he spares the ants from suffering his stupid feet.
May 19, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word accordion, autoharp, birdseye maple banjo ukulele
I used to purposely keep my stuff right near my computer so whenever the urge struck, I'd play some sweet sweet loudness to wash away the computer blues.
Also because hay makes me sneeze.
May 19, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word squeezable broccoli floret, squeezable ear, and Abraham Lincoln action figure with lavender waistcoat
I just can't figure out the lavender waistcoat.
He does come with a scroll of the Emancipation Proclamation, that would probably fit in his large, beefy mitts, if I ever open the package to see.
May 19, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word felt penguin, Shakespeare action figure, squeezy cow
Why? Don't you like squeezing fake vultures?
May 19, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word buotwc10
For voting at the end of this year, "Best Use of the Word Craudestopper 2010." (P.S. Vote for Milos.)
May 19, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word squeezable broccoli floret, squeezable ear, and Abraham Lincoln action figure with lavender waistcoat
Remarkably similar to reesetee's felt penguin, Shakespeare action figure, squeezy cow.
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word felt penguin, Shakespeare action figure, squeezy cow
Reesetee, are you kidding me? I have a squeezable broccoli floret, squeezable ear, and Abraham Lincoln action figure with lavender waistcoat.
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word accordion, autoharp, birdseye maple banjo ukulele
Really? You should just play the instruments, instead of the list.
;)
(insert upper-class twit laugh here)
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word ocean leather
Yes, kind of like the Mandles list.
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word ocean leather
This sounds really really neat.
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Fritos
I'm *always* looking for fritos.
I had a gerbil named Frito, or rather frito. She was very nice. Her beau was named Je Ne Sais Quoi (je ne sais quoi).
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word party pack of Play-Doh, pink flamingo, Emmy
regretting that I did, actually.
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Pathan
Usage on Bosti Khel.
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Afridi
Usage on Bosti Khel.
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Bosti Khel
"The brothers, members of the warlike Bosti Khel tribe (a sub-tribe of the Afridis, themselves a sub-tribe of the Pathans), had been implicated in the recent theft of some rifles from a police station."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 245
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Feringhee
"When one male hostage protested at the continuous moves one of Akbar's cohorts snarled that 'as long as there is an Afghan prisoner in India or a Feringhee foreign soldier in Afghanistan, so long will we retain you...'"
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 241
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word yaghi
"'As no one would fight for the ladies,' she sniffed disapprovingly, obviously referring to the men of the party, 'I determined to be yaghi rebellious myself'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 240
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word kajava
"'Many camels were killed. On one camel were, in one kajava (pannier), Mrs Boyd and her youngest boy Hugh...'"
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 237
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pelisse
Usage on poshteen.
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word poshteen
"Lady Sale noted matter-of-factly that she herself 'had fortunately only one ball in my arm; three others passed through my poshteen (fur pelisse) near the shoulder without doing me any injury'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 237
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word bazaar
I'm reminded of a grade-school classmate who, when tasked with making a poster for the church bazaar, made a delightfully artistic and well-lettered one for a local grocery store that said "Church Bizarre." I thought for sure they wouldn't use it, but they did.
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word sepoy
"Although rumblings had been apparent for some time among discontented sepoys (Indian infantrymen) and in the bazaars, few of the ruling political class or the military hierarchy suspected that a widespread uprising would ensue."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 214
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word ranee
"Fanny Duberly received an invitation from the Rao (ruler) of Burj when she accompanied her husband's regiment on campaign through India in 1858. As the only white woman with the column, she was an object of curiosity to the locals as much as they were to her. To her delight, she was invited into the ladies' apartments to meet the ranees (the rao's wives). 'I never saw such a profusion of jewellery in my life,' she marvelled...."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 195
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word rao
Usage on ranee.
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word curricle
"Mrs Ilbert, arriving in Quebec in 1807, was pleased to learn that even in winter, 'There are frequently very pleasant excursions, made by parties into the country, they are Pic Nic parties where each person takes something towards the Entertainment, they drive to some house a few miles from Quebec, carry a Fidler with them & when they have finished their repast, they rise & dance until they agree upon separating, when the curricles (carriages) are ordered & the parties jovially return to their habitations, some get overturned but no accidents are ever met with but they only fall on a bed of snow, have a roll or two, to the great amusement of the Spectators, get up, shake themselves & resume their Seats.'"
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 193–194
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word durzi
"Copies of Tatler and Vogue, posted by helpful relatives at home, were presented to durzis (tailors) who would be able to produce passable imitations within a few days."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 192
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word sarcenet
"Mrs Z was 'simply attired in a plain coloured gown made of a very few yards of sarcenet.'"
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 192
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word poodlefaking
"It was a time when the army was engaged in a fierce campaign against the tribesmen of Waziristan, and every fortnight a new lot of officers came down to Rawalpindi on leave with money to spend. As she admits, 'Even I got worn out, dancing and poodlefaking flirting. . . I'd wear a different evening dress every night—it was like being a debutante.'"
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 191
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word table d'hote
"It is better to have cheap things, as they get ruined here, and not too long skirts. You want a sort of table d'hote gown for dinner, old summer gowns would do."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 188
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word war
"Amid the gaiety and excitement, the dinners and fancy dress parties on board, it was almost easy to forget that they were going to a seat of war, where men had died and were still dying in their scores from cholera, enteric fever, shot and shell. Some ladies, such as Lady Agnes Paget, were married to officers at the front and could therefore escape the label of 'war tourists'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 184
May 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list living-fossils
Most of them started as Wordie lists.
May 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word what in the hell is THAT thing!
*wishes the pronunciation used Wallace Shawn's voice*
May 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pinkwashing
That, reesetee, is decidedly horkworthy. (Apologies to mollusque for using that word, but I use it advisedly.)
May 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word oh no, these just fall down from the apartment upstairs
Wow. Thanks for unearthing this classic. Yikes!
May 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
Hey John? Hate to bug you again... is there some reason a lot of my comments are turning up with what looks like three hard line returns after the text? A big yawning chasm of white space that doesn't appear in the "edit" box so I can't delete it? Just wondering.
May 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word red banana
Very much, yes, considering that I hate bananas.
Spawn II (cub? Himself? whatever we're calling him) was trying a "regular" one, though.
May 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word operation
Cartoon illustration here.
May 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word incision
Cartoon illustration here.
May 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word red banana
I would like to announce that I ate a red banana last night and it wasn't bad.
I would also like to announce that I gave Spawn II a bit of banana (for the second time) and he (repeatedly) made a face and stared at me balefully as if I were poisoning him.
May 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word iroquoisy
Believe it or not... ronks. Which I first saw (today) here.
May 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
Hi John, I haven't checked by adding any words yet, but I did find this wrinkle in the multiple-words-added bug: I can't delete war tourist from this list, and when I click on the word, I get a "not found" page.
May 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word every potential wordie list is an existing wordie list
I just read this thread and clicked on all the links. This is all kind of iroquoisy, innit?
May 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word doup
sorry... that's me typing way too fast, as usual.
May 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
We're using different browsers; maybe that's it. Hmmm. *ponders*
May 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word car key parties
Oh dear. Well, I lived through that decade and believe me, nothing could make me go back.
Nothing.
Well... maybe the toys. We had some pretty cool toys.
May 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user john
*loves John again, some more*
May 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pabulum
Similar to pablum?
May 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
Not sure about that distinction, richnotwealthy. I have been adding words by hitting Enter, and just now I did so again and "war tourist" was added four times, instantly.
FYI... Thanks for looking into it, John!
May 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word enteric fever
"... they were going to a seat of war, where men had died and were still dying in their scores from cholera, enteric fever, shot and shell."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 184
May 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word car key parties
"Midge Lackie, whose early days as an army wife in Aden had prepared her for almost any surprise, was nonetheless shocked when an acquaintance, a corporal's wife, was evicted from her quarter in Minden in the 1970s. She was sent back to her parents' home in Austria because it transpired she had been holding car key parties while her husband was away."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 159
I had no earthly clue what this was, even after asking several other people. A quick Google search reveals it's a "party" at which all the men (at this time, anyway) would throw their keys into a bowl, the women would pull a set out, and go home/have sex/roast marshmallows or something with the guy whose keys she pulled.
... Gross. (Everyone here knows how much I hate marshmallows.)
May 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word matross
"... he had been reduced in rank from bombardier to matross (the rank below bombardier in an artillery battery, now abolished)."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 153
May 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word doup
"Wellington's Provost Marshal became so infuriated with the women who believed that they could plunder with impunity that he once flogged more than a dozen at a time, giving them 'sax sic and thirty lashes a piece on the bare doup. And it was lang afore it was forgotten on 'em', according to a Highland soldier who witnessed the punishment."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 139
May 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word teakle
"Some of these women were so paralytic with drink that they had to be hoisted on board by a teakle, a kind of crane."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 133
May 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word dance
"Bette Viner was lucky enough to be invited to visit the harem of a local Amir when she was living in Aden in the mid-1960s with her brigadier husband. ... But with very few words of common language between them conversation was difficult, and the encounter grew stilted. It was then that Mrs Viner's American friend Olga came to the rescue.
"'She shot to her feet saying, "Gee, I reckon they like to dance." She executed a few gay little steps in the middle of a large Persian rug and fortunately they got the message almost at once. One of the women ducked under an old brass bedstead at the far end of the room and produced an old gramophone with an enormous horn, also some Arabian and Hungarian (Heaven knows how they came to be there) records. Olga jived energetically and was rewarded with a belly dance from an immensely fat servant. I was called upon to perform a short ballet sequence and a young concubine retaliated with a passage from a sinuously seductive looking tribal dance. Our British lady friend flatly refused to make a fool of herself as a solo turn but did condescend to lead a conga round the harem. Everyone joined in except the Amir's wife who remained faithful to her tea kettle, but she smiled happily on us all. The women quickly found out how it was done and shouted and laughed and turned the music up louder and louder. When it was finally time to go the Amir's wife gave us each a gourd of local honey. Our Arab driver, waiting at a distance of about 100 yards, was grinning from ear to ear when he saw us and I realised with horror that the noise we had made must have burst through the slits in the walls in the harem and resounded across the desert.... when I met the Amir a few days later, and he told me that his family had enjoyed our visit very much indeed....'"
