Baryton
A bowed string instrument of the 18th century, similar to the bass viol, but having sympathetic strings on the rear of the fingerboard.
According to Wikipedia:
The baryton can be viewed as a sort of augmented bass viol. It is similar in size to the latter instrument and likewise has six or seven strings of gut, arranged over a fretted fingerboard and played with a bow. The instrument is held vertically and is supported by the player’s legs …
The baryton differs from the bass viol in having an additional set of wire strings. These perform two functions: they vibrate sympathetically with the bowed strings, enriching the tone, and they can also be plucked by the left thumb of the performer, creating a contrasting tonal quality.
According to the OED, the name of the instrument is a loan word from French baryton or Italian baritono, and ultimately derives from Greek bary- + tonos ‘deep-pitched’.
Category Archives: words
"Cleansing the stock" and Other Euphemisms
While we’re on about politicians, George Monbiot had another side-swipe on Tuesday 21 October in his Guardian column: ‘Cleansing the stock’ and other ways governments talk about human beings.
Basically he’s on about the euphemisms that politicians, governments, and indeed companies, use to disguise — from themselves and (they think) us — the horrors of what they get up to. For example:
The [Dept of Work & Pensions can talk of] using “credit reference agency data to cleanse the stock of fraud and error”
Hills, forests and rivers are described … as “green infrastructure”
Wildlife and habitats are “asset classes” in an “ecosystems market”.
Israeli military commanders described the massacre of 2,100 Palestinians … in Gaza this summer as “mowing the lawn”.
People, aka. human beings, can be referred to as “personnel targets”. And then there are the old favourites: “neutralising”, collateral damage” and “extraordinary rendition”.
Dictatorships, and those wishing to conceal what they’re up to have always spoken thus: for example look at Communist Russia and Communist China.
Gawdelpus!
Word: Xanthophobia
Xanthophobia
A fear of the colour yellow or the word yellow.
From the Greek xanthos, ξανθός yellow with the Latin -phobia, Greek. -ϕοβία, fear, dread or horror.
Word: Œnology
Œnology
The study and science of making wine.
Hence, œnologist, one who is knowledgeable about wine.
The word derives from the Greek οἶνος wine, with, according to the OED, the word œnology first being used in 1814.
Word: Nugatory
Nugatory
1. Trifling, of no value or importance, worthless.
2. Of no force, invalid; useless, futile, of no avail, inoperative.
From the Latin nūgātōrius, past participle stem of nūgārī, to trifle. The word was first used in 1603 in a translation of Plutarch. Perhaps slightly surprisingly the word appears to have no connexion to nougat.
Word: Muselet
Muselet
A wire cage that fits over the cork of a bottle of champagne, sparkling wine or beer to prevent the cork from emerging under the pressure of the carbonated contents.
The muselet was invented in 1844 Adolphe Jaqueson to improve the seal on champagne bottles. The design has been improved over the years with the use of twisted steel wire for added strength and a metal cap.
The word is derived from the French museler, to muzzle.
Word: Thixotropic
Thixotropic
Of fluids and gels, having the property of viscosity that decreases when stressed (by stirring or shaking) and returning to the semi-solid state upon standing.
Hence thixotropic paints, which are essentially non-drip because they return to the more solid state quickly following the cessation of stress stirring, brushing).
Some clays are thixotropic, which is important in structural and geotechnical engineering. Landslides, such as those common in the cliffs around Lyme Regis, Dorset and in the Aberfan spoil tip disaster in Wales are evidence of this phenomenon.
Some thixotropic fluids, for example ketchup, return to a gel state almost instantly while others such as yoghurt take much longer.
The word is derived from the Greek thixis, touch + -tropy. The OED gives the first usage in 1927.
Word: Carabiner & Piton
Carabiner or karabiner
An oblong metal ring with a spring clip, used in mountaineering to attach a running rope to a piton or similar device.
The word is a late introduction (1932 according to the OED) from the world of mountaineering; it is a shortened form of the German karabiner-haken, spring-hook.
Piton
A metal spike fitted at one end with an eye for securing a rope and driven into rock or ice as a support in mountain climbing.
A slightly earlier introduction (1898) which derives from the French mneaning a “ring-bolt”.
Oddity of the Week: George Borrow
[George] Borrow was a walker of awesome stamina and a linguist of almost inconceivable talent, who is said to have been able to speak twelve languages by the time he was eighteen and to have been competently acquainted with more than forty — including Nahuatl, Tibetan, Armenian and Malo-Russian — over the course of his life. In the winter of 1832—3 the British and Foreign Bible Society invited him at short notice to an interview in London, wanting to see if he could translate the Bible into a number of difficult languages. The society liked what they saw and commissioned Borrow to translate the New Testament into Manchu. What Borrow hadn’t told them was that he did not have any Manchu. No problem. Once the job was landed, he acquired ‘several books in the Manchu-Tartar dialect’, and Amyot’s Manchu-French (French!) dictionary. Then he travelled home (by coach, understandably) and shut himself up with the books. Three weeks later he could ‘translate Manchu with no great difficulty’, and fulfilled the society’s commission.
From Robert Macfarlane; The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot
Word: Bindlestiff
Bindlestiff
A hobo, especially one who carries a bedroll.
According to the OED a bindle (which is American slang) is “a bundle containing clothes and possessions, especially a bedding-roll carried by a tramp”. Hence a bindleman or bindlestiff, is a tramp who carries such a bundle.