1word1day | Entries tagged with phrase

Nippy Sweetie [nip-ee SWEE-tee]
(n.)

- A bracing alcoholic potation, esp. whisky.
- A peevishly sharp-tongued person.
- A hot or sour-tasting sweet.

From “nippy” (biting, sharp) from “nip” (a pinch; a sharp bite) from German “nippen” (to pinch sharply; to bite suddenly) from Middle Low German “nipen” (to nip, to pinch) from Middle Dutch “nipen” (to pinch) which became Dutch “nijpen” from Old Norse “hnippa” (to prod)
+
“sweetie” (candy, lollipop) from “sweet” from Old English “swete” (pleasing to the senses, mind or feelings) from Proto-Germanic “swotja-” from PIE “swād-” (sweet, pleasant)

Used in a sentence:

"You should have seen the look on his face when I offered him a nippy sweetie before going home for the night!”

(from The Grandiloquent Word of the Day on FB)

med_cat

The Ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus's Paradox, is a paradox and a common thought experiment about whether an object is the same object after having all of its original components replaced over time, typically one after the other.

In Greek mythology, Theseus, the mythical king of the city of Athens, rescued the children of Athens from King Minos after slaying the minotaur and then escaped onto a ship going to Delos. Each year, the Athenians would commemorate this by taking the ship on a pilgrimage to Delos to honour Apollo. A question was raised by ancient philosophers: If no pieces of the original made up the current ship, was it still the Ship of Theseus? Furthermore, if it was no longer the same, when had it ceased existing as the original ship?

In contemporary philosophy, the thought experiment has applications to the philosophical study of identity over time. Within the contemporary philosophy of mind, it has inspired a variety of proposed solutions and concepts regarding the persistence of personal identity.

(Read more, and see the illustrations, in this Wikipedia article

Today's phrase is brought to you by

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med_cat

A desire path, also known as desire line in transportation planning and many other names,[a] is an unplanned small trail formed by erosion caused by human or animal traffic.

The path usually represents the shortest or the most easily navigated route between an origin and destination, and the width and severity of its surface erosion are often indicators of the traffic level it receives.

You can read more about it, and see some photos in this Wikipedia article

med_cat

The Bouvier des Flandres is a herding dog breed originating in Flanders, Belgium. They were originally used for general farm work including cattle droving, sheep herding, and cart pulling, and nowadays as guard dogs and police dogs, as well as being kept as pets.

The French name of the breed means, literally, "Cow Herder of Flanders", referring to the Flemish origin of the breed. Other names for the breed are Toucheur de Boeuf (cattle driver), Vlaamse Koehond (Flemish cow dog), and Vuilbaard (dirty beard).

You can read further, and see photos in this Wikipedia article

med_cat

Today's entry is brought to you by

lindahoyland

~~~

A kissing gate is a gate that allows people, but not livestock, to pass through.

You can read more and see photos in this Wikipedia article

calzephyr

I've been a little MIA, so here's a Friday bonus post.

JOMO

In the past few years people became acquainted with abbreviations like FOMO (fear of missing out) or YOLO (you only live once) but perhaps less frequently used is JOMO - joy of missing out.

JOMO first originated in a 2012 blog post by Anil Dash. 2012 seems like forever ago--but it's a thoughtful phrase to remember now and then to get offline and touch grass :-)

med_cat

Today's phrase is brought to you by

lindahoyland
~~
a dog's breakfast (idiom, UK informal)

something or someone that looks extremely untidy, or something that is very badly done

(Source: The Cambridge Dictionary)

Also, see The Hot Idioms Blog for further explanation and a comic.

med_cat

Bast shoes are shoes made primarily from bast — fiber taken from the bark of trees such as linden. They are a kind of basket, woven and fitted to the shape of a foot. Bast shoes are a traditional footwear of the forest areas of Northeastern Europe, formerly worn by poorer members of the Finnic peoples, Balts, Russians, and Belarusians.

They were easy to manufacture, but not durable. Similar shoes have also been made of strips of birchbark in more northern areas where bast is not readily available.

Read more, and see comparable shoes from other countries and cultures in this Wikipedia article

med_cat

If you are celebrating, I hope you're having an enjoyable holiday; and if not, I hope you've had a pleasant and productive Monday :)
~~~

Dum spiro, spero,
Dum spero, amo,
Dum amo, vivo

(While I breathe, I hope,
While I hope, I love,
While I love, I live)

Cicero, I think; I've heard the first line many years ago, but didn't come across the next two lines until a year or two back.

med_cat

Tikkun Olam (Hebrew): Improving the world.