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 196–197
May 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word poetry
"It was the custom for unmarried officers (the majority in those days) to visit the bungalows of the married for drinks on Sunday before lunch and sometimes before dinner on weekdays. I noticed very few came to us and as I knew Squire to be popular, I was anxious. 'Bertie', I asked one friendly youth, 'why don't more people come and see us?' He was embarrassed. 'Well', he finally managed to blurt out, 'It has got about that you read poetry'. 'Bother them all', I thought. 'I have never read it aloud'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 195
May 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word potato-beetle
Exactly. It says so right on the label.
May 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Newfoundland
I heard a mnemonic (if that's the right adjective) device to help one remember how the residents pronounce it: Understand Newfoundland.
Also, those interested in the subject may like this list.
May 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list murder-ballads--drinking-songs--and-heartbreakers
Oh my god, Omie Wise. Even *I* wouldn't sing that to my kid!
Ooh! what's that one... Rye Cove! It's about a school burning down. But I don't think anyone dies.
John, I'm changing the list name. As long as I give credit where it's due... right? "In the Pines": I don't think I know that one, but I added it anyway. Who sings it (most famously)?
May 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pudding cap
Usage/explanation on puddin' head.
May 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word puddin' head
"A specialized type of cap for toddlers learning to walk was the 'pudding' or padded helmet designed to protect the infant's head in case of a fall. Abigail Adams wrote to a friend in 1766, asking to borrow the quilted 'contrivance' for her little girl 'Nabby,' just beginning to walk. She explained, 'Nabby Bruses her forehead sadly. she is fat as a porpouse and falls heavey.' The affectionate term 'puddin' head' was derived from the pudding caps many toddlers wore. Williamsburg milliners advertised 'Quilted Puddings for Children.'" (Seen here, in an article that also features a picture of said cap.)
May 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list tunie-and-the-band-played-waltzing-matilda
I'd be down with doing a joint list with John, if he were so inclined. *musing* Here.
May 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list tunie-no-mans-land
Some possibly relevant discussion might be found in the comments on this list.
May 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list tunie-and-the-band-played-waltzing-matilda
That's really interesting, ptero. You know what's most interesting/saddest of all? They hardly had to change any words, especially to the second verse.
You know what else gives me the tingles/chills (well, a lot of songs do, actually) is the song "No Man's Land." I did a Tunie for that one too. I should learn the words better, since I've got a cub who needs lullabye-in' now.
May 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word marmite
Thanks, plethora. I feel vindicated. :)
May 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Margaret Sanger
See info on pessary.
May 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pessary
I like this part of that article:
'One of his targets was Margaret Sanger, a nurse who wrote a sex education column, “What Every Girl Should Know,” for a left-wing New York newspaper, The Call. When Comstock banned her column on venereal disease, the paper ran an empty space with the title: “What Every Girl Should Know: Nothing, by Order of the U.S. Post Office.”'
May 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word polycephaly
"My analyst told me (what?)
That I was right outta my head.
But I said dear doctor (yeah?)
I think that it's you instead.
'Cause I have got a thing that's unique and new,
It proves that I'll have the last laugh on you,
'Cause instead of one head (ha ha)
I got two.
And you know two heads are better than onnnnnnne..."
May 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Lou Gehrig's disease
My favorite comment on this comes from Denis Leary impersonating Babe Ruth. "Poor Lou Gehrig... Died of Lou Gehrig's disease. How the hell did he not see that coming?"
May 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list tunie-and-the-band-played-waltzing-matilda
Hey! I'm not alone! :)
May 8, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list tunie-and-the-band-played-waltzing-matilda
I was going to say "Nah! I'm sure lots of other..." but then, you're probably correct.
May 8, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word bedbug
I was struck by this line in particular, in the linked article: "Like any other force that stalks by night, Cimex lectularius are known by many names: the mahogany flat; the heavy dragoon; the crimson rambler; the Nachtkrabbler; and, most simply of all, the redcoat."
May 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Fritos
*deflates*
May 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word to table a question
Well, I should have clarified: they're for very little kids. The ones who would cry to find their juice boxes are empty because they didn't realize not to squeeze them. Once you are old enough to realize what you're doing, why... then it's fun.
May 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word off in a cloud of whale dust
bilby... *giggling* "drop the handbrake on your whale"?? *still giggling*
May 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list tunie-waltzing-matilda
That's awesome. I especially like the explanations for "drink" and "glee."
May 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word to table a question
Mmm. And, they'll fit in those little covers that prevent kids from squeezing juice boxes and spilling "Lit'l Smokies" all over the place.
May 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word curse level
Illustration of this concept can be found here.
May 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word font
Interesting conversational topic, fonts are.
May 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word five comments rule
Hey! John, that was a good idea! Where are the Wordnik bookmarks??
May 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Fritos
Some Fritos.
May 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word hell
Illustration here.
May 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word tetris
Excellent explanation of hell can be found here.
May 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Fritos
I want some.
May 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word hot dog etiquette
I had the same thought, thtownse. Someone is looking out for our welfare, like.
agatehinge... that's... I'll have to try that. Someday when my cholesterol levels aren't so crappy.
May 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word to table a question
No, no. I just chew very thoroughly.
May 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word to table a question
Mmfn. *chewing*
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word to table a question
Umbrage, etc. I was trying to say that "putting something on the table" is NOT the same thing as "tabling" it. The first implies immediate discussion; the second, delayed until a later time. Sorry I wasn't more clear. I was eating Cheddar Lit'l Smokies and typing with my mouth full.
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word hot dog etiquette
Agatehinge, on those rare occasions I put the mustard on the dog, I always roll it around to smear it on the bread anyway. I do not think it worthwhile to risk dropping mustard (which stains) on myself, thereby wasting its precious essence, and would rather offend the H.D. Etiquette Gods instead.
Also, cream cheese? on hot dogs? seriously?
John, that's mighty cute. :) Thanks for posting.
I agree with John---if you're putting chili on your dog, you can put cheese on it. Otherwise... well... I love those cheesy l'il smokies. (Which I have just discovered is actually spelled "Lit'l Smokies," and now I like them less.)
Cheese on/in brats is more acceptable, I think, than cheese on a dog, unless (again) there's chili involved. And I wouldn't put chili on a brat. That's just wrong.
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word asparaginous
I just steam them and sprinkle on some olive oil and kosher flake salt. Yum.
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Angrezis
"India to her was home and when at the age of ten she was 'banished', as she saw it, to boarding school in England, along with her younger sister Bets, she was plunged into misery. Like many foreign-born English children she was appalled by her first sight of England.... 'Nothing but mile after mile of squalid, soot-stained walls, warehouses and dingy streets lined with small, grimy terraced houses in which, unbelievably, my native people, Angrezis (English) — "Sahib-log"—actually lived....' Bullied mercilessly at boarding school by the other girls, Mollie and Bets resorted to speaking to each other in Hindustani, which the other pupils could not understand."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 86
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word charpoy
"She was given a tent with two charpoys (string beds) and an oil stove outside it on which she had to cook supper while beating off the insects."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 71
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word palanquin
Usage on dhoolie.
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word dhoolie
"After an uncomfortable journey by dhoolie (a rather humbler kind of litter than a palanquin) into which the monsoon rains had poured she arrived in Dalhousie to find that there were not quarters available."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 71
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word kitmagar
"... the kitmagar, who corresponds to butler, then appears and I give out lump sugar, ham, biscuits, etc, fill up the decanters and cigarettes and matchboxes and give out dusters and clothes for each man....'"
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 70
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word permanganate
Usage on detchie.
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word detchie
"After her husband left for the office after breakfast she began her day 'by visiting the kitchen and seeing a boiling "detchie" (an aluminium pan with no handle) of water. I consider coal and see whether there is permanganate of potash ready to soak the vegetables and whether the earthenware saucers on which the larders stand have been filled with water and disinfectant...'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 69
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word cretonnes
"Those living abroad often tried to anglicise their dwellings in an effort to recreate a little corner of England.... 'clung rather pathetically to every tradition of Home, disguised their cheap furniture (hired from the Government or a dealer in the bazaar) with flowered cretonnes and made their bungalows look as English as they could'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 68
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word metheglin
"The Mutiny Act of 1703 stipulated that soldiers should be billeted in 'inns, livery stables, ale houses, victualling houses, and all houses selling brandy, strong-waters, cyder or metheglin to be drunk on the premises, and in no other, and in no private houses whatsoever'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 61
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word gharries
"A column on the march in India presented a particularly colourful spectacle. Behind the orderly column of soldiers trailed a disorderly, clamorous army of servants, followers and wives. Syces (grooms) rode the officers' spare ponies or drove their gharries (pony traps) while others perched on top of the camels and elephants used to transport heavy baggage. Behind them came the water carriers, grass cutters, cooks, sweepers and washerwomen, bullock carts with squeaking wheels and drivers cracking their whips and shouting curses. The rear guard followed behind, restoring some semblance of military orderliness to the tip of this extraordinary tail."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 56
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word syce
Usage on gharries.
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word ayah
"If ladies did not want to eat in the mess a cook would bring them meals in their tent and they were usually attended by an ayah (maid) and other domestic servants who would sweep and clean their tents, shooing away unwanted visitors such as rats and cockroaches..." (p. 56)
"'I am not praising myself, dear Mama, but only wish you to know that it is quite possible for a lady to exert herself in this Country. I keep no ayah ladies' maid, which diminishes the expenses of our establishment not a little. Hannay often insists on my having one, but I will not indulge in such laziness unless obliged by ill health.'"
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 71
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word tiffin
"Even offering a gentleman caller refreshment was out of the question as it was considered 'an act of glaring impropriety in a lady to invite any gentleman to stay and partake of tiffin who is not either a relative or an intimate friend of the family'."
—Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 55–56
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word potato-beetle
Damn Anglo-Saxons.
