I Stand Corrected

Your Mission, Should You Choose To Accept It . . .

helmswondermom@aol.com (Lori) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:01:00 +0000

How would you like to go on a sort of etymological treasure hunt with me? Hmm???

My sister Barbara, who is very much a logophile, uses a bookmarker with nothing on the back whenever she is reading. When she comes upon a word that is unfamiliar to her or one that she wants to learn the origin of, she will write it on the back of the bookmark. When she has learned it, she will cross it off.

A few days ago she asked if I could help her find the origins and meanings of two words, cypocraphy and palitant. It had been a while since she'd written them down and couldn't remember in what context they were used, but I know for sure that "palitant" had nothing to do with an avatar on an online game (which is what I found when I googled it.). I've barely scratched the surface of research, so I thought I'd throw them out there to see if anyone else had any ideas or would like to join in the hunt.

My OED has been no help. The most I could find there was the word "Pali", with a capital "P" (long "A" sound), meaning a language used in Buddhist canonical books and short for "line or canon".

I'm hoping someone out there has perhaps come across one of these words or has a reference source that I don't have that may prove useful.

So please join in if you can. It'll give you something to do in 2010.

And yes, these are the sorts of things that keep me awake at night!

We have a request!

Luvrte66@aol.com (Beth) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:51:00 +0000

Mary has requested that we do a post about the semicolon. I know that Lori is a little under the weather, and I'm sure I have more time on my hands than does Guido, so I'll do a quickie about this handy little punctuation mark.

I like the semicolon; I use it fairly often.

That's the first example of usage. Two independent clauses that are similar and are not joined by a conjunction such as and. The key is that the clauses must be able to stand on their own as a sentence. If and were in there, no further punctuation would be necessary. I like the semicolon and I use it fairly often.

I like the semicolon; however, I feel that I don't use it often enough.

I like the semicolon; I feel, however, that I don't use it often enough.

In this case, two independent clauses are joined by a linking adverb. The linking adverb is followed by a comma, or if within the second clause, offset by commas.

I like the semicolon, the exclamation point, and the ampersand; the semicolon is my favorite.

In this case, there are again two independent clauses, with internal punctuation in the first clause. This sentence could also include a linking adverb such as however in the second clause.

Some of my favorite punctuation marks are the semicolon, an underused mark; the colon, which introduces a list; and the exclamation point, which indicates emphasis or surprise.

This scenario shows the separation of a series in which each item uses internal punctuation. This is probably the usage I employ most often, for when some or all items in a series require a little further explanation, which is offset by commas.

In the first three scenarios, I think the important thing to remember is that the two clauses need to be able to stand on their own in order for the semicolon to be used correctly. A common error is for a writer to substitute a comma for the semicolon. This results in a comma splice, which is two independent clauses joined by a comma. I think many of us remember from school that a comma splice was a most egregious error!

I hope you'll give the semicolon another look; it separates elements of a sentence nicely, and can keep a writer from falling prey to run-on sentences.

Abbreviations, initialisms and acronyms

adb422006@gmail.com (ADB) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:47:00 +0000

In the 1990s, I worked for the Ministry of Defense in Holland, and I probably don't need to tell you that the military are art masters of the abbreviation. To a grating extent, sometimes. I used to be employed at the medical supplies division. Even if you know the Dutch, it does take a little gnashing of the cogs upstairs to work out what GNKDGDN stands for.

However, you don't need the army to make a meal of an abbreviation. Quite often, the abbreviation is there to cut down on the number of seconds, spent writing out a big long word, e.g. exemplia gratia. We all write e.g., and we all know what it means. When we speak, the phrase turns into for example.

A different form of contracting words or phrases consists of picking out the initial letters of the constituent words and putting them down as one word. The World Health Organisation is turned into WHO. Nobody will pronounce that as the interrogative who? Everybody spells out the individual letters in pronounciation. That is what you call an initialism. When the initial letters, put together, turn into a word that you can pronounce without causing confusion or difficulty, it is termed an acronym. Sometimes, additional letters are drawn in, added to initial letters, to make a pronounceable word. The word NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) is a case in point, as is SONAR (Sound Navigation And Ranging).

Wikipedia has an excellent article on this issue - the post was prompted by a letter in the Glasgow Herald of 12 October 2009.

