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More about hugger-mugger
The noun hugger-mugger, 鈥渄isorder or confusion; secrecy; reticence,鈥� has the earlier spellings hucker-mucker, hukermoker, hoker moker, hocker-mocker, hugger mucker, and the Scots variants huggrie-muggrie and hudge-mudge. All of these variant forms share reduplication, similar sounds, and nearly identical meanings, but there is no secure origin or origins for them. The word or element mucker leads some scholars to see a connection with Middle English moker 鈥渨orldly possessions, wealth鈥� and mokeren, mokren 鈥渢o heap up (money); hoard.鈥� Hugger-mugger entered English in the first half of the 16th century.
how is hugger-mugger used?
Usually, Victor enjoyed hidden doors, secret passageways, and the hugger-mugger that was necessarily part of any scheme to destroy civilization.
Newsom doesn鈥檛 relish the rote functions of politics. His smile when he poses with voters is a rictus, he ducks fund-raising calls, and he lacks patience for the backroom hugger-mugger required to pass legislation.
hugger-mugger
perorate
verb (used without object)
to speak at length; make a long, usually grandiloquent speech.
More about perorate
The verb perorate, 鈥渢o speak at length; make a long, grandiloquent speech,鈥� comes from Latin 辫别谤艒谤腻迟耻蝉, the past participle of 辫别谤艒谤腻谤别 鈥渢o plead, harangue, argue a case to the end; deliver the final part of a speech, wind up a case.鈥� 笔别谤艒谤腻谤别 is a compound of the preposition and intensive prefix per, per– 鈥渢hrough, thoroughly鈥� and the simple verb 艒谤腻谤别 鈥渢o beseech, supplicate; speak before a court, plead.鈥� 笔别谤艒谤腻谤别 and its derivative noun 辫别谤艒谤腻迟颈艒 (inflectional stem 辫别谤艒谤腻迟颈艒n– 鈥減eroration鈥�) in Latin imply grandiloquence and forcefulness, but not length, let alone long-windedness, which is a connotation that has always existed in English. Perorate entered English in the early 17th century.
how is perorate used?
And it鈥檚 simply impossible to exit a Zoom lecture gracefully. Believe me, I鈥檝e tried. After I painstakingly perorate on Plato, a virtual red-velvet curtain should fall with flourish at the designated moment and cue the applause. Instead, we mumble, 鈥渢hat鈥檚 it,鈥� and awkwardly fumble for the mouse before the screen freezes on our half-gaping mouths.
She began to perorate. Her speech went on endlessly, as was always the case when Lily Young took the floor.
perorate
More about natant
Natant, 鈥渟wimming; floating,鈥� began life in English in the mid-15th century as natand, a term in heraldry describing a swimming fish or dolphin. Natand is an Anglo-French derivative of the Latin participle natant– (the inflectional stem of 苍补迟腻苍蝉), from 苍补迟腻谤别 鈥渢o swim, float.鈥� 狈补迟腻谤别 is a frequentative verb formed from the simple verb 苍腻谤别 (a frequentative verb expresses repeated or frequent action). Latin 苍腻谤别 comes from the Proto-Indo-European root 蝉苍腻– (with several variants) 鈥渢o swim, float.鈥� The root appears in Sanskrit 蝉苍腻虂ti 鈥�(he) bathes (himself)鈥� and Greek 苍别卯苍, 苍岣梒丑别颈苍, 苍腻虂肠丑别颈苍 鈥渢o swim.鈥� Irish writer Brian O鈥橬olan (1911-66), whose pen name was Flann O鈥橞rien, wrote a comic masterpiece entitled At Swim-Two-Birds (1939). This title is a literal English translation of Irish 厂苍谩尘丑 D谩 脡an, the name of a ford on the River Shannon. 厂苍谩尘丑 鈥渟wim, swimming鈥� comes from the same Proto-Indo-European root 蝉苍腻– as the Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin words.
how is natant used?
It is said that theirs is a floating metropolis … The solemn ritual of extreme unction is performed by wet-suited priests on natant, paddle-powered funeral parlors wafting placidly along the Eel.
In the lamp glass coconut oil, because it was of the unrefined type, rested golden-hued on water, a natant disc.
natant