#178073 - 07/25/08 06:21 PM
Re: Word of the Day
[Re: D. Allan]
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Panning for gold
Registered: 08/28/00
Posts: 3883
Loc: les Etats-Unis d'Amerique
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 At left: Brasserie Jo, Boston, Mass. USA brasserie (bras-uh-REE; French bras'REE) noun
restaurant or tavern that serves simple food along with drinks, esp. beer
[French, from brasser, to malt, brew, from Old French bracier, from Vulgar Latin braciāre, from Latin brace, malt, of Celtic origin.]
In France, a brasserie typically specializes in beer and Alsatian food; in fact, the word itself is French for beer hall or brewery. Today's brasseries, which tend to focus on wine rather than beer, are enjoying great popularity in Manhattan. –NYTimes, ‘Good Eating; Hoisting Stein or Stem At a Brasserie’ May 27, 2001
. . . a European-American brasserie (sample dishes: Kobe-beef hot dog topped with sauerkraut, Tyrolean “mac and cheese”) opened last fall. . . –Lauren Collins, ‘Klee’, The New Yorker, Apr. 9, 2007
Poste Moderne Brasserie, an upscale contemporary brasserie located in downtown Washington DC, features modern American cuisine emphasizing fresh, local ingredients. - http://www.postebrasserie.com/
Twenty years ago, the difference between a brasserie and a bistro could be reduced to the difference between the heart and the mind -- or so it appeared to a young woman with poetic tendencies and expatriate ambitions. –Molly O’Neill, ‘Come to the Brasserie’ NYTimes, Jan. 14, 1996
The server my friends and I had at Pera Mediterranean Brasserie the other night couldn’t have been friendlier or more helpful. When we wanted a few recommendations, that’s what he gave us: a few recommendations, not an oral recitation of the entire menu, . . . –Frank Bruni, ‘First Impressions: Pera Mediterranean Brasserie’ NYTimes, Dec. 5, 2006
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#178447 - 07/28/08 05:21 PM
Re: Word of the Day
[Re: D. Allan]
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Panning for gold
Registered: 08/28/00
Posts: 3883
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 escargot (es-kar-GOH), noun
an edible snail
[from Old French escargol, from Old Provençal escaragol, probably from a variant of dialectal escarabol (perhaps influenced by Occitan cagarol, caragol, snail), from Latin scarabaeus, beetle.] –Ame. Heritage Dict. For one thing, it arrives preëxcavated, which not only deprives you the pleasure of digging but calls attention to the marrow’s texture rather than its flavor, a bad bet with gelatinous foodstuffs (there’s a reason that escargot are more fun when they come with their shells). –Lauren Collins, Tables for Two, ‘Allen & Delancey’, The New Yorker, July 24, 2008
Suddenly Margaret exclaimed triumphantly, "Escargot!" Well, I ordered them, and they looked like little garden snails to me -- tiny shells whose smidgens of meat had to be extracted with a toothpick, a bit bland in a thin pesto sauce. –Francine Russo, ‘From Iron Age to Our Age’, The Atlantic Monthly, Nov. 2000
A woman celebrating her birthday was burned and temporarily blinded by a snail that burst on her plate at a restaurant here, the police said today. The woman, . . . , was about to take a second bite of an order of escargot . . . when one of the snails burst. She was burned around her right eye and blinded for about 90 minutes, the police said. –AP, ‘Woman Injured by Escargot While Dining at a Restaurant, NYTimes, Feb. 28, 1988
A ''duet'' of escargot consisted of a whole escargot on flaky pastry, bathed in a sauce made with liquidized salty duck's egg with a touch of curry powder, then a second escargot wrapped in prosciutto with a creamy asparagus mousse. –Nina Simonds, Choice Tables; In Hong Kong, Home Kitchens With Open Doors,’ NYTimes, August 15, 2004
Escargot Culinary History
“Discarded roasted snail shells found in archeological digs indicate that prehistoric humans enjoyed "escargot". Pliny described Fulvius Hirpinus' snail garden as having varied species of snails and feeding them on wine and cornmeal. Ancient Romans, and later, other Europeans ate snails during festivals, Lent, Mardi Gras and Carnival. There are edible land snails ranging in size from 1/4 inch to giant African snails growing up to 12 inches. The traditional escargot is the common garden-variety snail. Escargot (French for snail) are available fresh, chilled, canned, or frozen.” -http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/escargot.htm
Picture of Giant African Land Snails
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#178573 - 07/29/08 08:58 PM
Re: Word of the Day
[Re: D. Allan]
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Panning for gold
Registered: 08/28/00
Posts: 3883
Loc: les Etats-Unis d'Amerique
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Chart on the right : economic wonkery
wonk (wongk), noun, disparaging slang term
1. a student without a social life due to obsessive studying.
