/Darwin/ did not study his beetle catches very intensively and performed no dissections, so he may indeed have missed the genital wonders that lay hidden beneath their elytra.
Menno Schilthuizen, Nature's Nether Regions: What the Sex Lives of Bugs, Birds, and Beasts Tell Us About Evolution, Biodiversity, and Ourselves</i> (New York: Viking, 2014)
The ugly stick is a traditional Newfoundland musical instrument fashioned out of household and tool shed items, typically a mop handle with bottle caps, tin cans, small bells and other noise makers. The instrument is played with a drum stick and has a distinctive sound.
Marketers and publishers are using innovative methods to create, format, and deliver digital advertising. One form is “native advertising,” content that bears a similarity to the news, feature articles, product reviews, entertainment, and other material that surrounds it online.
Nowhere could they find a bigger flat in London at even double the price. He would have to leave home to make room for the incoming child. Not that he could afford separate accommodation, but perhaps he could live in the Museum, hiding when the closing bell rang and dossing down on one of the broad-topped desks with a pile of books for a pillow.
David Lodge, The British Museum Is Falling Down (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1965), p. 88
if the rope slips, breaks, or is let go, or if the bowline slips, he falls overboard or breaks his neck. This, however, is a thing which never enters into a sailor's calculation. He thinks only of leaving no holydays (places not tarred,) for in case he should, he would have to go over the whole again; or of dropping no tar on the deck, for then there would be a soft word in his ear from the mate.
Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast (1840), ch. VIII
Refoulement means the expulsion of persons who have the right to be recognised as refugees. The principle of non-refoulement has first been laid out in 1954 in the UN-Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which, in Article 33(1) provides that:
"No Contracting State shall expel or return ('refouler') a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion."
It is important to note, that the principle of non-refoulement does not only forbid the expulsion of refugees to their country of origin but to any country in which they might be subject to persecution. The only possible exception provided for by the UN Convention is the case that the person to be expelled constitutes a danger to national security (Art 33(2)).1
Although the principle of non-refoulement is universally accepted, problems with refoulement frequently arise through the fact, that its application requires a recognised refugee status. However, not all countries are members to the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or may not have established formal procedures for determining refugee status.
1Note on Non-Refoulement (Submitted by the High Commissioner on Human Rights), (EC/SCP/2), 23rd August 1977
Globophobia is a fear of balloons.1 In some cases, the fear is of balloons in general, while in others the object of fear is the sound produced when balloons pop (phonophobia).2 Globophobics tend to avoid parties and special occasions such as birthday parties, weddings, or any other festivities that may involve balloons as decorationscitation needed. Globophobia is uncommon, but sufferers include Oprah Winfrey,3 So Ji-sub,4 and Doug Stanhope.5 Generally, globophobics will refuse to touch, feel, or go near a balloon for fear it will pop.67 Globophobics tend not to trust people who have a balloon in their hand or anywhere near them, especially children.
At a merchant's in the Luckenbooths I had myself fitted out: none too fine, for I had no idea to appear like a beggar on horseback; but comely and responsible, so that servants should respect me. Thence to an armourer's, where I got a plain sword, to suit with my degree in life. . . . The porter, who was naturally a man of some experience, judge my accoutrement to be well chosen.
"Naething kenspeckle," said he; "plain, dacent claes. As for the rapier, nae doubt it sits wi' your degree; but an I had been you, I would has waired my siller better-gates than that."
Robert Louis Stevenson, Catriona (1892), pt. I, ch. 1
At a merchant's in the Luckenbooths I had myself fitted out: none too fine, for I had no idea to appear like a beggar on horseback; but comely and responsible, so that servants should respect me. Thence to an armourer's, where I got a plain sword, to suit with my degree in life. . . . The porter, who was naturally a man of some experience, judge my accoutrement to be well chosen.
"Naething kenspeckle," said he; "plain, dacent claes. As for the rapier, nae doubt it sits wi' your degree; but an I had been you, I would has waired my siller better-gates than that."
