Evil Twin TheoryThursday, September 05, 2002
THE WORD OF THE DAY IS 'CULLION.' Ok, Ok the word of yesterday was 'cullion,' but I was too busy to write anything here. Today's word is . . uhm . . 'Ganache’ which is some kind of French icing . . Who cares? . Not much of a word if you ask me. 'Cullion' however is a proper candidate. It means 'a contemptible fellow or a rascal' which is nice. I certainly know a cullion or two, heck I might even be a cullion now and again. The interesting thing is its origins. cullion is derived from 'coilion' the Middle English word for testicle, which is derived from the old French word for testicle which is derived from 'culleos' the Latin word for 'bag.' All those years ago folks were calling insulting each other by cross referencing them with reproductive organs. . What a bunch of tools
'Feisty', has similar origin, sharing it's roots with the word 'pigeon,' both are derived from French, apparently, and refer to flatulence. Those clever French folk! Feisty apparently came to this country early last century and it originally was slang that denoted a particular type of dog (a small, yippy annoying one). Thus a feist dog was a fart dog. You call somebody feisty, you think you mean they are energetic and at least slightly combative, but your really saying something much earthier though only I, and now you, know it. Pigeons apparently got associated with the most derided of al bodily functions by the sound they make when a flock takes off. . I never really got that frankly but who can argue with etymology (heck who can even spell it?) All this Feisty stuff comes from all those hot dates I've had with Webster's third (or was is AH3. rats). If you have it on hand you can check it out. 'Cullion' comes from my word of the day dictionary (AH3, definitely, it is sitting right in front of me)
Many times my word of the day is pretty lame. It is either far too common or else it is some bit of obscure jargon that only some one in an associated profession would use. There have been some decent ones however. Avuncular, for instance, much beloved by Russell Edson fans (let’s pretend I'm a sailor and you're an ape and we're fighting over a box of chocolates . . .) Zoolatology (sic) which means worshipping animals (I pretend to do that to my cats but I don't really mean it, it seems to make them feel better). Somebody should come up with a word of the day calendar for folks who have big vocabularies already . . .
That was a little fun, but now i'm swooning from hunger and all I have to eat is a handful of blue and gray(school colors) M&M's that the alum association gave to me in hopes that one day I'll strike it rich and donate a buildiing to the U. . . lots of luck to them. I don't think M&M's are a good dietary move for me this afternoon. I can see the headlines "Man goes on shooting spree after crashing from sugar high . . . .Chocolate suspected" Anyway they'd probably make me vomit. i'll probably just head over to the caf for a bottle of water and maybe some pretzels if I can find any . . . .
'Feisty', has similar origin, sharing it's roots with the word 'pigeon,' both are derived from French, apparently, and refer to flatulence. Those clever French folk! Feisty apparently came to this country early last century and it originally was slang that denoted a particular type of dog (a small, yippy annoying one). Thus a feist dog was a fart dog. You call somebody feisty, you think you mean they are energetic and at least slightly combative, but your really saying something much earthier though only I, and now you, know it. Pigeons apparently got associated with the most derided of al bodily functions by the sound they make when a flock takes off. . I never really got that frankly but who can argue with etymology (heck who can even spell it?) All this Feisty stuff comes from all those hot dates I've had with Webster's third (or was is AH3. rats). If you have it on hand you can check it out. 'Cullion' comes from my word of the day dictionary (AH3, definitely, it is sitting right in front of me)
Many times my word of the day is pretty lame. It is either far too common or else it is some bit of obscure jargon that only some one in an associated profession would use. There have been some decent ones however. Avuncular, for instance, much beloved by Russell Edson fans (let’s pretend I'm a sailor and you're an ape and we're fighting over a box of chocolates . . .) Zoolatology (sic) which means worshipping animals (I pretend to do that to my cats but I don't really mean it, it seems to make them feel better). Somebody should come up with a word of the day calendar for folks who have big vocabularies already . . .
That was a little fun, but now i'm swooning from hunger and all I have to eat is a handful of blue and gray(school colors) M&M's that the alum association gave to me in hopes that one day I'll strike it rich and donate a buildiing to the U. . . lots of luck to them. I don't think M&M's are a good dietary move for me this afternoon. I can see the headlines "Man goes on shooting spree after crashing from sugar high . . . .Chocolate suspected" Anyway they'd probably make me vomit. i'll probably just head over to the caf for a bottle of water and maybe some pretzels if I can find any . . . .