2. a person who assiduously and excessively studies an issue or topic
[1954, Amer.Eng. student slang, popularized 1993 during Clinton administration in U.S.; perhaps a shortening of Brit. slang wonky "shaky, unreliable" (1919). ] –online etymology dictionary
related words:
wonky, wonkiest adj.
wonkery, wonkiness, wonkdom nouns
Notice that spelled backwards “wonk “is “know. Student : “Prof. says we’ve got to know this stuff frontwards and backwards for the exam.” Witty Student : ( reverses “know” ) “I’ve got to wonk this stuff frontwards and backwards!” (Just my intuition. ) However, that would make it a verb, wouldn't it? Wonking is a rare activity. Anyone who knows all that stuff perfectily is a studious wonk! -dAb “The clue to its origin may be in that article in Sports Illustrated, in which it is explained that in Harvard slang there was a tripartite classification of students into wonks, preppies, and jocks.” -
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pol1.htm
Remember the titans of "Apollo 13"? Not the astronauts but the wonks back on earth: the guys with slide rules, their spectacle frames as thick as fenders, who tipped a load of rocket junk onto a table and had to brainstorm their way to finding a few more volts for the lost boys, up in space. –Anthony Lane, The Current Cinema, ‘Game Boy’ , The New Yorker, Jan. 7, 2002
And so Eliot [Spitzer] —. . .—did not go into the world a trivial man. In fact, it might be said he left home, for Princeton, a teenage wonk. (Today he's an adult wonk, with an attention to detail that seems borderline obsessive. –Sridhar Pappu, ‘The Crusader’, The Atlantic Monthly, Oct. 2004
Mr. Blair hails from the left, Mr. Bush from the right. Mr. Blair is a policy wonk on par with President Clinton, Mr. Bush shows little interest in the details of policy. –Ivo H. Daalder, ‘Books of the Times; Why Blair Took the Risk Of Making War on Iraq,’ NYTImes, Nov. 20, 2003
''A nerd, a geek, an apple-polishing dirt-wonk with an unseemly interest in filth and how to make it go away,'' Soper confronted Mallon in the kitchen of her new employers on Park Avenue, and demanded a feces sample. She chased him out with a carving fork. –Adam Shatz, ‘Employees Must Wash Hands,’ NYTimes, May 13, 2001
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#178743 - 07/30/08 08:23 PM
Re: Word of the Day
[Re: D. Allan]
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Panning for gold
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Posts: 3883
Loc: les Etats-Unis d'Amerique
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If this delicacy comes in kosher form, I do not know. My mother used to have in the cupboards a dried salted uncooked beef which came in small glass jars and which she used in making gravy. She used to let me have a taste now and then right from the jar. Delicious. If you want to maintain a kosher diet it will help you to know this word! 
prosciutto (proh-SHOO-toh), noun, plural : prosciutti or prosciuttos
an aged, spiced, dried Italian ham, usually sliced paper-thin and served uncooked.