Robert Louis Stevenson, Catriona (1892), pt. I, ch. 1
At a merchant's in the Luckenbooths I had myself fitted out: none too fine, for I had no idea to appear like a beggar on horseback; but comely and responsible, so that servants should respect me. Thence to an armourer's, where I got a plain sword, to suit with my degree in life. . . . The porter, who was naturally a man of some experience, judge my accoutrement to be well chosen.
"Naething kenspeckle," said he; "plain, dacent claes. As for the rapier, nae doubt it sits wi' your degree; but an I had been you, I would has waired my siller better-gates than that."
Robert Louis Stevenson, Catriona (1892), pt. I, ch. 1
At a merchant's in the Luckenbooths I had myself fitted out: none too fine, for I had no idea to appear like a beggar on horseback; but comely and responsible, so that servants should respect me. Thence to an armourer's, where I got a plain sword, to suit with my degree in life. . . . The porter, who was naturally a man of some experience, judge my accoutrement to be well chosen.
"Naething kenspeckle," said he; "plain, dacent claes. As for the rapier, nae doubt it sits wi' your degree; but an I had been you, I would has waired my siller better-gates than that."
Robert Louis Stevenson, Catriona (1892), pt. I, ch. 1
I wanted to think clear, disengaged myself, and paced to and fro before her, in the manner of what we call a smuggler's walk, belabouring my brains for any remedy.
Robert Louis Stevenson, Catriona (1892), pt. II, ch. 23
Ride and Tie is a sport combining running, riding, endurance and strategy. Teams consist of two runners and one horse who complete a 20-100 mile trail course by "leapfrogging" one another. That is, one person starts on the horse, the other on foot. The horse travels faster than the runner; after a previously arranged time has passed, the person on the horse gets off, ties the horse to a tree and takes off running. The first runner comes up to the horse, unties it and trots or gallops down the trail. When the horsed partner reaches the runner, the person on the horse can either get off and exchange with the other partner (a "flying tie") or can ride on and tie the horse to a tree. Partners do this for the entire distance and each team learns to maximize the different members' strengths and weaknesses to their advantage.
Wikipedia
"Has ye seen my horse?" he gasped.
"Na, man, I haenae seen nae the horse the day," replied the countryman.
And Alan spared the time to explain to him that we were travelling "ride and tie"; that our charger had escaped, and it was feared he had gone home to Linton. Not only that, but he expended some breath (of which he had not very much left) to curse his own misfortune and my stupidity which was said to be its cause.
Robert Louis Stevenson, Catriona (1892), Part I, ch. 13 (action is set in 1751)
the chief orthoepist (pronunciation expert) for <i>Black’s</i> is Charles Harrington Elster, whose research into the evolution of American pronunciation is second to none.
After another much-needed cup of tea, I decided to make an attempt at dinner. incredibly Happy was equipped with a diesel hob, expensive things, but much safer than gas. Leaking gas tends to drop into the bilges and then explode at the lease provocation, or so we had been told. . . .
To install just the hob alone would have cost over £500, hob and cooker together came to a massive £1200. So with budget restrictions in mind, we had decided that, for now, we would make do with just the already installed hob and the microwave, and the diesel oven could wait for our overdue lottery win.
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)
Geoff needed various bits and bobs: more screws, a hose attachment and some electronic bits that would enable us to connect our stereo into the speakers that were already embedded into the ceiling . . . .
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)
Possibly: the segment of a lock (in a canal or river) between the gates, where boats are tied up to be raised or lowered.
A couple of teenage lads jumped off, one began to swing the lower gates shut and the other positioned himself at the winch and as the gates swung to a close began to fill the lock pound with water.
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)
We pulled in at the mooring, as Geoff wanted to study the lock mechanism before we brought our monster into the pound.
Id.
Against all the rules, we stayed within the lock pound, until the rain, my blood loss and our heart rates had slackened to something closer to manageable.
