Wondrous Words Wednesday 43

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at the Bermuda Onion where you "can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative!"

I have no idea where time is flying to - I thought you were supposed to be having  fun when time did that.

Ah well - some words for this week, for the purpose of having fun!

"...and that'd upset Pardessus Chatain Pursuivant. He always locks himself in his shed when he's upset..."

I already know what a Pursuivant is - the term basically means assistant herald. And Chatain means brown or chestnut colored. But I didn't know Pardessus.

pardessus /paʀdəsy/

1: a sleeveless garment like a cloak but shorter, mantle
2: a loose outer garment
3: a heavy coat worn over clothes in winter
4: French "over the top of"

Ohhh - here is a lovely Victorian Pardessus from Godey's Lady's Book

Or here is a lovely hand colored engraving c.1855 from the House of Worth from the Victoria and Albert Museum collection "Fashion plate showing two women's dresses in an outdoor setting. Grey dress with lilac sprigs and facings and black lace trimming, with yellow shawl and fringed parasol, and pink dress with black coat with green facings, both with bonnets."

That black coat is a also a pardessus.

And now that I sorted though all of that, I find this informative website http://thedreamstress.com/2011/11/more-terminology-what-is-a-pardessus/ - if you are interested in this, you should visit the site.


The other choice is a modern style overcoat, such as this 1931 Montagnac (from https://www.etsy.com/listing/230345426/montagnac-pardessus-men-overcoat-vintage), which is way less interesting to imagine.  

So, as far as I can work out, the gentleman in question is the Brown Cloak Assistant Herald.



And pardessus also led me to  ...

pardessus de viole

noun par·des·sus de vi·ole \¦pärdə¦südəvēˈōl\

1: a five- or six-stringed viol that is approximately the size of a violin and that is tuned an octave higher than the tenor viol —called also descant viol, quinton

French, literally, above the viol

First Known Use: 1889

I need one of these !!!!! NOW!!!!

And I just managed to spend all of my time on one word. Ooops.

Happy Wednesday

Wondrous Words Wednesday 42

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at the Bermuda Onion where you "can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative!"

So, rather than having fun making wondrous words wednesdays posts, instead I have been reading Hugo nominated materials in order to be an informed voter. Ask me if I have been having fun. Go ahead, ask me.

NO!  So far, other than two of the novels, the work has ranged from meh, okay to downright infuriatingly bad as far as I am concerned. If you try to stage a coup to take over an award you should darn well make sure you do it by nominating stories that are actually worth reading.  Not marginal stuff seasoned with total dreck! 

Enough about that ... I have reached the magic number 42 with my posts, cool! Here are some of the interesting words I have run into ... 

He struggled into the haptic feedback suit, ...

haptic /ˈhaptik/

adjective

1. Of or relating to the sense of touch, in particular relating to the perception and manipulation of objects using the senses of touch and proprioception.

Origin: Late 19th century: from Greek haptikos 'able to touch or grasp', from haptein 'fasten'.

And a quick google search turns up several companies working on making functional haptic gaming devices, plus some vaguely creepy stuff "(ick). 

Control VR - one of several projects listed at 

http://www.virtualrealitytimes.com/2015/03/13/list-of-haptic-controllers-virtual-reality/

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lined with ura sedge from Northeast China

Ura sedge is Carex meyeriana grass, considered one of the three ancestral treasures of Northeast China ginseng (人參), mink fur (貂皮), carex meyeriana grass (烏拉草). Carex is a vast genus of almost 2,000 species of perennial grassy plants in the family Cyperaceae, commonly known as sedges. Also known as wu-la grass, is a warm, springy, fibrous grass that was used to line shoes.

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her eyes were both myopic and presbyopic

presbyopic \ˌprez-bē-ˈō-pē-ə, ˌpres-\

1: a visual condition which becomes apparent especially in middle age and in which loss of elasticity of the lens of the eye causes defective accommodation and inability to focus sharply for near vision


Ah, I knew the concept but not the word for it. So, okay - but how could you tell that by just looking at a person ? Weird.

plans are currently under way to build a global-scale very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) aperture-synthesis radio telescope system. 

interferometer /ˌin(t)ərfəˈrämədər/ 

An instrument in which the interference of two beams of light is employed to make precise measurements.

