Vagary

 
A vagary is an unexpected and inexplicable change in something (in a situation or a person's behaviour, etc.); an erratic notion or action; an impulsive or illogical desire; a caprice. It tends to be used more in the plural - vagaries - than the singular. For example "the vagaries of the weather"; "his wealth fluctuates with the vagaries of the stock market"; "he has dealt with human vagaries for many years" .
 

Humongous

 
Humongous / humungous is a (slang?) term meaning of a very large size. Nowadays I find it hard to differentiate between what is slang and what is not. Slang is defined as informal language consisting of words and expressions that are not considered appropriate for formal occasions; often vituperative or vulgar. There is nothing vituperative or vulgar about humungous and it seems to be creeping into our formal language so perhaps it isn't slang. Who decides? The answer, I suppose lies with the compilers of the Oxford English Dictionary. If a word makes it into the OED it can be said to have arrived in the language and no longer be slang. I don't have an up-to-date OED so I'm not sure about humongous.
 

On tenterhooks

 
The expression to be on tenterhooks means to be in a state of supsense or apprehension.

It comes from the drying proces in the making of woollen cloth. After it had been woven, the cloth still contained dirt and oil from the fleece. It was cleaned in a fulling mill and then dried. The lengths of wet cloth were stretched on wooden frames or from beams to which they were fixed by tenterhooks. These frames, or tenters, were either left out in the fields or placed in a drying house which had open sides to allow the air through. To be on tenterhooks therefore meant being stretched out or in a state of anxious suspense.


These tenterhooks are in a roofbeam in the drying house at Cricklepit Mill, Exeter.
 

Outage

 
I noticed that Google blogger was due to be subject to an outage the other day. The word's meaning is obvious - an interruption in service; a temporary suspension of operation (as of computers); the interval during which a scheduled service or resource is not available. What I began to wonder was how long have we actually been using the word outage. Not very long, I suspect. In the past it might have been referred to as a blackout, in respect of electricity, for example. Anyone who knows when outage came into the language is more than welcome to comment.
 

Fiery

I noticed the other day that the ginger beer bottle was labelled 'fiery'. It reminded me what a strange language English is. One would have expected the adjective from fire - of, or relating to fire - to be firey. But somewhere along the line of its evolution it has become fiery.

Fiery is defined as ardent: characterized by intense emotion; very intense; burning or glowing; inflammable or easily ignited; having the colour of fire; hot or inflamed; tempestuous or emotionally volatile; spirited or filled with emotion.


A fiery sunrise.

Leat

I am reading a book about Devon villages - it frequently mentions that there is a leat running through the village.

A leat (also lete or leet) is the name, common in the south and west of England, for a watercourse (natural, or more usually, artficial) or aqueduct, supplying water to a watermill or its mill pond. Leats may also deliver water for mineral washing and concentration, for irrigation, or to a dye or other industrial works.


This is a picture of the Devonport Leat crossing the River Meavy, courtesy of Michael A. Parle.

Zarf

A zarf is an ornamental metal cup-shaped holder for a hot coffee cup.


Although coffee was probably discovered in Ethiopia, it was in Turkey at around the 13th century that it became popular as a beverage. As with the serving of tea in China and Japan, the serving of coffee in Turkey was a complex, ritualised process. It was served in small cups without handles, which were placed in holders known as zarf (from the Arabic word, meaning saucer) to protect the cup and also the fingers of the drinker from the hot fluid. Cups were typically made of porcelain, but also of glass and wood, however since it was the holder that was more visible, it was typically more heavily ornamented.



A modern zarf is a little less impressive!

Sequester

The verb to sequester means to be cloistered; providing privacy or seclusion; keep separate and secluded; keep away from others.

"He sequestered himself in his study to write his blog posting".


A house that Partner-who-loves-tea and I fancied, in its quiet sequestered spot.

It should be noted that despite some dictionaries saying sequestrate means the same thing as sequester it is rarely, if ever, used in that context. Adding the extra 'at' would be pointles. Sequestrate is used instead to mean to seize assets (as the UK government did with trade union funds in the 1980's),

Chapel of Ease

I am reading a book about Devon villages and many of the churches are described, at some stage in their history, as chapels of ease.

A chapel of ease (sometimes 'chapel-of-ease') is a church building other than the main church (the parish church) of a parish.

A place of Christian worship, subordinate to or dependent on and distant from a parish church, provided for the convenience of parishioners who might not otherwise be able, by reason of distance, to attend divine service. Another use of such chapels was to provide ease to the church authorities, rather than to the parishioners, by providing a place in which to rusticate overly liberal clergymen without the scandal or strife of expelling them from communion with the wider church, and the consequent risk of them forming splinter sects.

Hanker

 
GB asked me about the origin of the word hanker on his blog yesterday. I didn't know the answer but I shall share with you all what I discovered:-

The first known appearance of "hanker" dates back to about 1600 in England, and it has been used by the likes of Milton and Thackeray so it has a genuine pedigree.

The origin of "hanker" is a bit obscure, but most authorities have come to the conclusion that it arose as a form of the verb "to hang" and meant "to hang around, to loiter with expectation or longing." Thus, in this original sense, a lovesick swain might "hanker" in the vicinity of his beloved, hoping for an encounter (as in Thomas Hughes, 1859: "I used to hanker round the kitchen, or still-room, or wherever she might happen to be"). By the late 17th century, "hanker" had lost its "loitering" connotation and had settled on its modern meaning of "to long for or crave something."