Did you know salient can be used as a noun? It does not mean anything related to the adjectival form with which I'm familiar. Instead, it means "the part of the line of battle that projects closest to the enemy." (source)
Have you heard the economic term monopsony? Related to monopoly, it refers to a single (all-powerful) buyer dealing with lots of sellers, like Wal Mart, as opposed to a single (all-powerful) seller dealing with lots of buyers, like your cable company. The term was apparently coined by Joan Robinson, in 1933. (source)
I picked these up from recent crossword puzzles:
- sapid is the opposite of the more familiar vapid. Example: "These tapas, though tepid, are sapid, Astrid."
- Despite looking like a misspelled word, relict is a real word. It is a remnant of a pre-existing formation. Makes you wonder about the etymology of derelict, doesn't it?
- If your music teacher tells you to go scherzo, keep your seat. Just play faster.
- And finally, a tumbrel is how one hopes to remove the current occupant from the White House.
4 comments:
Scherzo and monopsony, I knew. Scherzo is the part of the symphony that you clean to. Monopsony is a great word, too. Describes more and more of our growing economy.
Do you know how they teach children to pick books for themselves? Read the first page. Hold up a finger for each word you don't know. If, by the end of the first page, you have more fingers up than your age, the book is too old for you.
Seems like a good idea -- until I read Nabokov's Pale Fire. I'd about cubed my age by the end of the first page or so. But, oh, what a book worth having your dictionary open for.
Words from crossword puzzles aren't real words, you know. When all the other words are filled in you try to find a meaning for the scramble of letters that result in the blanks spaces that are left.
Scherzo is actually a very common word for anyone interested in classical music. The third movement of virtually every piece written in the sonata form (hence every symphony) is labeled the "scherzo". I've forgotten what the first movement (allegro) of a symphony is supposed to appeal to, but the second movement (andante) of a symphony is supposed to appeal to the intellect and is generally slow and pensive. The third movement (scherzo) is supposed to appeal to the emotions and is generally quick tempoed and upbeat or heroic. Scherzo is the notation by the composer to the orchestra and conductor that the movement is supposed to be played with a quick, upbeat tempo. The fourth movement is supposed to recapitulate the themes (tunes) of the previous three movements for a big finish.
The OED gives the definition of relict as "a plant or animal that has survived in a primitive form". That sounds slightly different than a "formation" which gives the impression of buildings. I guess it's one of those botanical terms that worked its way into common usage, if you can call a cross word puzzle "common usage."
That reminds me of the saying civil rights activists used to use back in the 60s. "ontogeny recapitulates phlogeny." The so-called "biogenetic law" -- later disproven -- stated that as an embryo developed it went through all the stages of development that had occured in man's total evolution. Thus on the way to becoming a human, the ova developed gills, a tail, and all the features that we ever had in each stage of evolution.
Civil rights activists used it to say that each white person was responsible for every injustice that previous white men had inflicted on blacks, and thus you couldn't say that slavery happened before your time and you weren't guilty for what previous white men had done to slaves. A genetic concept working its way into common political usage.
I did know salient but I doubt that I would have come up with it from whatever clue they might have come up with for it.
I may have heard of monopsony as it sounds familiar, but if I ever knew what it meant I had forgotten.
Thanks for sapid. I like that, but, of course, it isn't in the paperback dictionary (thus obscure)and you'd need the big fat one at the library to even find it.
Tumbrel is another one that I'm sure I've heard, but you would have had to have read Dickens Tale of 2 Cities recently to remember. Yet another good reason, one should have read A Tale of Two Cities, Brendan. LOL
Thanks for these, Brendan, you're at your best teasing us with the language.
Smokin' comeback, TC. Thanks!
According to the source that I linked to, for relict, you're right about the botanical definition. The second definition is from the excavation community (don't you hate that usage of that formerly fine word?), and if you compare the two definitions, it seems clear that one naturally provoked the other.
All people who refer to A Tale of Two Cities go to Number 1 on my enemies list, so watch it.
Evidently, I am behind the curve on economic and classical music terminology. You and Clare, just two more stalwarts of the cultural elite.
Hey, wait a minute. It sez here that stalwarts used to refer to a branch of the Republican party. I'll flame, but I didn't mean to harsh to that degree.
PS: I can never hear the phrase "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" without immediately flashing on my all-time favorite bumper sticker:
Eschew Obfuscation
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