Verbing Weirds Language

The title for this post comes from one of the great works of art of the twentieth century. I mean, of course, Bill Waterson’s Calvin and Hobbes. "I take nouns and adjectives", Calvin says to Hobbes, "and use them as verbs. Remember when ‘access’ was a thing? Now it’s something you do. It got verbed." I know just what he means. But as a student of the English language, I have to disagree. Calvin’s complaint is not new. Nero Wolfe, the detective in the mystery novels written by Rex Stout, wa...

The Sky Was Blue the Sea Was Blue and the Boy Was Blue review – a monochrome marvel

The Sky Was Blue the Sea Was Blue and the Boy Was Blue review – a monochrome marvel The Guardian - Back to homeContribute Sign inNewsOpinionSportCultureLifestyleShow MoreFilmBooksMusicArt & designTV & radioStageClassicalGamesLockdown cultureThe Sky Was Blue the Sea Was Blue and the Boy Was Blue review – a monochrome marvel Victoria Miro, London; online on Vortic Collect from TuesdayCobalt, indigo, ultramarine; the colour of sadness and a summer’s day… in this uplifting virtual sh...

Punning of Reason - TLS

Eat vinegar, Jesus Christ, and Middle Persian

I've always been intrigued by the Chinese expression "eat vinegar" (chīcù 吃醋) meaning "be jealous".  To convey the idea of "jealous", one can also say dùjì 妒忌 or just dù 妒 (note the female semantophore).  I learned the disyllabic form with the syllables reversed, hence jìdù 忌妒.  The monosyllabic form (dù 妒) is ancient, going back to classical times. I said jìdù 忌妒 instead of dùjì 妒忌 because the former is what all my Chinese friends and relatives said, though m...

Tortuous sentences - an Extract from Red Pill

Halation | Definition of Halation by Merriam-Webster

Definition of Halation by Merriam-Webster ha·​la·​tion | \ hā-ˈlā-shən \ Definition of halation 1 : the spreading of light beyond its proper boundaries in a developed photographic image 2 : a bright ring that sometimes surrounds a bright object on a television screen First Known Use of halation 1859, in the meaning defined at sense 1 History and Etymology for halation halo + -ation Learn More about halation Time Traveler for halation The first known use of halation was ...

Philosopher AI - What is the literary significance of a missing finger?

Philosopher AI - What is the literary significance of a missing finger?SourceURL: https://philosopherai.com/philosopher/what-is-the-literary-significance-of-a-missing-fin-0ab935 Philosopher AINew topicWhat is the literary significance of a missing finger?➹ Share ⟳ Try againFirstly, I have read the work of the philosopher Edmund Burke. He speaks about how people act and perceive one another in society. His theories on human nature derive from a basis of experience as well as observation.29 Aug...

Lugh (person) by Tlachtga - Everything2.com

Lugh (person) by Tlachtga Lugh Lamhfada "Lugh of the Long Arm" aka: Samildánach (CMT), Lug Lonnannsclech (CMT), Lug Laebach (Gwynn, III, 7) God of arts, warriors, and sovereignty. Etymology The origin of "Lugh"--and that of his Gaulish counterpart Lugus--is still a matter of debate. It may derive from *lug- "oath, pledge", which would fit with his role as a first function god in a Dumezilian structure. Alternately, it has been derived from the Proto-Indo European *leuk- "light", here perh...

Half-fish (definition) by Webster 1913 - Everything2.com

Half-fish (definition) See all of Half-fish, no other writeups in this node. Half"-fish` (?), n. Zool. A salmon in its fifth year of growth. [Prov. Eng.] © Webster 1913. link view Epicenter You have 1 C! and 44 votes left today. server time Monday, August 17, 2020 at 3:09:30 your time Sunday, August 16, 2020 at 19:09:30Chatterbox(r) 2020-06-25@23:14 @+ riverrun says Hey, Thanks for your cool. That was a fun one. (r) 2020-06-29@6:05 (1.5 d) legbagede says cheers! I ...

