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Katie Ross

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WhAIZxI.gif

I aim to please.
 
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   #42  

vreihen

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aptronym - When someone's name resembles their work. See Storm Field (meteorologist), Cecil Fielder (baseball player), Bernie Madoff (enough said), Scott Speed (race car driver), Arsene Wenger (manager of Aresenal FC), Anthony Weiner (congress-critter who texted pictures of his junk), etc.....
 
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vreihen

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Astroturfing - Masking the sponsorship of online posts/reviews so that they appear to come from grassroots participants and not paid endorsers.
 
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vreihen

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truculence - A disposition or apparent disposition to fight, especially fiercely
 
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truculence - A disposition or apparent disposition to fight, especially fiercely

hmm............ nice word! Is this the root for the saying "have no truck with that person"?
 
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vreihen

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Origin of TRUCULENT

Latin truculentus, from truc-, trux savage; perhaps akin to Middle Irish trú doomed person

First Known Use: circa 1540
 
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Origin of TRUCULENT

Latin truculentus, from truc-, trux savage; perhaps akin to Middle Irish trú doomed person

First Known Use: circa 1540

vreihen: Arhhhh........... Latin - what a fascinating language! I remember thinking as a young child sitting in a classroom and being bored-out-of-my-brain "why am I being taught this ancient, obsolete language when it can't possibly be of any use in this modern (then) 20th century". But it's amazing how many times Latin has been useful- mostly in explaining that even more arcane language that we call English!

Don

PS: Whilst I expect that American children don't get taught Latin these days, was it ever taught up there in high school (not sure what you folk call schools that teach teenagers)?
 
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For well over 1000 years, Latin was the lingua franca of western civilization.

In our local school district (a very large one with over 1000 students in each graduating class) Latin is offered as one of the languages that can be studied (along side Spanish, French, German, and Japanese). Two years of some language are mandatory, but it can be any of the languages offered, and most of them (including Latin) can be studied for as long as 5 years (starting in middle school).

One of the things I've always found incredibly dumb about the American schools is that they generally don't start teaching other languages until middle school (roughly 7th grade). By that time, most kids have outgrown the ability to learn a language as a "native" does. Having moved to the US from Germany at age 7-1/2 (in the middle of 2nd grade) I know just how easy it is for YOUNG kids to pick up a second language, but IMO they lose much of that ability around the onset of puberty. But I guess it doesn't matter that much, since English is now the lingua franca of most of the world.
 
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vreihen

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PS: Whilst I expect that American children don't get taught Latin these days, was it ever taught up there in high school (not sure what you folk call schools that teach teenagers)?

Up here, the elementary schools start in kindergarten and go from grades 1-6 in most towns. Grades 7-8 are called either middle school or junior high school. Grades 9-12 are high school. After that, secondary education is mostly called college, which differs from most of the rest of the world where they call it university and consider a college to be a trade school.

Latin used to be taught in private catholic schools, but I don't remember it being taught in public schools at least in my lifetime. It is still taught in law and medical schools, though. Where I work, our mission statement is in Latin, and there's an ongoing debate on whether a proper English translation should include the word "the" because it changes the meaning significantly.

New York State's school curriculum required 2.5 years of foreign language for all college-bound high school students when I was in school. Our school district was small (graduating class of 86 people), and they could only afford one language teacher and Spanish was the only option. It actually came in handy in Quebec, Canada of all places as a teen, where they refused to put up English signs at the time and everything was in French. The romantic (Latin-based) languages (Italian, Spanish, French, and Portuguese) are similar enough where you can make heads-or-tails out of the common words like days on a no parking sign and compass directions on highway signs to find your way back to the USA.

I'm going to agree with Uwe and say that I wish we started foreign languages earlier here. I learned hex math and ASCII in junior high school, and can read ASCII-encoded hex bytes as easy as written text. As far as my Spanish goes, my diet is limited to chicken and rice, and I could probably remember enough to ask for a bathroom and a prostitute. :)

Funny story - We were on a cruise about 8 years ago, and had a port call in Cozumel, Mexico. They had a VW dealership on the island, although obviously in a non-tourist neighborhood far away from the pier. It took me 10 minutes to convince a local cab driver that I wanted to go to the VW dealership (where they sell cars) and not to a car rental place. He barely spoke English, and my Spanish couldn't find the proper words for "car store" versus rental place. Anyway, we did finally get there...but came home empty-handed because the dealership was closed. :( All that I wanted was a few brochures for cars/trucks that we don't get in the USA.....
 
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Persiflage (or, more colloquially known as "the flage"). I've noticed many folk posting here have it - it's a very useful attribute when waxing lyrical (or, just making comment) in Uwe's Bar!

Don

PS: Jack - not sure about "Volksverraeter" ???? Google translate says "traitor" - does this term have another meaning in the US?
PPS: vreihen - polyglot might be special case of polymath (mastery of everything)!
 
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Jack@European_Parts

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PS: Jack - not sure about "Volksverraeter" ???? Google translate says "traitor" - does this term have another meaning in the US?
It's all what you make of it............
 
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Lol . ...this is what I expected to see in this thread...

"Youstacoud"
: her belly got so big she can't see her toes...but she youstacoud.


But damn... this thread is for the adroit person.
 
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vreihen

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ACYROLOGIA

An incorrect use of words - particulately replacing one word with another word that sounds similar but has a diffident meaning, possibly fuelled by a deep-seeded desire to sound more educated, witch results in an attempt to pawn off an incorrect word in place of a correct one. In academia, such flaunting of common social morays is seen as almost sorted and might result in the offender becoming a piranha, in the Monday world, after all is set and done, such a miner era will often leave normal people unphased. This is just as well sense people of that elk are unlikely to tow the line irregardless of any attempt to better educate them. A small percentage, however, suffer from severe acyrologiaphobia, and it is their upmost desire to see English used properly. Exposure may cause them symptoms that may resemble post-dramatic stress disorder and, eventually, descend into whole-scale outrage as they go star-craving mad. Eventually, they will succumb to the stings and arrows of such
a barrage, and suffer a complete metal breakdown, leaving them curled up in the feeble position.
 
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There is "a manager" that "I know" who is an ACYROLOGIC ASKHOLE :D
 
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vreihen

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effrontery - shameless boldness, insolence

Did You Know?

To the Romans, the shameless were "without forehead," at least figuratively. Effrontery derives from Latin effrons, a word that combines the prefix ex- (meaning "out" or "without") and "frons" (meaning "forehead" or "brow"). The Romans never used "effrons" literally to mean "without forehead," and theorists aren't in full agreement about the connection between the modern meaning of "effrontery" and the literal senses of its roots. Some explain that "frons" can also refer to the capacity for blushing, so a person without "frons" would be "unblushing" or "shameless." Others theorize that since the Romans believed that the brow was the seat of a person's modesty, being without a brow meant being "immodest," or again, "shameless."
 
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