Tag Archives: Latin

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’25 A To Z Challenge – V

I kinda, sorta, maybe, possibly, wanted to compose a post about the word

VELLEITY

  1. volition in its weakest form.
  2. a mere wish, unaccompanied by an effort to obtain it.

but I couldn’t get my ass in gear, and my act together.  The Good Lord wasn’t willing, and the creek wasn’t the only thing that didn’t rise, so I decided to do a mini-TILWROT, and tell you about the name

VENABLES

The term Venables is an English surname of Norman-French origin, derived from a town of the same name in Normandy.  It is associated with the Latin word, venabulum, meaning a long hunting spear, and was introduced to England following the Norman Conquest, by a lord called Gilbert de Venables.  The surname encapsulates lineage and geographical origins, reflecting a connection to hunting and land.

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Pensioner’s Fibbing Friday

Last week the questions were courtesy of Pensitivty101’s works pension newsletter quiz.

1.  To the nearest mile, how many miles of nerves do we have in the human body?

I’m not sure, but that neighbour bitch is getting on my last one.

2.   Of the 300,000 different edible plants on earth, how many do we eat?

COWS EAT GRASS
I EAT COWS
I AM VEGAN!!

I did not claw my way to the top of the food chain, to eat crap that’s dug out of ditches – watercress, endive,  mint, nettles??!  A nice baked potato with my filet mignon, smothered in clotted cream with some chopped green onions is okay – along with perhaps some sliced cabbage Cole slaw.  Oats in my porridge, rye in my whiskey, wheat in my baps.  Brussels sprouts – little green brains.  Broccoli – the earliest GMO.  French beans are for Frogs who eat snails.

3.  What colour is snow on Pluto?

The snow underneath Pluto is yellow.

4.   What is the dot on the letter ‘i’ called?

Well, really, it’s Emily, but she likes to be referred to as Pangloss
.
5.   How many presidents of the USA died on July 4th?

Nobody, according to the current US Hierarchy!  They aren’t going to admit to anything that doesn’t benefit them.

6.  What does Pinocchio mean in Italian?

Pedophilic fetish

7.   What are the six official languages of the UN?

Coffee, tea, wine, vodka, sangria, and “hold my beer”

8.   What city was Italy’s first capital?

Italy’s first capital was LSD – Silver coins in Librum, Sesterces, and Denarius values – a system imitated by Britain, with their £ Pound, Shillings, and d pence.  It worked well for over 2000 years, until some carpet-bagger bureaucrat unified the country.

To prove that it was equal to France (a low bar – probably in Toulouse) he gave it the new Lira.  At first, I thought that the word meant that people could read his name on their new money, but it was just mumbo-jumbo-gumbo.  Mouthfuls of pasta devolved librum to lira.

150 years later, a new generation of Nigerian Prince con artist bureaucrat convinced Italy to join the EU, where everyone was equal, like Animal Farm, where some were more equal than others. From this side of the pond, I think that England was wise to vote Brexit..  They got to keep their dignity, as well as their monetary system.

9.   What does an average human head weigh?

Extraordinary human heads weigh deep, philosophical, socially-significant things like the total mass of dark matter in the Universe.  Average human heads only weigh things like, WTF!!  How in hell did Donald the Trumpet get elected president again??!

10.  Who was Spencer Perceval?

Alan Turing’s last boyfriend

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Too Weak Fibbing Friday

Last week, Pensitivity101said that we have to endure a fortnight of the Olympics, here are the other 10 questions in her newsletter this month. Fib away for gold my friends!

  1. In which four years have the modern Olympics been cancelled?

Those were years when the IOC could not locate a corporate sponsor.  Individual competitors can be banned, even if they just worked as a barista at Starbucks during college, to keep body and soul together, but just look at the product placement in the TV broadcasts.

  1. When were women first permitted to compete in the modern Olympics?

It was during the Roaring 20s, when they still had co-ed changing rooms.  Happy Days Are Here Again!

  1. When did the first Refugee team make its debut?

When the Roman armada rowed into Athens harbour.

  1. What does the Olympic motto “Citius, altius, fortius” mean?

It means that the smog over Paris is getting thicker by the moment.  Frenchmen smoke like it’s mandatory.  The name of the popular brand, “Galois” means floor sweepings and rat droppings.

