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WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
ifyoucantfixit:
altiloquent \awl-TIL-uh-kwuhnt\, noun:
High-flown or pretentious language.
He remembered that the politeness seemed too elaborate, too florid, altiloquent to the extent of insincerity.
-- Holman Day, All-Wool Morrison
The meaning of the music was made further explicit by explanations in his own, altiloquent (but purposefully avoiding the technical) Wagnerian prose, wrapped solicitously around the Goethe passages.
-- Alessandra Comini, The Changing Image of Beethoven
Altiloquent stems from the Latin roots atli meaning "high" and loquentem meaning "speaking."
Mandy21:
Janice, thought you might get a kick out of this. It's from the newspaper in the teeny-tiny town in rural Kansas where my mom grew up in the 30's and 40's. I take a road trip there every spring and spend a week wandering around her old stomping ground. The whole town knows me and makes a point to say hello to "Jackie's girl" cause she was quite something back in the day, and they tell me I'm the spittin' image of her. I have to carry around her old photo albums in my trunk cause some of her old beaus always insist on looking at the pics of the good old days, and I'm happy to oblige. Anyhoo...
Posted: Sunday, May 13, 2012 1:07 pm
Bridge, viaduct, or what?
By Ned Valentine, Clay Center Dispatch
So what do we call the new $4.4 million structure on west Crawford bridging Huntress Creek?
Some say the new structure isn’t a viaduct because no train track or road will pass under it. The proper term, we have been assured, is “bridge.”
That was distressing, since back as far as the memory of man runneth not to the contrary it has been known as “the viaduct.” Remembering to refer to it instead as the “Crawford Street bridge” would take some effort. So, we consulted an engineer who said he just couldn’t be sure without looking it up.
Merriam Webster to the rescue: What is being replaced on west US24 was a viaduct. And it’s replacement will be a viaduct also.
Technically, a viaduct is an elevated roadway, usually consisting of a series of short spans supported by arches, piers or columns, according to Merriam. A bridge simply is any structure carrying a pathway or roadway over a depression or obstacle.
The two definitions sound almost indistinguishable, but they’re not. While all viaducts are bridges, not all bridges are viaducts.
The piers of the new Crawford Street bridge are columns, and the roadway is being elevated to accommodate flooding of Huntress Creek. (Despite being 12 feet lower, you still won’t be able to see the far end of the bridge when you start across from the opposite end).
While few ever called the old viaduct “the bridge,” many, who apparently couldn’t remember the word “viaduct,” called it “the overpass.”
An overpass, it isn’t, Merriam says. Overpass isn’t even a noun. It’s a verb meaning to pass across, over or beyond; or to transgress; or to disregard or ignore.
One can overpass something, but not on an overpass. So, it is best to disregard or ignore “overpass.”
Whatever it is, the contractor is still on schedule. With any luck, it may be completed before the Nov. 14 deadline. If the Court Street bridge is any guide, the viaduct will be a handsome addition to our community when finished.
ifyoucantfixit:
I did love that. That is why I love words, and language in general. It has a way of informing us of things,
we were not even aware we needed to know. In the way that there were specifics to those two differing
terms. There should have been a distinction to those other two as well. However I looked and tried to find
that finite difference, and could not find one. I suppose there are probably more of these conundrums, that
are two differing words that seem to be so similar, in both look and usage, that they are virtually the same.
The English language is quite complex, in this case I think it has to do with the common acceptance of bringing
onboard words of other languages and incorporating them into it. That happened I think in this case. Leaving us
with two words that mean the exact same thing..
"Don't you just love it." One of my favorite quotes, from an old song of the 60s, that my only nephew used
to sing when he was a mere tot.
[youtube=425,350] [youtube=425,350] [/youtube]
[/youtube]
Now you have had a sample of my other obsession..music..
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
ifyoucantfixit:
spruik \sprook\, verb:
To make or give a speech, especially extensively; spiel.
He started to spruik again, but I managed to get in first.
-- C.E. Murphy, Raven Calls
Cain and Leek spruik their foul and immoral stories by the fire at night and the rest of the men grow excited and the mood of the camp becomes restless.
-- Tim Winton, Shallows
Don't go into your spruik for me. I don't care what words you call it.
-- A. E. Martin, The Outsiders
Spruik is Australian slang that arose in the early 1900s. It is of unknown origin.
ifyoucantfixit:
omphalos \OM-fuh-luhs\, noun:
1. The central point.
2. The navel; umbilicus.
3. Greek Antiquity. A stone in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, thought to mark the center of the earth.
To that incurable romantic the Trenton hovel was omphalos, the hub of existence, the center of mass.
-- Ellen Queen, Halfway House
Yes; but if not of the earth, for earth's tenant Jerusalem was the omphalos of mortality.
-- Thomas De Quincey, Suspiria de Profundies
From Greek, omphalos did not enter English until the 1850s when Thomas De Quincey used it in his work Suspiria de Profundis. It literally meant "navel."
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