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| Common Hogweed (I believe) |
I love words. I love the sound of them and where they came from. I love the way that you can use them like steel nails that drive messages home or tenderly, lightly - like goose feathers.
If you are receptive to language, you never stop learning about words.
In the past few days I have learnt two new words. The first one is "umbelliferous". Say it again: um-be-llif- er-ous. Yes, umbelliferous. It is normally used to refer to plants that have an umbrella-like head - such as cow parsley, hemlock or common hogweed (see above). I suppose you could also say that most palm trees are umbelliferous. It is a lovely sounding word - regardless of what it means.
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| Roughout of a quernstone at Wharncliffe. There are hundreds there - above the crags. |
Another word I learnt arrived in my brain just yesterday when I was reading an archaeological survey report from 1999 called "Quern manufacturing at Wharncliffe Rocks, Sheffield". The word in question is "roughout" and it describes a roughly shaped piece of material - in this case hard sandstone - that.awaits finishing. Over hundreds of years, thousands of "roughouts" of querns were created at Wharncliffe before being finished - often elsewhere.
Querns were an early kind of grindstone for crushing cereal grains. The stone at Wharncliffe was perfect for the job - whereas in many other regions of northern England the underlying rock was unsuitable. For instance, you cannot grind corn with chalk, limestone or boulder clay. Consequently, quern "roughouts" from Wharncliffe were transported widely.
Have you come across any appealing new words recently?
Probably, but I don't remember them, either. How about plumeria? I like that.
ReplyDeleteYes. That is a nice-sounding word Joanne. A flower but it sounds like feathers.
DeleteI was thinking recently that corona virus and asymptomatic, though not new words, have found much more frequent use. They might have once been considered jargon but not now.
ReplyDeleteToday I heard somebody talk about "ablutions" which is an old word we dont seem to use
For those who are unfamiliar with "ablutions", here are examples of usage:-
DeleteCisterns, fed by rainwater, were used for ablutions and cleaning.
A domed ablution kiosk of square shape is attached to the northeastern corner of the mosque.
Ablution facilities included flush toilets, hand basins and showers, which were all found to be in a clean condition.
i learnt it in relation to the "ablutions block" in camping grounds
DeleteI have always been fascinated by words and language. As a child I played the "Dictionary Game" with my dad which encouraged my interest in words, their meaning and how they evolved.
ReplyDeleteRecent new words which have stuck in my mind are lenticular and noctilucent, from photographs taken of unusual cloud formations. I like the way they sound when spoken aloud.
I knew of lenticular but not noctilucent - that's new to me.
Deletenontilucent - Noctilucent clouds, or night shining clouds, are tenuous cloud-like phenomena in the upper atmosphere of Earth. They consist of ice crystals and are only visible during astronomical twilight. Noctilucent roughly means "night shining" in Latin.
Don't know about recently but am, every so often, reminded of the cherished, the ones that roll off your tongue and, usually, result in SCORN in the echelons of the elevated and educated circles of bloggers. Not least the one, early on, don't know what happened to her, maybe she drowned in her own ineptitude, who asked me: "Who even speaks like YOU?" To which I replied: I do.
ReplyDeleteThen there are the ones who call you STUPID because you dare question them or, worse, criticise them. To call someone "stupid" instead off putting the counter argument is a serious turnoff for me. However, YP, and back to your question, if someone called me a "nincompoop" I'd see the charm, a certain refinement - notwithstanding that I'd still not agree with them.
U
"Nincompoop" is a delightful word. I have often used it and have sometimes acted like one!
DeleteCan't say that I have - I'm still trying to get my brain around all the "trendy" words that seem to have evolved since I've been away from the UK!
ReplyDeleteYou mean like... "electricity", "radio" and "automobile"?
DeleteNo, YP, We're quite civilised here, and even have words for such things! In fact we even have them - and air-con, smart phones and electric cars seem to be about to become all the rage! I'm thinking more of the weird words used in the UK these days - Uber is one that comes to mind!
DeleteDefenestration always makes me giggle - the act of throwing someone out of a window.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a word that I have ever used before but now I come to think about it, there are a few people I would like to defenestrate!
DeleteWoke - a most subfuscous word.
ReplyDeleteWere you implying this definition of "woke" - alert to injustice in society, especially racism?
Deletee.g. "We need to stay angry, and stay woke"
subfuscous = drab or dusky.
Oddly I do use the word 'ablutions' but then I am old. A word I haven't used for years came into my world a few days ago. It is essentially a legal term but is also usable in everyday conversation. It is 'fungible'. It means being of such a nature that one part or quantity may be replaced by another equal part or quantity in the satisfaction of an obligation. Less verbosely I would say that it means interchangeable.
ReplyDelete"Fungible"...I have never used that word. I will give it a whirl some time soon. I guess that most MPs are fungible.
