What new words have you learned recently?

[Rockphed]

travail - trial, tribulation

mire - swamp

Travail also means "labor, especially the labor of giving birth".

[Xuc Xac]

"Travail" comes from the French word for "work" and is the same root as "travel", because traveling was hard work with no paved roads back when the English were picking up French vocabulary from the Normans.

A "quag" is a swamp with soft ground that's easy to sink into. A "mire" is a swamp with sticky mud that's hard to get out of (the kind of mud that sucks the boot off your foot when you try to walk). A "quagmire" is both easy to sink in and hard to get out.

[Scarlet Knight]

quotidian: ordinary, everyday

"The quotidian chores of holding a democracy together."

[Vinyadan]

"Travail" comes from the French word for "work" and is the same root as "travel", because traveling was hard work with no paved roads back when the English were picking up French vocabulary from the Normans.

And Lat. labor also could mean work, but in a different acception, as "the result of work" ("work of art); children were "labores uteri", the work of the uterus.

More strictly, labor meant "toil". Oddly, eclypses were called labores solis (the sun's toils).

Apparently, travail comes from "tripalium", a torture instrument made up of three (tri-) poles (-palium). Something similar is tribulation, as the tribuli were caltrops (there's also a verb tribulo, I press).

[ForzaFiori]

Eleemosynary - relating to or dependant on charity; charitable.

This may be a new favorite word of mine. No idea how to pronounce it (I came across it in my First Amendment casebook and googled the definition), but it just looks like it'd be fun to say.

[Grey Watcher]

Medical problems are great for learning new words. Like cytoscopy.

[SZbNAhL]

Medical problems are great for learning new words. Like cytoscopy.

I just looked up what that is, and you have my deepest sympathy. Ouch.

Incidentally: brobdignagian, meaning gigantic, as in the land of Brobdignag in Gulliver's Travels. One of two excellent words I picked up from the Diniverse Question (the other being "aglet", if anyone was wondering).

[ForzaFiori]

I just looked up what that is, and you have my deepest sympathy. Ouch.

Incidentally: brobdignagian, meaning gigantic, as in the land of Brobdignag in Gulliver's Travels. One of two excellent words I picked up from the Diniverse Question (the other being "aglet", if anyone was wondering).

This makes me slightly ashamed for having never considered that brobdignag would be turned into an adjective too, despite the fact that I've know lilliputian is a word most of my life.

[snowblizz]

This makes me slightly ashamed for having never considered that brobdignag would be turned into an adjective too, despite the fact that I've know lilliputian is a word most of my life.

In all fairness the first story is the most famous one and often the only one you get to see as most generic Guillivers Travel's experience, be it a children's book or movie adaptation.

For some odd reason the one story where we normals are the superior ones is the one that gets mostly bandied about.

[Sermil]

From the NY Times mini crossword:

Spoiler: For Crossword lovers

Show

agita, meaning anxiety, stress, or aggravation. I had never even heard of the word and assumed I had gotten a letter wrong, but the crossword said "Correct!" and dictionary.com says it's a real word. Apparently, it can also mean indigestion from eating spicy food.

Now that I've learned that, I'll probably go back to not knowing that in about 2 days 🤷

[Rogar Demonblud]

It's also the root of agitation.

[Scarlet Knight]

From the NY Times mini crossword:

Spoiler: For Crossword lovers

Show

agita, meaning anxiety, stress, or aggravation. I had never even heard of the word and assumed I had gotten a letter wrong, but the crossword said "Correct!" and dictionary.com says it's a real word. Apparently, it can also mean indigestion from eating spicy food.

Now that I've learned that, I'll probably go back to not knowing that in about 2 days 🤷

That is a word every Italian American I've ever met uses, perhaps daily.

I just read this word in Sundays paper: interrobang - an unconventional punctuation mark used and intended to combine the functions of the question mark and the exclamation point.

"With all the confusion and panic, it feels like an interrobang."

[Sermil]

It's also the root of agitation.

Oh, I knew it was a root. I just didn't know it was an actively used word by itself.

[Vinyadan]

That is a word every Italian American I've ever met uses, perhaps daily.

