1word1day | Entries tagged with norse

scree [skree]

noun:
an accumulation of loose stones or rocky debris lying on a slope or at the base of a hill or cliff; a steep mass of detritus on the side of a mountain

(click to enlarge)

Examples:

The term scree refers to an accumulation of pieces of broken rock. These rocks have come loose from surrounding cliffs and mountainsides during rockfalls. After rolling, bouncing, and sliding down nearly vertical cliffs, these rocks come to rest in one concentrated heap. Generally speaking, scree is most commonly found at the foot of volcanoes, valleys, mountain cliffs, and crags. (Amber Pariona, What Is A Scree?, WorldAtlas, August 2017)

There's an art to running down scree slopes, which my friend demonstrated, where one 'surfs' along the surface of the debris. She pulled away like a motor boat from a jetty, generating a clattering wave of cascading rock, leaving me to tread cautiously in her wake. (Rose Lu, As I bum-shuffled my way down the scree at Avalanche Peak I wished I was back in the bush, Te Papa Blog, January 2022)

I've never spent much time thinking about what might be growing on the tumbles of rocks cascading down the mountain slopes so when we stepped onto our first scree I was surprised to see that there were actually plants present. (Lara Shepherd, Living life on the edge - plants of screes, Te Papa Blog, January 2015)

The scree field was a steep slope covered in shards of loose gray rock. You can try running, stepping carefully, and angling your feet as though you were in second position in ballet - feet are in a parallel line, separated and turned outward. No matter what you do, at some point, the scree robs you of upward movement. (Maryann Karinch, Do You Feel Like You're Climbing a Scree Field? , Psychology Today, August 2020)

It has a copious scree at the foot, and more than half-way up it divides into three. (W P Haskett Smith, Climbing in The British Isles)

Origin:

'pile of debris at the base of a cliff or steep mountainside,' 1781, a back-formation from screes (plural) 'pebbles, small stones,' from Old Norse skriða 'landslide.' This is from the verb skriða 'to creep, crawl;' of a ship, 'to sail, glide,' also 'to slide' (on snow-shoes), from Proto-Germanic skreithanan (source also of Old English scriþan 'to go, glide,' Old Saxon skridan, Dutch schrijden, Old High German scritan, German schreiten 'to stride'). (Online Etymology Dictionary)

sallymn.livejournal.com

Sorry it's a day late... still not really over the grotty from last week :(

skulk [skuhlk]
verb:
1 Keep out of sight, typically with a sinister or cowardly motive; to hide or conceal something (such as oneself) often out of cowardice or fear or with sinister intent.

2 Move stealthily or furtively.

3 Shirk one's duties or responsibilities.

noun:
collective noun for foxes

Examples:

This species is found almost exclusively in salt marshes, where they skulk about like rats. (Chester Reed, Bird Guide)

They skulk and scuttle around our living room every night and in the morning we find leftover bits of flies, beetles and other bugs the giant spider's been gorging on. (Carol McGiffin, We won't tell them to leg it, 2014)

It's a chill day in the Blue Mountains. We pause for a pot of tea and cherry pie in the Everglades cafe, near a skulk of foxes making mischief in a shopping trolley. (Peter Munro, Wild cabinet of wonders: Rod McRae's taxidermy art opens up the animal world, Sydney Morning Herald Jun 2017)

The consequent meanness of me should I skulk or find myself indecent,
while birds and animals never once skulk or find themselves indecent (Walt Whitman, 'Spontaneous Me')

Origin:

Middle English of Scandinavian origin; compare with Norwegian skulka 'lurk', and Danish skulke, Swedish skolka 'shirk'. (Oxford English Dictionary)

Can you name three things that the word skulk has in common with all of these other words: booth, brink, cog, flit, give, kid, meek, scab, seem, skull and wing? If you noticed that all of the terms on that list have just one syllable, then you've got the first (easy) similarity, but the next two are likely to prove a little harder to guess. Do you give up? All of the words listed above are of Scandinavian origin and all were first recorded in English in the 13th century. As for 'skulk,' its closest known Scandinavian relative is the Norwegian dialect word skulka, which means 'to lie in wait' or 'lurk.' (Merriam-Webster)

prettygoodword.livejournal.com

rorqual (RAWR-kwuhl) - n., any of several whales of the family Balaenopteridae.

