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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2016 12:40 pm
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Algot Runeman wrote:banausic
A banausic WotD provides little incentive to think hard or long ...
Spoiler: show
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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2016 8:45 am
by Algot Runeman
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zeugma

Pronunciation: /ˈzjuːɡmə/
noun
A figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses (e.g. John and his driving licence expired last week). Compare with syllepsis.
Derivatives
zeugmatic
Pronunciation: /zjuːɡˈmatɪk/
adjective

Origin
Late Middle English: via Latin from Greek, from zeugnunai 'to yoke'; related to zugon 'yoke'.

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My zeugmatic yoke, as much as my zygomatic arch, doth hurt.
Both make temperamental and temporal pain.
They have harsh effect on the neighboring brain.
Accompanying tears take the starch out of me and my shirt.

[I think I have the spirit of the zany zeugma, expressed in the final sentence of the arrhythmic rhyme, but will attempt a stiff upper lip in the event I'm wrong.]

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2016 8:12 am
by Algot Runeman
parhelion

Pronunciation: /pɑːˈhiːlɪən/
noun (plural parhelia pɑːˈhiːlɪə)
A bright spot in the sky appearing on either side of the sun, formed by refraction of sunlight through ice crystals high in the atmosphere. Also called mock sun, sun dog.

Origin
Mid 17th century: from Latin parelion, from Greek para- 'beside' + hēlios 'sun'.

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JLS Photography - Alaska

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The family dog lay in the sun, failing to notice the sun dog, parhelion, sharing the sky with his source of warmth. Instead, his feet twitched as he dreamed of chasing a squirrel. Of course, the sun dog didn't notice him, either.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2016 9:05 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Algot Runeman wrote:parhelion
I'm afraid the parhelion, among all the other ap-, peri- and other hellions, make it more confusing.

Very sensibly the family dog chases squirrels instead ...

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 9:23 am
by Algot Runeman
cueca

Pronunciation: /ˈkwɛkə/
noun
A lively South American dance.

Origin
Early 20th century: American Spanish, from zamacueca, also denoting a dance performed especially in Chile.

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Constanza.CH

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Nita played shy, but Carls was slicker.
He convinced her to join him in dancing a cueca.
They swirled and they swayed while quick the band played.
The crowd shouted and cheered, never dismayed.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2016 12:39 pm
by Algot Runeman
chèvre

Pronunciation: /ʃɛvr(ə)/
noun
[mass noun]
French cheese made with goat’s milk.

Origin
French, literally 'goat, she-goat', from Latin caper.

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Charles purchased a good amount of Gouda and a fair chunk of chèvre for Cherisse. She thought he had given her a couple of cheesy presents.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 10:28 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Algot Runeman wrote:chèvre
When I was 9 to 14 years old, my dad was a salesman for Chevrolet.
I also started learning French in school.
Of course I tried to find a connection between Chevrolet and Chèvre-au-Lait, but that long ago, I couldn't find anything really relevant.

Nowadays there are multiple search engines available. Well, you can see for yourself how many hits Chèvre-au-lait will give you.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 2:57 pm
by Algot Runeman
You are right, E.P.S., Google gave me several Chèvre-au-lait links. A link to this graphic was missing, though it might now be found with a diligent effort.

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You will not find it in a shop, I suspect.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 3:30 pm
by Algot Runeman
bracero

Pronunciation: /brəˈsɪərəʊ/
/brəˈsɛːrəʊ/
noun (plural braceros)
A Mexican labourer allowed into the United States for a limited time as a seasonal agricultural worker.

Origin
1970s: Spanish, literally 'labourer', from brazo 'arm'.

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The braseros worked all day in the hot sun, breaking only for a short lunch they had carried into the fields.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 5:26 pm
by voralfred
Algot Runeman wrote:bracero

Pronunciation: /brəˈsɪərəʊ/
/brəˈsɛːrəʊ/
noun (plural braceros)
A Mexican labourer allowed into the United States for a limited time as a seasonal agricultural worker.

