Word Of The Day

[Altobelli]

AULD LANG SYNE noun (awld lang zahyn)

noun

1. Scot. and North England. old times, especially times fondly remembered.
2. Scot. and North England. old or long friendship.


Quotes

Have a glass of champagne with me for the sake of auld lang syne.
--*Sarah Mason,*Party Girl, 2003


"We had meant," the elder woman said, "to have a quiet little dinner--we two and you, before the party--for auld lang syne...."
--*Ford Madox Ford,*Some Do Not ..., 1924



Origin

Auld lang syne in modern American English is associated just about exclusively with New Year’s Eve and the song of the same name by the Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759–96), but the phrase is recorded in Scotland in the 17th century. The phrase in Scots literally means “old long since,” that is, “old, long-ago, (for) old times’ sake.” Auld lang syne entered Scots English in the 17th century.

[Acido]

Ive got one for you Alto, and like I was saying earlier... it always makes me laugh on here when I see it.

'Bastid'... one who comes from the Rovers part of Blacky in Lancs, according to the Burnsley dingles.

[Altobelli]

Oh no Acido, you have hit a word I dislike very much, Dingles, I cringe every time.

[Acido]

I dont like it either Alto, because we also get called it. Dingles eh, what the heck does it mean ?.

[Altobelli]

PATRICIAN noun (puh-trish-uh n)

noun

1. a person of noble or high rank; aristocrat.
2. a person of very good background, education, and refinement.
3. a member of the original senatorial aristocracy in ancient Rome.
4. (under the later Roman and Byzantine empires) a title or dignity conferred by the emperor.
5. a member of a hereditary ruling class in certain medieval German, Swiss, and Italian free cities.

adjective

1. of high social rank or noble family; aristocratic.
2. befitting or characteristic of persons of very good background, education, and refinement: patrician tastes.
3. of or belonging to the patrician families of ancient Rome.


Quotes

His books became real for everyone who read them, whether the humble labourer in the Strand or the patrician in Mayfair.
--*Matthew Pearl,*The Last Dickens, 2009


When he began the book in November or December 1821, James Cooper was, nominally at least, a man of substance--patrician, gentleman farmer, owner of a whaling ship, and (as the only surviving son of the late Judge William Cooper of Cooperstown) heir to numerous farms and some thousands of acres of undeveloped land in New York State.
--*James Franklin Beard,*"Historical Introduction," The Pioneers (1823) by James Fenimore Cooper, 1980



Origin

The Latin adjective and noun patricius, patritius dates to the comedies of the Roman dramatist Plautus (c254-c184 b.c.). The word means having the rank and dignity of the patrēs (Roman senators), or a person with that dignity, a noble. According to the Roman historian Livy (59 b.c.–17 a.d.), Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome, appointed the first 100 senators and named them patrēs (fathers). From the time of the reign of the emperor Constantine (288?–337 a.d.) onward, patricius was a high honorary title that entailed no specified duties and was only occasionally awarded. Patrician entered English in the 15th century.

[Altobelli]

MOIRA noun (moi-ruh)

noun

1. (among ancient Greeks) a person's fate or destiny.
2. Classical Mythology. (initial capital letter) a. the personification of fate. b. Moirai, the Fates.
3. (initial capital letter) a female given name.


Quotes

Everyone has a moira that "spins the thread" of one's fate, the day of death.
--*Barry B. Powell,*"Introduction" The Iliad by Homer, 2014


Hermes tells Calypso that 'it is not his [Odysseus'] aisa to perish far away from his loved ones, but it is still his moira to see his loved ones and reach his high-roofed house and fatherland' ...
--*Ahuvia Kahane,*Homer: A Guide for the Perplexed, 2012



Origin

Moira comes straight from Greek moȋra “part, portion of booty, one’s portion in life, division (of land, people), political party.” The Greek noun comes from a widespread Proto-Indo-European root (s)mer- to remember,” the source of Latin memoria “memory,” and Germanic (Old English) murnan “to be anxious, care,” English mourn. In Greek mythology there were three Moirai (Moerae), the “Fates” that controlled human life: Clotho (Klōthṓ) “the Spinner (of the thread of human life”), who determined when a person was to be born and was in charge of the present; Lachesis (Láchesis) “the Disposer (of lots or portions),” who was in charge of the past and measured the length of human life; and Atropos (átropos) “the Unturnable, Inflexible,” who was in charge of the future and cut the thread of human life, causing death.