So sorry, I'm too busy towing my cow!

helmswondermom@aol.com (Lori) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:30:00 +0000

Photo © Tristan Savatier - http://loupiote.com/ - Used by Permission

Beth and I have noticed a lot of "cow towing" going on in the blogosphere recently, and it really must stop.

First I read a blog that began by complaining that a highly-placed politician was cow towing to foreign interests. Most recently Beth had an anonymous commenter accuse this same highly-placed politician of "cowtowing (one word this time) to just about every socialist dictator in existence". And there were a few other instances in between those two where I saw the words cow tow. So we have decided that it is time to do a brief study of the correct spelling and use of the term kow tow.

Kowtow (also koutau or kautau) is from the Mandarin Chinese kòu tóu, and it means, literally, "to knock head." From my own research I found that the noun came into general use sometime between 1795 and 1805 and was the custom of touching one's forehead to the ground to show respect or submission -- to quite literally "knock" one's "head" on the ground.

The figurative use of the term as a verb came into use in 1826, and it is as that figurative use of "acting in an obsequious manner" (genuflect, scrape, bootlick, brownnose) that the recent blogger and anonymous commenter were trying to use the term. This is not a political blog, so I am not going to get into a discussion of their opinions or arguments, but I will say that because they (and the other examples I read) used the spelling cow tow, I have no idea what point they were really trying to make and remember nothing else that they wrote. When I first read the blog entry mentioned in my second paragraph I couldn't get past the words cow tow. I couldn't have taken the blogger seriously on anything else written in that entry. I even had to go to Beth's blog to re-read the Anonymous comment to get the quote used above because all I could remember about it was that Anonymous had spelled kowtow wrong.

(Side note to bloggers who want to be taken seriously on serious subjects: If you are trying to make a valid point to readers who may not share your opinions, please try to use correct usage and spelling if at all possible.)

I found the history of the cultural and religious use of kowtow very interesting. Britannica.com says that it was

"the act of supplication made by an inferior to his superior by kneeling and knocking his head to the floor. This prostration ceremony was most commonly used in religious worship, by commoners who came to make a request of the local district magistrate, and by officials and representatives of foreign powers who came into the presence of the emperor. By the Ming period (1368-1644), the ritual, especially as made to the shrine of Confucius by the emperor and to the emperor by his officials and foreign envoys, involved "three kneelings and nine prostrations."

And the difference between kneelings and prostrations? The three kneelings were done from a standing position, and the prostrations were kowtows performed while kneeling.

There were different grades of kowtow used depending on the situation. The emperor's subjects were required to kowtow to him as described above. Commoners were also required to kowtow to government officials since they represented the emperor, and if they were brought before an official in a formal situation they were required to remain kneeling. By contrast, a person with a degree in the "Imperial examinations" would be allowed to sit down after performing a kowtow. Children were required to kowtow to their elderly ancestors, especially on special occasions. It was even traditionally required that newly married couples kowtow to both sets of parents at their wedding ceremony, to acknowledge the debt owed to the parents for their nurturing.

The word kowtow came into English in the early 19th century and described the bow itself. Very soon, however, it came to mean any groveling or abject submission, and that is how it is usually used today. A recent BBC News article reported that the former president of Pakistan had accused the Afghan president of kow-towing to India.

In modern times the kowtow is still performed in Buddhist religious ceremonies. It is not known as kowtowing, however, but as "worship with the crown" (head) or "casting the five limbs to the earth". It has all but been replaced by the standing bow in social and formal situations today.

As far as I can find out, the term is most often spelled as one word, kowtow, but it is also acceptable to spell it as two words, kow tow, or with a hyphen, kow-tow. And the "tow" part is never pronounced like "toe", but like "cow".

In researching this word I found several interesting web sites, and also learned a lot about the May Fourth Movement. You may find this site of interest, and The Word Detective is always worth reading.

Many thanks to Tristan Savatier for use of the oh-so-appropriate photo above. I shouted with glee when I saw that photograph!

Coming soon another misunderstood and misused term we've noticed recently: toeing the line! Be sure to tune in for that one!

Whose blog is this, anyway?