Origin
1970s: Spanish, literally 'labourer', from brazo 'arm'.

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The braseros worked all day in the hot sun, breaking only for a short lunch they had carried into the fields.
Why would the braceros need braseros, if the sun was so hot?

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 6:55 pm
by Algot Runeman
voralfred wrote:
Why would the braceros need braseros, if the sun was so hot?
It can get "mucho frio" at night, of course (Brrr!). Braseros might help keep the braceros "calentito."

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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2016 7:13 am
by Algot Runeman
lipogram

Pronunciation: /ˈlɪpəɡram/
noun
A composition from which the writer systematically omits a certain letter or certain letters of the alphabet.

Origin
Early 18th century: back-formation from Greek lipogrammatos 'lacking a letter', from lip- (stem of leipein 'to leave (out)') + gramma 'letter'.

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Thoughtl_ss, John Lipogram stood mut_ befor_ th_ judg_. It was always difficult to sp_ak without th_ most popular vow_l, silent though it oft_n is.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2016 8:46 am
by Algot Runeman
When I told my lovely wife about today's word, she reacted right away.

"Sounds like a diagram of somebody's fat."

It seemed an imagined lipogram #2 illustration was in order.

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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2016 12:34 pm
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Algot Runeman wrote:lipogram
Long ago, when I was still a handsome young man, a female friend sent me a congratulatory postcard for my graduation.

She did not include the traditional xxx at the bottom of the message box. No, she pressed her pouting lips, liberally coated with fiery red lipstick, on the card.

My dad glimpsed it and remarked: "Ah, a lipogram. Nice. She likes you!"
Spoiler: show
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(Though I never liked him, this song is the fitting exception. Click on the image)

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2016 7:56 am
by Algot Runeman
tazza

Pronunciation: /ˈtɑːtsə/
noun
A shallow ornamental wine cup mounted on a foot.

Origin
Early 19th century: from Italian, from Arabic ṭasa 'bowl' (see tass).

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Tim took up the tazza and tipped it to tentatively taste. He decided that the wine was not so fancy as the vessel in which it had been served.

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[Then, of course, the words of the definition smacked my visual cortex and an alternate illustration sprang to mind...Sorry!]

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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 1:50 am
by voralfred
If I see you approaching me holding this kind of tazza

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I won't hesitate using a taser to keep you from making that kind of tazza

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out of me !

:hot: Ah non mais !* :hot:

* : en français dans le texte

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 7:46 am
by Algot Runeman
wythe

Pronunciation: /wɪθ/
/wɪð/
noun
A single thickness of bricks in masonry construction.

Origin
Early 18th century (as with): probably an alteration of width.

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One run of cinder blocks, cemented, plumb and fine, a wythe of brick to face the place. inside put some insulation and drywall because plaster takes too long. That's the way of building structure walls in our times. The whole is hung on structural steel, columns and beams, battens and joists. All of it fit to the rules of the BBC (Basic Building Codes) not that British Radio and TV, thingy.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2016 10:25 am
by voralfred
Algot Runeman wrote:wythe

Pronunciation: /wɪθ/
/wɪð/
noun
A single thickness of bricks in masonry construction.

(...)
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

One run of cinder blocks, cemented, plumb and fine, a wythe of brick to face the place. inside put some insulation and drywall because plaster takes too long. That's the way of building structure walls in our times. The whole is hung on structural steel, columns and beams, battens and joists. All of it fit to the rules of the BBC (Basic Building Codes) not that British Radio and TV, thingy.

And then, all you have to do is to paint the wythe white.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2016 8:45 am
by Algot Runeman
monosemy

Pronunciation: /ˈmɒnə(ʊ)ˌsiːmi/
noun
[mass noun] Linguistics
The property of having only one meaning.

