Happy Maundy Thursday!

Apparently, the word Maundy is derived from Gospel of John (13:34), where Jesus is cited with ...

Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos

which translates to...

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you

rapt

adj.

1. Deeply moved or delighted; enraptured: listened to the speaker with rapt admiration.
2. Deeply absorbed; engrossed: was rapt in thought all evening.

Word history:

One might be surprised to learn that rapt, a word used in describing states of deep delight or absorption, has a relative with an entirely different emotive force-rape. Now most often used to mean "to force someone to submit to sexual acts," rape once had a much broader application, as it meant "to seize, carry off." In fact, it was often used in positive and nonviolent contexts. From the Middle English period, we have examples of its being used to mean "to carry off to heaven from earth," as in "the visions of seynt poul wan [when] he was rapt in to paradys." As this quotation shows, rapt started out as the past participle of rape. As time went on, rapt became restricted to mental or emotional states, while rape developed a new past participle, raped, and became limited to criminal or violent acts. Source

Peninsula

I serendipitously came across the word peninsula when I serendipitously came across the Marx Brothers. That discovery started in 1989 in Syria...



... were I met a famous Swiss actress. Unfortunately I forgot her name*, however, after my return I went to a production of her company which was based on Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel, a situation comedy radio show starring two of the Marx Brothers, Groucho and Chico. This was my first encounter ever with the Marx Brothers.

I have this habit to buy the playbill, and there I found the reference to this book, on which the play was based:



The book is bilingual. There is both the original and the German interpretation. This really helped, then not all lines really worked in German. It was a page turner.

I then went to a film shop in town where I found two records from the Marx Brothers. After I read them and heard them I finally went to the public library to borrow their first film on video. I had to invite myself to friend because I did neither have got a telly nor a VCR. But it was worth the trouble. That is how I came across the term peninsula.



Nevertheless, I still not satisfied. Since, I still haven't spent a night at the Peninsula.

* my mind does not do names & phone numbers

incumbent

I serendipitously came across incumbent and its quite temporary nature when reading the introduction of a briefing on the electrification of motoring in The Economist issue of September 5th 2009.

In 1995 Joseph Bower and Clayton Christensen, two researchers of the Harvard Business School, invented a new term: “disruptive technology”. This is the innovation that fulfils the requirements of some, but not most, consumers better than the incumbent does. That gives it a toehold, which allows room for improvement and, eventually, dominance. The risk of incumbent firms is that of the proverbial boiling frog. They may not know when to switch from old to new until it is too late.
The example Dr Brower and Dr Christensen used was a nerdy one: computer hard-drives. But unbeknown to them a more familiar one was in the making. The first digital cameras were coming to sale. These were more expensive than film cameras and had a lower resolution. But they brought two advantages. A user could look at a picture immediately after he had taken it. And he could download it onto his computer and send it to his friends.
Fourteen years on, you would struggle to buy a new camera that uses film. Some of leading camera-makers, such as Panasonic, are firms that had little interest in photography when Dr Brower and Dr Christensen published. And en entire industry, the manufacturing and processing of film, is rapidly disappearing.

Then the article switched to cars.

malarkey

Exaggerated or foolish talk, usually intended to deceive: “snookered by a lot of malarkey” (New Republic).

wilting

I'm wilting too. Here right now, humidity is only 56% and the temperature is at 27.9°C/82.2ºF. Foretasted are 34ºC/93.2ºF. Thus I expect even more wilting for the afternoon.

prepone

The Indians introduced the term prepone into the English language. It means the opposite of postpone - although, I've never experienced anything like that in India. Nevertheless, the Indians use it all the time. The world outside the Indian subcontinent is largely unaware of it.

tongue-in-cheek

I so hope it was a tongue-in-cheek statement, when a colleague of mine put this in our coffee room...



... however, I don't think it was one by the maniacs who came up with this poster in the first place.

Corniche

The word corniche comes from the French route à corniche or road on a ledge.

