Word-Wednesday for April 16, 2025

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for April 16, 2025, the twenty-sixth Wednesday of the year, the fourth Wednesday of spring, the third Wednesday of April, and the one-hundred sixth day of the year, with two-hundred fifty-nine days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for April 16, 2025
Now, we can start.
Turdus migratorius has arrived in Wannaska (along with JPS's friend, Karon Leach), so spring has finally arrived in song. Our mutual friend, the robin, is a migratory bird of the true thrush genus. This species was first described in 1766 by Carl Linnaeus in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae as Turdus Migratorius. Robin's binomial derives from two Latin words: turdus, "thrush", and migratorius from migrare "to migrate". The term robin is from common small European songbird, 1540s, a shortening of Robin Redbreast (mid-15th century), from masc. personal name Robin (diminutive of Robert), also (in reference to the bird) in the diminutive form robinet. Redbreast alone for the bird is from early 15th century, and the Robin might have been added for the alliteration. It ousted the native ruddock. In North America, the name was applied to the red-breasted thrush by 1703. According to the Partners in Flight database (2019), the American robin is the most abundant landbird in North America (with 370 million individuals), more than red-winged blackbirds, introduced European starlings, mourning doves, or house finches. Robins are one of the earliest bird species to lay its eggs, beginning to breed shortly after returning to its summer range from its winter range.

The aurora forecast looks favorable for tonight.


April 16 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


April 16 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for April 16, 2025
Sunrise: 86:30am; Sunset: 8:15pm; 3 minutes, 26 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 11:58pm; Moonset: 7:36am, waning gibbous, 90% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for April 16, 2025
                Average            Record              Today
High             48                     79                     57
Low              25                     10                     39

Spring
by Marjory Wentworth

After the rain, outside
the barred windows
of the classroom
tiny black birds
are bathing in puddles
beneath the oak trees.
Dipping into the icy water,
they shake their feathers
with such joy that their song
pulls us from our seats—
out onto the steps
where my students and I
walk into the first sunlight
we've felt for days
to watch them dance.

The birds remind me
of the Chinese peasants
I read about in college.
Sitting in the sunshine
on the first day of spring,
after cutting the quilted
clothes they were sewn
into for the long winter,
they gathered outside
to pick fleas from the sour
cotton lining of their jackets
and flick them at each other;
ducking and laughing
in the bright air,
while their children
ran naked into a pond
filled with melting snow.

April 16 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Pathway Day
• National Banana Day
• National Bean Counter Day
• National Orchid Day
• National Healthcare Decisions Day
• National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day
• National Eggs Benedict Day
• Emancipation Day
• World Voice Day

April 16 Word Pun
Sven has racing geese for sale if anyone wants to take a quick gander.


April 16 Word Riddle
Who studies trends in doll couture?*

a Chairman Joe original

April 16 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
HOMILETICS, n., The science of adapting sermons to the spiritual needs, capacities and conditions of the congregation.

    So skilled the parson was in homiletics
    That all his moral purges and emetics
    To medicine the spirit were compounded
    With a most just discrimination founded
    Upon a rigorous examination
    Of tongue and pulse and heart and respiration.
    Then, having diagnosed each one's condition,
    His scriptural specifics this physician
    Administered—his pills so efficacious
    And pukes of disposition so vivacious
    That souls afflicted with ten kinds of Adam
    Were convalescent ere they knew they had 'em.
    But Slander's tongue—itself all coated—uttered
    Her bilious mind and scandalously muttered
    That in the case of patients having money
    The pills were sugar and the pukes were honey.
                        —Biography of Bishop Potter


April 16 Etymology Word of the Week
witch
/wiCH/ n., a person thought to have magic powers, especially evil ones, popularly depicted as a woman wearing a black cloak and pointed hat and flying on a broomstick, from Middle English wicche, from Old English wicce "female magician, sorceress," in later use especially "a woman supposed to have dealings with the devil or evil spirits and to be able by their cooperation to perform supernatural acts," fem. of Old English wicca "sorcerer, wizard, man who practices witchcraft or magic," from verb wiccian "to practice witchcraft." Compare Low German wikken, wicken "to use witchcraft," wikker, wicker "soothsayer."

