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Post by marysgurl on Sept 6, 2005 21:36:30 GMT -5
Ok....i love using my new 11th edition Merriam-Webster, love learning new words, love to pick on ilb's spelling .....this thread is for such grammatical goings-on..... I'll start it with something a friend showed me....the word of the day..... Confucius say, "too much verbal reposte make grasshopper very weary".
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Post by quettalee on Sept 6, 2005 22:43:00 GMT -5
whheewww!!! meeeeeee toooooo
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Post by marysgurl on Sept 7, 2005 1:43:35 GMT -5
ok....not a word i would use ever, but it is a brand new word for me! :grin2:
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Post by marysgurl on Sept 7, 2005 23:08:06 GMT -5
Topic: Between and among
Once again, we’ve been chastised for our use of the word between. Specifically, a number of correspondents wrote in to remind us of the so-called rule that between can be used only of two items; among, they say, must be used for more than two.
We’d like to believe we’re among friends, so we’ll pass along some words of support from James A.H. Murray, original editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. In the considered opinion of that careful observer of how English is actually used, between is “… the only word available to express the relation of a thing to many surrounding things severally and individually,” while “…‘among’ express[es] a relation to them collectively and vaguely.”
In fact, between is especially appropriate when denoting a one-to-one relationship, regardless of the number of items specified (or even when the number is unspecified). No native speaker of English would object to such wording as “between you, me, and the lamppost,” for instance, or even “pausing between every sentence to collect her thoughts.”
So where did this popular belief about between being restricted to two items originate? In the etymology-is-destiny line of thinking. But although between does indeed have an ancestor in the word two, that truth has never determined its usage.
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katmandu
Kenin
kenin
Don't Mess With Me, I Bite! =D
Posts: 2,803
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Post by katmandu on Sept 7, 2005 23:14:00 GMT -5
Agree entirely with that .............................
I think.
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Post by marysgurl on Sept 9, 2005 7:51:17 GMT -5
The Word of the Day for September 9 is: thaumaturgy • \THAW-muh-ter-jee\ • noun : the performance of miracles; specifically : magic Example sentence: In J.K. Rowling's debut novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry learns to perform feats of thaumaturgy at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Did you know? The magic of "thaumaturgy" is miraculous. The word, from a Greek word meaning "miracle working," is applicable to any performance of miracles, especially by incantation. It can also be used of things that merely seem miraculous and unexplainable, like the thaumaturgy of a motion picture's illusions (aka "movie magic"), or the thaumaturgy at work in an athletic team's "miracle" comeback. In addition to "thaumaturgy," we also have "thaumaturge" and "thaumaturgist," both of which mean "a performer of miracles" or "a magician," and the adjective "thaumaturgic," meaning "performing miracles" or "of, relating to, or dependent on thaumaturgy." don't think i have ever heard this word....don't think i'll ever use this word!! (but at least i'll know it if i ever wind up on jeopardy)
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Post by marysgurl on Sept 10, 2005 21:57:32 GMT -5
Topic: Satchmo’s scat
Although he himself was never certain of the exact date, Louis Armstrong scholars have established that the great jazz musician was probably born on August 4, 1901.
Today we celebrate the man credited with, as one critic put it, “transforming jazz from a rough regional dance music into a popular art form.” In addition to using his trumpet to carve out a place for the jazz solo, Armstrong—nicknamed Satchmo— also helped popularize scat.
Scat names “jazz singing with nonsense syllables”; that name first appeared in print in 1929, a few years after Armstrong famously incorporated scat in his Heebie-Jeebies record. Like the word jazz itself, the origin of scat remains unknown, but we can tell you how Satchmo came by that nickname.
You can thank his big mouth. Louis Armstrong’s impressively large mouth facilitated a superb embouchure—that’s the term for a musician’s positioning and use of the lips, tongue, and teeth around a wind instrument. It also inspired the nickname Satchelmouth, abbreviated to Satchmo.
Although much of the public thinks of Armstrong as Satchmo, friends also knew him as Pops, the trumpeter’s usual form of address to fellow musicians. Satchmo made an exception for Pops Foster, however; that bassist was always known to Armstrong (and only Armstrong) by his given name, George
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Post by marysgurl on Sept 10, 2005 22:08:28 GMT -5
"quick refresh" of the day.....
