Re: George Washington at prayer

I've heard that he suffered in life with bad-fitting dentures. This picture reflects that. The way he holds his mouth certainly looks painful.

compendium (kehm-PEN-dee-ehm), noun ; plural, compendiums / compendia

1. a short but comprehensive account of a subject, esp. in book form; a summary or abstract containing the essential information in brief form.
2. a list or compilation of various items

[Latin, a weighing together, abridgment < compendere, to weigh together; com-, together + pendere, to weigh]

related words:
compend, noun, a compendium
compendious , adj., containing all the essentials in a brief form

synonyms: abstract, apercu, brief, conspectus, digest, epitome, essence, guide, handbook, manual, overview, pandect, précis, sketch, summary, survey, syllabus

“The Global Compendium of Weeds is a list of plant species (over 28000 names) that have been cited in specific references (approximately 1000) as weeds.” www.hear.org/gcw/

“A Visual Compendiumof Roman Emperors. The goal of this page is to present an illustrated list of Roman Emperors.” - www.thepaoloas.com/emperors/emperors.html

“Life in Elizabethan England, A Compendium of Common Knowledge, 1558-1603, Elizabethan Commonplaces for Writer, Actors, and Re-enactors, 9th Edition, Spring 2008”

“We are naturally not concerned with the question of what was theoretically and officially taught in the ethical compendia of the time, however much practical significance this may have had through the influence of Church discipline, pastoral work, and preaching. We are interested rather in something entirely different: the influence of those psychological sanctions which, originating in religious belief and the practice of religion, gave a direction to practical conduct and held the individual to it.” – Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. 1905, Chapter IV

“In the morning so soon as we could see the trace, we proceeded on our journey, and had the track until we had compassed the head of a long creek, and there they took into another wood, and we after them, supposing to find some of their dwellings, but we marched through boughs and bushes, and under hills and valleys, which tore our very armor in pieces, and yet could meet with none of them, nor their houses, nor find any fresh water, which we greatly desired, and stood in need of, for we brought neither beer nor water with us, and our victuals was only biscuit and Holland cheese, and a little bottle of aquavitae, so as we were sore athirst. About ten o'clock we came into a deep valley, full of brush, wood-gaile, and long grass, through which we found little paths or tracks, and there we saw a deer, and found springs of fresh water, of which we were heartily glad, and sat us down and drunk our first New England water with as much delight as ever we drunk drink in all our lives. “ - A RELATION OR JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE PLANTATION settled at Plymouth in NEW ENGLAND, BY William Bradford, 1622

aqua vitae


Latin: “water of life”

“An archaic name for a concentrated aqueous solution of ethanol. The term originated in the Middle Ages and was originally used as a generic name for all types of distillates. It eventually came to refer more specifically to distillates of alcoholic beverages. Aqua vitae was typically prepared by distilling wine, and was sometimes known as "Spirit of Wine" in English texts. Spirit of Wine is a specific name for brandy that has been repeatedly distilled. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqua_vitae


Dromio of Syracuse: “ … Our fraughtage, sir, I have convey’d aboard, and I have bought the oil, the balsamum, and aqua-vitae. “ A Comedy of Errors, IV,(1),87 , William Shakespeare

The vertuose boke of Dstyllacyon by Hieronymous Braunschweig published in English, translated by L. Andrew. First book on the subject, treated aqua vitae as a medicine. (1527) - http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/jhb/whisky/history.html

“Burn cork, and quench it in aqua vitae, then dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of water, wherein you shall have melted a little gumm arabick, in order to make an ink as black as common ink. You must separate the cork that can’t dissolve, and if the ink be not black enough, add more cork as before.” Inks called sympathetical (Seventeenth Century) -
http://www.djmcadam.com/curiosa.html

“On the banks of the Granicus his helmet was cleft through to his scalp by a sword; at Gaza his shoulder was wounded by a missile; at Maracanda his shin was so torn by an arrow that by the force of the blow the larger bone was broken and extruded. Somewhere in Hyrcania his sight was dimmed, and for many days he was haunted by the fear of blindness. Among the Assacenians his ankle was wounded by an Indian arrow; that was the time when he smilingly said to his flatterers, 'this that you see is blood, not ‘Ichor, that which flows from the wounds of the blessed immortals’.” Plutarch, Morlia, De Fortuna Alexandri

ichor (AHY-kawr, AHY-ker), noun

1. in classical mythology. the ethereal fluid which flowed, instead of blood, in the veins of the gods.
2. medical. a thin, watery, acrid serum from an ulcer or wound.