Interferometry makes use of the principle of superposition to combine waves in a way that will cause the result of their combination to have some meaningful property that is diagnostic of the original state of the waves. Two waves with the same frequency combine and the resulting pattern is determined by the phase difference between the two waves—waves that are in phase will undergo constructive interference while waves that are out of phase will undergo destructive interference. Most interferometers use light or some other form of electromagnetic wave.

An astronomical interferometer is an array of telescopes or mirror segments acting together to probe structures with higher resolution by means of interferometry.

Below is the Very Large Array (VLA) radio astronomy observatory near Socorro County, New Mexico, U.S. which is also where the U.S. Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) system of ten radio telescopes is remotely operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

"USA.NM.VeryLargeArray.02" by user:Hajor - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA.NM.VeryLargeArray.02.jpg#/media/File:USA.NM.VeryLargeArray.02.jpg

A very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) is a type of astronomical interferometry used in radio astronomy. In VLBI a signal from an astronomical radio source, such as a quasar, is collected at multiple radio telescopes on Earth. The distance between the radio telescopes is then calculated using the time difference between the arrivals of the radio signal at different telescopes. This allows observations of an object that are made simultaneously by many radio telescopes to be combined, emulating a telescope with a size equal to the maximum separation between the telescopes.

Sorry if that got confusing. Basically - you know how what you can see through a telescope is limited by the size of lens? Like, with a little telescope you can see the moon and some surface features but with a bigger telescope you can start to see details of the craters on the moon? This is a related idea - upsizing the "visual" field by creating a much larger "lens" - except instead of looking at wavelengths in the visual range, radio telescopes pick up extremely weak, long wavelength cosmic radio waves by using huge antennas with very sensitive radio receivers (they also pick up interference from modern electronics - part of the reason that there are still restrictions on FM radio bands). 

A VLBI uses a network of radio telescopes each of which individually records incoming radio waves, and then all of that information is joined together using a computer, which is roughly the equivalent of creating a huge lens in order to create really detailed images of the universe. This allows scientists to do things like trace the motions of gas clouds in galactic clusters. By using two telescopes on opposite sides of a continent pointed at the same quasar, you can measure the difference in the arrival time of the pulse from the quasar to measure the distance between the telescopes. Using this basic principle, and scaling up to more telescopes and making multiple measurements over time, geologists can determine the rate of motion of tectonic plates. (Cool!) 

I seem to have totally gone off the deep end with some science geekery,
so I will stop here. Have a lovely Wednesday!

Wondrous Words Wednesday 41

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at the Bermuda Onion where you "can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative!"

OMG - I can't believe that I missed over a month!  I knew that I had been busy, but wow - that really stinks.  WWW is one of my favorite things to do. Bummer.

And of course tonight I am sitting in a basement, away from the huge long list of new words that I have been jotting down, trying to work up at least a small post. Let's see ... 

From The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett ... 

A note was clipped to the next page. He read: "The Fifth Elephant as a metaphor also appears [... I am skipping out a bit here to shorten up this quote...] it can mean 'a thing which does not exist' (as we would say 'Klatchian mist') 'a thing which is other than it seems' and 'a thing which, while unseen, controls events' (in the same way that we would use the term eminence gris)."

I wouldn't, thought Vimes. I don't use words like that. 

So - long quote for the term eminence gris, which I wouldn't use either.

éminence grise /ˌemənəns ˈɡrēz/

A person who exercises power or influence in a certain sphere without holding an official position.

Origin: 1930s: French, literally 'gray eminence'. The term was originally applied to Cardinal Richelieu's gray-cloaked private secretary, Père Joseph (1577–1638).

Cool ! 

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Next we have, from the same source, ...

 "There's my point," said Colon triumphantly. "One bad apple ruins the whole barrel!" 

 "I think now there's only a basket now," said the Patrician. "A punnet, possibly."

punnet /ˈpənət/ 
noun British

A small light basket or other container for fruit or vegetables

For example: a punnet of strawberries
Origin Early 19th century: perhaps a diminutive of dialect pun 'a pound'.