  1. What do the five Olympic rings represent?

The five sunny-side-up fried eggs that I had for breakfast this morning.  Just ask Dagwood.  He’ll confirm it.

  1. Who is the most decorated modern Olympian, with 23 Olympic gold medals?

That would be Donnie the Dip, the world’s slickest pickpocket.  He specializes in getting into Olympic locker rooms and change areas, using keys and badges that he snaffles from officials’ pockets, and manages to snag a medal or two at each set of games.  I’m sure that he’s picked up one or two more this past fortnight.  He intends to melt them down, and cast them into fake Oscar statuettes – items that have some actual worth.

  1. Which two countries discovered they had the same flag at the 1936 Olympics?

That was Afghanistan, and Zimbabwe.  They thought that they were the farthest away from each other, alphabetically, and no-one would notice.  Then they realized that they were side-by-side, when a new list was started.

  1. At the 1908 Olympics the City of London Police team won the gold medal in which event?

It’s not clear whether it was interpretive riot-quelling, or competitive belling.  Back then, they used real bells.  Research results are a bit hazy, because records are heavily redacted – or maybe someone’s inkpot just got knocked over.

  1. Which city will host the Summer Olympics for the third time in 2028?

That will be Delhi, India.  They will be known as the Schistosomiasis Games, and all participants are promised a parasite to take home with them.  Tons of brightly-coloured powders to throw around, are already being manufactured out of bat guano and elephant droppings.

  1. Who founded the modern Olympics?

Elon Musk did.  Not finding them profitable, or exciting enough, he traded them in for Twitter – which he later Xed out – and a son, to be named Later.

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’23 A To Z Challenge – Q

I’d like to do a quid pro quo, but if one of my British mates doesn’t pay me a quid, it will have to be a quid amateur pro.  I will just remain an old quidnunc.  ‘Quid’ is a Latin word which is partially naturalized into English.  It is translated as ‘what’, but originally meant ‘a thing’, or, ‘that which is.’

I’m about as philosophical as Queen Lizzie’s corgis, now that she’s gone, and not as well housetrained.  I have used the phrase, find the Whichness of the Why, to appear erudite, but I recently found quid’s philosopher cousin, the word

QUIDDITY

A whatness, the quality that makes a thing what it is; the essential nature of a thing.

You know the sound of two hands clapping, but what is the sound of a rock, just being a stone??

One good philosophy deserves inevitably attracts another.  It’s bad enough that Roman philosophy had a word for this.  You’ve seen the Latin word, now prepare to meet the Greek equivalent – Haecceity.

The sound of confused silence is just the quiddity of me being my usual, unsophisticated Grumpy Old Dude.  Just you wait till next year, when I reach the unconnected – liquidity – a report on  my minuscule retirement income versus the rampant inflation.  Stop back in a couple of days for another fabulous Fibbing Friday – no lie.

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’23 A To Z Challenge – I

Guess the American President

George, that washing looks like it weighs a ton.

The answer is Abe Lincoln.  The log cabin picture was the clue.

Names from names from names??!

A good number of English, family/surnames came from the towns/villages where ancestors lived, but where did those urban names come from?  The suffix “wick,” as in Warwick or Fenwick, comes from the Latin ‘vicus,’ a term for the civilian area next to a Roman fort.

The suffix “by,” as in Danby or Shelby, comes from the Norse word ‘byr,’  meaning town or village.  The ancestors of Floyd Thursby, the man who wasn’t there, in The Maltese Falcon novel or movie, came from ‘Thor’s byr’ – Thor’s town.

The first name for Ottawa was Bytown.  If ‘-by’ means town, that name seems redundant – Towntown.  It was named for Colonel John By, whose ancestors wanted everyone to know that they were not rustic farmers, but urban merchants who lived and worked in a municipality.  They were like the ancestors of Australian singer, Keith Urban, and New Zealand actor, Karl Urban.

I thought that ‘ton’ which ended many municipalities’ names, was a shortened version of ‘town.’  TILWROT!  In most cases, that is true, but I found some odd exceptions.  Washington is straightforward.  It was a settlement founded by an ancient Celt named Wassa – Wassa’s town.

