Yesterday seems to have been quite a good day for oxymorons. We had:
Chota Peg
According to the Online Encyclopaedia:
“A miniature jug used for individual servings of alcohol, dating from British colonial India at the end of the 19th century. Chota is the Hindi word for ‘small measure’.”
Samosapedia, “the definitive guide to South Asian lingo”, gives it slightly differently:
“A standard pitcher/tankard was marked by wooden nails called pegs or pins in 17th/18th century Great Britain and a ‘peg’ usually marked an individual quantity of drink. This measure was later adopted to make individual whiskey/brandy containers during the Raj that measured about 2 ounces (about 60ml). A Chota Peg was half the size, about an ounce or 30ml.”
Hence by derivation chota peg became British Army slang for an alcoholic drink, especially whiskey or brandy and soda, or gin and tonic.
Peavey
Well, neither the OED:
A lumberer’s cant-hook having a spike at the end of the lever.
nor the more US-centric Free Dictionary:
An implement consisting of a wooden shaft with a metal point and a hinged hook near the end, used to handle logs
actually help us a lot here.
Fortunately Wikipedia is more forthcoming:
A peavey or peavey hook is a logging tool consisting of a handle, generally from 30 to 50 inches long … with a metal spike protruding from the end. The spike is rammed into a log, then a hook (at the end of an arm attached to a pivot a short distance up the handle) grabs the log at a second location. Once engaged, the handle gives the operator leverage to roll or slide or float the log to a new position.
The peavey was named for blacksmith Joseph Peavey of Upper Stillwater, Maine, who invented the tool as a refinement to the cant hook …
And just so’s you know a cant hook is a peavey with a blunt end.
Haruspication
A form of divination from lightning and other natural phenomena, but especially from inspection of the entrails of animal sacrifices
An Etruscan model of a sheep’s liver used for divination
Wallah or Walla
From the Hindi/Urdu suffix -wālā, which has the sense of ‘pertaining to or connected with’ that preceding, which may be compared with the English suffix -er (as in, for example, baker, walker). Thanks to the Raj, in English it has progressed beyond its Indian roots and has come to mean:
One employed in a particular occupation or activity (eg. kitchen wallah; rickshaw wallah).Thus it is also a component of Indian names, eg. Unwalla (originally a wool worker or merchant).
Other examples of Anglo-Indian usage include:
Djinn or jinn.
In Islamic mythology (including the Quran) an order of spirits lower than the angels which is said to have the power of appearing in human and animal forms and which can to exercise supernatural influence over men. Together, the djinn, humans and angels make up the three sentient creations of God.
In Islamic theology djinn are said to be creatures with free will, made from smokeless fire by Allah just as humans were made of clay etc. This free will allows them to do as they choose thus, like humans, the djinn can be good, evil or neutrally benevolent. They are usually invisible to humans, and humans do not appear clearly to them. They have the power to travel large distances at extreme speeds.
Commonly used as the singular to denote an individual spirit.
Like many words it seems to have it’s origins in English in the latter part of the 17th century, I suppose reflecting the increasing importance of international trade and travel. Due to The Thousand and One Nights, and hence Aladdin and pantomime, they are now best known as genies residing in lamps and bottles.
Yep that’s right.
Omnishambles has been declared word of the year. And not by me, but by the Oxford English Dictionary.
I’m sure that we can all guess it means “a situation which is shambolic from every possible angle”. Oh, yes, just like the BBC!
As a word I don’t like it. It is too long, too contrived, too, well … shambolic. But I have to admit it is pretty well descriptive of our times. Think just this last few weeks of Jimmy Savile, the latest BBC “McAlpine” fiasco, Abu Qatada, Abu Hamza, Italian earthquake scientists. And they’re only the ones I can think of immediately.
What I find even more amusing is that good old(ish) word (first recorded 1865 according to the OED) pleb was also shortlisted for word of the year. Now that would have been a even better choice, if only to cock-a-snook at a few people!
Piton
Time for another nice word …
Mendicant
OK, guys & gals, time for another unusual or interesting word. Today we have:
Alectryomancy
Divination by means of a cock (preferably a white rooster) with grains of corn, usually by recording the letters revealed as the cock eats kernels of corn that cover them.
From the Greek ἀλεκτρυών (alectryon) cock + µαντεία (manteia) divination.