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Snark and Soda
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: SF east bay
Posts: 24,533
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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.
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Two EVs and a BRZ |
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02-23-2025, 07:09 AM
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Kantry Member
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: N.S. Can
Posts: 6,760
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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
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Best Les My train of thought has been replaced by a bumper car. |
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02-23-2025, 07:38 AM
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Snark and Soda
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: SF east bay
Posts: 24,533
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I thought the decimal system originated in Greece or Rome, but it came from India.
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Two EVs and a BRZ |
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02-23-2025, 07:50 AM
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Registered
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: NY
Posts: 6,862
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As was - what is one of the most crucial contributions to mathematics - zero.
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02-23-2025, 09:46 AM
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Registered
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Maryland
Posts: 31,373
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One of my favorite books:
 More rabbits holes in that book than Eastern Washington.
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1996 FJ80. |
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02-23-2025, 10:08 AM
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Kantry Member
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: N.S. Can
Posts: 6,760
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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
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Best Les My train of thought has been replaced by a bumper car. |
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02-23-2025, 10:34 AM
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Control Group
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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 
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She was the kindest person I ever met |
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02-23-2025, 03:37 PM
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Registered
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Opelika, Alabama
Posts: 4,870
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I couldn't remember all of this so I made a couple of screen shots.
Subject: A Flash In The Pan.   Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk
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"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men." Wonka |
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02-23-2025, 04:49 PM
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Registered
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Lawrenceville GA 30045
Posts: 7,376
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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.
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Mark '83 SC Targa - since 5/5/2001 '06 911 S Aerokit - from 5/2/2016 to 11/14/2018 '11 911 S w/PDK - from 7/2/2021 to ??? |
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02-23-2025, 04:55 PM
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My other ride is a C-130J
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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
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1975 911 Targa S 3.0 2000 911 Carrera Cab 2005 Cayenne Titanium Metallic 2022 Mercedes-Benz E450 Coupé 2020 Mercedes-Benz E350 2006 ACG Hummer Previously Owned Art from Stuttgart 2000 Boxster -1983 911 SC Cab -1984 944 N/A |
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02-23-2025, 05:04 PM
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Model Citizen
Join Date: May 2007
Location: The Voodoo Lounge
Posts: 18,687
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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.
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"I would be a tone-deaf heathen if I didn't call the engine astounding. If it had been invented solely to make noise, there would be shrines to it in Rome" |
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02-23-2025, 05:33 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 30,338
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Moly .... who decided it was Holy and how is it different from Secular Moly?
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02-24-2025, 01:33 AM
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I see you
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: NJ
Posts: 29,867
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Arena from latin meaning "a place of sand for combat".
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Si non potes inimicum tuum vincere, habeas eum amicum and ride a big blue trike. "'Bipartisan' usually means that a larger-than-usual deception is being carried out." |
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02-24-2025, 05:42 AM
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Putz- What you plan to do each day of retirement.
Putzing - what your doing at any given moment in retirement.
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1980 911 - Metzger 3.6L 2016 Cayman S |
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02-24-2025, 06:52 AM
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Snark and Soda
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: SF east bay
Posts: 24,533
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"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
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Two EVs and a BRZ |
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02-24-2025, 12:37 PM
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Registered
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 15,530
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Canada geese. Not Canadian geese.
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Southwest Oklahoma |
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02-26-2025, 03:49 PM
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Registered
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Location: the beach
Posts: 5,146
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Quote:
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Charlie 1966 912 Polo Red 1950 VW Bug 1983 VW Westfalia; 1989 VW Syncro Tristar Doka |
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02-26-2025, 04:25 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: NY
Posts: 6,862
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The one that always sets hair on fire.
Niggardly. Meaning stingy or miserly. Anyone remember David Howard? |
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02-26-2025, 04:48 PM
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FUSHIGI
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: somewhere between here and there
Posts: 10,731
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Cults require delusions. |
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02-27-2025, 07:50 AM
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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.
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02-27-2025, 12:37 PM
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2004 Mazda Miata
Dee
