note i am aware that the europeans have at least sometimes behaved quite abominably toward the native americans and i mean no disrespect toward the latter by the use of the titular phrase whose origins are apparently in a fundamental misunderstanding between the two very different cultures. pharaoh avram and sarai we recently read ......
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thanks to a comment from aldiboronti in this wordorigins thread i learned an interesting fact the word truce is essentially just the plural of true . as the oed puts itme. trewe and triewe mostly in pl. form trewes and triewes oe. trow n. masc. fem. pl. trwa truth or fidelity to a promise good faith assurance of faith or truth promise engagement cov......
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c2008 underhill lounge all rights reserved green room cocktail 13 brandy. 34 oz cerbois vsop armangac 23 french vermouth. 1 12 oz dolin dry vermouth 2 dashes curacao. 23 barspoon senior curacao of curacao shake stir please well and strain into cocktail glass. orange twist. this cocktail a great favourite wit......
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signing of the united nations charter in san francisco on jun 26 1945 on october 24 1945 the united nations officially came into existence when its charter was ratified by the five permanent members of the security council france republic of china soviet union united kingdom and united states and a majority of other 46 member countries. to......
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that sarah palin sounds exactly like a buffy summers from lake wobegone ......
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...an old wheeze making fun of people who couldnt spell but it seems it was started by an english politician who actually couldnt spell or at least wasnt thinking about spelling when he said it in this wordorigins.org thread about the expressi......
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...canism i was unfamiliar withkeep v . 38. b. of a school to be held. u.s. 1845 knickerbocker xxvi. 277 one afternoon when school didnt keep some one got into the house. 1867 ......
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everyone knows about anne boleyn one of henry viiis unfortunate wives and the more persnickety among us know that her surname is properly pronounced bullen but i did not know until today that it is from the name of the french city boulogne. as the surname database puts itboulogne has long been a major trading port between england and france and has supplied many of its citizens to......
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...ikipedia article says the citroen family moved to paris from amsterdam in 1873 five years before andrs birth. upon arrival the diaeresis was added to the name changing citroen to citron ......
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onion radio news . no more will english rules follow wordorigins via.......
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todays podictionary word brought to you by gotomeeting. try it free for 30 days by following the link www.gotome eting.com podcast in the summer of 1569 some fishermen caught a strange creature in the english channel.a it was brought to london and butchered and sold as would be any other fish. except that this one was approximately 17 feet long and looked pretty weird. so its skin w......
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this week lets have some fun with polka dots . a a a you should never wear a red shirt with black polka dots because your friends will call you a lady bug. stefanie age 8 polka dot miscellany the origin of the polka dot more info here polka dot trend watch on designsponge polka dots on flickr juju loves polka dots anyone remembe......
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in the common words we use every day souls of past races the thoughts and feelings of individual men stand around us not dead but frozen into their attitudes like the couriers in the garden of the sleeping beauty. owen barfield author 18981997 every word has its beginning a first time it was uttered either as a new idea or as a replacement for an older ......
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prolog my research into the caste system is taking longer than planned. it may take another week or two before my history series resumes. meanwhile i thought i will write on some lighter topics. phrase origins i have always been interested in phrase origins because most often there is a very interesting story behind these phrases. in the past we have covered to fight like kilkenny c......
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a couple weeks ago i noted hillary clinton was apparently giving all her speeches in the form of sports cliches. well it looks like crash davis continues to write her speeches sen. hillary clinton is still giving her indiana victory speech and her campaign is out with its spin. tonight weve broken the tie weve come from behind and thanks to you its full sp......
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loath as i am to disagree with john scalzi i must note a difference of opinion with regard to the word alri ght which john proclaims is not even a word. and he thinks its ugly. whether it is ugly is a matter of taste and i shant argue that. whether it is a word though ... well its definitely a word since it has boundaries and is used to convey meaning ......
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i blog in english and it behooves me to get it write okay at least once in a while. the challenges i face as a writer are not just generating ideas but finding the write way to convey those ideas. i frequently need to check the spelling or definition of words i come up with in my head that look odd when i write them. i have a lot of spelling police monitoring my blog content so while i occa......
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george carlin is one of my favorite comedians. his comedy is a nice combination of insight and laughs. many are not aware that carlin filthy words routine listen embedded video above was central in the us supreme court decision to rule that the government has the right to regulate what appears on the public airwaves.ain honor of george carlin i dedicate this weeks thursdays thirt......
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hey guys when answering questions its obviously important to get the facts straight. but sometimes thats easier said than done. this is the internet after all. for every reputable source there must be ten weirdos who claim the moon is made of cheese. so how do you separate the good sites from the nonsense its an ongoing struggle for yours truly but ive learne......
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hey guys the giants victory over the patriots left me scratching my head though not for the usual reasons. see i wasnt wondering how new york pulled it off. i wanted to learn why folks refer to an unexpected win as an ups et how did the term get started i had no idea so i asked the answers community for help. thankfully users responded with a variety of theori......
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i like to watch language change. it is evolution in action though certainly not the type that darwin was talking about. one term in particular has always caught my eye and that is attorney general. i know from all those years in law school that the correct plural of this is attorneys general but a lot of people including other lawyers say attorney generalsq......
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