A punnet from http://www.nutleyskitchengardens.co.uk/old-fashioned-fruit-punnets.html

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And a couple of short ones from Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett

vertiginous /vərˈtijənəs/
adjective
1. Causing vertigo, especially by being extremely high or steep:vertiginous drops to the valleys below
1.1Relating to or affected by vertigo.

Origin: Early 17th century: from Latin vertiginosus, from vertigo 'whirling around' (see vertigo).

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He heard something pass overhead with a plangent sound. 


plangent /ˈplanjənt/

adjective

chiefly literary
(Of a sound) loud, reverberating, and often melancholy.

Origin: Early 19th century: from Latin plangent- 'lamenting', from the verb plangere.

I have to confess, I have no idea quite what that would sound like. 

Wondrous Words Wednesday 40

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at the Bermuda Onion where you "can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative!"

Man, I have been so busy that I haven't been able to play for weeks now. Not the best 'words', but hopefully of some interest ...

From The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey

rose sinking bit  - the book makes rather a big deal out of the fact that the thief dropped a rose bit. I wanted to figure out what it was. (this was a pain since these search terms give you about a bazillion pages about the movie Titanic.)

A rose sinking bit or rosehead countersink is a type of drill bit used to recess screw-heads into wood or metal so that the top of the screw is flush with the surface. Rose head bits have multiple straight cutting surfaces (originally 9?) that radiate out from a point. They can be used for both metal or wood.

Well, that was a pain in the tush, and I still have no idea why this was such a big deal in the book.  It doesn't appear that they are at all rare or unusual. Sounds like the kind of bit you would expect a thief to have if they planned on drilling into metal bars.  Odd.

The titular Secret Rooms are not actually secret at all (this isn't a spoiler, you figure it out pretty quickly since they are labeled on the map provided in the first few pages of the book). They are more properly called the Muniment Rooms - a term that I had to look up.

muniment \ˈmyü-nə-mənt\

1 : the evidence (as documents) that enables one to defend the title to an estate or a claim to rights and privileges —usually used in plural 

2 : A document or record, especially one kept in an archive.

3 archaic :  a means of defense

Origin: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin munimentum, from Latin, defense, safeguard, from munire to fortify

First Known Use: 15th century

From Black's Law Dictionary via wikipedia - Muniment or Muniment of Title is a legal term for a document, or other evidence, that indicates ownership of an asset. The word is derived from munimentum, the Latin word for a defensive fortification. In other words, "muniments of title" means the written evidence which a land owner can use to defend title to his estate

I still had the archaic means of defense/fortification idea stuck in my head, which wasn't really making sense.

I suspect that the publishers didn't think the book would sell as well if it were titled The Muniment Rooms which I can understand. I still think they should have called it the Secrets (plural) Room(s) (the five rooms held secrets buried in all those documents.)


Finally - I just have time to sneak in sybaritic. 

syb·a·rit·ic /'sibəˈritik/

adjective

adjective: sybaritic

fond of sensuous luxury or pleasure; self-indulgent.

"their opulent and sybaritic lifestyle"

syb·a·rite \ˈsi-bə-ˌrīt\

1 : [from the notorious luxury of the Sybarites] :  voluptuary, sensualist

2 : capitalized :  a native or resident of the ancient city of Sybaris

From Wikipedia:
Sybaris (Ancient Greek: Σύβαρις; Italian: Sibari) was an important city of Magna Graecia. It was situated on the Gulf of Taranto between two rivers, the Crathis (Crati) and the Sybaris (Coscile).

The city was founded in 720 BC by Achaean and Troezenian settlers. Sybaris amassed great wealth thanks to its fertile land and busy port. Its inhabitants became famous among the Greeks for their hedonism, feasts, and excesses, to the extent that "sybarite" and "sybaritic" have become bywords for opulent luxury and outrageous pleasure-seeking. 

So - interesting term to apply to a chunk of the British aristocracy during WWI. Yuck.  



Um, usually I try to include pictures/illustrations/photos for my stuff but since I am trying to keep this website mostly PG, I think I have to skip it this time. 


How about the ancient ruins of Sybaris instead ... 

Source http://www.viaggiart.com/it/place/4914/parco-archeologico-di-sibari

Wondrous Words Wednesday 39

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at the Bermuda Onion where you "can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative!"