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word flautist
No problem. *tries to wield trebuchet*
*fails*
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word potato-beetle
... wouldn't that be better spelled beatle?
AH-HUH! AH-HUH-HUH!! < -- upper-class twit laugh.
Damn Victorians.
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word hot dog etiquette
... "tubular meat"?
P.S. Nobody but nobody is gonna tell ME not to put mustard between the dog and the bun. Don't mess with Tex—er... I mean, Chained Bear!
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list butter-beans-and-snaps
OH YEAAAAHHHH!!!
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word potato-beetle
But that's just it! This usage doesn't describe a bug at all, but some kind of kitchen tool. Doesn't anyone else think that's f***ing WEIRD?
*muttering* Damn Victorians...
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word to table a question
Putting something on the table always meant, to me, to bring it forward for discussion or examination. Tabling a question is a parliamentary/congressional thing to do, and it means putting it on a table for later discussion. If it helps, think of it as a side table.
Perhaps we should change the idiom to "nightstanding the question."
It would make congressional debates more titillating, anyhow.
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word flautist
... I want to be in a trebuchet-wielding mob.
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word crumber
AHA!!! So yarb *is* a Victorian after all! *cackles gleefully*
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word never put your banana in the refrigerator
*makes scholarly notes about the reesetee's ability to pixillate itself*
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pinkwashing
I'll have no truck with such products. Buying a Diet Coke over a Diet Pepsi because they'll give one penny out of $1,000 to breast cancer research doesn't make any sense and just pisses me off. I guess it's better than nothing, and does "raise awareness" (a phrase I hate), but I'd rather give my $1.50 to breast cancer research and skip the stupid product in the first place.
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pie
Shockingly, I think it was a woman. But no way to tell.
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word négligé
"Although the colors of the fruits should blend harmoniously, and the general appearance should be fresh and négligé, arrange them firmly, so that when the dish is moved there will be no danger of an avalanche."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 274
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word firkin
"Have a large firkin, put in a layer of sliced tomatoes, then one of onions, next one of peppers, lastly cabbage; sprinkle over some of the mustard seed, repeat the layers again, and so on.... skim it well and turn it into the firkin. Let it stand twenty-four hours, then pour the whole into a large kettle, and let it boil five minutes; turn into the firkin, and stand away for future use."
—Jane Warren, The Economical Cook Book, ca. 1882, quoted in Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 271
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Christmas turkey
"A more delicious way of cooking a turkey it is impossible to imagine."
—Godey's Lady's Book, December 1885, quoted in —Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 239
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word blades of mace
"To every gallon of juice add one quart of mixed wines...; salt to the taste; one ounce of blades of mace...."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 266
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word salsify
"Salsify, or Oyster Plant. After scraping off the outside, parboil it, slice it, dip the slices into a beaten egg and fine bread crums sic, and fry in lard. It is very good boiled, and then stewed a few minutes in milk, with a little salt and butter. Or, make a batter of wheat flour, milk, and eggs; cut the salsify in thin slices, first boiling it tender; put them into the batter with a little salt; drop the mixture into hot fat by spoonfuls. Cook them till of a light brown."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 256
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word esculent
"Canned corn, when simply stewed, is a wretched substitute for that most delicious and succulent of American esculents—green maize on the ear."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 254
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word potato-beetle
"If the peas are cold, heat the butter and pound the peas smooth with a potato-beetle."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 254
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word rare meat
"Underdone meat (foolishly called rare) is getting quite out of fashion, being unwholesome and indigestible, and to most Americans its savour is disgusting. To ladies and children it is always so, and even the English have ceased to like it. It is now seldom seen but at those public tables, where they consider it an object to have as little meat as possible eaten on teh first day, that more may be left for the second day, to be made into indescribable messes, with ridiculous French names, and passed off as French dishes, by the so-called French cook, who is frequently an Irishman."
—Eliza Leslie, Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book, 1857, quoted in Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 239
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word remove
"Removes: Meat, Game, and Poultry. These are dishes which remove the fish and soup, served upon large dishes, and placed at the top and bottom of the table; great care should be evinced in cooking them, as they are the "pièce de résistance" of the dinner."
—Alexis Soyer, The Modern Housewife, 1857, quoted in Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 236
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word smilax
"Place a thick napkin on a platter, put the ice upon this, cover the dish with parsley or smilax, and garnish with lemon."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 234
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word smoking hot lard
"Shape in a tablespoon without smoothing much, slip them off into a basket, and fry in smoking hot lard one minute. ... The lard should be hot enough to brown a piece of bread while you count forty."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 232
Italics in original.
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word a calf's head is a very insipid article
See calf's head.
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word calf's head
"If the above method is exactly followed, there will be found no necessity for taking the trouble and enduring the disgust and tediousness of cleaning and preparing a calf's head for mock turtle soup—a very unpleasant process, which too much resembles the horrors of a dissecting room. And when all is done a calf's head is a very insipid article."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985),225
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word saleratus
"Take one quart of sour milk, or buttermilk; stir in as much corn meal as will make a pancake batter; take one teacupful of flour, and one teaspoonful of saleratus; beat well together; then add three eggs well beaten...."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 214
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word clabber
Usage on loppered.
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word loppered
"These cakes are simple, economical, wholesome, and extremely nice. 'Loppered' milk, or 'clabber,' is better than buttermilk. Try them!"
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 213
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word triturated
"Cocoa shells are also very nutritious and palatable; they must be roasted with the same care as coffee, turned slowly during the operation, but constantly and in a tightly covered cylinder. After being carefully roasted a deep brown, when cool it must be triturated smoothly in a mortar, as much as may be required; when reduced to a paste, and all the little husks removed, then pour over a spoonful of the paste a cupful of boiling water, thus proportioned to the quantity required; then boil it for twenty minutes, stirring, but kept covered; then serve as coffee, diluting with boiling milk or cream, and sugar to the taste; this forms a very agreeable beverage."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 208
Yeah, agreeable. Unless you're the one making it. What a pain in the ass! I'll just have water, please.
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word tazza
"Cream and finely powdered sugar filled in the empty spaces on the table. Desserts were to be served in elegant, usually footed glass or china bowls or compotes, called tazzas in 1851, which were to line the center of the table. These were to be flanked on the sides by lower dishes and plates of dried fruits, nuts, candies, and chocolates, all ornately garnished with flowers, leaves, and vines."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 177
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word side dish
"These dishes were also called the sides, because they lined the sides of the table, as opposed to the ends and the center. Two sides and four kickshaws were considered adequate for four to six people."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 176
May 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word kickshaw
"For a three-course meal, according to this scheme, the first course would consist of soup, meat from the soup, and 'kickshaws' (another word for appetizers, derived from the French quelque chose, and used to denote a delicacy, fancy dish, or relish, possibly oysters, anchovies, shrimp, sardines, celery, olives, or pickles)."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 175
May 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pie
"Pie, at least for C. W. Gesner, was emblematic of all that was wrong with America's eating habits:
'We are fond of pies and tarts. We cry for pie when we are infants. Pie in countless varieties waits upon us through life. Pie kills us finally. We have apple-pie, peach-pie, rhubarb-pie, cherry-pie, pumpkin-pie, plum-pie, custard-pie, oyster-pie, lemon-pie, and hosts of other pies. Potatoes are diverted from their proper place as boiled or baked, and made into a nice heavy crust to these pies, rendering them as incapable of being acted upon by the gastric juice as if they were sulphate of baryta, a chemical which boiling vitriol will hardly dissolve. ... How can a person with a pound of green apples and fat dough in his stomach feel at ease?'"
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 172
May 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word baryta
Usage on pie.
May 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word service bell
"Well-trained domestic help was crucial to the successful execution of an elaborate Victorian dinner party. The service bell, a popular affectation, allowed the hostess to get around the rule that she must never speak to the help during the meal: all instructions were given in advance and carried out wordlessly at the genteel tone of the bell."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 153
May 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word crumber
"Crumbers for cleaning the tablecloth between courses came into widespread use in the 1890s. By that time, most Americans had abandoned the practice of laying two or three cloths on a dinner table, each to be removed after a given course."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 154
May 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word parterre
"Plant in this boughs of green, bushes, and all the flowers that can be filled in. Nothing is prettier, in the centre of a table, than this little parterre. . . . Variety may be made by adding rocks, vases, and columns to the parterre; vases of flowers, at the corners of the table, may also be added."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 153
May 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word cupcake cannon
Suggest you see Pro's link on fufluns.
May 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word fufluns
Not what I expected. *dons white jumpsuit and protective headgear*
May 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word flautist
I like your piano teacher.
April 30, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word crunch my feathers!
like water off a duck's back.
April 30, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word meth lab of democracy
Brackets!
April 30, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word like water off a duck's back
Well, crunch my feathers! What an interesting idiom this is turning out to be. Quack!!
April 30, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word aisle
But not quite with I'll?
April 30, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word huitlacoche
I should not have clicked on this page.
April 30, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word like water off a duck's back
Yes, Milos, I've heard that meaning also--an insult that doesn't sting is something that is inconsequential or easy, hence...
What's this about feathers in milk?
April 30, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word like water off a duck's back
Hmm... that's not the meaning I've heard used with this phrase. It seems like it would mean something that's really easy to do (like falling off a log) or smoothly accomplished without much effort. But I suppose it could mean any of several things.
April 30, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list beadle-mead--and-other-medieval-type-englishisms
There are more on this list, ruzuzu. (If you're interested.)
April 29, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word suggestions
I noticed this too. I can put the cursor in the box and use the arrow keys to get where I want to go, but this is rather cumbersome compared to using my little scroll wheel that I love so much.
April 29, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word beadsman
OED: 1. lit. A man of prayer; one who prays for the soul or spiritual welfare of another.
c1230 Ancr. R. 356 Beon ores beodemon. c1425 WYNTOUN Cron. IX. xxvii. 99 His Bede-men ai suld be..And pray for hym. 1538 LATIMER Serm. & Rem. (1845) 412 The prior of Worcester, is your orator and beadsman. c1540 Thrie Priests of Peblis, Welcum my beidmen, my blesse, and al my beild. 1591 SHAKES. Two Gent. I. i. 18 Commend thy grieuance to my holy prayers, For I will be thy beadesman, Valentine. 1647 WARD Simp. Cobler (1843) 62 As fervent a Beadsman for your welfare. 1869 FREEMAN Norm. Conq. (1876) III. ii. 28 His friend and bedesman, Abbot Eadwine.
