DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Cathy]

Makes you wonder how many words we have to describe rain, from mizzle to stair- rods.

[plaques]

Sue's search for her relative who was a ship's purser brought to mind 'Nipcheese'.

[Tripps]

Never heard of that -I had to look that up -

A nipcheese is a penny-pincher or skinflint, all three suggesting a sordidly covetous or penurious person who cuts the cost or quantity of everything to the minimum, often to his own benefit.

I think I prefer Kuripot.

I saw the female police described today as the plodetterie. That's a nice word - and google has never seen it - yet. . . .

[Wendyf]

Did everyone except me know about Graupel?
See THIS article about the Inuit having 50 different words for snow.....

Did you read "Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow" by Peter Høeg? I thought it was quite recent but it was published nearly 30 years ago...aaagh! How time flies.

[Stanley]

Dead Right Cathy!
Wendy, no, does this mean I have to buy another book?
Had to look Kuripot up again! Short term memory is failing.....

[Stanley]

'Muntin' crossed my mind this morning. A muntin is a small bar that separates two pieces of glass, aka "glazing bar" or "sash bar":
Have a look at THIS glossary of such terms.....
'Scudding clouds'. Where does that come from?

[Tizer]

One for the Tripps word list: `unchurched'. I saw it this morning in a news report where it was used to describe the north-west part of the US as being less religious than the rest:
Washington in particular has an unchurched, environmentally-conscious population.
Wikipedia states: In research on religious participation, it refers more specifically to people who do not attend worship services.

[Tripps]

One for the Tripps word list:

No - my list is one of words that irritate me - I quite like unchurched.
Not so keen on unwaged though.

[Stanley]

I always quite like 'defrocked' referring to rejected priests. (Frock definition: Typically, girls and women wear frocks, especially to formal events like weddings and fancy parties. The word frock isn't as common today as it was in the past, though it's a great way to refer to a dress. You can also call a monk's loose, long-sleeved garment a frock. The word's origin is Germanic, and it comes directly from the French word froc, "a monk's habit.")

[Tizer]

Reading some geology I came across the word lagerstatte and had to look it up. Literally from German meaning storage place. In geology it refers to sedimentary rocks with an abundance of perfectly fossilised plants or animals resulting from a sudden catastrophic event such as a mud slide followed by anaerobic preservation. While searching I found amongst the web page explanations one that seemed OK but then I realised I was on the web site of the `Institute for Creation Research'. It's worth having a look at the site to see how cunningly they twist everything to suit their Story of Creation. Institute for Creation Research

An example is their news story ` Embryonic 'Clocks' Mimic Human Construction Schedules'
It begins thus: Two recent findings in biology add confirmation that biological functions are best characterized by engineering principles. This research describes a number of sophisticated internal clocks that control the timing of key events during embryological development. These clocks are part of systems that function just like a construction schedule used to guide decisions by human project managers...
and continues to give detailed explanation of the research. Then at the end we find: Innate control systems are essential to all dynamic entities, and they are a hallmark of sophisticated engineering. The only known originating source of this information is a real conscious mind. The myriads of phenomenally complex control and backup systems are evidence of the astounding creative genius of nature’s Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ.

[Cathy]

Oh I like that . Some things just resonate and feel right.

[plaques]

When I don't know some profound question about some religious believe I find it more truthful to say "I don't Know" and leave it at that. I can't see the point in attributing some man made answers to an fictitious deity that takes you round in circles ending up with a bigger 'don't know' than you started with. .

[Stanley]

"takes you round in circles ending up with a bigger 'don't know' than you started with"
Exactly P, which is how the worst kinds of evangelists work in almost any field but certainly in religion. Present a confused picture then take advantage of the confusion by presenting a simple but totally erroneous solution in the form of what they set out to 'prove' in the first place.
I fell into the same trap as Tiz. I wanted to know more about John Foxe in my pursuit of the Reformation and ordered a book. (LINK) It arrived and I found I had ordered a US fundamentalist polemic. You live and learn!

[Tizer]

I've been reading a novel set in the 1500s and partly touching on people believing in witches. The way they then convinced others to believe made me think of the creationists on that web site - and perhaps also the ERG Brexiteers!

[Stanley]

Paul Joseph Goebbels would be proud of them and would be taking notes. There was an army saying: "Bullshit Baffles Brains". I think that applies......

[Tripps]

I found this on Andrew Neil's twitter today-

If you're interested in political and cultural opinion commentary, from art to world affairs, from writing about writing to whatever the heck "tergiversation" is, subscribe to the magazine that gives iconoclasts like me a home:
https://spectator.us/subscribe-now/ Discount code: MELISSA

Or you could 'subscribe' to one Guy for nothing - you'd soon learn about tergiversation, and probably come across the odd iconoclast.

[Tizer]

[Stanley]

Nice one David! (They do struggle to keep up with us don't they....)
It struck me that the old term for a secure police van for prisoners used to be a 'Black Maria'. I looked it up but found no clear guidance on the origin of the term. Perhaps the best reference was THIS straight from the horse's mouth.

[plaques]

From the music quiz. The song Fanlight Fanny contains a line...By day you'd say it's her second time on earth! I'm not sure of the received interpretation. Any ideas?

[PanBiker]

Donned up to the eyeballs at night but a different girl in the cold light of day on the morning after the night before?

[plaques]

I was thinking more on the lines 'like death warmed up'. George Formby was a Lancashire lad (Wigan) who wrote his own songs. Did he make this phrase up or is it a bit of Lancashire dialect that has gone out of fashion?.

[Stanley]

If it is dialect gone awry it has passed me by. Never heard of it.

[Cathy]

I’ve heard the saying ‘like death warmed up’ many times.
And ‘you look a bit green around the gills’.

[Whyperion]

'Muntin' crossed my mind this morning. A muntin is a small bar that separates two pieces of glass, aka "glazing bar" or "sash bar":
Have a look at THIS glossary of such terms.....
'Scudding clouds'. Where does that come from?

Didn't we have that on the old site? Scud Missiles. I think Scud was a type of fast sailing ship or yacht, its derivation beyond that eludes my brain at present.

[Whyperion]

Is it Sara Cox doing Back In Time For The Corner Shop on BBC2 tonight ? I think she is a Northen (yorkshire) lass. Unless I mis-heard or the dubbing or recording was not great as they were demonstrating the use of a small horse drawn cart for doing the shop deliveries around the area she was taking about the keenness (or lack of it) of the horse to consider starting its duties - "It's stood there, like a coiled swing, ready for action' ( no , she did say spring , it must have been the accent sorry !)