Word of the Day. Post it Here

Michael 345 said:
How would you be being cleaved?

Cleave can be cling close to
OR
Split apart

The person was cleaved to the attacker as the attacker was trying to cleave him apart with a cleaver

shudder

:)
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Ewww! But, interesting that is where the word “cleaver” comes from, and why meat butchers often use them. I don’t personally own a cleaver.
 
Sarkus said:
Hundreds of words, I'd have thought, with the one that sticks in my mind being assassin, coming from the Arabic hashish - yes, cannabis. Whodathunkit! :)
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Hashish just means "grass" in Arabic. I remember the sheikh coming to visit our new blending plant in Riyadh, pointing to a patch by the admin block and saying "Fiy hashish."

But no doubt also means grass in the euphemistic sense too.;)
 
geordief said:
I learned , from being taught Chaucer in school that a "wight" was just an old English word for a "man" but I see it took on a few other meanings in the meantime .
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So does that mean the Isle of Wight and the Isle of Man have the same meaning?
 
exchemist said:
So does that mean the Isle of Wight and the Isle of Man have the same meaning?
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Don't think so:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man

"The Old Irish form of the name is Manau or Mano. Old Welsh records named it as Manaw, also reflected in Manaw Gododdin, the name for an ancient district in north Britain along the lower Firth of Forth.[22] The oldest known reference to the island calls it Mona, in Latin (Julius Caesar, 54 BC); in the 1st century AD, Pliny the Elder records it as Monapia or Monabia, and Ptolemy (2nd century) as Monœda (Mοναοιδα, Monaoida) or Mοναρινα (Monarina), in Koine Greek. Later Latin references have Mevania or Mænavia (Orosius, 416),[23] and Eubonia or Eumonia by Irish writers. It is found in the Sagas of Icelanders as Mön.[24]"

In Ireland ,the Bord na Mona is the semi state board overseeing the Peat Industry but that is probably a linguistic coincidence and I doubt that the IoM was renowned for its peat resources at any time.

Think I may have heard that the Isle of Wight does refer to Man but have no idea why
 
sideshowbob said:
So a meat cleaver could also be called an uncleaver.
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I'm guessing if a cleaver chopped something in half it would NOT be uncleaver in the situation since what it cut apart was a single unit ie not two unit cleaved together

Chop two units apart, sure you have just used a uncleaver

:)
 
Michael 345 said:
I'm guessing if a cleaver chopped something in half it would NOT be uncleaver in the situation since what it cut apart was a single unit ie not two unit cleaved together

Chop two units apart, sure you have just used a uncleaver

:)
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If a butcher split a cow's cloven hoof it would be an unclovener.

Or if they split two hooves that were tied together (unless they just used a knife)
 
geordief said:
If a butcher split a cow's cloven hoof it would be an unclovener.

Or if they split two hooves that were tied together (unless they just used a knife)
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Looked it up

Cloven hoof is (middle) two toes which have grown to be the main supporting digits of the animal

The two have not become one ie one has not withered away while the other gained (but they have fused (or cloven together). The space between the two claws is called the interdigital cleft

The outer digits have withered away but not totally disappeared

From Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clo... hoof, cleft hoof,, gazelles, goats and sheep.

:)
 
Cleave also means to stick, bind together, adhere to, stay very close.

He was cleaving to her, for they were now one, and nothing could tear them apart.

** ~~ Cue dramatic music ~~**
 
Michael 345 said:
Cloven hoof is (middle) two toes which have grown to be the main supporting digits of the animal
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I was just thinking about that the other day. (I have a rich, full life, don't I?) A so-called "cloven hoof" isn't cut apart; it's stuck together. Now that we know the other meaning of "cleave", it makes sense.
 
Certainly sounds like it would be correct reasoning

It's currently 01:30 Friday 21 Oct and my hospital provided wake up phone call will happen about 08:30. I should be able to manage some sleep before then

So I took the opportunity to look up the origin of the word

Mrs Wikipedia gives

The word derives from Old English mid, "with", and wif, "woman", and thus originally meant "with-woman", that is, the person who is with the woman (mother) at childbirth.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid...derives from Old,woman (mother) at childbirth.

I found out there is no male version of the word, but since the meaning is the person who is with the woman (mother) at childbirth how could there be?

I was very content to be called Midwife when I graduated

:)
 
Michael 345 said:
Certainly sounds like it would be correct reasoning

It's currently 01:30 Friday 21 Oct and my hospital provided wake up phone call will happen about 08:30. I should be able to manage some sleep before then

So I took the opportunity to look up the origin of the word

Mrs Wikipedia gives

The word derives from Old English mid, "with", and wif, "woman", and thus originally meant "with-woman", that is, the person who is with the woman (mother) at childbirth.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwife#:~:text=The word derives from Old,woman (mother) at childbirth.

I found out there is no male version of the word, but since the meaning is the person who is with the woman (mother) at childbirth how could there be?

I was very content to be called Midwife when I graduated

:)
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Remember when I worked in Scotland...the women were familiarly called "wifeys"
 
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