> Lest we stray too far from our usual subject matter, I would say
> that our word catgut for strings has nothing to do with cats. Gut
> strings are made from the guts of sheep. Nowadays we think of the
> word "cattle" as meaning lots of cows, but not many people realise
> that it can have the mean
> That might seem a bit weak, but it has a certain nonsensical charm
> all the same. Nowadays, as you say, limericks tend have something
> special or witty in the last line.
My all-time fave (I can't guarantee I remember it exactly):
Titian mixed his rose-madder
standing on top of a ladder.
When th
http://lagoon.freebsd.lublin.pl/~mieki/foty/flaszki/abso_lute.jpg
--
Don't be so exact!
If some of the cats I try to impress telling them "you would make nice
strings for my lute" would know ...
Best wishes
Thomas
Am Son, 2004-03-28 um 21.26 schrieb Stewart McCoy:
> Dear Garry,
>
> Etymology can be a minefield.
>
> For the origin of "renegade" Chambers Dictio
Dear Jon,
I agree that ideally a limerick should have some pun or surprise in
the last line, yet surprisingly that is not the case with many of
the limericks of Edward Lear. Lear was not the first to write
limericks, but it was he who made them popular. He would often have
the fifth line virtually
Dear Garry,
Etymology can be a minefield.
For the origin of "renegade" Chambers Dictionary gives the Low Latin
renegatus from Latin re- [intensive] and negare = to deny. It also
refers to the Spanish word renegado, but there is no mention of
indentured servants or gates.
The other word under dis
This is what's called "folk etymology." Beware acronymic explanations of
words that have been in the language for a long time (the OED records
written uses of "shit" in the 1300's, and it was undoubtedly around before
the Norman conquest) particularly when they're based on such obviously
strained
> The Brass Monkey
>
> In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters
> carried iron cannons. Those cannons fired round iron cannon balls. It
> was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon, but they had to
> find a way to prevent them from rolling about the deck.
>
> T
> isn't russia still the greatest country of the world?
It has a reasonable chance to become one. For the first time in 400 years
the Russians are a majority in their own state.
RT
On Domenica, mar 28, 2004, at 16:45 Europe/Rome, Garry Bryan wrote:
In the days when sailing ships were opening up world trade routes, when
commodities such as spices were worth as much as gold, (18th Century??)
some ships would carry fertilizer. These ships would periodically
explode & be los
isn't russia still the greatest country of the world?
Thomas
Am Son, 2004-03-28 um 16.14 schrieb Roman Turovsky:
> > jon - i'll bow to your superior knowledge of american history and the
> > sequence of it. i mentioned convicts because i seem to remember that
> > georgia was populated by convic
-Original Message-
From: bill [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2004 8:35 AM
To: Jon Murphy
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Roman Turovsky;
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: early country music
i mentioned convicts because i seem to remember that
georgia was p
> jon - i'll bow to your superior knowledge of american history and the
> sequence of it. i mentioned convicts because i seem to remember that
> georgia was populated by convicts at one time (don't know why but
> ogilvey comes to mind).
Not only Georgia. At least 2 Defoe novels deal extensively wi
jon - i'll bow to your superior knowledge of american history and the
sequence of it. i mentioned convicts because i seem to remember that
georgia was populated by convicts at one time (don't know why but
ogilvey comes to mind).
i do know that the word renegade come from indentured servants t
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