51吃瓜 of the Day
More about foison
The English noun foison is archaic in standard English, but it still occurs in Scottish English. Foison is a regular French phonetic development from the Vulgar Latin noun 蹿耻蝉颈艒 (inflectional stem 蹿耻蝉颈艒n-), equivalent to the very rare Late Latin 蹿奴蝉颈艒 (stem 蹿奴蝉颈艒n-) 鈥渁 pouring out, effusion, melting (in metallurgy),鈥� a derivative of the verb fundere 鈥渢o pour, pour out, shed.鈥� Foison came into English via Old French; its doublet, the English noun fusion, entered English straight from Latin in the mid-16th century. Foison entered English in the first half of the 14th century.
how is foison used?
Then delicacies and dainties were delivered to the guests, / Fresh food in foison, such freight of full dishes …
postprandial
adjective
after a meal, especially after dinner: postprandial oratory; a postprandial brandy.
More about postprandial
The Latin noun prandium means 鈥渕idday meal, lunch, luncheon鈥�; the verb 辫谤补苍诲脓谤别 鈥渢o have breakfast or lunch鈥� is a derivative of prandium. There is no Latin adjective 辫谤补苍诲颈腻濒颈蝉 鈥減ertaining to breakfast or lunch,鈥� let alone the adjectives pre辫谤补苍诲颈腻濒颈蝉 (prae辫谤补苍诲颈腻濒颈蝉) or post辫谤补苍诲颈腻濒颈蝉. There is, however, the Late Latin noun prandiculum 鈥渂reakfast,鈥� which is found only in lexicographical writings–a salutary warning! Postprandial is used in medicine in its literal meaning 鈥渄one or happening after a meal.鈥� Apart from medical usage postprandial is a jocular word, as in this example from George Bernard Shaw, 鈥淭he whole thing was mere postprandial brag, war-game and club-fender gossip鈥� (1917). Postprandial entered English in the first half of the 19th century.
how is postprandial used?
Most people seem to switch on the game a few minutes after having wolfed down their fifth slice of pie, but if you do that, there鈥檚 the cognitive dissonance of watching professional athletes and cheerleaders vigorously moving their bodies while your own body lies on the couch in a state of postprandial lethargy and bloat.
The postprandial conversation goes on until dawn.
More about stargazer
Stargazer originally had a very derogatory meaning. The word first appears in English in the Geneva Bible, an English translation that appeared between 1557 and 1560. In Isaiah 47:13 in the King James Version, differing only slightly from the earlier Geneva Bible, the text reads 鈥淭hou [i.e. the 鈥渧irgin daughter of Babylon鈥漖 art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.鈥� The text is scornful of idolatrous customs. In Daniel Defoe鈥檚 A system of magick (1727), we still see the same contemptuous usage as in the Geneva Bible but somewhat qualified to mean astronomer, 鈥淭he Eminent Dr. H鈥斺�� may be call’d the King’s Astronomer, or as the more Eminent Mr. Flamstead usually call’d himself, the King’s Star-gazer.鈥� It is only in the first half of the 19th century that stargazer acquires the benign sense of amateur astronomer, “The mere star-gazer who is an Astronomer simply in the respect that he is the owner of a telescope.鈥� Stargazer in the sense 鈥渄aydreamer, impractical idealist鈥� first occurs in Emerson鈥檚 Transcendentalist, 鈥淭he materialist..mocks at..star-gazers and dreamers.鈥�
how is stargazer used?
The materialist, secure in the certainty of sensation, mocks at fine-spun theories, at star-gazers and dreamers, and believes that his life is solid,
He was a stargazer in both senses. … a man who questioned givens, resisted the forces of fate and tradition, saw himself as part of the picture.