Collect words

defalcation, metallurgical, rive, calumniate, quincuncial, caterwauling, caroming, sedulously, ichor, divagate, cachinnate

matutinal: relating to or occurring in the morning
impassive: devoid of emotion; also, showing no emotion
bouleversement: complete overthrow; a reversal
circumlocution: the use of many words to express an idea that might be expressed by few
desuetude: the state of being no longer used or practiced

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.

A dove-house fill’d with doves and pigeons
Shudders hell thro’ all its regions.
A dog starv’d at his master’s gate
Predicts the ruin of the state.

A horse misused upon the road
Calls to heaven for human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted hare
A fibre from the brain does tear.

A skylark wounded in the wing,
A cherubim does cease to sing.
The game-cock clipt and arm’d for fight
Does the rising sun affright.

Every wolf’s and lion’s howl
Raises from hell a human soul.

The wild deer, wand’ring here and there,
Keeps the human soul from care.
The lamb misus’d breeds public strife,
And yet forgives the butcher’s knife.

The bat that flits at close of eve
Has left the brain that won’t believe.
The owl that calls upon the night
Speaks the unbeliever’s fright.

He who shall hurt the little wren
Shall never be belov’d by men.
He who the ox to wrath has mov’d
Shall never be by woman lov’d.

The wanton boy that kills the fly
Shall feel the spider’s enmity.
He who torments the chafer’s sprite
Weaves a bower in endless night.

The caterpillar on the leaf
Repeats to thee thy mother’s grief.
Kill not the moth nor butterfly,
For the last judgement draweth nigh.

He who shall train the horse to war
Shall never pass the polar bar.
The beggar’s dog and widow’s cat,
Feed them and thou wilt grow fat.

The gnat that sings his summer’s song
Poison gets from slander’s tongue.
The poison of the snake and newt
Is the sweat of envy’s foot.

The poison of the honey bee
Is the artist’s jealousy.

The prince’s robes and beggar’s rags
Are toadstools on the miser’s bags.
A truth that’s told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.

It is right it should be so;
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro’ the world we safely go.

Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.

The babe is more than swaddling bands;
Every farmer understands.
Every tear from every eye
Becomes a babe in eternity;

This is caught by females bright,
And return’d to its own delight.
The bleat, the bark, bellow, and roar,
Are waves that beat on heaven’s shore.

The babe that weeps the rod beneath
Writes revenge in realms of death.
The beggar’s rags, fluttering in air,
Does to rags the heavens tear.

The soldier, arm’d with sword and gun,
Palsied strikes the summer’s sun.
The poor man’s farthing is worth more
Than all the gold on Afric’s shore.

One mite wrung from the lab’rer’s hands
Shall buy and sell the miser’s lands;
Or, if protected from on high,
Does that whole nation sell and buy.

He who mocks the infant’s faith
Shall be mock’d in age and death.
He who shall teach the child to doubt
The rotting grave shall ne’er get out.

He who respects the infant’s faith
Triumphs over hell and death.
The child’s toys and the old man’s reasons
Are the fruits of the two seasons.

The questioner, who sits so sly,
Shall never know how to reply.
He who replies to words of doubt
Doth put the light of knowledge out.

The strongest poison ever known
Came from Caesar’s laurel crown.
Nought can deform the human race
Like to the armour’s iron brace.

When gold and gems adorn the plow,
To peaceful arts shall envy bow.
A riddle, or the cricket’s cry,
Is to doubt a fit reply.

The emmet’s inch and eagle’s mile
Make lame philosophy to smile.
He who doubts from what he sees
Will ne’er believe, do what you please.

If the sun and moon should doubt,
They’d immediately go out.
To be in a passion you good may do,
But no good if a passion is in you.

The whore and gambler, by the state
Licensed, build that nation’s fate.
The harlot’s cry from street to street
Shall weave old England’s winding-sheet.

The winner’s shout, the loser’s curse,
Dance before dead England’s hearse.

Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.

Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

We are led to believe a lie
When we see not thro’ the eye,
Which was born in a night to perish in a night,
When the soul slept in beams of light.

