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Happy New Year!
I'm reading the Locked Tomb books and I am looking forward to the moment one of my other fandoms requires me to write a necrocav AU for my blorbos.
shirtwaist (SHURT-wayst) - (US) n., a woman's tailored garment such as a blouse or dress with details copied from men's dress shirts.
Most obvious being buttoning down the front, but other details such as type of collar were also copied. Originally (in the 1870s) this was just a type of blouse, but the styling has since also been used on the bodice portion of dresses -- in which case it is also sometimes called a shirtdress and shirtwaister. At the time, waist was a common American English term for a blouse and for the bodice of a dress, but that sense has faded away except in this fossil, which itself is not very common anymore.
---L.
Most obvious being buttoning down the front, but other details such as type of collar were also copied. Originally (in the 1870s) this was just a type of blouse, but the styling has since also been used on the bodice portion of dresses -- in which case it is also sometimes called a shirtdress and shirtwaister. At the time, waist was a common American English term for a blouse and for the bodice of a dress, but that sense has faded away except in this fossil, which itself is not very common anymore.
---L.
haymow (HAY-mou) - n., a pile of hay stored in a barn; the place in a barn where hay is stored, hayloft.
This word makes more sense if you know that mow has a now largely obsolete (except in regional dialects) meaning of "a stack of hay, grain, or beans in storage" as well as a place in storage for such a stack. (This sense of mow is a homonym of mow as in to cut down, with a different etymology.) A haymow is, thus, a mow specifically of and for hay.
---L.
This word makes more sense if you know that mow has a now largely obsolete (except in regional dialects) meaning of "a stack of hay, grain, or beans in storage" as well as a place in storage for such a stack. (This sense of mow is a homonym of mow as in to cut down, with a different etymology.) A haymow is, thus, a mow specifically of and for hay.
---L.
whipcord (HWIP-kawrd, WIP-kawrd) - n., a thin tough cord made of braided or twisted hemp or catgut, sometimes used for the lashes of whips; a cotton or worsted fabric with a distinct diagonal rib.
The very end of a whip being the part that cracks by breaking the sound barrier during a sudden reversal of direction, and so needs to be strongest -- in many whips, the lash is designed to be replaceable when it wears out, as it will long before the rest of the whip. I'm unclear how the fabric (which is woven with a steep-angled twill with even thicker ridges than gabardine) came to be called that, possibly for either its durability or a resemblance to a whipcord's ridges.
---L.
The very end of a whip being the part that cracks by breaking the sound barrier during a sudden reversal of direction, and so needs to be strongest -- in many whips, the lash is designed to be replaceable when it wears out, as it will long before the rest of the whip. I'm unclear how the fabric (which is woven with a steep-angled twill with even thicker ridges than gabardine) came to be called that, possibly for either its durability or a resemblance to a whipcord's ridges.
---L.
ramrod (RAM-rod) - n., a rod for ramming home the charge in a muzzle-loading firearm; a ranch or trail foreman, responsible for getting the work done; a demanding overseer, a disciplinarian. v., to force with or as with a ramrod. adj., marked by rigidity, severity, or stiffness.
That last includes the colorful idiom of ramrodding a bill through the legislature, which produces an interesting image when you apply the original context. The original ramrods were, indeed, rods, thus the name.
---L.
That last includes the colorful idiom of ramrodding a bill through the legislature, which produces an interesting image when you apply the original context. The original ramrods were, indeed, rods, thus the name.
---L.
mahi-mahi or mahimahi (MA-hee-ma-hee) - n., a large game fish (Coryphaena hippurus) found worldwide in tropical and temperate oceans, also called the common dolphinfish.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Good eating, and eaten worldwide pretty much. We got the name from Hawaiian mahimahi, but it's also called that in related languages such as Tahitian, emphatic reduplication of mahi, strong.
And even though I've run this before, because I can't resist such a fun word, a bonus fish name: humuhumunukunukuapuaa (hoo-moo-hoo-moo-noo-koo-noo-koo-ah-poo-AH-ah) - n., the reef triggerfish (Rhinecantus rectangulus). This comes up surprisingly often (hat-tip to Octonauts) because it's Hawaii's state fish. In Hawaiian, humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa is a compound of humuhumu, triggerfish + nuku, snout + nuku, blunt + ā, conjunction between two adjectives + puaʻa, pig-like, so "triggerfish with a short, piglike snout." And no, I haven't found what triggerfish has a piglike snout that isn't short, making that an oddly specific name.
And with that, I'm finally done with words English acquired from Native languages of the New World. I'm taking next week off due to holiday chaos, and possibly the week after (we'll see how chaotic things are).
---L.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Good eating, and eaten worldwide pretty much. We got the name from Hawaiian mahimahi, but it's also called that in related languages such as Tahitian, emphatic reduplication of mahi, strong.
And even though I've run this before, because I can't resist such a fun word, a bonus fish name: humuhumunukunukuapuaa (hoo-moo-hoo-moo-noo-koo-noo-koo-ah-poo-AH-ah) - n., the reef triggerfish (Rhinecantus rectangulus). This comes up surprisingly often (hat-tip to Octonauts) because it's Hawaii's state fish. In Hawaiian, humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa is a compound of humuhumu, triggerfish + nuku, snout + nuku, blunt + ā, conjunction between two adjectives + puaʻa, pig-like, so "triggerfish with a short, piglike snout." And no, I haven't found what triggerfish has a piglike snout that isn't short, making that an oddly specific name.
And with that, I'm finally done with words English acquired from Native languages of the New World. I'm taking next week off due to holiday chaos, and possibly the week after (we'll see how chaotic things are).
---L.