Another word I've seen before, but I didn't really think of it as word (just as a meaningless Spanish-sounding name). In the wonderful Tintin books by Hergé, one of the recurring characters who appears in several stories is a General Alcazar who was constantly either overthrowing the government of his fictional Latin American country or … Continue reading Linguistic Jokes
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It’s a Gene Wolfe Word!
I'm not doing a great job about getting these up each Wednesday and Friday (having missed last week), but I think it's getting better. Anyway, I don't normally do consecutive words because if I ever hope to get through the letter A, much less the OED entirely, I can't get bogged down. This needs to … Continue reading It’s a Gene Wolfe Word!
Weekly Basho Haiku #33
from a treetopemptiness dropped downin a cicada shellkozue yoriadami ochi kerisemi no kara~BashoTranslated by Jane Reichhold
Weekly Basho Haiku #32
a weird dark nighta fox crawls on the groundfor a beautiful melonyami no yo to sugokukitsune shita bautama makuwa~BashoTranslated by Jane Reichhold
An Archaic Form
Ancient poetic forms seem to have had more rigorous rules to follow. I sure wouldn't be able to write a poem worth anything following these rules.Alcaic, n. and adj.Prosody. A. n.A poem, strophe (stanza), or line written in Alcaic metre (see sense B.). Usually in plural.B. adj.Written or composed in a metre traditionally attributed to Alcaeus; relating to or characteristic … Continue reading An Archaic Form
Not Shooting the Messenger
It's kinda nice to know there's a word out there that means the opposite of blaming someone who brings bad news.albricia, n.Compare Catalan albixena (late 13th cent.), albíxera (14th cent. or earlier), etc. (often in plural; compare albricies (plural), Portuguese alvissara (13th cent.).Arabic bišāra (in Spanish Arabic usually bušāra) is ultimately < bašara to rejoice, … Continue reading Not Shooting the Messenger
Weekly Basho Haiku #31
in a summer rainthe leg of the cranebecomes shortersamidare nitsuru no ashimijikaku nareri~BashoTranslated by Jane Reichhold
A Pale Imitation
It's been a while since I had an obscure female variation on a common word. This is one I never even thought about being possible or necessary. It seems more obscure than most of the others I've come across so far.albiness, n.Now hist. and rare.A female albino.
All Together Now
A nice useful word; it's a shame it's obsolete. Think about it for a second, you could use this in all kinds of situations. Fun bonus fact: it's a combination of two words, one of which is "all". So there's another obsolete word coming up when I eventually get to the next letter of the … Continue reading All Together Now
Weekly Basho Haiku #30
still summerthe harvest moon too hotto enjoy the coolnessnatsu kaketemeigetsu atsukesuzumi kana~BashoTranslated by Jane Reichhold
Neh 