The semicolon consists of two parts: on top is the dot of the colon; directly below that is a comma. The blended look of the semicolon is matched by that mark’s multiple functions: depending on context, the semicolon acts as a colon, a comma, or a period.
When used the same way as the period, the semicolon signals the end of a complete clause, or it separates related independent clauses joined without a coordinating conjunction. When used as a higher–level comma, the semicolon separates long or complex elements in a series. And when the semicolon functions as a colon, it signals that the rest of the sentence is loosely related to the first part, without (like the colon) implying that what follows serves to exemplify, amplify, or describe.
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Post by marysgurl on Sept 11, 2005 13:38:37 GMT -5
Topic: Titanic and Carpathia
Twenty years ago this month, early in the morning of September 1, 1985, scientists aboard the Knorr research vessel under the direction of Doctor Robert Ballard located the hulk of the Titanic.
The discovery—which had seemed as doomed as the ocean liner, lost undersea for more than seven decades—captured the attention of the public and received plenty of press. Fifteen years after the Titanic was discovered, another underwater hulk was located: the Carpathia, the rescue ship that had saved the seven hundred survivors and was itself sunk during the first world war.
The name Carpathia is less-well-known than that of the Titanic. Carpathia is named for a region in Central Europe; unlike the Titanic, the Carpathia was built for second and third class passengers.
Any naming irony belongs solidly to the name Titanic. The Titans of mythology were giants who ruled the earth; the word titan came to name “one who stands out for greatness of achievement.”
As the satirical magazine The Onion put it in its own made-up telegram of the news of the sinking (in a news story headlined “World’s Biggest Metaphor Hits Ice-berg”): “Titanic struck by icy representation of nature’s supremacy STOP insufficient lifeboats due to pompous certainty in man’s infallibility STOP Microcosm of larger society STOP.”
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Post by marysgurl on Sept 11, 2005 23:22:01 GMT -5
When the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary put out a call during the late 19th century pleading for "men of letters" to provide help with their mammoth undertaking, hundreds of responses came forth. Some helpers, like Dr. W.C. Minor, provided literally thousands of entries to the editors. But Minor, an American expatriate in England and a Civil War veteran, was actually a certified lunatic who turned in his dictionary entries from the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.
Simon Winchester has produced a mesmerizing coda to the deeply troubled Minor's life, a life that in one sense began with the senseless murder of an innocent British brewery worker that the deluded Minor believed was an assassin sent by one of his numerous "enemies." Winchester also paints a rich portrait of the OED's leading light, Professor James Murray, who spent more than 40 years of his life on a project he would not see completed in his lifetime. Winchester traces the origins of the drive to create a "Big Dictionary" down through Murray and far back into the past; the result is a fascinating compact history of the English language (albeit admittedly more interesting to linguistics enthusiasts than historians or true crime buffs). That Murray and Minor, whose lives took such wildly disparate turns yet were united in their fierce love of language, were able to view one another as peers and foster a warm friendship is just one of the delicately turned subplots of this compelling book.
The compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary, 70 years in the making, was an intellectually heroic feat with a twist worthy of the greatest mystery fiction: one of its most valuable contributors was a criminally insane American physician, locked up in an English asylum for murder. British stage actor Simon Jones leads us through this uncommon meeting of minds (the other belonging to self-educated dictionary editor James Murray) at full gallop. Ultimately, it's hard to say which is more remarkable: the facts of this amazingly well-researched story, or the sound of author Simon Winchester's erudite prose. Jones's reading smoothly transports listeners to the 19th century, reminding us why so many brilliant people obsessively set out to catalogue the English language.
"The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary"..............have you read this, p?? my manager recommended it last week....sounded like your kind of reading...
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Post by Joxcee on Sept 12, 2005 18:56:48 GMT -5
There is a book called Futility: Or The Wreck of the Titan, which is based on a dream the writer had about a sinking ship. T-i-t-a-n were the only letters sticking up out of the water in the writers dream, and it is believed that the book is about the Titanic.
