Word-Wednesday for November 3, 2021

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, November 3, 2021, the 44th Wednesday of the year, the seventh Wednesday of fall, and the 307th day of the year, with 58 days remaining.


Wannaska Nature Update for November 3, 2021
buck: /bək/ n., the male of some horned animals, especially the fallow deer, roe deer, reindeer, and antelopes; also hare, rabbit, ferret, rat, or kangaroo.

Nordhem Lunch: Closed.


Earth/Moon Almanac for November 3, 2021
Sunrise: 8:14am; Sunset: 6:01pm; 3 minutes, 9 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 6:21am; Moonset: 5:41pm, waning crescent, 1% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for November 3, 2021
                Average            Record              Today
High             42                     68                     44
Low              25                     -2                      27


November 3 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Housewife’s Day
• National Sandwich Day
• National Stress Awareness Day
• Cliché Day

November 3 Word Riddle
Charles Dickens walks into a bar and orders a martini.
The bartender asks:*


November 3 Motion Picture Word Pun
Hello. My name is Idaho Montoya. You peeled by father. Prepare to fry.


November 3 Etymology Word of the Week
nostalgia: n., a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations; from Greek algos “pain, grief, distress” (see  [algia] ) + nostos “homecoming,” from neomai “to reach some place, escape, return, get home,” from Proto-Indo-European nes “to return safely home” (cognate with Old Norse nest “food for a journey,” Sanskrit nasate “approaches, joins,” German genesen “to recover,” Gothic ganisan “to heal,” Old English genesen “to recover”). French nostalgie is in French army medical manuals by 1754.


November 3 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1860 Poet and critic Matthew Arnold begins his series of lectures On Translating Home as Oxford Professor of Poetry at Oxford University.
• 1883 American Old West: Self-described "Black Bart the poet" gets away with his last stagecoach robbery, but leaves an incriminating limerick that eventually leads to his capture.
• 1896 Martha Hughes Cannon of Utah elected first female state senator in the U.S. of A.
• 1906 International Radiotelegraph Conference in Berlin selects "SOS" (· · · – – – · · ·) distress signal as the worldwide standard for help.
• 1913 Modern elastic brassiere is patented by New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacob.
• 1928 Turkey switches from Arabic to Roman alphabet.
• 1956 1939 film The Wizard of Oz televised for first time.

November 3 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1619 Willem Kalf, Dutch painter.
• 1689 Jan Josef Ignác Brentner, Bohemian composer,.
• 1753 August Gottlieb Meißner, German Enlightenment author who helped develop the detective story genre in German literature.
• 1794 William Cullen Bryant, American poet.
• 1830 John Esten Cooke, American novelist.
• 1875 Emīls Dārziņš, Latvian composer.
• 1901 André Malraux [Berger], French novelist.
• 1910 Karel Zeman, Czech animator, film director.
• 1914 Hallgrímur Helgason, Icelandic musicologist, composer, teacher, and conductor.
• 1920 Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Australian Aboriginal political activist and writer.
• 1954 Godzilla.
• 1971 Dylan Moran, Irish comedian.
  

Words-I-Looked-Up-This-Week Writer's Challenge
Make a single sentence (or poem) from the following words:

• anachrony: /ə-ˈnæ-krə-ni/ n., something belonging or appropriate to another time (esp. an earlier time); an outmoded or old-fashioned thing; discrepancy between the order in which events of the story occur and the order in which they are presented in the plot.
• benedict: /ˈbe-nə-ˌdikt/ n., a newly married man who has long been a bachelor.
• dingolay: /ˈdɪŋɡ-oʊ-ˌleɪ/ v., to dance in an exuberant or uninhibited way. Also more generally: to twist or turn one’s body.
• finical: /ˈfin-i-kəl/ adj., another term for finicky.
• graupel: /ˈgrau̇-pəl/ n., granular snow pellets.
• haecceity: /hak-ˈsē-ə-dē/ n., that property or quality of a thing by virtue of which it is unique or describable as “this (one)”.
• placcy: /ˈpla-ki/ adj., made of plastic.
• revumburate: /rē-vəm-bə-rāt/ v., the reverberation of low rumbling noises, such as far away thunder.
• sonntagsleerung: /ZOHN-tahgs-lee-rung/ n., the slowly increasing sense of Sunday afternoon depression in anticipation of the coming workday; from German - literally “Sunday emptying” referring to the Sunday collection of mail, an important postal service.
• thinko: /‘THiNGk-ō/ n., a careless mistake made in one’s thinking, (see: typo).