“If the blood get exceedingly liquid, animals fall sick; for the blood then turns into something like ichor, or a liquid so thin that it at times has been known to exude through the pores like sweat. In some cases blood, when issuing from the veins, does not coagulate at all, or only here and there.” - Aristotle, The History of Animals, trans. by D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson

“This said, she wiped from Venus’ wounded palm
The sacred Ichor, and infused the balm.” - Alexander Pope, The Iliad (1720)

“Wrap him for shroud in a pedal.
Embalm him with ichor of nettle.” - Robert Frost, ‘Departmental’, (1936)

"The ichor of the spring
Proceeds clear as it ever did
From the broken throat, the marshy lip." - Sylvia Plath, Colossus

“One of our company, being abroad, came running in and cried, "They are men! Indians! Indians!" and withal, their arrows came flying amongst us. Our men ran out with all speed to recover their arms, as by the good providence of God they did. In the meantime, Captain Miles Standish, having a snaphance ready, made a shot, and after him another.” - A RELATION OR JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE PLANTATION settled at Plymouth in NEW ENGLAND, BY William Bradford, 1622



snaphance, snaphaunce

1. A spring lock for discharging a firearm; also, the firearm to which it is attached.
2. A trifling or second-rate thing or person. [Obs.]

“His first car, when daddy brought it home , turned out to be a shaphance , an ugly second-hand Edsel, the color of two-toned dust.” -anon.

“A Snaphance or Snaphaunce is a particular type of mechanism for firing a gun (or a gun using that mechanism). Like the earlier snaplock later flintlock the snaphaunce drives a flint onto a steel to create a shower of sparks to ignite the main charge .
The origin of the name snaphance is thought to come from Dutch "Snap Haan" or German "Schnapphahn"—both of which roughly mean "hen peck", and could relate to the shape of the mechanism and its downward-darting action (and would also explain the thus the name "c0ck" for the beak-shaped mechanism which holds the flint).” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snaphance

Simon Vouet, Les Muses Uranie et Calliope, c. 1634.

Uranian (yoor-RAY-neeuhn), adjective:

1. of Uranus, a planet in the Solar System
2. of Urania, the Greek Muse of Astronomy and Astrology

“She [Urania] is often associated with Universal Love and the Holy Spirit. She is dressed in a cloak embroidered with stars and keeps her eyes and attention focused on the Heavens. Those who are most concerned with philosophy and the heavens are dearest to her. . . . During the Renaissance, Urania began to be considered the Muse for Christian poets. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urania

“ Uranian Love, in the mythological philosophy of Plato, is the deity or genius of pure mental passion for the good and the beautiful; and Pandemian Love, of ordinary sexual attachment.” – Thomas Love Peacock’s notes to Rhododaphne (1818); cited by Mary Shelly, The Last Man, notes p.24

"Ah, Camille," he exclaimed, "the Uranian way is the best. It is only by studying the heavens that we shall be able to understand this little earth of ours, and the part we play in it. Look at the midnight sky, streaming with the light of infinite suns, and filled with an unending procession of worlds in which the spirit of life clothes itself in an unimaginable variety of forms. This clot of dust on which we live will grow cold, and break and scatter in the abysses of space. But it is not our home; we are only passengers, and when our journey here is done, fairer mansions are waiting for us in the depths of the sky.” – Camille Flammarion, Urania (1889)

"Yes, there is a way of escape," said Spero, "the Uranian way. By soaring aloft into the serene region of spiritual ideas, a terrestrial soul can still free itself from its animality. -ibid

“The Uranian way is open to all, and the day will arrive when every inhabitant of your wild, dark planet will recognize that he, too, is a citizen of heaven. - ibid

“The figure of Urania, based on Plato's heavenly Aphrodite - `the eldest daughter of Uranus, born without a mother, whom we call the Uranian ' (Plato, Symposium 210 E, trans. Shelley VII 174) and Milton's Muse, belongs to this dimension. Plotinus identifies this figure with the Soul: The heavenly one (ourania), since she is said to be the child of Kronos, and he is Intellect, must be the most divine kind of soul, springing directly from him, pure from the pure, remaining above, as neither wanting nor being able to descend to the world here below. . . “ - O’Leary, Joseph S., PLOTINUS IN `MONT BLANC' AND ADONAIS

hebdomad (HEB-deh-mad), noun

1. a period of seven consecutive days, a week
2. (math) the number seven, a group of seven

[from Greek &#7953;&#946;&#948;&#959;&#956;&#940;&#962;, hebdomas, the number seven < hebdomos, seventh < hepta, seven]

hebdomadal, (heb- DOM-eh-d’l) adj. weekly, occurring every seven days
hebdomadary adj. weekly, occurring every seven days
hebdomadally, adv. ; each week, without missing a week

Although Nastie’s and Miliscent’s abodes nested in a forest miles from ecclesiastical amenities, yet they attended church services hebdomadally . –anon.

