GAME: Word of the Day (WOTD)

[Algot Runeman]

voralfred,

Sometimes people go to the city from their suburban neighborhood and say, "I'm going uptown."

Other sets of people go to the city and say, "I'm going downtown."

In Manhattan, the distinction is clear because the city is long and very linear, but in most places, the actual direction doesn't seem to matter. It is a regional/cultural thing and sounds very much like what you describe for going to Paris.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

Sometimes people go to the city from their suburban neighborhood and say, "I'm going uptown."
Other sets of people go to the city and say, "I'm going downtown."

Sinjoren don't go up- or downtown, nor anything similar. When we're going to our city's centre, we just say we go to " 't stad " (t'city). We're like Romans, we assume that all roads lead there, you know?
Only a Sinjoor who just got laid (down) is said to have gone up.

P.S. While French has 2 genders for nouns, Dutch and Flemish have 3, male, female and neuter, equivalent to he, she and it.
" 't stad " is local slang for "het stad" (neuter noun), which is actually grammatically wrong, because the correct syntax in Dutch and Flemish is "de stad" (male noun).

"Where are you taking me?" asked Irma La Douce.
"Downtown." answered the cop.

This is unheard of in Antwerp. Our cops would answer: "To the police station, miss."

[Algot Runeman]

consensus

general agreement


Corporal Daniel L. Dow, pictured late May 1993 shaking hands with General Frederick M. Franks, Jr. at Cp Jackson, South Korea
By Corporal Daniel L. Dow [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

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General Agreement : I think the consensus will be that the photo would have been better if both men were generals, I guess.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

consensus
general agreement

Wouldn't you agree that a general consensus is not quite the same thing as consenting generals?

[Algot Runeman]

Wouldn't you agree that a general consensus is not quite the same thing as consenting generals?

Privately, I would agree.

There could be a colonel of truth in what you propose.

Major agreement is possible only through corporal punishment, though.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

... corporal punishment ...

Ah , yes.
As in "The sergeant held the skinny recruit's neck in a vise-grip."

Where

• sergeant (in English) = a NCO
  sergeant (in Dutch) = a carpenter's vise (a gripping tool) or a NCO.

[Algot Runeman]

quittance

a release or discharge from a debt or obligation


"ordonnance et quittance"
Photo: By Pierre Dubard (Archives départementales du Loiret) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Français : Cet oncle avait, au sein de l'Hôtel Dieu d'Orléans, une intense activité chirurgicale dont témoigne les comptes de l'Hôtel Dieu. Son nom est d'ailleurs, parmi les dix-sept chirurgiens recensés dans cette ville, le plus souvent cité.

On peut notamment lire dans ce document :
"au dict Guillemeau la somme de dix huit livres Tournoys pour avoir par lui vacqué est présent à la dite Maison Dieu à venir couper à dix huit personnes les jambes et bras et aussi pour avoir fourny les ungueus à faire guéris ung petit enfant du dict Hôtel Dieu d'un mal qu'il avait eu la main comme appert par ordonnance et quittance du 25ème jour d'octobre mil cinq cent soixante ung pour ce".

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Joe was enjoying the ham sandwich at the picnic until he jumped up; he quittance to avoid having more ants bite him.
[Yeah. It doesn't work. Best I could do after a day working at a conference.

[Algot Runeman]

rataplan

a drumming or beating sound


Photo: Andrea Kirkby on Flickr

Imagine the summer rain...

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In this house, the start of a gentle rain generates a definite rataplan, followed by a roar as the torrent descends.

[voralfred]

Rataplan is also the dutch (?) name of the cartoon dog character we call Rantanplan in French. He is a supporting character of the famous cow-boy Lucky Luke, the man who shoots faster than his own shadow.
http://www.fwallpaper.net/pics/cartoons ... luke_1.jpg

Rantanplan/Rataplan, on the other hand, is stupider than his own shadow, as the following picture clearly demonstrate:
http://www.ryukengege.com/images/Bandes ... plan01.jpg

(EPS: can you confirm whether the captions are in dutch, flemish, or some other germanic tongue other than german?)

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

(It seems my professional's eye has not retired yet. Have you too noticed that Lucky Luke and Jolly Jumper have no lower teeth?)

Yes, Voralfred, the pictures you refer to have dutch/flemish captions.

Morris was a very accomplished artist. His caricatures of non-fictional characters are ferocious, like Judge Roy Bean and Calamity Jane, to name but a few. Rataplan is but a spin-off of his main work.


I think some of his fictional caricatures were the cause or the result of interaction with the real world. Phil Defer was drawn when Jack Palance was already typecast in the Western. Lucky Luke must have inspired Sergio Leone.


Then in his turn Morris was inspired by the actors in the so-called Spaghetti Western. Remember Lee Van Cleef as the bounty hunter?

