More New Free Rice Words--Nineteenth Essay

1. Let's begin with lairy, which I think freerice.com screwed up. They define it as "loud, raucous," but it doesn't mean that at all. The OED and Century speak of somehting that is "boggy, miry, swampy." From 1897: "Wallowing mid-thigh in the lairy depths of the Muckle Flowe." Lair, the word underlying lairy, means "mud" in this connection.

2. Swither means "to be or become uncertain; to falter; to be perplexed or undecided; to hesitate." A swithering person is one who can't decide on the next course of activity. "The attack should have made him swither; instead it sealed his resolve." From 1889: "I might have stood there swithering all night, had not the stranger turned." Swither is synonymous with dither, a verb going back to the 17th century and meaning "to waver between different opinions or courses of action." The OED says that dither's original meaning (tremble, quake) was derived from didder, which also emphasizes "shaking" or "quaking." But, by the 19th century, dither had taken on the meaning we have today--to waver or hesitate. From 1820: "Needy Labour dithering stands."

3. In coming to shemozzle, we open up the world of some modern Yiddish words, even though the OED doesn't posit a Yiddish origin for shemozzle. It means "a muddle or complication; a quarrel, row, melee, rumpus." The word only originated in 1899: "It was through no recklessness or extravagance that he was in this shlemozzle." Or, from 1916: "'We ain't the best o' friends, 'cos me an' 'im 'ad a bit o' a shimozzle--' 'Shimozzle!...What on earth's that?' 'Bit o' a dust-up, sir.'" Thus, it is a "dust up." But the two Yiddish words that immediately come to mind are schlimazel and schlemiel. A schlimazel is a consistently unlucky person, a "born loser." The Yiddish schlimm (bad or evil) and the Hebrew mazel (luck) lie behind it. The word only was recognized as a "legit" English word by the OED in 1948. A schlemiel, going back to 1892, is "an awkward, clumsy person, a blunderer." But, as one web site says, to try to differentiate the schlimiel from the schlimazel: "The schlemiel spills his soup on the schlimazel."

4. An orpharion is a medieval lute, pure and simple. The name is derived from Orpheus, the classical singer, and Arion, the name of a famous mythical cithar-player from Lesbos. But, as with most things in life, the brief definition doesn't even begin to take you into the world of the orpharion. Here is a nice website with picture. It is succintly described as an "english invented, wire strung, scalloped shaped instrument with sloping brass frets, often mentioned in Elizabethan Lute song publications as an alternative to the Lute." I would just like to listen to one all day...

5. To labefy something is to "weaken" or "impair" it. The Latin labare means "to fall, totter" and facere is to "make." Labefaction is the corresponding noun. From Gladstone in 1834: "Until the whole body of Churchmen is in such a state that all will be...secure against labefaction."

6. When we enter into libeccio we are in the world of the Mediterranean winds. This compass shows the eight names of the Mediterranean winds. From the South, and proceeding to the North, we have the "Ostro, Sirocco, Levanter [East], Gregale, Tramontane [North], Mistral, Zephyrus [West], and Libeccio (SW)." But there are tons of other winds in the word, depending on where you are located. For example, the word palouser, which actually means many things, is either a wind from Labrador or a strong, dangerous wind that descends from the Idaho Mountains into the Palouse Valley near Walla Walla or Pullman, WA. Here is a list of more than 50 names of winds, and palouser isn't even there!

7.-8. Sectile ultimately derives from the Latin sect--, the past participle of secare, "to cut." Thus, something that is sectile is "capable of or suited for being cut." "The sectile grass of late Spring waved in the May breeze." To speel means "to climb or clamber" up or down a mountain/height. From 1863: "So he speal'd up the side."

9. Let's finish with demurrage. We know the word demurrer in law--the common law term for a responsive pleading admitting the facts as stated in the plaintiff's pleading but accompanied with a denial that the person is entitled to relief. Thus, it "stops" the action. The word demurrage originally meant a "stay, delay, or pause," but later referred to a kind of detention. Bentham first used the term in this way (1810): "In the allowance to jury-men distinguish two parts: one for demurrage, viz. at the place of trial, the other for journeys, thither and back." However, it does have a meaning in admiralty law--"detention of a vessel by the freighter beyond the time agreed upon; the payment made in compensation for such detention." John Milton could use the term this way in a 1656 letter: "A considerable Sum of Money owing from certain Portugal Merchants...to several English Merchants, upon the account of Freightage and Demorage." Thus, the field of meaning for words derived from demur is so vast that any time you want to suggest a delay or detention, demurrage would probably be good to use.

That's enough of a meal for one more day...

[Next]

3535