Shakespearean Imagination

[uniquepov.livejournal.com]

Welcome, neighbours!

It's Wednesday again, which means another installment of Shakespearean Imagination!

I have been trying to tie my choice of words back to current events or some interesting tidbit, but the truth is, I just like this word. The fact that I’ve sat through three Board meetings in as many weeks, watching certain behaviours, is entirely beside the point. Without further ado, today’s word is:

obsequiously : ob•se•qui•ous•ly /əbˈsēkwēəsˈlē / (adverb) :

adverb
-Obedient or attentive to an excessive of servile degree.

Synonyms servile - subservient - slavish - menial - fawning


First seen in Shakespeare's Richard III (written 1592 - 1593). The full text of the play may be found here.

dornick

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

dornick (DAWR-nik) - n., a stone small enough to throw.


Specifically, small enough to throw out of a field that's being cleared. This is entirely an Americanism, borrowed around 1840 from Scots-Irish who settled in Pennsylvania around the time of the Famine, where it spread westward with settlers, from Irish Gaelic dornóg, a small round stone -- literally, fistful, with a sense closer to a stone that's just the right size for throwing. (There's a second sense of a stout linen cloth or coarse damask named after the Belgian city known as Doornik in Flemish and Tournai in French, but I'm ignoring that as less interesting.)

Tim was set to walking ahead of the plow, chucking dornicks into the woods.

---L.