READING UPDATE: The Dictionary, Part 6: Bovine – Carbonado

My posting schedule would have had me writing something up for Easter weekend, so I pushed it out an extra week.  As you can see, I have finished the letter B, which feels great but the letter C is quite extensive and will probably keep me tied up for about two months unless my pace picks up.  I’m not sure if that will happen, as it is NHL playoff time, so most of my evenings have been committed to watching hockey lately.

Every time I walk into our spare room, I see the two bookshelves of mine that are overflowing with interesting reads.  It’s starting to wear on me, because reading the dictionary no longer even carries the faintest bit of fun.  Sure, it’s interesting from time to time, but it’s starting to feel more like work.  This will ultimately factor into the final rating for the dictionary.  There are many books that I want to get to and at times I catch myself wanting to give up on the dictionary but I have to soldier on.  I just tell myself how glad I will be to have gotten this beast out of the way first.

As far as interesting words go, they tapered off a little bit.  Only nine struck my fancy these past three weeks.  Here they are:

BOYCOTT- Did you know this term comes from someone’s last name?  Charles C. Boycott was a cutthroat land agent in Ireland and refused to play ball with anyone who could pay their rent.  Fascinating stuff, I think.

BREAK- One hundred fourteen lines of background and definitions exist for this one word alone.  That’s over half of a page!  Considering how itty-bitty the print is in a dictionary, that’s serious stuff.  Check out the multitude of uses and meanings for this surprisingly small word.

BUDDY- I was surprised to learn how old this word is.  MW dates it to 1850.  That’s pretty cool.

BUG- Used to refer to an insect or other kinds of creepy-crawlies, the origin is unknown.  How does that happen?  Is it just the letter B or will I find that many common words are of an unknown origin?

BULLY- An archaic use of the term as a noun means ‘sweetheart’ and ‘a fine chap.’  There is also an adjective form that means ‘excellent’ or ‘first rate.’  My how words change over time!

BUS- Is it wrong that I never knew this word was short for omnibus?  Please say no.

CAJOLE- Look this one up and let me know if you hear people using this word incorrectly quite often.  I oftentimes hear it being used spurring to action or nudging, without the flattery angle.

CANUCK- Ah, the first notable C-word of unknown origin.  How can we possibly not know where this comes from?  A professional hockey team uses this as their name for crying out loud!

CAPLETS- I see where it is a hybrid between capsule and tablet; that’s pretty obvious.  I never knew that it was a trademarked term though.  Trademark applications were filed in 1936 by SmithKline Beecham, which is now GlaxoSmithKline, who makes pretty much every pharmaceutical and home product that Proctor & Gamble doesn’t.

READING UPDATE: The Dictionary, Part 5: Betel Nut – Bovid

Another two weeks, another stretch of hot-and-cold reading.  I still feel that the letter B has been much more enjoyable to read.  Maybe the words are really just more interesting and maybe it’s because there are fewer B-words than A-words, so I feel like I’m making more progress.

Nothing really worth noting aside from my interesting words.  I am closing in on hitting the 200-page mark.  That will mean I am 1/8^th of the way through.  At this point, I don’t know that that milestone will mean as much as beginning the letter C, which is fast approaching.

Notable words:

BÊTE NOIRE- Literally, it means the black or dark beast.  Literarily, it means something detested or shunned.  It’s a little on the fancy side of the spectrum, but I like it and hope to be able to use it my something I write someday.  It feels like a simple but powerful way to describe something a protagonist clashes with.

BETTA- It’s what a lot of people think are called Beta Fish but it is pronounced bet-uh, not bay-tuh.  Nice to have my ignorance erased.

BILL OF HEALTH- Interesting how we have turned something that was at once a vitally important document into a common, largely meaningless term.  It used to be a document given to a ship’s captain detailing any ailments with his crew before setting sail.  Now it means the doctor didn’t find anything overly concerning with you at a check-up.

BIMONTHLY- Oh how irritating!  It can mean both twice a month AND every two months.  Thanks a lot English language.

BIRTH CONTROL- The first documented use of the term was a century ago.  I was surprised to discover how old the term is.  Are you?

BLIGHT- Here is another widely used word with no known origin.  I don’t understand how this happens.

BLUE- Two of its many definitions are quite contradictory.  One means puritanical and another means indecent or crude.  I wonder when and where those meanings originated because it seems strange to think that the same word could stand for polar opposites.

BON TON- It means fashionable, proper, or high society.  I included this word because a regional department store headquartered in my neck of the woods is named The Bon Ton.  Despite the definition of the word, the store caters mostly toward older women.  Maybe clients of The Bon Ton think the name is still apt, but I have my doubts.

BOOSTER SHOT- This word, typically thought of as a childish thing, as more than reached maturity.  It’s first documented usage was 70 years ago.  Way to have staying power, you old codger.

BORBORYGMUS- Yet another word that proves I am a dork.  It the technical term for the rumbling sound your insides make when gas is shifted in you intestinal tract.  Is that a rumbly in my tumbly?  No, it’s a borborygmus!

BOTHER- It really bothers me that the word bother is of an unknown origin.  Bother!

BOURGEOISIE- It means the middle class, which shocked me.  I always understood it to mean the upper class, or aristocrats, who ruled back in the day.  Maybe my understanding of middle class is vastly different from the middle ages.  If not, what a scary thought of the proletariat rising up against the middle class!  Scarier yet are those who are calling for similar class revolts now.  I will have to look into this one more closely to determine to how the definition changed culturally and socioeconomically over the years.