Search found 3769 matches
- Tue Aug 13, 2019 9:56 pm
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: stochastic terrorism
- Replies: 5
- Views: 13228
stochastic terrorism
<2019 “In March, a far-right gunman murdered 51 Muslims in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand — and left behind a document describing Muslim immigrants as ‘invaders’ and Trump as ‘a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose.’ And now, this latest massacre in El Paso [[add Dayton]]. ...
- Tue Aug 06, 2019 10:41 pm
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: Damascene conversion
- Replies: 7
- Views: 15696
Re: Damascene conversion
Jim,
Very astute observation! I like it!! For those interested Wikipedia has a discussion at Damascus steel.
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Ken Greenwald – August 6, 2019
Very astute observation! I like it!! For those interested Wikipedia has a discussion at Damascus steel.
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Ken Greenwald – August 6, 2019
- Sun Jul 28, 2019 4:51 pm
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: prelapsarian
- Replies: 2
- Views: 9453
prelapsarian
<2019 “This vision of a comparatively open border and some freedom of travel is increasingly what is meant on the Korean Peninsula by ‘reunification.’ There has been talk of normalized relations and corporate exchange, and Seoul has even floated the notion of a European Union-style confederation. L...
- Sun Jul 14, 2019 6:41 pm
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: Overton window
- Replies: 3
- Views: 10374
Overton window
<2019 “. . . ‘This is a fantasy.’ She [Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren] was talking about the enormous platform she has, now that she’s running for President, to propagate political proposals that she has been thinking about for decades. ‘It’s a moment of being able to talk abou...
- Sun Jul 14, 2019 5:41 pm
- Forum: Miscellaneous
- Topic: Violin, viola.
- Replies: 7
- Views: 18041
Re: Violin, viola.
Hi Bob, I’ve always pronounced it vee-ola . I checked 10 dictionaries and found that 8 of them pronounced it vee-ola . Merriam-Webster regular and unabridged gave vye-ola as an alternate pronunciation. And here is the OED ’s pronunciations. I have always been too lazy to learn or look up their pronu...
- Thu Jun 27, 2019 10:46 pm
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: bijou / bijou strongman
- Replies: 5
- Views: 12668
bijou / bijou strongman
bijou / bijou strongman <2019 “President Trump heaped praise on Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban during his visit to the White House this week, shrugging off concerns about the Central European leader’s increasing authoritarianism. . . . Sitting next to Orban must have ‘stoked a jealous rage in...
- Thu May 16, 2019 10:10 pm
- Forum: No, wait. Don't tell me
- Topic: A duck walks into a drug store...
- Replies: 1
- Views: 12085
Re: A duck walks into a drug store...
John,
Good one!!
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Ken - May 16, 2019
Good one!!

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Ken - May 16, 2019
- Sun May 12, 2019 2:50 am
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: heterodox
- Replies: 4
- Views: 11600
Re: heterodox
I was surprised to see that. Wiki and Urban Dictionary aren't the most reliable sources...usually. They're not the most reliable sources, but in this instance they were the only dictionary sources. That may have been the first time I ever quoted the Urban Dictionary . :( ___________________ Ken — M...
- Sat May 11, 2019 7:21 pm
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: heterodox
- Replies: 4
- Views: 11600
Re: heterodox
John, You’re right. The antonym of the prefix ‘ortho-‘ is ‘homo-‘ For example, “homogenous vs. heterogenous.” So I agree that it seems the straightforward antonym of ‘heterodox’ should be ‘homodox.’ The path to getting the antonym of ‘heterodox’ to be the word ‘orthodox’, however, is a bit more circ...
- Fri May 10, 2019 7:11 pm
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: heterodox
- Replies: 4
- Views: 11600
heterodox
<2019 “Recently, under the somewhat unlikely inspiration of Elizabeth Warren [U.S. Senator], some conservatives have revived an old debate: Did millions of women entering the work force actually make families worse off? In her lost days as a heterodox public intellectual, Warren made the case that ...
- Thu May 02, 2019 6:15 pm
- Forum: Usage and Writing
- Topic: Talking in the abstract.
- Replies: 3
- Views: 6037
Re: Talking in the abstract.
Talking in the abstract is an idiom that means to be talking in a general way, without referring to a particular real person, thing or situation. So when Mrs May said "no deal is better than a bad deal" she was implying that in general she thought that was true and didn't want people to think that ...
- Tue Apr 30, 2019 7:39 pm
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: legitimate (the verb)
- Replies: 3
- Views: 10690
Re: legitimate (the verb)
Phil,
Your comments have clarified the distinction between 1 and 3 in my mind. Thanks.
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Ken - April 30, 2019
Your comments have clarified the distinction between 1 and 3 in my mind. Thanks.
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Ken - April 30, 2019
- Mon Apr 29, 2019 9:36 pm
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: legitimate (the verb)
- Replies: 3
- Views: 10690
legitimate (the verb)
In an interesting article titled ‘The Rich Kid Revolutionaries: Children of privilege, like Abigail Disney, are taking a moral stand against inequality,’ I came across a word that I never knew could be used as a verb: <2019 “Immigrants who ‘make it’ are often seen to exemplify the American dream of ...
- Thu Apr 25, 2019 8:50 pm
- Forum: Usage and Writing
- Topic: American English versus British English terms for trash / garbage / rubbish
- Replies: 3
- Views: 6396
Re: American English versus British English terms for trash / garbage / rubbish
Thanks Erik. Interesting!
You have USA: trash truck
I have never heard the expression 'trash truck' used. I've always heard and used 'garbage truck.'
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Ken - April 25, 2019
You have USA: trash truck
I have never heard the expression 'trash truck' used. I've always heard and used 'garbage truck.'
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Ken - April 25, 2019
- Thu Apr 25, 2019 7:40 pm
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: remove (the noun)
- Replies: 6
- Views: 12769
remove (the noun)
Tintoretto [[famed artist of Renaissance Venice]] didn’t idealize his godly or saintly subjects and set them at a remove . He put us nose-close to figures in swirling, cinematic motion; “his high-wire scenes dare us to look away.”— The Week , 26 April, page 23 A few years back when I wrote the post...