It's in none of the major Italian dictionaries, so it either is dialectal, or it's a new form that was created in America. A 1991 letter to the NYT assumes that it's from "acido" (=acid). As English acid, It. acido also is an adjective, so it can become acida if it refers to a feminine name, which over time can be omitted.
The alternative is a piece of medical Latin that made its way into the common parlance (acida being the plural of acidum "acid thing", so "acids").

[ForzaFiori]

That is a word every Italian American I've ever met uses, perhaps daily.

I realize you're from NY, so you probably have a larger pool of examples to draw from than me, but I'm Italian-American (and only one generation removed from New Jersey, so I'd hope the lingo hasn't changed that much) and I can't recall any of my family ever using "agita."

[Scarlet Knight]

It's in none of the major Italian dictionaries, so it either is dialectal, or it's a new form that was created in America. A 1991 letter to the NYT assumes that it's from "acido" (=acid). As English acid, It. acido also is an adjective, so it can become acida if it refers to a feminine name, which over time can be omitted.
The alternative is a piece of medical Latin that made its way into the common parlance (acida being the plural of acidum "acid thing", so "acids").

I believe it's more from the Italian "agitare": to upset or work up which is in my copies of Larousse and Webster I/A dictionaries. "Agita" as a noun is not there so I assume it's slang.

Can any true Italians in the Playground confirm? My family is Barese if it's dialect.

I realize you're from NY, so you probably have a larger pool of examples to draw from than me, but I'm Italian-American (and only one generation removed from New Jersey, so I'd hope the lingo hasn't changed that much) and I can't recall any of my family ever using "agita."

That's funny; if anything Italian slang has been fading over time as immigration has slowed. Well, I guess it's usage varies regionally (From your name, I figured you're Italian American if not pure Italian). I was born in Hoboken before moving to NY. A quick google search said it was common Italian American slang. I assumed the phrase "You're givin' me agita!" was in every Mafia script.

[Eldan]

Looking it up in three different online dictionaries doesn't give any results in Italian for Agita, other than a conjugated verb.

[Xuc Xac]

Looking it up in three different online dictionaries doesn't give any results in Italian for Agita, other than a conjugated verb.

Looking up "agita" in an English dictionary shows it's an American slang word that probably came from a regional Italian pronunciation. You probably won't find it in an Italian dictionary. The "Italian" words used by Italian-Americans are usually pretty far removed from any standard Italian pronunciation. These are the same people who say "gabagool" when they mean "capicola".

[ForzaFiori]

That's funny; if anything Italian slang has been fading over time as immigration has slowed. Well, I guess it's usage varies regionally (From your name, I figured you're Italian American if not pure Italian). I was born in Hoboken before moving to NY. A quick google search said it was common Italian American slang. I assumed the phrase "You're givin' me agita!" was in every Mafia script.

I am Italian-American, though as I insinuated in my earlier response, my family is not as... ITALIAN as some We've been here a while (I'm 4th generation - my great-grandfather came over very early in the big wave of Italian immigration) and due to a variety of factors (my great grandfather and grandfather both died young from what I understand - I never met either one - and my father moved south to go to college, so I didn't get to meet many of my truly Italian family members) our connection to our family roots is limited. My extended family uses some Italian slang (mostly slang that has also made it into English, but in much higher quantities - things like ciao, capisce, etc) we have lasagna at thanksgiving, and of course our last name is Italian, but sadly that's about it.

[Peelee]

I am Italian-American, though as I insinuated in my earlier response, my family is not as... ITALIAN as some We've been here a while (I'm 4th generation - my great-grandfather came over very early in the big wave of Italian immigration) and due to a variety of factors (my great grandfather and grandfather both died young from what I understand - I never met either one - and my father moved south to go to college, so I didn't get to meet many of my truly Italian family members) our connection to our family roots is limited. My extended family uses some Italian slang (mostly slang that has also made it into English, but in much higher quantities - things like ciao, capisce, etc) we have lasagna at thanksgiving, and of course our last name is Italian, but sadly that's about it.

