Category: Words and phrases

Pavement grikes

By Simon

A photo of a limestone pavement

Silverdale in Lancashire, where I’m spending Christmas, sits on limestone. Whenever you dig into the ground round here you soon hit limestone, and in places where you can see it above ground, it forms what are known as ‘limestone pavements’ (see photo) in the UK. The blocks of stone within the pavements are known as clints and the fissures between them, which are eroded by water, are known as grikes or grykes.

The word grike/gryke comes from the Middle English crike, from the Old Norse kriki (crack, bend, concavity), which is also the root of the word creek.

The word clint comes from Middle English, perhaps from the Middle Low German klint (cliff, crag).

In other places a landscape based on a limestone plain with thin or no soil and sparse vegetation is known as an alvar, which comes from a Swedish word, ålvar (bare limestone soil).

Sources: Wikipedia, Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, bab.la dictionary

Slop stones

By Simon

A photo of a slopstone

Last night I went to a very interesting talk by a member of Mourholme Local History Society, which my mum has been part of for many years. The talk, entitled ‘Flush and Forget in Silverdale’, was about water supplies and drainage in Silverdale in Lancashire, where my mum lives and where I grew up.

A photo of a limestone pavement

Silverdale is a village on Morecambe Bay in the far north of Lancashire. There are no rivers or streams, so until it was connected to mains water in 1938, the local people relied on rain water. This was collected in wells built in places were the water didn’t all drain away through the limestone, which is the main bedrock of the area (see photo on the right), and in tanks in the basements of buildings filled by rain from roofs.

Pumps were used to draw water from the basement tanks, and under the spouts of the pumps there were shallow sinks known as slop stones which were made of wood, slate or stoneware. Isn’t that a wonderful word – slop stone?

The village was originally a collection of tiny hamlets that grew up around the water sources and the population was small. The population increased over time, especially after the arrival of the railway in 1858, and is now about 1,600.

Silverdale apparently could have been connected to mains water earlier, but the local people objected to the cost and claimed they were happy with the existing arrangements. The presenter also mentioned other occasions when the villagers had been reluctant to spend more than absolutely necessary. I wasn’t aware that the people of Silverdale were stingy, at least in the past.

A photo of the water tanks in Eaves Wood in Silverdale
Water tanks built to collect rain water and supply houses in Silverdale.

There are many words for those averse to spend money. Most have negative conotations: stingy, tight, tightfisted, miserly, penny pinching, skinflint, while others are more positive: frugal, thrifty, economical, pennywise. Do you have any others?

Sources: http://www.mourholme.co.uk/?History:Silverdale
http://victoriandecorating.blogspot.co.uk/2007/02/victorian-kitchen.html
http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/stingy

Weaving applications

By Simon

There was some discussion at the French conversation group last night about job applications – one member of the group has been offered a job in an international school in southern France and will be moving there soon.

The word application exists in French, but it’s not the one you use when applying for a job. Instead it is used when applying a lotion or treatment or an invention or method. Also when implementing a decision or measure or enforcing the law. It is also used for software app(lication)s.

Expressions featuring the word include:

– mettre en application = to implement, apply, enforce
– application cruciale = mission-critical application
– application informatique = IT application
– école d’application = officers’ training school

An application for a job is une demande or une candidature, and a job application form is un formulaire or un bulletin de demande d’emploi. To apply for a job is poser une candidature pour un emploi / poste or postuler / poser sa candidature pour un emploi.

The French word appliquer can mean ‘to apply (a lotion or cream; or an invention or method), to implement (a decision); to enfore (the law); or to give’. The reflexive version of this verb, s’appliquer, can mean ‘to apply oneself (to doing sth); to apply to (the law)’ and s’appliquer sur means ‘to fit over’.

The English word apply comes from French, and the French word appliquer comes from the Latin applicāre (to apply, to put, to stick, to spread; to impose, to enforce), from applicō (I apply, attach, join to), from ad- (to; towards) +‎ plicō ‎(fold; arrive), from the Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- ‎(to plait, to weave), which also the root of the English words plait, plat and pleat.

Source: Reverso

Seeking diegesis

By Simon

I learnt an interesting new word the other day – diegesis [ˌdaɪəˈdʒiːsɪs], which, according to Wikipedia means:

a style of fiction storytelling that presents an interior view of a world in which details about the world itself and the experiences of its characters are revealed explicitly through narrative, and the story is told or recounted, as opposed to shown or enacted.