Delete"Quern" is a good word, too. I think you have an extra "be" syllable in your pronunciation of "umbelliferous." What's interesting about umbelliferous flowers is that there are so many of them in the UK -- hogweed, cow parsley, wild carrot, Queen Anne's lace, and others. I can't always tell them apart.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was about six years old I had a conversation with a man at church in which I was telling him about clouds. (I'd probably been reading my Little Golden Book of weather phenomena, or some similar guide.) Anyway, he was greatly amused at my descriptions and for years afterward he teased me about cumulo-nimbus and cirrus clouds. But I found the words so fascinating! So I get it.
You are right about the extra "be" sound Steve. How could I have missed it? Silly me!
DeleteAfter going through all we did with Tom in the hospital the word "home" sure means a lot to both of us. Thank you for your supportive comment on my blog YP, it helps when you hear from friends!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome Bonnie. I'm just pleased you got your man home after his garage service.
DeleteYou know how much I love languages, and (by nature of course) words.
ReplyDeleteWith the many old books I have been reading, some of them dating from around 1850, I have come across some very nice words. How about "persnickety", and "pusillanimity"?
A favourite word of mine which I frequently use is "indeed". In other languages, I have favourite words, too; for instance "scoiattolo" in Italian, or "herrlich" in German.
"Herrlich"? Please put me out of my misery and explain why, of all of the herrliche words in the motherland, "herrlich" takes your fancy.
DeletePersnicketyly yours,
U
Meike and Ursula: You might enjoy Peter Bowler's The Superior Person's Guide To Words (Bloomsbury Paperbacks 2017).
DeleteThis witty 166 page word-treasure opens with Abecedarian (I used to possess one) and closes with Zzzxjoanw, a Maori drum.
I liked Idiotropic for turned in on oneself and Ignotum Per Ignotius for an explanation even more obscure than the thing it needs to explain.
Maybe when I am long forgot (as Alec Guinness says in Tunes of Glory) they will include Hameldaemepal which in Stanley Baxter's posh Kelvinside voice would be Home Will Do Me, Friend.
Bowler's book is fun like The Meaning of Tingo which was all about French.
There's a vlog called German In Sixty Seconds that I enjoy.
Frequently when I am trying to explain a feeling I will say *There must be a word in German for it - they have a word for everything!*
Learn German Numbers/How To Count.
DeleteGerman in 60 seconds. Babbel. YouTube.
The young woman quotes Galileo: The secret of the world is written in numbers. What would Galileo have made of Quantum Mechanics?
A future subject for Yorky Pudding when he is out on those high and windy moors.
Hameld
herrlich - sounds like "hair lick". I guess that one might be tempted to lick lovely hair.
ReplyDeleteKeep the romance of hair, YP. "Herr" is Mister, Senior, Master of the House, Sir. "Herrlich" is for people who are given to exaggerate and don't employ a Thesaurus. I know this because my mother used to be one of them.
DeleteLick hair, YP? Well. Well. Well. Well. What hair lacquer did your mother use?
U
Mellifluous. A word that sounds as if it describes itself. "A sound pleasingly smooth and musical to hear"
ReplyDeleteMizzle is a good word I have learned here in Ireland YP. Mist and drizzle gives us mizzle.
ReplyDeleteA word learnt today, Armadillidium, for the woodlouse, has amused me, mostly because it took me a while to say correctly!
ReplyDeleteMizzle is also a Yorkshire word, and very descriptive.
Armadillidium is evocative in an itchy way and I can feel that mizzle slythering down the back of my collar as it did yesterday in Glasgow.
ReplyDeleteSir York will keep returning to Words, I hope.
Shankly Preston blog: Lancashire Phrases if you're visiting Preston.
*I'm going to Chippy to get a Babby'syed.* Steak and Kidney Pudding.
A Baby's Head: quite grotesque as many slang words are.
Words from Lancashire never spoken (sadly) in Scotland: Mardy and Mithered.
*She's a bit mardy that lass.* *I'm not mithered if she is, I fancy her.*
Alan Garner uses Cheshire words in his masterpieces, The Stone Book Quartet and Stradloper. There's Baggin for a meal and Pobs for summat edible, can't remember what.
In Scotland we have Perjink, Dwaam and Haar.
Perjink: To look smart in clothes.
Dwaam: To go into a daydream or lose attention.
Haar: The fine mist that will make Edinburgh Castle disappear, only you don't get it in Glasgow for some reason. You do in Stirling.
The Doric in Aberdeen is so evocative. Read Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon.
In the American film Reservoir Road (Jennifer Connelly and Joaquim Phoenix) a confident boy describes a timid boy as *A bit of a Dweep.*
Most of us come to words through things. Someone said James Joyce came to things through words.
JRR Tolkien said his favourite words in the English language were ... Coal Cellar.
Haar is such a lovely word that I associate with the sea mists that roll in from the North Sea along the Yorkshire coast. I think it may be Nordic.
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ReplyDelete