OED says it is of uncertain origin; Liberman writes, "None of the proposed etymologies of witch is free from phonetic or semantic difficulties." Watkins says the nouns represent a Proto-Germanic wikkjaz "necromancer" (one who wakes the dead), from Proto-Indo-European root weg- "to be strong, be lively."

Klein's sources suggests connection with Old English wigle "divination," and wig, wih "idol;" Weekley also notes this, citing Gothic weihs "holy" and German weihan "consecrate," and writes, "the priests of a suppressed religion naturally become magicians to its successors or opponents."

That wicce once had a more specific sense than the later general one of "female magician, sorceress" perhaps is suggested by the presence of other words in Old English describing more specific kinds of magical craft. In the Laws of Ælfred (circa 890), witchcraft was specifically singled out as a woman's craft, whose practitioners were not to be suffered to live among the West Saxons:
     Ða fæmnan þe gewuniað onfon gealdorcræftigan & scinlæcan & wiccan, ne læt þu ða libban.

The other two words are gealdricge, a woman who practices "incantations," and scinlæce "female wizard, woman magician," from a root meaning "phantom, evil spirit."

Another word in Anglo-Saxon laws is lyblæca "wizard, sorcerer," perhaps with suggestions of skill in the use of drugs (the root of the word is lybb "drug, poison, charm," for which see leaf (n.)). Lybbestre was a fem. word meaning "sorceress," and lybcorn was the name of a certain medicinal seed (perhaps wild saffron). The use of a "poisoner" word for "witch, sorceress" would parallel that of the Hebrew word used for "witch, sorceress" in the Levitical condemnation.

In Anglo-Saxon glossaries, wicca renders Latin augur (circa 1100), and wicce stands for "pythoness, divinatricem." In the "Three Kings of Cologne" (circa 1400) wicca translates Magi:

    Þe paynyms ... cleped þe iij kyngis Magos, þat is to seye wicchis.

The glossary translates Latin necromantia ("demonum invocatio") with galdre, wiccecræft. The Anglo-Saxon poem called "Men's Crafts" (also "The Gifts of Men") has wiccræft, which appears to be the same word, and by its context means "skill with horses." In a circa 1250 translation of Exodus, witches is used of the Egyptian midwives who save the newborn sons of the Hebrews: "Ðe wicches hidden hem for-ðan, Biforen pharaun nolden he ben."

Witch in reference to a man survived in dialect into 20th century, but the fem. form was so dominant by circa 1600 that men-witches or he-witch began to be used. The extended sense of "old, ugly, and crabbed or malignant woman" is from early 15th century; that of "young woman or girl of bewitching aspect or fascinating manners" is recorded by 1740. At this day it is indifferent to say in the English tongue, "she is a witch", or "she is a wise woman". [Reginald Scot, "The Discoverie of Witchcraft," 1584]

Witch doctor is from 1718; applied to African magicians from 1836. Witch-finder is attested from 1640s.


April 16 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1178 BC A solar eclipse may have marked the return of Odysseus, legendary King of Ithaca, to his kingdom after the Trojan War.
• 1521 Martin Luther arrives at the Diet of Worms assembly.
• 1705 Queen Anne of England knights scientist Isaac Newton.
• 1849 Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera Le Prophète premieres.
• 1854 Franz Liszt's symphonic poem Mazeppa premieres.
• 1979 Sam Shepard receives Pulitzer Prize for Buried Child.
• 1984 Pulitzer prize awarded to Mary Oliver for American Primitive.
• 1987 August Wilson's Fences wins 1987 Pulitzer Prize.

