What new words have you learned recently?

[Imbalance]

Or your client changed their mind on formatting, etc. while you're already halfway through writing.

Or you're the third proofreader to get involved and find out that the previous editor changed every instance of an obscure industry term used extensively by the author.

[Rockphed]

Or you're the third proofreader to get involved and find out that the previous editor changed every instance of an obscure industry term used extensively by the author.

Or you have a function that you needed to add an extra input to and now have to find everywhere it gets called so you can add the extra input.

[Scarlet Knight]

I'm reading a detective novel where the main character likes big words; you'll be getting a bunch for a while.

Metonymy: a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.

"I looked at Henry and knew he was was a suit; later he admitted he'd been in business since childhood."

[truemane]

I'm reading a detective novel where the main character likes big words; you'll be getting a bunch for a while.

Metonymy: a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.

"I looked at Henry and knew he was was a suit; later he admitted he'd been in business since childhood."

Closely related to Synecdoche, where a single part of something is used to refer to the whole. "The long arm of the law."

[Green.Grizzly]

Donnybrook: a scene of uproar and disorder; a heated argument.

I love this word because it sounds so cute and innocent but it actually relates to something quite chaotic.

[Peelee]

Donnybrook: a scene of uproar and disorder; a heated argument.

I love this word because it sounds so cute and innocent but it actually relates to something quite chaotic.

The donnybrook had several people engaging in fisticuffs.

Such a pleasant sounding sentence describing a horrible scene.

[understatement]

New words:

fortean (adj): relating to or denoting paranormal phenomena

{scrubbed}

tagliatelle (n): pasta in long ribbons

popinjay (n): a vain or conceited person, esp one that dresses or behaves extravagantly

[snowblizz]

Ultracrepidarianism.

Which am now going to try remember. But doubt I can. I give the definition but that would make me an ultracrepidarian.

[SZbNAhL]

Ultracrepidarianism.

Which am now going to try remember. But doubt I can. I give the definition but that would make me an ultracrepidarian.

On a related theme:

Last (n) - a model of a human foot used by shoemakers.

[Khedrac]

On a related theme:

Last (n) - a model of a human foot used by shoemakers.

Which is where the saying "A cobbler should stick to his last" comes from - one I suspect puzzles people that don't know what a 'last' is.

[SZbNAhL]

Which is where the saying "A cobbler should stick to his last" comes from - one I suspect puzzles people that don't know what a 'last' is.

Derriving ultimately from the Latin "Sutor, ne ultra crepidam", the origin of "ultracrepidarianism". Incidentally, while researching this I discovered that the expression the latter must have evolved through to reach the fomer ("shoemaker, stick to your last") still exists across much of northern and eastern Europe. I wonder why it was specifically the English that switched to third-person.

[Scarlet Knight]

Intrigante: a female intriguer.

"You are quite transparent for an intrigante, madame."

[VoxRationis]

eleemosynary - charitable

[QuantumFlash]

From my Latin class today: Viz. apparently comes from videlicet, meaning roughly "it is permitted to see."

[Skyrender]

From my Latin class today: Viz. apparently comes from videlicet, meaning roughly "it is permitted to see."

Closely related to the word "vision" and all variants thereof. And of course, the name, Vision. After all, just ask Wanda.

[Peelee]

Closely related to the word "vision" and all variants thereof. And of course, the name, Vision. After all, just ask Wanda.

Yeah, Wanda is kind of a know-it-all.

[Scarlet Knight]

pomander : a ball made for perfumes

"The Duke lifted his pomander to his nose as he moved through the crowded street."

[SZbNAhL]

Lugubrious (adj) - looking or sounding unhappy

[Rogar Demonblud]

This weekend I learned that 'karaoke' literally translates as 'empty orchestra'. Granted, I didn't think it meant 'bad singing' but still I did not expect that.

[Fiery Diamond]

This weekend I learned that 'karaoke' literally translates as 'empty orchestra'. Granted, I didn't think it meant 'bad singing' but still I did not expect that.

Yep. Kara, the Japanese word for empty, and Oke, which is the Japanese shortening their version of the English word Orchestra. Similarly, karate means "empty hand," as Te is the Japanese word for hand.

