Everyone Is Jumping Off the Brooklyn Bridge

Moving the blog...

2009-06-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

If anyone's still watching here, I've moved the posts for "Words to Your Mother" to it's own dedicated site at:

http://wordstomother.blogspot.com/

Maybe I'll finally get around to ending the two and a half year hiatus... We'll see...

Word Search to Your Mother

2006-11-08T12:58:00.000-08:00

A reader contributed the following puzzle, made entirely of words covered in "Words to Your Mother". And I do mean entirely. If you find all of the words, there will not be any letters left. As such, to create more of a challenge, I am not providing a list of words in the puzzle: You'll have to figure out for yourself which words they are. You should be able to find 79 words, most or all of which you can find on my last word index. (I don't believe there are any from more recent posts.)

Here you go:

WEREVENANTERATONYMENIUQK
HKDNPANGRAMTSIDOPORIHCUH
OHNUBVERISIMILITUDEVITAA
MCOJEEDULTSOPETARETEVNIR
UTIEARPIGNIFFUGCAMSTBULA
KOTJUPFRONLAMIXAMEASAQBN
LHCPCDHNOZAEHCUOLRSILNOA
UCEEOPRIEPIRYABAUURLEEDW
KTRRUSIALDIHAIHHOOEUEHHB
SYREPEICCOANCHURGALBNEIC
IROSPSMSAOLHQSOAIBBMNMSH
SECTUUUBOYNOCUMECUAAUAAU
PNRRTESOAEUIGSISTGCNITTR
EOEONOCCRRHNAYTTHISMVOTL
LOPKRKRUUOATENEUYDAOILVI
LRYIONEGDLNZORRASARSROAS
YTHAKUEIBAAIAPARBMIZTGVH
SLAKEJDRHRCRCDAYDEXAUIAA
PANACEAPEDARBAACHTUNGSSG
HPARGIDIMPRESSFULSOMETTI
TUETROPLOCONTEMNEVLOVEDM
EDUTITRECITCILCNEOCTAVEA

Words to Your Mother: Hiatus

2006-11-08T12:11:00.000-08:00

Hiatus is the temporary state that this blog is entering while I do some traveling. I'm not completely sure how often I'll be near an Internet connection, and I don't expect to have much time to make these posts while I'm gone in any case. (In my preparation to leave I haven't even had much time to make them while I'm here.) I might post occasionally, but don't expect my roughly daily post to show up again until early December.

A few things to help hold you over while I'm gone:

The menal_floss blog has a nice little list of words today. See if you can guess which ones are realy and which aren't.

Also, if you want to keep up your vocabulary while I'm gone, here are thirty words randomly selected from the list of words that I've been considering posting about. (The total list would be over 150 words at this point.) I've assigned each word a day for the next month should you choose to go back and research any of them. (I may still use some of these when I get back.)

November 8: hyacinth
November 9: whinge
November 10: recazier
November 11: telemores
November 12: mata hari
November 13: hemantaschen
November 14: piquante
November 15: melanoma
November 16: caprice
November 17: declension
November 18: poxy
November 19: fin de siecle
November 20: triptych
November 21: chalet
November 22: tureen
November 23: sonata
November 24: diaspora
November 25: lannguorous
November 26: funereal
November 27: abortifacient
November 28: aphorism
November 29: furtive
November 30: ichnologist
December 1: scrye
December 2: bugaboo
December 3: mycelium
December 4: inveterate
December 5: usurer
December 6: ferous
December 7: xenial
December 8: zylorimba

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, hiatus

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Words to Your Mother: Rumspringa

2006-11-08T10:43:00.000-08:00

Rumspringa is Deitsch for a "running around". In the Amish community, this is a period in which Amish youths are encouraged to explore the "English" world before deciding to live permanently in the Amish community. This usually lasts from age sixteen through to the early twenties. During this time the Amish youths experience things normally considered sinful, potentially including dating, driving, drinking, smoking, and drug use, among other things. According to the Amish, around 80-90% of these youths return to their communty.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary , Pennsylvania German, Pennsylvania Dutch, Amish

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This blog is officially legitimate

2006-11-06T01:10:00.002-08:00

It has attracted attention. How do I know? I just had my first comment spam.

(The message itself has been deleted, but I left the name and time as a memento of this special occasion.)

technorati tags:blogs, blogging, comments, spam

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Words to Your Mother: Bicameral

2006-11-05T02:57:00.002-08:00

A bicameral government is composed of two separate legislative chambers or branches. The U.S. government is one example of this, since it has both a Senate and a House of Representatives.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, bicameral

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Words to Your Mother: Apophenia

2006-11-04T01:43:00.002-08:00

You might be a victim of neuroses (being unwanted mental lack of mental fitness) if, unlike most folks, you have encountered the symptoms for apophenia.

For example, your tendency to see patterns in otherwise meaningless data might lead you to look suspiciously for a hidden message in every tenth letter in the first paragraph of this post. Lunatic.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, apohpenia, lunatic

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Words to Your Mother: Revenant

2006-11-03T01:00:00.000-08:00

Revenant can mean a few things:

A revenant is one who returns after a lengthy absence.

Another type of revenant is a person who returns from the dead (i.e., a ghost), possibly to achieve a specific goal (e.g., taking revenge on their killer). I believe this is the most common form of the word.

Revenant can also be an adjective meaning something typical of a revenant. Of course, since I firmly believe the dead aren't wandering around, I'm not really sure what a typical sound of a dead person would be. However, "revenant shrieks and groans" is one example phrase that should give you a rough idea.

Revenant can also mean returning or recurring. I would guess this is the least common of the four uses.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, revenant

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Words to Your Mother: Crepuscular

2006-11-02T02:04:00.000-08:00

Something that is crepuscular is dim or like twilight. It can also refer to animals that become active during twilight or between twilight and sunrise.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, crepuscular

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Words to Your Mother: Irascible

2006-11-01T00:10:00.003-08:00

I'm slowing down... I believe this is the first time that I've had a (approximately) 72 hour gap between posts. So, to catch up (although I still insist that this isn't necessarily a daily feature), I will use Flock's "blog this" feature to minimize the amount that I have to write. I'll try to minimize my laziness for future posts. Until then:

i·ras·ci·ble Pronunciation (-rs-bl, -rs-)adj.1. Prone to outbursts of temper; easily angered.2. Characterized by or resulting from anger.

irascible - definition of irascible by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, irasicble

Edit: Due to a daylight-saving-related time warp, this post is listed after the two following posts. Go figure.

Words to Your Mother: MacGuffin

2006-10-31T23:31:00.000-08:00

My third and final (for the moment) lazy-catch-up post:

A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or Maguffin) is a plot device that motivates the characters and advances the story, but has little other relevance to the story.The director and producer Alfred Hitchcock popularized both the term "MacGuffin" and the technique. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Hitchcock explained the term in a 1939 lecture at Columbia University: "[W]e have a name in the studio, and we call it the 'MacGuffin.' It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is always the necklace and in spy stories it is always the papers."

MacGuffin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, MacGuffin

Words to Your Mother: In medias res

2006-10-31T23:24:00.000-08:00

Again, I'm feeling lazy, so I'll let Wikipedia speak for me. I will note that the Star Trek: The Next Generation epsiode "Suspicions" is one of many examples of this technique.

In medias res (Latin for "into the middle of things") is a literary technique where the narrative starts in the middle of the story instead of from its beginning (ab ovo or ab initio). The characters, setting, and conflict are often introduced through a series of flashbacks or through characters relating past events to each other. Classical works such as Virgil's Aeneid and Homer's Iliad begin in the middle of the story.

