Language & Grammar discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Grammar Central
>
What's Your Word for the Day?
I came across a word which I had heard before quite a bit. Then it popped up on a radio talk show. It is SYLLOGISM.
Here is a definition I took out of dictionary:
Logic: A form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion; for example, All humans are mortal, the major premise, I am a human, the minor premise, therefore, I am mortal, the conclusion.
I think one can come up with a lot of logical construct based on Syllogism:
God is Love.
Love is Blind.
Ray Charles is Blind.
Ray Charles is God!
on and on and on!
I think it is real fun doing logical deductive reasoning jokes!
Just having fun. No offense to anyone.
Mod
Mod
Mod
My word of the day is gallimaufry, which according to Merriam Webster Online isgal·li·mau·fry
Pronunciation:
\ˌga-lə-ˈmȯ-frē\
Function:
noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural gal·li·mau·fries
Etymology:
Middle French galimafree stew
Date:
circa 1556
: hodgepodge
I stumbled upon this word in the English translation of the Swedish novel, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".
INCUNABULA (heard on the radio today!)....Probably not any available for my KINDLE.... :-)in⋅cu⋅nab⋅u⋅la / [in-kyoo-nab-yuh-luh, ing-:]
–plural noun, singular -lum /-ləm/
1. extant copies of books produced in the earliest stages (before 1501) of printing from movable type.
2. the earliest stages or first traces of anything.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Origin:
1815–25; < L: straps holding a baby in a cradle, earliest home, birthplace, prob. equiv. to *incūnā(re) to place in a cradle (in- in- 2 + *-cūnāre, v. deriv. of cūnae cradle) + -bula, pl. of -bulum suffix of instrument; def. 1 as trans. of G Wiegendrucke
Mod
I have a new Kindle 2 (and too). Haven't bought anything with it yet (much to amazon's regret, as they gave it to me).
Nice word! It is even anglesized as 'incunable': meaning a very early printed book as far back as before 1500. The latin root: cunae (cradle)I found an interesting reference to this word on worldwidewords.org (lots more to discover there).
It talks about the import of the word to English language and who first used it.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwo...
Newengland wrote: "Yes... sounds like "incubator" which makes it a great match for definition 2.I have a new Kindle 2 (and too). Haven't bought anything with it yet (much to amazon's regret, as they gave it to me)."
They GAVE me my 2nd KINDLE 2 too....but I had to pay for my first and return it as it was defective.
How do you rate???
BTW, I just downloaded THE HOUSE OF MIRTH for a grand total of $1.61
Maryam wrote: "Nice word! It is even anglesized as 'incunable': meaning a very early printed book as far back as before 1500. The latin root: cunae (cradle)I found an interesting reference to this word on world..."
Thanks Maryam. I had this site bookmarked a long time ago...but had forgotten about it!
It's a very cool place!
Mod
And I sit corrected. I downloaded a classic Jules Verne for free. I was just surprised to see that most books are only a dollar or two less than their paper counterparts. I was expecting half price or something.
tintinnabulation
Here is a word for the day from me: a·man·u·en·sis :One who is employed to take dictation or to copy manuscript.
[Latin manunsis, from the phrase (servus) man, (slave) at handwriting :, ab, by; see ab-1 + man, ablative of manus, hand; see man-2 in Indo-European Roots.]
That's exactly how I felt today at work!
Newengland wrote: "Susanne -- I rate because I had 2 weeks to write 40 reviews for entries to amazon's ABNA contest, an annual novelists' event. Reviewers of these pieces, approximately 15 pp. each, get a Kindle2 as..."Well...I am duly impressed!...perhaps even feeling a bit 'tintinnabulated' at that bit of info! :-)
Good Job!!!...I was doing some reviews for them, but it all became so time consumming and onerous. I do them occasionally now and then.
But I love the KINDLE2...it goes in my purse and everywhere!
I read where a newer model is coming out soon...larger screen for students, etc.
Not my cupppa!
Mod
It is the Irish form of loch, I think, so it would be "lock".
Mod
"You'll tae the high roadAnd I'll tae the low road
And I'll be in Scotland before you."
I've always heard that the "high road" was the gallows.
What say ye far-flung Gaels?
Google found me this:The song, Loch Lomond, immortalized the sacrifice of one brother by the gallows to provide safe passage for his older brother’s return to his family in Scotland. Legend has it that the brothers lived by the banks of Loch Lomond and were captured during the Jocobite Uprisings during the 17th and 18th centuries. The boys were sentenced to death but were given a reprieve allowing one of them to live and be released. The younger brother chose for his brother to live for the sake of his family.
The symbolism in the song is represented by the younger brother taking the low road which has been interpreted as “the death road” or “the spiritual road” while the living brother takes the high road home by land. Thus, the younger brother will return to Scotland in spirit faster than his brother by land. The younger lad laments the loss of his true love or sweetheart whereby in death he will never “meet (her) again” on the beautiful banks of his beloved Loch Lomond.
Mod
Mod
Mod
Price=heavy
Radiation=slight
Mod
Me:Weight-heavyish
Price-cheap
Radiation-lots of sizzle, not so much steak.
