Words You've Learned Recently

Natural languages and linguistics
User avatar
Jonlang
Posts: 350
Joined: Tue Sep 04, 2018 8:59 am
Location: Gogledd Cymru

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by Jonlang »

Linguoboy wrote: Tue Oct 02, 2018 9:22 am Welsh
och(e)neidio
sighing
IIRC it's a groaning kind of sigh, like when someone asks you to do something you really don't want to, rather than the kind of sigh one may do when disappointed or when bracing one's self.
Twitter won't let me access my @Jonlang_ account, so I've moved to Mastodon: @jonlang@mastodon.social
User avatar
Linguoboy
Posts: 2373
Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2018 10:00 am
Location: Rogers Park

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by Linguoboy »

Remis stalemate (chess)
Salmoneus
Posts: 1057
Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2018 1:48 pm

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by Salmoneus »

Thanks to the tree discussion...

rowen - stubble field left unplowed until late Autumn so that it may be cropped by cattle
mazer - type of drinking vessel (also a maple)
User avatar
dɮ the phoneme
Posts: 351
Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2018 2:53 am
Location: On either side of the tongue, below the alveolar ridge
Contact:

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by dɮ the phoneme »

Japanese
無政府主義
museifushugi
"anarchism"

I had expected it to be 無政主義, but I was corrected.
Ye knowe eek that, in forme of speche is chaunge
With-inne a thousand yeer, and wordes tho
That hadden pris, now wonder nyce and straunge
Us thinketh hem; and yet they spake hem so,
And spedde as wel in love as men now do.

(formerly Max1461)
Salmoneus
Posts: 1057
Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2018 1:48 pm

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by Salmoneus »

Serendip - Sri Lanka.

And yes, it's where 'serendipity' comes from.
User avatar
Linguoboy
Posts: 2373
Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2018 10:00 am
Location: Rogers Park

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by Linguoboy »

Salmoneus wrote: Wed Apr 10, 2019 10:36 amSerendip - Sri Lanka.
Shameless plug: A friend of mine is self-publishing a book of Sri Lankan recipes. It's called A taste of Serendib.

A Canadian friend ended a rant about the power company with Asti de peuple gratteux! I messaged him asking for a translation and discovered that asti represents [ˌəsˈt͡si], which is a colloquial form of ostie (a common sacre). Gratteux means "stingy", from the expression gratter la cenne lit. "scratch the cent". A gratteux can also be a scratch-off lottery card.
User avatar
jal
Posts: 895
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2018 3:13 pm

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by jal »

Now reading an article that has both "obstreperous" and "obdurate" in a single sentence. I don't think I've ever encountered these words before...


JAL
User avatar
Linguoboy
Posts: 2373
Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2018 10:00 am
Location: Rogers Park

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by Linguoboy »

jal wrote: Mon Apr 29, 2019 10:41 amNow reading an article that has both "obstreperous" and "obdurate" in a single sentence. I don't think I've ever encountered these words before...
I use the former often but only in the extended sense of "uncooperative or disobedient in a disruptive manner". (In fact, I never even realised it had the literal sense of "boisterous".)

Today I just learned about tabby in the sense of a kind of concrete made with oyster shells. I'm not sure if I've seen any examples in real life or not.
User avatar
Pabappa
Posts: 1359
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2018 11:36 am
Location: the Impossible Forest
Contact:

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by Pabappa »

Polish apparently has zasilacz for "power adapter". It took me a while to figure out that I was even looking at translations since the first word (even before the English) was "Alimentation".
TomHChappell
Posts: 75
Joined: Fri Jul 26, 2019 6:40 am
Location: SouthEast Michigan

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by TomHChappell »

I learned what harled stone is, and what harling is.
I’ll bet you can guess which series I’m reading!
TomHChappell
Posts: 75
Joined: Fri Jul 26, 2019 6:40 am
Location: SouthEast Michigan

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by TomHChappell »

“Fleam” is a new word to me.
It’s pretty much a drastic contraction of “phlebotome”.
It’s an instrument used in phlebotomy.
(Or venipuncture.)