Quite some time ago, my dad died unexpectedly. I didn't quite know about the whole "everyone comes to your house with food" aspect of death at the time, I was still pretty young. Because it was pretty sudden and out of nowhere, some people just brought fast food, like Arby's. Some people were able to whip some things together. But the most memorable one, far and away, was these family friends who were super Italian. My brother and one of their kids were best friends, I'd gone to school with one of their daughters, had a huge crush on the other daughter the entire time I knew her, our parents were always getting together, we'd just all been pretty close for most of my life. Anyway, the grandparents were, every one of them, Italian immigrants. So they come to the house (well, as many as were in town. Again, very surprising death). And the grandmother, who I rarely met but always loved when I did, was about the most embarrassed I've ever seen someone be. Wailing and gnashing of teeth, just in a pure state of lament, because due to the suddenness, while she had brought a lasagna, she did not have time to make the noodles and was forced to resort to store-bought noodles, and begged us to forgive her.

I love that family.

[ForzaFiori]

Quite some time ago, my dad died unexpectedly. I didn't quite know about the whole "everyone comes to your house with food" aspect of death at the time, I was still pretty young. Because it was pretty sudden and out of nowhere, some people just brought fast food, like Arby's. Some people were able to whip some things together. But the most memorable one, far and away, was these family friends who were super Italian. My brother and one of their kids were best friends, I'd gone to school with one of their daughters, had a huge crush on the other daughter the entire time I knew her, our parents were always getting together, we'd just all been pretty close for most of my life. Anyway, the grandparents were, every one of them, Italian immigrants. So they come to the house (well, as many as were in town. Again, very surprising death). And the grandmother, who I rarely met but always loved when I did, was about the most embarrassed I've ever seen someone be. Wailing and gnashing of teeth, just in a pure state of lament, because due to the suddenness, while she had brought a lasagna, she did not have time to make the noodles and was forced to resort to store-bought noodles, and begged us to forgive her.

I love that family.

Food is definitely a big part of Italian culture (and plenty others, I'm sure). That part of a culture also always seems to be one of the most deeply held - almost everyone I know who's family seems to care in anyway what it's roots are, one of the first things they show you is their family recipes - English, German, French, Spanish, Polish, Italian, Greek, if your family puts something before "American" when describing themselves (even regional US terms like southeastern or midwestern to a limited extent), odds are pretty good you have a family dish to prove it. It probably is for the same reason that food television picked up in the US after 9/11. Nothing makes you think of home more than food, so it's the last part of the "old country" a family gives up.

I will say though, I think that I got the good end of this tendency - both traditional Italian and southern food is amazing, and I have recipes for both in my family.


To get back on topic - More fun with legal terms: Trespass can be used in reference to a person: to "trespass" someone means to bar them from an area. IE, if you trespass on my land, I will trespass you and bar you from ever returning, and stores will "trespass" shoplifters.

[truemane]

And Lat. labor also could mean work, but in a different acception, as "the result of work" ("work of art); children were "labores uteri", the work of the uterus.

The Latin/Roman term for work, as in your job, is "necotium." Which is a negative prefix ('nec') attached to the word 'otium' meaning leisure. For Romans your job wasn't a thing you did because it had inherent worth, it was the thing you did when you weren't relaxing. They didn't put the same value on work ethic that 'we' do.

[Scarlet Knight]

All this talk of family made my slap my forehead. I called my Dad, who confirmed "agita" was slang and neither dialect nor true Italian.

Now I have a cannoli craving.

I found this in a chapter on laughing rats: Metacognition. It's a mental ability to know what you know and what you don't know.

"Metacognition was showed in rats who were rewarded for pressing the right answer but also for not pressing a lever if they did not know the answer."

I guess that is why D&D players tell each other "not to meta-game".

[Grey_Wolf_c]

I found this in a chapter on laughing rats: Metacognition. It's a mental ability to know what you know and what you don't know.

"Metacognition was showed in rats who were rewarded for pressing the right answer but also for not pressing a lever if they did not know the answer."

I guess that is why D&D players tell each other "not to meta-game".

Not quite. Meta- just means "applied to itself" so "metagame" means "gaming the game", while metacognition means "thinking about what you are thinking" (and "metaliterature" means a book about other books, etc). So metagaming is not named after metacognition, they are just both named after the effect of applying something to itself.

GW

[snowblizz]

The Latin/Roman term for work, as in your job, is "necotium." Which is a negative prefix ('nec') attached to the word 'otium' meaning leisure. For Romans your job wasn't a thing you did because it had inherent worth, it was the thing you did when you weren't relaxing. They didn't put the same value on work ethic that 'we' do.