Luvrte66@aol.com (Beth) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:23:00 +0000

If you enjoy words and word usage, it is your blog! Lori, Guido, and I may be the ones posting, but we share a love of language and have a mutual interest in a continued effort to improve and learn, and have some fun along the way.

My topic today is reflected in the title of this entry: who's vs. whose.

The apostrophe has been the topic here twice before: here and here. It's always worth repeating, because a misplaced apostrophe can change a well-intentioned phrase to nonsense.

Who's is a contraction of who is or who has. An appropriate use would be "Who's got the football?" or "Who's going with me to the football game?"

Whose is the possessive of who, and is used to show...well, possession. "Whose football is this?" or "Whose house are we watching the football game at?" (You could also say "At whose house are we watching the football game?" but that sounds a little stilted.)

As with other contractions, a good way to remember which is correct is to expand the contraction. In the first case, "Who has got the football?" makes sense. In the second case, "Who is football is this?" makes no sense whatsoever.

As for the score...who's counting?

I hate to say "I told you so"

Luvrte66@aol.com (Beth) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:08:00 +0000

Please note #5.

I'm not exaggerating!

Luvrte66@aol.com (Beth) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 05:14:00 +0000

At least not when it comes to the word literally.

I think we all see this word misused often; in the worst misuse, I've heard people say "Literately." [cringe]

The word means actually or without exaggeration. If you use it as merely an intensifier, you are probably misusing it. An example is "I was so angry, I literally saw red." Unless you actually had a crimson pall come across your vision, you didn't "literally" see red. However, if you say, "I was so angry that I burst a blood vessel in my eye; I literally saw red," that would be appropriate.

Make sure that if you use literally, you are presenting an accurate approximation of what really happened or what you really felt, without exaggeration. "Literally" is not meant to be used as a metaphor, but as a true representation of events or feelings.

And so on...and so on...

Luvrte66@aol.com (Beth) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:10:00 +0000

I tend to use etc. fairly often in my blog entries, but I am going to do my best to get away from it. Etc. is the abbreviation for the Latin et cetera, and is correctly written as two words, rather than one as shown in the picture; the Latin meaning is 'and others' and the English is 'and so on.' It is very easy to tack on an etc. to the end of listed items in a sentence, but my reading tells me that it is not considered "polished," and is sometimes thought to be used by writers who can't think of anything else to add. Ouch! As I thought about my use of it, I think it is probably fairly redundant. If I have a list of three or more items, is it necessary to add an etc.? If I can only think of one example to give, I need to think a little harder, don't I?

I can't say that I'll stop the use of etc. entirely (and I can't write et cetera without hearing Yul Brynner intone it in my head), but I am going to make a conscious effort to be more aware of my usage of the abbreviation, and try to ensure that I do not overuse it.

Caritas

adb422006@gmail.com (ADB) — Sun, 31 May 2009 20:52:00 +0000

More than a decade ago, I sang a piece by Maurice Duruflé called Ubi Caritas. How do you translate caritas? There's a challenge for you. Charity? Love? Friendship?

First of all, I have to refer to a letter in the Bible, the first from Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 13. Where it says "love", I have reason to believe that this was translated from the word caritas. What is love? Is it the love between man and wife, male and female? That is what we usually understand the word love to mean. Love, however, doesn't just cover the emotion that underpins a marital relationship. There is the love that a parent has towards a child. The love a child has towards its parent. More than that, love also exists outside family relations. There is friendship, a special branch of the tree of love, if you like.

Back to caritas. In some translations of the Bible (and don't start me off on that subject), it is translated as charity. Charity is usually understood to be the free gift of goods or money for the benefit of the less fortunate members of mankind. Particularly here in Stornoway, charity thrives. More than half a dozen charity shops, each working for a different organisation, e.g. the Red Cross, Blythswood, Breast Cancer support. the Lifeboat etc. But where does love come into that equation? The love of fellow man, I suppose. But a degree of doubt if not cynicism is creeping into my mind. Isn't it often the case that people give to charity to assuage their guilty conscience? Yes, I'm a cynic. Although it is a good thing to part with some of your worldly goods for the benefit of others, it is a distant member of the family of love. And often it is a case of seen to be doing good.

Ubi Caritas.
Love is everywhere.

I think it is eminently apt that we can't properly translate the word caritas. For it spans the whole spectrum of human emotion. I'll leave you with a performance I dug out of YouTube.

