AWADmail Issue 251
March 4, 2007
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
----------------------------
From: Anu Garg (words wordsmith.org)
Subject: Interesting stories from the net
¿Hagrid, qué es el quidditch?
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/childrenandteens/story/0,,1999420,00.html
http://tinyurl.com/365gc6
It's hard to express irony with tongue literally in cheek:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/heckler/its-hard-to-express-irony-with-tongue-literally-in-cheek/2007/02/27/1172338622628.html
http://tinyurl.com/37dt9b
Why Noble Ox won't be running at Cheltenham:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/03/nhorse03.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_03032007
http://tinyurl.com/2nkgzp
----------------------------
From: Vincent Zammit (anfora maltanet.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--virga
As an explanation you gave something which was completely new to me,
but I was intrigued by the word as we do have it in our own language,
Maltese. In Maltese it still retains the original Latin meaning.
----------------------------
From: David Halperin (halperin.david gmail.com)
Subject: virga
Virga is also the name of one of the musical notation signs (neumes),
consisting of a square dot attached to a vertical stroke. See (about
half way down the page): http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory2.htm
----------------------------
From: John H. Snyder (jhsnyder interact.ccsd.net)
Subject: virga
A surprise today! I usually encounter words from you that most of my
friends don't know, but out here in Sin City, in the middle of the Mojave
Desert, virga is in almost everyone's vocabulary. Happens quite a bit out
here, particularly in the summer, when humidity is typically in the single
digits, and the temperature in the shade occasionally hits 120 deg. F.
----------------------------
From: Robert Zimmerman (robert.zimmerman lmco.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--virga
Those of us who fly in the arid southwest are intimately familiar with
virga, and its incipient danger - as water falls and evaporates, it cools
the surrounding air, resulting in a rapidly descending column of air that
can outpace the climb capacity of most aircraft. This phenomenon has even
brought down airliners.
----------------------------
From: Bekah Tuggy (bekah.tuggy covenant.edu)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--virga
I saw a related phenomenon while I was sightseeing near Portland, Oregon
- a waterfall, 60 or 70 feet high, falling down a sheer cliff and
completely dissipating before it hit the ground. You could stand
directly underneath it and never get wet.
----------------------------
From: JJ Lamarche (fun2fly earthlink.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--virga
It's funny how the most nebulous and esoteric words can be commonplace
in some circles (the medical professions come to mind). Virga is a common
term among hang glider pilots. We often see it from the ground and it
isn't uncommon to fly through an area of fairly heavy snow a few thousand
feet up that people on the ground never experience.
----------------------------
From: Rama Kulkarni (ramaa1 pacbell.net)
Subject: feedback: virga
That would explain why the comma is " virgule " in French, as is the slash
mark (/) !
----------------------------
From: Sherry L Spence (slspence spiritone.com)
Subject: March 1 Word - omphaloskepsis
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/omphaloskepsis.html
My first real job out of grad school was for a west coast think tank. To
celebrate my promotion to a research job, I began posting pithy quotations
and witty comments on the bulletin board above my desk, having nothing better
to place there. I labelled the bulletin board, "Omphaloskepticon", because it
was, of course, a navel observatory.
----------------------------
From: Monique Reed (monique mail.bio.tamu.edu)
Subject: Omphaloskepsis
I once had to give a lab practical exam during which the students had to
move at timed intervals to different question stations. I told them
that if they finished the questions at a station before the timer
sounded they were to stand quietly and contemplate their navels. I
almost lost it laughing when, midway through the exam, one young man
pulled up his shirt-tails and proceeded to do precisely that.
----------------------------
From: Norma Bates (bateshaus1 comcast.net)
Subject: feedback: omphaloskepsis
I forwarded today's word to my sons so they could enjoy learning it too. One
of them, who teaches surgical technology at a local community college, wrote
back: Yes, I actually have a little perspective on this one as we surgically
correct a condition (in primarily pediatric patients) called an omphalocele,
or a sac forming at the umbilicus into which some of the viscera protrudes.
Lesson: You can't get ahead of your children!
----------------------------
From: Gilbert Gia (ggia igalaxy.net)
Subject: When a paraph becomes a rubrica
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/paraph.html
A calligraphic device more elaborate than the paraph was the rubrica, which
provincial California friars included beneath their official signatures.
The Encyclopedia of California's Catholic Heritage notes that these unique,
elaborately-constructed lattice works of loops, circles, and zigzag lines
were added to discourage forgery, and the absence of a rubrica called into
question the validity of a document. Catholic rubrica from the period
1735-1850 appear in California Calligraphy, Identified Autographs of
Personages Connected with the Conquest and Development of the Californias.
Father Maynard Geiger, O.F.M. Ballena Press, Ramona, CA. 1972.
............................................................................
Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken
glass. -Anton Chekhov, short-story writer and dramatist (1860-1904)
Send your comments to (words AT wordsmith.org). To subscribe, unsubscribe,
update address, gift subscription: http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html
See previous issues of AWADmail at http://wordsmith.org/awad/awadmail.html
This message was sent to "[email protected]".