In diegesis the narrator tells the story and presents the actions, and sometimes thoughts, of the characters to the readers or audience. The opposite of diegesis is mimesis, from the Greek μίμησις (imitation), in which the action is shown directly rather than narrated.

In films diegesis refers to the story depicted on screen, as opposed to the story in real time that the screen narrative is about. Anything outside the screen narrative is known as extradiegetic. When a story is embedded within another story and related by a narrator, it is known as metadiegetic or hypodiegetic.

The word diegesis comes from the Greek διήγησις (narrative) from διηγεῖσθαι (to narrate), from διά ‎(through, over, across) and ἥγησις (to lead, command), from the Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- (to seek out), which is also the root of the English word seek, the German word suchen (to seek, search), and related words in other Germanic languages.

Stitching Mail

By Simon

Cotte de maille et des courriers (mail and mail)

I learned an interesting French word last night: maille [maj], which means stitch or mesh and appears in such expressions as:

– maille à l’endroit = plain stitch
– maille à l’envers / tombée / coulée = purl stitch
– maille Jersey = stocking stitch
– doublure maille = mesh lining
– maille du tricot = knitting stitch
– maille du crochet = crochet stitch
– à maille serrée = close-woven
– avoir maille à partir = to be in trouble
– avoir maille à partir avec qn = to have a brush with sb
– à mailles fines = with a fine mesh
– passer à travers les mailles du filet = to slip through the net
– cotte de maille(s) = coat of mail; chainmail

Maille comes from the Old French maille (loop, stitch, mesh, link), from Vulgar Latin *macla, from Latin macula (spot, speck, stain; mesh; cell) from From Proto-Italic *smatlo-, from Proto-Indo-European *smh₂tlo- (possibly meaning “wiping”).

The English word mail, as in chainmail, comes from the same root via the Middle English maille ‎(mail armour) the Old French maille.

The English word mail, as in letters and parcels, originally meant a bag or wallet, and came to mean a bag containing letters to be delivered by post, and then the letters themselves. It comes from the Middle English male, from the Anglo-Norman male, Old French male ‎(bag, wallet), from the Frankish *malha ‎(bag), from the Proto-Germanic *malhō ‎(bag, pouch), from the Proto-Indo-European *molko- ‎(leather pouch).

*molko- is also the root of the French words malle (large suitcase, trunk) and mallette (briefcase); and the Spanish mala ‎(suitcase, mailbag, mail, post), and maleta (suitcase).

Mail (letters) in French is (le) courrier and the postal service is la poste. Email is officially courriel or courrier électronique, though many people use e-mail. Courrier is borrowed from the Italian corriere (messenger, courier), from correre (to run, hurry, rush), from the Latin currere, from currō (to run, hurry), from Proto-Italic *korzō (to run), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- ‎(to run), also the root of the English words courier and current.

Sources: Reverso, Wiktionary

Scratching cartoons

By Simon

Cartoon cat scratching

The first cartoons, in the sense of humorous or satirical drawings, appeared in the magazine Punch in 1843, however the word was used from the 1670s to mean “a drawing on strong paper (used as a model for another work)”.

Cartoon can also mean:

– An artist’s preliminary sketch.
– An animated film
– A diagram in a scientific concept.

Cartoon comes from French carton (cardboard, carton, cardboard box, target, sketch; cartoon, inset map, card), from the Italian cartone (cardboard, paperboard, a carton, a box, a cartoon (an artist’s preliminary sketch or an animated cartoon)), from the Latin charta (paper, map, menu), from the Ancient Greek χάρτης ‎(khártēs – papyrus, paper), from χαράσσω ‎(kharássō – I scratch, inscribe), from the Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- ‎(to scratch).

A series of cartoons is known as a comic strip or strip cartoon, and the section of a newspaper containing cartoons and comic strips is apparently known as the funnies, the funny papers or the funny papers, at least in some English-speaking countries – I wouldn’t use these words, and might call it the cartoon section. How about you?

Comic comes from Latin comicus (comic, comedy, comedian), from the Ancient Greek κωμικός ‎(kōmikós – relating to comedy), from κῶμος ‎(kômos – carousal).

Sources: Online Etymology Dictionary and Wiktionary

Unfolding developments

By Simon

The word for to develop in Welsh is datblygu, which is a combination of dad (un-) and plygu (to fold), so Welsh developments “unfold”.

Datblygu also means “to evolve; reveal, disclose, display. to unfold, unwrap, unfurl, unroll, spread out.”