In medias res - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, in medias res, Latin

Words to Your Mother: Slake

2006-10-28T23:19:00.002-07:00

To slake is to satisfy or quench ("to slake one's thirst), to moderate ("to slake one's anger"), to refresh by moistening, or to combine lime wit h moist air. It is more common in older English, but still in modern usage.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, slake

Words to Your Mother: Poltroonery

2006-10-28T00:01:00.002-07:00

Double-post today to make up for a missing day:

Poltroonery is cowardice.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, poltroonery, poltroon

Words to Your Mother: Scroobious

2006-10-27T23:59:00.002-07:00

Scroobious is a word from the nonsense poetry of Edward Lear. It is applied to people to imply disapproval of their conduct; however, it is not a real word.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, scroobious, Edward Lear, nonsense words

Words to Your Mother: Vita

2006-10-26T00:22:00.000-07:00

A vita is a short account of a person's life. More than one vita would be vitae. A vita can also be a curriculum vitae (which is singular in this case), which is basically a resume (or, if you prefer, resumé, or if you just want to be snooty, résumé)

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, vita, vitae, curriculum vitae

Words to Your Mother: Mukluk

2006-10-24T23:17:00.002-07:00

A mukluk is a soft boot made of reindeer skin or sealskin and worn by Eskimos.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, mukluk, shoes, eskimos, Inuits

Words to Your Mother: Hoi polloi

2006-10-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

The hoi polloi are the common people.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, hoi polloi

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Words to Your Mother: ສະບໃຢດີ (sabaai dee)

2006-10-23T11:25:00.000-07:00

Today, we again venture into southeast Asian linguistics with a consideration of ສະບໃຢດີ (pronounced "sabaai dee" or "sa-baaj-dii"), which is Lao (or, if you prefer, Laotian) for "Hello".

Lao is closely related to Thai. Laotian generally uses the Thai alphabet for writing, and I believe that the phrase discussed here is the same in both languages, as well as in Isan. Like the related Khmer alphabet, this is an abugida (or syllabic alphabet) rather than a true alphabet.

As with Vietnamese, Lao is a highly tonal language. I can't claim to be an expert on Laotian tones, but I believe the following to be the correct interpretation of this phrase:

ສະ = sa (with a low rising tone)

ບໃ = bay (with a low tone)

ຢ = y (with a low rising tone)

ດີ = dee (with a low tone)

In practice, you may still be understood without the proper tones for such a common phrase (especially given the contexts you would be most likely to use it in), but it is definitely better to try to achieve the proper tone when speaking.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, ສະບໃຢດີ, sabaai dee, sa-baaj-dii, hello, Lao, Laotian, Thai, Isan, abugida, syllabic alphabet, tone, tonal language, Vietnamese, Khmer, Cambodian

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Words to Your Mother 101st Anniversary Index (10/21/06)

2006-10-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

And to think I missed my own anniversary...

The main feature of the blog that wasn't supposed to last more than a week or two has now reached its 101st anniversary. The 101 words that I've included below (not counting Foster's or words that shared a definition under another word's heading) represent what you may or may not have learned so far. Honestly, I don't remember what many of them mean myself. Here's your chance for a refresher. Note that seventeen of the words below fail Flock's spell-check (not counting words marked as non-English or the phrase "Rashomon effect", which includes a proper noun). Enjoy.

abrade
abugida
achtung (German)
ἀγάπη (agape) (Koine Greek)
amiga (Spanish)
apothecary
apotheosis
avast
axed
baleen
bodhisattva
brae (Scottish)
bwana (Swahili)
beaucoup
caduceus
certitude
chào (Vietnamese)
chiropodist
churlish
colporteur
contemn
danke schön (German)
de riguer (French)
decimation
devolve
digraph
discomfit
dobar dan (добар дан) (Serbo-Croatian)
懂嗎 (懂吗/dong ma) (Mandarin Chinese)
draconian
ebay (Pig Latin)
ekorn (Norwegian)
embarazada (Spanish)
enclictic
ennui (French)
estuary
facinorous
fata morgana
flustrated
fulsome
גנבֿ (ganef) (Yiddish)
grotto
hakuna matata (Swahili)
harangue
hematologist
hypercorrection
icthys
impeachment
impress
inter arma enim silent leges (Latin)
inveterate
!*(f ^^/~ (iœ yye) (Oou)
jejune
jiffy
ជំរាបសួរ (joom reeup sooa) (Cambodian/Khmer)
junk
khara (Sanskrit)
klaatu barada nikto (fictional language)
lacuna
languorous
louche
maximal
meretricious
miter
momento mori (Latin)
n'est-ce pas (French)
noblesse oblige (French)
nuqneH (Klingon)
octave (poetry)
panacea
pangram
perestroika
phantasmagoria
philology
picayune
postlude
prig
propinquity
quail
qu'est-ce que c'est? (French)
quine
Rashomon effect
schadenfreude
schizoid
screed
סלה (selah) (Hebrew)
somnambulist
sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble (French)
souma yergon (Wolof [?])
spick and span
sushi
syllepsis
tchotchke (Yiddish)
teratonym (not a real word)
uff da (Norwegian)
uhuru (Swahili)
verisimilitude
virtu
whom
yare
zimbra (not a real word)

If you can read this, you don't need glasses. You know, unless you're wearing them right now. Or unless you increased the font size or you're using a magnifier program or a text-only browser without font sizes. Cheater.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, Words to Your Mother, index, anniversary, 100, 101

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Words to Your Mother: Propinquity

2006-10-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

Propinquity can refer either to physical proximity or to a sort of kinship or bond between people or things.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, propinquity

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Words to Your Mother: Grotto

2006-10-21T00:24:00.000-07:00

A grotto is a small cave or cavern

It can also be a garden like such

Is this in iambic pentameter?

I think I'm stuck from yesterday - oh, drat.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, grotto

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Words to Your Mother: Octave (poetry)

2006-10-19T23:55:00.000-07:00

A couplet is a poem

That consists of two lines

A quatrain is a poem

That consists of four lines

A sestet is a poem

That consists of six lines

An octave has eight in iambic pentameter

So this doesn't count as one (even if it were a poem)

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, poetry, couplet, quatrain, sestet, octave

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Words to Your Mother: Ennui

2006-10-19T00:50:00.000-07:00

Ennui (pronounced "on-we") is boredom. Extreme, extreme boredom.

Yup.

That's about it.

Did I mention that it's related to the word "annoy"?

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, ennui

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Words to Your Mother: Hypercorrection

2006-10-18T00:31:00.000-07:00

Hypercorrection is something that is familiar to you and I , even if you haven't heard of it before. A hypercorrection is a phrase that is formed by taking existing grammatical rules and misapplying them in an attempt to be more correct but resulting in an improper statement.

Some examples of hypercorrection:

Pluralizing "virus" as "virii". (The proper pluralization is viruses.)

Forcibly removing prepositions from the ends of clauses.

Using "you and I" as an object since it sounds more "proper". ("He gave it to you and I.")

Hyperforeignism: Misapplying pronunciation rules for other languages to words that do not follow these rules. (Lots of good examples of this at Wikipedia.)

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, hypercorrection, hyperforeignism

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Words to Your Mother: Lacuna

2006-10-16T23:40:00.000-07:00

A lacuna is a blank space or a gap.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, lacuna, lacunae

Worthless Word for the Day

2006-10-16T23:16:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not talking about this blog.

Check out the Worthless Word for the Day site for plenty of obscure and purportedly useless words. Good stuff.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary

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More words from mental_floss

2006-10-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

Check out last Friday's Weekly Word Wrap at mental_floss for definitions of words like eosophobia (fear of dawn), parnel (a priest's mistress), and gynotikolobomassophile (one who likes to nibble on a woman's earlobes).

technorati tags:words, eosophobia, parnel, gynotikolobomassophile

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Words to Your Mother: Facinourous

2006-10-16T08:42:00.000-07:00

Facinorous means extremely or atrociously wicked.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, facinorous

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Words to Your Mother: Inveterate

2006-10-14T22:09:00.000-07:00

Inveterate means firmly and long established.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, inveterate

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Words to Your Mother: Hematologist

2006-10-14T01:36:00.000-07:00

Boy, if I kept going down the list of medical specialties, that could probably support this blog for a month or two by itself... I'll try not to fall back on it too often.

A hematologist (or haemotologist) is a doctor that studies blood disorders, as well as blood-forming organs and blood in general.

For reasons that escape me, hematology seems to be frequently linked with oncology, which involves the study, prevention, and treatment of cancer and other tumors.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, hematologist, haemotologist, hematology, haemotology, oncology, oncologist, doctors, medical specialties

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Words to Your Mother: Schizoid

2006-10-13T00:50:00.000-07:00

Someone who is schizoid is characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships, extreme shyness, reclusiveness, discomfort with others, and an inability to form close relationships.

