AWADmail Issue 279
Nov 4, 2007
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
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From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Subject: Interesting stories from the net
What's in a Name?
http://nytimes.com/2007/10/28/magazine/28wwln-idealab-t.html?ex=1351224000&en=933b0402b1578821&ei=5090
http://tinyurl.com/26m5x6
The Origin of the Term Terrorist:
http://nytimes.com/2007/10/28/opinion/28furstenberg.html?ex=1351224000&en=99ce32dc88472d3a&ei=5090
http://tinyurl.com/2e65fv
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From: Joe Trivers (joe.trivers gmail.com)
Subject: jenticular antipodean avocados
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/jenticular.html
There's an amusing poem about breakfast nostalgia at
http://bourboncowboy.blogspot.com/2006/03/vocabulary-poem-jentacular.html
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From: Frederick Armstrong (frederick-armstrong terra.com.mx)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--jenticular
In Portuguese, jantar is to dine.
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From: Mike Rowan (mike.rowan experient-inc.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--cibarious
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/cibarious.html
Does this mean that if I enjoy watching others eat a meal
I'm living cibariously through them?
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From: Moshe Davis (moshed sbcglobal.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--cibarious
I believe there's a boutique retail grocery store chain in the US East Coast
that is called "Ciba"... and now I know why. This word is nearly identical
to an Aramaic word found in the Talmud (ziburious) that means "poor-quality
produce".
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From: David Laine (davidlaine blueyonder.co.uk)
Subject: Re: macaronic
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/macaronic.html
I spotted a good example of macaronic in the Western Morning News yesterday:
"these nouveau wunderkind ..."
So I thought I'd ask the fount of all knowledge, Wordsmith, if there was a
word to describe the use of two or more languages in the same sentence.
Opened my A.Word.A.Day and there it was! Have you taken up telepathy now?
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From: J Michael Sharman (jmsharman tiscali.co.uk)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--macaronic
One of my favourite Christmas Carols is the macaronic hymn 'In Dulci Jubilo'.
This was originally written in dog Latin and old German and dates back to
the 14th Century at Leipzig University. Various translations of the German
parts into English have been made (by e.g. Wedderburn, Bowring, and Pearsall).
The translation that starts 'Good Christians all rejoice' is one of John
Mason Neale's rare horrors. The first verse of one translation reads:
In dulci jubilo [in sweet shouting]
Now sing with hearts aglow!
Our delight and pleasure
Lies in praesepio [in a manger]
Like sunshine is our treasure
Matris in gremio. [in his mother's lap]
Alpha es et O. [You are Alpha and Omega]
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From: James Divine (divine owt.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--xerophagy
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/xerophagy.html
Perhaps a newer meaning: When the copier eats the originals.
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From: Kris Thurston (kithurston verizon.net)
Subject: A.Word.A.Day as a marriage saver
I love A.Word.A.Day -- my husband does, too, and we talk about the unusual
words. Who knows, maybe AWAD has saved our marriage a few times since we've
been subscribers.
............................................................................
A closed mind is like a closed book: just a block of wood. -Chinese Proverb
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Why is cappuccino named after a monk, what is the unit for the warmth of
clothes, and what are ghost words? Learn all this, and more, in Anu Garg's
new book: The Dord, the Diglot, and an Avocado or Two: The Hidden Lives and
Strange Origins of Common and Not-So-Common Words (Penguin). Order it at:
http://amazon.com/o/asin/0452288614/ws00-20/
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