November 3, 2021 Word-Wednesday Feature
New Words
Merriam-Webster and Oxford English Dictionaries have recently announced entirely new words into their ongoing compendiums. By definition, dictionaries are in the business of catching up with speech, adding borrowed words, or formally encoding lazy speech (slang) according to many different categories - cultural, scientific, dietary, political, medical, and deer hunteral. Merriam-Webster's new Americanese entries include many examples of catch-up and utter laziness:

amirite: slang, used in writing for "am I right" to represent or imitate the use of this phrase as a tag question in informal speech. An example: “English spelling is consistently inconsistent, amirite?”

because: prep., by reason of, because of — often used in a humorous way to convey vagueness about the exact reasons for something influenced by the relentless force of 2- and 3-year-olds. This preposition use of because is versatile; it can be used, for example, to avoid delving into the overly technical (“the process works because science”) or to dismiss explanation altogether (“they left because reasons”).

copypasta: n., data (such as a block of text) that has been copied and spread widely online. Copypasta can be a lighthearted meme or it can have a more serious intent, with a political or cultural message.

dad bod: n., a physique regarded as typical of an average father; especially, one that is slightly overweight and not extremely muscular.

fourth trimester: n., the three month period immediately following giving birth in which the mother typically recovers from childbirth and adjusts to caring for her infant; especially, the first three months of an infant's life.

FTW: abbreviation for "for the win", used especially to express approval or support. In social media, FTW is often used to acknowledge a clever or funny response to a question or meme.

oobleck: n.,  a mixture of corn starch and water that behaves like a liquid when at rest and like a solid when pressure is applied. Oobleck gets its name from the title of a story by Dr. Seuss, Bartholomew and the Oobleck, and is a favorite component in kids’ science experiments.

TBH: an abbreviation for "to be honest." TBH is frequently used in social media and text messaging.



Across the pond, most of the new entries are borrowed from Korea, Caribbean, or African languages. Here are a few non-borrowed OED words with definitions new to the the Word-Wednesday staff:

bandulu: n. and adj., person who engages in unlawful, fraudulent, or illicit activities; a criminal, a hustler.

bants: n., playfully teasing or mocking remarks exchanged with another person or group, esp. among men; banter. Also more generally: playful or wild behaviour. Not to be confused with squibs.

cornhole: n., a hole in which corn or maize is sown.

fingle, v.trans., to handle (something) with the fingers; to touch all over.

fudder: n, a storm or squall; a sudden violent gust of wind.

gyaff: n., idle chat, gossip.

lime: n., an informal social gathering; a get-together; a party.

minoritize: v. trans., to make (a person, group, or concept) a minority; to treat as or place in a minority.

powerbomb: n., a throw in which a wrestler is lifted up, typically so as to be sitting on an opponent’s shoulders, then slammed down back first on to the mat.

sheg: v. trans., to provoke, vex, or annoy (a person).

tabanca: n., a state or feeling of depression or melancholy, esp. as a result of unrequited love or the end of a romantic relationship; lovesickness.

upful: adj., inspiring happiness, optimism, or hope; (esp. of music) cheerful, uplifting.

wuk: v. intrans., esp. of a woman, to dance with rhythmic gyratory movements of the hips and pelvis; to move the waist, hips.

There appears to be no good adjective related to hunting. Because the season is almost upon us, with its many limes of upful deer camps full of the usual gyaff and bants and dad bods, Word-Wednesday is looking for an adjective or any other word our readers might coin about deer hunting in Wannaska.


From A Year with Rilke, November 3 Entry
Mohammed’s Calling, from New Poems

When into the hidden cave the angel stepped—
he was unmistakable, so towering and radiant—
the lone man there shed all claims
and asked only to be permitted
to remain the simple man he was,
a merchant confused by his travels.
He could not read—and now a word like this
was too much for even a wise one.

But the angel, imperious, pointed over and over
to what was written on the page he held,
and would not yield and kept insisting: read.

Then the man read, and when he did the angel bowed.
It was as if he had always been reading,
and now was able to obey and bring to pass.




Be better than yesterday,
learn a new word today,
try to stay out of trouble - at least until tomorrow,
and write when you have the time.

*“Olive or twist?”