Now I'm going back to my cave until tomorrow.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, schizoid

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Words to Your Mother: Danke schön

2006-10-12T00:07:00.000-07:00

Danke schön is German for "thank you for... all the" --

Come to think of it, just "thank you" (or "thanks a lot") pretty much covers it. Danke schön is only one of numerous ways of saying "thank you" in German. Danke on its own can mean "thank you" as well, but can also mean "no, thanks" in response to an offer. It is effectively required by German custom to respond to this with "bitte schön" (or just "bitte" if you are responding to "danke" on its own): otherwise you may be viewed as refusing the thanks of the person in question.

Incidentally, the second word is pronounced more like "schone" or "scheun" than "shane". Follow the first link in this post for a pronunciation.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, danke schön, danke, German, thank you

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Words to Your Mother: Syllepsis

2006-10-11T01:09:00.000-07:00

A syllepsis is a type of a zeugma, a sentence or phrase in which the same word is used with two different meanings, but (usually) only appears once in the sentence.

The best way to explain what syllepses are is really by example. (All examples stolen from Wikipedia unless mentioned otherwise.)

He took my advice and my wallet (The Free Dictionary)

On his fishing trip, he caught three trout and a cold. (Dictionary.com)

If we don't hang together, we shall hang separately (Benjamin Franklin)
Oh, flowers are as common here, Miss Fairfax, as people are in London. (The Importance of Being Earnest)

Are you getting fit or having one? (M*A*S*H)

You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fit. (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

He leaned heavily on the lectern and stale jokes.

He said, as he hastened to put out the cat, the wine, his cigar and the lamps... ("Madeira M'Dear")

You can leave in a taxi. If you can't get a taxi, you can leave in a huff. If that's too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff. (Groucho Marx)

She stirred my soul and my risotto.

You can find a few more here.

Interestingly, a sentence is also a zeugma or syllepsis if part of the sentence is applied improperly to the wrong half of the sentence. For example:

To wage war and peace (Dictionary.com)

A zeugma, more broadly, can be any phrase joined by a common noun or verb.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, syllepsis, syllepses, zeugma

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Words to Your Mother: Digraph

2006-10-09T23:32:00.000-07:00

I won't count "!*(f ^^/~ ? " as today's word/phrase, but I will take a useful word out of it: "(f" is a shining example of a digraph, which is essentially a letter composed of two separate characters. Oou aside, this type of character appears in English via "ch", "sh", and "ai" among others. Perhaps more notably, it creates actual letters in some languages such as Vietnamese, which treats "ng" and "tr" (among others) as individual letters. Vietnamese even uses one trigraph: ngh.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, digraph, trigraph, Vietnamese, Oou

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Words to Your Mother: !*(f ^^/~ ?

2006-10-09T23:17:00.000-07:00

"!*(f ^^/~" (pronounced /ioœ yye/) is Oou for "I love languages". Or "I love a langugage". Or "You love a language". Or "I avoid languages". Or "My turnip language". Or "I flatten languages". Or "I love genocide". Or many other equally correct translations depending on context and state of mind.

Oou is a conlang (constructed language), an artlang (a conlang designed for aesthetic pleasure), and a jokelang (a conlang created as a joke). It is properly written only in monospace fonts.

The full (very short) dictionary and description of Oou can be found at the link below. Be warned: There is some strong language on this page, both inside and outside of the dictionary.

http://kisa.ca/oou.html

Update (10/21/06): Made a slight correction to the word itself (the question mark at the end was intentionally part of the title, but is not part of the word).

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, !*(f, ^^/~, Oou, conlang, artlang, jokelang

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Words to Your Mother: Enclitic

2006-10-09T00:26:00.000-07:00

An enclitic is a clitic that always binds to another word.

Okay, that probably wasn't very helpful.

A clitic is something that basically acts like a word but is always followed or preceded by another word: it never appears on its own. An enclitic actualy attaches itself to therelated word. Examples:

I'm
You're
She's
They'll
They've

The boldface sections are enclitics.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, enclitic, clitic

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Words to Your Mother: Ekorn

2006-10-07T23:19:00.000-07:00

Am I nuts?

I don't know any other Norwegian words, but you have to love this word right here:

Ekorn is Norwegian for squirrel.

Yep. That's right. And it is a coincidence. Ekorn basically means "oak kitten".

I'm just going to let you sit on that one for a while.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, ekorn, Norwegian, squirrel

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Words to Your Mother: Abrade

2006-10-07T02:02:00.000-07:00

To abrade is to wear down, erode, or chafe. It can also mean to make weary in a spiritual sense.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, abrade

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Words to Your Mother: Prig

2006-10-06T02:44:00.000-07:00

Even though it's not improper or vulgar, I'm not sure how often you want to use this word around Mom... Nonetheless, here it is:

A prig is someone who displays or demands pointlessly precise conformity, fussiness about trivialities, or exaggerated propriety, especially in a self-righteous or irritating manner. Not to be confused with a similar sounding word that means "an obnoxious or contemptible person", but is considered vulgar.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, prig

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Blinded With Science: The gravitational force of a pancreas

2006-10-06T02:42:00.000-07:00

Science!

At the risk of making this seem like a regular feature (I would run out of material waaay too quickly), I just have to comment on the new Weird Al song "Pancreas".

"Pancreas", from Straight Outta Lynwood, is a parody of the style of Brian Wilson and, to a lesser extent, The Beach Boys in general. Listening to the song I think I can pick out parts that mimic the style of "Vegetables", "Roll Plymouth Rock", "God Only Knows", and "Wouldn't It Be Nice"... but that's not really the point, which I'm getting farther and farther away from.

The following brilliant line (or stanza, rather) comes from the song, hiding in the middle of many interesting facts about the pancreas itself:

My pancreas attracts every other pancreas in the universe
With a force (with a force) (with a force) proportional
To the product of their masses
And inversely (Oooh ooh-ooh ooh) proportional
To the distance between them

Disturbing, yet basically true. All objects follow the same laws of gravity, meaning that they are guided by Newton's basic law of gravity, as described above. (Technically, general relativity overrode this rule, but let's wait 'til we have a grand unified theory to nitpick that.) Your pancreas is indeed attracted to Weird Al's pancreas in the manner that he described.

technorati tags:science, Weird Al, pancreas, Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys, gravity, physics

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Words to Your Mother: Yare

2006-10-06T02:12:00.000-07:00

Something that is yare is agile or lively. The term is primarily used in a nautical sense, referring to a vessel that is easily maneuvered.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, yare

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Blinded With Science: Special relativity

2006-10-04T01:14:00.000-07:00

I haven't really shown my science geek side on this blog yet, so it comes out a bit tonight.

Reading the mental_floss blog, I ran across an article mentioning special relativity. mental_floss (or rather the source they were quoting) stated:

When our instructor started talking about length dilation (how something’s length increases as it approaches the speed of light)...

Of course, as poster Garon Whited states, this is incorrect:

Actually, the length of an object appears to decrease, not increase.The faster the object moves, the shorter it appears. Relativistic speeds involve time dilation, mass gain, and length contraction.

I was originally going to post there to second his comment, but I found my comment going to a ridiculous length, so I'll make it an article here instead. Keep in mind that I'm drawing this from memory, so hopefully I'm remembering correctly.

If my memory serves me, the actual formula for spatial dilation in special relativity is:

x = x'((1 - v^2 / c^2) ^ 0.5)

Where x is the length of an object in the field that you view as stationary (the earth in this case), x' is the length of the object at relative rest, and v is the relative velocity of the object.

Since nothing can ever travel faster than (or, realistically, at the speed of) light:

0 <= v < c
0 <= v^2 < c^2
0 <= v^2 / c ^2 < 1
0 < 1 - v^2 / c^2 <= 1
0 < (1 - v^2 / c^2) ^ 0.5 <= 1

(Note: x ^ 0.5 is the same as "the square root of x".)

Of course, if you multiply the object's length by a number no greater than one, it will always shrink or stay the same.

Some interesting values:

If v = 0 (stationary object), then x = x' (no change)
If v = 0.25c (one-quarter the speed of light), then x = 0.968x (object loses about 3% of its length)
If v = 0.5c (half the speed of light), then x = 0.867x (object loses about 13% of its length)
If v = 0.75c (three-quarters the speed of light), then x = 0.661x (object loses about 34% of its length)
If v = 1 (traveling at the speed of light), then x = 0

The time-dilation formula is similar:

t = t'/((1 - v^2 / c^2) ^ 0.5)

Note that you divide in this case, making the number effectively larger. What this means in practice is that, if you were watching people on an airplane moving near the speed of light, it would appear that time is passing far more slowly for them. This is the basis for the twins paradox.

