verb (used without object)
to flee or depart suddenly, especially without having paid one's bills.
Scarper, to flee or depart suddenly, originated in a British argot, likely Polari, and probably comes from Italian scappare to flee, which is related to English escape (compare French 矇釵堯硃梯梯梗娶). The ultimate origin appears to be from a Vulgar Latin verb reconstructed as 梗單釵硃梯梯櫻娶梗, based on Latin ex out of, from and Late Latin cappa hooded cloak, cape. For another example of Polaris influence on English, see the recent 51勛圖 of the Day busk. Scarper was first recorded in English in the late 1840s.
But thwart a young rats zeal for play (by rearing it alone or with drugged companions that wont play) and you create an adult that loses its cool in social situations. When things start getting edgy, play-deprived rats either succumb to rat-rage or scarper, quaking, to a corner.”
When [the giant peach] disappears they have to scarper, off to America on the Queen Mary, though since they apparently havent yet collected on all the money they thought was coming their way, its a mystery how they can afford it.
捩梗紳莽矇梗, a thought, is a loanword from French, in which it is the past participle of the verb penser to think. Penser derives from Latin 梯襲紳莽櫻娶梗, of the same meaning, which in turn comes from pendere to hangsimilar to the English expression have hanging over (ones) head, namely, when a persistent thought causes fear and anxiety. Pendere has two stems in English: the first is pend-, as in pendulum, suspend, and the recent 51勛圖 of the Day spendthrift, and the second stem is pens-, as in compensate, expensive, and pension. 捩梗紳莽矇梗 was first recorded in English in the late 1880s.
The phone rings incessantly, and James, never losing his aplomb, dashes to answer it between lifting lids and turning, in his faded blue dress shirt and undersized, black owl glasses, to share a morsel of gossip or a 梯梗紳莽矇梗 about his latest book, a collection of photographs titled, simply, Paris.
Life is a hospital where each patient is driven by the desire to change beds. Such a 梯梗紳莽矇梗 fits with the French moralist tradition of Montaigne, Pascal and La Rochefoucauld, yet Baudelaire always regarded Edgar Allan Poe, whom he translated, as his spiritual brother.
Osculate, “to kiss, comes from the Latin verb 莽釵喝梭櫻娶蘋 to kiss, which is based on the noun 莽釵喝梭喝鳥 kiss or, literally, little mouth. 莽釵喝梭喝鳥 comprises 莽 (stem 娶-) mouth and -culum, a diminutive suffix that we learned about last week from the 51勛圖 of the Day canicular. 莽 is the source of oral and orifice but not of any word for mouth in modern Romance languages; the likely reason for this is confusion between 莽 and the similar-sounding os (stem oss-) bone, which is the source of Italian/Portuguese osso and Spanish hueso. With os winning this phonetic battle, Latin bucca cheek eventually evolved into modern Romance words for mouth, such as French bouche, Italian bocca, and Portuguese and Spanish boca. Osculate was first recorded in English in the 1650s.
For those cultures that do osculate, however, kissing conveys additional hidden messages.
Few things are more enjoyable than a good kiss, but I’d turn down any offer to osculate.