Mum and Dad left that evening at about nine. They had treated us to dinner and had generally been helpful and lovely. Maybe this time one of their children had rolled so far left field they couldn't really help and had no advice, so all they could do was just sit back, watch and be ready to catch us if we fell.
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)
As an American, I'm struck by the locution "roll left field." In the US, I think "out in left field" refers to the player standing way out there, far from the pitcher and other infielders. Here the image is of the ball that rolls to a part if the field where it's hard to retrieve, Assume it refers to cricket.
The restaurant boat was small but nicely set up, with eight tables, some with four chairs, some with two, nothing fancy, but clean and very classic with with castles and roses painted on every available surface. . . .
Sam had obviously worked out that Mum was not 100 per cent up to par today and he had decided that some good behaviour might get him another chance to turn robots into chickens, so was quietly playing some complicated game with the crucible set.
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)
From the context, I figure that "crucible set" is a term for tea set or some collection of crockery or tableware. I've found some candidates by searching Google images--but I've also found a bunch of pictures of stage sets for "The Crucible" as well as crucibles designed for use in chemistry and metallurgy labs.
Sam and I left Geoff with his head in the electrics, muttering imprecations against whichever hapless soul had installed our, in his opinion, 'stupidly small inverter'. . . .
There was also a problem with the fridge, which appeared to be completely nonfunctional, but Geoff couldn't work out whether the fridge was actually dead or if it was just another problem with the electrics.
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)
We relaxed there about an hour, eating bacon butties, feeding the ducks, drinking huge amounts of tea and discussing hare-brained plans for the future of Happy Go Lucky.
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)
he . . . very quietly stated that . . . our offer had been accepted on the boat, but that if we went ahead the present owner wanted no comebacks.
'What does that mean? "no comebacks", I asked.
''It means that if the survey is poor or if there are any issues that arise from the survey, we can't ask him to drop the price any further, although we can still pull out of the sale altogether,' Geoff explained.
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009), p. 31
(Apparently "survey" in Br. Eng. is used a "inspection" is in US Eng., at least in the context of buying and selling houses and live-aboard boats.)
The 'beautiful' barge was definitely large . . . but that is where any resemblance to the advert ended. For instance, there was absolutely no mention that she had obviously run into or been run into by something. A dock probably, but it could have quite easily been war wounds from a volley from long nines — she looked that old and battered!
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)
From all this we can ascertain that a “long nine” was a cast iron 9-pounder with a barrel length of at least nine feet. And while it was certainly used as a chase piece on frigates and ships of the line but it also served as the main battery on ship-sloops in the 18 and 20 gun category.
<blockquote>The town was strung out along the irrigation canal, called a 'jube' (rhymes with 'tube'). The jube was more than just a source of irrigation water; it was also where the livestock came to drink, where women came to do laundry and wash dishes, and where people gathered to gossip or to pick up prostitutes, who were nicknamed 'jube queens' for their habit of sitting alongside the jube and dangling their feet in the water while waiting for customers.</blockquote>
Dr. Bill Bass & Jon Jefferson, Beyond the Body Farm: A Legendary Bone Detective Explores Murders, Mysteries, and the Revolution in Forensic Science (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), p. 9. (The town was Hasanlu, Iran, in 1964.)
"In the next instant there was a loud, scraping sound as the little boat slithered across the top of a reef. She had hit what the Caymanians called a pan shoal, a flat-topped table of coral and compacted sand."
"the islands across the direct route of the galleons that traveled from the Spanish Main to Havana."
Tim Severin, In Search of Robinson Crusoe (2003)
Also "Main":
"Whicker suspected that 'the boat was so large and unruly and they so unskillful in navigation that I fear they either perished at sea or were driven ashore on the Main."