Some neat words ...

From When Oil Peaked by Kenneth Deffeyes (long) (of all places) ...

zymurgy \ˈzīˌmərjē\

:  a branch of applied chemistry that deals with fermentation processes (as in wine making or brewing)  

Origin: mid 19th century: from Greek zumē 'leaven', on the pattern of metallurgy.

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From A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan:

"... a much fuller account of our travel from Scirland to Vystrana, is a window into a time all but forgotten now, in this age of railways, fast ships, and caeligers." 

 

caeligers   

Latin for "heaven supporting" 

Okay, I am having no luck sorting this one out. If someone else has a clue, could you share it in the comments? Clearly this is meant to be a form of mass transport - air ship perhaps? 

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"No, you wouldn't ... they are crepuscular hunters, after all. ... Granted, we don't understand very well how it works even with the dragons we've seen..."

crepuscular  \kri-ˈpəs-kyə-lər\

1:  of, relating to, or resembling twilight :  dim <crepuscular light>

2:  occurring or active during twilight <crepuscular insects> <crepuscular activity>  

Origin: : from Latin crepusculum 'twilight' + -ar. 

First Known Use: 1668 (mid 17th century)

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"... as all the gathered villagers ran toward us waving graggers." 

 

graggers  (aka groggers) 

paraphrased from Wikipedia: A ratchet, or noisemaker (or, when used in Judaism, a gragger or grogger (etymologically from Yiddish: גראַגער) or ra'ashan (Hebrew: רעשן‎)), is an orchestral musical instrument played by percussionists. Operating on the principle of the ratchet device, a gearwheel and a stiff board is mounted on a handle, which rotates freely.

Is that what those things are called ?!? They always fell into the generic category of noisemaker for me, upgraded to "give me that thing before lose my mind" at kids parties.  Of course they never had nice wooden ones, just cheap plastic ones that made a terrible racket.

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"...in the end, Jacob had to teach me how to abseil, which I was not very good at."

abseil   \ˈab-ˌsāl, -ˌsī(-ə)l\

chiefly British

:  rappel

:  to descend (as from a cliff) by sliding down a rope passed under one thigh, across the body, and over the opposite shoulder or through a special friction device

Origin : German abseilen, from ab down, off + Seil rope

First Known Use: 1941

(Origin of Rappel : French, literally, recall, from Old French rapel, from rapeler to recall, from re- + apeler to appeal, call  

First Known Use: 1944)

You could figure this out from context, but I thought it was cool since I had never heard this term used before. I always just repelled down cliffs.  

I also can't help but think they were doing it wrong in the book. Repelling down a cliff face shouldn't result in a bunch of scrapes and bruises. Jacob should have been feeding her the line for a controlled decent and she should just have been bouncing off the cliff face using her feet. Even beginners pick it up quickly. Odd.

Anyhow, I always thought repelling was the best part of climbing - zipping down the rope is one of the closest things there are to flying. Awesome! 

 Happy Wednesday !

 

Wondrous Words Wednesday 38

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at the Bermuda Onion where you "can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative!"

Last week was cod, but now we have officially reached ridiculously cold. Sorry it is so blurry, but that is what our weather station reported this morning minus thirteen! Eek!

I randomly started re-reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I haven't read the books in ages so it was neat to revisit it. I have to read the rest of them again now. Classic the glass is half empty, the toast always lands butter side down humor.

Source: Grace's Guide

"It's the Vogon captain making an announcement on the tannoy."

Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Tannoy Limited is a Scotland-based manufacturer of loudspeakers and public-address (PA) systems that was founded in 1926. The name Tannoy is an abbreviation of tantalum alloy, which was used in a type of electrolytic rectifier developed by the company (something that coverts AC to DC). Tannoy became a household word as a result of supplying PA systems to the armed forces during World War II. They are still around and you can still purchase Tannoy speakers and loud speakers.

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"He gave us conkers when you bust your way into his megafreighter."

conker

1:  a horse chestnut especially when used in the game conkers

2 plural:  a game in which each player swings a horse chestnut on a string to try to break one held by the opponent

 Origin: mid 19th century (a dialect word denoting a snail shell, with which the game, or a similar form of it, was originally played): perhaps from conch, but associated with (and frequently spelled) conquer in the 19th and early 20th centuries: an alternative name was conquerors.

