h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Since the subject line remains 'the millionth word' I can safely post this link to a site claiming 1.7 million word entries.

They must be counting definitions, of which, as we know, some words have many. On average it appears, 1.7 per word.

http://www.wordnik.com/


~jwf~

something completely different.

Came across a typo on page 223 of Barack Obama's 'Dreams from my father':

Rafiq wore a black suit and a black leather tie; his leather _kufu_ was polished to a high gloss.

Kufu is in italics. A web search turned up a whole lot about kung fu; deselecting kung in the search box wasn't much help; 'leather kufu' finally produced the very quote I was seeking to elucidate.

Solution: on page 291 we meet 'tall unsmiling men in suits and tie and mud-cloth _kufis_. African brimless hats. http://www.shukronline.com/mens-hats.html

Could it be a Swahili noun inflection, though?

(although - from memory - I seem to recall that Swahili nouns are inflected at the begining and in the middle)

Elsewere I refered earlier today to 'blowing the gaff' - or is it gaffe?

What is a gaffe (or gaffe?) in this sense?

It's not a gaff as in a residence.
It's not a gaffe as in an embarassing mistake.
It's not a gaffe as in a hook, typically used to hoik a heavy fish out of the water.

According to World Wide Words 'gaff' may well derive from a hook, although not one used with fish. There's an explanation of the phrase here: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-blo1.htm

Makes sense. Might even be true.

Are you saying it may lack wiki-validity?
Needs a bit o' gaffers' tape then does it?

Oh btw, that link I posted above to wordnik is now showing
a most wonderful 'under construction' sign. It looks at first
like a manhole cover but becomes apparently a sign that has
fallen down on the ground. I blame the high traffic created
by my posting and apologize to the www in general for any
inconvenience.


~jwf~

Oh! I tell a lie; it's working now.

http://www.wordnik.com/words/gaf

Messy page, a bit too cutesy but a couple of interesting
points and links and one small damnable reference to
'gaftopsail' that will have me trying to remember all I
know about gaff rigged schooners before I'll submit it to
the all-knowing eyes of the great google.

So far, none of the gaf/gaff/gaffe links we've seen have
mentioned gaff-rigging, but it's out there somewhere. And
I have a sneaking suspicion that blowing the gaff has a lot
more to do with wind of the weather kind. Ya just can't swing
a cat in the english language without hitting sailor talk. Or
I'm a monkey's uncle.

peace
jwf

http://www.worldwidewords.org/cgi-bin/wordsearch/wordsearch.pl?qy=gaff+rigging&lg=Y&mg=ALL&cp=0

http://www.oldgaffersassociation.org/_sgg/f10000.htm

Sadly, even these experts give way to the lowest common intelligence
of the layman and landlubber, saying a gaff "is the wooden pole across the top of the sail". This lack of precision - and the apparent crossbeam set of the rigging shown in the main picture - will lead some to believe a gaff is the same as a yardarm on a square rigger.

A yardarm, over which the sun must rise before rum is rationed, is fixed, firmly attached to the mast; a gaff is held only by ropes and rigging and can swing into any angle of configuration there-by allowing the ration to be apportioned as soon as there's any light in the sky.


~jwf~

So, deciding when the Sun is over the yardarm depends on the muscles of the sailours rigging same? Little wonder Britannia ruled the Waves!

"Sunrise, Sir"
"Let it be so"
...

"Break out the gin, man - Break Out the Gin"

From one of the "Sharpe" movies...

"Drunk again Sgt. Harper!"
"Me too, sir"

Tut tut, BBC. Heard on the R4 news:

'The Taliban have refuted the claims [that one of their leaders has been killed].'

I think not. *Denied*, perhaps.

Now that I am probably stuck here for the rest of my born days, I've retrieved books from the loft. I seem to have 14 English language dictionaries, 18 other languages, 20 specialist dictionariesand 5 slang dictionaries. I've been amusing myself re-reading Ross' British - American dictionary which I had misplaced for 20 years. (Yes of course I read dictionaries, don't you?)
I thereupon got to musing on "mugs".Despite the extensive library, I can't find a derivation.
a) drinking vessel with handle
b) face or mouth
C) someone who is easily fooled

1) to attack and rob someone (found in 17th century)
mug up = to study
Possible etymologies with connections between the meanings would be appreciated

The Online Etymology Dictionary suggests that the "face" meaning comes from drinking vessels with grotesque faces on them, and the "attack" meaning originally meant to strike in the face.

I'm not convinced.

The Oxford English Dictionary says that 'mug', in the sense of face, probably does come from the representation of faces on mugs. It also gives 'mug' a fourth meaning - a hoodlum or thug. Somebody who was mugged had been assaulted by a mug, in this fourth sense.

The OED doesn't give an origin for 'mug' in the sense of learning or studying, it just says that this sense dates from the 19th century and is British slang.

So where did it come from in the sense of drinking vessel?
I don't think I believe the face bit either. I think it's a case of one dictionary copying another.Hardly any publisher starts from scratch.

...and as to "to attack and rob someone" - some British/Indian connection here? Muggers are crocodiles, ambushing is their hunting strategy.

The 'ugly mug' tradition does draw some of the meanings together: mugs were made with ugly faces, so a dim-witted person, or an ugly threatening person became a mug, and what the latter did became mugging. SOED gives meanings 'mug: an examination; one who mugs or reads hard 1888. They have in their infinite bathroom no reference to mugging as highway robbery; the only 'mugger' they mention is the broad-nosed crocodile of India.