[c.1938, from It., alteration (probably by infl. of prosciugato "dried") of presciutto, from pre-, intensive prefix + -sciutto, from L. exsuctus "lacking juice, dried up," pp. of exsugere "suck out, draw out moisture," from ex- "out" + sugere "to suck"] -Online Etymology Dictionary “Heat rarely agrees with prosciutto, which is a pork thigh that has been dry-cured with just salt and air. ( Prosciugare means "to dry" in Italian.) When heated, the meat quickly turns rubbery and the loss of moisture makes the natural salt content obtrusive. This is more of a problem with American prosciutto, . . . “ -Corby Kummer, ‘Food; Prosciutto’s Promise’, NYTimes, Nov. 18, 1990
“She wouldn't eat a prosciutto that was cured for less than 18 months, a pig that wasn't killed during a north wind when the temperature was low, or a piece of veal from a calf whose life history she doesn't know.” -Corby Kummer, ‘Older and Wiser’ The Atlantic Monthly, June 11, 1997
“Ham lovers say that after 12 months' aging, the prosciutto begins to lose some of its salty taste and acquires an enticing perfume and meltingly tender texture. They also say that prosciutto di San Daniele doesn't begin to reach its peak until after 16 months. Good butchers will buy the hams from the producer and then hang them in their shops for further aging.” -S. Irene Virbila, ‘Fare of the Country; The Sweet Prosciutto Of San Danieli, Italy’ NYTImes, Jan. 29, 1989
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#178859 - 07/31/08 07:09 PM
Re: Word of the Day
[Re: D. Allan]
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Panning for gold
Registered: 08/28/00
Posts: 3883
Loc: les Etats-Unis d'Amerique
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 amenity (un-MEN-i-tee), pl. amenities
1. pleasantness, attractiveness, or agreeableness
2. a feature that adds to material comfort or convenience
3. amenities social manners and courtesies; (euphemistically: lavatory, bathroom. )
[Middle English , from Old French amenité, from Latin amoenitās, “delightfulness, loveliness” from amoenus, “pleasant.”]
synonyms : facilities, services, conveniences, comforts, features, niceties
An amenity is anything which adds to the enjoyment of life, beyond the mere necessities, thus making life more pleasant. Anything from indoor-plumbing to a friend’s warm and warming smile can fit that definition. -dAb
The amenity of a fine day in its decline surrounded me with a beneficent, a calming influence; I felt it in the silence of the shady lane, in the pure air, in the blue sky. –Joseph Conrad, ‘Chance’
He was provided with a private beach house containing every modern amenity one could want. Including two housekeepers and a cook. –Winn Schwartau, ‘Terminal Compromise’
Like the benign elm again, the good man seemed to wave the canopy of his goodness over that suitor, not in conceited condescension, but with that even amenity of true majesty, which can be kind to any one without stooping to it. –Herman Melville, ‘The Confidence – Man: His Masquerade’
Staying in monasteries and convents is a culturally enriching and cost-effective way to visit Spain and the other countries of Catholic Europe. . . . Standards of comfort and convenience vary, so ask in advance about such amenities as a private bath and telephone. –Francis X. Rocca, ‘The Travel Advisory’, The Atlantic Monthly, March 2008
After praising Lincoln's "uprightness, integrity, cordiality and kindness of heart, amenity of manner and his strict attention not only to the rights, but to the feelings of all," Herndon allowed in passing that Lincoln "was not as broadminded as some other men." -Douglas L. Wilson, ‘Keeping Lincoln’s Secrets,’ The Atlantic Monthly, May 2000
Inquisitive always, alert to the inner truths of life, impatient of the brief destinies of convention, she isolated herself from the petty demands of social amenity. –Martha Hale Shackford, ‘The Poetry of Emily Dickinson,’ The Atlantic Monthly, Jan. 1913
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#178994 - 08/01/08 06:31 PM
Re: Word of the Day
[Re: D. Allan]
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Panning for gold
Registered: 08/28/00
Posts: 3883
Loc: les Etats-Unis d'Amerique
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 locavore (LOW-ka-vor), noun
a person who attempts to eat only foods grown locally -Webster’s New Millennium Dict.
etymology : 2006, used in cooking
“Locavore” was coined two years ago by a group of four women in San Francisco who proposed that local residents should try to eat only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius. . . .some groups refer to themselves as “localvores” rather than “locavores.” However it’s spelled, it’s a word to watch. – Oxford Univ. Press USA, ht tp://blog.oup.com/2007/11/locavore/  This is not the Old South of magnolias and seersucker so much as a modern Appalachia of roots music, locavore food, folk art and hillbilly pride. –Allison Glock, ’36 Hours in Knoxville,’ NYTimes, June 8, 2008
. . . hunters are the original locavores. When I was growing up in Michigan, my family ate three or four deer every year, along with rabbits, squirrel, ducks and grouse that were harvested mostly within eight miles of our house. –Steven Rinella, ‘Locavore, Get Your Gun’, NYTimes, Dec. 14, 2007
The 2007 Word of the Year is (drum-roll please) locavore. –Mike Nizza, ‘Oxford’s Word of the Year, and Runners-Up’, NYTImes, Nov. 13, 2007
<- “Goat sandwich!”
