Once in Royal David's City Once in royal David's city Stood a stable near an inn, Where a newborn and his mother Dwelt together, free of sin. Christ and Mary were the pair Seated by the manger there. Christ indeed – our Lord and Saviour Of the Holy Trinity, Who upon his throne in Heaven Measures ou...

Over the next month I will be posting my alternative versions of some well-known Christmas hymns and carols, paraphrasing the originals and making some additions. Some will be serious, others more light-hearted. Any bathos is deliberate! You are welcome to make your own contributions to this thread....

clique

A small, exclusive, often privileged, group of people.

From French (hence its pronunciation cleek).

a similar indexed collection of the linked-verse canon, "Renga taikan," now in the process of publication.

That is "in the process", not "in process".

"In the process (of)" is a common phrase, but "in process" sounds odd to me.

phenomenon

An event or fact that can be perceived by the senses; or a remarkable person or thing.

Plural: phenomena.

An eponym can be a personal or place name (see Dr Goodword's link in the 'Eponym' article). So if a place name refers not just to that place but to a general category (e.g. chartreuse, landau), it is both a toponym and an eponym.

for the ages This cliché, meaning 'remarkable' or 'memorable', has become very prevalent in British journalism in the past year or so, especially in sports reporting. E.g. "a game for the ages", "a performance for the ages". It is often an exaggeration; one doubts whether the ma...

Right, so what is the connection between meta, middle, and meta, change?

Perhaps the notion of 'between', which is given as one of the meanings of Greek meta.

This is a difficult one, but I think 'whomever' would be grammatically wrong in this case (no pun intended). "Whoever would listen" is a clause, with "whoever" as its subject, so it should be in the subjective form. The preposition "to" introduces that clause as a whole...

I asked her to walk the dog if I was back late. I think the problem here is that it seems to be grammatically equivalent to: "If I was back late, I asked her to walk the dog." where "If I was back late" is the antecedent, and "I asked her to walk the dog" is the conseq...

I think we use 'find' because we are referring to a direct subjective 'feel'. 'Consider' suggests more of an objective thought process, and 'deem' suggests a stipulation. Similarly, we might say "I find this weather depressing", but we would be unlikely to say "I consider/deem this we...

zodiac

Usually applicable to astrology, but may also be used in astronomy, e.g. zodiacal light.

The adjective zodiacal is stressed on the second syllable, i.e. zo-DI-a-cal.

squire/esquire

Two closely related words, interchangeable in some cases. Originally a young attendant to a knight; a shield/armour bearer. Later a country gentleman, a landowner. Finally, 'Esquire' (Esq) became a general courtesy title, equivalent to 'Mr' in the UK; this use is now old-fashioned.

I wonder whether the 'legitimacy' sense arose from the ambiguity (in earlier English) of the word 'wife'. Its old meaning was simply 'woman' – hence 'housewife', 'midwife' etc.

No, it is not a concession of defeat. It is a call for a temporary, perhaps momentary, cessation of play for some reason, so one cannot be 'out'.