grain

Use this forum to suggest Good Words for Professor Beard.
bbeeton
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grain

Postby bbeeton » Wed Feb 16, 2022 11:34 am

"Grain" has a number of meanings, but the one I'm suggesting here is the word with a meaning or connotation of direction or alignment. Fur and fabrics like velvet have a grain, and it's obvious when one rubs it which way it is aligned. Plainer fabrics and paper have a grain, which becomes obvious only when one tries to tear it; a tear will progress evenly only along the grain. And going "against the grain" means doing something opposite to the usual manner. Finally, the grain of wood can be quite attractive when cut and polished.

Of course, there's also the other meaning, either as a count noun (grain of wheat or sand) or a mass noun (fields or "waves" of grain).

How these two may be related is unknown to me.

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Slava
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Re: grain

Postby Slava » Wed Sep 20, 2023 6:56 pm

Another good word to follow down the rabbit hole. Grain and Grain are the same word! Grain the little, seedy, sandy thing leads to the texture as if of little sandy, seedy things, leads to the visible texture, or what we call the grain of the wood.

It also leaps off into kermes, cochineal, crimson, and engrain/ingrain. And ingrain doesn't mean what you might think it means, as it began life meaning to imbue with red dye.

There's even a fabric or two in here; grogram. That began as gros grain in Middle French. Judging from the definitions I saw, grogram isn't quite the same thing as grosgrain. For further evidence to that effect, grosgrain is in my spellcheck dictionary, grogram is not.

Whew! I'll stop there. Have fun!
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

bbeeton
Senior Lexiterian
Posts: 552
Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2020 11:34 am
Location: Providence, RI

Re: grain

Postby bbeeton » Wed Sep 20, 2023 9:53 pm

I don't think I've ever seen "grogram", but "grosgrain" was the fabric of the ribbons I wore on my pigtails when I was young. (Crimson was certainly a favorite color.) Grosgrain ribbons can still be found; a fine plaid one is an attractive necktie adorning my long-legged (stuffed) bunny.

I think we've left out one (derivative) sense, as in "the grape and the grain". Let's drink to that as we explore the rabbit hole.


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