51吃瓜 of the Day
More about bombinate
The verb bombinate comes from Latin 产辞尘产颈苍腻谤别 鈥渢o buzz,鈥� a possible variant or corruption of 产辞尘产颈濒腻谤别, 产辞尘产颈迟腻谤别, or 产辞尘产墨谤别 鈥渢o buzz, hum,鈥� all derivatives of the noun bombus 鈥渁 buzzing, humming.鈥� The Latin verbs and noun ultimately come from Greek 产贸尘产辞蝉 鈥渁 humming, buzzing鈥� and its various derivative verbs. The specific form 产辞尘产颈苍腻谤别 is apparently a coinage by the French satirist Fran莽ois Rabelais (c1494鈥�1553) in a Renaissance Latin parody of scholastic Latin in the Middle Ages. Bombinate entered English in the second half of the 19th century.
how is bombinate used?
… and then we were off, climbing rapidly to a couple of thousand feet, then making course west, bombinating over the voes (small fjords) and sounds that fretwork the Shetland coastline.
As Olga’s rosy soul … bombinates in the damp dark at the bright window of my room, comfortably Krug returns unto the bosom of his maker.
guddle
verb
to catch (fish) by groping with the hands, as under rocks or along a riverbank.
More about guddle
The verb guddle 鈥渢o catch (fish) by groping with the hands, as under rocks or along a riverbank鈥� is a Scottish word with no known etymology. Guddle was used by several Scots writers, the most popular being Robert Louis Stevenson. Guddle entered English in the first half of the 19th century.
how is guddle used?
Tam once more resumed his attempt to guddle a trout ….
They have to learn how to catch frogs and how to skin them, for the outside is unpalatable; how to guddle for trout and eels; how to detect the plaice in the shallow waters of the bay, hidden in or against the sand, with only their eyes showing.
sesquipedalian
adjective
given to using long words.
More about sesquipedalian
Sesquipedalian comes directly from the Latin adjective 蝉别蝉辩耻颈辫别诲腻濒颈蝉 鈥渉aving a (linear or square) measure of one and a half (Roman) feet.鈥� Unsurprisingly, 蝉别蝉辩耻颈辫别诲腻濒颈蝉 is used in farming, military fortifications, architecture, and construction. The poet Horace (65鈥�8 b.c.) uses the phrase 蝉别蝉辩耻颈辫别诲腻濒颈补 verba 鈥渨ords a foot and a half long鈥� in his Ars Poetica (c19鈥�18 b.c.), a poem in which Horace sets forth his ideas on 鈥減oetic art.鈥� It is from Horace鈥檚 phrase that English has its only meaning 鈥渉aving or using very long words.鈥� The first part of 蝉别蝉辩耻颈辫别诲腻濒颈蝉 is the adverb and prefix sesqui, sesque 鈥渙ne and a half times,鈥� from an earlier, unrecorded sem(i)que, a contraction of 蝉脓尘颈蝉 鈥渙ne half, a half more鈥� and the generalizing particle –que. 笔别诲腻濒颈蝉 is easy: it鈥檚 an adjective meaning 鈥渕easuring a foot, a foot long, wide, deep, etc.,鈥� a derivative of the noun 辫脓蝉 (inflectional stem ped-) 鈥渇oot鈥�; –腻濒颈蝉 is a very common adjective suffix in Latin, the source of the English adjective suffix –al. Sesquipedalian entered English in the 17th century.
how is sesquipedalian used?
Because my father was a professor, I early picked up a sesquipedalian way of speaking (which has been defined as a tendency to use words like “sesquipedalian“).
The Players’ was so successful that Moss Empires invited Sachs to undertake a long tour of major variety theatres, resulting in The Good Old Days, a music hall show which ran on BBC Television from 1953 to 1983 with Sachs as its sesquipedalian Chairman.