Vilified with contumelious language

 
I am reading some of Montaigne's Essays at the moment. They were written in the late 1500s and the translation I am using has stuck fairly closely to the English equivalent language of the time. I came across the wonderful phrase - "vilified with most bitter and contumelious language". It sounds like what our politicians do to each other all the time.

To vilify is to malign someone; to make malicious and abusive statements about somebody.

Contumelious meant expressing scorn; having or showing an insulting, scornful, or contemptuous attitude.

Whilst vilify is still in occasional use the word contumelious has, sadly, died out.
 

Are you sitting comfortably?

 
Anyone of 'a certain age' in the UK will be very familiar with the
catchphrase "Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin."

This was always the introductory line of the radio programnme 'Listen with Mother' which was obligatory pre-school listening for my age group. The programme began in 1950 and carried on until 1982. It seems the origin of the question is uncertain as both Julia Lang (the original presenter) and Frieda Fordham (a psychologist who advised the BBC) have been credited with it.

All know is that if you say 'Are you sitting comfortably?' to any of my contemporaries they will automatically add the 'Then I'll begin..."
 

Wont

 
GB has just used the word 'Wont' and that led us to wonder why wont was written with an 'o' not ant an 'a'. 'As is my wont' effectively means not 'that which I want to do' but 'that which I am in the habit of doing'. The verb and noun Wont bears no modern relationship to want or won't . It is defined as habit; established custom; established way of doing things.

The Oxford English Dictionary says wontless "unaccustomed, unusual", and the adverb wontly, are now obsolete. As Alpadictionary.com saya - "We won't argue with them".

According to the Aplhadictionary the history of this word "is especially good, for it is purely English—not a drop of French or Latin blood in it. In Middle English it was the past participle of wonen "to dwell, to be used to", a cousin of German wohnen and Dutch wonen "to live in, dwell". The Proto-Indo-European root was won-/wen- "to desire". We find the same root at the bottom of Old English wenian "to accustom", which dribbled down to Modern English as wean "to accustom a baby to eating rather than nursing"."
 

Bolster

 
Daughter-who-takes-photos asked me the other day if there was a name for larger than usual pillows. I said yes but couldn't think of it. It was not the name for what she wanted but I could recall there being long pillows across the double beds when I was young. By chance I then read 'The Girl at the Lion D'Or' and the word came up three times - it was bolster. A bolster is a pillow that stretches right across the bed underneath the regular pillows. I doubt they are still used nowadays.

As a verb, to bolster means to support and strengthen (suh as courage); to boost (such as morale); or to pad (such as the seat of a chair).
 

Light blue touch-paper

 
I'm not sure if folk of a younger generation can finish the sentence that begins 'Light blue touch-paper' but at one time it was written on every firework and was probably one of the first standard safety warnings for the general public. (Standard being itself a play on words for those of my generation since Standard Fireworks were one of the main manufacturers).

The full sentence was 'Light blue touch-paper - stand well back' later replaced by 'Light blue touch-paper and retire.' The expression 'Light blue touch-paper!' therefore became a way of suggesting someone had done something dangerous or foolhardy and needed to beware of the consequences, especially, for example, when having said something that was likely to cause someone else to respond explosively.
 

Propitiation

 
To propitiate (pro-PISH-e-ate)is to win somebody's favour: to appease or conciliate somebody or something. Propitiation is the noun and means the act of placating; overcoming distrust and animosity; the act of atoning for sin or wrongdoing (especially appeasing a deity).
 

All that glitters

 
The phrase 'All that glitters is not gold' is a very old one and means appearances can be deceptive.

I was taught that this was actually a misquote from Shakespeare who wrote 'All that glisters is not gold' in The Merchant of Venice (1596).

I recently heard that it was not a misquote since it appears even before Shakespeare's time as 'All that glitters is not gold' in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1387). However, upon checking I found that this was simply a modern translation and the original was worded:
But al thyng which that shineth as the gold
Nis nat gold, as that I have herd it told...

So we should be saying "All that glisters...", after all.
 

Catharsis

 
Catharsis (in psychoanalytical terms) means the purging of emotional tensions; the release felt after an overwhelming vicarious experience, resulting in the purging or purification of the emotions.. In medicine it has the older and more 'bodily function' meaning of purging the body by the use of a cathartic to stimulate evacuation of the bowels.

My main reason for including the word on this blog is because I can never remember how to spell it. I put catarthis into Google and it asked me 'Do you mean catharthis'. I thought, 'Oh, so that's how it's spelled' and clicked 'Yes'. Google giggled and said 'Sorry cannot find anything on catharthis'. Don't you just hate it when computers laugh at you?
 

Harr

 
This mist is known in the Outer Hebrides as a harr or harr mist. Harr is defined (when you can eventually trace a definition) as cold sea-mist - generally refering to the winter sea-mists in the North Sea. In fact they can be summer mists and come in all around the North British coastline.


The Urban Dictionary said it was Northumbrian/Tyneside dialect but actually it is used in many parts of N England and Scotland. Despite the lack of on-line definitions it is still in common usage. Variants inclkude Harl, Harn, Hoar, Hoare. It is of Saxon and Norse origin.
 

Archaic

 
I have been made aware that some of my readers are not native English speakers and therefore it would be helpful if I differentiated between words which are in common usage, words used only in poetry / literature and those which are out of date.
I shall endeavour to remember to do this in future. Words with no qualification may be taken as being in current usage, The abbreviation (lit.) will be used to for words found only in poetry and old literature.

Words which have fallen out of fashion are generally referred to as archaic which means a word or phrase that is no longer in general use but is still encountered in older literature and still sometimes used for special effect.