Cavs

Wikipedia says that Cavalier was originally coined as a pejorative term. Its root can be found in Shakespeare's cavaleros describing an "overbearing swashbuckler or swaggering gallant." During the English Civil War, Cromwell's Parlimentarians used the word as a derogatory term assigned to the Royalists.

However, for our purposes, we are using Edward Simmons description of a Cavalier:  "a Child of Honour, a Gentleman well borne and bred, that loves his king [James] for conscience sake, of a clearer countenance, and bolder look than other men, because of a more loyal Heart."

word play

Are RAISE and RAZE the only two homonym-antonyms in the English language? Surely not.
Of course there are many contronyms. But, that's not quite the same thing.

Apostrophe, goddess of misuse

The apostrophe seems to cause a lot of angst in its overuse. Grammar nerds will go all twitchy if you add one to a plural. But did you know that we've been dropping apostrophes for years? Technically, all of these words should have an apostrophe to indicate omission of one or more letters:
plane (airplane)
bus (omnibus)
cello (violincello)
phone (telephone)
net (Internet)

The first recorded use of the word 'phone dates to 1927. I don't know when we got rid of the apostrophe, but Wikipedia says it's not uncommon to drop it entirely if it is used at the beginning of a word. Here's a tip for you to use with all your grammar friends: when in doubt, leave it out. We'll still be able to understand your sentence and we will assume you're lazy instead of stupid. ;)

This is amusing. And a musing.

You may have noticed that there was no idle musing posted yesterday. It may be difficult to believe, but I do, frequently, have more than one idle musing in a day.
Often they are absurdly mundane: why is the gunk in a belly button called "lint"? What is the difference between sleet and freezing rain? Why is the dome in a house of worship so iconic, when in a home it's ridiculous?
These musings are hardly worthy of a post. I wracked my brain last night in search of a musing that was worth sharing and came up wanting.
Unfortunately, despite a further day of musings, I haven't much to add. Although I was surprised to learn that the slang term "jerk off" dates to the 1890s. Huh.

Unrelated things that shouldn't be

So I was off yesterday. I spend my weekends (and extended weekends) doing crappy things around the house: cutting back perennials, vacuuming, hanging drywall, trying to figure out the best way to get rid of poison ivy without actually poisoning oneself or the ground.


According to etymology, dote comes from Middle Low German meaning "to be foolish." Shouldn't an ANTIDOTE make you smarter?

Fall weather

Crisp

Crisp fall day
Crisp autumn leaves
Crisp ripe apple
Crisp baked bread
Crisp* new shirt

Crisp began its etymological life meaning curly. Back in the 1200s, the only thing that was crisp, was a head of hair. Now hair is one thing that's never crisp (unless you have a bad run-in with a curling iron). My favorite use of the word, for a cool bright snappy day, is only about 200 years old.


*Isn't it interesting that the more you type a word, the less "right" it looks?

Gold Flower

It's chrysanthemum season!

• The name "chrysanthemum" is derived from the Greek words chrysos (gold) and anthemon (flower).
• Yellow or white chrysanthemum flowers of the species C. morifolium are boiled to make a sweet drink in some parts of Asia.
• Chrysanthemum leaves are steamed or boiled and used as greens.
• Small chrysanthemums are used in Japan as a sashimi garnish.
• Pyrethrum (Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium) is economically important as a natural source of insecticide. Pyrethrins attack the nervous systems of all insects, and inhibit female mosquitoes from biting. 
• Chrysanthemum plants have been shown to reduce indoor air pollution by the NASA Clean Air Study.
• In some countries of Europe (e.g., France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Poland, Hungary, Croatia), incurve chrysanthemums are symbolic of death and are used only for funerals or on graves.
• In the United States, the flower is usually regarded as positive and cheerful. 
• In Australia,the chrysanthemum is sometimes given to mothers for Mother's Day.
• "Chrysanthemum Gate" is taboo slang meaning "anus" (with sexual connotations).
•  In China it is one of the four symbolic seasonal flowers.
• Chrysanthemums were first cultivated in China as a flowering herb as far back as the 15th century BC.

 

MAH-SRUME!

I was all jazzed up today to write about the origin of the word mushroom. Mush + room? I will grant you that it's a bit mushy when you cook it, but in it's natural state it resembles styrofoam more than mush. And room. There is no room in a mushroom unless you count its gills. And there isn't much room in those anyway.

I thought such a contradictory and interesting word would have an interesting history. I was right in that no one can agree on its origins, but all of the theories put forth are mediocre.

• "[P]erhaps from Late Latin mussirionem"  
• "might as well be borrowed from French."  
• "of uncertain origin."   
• "a word of pre-Latin origin, used in the North of France;"  
• "usually is held to be a derivative of French mousse"moss" 
• "properly 'applied to variety which grows in moss'" 
• "nothing in common" with moss

I call bullsh*t.
So, let's say instead that one day in the 11th century (this is a very old word!!) Gervase (I have always wanted to write about a Gervase) is walking in the woods in Burgundy (why not?) and trips on a branch and falls on his face into a (as-yet-unnamed) mushroom patch at which time he curses, "MAH SRUME!" because he has broken his nose and the ancient Burgundian word for nose is NU (not really), but he can't say "my nu" correctly because his nose is broken. His friend who is looking on unhelpfully, makes note of the fact that the little umbrella-shaped (which he is familiar with since umbrellas were invented in 21AD) items growing on the forest floor are mushrooms.

Pass it on. (If enough people say it's true, it becomes true. I learned that from Fox News.)

What's in a name?

Whose genius idea was it to include Winter Storm Vulcan on the list this year? Really, the Roman god of FIRE? Go outside. Right now. Fire?

Spit it out

The gargoyles of Paisley Abbey.

