Krinklewords @krinkle@polyglot.city
- Fluent
- Dutch (NL), English (EN)
- Learning
- German (DE)
- Basic
- Bangla (BD), Frysian (FY)
- Photo
- Nick Amoscato (CC BY 2.0). "Flying books in San Francisco"
Dutch geek in London, interested in linguistics. He/him.
This is where I talk about words, usually once or twice a week.
Tech alt: @krinkle
Joined Jun 2020
Pinned toot
Word 15:
"""
battery (noun)
The unlawful striking of a person.
A collection of heavy artillery.
A device storing energy to convert to power.
"""
Could these be related?
"battery" came from Old French, and Latin "battuo" meaning to beat or hit. (e.g. in law, assault and battery).
This Latin root also entered English as "batter" (mixture in baking), and "batterie" (apparent leg-hitting in dancing).
Next: What about that heavy artillery?
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/battery
#english #word #linguistics
Krinklewords
boosted
Should it be scone like zone or scone like gone?
Watch us evolve as we fill important language gaps, recognise issues, and innovate ourselves:
1965: dork, mockumentary, beta-blocker
1975: person-hour, string cheese, GPS
1985: bi-curious, "N-word", microbrew
1995: genderqueer, misgender, wiki
2000: carbon footprint, overshare, blogosphere
2005: manscaping, net neutrality, flash mob, microblogging
2010: dumpster fire, mansplain, crowdsourcing, makerspace
2015: aphantasia, deadname, hard pass, ASMR
#linguistics #english https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/2015
Watch society collapse, through the lens of Merriam-Webster's Time Traveler:
by 1965: remote access.
by 1975: mobile phone, string cheese, kneecapping.
by 1985: boy band, crack house, adware.
by 1995: auto-tune, page view, click-through, anti-spam.
by 2000: K-pop, climate change denial, deep state.
by 2005: selfie, sexting, ransomware, truther, unfriend.
by 2010: Instagram, filter bubble, subtweet, fat-shame, anti-vaxxer.
#linguistics #english https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/2010
Krinklewords
boosted
Petition to call all wives queens again #etymology #linguistics
"peruse" is contranym, one of those rare words that has skewed over time to have two opposing meanings:
1. to study carefully, or read completely.
2. to browse, skim, or glance over.
A similar shift ocurred with the word "scan", which means these two words make a synonym pair, including along their contradictory axis. 🤯
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/peruse
#english #word #linguistics
Word 18:
"""
peruse
(verb) to examine or consider with care; to read completely; to look over casually;
"""
Holmes while exposing an art gallery as a front organization, in Elementary:
> Holmes: Uh, do you mind if we peruse? Huge fans of the neo-deconceptualists.
> Fabiana: Sure. - Holmes: Thank you. […]
> Watson: Neo-deconceptualists? Not a thing!
> Holmes: I know, but don't tell Fabiana, it might crush her..
Word 17:
"""
carry a tune (verb, idiomatic)
To sing or otherwise produce music with accurate pitch.
To sing well.
"""
The opposite (can't carry a tune) means someone can't sing a the melody very well, oft with humorous exaggeration applied. Such as in this scene, from The Time Traveler's Wife:
> Henry: I can't sing, […] not like you.
> Henry: Dad says I can't carry a tune in a wheelbarrow.
> Mom: Dad was joking. I love your voice. We both love your voice.
Krinklewords
boosted
Trying to order coffee with oat milk or without milk is the new "Who's on first?"
Krinklewords
boosted
A British solicitor (lawyer) is tidying up the affairs of a wealthy businessman who had left lots of money but no one knew what happened to his heirs in a distant american branch of the family. The solicitor spends days researching, finds the cousin, flies across the Atlantic, takes a taxi to the guy's house in his suit and bowler hat. Gets out of the taxi, walks up to the house to ring the bell -- there's a sign "no solicitors". Stops a beat, turns around and gets back in the taxi.
The end.
