Entheos is an adjective that translates to "full of the god, inspired, possessed". It is the root of the English word "enthusiasm". The Greeks used the word to praise artists and poets
Hippalektryon (Latinized as hippalectryon), a fantastic hybrid creature of Ancient Greek folklore. The front half is a horse, but the back half is a rooster (including the tail, wings and hind legs). It comes directly from Ancient Greek "ἱππαλεκτρυών", a compound word that comprises ἵππος (híppos, "horse"), and ἀλεκτρυών (alektryốn,, "rooster"), so the translation is plain. It is not known where or why this creature was created, as he is not mentioned in any myths apart from those of Aeschylus (5th century BC), and a century later by Aristophanes (though mostly as an insult - think of another word for "rooster"). They might simply have been made up to amuse children. Strangely enough, these creatures appear in modern fiction, in the 4th book of the "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" series, and also the third book of the Thrones and Bones trilogy, Skyborn, by Lou Anders.
Consilience Consilience refers to the unity of knowledge achieved by connecting different fields such as natural sciences, social sciences, and arts through epigenetic rules, allowing humans to perceive the world as a seamless web of cause and effect.
adjective: epigenetic Biology relating to changes, especially heritable changes, in the characteristics of a cell or organism that result from altered gene expression or other effects not involving changes to the DNA sequence itself. "epigenetic carcinogens"
It's usually some sort of environmental trigger that causes a change in gene expression. Epigenetics influences neurogenesis (and aging of nerve cells) for example
This isn't new, it's not a word and I didn't learn it today... but it seems most appropriate here. For those fantasy authors who want to craft authentic-ish pseudo-medieval dialogue, don't "thee" and "thou" everything. "Thee" and "thou" are casual speech, reflecting personal closeness, and is not appropriate when speaking to one's social betters and superiors. They are exactly equivalent to the French "tu" or German "du". "You" is the formal equivalent, so you would not, for example, say "I greet thee, my lord" if you were a peasant or even a knight or noble with a lower status. You would say "I greet you". You would probably still say that even if you had a higher status, for reasons of formality. You can though, say "I greet ye" - "ye" means "you", it does not, and has never meant "the" (AFAIK).
It does sometimes mean 'the' because the 'y' is standing in for the thorn, þ, pronounced 'th', which is commonly replaced a 'y' because buying a keyboard from Icelandic Amazon has a really long postal delay. Even with Prime. A little like most English speakers writing 'role' rather than 'rôle'.
But it isn't *pronounced* "ye" and has never been spelled "ye". The correct transliteration to modern English is "the", not "ye". Modern *English* does not have the letter thorn, even if Icelandic keyboards do. The "Y" that stands in for thorn is exactly that - a stand-in.
Absolutely. Unfortunately, an episode of classic Star Trek (called "Amok Time") is particularly guilty of this. (If I may digress, I own a book called Medieval Underpants and Other Blunders by Susanne Alleyn, which mentions this. It is also hilarious). This is called archaic SPS (Second Person Singular). To quote Alleyn: (Quoted from "Medieval Underpants and Other Blunders", pp. 40-44).
I don't want to give the impression of an obsession, but the thorn continued to be used in writing when movable type was introduced, at which point people used a 'y' because they didn't have the thorn type. Its not just cutesy modern Ye Olde Pubbe signs; it really was written that way for a long time. So it would be more precise to say that in archaic English the type form y has a second less common meaning as the letter thorn rather than as the letter y. So if we want a really semantically pedantic position we can agree on then we'll distinguish spelling from how something is written or typeset. Therefore "the" can only be spelled with a thorn or a 'th'. At the same time it can be typeset with a 'y' because that represents a thorn, but it cannot be spelled with a y, because that y is a thorn. I'm exhausting, I know.
I'm aware that it was written that way, and the reason why, but it was never pronounced "ye". It was always supposed to be read "the". Therefore, a modern writer using "ye" to mean "the" is wrong. To equate "ye" meaning "you". If you were transcribing "Ye Olde Shoppe" down, you would write "The Olde Shoppe". If you want to maintain that it does, it's up to you. I can't stop you, and I honestly can't be arsed to argue about it any further.