Origin
1950s: from mono- 'one' + Greek sēma 'sign' + -y3.

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-- A Call to Arms (or even Legs) --

Friends, let us do battle. By diligent effort we can defeat the designs of parsimonious monosemists. It is our pleasure to provide nuance. It is our duty to pun. Monosemy is our enemy. We must thwart its unseemly singularity!

[I actually do wonder how often a word maintains a pure, singlular meaning. Time and our odd verbal tendencies have even produced contranyms, words with entirely opposite meanings, much less words with the shading of meaning that is commonplace.

I suspect it is only focused, technical terms which have hope of being monosemous. Dictionaries generally provide a series of definitions for each word, attesting to the difficulty monosemists already face. There is concern, kept somewhere in my occiput that some words may be difficult to morph to multiple meanings.]

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2016 9:09 am
by Algot Runeman
classless

Pronunciation: /ˈklɑːsləs/:
adjective
1 (Of a society) not divided into social classes: this is of course a classless society

1.1 Not showing obvious signs of belonging to a particular social class: his voice was classless

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In the US, public schools attempt to provide classless conditions, melding children from all backgrounds. Of course, confusion may arise because the building is divided into classrooms in which classes are held.

The kids in my own town are excited because school has been cancelled for the day because 6 to 10 inches of snow is predicted to fall, NO CLASS AT ALL!

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2016 6:51 am
by Algot Runeman
Mojibake (文字化け?)

(IPA: [mod͡ʑibake];
lit. "character transformation"),
noun
the garbled text that is the result of text being decoded using an unintended character encoding.

Origin
from the Japanese 文字 (moji) "character" + 化け (bake, pronounced "bah-keh") "transform"

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%&#-* %&#-* %&#-* %&#-* %&#-* %&#-* %&#-*

Taking a hindi tale via a Russian translation into Japanese and finally into English. It is no wonder some words suffer from mojibake and some downright lousy loss of meaning.

A more common illustration of mojibake in routine use is copying directly out of a Word document into a blog. Unless you pay careful attention, you will get this kind of mess instead of the fancy quotes Word uses. Some websites cannot even handle ordinary accented text in their blog post titles.

“Fancy Quotesâ€

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2016 8:56 am
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
Algot Runeman wrote:Mojibake (文字化け?)
Oh, mojibake is a very useful word.

It describes perfectly what happens when Google translates Dutch into English.

Of course there remains the question if that results in Englutch or Dutlish. Linguists are still debating it.

Also a Japanese user manual translated into any Western language is a typical example.
Spoiler: show
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Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2016 1:09 pm
by voralfred
E Pericoloso Sporgersi wrote:
Algot Runeman wrote:Mojibake (文字化け?)
Oh, mojibake is a very useful word.

It describes perfectly what happens when Google translates Dutch into English.

Of course there remains the question if that results in Englutch or Dutlish. Linguists are still debating it.

Also a Japanese user manual translated into any Western language is a typical example.
Spoiler: show
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Speaking of mojibake in a user manual translated from English into Japanese, I heard about assembly instructions concerning furniture, you know the type "Insert knob A in hole B", as Asimov would write. However, contrary to Asimov who always uses extremely polite language, what you were supposed to do next, in order for knob A to remain well fixed in hole B... well, I'll let you guess how that was translated into Japanese.
Hint: you were not supposed to use a nail, but rather a....
Spoiler: show
censored

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:54 pm
by E Pericoloso Sporgersi
voralfred wrote: ... I heard about assembly instructions concerning furniture ...
You must have experienced Ikea manuals, right?

As to "in order for knob A to remain well fixed in hole B... well, I'll let you guess how that was translated into Japanese", I have no idea.
Maybe you could explain in a PM with plain language in unambiguous terms? I promise you that you can't possibly ruffle my feathers.

Re: GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2016 7:38 pm
by Algot Runeman
DMs are always good when ruffled feathers are possible, especially when mojibake is involved.

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