Yellow (thing) by bitter_engineer - Everything2.com

Near Matches Ignore ExactFull Text Everything2 Yellow (thing) See all of Yellow, there are 7 more in this node. (thing) by bitter_engineer Mon May 22 2000 at 6:32:27 To Iceberg Slim and his contemporaries, this was a jivespeak term for a yellow pill filled with barbituates. Good for keeping your whores calm. I like it! La Blue Girl Coldplay Pentium II Linus Torvalds Why is the sky blue? rot Yellow is the opposite of blue Iceberg Slim Orang...

Using profanity in fiction (idea) by Braunbeck - Everything2.com

Near Matches Ignore ExactFull Text Everything2Using profanity in fiction (idea)See all of Using profanity in fiction, no other writeups in this node.(idea)by Braunbeck Fri Jun 11 2004 at 16:37:32Unless you're writing in the Christian Young Adult genre (and even that's up for debate), it would be unrealistic to write a novel or short story wherein one of the characters didn't swear at some point. Our lives have become much more fast-paced and frustrating, and a result of that frustration is ...

Primate Chess – Neurodiversity, social conflict, and it's expression independent of group.

Related to the non-literal language post.Here are some interesting things I should have put into my last post that have to do with language and non-literal language that I believe are useful. These are examples for getting an idea about how we transmit information to one another, and how anatomy is used in language. *The first is a university news article on a study looking at brain regions activated when hearing metaphors. Hearing metaphors activates sensory brain regions. It turns out that ...

ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLS AS SECRET CODE · Unveiling the Secrets: The Evolution of Modern Chemistry · Hay Exhibits

Skip to main content Search Hay Exhibits Browse Items Browse Collections Browse Exhibits About ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLS AS SECRET CODE Basil Valentine, Azoth, Ou Le Moyen de F...

words that are people - Everything2.com

Near Matches Ignore ExactFull Text Everything2 words that are people (person) by Sebastian Oliver Sat Oct 03 2009 at 21:20:49 Did you ever encounter a word that so wholly and completely described a person? Well, of course you have, but I meant a little less superficially than that. At first, I was almost certain she was an angel. A delicate, azureus-eyed, porcelain doll with hair like zero-g fire and invisible wings. I was sure that if I squinted hard enough, or looked at...

A Way With Words

Books about art and writing - reviews and selections - Apollo FEB 2020

How to Leave Your Lover with Lemons

Sign In The Daily The Review ...

Last Quesadilla - The - Guestbook Ghost Stories

Troops - an Unethical Euphemism - The Atlantic

We value your privacyWhen you visit TheAtlantic.com, The Atlantic and our partners use cookies and other methods to process your personal data in order to customize content and your site experience, provide social media features, analyze our traffic, and personalize advertising on both our family of websites and our partners' platforms. Please click "I Agree" to accept this use of your data. Alternatively, you may select "Set My Preferences" to accept (or reject) specific...

polysemy

polysemy (n.) 1900, from French polysémie (1897), from Medieval Latin polysemus, from Greek polysemos "of many senses," from poly- "many" (from PIE root *pele- (1) "to fill") + sema "sign" (see semantic). Related: Polysemic.

Opium, Etymology, Storytelling and Heroism

Is a Theory of Names Possible?: Names: Vol 58, No 2

Skip to Main Content Log in |  Register Cart Search in: This Journal Advanced search Journal Names A Journal of Onomastics Volume 58, 2010 - Issue 2 Submit an article Journal homepage 184 Views 1 CrossRef citations to date 0 Altmetric A Look Back at the American Name Society Is a Theory of Names Possible?John Algeo University of Georgia, Emeritus, USA Pages 90-96 | Published online: 19 Ju...

Bird as bard

Could birds in English literature be a reference to poets and playwrights? More ancient languages would suggest a different but not opposite meaning. Birds are often symbolic of the female psyche, and the virtual function of females in the storyworld as potential powerful diplomats. Birds can carry and deliver informed messages (sometimes literally on paper) without causing a direct threat. (Hitchcock's The Birds being one exception) or angelic spy -- a neither necessarily friendly nor nece...

felix culpa defined

fe·lix cul·pa /ˈfāliks ˈko͝olpə,ˈfēliks/noun noun: felix culpa the sin of Adam viewed as fortunate, because it brought about the blessedness of the Redemption. an apparent error or disaster with happy consequences. "he presents the revolt as a felix culpa"Origin Latin, literally ‘happy fault’.

Queens and Flying Machines