Plygu means “to (cause to) bend, deflect, bow, stoop, refract (light); fold, wrap. to subdue, subjugate, overcome; apply twist (meaning), distort, pervert; submit, yield, waver.”

Plygu comes from the Latin plicō (to fold, coil), from the Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- ‎(to plait, to weave). The Latin word also means to arrive, which comes from sailors folding their ship’s sails when arriving somewhere.

Plygu is also found in:

– amblygu = to wrap around, surround, wrap together, lap, envelop, cover. (am = around).
– atblygu = to unfold, refold, fold back (at- = to(wards))
– arblygu = to apply, adapt (ar- = fore, opposite)
– darblygu = to deflect (dar- = intensifer)
– diblygu = to unfold explicate, unravel (di- = negative)
– goblygu = to bend, bow, nod, fold, wrap up, leap, cover, hide. to conquer; imply, involve, implicate (go- = sub-)
– gwrthblygu = to bend back, fold back; reflect; pervert (gwrth = against, contra-)
– ymblygu =to bend, bow, stoop (ym- = reflexive)

Source: Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru and Wiktionary

Parched torrents

By Simon

Heavy rain and floods in North Wales - from the Daily Post

Quite a lot of rain has fallen over the past day or so in the UK, thanks to Storm Angus, so I thought I’d look at the origins of some rain-related words.

The word rain comes from the Old English rēn/reġn ‎(rain), from the Proto-Germanic *regnaz ‎(rain), possibly from the Proto-Indo-European *Hreǵ- ‎(to flow) or from *reg- (moist, wet).

When rain falls heavily it might be called torrential – it certainly was yesterday – a word which comes from torrent (rapid stream), from the Middle French torrent, from Latin torrentem from torrēns (rushing, roaring (of streams); a rushing stream), a word which originally meant “roaring, boiling, burning, parching, hot, inflamed”, and which is the present participle of torrere (to parch).

With heavy rain you get floods, a word which comes from the Old English flōd (a flowing of water, tide, an overflowing of land by water, a deluge, mass of water, river, sea, wave)”, from the Proto-Germanic *floduz (flowing water, deluge), from the Proto-Indo-European root *pleu- (to flow, float, swim), which is also the root of flow.

Sources: Online Etymology Dictionary, Wiktionary, Daily Post

Here’s a video of the sea being rather lively at Colwyn Bay (from the Daily Post).

It wasn’t just raining cats and dogs, but elephants and hippopotamuses too – that’s what it felt like anyway.

More idioms for heavy rain in various languages.

Do you know any interesting expressions for heavy rain?

A Piece of Theatre

By Simon

An photo from the Ballet Lorent production of Snow White, which I saw in Bangor last week

In French the word for play, as in a theatrical production, is pièce or pièce de théâtre.

Pièce also means:

– a room
– a part (of a mechanism or machine)
– a coin
– a patch (on clothes)
– a document
– a piece, as in a one-piece swimsuit or a twelve-piece dinner service.

The word pièce comes from the Old French piece (piece, bit, part), from the Vulgar Latin *pettia, from the Gaulish *pettyā, from the Proto-Celtic *kʷesdis ‎(piece, portion).

Over expressions featuring pièce include:

– pièce à conviction = exhibit
– pièce d’eau = ornamental lake, ornamental pond
– pièce de rechange = spare part
– pièce de résistance = pièce de résistance (main dish, masterpiece; outstanding event or item)
– pièce détachée = spare part, spare
– en pièces détachées = in kit form
– pièce d’identité = ID
– pièce montée = tiered cake

Source: Reverso, Wiktionary

Bants

By Simon

Today I came across word that’s new to me – bants – which, according to the Oxford Dictionaries, means:

Playfully teasing or mocking remarks exchanged with another person or group; banter.

It’s also written bantz, and is an abbreviation of banter, a word of unknown origin which first appeared in writing in 1676 in a play by Thomas D’Urfey called Madam Fickle, and is thought to come from London street slang.

Banter has a number of meanings:

1. To engage in banter or playful conversation.
2. To play or do something amusing.
3. To tease (someone) mildly.
4. To joke about; to ridicule (a trait, habit, etc.).
5. To delude or trick; to play a prank upon.
6. To challenge to a match (US, Southern and Western, colloquial)

Apparently it originally meant “to tease or ridicule, usually in an aggressive manner”, and the banter became more friendly over time.

Sources: Wiktionary, World Wide Words, OneStopEnglish

Are there words with a similar meaning in other languages?