Word Wednesday.

Vivandière¹

Noun.

A woman who is a sutler.*

[Origin: French, feminine of vivandier sutler, from Old French, hospitable man, alteration of viandier, from viande, viaunde item of food.]

(1844)

*Sutler, noun: a civilian provisioner to an army post often with a shop on the post.

[Origin: obsolete Dutch soeteler, from Low German suteler sloppy worker, camp cook.]

(1599)

“Agnes turned to the gray-haired woman who was limping toward her. Despite her fifty years, and her slightly stooped gait, Mother Barbara still cut an impressive figure. Her eyes were bright as those of a girl of twenty, and she combed her ample, should-length hair every morning. She had once been the most beautiful whore in the baggage train, but then an intoxicated landsknecht had broken both her legs in a fight, and now she earned her living as a vivandière.” The Castle of Kings, Oliver Pötzsch.

¹ You can read more about vivandières and Cantinières here, and it’s fascinating reading.

Word Wednesday.

Vixen / Gambol / Blithe

Vixen, noun.

1: a shrewish ill-tempered woman.

2: a female fox.

3: a sexually attractive woman.

-vixenish, adjective.

[Origin: Middle English (Southern dialect) *vixen, alteration of Middle English fixen, from Old English fyxe, feminine of fox.]

(1590)

“The Fox was just that, a monstrous fox: five hundredweight or more of tense power, quick as an arrow, straight as a javelin, bright as a new-polished sword-blade, and female as Eve; Hob could see immediately that it was a vixen. Tall and deadly and graceful: the Goddess of the Foxes.”

Gambol, intransitive verb -boled or -bolled; -boling or -bolling. To skip about in play, to frisk, frolic.

Gambol, noun: a skipping or leaping about in play.

[Origin: modification of Middle French gambade spring of a horse, gambol, probably from Old Occitan camba leg, from Late Latin.]

(1508-10)

“Through Hob’s frozen terror a thought came faintly to him: it was gamboling, it was playing at slaughter.”

Blithe, adjective.

1: of a happy lighthearted character or disposition.

2: lacking due thought or consideration: casual, heedless: blithe unconcern.

-blithely, adverb.

[Origin: Middle English, from Old English blīthe; akin to Old High German Blīdi joyous.]

(Before 12th Century)

“The Fox sprang from place to place, blithe as a new lamb, and each leap left a mortally wounded man behind. Now and again it would pause to survey its accomplishments, and then the crimson tongue would loll out over serried teeth, and Hob felt that it was laughing.”

All from Something Red, by Douglas Nicholas.

Word Wednesday.

Scapegrace / Lucubrations / Odium

 
Scapegrace, noun: an incorrigible rascal; a habitually unscrupulous person; a complete rogue.

(1763)

“In 1890 and 1891, the scapegrace Walter James Chadwick lived in Hulme, Manchester.”

Lucubration, noun: laborious or intensive study; also: the product of such study, usually used in the plural.

[Origin: Latin lucubration-, lucubratio study by night, work produced at night, from lucubrare to work by lamplight; akin to Latin luc-, lux.]

“There were some initial police lucubrations that it might not be a case of murder at all, since the drunk Annie Yates might have slipped and struck her head against the furniture; when she wanted to bandage her wound with the towel, she had passed out, and been suffocated by the towel slipping over her nose and mouth.”

(1595)

Odium, noun.

1: the state or fact of being subjected to hatred and contempt as a result of a despicable act or blameworthy circumstance.

2: hatred and condemnation accompanied by loathing or contempt: detestation.

3: disrepute or infamy attached to something: opprobrium.

[Origin: Latin, hatred, from odisse to hate; akin to Old English atol terrible, Greek odyssasthai to be angry.]

(1602)

“Two professional translators were employed to prepare French and German versions of the police placard, for insertion in the main newspapers of those countries; there was odium when the German version was found to contain a long list of linguistic lapses, and Dr. Althschul, the professional translator, had to submit a ten-page memorandum in his defence, saying that it was all just jealousy from colleagues who envied his position.”

All from Rivals of the Ripper: Unsolved Murders of Women in Late Victorian London, Jan Bondeson.

Word Wednesday.

We have two words today, because they are both from the same book, and I did not wish to choose between them.
 

