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.