"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."
Saturday, 15 January 2011
Alb
I knew that an alb was a long white priet's robe; a white linen liturgical vestment with sleeves worn by priests.
But I didn't know until the other day that an alb is also a flat or gently inclined shelf high in a glaciated mountain valley.
My daughter Helen commented in November 2008 in her Blog that she was now keeping a notebook of new words that she came across during her reading. "This week I bought a lovely little leather bound book to write new words in as I read them . I've added a few from "1984", but my favourite has to be persiflage (from the French persifler) which means banter." I later discovered that my older daughter, Bryony, also kept a similar notebook.
This inspired me to create a Word blog. This will include both new words, favourite words and the origins of phrases that we commonly use. A definition and some comment, perhaps even a relevant quotation, will acompany the word or phrase.
“I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me.” - Winnie the Pooh
This is interesting! Not far from where I live is the Swabian Alb, a minor mountain range. It is quite beautiful: http://en.s-alb.de/
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