51吃瓜

More about shivaree

The etymology of shivaree is obscure. Most authorities consider it to be a Mississippi Valley French alteration (or a vulgar corruption) of French charivari, a noun of obscure origin, said to be from Late Latin 肠补谤墨产补谤颈补 鈥渉eadache,鈥� from Greek 办补谤脓产补谤铆补, equivalent to 办补谤脓-, a combining form of 办谩谤腻, 办谩谤脓 鈥渉ead,鈥� and the noun suffix –产补谤铆补 鈥渉eaviness鈥� (from 产补谤媒蝉 鈥渉eavy鈥� and the abstract noun suffix –铆补). Supposedly such a racket would give someone a headache.

Other authorities claim that shivaree comes from French chez vous 鈥渁t your home鈥� and list many variants in spelling (and presumably in pronunciation): chevaux, cheveaux, chev-ho, chivoo, shavoo, sheave-o, sheavo, sheevo, shevoo, shivaree, shivaroo, shiveree, shiverree, shivoe.

Vulgar or not,聽shivaree was noble enough for Mark Twain to use it (in that spelling) in A Tramp Abroad (1880): “… she turned on all the horrors of the 鈥楤attle of Prague,鈥� that venerable shivaree, and waded chin deep in the blood of the slain.鈥� Charivari entered English in the first half of the 19th century. Shivaree seems to have entered English in 1875.

More about fascicle

The noun fascicle 鈥渁 bunch, bundle鈥� has always been a technical term, restricted to botany and anatomy. Even in its publishing sense, 鈥渁 section of a book or set of books published in installments as separate pamphlets or volumes,鈥� fascicle is a technical term. Fascicle comes from Latin fasciculus (also the source of fascicule) 鈥渁 small bundle, packet, parcel,鈥� a diminutive of the noun fascis 鈥渁 bundle (e.g., of sticks, wood, books). The 蹿补蝉肠脓蝉, the plural of fascis, were the bundle of rods about five feet long, bound by red leather bands around an ax that in Republican times was used as an instrument of execution. The 蹿补蝉肠脓蝉 were the primary visible symbol of a higher Roman magistrate鈥檚 power and authority. They were carried by lictors: twelve 蹿补蝉肠脓蝉 for consuls and proconsuls (and for kings in the regal period); six 蹿补蝉肠脓蝉 for praetors and Masters of the Horse; and twenty-four 蹿补蝉肠脓蝉 for dictators. Fascis or 蹿补蝉肠脓蝉 becomes fascio in Italian, meaning 鈥渂undle of sticks.鈥� The Roman 蹿补蝉肠脓蝉 were adopted as the symbol of the Partito Nazionale Fascista (鈥淣ational Fascist Party鈥�) organized by Benito Mussolini in 1919, the same year as the appearance of the English noun fascists. Fascicle entered English in the 17th century.

More about cat's-paw

In English cat’s-paw originally meant 鈥渁 person used to serve the purposes of another; tool.鈥� The term comes from a Le Singe et le Chat, 鈥淭he Monkey and the Cat,鈥� a fable by Jean de La Fontaine (1621鈥�1695), the French poet and collector of fairy tales, in which a monkey persuades a cat to pull chestnuts out of hot coals that the chestnuts are roasting in and promises to share the chestnuts with the cat. The cat scoops the chestnuts one by one out of the coals, burning his paw in the process, while the monkey eats up the chestnuts. A maid enters the room, stopping all the action, and the cat gets nothing for its pains. Both nautical senses, 鈥渁 light breeze on the surface of the water鈥� and “a kind of knot made in the bight of a rope,鈥� date from the second half of the 18th century. Cat’s-paw entered English in the second half of the 17th century.