Category Archives: words

history, words

Today's Word : Halberd

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Halberd
A military weapon, especially in use during the 15th and 16th centuries. A kind of combination of spear and battle-axe, consisting of a sharp-edged blade ending in a point, and a spear-head, mounted on a handle five to seven feet long.
By transference, a soldier armed with a halberd; a halberdier. [Below left]
Halberds are still currently carried by the Papal Swiss Guard.

Compare with …

Pike
A weapon consisting of a wooden shaft, typically 14 to 15 feet long, with a pointed head of iron or steel; formerly the chief weapon of a large part of the infantry; superseded in 18th century by the bayonet.
A soldier armed with a pike is generally a pikeman. [Below right]
Possibly the best way in the UK to see pikes and pikemen is either at a Civil war re-enactment or at London’s Lord Mayor’s Show on the second Saturday in November.

And of course there is then …

Spontoon
A species of half-pike or halberd carried by infantry officers in the 18th century (from about 1740); generally 6 to 7 feet in length.  

words

Today's Word : Exuviae

Exuviæ

Cast skins, shells, or coverings of animals; any parts of animals which are shed or cast off, whether recent or fossil.

[Generally used only in the plural form, although according to the OED the singular form exuvium is sometimes used.]

science, words

Word: Bromide

Bromide is interesting in that it has both scientific and non-scientific meanings, although the non-scientific are derived from the scientific.

Bromide.

  1. An anion of the element bromine, element 35. Several metal bromides (most commonly potassium bromide) are used medicinally as sedatives.
  2. A reproduction or proof on bromide paper; a bromide print, or the developer used to create such.
  3. A commonplace saying, trite remark, conventionalism; a soothing statement which has little purpose except to make you feel better; eg. “take things a day at a time”, or “go with the flow”.

[The element bromine (shown above) is nasty stuff. It is just about liquid at room temperature and evaporates easily as a brown vapour. It smells like chlorine (think swimming pools and loo cleaner) only worse as like this you get it in a higher concentration. I had to work with it in my undergraduate research project. I assure you it is not nice; you always use a fume hood. Happy days.]

words

A Word in Your Ear

Raree Show

1. A show contained or carried about in a box; a peep-show.

2. A show or spectacle of any kind.

3. Spectacular display.

According to the OED the word dates from 1681 and “is formed in imitation of the foreign way of pronouncing rare show” (Johnson). It has also been suggested that raree may represent rarity but Johnson’s statement is probably the correct one given that the early exhibitors of peep-shows appear to have been usually Savoyards, from whom the form was no doubt adopted. Recall that the diarist Samuel Pepys observed a marionette show featuring an early version of Punch & Judy (not quite a peep show but not unlikely they derive from the same tradition?) in London’s Covent Garden in May 1662. This was performed by an Italian puppet showman, Pietro Gimonde (aka. Signor Bologna).

words

Word of the Week : Widdershins

Widdershins

  1. Moving in an anticlockwise direction, contrary to the apparent course of the sun (considered as unlucky or sinister).
  2. In a direction opposite to the usual; the wrong way.

The opposite of deosil or deiseal, in a clockwise or sunwise direction.

memes, words

Word of the Week : Decorticate

Decorticate (verb).

  1. To remove the bark, rind, or husk from; to strip of its bark. Hence, to divest of what conceals, to expose.
  2. To ‘flay’ or to peel.

Decorticate (adjective).

  1. Destitute of a cortex or cortical layer (applied specifically to some lichens).

When I was a child I remember my mother always used to describe a peculiarly tasteless wine (usually her own home-made wine) as being “like decorticated cardboard”. Somehow one didn’t have to be told exactly what the word meant!