<blockquote>Though it may seem contradictory, there are trees growing above the timberline. Scattered here and there unprotected or slightly shielded locations, spruce, fir, white bark pine, or limber pine may be found trying to make a stand. Like ancient bonsai, dwarfed and gnarly little trees struggle for decades or perhaps even centuries in an ecology that is defined in part by their absence. The phenomenon is referred to collectively as krummholz, and the term is applied to any species of conifer that will choose to survive in an otherwise treeless alpine environment.</blockquote>
Joe Hutto, The Light in High Places: A Naturalist Looks at Wyoming Wilderness, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Cowboys, and Other Rare Species (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2009), ch. 7
"after a long search she was obliged to indite her epistle of love minus the edelweiss effusion."
"Lady Librarians," Pall Mall Gazette. quoted in Robert Crawford, "The Library in Poetry" in Alice Crawford, ed., The Meaning of the Library: A Cultural History (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2015), p. 192
Several examples are apparent misspellings of "indict." Maybe "indite" will one day be an accepted alternative, but for now, they are two different words.
Jane was alone dealing with a heifer that was having difficulty delivering a new calf. . . . Jane already had a come-along out and a stainless steel chain . . . . At last Sid got the calf's leg around and we could finally see both little pink hooves. Then we cinched up a small chain around both front feet, attached the chain to the hook and cable of the come-along, and then tried to find something immovable to securely attach the whole contraption to. We chose the entire corner of the big barn. . . . The heifer bellowed, the force of the come-along literally pulled her hind quarters off the ground, and she toppled over on her side in a great floundering struggle.
Joe Hutto, The Light in High Places: A Naturalist Looks at Wyoming Wilderness, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Cowboys, and Other Rare Species (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2009), ch. 10
In minutes the heifer was up, and although still not altogether appreciative, she seemed quite pleased with the overall results and held no apparent grudge toward us. She began eagerly examining and cleaning her new calf. . . . The four of us (cow, calf, Sid, and Joe) had, however, managed to break the corner of a one-hundred-year-old log barn, so Sid and I began making repairs with sledgehammers, crow bars, and a wet, messy come-along.
"The spearfishing skill of the Miskitos was so important to the English that when the time came to careen the ship, they brought their vessels to places on the coast where their strikers could hunt the prey that provided the most flesh."
Tim Severin, In Search of Robinson Crusoe (2003)
"Here the privateersmen dug two or three wells to supply them while they careened ships in an anchorage on the northern side."
"The booby received its mocking name, so it was said, from the English sailors who thought it so stupid that they could stand on the deck and extend their arms as perches and the boobies would alight. The sailors wrung their necks."
"Pedro Serrano was shipwrecked there in the first half of the sixteenth century—the date is uncertain—and his survival story is so extreme as to beggar belief."
"The story earns its place among sacred, apotropaic texts and the ranks of amulets and talismans . . ."
Marina Warner,"The Library in Fiction," in Alice Crawford, ed., The Meaning of the Library: A Cultural History (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2015), p. 165
"Vows, blessings, curses, apotropaic and expiatiory formulae, repeated and performed in the correct way, place language at the center of ritual . . . ."
"The technique we used to try and reestablish the falcons in the Smokies was to hack the birds in high protected cliff ledges."
Kim DeLozier & Carolyn Jourdan, Bear in the Back Seat: Adventures of a Wildlife Ranger (2013)
"The hacking process involved feeding young birds that couldn't yet fly in a controlled situation, inside a large wooden box with little human contact, until they matured enough to grow some flight feathers."
Id.
"We started our program by taking captive-bred birds to a hack box located high atop a cliff on Greenbrier Pinnacle."
Jean Stafford, "Children Are Bored on Sunday," in David Remnick, ed., Wonderful Town: New York Stories from the New Yorker (New York: Random House, 2000), pp. 360-61.
"When the candle was extinguished, the incandescent wick must provide the right temperature for reducing some of the white arsenic to the elemental state, generating the 'alliaceous odour' he detected."