Salubrious / Obliquity

 
Salubrious, adjective: favourable to or promoting health or well-being.

-salubriously, adverb.

-salubriousness, noun.

-salubrity, noun.

[Origin: Latin salubris; akin to salvus safe, healthy.]

(1547)

“Bloomsbury to the north and Soho to the west were far from salubrious parts of London, but St. Giles’s remained one of the worst blackspots on the London map until the 1890s.” – Rivals of the Ripper: Unsolved Murders of Women in Late Victorian London, Jan Bondeson.

Obliquity, noun, plural -ties.

1: deviation from moral rectitude or sound thinking.

2a: deviation from parallelism or perpendicularity; also: the amount of such a deviation. b: the angle between the planes of the earth’s equator and orbit having a value of about 23°27′.

3a: indirectness or deliberate obscurity of speech or conduct. b: an obscure or confusing statement.

[Origin: Middle French obliquité from Latin obliquitatem slanting direction, obliquity.]

(15th Century)

“The Era newspaper blamed the police for their hounding of Smith and insisted that ‘the mental obliquity and professional incapacity displayed by the police in getting up the case against Smith, for the Cannon Street murder, shows more than ever the absolute necessity that exists for the establishment of a public prosecutor’. – Rivals of the Ripper: Unsolved Murders of Women in Late Victorian London, Jan Bondeson.

These two words definitely do not belong together, but I love the way they sound together: Salubrious Obliquity.

Trump the Thump.

Yeah. For Real. It gets worse. Note how, in the poster, TrumpBunny is under Jones’s hand.

Alex Jones is hawking another book, this time, it’s ostensibly for the sproggen. The title is Thump: The First Bundred Days, By Timothy Lim, Mark Pellegrini, Brett R. Smith.

In the year 2016, with a hop, skip and jump,
A candidate stormed the stage: A bunny named Thump!

His goal is nothing less than to become President
And to make America great for each resident!

But his campaign trail is fraught with challenge and peril,
Attacked on all sides by fiends ferocious and feral!

There are traitors and crooks and old establishment guard
And rabid media watchdogs unchained from their yard!

Will the winningest of bunnies take his greatest stand
And find his way to the highest office in the land?

We won’t spoil it for you here, but you might have a guess…
Come join Thump and his party on the road to success!

It’s every bit as bad as you’d expect, with at least one surprising low. One thing is quite clear, they do not expect children or adults to actually have a working vocabulary; this is more “we can’t use the real words, but you know wot I mean, wink nudge.”

The book, called Thump: The First Bundred Days, was written by a group of co-authors including Brett R. Smith, the creative director of the Steve Bannon-backedClinton Cash: A Graphic Novel, and Timothy Lim, who has worked with Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Hasbro. The book is published by Post Hill Press, whose books are distributed by Simon and Schuster.

The online store of Jones’ conspiracy theory outlet Infowars is selling the book with an exclusive poster showing Jones and Thump and describes the product as “the perfect book for teaching your kids or reading through it for yourself!”

Jones hosted Smith for a promotional interview on January 3, and flipped through the book, revealing some of its disturbing content.

On one page that Jones showed, the text read, “Thump found friends in strange places and in all shapes and sizes. Such as the frogs that croaked ‘KEK!’ They were full of surprises!”

“Thump found friends in strange places and in all shapes and sizes, such as the frogs that croaked “KEK!” They were full of surprises!“Gosh, no nazism there, no. And isn’t that critter on the left stolen from whatshisface?

And then we have this…

Thump reads, “Thump was caught talking of grabbing all things pusillanimous. Protesters even made pink hats: their ire was unanimous.” Let’s have a look at vocabulary here:

Pusillanimous

Adjective.

Lacking courage and resolution: marked by contemptible timidity Syn: cowardly.

-pusillanimously, adverb.

[Origin: Late Latin pusillanimis, from Latin pusillus very small (diminutive of pusus boy) + animus spirit; perhaps akin to Latin puer child.]

(1586)

Hmm. Seems they only cared about a rhyme and at least the starting sound of pussy, and not the meaning of the word. It would be nice to think this was a deliberate swipe at the Tiny Tyrant, but I doubt that’s the case. I’m sure if the sprogs of Trumpholes ask as to the meaning of pusillanimous, they’ll be told a pretty lie, if the Trumpholes know what it means in the first place. I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets tangled up with pugilism in the Trumphole world.