So - to judge by the context in the rest of the section, we are talking about chestnuts.

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"Here," he said, hoicking out a lump of evil-smelling meat from a bowl, "have some Vegan Rhino's cutlet."

hoick \ˈhȯik\
verb 

: to lift or pull (something) with a quick movement 

Origin: probably alteration of hike

First Known Use: 1898

(sounds awful - I read that hocked up at first - blergh!) 

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"Since when," continued his murine colleague, "we have had an offer of a quite enormously fat contract ..."

murine \ˈmyu̇r-ˌīn\ 

adjective 

: of or relating to a murid genus (Mus) or its subfamily (Murinae) which includes the common household rats and mice;  also 

:  of, relating to, or involving these rodents and especially the house mouse

Origin: ultimately from Latin mur-, mus

First Known Use: circa 1729

Specifically, Old World rats and mice, part of the subfamily Murinae in the family Muridae. Members of this subfamily are called murines. The Murinae are native to Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

  

Happy Wednesday!

Wondrous Words Wednesday 37

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at the Bermuda Onion where you "can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative!"

I am totally in a -12 degree wind chill outside, everything is blah, funk. But - words are fun! So in an attempt to cheer myself up, here are a few words - mostly from books that I thought were pretty meh, which doesn't help - that I thought were interesting ...

hobbledehoy /ˈhäbəldēˌhoi/
1 noun: an awkward gawky youth - usually referencing a young man or boy.

1 adjective: awkward or clumsy.

Origin: unknown OR variant of hoberdyhoy, alliterative compound, equivalent to hoberd (variant of Roberd Robert) +  -hoy for boy
First Known Use: 1530 - 1540

---

beldam \ˈbel-dəm\

1:  an old woman 

an old woman, esp an ugly or malicious one; hag

 --- witch, crone, hag  

2: [Obsolete] grandmother. 

 

Orgin: Middle English beldam grandmother, from Anglo-French bel beautiful + Middle English dam

First Known Use: 1520

Wait, what??? this word went from standing for grandmother to standing for witch or hag???  What happened?  The original construction is beautiful woman - what the heck is the etymology of this word?  

"aged woman," 1570s; earlier "grandmother" (mid-15c.), from dame (q.v.) in the sense of "mother" + bel-, Middle English prefix expressing relationship (cf. belfader, belsire "grandfather"), from Old French bel, belle "beautiful, fair, fine" (see belle ). This "direct relationship" sense of bel is not found in French, where the prefix is used to form words for in-laws.

I will try to sort this out later.  Sheesh!
 

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jobbernoll
1: The head; the pate.
2: A stupid fellow; a loggerhead; a blockhead.[Vulgar in both senses] 
from The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, Part 11
 edited by William Dwight Whitney
From A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew, In its several Tribes of Gypsies, Beggers, Thieves, Cheats, &c. with An Addition of some Proverbs, Phrases, Figurative Speeches, &c. Useful for all sorts of People, (especially Foreigners) to secure their Money and preserve their Lives; besides very Diverting and Entertaining, being wholly New by  which was published in London in 1699

 a "jobbernoll" means "a very silly Fellow."

" Calf," meaning a fool (as witness Cotgraves definition of " Veau, a calfe or veale ; also alozell, hoydon, dunce, jobbernoll, doddipole" from Elizabethan England..

(this one was tough because the Jobberknoll from Harry Potter has almost driven out the original word!) 

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vingt-et-un \ˌvan-ˌtā-ˈən\

:  blackjack

Origin: French, literally, twenty-one (Well duh!  I clearly didn't think that one through.)

First Known Use: 1772

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bag·wig \ˈbag-ˌwig\

:  an 18th century wig with the back hair enclosed in a small silk bag 

First Known Use : 1717

Gentleman's Queue Bag
18th Century
Gentlemen wore a queue bag to "contain the pony tail" 

of their own hair or a wig to keep their collars and clothes clean.
Silk, linen. W 12.1, L 25.4 cm
Morristown National Historic Park, MORR 3932

Sounds hideously uncomfortable!

