Convergence!

When I first started blogging I thought it was weird to write on a variety of topics on a single blog. So I very early on started four blogs on four topics: arts, politics, language, and personal goings-on.

As it turns out, I was wrong to do this, as I now have four blogs that I update not-very-often, instead of one robust, oft-updated blog.

To remedy this, I'm going to continue my original blog: dixitque andreus:, and abandon these others. Græcum est is the first to go, and the rest will follow shortly.

All of the old posts from my defunct blogs have been cut and pasted into dixitque andreus:, so you need only look there.

Enjoy.

heathered (adj.)

Heather, of course, is a particularly Scottish purplish shrubby flowery thing.

Heathered, though, means something like "made with fibres of two or more colours". The effect is mottled.

Why does heathered mean this? I don't know. I was only able (so far) to find etymological information for the Scottish shrubbery. If anyone can shed light on this, it'd be most welcome.

In my googling, though, I found the following slang meanings for "heathered" at urbandictionary.com:

1. to be heathered: to be embarrassed after saying something stupid.

2. to be heathered: at a party, to be roughly used for sexual gratification by several people in succession.

3. to heather: to be an over-the-top bitch to someone.

Who knew?

turkey (n.)

A turkey is three strikes in a row in bowling. Why? Well, according to bowl.com, it's because, before the Twentieth Century, three strikes in a row was a rare feat. Around the Holidays, those who got three strikes in a row were often awarded a turkey as a prize.

man up (v.)

This was a verb I heard for the first time last week. To "man up" is to steel your nerves, or suck it up. The reluctant drinker might be told to "man up" and "just do the shot", for example.

Interlingua

We've all heard of Esparanto, but what about Interlingua? Interlingua is an invented language that is based heavily on Western European (mostly Romance) languages. The idea was to use the commonalities of English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian (with German and Russian as back-ups) to make up something that speakers of any of these would understand. The resulting language is completely intelligible.

As someone who studied French, Italian and Latin for a while, I always feel, for example, that I can almost read Spanish. In fact, I can almost read Spanish. Every once in a while, though, I'll hit an idiosyncratic verb-form or piece of vocabulary, or an idiom, and won't understand the sentence. This is, of course, because I can't really read Spanish.

The experience of reading something written in Interlingua is similar to that of reading something in any language you have never studied or lived with, except there are no idiosyncracies to derail you. I can read it 100% fluently. And I guess the idea is that someone who speaks no English but speaks Italian or French should be able to read it with the same fluency.

Here's a sample for you:

Le Balenas Parla Differente Linguas

Le balenas parla "in differente linguas"; assi le mammales maritime del Pacifico a pena comprende lor co-racianos vivente in le Oceano Atlantic; e le balenas habitante al costas de Chile pote difficilemente arrivar a "denominator commun" con le balenas vivente presso le Polo Sud.

David Mellinger, explorator del universitate in le stato Oregon del SUA studiava le tonos producite per le balenas del Pacifico e illos del gigantesc balenas con ambergris. Le "spionar" deveniva possibile per le systema registrante seismos installate sub le aqua, que registrava tamben le conversation del mammales maritime - se lege sur le portal russe de novas "Lenta".

Como il se verificava, le "parlar" del mammales maritime consiste de ruitos, sibilos e tonos susurrante de alte frequentia, ma le specimenes del population nordic e del sud "misce" le tonos in differente proportiones e tamben le frequentia del "parlar" pote ser differente.

Le mammales maritime usa un parte del tonos pro orientation, ma le altere partes pro communication. Le explorator registrava le plus complicate "melodias" durante le epocha del copulation.

(agentia de novas MTI, rubrica Panoráma)

Have a look at the Wikipedia article.

pandæmonium (n.)

Who knew?

"Pandemonium" is a Miltonism which originally described a demon-palace in Hell. A Pandemonium. I guess it makes sense that it means "uproar". Above is an illustration of the Miltonian version, and what follows is Georg Grosz's painting Metropolis, which, I guess, is the "uproar" version.

Eutopia or Outopia? Eutopia and Outopia!

Yes, folks, it's true. "Utopia" was coined by Saint/Sir Thomas More with an intentional etymological ambiguity.

ou topos - no place

eu topos - good place

Have a look here and here.

Who knew?

onboard (v.)

I read this word at work the other day. From the context, I gleaned that to "onboard" someone is to provide them with orientation sessions and basic training. I suppose it also connotes both welcoming and indoctrination, as in: "welcome aboard!" and "make sure they're on board".