"The bored boarder boarding up the boarder, for boarder boarders on the border."
(It's okay, I didn't get each word either..)
From a sketch written by Julie Nolke:
https://youtu.be/Rus_3VjMf0s
#english #word
Word 16:
????????
An adjective pronounced /ə-ˈpȯld/, akin to "ehpault".
Example: "Irene was ???????? by the proposal."
Let's try to look this up:
- ⚠️ uphold – should've been upheld? 🤔 or...
- ❌ uphauled? – to haul, U-Haul? 🚚
- ❌ uphaul
- ❌ apaul – Hi Paul! 👋
- ❌ apauled
- ❌ appauld – Did you mean "applaud"?
- ❌ apoled
- ❌ appolled
- 🛎 APPALLED 🎉
"""
appalled (adjective)
- affected by feelings of shock, dismay, or dread.
- shocked, horrified by something unpleasant.
"""
Word 15 (continued, end):
In the 1700s, Benjamin Franklin experimented with electricity. He hooked up several Leyden jars, to accumulate static electricity in a glass bottle. He referred to these as a "battery", consisting of "eleven panes [of] glass, armed with thin leaden plates".
In review:
- to beat
-> hit with heavy artillery
-> set of idle artillery
-> set of anything
-> set of Leyden jars storing energy
-> anything storing energy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_battery
#english #word #linguistics
Word 15 (continued)
"battery" historically meant heavy artillery in action – the kind that blows the physical crap out of its target.
Over time it came to include *idle* collections of artillery (canon battery), and can now even mean *any* set of things (battery of tests, battery of journalists).
Though, searching "canon batteries" today yields little about projectile shooting, and more of shooting photography. Alas, I digress.
Next: The energy storage device.
Word 15:
"""
battery (noun)
The unlawful striking of a person.
A collection of heavy artillery.
A device storing energy to convert to power.
"""
Could these be related?
"battery" came from Old French, and Latin "battuo" meaning to beat or hit. (e.g. in law, assault and battery).
This Latin root also entered English as "batter" (mixture in baking), and "batterie" (apparent leg-hitting in dancing).
Next: What about that heavy artillery?
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/battery
#english #word #linguistics
Word 14:
"""
precipice
(noun) A very steep cliff; A crag; An overhanging mass of rock.
(noun) The brink of a dangerous situation.
From Latin "praecipitium" (a steep place).
"""
This is oft used poetically for dramatic effect. Albeit cliché, I still enjoy its use. From The Day The Earth Stood Still (film):
> It's only on the brink of destruction that humanity can find the will to change, only at the precipice do we evolve!
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/precipice
#english #word #linguistics
Word 13:
"""
martyr
(noun) One who willingly accepts death for adhering to religious beliefs, notably saints.
(noun) One who sacrifices their personal comfort, or something of great value, out of principle.
From the Ancient Greek "mártus", meaning witness.
"""
In The Mentalist, where Jane is comforting a guest:
> Guest: Is this some good cop/bad cop thing?
> Jane: […] You needn't be a martyr. Take the pillow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyr#Meaning
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/martyr#English
#english #word #linguistics
Word 12:
"""
volition
(noun) The mental power or faculty of choosing; the will;
From the Latin "volitiō" (to wish, intend), and the Proto-Germanic "walą" (to choose), like the German "Wahl" (choice).
"""
Example from IT Crowd, after Moss is literally dragged in to deal with a spider:
> Moss: Oh, look, it seems to have left of its own volition.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/volition
#english #word #linguistics
Krinklewords
boosted
- Fluent
- Dutch (NL), English (EN)
- Learning
- German (DE)
- Basic
- Bangla (BD), Frysian (FY)
- Photo
- Nick Amoscato (CC BY 2.0). "Flying books in San Francisco"
Dutch geek in London, interested in linguistics. He/him.
This is where I talk about words, usually once or twice a week.
Tech alt: @krinkle
Joined Jun 2020