These are baleen whales, with baleen to filter food from seawater instead of teeth to grab it, and longitudinal folds of skin under their jaw, allowing the mouth to greatly expand and so increase how much water can be thus filtered. Not all baleen whales are rorquals, though: the right whales have baleen but not the groove-like folds. It's these grooves that give them their name: the word was adopted around 1827 from French, which in turn got it from Norwegian rørhval or røyrkval, from Old Norse reyðarhvalr, from reyðr, furrowed (from rauðr, red, by some means no one can explain) + hvalr, whale.

Thanks, WikiMedia!

The roquals include the blue, fin, sei, minke, and humpback whales.

---L.

prettygoodword.livejournal.com

kenspeckle (KEN-spek-uhl) or kenspeckled - adj., (Scot. & N. Eng.) conspicuous, easily seen or recognized.

First written down in the early 1600s, in its obsolete form kenspeck, though it was likely in oral use for a while before that. It probably came from Scandinavian roots -- compare Old Norse kennispecki, power of recognition, and modern Norwegian kjennespak, quick at recognizing, lit. know-clever. You ken? (meaning, know/understand/perceive)

You may think yourself "geyan fine," all covered with Scotch plaid like that, but I wouldn't be so kenspeckle for worlds!

---L.

theidolhands.livejournal.com

hoar·frost [ˈhɔːˌfrɒst]:
origin: (1250) Middle English; Old Norse hor= white/grey coating, to loose color with age + frost= to freeze.

noun
When condensation freezes upon nature and objects creating a delicate & prickly-looking layer of ice. A dictionary compiled at the time of the word's origin described hoarfrost as: "expressing the resemblance of white feathers of frost to an old man's beard." A.k.a. hoar frost (two words), radiation frost (low wind conditions), pruina (a white coating), jack frost (an elf), and white frost.

The effect is created when water jumps directly from a gas state to a solid state (skipping liquid); this happens when the surface that air comes in contact with is much colder than the air itself. Fog is a particular good vehicle for this and the extra moisture is sure to produce ample opportunity for crystalline spikes. When an entire forest is covered in hoarfrost, it creates the impression of a winter wonderland; an ethereal otherworld.

Have you ever seen hoarfrost?

trellia-chan.livejournal.com

Swale: [sweyl]

Noun:
1. A low tract of land, especially one that is moist or marshy, often with ranker vegetation than that of the adjacent higher lands.

2. A valleylike intersection of two slopes in a piece of land.

3.A manmade ditch designed to manage water runoff, filter pollutants, and increase rainwater infiltration.

Origin: 1400-50; late Middle English; originally a cool, shady spot, perhaps Old Norse svalr meaning cool, or svalir meaning a covered porch.

theidolhands.livejournal.com

bar·code hair [bah-ko-do heya-]:
origin: 20th century

noun
バーコード人; A slang way Japanese people refer to a comb-over (note pronunciation is different than an English speaker, although the implication is the same), frequently associated with middle-aged business men that implies a general state of denial. The joke, of course, is that it resembles the modern upc bar code found on many items for sale in modern stores.

However, it's certainly not limited to the nation of Japan, an entire film was dedicated to find the best (or worst) comb-overs the world over: a clip

( Off to England for another bit of slang )

BONUS QUESTION: Have you recently learned a new piece of slang? What is a slang word you used a lot while growing up? *contest reminder

theidolhands.livejournal.com

If you were a narwhal, you'd have had a very weird existence, mostly because science had decided that you never really "existed" at all - then was forced to acknowledge that you weren't mythical, however proclaiming you long extinct! Only to find out, that indeed you were not extinct (reluctantly acknowledging sightings and ergo said people's sanity), but were likely quite rare. Followed by assuming things relating to your (apparently phallic) horn and therefore gender, which have also proven inaccurate, despite infallible and unprejudiced scientists being hard on the case for hundreds of years.

