AWADmail Issue 311
Jun 15, 2008
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
---------------------------
From: Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
Subject: Interesting stories from the net
Bees Learn New Languages Easily:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/06/04/scibees104.xml
Poetry as Punishment:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/opinion/08sun4.html
Congress Debates Merits Of New Catchphrase:
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/congress_debates_merits_of_new
Reinvent, Reuse, Recycle:
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Features/Columns/?article=AnuRecycle
(a column by yours truly on Encarta)
---------------------------
From: Rudy Rosenberg (rudyrr att.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--dornick
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/dornick.html
Doornik is hard to find on a map these days. The town is better known under
its francophonic name of Tournai. Situated in the Walloon province of Hainaut,
it has fallen on hard times thanks mostly to the Flemish government policy of
Belgium. Tournai is definitively French speaking.
Tournai, site of many battles in WWI has a wondrous cathedral well worth a
visit.
---------------------------
From: Judith Rothschild (rothschildjr appstate.edu)
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--dornick
I'm delighted to read your entry on dornick--which answers a question of
long standing for me.
For years and years my paternal grandmother (born in Missouri) would use
the expression, "as hard as a donnick". I'd search, but never found the
word "donnick".
I now see that it is a deformation of dornick. My grandmother had no Irish
nor Flemish ancestry, so all I can imagine is that the expression was used
in the Missouri locality where she was raised. And that I do not know.
---------------------------
From: Judy M Anderson (judmilla juno.com)
Subject: Re: dornick
My mother, whose given name was Doris, grew up with the nickname of Dornick.
I never knew it was an actual word, I thought it was just a nonsense syllable
they made up. Her family was German, but there were Irish cousins, so maybe
they meant she was a fistful.
---------------------------
From: Alain Gottcheiner (agot ulb.ac.be)
Subject: dornick - redde caesaris
Your last item of A.Word.A.Day nearly created a casus belli in my country.
More seriously, in those times of linguistic unrest in Belgium, with Flemish
annexationism criticized in international settings, we felt uncomfortable to
read this in a highly language-conscious context:
Dornick, from Doornik, the name of a Flemish town where the cloth
was first manufactured.
The Roman city of Tornacum was the biggest within the nearest thousand miles
or so around the 4th century; it then became the capital of Franks, part of
the Duchy of Flanders, and is now Belgian. Its main language, by far, is
French. It's usually known under its French name of Tournai. Flemish was
always secondary in Tournai, contrary to the neighbouring cities of Lille
(France), Mouscron (Belgium, now French-speaking) and Courtrai (Belgium,
still Flemish). It pertains to the Picardy linguistic area. One can,
however, ascertain strong cultural Flandrian (not Flemish) links, e.g.
in housebuilding.
It became known as Doornik -- its Flemish name -- in cloth trading, because
Brugge, the turntable of this business, was Flemish, and the Bruggenaars of
course used Flemish names.
It lies only fifteen miles away from the linguistic boundary between French
and Flemish, twenty miles from the site of the biggest military clash between
Flemish and French, so you'd expect to find some sensibility on both sides
there.
---------------------------
From: Robert Singleton (rmsing45 earthlink.net)
Subject: feedback: hubbub
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/hubbub.html
My high school theatre voice & diction students learn "hubbub" early in
their study of plosive consonants with a short Arthur Lessac poem in which he
likens the labial plosive to the sound to that of a kettle drum. They relish
performing the playful lip explosions while learning new vocabulary words.
The hubbub in the suburb was just a microbe in a cobweb,
Compared to the hubbub of the hobnobs, bobbing on the job,
Imbibing and cavorting and probably subscribing to sin.
---------------------------
From: Joanne Cleroux (assetdoc rogers.com)
Subject: Hubbub
I recall an etymologist (Bergen Evans perhaps?) wrote that the sound of
hubbub's French equivalent, "charivari" reflected the livelier tones of
the French compared to the more subdued "hubbub". I can only wonder at
the Italian word for a crowd of chanting, excited footballers.
---------------------------
From: Michelle Hakala (winebird inreach.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--hubbub
I learned this word when very young, from Bugs Bunny. After having given
Elmer Fudd a wild goose chase, he'd stand leaning on a tree or fence post
and say, "Eh, what's all the hubbub, Bub?"
---------------------------
From: Paul Glover (pglover bulkley.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--smithereens
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/smithereens.html
Residents of our small town of Smithers, in northwestern British Columbia,
Canada, are officially known as Smithereens.
............................................................................
No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are
slippery and thought is viscous. -Henry Brooks Adams, historian (1838-1918)
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
The Dord, the Diglot, and an Avocado or Two: The Hidden Lives and Strange
Origins of Common and Not-So-Common Words (ISBN 9780452288614).
Order it at your favorite store or at: http://wordsmith.org/awad/book3.html
This message was sent to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]".