—————

Man, how does Diana Gabaldon even have room in her head for all these words?
Salmoneus
Posts: 1057
Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2018 1:48 pm

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by Salmoneus »

From a RWV song I posted in the other thread: I'd probably encountered the word "lave" before, maybe even looked it up, but if I did I'd forgotten about it.

[a crowd, or the remainder; also to wash (which I did know), to draw up water, to bail or throw out, to give bountifully, to hang or flap, or to gutter]
User avatar
Pabappa
Posts: 1359
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2018 11:36 am
Location: the Impossible Forest
Contact:

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by Pabappa »

I had a dream in the mid to late 90s where "lave" meant "something used by a seller to dissuade a customer from making a purchase; a negative incentive". The context was my mother playing a kids' TV show which I liked at the time, but which she considered so bad that it would scare off the person she was meeting with from making some deal they were expecting (unspecified in the dream).
TomHChappell
Posts: 75
Joined: Fri Jul 26, 2019 6:40 am
Location: SouthEast Michigan

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by TomHChappell »

Salmoneus wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2019 10:51 am From a RWV song I posted in the other thread: I'd probably encountered the word "lave" before, maybe even looked it up, but if I did I'd forgotten about it.

[a crowd, or the remainder; also to wash (which I did know), to draw up water, to bail or throw out, to give bountifully, to hang or flap, or to gutter]
I thought the crowd meaning was just “rave” pronounced with an accent.
User avatar
Linguoboy
Posts: 2373
Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2018 10:00 am
Location: Rogers Park

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by Linguoboy »

I have a friend updating regularly from WorldCon in Dublin and she posted a picture of a menu that mentioned "salty fingers". I asked what those were and she said, "Samphire". So now I know not only that they eat halophytes in the UK and Ireland but a couple of local names for them.
User avatar
alynnidalar
Posts: 336
Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2018 11:51 am
Location: Michigan

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by alynnidalar »

Linguoboy wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2019 2:06 pm "salty fingers"
"Samphire"
halophytes
I don't know any of these words :P
Salmoneus
Posts: 1057
Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2018 1:48 pm

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by Salmoneus »

"Salty fingers"? Never heard of that.

"Samphire" is the traditional word. Although it was only really popularised in the UK maybe... ten years ago? [I remember it being in a popular cookery show and everyone loving it, and then suddenly showing up in shops, but I suspect it's not quite such a simple cause-and-effect as that might imply]

I think samphire's one of those things that always used to be on the occasional restaurant menu, and was a traditional thing to eat in some areas, but wasn't really part of most people's lives. But in recent times, there's been quite a sort of semi-nationalist culinary phenomenon, whereby traditional British food is rediscovered as something to be proud of, rather than our previous congenital inferior complex as regards the French being superior in all ways. You get lots more traditional recipes and an emphasis on good, local ingredients (there are even gourmet bangers-and-mash restaurants). Samphire really fitted in to that mold. Although it's certainly not ubiquitous yet - it's in the supermarkets, and often encountered in restaurants, but I think most people don't really know about it (so, a similar level of popularity to, say, celeriac?).

One downside is that while samphire is delicious, it can have almost twiggy bits in, and I think that as it's become more popular, and farming of it has become more mainstream, the quality has gone down, and you get a lot more thin and twiggy samphire now. But the young, fleshy stuff is great!

It used to be called 'sea fennel' as well, but that seems to have died out as people have become accustomed to the name 'samphire'.
Qwynegold
Posts: 722
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2018 3:03 pm
Location: Stockholm

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by Qwynegold »

Qwynegold
Posts: 722
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2018 3:03 pm
Location: Stockholm

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by Qwynegold »

Obstetrician (doctor specialized in childbirth). I know I've looked this word up before, but I just can't remember what it is. Hopefully it'll stay in my head this time.
Chuma
Posts: 26
Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2018 9:26 am

Re: Words You've Learned Recently

Post by Chuma »

English
Must
"Fresh pressed fruit juice"

Typically used in English for grape juice that you're about to make wine from. But it delights me, because we use the same word in Swedish, with a slightly different connotation; basically "high quality juice, particularly apple juice". I have missed having a word for it in English (although a word that doesn't have such an obvious other meaning would have been nicer).
Post Reply