2. One paid or endowed to pray for others; a pensioner or almsman charged with the duty of praying for the souls of his benefactors. Hence in later times; a. in England: An almsman, an inmate of an almshouse; (so also beadswoman: see BEAD n. 3); b. in Scotland: A public almsman or licensed beggar (into which position ‘the King's Bedesmen’ finally sank.)
April 29, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word beadsmanry
OED: Obs. The position or place of a beadsman.
1594 NASHE Unfort. Trav. 9 His former request to the King to accept his lands, and allow him a beadsmanrie.
April 29, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word beadlehood
OED: The state or dignity of a beadle. So beadleism.
1838 DICKENS O. Twist xvii, Mr. Bumble..was in the full bloom and pride of beadleism. Later edd. read ‘beadledom,’ and ‘beadlehood.’ The latter is in the C.D. ed.
Not the same as beaglehood, which is the state of being Snoopy.
April 29, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word beadlemer
"A one-year-old hooded seal." (OED)
April 29, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word beadledom
OED sez: "The embodiment of the characteristics of beadles as a class; stupid officiousness and ‘red-tapeism.’"
April 29, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word beadle-mead
I love this. *scrounges for a list to put it on*
I wish I had more time for list-making these days. I'd love to make some archaic medieval-English-type thing and this word would be a perfect start.
Incidentally, I looked this up in the OED and it wasn't there, but it suggested: beadledom, beadlehood, beadlemer, beadlery, and beadleship.
April 29, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word oyster mushroom
A fascinating use for the humble oyster mushroom: cleaning up oil spills.
April 29, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word tarball
Wow. Just found out those little things on the beach are remnants of oil spills. NOAA article here.
April 29, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word he've
I'm not familiar with linguistics terminology either, but here's what's correct grammatically, at least in American English:
He should've taken the left turn.
Should he've taken the left turn?
Both are examples of informal speech and wouldn't (because of the contractions) normally turn up in written works, unless it were dialogue.
("Should he have had taken..." is as weirdly incorrect as "He should have had taken.")
Moreover, I'm disturbed that Milos is even questioning whether shit should eat pizza. Gross!
;)
April 28, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list word-to-your-motha
I thought this said "word to your Mothra."
April 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user janejetson
I was gonna ask Jane to stop this crazy thing, but marky beat me to it. Anyway... welcome, janejetson! (Love the hair!)
April 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word asses
Seen repeatedly in a text about assessing student performance. For example:
"By analyzing primary documents through a class reading, students will asses some of the duties performed by these camp followers."
April 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list butter-beans-and-snaps
*bursting through wall like the Kool Aid pitcher*
OH YEAAAAHHHH!!!
At last! A list of beans!! :)
April 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word stevens
Not a misspelling if the site doesn't allow capital letters. (Wordie didn't.)
April 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word nine yards to sunday
The one I hear (and use) most often is "six ways from Sunday."
April 25, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list things-that-can-and-should-be-set-on-fire-and-hurled-out-of-a-trebuchet
Ooh! I know! That new KFC sandwich. WTF is it called...? Ah yes. The Double Down.
April 22, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
I agree re: big wall o' nuthin. Thanks for engineering a solution!
April 22, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list tobacco-packaging-warning-messages-in-various-languages
This list is really brilliant. Applause!
April 22, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list kinds-of-gladiators
Well, I gave up adding to mine after realizing the nightmare-having potential of reading about gladiators and all the ways they killed and tortured people and animals. Eugh.
But I started with that Wikipedia list too. I think it was the featured article the day I made the list. Who knew there were so many distinct classes of torturers?
Wait... Don't answer that.
April 22, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word mad props
Ooh! Ooh! I want an "anti-favorite" button!!
April 22, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word consummate
I haven't heard the second example, ever. Only "CONsummaate" for the verb, and "CONs'mm'te" for the adjective.
Either way, if you're responding to oroboros' comment, you should know this is just one of his "kangaroo words." (See list link at right.)
April 22, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pharaoh
Blahahahha!!!
April 21, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list wordniks-who-proudly-contribute-worthless-stuff--a-lot-of-dumb-comments--and-useless-words-to-the-zeitgeist-page
One word: fufluns. Speaking of which, where the hell is Prolagus, that absent prehistoric lagomorph??
Or wait, maybe the one word was testicle.
Oh, and two words: Specific Excrement. Or was it skipvia's luncheon meats?
Nevermind. This could go on for weeks.
April 21, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Freak not
See John's comment on take our survey.
April 21, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word take our survey
"Freak not what your country can do for you..."
April 21, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word mad props
The first time I heard it was when jennarenn said "I love Great Big Sea! Mad props!" on one of my lists. So now when I hear it, I always think of 1) jennarenn, and 2) Great Big Sea. Both of which make me very happy... so screw you people who don't like making me happy! *sticks out tongue*
April 21, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word banana boat
HUHbeautiful bunch of brrrright baNAAANAAA!
April 21, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list knee-ded-words
Not to take these comments even further from the list on which they are posted, but... John, don't let kad read that other horrifying list of mine, okay? Please?
Oh, and get well soon. ;)
April 20, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word man awk
See manpages. Which are not anything like a mancave.
April 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word manpages
I dated a man awk once.
April 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word twister
It seems like it would be easier to put in one's mouth than, say, a ramen fork would be.
April 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word hairdryer
... I like rant-hole. That does describe it aptly.
April 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word stool softener
Pro, that's teh alsome.
April 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word banana boat
HUHwork all night on a drrrink of rrrrum!!!
April 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word I'll keep my codpiece and pointy beard
You'll have to ask yarb about that. I don't have anything to do with his cod.
(I'm really more of a salmon bear. Though bears are omnivorous...)
April 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user pincomeguide16
The easiest way to piss off a whole bunch of people on Wordnik is to spam them.
April 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word I'll keep my codpiece and pointy beard
See orange cup.
April 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word orange cup
Well, they do say bears all smell like pee (even though they're wrong), so I can't really talk.
re: pointy beard, I think you got the better deal... but I still got the Industrial Revolution.
(I was going to make some argument about how my music is better than yours, but on second thought, that claim doesn't necessarily hold up.)
April 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word no justice, no peace
Seen here.
April 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word run-on sentence
*stunned*
April 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word orange cup
Yup. We are the Victorians, my friend.
Yarb... I'm sorry to hear you're Elizabethan because ... those people didn't... umm... well... they wore the same clothes all the time and... umm... they didn't bathe much.
*holds nose*
April 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user leona413
Nuke by Chained WTF Bear
April 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user jamjam1980
GO AWAY. You smell like spam.
April 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Þ
Cool. Thanks for the info. This is now one of my history dork out pages. :)
April 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word orange cup
You know, the more I read this book, the more I realize how much they are still around. We are the Victorians, my friend. It's truly bizarre.
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word take our survey
I like that you used "by dint of."
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Humperdink
Good for him. My understanding is that Dr. Horspenis is not so sensible of other cultural understandings of his surname.
P.S. I do not recommend Googling to find anyone by that name. *shudders*
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word tttthhhhhhbbbbbttttttttttt
Seen here.
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word sensitivity training
Usage can be seen here.
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Charlotte russe
Interestingly--at least to me--the description of how to make it, below, doesn't match the pictures on Flickr. I think that's because, as that site explains, the pictures are actually of Charlotte royale rather than Charlotte russe (which is described below and doesn't seem like it would look like brains).
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Charlotte russe
No idea, but the front page has some interesting images from Flickr. One of which led me to this site, upon which all charlotte desserts look like brains, but which also contains some more historical information about this type of dessert.
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Þ
I thought it was also/could be written like this: ¥, which explains why so many signs say "Ye Olde Slamdammerie," because in Old English it would have been "¥e Olde Cholmondeley," pronounced like "The Old Featherstonehaugh," but people think it looks older with a ¥ so they use a Y.
But I could be wrong.
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user yarb
Loving these ancient (well, okay, archaic) texts. Keep 'em coming! :)
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word stot
Pro, did anyone tell you that the default dictionary in Microsoft Office is a dodo-head?
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
Thanks for yours too, John. Like I said, I do realize you all are working hard. At *least* as hard as I'm working, I'm guessing. :) Thanks for your continuing efforts.
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Apollinaris
Usage on apollinaris.
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word apollinaris
"Clear, potable water is a phenomenon of the twentieth century. Nineteenth-century cookbooks of the 1850s and 1860s usually included directions for purifying water, using different methods of filtration (sand and charcoal) or chemical additives such as alum. Bottled waters offered to many an appealing alternative to city water. Apollinaris—a popular mineral water—was listed on the most elegant menus as a beverage choice, often alongside the stronger beverages."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 139
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word sugar nippers
"Cone or loaf sugar was the most highly refined and sweetest form of sugar. Women used sugar nippers to cut lumps from the cone for the sugar bowl, or else pounded the lumps into a fine powder to serve with fruit or sweets. As granulated sugar became available in the 1890s, sugar nippers became obsolete."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 124
Also, quoted in the above,
"The cutting of this cone of sugar into lumps of equal size and regular shape was distinctly the work of the mistress and daughters of the house. It was too exact and too dainty a piece of work to be entrusted to clumsy and wasteful servants."
Alice Morse Earle, 1898
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Charlotte russe
I have to make this someday. It sounds teh alsome.