If v = 0 (stationary object), then t = t' (no change)
If v = 0.25c (one-quarter the speed of light), then t = 1.033x (it takes 62 seconds for the plane to experience a minute of time)
If v = 0.5c (half the speed of light), then t = 1.153t (one minute takes 69 seconds)
If v = 0.75c (three-quarters the speed of light), then t = 1.513t (one minute takes 91 seconds)
If v = 1 (traveling at the speed of light), then t is undefined (one moment takes eternity)

Despite what Isaac Newton and high school teach, the formula for calculating kinetic energy is:

E = m(c^2)/((1 - v^2 / c^2) ^ 0.5)

An object's mass increases with its kinetic energy, so (using the same formula as above for time dilation), an object traveling at three-quarters the speed of light is 1.513 times "heavier" than it would be otherwise, due to the excess kinetic energy. Perhaps the most interesting (and well-known) consequence is how the formula simplifies at 0 velocity:

E = m(c^2)/((1 - 0^2 / c^2) ^ 0.5)
E = m(c^2)/((1 - 0 / c^2) ^ 0.5)
E = m(c^2)/((1 - 0) ^ 0.5)
E = m(c^2)/(1 ^ 0.5)
E = m(c^2)/1
E = m(c^2)

Yep. There's good ol' E equals MC squared, which shows that even objects at rest have kinetic energy. Of course, since this doesn't really fit the name "kinetic energy", we call it rest-mass energy instead.

Conversely, an object traveling at the speed of light would become infinitely massive. Of course, since the energy required to push the increasingly massive object toward that velocity would increase exponentially as it approaches the speed of light, you can't actually get enough energy in the universe for it to hit that point.

Well, there it is. Again, this was pretty much from memory, so you might take this with a grain or two of salt. Maybe someday I'll post about some of the other intriguing aspects of special relativity, like the addition of velocities and the lack of a single stationery plane (since everything is relative), but we'll save that for later.

technorati tags:science, physics, special relativity

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Words to Your Mother: Discomfit

2006-10-04T00:23:00.000-07:00

To discomfit someone is to make them lose their composure; to make them uneasy or embarrassed. You might notice an odd similarity to someone experiencing discomfort: This is not a coincidence. It is considered likely that the current meaning of the word resulted from people mixing it up with "discomfort". The original meaning (which is still correct, if rare) has to do with thwarting the plans of one's opponents. The meaning "to frustrate" falls somewhere in between the other meanings.

Interestingly, both comfit and discomfit come from the Latin word "conficere" (to prepare), but otherwise the words have little to do with each other: Comfit is a food consisting of spices or dried fruits or nuts coated with sugar.

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Words to Your Mother: Fata morgana

2006-10-03T00:43:00.000-07:00

Making up for a missed day with a quick double-post:

A fata morgana is a mirage. Fata morgana can also refer to many other things, but perhaps most notably (and most related to our primary definition), it is also an alternate name for Morgan le Fay, the shape-shifter of Arthurian legend.

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Words to Your Mother: De rigueur

2006-10-03T00:28:00.000-07:00

De rigueur (usually italicized when used in English) is a French phrase meaning "of rigor" or "of strictness". However, when used in English, it more commonly means that something is required by custom or fashion.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, de rigueur, French

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Words to Your Mother: Meretricious

2006-10-01T01:09:00.000-07:00

Something that is meretricious is brummagem, meaning that it is gaudy or attracts attention in a vulgar manner. It can also mean something having to deal with prostitutes or prostitution.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, meretricious, brummagem

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Words to Your Mother: Quine

2006-09-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

In computer programming, a quine is a metaprogram that outputs its entire source code. Wikipedia gives several examples of this, including the following JavaScript example:

function a() {
 alert (a + "\na();");
}

a();

Quine is also occasionally used to mean "to deny resolutely the existence or importance of something real or significant".

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, quine, programming, metaprogramming

Words to Your Mother: Momento mori

2006-09-29T00:54:00.000-07:00

After having my self-righteousness self-deflated again, I need to throw out a Latin phrase to recoup:

"Momento mori" is a cheery Latin phrase that means "remember that you are mortal" or "remember you will die". Mentos, on the other hand, are fresh and full of life.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, momento mori, Latin, blatant product placement

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Words to Your Mother: Axed

2006-09-29T00:48:00.000-07:00

If someone has "axed" you, then they have struck you with a bladed tool, or perhaps terminated your job. However, as with my previous rant on the word flustrated, I am surprised to find that another meaning has some legitimacy.

Yes, The Free Dictionary lists one meaning of "ax" as "variant of ask". Read on:

ax has become stigmatized as substandard—a fate that has befallen other words, like ain't, that were once perfectly acceptable in literate circles.

Not convinced?

This should not be surprising since ax is a very old word in English, having been used in England for over 1,000 years. In Old English we find both scian and csian, and in Middle English both asken and axen. Moreover, the forms with cs or x had no stigma associated with them.

Still doesn't do it for you?

Chaucer used asken and axen interchangeably, as in the lines "I wol aske, if it hir will be/To be my wyf" and "Men axed hym, what sholde bifalle," both from The Canterbury Tales.

Unless you're from Iowa, I think you'd be hard-pressed to argue with Chaucer.

Besides, in a thousand years we'll all be saying it that way, so I guess we might as well get used to it again.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, axed, ask, axen, slang

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Now here's a web site I can get behind

2006-09-28T01:04:00.000-07:00

From the makers of mental_floss:

www.reduceidiocy.org

(Sadly, I almost made two typos in this post. At least I caught them before spell check did.)

technorati tags:Reduce Idiocy

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From pirates to prospectors

2006-09-28T01:02:00.000-07:00

If Talk Like a Pirate Day didn't suit your fancy, check out the mental_floss blog for instructions on "How to Swear Like an Old Prospector".

technorati tags:vocabulary, pirates, prospector, swearing

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Words to Your Mother Index (9/28/06)

2006-09-28T00:58:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, it's been seventy-five words and phrases covered and still going strong (and Foster's didn't even count), with no sign of running out anytime soon. Here's out story so far. As usual, some of the more distinctively non-English words have notes as to the language they are from and used in, and words written in non-Latin character sets are alphabetized by approximate English spellings.

abugida
achtung (German)
ἀγάπη (agape) (Koine Greek)
amiga (Spanish)
apothecary
apotheosis
avast
baleen
bodhisattva
brae (Scottish)
bwana (Swahili)
beaucoup
caduceus
certitude
chào (Vietnamese)
chiropodist
churlish
colporteur
contemn
decimation
devolve
dobar dan (добар дан) (Serbo-Croatian)
懂嗎 (懂吗/dong ma) (Mandarin Chinese)
draconian
ebay (Pig Latin)
embarazada (Spanish)
estuary
flustrated
fulsome
גנבֿ (ganef) (Yiddish)
hakuna matata (Swahili)
harangue
icthys
impeachment
impress
inter arma enim silent leges (Latin)
jejune
jiffy
ជំរាបសួរ (joom reeup sooa) (Cambodian/Khmer)
junk
khara (Sanskrit)
klaatu barada nikto (fictional language)
languorous
louche
maximal
miter
n'est-ce pas (French)
noblesse oblige (French)
nuqneH (Klingon)
panacea
pangram
perestroika
phantasmagoria
philology
picayune
postlude
quail
qu'est-ce que c'est? (French)
Rashomon effect
schadenfreude
screed
סלה (selah) (Hebrew)
somnambulist
sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble (French)
souma yergon (Wolof [?])
spick and span
sushi
tchotchke (Yiddish)
teratonym (not a real word)
uff da (Norwegian)
uhuru (Swahili)
verisimilitude
virtu
whom
zimbra (not a real word)

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, Words to Your Mother, index

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Words to Your Mother: גנבֿ (ganef)

2006-09-28T00:55:00.000-07:00

גנבֿ (ganef, gonef, gonif, or goniff) is Yiddish for "thief", "scoundrel", or "rascal". However, the word may be used as a general term of abuse. It is based on a Hebrew word meaning "to steal".