Tsk, all the mix-ups seem silly when they simply could have come over for a cup of tea and just asked you! Or for bacon, the Internet has discovered (of course) that: "The narwhal bacons at midnight" -- Why not? It's as accurate as anything else ever said about them!

Narwhals: not really all that rare.

nar·whal [ˈnɑːwəl]:
origin: *Inuit; Qilalugaq qernartaq= "the one that points to the sky", (1650–60) Norse; nár= “corpse” + hvalr= "whale"

noun
Most closely related to the beluga whale, is a small Arctic whale, with a spotty grayish skin that earned it a name from sailors relating it to a "corpse". Although males and females can grow a horn (or two), it is typically a male's single spiraling tooth, which has grown to form the famous unicorn-like spear, from the animal's head, that many recognize as the whale's distinguishing characteristic.

The horn was originally assumed to be used in great sparring matches for female mates, as the males had been seen "fencing" (after proven not to be a figment of anyone's imagination of course), although the native Inuit* people (who were rarely consulted in these matters) assure that the behavior is far gentler and more like rubbing. Which stands to reason in light of a lone dentist's extensive research -- Dr. Martin Nweeia -- leading to the discovery of a great many nerve endings extending through the entirety of the horn, "pointing" to it being a giant sensory device, one likely sensitive to extensive data like temperature, tide, salinity, etc (more studies to follow). And that's...the tooth!

Don't feel too badly, NO ONE believed the first guy who showed up with a stuffed platypus either.
Honest!

prettygoodword.livejournal.com

niddering (NID-uhr-ing) - n., a coward, a wretch. adj., cowardly.

This is a misspelling, or rather misprinting, that propagated and became the "correct" spelling, and thereby hangs a tale. It seems that in 1596, a typesetter of the works of historian Williams of Malmesbury misread the archaic ð of niðing (pronounced nithing) as d plus a mark indicating an e, and rendered it as nidering -- which was propagated as niddering following standard English ideas of orthography. Niðing itself goes back to Old English, borrowed from Old Norse niðingr, a legal term for someone who (to quote the OED) "has committed a crime so heinous that no possible compensation may be made for it" -- which has nothing to do with nothing, but rather nið, meaning scorn. It is not a common word today outside of historical novels, and owes its existence there entirely from Sir Walter Scott's use of it in Ivanhoe:

"I require of thee, as a man of thy word, on pain of being held faithless, man-sworn, and 'niddering', to forgive and receive to thy paternal affection the good knight, Wilfred of Ivanhoe."

---L.

theidolhands.livejournal.com

Swarf (swɔːf):
origin: Scandinavian (Old Norse), svarf = mentallic dust
One of those words that sounds fake, but isn't.

noun
Metal shavings accumulated from the use of (often mechanical) cutting tools.
( picture example )

sakai-yukari.livejournal.com

Agroof, Agrufe, or Agruif [uh-gruef]
adverb

Definition:
To fall flat on one's face, or to be face downwards and prone.

Etymology:
From the Norse, á grúfu, 'face-down' or 'on the belly'.

Usage:
My roommate has absolutely no coordination skills and is often found agroof, moaning piteously.

Extra info:
This word is obscure, but I find it quite awesome that there is a single word that represents a rather common phrase. Cue the roommate commenting about how much she dislikes me in 3, 2, 1...

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Word of the Day!

Entries tagged with norse

Sunday Word: Scree

Sunday Word: Skulk

Thursday word: rorqual

Thursday word: kenspeckle

Tuesday Word: Hoarfrost

Wednesday word: Swale

Saturday & Sunday Word: Barcode Hair & Scraps

Saturday Word: Narwhal

Thursday word: niddering

Swarf

Agroof, Agrufe, Agruif

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