May 26, 2012
betide \bih-TAHYD\ , verb:
1. To happen to; come to; befall.
2. To happen; come to pass.
“Ill luck betide thee, poor damsel,” said Sancho, “ill luck betide thee!”
– Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote
“The girls’ skirts are measured each week with a dressmaker’s rule,” she would say, “to see that they conform to the length prescribed. Woe betide any girl whose skirt does not.”
– Hilary Mantel, An Experiment in Love
via Dictionary.com.
May 9, 2012
cicatrix \SIK-uh-triks\ , noun:
1. New tissue that forms over a wound.
2. Botany. A scar left by a fallen leaf, seed, etc.
A new relationship can develop. But the cicatrix of the old one remains. And nothing grows on a cicatrix. Nothing grows through it.
– Elizabeth George, Playing for the Ashes
He discriminates also very properly between the cicatrix, which is produced by the healing of wounds which have penetrated the cutis, and those in which the surface only is affected.
– James Moore, “Differtation on Healing of Wounds,” The Analytical Review, Volume 5
via Dictionary.com.
April 12, 2012
macaronic \mak-uh-RON-ik\, adjective:
1. Composed of a mixture of languages.
2. Composed of or characterized by Latin words mixed with vernacular words or non-Latin words given Latin endings.
3. Mixed; jumbled.
noun:
1. Macaronics, macaronic language.
2. A macaronic verse or other piece of writing.
The tradition is even more significant in Folengo’s Italian works and especially in his macaronic writings.
– Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World
The macaronic mode swivels between different languages. I believe Beckett chose French against English for similar reasons to those of Jean Arp in selecting French against German.
– W. D. Redfern, French Laughter: Literary Humour from Diderot to Tournier
The journalistic multiplicity of voices found in the Magazine corresponded with the poetic multi-vocality of Fergusson’s macaronic compositions, texts that combined elements of neo-classical English and vernacular Scots diction.
– Ian Brown, The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature
Macaronic is related to the word macaroni. Specifically, the pasta is named after the Southern Italian dialect maccarone, which was also associated with a mixture of Latin and vernacular languages.
April 4, 2012
March 16, 2012
gasser \GAS-er\, noun:
1. Something that is extraordinarily pleasing or successful, especially a very funny joke.
2. A person or thing that gasses.
“You’re gonna whiff like Reggie Jackson today, pal,” I said. By the third hole, Blind Bob led by seventeen shots. It was a laugher, a gasser. If it were a fight, Big Al would’ve been counted out, taken to the hospital, and killed by Clint Eastwood by now.
– Rick Reilly, Shanks for Nothing
This was very funny indeed, the gasser of all time. When Max announced the name at the briss those thirty-seven years ago, perhaps all the guests, including Dave Raskin, had split a gut or two laughing.
– Ed McBain, The Heckler
via Dictionary.com.
March 6, 2012
Pretending is not just play. Pretending is imagined possibility. Pretending, or acting, is a very valuable life skill and we do it all the time.
Meryl Streep - Barnard Commencement Speech, 2010
March 2, 2012
GOTD – Gift Of The Day
Thanks
January 27, 2012
Just Today
we abandon
seeing and knowing and naming,
and indulge
shadows, darkness, and mystery.
What we find in those shapes
has no name,
why we are moved
has no explanation,
that we are moved
means we are alive.
January 4, 2012
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Misattributed to various people, including Albert Einstein and Mark Twain. The earliest known occurrence, and probable origin, is from a 1981 text from Narcotics Anonymous.
December 13, 2011
November 25, 2011
The fountain I received bubbles eternal
hope and new ideas. I will daily sooth
my soul with gratitude.
November 23, 2011
klover tumblr