God appears, and God is light,
To those poor souls who dwell in night;
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day.

I just heard this phrase used in an interview on the radio. I know I have heard it many times before, but it just sounded funny. Through the nose? Where does that figure of speech come from?

The google search was not fruitful. One blog seems speculative – It first appeared in English in the 17th century and may well be rooted in likening being overcharged to being punched and given a bad nosebleed. This theory is strengthened by the use of “bleed” during the same period to mean “cheat or defraud.”

And another claims – according to the History channel the term derived from the Vikings in the 9nth century, they put a tax on the Irish, the Irish paid the Vikings to not raid their towns. If they did not pay the taxes the Vikings would slit the noses as a punishment and warning.

The radio was referring to the high cost of health care… it seems fitting, and maybe a bit twisted, to relate the pain of paying high prices to the physical pain of bodily harm.

Often cited by Buckminster Fuller as a metaphor of leadership and empowerment, a trim tab is a small lever acting upon a large lever to create change out of all proportion to its size. – From the Cascadia Green Building Council newsletter.

|ˈgamət|
1 the complete range or scope of something : the whole gamut of human emotion.
2 Music a complete scale of musical notes; the compass or range of a voice or instrument.

ORIGIN late Middle English : from medieval Latin gamma ut, originally the name of the lowest note in the medieval scale (bass G an octave and a half below middle C), then applied to the whole range of notes used in medieval music. The Greek letter Γ (gamma) was used for bass G, with ut indicating that it was the first note in the lowest of the hexachords or six-note scales (see solmization ).

Thesaurus
range, spectrum, span, scope, sweep, compass, area, breadth, reach, extent, catalog, scale, variety.

For unto everyone who hath, shall be given. And he shall have abundance. But from him that hathnot, shall be taken away. Even that which he hath.

Opening to Outliers: the Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell

maritime |ˈmariˌtīm|
connected with the sea, esp. in relation to seafaring commercial or military activity
• living or found in or near the sea
• bordering on the sea
• denoting a climate that is moist and temperate owing to the influence of the sea

ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: from Latin maritimus, from mare ‘sea.’

The polar bear’s latin name is Ursus Maritimus

mare |ˈmärā| |ˈmɑreɪ| |ˈmɑri| |ˈmɑːreɪ| |-ri|
Astronomy a large, level basalt plain on the surface of the moon, appearing dark by contrast with highland areas

ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: special use of Latin mare ‘sea’ ; these areas were once thought to be seas.

nautical |ˈnôtikəl|
of or concerning sailors or navigation

ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: from French nautique, or via Latin from Greek nautikos, from nautēs ‘sailor,’ from naus ‘ship.’

oceanic |ˌō sh ēˈanik|
of or relating to the ocean
• of or inhabiting the part of the ocean beyond the edge of a continental shelf
• (of a climate) governed by the proximity of the ocean.
• figurative of enormous size or extent; huge; vast
2 ( Oceanic) of or relating to Oceania

seaboard |ˈsēˌbôrd|
a region bordering the sea; the coastline

More maritime words:
seabag – a sailor’s traveling bag or trunk.
seacock – a valve in an opening through a ship’s hull below or near the waterline (esp. one connecting a ship’s engine-cooling system to the sea).
seakeeping – the ability of a vessel to withstand rough conditions at sea.
sea dog – informal an old or experienced sailor. Also, a heraldry a mythical beast like a dog with fins, webbed feet, and a scaly tail.

|ˌetəˈmäləjē| noun ( pl. -gies)
the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history.
the origin of a word and the historical development of its meaning.

ORIGIN late Middle English : from Old French ethimologie, via Latin from Greek etumologia, from etumologos ‘student of etymology,’ from etumon, neuter singular of etumos ‘true.’

Not in every dictionary… an adjective, pronounced in-ter-stes. 15th century Middle English, from Latin interstitium, from inter- + -stit, -stes standing (as in superstes standing over).

1 a: a space that intervenes between things; especially : one between closely spaced things (interstices of a wall)
b: a gap or break in something generally continuous (the interstices of society)

2 a short space of time between events