Finally, rataplan is a regular here.
viewtopic.php?f=1793&t=1434&p=1879145&h ... n#p1879131

[Algot Runeman]

aweigh

adjective
[predic.] Nautical

(of an anchor) raised just clear of the seabed


Wikimedia Commons: tosaka http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stock ... r_2_NT.PNG
Third image is the moment the anchor is said to be aweigh.


Elena Georgieva http://www.ImagesFromBulgaria.com

[Even more interesting anchor photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottx/232 ... /lightbox/ but under copyright]

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Some of these photos are of dry anchors, not just aweigh from their grab of the ocean floor, but my scuba gear was stored away the last time I visited a tall ship.

[Algot Runeman]

Alfredo

adjective
denoting a sauce for pasta incorporating butter, cream, garlic, and Parmesan cheese



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Fred and Al decided to have spaghetti for supper. Al and Fred used Alfredo sauce, too. There were no leftovers.

[sweetharleygirl]

Mmmmm, that's a yummy word of the day!!

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

Fred and Al decided to have spaghetti for supper. Al and Fred used Alfredo sauce, too. There were no leftovers.

Of course, anything is better than having Alf redo a sauce.

[Algot Runeman]

Does chef Alf redo a recipe, or is it "a pinch of this a pinch of that" and a gradual wandering of the final result?

When I do spaghetti sauce, there's usually a tweak to the process. Sometimes the result is better and I keep it. Many times, the reaction from the crowd (even just the crowd of one, my wife) says, don't do that tweak again.

[Algot Runeman]

dekko

noun
[in singular] British informal

a quick look or glance:come and have a dekko at this


Simon Tong on smugmug.com

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Glance, stare, gaze, peek, dekko. hey look; mira hombre!

[voralfred]

Alfredo

adjective
denoting a sauce for pasta incorporating butter, cream, garlic, and Parmesan cheese

Alas, after a test of my LDL/HDL blood ratio, I have been led to severly reduce my consumption of Voralfredo sauce. Now pasta mostly comes with white fish cooked with onions, tomatoes, zucchini and mushrooms (tonight dinner, in fact). Not that bad, really, quite tasty in fact, and much much healthier, but stilll no match to Voralfredo sauce for the taste...

(...)
Of course, anything is better than having Alf redo a sauce.

Oh, there are worse things than that. I am not a great cook as Darb, for instance, but my productions are usually edible...

[Algot Runeman]

Voralfredo sauce

Onions go with almost any recipe for me. Garlic and oil is actually my preference for a spaghetti sauce, but it's tough to justify for lunch on a business day.

I wonder, whether the Brits have Geico automobile insurance and television ads (adverts) which say, "Dekko the gecko!"

[Algot Runeman]

basmati

noun
[mass noun]

a kind of long- grain Indian rice with a delicate fragrance


IRRI Images on Flickr

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Wheat is neat. Winter rye can make one high. Oats are for shoats. Basmati never goes against the grain.

[Algot Runeman]

paraphernalia

noun
[treated as singular or plural]

miscellaneous articles, especially the equipment needed for a particular activity.
trappings associated with a particular institution or activity that are regarded as superfluous:the rituals and paraphernalia of government


Beach paraphernalia by Anthony Dodd on Fotopedia

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One woman's paraphernalia is another woman's greatest desire.

[I don't think I'd seen this word in print before today. The pronunciation in the U.S. completely skips over the letter R in the middle. Even my wife, who is a great speller, was surprised. The stealth of the letter R is amazing. It sneaks in all over the place.]

[voralfred]

Though I am French, I know the word paraphernalia, I have read it first so long ago I don't even remember when I first encountered it in print. But I have never heard it prononced (or, anyway I odn't remember), so in my head (and even though its meaning is perfectly harmelss) the way I hear it in my head, well, it just sounds... strange, it gives me bad associations, I find it

Spoiler: show

para-(in)fernal

somehow. Had I heard in pronounced the way Algot says, I probably would not have the same associations. Maybe that's the reason people in the US don't pronounce the R in the middle?

[sweetharleygirl]

I think I know to many of the wrong people, all I can think of when I hear or see this word is the kind of paraphernalia that will get you in trouble if your caught with it!!

[laurie]

I think I know to many of the wrong people, all I can think of when I hear or see this word is the kind of paraphernalia that will get you in trouble if your caught with it!!

Oh, yeah... You and I must hang out with the same types.

[Algot Runeman]

aglet

a metal or plastic tube fixed tightly around each end of a shoelace


Medieval aglets "lace tags" Finds.org.uk and my own shoe...today!

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Arthur Aglet couldn't tie his shoes.
The laces were frayed.
He experimented. Nothing to lose.
His history is lost but the invention has stayed.

[Algot Runeman]

Re: basmati

This week's visit to the supermarket I glanced up and there they were.


Reading last night, I also was graced with the word paraphernalia.

Timing!