James C. Whorton, The Arsenic Century: How Victorian Britain Was Poisoned at Home, Work, and Play (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2010)
". . . talking to a wise king with the face of a wounded animal and the fantastic tongue of an afrit, . . ." Philip Hensher, The Mulberry Empire</i> (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002)
"The beetle penis became Jeannel's bread and butter. Aware of its potential, he invariably assigned projects to his students that involved dissecting, describing, and categorizing the penises of beetles and other insects, and was puzzled when, in one case, this brought a female student to tears. She told him that he could not possibly expect such a thing of a lady. In what must have been an effort of empathy, Jeannel defused the situation by pointing out that he was not actually asking her to study penises; instead he preferred to use the word 'aedeagus' (from the Greek ta aidoia, 'the genitals'), since 'penis,' 'phallus,' and 'prepuce' are terms usually reserved for vertebrates like ourselves."
Menno Schilthuizen, Nature's Nether Regions (New York: Penguin, 2014), p. 31
"Carole had discovered in me, or more accurately in my writing . . ., a love of conflict, a fondness for rivalry both sexual and literary that pointed toward a vestigial tenderness and susceptibility to my ex-wife's adamantine charms."
Comments by maryw
Show previous 200 comments...
MaryW commented on the word elytron
Menno Schilthuizen, Nature's Nether Regions: What the Sex Lives of Bugs, Birds, and Beasts Tell Us About Evolution, Biodiversity, and Ourselves</i> (New York: Viking, 2014)
December 26, 2015
MaryW commented on the word refoulment
Misspelling of refoulement (see).
December 24, 2015
MaryW commented on the word ugly stick
WikipediaDecember 24, 2015
MaryW commented on the word native advertising
Federal Trade Commission, Native Advertising: A Guide for Business (Dec. 2015)
December 24, 2015
MaryW commented on the word doss
David Lodge, The British Museum Is Falling Down (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1965), p. 88December 1, 2015
MaryW commented on the word holyday
Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast (1840), ch. VIIINovember 25, 2015
MaryW commented on the word non-refoulement
See refoulement.
November 24, 2015
MaryW commented on the word refoulement
Refoulement
Refoulement means the expulsion of persons who have the right to be recognised as refugees. The principle of non-refoulement has first been laid out in 1954 in the UN-Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which, in Article 33(1) provides that:
"No Contracting State shall expel or return ('refouler') a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion."
It is important to note, that the principle of non-refoulement does not only forbid the expulsion of refugees to their country of origin but to any country in which they might be subject to persecution. The only possible exception provided for by the UN Convention is the case that the person to be expelled constitutes a danger to national security (Art 33(2)).1
Although the principle of non-refoulement is universally accepted, problems with refoulement frequently arise through the fact, that its application requires a recognised refugee status. However, not all countries are members to the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or may not have established formal procedures for determining refugee status.
1Note on Non-Refoulement (Submitted by the High Commissioner on Human Rights), (EC/SCP/2), 23rd August 1977
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/international-migration/glossary/refoulement/
November 24, 2015
MaryW commented on the word non-refoulment
See refoulment.
November 24, 2015
MaryW commented on the word globophobe
See globophobia (fear of balloons).
November 20, 2015
MaryW commented on the word globophobic
See globophobia.
November 20, 2015
MaryW commented on the word globophobic
Marie Browne, Narrow Escape: A Year of Highs and Lows on the Narrow Boat Minerva (Abercynon: Accent Press Ltd., 2013)November 20, 2015
MaryW commented on the word globophobia
Wikipedia:
Globophobia is a fear of balloons.1 In some cases, the fear is of balloons in general, while in others the object of fear is the sound produced when balloons pop (phonophobia).2 Globophobics tend to avoid parties and special occasions such as birthday parties, weddings, or any other festivities that may involve balloons as decorationscitation needed. Globophobia is uncommon, but sufferers include Oprah Winfrey,3 So Ji-sub,4 and Doug Stanhope.5 Generally, globophobics will refuse to touch, feel, or go near a balloon for fear it will pop.67 Globophobics tend not to trust people who have a balloon in their hand or anywhere near them, especially children.
