surei: (yawn)
"Quhone I awoyk, my dreme it wes so nyce, Fra everie wicht I hid it as a vyce."
    - William Dunbar, Poems 1500-20 (see OED defn. "nice")

Which I believe can be modernized as, "When I awoke, my dream it was so nice* / From everyone I hid it as a vice."

The history of the word 'nice' is very interesting. But still. Quhone. Oh, English, how thy spellings have changed.

-----
* Nice in this case means, 'strange, extraordinary'

mugger!

Jun. 18th, 2007 08:34 pm
surei: (yawn)
It was... Kaze, I think... *rummages around* Wait no Aha, yes it was! Only on her writing journal.

Anyway, Kaze has this awesome icon, only she apparently doesn't know who made it, and I didn't want to just take it, so I thought I'd make my own. Which meant tracking down the quote. Which was difficult, because it's constantly misquoted and misattributed all over the place, and was originally stated in an online message board in 1990, anyway. Not, you know, in a 50s English textbook or something.

So at some point I'm going to make an icon with this quote, but for now, I just want to have reference to it:

    "The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that
    English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow
    words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways
    to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."
    --James D. Nicoll
surei: (static)
Aaagh, I have forgotten SO MANY KANJI it's scary. Two weeks from yesterday I go back (although there's another two weeks until classes start) and I just go 'buh' at far too many of these. Not good.

Beside that, I'm mixing up my letters. On the keyboard, I mean. I shouldn't be in a position to say "nog tood" or "to way" or even "to sway," which last typed just now when trying to type what I did just before then - "beofore them" too. Blah.

But I have pretty art on my desktop.

Return to School Stress Post #1 complete.

"copmplert"

Eeeg.
surei: (you too)
---------------------------------------------
Terrorist, n.
    1. As a political term: Any one who attempts to further his views by a system of coercive intimidation.
    (In early use also applied spec. to members of one of the extreme revolutionary societies in Russia. The term now usually refers to a member of a clandestine or expatriate organization aiming to coerce an established government by acts of violence against it or its subjects.)
    2. Dyslogistically: One who entertains, professes, or tries to awaken or spread a feeling of terror or alarm; an alarmist, a scaremonger.
                                                                                    OED
---------------------------------------------

Y'know, if these people were smart, they might have waited until interest in "the war on terrorism" petered out and the people pushing it got out of office and nobody was looking at them any more, and then tried to do something. Instead they have to blow people up in London. London!

The two terrorist organizations I know the most about - IRA and ELF - mainly focus on damaging property in order to make their point. In fact, the ELF takes great pride in not harming any living thing (by their definition, of course, which means people and animals). One blows up parts of buildings, the other writes messages in acid and tries to destroy research in genetic alterations.

Now, I'm not against killing. Where there are carnivores, and omnivores, and threats to life, there will be killing. But it's one thing to kill an animal (humans included) and then do something with the body, to put it to use. It's one thing to kill an animal in self defence, or in protection of young, or to prevent the spread of a disease, or to stop a crime. It's something entirely different to kill something in cold blood and leave it there to rot.

It just strikes me as stupid.
surei: (smirk)
I found this place, lost it, and found it again, and now I'm not going to let go.

Right. Homework.

And yes, I have spoken London English before, and it's not the same as Posh whatsoever. So nah.
surei: (cabbage)
So I was reading a book and I came across the words "Turnham Green" came up. And I'm like Yay! Turnham Green!

Doesn't mean much to anyone, I know, but it was the name of the tube stop near our first house in England. It shows up less often than Oldenborg, but elicits about the same response from me.

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