April 16 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1635 Frans van Mieris the Elder, Dutch painter.
• 1646 Jules Hardouin Mansart, French architect.
• 1648 John Luyken, Dutch poet and etcher.
• 1661 Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, English poet.
• 1673 Francesco Feroci, Italian composer.
• 1697 Johann Gottlieb Gorner, German composer.
• 1755 Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun, French painter.
• 1800 Jozef Stefani, Polish composer.
• 1800 William Chambers, Scottish author.
• 1821 Ford Madox Brown, British painter.
• 1827 Octave Crémazie, French Canadian poet.
• 1838 Karel Bendl, Czech compose.
• 1844 Anatole France [Jacques Anatole Thibault], French writer.
• 1847 Hans Auer, Swiss-Austrian architect.
• 1851 Ernst Josephson, Swedish painter.
• 1871 John Millington Synge, Irish dramatist and poet.
• 1871 Martin Lunssens, Belgian composer.
• 1882 Seth Bingham, American organist and composer.
• 1885 Leo Weiner, Hungarian composer.
• 1886 Jēkabs Graubiņš, Latvian composer.
• 1886 Konstantin G. Mostras, Russian composer.
• 1893 Federico Mompou, Catalan composer.
• 1893 Joseph Yasser, Russian-American composer.
• 1897 Arthur Charles Ernest Hoérée, Belgian-French composer.
• 1900 Polly Adler, Russian bordello proprieter and author.
• 1901 Karel Albert, Belgian composer.
• 1912 Garth Williams, American illustrator.
• 1913 Constance Shacklock, English opera singer.
• 1915 Gerard McLarnon, Irish writer.
• 1917 Charlotte Salomon, German-Jewish artist.
• 1919 Merce Cunningham, American choreographer.
• 1920 Kees Scherer, Dutch photographer.
• 1922 Christopher Samuel Youd, British science fiction author.
• 1922 Kingsley Amis, English novelist.
• 1935 Sarah Kirsch, German poet.
• 1939 Reinier Lucassen, Dutch painter.
• 1943 Ewald Vanvugt, Dutch author.
• 1951 Ioan Mihai Cochinescu, Romanian writer.
• 1951 Pierre Toutain-Dorbec, French photographer.
• 1953 J. Neil Schulman, American writer.

Words-I-Looked-Up-This-Week Writer's Challenge
Write a story or pram from the following words:

• anlage: /AN-lä-ɡə/ n., the foundation of a subsequent development; the rudimentary basis of a particular organ or other part, especially in an embryo.
• croton: /KRŌ-tn/ n., a strong-scented tree, shrub, or herbaceous plant of the spurge family, native to tropical and warm regions. Several kinds yield timber and other commercially important products; a small evergreen tree or shrub of the Indo-Pacific region, which is grown for its colorful ornamental foliage.
• ditokous: /dit-ə-kəs/ adj., producing two eggs or young at a time; producing two kinds of young.
• epinicion: /ep-ə-NI-s(h)ē-än/ n., a lyric ode or song celebrating a victory.
• glaucous: /GLÔ-kəs/ adj., of a dull grayish-green or blue color; covered with a powdery bloom like that on grapes.
• pepinnier: /peh-pee-NYEHR/ n., a place where plants are grown from seed; a nursery for seedlings.
• ruddle: /RəD-(ə)l/ n., a red pigment consisting of ocher;     a small block of ruddle or a similar substance that is attached to the chest of a ram to mark the sheep that it tups.
• slangwhang: /SLANG-hwang/ v., to use highly critical, insulting, or bombastic language against (a person or thing); to criticize in a vociferous way.
• torrefy: /TAWR-uh-fy/ v., to subject something (especially wood, coffee beans, or biomass) to drying or roasting at high heat, often without burning it.
• tup: /təp/ n., a ram.