November 20, 2015
MaryW commented on the word claes
Robert Louis Stevenson, Catriona (1892), pt. I, ch. 1November 19, 2015
MaryW commented on the word siller
Robert Louis Stevenson, Catriona (1892), pt. I, ch. 1November 19, 2015
MaryW commented on the word better-gates
Robert Louis Stevenson, Catriona (1892), pt. I, ch. 1November 19, 2015
MaryW commented on the word kenspeckle
Robert Louis Stevenson, Catriona (1892), pt. I, ch. 1November 19, 2015
MaryW commented on the word whillywha
Robert Louis Stevenson, Catriona (1892), pt. I, ch. 2November 19, 2015
MaryW commented on the word rattel-waggon
Robert Louis Stevenson, Catriona (1892), pt. II, ch. 23 (The story is set in 1751.)November 19, 2015
MaryW commented on the word smuggler's walk
Robert Louis Stevenson, Catriona (1892), pt. II, ch. 23November 19, 2015
MaryW commented on the word ride and tie
WikipediaRobert Louis Stevenson, Catriona (1892), Part I, ch. 13 (action is set in 1751)
November 19, 2015
MaryW commented on the word orthoepist
Bryan A. Garner, "Is your pronunciation on point? Take this quiz to find out," <i>ABA Journal,</i> Nov. 2015, http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/is_your_pronunciation_on_point_take_this_quiz_to_find_out/November 6, 2015
MaryW commented on the word hob
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)November 3, 2015
MaryW commented on the word bits and bobs
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)November 3, 2015
MaryW commented on the word lock pound
Possibly: the segment of a lock (in a canal or river) between the gates, where boats are tied up to be raised or lowered.
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)Id.
November 3, 2015
MaryW commented on the word left field
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)As an American, I'm struck by the locution "roll left field." In the US, I think "out in left field" refers to the player standing way out there, far from the pitcher and other infielders. Here the image is of the ball that rolls to a part if the field where it's hard to retrieve, Assume it refers to cricket.
November 3, 2015
MaryW commented on the word sarnie
"I offered to make bacon sarnies for everyone."
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)
November 3, 2015
MaryW commented on the word bodge
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)November 3, 2015
MaryW commented on the word crucible set
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)From the context, I figure that "crucible set" is a term for tea set or some collection of crockery or tableware. I've found some candidates by searching Google images--but I've also found a bunch of pictures of stage sets for "The Crucible" as well as crucibles designed for use in chemistry and metallurgy labs.
November 3, 2015
MaryW commented on the word electrics
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)November 3, 2015
MaryW commented on the word butty
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)November 3, 2015
MaryW commented on the word comeback
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009), p. 31(Apparently "survey" in Br. Eng. is used a "inspection" is in US Eng., at least in the context of buying and selling houses and live-aboard boats.)
November 3, 2015
MaryW commented on the word long nine
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009)November 3, 2015
MaryW commented on the word long nine
The Long Nine, Age of Sail (Feb. 20, 2009)November 3, 2015
MaryW commented on the word slap-up
we "treated ourselves to a slap-up lunch in an Italian restaurant."
Marie Browne, Narrow Margins (Mid-Glamorgan: Accent Press Ltd., 2009), p. 115
November 3, 2015
MaryW commented on the word jube
<blockquote>The town was strung out along the irrigation canal, called a 'jube' (rhymes with 'tube'). The jube was more than just a source of irrigation water; it was also where the livestock came to drink, where women came to do laundry and wash dishes, and where people gathered to gossip or to pick up prostitutes, who were nicknamed 'jube queens' for their habit of sitting alongside the jube and dangling their feet in the water while waiting for customers.</blockquote>
Dr. Bill Bass & Jon Jefferson, Beyond the Body Farm: A Legendary Bone Detective Explores Murders, Mysteries, and the Revolution in Forensic Science (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), p. 9. (The town was Hasanlu, Iran, in 1964.)
