Follow The Oikofuge: Words, filter it, and define how you want to receive the news (via Email, RSS, Telegram, WhatsApp etc.) https://follow.it/the-oikofuge-words Wed, 30 Nov 2022 07:09:51 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbDVlXqDBQR7lrDXWBZfdr71 I must have gone for years without hearing or reading this word until the advent of the improbable television series "Outlander" in 2014 (based on Diana Gabaldon's novels), which brought the word to the attention of (apparently) the entire English-speaking world, if not beyond. The first season of the series introduced a time-travelling twentieth-century nurse to Gaelic-speaking eighteenth-century Highland Scots, who call her a "Sassenach". At which point, people started talking nonsense about the word on the Internet. So no change there.]]> Wed, 23 Nov 2022 14:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbDVlXqDBQR7lrDXWBZfdr71 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbBQ1umZBONB4Qpx5_w21kha ˈɒmnɪʃæmblz omnishambles: a chaotic situation, especially in politics, brought about by multiple serious mistakes and a lack of basic understanding Malcolm Tucker: Not only have you got a [redacted] bent husband and a [redacted] daughter that gets taken to school in a [redacted] sedan chair, you’re also [redacted] mental. Jesus Christ, see you, you are … Continue reading Omnishambles →]]> Wed, 26 Oct 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbBQ1umZBONB4Qpx5_w21kha https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbDeUlXlDBeOmjRQaTQYXBS9 The [Saharan] dust particles provide nuclei for the formation of ice crystals in clouds above the rain forest and so help to enhance or maintain precipitation over the Amazon rain forests. Equally important, trace elements within the dust such as nitrates, phosphorous [sic], and potassium are a major source of plant nutrients. Martin Williams, When … Continue reading Phosphorus →]]> Wed, 05 Oct 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbDeUlXlDBeOmjRQaTQYXBS9 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbAWYC_H4qx1EpNaYRWadcX6 Last time, I introduced the concept of “Hillwalkers’ Gaelic”, which I abbreviated “HG” to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic (“SG”). I did so in the context of a comic poem entitled “The Climber’s Guide to the Pronunciation of the Gaelic Tongue“, which appeared in the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal of 1897, probably written by the … Continue reading Hillwalkers’ Gaelic: Part 2 →]]> Wed, 31 Aug 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbAWYC_H4qx1EpNaYRWadcX6 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbCm0xXDNDeWngSngkwrdsok The pronunciation of Gaelic hill names is fraught with difficulty for the non-Gael. One problem is the striking way in which some consonants are not pronounced at all. This is the Gaelic phenomenon of lenition, in which the addition of an “h” to a consonant changes and softens its pronunciation. Some lenited consonants, particularly “dh” … Continue reading Hillwalkers’ Gaelic: Part 1 →]]> Wed, 03 Aug 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbCm0xXDNDeWngSngkwrdsok https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbASVJ5ky_7MVavLeqE6yv18 ɛpɪkærˈɪkəsɪ / ɛpɪˈkærɪkəsɪ epicaricacy: malicious enjoyment of the misfortunes of others What a fearful thing is it that any language should have a word expressive of the pleasure which men feel at the calamities of others; for the existence of the word bears testimony to the existence of the thing. And yet in more than … Continue reading Epicaricacy: Part 2 →]]> Wed, 06 Jul 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbASVJ5ky_7MVavLeqE6yv18 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbCm9Y4tjn0_fa7VFky8BpXO ɛpɪkærˈɪkəsɪ / ɛpɪˈkærɪkəsɪ epicaricacy: malicious enjoyment of the misfortunes of others What a fearful thing is it that any language should have a word expressive of the pleasure which men feel at the calamities of others; for the existence of the word bears testimony to the existence of the thing. And yet in more than … Continue reading Epicaricacy: Part 1 →]]> Wed, 27 Apr 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbCm9Y4tjn0_fa7VFky8BpXO https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbDe2LeP5oIP9PdczOo_8W9B 1. All planets move in elliptical orbits, with the sun at one focus.2. A line that connects a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times.3. The square of the period of any planet is proportional to the cube of the semimajor axis of its orbit. Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion (formulated … Continue reading Keplerian Orbital Elements →]]> Wed, 30 Mar 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbDe2LeP5oIP9PdczOo_8W9B https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbCa-CH74eGUr0GT5aWO9DEx You know how to whistle, don’t you Steve? You just put your lips together, and blow. Lauren Bacall, To Have And Have Not (1944) No, your browser hasn’t had a stroke—this post really has wh in its title—that is, the two letters at the start of the word whistle. For most of the English-speaking world, … Continue reading The Sound(s) Of wh →]]> Wed, 23 Mar 2022 14:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbCa-CH74eGUr0GT5aWO9DEx https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbAO4hQyTl6kMEFW8UNEQjUn kɒmplɪˈmɛntərɪ complimentary: 1) expressive of, or conveying, polite praise or commendation; 2) presented as a gift or gratuity So a guy’s sitting at the bar, drinking beer, when he hears a voice say, “You’re looking good tonight.” And he looks around, but there’s no-one there. After a while the same voice