![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) worldwidewords |
| 2008-07-19 09:00 |
| 596-1: Feedback, notes and comments |
| Public |
http://www.worldwidewords.org/nl/xhpe.htm#N1 Doryphore The scientific name of the Colorado beetle is Leptinotarsa decemlineata, not decimlineata, as I had it.
Eric Marsh said, “This item was timely for me as I’ve just become acquainted with the Law of Prescriptive Retaliation (perhaps it should be The Nit-picker’s Curse): corrections of linguistic errors are themselves inevitably prone to error.” Erin McKean, who edits Verbatim Magazine in her spare time from being editor of the Oxford American Dictionary, has coined a close relative, which is known as McKean’s Law: “Any correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one grammatical, spelling, or typographical error.”
Noggin My piece on this slangy term for the head brought many comments about its use in the building trades in various countries for a horizontal timber brace or support. This is an ancient word, originally spelled nogging, meaning a timber frame filled with brickwork; its origin is unknown. As an aside, several readers pointed out that such noggins are called dwangs in New Zealand, a word from Scots that Harry Orsman, in the Dictionary of New Zealand English, noted is likely to be from Old Norse.
Ponglish My brief note on Polish-English brought a comment from Anna Bankowska in Poland: “I can assure you that Ponglish — as a phenomenon, not a word — is much older than the last few years. It was born half a century ago, when after World War Two the first big wave of Polish displaced persons got to Great Britain. I visited my relatives in 1958 and I still remember this funny language, which was even a subject of satirical sketches by our well-known poet Marian Hemar.”
Jimmy O’Regan, writing from Ireland, concurs: “Most of the words you cite existed in Polish long before Poland joined the EU, mostly due to the influence of American movies, the internet, and contact with Poles who had lived in Chicago. For example, drink, as a noun, means specifically an alcoholic drink with a mixer, such as vodka and orange; the verb drinkować and the adjective drinkowy naturally follow. Highstreet (‘hajstrit’) is the only word likely to have been introduced to Polish via England. (Perhaps drawjwnić too, but it seems unlike the usual forms of loanwords in Polish, and the only references I can find to it are in English, following the publication of the article you mentioned). Among Poles living here in Ireland, there’s also a tendency to adopt Hiberno-English expressions such as slagować (to slag; to mock someone) or even jak się kipingujesz? (‘how’re you keeping?’)”
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| worldwidewords |
| 2008-07-19 09:00 |
| 596-2: Weird Words: Hyperborean |
| Public |
http://www.worldwidewords.org/nl/xhpe.htm#N2 An inhabitant of the extreme north.
Since today we have a pretty firm hold on geography and climate, we find it a little strange to learn that the ancient Greeks believed a race of people lived at the northern limits of the world, beyond the place from which the god Boreas sent his icy blasts. According to the poet Pindar, they occupied an earthly paradise, a land of sunshine and plenty. They were untouched by old age or conflict or disease, spending their days in song and dance and in worshipping their god Apollo, who came every winter to visit them.
Hence hyperborean, from the Greek words huper, beyond, plus boreas, the north wind. It has been used in English for pretty much the same idea — of a people who live in the extreme north — though without the merrymaking, frolicking or warmth. We know too well that the far north contains no earthly paradise but only ice, snow, gales and bone-freezing temperatures. Hence appearances of the word like this, from D P Thompson (better known for The Green Mountain Boys, about Vermont’s struggle for independence), in Gaut Gurley, 1857:
It was the second week in May; and spring, delightful spring, sweet herald of happiness to all the living creatures that have undergone the almost literal imprisonment of one of the long and dreary winters of our hyperborean clime, was beginning to sprinkle the green glories of approaching summer over the reanimated wilderness.”
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http://www.worldwidewords.org/nl/xhpe.htm#N3 Hypermiling This US term for finding ways to reduce your vehicle’s fuel consumption has been sighted in the UK, having taken a couple of years to cross the Atlantic. It has become much more popular in recent months as a result of the sudden hike in oil prices, but it can be traced back in print to an article in the magazine Mother Jones dated January/February 2006 featuring Wayne Gerdes, who is said to have invented the term. Hypermilers encourage drivers to stick to speed limits, avoid accelerating or braking hard and plan ahead to take advantage of traffic conditions to maintain momentum. Some hypermilers’ tricks are dangerous, like tailgating big vehicles to stay in their slipstream.