April 16, 2025 Word-Wednesday Feature
Speaking of Sheep
Given the surging popularity of epic sheep prams and the importance of sheep characters in such epics, today Word-Wednesday explores down-on-the-farm vocabulary for in-the-know poets and readers. Back in March 2016, the proprietor of Flying Mule Farm — then but a lamb shepherd — recruited his dyed-in-the-wool sheep-expert California neighbors to help him with his vocabulary. His introduction warns the sheepish reader that some word-subjects can be thorny:

I categorized many of the words by topic. Every phase of my work (or any shepherd’s work) has a specific set of terms. Sheep reproduction and husbandry, marketing, shearing, wool handling and marketing – each have a distinct (and often peculiar) vocabulary. I’ll try to use these categories as I define the terms we use. I’ll also define the terms I use, as well as some of the terms that my friends suggested (some of which were new to me).  And fair warning – some of our vocabulary can get somewhat ribald! I suppose this stems from the fact that we’re in the business of managing and observing ovine sex, to a large degree! Sometimes our terminology and phrases reflect the dark humor that comes with realizing dead-stock are a part of raising livestock. I don’t apologize for this (not in the least), but I do realize that some of you might take offense.

For example, among shepherds, AI stands for artificial insemination.

• bagging up: v., udders growing in size as they begin to produce milk.
• crutch: v., shearing of heavily wooled sheep from the ewe's belly, topknot, udder, and rear end to provide a cleaner environment through which the lamb is born.
• frogged or froggie lamb: n., hypothermic lambs who typically have their legs splayed out behind them until warmed.
• graft: v., pairing an orphan lamb with a different ewe.
• granny lamb: n., a ewe who adopts another ewe's lamb.
• hogget: n., meat from a sheep one-to-to years of age.
• lambulance: n., small trailer pulled by a four-wheeler to move ewes and lambs, in Oregon, referred to as the lambie bus.
• lampede: n., a gang of lambs chasing each other around the pasture.
• mutton: n., meet from any sheep older than 12 months of age.
• nickering: v., give a soft, low, breathy whinny maternal grunting, or vocalization associated with pushing to deliver a lamb.
• topknot: n., the wool on the top of a sheep's head - specifically when it's clipped or trimmed - which is done to prevent wool blindness - a condition where long wool in that area can obstruct the sheep's vision.

The community grew to include shepherds form the other side of the pond, who submitted their terms for common shepherding nouns, verbs, and adjectives, where a yaw is a ewe:

• black bag or garget: n., an udder explosion (employ the shovel, rest in peace).
• breaker: n., a known escaper.
• cade lamb: n., orphan lamb
• dagging: v., arse wool removal.
• draft yaws: n., ewes that are taken off the mountain for a couple more years at lower elevations.
• drovers: n., the fellas that took the yaws to market – wonderful, endearing country folk – mostly alcoholics, thieves, and murderers.
• gathering yaws: v., fetching them off the hill.
• grubs: n., maggots.
• hefted: adj., yaws on open ground not leaving their patch due to maternal passed-down knowledge of place.
• glatting: v., mending a hole in a hedge that a yaw escaped through.
• pitch mark: n., an owner’s mark.
• sheep walks: n., paths trod by sheep for hundreds and hundreds of years.
• sheepwash: n., a special place in a river where sheep were cleaned before hand shearing.
• swids: n., swedes, a root crop grown for forage
• teg: n., a hogget in Shropshire.
• thrown her bed: n., a uterine prolapse.
• tiddlin: n., bottle-fed lamb.

From A Year with Rilke, April 16 Entry
In the Drawing Room from New Prams

They are all around us, these lordly men
in courtiers' attire and ruffled shirts
like an evening sky that gradually
loses its light to the constellations; and these ladies,
delicate, fragile, enlarged by their dresses,
one hand poised on the neck-ribbon of their lapdog.
They are close to each of us, next to the reader,
beside us as we gaze at the objets d'art
they left behind, yet still possess.

Tactful, they leave us undisturbed
to live life as we grasp it
and as they could never comprehend it.
They wanted to bloom
and to bloom is to be beautiful.
But we want to ripen,
and for that we open ourselves to darkness and travail.

Basket of Apples
by Vincent van Gogh

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.







*Pheno-Barbie.