"Charlotte russe was one of the most impressive desserts that could have been served at the time and was mentioned frequently in accounts of dinner and dessert parties during the late nineteenth century. Catharine Beecher volunteered two different recipes for it, describing it as a combination of rich custard and tall sponge cake. One was to slice one inch from the bottom of the cake, turn it over onto its top in a mold and scoop out the insides, leaving one-inch walls. The cavity was then filled with the custard, the bottom slice replaced, adn the whole chilled. It could then be turned out on a cake plate and ornamented with frosting or candy sugar flowers."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 115
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word French salad
"Salad was one of the most pervasive French influences during the early nineteenth century, and it rapidly became an integral part of any dinner. It was often preceded by the word 'French,' to identify it as a green, leafy salad dressed with oil and vinegar, mashed egg yolk, and a little mustard, as distinct from the chicken or lobster salads, which were also quite common. ... In the event that one encountered salad when dining at a hotel, Eliza Leslie warned her readers that salad was dressed usually by the gentlemen, not the ladies. The gentleman was to 'mix up the dressing on a separate plate, and then add it to the lettuce, and offer it around, as he chose.'"
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 113
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word sardine box
"Sardines were another high-status food, perhaps because, as one of the first canned foods available, they remained 'exotic.' They were frequently listed in cookbooks as a recommended 'kickshaw' (side dish or relish) during the soup course. Special sardine boxes were manufactured for serving them, often graced with a swimming fish on the sides or as a finial on the lid."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 111–112
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word celery
A history dork out-style usage on celery vase.
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word celery vase
"Common celery was considered a high-status food by middle-class Americans in the late nineteenth century; originally native to Europe, Asia, and Africa, celery had a distinguished history traceable to Homer's Odyssey as Apium graveolens. It was first used as food in sixteenth-century France, although only as a flavoring; by the mid-seventeenth century, the stalks and leaves were sometimes dressed with oil and eaten. The plant was improved during the eighteenth century, and its use became more common among the wealthy. Growing it was labor-intensive; it had to be blanched, or surrounded by built-up piles of soil, to preserve the whiteness and sweetness of its stalks. In accord with its status, celery was given a prominent position on the table by means of special celery stands or vases. These were usually made of either decorated glass or silver—both luxury materials—and could be tall, footed, vaselike forms or low baskets.... By 1900, the tall celery stands were nearly completely out of fashion, as celery lost its cachet. These low stands relegated celery to a much less prominent position on the landscape of the tabletop, and their appearance was parallelled by the development in the 1880s of a new, easier-to-grow, self-blanching, commercial variety of celery, which ... made it a much more ordinary household vegetable."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 110–111
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word banana boat
"When bananas were broadly introduced in the 1880s, tableware designers and glass manufacturers quickly responded by producing special footed serving bowls, called banana bowls or banana boats, which carefully cradled a bunch of bananas."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 108
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word orange cup
"As early as 1864, Eliza Leslie had written, 'It is very ungraceful to eat an orange at table, unless having cut a bit off the top, you eat the inside with a teaspoon.' Within twenty years, this advice had been transformed into a specialized spoon with a small bowl and pointed tip for eating oranges.... Other orange-related tableware introduced in the 1890s included orange cups—footed dishes with corkscrew or spear devices for holding the halved orange in place—and orange knives, 'in table and pocket sizes.'"
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 109
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word kickshaw
"Cookbooks frequently recommended sardines, a canned delicacy usually imported from Europe, as a 'kickshaw' (relish) to be served during the soup course at dinner. Sardines were considered elegant enough to merit their own special serving utensils."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 111
April 14, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
gguuuuuuuuhhhh!!! Every other comment on the front page is a god$#%@ned spammer. !!! I know everyone at Wordnik is working very hard and has many things to do... *steam coming out of ears at spammers*
I need to go away for a while.
April 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word twiffler
"In 1848, a letter written by a pottery manufacturer to his agent described a shipment of light-blue printed dinnerware, which included twelve dozen flat plates (ten-inch dinner plates), twelve dozen soup plates, eight dozen 'twifflers' (smaller plates, about eight inches in diameter), six dozen 'muffins' (plates smaller yet, between four inches and seven inches in diameter), twety-four hot-water plates and stoppers (plates similar to a modern child's feeding dish, with a receptacle for hot water to keep food warm), two root dishes (probably open serving bowls), four 'cover dishes' (covered serving bowls), eighteen 'dishes' (this term was used for platters) in seven different sizes...."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 80
April 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word doily
See explanation on d'oyley.
April 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word d'oyley
"The term 'd'oyley' (now 'doily') derives from the famous late-seventeenth-century London draper D'Oyley, who was a supplier of the materials for the inexpensive woolen mats or small, often fringed, napkins that were used during the fruit and dessert course to wipe ones fingers after the dinner napkins had been removed. The Workmen's Guide further defined the term. Doilies, it suggested, 'may be either white or colored, and are sometimes open, of six nails square; they are generally fringed.' The idea was to protect the white dinner napkins from fruit stains.
By the late nineteenth century, doilies were often brought out with the finger bowls and were used either as napkins or to protect the bare table after the tablecloth had been removed prior to the fruit course."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 72
April 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word majolica
"A typical late-nineteenth-century sideboard would also have displayed cut glass, examples of hand-painted French or German porcelain, 'antique' German or Italian glass, a German beer stein, a brass samovar, or a decorative piece of pottery—possibly Delft or majolica."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 68
April 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word drugget
"Since carpeting was usually one of the most expensive household acquisitions, crumb cloths ... or druggets were often laid under the dining table to protect against spills."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 61
April 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word recalmier
"Photographs of dining rooms, particularly those in middle-class homes, often show a recalmier, or small sofa."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 53
April 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word ormolu
"The contrast was apparent even in the lighting fixtures: a 'very rich ormolu gas chandelier' and a 'splendid 6-light ormolu chandelier' were found in the parlors, while the dining room below was furnished merely with an unadorned 'gas pendant.'"
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 53
April 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Humperdink
(I know. I was using the page name to effect.)
April 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
Please see gangerh's comment on spam. Thanks!
April 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word spam
I second gangerh's comment of two months ago, but ima also post it on Feedback.
April 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user alexson11
Wow, it's like a big spam party!
April 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pretzelcoatl
*loves*
April 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word buckruh
(See also buckra.)
April 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Humperdink
Humperdink Humperdink Humperdink!
—The Princess Bride
P.S. No, the worst surname ever is Horspenis.
April 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word imma
Hmm. Are you sure it isn't more commonly spelled "Ima" or perhaps ima? To me, this spelling looks like it's pronounced with a short I, like someone's trying to say "Emma" and really screwing up.
April 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word from away
I think this is Newfoundland-ish also...
April 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word tongues
Well, apparently your tongue may be ONLY dry or pickled. Furry, forked, pierced, or still attached ones, according to this text, I surmise, are not permitted.
April 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word tongues
"Tongues.
If your tongue is a dry one, soak it in water all night; but if a pickled one, only wash it well, and put it in cold water; (the dry one will take three hours boiling, the pickled one two hours and a half) when it is done peel the skin and cut the outside of the root off, put it in a dish, and garnish with carrots and sprigs of greens, or whole turneps sic boiled."
—Richard Briggs, The New Art of Cookery, According to the Present Practice; being a Complete Guide to all Housekeepers, on a Plan Entirely New, Consisting of Thirty-Eight Chapters... (Philadelphia: Printed for W. Spotswood, R. Campbell, and B. Johnson, M.DCC.XCII), 119.
April 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word fufluns
For further description, see also zuzuniknik.
April 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word dump cake
John, I thought the same thing. Whew!
April 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Tomb-Sweeping Day
They're on the word front page, sionnach--not the comments page. (Click on the word above and look at the column at right.)
April 7, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Tomb-Sweeping Day
Reesetee, don't you have a list of holidays?
April 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Palinized
Lovely word for an awful concept.
April 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word freelance chicken sexer
Those BASTARDS.
April 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word quiet
Sshhhhh!! Wordnik is vewy vewy quiet!
March 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user cardal_meds
effing spammer.
March 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Triangle fire
March 25, 1911. Great online exhibit here.
March 25, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word whale ear wax
Ambergris?
Edit: Dammit, this stupid capital-letter thing! ambergris?
March 24, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word is there a word for that
I think there should be a word for Facebook rage. You know, the kind that results from someone's compulsion to 1) post unrelated angry political content on someone's status, and 2) to continue posting long rants against one's friends' friends, even though you don't know them and a Facebook status is (probably) not a good place for reasoned political debate.
Facerage?
March 24, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Tautology Club
XKCD: "The first rule of Tautology Club is the first rule of Tautology Club."
March 24, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list hottest-guys-names
Eldad Spofford.
If that ain't hot, then that ain't hot. (Welcome to the Tautology Club.)
March 24, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word hotness overload
(Seen here.)
March 24, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word homosexuality
Lemme tell ya, in that bar it was Friday night.
(John, that video is adorable!)
March 24, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word LBJ orders some pants
It was for fending off attack doughnuts, I think.
March 24, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word bunghole
Don't be silly. LBJ orders some pants is a fantastic entry. I didn't want people to miss carriwitchet's comment. ;)
March 24, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word bhut jolokia
See frogapplause's link on chili grenade.
March 24, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word LBJ orders some pants
See also bunghole. ;)
March 24, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word re-purpose
Ooh, we use this at work all the time... :(
March 24, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pastina
Yes, I know that small pasta shapes are available, but I'm talking about the actual box that says "pastina" on it and contains small star-shaped pasta. You know, the kind I had as a child.
Guess I'll look for a box next time I'm in the old stomping grounds.
March 24, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Rice Krispie chicken
Oh yes, I forgot that step™. Thanks™!
March 23, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Johnny Dickshot
Oh, wow. Wow.
March 23, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pastina
I can't seem to find this anymore. Do they still make it? The little star-shaped things? This was a coming-home-from-kindergarten lunch that Mom used to make.
March 23, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Rice Krispie chicken
Crush Rice Krispies™ in a Ziploc™ bag with a rolling pin (or bottle of cheap wine™). Dip chicken parts in melted butter, then in crushed Rice Krispies™. Bake at 350 for however long one bakes chicken parts.
March 23, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word fake pizza
Made with regular sliced bread, American cheese, and tomato sauce. Gross, yet good, especially if you're a kid and don't know any better.
