Gryphon's Word of the Day, April 7, 2007

The word of the day for April 7, 2007 is “linguistic” — adjective  of or relating to language or the study of human speech including the units, nature, structure, and modification of language.

 

I wish that I had taken more languages in school, and also that I had made an effort to keep current in the ones I did take. Of course, Latin isn’t much called for these days, but German would probably be useful. If there had been an opportunity to learn Chinese before whatever facility allows children to learn accents and inflections easily, I would have liked my mother to sign me up for that. I don’t think she would have, but I would like to be able to speak Chinese—and Italian, maybe French or Japanese or ... you get the idea.

 

 When I went in Thursday to get my tire fixed, I noticed the mechanic appeared to be having a problem getting my lights and wipers to work correctly. I went into the shop to give him advice, but one of the other mechanics hollered at me that the fellow working on my car was deaf. Well, that’s one way of getting out of listening to unwanted advice. The only words or phrases I can remember in American Sign Language with any confidence do not lend themselves to: “the light switch is on the left side of the dash.” I did call my sister and ask how to tell the mechanic “thank you.” [Her directions worked very well—fingers to the lips move down while saying “thank you.” Like blowing a kiss to the floor, I said. Yes, but without pursing one’s lips, she insisted, and don’t expect him to sign “you’re welcome” because they don’t.] When I attempted the procedure, he did repeat the “thank you” gesture at me, and we grinned at one another like fools for a couple of seconds, so I suppose we understood one another well enough.

 

The quote for today is from Noam Chomsky (b. 1928), U.S. linguist, philosopher. Current Trends in Linguistics, “Topics in the Theory of Generative Grammar”, p. 11, ed. T. Sebeok

 

The most striking aspect of linguistic competence is what we may call the ‘creativity of language,’ that is, the speaker’s ability to produce new sentences, sentences that are immediately understood by other speakers although they bear no physical resemblance to sentences which are ‘familiar.’

;^) Jan

Tags: linguistic

Gryphon's Word of the Day, April 6, 2007

The word of the day for April 6, 2007 is “agenda” — noun 1 : a list or outline of things to be considered or done <agendas of faculty meetings>. 2 : an underlying often ideological plan or program <a political agenda>.

A co-worker claims she has now officially seen everything. She had gone to get gas at the local Quik Trip (convenience store/petrol station for my BritSpeak readers) right after work last night. The lawn crew was mowing and edging the lawn while the snow fell. Typical Kansas behavior, I assured her—lawn schedules take precedence over weather. One often sees the lawn sprinklers here running in the rain. (Well, not at our house, but my husband has more sense than to waste water.) Yet, yesterday’s snow falling past the Bradford pears in blossom entranced me while I waited for the mechanic to fix my tire.

Our winters are usually quite mild. We tend to get ice storms rather than snow. When it does snow, we often find ourselves shoveling in our shirtsleeves. However, snow this late in the season is unusual. It’s no wonder most of the Plains tribes of Native Americans spent their winters on the Gulf Coast and their summers in Canada. They realized the buffalo had good reasons for annual migration.

The quote for today is from James Baker (b. 1930), U.S. Republican politician, secretary of state. Daily Telegraph (London, Nov. 15, 1988:

     Never let the other fellow set the agenda.

;^)  Jan

Tags: agenda

Gryphon's Word of the Day, April 5, 2007

The word of the day1 for April 5, 2007 is “formication” — noun : a sensation like that of insects crawling over the skin. (From the Compact Oxford English Dictionary). 

The ants are back in my kitchen. Mother used to say there was no shame in getting vermin, but keeping them was another matter. I am cleaning out my cupboards and filling in cracks to discourage the critters from coming into the house in the first place. I also have put out the baits that claim the ants will take them back to the nest and destroy the entire colony. I don’t understand why the directions say to put the baits along baseboard where ants travel. The only time I see the critters is when they are in the middle of the counter making a feast of a missed spill or out in the middle of the floor acting like they can’t remember what they went out there for—or climbing up the window pane for no reason at all. 

Lloyd has been watching a program on BBC in America showing a couple of women who go into a home, clean it thoroughly and show the householders how to do ongoing cleaning. (They check back after a couple of weeks to see if their vict… er subjects are backsliding.) I have noticed that even when the place is really grotty with congealed grease and dust rhinos there never seems to be evidence of any pests. I don’t know if this is excellent selection of venues or creative filming. Anyhow, I’d like those ladies to come do our house once. Then I’d hire a daily to keep it in shape. 

The quote2 fortoday is from Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell Viking: 

     Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment. They farm
     fungi, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies into war, use chemical sprays
     to alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves, engage in child labor, exchange
     information ceaselessly. They do everything but watch television.

;^)  Jan

Tags: formication

Gryphon's Word of the Day, April 4, 2007

The word of the day for April 4, 2007 is “cetacean” — noun : any of an order (Cetacea) of aquatic mostly marine mammals that includes the whales, dolphins, porpoises, and related forms and that have a torpedo-shaped nearly hairless body, paddle-shaped forelimbs but no hind limbs, one or two nares opening externally at the top of the head, and a horizontally flattened tail used for locomotion.

They found a whale six miles inland the other day in Italy. Actually they found the fossilized bones of a whale in Italy. Apparently this is no great thing; it was the second fossil whale found in Tuscany in the past few weeks. However, the paleontologists are happy because this whale is very nearly intact, with the jaw bones slightly disarranged, and surrounded by the critters that used the whale as a post mortem smorgasboard.