[Lord Raziere]

I recently learned "perspicacity" from Prof. Layton Vs. Phoenix Wright, means the quality of having insight or shrewdness.

[Rockphed]

Yep. Kara, the Japanese word for empty, and Oke, which is the Japanese shortening their version of the English word Orchestra. Similarly, karate means "empty hand," as Te is the Japanese word for hand.

That was interesting. Thank you for the enlightenment.

[snowblizz]

and Oke, which is the Japanese shortening their version of the English word Orchestra.

Reminds me how surprised I am every time I realise the Japanese have loanworded a lot of stuff. Since they tend to compact the words one generally doesn't notice. Boggles my mind that the Japanese use a loan word for bread "pan", taken form Portugese but then again it kinda makes sense when you get the history.

It's a bit like the use of Chili in South-Eat Asia, most people don't reflect over the fact that it is in no way an indigenous plant. Nor are tomatoes Italian as my mother tried claiming the other day.

[Rockphed]

It's a bit like the use of Chili in South-Eat Asia, most people don't reflect over the fact that it is in no way an indigenous plant. Nor are tomatoes Italian as my mother tried claiming the other day.

Obviously Nero went insane from his cross-time revels to banish tomatoes from their true home on the Italian Peninsula.

[Xuc Xac]

It's a bit like the use of Chili in South-Eat Asia, most people don't reflect over the fact that it is in no way an indigenous plant. Nor are tomatoes Italian as my mother tried claiming the other day.

Pizza made with only ingredients indigenous to Italy would be a bowl of mushrooms.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Pizza made with only ingredients indigenous to Italy would be a bowl of mushrooms.

There's an interesting challenge. Assuming we could take substitutions, peas can be made into flour, and you could theoretically replace the cheese with some other mammal's curdled milk - say, deer or beaver. I suppose some local berry (such as raspberry, if that one is local) could provide for a passable sauce - they do work well with cheese. As to toppings, any local animal can be turned into sausages, although without paprika, it won't taste like pepperoni at all. Then again, same could be said of everything else. And the cheese in particular would not be easy or cheap to get hold of. So, thinking about it, I'd recommend going for an anchovy topping, since that'll pretty much reduce all other flavours to irrelevance.

Grey Wolf

[Eldan]

In the RPG forum, a thread sharply diverged into weird English words and then Anglish, the effort to build a conlang of what English would look like without Romance words. So I read one of hte original essays again, Uncleftish Beholding, on Atomic Theory. And it contains the absolutely delightful word "Weeneitherbit", a neutrino. The construction, of course, being that it is neither positively nor negatively charged (neuter), a particle ("bit") and smaller than a neutron ("Neitherbit"), hence the "-ino" ending becomes the prefix "wee".

Shame German didn't go in that direction, really. Engineering, Chemistry and Biology in German are full of translated words, but by the time particle physics came around, we stopped making our own words for scientific concepts. The only other term for neutrons I can find is "Beryllilum radiation", which is boring. Neither Bothe nor Pauli seem to have come up with any other names for it.

[Fyraltari]

Shame German didn't go in that direction, really. Engineering, Chemistry and Biology in German are full of translated words, but by the time particle physics came around, we stopped making our own words for scientific concepts. The only other term for neutrons I can find is "Beryllilum radiation", which is boring. Neither Bothe nor Pauli seem to have come up with any other names for it.

That's a good thing really. Makes scientific cooperation cross borders that much easier.

[Peelee]

Neither Bothe nor Pauli seem to have come up with any other names for it.

Pauli was a bit busy figuring out how the universe worked while the universe was trying to make it abundantly clear that it did not want to collaborate with him specifically.

[SZbNAhL]

There's an interesting challenge. Assuming we could take substitutions, ... I suppose some local berry (such as raspberry, if that one is local) could provide for a passable sauce - they do work well with cheese.

Grey Wolf

I'm not sure if roses are native to Italy, but if so, rosehips make a passable tomato replacement in pizza.

Pauli was a bit busy figuring out how the universe worked while the universe was trying to make it abundantly clear that it did not want to collaborate with him specifically.

The universe thought Pauli should be excluded on general principle.