Word of the day strikes back

[macliam]

Word of the day from Susie Dent today:

Word of the day is 'growlery' (1853, from Charles Dickens): a place you retreat to for the purposes of growling, muttering, and letting off steam.

https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1 ... mEmDXfBbmw

Hmmmm.... dubious. In Ireland, "growler" has a very different meaning.... so a growlery was "where they sell broth", as the old joke goes.

[Sarah]

Dickens used it in Bleak House, apparently.

[macliam]

I think there'd be a lot or red faces in Dublin for that one!

[Sarah]

Word of the day from Susie Dent today:

Word of the day is 'vertumnal' (17th century): spring-like or giving a foretaste of spring, as in the early buds in the garden or the swelling of birdsong. A nod to Vertumnus, god of the changing seasons.

https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1 ... 13024?s=20

[macliam]

I thought it might me "Anchor", given the Matt Hancock revelations.

The obvious definition being "A descriptor uttered by someone who cannot pronounce W's"

PS - with reference to Vertumnus, it's worth achecking on the real story of "St." Brigid and Imbolc, the Irish marker for the start of Spring. Suffice it to say, calling her a saint is a stretch.......

[Sarah]

[macliam]

In other languages there's a friction between whether you count the days or the nights in a fortnight - and how many - so it can make quite a difference.

in German it's just 14 days, but in Welsh "pythefnos", means 15 nights, so a whole night longer than in English and a day and a night longer than the German.

In Portuguese, Spanish and French it's definitely 15 days, but "Coicís", the modern Irish, just means "15" with no further clue. In Munster Gaelic I learned it as "coighcíos" which is truer to the translation, but is pronounced much the same - we just like lots of redundant letters!

So are Gemans in Wales confused?

[Sarah]

That seems odd. What kind of events follow a 15 day schedule, occurring on a different day of the week each time?

[blythburgh]

That seems odd. What kind of events follow a 15 day schedule, occurring on a different day of the week each time?

15 does not seem right to me, either

[Sarah]

Susie Dent writes today:

My regular reminder that to be ‘thunderplumped’ is to be soaked to the skin in seconds by a heavy downpour.

https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1 ... 41408?s=20