Sophistry

 
Sophistry means creating an argument that seems plausible, but is fallacious or misleading, especially one devised deliberately to be so; the art of using deceptive speech or writing; cunning or trickery.

Sophism can mean two very different things: In the modern definition, a sophism is a confusing or illogical argument used for deceiving someone. But in Ancient Greece, the sophists were a group of teachers of philosophy and rhetoric and the term sophism originated from Greek sophistēs, meaning "wise-ist", one who "does" wisdom, one who makes a business out of wisdom (sophós means "wise man").
 

Apocryphal

 
The Apocrypha (from a Greek word meaning "those having been hidden away" ) are texts of uncertain authenticity, or writings where the authorship is questioned. As a result, the adjective apocryphal has come to mean being of questionable authenticity.
 

 

 

Acnestis

 
The acnestis is the point on your back between your shoulder blades where you cannot reach to scratch. The acnestis, being a fine demonstrator of Sod's Law, is the place on the human body which is most likely to itch.

The word is not in common usage because one is usually too busy swearing to think of it.
 

Addisonian Termination

 
If there is one thing GB and I are quick to pick up on it is Addisonian Termination. What on earth is that, you may say. It is the ending of sentences with a preposition which, so we were taught, was a Bad Thing to do.

Winston Churchill mocked such pedantry as ours when he said "Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put. "

This grammatical construction was named Addisonian Termination by Bishop Hurd (1720-1808) because it was frequently used by Joseph Addison (1672-1719).

In fact, as long ago as 1926, Fowler's 'Modern English Usage' commented that " It was once a cherished superstition that prepositions must be kept true to their name and placed before the word they govern in spite of the incurable English instinct for putting them late. . . . The fact is that. . . . even now immense pains are sometimes expended in changing spontaneous into artificial English. . . . Those who lay down the universal principle that final prepositions are 'inelegant' are unconsciously trying to deprive the English language of a valuable idiomatic resource, which has been used freely by all our greatest writers except those whose instinct for English idiom has been overpowered by notions of correctness derived from Latin standards. The legitimacy of the prepositional ending in literary English must be uncompromisingly maintained. . . ."

Even nowadays such pedantic notions are amongst the youthful follies I still have difficulty giving up!!!!
 

Within an ace

 
To describe something as being within an ace of something else is to suggest it is extremely close. The idea comes from playing cards where the ace is one point and to win by an ace is to win by one point, the smallest of margins.
 

Fast

 
Broadly speaking to fast means to willingly abstain from eating, drinking, or both, for a period of time as for religious or medical reason. I could never understand how, in the historical novels I read, people used to eat on a church 'fasting day'. However, it seems that there are various interpretations of fasting and on official fasting days people were allowed one main meal in the 24 hours. 'Days of abstinence' were those on which the eating of meat was forbidden by the Church.

Although this was the primary meaning of fast that I wanted to explore there are, of course, many other meanings including the following:-
1. acting or moving or capable of acting or moving quickly; "The Ferrari is a fast car." "he ran as fast as he could."
2 (used of timepieces) indicating a time ahead of or later than the correct time; "My watch is fast."
3. at a rapid tempo; "The band played a fast fox trot."
4. (of surfaces) conducive to rapid speeds; "Grass tennis courts are faster than clay."
5. resistant to destruction or fading; "My shirt is colour fast."
6. debauched: unrestrained by convention or morality; "She was politelybdewscribed as a fast woman."
7. flying: hurried and brief; "He paid a flying visit."
8. securely fixed in place; "The post was still stuck fast despite being hit by the car."
9.unwavering in devotion to friend or vow or cause; "Theirs was a fast friendship."
10. firmly or closely; "He held fast to the rope."
11. (of a photographic lens or emulsion) causing a shortening of exposure time; "It's a fast lens so you can use 1/125 of a second."
 

Yacht

 

There can be few English words more unusual than yacht which nowadays means an expensive vessel propelled by sail or power and used for cruising or racing.
The word Yacht is of Dutch origin and therefore probably comes from Holland. Etymology experts have concluded that the word yacht is derived from the obsolete Dutch word jaght, a diminutive form of jaghtship which literally meant 'hunting ship'. The original yacht was a fast and lightweight fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and buccaneers who hqunted the waters around the Holland. More recently yachts have become identified as luxury vessels which only the famous and wealthy can afford.
 

Dingles and dells

 
Here are some lovely words for certain country features and among my favourites are dingle and dell. Both mean a small wooded hollow. Like the word "dale", the word "dell" is derived from the Old English language dæl. The word dingle was used as long ago as 1240 but its origins are unknown, it is possibly a dialect word.

As the combination Dingle Dell the two words can be found as a house or cottage name quite often.
 

Of firkins and merkins

 


A firkin - definitely not to be confused with a merkin - was one of those wonderful sounding measures from days gone by. Like most measures it was of varying size according to whereabouts in the country you lived. The generally accepted version was that it was a small wooden keg holding about a quarter of a barrel or 9 imperial gallons.

A merkin - according to Francis Grose's 1811 'Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue - or Lexicon balatronicum; a dictionary of buckish slang, university wit, and pickpocket eloquence' was "counterfeit hair for women's privvy parts". I leave that to your imagination and shall avoid attempting an illustration.