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*^#@ing euphemisms

2006-09-27T01:03:00.000-07:00

Interesting article at the mental_floss blog about euphemisms. Go on, read it already. I said go! What are you still doing here? Get on with it!

technorati tags:euphemisms

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Words to Your Mother: Dobar dan (добар дан)

2006-09-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

"Dobar dan" (pronounced "dough-bar Dan") is a greeting in Serbo-Croatian. Well... Actually let's get back to "dobar dan" in a minute.

Serbo-Croatian is not technically a language. It is rather a family of languages that includes Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian. These languages are considered to be ausbauspraches, which in practice means that they are basically different dialects of the same language. While there is some measure of debate on this, those who have lived in the area tell me that the main difference between the two titular languages—Serbian and Croatian—is that Serbian uses the Cyrillic alphabet (AKA the Russian alphabet), whereas Croatian uses the Latin alphabet (AKA the Roman or English alphabet, although it has been slightly expanded for Croatian). However, it is also said that Serbian uses both alphabets, so I suppose this is not a hard-and-fast rule.

"Dobar dan"—meaning "good day"—is the same in Serbian and Croatian (and presumably Montenegrin). One source lists "zdravo" as the equivalent greeting in Bosnian, but other sources say that "zdravo" is the Serbian word for "hello" (as opposed to "good day"), so I. My guess is that the Serbian Cyrillic version of the word would be "добар дан". This seems to be confirmed by the previously cited reference.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, dobar dan, добар дан, Serbo-Croatian, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, Cyrillic alphabet

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Words to Your Mother: Bodhisattva

2006-09-26T23:33:00.000-07:00

Technical problems delayed my posting last night, so I'll shoot for a double-whammy tonight.

A bodhisattva is defined by The Free Dictionary as "an enlightened being who, out of compassion, forgoes nirvana in order to save others". The concept of the bodhisattva comes from the Buddhist religion. In fact, Siddhārtha Gautama himself was considered a bodhisattva before he became a buddha (or Buddha, as the case may be). Essentially, the bodhisattva delays his own enlightenment for the benefit of others, practicing self-sacrifice by training others.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, bodhisattva, Buddhism, Buddha

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Words to Your Mother: Spick and span

2006-09-25T00:50:00.000-07:00

The phrase "spick and span" -- meaning immaculately clean or brand new -- can't be taken at face value. To begin with, the modern definition of spick seems that it has little to do with the word (especially since this idiom generally is not considered offensive), and the definition for span seems equally unrelated. As it turns out, "spick" is an archaic variation of "spike". "Span" is an abbreviation of "span-new", which means "entirely new". The connection? "Spick and span" originally meant something to the effect of "as new as a newly made nail". So there you go.

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Words to Your Mother Poll: From whence the words came

2006-09-24T00:12:00.000-07:00

(Whence, incidentally, has nothing to do with "when", but instead means "from where" or "from what origin".)

Thought I'd conduct a little poll, more out of curiosity than anything else.

In the "Words to Your Mother" feature that has essentially taken over "Everyone Is Jumping Off the Brooklyn Bridge", I generally have not stuck to English words, or even for that matter words that are remotely likely to be introduced into English. So, just out of curiosity, what do you like to see in your word of the day feature? Do you prefer English-only, or primarily non-English words, or some mixture thereof?

Just to be clear, this isn't an offer to change the content of this blog. I keep this up more because I enjoy the research than anything, and I'll probably continue to stick with what I find interesting at the moment. If I ever change that, I don't expect the blog to continue for long. Besides, I personally think that the mixture sets this apart from other word-of-the-day sites. However, I would like to know what people think, if only for curiosity's sake. I suppose that if I'm wavering as to what word to pick, public opinion might sway me slightly one way or t'other.

Perhaps more importantly, I'm curious to see how many regular readers there are in general, so feel free to post a response on this post that says "I have no opinion" or even "Why should I bother posting if you don't plan on changing anything?". General feedback is welcome as well.

Well, that's all for tonight.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, Words to Your Mother, word of the day, non-English, poll

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Words to Your Mother: Churlish

2006-09-23T23:49:00.000-07:00

Resisting the urge to say that churlish is befitting a churl, even if it is. Can't do that gag twice in a week.

Churlish means having a bad disposition or being difficult to work with. It can also mean rude and boorish. Generally not a good thing, although it could theoretically stop people from bothering you about things. Probably not the best route to go.

I may be getting stuck in a rut: This is my third English-language word in a row. I have some intriguing non-English stuff lined up for later, though, so stay tuned.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, churlish

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Words to Your Mother: Somnambulist

2006-09-23T00:06:00.000-07:00

A somnambulist is someone who engages in somnambulism.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, somnambulist, somnambulism, sleepwalking

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Words to Your Mother: Avast

2006-09-22T01:51:00.000-07:00

Yep. It's my belated "Talk Like a Pirate Day" entry. (The actual day was September 19th.)

"Avast" means to "stop and give attention". Wiktionary defines this meaning (or, more specifically, "listen, pay attention") as "a parody of pirate slang", giving the main definition as "hold fast".

Interestingly enough, it would appear that "avast" may also be Italian for stop or "enough". Unfortunately, I'm having trouble confirming this outside of Wiktionary. Perhaps it's imported from the English word, and thus not listed in most cross-language dictionaries.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, avast, pirates, Talk Like a Pirate Day, Italian

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Words to Your Mother: Jiffy

2006-09-21T03:16:00.000-07:00

It may cook fast, but it doesn't cook that fast.

In an attempt to live up to my title, I'm using a word that—in addition to being mom-friendly—is a word you may have actually used to your mother in the past. For example, "I'll be there in a jiffy", which, as it turns out, was probably not true at any time that you said it.

A jiffy is, in its loosest definition, a moment of time. However, there's no fun in that.

For computing, a jiffy is a fairly short period of time, typically amounting to 0.0100 seconds, or the duration of the system timer interrupt.

In electronics, a jiffy is 0.0167-0.0200 seconds, or the time that it takes to alternate power cycles in AC current. (Yes, AC current is redundant. So sue me. Or injure me and send me to the ER room¹. Or take away my NIC card² so I can't post any more: I'll just buy another once I have a chance to stop by the ATM machine³. But I digress.)

Not content to have a lengthy jiffy, computers fought back: A jiffy in the Linux 2.6.13+ kernel is 0.0040 seconds. In Linux 2.6.0–2.6.12 it is even shorter: 0.0010 seconds.

Unfortunately, the physicists had to show off again: Although the definition can vary, one of the more common definitions is the amount of time it takes light to travel one centimeter in a vacuum. That's 0.000000000333564 seconds.

Of course, the quantum physicists had to top that, and go for the amount of time it takes for light to travel across a fermi. We're down to 0.00000000000000000000001 seconds here.

So, again, it was unlikely that you were actually there in a jiffy. In fact, depending on your definition, you probably took a few billion of them.

Footnotes:

¹ Okay, I actually really hate this one.

² This gets on my nerves too.

³ I don't really care about this too much for some reason.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, jiffy

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Words to Your Mother: Bwana

2006-09-20T00:58:00.000-07:00

My name's not racist.
No, seriously.

Wow. Third post about Swahili in a month. (#1 - #2) You'd almost think that it was one of the languages that I've actually spent time studying. Maybe I should at some point, but I haven't yet. But enough about me.

Bwana is Swahili for "Mr." or "sir" (or, if you want to get Biblical, Lord). The female equivalent is Bibi. Despite occasional rumors otherwise, it is not a word for "master", and in native Swahili doesn't have any of the racist connotations sometimes attributed to it.

Incidentally, B'wana Beast is also the name of a hero from DC Comics who never exactly achieved Superman status. Unfortunately for B'wana, changing his name didn't help much. Of course, such things rarely do.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, bwana, b'wana, Swahili

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Words to Your Mother: Phantasmagoria

2006-09-19T00:32:00.000-07:00

Okay. I'm really not sure
what to say here.

Phantasmagoria is a fantastic sequence of images randomly strewn together, as in a surreal dream. Dictionary.com also lists it as "a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as created by the imagination."

One of us has had a little too much,
and I'm not sure which it is.