says, “That new haircut … Continue reading Complimentary →]]> Wed, 19 Jan 2022 14:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbAO4hQyTl6kMEFW8UNEQjUn https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbDW8AY6dtYmsETXPGaG87AR From beneath the bushy V of satanic eyebrows, Rachs’ jet eyes seemed to shower sparks at him. As usual, that immobile face was incandescent, and Toring fancied he could almost hear the creaking of a carbon-arc in the brain of his superior. The Hungarian’s incredible energies frightened, rather than soothed patrons, and for years he … Continue reading More About “Anti-Agathic” →]]> Wed, 12 Jan 2022 14:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbDW8AY6dtYmsETXPGaG87AR https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbD_DsnpIw4_X58v71dCn6bG fɛˈstɪvɪtɪ Festivity: Rejoicing, mirth, gaiety, such as befits a feast Christmas time! That man must be a misanthrope indeed, in whose breast something like a jovial feeling is not roused—in whose mind some pleasant associations are not awakened—by the recurrence of Christmas. Charles Dickens, “Christmas Festivities”, Bell’s Life in London (1835) Dickens would have considered … Continue reading Festivity →]]> Wed, 22 Dec 2021 14:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbD_DsnpIw4_X58v71dCn6bG https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbBqt4ompRMocxhSCv31NykC Although not much encountered these days, the original meaning of the phrase “to beg the question” refers to a piece of faulty logic, which H.W. Fowler’s Dictionary Of Modern English Usage (1926) defines as: The fallacy of founding a conclusion on a basis that as much needs to be proved as the conclusion itself Fowler … Continue reading Begging The Question →]]> Wed, 24 Nov 2021 14:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbBqt4ompRMocxhSCv31NykC https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbChcWTQF7Dzux-xWH3zZqEA strɑˈveÉ¡ stravaig: (verb) to wander aimlessly; (noun) an instance of such wandering Not all who wander are lost J.R.R. Tolkien “The Riddle Of Strider” (1954) This Scots word has been on my “to do” list for a while, linking back as it does to my recent post about useful Scottish words, and farther back to … Continue reading Stravaig →]]> Wed, 27 Oct 2021 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbChcWTQF7Dzux-xWH3zZqEA https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbDFSD5uEfQcOrG7Iy_4u0x9 Scotland is a picturesque country where the people are friendly yet completely incomprehensible. Adam Schlesinger Setting aside Scots accents, which most people manage to tune into after fairly short exposure, it’s the vocabulary of Scottish English which is the main source of incomprehension for visitors. Some Scots words are easily translated: to swither is to … Continue reading Five Useful Scottish Words →]]> Wed, 29 Sep 2021 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbDFSD5uEfQcOrG7Iy_4u0x9 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbB0U0W4wlqk1t6jHbRcHw3s wɒnhəʊp Wanhope: hopelessness, despair Now comth wanhope þat is dispeire of the mercy of god þat comth somtyme of to moch outrageous sorow and som tyme of to moch drede Geoffrey Chaucer The Parson’s Tale (c.1400) I’ve fallen into the habit, recently, of picking words from current affairs for my posts about etymology and usage. … Continue reading Wanhope →]]> Wed, 18 Aug 2021 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbB0U0W4wlqk1t6jHbRcHw3s https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbDghlA-nk0pKFRpWVnEcNkS ˈlæbɪrɪnθ Labyrinth: 1) A structure consisting of a number of intercommunicating passages arranged in bewildering complexity, through which it is difficult or impossible to find one’s way without guidance. 2) A structure consisting of a single passageway winding compactly through a tortuous route between an entrance and a central point. When Minos reached Cretan soil … Continue reading Labyrinth →]]> Wed, 07 Jul 2021 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbDghlA-nk0pKFRpWVnEcNkS https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbBK77edDk2oGFRpWVnEcNkS In my previous post about this word, I described how the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland, Alba, originated in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European albho-, meaning "white". In Proto-Celtic, this evolved into another word something like albiyu. This word seems to have meant something like "bright place" or "high place", and in the later Celtic languages Brittonic and Goidelic (spoken on the islands of Britain and Ireland, respectively) it produced place-names that ended up as Alba, Albion and Albany. Likewise in the Germanic languages, albho- gave rise to a "high place" word that gives us the name of the Alps mountain range.]]> Wed, 26 May 2021 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbBK77edDk2oGFRpWVnEcNkS https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbAOh5ctGUQjKu4sICfMfkNm How did "Alba" come to be a name for Scotland?]]> Wed, 14 Apr 2021 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbAOh5ctGUQjKu4sICfMfkNm https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbD7eofjeWMH4zHgrmwRGUK6 ɪˈnɒkjʊleɪt inoculate: (horticulture) to insert a plant bud as a graft into another plant; (medicine) to insert a disease organism into the body by puncturing the skin, or into a culture medium using a needle; (medicine) to inject a vaccine In May 1796, Edward Jenner found a young dairymaid, Sarah Nelms, who had fresh cowpox … Continue reading Inoculate →]]> Wed, 17 Feb 2021 14:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/zNjpwFSEMbD7eofjeWMH4zHgrmwRGUK6