I thought you had a lot of interesting facts about the correct use of thee, thou and ye up a few posts. Yes, the use of ye is archaic and cloying, but you did say, So I'm just joining in. The AFAIK is right there, as is the 'never'. I'm not advising anyone to use it for God's sake. Ye is in the OED and Collins as meaning literally 'the'. Of course no-one should now use it that way but people did. This is all just meant to be fun with words and I have no interest in arguments, especially not ones that require you being arsed. I apologise for putting your hackles up, especially when we clearly agree that it shouldn't actually be used that way today. Moving on.
Word of the day: Bubkes (stemming from Yiddish, pron. BUB-kess). It means "nothing", in a disparaging kind of way. For instance: "I work my butt off all day, and what do I get? Bubkes!" My (maternal Jewish) grandmother grew up in Romania, so of course she knew Romanian, Hebrew and Yiddish. When the Germans invaded in '39, she and a lot of other Jews had to flee to Stalin's Russia. (What a choice to have to make! ) I'm finding that the older I get, the more Yiddish I use. I've no idea why. Oy vey!
Ohh that's what that is! I always heard that as "bupkiss" and assumed there was some sort of butt and kissing etymology lol. I knew it as a somewhat US-centric way of saying "nothing" but didn't know the roots. Oddly enough, I was thinking about it the other day and wondered at its origins.
I always understood that it was from when the "th" letter or rune - the thorn, which looks (maybe, in some instances, possibly?) like a Y - and the actual modern Y just got mixed up. So "Ye" wouldn't have meany you but the, as in "Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese", a pub on Fleet Street. You and Thou would have then (or is it yen) got bastardised in the same way. but perhaps not, yough lol. Source: Probably Stephen Fry haha
Correct, but it was read as "The", not "Ye". No - this is different. Shakespeare uses both "you" and "thou", but if you look, he uses "you/your" when speakers are being polite and formal to each other, and "thou/thy" when they're being informal or rude. Titus Andronicus: "Villain, I have done thy mother!" Romeo and Juliet: "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" vs. Henry V, part 1: "My lord, I'll tell you; that self bill is urged," (two bishops talking to each other)
Nope, bubkes has nothing to do with butt-kissing. Yiddish is a fun language, it's very expressive. For instance, the word tuches (pron. TOO-chess, with the "ch" being guttural, like "Loch Ness"). Tuches means "butt" ... and this word is also the root of the more Americanized "tush" (or "tushie" / "tushy" etc. for "butt").
Balter (v): (archaic) to dance or tread clumsily I don't generally trust definitions in memes, but after googling around for usage, it looks like this one isn't far off: I don't care if it is archaic. I will forthwith find a reason to write a character joyfully baltering. What's more fun than dancing like no one's watching?
Another word that I initially learned from The Simpsons. The season 7 episode titled Lisa the Iconoclast (featuring Donald Sutherland!) had Lisa uncovering the truth about the founder of Springfield, who turned out to be a ruthless pirate. And of course, the townspeople saw him as a hero and did not appreciate the challenge to their beliefs. Solid word.
Me too! Hans Sprungfeld! Then I saw a Maya Angelou series called Iconoclasts. She said it meant to "break chains," which makes sense. Maybe it wasn't a series but she used that line in multiple things I've seen.
Which one? Embiggen, or cromulent? I'm sorry, but the word "iconoclast" does not mean "one who breaks chains". I've no idea where Maya Angelou got that from. I know this word very well. (Initially, I also saw it on The Simpsons, but I read much more about it later). The word "iconoclast" comes from 8th-century Constantinople (today's Istanbul), of all places, which was experiencing a religious upheaval and smashing religious icons, like paintings, statues and goblets. The question at stake was: was it possible to worship God without all this extra finery, or was it actually necessary for the worship of God? People who were smashing all these things were iconoclasts. The people defending them were iconodules. Eventually, the iconodules won. It makes sense too: iconoclast comes from neoclassical Greek eikono ("icon", obviously) and klastēs ("breaker"). On the other hand, iconodule is also from Greek - eikono ("icon") and doulos ("servant"). So now we know.