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gadroon /ɡəˈdro͞on /

1:  the ornamental notching or carving of a rounded molding

2:  a short often oval fluting or reeding used in decoration

— gadroon transitive verb

— ga·droon·ing noun

 : noun A decorative edging on metal or wood, typically formed by inverted flutings.
Origin late 17th century: from French godron, probably related to goder 'to pucker', also to godet.

American railroad holloware creamer jug with
gadrooning on the lower body (Wikipedia)

 

Happy Wednesday! Stay Warm !

Wondrous Words Wednesday 36

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at the Bermuda Onion where you "can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative!"

I am still brain-dead from my trip and what few cells I have firing are being used by paperwork and the Cybils books.

Let's see ... I have a few random words for this week though.

... so Kim applied herself as best she could to arts such as reading and legerdemain which could not be conveniently practiced while marching in the rain.

legerdemain \ˌle-jər-də-ˈmān\
 1: sleight of hand
 2: a display of skill or adroitness
 3: skilful use of one’s hands when performing conjuring tricks.

Origin: Middle English, from Middle French leger de main light of hand

First Known Use: 15th century

Hocus pocus juinor. The Anatomy of Legerdemain. OR, The Art of Jugling set forth in his proper colours, fully, plainly, and exactly, so that an ignorant person may thereby learn the full perfection of the same, after a little practise. Unto each trick is added the figure where it is needed full for instruction. Præstat nihili quam nihil facere.

First published in 1634.

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... she knew from experience that once he took a notion, he was as stubborn as a costermonger defending his route through the market. 

costermonger \-ˌməŋ-gər, -ˌmäŋ-\
British dated

:  a hawker of fruit or vegetables

:  a person who sells goods, especially fruit and vegetables, from a handcart in the street.
Origin costard + monger

First Known Use: 1514

1510s, "itinerant apple-seller" from coster (apple) + monger (seller). Sense extended from "apple-seller" to any salesman who plied his wares from a street-cart. Contemptuous use is from Shakespeare ("2 Henry IV"), but reason is unclear.

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A young domovyk ...

 

A domovoi or domovoy (Russian: домово́й; IPA: [dəmɐˈvoj]; literally, "[he] from the house") is a house spirit in Slavic folklore. Traditionally, every house is said to have its domovoi. It does not do evil unless angered by a family’s poor keep of the household, profane language or neglect. The domovoi is seen as the home's guardian, and he sometimes helps with household chores and field work. Some even treat them as part of the family, albeit an unseen one, and leave them gifts such as milk and biscuits in the kitchen overnight.

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I call it ratiocination.  

ratiocination  \-ˌō-sə-ˈnā-shən, -ˌnä-\
1:  the process of exact thinking :  reasoning

2:  a reasoned train of thought 

First Known Use: circa 1530


Happy Wednesday. 
 

Oh - BTW, if you haven't read it - I thought that Jackaby by William Ritter was quite fun. 

Wondrous Words Wednesday 35

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at the Bermuda Onion where you "can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative!"

Well - went from busy to completely insane in the blink of an eye around here.
Totally at random this week. 

The elderly lady's gown of grey figured silk, lavishly embellished with Valenciennes to match her lace cap ... 

Based on stuff from Wikipedia ...  
Valenciennes lace is a type of bobbin lace which originated in Valenciennes, a township in the Nord département (something like a county) of France, and flourished from about 1705 to 1780.

Bobbin lace is made on a pillow that has a pattern picked out with pins, and the thread is wound around a set of bobbins (wood, bone or ivory traditionally). The lace is made by braiding the thread into patterns around the pins on the pillow. You can make a single lace piece like a doily or the pillow can be on an axle that turns, allowing you to make a long strand of lace.  (I had a friend who did this.  I tatted instead - it was more portable.)

From http://vikingmama.blogspot.com/2010/08/bobbin-lace-beginning-classe-complete.html

Valenciennes lace is made on a lace pillow in one piece, with the réseau (the net-like ground) being made at the same time as the toilé (the pattern). There is more stuff about exactly what differentiates Valenciennes lace from other forms of bobbin lace on Wikipedia.