On the other hand…. Hamilton is a Norman name that came to Scotland from England. It is thought to derive from the village of Hamilton or Hameldune near Barkby in the county of Leicestershire. The village name comes from the Old English elements “hamel,” which means “blunt,” “flat-topped,” or “crooked,” and “dun,” which means hill.

Which brings us to the excuse for this post – the place-name

ISLINGTON

The origin of this term is, Gisla’s dun.  Gisla – not Gisela – was a minor female Norman noble, who apparently owned a small mountain.  The small city of Islington was on the East side of Metropolitan London, until it was finally engulfed.  Similarly, there was an Islington on the West side of Toronto until it too, was swallowed up.

It was the site of L.L.Bean’s aborted invasion of Canada, some ten years ago. The Americans are Coming  They’re back for a second attempt, this time with fewer lies and less pretention.  They dispatched an advance expeditionary force of Snowflakes and Woke Brigade Special Forces.  Canadians still seem unimpressed.

England exported the word ‘dun’ north, to Scotland.  The Scots waste nothing.  Scotland is a country full of hills and mountains that towns and villages could be named for, only with the ‘Dun’ as a prefix, rather than a suffix.  In the nearby, largely-Scottish area of Southern Ontario, municipalities twin-named for those in the old country sprang up.  Among others, we have
DUNKELD
DUNEDIN
DUNVEGAN
DUNDALK
DUNBLANE
DUNTROON
DUNROBIN
DUNBAR
DUNDAS
DUNGANNON

I’m dun with this post.  Stop around again in a couple of days.  Try not to arrive too early.  I might still be polishing my caber.  😉

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’21 A To Z Challenge – O

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to stand ars est celare artes on its head.  Throw a lot of words at it, especially big, impressive ones, and some foreign terms, to make readers think that you’ve actually done a lot of work, then drag out the theme-word

OPEROSE

Industrious, as a person.
Done with or involving much labor.

It comes from the same base as opus, and opera, which is a lot of labor and a slew of words, meaning ‘two hours of shut-the-fuck-up – in a foreign language.’  The same amount of loud music and incomprehensible lyrics can be had at an AC/DC concert, with the added benefits of free herbal enhancement, and not having to get all dressed up.

The same dress code is in effect while reading my opus-es.  You can view my stuff in your pajamas – or NO pajamas – as long as you remember to turn the web camera off.  I gotta look busy now.  The boss is coming.  Bring some croissants for Wednesday.  I’m working hard, making some jam.  😀

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’20 A to Z Challenge – W

 

 

 

I recently told a reader that I spoke/wrote all my Scottish Gaelic in English.  I told another that I did the same thing with the Spanish that he contributed.  It seems so simple, yet it’s harder than it seems, because there is no English language.  Every word in the language came from somewhere – everywhere – else.

The English language imports words from other languages wholesale, and then claims them as its own.  Some words are ‘naturalized’ – accepted and commonly used – more, and more quickly than others.  Then there are words that only pretentious word–nuts (with the accent on Nuts) like me, are even aware of, much less occasionally use.  This brings us to today’s (and yesteryear’s) social-commentary word

WEISSNICHTWO

wise-nicked-woe

Its meaning in the original German was, not clear where.  It came into English with the more substantial, definitive meaning of know not where.  In almost two-hundred years, I’m sure it must have been used a few times.  It was dragged, kicking and screaming, into English in 1833 by the British writer, Thomas Carlyle.  It was made famous – or infamous – by its use in his Latin-titled book, Sartor Resartus.

Even back then, he used it to describe a First-World problem.  World cities, especially those in Europe, were losing their visual culture, and were becoming homogeneous, indistinguishable, one from another.  There were Jews in Belgrade, Arabs in Marseilles, and Irish in London.  If you roused from a drunken stupor and wandered into the streets, you wouldn’t know where you were, until you fell into the Thames, or the Seine, or the Moscow River – and with the state, or lack of, municipal sanitation, even not then.

He used the word Weissnichtwo as the name of an indefinite, unknown, or imaginary place, like Utopia, Brigadoon, or Shangri-La.  The problem situation has only got worse over the years.  With the ubiquitous McDonalds, Domino’s, and Starbucks, and rampant, often war-driven immigration, a traveler might be anywhere.