A mission we are all tasked with, during our time here.

You may read more about the meaning and the history of this concept here:

The World is Broken, So Humans Must Repair It: The History and Evolution of Tikkun Olam

med_cat

Nil desperandum: "never despair", in Latin.
...

"Never despair. But if you do, work on, in despair"

sallymn

in medias res [in mey-dee-ahs reys]

adjective:
in the middle of things; in or into the middle of a narrative or plot

Examples:

Given Sonic’s frozen-in-time quality, perhaps it’s fitting that his eponymous feature film begins with the hoariest of fourth-wall-breaking story clichés: a record-scratch freeze-frame on Sonic, in medias res, as he says in voice-over, 'I bet you’re wondering how I got here.' (David Sims, Sonic the Hedgehog Is No Longer Terrifying, The Atlantic, February 2020)

Like the Christopher Nolan film Memento, it begins in media res, and slowly unspools narratively backwards. And, like a classic film noir plot, it is the story of a person framed for a crime they didn’t commit. (Naaman Zhou, 'You stole my cheese!': the seven best Post-it note wars, The Guardian, May 2019)

The Homeric epic opens in medias res, already in the 10th year of the Trojan War, and it draws toward its suspenseful close with one of the most brilliant and counterintuitive episodes in all of ancient literature, Priam’s stupendously dangerous journey to the heart of the Greek camp to ransom the corpse of his son Hector from the Trojans’ implacable enemy, Achilles. (Steve Coates, Troy Story, The New York Times, January 2010)

Nineties drama juggernaut ER eventually fell in love with the idea of starting episodes in the middle of a story (aka in medias res) and then going back several hours to illustrate how one of the heroic docs got into that sticky situation. (Alan Sepinwall, Let’s Not Do the Time Warp Again, Rolling Stone, March 2021)

Origin:

Latin, literally 'in the midst of things,' from medias, accusative fem plural of medius 'middle' (see medial) + accusative plural of res 'a thing' (Online Etymology Dictionary)

In medias res, 'in the middle of things', is a borrowing of Latin in mediās rēs, literally meaning 'into middle things.' Latin in is a distant relative of English in and can mean either 'into' or 'in, on,' depending on context. Mediās is a form of medius, 'middle', which is also the source of medieval, medium, and mezzaluna. Rēs is the same in its singular and plural forms; compare the Latin-origin words caries, rabies, series, and species. In medias res was first recorded in English in the 1780s. (Dictionary.com)

calzephyr

Yak-shaving

Today's phrase is so delightful that I couldn't resist sharing it.

Coined at MIT by Carlin Vieri about 22 years ago, yak-shaving is defined as:

You see, yak shaving is what you are doing when you're doing some stupid, fiddly little task that bears no obvious relationship to what
you're supposed to be working on, but yet a chain of twelve causal relations links what you're doing to the original meta-task.

In the case of myself on Sunday, a number of tasks waylaid me from completing my original task in a timely manner. And, in an old blog post, Seth Godin warns against giving the yak a manicure :-D

Watch out for those yaks!

By Dennis Jarvis, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

med_cat

In the United States, a blue-ribbon committee (or panel or commission) is a group of exceptional people appointed to investigate, study or analyze a given question. Blue-ribbon committees generally have a degree of independence from political influence or other authority, and such committees usually have no direct authority of their own. Their value comes from their ability to use their expertise to issue findings or recommendations which can then be used by those with decision-making power to act.

(source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-ribbon_committee)

Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with a priori.)

(source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hoc)

med_cat

A margin call occurs when the value of securities in a brokerage account falls below a certain level, known as the maintenance margin, requiring the account holder to deposit additional cash or securities to meet the margin requirements.

Margin calls only happen in accounts that have borrowed money to purchase securities.

Source and more info: www.bankrate.com/investing/what-is-margin-call/

med_cat

Today's word is brought to you by

lindahoyland:

A knickerbocker glory is a layered ice cream sundae that is served in a large tall conical glass, and to be eaten with a distinctive long spoon, particularly in Great Britain and Ireland.

The knickerbocker glory, first described in the 1920s, may contain ice cream, cream, fruit, and meringue. Layers of these different sweet tastes are alternated in a tall glass and topped with different kinds of syrup, nuts, whipped cream and often a cherry. The existence of these layers, which create red and white stripes, distinguish the dish from a tall Sundae, and lends the Knickerbocker glory its name. In the United States, this dish is more commonly known as a parfait, though Knickerbocker glory is occasionally used.