Oh cool!  If you are interested in lace at all this is really neat ... http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38973/38973-h/38973-h.htm

Real Valenciennes - from that lace book I linked

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She was just wondering whether she could possibly fit in one of the delicious-looking mille-feuilles on an nearby dish ...


mille-feuilles \mēl-ˈfwē, mēl-ˈfœ-ē\
: a dish composed of puff pastry layered with a filling (as salmon or cream)
Origin: French, from mille feuilles a thousand leaves First Known Use: 1895

Since we are talking desert here, I am gonna go out on a limb and suggest that salmon was not in fact the filling we are talking about here.

Also known as Napoleon pastry -

here is a recipe - http://www.ricardocuisine.com/recipes/3142-mille-feuille-

Happy Wednesday!

Wondrous Words Wednesday 34

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at the Bermuda Onion where you "can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative!"    

Busy! Ack!  Here are some interesting words from a book that started out good and then went straight off a cliff - by the middle everyone was tstl. So, not even gonna name it.

"Dash it," he groaned, "sitting is even more awkward than walking with all this extra avoirdupois."

avoirdupois /ˌävərdəˈpoiz/
1: A system of weights based on a pound of 16 ounces or 7,000 grains, widely used in English-speaking countries.
1.1: humorous Weight; heaviness especially :  personal weight
Origin Middle English (denoting merchandise sold by weight): from Old French aveir de peis 'goods of weight', from aveir 'to have' (infinitive used as a noun, from Latin habere) + peis 'weight'
First Known Use: 15th century


"Much olive tree. My ship bring olive oil to Istanbul. I expect you later, Kyria, but is better now."

Kyria κυρίᾳ   /kee-REE-ah/
Greek word for lady

And I have just gotten sucked down into long discussions of the "noble lady" in the Bible or proper ways to address people in Greece and I don't have the time or patience to work it all out so I am gonna leave it there. 


They came to a Turkish-style caravanserai on the edge of the small town.

caravansary /ˌkarəˈvansərē /
chiefly British also caravanserai /-səˌrī/
noun (plural caravansaries or caravanserais /-səˌrīz/)
1: historical An inn with a central courtyard for travelers in the desert regions of Asia or North Africa.
Origin late 16th century: from Persian kārwānsarāy, from kārwān 'caravan' + sarāy 'palace'.

Monumental entrance of the Sultanhani caravanserai Aksaray,Turkey.

Inner Courtyard

Happy Wednesday !

Wondrous Words Wednesday 33

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at the Bermuda Onion where you "can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative!"    

 Frantically working on a pre-proposal and a conference presentation. Eek. So yet more pot luck words from the past week ...

A quick change of subject is the best slap on the wrist when a gent has allowed the conversation to wander into forbidden purlieus. 

purlieu \ˈpərl-(ˌ)yü, ˈpər-(ˌ)lü\
1: the area surrounding a place
2: an outlying or adjacent district
3: a frequently visited place : haunt
3 British historical: A tract on the border of a forest, especially one earlier included in it and still partly subject to forest laws.

Origin: Middle English purlewe land severed from an English royal forest by perambulation, from Anglo-French puralé perambulation, from puraler to travel through, measure, from pur- thoroughly + aler to go. First Known Use: 15th century

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"... pointed out the mastery of Van Dyck's portraits, the chiaroscuro of Caravaggio, the bravura designs of Rubens, the sheer magical artistry of Rembrandt." 

chiaroscuro \-ˈskyu̇r-(ˌ)ō\

1:  pictorial representation in terms of light and shade without regard to color

2a :  the arrangement or treatment of light and dark parts in a pictorial work of art

  b :  the interplay or contrast of dissimilar qualities (as of mood or character)

3:  a 16th century woodcut technique involving the use of several blocks to print different tones of the same color; also :  a print made by this technique

4:  the interplay of light and shadow on or as if on a surface

5:  the quality of being veiled or partly in shadow

Origin:Italian, from chiaro clear, light + oscuro obscure, dark First Known Use: 1686

also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achieve a sense of volume in modelling three-dimensional objects and figures.