And That's Why!

helmswondermom@aol.com (Lori) — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:21:00 +0000

This is a mirror post (with one addition) from my main blog Dusty Pages. I figured since it had to do with language, it would make a good post for this blog; but since it's also about kids, I wanted it on my main blog as well. So if you already read it over there, you may want to just skip to the additional info in red.

I love some of the words and phrases that young kids come up with. We hang on to them in this house for just as long as we can because we think they're precious. That's why when Andrew said "ball bearian" instead of "ball bearing" we didn't correct him. And that's why Eler Beth pronounced it that way, too. When Andrew would ask me if I would do him a "favorite" instead of a "favor", I didn't correct that either. For every cute word or phrase they came up with, they would usually correct themselves in time, just from hearing us use the correct word or phrase. I think the "ball bearian" one was the only one that survived to kindergarten for both kids. (And in case you're wondering why a small child would even know what a ball bearing is, Thomas has always had various sizes of steel ball bearings in his possession for one reason or another, and on rainy or cold days, he and the kids used to build these elaborate tracks all through the house or apartment for the bearings to travel upon.)

I recently was going through some boxes and found evidence of one of our favorite Eler-Beth-isms. It's one that Thomas and I still use to this day, although Eler Beth can't remember saying it. From the time she learned to talk until she was about three she would say it. The phrase is "that why."

What I found down in a box on a top shelf of a closet was another smallish cardboard box, holding a few sea shells and some fossils. But apparently at one time it had held "school stuff". I know that it had held "school stuff" because it said so on the box. And since the instruction written on the box was in my own handwriting, and since Eler Beth's signature was in her pre-school handwriting, I know that it dated from before she could write much more than her name, so the "school stuff" would have been things that she considered "school stuff", things that we were working on at home. And from the "that why" that was part of the instruction I know that she couldn't have been much more than three years old when she dictated the instruction.

When Eler Beth said "that why", she meant "because." For example, instead of saying, "I'm ready for lunch because I'm hungry," using the Eler-Beth-ism one would say, "I'm ready for lunch, that why I'm hungry." Or instead of saying "I need to go to the store because I'm out of bread", one would say "I need to go to the store, that why I'm out of bread." And when you think about it, it does make since. At two and three years old, she didn't understand or know (or accept) the word "because" for some reason, but she certainly understood the concept of "because", didn't she? For what else does "because" mean if not "that's why"? Why do my joints creak when I get out of bed in the morning? Because I'm getting old, that's why. Why do I hate buying gas for my car these days? Because the price of gasoline is so high, that's why. We don't use "that why", Thomas and I, all the time, but we do occasionally toss it into our conversations to add a little bit of spice and nostalgia.

And what was the precious message on the box that my little one had dictated to me all those years ago? It was this:

"Nobody don't touch this box, that why it my school stuff!" And it was signed with a very wobbly "ELER".

I wanted to share this story with you, "that why" I knew you'd enjoy it!

Eler Beth at about the age when she would have said "that why". She was posing so prettily here, and then just when I got ready to snap the picture, she scooped up her skirt! What a meanie-mite!

I had to include the picture, that why she's so cute!

(I cropped the picture so that those of you who are concerned that the other one might embarrass my girl can rest easy now. lol)

The etymology of the word "because" is this: From the fourteenth century it has had the meaning of "for the reason that" or "on account of". Quoting The Oxford English Dictionary of English Etymology, in Middle English it was written, "bi cause, i.e. bi BY CAUSE, after OF {Old French}par cause de by reason of."

More on "Alright"

helmswondermom@aol.com (Lori) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:44:00 +0000

As I commented below this used to really bug me, but then I found myself using it in informal corresponce -- never in professional correspondence! -- quite often. This is a link to an interesting history of the words "all right" and "alright", and there is more out there. When I have time I'll consult my Fowler's and see what it says. Check out this site in the meantime: The Maven's Word of the Day. And in the meantime use the rule "If in doubt, don't", and don't use it if you think the person you're writing to or for is going to hate it! lol See the distinction below:
Quoted from the above site:

While in general, alright can be found in all the senses of all right, in
practice there can be a real semantic distinction between the two, because the
two word form all right can mean 'all correct' or something like that, while
alright can only mean 'good; safe; healthy', etc. when used as an adjective.
(Similar distinctions are found with already and all ready, though these forms
have diverged to the point where they are not interchangable at all.) Thus the
sentence "The Kids Aren't All Right" can mean 'not all the kids are right', or
'some of the kids are wrong', while "The Kids Aren't Alright" can only mean 'the
kids are not OK'. from http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19990604

Two words in one? No.