A true Roman didn't work after all. Also apparently ancient Greek looked down upon physical labour. Both socities were quite heavily slavery based, the Greek more domestically as was the general trend in the region since even more ancient times. Rome much more generally infused with slaves at every level as it rolled on and conqured more territory. It probably ends up a bit of a chicken-egg situation, but as poor self-sustaining Roman farmers were pushed off their lands to be replced by large slave estates that also means many poor to modest people were essentially living a life of leasure. Though compared to the actually rich and powerful they might in cmaprison as well been slaves. But at least they were Romans and had a vote, which efectively was bought by subsidies. Meaning that a true Roman, rich or poor, in one sense didn't really have to work. I imagine that creates an interesting view of hard labour.

Similarly medieaval Europe was thought to be divided into 3 categories, those who pray (the church basically), those who fight (effectively nobility) and those who work (everyone else). That scale effectively goes from least sweating to most sweating.There are parallells to the caste system in the Indian subcontinent too now that I think about it. And quite broadly speaking hard and dirty jobs have always been considered negatively and pushed onto those with little choice.

I think we are fairly close to modern times when a work ethic becomes a (generally) positive and labour gains a value in of itself. Though am sure some philosophers and thinkers throughout been extolling the virtue of honest labour. Some of the examples I don't think can be brought up here.

I'm reading a book on the history of slavery and just got to the Roman period, it probably shows.

Though thinking of it, aren't we already sliding quite hard back in the mindset that work is bad. The less you do and the more you post pictures of you not doing anything on the Net the more adored you are...

[Vinyadan]

A true Roman didn't work after all. Also apparently ancient Greek looked down upon physical labour. Both socities were quite heavily slavery based, the Greek more domestically as was the general trend in the region since even more ancient times. Rome much more generally infused with slaves at every level as it rolled on and conqured more territory. It probably ends up a bit of a chicken-egg situation, but as poor self-sustaining Roman farmers were pushed off their lands to be replced by large slave estates that also means many poor to modest people were essentially living a life of leasure. Though compared to the actually rich and powerful they might in cmaprison as well been slaves. But at least they were Romans and had a vote, which efectively was bought by subsidies. Meaning that a true Roman, rich or poor, in one sense didn't really have to work. I imagine that creates an interesting view of hard labour.

That's just not true, at any level you may want to put it. You have legends like those of Cincinnatus that show the good view of manual labour, and its glorification by Vergil's works dedicated to it. Even in Imperial times, you are not considering how the life of a free man in the country really was, doing different jobs for different owners depending on the time of the year to complement the gains he would have obtained from his own small piece of land (different agricultural works swing a lot in the need for manpower depending on period). Which is very different from being a slave to a single owner, not to say anything about how different the lives of different slaves really were (to make a practical example, a freeman in the countryside didn't risk living his life chained to the oil mill, as some slaves did).

The Greeks had figures like Laertes in the Odyssey, and Hesiod's Works and Days. I don't remember any text disparaging agricultural work. There obviously were parodies of the country-folk, the same way that there was a certain disdain towards the lower urban dwellers by the higher classes, but that ended there.

The Greeks had a fairly negative view of life, and, among its uncountable list of pains, they surely also included work; but recognising its need and unpleasantness is very different from looking down upon it.

[Caerulea]

I'm reading a book on the history of slavery and just got to the Roman period, it probably shows.

What's it called? It sounds interesting.

[Scarlet Knight]

Not quite. Meta- just means "applied to itself" so "metagame" means "gaming the game", while metacognition means "thinking about what you are thinking" (and "metaliterature" means a book about other books, etc). So metagaming is not named after metacognition, they are just both named after the effect of applying something to itself. GW

Thanks for the clarification!


Contrapuntal - 1: polyphonic 2: of, relating to, or marked by counterpoint.

The story I read referred to the second definition "The two men soon moved in a contrapuntal rhythm".

[Vinyadan]

Question: I've seen the word "meltdown" used to refer to an angry reaction by an adult man. Does it imply that the person is petty (as it's often used for kids), or that he's not neurotypical?

[Keltest]

Question: I've seen the word "meltdown" used to refer to an angry reaction by an adult man. Does it imply that the person is petty (as it's often used for kids), or that he's not neurotypical?

Both, potentially, but typically the former in my experience. You might see "he exploded" used in a similar context. It also carries undertones of unreasonableness that other terms for an extreme reaction do not necessarily.