The VOCABULARY thread
 

I enjoy learning new words or the actual meaning of words I've seen. Let's do this. Found this in a cartoon, which was kind of interesting.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1740326926.jpg

Yeah, decimate was what happened to Legions which failed or mutinied.

"Between the devil and the deep blue sea " referred to recaulking the devil seam (the seam at the turn of the bilge) while the vessel was afloat and heeled over so the seam was above the surface of the water.
Also,"The devil to pay.( and no pitch hot)" refers to the same situation. "Paying" a seam meant getting the hot pitch into the seam.
Fun job.

Best
Les

I thought the decimal system originated in Greece or Rome, but it came from India.

As was - what is one of the most crucial contributions to mathematics - zero.

One of my favorite books:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1740337661.jpg

More rabbits holes in that book than Eastern Washington.

I believe there was a thread about 15 years ago in which we covered things like "balls to the wall" , referring to the wide open position of governors on a steam engine and "freeze the balls off a brass monkey ", which covered the phenomenon of different rates of expansion and contraction between Iron cannon balls and the brass matrix upon which they were stored(the monkey).

Best
Les

Copyright MCMLV Webb Garrison compiled it. Certainly has been updated.

I got Mick's copy. Dad had the exact same book, brother got his copy

"In the doghouse" initially was a nautical term, apparently. Plying the slave trade was dangerous business . If your cargo got loose, they are liable to kill you and toss you overboard, so you lock all the hatches and stay on deck at night. You need some sort of shelter, so they build a little shack on deck
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1740356129.jpg

I couldn't remember all of this so I made a couple of screen shots.
Subject: A Flash In The Pan. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9cb20745e3.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...c1430ddac2.jpg

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

What about seeing if something will "pan out." Came from gold prospecting. You'd have to take a soil/gravel sample using a sluicing pan to reduce the material down to the heavier stuff -including the gold. If you found gold - it "panned out" - otherwise no.

The term computer bug is credited to a moth that found its way into a relay in a computer at Harvard in 1947.

However, Edison referred to bugs in telephone equipment as early as 1878.

https://lunduke.substack.com/p/the-story-of-the-first-computer-bug

There's quite a few answers to the term "The whole 9 yards" (ships sails, Scotsmans' kilts), but the one I like has to do with the length of the ammo belt for a BAR .50 cal machine gun on WWII fighter planes. (There are some who say that that same story originated in Vietnam)


My mom used to say 'Good night nurse!' when she was exasperated. I believe that saying began and ended with her. It was the source of much mirth from 5 ungrateful children.

Moly .... who decided it was Holy and how is it different from Secular Moly?

Arena from latin meaning "a place of sand for combat".

Putz- What you plan to do each day of retirement.
Putzing - what your doing at any given moment in retirement.

"Pyrrhic victory."

A Pyrrhic victory is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. Such a victory negates any true sense of achievement or damages long-term progress.

The phrase originates from a quote from Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose triumph against the Romans in the Battle of Asculum in 279 BC destroyed much of his forces, forcing the end of his campaign.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhic_victory

Canada geese. Not Canadian geese.

Unless they live in Canada, of course. Then they're Canadian Canada Geese.

The one that always sets hair on fire.

Niggardly.

Meaning stingy or miserly.
Anyone remember David Howard?

Geek it up!

https://waywordradio.org/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAt4C-BhBcEiwA8Kp0CQymjtzVd6kg6LubmS4-qSvFa3I8I_mutUVF6IMbye1ZoQyZzyMaChoC7TsQAvD_BwE

My grandmother used to refer to the crochet things she put on the backs of chairs as what I heard as
"anamackaser." Turns out it was " anti-macassar." In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was stylish for men to put an oil on their hair called "macassar." I guess you can still get it, nice if you have hair and are into vintage grooming.
Anyway, the things she put on the chair were employed to keep the hair oil from gumming up the upholstery.