You can read more about this travesty at MediaMatters.

Word Wednesday.

Deadpan

Adjective.

Marked by an impassive matter-of-fact manner, style, or expression.

-deadpan, adverb.

(C 1928)

Noun.

1: a completely expressionless face.

2: a deadpan manner of behaviour or presentation.

(C 1930)

Transitive Verb.

To express in a deadpan manner.

-deadpanner, noun.

(C 1942)

“Cold enough,” Tristan hazarded, “to form a Bose-Einstein condensate?” “I love it when you talk dirty,” Oda said, so perfectly deadpan that I did a double take.” – The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland.

Word Wednesday.

Heterodox

Adjective.

1: contrary to or different from an acknowledged standard, a traditional form, or an established religion: Unorthodox, Unconventional <heterodox ideas>

2: holding unorthodox opinions or doctrines.

[Origin: Late Latin heterodoxus, from Greek heterodoxos, from heter– + doxa opinion.]

(1650)

“A verifiable fallen academic (from the American University and Tufts, among others), Marston had a gift for dressing sensationally vulgar ideas in pseudo-intellectual jargon, and he exploited it for a few years in Hollywood, advising the studios on how to maneuver around the Hays Office censors and sneak sex in films through symbolism and coded language. Relocated to New York and the publishing industry, he hustled pseudoscience and heterodox titillation through comics and popular magazines (in bylined articles, interviews, and the advertisements for Gillette Razor Blades). – The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, David Hadju.

Word Wednesday.

Lineament

Noun.

1 a: an outline, feature, or contour of a body or figure and especially of a face – usually used in plural. b: a linear topographic feature (as of the earth) that reveals a characteristic (as a fault or the subsurface structure).

2: a distinguishing or characteristic feature – usually used in plural.

– lineamental, adjective.

[Origin: Middle English, from Latin lineamentum, from lineare to draw a line, from linea.]

(15th C.)

“To open the female body was not just to embark upon a voyage of scientific discovery, but it was also to trace the lineaments of the rebellious nature of womankind. That rebellious nature could undermine the smooth transfer of material goods from one generation to the next, just as, in the garden of Eden, it had seemed to undermine the divine plan itself. Every female body which found its way into the anatomy theatre was, therefore, a potential second Eve, just as every male body was a potential second Adam. To be an Eve, however, was very different from being an Adam within the patriarchal structure of early-modern culture. If the Renaissance anatomy theatre, in its modes of ritual and representation, offered the suggestion of redemption to the male cadaver, what it offered to the female was the reverse: a demonstration of Eve’s sin, a reinforcement of those structures of patriarchal control which, so the argument ran, were necessary to avoid a repetition of that first act of rebellion in the garden of Paradise.” – The Body Emblazoned, Dissection and the Human Body in Renaissance Culture, Jonathan Sawday.

Note: This book is still available, and considerably less expensive than back when it was first published. Recommended, it’s a fascinating read all the way through.

Word Wednesday.

Ruse

Noun.

1: a wily subterfuge.

2: an action intended to mislead, deceive, or trick; stratagem.

[Origin: French, from Old French, roundabout path taken by fleeing game, trickery, from reuser. Early 15c., “dodging movements of a hunted animal; 1620s, a trick, from Old French ruse, reuse diversion, switch in flight; trick, jest (14c.), back-formed noun from reuser to dodge, repel, retreat; deceive, cheat,” from Latin recusare deny, reject, oppose, from re– + causari plead as a reason, object, allege, from causa reason, cause]

(1375-1425)

“She was already thinking of how she may use the astrologer to negotiate a better fee with the Village Chief. The stars and their confluence could at first be hard to read, leaving some uncertainty about whether the two prospective spouses were well suited to each other. Then, if the groom was steadfast on getting the bride that he had his eyes on, for an additional fee the matchmaker could be convinced to get a second astrologer’s interpretation, one more auspicious and conforming to the will of heaven. She had been doing her trade throughout several provinces for years, and that ruse had yet to fail her. – Village Teacher, by Neihtn.