“Now then, in the earth these people cannot stand much church --- an hour and a quarter is the limit, and they draw the line at once a week. That is to say, Sunday. One day in seven; and even then they do not look forward to it with longing. And so --- consider what their heaven provides for them: "church" that lasts forever, and a Sabbath that has no end! They quickly weary of this brief hebdomadal Sabbath here, yet they long for that eternal one; they dream of it, they talk about it, they think they think they are going to enjoy it --- with all their simple hearts they think they think are going to be happy in it!” – Mark Twain, Letters from Earth

“Former President Bill Clinton and their daughter, Chelsea, also campaigned this hebdomad in the sprawled but least thickly settled United States state. ” 08 March 2008, http://purplenewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2008/03/obama-leads-clinton-in-wyoming-as.html

“The hebdomad within the decade is neither product nor factor. For this reason some people, have likened it to the motherless, ever virgin Athena.” Moehring, Horst "Arithmology as an Exegetical Tool in the Writings of Philo of Alexandria," pp. 191-227 in SBL Seminar Papers 1978/1.

“In ‘The Coming Prince,’ the late Sir Robert Anderson marshalled conclusive proofs to show that our Savior entered Jerusalem on the very day which marked the completion of the sixty-ninth "hebdomad" of Daniel 9.” - http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/John/john_42.htm

Hence, the French word for weekly, hebdomadaire

Frida Kahlo, Self-portrait With Thorns and Hummingbird, (1940)





idiasm (ID-ee-az-um), noun, pl. idiasms


peculiarity or idiosyncrasy; an individual mannerism

[probably from idi- < idio- ,a combining form meaning one’s own, personal, distinct, < Greek idios, one’s own, + -asm]


“…trying to single out some personal idiasm as a key to the woman…” - David Grambs, The Endangered English Dictionary: Bodacious Words Your Dictionary Forgot, p. 83, (pub. 1994)

“James Joyce’s main idiasm was his penchant for writing in stream of consciousness.” 2004 Scripps National Spelling Bee Consolidated Word List: Words Appearing with Moderate Frequency p.12

“We sometimes meet with a conventional phrase, or idiotism, employed by Shakespeare in a sense peculiar to himself, i. e. as an idiasm .” - Jahrbuch de Deutsche Shakespeare-Gesellschaft, p. 218, Deutsche Shakespeare-Gesellschaft,( 1867)

“Evidently a word so unusual as to be unintelligible may be a perfectly legitimate word: or if not, may be the word intended by the dramatist: indeed it may be an idiasm – a restoration or a coinage of Shakespeare’s: in which case it might well be wholly unknown to his critics. With that precipitancy, or disregard of facts, which seems to us so unwise and injurious, a great number of words have been emended for no other reason than their strangeness.” - Clement Mansfield Ingleby, Shakespeare Hermeneutics, pp. 106-107. (1875)

“There remain phrases and words peculiar to some creative writer, these we call idiasms . The idiom is a grammatical, the idiotism a proverbial, and the idiasm a private and peculiar mode of phraseology.” Clement Mansfield Ingleby, The British Controversialist and Literary Magazine, p. 92, (1869)

Frida Kahlo’s artistic idiasm is to paint herself as part of the flora and fauna of the earth. –anon. (2008)

“Genius is a promontory jutting out into the infinite.” - Victor Hugo (French, 1802 – 1885)

promontory (PROM-uhn-tawr-ee, tohr-ee) noun, plural promontories.

1. a high point of land or rock projecting into a body of water
2. a prominent mass of land overlooking or projecting into a lowland
3. anatomy a protuberant or prominent part

synonym: headland

“After a careful reconnaissance, the gunboats were anchored just above the point of the promontory which was opposite the land batteries. The land of this promontory , which here creates so remarkable a bend in the river, is so low that the batteries on Island Number Ten, two miles and a half distant, could be distinctly seen across the point from the decks of the gunboats.” John Stevens Cabot Abbott, The History of the Civil War in America p. 263 (1873)

“There’s a gargantuan handprint on the massive boulder balanced at the tip of the promontory . According to local legend, a drunk giant male fairy made it when he fell while spying a female fairy bathing nude at Bai Tien (Fairy Beach). . . .” Nick Ray, Wendy Yanagihara, Vietnam, p. 269 (2005)

“The third occupy the eastern part from the said limits, as far, that is, as the promontory of Italy, where the Adriatic sea begins, and to Sicily. “ Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy

“Toward four o’clock the human spirit again began to lick the body, as a flame licks a black promontory promontory of coal.” Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out

“He was a thin, hard-featured man, with an ascetic, acquiline cast of face, grizzled and hollow-cheeked, clean-shaven with the exception of the tiniest curved promontory of ash-colored whisker.” Arthur Conan Doyle, Beyond The City

I
There once was a guy named Cory,
(Oh it's a very sad story!)
He fell asleep
on ‘Lover’s Leap’
and rolled off that promontory .

II
He woke up as he splashed
and quickly he was dashed
on rocks and stones
and lover’s bones
while waters roared and crashed.
- anon. 19 Apr 2008