In fact, the word is closely related to "phantasm" or "phantasma" (a phantom or apparition), and may be a joining of that word with the word "allegory". Alternatively, the second part may be related to "agorá", a Greek word for "assembly" or "gathering" (thus, a gathering of phantasms).

It would appear that Jack London was a fan of the word, as he used it in at least four of his stories: Before Adam, Jerry of the Islands, John Barleycorn, and Martin Eden.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, phantasmagoria, phantasm, phantasma

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Words to Your Mother: Uff da

2006-09-17T23:14:00.000-07:00

Uff da (pronounced and occasionally spelled "oofda") is a fairly versatile Norwegian word that means "oops", "drat", or "ouch". It can also be used in a sympathetic manner (like saying "wow" or "man" at the beginning of a sentence in English). The term is fairly common in the Minnesota-Wisconsin area of the U.S., where culture has been influenced by Scandinavian immigrants over the years. In that area of the country, the phrase might also be used as a general expression of suprise.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, uff da, Norwegian, Scandinavian

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Words to Your Mother: Quail

2006-09-17T01:05:00.000-07:00

Far from meaning "acting like a quail" (at least, in any way I can think of) to quail means "to shrink back in fear; cower" or "draw back, as with fear or pain". Lest you think that this might actually be based on some sort of ornithological behavior, the two words come from very different origins: The bird name comes from the Middle English "quaille", which in turn comes from Old French (and possibly from Vulgar Latin), whereas the verb "quail" is from the Middle English "quailen" ("to give way"), which in turn may be from the Middle Dutch word "quelen" ("to suffer"). So don't knock the quails. They don't quail on you. Or if they do, it's rather something of a coincidence.

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Words to Your Mother: Brae

2006-09-16T00:35:00.000-07:00

Brae is a Scottish word for a hillside or slope. In addition, it is a settlement in the Shetland Islands.

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Words to Your Mother: Picayune

2006-09-15T02:26:00.000-07:00

A picayune is a Spanish coin that was at one point worth about five cents. However, it has become a more general word for something trivial, petty, or nearly valueless.

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Words to Your Mother: Foster's

2006-09-15T02:20:00.000-07:00

Foster's is Australian for beer.

Uh... Maybe I shouldn't write this so late at night.

Let's try this again.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, Foster's, beer, Australia

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Words to Your Mother: Hakuna matata

2006-09-14T00:43:00.000-07:00

Yep. Straight from Biblical Hebrew to Disney. If it makes you feel any better, I'm far more interested in the phrase's larger context than it's musical one.

Hakuna matata means "no..." Uh, that is, it means "here there are no concerns". The phrase is in Swahili, and, no, it was not made up for the movie. In fact, a literal Kiswahili translation of "no worries" would be "hamna shida". Hakuna matata is a rather common Swahili phrase, and has appeared in plenty of other places outside of the movie whose name I have narrowly avoided mentioning thus far.

You can take apart the phrase as follows:

haku: Locative prefix; "there are not".

na: Negative suffix.

ma: Plural prefix.

[ji]tata: Concerns.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, hakuna matata, hamna shida, Swahili, Kiswahili

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Words to Your Mother: סלה (selah)

2006-09-12T23:50:00.000-07:00

סלה: The pause that refreshes.

In the heading of the article, Wikipedia refers to the Biblical Hebrew word סלה (transliterated as selah or çelâh) as meaning "stop and listen", a term that stresses the importance of the preceding passage. However (as the rest of the article makes clear), this is something of an oversimplification.

The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible refers to çelâh (Hebrew word #5542) as a "suspension (of music), i.e. pause". Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words believes that selah is connected with sālāl (meaning "to lift up"): The instruments would be lifted up to increase their sound while voices were kept silent. Alternatively, it mentions the possibility that selah is connected with shālāh (to rest), but Vine's seems far less confident of that connection. Vine's final word is that selah effectively says "This being so, give heed to what is now to be said", effectively connecting what precedes with what follows, stressing both.

Insight on the Scriptures (volume two) somewhat more bluntly admits that "although it is generally thought to be a technical term for music or recitation, its exact significance is unknown". However, it suggests the meaning of a "pause, suspension, or holding back", saying that "the pause was doubtless used to make the fact or sentiment just expressed more impressive, to allow the full import of the last utterance to sink in".

Hebrew is written from right-to-left, so (if your browser is rendering this properly), the letters should be read in that direction. Character by character, the letters are:

ס: Tameka's

ל: La'medh

ה: He'

Depending on your browser, you may notice an odd effect when you drag your mouse over the text: The English part highlights from left-to-right, but then the highlighting jumps to the right side of the Hebrew text, at which point it begins moving to the left. Once you highlight past the Hebrew text, the highlighting should appear continuous. Go ahead and give it a shot.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, סלה, selah, çelâh

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Words to Your Mother: Virtu

2006-09-12T00:55:00.000-07:00

Virtu (or vertu) is a knowledge or love of or taste for objects of fine art. It can also refer to certain groups of objets d'art.

I think my spell-check hates me for this post.

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Words to Your Mother: Apotheosis

2006-09-10T23:16:00.000-07:00

Apotheosis is deification, although it can also refer to an exalted example ("the apotheosis of courage"). This "godhood" has been granted to many famous leaders and artists by their respective cultures, including Alexander the Great, Homer, and Julius Caesar. No respect for the blue-collar guys, I guess.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, apotheosis

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Words to Your Mother: Jejune

2006-09-09T23:23:00.000-07:00

Something that is jejune is uninteresting or dull. I'd write more, but I don't have much to say about it, so it would probably turn out rather jejune.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, jejune

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Words to Your Mother: Teratonym?

2006-09-09T00:54:00.000-07:00

We'll make this another double-post day, because this one really, really doesn't count.

A teratonym is a really big word. It is derived from terato (Greek for "monster") and nym ("name"). It is the same as a sesquipedalian word.

So why doesn't this word count? Well, to be blunt, it's not a real word.

Teratonym was the winning entry in the mental_floss contest to coin a new word. Thus, this is not an existing English word, and mainly deserves our attention due to the care taken in creating it. Not to mention the clever title for the article that presented it.

Then again, what is a "real" word? All words start as neologisms at some point. Thus, if the word is adopted, it might go from the status of made-up word to slang to neologism to standard dictionary word. So, if you like it, use it, but please explain it to the people you use it to. Words that aren't understood don't grow and thrive.

Just remember: It's a whole lot easier to say than sesquipedalian.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, teratonym, sesquipedalian, neologisms

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Words to Your Mother: Achtung

2006-09-09T00:43:00.000-07:00

Yeah, baby!

Just as well that I doubled up the other day, seeing as I missed the next day. Funny how things work out sometimes.

"Achtung" is German for "cuidado".

Actually, the dubious translation of Babelfish lists "cuidado" as meaning "taken care of", which doesn't sound quite right. A more reliable source lists "cuidado" as meaning care, carefulness, fear, worry, take care, beware, etc.

However, that isn't quite the translation that we're looking for.

"Achtung" is stated to mean "attention", although it is sometimes referred to as "caution" or "careful!", which I'm presuming are accurate translations as well.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, achtung, cuidado, German

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Words to Your Mother: Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble

2006-09-07T00:25:00.000-07:00

I'll do something that I rarely do here: I'm posting two words within an hour of each other. Normally I only do that to catch up for missing days, but in this case these are words that go together well.

Much like "qu'est-ce que c'est", "sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble" is a French phrase that for many is best known as a song lyric, in this case from The Beatles' song "Michelle". The relevant portions of the lyrics go as follows:

Michelle, ma belle
Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble
Tres bien ensemble

"Ma belle" means "my beautiful", and is pronounced largely as you would expect. As with the aforementioned Talking Heads lyrics, it helps to clip off the final consonants of many of the words, leaving the pronunciation of the rest somewhat as follows:

Son le mot qui von tre bien ensem

Sort of like:

Sohn lay moat key voan tray bee-ann on-som

Or, if you prefer:

Someday monkey won't play piano song
Play piano song

According to A Hard Day's Write, The Beatles didn't speak French, so Paul's friend Jan Vaughan (the wife of the fellow who introduced John and Paul) was a French language teacher. Paul said that "I asked her what sort of things I could say that were French and which would go together well [...] because I'd always thought that the song sounded French". Vaughan came up with both the name Michelle and the lyrics that rhymed with that name. Paul later requested that she translate a specific phrase (the one that we're considering), which appears in English at the beginning of the song:

Michelle, ma belle
These are words that go together well

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble, French, The Beatles, Michelle

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Words to Your Mother: Qu'est-ce que c'est?