The word corniche typically refers to a road on the side of a cliff or mountain, with the ground rising on one side of the road and falling away on the other.

In Lebanon and Egypt, the word كورنيش typically describes a waterfront promenade usually paralleled by a main road, such as the renowned Corniche in Beirut or like on the picture in Alexandria.

home made

home made is quite a strained expression, however, when it is presented at 30000 feet on an airliner and wrapped in cellophane it is nothing more than a blatant lie.

I'm with child

I'm with child is Toño's favourite expression at the moment. He picked it up watching The Tudors and keeps repeating it like a mantra although the women using it in the TV drama tend to end badly.

Stover

When a homosexual male is attracted to straight males, he's a "Straight Lover" or as an acronym Stover, as Mark just explained in a tweet. How might the stover's prey be called?

Ponce

La vie n'est pas un long fleuve tranquille. As a result of that, Toño has got more than one family name. Of course, he has also different passports made out in the different names. Everything is legal as long as he uses them in an exclusive or manner. The different authorities involved are aware of all the names, nevertheless, this leads to a lot of confusion whenever he is crossing a border.

One of those names is Ponce and when watching the fabulous adaptation of Jake Arnott's The Long Firm by the BBC, this term came up numerous times.

Toño was under the impression that this must be something nice. He was far from pleased when he learned the following:

1. (British, slang) A pimp.
2. (British, pejorative) A posh or effeminate person.

Slicklegging

I'm not going so far as to admit that I participate in slicklegging. I just came serendipitously across slicklegging while watching the fabulous adaptation of Jake Arnott's The Long Firm by the BBC. Here is the according excerpt of that scene from the book:

I suppose he seems fellatio as an expression of democracy. He once confined his conviction that ingesting young & vigorous semen counters the effect of aging. He was quite serious about it. I replied that it was probably the closest he'd ever get to transubstantiation. I'm not adverse to it myself but I usually like to maintain a proper posture when mingling with the masses. Mutual masturbation, I think is the tedious technical term. I hate this modern definitions. Makes everything sound coldly medical rather than deliriously sinful. There's an ancient word that far better describes my pleasure. Slicklegging

According to Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition by Barry Richard Burg, the expression slicklegging does not extend into heterosexual vocabulary.

Pelican Crossing

I serendipitously came across the term pelican crossing in a post by Jae on things he’ll never understand.

The term pelican crossing seems to be a rather British thing. Actually it's wrong. The official name is Pelicon crossing (short for PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled crossing). That is, if a pedestrian wants to cross, he has to press a button and to wait for the tiny green man to appear (the one on the signal not the one from Mars).

The British have an entire zoo related to the possibility of pedestrians being able to cross the road:

• Zebra Crossings, which feature alternating dark and light stripes on the road surface.
• Panda crossing: a zebra crossing which has warning signals (Belisha beacons), but no control signals.
• Puffin crossing, which has the lights on the same side as the pedestrian
• Toucan crossing is a crossing for pedestrians and bicycles
• Pegasus crossing allows horse-riders to cross as well.

pout

I serendipitously came across pout, when following an item shared by Mr.Mac.

mojo

I serendipitously came across mojo on Sylv's blog, who wrote today: My MOJO is soooooooooooooooo definitely back!!

There are basically two meanings. One comes from the Marine Corps world: Originally a concoction of hard liquors designed for the sole purpose of getting drunk. Also used to mean a swaggering approach or smooth talking individual, as in "He's got his MOJO goin'..

I have the slight feeling Sylv does not mean that but personal magnetism or charm.

The term has an interesting etymology:

from Fula
This word originated in Cameroon

If your mojo is working, you lead a charmed life. That's because mojo, in its original sense, is a charm, kept in a cloth bag. Depending on which conjure doctor you go to, the charm can be roots, rats, snakes, lizards, pumpkin seeds, dirt, clay, or steel wool. Those were ingredients mentioned in North Carolina in 1962. Back in the late 1930s, in Memphis, Tennessee, to make a mojo one expert said you would sew a red flannel bag with these ingredients: High John de Conker (a plant known also as Solomon's seal), black lodestone, Adam and Eve root, and violet incense powders. A 1946 account from New Orleans said that the mojo was "the leg bone of a black cat that's been killed in a graveyard at midnight."