Thank you, Wikimedia!

More details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knickerbocker_glory

sallymn.livejournal.com

catch-as-catch-can [kach-uhz-kach-kan]

adjective:
using any available means or method, hit or miss
adverb:
without specific plan or order

Examples:

But you can now see a significant shift toward empowering audience members to make their own choices: Ravinia, for example, will have two kinds of lawn seating, one in predetermined pods, the other the traditional catch-as-catch-can. (Chris Jones, Chicago’s great cultural comeback is coming much faster than we thought. Here’s why., Chicago Tribune, May 2021)

As we follow Lucas home, we learn that he’s living a life of struggling self-sufficiency – his house a dark mess and each meal is catch-as-catch-can with no money and resources. (Eric Eisenberg, Antlers Review: A Well Made Horror Movie That Doesn’t Stick The Landing, CinemaBlend, October 2021)

I was riding around in my car with a trunk full of books, going around bookstores, [attending] events. It was very much a catch-as-catch can sort of existence. (Ashish Ghadiali, SA Cosby: The holy trinity of southern fiction is race, class and se’, Patch, August 2021)

Origin:

Variants of this term go back as far as the fourteenth century ('Was none in sight but cacche who that cacche might,' John Gower, c 1394) and appeared in John Heywood's 1546 collection of proverbs ('Catch that catch may'). More specifically, it is the name of both a children's game and a style of wrestling (also called freestyle) in which the wrestlers may get a hold on each other anyhow and anywhere. (The Free Dictionary)

calzephyr77.livejournal.com

Sui generis, pronounced SOO-ee JEN-ər-iss, is a Latin phrase that boils down to "unique" or something in a class by itself. Kind of like this fuzzy fellow:

However, the term is often used in biology, the art world, law and philosophy--and Wikipedia has a great rundown on those definitions.

calzephyr77.livejournal.com

If you have heard this old nursery rhyme, you probably didn't think too much about Mother Hubbard:

Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the Cupboard,
To give the poor Dog a bone;
When she came there,
The Cupboard was bare,
And so the poor Dog had none.

But, did you know that a Mother Hubbard is also a piece of clothing inspired by the nursery rhyme? Mother Hubbards are long, wide and loose-fitting dresses with long sleeves and a high neck. They are extremely modest and developed during Victorian times.

Alas, the Mother Hubbard has a negative connotation as well--colonizers and missionaries introduced the style to "civilize" BIPOC people, so aghast were they at nudity. The Mother Hubbard lives on in various designs, however, mostly notably the Hawaiian muumuu.

calzephyr77.livejournal.com

We have all experienced arigata-meiwaku, or unwelcome kindness. It expresses the sort of "I know you were just trying to help" feeling when someone does you a favour that you didn't want them to do. Maybe it even creates more trouble and stress for you, but you still have to express gratitude.

I found this nifty phrase on Twitter, where others chimed in that there is a similar European concept called bear's favour--Björntjänst (Sweden) or Bärendienst (German)--based on a fable where a bear accidentally kills his friend while trying to swat a fly on his head.

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Page Summary

med_cat - Saturday Word: Nippy Sweetie
med_cat - Friday phrase: Theseus's ship
med_cat - Saturday Phrase: Desire Path
med_cat - Friday Phrase: Bouvier de Flandres
med_cat - Friday Phrase: Kissing Gate
calzephyr - Friday Phrase: JOMO
med_cat - Friday Phrase: A Dog's Breakfast
med_cat - Friday Word: Lapti aka Bast Shoes
med_cat - Monday phrase: More Latin :)
med_cat - Saturday phrase: Tikkun Olam
med_cat - Saturday phrase: Nil Desperandum
sallymn - Sunday Word: In medias res
calzephyr - Wednesday Phrase: Yak-shaving
med_cat - Friday Phrases: Ad Hoc and Blue-Ribbon Committee
med_cat - Friday phrase: Margin Call
med_cat - (Late) Friday phrase: Knickebocker Glory
sallymn.livejournal.com - Sunday Word: Catch-as-catch-can
calzephyr77.livejournal.com - Friday Phrase: Sui generis
calzephyr77.livejournal.com - Friday Phrase: Mother Hubbard
calzephyr77.livejournal.com - Friday Phrase: Arigata-meiwaku

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