One of the things about the Great Plains is that it was once under water. Cyb and I have found fossil clams in rock outcroppings along I-70 between Wakeeny and Goodland. The archaeology buffs are always digging up humongo-sharks and other prehistoric critters. We had plenty of the mega-mammals here as well, including megatherium and sabertoothed tigers. Wonderful things to take the kids to see on a slow afternoon.

The quote for today is from Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Tale of a Tub. Preface:

     Seamen have a custom, when they meet a whale, to fling him out an empty
     tub by way of amusement, to divert him from laying violent hands upon the ship.

;^)  Jan

Tags: cetacean

Gryphon's Word of the Day, April 3, 2007

The word of the day for April 3, 2007 is “chemical” — noun 1 : a substance obtained by a chemical process or producing a chemical effect. 2 : DRUG.

The news readers this morning did a piece on the federal legislation to protect our chemical plants from terrorists. Some of the states say that the federal regulations will undermine the states’ more stringent rulings. There will be court battles over this. Granted, “concentrations of chemical in proximity to concentrations of people” sounds bad. Certainly, things should be done to keep people from gaining access to plants that produce chemicals for illicit purposes. Most companies that produce dangerous compounds know this and at least pay lip service to keeping their products out of the air, water and soil. Still we remember Bhopal.

It is odd that the advertisers have decided that “chemicals” are bad things. Every other food ad mentions natural, as though that were somehow inherently better. One of the pizza chains used to castigate their rivals for using casein instead of real cheese. Apparently, they thought that the general public wouldn’t know that cheese is made up primarily of casein. Rye smut (ergot) is natural, but it caused epidemics of St. Vitus Dance during the middle ages. It has only been recently that we have found that a refined version of ergot is good for migraines.

The quote for today is from F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940), U.S. author. John, in The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, ch. 11 (1922):

     Everybody’s youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness.

;^)  Jan

Tags: chemical

Gryphon's Word of the Day, April 2, 2007

The word of the day for April 2, 2007 is “prehensile” — adjective 1 : adapted for seizing or grasping especially by wrapping around <prehensile tail>. 2 : gifted with mental grasp or moral or aesthetic perception.

Sometimes I truly wonder at my husband’s sense of humor. He often laughs at things for reasons that are incomprehensible to me. Case in point: picking things up with my toes keeps me from bending over with the potential of overbalancing onto portions of my anatomy that I’d rather not be in contact with the floor. I don’t claim to be as agile as that woman without arms, who writes and puts on her make-up with her feet. Still I can get dropped tissues, clothing and so on. There is nothing amusing about that.

Sometimes when he laughs at me I have no idea why. I’ve been minding my own business, and he starts laughing to incoherence. He never explains either, except to grab me in a big bear hug and say, “I love ya, babe—love ya, love ya, love ya.” Well maybe he finds loving me amusing—and it is certainly better than having him yell at me for some idiot thing like ordering two pieces of chicken and not letting the sales clerk talk me into three as “they are the same price as two.”

The quote for today is from Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Journals, entry for Aug. 19, 1851 (1906):

     The way in which men cling to old institutions after the life has departed
     out of them, and out of themselves, reminds me of those monkeys 
     which cling by their tails—aye, whose tails contract about the limbs, 
     even the dead limbs, of the forest, and they hang suspended beyond 
     the hunter’s reach long after they are dead. It is of no use to argue with  
     such men. They have not an apprehensive intellect, but merely, as it were
     a prehensile tail.

;^)  Jan

Tags: prehensile

Gryphon's Word of the Day, April 1, 2007

The word of the day for April 1, 2007 is “brobdingnagian” — adjective : marked by tremendous size.
Etymology: Brobdingnag, imaginary land of giants in Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift.

 

Happy April Fools’ Day to you all. Although I need new shoes, I refuse to go shopping. Those of you who know me well know that shopping is, for me an onerous chore. Since Cyb left home, I have no one to keep me on track by dragging me out of the bookstore at the mall. The last time I went to the mall to buy pantyhose, I ended up buying lingerie, socks and a pair of pants for Cyb, lingerie, books and the pantyhose for me.

 

This is why I don’t mind multi-tasking by perusing all those catalogues while in the “library.” As soon as I’ve decided I don’t like what’s offered, or that nothing is in my size, my color or my price range, I tear the personal information out of the catalogue. The unchosen catalogues go into the trash and the i.d. goes into the shredder in the laundry room—another opportunity to multi-task. Fortunately, Footsmart has the shoe style I am used to wearing for the same price as when I last bought shoes—probably three years ago. I also am going to get a couple jogsuits, which are on sale at Bedford Fair. See now, if I were to go to the mall, I’d not find any shoes in my size, and I’d be in the Candlenook or Waldenbooks instead of attending to jogsuits.

 

The quote for today is from Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), British novelist. Theodore Gumbril Sr., in Antic Hay, ch. 11 (1923):

 

Proportion ... You can’t help thinking about it in these London streets, where it doesn’t exist.... It’s like listening to a symphony of cats to walk along them. Senseless discords and a horrible disorder all the way.... A concert of Brobdingnagian cats. Order has been turned into a disgusting chaos. We need no barbarians from outside; they’re on the premises, all the time.

 

;^)  Jan

Tags: brobdingnagian