Wikipedia says, "a gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque, with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between."
"When not constructed as a waterspout and only serving an ornamental or artistic function, the correct term for such a sculpture is a chimera. Just as chimeras, gargoyles are said to frighten off and protect those that it guards, such as a church, from any evil or harmful spirits."
huh. So Victor and Hugo and Laverne in Disney's  Hunchback of Notre Dame were chimeras.

Chattering clattering cloud of starlings

The Interwebs tell me that one of the collective nouns for starlings is a "murmuration." The word itself is poetic, but doesn't seem to fit the twitchy off-tempo chorus that a group of starlings embodies. However, after watching on YouTube, thousands of them in flight breathe a murmuration. Obviously the poetry is lost on the scrabbling two dozen I see from my window.
Other options include the  spiritual "congregation," and the ethereal "cloud." Although, I can see the potential for "thundercloud," that was not listed.
"Clattering" is something that wooden spoons do when the fall. Or reindeer hooves on rooftops. 
So we are left with "chattering" which perfectly embodies the rude hostility crowded at my birdfeeder.
Knowing they have the potential for a murmuration, makes me like them a little bit more though.

Soup's on!

One of the loveliest things about truly horrible weather is how good it makes soup taste. On a miserable Saturday afternoon, making a pot of soup is satisfying, but not nearly as satisfying as eating that pot of soup.
I have been collecting and experimenting with every kind of soup I can find from minestrones to chowders. Simple or complicated, all winter long I make a pot of soup every weekend. It is the most elemental meal. The word soup shares its origin with the word supper. Eating and soup are one and the same when you trace their meanings back hundreds of years.
Soup is the sustenance that has been provided as charity for nearly 2000 years. There is a reason we call centers where poor are provided with food Soup Kitchens. When we are sick, we get chicken soup. When we are cold, we get toasted cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. After Thanksgiving, we get turkey soup. The Pease Porridge in the rhyme we learned as children is what we would today call pea soup (which has gotten a bad rap over the years).
Last weekend I made bean soup. This weekend it was mushroom-barley. Next weekend I will make an old standard, smoked turkey chowder for LSH's church soup swap. I may have to make a double batch so we have some for ourselves.

Why put off 'til tomorrow?

Have you noticed that the word PROCRASTINATION has PRO right there in front? Pro is such a positive prefix. Pro-fessional. Pro-gress. Pro-active. Pro-claim. The dictionary even defines 'pro' as affirmative, for, forward, forth, toward the front. So procrastinating is a good thing. It's high time we fought back against the bad rap that this word has received.
We'll get right on that. Tomorrow.

(This post was inspired by my as-yet-unbaked cheesecake.)

So 'Blue Sox' is out

The Akron Aeros (one of the Cleveland Indians minor league clubs) has officially changed it's name to the Akron RubberDucks. No, really.
This revelation led, naturally to thoughts of the Cleveland Indians changing their name --and more importantly, ditching the offensive Chief Wahoo logo, which in turn, led to the thoughts of alternative names.
Tossing around team names in baseball eventually takes us to the White Sox and the Red Sox both teams shortening the original "stockings" to Sox for our modern sensibilities.
Then I wondered why there were no Blue Sox (or stockings), from which we finally arrive at the caboose of my thoughts: "why were intellectual women in the early 1800s called bluestockings?"

Apparently because of their gray stockings.

I think I'll just sit here

I've used this exact quote before, but it bears repeating. Make note of the GOP Reps. who think it's a grand thing to shut down the government. Remind them next November that they were elected to govern, not to sabotage the largest, richest, most powerful government on the planet.

Freedom isn't free. It shouldn't be a bragging point that 'Oh, I don't get involved in politics,' as if that makes someone cleaner. No, that makes you derelict of duty in a republic. Liars and panderers in government would have a much harder time of it if so many people didn't insist on their right to remain ignorant and blindly agreeable.  ~Bill Maher.

Now that that is taken care of, I'm fascinated by the word sessile, which is defined as "adhering close to the surface." Something (like barnacles) that is sessile never moves. "Sessile animals are usually permanently attached to a solid substrate of some kind." Some day I'll get up out of this chair and learn more about barnacles. Or perhaps Congress could with their extra free time.

Friday Book Blogging

I read only two books this week. This seems to be an alarming trend.
My favorite was Deathtrap by Peter Turnbull. It is a British police procedural, and like all the other British police procedural mysteries I love, features a charming Detective Inspector and his quietly good partner.
The story is well-plotted. The author's style tends toward implications, but it's never misleading. I don't know where Deathtrap falls in the series of books that feature George Hennessy, but I will look for more.
Plus the book introduced me to the word snickelways. How can I not love a book that has given me such a fantastic word?!

Falling

If you were an ancient Celt, today would mark the end of summer.

They were more upbeat, calling it the beginning of harvest season, but it still spells autumn. Actually, it spells lughnasadh. But you know what I mean. 

Pedicure

The Punkinhead and I love to get a good pedicure. According to Wikipedia, we share that in common with the ancient Babylonians, Chinese, and Egyptians.
Today my toenails are a deep, shimmery indigo, 4000 years ago, my goal would have been red. Red was an indicator of royal status, which could explain its popularity still.

Wellington win

On this day in 1815, Napoleon met his Waterloo.







Of course, at the time that idiom didn't exist. It is courtesy of Great Britain and their allies that we can now allude to any great failure as a Waterloo. I wonder how Waterloo, Belgium, feels about being synonymous with defeat.

Wages of sin

Like it isn't already difficult enough to get a guy to spend a little tongue-time south of our navels, now Michael Douglas is telling everyone it causes cancer. 
I hope my Long-Suffering Husband doesn't read this.

Also, on a related note: can we come up with a better term than cunnilingus? Really?