Young pignut hickories ready to go forth and multiply.
HatTip: Bobal, aka al-bob and of recent, Bard-I-Ho
Definitions of 'bitter pignut'
1. (noun) bitternut, bitternut hickory, bitter hickory, bitter pignut, swamp hickory, Carya cordiformis
hickory of the eastern United States having a leaves with 7 or 9 leaflets and thin-shelled very bitter nuts.
Confused? You have to read the previous thread to appreciate. You should.
ReplyDeleteDon't tread on me.
ReplyDeleteI've got the Oxford English Dictionary, fully a couple thousand pages, out in the garage.
I may have to use glasses to read it, but with a little research, you won't pull off much on ol' bob.
It's got etymologies, and such, too.
For instance, I look up the simple word "work", and I see--
ReplyDelete1 2 3 4 5
work (v.)
a fusion of O.E. wyrcan (past tense worhte, pp. geworht), from P.Gmc. *wurkijanan; and O.E. wircan (Mercian) "to work, operate, function," formed relatively late from P.Gmc. noun *werkan (see work (n.)). Worker as a type of bee is recorded from 1747. Work out "do strenuous physical exercise" first recorded 1909, originally in boxing jargon. Working-class first attested 1789 (n.), 1839 (adj.). Workmanlike "efficient, no-nonsense" is recorded from 1739.
work (n.)
O.E. weorc, worc "something done, deed, action, proceeding, business, military fortification," from P.Gmc. *werkan (cf. O.S., O.Fris., Du. werk, O.N. verk, M.Du. warc, O.H.G. werah, Ger. Werk, Goth. gawaurki), from PIE base *werg- "to work" (see urge (v.)).
"Work is less boring than amusing oneself." [Baudelaire, "Mon Coeur mis a nu," 1862]
In O.E., the noun also had the sense of "fornication." Workhouse in the sense of "place where the poor or petty criminals are lodged" first appeared 1652. Works "industrial place" (usually with qualifying adj.) is attested from 1581. Work station is recorded from 1950.
And I think of how some of our concepts are deeply buried in our languages--
ReplyDeletefor instance--
duplicity--
diablo--
dual--
devil-
Mr. Two Faced--
In our lingo Badass--
which always has the connotation of "badness"--
which is a religious concept--
as we seem to be seeking--
wholeness--
a good word--
in our lingo--
unity--
oneness--
What does this mean, and where, or where, did it come from?
How has language arisen, answer me that, if you can.
And why does duplicity always seem to have a hankering after the dark side? Whereas Light is simple and pure?
Answer me that, if you can.
Where did it come from?
Where did it come from, so long ago?
I ask.
Because it seems to be coterminal with our race.
And what does it mean?
Because unless all that we have been taught is wrong, and our nature goes back much much much further than we speculate now--say 500,000 thousand years--(and it still doesn't answer the question)--where or where did these basic ideas and language come from?
ReplyDeleteAnd don't give me the 'utilitarian answer' because light and darkness, nor good and evil, just aren't utilitarian concepts.
If they were, killing a fellow human being might well be considered a boon, and darkness would become light.
But it isn't. It is not thought of that way.
So where did these concepts come from?
These concepts are not 'societal concepts'. They are basic. I think they go down even below the family.
ReplyDeleteSo, where did they come from? This light and dark?
Whence the poem of the ancient mariner?