Screation

  Screation is a noun meaning neurotic and excessive clearing of the throat.

 (Although screation is something I might occasionally be accused of I can't find the word in my Oxford Dictionary nor is it in any of the Scrabble Dictionaries on-line.  So I don't know how it came to be in the book 'Depraved English' by Peter Novobatzky and Ammon Shea but there it is!  Perhaps they found it in some archaic lexicon or strange medical dictionary. )

Dusk, twilight or dimpsy

That great mid-twentieth century wordsmith Ivor Brown (author of ‘A Word in Your Ear’ and other books) points out that Shakepeare would not have recognised the word dusk – a noun meaning the darkest stage of twilight in the evening. So far as he and his contemporaries were concerned the term dusk was a verb meaning to make dark.

During early to intermediate stages of twilight, there may be enough light in the sky under clear-sky conditions to read outdoors without artificial illumination. Civil dusk occurs when the earth rotates to a point at which the center of the sun is at 6° below the local horizon. This marks the end of the evening civil twilight, the point where artificial illumination is required to read outside.[1] Twilight comes after sunset, which is the point at which the earth has rotated just enough that the sun is no longer visible on the local horizon (under clear conditions).

Wikipedia informs one that there are various technical definitions of dusk -

Civil dusk

    The time at which the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon in the evening. At this time objects are distinguishable and some stars and planets are visible to the naked eye.

Nautical dusk

    Is when the sun is 12 degrees below the horizon in the evening. At this time, objects are no longer distinguishable, and the horizon is no longer visible to the naked eye.

Astronomical dusk

    The time at which the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the evening. At this time the sun no longer illuminates the sky, and thus no longer interferes with astronomical observations.

Shakepeare didn’t use the term twilight either though the term was dear to Milton.

The reason Brown raised the issue of this word was that he had found the word dimpsy – meaning twilight - was still in common usage in parts of England.  I wonder if it still is. 

Zeugma

Zeugma (pronounced ZOOg-muh) is a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses.  It means the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words usually in such a way that it applies to each in a different sense (as in "She left in a huff and a Chevy" or  "John and his licence expired last week" .)

It looks like a good word for Scrabble or Bananagrams.   

Sidling in the Darkling Night

   Darkling began its life as an adverb meaning 'in the dark'.  ('Out went the candle and we were left darkling' said the Fool in King Lear).

Keats, in 'Ode to a Nightingale', wrote 'Darkling I listen...'  meaning he was standing in the dark, listening.

But even before Keats used it in its proper form the word had come to be regarded as the participle of a verb 'to darkle'.  And ever since things have darkled for the poets so we find that night darkled, moonles landscapes and even minds have done likewise. 

This creation of a verb from an adverb is called back-formation and a much more common example is the verb to sidle, meaning to walk in a furtive or timid manner, especially obliquely.  Originally there was no such verb but it was back-formed from the adverb side-long or side-ling.

Gobbets

   Having told you what gobbeting meant in the last post I thought I should tell you the delightful meaning of the noun gobbets.  This, however, I decided not to illustrate.  Gobbets are pieces of human bodies washed ashore from a shipwreck. 

I promise the next word on this blog will be somewhat nicer...

Gobbeting

  What are you doing when you are gobbeting?

The answer lies in the fact that at one time there were different terms for the way one carved each type of fish that might be presented at the table.

According to The Accomplished Lady’s Delight (1719) one addressed oneself to various fish as follows –

Barb a Lobster

Chine a Salmon

Culpon a Trout

Fin a Chevin

Scull a Tench

Side a Haddock

Splat a Pike (though who would want to eat a Pike I cannot imagine!)

Splay a Bream

String a Lamprey

Tame a Crab

Tranch a Sturgeon

Transon an Eel

Tusk a Barbel

Gobbeting – another way to treat the Trout appeared later – probably in the early 19^th century along with Frushing a Chub.

A trout that has been culponned or gobbeted – photo by kind permission of Victoria of Mission Food from The Adventures of Cletusthe Trout.

I think that’s enough useless new words for a day or two…

Clerisy

Clerisy means educated people considered as a group; the literati; the intelligensia.  Sadly the word has largely fallen out of use since Victorian times despite it being much better than the clumsy 'intelligensia' or 'literati'.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word 'clerisy' was introduced into English by Coleridge in 1818 to refer to 'learned men as a body, scholars'. It therefore has no religious connotaions and no connection with the clergy. Indeed, there has since been some debate as to whether or not the clergy were meant to be included in or excluded from the clerisy but there is no evidence to suggest their exclusion.  

Aga saga (and bodice rippers!!)

I have had for a while the Oxford Dictionary of new words - 'the intriguing srtories behind 2000 new words in the news'.  I have only  just got around to opening it and taking it seriously.  I've just finished the letter 'A' so you can expect a few 'A' words in the near future. My first is Aga saga.

An aga saga is a form of popular novel typically set in a semi-rural location and concerning the domestic and emotional lives of middle-class characters. In some contexts, Ága saga is now synonymous with a sanitized and prettified picture of rural life.

Joanna Trollope is said to be the author of some typical aga sagas.

Librocubicularist

   Are you a librocubicularist?

I discovered today that I am a librocubicularist.

Mind you, if a word begins with the magic letters 'libr' (from the Latin for book) there's a good chance I'm one.

A librocubicularist is simply 'one who reads in bed'.

 

 Now it just so happens I know someone who reads somewhere else (don't you, GB!).  But I don't think that has a name yet...

Super-duper

  
Super-duper, also spelled super duper, super dooper or super-dooper means extremely good, powerful, large, etc.; ‘very super’; marvellous or colossal; a really awesome or amazing thing, often involving something or someone supernatural or exciting.