November 1, 2015
MaryW commented on the word pan shoal
"In the next instant there was a loud, scraping sound as the little boat slithered across the top of a reef. She had hit what the Caymanians called a pan shoal, a flat-topped table of coral and compacted sand."
Tim Severin, In Search of Robinson Crusoe (2003)
October 31, 2015
MaryW commented on the word micturate
"Adam micturated, and considered whether to wash his hands a second time."
David Lodge, The British Museum Is Falling Down (1965)
October 31, 2015
MaryW commented on the word main
"Main": see Spanish Main.
October 31, 2015
MaryW commented on the word Spanish Main
"the islands across the direct route of the galleons that traveled from the Spanish Main to Havana."
Tim Severin, In Search of Robinson Crusoe (2003)
Also "Main":
"Whicker suspected that 'the boat was so large and unruly and they so unskillful in navigation that I fear they either perished at sea or were driven ashore on the Main."
October 31, 2015
MaryW commented on the word krummholz
<blockquote>Though it may seem contradictory, there are trees growing above the timberline. Scattered here and there unprotected or slightly shielded locations, spruce, fir, white bark pine, or limber pine may be found trying to make a stand. Like ancient bonsai, dwarfed and gnarly little trees struggle for decades or perhaps even centuries in an ecology that is defined in part by their absence. The phenomenon is referred to collectively as krummholz, and the term is applied to any species of conifer that will choose to survive in an otherwise treeless alpine environment.</blockquote>
Joe Hutto, The Light in High Places: A Naturalist Looks at Wyoming Wilderness, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Cowboys, and Other Rare Species (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2009), ch. 7
October 31, 2015
MaryW commented on the word indite
"after a long search she was obliged to indite her epistle of love minus the edelweiss effusion."
"Lady Librarians," Pall Mall Gazette. quoted in Robert Crawford, "The Library in Poetry" in Alice Crawford, ed., The Meaning of the Library: A Cultural History (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2015), p. 192
October 31, 2015
MaryW commented on the word indite
Several examples are apparent misspellings of "indict." Maybe "indite" will one day be an accepted alternative, but for now, they are two different words.
October 31, 2015
MaryW commented on the word hasty pudding
"They ate 'Hasty Pudding,' balls of duff made of flour and wart and flavored with shreds of beef."
Tim Severin, In Search of Robinson Crusoe (2003)
October 31, 2015
MaryW commented on the word come-along
Joe Hutto, The Light in High Places: A Naturalist Looks at Wyoming Wilderness, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Cowboys, and Other Rare Species (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2009), ch. 10Id.
October 31, 2015
MaryW commented on the word come-along
See http://www.yourdictionary.com/comealong
Oxford American Dictionary (Kindle) has: "INFORMAL a hand-operated winch."
October 30, 2015
MaryW commented on the word careen
"The spearfishing skill of the Miskitos was so important to the English that when the time came to careen the ship, they brought their vessels to places on the coast where their strikers could hunt the prey that provided the most flesh."
Tim Severin, In Search of Robinson Crusoe (2003)
"Here the privateersmen dug two or three wells to supply them while they careened ships in an anchorage on the northern side."
I'd.
October 30, 2015
MaryW commented on the word booby
"The booby received its mocking name, so it was said, from the English sailors who thought it so stupid that they could stand on the deck and extend their arms as perches and the boobies would alight. The sailors wrung their necks."
Tim Severin, In Search of Robinson Crusoe (2003)
October 30, 2015
MaryW commented on the word beggar belief
"Pedro Serrano was shipwrecked there in the first half of the sixteenth century—the date is uncertain—and his survival story is so extreme as to beggar belief."
Tim Severin, In Search of Robinson Crusoe (2003)
October 30, 2015
MaryW commented on the word apotropaic
"The story earns its place among sacred, apotropaic texts and the ranks of amulets and talismans . . ."
