This week's theme: ordinal words. second fiddle (SEK-uhnd FID-uhl) noun
Secondary role. A person in such a role. [In an orchestra, the position of Concertmaster is given to the First Chair Violinist, who sounds the notes everyone else tunes their instruments to, and from whom the rest of the orchestra takes its cues any time they are playing without a conductor. So the one with second violin (second fiddle) is in a subordinate position.] Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=second+fiddle -Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org) "Felipe Massa is in the unfortunate position of having to play second fiddle to Schumacher." Norris McDonald; Bad News is No Star to Replace Michael; Toronto Star (Canada); Oct 14, 2006. Sponsors' messages: Richard Lederer, master of "Anguished English" books masters puns plus in "Giant Book of Animal Jokes." Available at http://StoneandScott.com A cure for brain flab! One brain-building, at-a-glance email a day helps keep unsightly ignorance away. http://knowledgenews.net/s?s=aw110206 ............................................................................ The belly is the reason why man does not mistake himself for a god. -Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) [Beyond Good and Evil, 1886] Why bother studying American dialects? Join us in an online chat with Joan Hall, chief editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English. Tue, Nov 14, 2006, 6 pm Pacific (GMT -8) at http://wordsmith.org/chat Remove, change address, gift subs: http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/second_fiddle.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/second_fiddle.ram Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/second_fiddle.html This message was sent to "[email protected]".