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#179363 - 08/04/08 07:23 PM
Re: Word of the Day
[Re: D. Allan]
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Panning for gold
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Posts: 3883
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Doppler (DOP-ler) noun The Doppler effect is the shifting in frequency of sound or light from a source moving toward or away from an observer : the shift is to higher frequencies when the source approaches and to lower frequencies when it recedes. The pitch of a train whistle becomes lower as the train passes by you at the crossing.
[ 1871, in reference to Christian Johann Doppler (1803-53), Austrian scientist, who in 1842 explained the effect of relative motion on waves(originally to explain color changes in binary stars). . . –online etymology dictionary] “How did Slipher calculate the velocities of stars? He used the Doppler shift, which we’ll talk about in class. “ - http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/mdyar/geo104/hw1_redshift/redshift_hw.html
“Republican nominee Jeb Bush, meanwhile, denied Republican anxiety about a Floridian political Doppler shift from red to blue,. . .” –Christopher Buckley, “Election Day 2008”, The Atlantic, Dec. 2006
“A second guitar introduces difference, coming toward us like an ambulance Dopplering into range. The bass guitar, sounding like someone’s voice, heralds everybody over the hill and into the song. ” -Sasha Frere-Jones, “1979 The year punk died, and was reborn” The New Yorker, Nov. 1, 2004
“Just to refresh: it was televangelist Pat Robertson who predicted “earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly even a meteor” would hit Orlando for inviting gays to Disney World, and Rev. John Hagee who blamed Hurricane Katrina on a vengeful God angered over a gay pride parade in New Orleans. And they did this even without Doppler radar.” -Timothy Egan, Outposts, The New York Times, June 11, 2008
“Older or less-expensive personal locator beacons use Doppler radar to determine the user’s location.. . .” -Dan Mitchell, “Lost? A Personal Locator Beacon Could Save Your Life” NYTimes, July 5, 2007
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#179428 - 08/05/08 06:56 PM
Re: Word of the Day
[Re: D. Allan]
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Panning for gold
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Posts: 3883
Loc: les Etats-Unis d'Amerique
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planish (PLAN-ish), verb; rhymes with banish, clannish, famish, mannish, Spanish, vanish
[ from Middle English planishen < Old French planir, “ to flatten” < Latin planus, “smooth”]
1. To toughen, smooth, or polish (metal) by hammering or rolling.
2. To texture a (metal) surface with hammered indentations
planisher, noun
synonyms : to smooth, burnish, flatten, polish, plane
It has a good sound - “planish” - beginning explosively and ending by telling itself - “shhhhhhh.” The word is should be familiar to silversmiths, jewelers, metal workers, auto body refinishers and restorers, but is rarely if ever heard by the rest of us. I was hoping to find some literary usage, but so far – nothing. “The Planished Heart,” - just a phrase going through my head. –dAb
Planishing is the final smoothing of the metal surface. At this point you are only getting the dings out that were made in the surface during the raising process. Planishing is tedious and is achieved by many light hits with a flat faced hammer. - www.ageofarmour.com
This bracelet is formed from a piece of sheet silver by planishing. –of a Planished Bracelet by Terence Warbey
The planish marks formed by the hammer should be small. They should not be more than 2 mm in diameter. Large planish marks are formed by hitting the copper too hard. Each planish mark should touch or very slightly over lap the next. . . . . The small planish marks reflect the light in different directions, giving the work a sparkle. –P. F. Lye, Metalwork Theory: Bk. 3, pp. 34,35 (1966)
Planished silver beaker
Gazan Khan erected a smooth stone or a planished wood near the gate of all villages. On these, the amount of tax that the village had to pay for that year and the following year were written. - Erkan, Aydemir & Elitas, ‘AN ACCOUNTING SYSTEM USED BETWEEN 14TH AND 19TH CENTURIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE MERDİVEN (STAIRS) METHOD’ Afyon Kocatepe University, Turkey
So for the maximum hardness you take the cut sheet and planish it inside out. –‘Hardening Tricks’, http://www.livesteelarmor.com/how/hard.html
He was frantic for months over the disappearance of a particular hammer. It was the "magic hammer," which planished beautifully even in the hands of hopeless clods or southpaws like me.–Thomas M. Sandretto, http://www.silversmithing.com/1hans2.htm
When you go to install a panel keep in mind you can not planish the weld if you do an overlap weld. - http://home.comcast.net/~68c/Metalworking.htm
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#179523 - 08/06/08 07:20 PM
Re: Word of the Day
[Re: D. Allan]
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Panning for gold
Registered: 08/28/00
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 detritus (deh-TRY- tus), noun, plural : detritus
1. loose material resulting from erosion of rock by water or glaciers.