2006-09-06T23:59:00.000-07:00

"Qu'est-ce que c'est?" is French for "What is it?" This phrase is particularly notable as part of the chorus to the Talking Heads song "Psycho Killer". Or not.

See, there seems to be a minor dispute depending on your source. Some say "qu'est-ce que c'est", but others say "qu'est que c'est" (omitting the "-ce"). Few sources acknowledge the difference, but at least one suggests the former to be the correct one. (Somewhat ironically, the title of the thread is the latter one.)

There's also a slight translation dispute: Some sources say that the phrase means "That is that it is". However, these sources generally omit the "-ce", and, if Babelfish is to be believed (and it isn't always), that is the correct translation with the "-ce" missing.

According to one source (which uses the "qu'est que c'est" version), the rest of the French lyrics are translated as follows:

Ce que j'ai fait, ce soir la (what I did, that night)
Ce qu'elle a dit, ce soir la (what she said, that night)
Realisant, mon espoir (fulfilling, my hope)
Je me lance vers la gloire (I go for the glory)

I'm not particularly well-versed in French or it's pronunciation, but we can try to apply a few basic rules from Wikipedia's article on French:

Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, arenormally silent.
This strips the words down to "Qu'es-ce que c'es?"

Okay, I guess that was the only rule we're going to apply. Listening to David Byrne singing the lyrics, it sounds to me like "kess keh see" (notice that I don't hear the "-ce" myself), but I can't claim to have a trained ear for French.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, Qu'est-ce que c'est, Qu'est que c'est, French, Psycho Killer, Talking Heads, David Byrne

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Words to Your Mother: Languorous

2006-09-06T01:47:00.000-07:00

Something that is languorous is lethargic, lacking in mental or physical energy. Someone who is languorous might tend to make short blog entries, perhaps even ending them in mid-

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, languorous, languor

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Words to Your Mother Index (9/4/06)

2006-09-04T23:53:00.000-07:00

Words to Your Mother keeps plugging along, and has now focused on 51 different words and phrases. Here's an updated alphabetical index of what's been covered so far. Some of the more distinctively non-English words have notes as to the language they are from and used in. Words written in non-Latin character sets are alphabetized by approximate English spellings.

abugida
Ἀγάπη (agape) (Koine Greek)
amiga (Spanish)
apothecary
baleen
beaucoup
caduceus
certitude
chào (Vietnamese)
chiropodist
colporteur
contemn
decimation
devolve
懂嗎 (懂吗/dong ma) (Mandarin Chinese)
draconian
ebay (Pig Latin)
embarazada (Spanish)
estuary
flustrated
fulsome
harangue
icthys
impeachment
impress
inter arma enim silent leges (Latin)
ជំរាបសួរ (joom reeup sooa) (Cambodian/Khmer)
junk
khara (Sanskrit)
klaatu barada nikto (fictional language)
louche
maximal
miter
n'est-ce pas (French)
noblesse oblige (French)
nuqneH (Klingon)
panacea
pangram
perestroika
philology
postlude
Rashomon effect
schadenfreude
screed
souma yergon (Wolof [?])
sushi
tchotchke (Yiddish)
uhuru (Swahili)
verisimilitude
whom
zimbra (not a real word)

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, Words to Your Mother, index

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Words to Your Mother: 懂嗎 (懂吗/dong ma)

2006-09-04T23:28:00.000-07:00

Had trouble posting last night, so I'm effectively doubling up tonight to keep my roughly one word/phrase per day schedule.

懂嗎 (懂吗 or dong ma) is Mandarin Chinese for "Understand?" or "Got it?" Ni dong ma is a slightly more proper way of saying this.

Like Vietnamese or Hmong, Chinese is a tonal language. In this case, the tone for "dong" starts low and dips even lower. The tone for "ma" should be fairly neutral.

As you can probably guess from the links, this phrase pops up a fair amount in Firefly and Serenity. Shiny.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, 懂嗎, 懂吗, dong ma, Mandarin, Chinese, tonal languages

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Words to Your Mother: Caduceus

2006-09-04T22:57:00.000-07:00

Snakes on a one-dimensional plane

A caduceus is a winged staff with two snakes wrapped around it. It may seem a bit odd to have a word for something like that, but it has become a common symbol of the medical profession. It originally comes from Greco-Roman legends about Mercury/Hermes, who carried such a device.

Snakes? Why did it have to be snakes? Not really sure. Originally, ribbons were wrapped around the staff. At some point the mythology changed to include snakes instead.

Caduceus is commonly and properly pronounced kah-doo-see-us, although there are a few different valid ways to pronounce it.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, caduceus

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Words to Your Mother: Draconian

2006-09-03T02:04:00.000-07:00

Something that is draconian is exceedingly harsh. The term is named after Draco, a Greek scribe and lawmaker who proscribed the death penalty for (among other things) stealing cabbage.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, draconian, Draco

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Words to Your Mother: Philology

2006-09-02T00:17:00.000-07:00

Philology should be close to the heart of anyone who follows this blog. The modern meaning of philology is linguistics or the study of literary texts. However, an obsolete definition calls it "the love of learning and literature", and Wikipedia says the following:

Philology is etymologically defined as the love of words, and most accurately defined as an affinity toward the learning of the backgrounds as well as the current usages of spoken or written methods of human communication.

Apropos, no?

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, philology

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Words to Your Mother: Uhuru

2006-09-01T02:26:00.000-07:00

Free to do what she wants any old time

"Uhuru" is the Swahili word for "freedom". It is also the basis for the name of "Uhura", Nichelle Nichols' character from Star Trek. This character has been mislabeled Uhuru several times, most notably in the end credits of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Uhura's name is a potential source from which to learn several Swahili words. Although she has never been given a name other than Uhura on-screen (and, according to some accounts, isn't supposed to have another name), her first name is generally accepted as "Nyota", meaning "star".

Nichols has occasionally referred to the character's middle name as "Upenda" or "Penda". "Penda" is Swahili for "to love" or "to like". Throw it all together and you have "Nyota (U)Penda Uhura" -- "Star Love Freedom". Perfect for a show that was made in the mid-60's.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, uhuru, nyota, upenda, penda, Swahili, Star Trek

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Words to Your Mother: Panacea

2006-08-31T02:16:00.000-07:00

Panacea is a word that the Microsoft staff seems unnaturally addicted to. It is not where the dinosaurs lived.

A panacea is like a "silver bullet" or a kryptonite cross, that is, something that cures all of your problems. Specifically, a panacea refers to a cure-all for health problems (as the legendary Greek goddess was fabled to do), but it is more broadly applied to other problems, and almost always in the negative sense. For example, you might hear that "Technology is not a panacea", that is, it doesn't solve all problems. However, if technology was a silver bullet, that would have some interesting implications...

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, panacea

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Words to Your Mother: Fulsome

2006-08-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

Fulsome is where you end up if you shoot a man in Reno. No, wait: That's Folsom. No, wait again: Folsom's in California. I'm not sure where you'd end up if you shot a man in Nevada. Maybe High Desert?

Someone who is fulsome might be a false flatterer. More generally, something fulsome is offensively excessive or lavish, especially when it comes to praise. It can also generally mean "abundant or copious", but outside of archaic usage it's hard to avoid the negative connotations.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, fulsome

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Words to Your Mother: Colporteur

2006-08-29T00:29:00.000-07:00

A colporteur (or colporter) is generally defined as a "peddler of religious literature", although I think the Dictionary.com Unabridged edition is a bit more accurate: "A person who travels to sell or publicize Bibles, religious tracts, etc." or "a peddler of books". In other words:

They don't have to sell the books as long as the books are religious. (That is, they can distribute the books in ways other than selling them.)
The publications they distribute don't have to be books, per se.
The books don't have to be religious as long as they are selling them.

