I for some strange reason have "thermionic emmision" randomly pop out of my head. Very random. What about you guys.
Pirate.
What random words are sticking out in your head?
-
_Imwashingmypirate
- _Emeritus
- Posts: 2290
- Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 10:45 pm
-
_Blixa
- _Emeritus
- Posts: 8381
- Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2007 12:45 pm
Moniker wrote:Blixa wrote:"contumely"
Aha! I read that word just a few days ago in Shakespeare. I had to look it up!
"macarism" has been one bouncing in my brain lately. I like the way it sounds -- and the meaning.
I'm almost convinced that Hamlet is the only place anyone ever sees it! But look! Billy Collins used it in his Catullus poem!
How to pronounce it? I think scansion requires a three syllable approach in Hamlet's speech (I've heard this with the accent on the first syllable in most Shakespear stagings I can remember) but I first pronounced with the stress on "tum"...appparently either are correct as well as a four syllablu stretch as well ...
anyway I'm fond of this lil ol obscure word..
From the Ernest L. Wilkinson Diaries: "ELW dreams he's spattered w/ grease. Hundreds steal his greasy pants."
-
_Moniker
- _Emeritus
- Posts: 4004
- Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2007 11:53 pm
Blixa wrote:Moniker wrote:Blixa wrote:"contumely"
Aha! I read that word just a few days ago in Shakespeare. I had to look it up!
"macarism" has been one bouncing in my brain lately. I like the way it sounds -- and the meaning.
I'm almost convinced that Hamlet is the only place anyone ever sees it! But look! Billy Collins used it in his Catullus poem!
How to pronounce it? I think scansion requires a three syllable approach in Hamlet's speech (I've heard this with the accent on the first syllable in most Shakespear stagings I can remember) but I first pronounced with the stress on "tum"...appparently either are correct as well as a four syllablu stretch as well ...
anyway I'm fond of this lil ol obscure word..
Yes! It was Hamlet! My daughter has to do a monologue for a class and she brought this home a few days ago and I was scanning over it and came across it! Maybe I thought of it again because it's in the Catullus poem too! Yet, I'm not certain I consciously recognized it. I've been reading Billy Collins this morning and I love his work, Blixa!
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin?
I too enjoy obscure words yet I'm hesitant to use them for fear of mispronunciation. Although there are online dictionaries now that will pronounce the words -- thankfully. And then I'm hesitant to use them in the written form for fear that I misuse them. I'm such a wimp!
-
_Doctor Steuss
- _Emeritus
- Posts: 4597
- Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:57 pm
-
_Doctor Steuss
- _Emeritus
- Posts: 4597
- Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:57 pm