Carefree. Is that different from Careless? Both appear to mean 'without care'. But there is a difference between 'without care' and 'without a care'. My partner suggests that there is some sort of distinction around awareness of the risks or consequences. I was at school in England sixty years ago w...

This surprises me. Goat droppings are hardly 'absolutely nothing' - not much, I agree, but not really nothing at all. Maybe nothing worth bothering with? In Australia, we vulgarly use the word bullshit, but it means nonsense or baloney, rather than nothing at all. Perhaps this is another one that is...

Nemoricole - Living in a grove. Hmmm. What distinguishes a grove from a copse, I wonder? Is it size? Arrange in order of size: copse, grove, wood, stand, forest, spinney, thicket and no doubt lots more. Maybe size is not the only distinction?

With those funny little dots amid the lines, perhaps, Slava? We suffered a music critic years ago in Melbourne's quality newspaper, The Age, called Neil Jillett. He disliked all music by Brahms, so his critiques on Brahms concerts were always negative no matter how beautifully rendered were the show...

Another fascinating one. So all the meanings are from the same root and have merely shifted in meaning. From tight to quick. I wonder if that happened gradually over nuances of change, or whether it happened fast? We often use fast and slow as antonyms. He ran fast. But she did not run slow; she ran...

Yes! Thank you. I had never made the connection before between a radical person or act and the botanical root. How slow of me. And lesson enough, that I must now slightly moderate my use in the political context. A radical person is closer to an anarchist than a mere stirrer of the pot; an uprooter ...

Well, in the long run, and I mean the very long run, humanity will cease to exist. So every human effort along the way is ultimately rendered ineffective and worth nothing. And of course, the way we are going at the moment, the very long run may not take as long as we used to think it would. So whil...

Interesting philosophical question there, Slava. It might be argued though, that in the long run, the most diaphorous life is ultimately rendered adiaphorous.

Ahh, Barbara, but baited breath always conjours in my mind, a smell of stale fish (perhaps by association with a baited hook) - certainly not particularly seductive.

We often say that the wind or the sea abated (usually at more or less the same time), so I think abated is still quite widely used. Bated is, as has been observed, almost universally used with breath (apart from bnj's curious falconry usage). Perhaps rather than resurrecting a more general usage of ...

Hmm. Vermin, when not describing a plague of rats or similar, is usally used in a pejorative sense. But am I right in thinking that in USA (we don't use the word in UK or Australia), it can be even vaguely affectionate or admiring - perhaps when talking of a mischievous child?

Thanks George. I will look out for it.

So sorry, Slava. I forgot the time difference. It was late in the day for me but early morning for you. You would have got it in three, I expect.

I won't be there, but I will dance for you here in Australia, bnj.