March 23, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user hectorweiter7
Welcome Hector! Here's a nice heaping plate of hot SPAM for you! Enjoy!
March 23, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word homosexuality
Obviously, the ones with gay sheep in them. Duh.
March 23, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Johnny Dickshot
Beautiful. Beautiful.
March 23, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Mount McKinley
A.K.A. Denali.
March 21, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Winchester Mystery House
Really? My SO has been there.
Oh dammit, that site starts with some stupid music. Sorry about that.
March 21, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word aboiement
Aha! Reesetee! Now it IS Soundie and you CAN give us examples of your bird-squawks!! :)
March 21, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user jungzing
lookatthisfreespamrighthereonWordnikfree
March 21, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word snake
Either there, or in the greater Boston area.
March 19, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word snake
Come to think of it, I don't believe there are any snakes in the greater Boston area, either... *ponders*
March 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word features
John, is there a way to search for lists (by title, say) and I'm not seeing it? It annoys me to scroll through my own seventy bazillion lists to find one in particular, but at least that's do-able; finding someone else's list that way is just about impossible.
March 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word vampire squid
Video seen here.
March 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word snake
"Why Ireland has no snakes," by a zoologist at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. (Not that we didn't already know this, but there's some other interesting information therein.)
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Irish
I thought this article about slang using "Irish" was pretty interesting. Happy St. Patrick's Day.
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word trafficantes
Usage on favela.
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word favela
"Rio's lawmen are once again confronting favela drug lords; six of the meanest slums have been declared bandit-free, including the infamous Cidade de Deus (City of God). In a city of 1,000 favelas, half of which are rotten with trafficantes that's a drop in the ocean...."
—Mac Margolis, "Brazil Purifies the 'City of God,' Newsweek, January 25, 2010
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word mansaf
"Sometime between 2004 and 2009, he attended two dinners sponsored by the mainstream, fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, but he wasn't impressed. He went to eat 'their famous mansaf rice with meat,' not to hear their ideas, he told his wife. He spoke openly of wanting to visit 'places of jihad.'"
—Mark Hosenball, Sami Yousafzai, and Adem Demir, "Anatomy of a Double-Cross," Newsweek, January 18, 2010
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word the Mighty Wurlitzer
"He has softened the Bush-era rhetoric and turned down the volume on what a former CIA chieftain once called 'the Mighty Wurlitzer,' a mythical organ that blasts out the music of American salvation and superiority."
—Evan Thomas and Stuart Taylor Jr., "Obama vs. Obama," Newsweek, January 18, 2010
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Islamofascism
"He has always known that speaking of a 'crusade' and 'Islamofascism' was a good way to make jihadists out of Muslim teenagers..."
—Evan Thomas and Stuart Taylor Jr., "Obama vs. Obama," Newsweek, January 18, 2010
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word porte cochere
"There was a good chance that the coach would be detained—was sure to be slow, bogged down on the miry roads.
Speaking of coaches—his heart gave a sickly leap at the sight of a battered-looking carriage standing in the porte cochere, which he thought belonged to the doctor."
—Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone (New York: Delacorte Press, 2009), 244
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word withes
"She had yet another mask, he saw, this one a stiff thing made of basket withes lined with layers of soft cotton cloth. She fitted this gently to Henry's face and, saying something inaudible to him, took up her dropping bottle."
—Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone (New York: Delacorte Press, 2009), 751
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word trusdair
"'Why the devil should this trusdair take your son?' Buccleigh rolled down his window and stuck his head out.... 'And why, for the sake of all holy, bring him here?'"
—Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone (New York: Delacorte Press, 2009), 723
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list entertainment
Nice list! (and title)
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word blatherskite
Another meaning applies here:
"The little engraver betrayed no particular discomfort under this basilisk stare and went on telling me about the response when he had published the bound edition of the Encyclopedia—the King had somehow happened to see the plates of the "Womb" section and had ordered those pages to be torn out of the book, the ignorant German blatherskite!—but when the waiter came to take his order, he ordered both a very expensive wine and a large bottle of good whisky."
—Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone (New York: Delacorte Press, 2009), 644
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word foistingness
Usage on stultiloquy.
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word stultiloquy
"'Ungrateful!' Abram said, his face congested. 'And what should we be grateful for, then? For having soldiers foisted upon us?'
'Oh, foisted, is it?' cried Mr. Ormiston in righteous indignation. 'Such a word! And if it means what I think it does, young man, you should get down on your knees and thank God for such foistingness! Who do you think saved you all from being scalped by red Indians or overrun by the French? And who do you think paid for it all, eh?'
This shrewd riposte drew cheers....
'That is absolute ... desolute ... stultiloquy,' began Abram, puffing up his insignificant chest like a scrawny pigeon...."
—Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone (New York: Delacorte Press, 2009), 323
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word ahoo
"'I'm afraid your cabin was all ahoo, ma'am,' he said. 'But I picked up what bits was scattered on the floor...'"
—Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone (New York: Delacorte Press, 2009), 323
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word vertebroplasty
"Two studies last year in the NEJM New England Journal of Medicine showed that vertebroplasty, in which cement is inserted through a needle into the spine to stabilize vertebrae, is no more effective at reducing pain and disability than fake surgery (anesthesia, small incision for the needle, no cement). That suggests it is the hope and expectations of patients, not the procedure, that help. Yet about 170,000 vertebroplasties are done every year, at a typical cost of $5,000."
—Sharon Begley, "This Won't Hurt a Bit," Newsweek, March 15, 2010
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word succinylcholine
"Toxicology tests showed that he had been dosed with succinylcholine, a paralyzing agent."
—Michael Isikoff, "Murder in Dubai," Newsweek, March 15, 2010
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word dance of the lemons
"Many principals don't even try to weed out the poor performers (or they transfer them to other schools in what's been dubbed the 'dance of the lemons'). Year after year, about 99 percent of all teachers in the United States are rated 'satisfactory' by their school systems; firing a teacher invites a costly court battle with the local union."
—Evan Thomas and Pat Wingert, "Why We Can't Get Rid of Failing Teachers," Newsweek, March 15, 2010
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word yoghurt
*titters at whichbe's year-old joke*
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word silver Aries K with red vinyl interior, constant antifreeze smell
I recall those. They were like riding in big Matchbox™® cars.
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word traded in tiara for a cloche
whirly skirt.
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word yellow Volkswagen Superbeetle upon which I painted green kangaroos
No, but that's the closest I came to learning to drive a manual.
It's hard to get the pages to shift when you want them to, you know? Especially with those flimsy covers.
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word first cars
That car sounds friggin' awesome!
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word a secretive bird
Seen here.
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word first cars
Oh John. You so sexy. :)
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word yellow Volkswagen Superbeetle upon which I painted green kangaroos
It was semi-automatic. Who knew they even made those?
March 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word praties
Shane MacGowan pronounces it "pray-tees" in the song, if that helps (or matters).
March 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Pearl Harbour
psst... it's Pearl Harbor.
March 15, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Forehead Tittaes
"By Janae."
Now *there's* a sales pitch! :)
March 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word nebraksa
Um... that's the call of the wild chained_bear, below, if that's what you're referring to.
March 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list sometime-definite-article-countries
I wish there were a way to add the Berenado Vinibobo to this list.
Wait... is Yemen also called the Yemen? Curious.
March 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word crapuccino
See crappucino. Or crappuccino.
March 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pterodactyl
UAV! Now we know what ptero's REALLY been up to lately...
March 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word UAV
Unmanned aerial vehicle(s). Usage:
"At least 40 other countries--from Belarus and Georgia to India, Pakistan and Russia--have begun to build, buy, and deploy unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, showcasing their efforts at international weapons expos.... In the last six months alone, Iran has begun production on a pair of weapons-ready surveillance drones, while China has debuted the Pterodactyl and Sour Dragon, rivals to America's Predator and Global Hawk."
—P.W. Singer, "Defending Against Drones," Newsweek, March 8, 2010, p. 38
March 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word uav
uav is very different from a UAV, I learned today.
March 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list australian-derivation-or-you-know-ism
Who you callin' fuzzbutt, leather-ears?
March 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list australian-derivation-or-you-know-ism
I never heard these, actually. That might be because when I was there it was a generation ago. I never actually heard anyone saying barbie when I was there, except in a self-consciously stereotypical Aussie way. To me it seemed far more of a word they trotted out to please the tourists. But again, this was a generation ago. *shakes head in wonder*
March 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word helvetica
tee hee!! *excellent* link, Pro... :)
March 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list hottest-guys-names
Oh. *ignores signals as they are not useful*
March 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
*loves telofy* Thank you for championing the en-dash!
March 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list hottest-guys-names
*amusedly watches the preening*
March 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word stewed dog
This is the stuff of my nightmares.
March 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user vega
Vega's lists have been among my favorites since before Wordietime. :)
March 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word flotus
You mean SCOTUS. And if you never heard POTUS, you obviously are not a fan of "The West Wing." :)
I think FLOTUS sounds unfortunately close to FLATUS, which would make a great* acronym.
* for someone else.
Yarb, I always thought Duns Scotus's name sounded a little... suggestive... or something...
March 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word big, hairy, fat, beachcombing, dreamy, frog-mincing, grumpy-when-tired, brainstem-chewing liar
I was with you up until "brainstem-chewing."
March 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word never put your banana in the refrigerator
*watches through binoculars the majestic flight of the reesetee*
Delightful! So much more fun to watch than bananas!
March 11, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list these-verbs-are-made-of-meat
I like the list title. (P.S. sorry my contribution is not really a verb. It makes one want to play the spoons, though, and that IS a verb.)
March 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word never put your banana in the refrigerator
Hey! Where'd reesetee go? And what's that bunch of disgusting bananas doing over there?
March 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list animals-with-nifty-names
Is that like a raccoonnookkeeper?
kitinka: thanks! I'd forgotten that one!
March 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word normally finds Millard Fillmore quite charming
Seen here.
March 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list •open-list-what-are-the-most-irritating-entries-you-have-found-using-wordie-s-random-word-feature
... oh.
