Vaccimulgence
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The milking of cows.
derived from Latin "vacca", a cow (which
is also the origin of "vaccine", because the first was derived by
Dr Jenner from cowpox to guard against the much more serious
smallpox). The ending is from the Latin verb "emulgere", to milk
out, which ... as well as being the ultimate origin of "emulsion" ....
is the root of another very rare word, "emulgence", the action of
milking out, as for example in extracting money from the unwilling.
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Dr Gridlock column in the Washington
Post on Thursday, March 24. Dr. Gridlock advised "changing the oil
every 3,000 to 6,000 miles, whichever comes first."
A sentence in a report in last week's Sunday Times on unruly pupils
troubled Diana Platts: "Teachers report being punched, kicked,
splattered with eggs and spat on in the study by the Association of
Teachers and Lecturers". Not a good example to set the kids.
A headline in the Halifax Daily News, in Canada, dated 27 March:
"Jen and Brad Split Official". Scott Milsom comments, "One wonders
how the official's family are to be consoled."
Mick Loosemore read a headline on CBC's online news site:
SUSPECT
FOUND DEAD, DENIES GUILT. He comments, "Just to confirm that, in
Canada, investigators don't use any esoteric tools, the story
summary continues thus: 'The prime suspect in a high-profile murder
in Winnipeg more than 20 years ago has left a suicide note denying
that he ever killed anyone'."
Harry Westendorp found a sentence in The Age (Melbourne, Australia)
on March 22 that he feels ought to be communicated to Her Majesty
so that she can prepare herself for her imminent demise: "Parker
Bowles is to marry Prince Charles, who will take the throne once
his mother Queen Elizabeth dies, on April 8, and will initially be
titled Duchess of Cornwall, becoming Princess Consort when Charles
is king."
While perusing his local paper, The Record of Sherbrooke, Quebec,
on 18 March, Stephen Black discovered that the list of bestselling
non-fiction books included Eat's, Shoots & Leaves. This suggested,
as he says, "
that there is at least one person who really, really
needs to read that book."
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"
gorp" = "good old raisins and peanuts" ?
This is a common term in the US for a type of high-energy snack,
especially one containing raisins and nuts, plus
chocolate. American hikers also know it as "trail mix". The first
example in the Oxford English Dictionary dates from 1972.
It's said that it comes from the acronym, but that's
certainly spurious. It's just a well-meaning attempt to explain a
word about whose origins the experts tend to shake their heads
sadly.
Some dictionaries point rather uneasily to some appearances of the
word as a verb from earlier in the twentieth century. In 1904, the
publication Dialect Notes noted that "to gorp" was to eat greedily;
this is backed up by other references recorded in the Dictionary of
American Regional English. A possible link is obvious enough,
though a direct connection isn't recorded and etymologists have to
be cautious.
In turn, that word may one form of an older English verb variously
spelled as "gaup", "gawp", "gorp", "gowp", "gawk", or "gauk". One
basic meaning is to stare in a stupid or rude manner. But an
earlier sense was of staring open-mouthed in witless astonishment.
This seems to have led to "gawp up", meaning to devour (presumably
from the open-mouthed bit of the meaning)...the word appears in the Appleton Post Crescent of Wisconsin
in 1962 in an article that suggests an acronymic origin and a
completely different meaning: "'
Gorp' is taken by all campers and
canoers. (Named for the flavors grape, orange, raspberry and
pineapple, 'gorp' becomes a tasty thirst-quencher when mixed with
cool water.)" It sounds as though the writer confused the foodstuff
with a fruit-flavoured powder such as Kool-Aid, and thereby created
another version of the folk etymology, but who knows?