If your mojo is working, you have sex appeal. But if someone else touches or even sees your mojo, it can lose its power. That's the explanation of the lyrics in the 1928 blues song: "My rider's got a mojo and she won't let me see.... She's got to fool her daddy, she's got to keep that mojo hid; but papa's got something for to find that mojo with." Written evidence for the word goes back to 1926 in the song title, "My Daddy's Got the Mojo, But I Got The Say-So." Nowadays the word is widely used, often with no reference to a magical cloth bag but simply meaning power, influence, or advantage.

The word is African American. Its origin is uncertain, but it seems probable that mojo ultimately came from Africa. If it did, a good candidate for the source is moco'o, meaning a conjure doctor or person who works magic. That word is from the Fula or Fulfulde language, a member of the Fulani branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Fula is spoken as a native language by two-thirds of a million people in Cameroon, and by four million more in Cameroon as a second language. One other English word that may possibly come from Fula (if not from Mandingo) is yam (1657).

scrummy

I serendipitously came across scrummy when enjoying a comment by Mickle in NZ on my post on Bresaola Chiavennasca.

Etymology 1: blend of scrumptious and yummy

Adjective scrummy (comparative scrummier, superlative scrummiest): Childish term for delicious

Etymology 2: blend of school-run and mummy

Noun scrummy (plural scrummies): (UK, pejorative) (slang) a woman who causes traffic congestion by driving her offspring to and from school.

bespoke

I serendipitously came across bespoke when Toño asked me what it means. Toño was reading a feature in Fantastic Man about Antonio Bracciani.



Antonio Bracciani can always buy ready-to-wear. He does not need bespoke clothes. Unlike the resto of us, Antonio Bracciani is the perfect meridian. Since 14 years he maintains his perfectly 'normal' shape. He is a fit model on which designers test whether their clothes fit an M.

later

I knew later can be used as comparative of late. However, only a few years back, when I started to read Ryan's posts on Boys Are Ugly But So Cute, I learned that it could also be used informally to express goodbye or farewell.

Nevertheless, I had been quite flabbergasted* when I opened André Aciman's novel Call Me By Your Name.



The opening reads:

"Later!" The word, the voice, the attitude.
    I'd never heard anyone use "later" to say goodbye before. It sounded harsh, curt, and dismissive, spoken with the veiled indifference of people who may not care to see or hear from you again.
    It is the first thing I remember about him, and I can hear it still today. Later!
    I shut my eyes, say the word, and I'm back in Italy, so many years ago, walking down the tree-lined driveway, watching him step out of the cab, billowy blue shirt, wide-open collar, sunglasses, straw hat, skin everywhere. suddenly he's shaking my hand, handing me his backpack, removing his suitcase from the trunk of the cab, asking if my father is home.
    This summer's houseguest. Another bore.
    Then, almost without thinking, and with his back already turned to the car, he waves the back of his free hand and utters a careless Later! to another passenger in the car who probably split the fare from the station. No name added, no jest to smooth out the ruffled leave-taking, nothing. His one-word send-off: brisk, bold, and blunted — take your pick, he couldn't be bothered which.
    You watch, I thought, this is how he'll say goodbye to us when time comes. With a gruff, slapdash Later!
    Meanwhile, we'd have to put up with him for six long weeks.
    I was thoroughly intimidated. The unapproachable sort.
    I could grow to like him, though. From rounded chin to rounded heel. Then within days, I would learn to hate him.
    This, the very person whose photo on the application form months earlier had leapt out with promises of instant affinities.

* A word I was taught by Mr.Mac.