Luvrte66@aol.com (Beth) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 21:28:00 +0000

I often see "alot" and "alright" in print, but the correct usage is always in the form of two words: "a lot" and "all right."

Just remember, it takes two, baby!

A handy website

Luvrte66@aol.com (Beth) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:35:00 +0000

I haven't spent a lot of time on this one, but in browsing through it, it looks to be a fairly good reference for word usage, especially words that are frequently confused. In fact, the name of it is Confusing Words. Of course, you have to be aware that you are confused by a group of words (such as 'there,' 'their,' and 'they're') in order to look them up!

Addendum

It seems that this website isn't functioning at the moment. I was on it yesterday, so I don't know if it's a temporary problem or if the site is down. A shame, because it was a nice little reference!

Having Truck with the word "Truck"

helmswondermom@aol.com (Lori) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:23:00 +0000

Thomas came up with an interesting question recently. "How old is the word 'truck'? Was it around before the vehicle?"

I knew it must have been, because the word can mean "trade" or "barter". But the question made me wonder exactly how old the word is, and it also made me wonder how the term "truck garden" came about.

So the first thing I did was pull out my OED of Etymology, 1974 edition.

TRUCK¹

The first and oldest definition of the word is from the 13th century, and that was to "give in exchange". (Apparently the earliest example of this meaning in print was from the Ancrene Riwle)

"Barter", 16th century; "barter away" 17th century, as well as "dealings, traffic"; "payment in kind, good supplied instead of wages" 18th century, and; "pay otherwise than in money", 19 century.

TRUCK²

The meaning of this word as a "small solid wooden wheel or block" dates from the 17th century and moved into the 18th century as "wheeled vehicle for heavy weights", possibly as a shortened form of the word "truckle". Truckle came into our language as a "pulley, sheave" or "small roller or wheel under a bed, etc" in the 15th century. As a verb truckle came to mean to "yield obsequiously to" in the 17th century.

The word truck progressed through Middle English trukie, later trukke, to Anglo-Norman truquer, Old French troquer, (reflected, according to the OED, in Medieval Latin trocare). So the word truck has been around since at least the 13th century and has gone through several languages to reach our modern English.

Now, as for truck gardening, the Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th edition, says it is

the horticultural practice of growing one or more
vegetable crops on a large
scale for shipment to distant markets. . . . At first this type of
farming depended entirely on local or regional markets. As the use of railroads
and large-capacity trucks expanded and refrigerated carriers were introduced,
truck farms spread to the cheaper lands of the West and South, . .
. The major truck-farming areas are in California, Texas, Florida,
along the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and in the Great Lakes area. . . .

That's all well and good, but I already know what a truck garden is. I have not been able to find anything about the origin of the term. I have no idea when it started being used with relation to gardening. My OED fails me there, and so far so has the Internet.

* Other interesting usages of the word "truck" are:
as an intransitive verb, to do trucking or to drive a truck as one's work;
the slang truck on down, which means to stroll or walk in a carefree, leisurely manner;
as a rare form of the intransitive verb, peddle;
as an informal noun, dealings (e.g. have no further truck with them), which is how I used it in the title of this entry;
as an informal noun, trash, rubbish (**e.g. “Look at your hands. And look at your mouth. What is that truck?” --Mark Twain).
from U.S. Military Dictionary, a wooden disk at the top of a ship's mast or flagstaff, with sheaves for signal halyards. **

Now you probably know more about the word "truck" than you ever wanted to know, but wasn't it interesting? I like it when someone asks me a word question that sends me digging into dictionaries and encyclopedias. Hope you got some enjoyment out of it as well.

And all I can say in closing is . . .

KEEP ON TRUCKIN'!

* Your Dictionary.com
** Answers.com

English...whose idea was this, anyway?