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| worldwidewords |
| 2008-07-19 09:00 |
| 596-4: Questions and Answers: Chequered past |
| Public |
http://www.worldwidewords.org/nl/xhpe.htm#N4 [Q] From Virginia N Beach: “I have heard the expression checkered past used for many years. What is the origin of it?”
[A] Somebody with a chequered past, which is the British spelling I naturally use as opposed to your American one, has had periods of fluctuating fortune, though the focus is often on some past spell of reprehensible conduct. For example, The Times wrote on 6 June 2008: “He joined the church as a fully ordained Baptist minister in 1996 after a chequered past as a gambler.”
If the game of chess comes to mind, that’s a good guess, although it’s not the twists of fate experienced by the players that are meant, but the board that it’s played on. If American, you may also (or instead) be thinking of the game of checkers, played on the same board, which British players know as draughts (whose name, by the way, is from the obsolete draught in the sense of a move in a game).
Something chequered is marked like a chess board, with a geometric pattern of squares in alternating colours. It’s pretty much the same word as checked, both of which appeared in English in the fifteenth century. The latter was frequently spelled chequed in Britain until about a century ago but has now settled down to the ck spelling everywhere. Chequered in the literal sense is less common than it once was, although the chequered flag that’s waved when a racing car passes the winning post is well known.
That usage links us directly with its origin. Chequered came out of heraldry: the first known example is in the Book of St Albans in 1486. That said — in modern language — that heraldic arms are said to be chequered when they are made in two colours in the manner of a chess board. The word came from French escheker, derived from late Latin scaccarium, a chess board. Our exchequer is from the same source and originally also meant a chess board, though it came to be connected with finance through a table covered with a cloth divided into squares on which the accounts of the revenue were kept by means of counters.
The figurative idea behind chequered is of alternations of good and bad, like the colours of the squares on the board. As well as a chequered past, you can talk about a chequered history or a chequered career.
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http://www.worldwidewords.org/nl/xhpe.htm#N5 • A couple of readers joined me in puzzling over a sentence in an article by the British prime minister Gordon Brown that appeared in a supplement on climate change in the Guardian on Wednesday. The paper’s subeditors pulled it out to head the front page: “No one can underestimate the scale of the challenge that climate change represents.” I’d have thought it was all too easy, myself. Did he, or more likely his scriptwriter, mean “overestimate”?
• Moira C Egan e-mailed from Toronto to tell us of a recent meeting. “I was introduced to a public relations consultant. Soon into our conversation, she said, ‘You’re not from Toronto, are you? I mean, you speak so legibly!’ ‘Aha!’ said I, ‘You ought to hear my handwriting.’”
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| worldwidewords |
| 2008-07-19 09:00 |
| 596-6: Copyright and contact details |
| Public |
http://www.worldwidewords.org/nl/xhpe.htm#N6 World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion 2008. All rights reserved. You may reproduce this newsletter in whole or part in free online newsletters, newsgroups or mailing lists provided that you include this note and the copyright notice above. Reproduction in printed publications or on Web sites or blogs requires prior permission, for which you should contact the editor.
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![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ewtikins |
| 2008-07-18 21:09 |
| (no subject) |
| Public |
Leonard Cohen is playing in London on 13th November (a Thursday).
I so want to go.
Tickets are £50 and up.
... and with any luck I'll have to do something for the bloody Performance Department at Trinity that night. No way of knowing at the moment.
*sigh*
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| grumpyolddog |
| 2008-07-18 19:08 |
| I need a wonder loaf now |
| Public |
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This actually had me crying with laughter, and I've never enjoyed a Joe Cocker performance before, like, ever.
Please, do yourselves a favour and watch it right through.