2. parts separated from the original whole; products of disintegration; waste, debris
It’s another word with Latin roots. The past participle of deterere, means “to rub away, to wear out,” and is also connected to detriment, “a rubbing or wearing away.” In French detritus is “waste, trash, refuse,” with the idea of the “erosion” being worn out, making it useless, so that detritus is junk, trash, byproducts. But what of the beautiful sand on the beaches - a detritus made by the action of water upon rocks and shells ? Not trash at all! And gravel, the detritus left behind by glaciers, is quite useful. As the first quotation below reminds us, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Also it may happen that one era’s detritus may be displayed in the museums of another as with pottery shards, arrowheads, etc.
related: detrital, adjective
synonyms : accumulation, backlog, debris, silt, accrual, waste, scraps Food labels, bottle caps, envelope linings: if it was ephemeral detritus, William Davies King cherished and collected it. . . . . Part memoir and part disquisition on the psychological impulses behind the urge to accumulate, “Collections of Nothing” is a wonderfully frank and engaging look at one man’s detritus-fueled pathology. . . . –Henry Alford, ‘The Curator’, NYTimes / Sunday Book Review, July 27, 2008
The loose detritus of thought, washed down to us through long ages. -H. Rogers, Essays
These purple and gold Mardi Gras beads were just some of the plastic detritus that collects in the home of any family with small children. . . –Peter Sagal, ‘Marooned’, NYTimes Magazine, Jan. 28, 2007
In this process gold-bearing gravel banks are washed away by powerful jets of water directed against them, so that masses of earth and rock are carried off and deposited in the neighboring streams, or, perhaps, on plains below. –THE MINING DETRITUS QUESTION, NYTimes, April 16, 1892
The star is about 470 light years away and, being only about one million to three million years old, is still surrounded by the dusty detritus out of which it formed. –Dennis Overbye, ‘Star’s Dust May Hold Clue to New Planet,’ NYTimes, March 26, 2008
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#179611 - 08/07/08 06:18 PM
Re: Word of the Day
[Re: D. Allan]
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Panning for gold
Registered: 08/28/00
Posts: 3883
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gastropodionado noun
an ardent fan and enthusiast of gastropods, esp. snails.
Only one use of this word is all that I have been able to find, -by Franz Lidz, in the 2007 article quoted below. It appears to have been formed by joining the Greek word gastropodia (more about it just below) and the Spanish word, aficionado, a fan or enthusiast (often of bull-fighting). It’s uncertain and perhaps only Mr. Lidz knows for sure. Why the unpopularity of this word? Well, just how often would you have need of it? Of course, you could always work it in when a conversation is proceeding at a snail’s pace!
“Snails, conchs, whelks, and many other similar animals with shells are all called gastropods by scientists. The word gastropod comes from Greek and means "stomach foot," a name that owes its existence to the unusual anatomy of snails. Snails have a broad flat muscular "foot" used for support and for forward movement. This foot runs along the underside of the animal—essentially along its belly. The Greek elements gastro-, "stomach," and -pod, "foot," are found in many other scientific names, such as gastritis (an inflammation of the stomach) and sauropod ("lizard foot," a type of dinosaur).” - The American Heritage® Science Dictionary “Mr. Gordon-Levitt is something of a gastropodionado. A glass snail figurine — a Hanukkah gift from his mother — dangles from a string around his neck. Two plaster sculptures of snails and a snail lithograph repose in his Lower East Side apartment. And the showpiece of his Web site, www.HitRecord.org, is “Escargots,” a surreal short subject he animated, narrated and performed in. It’s based on a poem by Jacques Prévert.” –Franz Lidz, ‘From Alien Boy to Growing Star in the Indie Universe’, NYTimes, March 25, 2007
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