Obviously, the first and third definitions are the opposite ends of the spectrum for this.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, colporteur, colporter

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Words to Your Mother: Verisimilitude

2006-08-28T13:31:00.000-07:00

Verisimilitude is the appearance or quality of truth or reality. It is often used in fiction to indicate willingness to suspend one's disbelief, especially due to the apparent reality of the fiction.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, verisimilitude

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Words to Your Mother: Postlude

2006-08-26T22:25:00.000-07:00

A postlude is defined as a concluding piece or a final chapter. Essentially, it is the opposite of a prelude. The main place that I've seen it in practice is in music. When a song follows a simple verse/verse or verse/chorus/verse/chorus format, a short additional piece at the end (especially using different music than the verses or choruses) might be referred to as a postlude.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, postlude

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Dictionary.com redesign

2006-08-26T22:21:00.000-07:00

Just a note that Dictionary.com has redesigned their site. Looks a little nicer, but I haven't used it long enough to notice any major UI changes. Check it out.

technorati tags:dictionary.com

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Words to Your Mother: Baleen

2006-08-25T21:42:00.000-07:00

Long story short, baleen is whale teeth.

(Waits for any cetacean biologists reading this to finish cringing.)

Technically speaking, whales don't have teeth or any real equivalents. Baleen provides a filtering system for whales (or, more specifically, baleen whales) to strain items such as krill out of the water, basically allowing them to float around without spending too much effort eating.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, baleen

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Words to Your Mother: Estuary

2006-08-25T01:46:00.000-07:00

Essentially, an estuary is a triangular river mouth. This is similar to a delta, but a delta involves large deposits at the mouth of the river, whereas an estuary must involve tidal forces to prevent a delta from forming.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, estuary, delta

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Words to Your Mother: Harangue

2006-08-23T21:35:00.000-07:00

Since I'm not sure of the linguistic origin of my previous post, here's a quick bonus:

A harangue is a long pompous speech, especially one delivered before a gathering.

It doesn't count as plagiarism if you cite your sources.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, harangue

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Words to Your Mother: Souma yergon

2006-08-23T21:32:00.000-07:00

"Souma yergon" means "if we had known". As in, "Souma yergon what language this was in, this post might feel complete". You see, I'm not quite sure what language this phrase is originally from.

The phrase is perhaps best known in the Youssou N'Dour/Peter Gabriel song "Shaking the Tree", which contains the lines:

Souma Yergon (If we had known)
Sou Nou Yergon (If we had only known)
We are shakin' the tree

The first two lines above are sung by Youssou N'Dour. N'Dour normally sings in Wolof, but I'm not certain that the above phrases are in Wolof. Consulting a Wolof dictionary didn't really help much. "If" is listed as "su", which seems to be a step in the right direction, but I wasn't able to spot any of the other words.

Despite some claims that these lines are in "Senegalese", Senegalese is not a real language. Again, Wolof (which is a primary langauge of Senegal) seems the most likely candidate. If anyone has a more definitive answer, feel free to post a comment.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, Souma yergon, Sou nou yergon, Wolof, Youssou N'Dour, Peter Gabriel, Shaking the Tree

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Words to Your Mother: Contemn

2006-08-22T22:58:00.000-07:00

Although they are spelled and pronounced almost identically and they are somewhat similar, to contemn something is not the same as to condemn it. To contemn something is to despise it. You might condemn something that you contemn, but this is not automatic.

One word that is more closely related is contempt. Both words come from the Latin contemnere meaning to (intensely) despise. The intensifier "con-" is the same one that makes its appearance in "condemn", but in that case it is intensifying damnare, which means "to sentence" (rather than temnere, "to despise").

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, contemn

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Words to Your Mother: Miter

2006-08-21T23:30:00.000-07:00

The miter is the ceremonial headdress of Catholic bishops. A variation is also worn by the pope. Mitre is an alternate (British) spelling for this.

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, miter, mitre

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Words to Your Mother: Amiga

2006-08-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

This computer is an Amiga.
The woman on the screen might
also be an amiga.
If you own one of these,
she is likely your only amiga.

An amiga is a female friend in the Spanish or Portuguese languages. When I say "female friend", this is not with any of the implications some might take from this phrase in English. It is literally a friend who is female. The person using the term may be either male or female. If the friend is male, the more common "amigo" would be used instead.

In Spanish, Portuguese, and many other romance languages (including French and Italian), all nouns are either masculine or feminine. Generally the adjective will change sounds to agree with the gender of the noun. For example, a man (or "masculine" object) might be "bueno" (good), but a woman (or "feminine" object) would be "buena".

In this case it is the noun rather than the adjective that is being modified (although connected adjectives would be modified as well), but this is common when the noun refers to a person rather than an object with an arbitrary gender.

Notable is the fact that groups of individuals are only referred to in the feminine if the entire group is female. If there are both men and women in the group, than the group is considered masculine (linguistically speaking, that is).

technorati tags:words, vocabulary, amiga, amigo, Spanish, Portuguese, romance languages, grammatical gender

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Words to Your Mother: Pangram

2006-08-19T21:53:00.000-07:00

A pangram is when someone sends you cookware from a remote location. If this is delivered in person by someone who performs a song, then it is a singing pangram.

Actually, a pangram is a sentence that a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet that it is written in. The English pangram that people tend to be most familiar with is "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog". You can find a bunch of English pangrams here:

http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~ajcd/type/pangram.html

technorati tags:words, vocabular, pangram, holoalphabetic sentences

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Everyone Is Jumping Off the Brooklyn Bridge

Moving the blog...

Word Search to Your Mother

Words to Your Mother: Hiatus

Words to Your Mother: Rumspringa

This blog is officially legitimate

Words to Your Mother: Bicameral

Words to Your Mother: Apophenia

Words to Your Mother: Revenant

Words to Your Mother: Crepuscular

Words to Your Mother: Irascible

Words to Your Mother: MacGuffin

Words to Your Mother: In medias res

Words to Your Mother: Slake

Words to Your Mother: Poltroonery

Words to Your Mother: Scroobious

Words to Your Mother: Vita

Words to Your Mother: Mukluk

Words to Your Mother: Hoi polloi

Words to Your Mother: ສະບໃຢດີ (sabaai dee)

Words to Your Mother 101st Anniversary Index (10/21/06)

Words to Your Mother: Propinquity

Words to Your Mother: Grotto

Words to Your Mother: Octave (poetry)

Words to Your Mother: Ennui

Words to Your Mother: Hypercorrection

Words to Your Mother: Lacuna

Worthless Word for the Day

More words from mental_floss

Words to Your Mother: Facinourous

Words to Your Mother: Inveterate

Words to Your Mother: Hematologist

Words to Your Mother: Schizoid

Words to Your Mother: Danke schön

Words to Your Mother: Syllepsis

Words to Your Mother: Digraph

Words to Your Mother: !*(f ^^/~ ?

Words to Your Mother: Enclitic

Words to Your Mother: Ekorn

Words to Your Mother: Abrade

Words to Your Mother: Prig

Blinded With Science: The gravitational force of a pancreas

Words to Your Mother: Yare

Blinded With Science: Special relativity

Words to Your Mother: Discomfit

Words to Your Mother: Fata morgana

Words to Your Mother: De rigueur

Words to Your Mother: Meretricious

Words to Your Mother: Quine

Words to Your Mother: Momento mori

Words to Your Mother: Axed

Now *here's* a web site I can get behind

From pirates to prospectors

Words to Your Mother Index (9/28/06)

Words to Your Mother: גנבֿ (ganef)

*^#@ing euphemisms

Words to Your Mother: Dobar dan (добар дан)

Words to Your Mother: Bodhisattva

Words to Your Mother: Spick and span

Words to Your Mother Poll: From whence the words came

Words to Your Mother: Churlish

Words to Your Mother: Somnambulist

Words to Your Mother: Avast

Words to Your Mother: Jiffy

Words to Your Mother: Bwana

Words to Your Mother: Phantasmagoria

Words to Your Mother: Uff da

Words to Your Mother: Quail

Words to Your Mother: Brae

Words to Your Mother: Picayune

Words to Your Mother: Foster's

Words to Your Mother: Hakuna matata

Words to Your Mother: סלה (selah)

Words to Your Mother: Virtu

Words to Your Mother: Apotheosis

Words to Your Mother: Jejune

Words to Your Mother: Teratonym?

Words to Your Mother: Achtung

Words to Your Mother: Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble

Words to Your Mother: Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Now here's a web site I can get behind