repechage

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

repechage (rep-uh-SHAHZH) - n., (sports) a last-chance qualifying heat in which runners-up in the elimination heats compete for a space in the final race.


Chosen because of the upcoming Olympics. Among Olympic sports, it's used only in rowing and cycling that I know of, though fencing formerly did as well -- Wikipedia has examples from other sports. The word was borrowed from in 1928 from French repêchage, second chance, especially in the sense of a reexamination for a candidate who has failed, from repêcher, to fish out, rescue, from re- again + pêcher, to fish, from Latin piscārī, from of piscis, fish. Which makes it all appropriate for rowing.

Has any winner of the repechage gone on to win the gold medal?

---L.

Shakespearean Imagination

[uniquepov.livejournal.com]

Welcome, neighbours!
It's time for another installment of Shakespearean Imagination!

It's the Fourth of July, the 'birthday' for the US of A, so in honour of America, I give you today's word:

birthplace : birth·place /ˈbərTHˌplās/ (n):

1.The place where a person was born.
2.The place where something started or originated.


Synonyms: place of birth - home

First seen in Shakespeare's Coriolanus (written 1607-1608). The full text of the play may be found here.


EDIT: Apparently, I had connection problems yesterday, and this hung up as a draft and did not actually post. GRRR!