*adds to list*
March 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user dontcry
oh no!! so sorry for your loss, dontcry! I'm with Pro--I hope one day your memories of him outshine your sense of loss. Even though words are not much help right now... :(
March 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list •open-list-what-are-the-most-irritating-entries-you-have-found-using-wordie-s-random-word-feature
millard fillmore? Seriously? ... uav.
March 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list •open-list-i-wonder-what-reesetee-s-ten-favorite-words-are-this-week
Thanks reesetee. This is a fine selection.
March 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
Listen, I have more than 250 lists, and there's no way on God's green earth I could remember them all, or if they're all intact. But when I have some time in the next year or two, assuming they're still there, I'm gonna make a list of my lists. And then list that on my list of weird lists. *disappears into self*
Seriously, I might make a list of my lists, in Word or something.
March 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word dripping from the fangs of Zeitgeist
Coined by bilby, and seen here, and I'm sorry if the link doesn't work but I'm not even gonna TRY to type the "word" here.
Also, "We don't have any examples for dripping from the fangs of Zeitgeist, but we're constantly adding material, so please check back soon."
March 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word sionnach: Vanish, you cretinous clarty-paps, you flambuginous fireship, you scaurous, shardborn snivelard. We have no need of your kind of hellbound hogminny...
I *really* like 'dripping from the fangs of Zeitgeist.'
March 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user macmeds
macmeds, we don't take kindly to spammers 'round these parts. Now git, or sionnach may taunt you a second time.
March 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list animals-with-nifty-names
Well, horse is okay, as words go. But I don't think it can really compare to, say, ibex or kinkajou. But wombat is on this list, as well as several others; koala is cool too; they are both on my Australia list. :) Thanks for the input! You might also like this list: the (chained) unbearable cuteness of beings, by skipvia. (Will this link work? Dunno.)
The cool thing about the list is if you click on each word, then "comments," there's a link to some cuteness or other.
March 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word never put your banana in the refrigerator
Our local supermarket (I think most of them, actually) carries non-Cavendish bananas, and also plantains. And much good may it do you all, since bananas are disgusting.*
Though you're all welcome to do your grocery shopping here. I won't interfere in Wordnik-inspired banana-buying sprees.
*I actually put one in a smoothie this morning and didn't hurl. Go figure.
March 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word irukandji
I hadn't heard of this little creature till I found a TV show on Discovery called "Killer Jellyfish." Seriously.
March 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word the way it spozed to be
I think this is the title of a book, and I think it was about the public education system, or something. I remember seeing the cover ages ago, when my sister was reading it for class.
March 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Chile
yarb, that was my first answer. He didn't think that was good enough so I came up with the vowel answer. That kept him busy. It was kind of like ... having a bored toddler, and giving him a box of Kleenex so he can pull out the tissues and amuse himself while you get some work done.
P.S. as to the original question, I do say "Chill-ay." I think that's how many Americans say it, as opposed to "Chill-y," which I seem to hear more often from Brits, and is how I pronounced it before I ever heard the word spoken (as a kid). I just thought "Chill-ay" was the way it spozed to be. As to why, I think the back-formation idea (from "Chilean") makes the most sense to me.
March 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word nijū hibakusha
Just as hibakusha describes individuals who survived the atomic bombings of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, this term describes individuals who survived both bombings. (Seen in Wikipedia article about hibakusha.)
March 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user chained_bear
Thanks, oroboros! I actually saw that somewhere... but I think it is negligent in not mentioning tappens. Seriously.... I mean... tappens...
Seriously.
March 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Chile
I had a similar length-of-vowel-sound conversation with a linguist many years ago. We were discussing how Americans can tell the difference between the spoken words "writing" and "riding," since he was mocking the American penchant for pronouncing "t" like "d," e.g. "budder"* rather than "butter." I suggested it was the length of the long-I sound, but it was a wild guess on my part.
* still one of the more hilarious sounds when a Brit tries to say it as an American would. Another example is to have an Australian pronounce the American-style R in "dork."
March 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word hibakusha
"These men, women, and children who were exposed to the bomb are the hibakusha. This status entitles one to a monthly allowance from the government as compensation for injuries, since many of them have lingering health problems from which they will never recover."
Seen on this site: http://www.damninteresting.com/eyewitnesses-to-hiroshima-and-nagasaki
Which I'm really happy to have found.
In the Wikipedia article on this term, I saw this quote:
'There is considerable discrimination in Japan against the hibakusha. It is frequently extended toward their children as well: socially as well as economically. "Not only hibakusha, but their children, are refused employment," says Mr. Kito. "There are many among them who do not want it known that they are hibakusha."'
—Studs Terkel, The Good War, (1984), 542
Which I also thought worth sharing here.
March 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word flaming accordions
I had one too, but it was too warm. Long sleeves, you know... And yet, the flames down the sleeves were the best part!
March 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list oh--google--youre-so-droll
Someone please point out to palooka that Google says men have nipples. :)
March 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list things-that-might-glow-in-the-dark
Hey! Duct tape?? I clicked Pro's link and found this:
Did you know that duct tape also causes light? It is caused by the breaking of the glue bonds, and you can see it if you pull a piece off the roll in a dark room. (The light is pretty dim). Look right where the tape joins the roll, on the sticky side.
March 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word corinthian
Makes me think of Ricardo Montalban.
March 2, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Canadiana
I really enjoyed the giant inflatable beavers.
P.S. This pisses me off:
"Home-grown actors like Michael J. Fox and William Shatner mocked their countrymen's penchant for politeness (we're sorry) and obsession with its vast territory (we dream big)."
Because it's wrong. It was Catherine O'Hara who mocked her countrymen's penchant for politeness. Yet she didn't even get a mention here. F@#$ing Canadians!!
March 2, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word lyndon b johnson on john f kennedy
... That ... that's perfect.
February 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
I'm with yarb. Let's leave it the way it is, please.*
Collapsible comments! Good ideee!
Edit: I didn't mean about pronunciations--just comments.
February 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word noel coward on peter o'toole
*has had crush on Peter O'Toole since third grade*
February 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list mandles-candles-for-men
"Don't smell like sunsets and baby powder. Smell like jet fighters and punching."
February 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Old Spice
I can't believe there aren't any links on this to the commercials on YouTube. *sigh*
"I'm on a horse."
February 27, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word ablation cascade
Seen on the Wikipedia article "Kessler syndrome."
February 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user dontcry
It's not on hold at my house. Or rather my cubicle. Where I spent most of yesterday afternoon bouncing around after eating handsfuls of Tootsie Rolls from Halloween 2008. YAH YAH YAH YAH!!! :)
February 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word slalom
I tried that. It still blows.
February 26, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word slalom
This word is hideous. Hideous. And vile.
February 25, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word a bunch of priapic elves doing the backstroke
Started on luncheon; continued on hot the bottle.
February 25, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word chirurgie
See also chirurgeon.
February 23, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word wait on
Drives me batshit. I also don't like "wait on line." To me it's wait IN line.
February 23, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word almost almost Solveig
*walks in*
*looks around*
*leaves*
February 23, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user raisecredit34
*chanting* WorDIES, WorDIES, WorDIES!!! etc.
February 23, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word almost Solveig
*flings around vats of papaya*
*watches as the gloopy seeds sglop down the charred walls*
*eats cupcake*
*pokes dontcry's tat*
February 23, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word gradualist
Usage on knows no jumps.
February 23, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word knows no jumps
"In a self-interview in 1956, Robert Penn Warren asked himself, 'Are you a gradualist on the matter of segregation?' To which he answered: 'If by gradualist you mean a person who would create delay for the sake of delay, then no. If by gradualist you mean a person who thinks it will take ... time for an educational process, preferably a calculated one, then yes.... It's a silly question, anyway, to ask if somebody is a gradualist. Gradualism is all you'll get. History, like nature, knows no jumps. Except the jump backward, maybe.'"
—Jon Meacham, "The System's Not to Blame; We Are," Newsweek, Feb. 22, 2010
February 23, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word misspelling
Pro, that site rocks. "Nothing gets a point across like a solid kick to the hemmies."
February 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word almost Solveig
*flings vats of brown M&Ms around*
February 18, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word bagel
Another usage on bageldom: "A stock worth zero."
February 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word bageldom
"When Lehman ended its 14-year-run as a public company with a bagel (a stock worth zero), some $45 billion in shareholder value had been destroyed. The other capers didn't end much better for shareholders. Bear Stearns was rescued from bageldom when JPMorgan bought it at a fire-sale price with the help of the Federal Reserve."
—Daniel Gross, "Wall Street's Fishbowl," Newsweek, Feb. 8, 2010, p. 19
February 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
AAAAGH!!! They're back!
http://www.wordnik.com/people/ella35vs
February 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Vancouver
*covets cheap and nutritious lunchtime pizza, and therefore covets the city of Vancouver*
February 17, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Vancouver
I like vang-couver too. But I don't pronounce Vancouver that way. Are there other resident Vancouverites aboard the good ship SS Wordnik? My nephew used to live there, but he's gone all Salinger on us.
February 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word yarbism
See for posterity.
February 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word for posterity
I didn't see the original, since it was nuked before I was subjected to it, but I found this yarbism on the "previous comments" screen and thought we should save it:
“Call it unoriginal if you want, but there's a lot to be said for traditional, "missionary" spam, and it'll never go out of fashion.”
February 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word does miley cyrus have a tattoo
Did Bob Miley have a tattoo?
February 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word professor von schmartzenpanz
Wow. Thanks for the reminder to reread this page. It gives me the happies every frickin' time.
February 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word You probably think this song is about you
I was a pavlova virgin until I lived in Australia, and, though I developed a taste for Vegemite and other beastly confections there, frankly I still think pavlova's gross.
P.S. Pro: HAR!!! :)
February 16, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pronunciation
Grant, are you gonna bracket snarfled a fargle or ruzzled a pallow?
February 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word freudenschade
Oooh... I like this.
February 13, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
That's for me too, reesetee. But I think it's because (below) John said they disabled links for the time being. (Or maybe that was only supposed to be in list descriptions...?)