[url=www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2004-35%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=%22Futility%3A+Or+The+Wreck+of+the+Titan%22%2BMorgan+Robertson%2BTitanic]"Futility: Or The Wreck of the Titan" +Morgan Robertson+Titanic
[/url] Read The Book HereEncyclopedia Titanica[/font][/size] [/center]
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Post by marysgurl on Sept 12, 2005 20:10:10 GMT -5
cool, jox!....i'll look at this more in the morning.....when i get home.....from work....
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Post by Joxcee on Sept 12, 2005 20:23:27 GMT -5
Okie Dokie... Gonna go dry off now.
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Post by marysgurl on Sept 13, 2005 8:16:33 GMT -5
Topic: Miss Manners
A lady’s age is not up for public discussion, but today Miss Manners—known to her intimates as Judith Martin—celebrates a birthday.
For more than a quarter century, Miss Manners has been advising gentle readers that etiquette is the ticket allowing smooth passage through modern life. Semantically, that makes sense: the French etiquette literally means ticket; etiquette itself is defined as “the conduct or procedure required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be observed in social or official life.”
In a published interview, Miss Manners was asked if she believes a link exists between manners and morality. Her response? “The connection between morality and manners is a bit like the one between law and etiquette: The law deals with what affects life, limb, and property; etiquette is supposed to deal with the less lethal aspects of behavior that interfere with the community good. Chaperones don’t enforce morality,” she points out ; “they force immorality to be discreet. The moral foundation to manners,” she concludes, “is that we ought to recognize the existence and rights of other people.”
Appropriately, the word mores—with its modern sense synonymous with habits or manners—shares the same Latin root as morality: mos, meaning “custom.”
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Post by marysgurl on Sept 13, 2005 8:24:11 GMT -5
thanks again, jox....read the first chapter...did you read?
btw...that was a big baby!!
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Post by Joxcee on Sept 13, 2005 17:58:53 GMT -5
You're very welcome... nopers I haven't read it.
If you're talking about my new niece, then yeppers she was a big baby. No wonder it took all day for her to be born, she didn't have any room to turn around in. lmao
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Post by gams on Sept 13, 2005 21:06:32 GMT -5
Marysgurl, you have totally outdone yourself with this thread; the information and tidbits here exactly the kind of stuff I love.
A love of semicolons? Gotta pick up a book titled, "Eats Shoots and Leaves". I forgot the author, (I can look it up if you want), but she is British, and the entire book is a look at punctuation; or more appropriately - today's lack of proper punctuation, and is written in the fabulously dry humor the British have. Both hilarious and entertaining, and amazingly between peals of laughter, I actually could see straight enough to learn something. Strange that a book about punctuation could make the best sellers list, but it did.
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Post by Joxcee on Sept 13, 2005 21:13:23 GMT -5
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Post by quettalee on Sept 13, 2005 21:33:08 GMT -5
ok... i'm curious enough to get the book and see what it's all about.
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Post by marysgurl on Sept 14, 2005 7:38:23 GMT -5
thanks for the nod on the book, p....& i'm glad you like the thread as much as i enjoy doing the research...so much to learn in one short lifetime!
Topic: Stonewalling
In the early morning hours of late June in 1969, the New York City police made the first in a series of several late-night raids on Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn. As students of civil rights remember, this wasn’t just another raid on a gay bar; the patrons stood their ground, and the modern gay rights movement was born under the name Stonewall Rebellion.
Students of lexicography may wonder if the senses of stonewall meaning “to be uncooperative, obstructive, or evasive” and “to refuse to comply or cooperate with” date to 1969. No, they don’t—the verb stonewall has been around since the late 1880s—but there is no doubt the resistance at Stonewall helped that verb become firmly entrenched in our lexicon.
Students of civil rights and lexicography can move over to make room for history students. They report Confederate General Thomas Jackson earned the nickname Stonewall by standing tall at Manassas (the first Battle at Bull Run) in the early days of the Civil War.
History students also know the 20th-century president who did his part—admittedly unwittingly—to bring stonewall to the people. Four years after the Stonewall Rebellion, Richard Nixon was recorded on tape ordering his men to stonewall any investigation into the Watergate break-in and cover-up.
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