Mod
And Gabi, honey.....I think you just did!!!
JOUISSANCEJouissance, in French, means enjoyment and pleasure, in particularly in an over-the-top sense. It contrasts with 'plaisir', which is a controlled state that happens within cultural norms.
Jouissance is pleasure (and any stimulation) that can be too much to bear. It may be very largely felt as suffering. It is pleasure and pain together, a feeling of being at the edge.
It can indicate a breaking of boundaries, a connection beyond the self. This can range from a mother feeling intense connection with a breast-feeding baby to meditative feelings of oneness with the universe.
One of the goals of life is to manage jouissance. Unchecked emotion will control and overwhelm you. Society helps this through controlling mechanisms such as education and cultural norms. It has been said that jouissance is 'drained' from the body throughout life, leading to the calm of old age.
Mod
Yes, NE, you've aptly described how the word feels!I ran across it while reading a review of Nabokov's LOLITA...at the end here...."linguistic jouissance" and it just grabbed me...threw me down and tickled me til I...I...oh dear I can't tell! :-)
"Much has been made of Lolita as metaphor, perhaps because the love affair at its heart is so troubling. Humbert represents the formal, educated Old World of Europe, while Lolita is America: ripening, beautiful, but not too bright and a little vulgar. Nabokov delights in exploring the intercourse between these cultures, and the passages where Humbert describes the suburbs and strip malls and motels of postwar America are filled with both attraction and repulsion, "those restaurants where the holy spirit of Huncan Dines had descended upon the cute paper napkins and cottage-cheese-crested salads." Yet however tempting the novel's symbolism may be, its chief delight--and power--lies in the character of Humbert Humbert. He, at least as he tells it, is no seedy skulker, no twisted destroyer of innocence. Instead, Nabokov's celebrated mouthpiece is erudite and witty, even at his most depraved. Humbert can't help it--linguistic jouissance is as important to him as the satisfaction of his arrested libido."
Jouissance sounds as if it has some sort of moral component in its definition. Is that a necessary part of the idea?
Tyler wrote: "Jouissance sounds as if it has some sort of moral component in its definition. Is that a necessary part of the idea?actually more of a sexual component. It's not a word that can be translated into English.
Suggest you "google" it to understand it better....and how it came to be with the prinicples of Lacanian Psychoanalysis.
Gabi-I liked the use of it in the review as "linguistic jouissance"
It's just one of those words that roll deliciously off your tongue!
But we can adapt our own meaning to it since it doesn't translate into English...
I rather like NE's picture of being pinned down, tickled and giggling until you have to cry UNCLE!
Any others come to mind???... (careful David!)
Another word please?By all means. Censorious
It means highly critical. I saw it in Samuel Butler's The Way of All Flesh, where he refers to "...living after a fashion which even the most censorious could find nothing to complain of ..."
Mod
Mod
dragon
Okay Gabi...we need a bit of insouciance on the word jouissance...so get up off the floor now and pick the meaning you like best! I found these on the translation site at wordreference.com.I think the word is much too pretty to torture!
Principal Translations/Principales traductions
jouissance nf joy
jouissance nf sensual pleasure
Additional Translations:
jouissance nf intense reading pleasure (literary criticism)
jouissance nf orgasm
jouissance nf enjoyment (legal)
jouissance (juridique : d'un bien)
Mod
Ecstacy!
Mod
(spelled "ecstasy" on this side of the briny)
Mod
new definition added to liquidity...Liquidity (noun): When you look at your investments and wet your pants.
ex-tasty--When your chewing gum loses its flavor on the bedpost overnight.
GYASCUTUS
A gyascutus or guyascutus is a fictional quadruped, whose legs are longer on one side than the other to facilitate living on a hillside.
This may be a variant on the dahu, and may have inspired the wild haggis and Sidehill Gouger.
This was used in the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
A gyascutus Zac Efron? (for my 16-yr-old daughter).
Mod
A Norwegian farmer
Ruth wrote: "Gyascutus bipediaA Norwegian farmer"
Tooooo funny Ruth!!!
I'd add that the farmers of the Cinque Terre area of Italy also qualify!
Mod
fantodsA state of unease or unreasonableness. I like it because it pushes the edge of English pronounceability rules.An Anglicism, methinks.
So does it sound out as per the rules?Just like it looks?
I know a few people who are currently experiencing those same symtoms. How would you use it in a sentence David?
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
Language & Grammar
Books mentioned in this topic
Beautiful Creatures (other topics)Co. Aytch: A Confederate Memoir of the Civil War (other topics)
The Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic Tank (other topics)
The Yearling (other topics)
The Bookseller of Kabul (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Erma Bombeck (other topics)F. Scott Fitzgerald (other topics)
John Franklin Bardin (other topics)
Robin Reardon (other topics)
Kazuo Ishiguro (other topics)
More...
It means bothersome or troublesome. I came across it in Lost Christianities, which was discussing a council representing the emerging ecclesiastical consensus having to deal with dissenting churches and their "pestiferous" congregations.