51吃瓜 of the Day
sennachie
noun
Chiefly Scot., Irish. a professional storyteller of family genealogy, history, and legend.
More about sennachie
There are several English spellings, e.g., shanachie, seannachie, for the exotic Irish and Scottish noun meaning 鈥渟toryteller, oral historian, genealogist.鈥� The word in Scots Gaelic is seanachaidh (seanachaidhe in Irish) meaning 鈥渉istorian, antiquarian, chronicler,鈥� from sen 鈥渙ld, ancient鈥� and 肠奴颈蝉 鈥渕atter, affair.鈥� Sen is from Proto-Indo-European sen(o)- 鈥渙ld,鈥� most obvious in Latin senex 鈥渙ld man,鈥� 蝉别苍腻迟耻蝉 鈥渟enate,鈥� and 蝉别苍别肠迟奴蝉 鈥渙ld age.鈥� Senos appears in Greek in the noun 丑茅苍辞蝉 鈥測ear,鈥� and the adjective 丑茅苍辞蝉 鈥渓ast year鈥檚鈥�; and in Baltic (Lithuanian) as 蝉岷絥补蝉 鈥渙ld,鈥� and 蝉岷絥颈蝉 鈥渙ld man.鈥� Sennachie entered English in the 16th century.
how is sennachie used?
… I do not think he could falsify a folk-tale if he tried. At the most he would change it as a few years’ passing from sennachie to sennachie must do perforce.
My schoolfellows like my stories well enough-better at least, on most occasions, than they did the lessons of the master; but, beyond the common ground of enjoyment which these ex-tempore compositions furnished to both the “sennachie” and his auditors, our tracts of amusement lay widely apart.
clavier
noun
any musical instrument having a keyboard, especially a stringed keyboard instrument, as a harpsichord, clavichord, or piano.
More about clavier
English clavier comes from Old French clavier 鈥渒eyholder, keybearer,鈥� as if from Medieval Latin 肠濒腻惫颈腻谤颈耻蝉 (formed from 肠濒腻惫颈蝉 鈥渒ey,鈥� which becomes clef or 肠濒茅 in French, and the common noun suffix -腻谤颈耻蝉, which becomes -ier in Old French). French clavier also meant “a bank or row of keys on a musical instrument, a keyboard,” which is the first sense of the word in English, dating from the early 18th century. German and the other Germanic languages specialized the meaning to 鈥渒eyboard instrument with strings (particularly the clavichord),鈥� which English adopted in the mid-19th century.
how is clavier used?
Herr Gleissner composed twelve songs with clavier accompaniment.
An engraved portrait that a German artist made of Buchinger, in 1710, includes thirteen surrounding vignettes that picture him at tables, bearing his instruments and props, but just one depicts him in action, playing a hammered clavier.
vulgarian
noun
a vulgar person, especially one whose vulgarity is the more conspicuous because of wealth, prominence, or pretensions to good breeding.
More about vulgarian
The Latin noun vulgus (also volgus) meant simply 鈥渃ommon people, general public鈥�; it also meant 鈥渃rowd鈥� and usually had a derogatory sense, but there was nothing of the flashy, tacky nouveau riche in the noun itself or its derivative nouns, adjectives, and verbs, e.g., 惫耻濒驳腻谤别 鈥渢o make available to the public,鈥� 惫耻濒驳腻迟耻蝉 鈥漰opular, common, ordinary,鈥� 惫耻濒驳腻谤颈蝉 鈥渂elonging to the common people, conventional.鈥� The Romans claimed to have invented satire, i.e., the genre did not exist among the Greeks. The Romans also created the (literary) type of the current sense of vulgarian 鈥渁 vulgar person whose vulgarity is the more striking because of wealth, prominence, or pretensions to good breeding.鈥� The first example is Trimalchio, a character in the Satyricon, a Latin novel dating from the mid-first century a.d. written by Gaius Petronius (died ca. 66 a.d.). Trimalchio and most of the Satyricon are familiar nowadays from the movie Fellini Satyricon (1969) by the Italian director Federico Fellini (1920鈥�93). Vulgarian entered English in the early 19th century.
how is vulgarian used?
“Why, he is a perfect vulgarian,” she replied, “and I am astonished at Ethel for allowing him to be so much with her.”
… the vulgarian‘s restless jealousy of the class above him made him, on this score, especially intractable and suspicious.