Note: Village Teacher is an excellent story, recommended.

Word Wednesday.

Termagant

Noun.

1: Capitalized: a deity erroneously ascribed to Islam by medieval European Christians and represented in early English drama as a violent character.

2: an overbearing or nagging woman: shrew.

[Origin: Middle English Termagaunt, Tervagaunt, Old French Tervagan the imaginary deity: c.1500, “violent, overbearing person” (especially of women), from Teruagant, Teruagaunt (c.1200), name of fictitious Muslim deity appearing in medieval morality plays, from Old French Tervagant, a proper name in “Chanson de Roland” (c.1100), of uncertain origin.

Termagant, adjective: overbearing, shrewish. (C 1598)

“The Englishman hardly knew whether to put him down as a man haunted by a fixed delusion, or as one oppressed by a guilty conscience, or as an unbearably henpecked husband. The probabilities, when reckoned up, certainly pointed to the last idea; but, still, the impression conveyed was that of a more formidable persecutor even than a termagant wife.” – Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book, M.R. James.

Word Wednesday.

Monstrance

Noun.

A vessel in which the consecrated host is exposed for the adoration  of the faithful. Example.

[Origin: Middle English mustraunce, monstrans demonstration, monstrance from Anglo-French mustrance show, sign, from Medieval Latin monstrantia, from Latin monstrare to show, from monstrum.]

(15th Century)

There’s also a monstrance clock: The monstrance clock, or mirror clock, developed during the Renaissance. The monstrance was a cross-shaped gold or silver vessel which played an important part in church ritual and often incorporated sacred figures as part of the design. The clock made use of a rotating ball at the top or in the base to indicate the time of day.

“Two years ago, the clock tower had collapsed, almost completely destroying the choir loft and the vestry at a time when more than hundred people were in the church. An elderly widow, Regina Reichart, was crushed in the rubble, and took three days and three nights of digging to find the buried monstrance.” – The Play of Death, Oliver Pötzsch.

Given that monstrance means to demonstrate or show, I think it would a fine word for those who insist on demonstrating their assholism.

And…

Ghost – Monstrance Clock. If you don’t know:

In the last tour, Papa Emeritus III had a monologue about this song, that was usually said before it: in the end and summing it up, he says it’s a song that” paints a picture of how the female orgasm can be achievied”, as it is deemed as “a craft of the devil”. In the monologue, Papa also talks about sexual encounters and the synchrony and affinity between a two people, reaching orgasm together.

Word Wednesday.

Defenestration / Defenestrate

Noun / Transitive Verb.

1: a throwing of a person or thing out of a window.

2: a usually swift dismissal or expulsion (as from a political party or office.)

– defenestrate, transitive verb.

[Origin: de – + Latin fenestra window.]

(1600s)

Due to the limitations of early Krakau translation software, the first words broadcast to humanity by another sentient species, in Earth Year 2153 and at a volume of 104 decibels, were:

“We come in harmony to defenestrate your dingo.”  – Terminal Alliance, Jim C. Hines.

Defenestration is an act with a very long history, intimately intertwined with politics, and more than once, the start of a war.

Word Wednesday.

The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters, Scott G. Bruce.

Prodigy

Noun, plural –gies.

1a: a portentous event: Omen. b: something extraordinary or inexplicable.

2a: an extraordinary, marvelous, or unusual accomplishment, deed, or event. b: a highly talented child or youth.

[Origin: Middle English, from Latin prodigium omen, monster, from pro–, prod– + igium (akin to aio I say).]

(15th Century).

“In the northern parts of England as well, we know of another prodigy, not unlike this one and equally strange, that happened around the same time. At the mouth of the river Tweed and under the jurisdiction of the king of Scotland, there is a noble town called Berwick. In this town there lived a man of wealth, but a scoundrel, as became clear afterward. After his death he was buried, but at night he went forth from his grave through the workings – as some believe – of Satan. And followed by a pack of loudly barking dogs, he wandered about hither and thither.” – The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters, Scott G. Bruce.

“In truth, we should clearly remember very carefully that whenever prodigies are clearly revealed to people who are still alive whether by good or evil spirits, it often happens that those who see them do not live for very long thereafter.” – The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters, Scott G. Bruce.