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| balashon |
| 2008-07-18 17:25 |
| hora and horim |
| Public |
http://www.balashon.com/2008/07/hora-and-horim.html logAfter discussing av and em, lets discuss the more generic term for mother and father: horim הורים - "parents". An informal survey I took of both native and non-native Hebrew speakers found that many of them thought that word was related to the word for teacher - moreh מורה and teaching - horaah הוראה. However, the word has a different root altogether. Moreh derives from the root ירה - "to teach", which is also the root of the word תורה - torah. Horeh comes from the root הרה - "to conceive, become pregnant". From this root we get the word herayon הריון - pregnancy. The word is of biblical origin, but the story is a little strange here. Twice in the Tanach we find the word hora הורה - in Shir HaShirim 3:4 and Hoshea 2:7. In both instances, the word clearly means "mother". And that makes sense - the one who becomes pregnant is indeed the mother. We do find the word horim, actually horai הורי, in one verse - Bereshit 49:26, in Yaakov's blessing to Yosef: בִּרְכֹת אָבִיךָ, גָּבְרוּ עַל-בִּרְכֹת הוֹרַי, עַד-תַּאֲוַת, גִּבְעֹת עוֹלָם The JPS translates this as: "The blessings of your father surpass the blessings of my ancestors [ horai], to the utmost bounds of the eternal hills." However, Sarna comments on the translation "my ancestors": Hebrew horai is so rendered based on postbiblical usage. However, the stem h-r-h in the Bible can only mean "to become pregnant" and is, of course, solely used in the feminine. Seeing that "mountain(s)" - "hill(s)" is a fixed pair of parallel terms in Hebrew poetry, occuring more than thirty times in that order, Rashbam is undoubtedly correct in connecting horai here with har, "mountain." The Septuagint indeed reads here "ancient mountains," joining the word to the following 'ad. The phrase harere 'ad, "ancient mountains," appears in Habakkuk 3:6 in parallel with give'ot 'olam, "eternal hills." The Blessing of Moses to Joseph in Deuteronomy 33:15 employs the same imagery, though in variant form: "With the best from the ancient mountains, / And the bounty of hills immemorial..." Therefore it is best to render here, "the blessings of the ancient mountains". I find Sarna rather convincing here. Hora certainly seems to mean mother, and the verse in Bereshit does look like it is referring to mountains. So biblically we only had a word referring to the mother, and in post-biblical Hebrew the generic term horeh for "parent" developed. The word "parent" itself in English had a similar development: from O.Fr. parent (11c.), from L. parentem (nom. parens) "father or mother, ancestor," noun use of prp. of parere "bring forth, give birth to, produce," from PIE base *per- "to bring forth" I haven't seen proof of this, but it wouldn't surprise me if the Latin parentem (or an earlier version) originally meant "mother", since she is the one who gives birth. What I do find strange is how the words are listed in the dictionary. Both Klein and Even-Shoshan have listings for hora, horeh and horim. Even if they accept the more traditional understanding of Bereshit 49:26 as "my parents", I don't see why they need to have a separate entry for the plural form of the word. I suppose it's to say that the singular horeh means "father", not "parent", whereas only the plural horim is truly generic. But that's not the way it is used in Modern Hebrew. The popular online Hebrew-English dictionary Morfix translates horeh only as "parent", and doesn't have an entry for hora - as mother - at all. Morfix does, of course, have an entry for another meaning of hora - the folk dance. And no, they're not related. As Philologos discusses here: “Hora” comes from ancient Greek khoros, which also gives us such words as “chorus” and “choir.” Traditional circle dances deriving their names from khoros can be found all over the Balkans and southeastern Europe. They include the Turkish and Romanian hora, the Bulgarian horo, the Montenegrin and Macedonian ora, and the Russian khorovod, and they are all very old and highly similar in the way they are danced. And the Online Etymology Dictionary provides the following background to " chorus": from Gk. khoros "band of dancers or singers, dance, dancing ground," from PIE *ghoro-. In Attic tragedy, the khoros gave expression, between the acts, to the moral and religious sentiments evoked by the actions of the play. And just in case I have any readers who are accustomed to the Ashkenazi kamatz - there is also no connection to the hora found in the terms " loshon hora" or " yetzer hora". I'll be sure to let you know if I stop using Israeli pronunciation...
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| rav_hadassah |
| 2008-07-18 15:02 |
| NYC Jews, I need your help :-) |
| Public |
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Hi New York Jews,
I just need your help on some data for academic purposes. Would you be so kind as to give me the following info?
- What are the (significant) Jewish (printed) newspapers and press in NYC? (Moment? The Forward? Anything else?)
