AWADmail Issue 309
Jun 1, 2008
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
How the Word 'Elite" Became a Slur:
http://nytimes.com/2008/05/30/opinion/30jacoby.html
'Guerdon' Wins Spelling Bee for Sameer Mishra:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/30/spelling.bee.ap/index.html
National Spelling Bee Brings Out Protesters Who R Thru With Through:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121209937893330739.html
What Do You Call a Terror(Jihad)ist?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/02/opinion/02singer.html
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From: Rudy Rosenberg (rudyrr att.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--point-device
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/point-device.html
Archaic indeed. When we lived in Charleroi, Belgium, my Father, an interior
decorator originally from Poland, had a very limited French vocabulary,
however he'd often use the phrase "A Point Devis" when referring to a job
done or to be done impeccably. As a little boy I did not know the meaning
of the words. Thank you for jolting my memory and explaining the provenance
of this expression.
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From: Robert Groover (groover technopatents.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--scrannel
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/scrannel.html
That reviewer was perhaps alluding to Milton's Lycidas:
Their lean and flashy songs
Grate on their scrannel Pipes of wretched straw,
I don't think this word has ever flown far from its nest.
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From: J Michael Sharman (jmsharman tiscali.co.uk)
Subject: run faster
Re: psychologist Rollo May's quotation: "It is an ironic habit of human
beings to run faster when we have lost our way."
Not only do we run faster when we have lost our way (as Rollo May says), but
we also drive faster when we are getting low on petrol. Neither of them is a
good idea.
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From: G. Ramanath (ramanath rpi.edu)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--sweven
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/sweven.html
"Sweven" may also be derived from Sanskrit "Swapn" which means dream.
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From: Jan Boshoff (jan boedels.co.za)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--sweven
There is an Afrikaans word, sweef, which as a verb means to float or to
hover above the ground. Thanks to you I understand the hidden Afrikaans
meaning of the word as well because it is often used in the sense of 'not
being fully conscious' or 'dreamily'.
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From: Cies Hessels (v.hessels versatel.nl)
Subject: feedback: sweven
Once again I notice, seeing this word 'sweven', that Old English very often
is so close to Modern Dutch. 'Zweven' as a verb means: float, hover, glide
(glider airplane). 'Zweverig' as an adjective means: vague, woolly,
light-headed, dreamy.
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From: Chris Papa (doxite verizon.net)
Subject: Re: ween
Refer: http:/wordsmith.org/words/ween.html
Gilbert's librettos for the operas he wrote for Sullivan are laced with
archaic words, which, once they are connected with the right notes become
easily incorporated into a person's vocabulary. Take the case of "ween". It
is encountered in the "Gondoliers", where a quartet, two men and two women,
are considering the news that one of the men may be the new "King of
Barataria" and the lady he's just married will therefore be his queen.
They sing a very lively number which includes the words,
"Oh, 'tis a glorious thing, I ween,
To be a Regular Royal Queen!
No half-and-half affair, I mean,
But a right-down regular Royal Queen!"
............................................................................
Time changes all things: there is no reason why language should escape this
universal law. -Ferdinand de Saussure, linguist, (1857-1913)
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