Luvrte66@aol.com (Beth) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 06:14:00 +0000

A friend sent this to me, and I thought it showed perfectly how strange the English language can be. I've always heard it's one of the hardest languages to learn as a second language, and I can imagine how frustrating it is!

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Lost in translation

adb422006@gmail.com (ADB) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:32:00 +0000

Irish police were left red-faced in the wake of the hunt for the country's worst driver. He managed to rack up dozens of traffic violations and fines, and forces up and down the Republic were on the hunt for Polish man Prawo Jazdy. Except... Prawo Jazdy is Polish for driver's licence.

Which reminds me of foreign tourists in the Netherlands who are driving for miles, looking for the town of Doorgaand Verkeer. This features on hundreds of signs, particularly in larger towns and cities. Never with a distance indication, something that is quite common in Holland. Doorgaand Verkeer is a Dutch fata morgana,as it stands for Through Traffic.

First published on Atlantic Lines

adb422006@gmail.com (ADB) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:38:00 +0000

Some advertisements on the Internet are just plain stupid. One company, trying to pander its creditcard off on unsuspecting punters can rest assured of an absolutely 0% (yes, zero) success rate. After saying which normally disqualifying criteria will be considered, it says that everyone will be EXCEPTED.

Originally posted on Atlantic Lines

Imply vs. Infer

Luvrte66@aol.com (Beth) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:51:00 +0000

Some use these interchangeably, but there really is a difference that should be observed.

Imply means to to hint or suggest. Infer means to draw a conclusion.

I try to remember the difference between the two by thinking that "imply" is something that is done to you. Someone implies that you are a nincompoop. "Infer" is something that we do...based on hearing someone's remarks, we infer that they are a nincompoop. Or sometimes I think of it in dramatic, cinematic terms. I say to the bad guy, "Just what are you implying with your remarks?" He says to me, "I'm not sure. What are you inferring?"

Read this, or I'll lump your jolly nob for you!

helmswondermom@aol.com (Lori) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:10:00 +0000

I did a post in my Book Shelves blog today about a book called 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. I'm not going to copy the post here -- you can follow the link to read the whole thing if you'd like, and I hope you do --, but I wanted to mention it here because it's a really fun read, and I'm probably going to be using it as a source for some posts here.

There are many expressions in this "Dictionary" which have remained unchanged down to our day -- for instance, the word "Pig" as slang for a policeman. The 1811 Dictionary says, "PIG. A police officer. Floor the pig and bolt," which would mean to "knock down the officer and run away." Apparently this definition for "pig" came into use after the original Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was published in 1785, because that one lists other slang meanings for "pig", but the 1811 dictionary includes those as well as "policeman".

Another one I thought was funny was "Sea Lawyer." Can you guess what it was slang for? A shark!

The word "shark" on the other hand was slang for "A sharper; perhaps from his preying upon anyone he could lay hold of. Also a custom-house officer, or tide-waiter. Sharks; the first order of pickpockets. Bowstreet term A.D. 1785." (A sharper, by the way, was a "cheat, one that lives by his wits." A sharper's tools were these: "a fool, and false dice," according to this wonderful dictionary.) Doesn't that sound like our more modern term of "pool shark" probably came from this slang term? And who knew there were different orders of pickpockets??

I found out that I could be called a "Whither-go-ye", which is slang for a "wife". The Dictionary says that this is due to "wives being sometimes apt to question their husbands whither they are going." Isn't that cool? I think I'd rather my husband refer to me as the "old whither-go-ye" rather than the "old lady".

Well, I'd better go. I'm sitting here laughing out loud at some of the words and definitions I'm finding, and Thomas is looking rather "peery" at me (suspicious). I'm also getting a bit "peepy" (drowsy), so I'd better hop off here.

If you come upon a copy of this book at any time, I hope you pick it up; and since I know not one of my readers is "light-fingered", I know you know that I mean to buy or borrow it, not to steal it. In the meantime, come back here and I'll share a few more good ones with you now and then.

Life in the 1500s

adb422006@gmail.com (ADB) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:49:00 +0000

Not sure if these are the valid explanations behind the relevant terms in the English language, but it's a good try. Obtained from an anonymous source.

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water.

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs ) lived in the roof When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying It's raining cats and dogs.

