Word of the Day
belly-wash
noun
any barely drinkable liquid or beverage, as inferior soda, beer, coffee, or soup.
More about belly-wash
Belly-wash is an obvious slang term with several meanings: a barely drinkable liquid (such as soup) or beverage (alcoholic or nonalcoholic); it also means nonsense, rather like hogwash. Belly-wash, an Americanism, entered English in the second half of the 19th century.
how is belly-wash used?
Mr. Nevins, the head of Great Waters of France, which is running the campaign to make America fizz with Perrier, made the company’s objective even clearer … to capture part of the $10 billion a year Americans spend on what used to be called bellywash.
He drinks Bordeaux claret and hock. Bellywash, I call it, bellywash.
belly-wash
cause 肠茅濒猫产谤别
noun
any controversy that attracts great public attention.
More about cause 肠茅濒猫产谤别
Cause 肠茅濒猫产谤别 is a French phrase still unnaturalized in English, meaning 鈥渇amous (legal) case.鈥� French cause comes from Latin causa 鈥渓egal proceedings, trial鈥�; 肠茅濒猫产谤别 comes from Latin celeber (inflectional stem celebr-) 鈥渃rowded, busy, well-attended, famous.鈥� Causes 肠茅濒猫产谤别s in the U.S. include the Scopes Trial, maybe more commonly known as the Monkey Trial (1925) about the teaching of evolution, and the O.J. Simpson Trial (1994鈥�95). The term is also used more broadly to refer to any controversy that attracts great public attention. Cause 肠茅濒猫产谤别 entered English in the second half of the 18th century.
how is cause 肠茅濒猫产谤别 used?
The case eventually became a global cause 肠茅濒猫产谤别; Bob Dylan wrote a song about it, Denzel Washington starred in a movie about it.
Krajnc鈥檚 case became a cause celebre among animal protection activists, some of whom have established groups modeled on Toronto Pig Save, and attracted the support of celebrities including the singer Moby, who聽offered financial support.
cause 肠茅濒猫产谤别
macaronic
adjective
composed of a mixture of languages.
More about macaronic
Macaronic originally meaning 鈥渃omposed in a mixture of Latin and vernacular languages, or using vernacular words with Latin inflectional endings, typically for burlesque or parody鈥� is not much used nowadays with Latin composition on its way out. But macaronic also includes any combination of languages, such as the John Lennon and Paul McCartney song Michelle (1965) written in a combination of English and French. Macaronic comes from Middle French macaronique and New Latin 尘补肠补谤艒苍颈肠耻蝉. The French and Latin adjectives come from Southern dialectal Italian maccaroni (Italian maccheroni) 鈥渄umplings, gnocchi,鈥� the source of English macaroni. The original Italian dish was a mixture of pasta, butter, and cheese (pretty close to our macaroni and cheese), and it was originally regarded as coarse food only for peasants. The meaning of macaronic comes from the association of this peasant food with the vernacular language of peasants. Macaronic entered English in the first half of the 17th century.
how is macaronic used?
Perhaps the world鈥檚 most difficult 鈥渘ovel,鈥� James Joyce鈥檚 “Finnegans Wake,” is almost entirely constructed of multilayered puns, often macaronic puns, which draw on two or more languages. A simple example would be calling an elegant frankfurter a 鈥渉aute dog.鈥�
Indeed, linguistic change鈥攖he amazing porousness of English to influence, its macaronic glory鈥攊s exactly what gave us all these interesting words in the first place …
macaronic