Search found 408 matches
- Wed Mar 01, 2006 6:01 am
- Forum: Good Word Suggestions
- Topic: Phrontistery
- Replies: 7
- Views: 21188
Phrontistery
Phrontistery --a word my pompous nature prompts me to use more often than simpler words such as school, college, university and institute-- is where one studies. While checking its etymology, I was surprised by American Heritage, my sure etymological compendium on the Web, not listing the word as an...
- Tue Feb 28, 2006 5:31 am
- Forum: Good Word Suggestions
- Topic: Stevedore
- Replies: 2
- Views: 7045
Stevedore
STEVEDORE NOUN: One who is employed in the loading or unloading of ships. TRANSITIVE & INTRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: ste·ve·dored, ste·ve·dor·ing, ste·ve·dores To load or unload the cargo of (a ship) or to engage in the process of loading or unloading such a vessel. ETYMOLOGY: Spanish est...
- Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:23 am
- Forum: Languages of the World
- Topic: -stani
- Replies: 9
- Views: 54998
Why Persian? Because, in the 19th century and before, Persian was an official language in northern India. Persian isn't a Semitic language, of course, it's an Indo-European one, but it did borrow a lot of words and grammar from Arabic, and this suffix -i is one of the things that Persian borrows fr...
- Tue Feb 21, 2006 11:21 am
- Forum: Languages of the World
- Topic: -stani
- Replies: 9
- Views: 54998
-stani
An article I read in a Japanese newspaper today set me wondering why people from Pakistan are called Pakistani but not Pakistanese, like Japanese and Portugese. I quite realise -ī is an adjectivising suffix in Semitic languages. Does this mean Pakistanis themselves call Pakistanis after a Semitic la...
- Tue Feb 14, 2006 3:02 pm
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: maybe this will be more popular
- Replies: 9
- Views: 20164
#10 -- I don't bowl, and I am no sailor, so again I'm clueless. I think I know which unit is three times as large as nautical mile but cannot figure out why it has stronger connection with bowling than with any other team sports like baseball and football. Yes, Katy. I got the 11th right after I su...
- Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:26 pm
- Forum: Res Diversae
- Topic: maybe this will be more popular
- Replies: 9
- Views: 20164
Wikipedia is of opinion that the term was first used by Mussolini. The term was first used by Benito Mussolini, in November 1936, when he spoke of a Rome-Berlin axis in reference to the treaty of friendship signed between Italy and Germany on October 25, 1936. He may have been thinking of a North-S...
- Sun Feb 12, 2006 12:40 pm
- Forum: Languages of the World
- Topic: Sinica
- Replies: 3
- Views: 10726
- Sat Feb 11, 2006 6:39 am
- Forum: Languages of the World
- Topic: Sinica
- Replies: 3
- Views: 10726
Sinica
Could a fellow Agoran with sinological bent elucidate what 很棒 means? A Chinese I chatted with referred to me as "你真的很棒" in an amicable context. In our Sino-Japanese dictionaries, 很 is not an amicable letter with meanings disobey, invade and atrocious. I hope someone could help me to update...
- Sat Feb 11, 2006 4:51 am
- Forum: Good Word Suggestions
- Topic: Hoi Polloi
- Replies: 1
- Views: 5708
Hoi Polloi
Here is one of the Greek words I first came across in English. hoi polloi SYLLABICATION: hoi pol·loi PRONUNCIATION: hoi pə-loi NOUN: The common people; the masses. ETYMOLOGY: Greek, the many : hoi, nominative pl. of ho, the; see so- in Appendix I + polloi, nominative pl. of polus, many; see pel-1 in...
- Thu Feb 09, 2006 11:31 am
- Forum: Good Word Suggestions
- Topic: halcyon
- Replies: 17
- Views: 32196
- Wed Feb 08, 2006 3:27 am
- Forum: Good Word Suggestions
- Topic: Furlough
- Replies: 4
- Views: 9352
Furlough
Definition quoted below. The most frequent sense I hear the word is used in is, "involuntary standby from working." I came across this word while a server breakdown furloughed me at the office. No cure is better than venting it out as a sublimated language fun. SYLLABICATION: fur·lough PRO...
- Sat Feb 04, 2006 11:24 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: MALEDICTION
- Replies: 2
- Views: 6392
- Sat Feb 04, 2006 11:22 am
- Forum: Good Word Discussion
- Topic: PELAGIC
- Replies: 23
- Views: 35739