More words

[slemslempike]

I spent the afternoon in the reading room at the library trying to absorb Butler's argument in Bodies that Matter. While I in no way back down from my stance that people who write in library books, even in pencil, should be forcibly tattooed with THOUGHTLESS IDIOT, these bits did amuse me:







And what better framing device for my own list of words I have looked up recently. There are rather fewer than before because I have been reading less of anything, and nothing of Will Self.

Brumaire - Second month of the French revolutionary calendar - the month of mist (October/November)
internecine - mutually destructive conflict
cynosure - a centre of attraction
cicisbeo - admirer of a married woman / knot of ribbon on a fan
labile - unstable, easily changing
paramnesias - false memory
antebellum - period preceding American Civil War
inchoate - not yet completed
aphasia - inability to use or understand language
Keratin - primary protein of hair, skin, nails
Chlamys - short woollen cloak
tabouret - low upholstered stool
colonnade - row of columns
quinquet lamp - where oil resevoir is higher than the flame (apparently same as Argand lamp?)
monism - doctrine that all things are part of the same reality
mimetic - reflective of reality

And other things I've learnt from books:
Sadza is a dish of grain meal, mbodza is underdone/inedible food.
After reading Berlant, who talked about "the cliche that queers are light in the loafers", I am introduced to a new term, which is apparently meant to be about mincing? Anyway. That was a new thing I learned.

With regard to the last post, as you may have worked out from other people's answers, the offical flower of the United Staes is... the rose. Which, apart from being blatant copying (it's totally ours! We had a war of them and everything!), is not a flower I associate with America in the slightest.

I have been trying to learn things about history as well. I made a chart with British monarchs, prime ministers, US presidents, French kings/presidents and Russian Emperors/leaders. 1710-1949. I'm never going to remember any of them, but it did lead to a pleasant Sunday colouring things in. There is not nearly enough colouring in in my life at the moment.

Henry Pelham was succeeded as Prime Minister in 1754 by his brother, the Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. FACT.

Comments

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Lots I didn't know this time! I always get 'cynosure' mixed up with 'sinecure'.

'antebellum' could refer to any war, I should think.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I had to look up sinecure then, but it turns out that I did in fact know it.

I suppose it's a bit like "the inter-war period", where it's technically applicable elsewhere, but in practice always means the same thing?

[pisica.livejournal.com]

I'd go with that - I know 'antebellum' entirely from the Civil War context ('the antebellum South') but I think it's generic. Hang on, let me confer with the deity....

*lights incense*

*uses Athens login*

OED sez: Previous to the war, i.e. spec. the American civil war (1861-5), the S. African war (1899- 1902), or either of the wars of 1914-18 and 1939-45.

Interestingly, has also been 'ante bellum' or 'ante-bellum', judging from the usage examples.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Dammit, my institution has INEXPLICABLY ceased its subscription to the OED, or at least I can only get a message saying that my Athens login does not include this service. Even on campus. It's infuriating, though I imagine it has something to do with the Lancashire libraries' subscription, which I can use.

Bellum on its own is "the state of war", isn't it? So ante-bellum makes some sense.

[kerravongenius.livejournal.com]

Although it could technically refer to any war, antebellum is only ever, as far as I am aware, used of the period before the American Civil War. In Britain, when referring to our own little tiffs, we tend to prefer the less pretentious "pre-war" because with our history, we don't need to add deliberate archaisms. *Smug mode*

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Well, if you see pisica's comment, you'll see that "as far as you're aware" isn't quite as far as the OED's aware.

[kerravongenius.livejournal.com]

Chambers Dictionary of Etymology says it was coined in 1862, is American English from Latin and refers to the American Civil War.

It's possible individual writers may have used it of other wars, but I have certainly never heard it used of any other. Possibly the OED has come across American writers using it. I've never read any American histories of WWII, so wouldn't have come across it.

[cellardor.livejournal.com]

Ma ha! I knew two this time. Antebellum and Keratin. Having done American Studies as a degree and having a mother who's a hairdresser I really should know them.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Keratin I realised I'd heard a lot, but never actually known what it means. Which is why I have taken to looking up things, so that I can know, and be more of a smart-arse. Although I've only seen "adumbrate" since the last list, so possibly they're more long-term useful.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

paramnesias - false memory

Another word I know due to Star Trek! Yay for educational telly! (I even know the episode: Next Gen, Mind's Eye, ahem.)

And mimetic is one I learned in Dune. Because, as it turns out, I wouldn't know any uncommon words at all if it weren't for sci-fi. Ahrrm.

I am going to try and use internecine in conversation now, yes.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I think internecine might be within an organisation type thing as well. So the Minbari have internecine problems! I should clearly start watching more sci-fi.

I kind of knew mimetic, but always think "it can't be like mime", and then it kind of is. I'm hoping that writing it down will help.

[sabethea.livejournal.com]

Unlike last time, I knew quite a few of these words. Which makes me feel extremely smug, which is totally unjustified as I suspect you've been reading Regency era novels recently and that's why I already knew the words...

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Yep, Georgette Heyer! Most of them I got from context, but wanted to know exactly what they were, like tabouret. I also didn't know that abigail was a maid before reading her.

[anglaisepaon.livejournal.com]

Mimetic - I probably heard that word at least 20 times a day in grad school. I still hate the sound of it.

And tabouret I only know from Georgette Heyer. Hurrah for fluffy reading!

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I realised that despite having heard it so much, and quite possibly used it myself, I wasn't absolutely certain exactly what it meant. Now I know.

Tabouret I actually came across in The Master and Margarita, though most of the others are Heyer. Mixin' it up!

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I didn't know paramnesias, or the lamp.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

'm a bit confused about the lamp - I came across it in The Master and Margarita, and the footnote said it was named after its inventor, and about the oil resevoir, but the internet doesn't seem to know much about it.

[frightened.livejournal.com]

I thought "labile" meant "lippy" and "internecine" meant "complicated and twisty", so good to know!

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I assumed labile was lippish too, and I am rather disappointed that it isn't. Internecine I thought was about inter-country, which is a bit closer, I suppose.

[gair.livejournal.com]

Those annotations are hilarious and I thank you for the photographs.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

At least these weren't underlinings that mean I can't read the text properly. Grr. I am a cheapskate! I don't want to be forced to buy my own copies!