Marina Warner,"The Library in Fiction," in Alice Crawford, ed., The Meaning of the Library: A Cultural History (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2015), p. 165
"Vows, blessings, curses, apotropaic and expiatiory formulae, repeated and performed in the correct way, place language at the center of ritual . . . ."
Id., p. 170
October 30, 2015
MaryW commented on the word hack
"The technique we used to try and reestablish the falcons in the Smokies was to hack the birds in high protected cliff ledges."
Kim DeLozier & Carolyn Jourdan, Bear in the Back Seat: Adventures of a Wildlife Ranger (2013)
"The hacking process involved feeding young birds that couldn't yet fly in a controlled situation, inside a large wooden box with little human contact, until they matured enough to grow some flight feathers."
Id.
"We started our program by taking captive-bred birds to a hack box located high atop a cliff on Greenbrier Pinnacle."
Id.
October 30, 2015
MaryW commented on the word simon-pure
"It was no use now to cry that she was not an intellectual who had not made the grade, that she was a simon-pure rube; not a soul would believe her."
Jean Stafford, "Children Are Bored on Sunday," in David Remnick, ed., Wonderful Town: New York Stories from the New Yorker (New York: Random House, 2000), pp. 360-61.
October 12, 2015
MaryW commented on the word allometry
"First, Bang and Cobb had not considered the phenomenon of allometry—the way that organs scale with body size."
Tim Birkhead, Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird (New York: Walker & Co., 2002)
October 11, 2015
MaryW commented on the word alliaceous
"When the candle was extinguished, the incandescent wick must provide the right temperature for reducing some of the white arsenic to the elemental state, generating the 'alliaceous odour' he detected."
James C. Whorton, The Arsenic Century: How Victorian Britain Was Poisoned at Home, Work, and Play (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2010)
October 11, 2015
MaryW commented on the word aliquot
"it was the last of what I had cooked, frozen, and packed in aliquots many weekends ago."
Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone
October 11, 2015
MaryW commented on the word albedo
"The answer is always the same: albedo."
Mike Brown, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming</i> (New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2010)
October 11, 2015
MaryW commented on the word afrit
". . . talking to a wise king with the face of a wounded animal and the fantastic tongue of an afrit, . . ."
Philip Hensher, The Mulberry Empire</i> (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002)
October 11, 2015
MaryW commented on the word aedeagus
"The beetle penis became Jeannel's bread and butter. Aware of its potential, he invariably assigned projects to his students that involved dissecting, describing, and categorizing the penises of beetles and other insects, and was puzzled when, in one case, this brought a female student to tears. She told him that he could not possibly expect such a thing of a lady. In what must have been an effort of empathy, Jeannel defused the situation by pointing out that he was not actually asking her to study penises; instead he preferred to use the word 'aedeagus' (from the Greek ta aidoia, 'the genitals'), since 'penis,' 'phallus,' and 'prepuce' are terms usually reserved for vertebrates like ourselves."
Menno Schilthuizen, Nature's Nether Regions (New York: Penguin, 2014), p. 31
October 11, 2015
MaryW commented on the word adamantine
"Carole had discovered in me, or more accurately in my writing . . ., a love of conflict, a fondness for rivalry both sexual and literary that pointed toward a vestigial tenderness and susceptibility to my ex-wife's adamantine charms."
Julie Schumacher, Dear Committee Members
October 10, 2015
MaryW commented on the word acidulate
Example sentences so far are all for the literal sense--making more acidic or sour. A figurative example:
"This remark produced a mild sensation, and the Coroner became even more acidulated in manner than before." Dorothy L. Sayers, Whose Body?
October 10, 2015
MaryW commented on the word achromatopsia
In <i>On the Move</i>, Oliver Sacks refers to people with achromatopsia as "achromatopes." Wikipedia entry on achromatopsia calls the "achromats."
October 10, 2015