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, Dirt poor.

The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a thresh hold.

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old..

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, bring home the bacon. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all n ight (the graveyard shift). to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer..

The Birds

Luvrte66@aol.com (Beth) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:29:00 +0000

If you're like me, you enjoy knowing the origins of words. It can be surprising, and sometimes amusing, to see how a word or a phrase evolved into its present-day usage.

With a big change happening in our country this week, I wondered about the origins of "inauguration."

The word dates to 1569, from the French inauguration (no change there at all), which means "installation, consecration." The French word is derived from the Latin inaugurationem, meaning "consecration, installment under good omens," and from inaugurare meaning "take omens from the flight of birds, consecrate or install when such omens are favorable." Its Latin roots are in- "on, in" + augurare "to act as an augur, predict."

I didn't hear of a multitude of birds flying around Washington, D.C. this week, but let's hope that recent events augur well for our country!

The Old New Year

adb422006@gmail.com (ADB) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:15:00 +0000

Back in the year 1582, pope Gregory XIII found that the inaccuracies of the Roman calendar were getting out of hand. Although a leap year had kept aberrations on the calendar down, it now transpired that the earth was spinning 10 days ahead of schedule. His religion being Christian rather than Muslim (which states that when Mohammed can't come to the mountain, the mountain comes to Mohammed), Gregory decided to take a drastic step. He commanded that the calendar be moved forward 10 days. During the last months of 1582 and the early ones of 1583, this was implemented across Europe. Another change was that leap years in start years of new centuries (e.g. 1800, 1900, 2000) would only occur if the year number was divisible by 400.

Protestants were not always eager to follow a papal decree. In Scotland, the Old New Year was kept until fairly recently in some quarters. This led to Christmas being celebrated on January 6th (in fact the Epiphany). However, it should be pointed out that formally, the corrections of the Gregorian calendar were accepted across the world by 1923.

One Year Old on this New Year's Day

helmswondermom@aol.com (Lori) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:58:00 +0000

Today is the one year anniversary of I Stand Corrected. And although I have been rather MIA lately, I definitely wanted to stop by to make an entry here today. Here is a link to The First Entry in the original AOL Journal from January 1, 2008, in case you missed it way back then. The following is a paragraph from that original entry:

I've wanted to do this journal for a long time, and I finally decided that
I'd start it on January 1. I want to discuss words -- beautiful, lovely,
inspiring words! I want to discuss lovely phrases, especially archaic
phrases that one doesn't hear much nowadays; perhaps words or phrases you may
have heard your parents or grandparents using, but don't hear often now. I
want to discuss styles of writing. I also want to open the journal up for
questions and answers. Do you wonder when it is correct to use "then" and
when you should use "than", for example? Email a question or leave it in
the comment thread, and someone will supply the answer.

There were 14 posts that first month of 2008, but no other month had that many. Life rather interrupts us at times and makes us put on a back burner projects that may be dear to us. If it hadn't been for Guido and Beth contributing entries, some months would have been sadly empty of posts. My goal for 2009 is to spend a bit more time on this blog, starting today.

A great site

Luvrte66@aol.com (Beth) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 05:57:00 +0000

Check out the Etymology Dictionary. I think I've died and gone to heaven.

Oh, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

I'm affected by the effect these words have on me

Luvrte66@aol.com (Beth) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:29:00 +0000

For the most part, I think I have this one figured out, but I still like to double check myself whenever I use either of these words.

Most frequently, affect is a verb, meaning to influence or cause a change in, or to act on the emotions of. "I was very affected by such a sad movie." Effect is usually seen as a noun, meaning something brought about by a cause (i.e., a result), or the power to produce a result. "The sad movie had a profound effect on me."

Of course, just to make things interesting, we can pull a switcheroo with these words, and make affect a noun, meaning feeling or emotion. This is especially used in psychology: "The patient's affect was blunted and reduced," meaning that they showed little emotion. Use effect as a verb, and it means to produce or bring about. "The new manager plans to implement a change in suppliers in order to effect cost savings." (The change in suppliers will produce cost savings. In the sentence I gave as an example, the word "implement" could be replaced with "effect.")

If anyone has an easy way to remember the difference between the two, please share. This is one that took me many years to get straight, and it's still not automatic for me.