[Altobelli]

TURNCOAT noun (turn-koht)

noun

1. a person who changes to the opposite party or faction, reverses principles, etc.; renegade.


Quotes

A turncoat is the angry name for a convert, but you are no converts; how then can you be turncoats?
--*George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton,*A Letter to the Tories, 1747


With Roy comes big trouble, and aging sheriff Bill McNue (Scott McNairy) does his best to protect his people. But Frank and his gang are tearing up nearby towns hunting the turncoat, and a showdown looms.
--*Kelly Woo,*"6 things to know about 'Godless,' Netflix's star-packed limited-series western," Yahoo! News, November 21, 2017



Origin

There are several possibilities for the origin of turncoat. One is that two English barons in the early 13th century changed fealty to King John (c1167–1216), literally changing their coats of arms from one lord to another. Another is that during the siege of Corfe Castle (1645) during the English Civil Wars (1642–51), Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers turned their coats inside out to match the colors of the Royalist army. A similar expression “to wear the King’s coat,” dating from the mid-19th century, means “serve in the King’s army.” The now obsolete idiom “to be in someone else’s coat,” dating from the mid-16th century, meant the modern “to be in someone else’s shoes.” Turncoat entered English in the 16th century.

[Altobelli]

BOUSTROPHEDON noun (boo-struh-feed n)

noun

1. an ancient method of writing in which the lines run alternately from right to left and from left to right.


Quotes

Many of the old Greek inscriptions were written alternately from right to left and from left to right, turning the direction as one turns a plow in the field, and this style was called "boustrophedon" (turning like oxen).
--*Carl Vogt,*"Writing Physiologically Considered," The Popular Science Monthly, September 1881


And although the zigzag boustrophedon style of writing had long since been replaced with lines running uniformly left to right, a brief, unrelated Roman experiment of SEPARATING∙WORDS∙WITH∙DOTS had by the end of the second century been abandoned in favor of the Greeks' monotonous, unspaced scriptio continua.
--*Keith Houston,*Shady Characters, 2013



Origin

Only students of ancient scripts, especially (but not exclusively) of ancient Greek, will know the meaning and etymology of boustrophedon “like the ox turns (in plowing).” The major components of the Greek adverb boustrophēdón are the nouns boûs (stem, bou-) “bull, cow, ox,” and strophḗ “a turn, twist.” In the earliest Greek writing (mid-8th century b.c.), the first line was written from right to left (“retrograde,” as always in Phoenician and Hebrew); the second line from left to right; the third line retrograde, etc. Boustrophedonic writing was obsolete in Athens and most other parts of Greece by the mid-5th century b.c. Boustrophedon entered English in the 18th century.

[Altobelli]

WATERSHED noun (waw-ter-shed)

noun

1. an important point of division or transition between two phases, conditions, etc.: The treaty to ban war in space may prove to be one of history's great watersheds.

2. Chiefly British. the ridge or crest line dividing two drainage areas; water parting; divide.
3. the region or area drained by a river, stream, etc.; drainage area.
4. Architecture. wash.

adjective

1. constituting a watershed: a watershed area; a watershed case.


Quotes

For we stand, although the nation is unaware of the fact, upon a watershed of history; unless due care is taken we shall cross it blindfold and march on to a destination which is hidden from our gaze.
--*Ronald Clark,*Queen Victoria's Bomb, 1967


Goethe’s time in Italy marked a watershed in his life.
--*Adam Kirsch,*"Design for Living: What's great about Goethe?" The New Yorker, February 1, 2016



Origin

Watershed may be an ordinary English compound, the element shed having the rare sense “a part made in one’s hair.” Watershed may also be a loan translation from the German compound Wasserscheide (Scheide in German means "boundary, border, limit, divide"). Watershed entered English in the 18th century.

[Altobelli]

HORSEFEATHERS (hawrs-feth-erz)

interjection

1. Slang. rubbish; nonsense; bunk (used to express contemptuous rejection).

noun

1. Slang. (used with a singular or plural verb) something not worth considering.


Quotes

At the risk of seeming disrespectful, I rise to cry: "Horsefeathers!"
--*John R. Tunis,*"Are Fraternities Worthwhile? No!" The Rotarian, September 1937

"Horsefeathers!" Gus snorted. "Why, that's the dumbest--"
--*Arnold Bateman,*"Gus," Boys' Life, April 1949



Origin

Horsefeathers is a polite euphemism, originally American, for the impolite horse****. The cartoonist William “Billie” De Beck (1890–1942) claimed credit for coining the word in 1928.