February 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word You probably think this song is about you
Hey, I made it home alive. Still, you may be right—I may be crazy. But then, it just might be some wombats that you're feeding chocolate to.
*bouncing with dontcry* Ouch! Sorry...
February 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word fleur de lis
Also the city of Florence. Oh, and FRANCE.
February 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Speedo
.
February 12, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word You probably think this song is about you
Did you walk to Bedford-Stuy alone? I did. Even rode my motorcycle in the raaaaaain.
February 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list ria
Isn't it? Isn't it? Isn't it?
Oh wait... wrong thread...
February 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Gary, Indiana
Great. Now I'm gonna sing that song from "The Music Man" for the rest of the day. *grumbles*
February 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list ria
I think yarb means unemployed. Wageless. Unfortunate. You know—poor. (As opposed to Rich.)
If I had to guess.
;)
February 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word You probably think this song is about you
Listen, reesetee, don't try to save me. I said, he may be wrong, for all I know—but he may be right.
February 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word snowpocalypse
And I remember driving through the great snowpocalypse of 1996. And doesn't anyone remember 1978?
Not to mention that blizzard in 1888 that all those people died in. Sheesh...
February 10, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Philadelphia heartburn
blahahahahaaaaa!
February 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list palinisms
damn... skipvia posted something awesome that probably belongs here, a few months back, but danged if I can find it. :(
February 9, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Cincinnati oysters
eeeeew... cool list, though!
February 8, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word scaramouche
Mama just killed a man.
(Isn't that a sentence that cries out for punctuation.)
February 8, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word You probably think this song is about you
P_U may be wrong, for all I know, but he may be right.
He may be wrong but he may be right.
He may be wrong but he may be right.
February 8, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word almost Solveig
*eats cupcakes*
February 8, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word cincinatti oysters
(psst... I think you mean Cincinnati...?)
February 8, 2010
chained_bear commented on the list only-on-wordie
*bear-hugs the group hug*
February 6, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Yarb Birds
See almost Solveig.
February 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word My Red Stapler
(Or, presumably, an escaped slave in the West Indies in the eighteenth century.)
February 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word My Red Stapler
I'm guessing it was a Swingline. (Links to a YouTube clip.)
February 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word You probably think this song is about you
I think the song is about having clouds in one's coffee. Which, frankly, probably doesn't taste all that great.
Does it? Does it? Does it?
February 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word sweater cream
There's a list for that. Somewhere. If you find casu marzu, there it is.
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word helot
"In fact, only half her attention was focused on the heavyset gentleman's murmured remarks to his helot, a small young woman in an overall too big for her, with pink streaks in her hair."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 976
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word ductus arteriosus
"The ductus arteriosus is a small blood vessel that in the fetus joins the aorta to the pulmonary artery. Babies have lungs, of course, but prior to birth don't use them; all their oxygen comes from the placenta, via the umbilical cord. Ergo, no need for blood to be circulated to the lungs, save to nourish the developing tissue—and so the ductus arteriosus bypasses the pulmonary circulation.
At birth, though, the baby takes its first breath, and oxygen sensors in this small vessel cause it to contract—and close permanently. With the ductus arteriosus closed, blood heads out from the heart to the lungs, picks up oxygen, and comes back to be pumped out to the rest of the body. A neat and elegant system—save that it doesn't always work properly."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 922
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word bolus hystericus
"Bolus hystericus, I thought quite calmly. Do stop, Beauchamp. Easier said than done, but I did stop worrying that I was having a heart attack."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 829
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word axon
"... a sense of danger communicates itself among people in a confined setting: hospital emergency room, surgical suite, train car, ship; urgency flashes from one person to the next without speech, like the impulse down a neuron's axon to the dendrites of another."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 804
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word cattywumpus
See also catty-wumpus.
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word catty-wumpus
"'Mrs. Fraser brought the child,' Mrs. Tolliver explained eagerly. 'It was laid catty-wumpus, but she brought it so cleverly, and made it breathe—we thought 'twas dead, it was so still, but it wasn't! Isn't that wonderful, Tolly?'"
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 777
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word hatchel
See also a usage on hatcheling.
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word hatcheling
"It was only the mercy of God that it hadn't been worse—that, and Claire's rage, which had interrupted the attack, as everyone stopped to watch the engrossing spectacle of her hatcheling her assailant like a bundle of flax."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 765
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word trigeminal
"The side of my face felt as though it were on fire, and jolts of pain shot through the trigeminal nerve with each heartbeat, making the muscles twitch and the eye water terribly."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 735
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word shebeen
"The public houses, taverns, ordinaries, and pothouses in Charlotte were doing a roaring business, as delegates, spectators, and hangers-on seethed through them, men of Loyalist sentiments collecting in the King's Arms, those of rabidly opposing views in the Blue Boar, with shifting currents of the unallied and undecided eddying to and fro, purling through the Goose and Oyster, Thomas's ordinary, the Groats, Simon's, Buchanan's, Mueller's, and two or three nameless places that barely qualified as shebeens."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 729
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word muhly
"I ripped and tore with ferocious concentration: dandelions, fireweed, rhododendron sprouts, bunchgrass, muhly, smartweed, and the creeping mallow known locally as 'cheese.'"
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 725
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word chrysoberyl
"The light touched the decanter and the drink within glowed like a chrysoberyl."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 711
And,
"Below, the object glittered up at us, serene and glowing, its beauty at last revealed. A faceted clear stone, the color of golden sherry, half the size of my thumbnail.
'Chrysoberyl,' Jamie said softly, a hand on my back.... 'D'ye think it will serve?'"
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 930
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word thig
"Gordon, a shy boy of about seventeen, was betrothed to a Quaker girl from Woolam's Mill; he'd been round the day before to 'thig'—beg small bits of household goods in preparation for his marriage."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 699
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pure
"'Be glad I'm not tanning hides,' she advised him. 'Ian says the Indian women use dog turds for that.'
'So do European tanners; they just call the stuff "pure."'
'Pure what?'
'Pure dog turds, I suppose,' he said with a shrug. 'How's it going?'"
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 698
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word spicule
"I remembered what Fergus had said, in answer to Jamie's instructions: 'I remember how this game is played.' So did I, and spicules of ice began to form in my blood."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 688
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word nevus
"Bree leaned in beside me, and her eyes widened at sight of hte small brown blotch. It was about the size of a farthing, quite round, just above the hairline toward the back of his head, behind the left ear.
'What is it?' she asked, frowning....
'I'm fairly sure it's all right,' I assured her, after a quick inspection. 'It looks like what's called a nevus—it's something like a flat mole, usually quite harmless.'"
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 680–681
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word gesso
"... breathing in the smell of the pictures—the smell of oils and charcoal, gesso, paper, canvas, linseed and turpentine, a full-bodied ghost that floated out of its wicker casket...."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 645
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word You probably think this song is about you
I take umbrage! Etc. etc.
February 3, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user sionnach
Damn. I'm still deflated.
Does anyone have a bicycle pump, or something?
February 2, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user sionnach
... so we can't make fun of him?
*deflated*
February 2, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user sionnach
Interestingly, if sionnach has left, he won't see any of these comments. I move we make fun of him instead, since he's not here to defend himself.
;)
February 2, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user sionnach
... did you just call sionnach OLD?!
*sniggering*
;)
February 1, 2010
chained_bear commented on the user feedback
I am not involved in running the site, of course, but my guess is that it isn't so much the difficulty that's causing the delay, but the number of things (many of them, perhaps, very difficult) that are on the list ahead of the items you mentioned. The gang at Wordnik surely is human, despite evidence to the contrary, and can only do so much in a day. As John pointed out often on Wordie, sometimes fixing or upgrading one thing resulted in three things "breaking."
I see your frustration and raise you a nostalgia. But I'm sure John and co. are working as hard as they can. I do hope you pop back in now and then and say hello!
February 1, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Rawenniyo
"'I should have been sure that it was Rawenniyo—a spirit, a god—save for the dog.'
'What do you mean? That Rollo wasn't afraid of it?'
Ian nodded.
'Aye. He didna behave as though there were anything there at all. And yet...'"
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 627
February 1, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word beshit
"'When did you find this, Ian?'
'Last month. I came up the gorge'—he gestured with his chin—'and there it was. I near beshit myself.'"
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 626
February 1, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word marron
"She had cut the last of the chestnut skins and buried the gleaming marrons in the ashes to bake with the yams, by the time he came back."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 617
February 1, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word sidhe
"'Ye call them sidhe in the Gaelic. The Cherokee call them the Nunnahee. And the Mohawk have names for them, too—more than one. But when I heard Eats Turtles tell of them, I kent at once what they were. It's the same—the Old Folk.'"
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 608
February 1, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word caddis
"It was a pity that she hadn't a casting rod or tied flies—but still worth a try. Caddis flies weren't the only things that rose hungry at twilight, and voracious trout had been known to strike at almost anything that floated in front of them...."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 603
February 1, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word juddering
"The humped mound of the beaver lodge was reflected in still water, and on the far bank she could see the agitated judderings of a couple of willow saplings, evidently in the process of being consumed."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 603
February 1, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word tagus
"... tracing the small, neat line of his ear. Tiny, stiff blond hairs sprouted in a tiny whorl from the tagus, tickling my finger."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 575
February 1, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word pseudopodia
"I was seeing in vivid memory the slides of Entameba, greedy pseudopodia flowing in slow-motion appetite. Water, I heard water flowing; it lived in water, though only the cystic form was infective..."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 561
February 1, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word Entameba
Usage on pseudopodia.
February 1, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word snooving
"A quick glance down; the snake, having paused for a rest, was on the move again, snooving its way gently round the end of a bench."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 530
February 1, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word gleek
"'Have ye a deck of cards in the house?'
'What? I—yes, of course.'
'Bring them, then,' he said with a smile. 'Gleek, loo, or brag, your choice.'"
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 516
February 1, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word rambustious
"'Yon feller's right rambustious,' she said with approval, eyes fixed on Jamie. 'I could admire me a man like that!'"
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 507
February 1, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word smallclothes
Usage on choners.
February 1, 2010
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