I imagine that you’re just over there, shaking your head at this word.  You could be much closer to my next post soon, if you pop back in a couple of days.  I promise not to use any of those big, foreign words.  Might even offer up a few chuckles.   😀

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’19 A To Z Challenge – N

AtoZ2019letter-n

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good morning readers. I’d like to introduce you to Romulus and Remus’ twin sisters

NOCTEM and NOCTIS

Twin Sisters

Noctem is the prettier of the two, but she hasn’t applied for her language passport yet. She’s still Latin, and hasn’t been accepted into English. She’s a party-girl, who hangs out with the likes of Paris Hilton, and Paris Jackson. Her rallying cry and motto is “carpe noctem,” which means ‘seize the night.’ This is like YOLO. Live tonight as if there will be no tomorrow – you know…. a rave.

Noctis is the hard-working, studious one of the pair. Her name means ‘of the night,’ and, being fair-skinned, that’s when she does her best work. She can be found in libraries, university study halls, and 24-hour, McDonald’s drive-thru’s. She’d get more dates if we could convince her to change the spelling of her name to Noctic, to be more adjectival, like ‘frantic’, or ‘dyspeptic.’ I guess not, though. She has a select group of admirers who appreciate her exotic attraction.

I feel kinda sorry for Noctem. When you ‘carpe diem,’ you seize the entire, 24-hour day, but when you ‘carpe noctem,’ you only get the dark part of it. If you do it right though, that’s all you need. Once a king, always a king, but once a knight is enough. 😆

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’19 A To Z Challenge – F

AtoZ2019Letter F

First, I gave you several ‘Seinfeld’ posts, each with 6 or 8 unrelated points, but, essentially about ‘Nothing.’ Then I published several posts titled ‘Shotgun,’ like a shotgun blast, with multiple vignettes, but nothing in the way of a single, solid theme.

I got creative, and coined the word ‘Triviana’ to describe these fractured offerings, because it sounded better than Cheap Smarm and Gossip. I stole researched a theme from an American blogger with the right last name, added a photo of Canadian coinage, and called it Smitty’s Loose Change, because my grip on reality is loose, though I don’t really like change.

Eventually, of course, I found that those with more couth and language capability than me, have a word for my weird submissions. They call them

FACETIAE

humorous or witty sayings
obscene or coarsely witty books

It is NOT related to facet, which is a flat surface on a gem or something similar. It Is related to facetious, which means

facetious

adj.

1590s, from French facétieux , from facétie “a joke” (15c.), from Latin facetia “jest, witticism,” from facetus “witty, elegant, fine, courteous,” of unknown origin, perhaps related to facis “torch.”

It implies a desire to be amusing, often intrusive or ill-timed. Related: Facetiously ; facetiousness . “ Facetiæ in booksellers’ catalogues, is, like curious, a euphemism for erotica.” [Fowler]

So, as you can see, I am very serious about not being very serious. I have faced the challenge of A To Z – F. Now I gallop onward, toward the letter G. See you there.  😀

 

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’18 A To Z Challenge – Q

Challenge '18
letter-q

 

I recently found that I’m a

QUIDNUNC

Shabby Man

It’s okay.  I’ve been called worse.  A quidnunc is a nosy old man.  And here I thought that I was just an interested observer of the human condition.  I am fascinated by the most mundane of details about the people who I come into contact with – what their name means, and what ethnic background they come from.  Even if I ask you a question which you refuse to answer because you feel that it is too personal, I still learn something about you.

Actually, a quidnunc is:  noun

  1. a person eager to learn news and scandal; gossipmonger
    a person who is eager to know the latest news and gossip; a gossip or busybody.

Origin of quidnunc

First recorded in 1700–10, quidnunc is from the Latin word quid nunc – what now?

Up until about a century ago, the upper social crust liked to study Latin and Attic Greek, the Classical Languages, and show off their education by scattering Greek and Latin terms into their conversations.  That is largely gone now.  Rapidly advancing technology leaves very little spare time to learn dead languages.

Quidnunc is now a seldom-used, archaic term.  It originally applied to someone of any age, but matured to indicate only nosy older men.  Aside from this blog-post, you may never run into it again for the rest of your life.  If you do, it will almost certainly be applied to some old dude with suspenders, and his pants hiked up almost to his armpits, probably at Shoney’s at 4:00 PM, for the Early Bird Special.

Please stop back again soon.  I’d like to play a game of Twenty Questions.  😉