- What and where are the significant Jewish bookstores in NYC? (Westside Judaica? Anything else?)
- What and where are the significant Jewish Cultural Centers in NYC? (I'm thinking like the JCC on the Upper West Side)
- How would you contrast Brooklyn and Manhattan Jewishly? Does anyone have any anthropological and academic sources on this?
- What would you define as the most important and significant Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative and Orthodox shuls in NYC?
- Anything else that comes to mind for an ethnography of progressive (Reform/Reconstructionist) Judaism in NYC.
Thanks! I really appreciate this!
(I mean, yes, I could search for this stuff myself and I have an inkling on where to look but I am sure that y'all are far more knowledgeable and can point me into the right direction :-))
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Hi guys,
I guess it's a Thursday evening and I am bored :-)
Although, truth to be told, I have wanted to create this community for a while now.
So feel free to circulate, join and post!
See: http://community.livejournal.com/frum_egal/
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B'ruchim haba'im - welcome to those who come.
This community is created to provide a space for "Frum Egal" Jews to get together and share their experiences, ideas, observances and stories.
The premise of the community is that everyone is welcome but that the specifics are geared towards serving Jews who are:
a) "Frum" or (striving to be) "Halachically Observant" and:-
b) "Egalitarian".
Noting that these terms can mean different things to different people, it is up to each individual to decide what those terms mean to him or her. Generally speaking, the constituency that this community addresses can be found in the observant "Conservative" world or "Open" Modern Orthodoxy. "Frum Egal" *may* in broad strokes refer to the following practices or beliefs: women who have taken on timebound mitzvot and/or lead prayers, an adherence to basic Halakha such as kashrut, Shabbat and taharat hamishpacha, a critical-yet-observant relationship with tradition, the belief that women and men can (in varying degrees) equally share ritual, religious and social roles and responsibilities in the Jewish world and a commitment to the idea of "Halakhic Judaism".
Having said this, these denominations or practices do not monopolize the terms "Frum", "Halakhic" or "Egal" and this forum is aimed at any Jew who self-identifies as such or who is interested in the subject matter. If you are not of this specific constituency, feel welcome to join us and learn about these issues but be aware that the primary focus of this online community is "Frum Egal".
For the rest, "normal" blog and forum rules apply: maintain "derech eretz" (courtesy, politeness, etiquette) and discuss issues respectfully. The intention of this forum is to be unmoderated (although supervised) and anyone has posting access. If violations occur, this policy may be subject to change.
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Hebrew Ulpan is going sufficiently well. We did ALL seven binyanim (verb tenses) in two weeks, which was amazing. Not that I have them memorised but I get the system and know how to apply it. It feels really empowering to peel away the layers of mystery around Hebrew and it also feels really empowering to feel tired and exhausted BUT *not* overwhelmed and *not* panicking.
So yay Hebrew Ulpan. Shabbat shalom!
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| rysmiel |
| 2008-07-18 14:35 |
| No, there is too much. Let me sum up. |
| Public |
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Visiting daharyn: lots and lots of fun. Biodome. King penguins in the water. Musee de Beaux Arts. Commendable restraint was exercised, notably in the matter of bookshops.
Coping with daharyn's bag being pinched Monday; gruelling, took many hours, ultimately about as successful as coping could be in the circumstances. Stuff cancelled online, emergency passport obtained at US Consulate, outside the which I was required to stand, not being a US citizen. (Insert depressingly unsurprising comparison with helpful, courteous and efficient Montreal police here.) daharyn successfully placed on train this morning.
Went to bank. Obtained money order. Went to far end of blue line. Stood in line outside high school for somewhere upwards of two and a half hours. Successfully registered Z for repeat exam. My feet hurt.
Principal development machine back, seems to be working. $programmer out sick.
My father contacted us a couple of days back wanting to organise my mother's travel right away. He appears to have taken onboard that it wants to be second half of September or so relatively easily, this time; the subject of my not travelling in September was entirely avoided. Finalisation of plans awaits my mother finding out precisely when in October the art show in which her graduation pieces are being shown actually is.
$bosses' somewhat-less-than-twice-and-more-than-once-yearly bring-family houseparty happens the same day papersky is off to Denver.
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