David with the Head of Goliath, 1609–1610, by Caravaggio

Sleeping Cupid, c.1608, by Caravaggio

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"I had in any case intended to pay my devoirs to the vicar today."


devoir  \də-ˈvwär, ˈde-ˌ\
1: duty, responsibility
2 : a usually formal act of civility or respect
 Origin: alteration of Middle English dever, devoir, from Anglo-French, from deveir, devoer to owe, be obliged, from Latin debēre. First Known Use: 14th century

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"A granddaddy pike! Hold it still a moment and I'll gaff it," Albert ordered.


gaff  \ˈgaf\

1 a :  a spear or spearhead for taking fish or turtles

  b :  a handled hook for holding or lifting heavy fish

  c :  a metal spur for a gamecock

  d :  a butcher's hook

  e :  a climbing iron or its steel point used by a telephone lineman 

2:  the spar on which the head of a fore-and-aft sail is extended 

Origin: French gaffe, from Occitan gaf First Known Use: circa 1656 

Vintage gaff

A pole with a sharp hook on the end that is used to stab a large fish and then lift the fish into the boat or onto shore. Ideally, the hook is placed under the backbone. Gaffs are used when the weight of the fish exceeds the breaking point of the fishing line or the fishing pole. A gaff cannot typically be used if it is intended to release the fish unharmed after capture.


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She was wearing a speedwell blue sari with a broad, patterned border of cloth of gold. 

speedwell  \ˈspēd-ˌwel\
 :  a perennial European herb (Veronica officinalis) of the snapdragon family that is naturalized in North America and has small bluish flowers in axillary racemes. (aka Veronica)
First known use: 1578 

Oh, that color blue !


 Happy Wednesday !
 

Wondrous Words Wednesday 32

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at the Bermuda Onion where you "can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative!"
  
More pot luck words from the past week ...

From The Empire of Tea by Alan and Iris Macfarlane :  

The women lounged in deckchairs on the ship or sat sidesaddle on shiny horses, floppy hats replaced by solar topees. 

Solar topee is another word for pith helmet! According to Wikipedia
From the Hindi sola or shola, the name of a plant, and topi, a hat. The spelling "solar" probably rises from misunderstanding shola as the English solar.

Lord and Lady Curzon. Lord George Curzon was Viceroy of India from 1898 to 1905
and a fervent champion of British imperial interests.

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We lived in white bungalows around which grew marigolds, petunias and scarlet salvias (I have disliked these ever since) 


scarlet salvia aka scarlet sage (Salvia splendens)

The fiery scarlet sage (Salvia splendens) can be found throughout India. (Source)

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which was something of a pity since 'box wallahs' were almost hoi polloi in my family's vocabulary.

box wallah  \ˈbäkˌswälə\

India 

:  peddler

:  (derogatory) an itinerant pedlar or salesman in India

Origi: Hindi bakswālā, from English ²box + Hindi -wālā man

wallah /ˈwälə/

[in combination or with modifier] Indian or informal

1A:  person concerned or involved with a specified thing or business: ice cream wallahs

1.1A:  native or inhabitant of a specified place: Bombay wallahs 

Origin: the Hindi suffix -vālā 'doer' (commonly interpreted in the sense 'fellow'), from Sanskrit pālaka 'keeper'.

 

dabbawallah: a person in India, most commonly in Mumbai, who is part of a delivery system that collects hot food in lunch boxes from the residences of workers in the late morning, delivers the lunches to the workplace

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Oh and one other one from a difference book ...

... a mantle supported by winged caryatids that appeared more Greek than Egyptian, a distinctly Chinese screen, and an oppressive number of ornately carved tables. 

caryatid \ˌker-ē-ˈa-təd, ˌka-rē-; ˈker-ē-ə-ˌtid, ˈka-rē-\

plural cary·at·ids or cary·at·ides

:  a draped female figure supporting an entablature 

Caryatids are sometimes called korai (“maidens”). Their male counterpart is the atlas.

Origin: Latin caryatides, plural, from Greek karyatides priestesses of Artemis at Caryae, caryatids, from Karyai Caryae in Laconia. First Known Use: 1563

entablature \in-ˈta-blə-ˌchu̇r, -chər, -ˌt(y)u̇r\

:  a horizontal part in classical architecture that rests on the columns and consists of architrave, frieze, and cornice

Image of Porch of the Caryatids which is part of the Erechtheum at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.

So we have a fireplace like this ... 

 but more Sphinx-like I guess ?

Happy Wednesday!