«张韦建演的韦小宝中他长说的那句话是什么?»
凉风有性，秋月无边，亏我思娇的情绪好比度日如年，虽说我不是玉树临风、潇洒倜傥，但我有广大的胸襟加强劲的臂弯
- 潇洒 = chic.
- 倜傥 (ti4 tang3) = suave.
亏=虧,傥=儻
韋小寶. Quote:
韋小寶是金庸小說《鹿鼎記》的主角，是一個虛構人物。
韋小寶的母親韋春花是一揚州妓院「麗春院」的妓女，韋小寶自小在妓院中長大，為人好賭、好色，罵人、騙人、賭錢作弊更是家常便飯，卻又有江湖义气。
韋小寶並不識字，但愛聽說書，受說書故事中英雄人物影響，個性頗有義氣。
韋小寶生財有方。賭錢作弊手段高明，在皇宮生涯初期即以作弊手段贏了賭友太監溫有道溫有方兄弟等不少銀子。在奉旨抄鳌拜家時與索額圖協議私吞鰲拜部份家產而發了大財……
韋小寶曾拜陳近南（即历史上的陈永华）和九難師太(小说记载为明朝崇祯皇帝的次女)為師。
他也曾向不少高手如海大富、洪安通、澄觀等學過武功，但因個性懶惰而只學得一鱗半爪。唯獨跟九難師太學的「神行百變」卻學得不錯。
韋小寶有七個妻子，兩個兒子和一個女兒，妻子分別為建寧公主、 雙兒、沐劍屏、曾柔、方怡、蘇荃、阿珂，子女分别为长女韋雙雙、長子韋虎頭和次子韋銅錘（因擲骰子擲到一和六，名為 “銅錘一六”，故取名為 “韋銅錘”）姐弟。
前幾個版本中，七個妻子本來無分大小，但阿珂是他眾多妻子中最美和最愛的一個。然而在新修版中，康熙下旨把建寧公主配為韋小寶正妻，惟韋小寶心中思量最愛者為雙兒。
Humorous Chinese for “thumb up” “thumb down”
Found this on a Chinese blog site, so funny.
On many English websites, you have a thumb up icon and thumb down icon. On this Chinese site, it has 2 characters instead: {顶, 踩}.
- The char 顶 (ding3 ) means {“carry on the head”, stand up, top}. For example, when a athlete won a competition, the fans carry the champion on their raised hands.
- The char 踩 (cai3) means “stomp”.
So, the English version would be: {support it, stomp it}.
did you know the words {gah, gawd, golly, gee}, are all euphemisms derived from {god, jesus}?
Chinese; Computer Programer Humor: Data Center Exploded
2012-01-27 @Jasey_Wang tweets:
昨晚做梦，梦到收到了紧急报警短信，好多台服务器的 load 全部飙起来，但是身边没电脑，公司的人全部在山村休假，然后整个 IDC 起火炸掉了。。。
- IDC = Internet Data Center; server room.
- 飙起 = raise up.
Translation: «last night i had a dream: got a emergency message, many servers are overloaded, but i don't have a terminal at hand, and all other sys admins are vacationing in countryside, then, the data center went up in flames and exploded …»
Thanks to Aenon SUN (孙锡麟) for help.
Idiom Etymology: Flogging a dead horse
Flogging a dead horse (alternatively beating a dead horse in some parts of the Anglophone world) is an idiom that means a particular request or line of conversation is already foreclosed or otherwise resolved, and any attempt to continue it is futile; or that to continue in any endeavour (physical, mental, etc.) is a waste of time as the outcome is already decided.
The first recorded use of the expression with its modern meaning is by British politician and orator John Bright, referring to the Reform Act of 1867, which called for more democratic representation in Parliament, an issue about which Parliament was singularly apathetic. Trying to rouse Parliament from its apathy on the issue, he said in a speech, would be like trying to flog a dead horse to make it pull a load. The Oxford English Dictionary cites The Globe, 1872, as the earliest verifiable use of flogging a dead horse, where someone is said to have “rehearsed that […] lively operation known as flogging a dead horse”.[1]
A similar expression is “To slay the slain”. Here's a poem:
To twice slay the slain,
By dint of the Brain,
Is but labour in vain,
Unproductive of gain,
And so I shall bid you “Adieu”!
— Thomas Henry Huxley, “Monkeyana” from Punch (magazine), May 1861
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English Humor: Doxies for Sell
this happened yesterday.
i saw this retweet from @aigeanta (+Suzanne Aldrich):
@TennesseeZombie Terry Lane
A bonded pair of female dachshunds are at Unicoi County Animal Shelter. If someone in TN loves doxies, two pets are waiting.
then i replied:
@aigeanta “A bonded pair of female dachshunds” for a moment i read “pair of blonde female… as pets…”. ☺
then she said:
@xah_lee heh. you're reading what you want to see.
LOL. But actually, i can't help it. It says “doxies”, which is a slang for mistress or slut. Actually, i just looked up dictionaries, i don't see any definition for that word to be related to dog?
Today's #Wordy #English: “we have gone to hell in a handbag.”
as in «When we started here, we were easily drawn to each other, or repelled by each other, quite effortlessly and instantaneously. Those days are gone. In fact, I am starting to rethink the people I did not initially embrace. Because we have already gone to hell in a handbag.»
from a post by @miriam dunn @ Source plus.google.com
The phrase means “a situation headed for disaster without effort or in great haste.” (from Wikipedia To hell in a handbasket)
LOL. Wikipedia's intro section on Voting system is going berserk with lingoes. Witness:
A voting system or electoral system is a method by which voters make a choice between options, often in an election or on a policy referendum.
A voting system contains rules for valid voting, and how votes are counted and aggregated to yield a final result. Since voting involves counting, it is algorithmic in nature, and, since it involves polling the sentiments of a person, this represents affective data. Together, with the exception of proxy voting, this corresponds to in-degree centrality in graph theory and social network analysis, with votes as directed edges, and voters and candidates as nodes. Common voting systems are majority rule, proportional representation or plurality voting with a number of variations and methods such as first-past-the-post or preferential voting. The study of formally defined voting systems is called voting theory, a subfield of political science, economics, or mathematics.
now, i doubt most college students will understand this intro section fully.
Well, it'll take some 30 min to sort all this out, but you can first quickly check out the etymology of: berserk — A raging bear-skin wearing warrior!
Remember, you don't know the word unless: when you see a word, without any context, you can give its definition that roughly matches a dictionary's.
You should have a online dictionary extension installed in browser, so that clicking the word should show its definition. See: Online English Dictionary Tools.
If you like this project, please tell your friends!
You can also get all 5 thousand words with usage examples for just $6. See: Wordy English — the Making of Belles-Lettres.
Thank you for reading! Xah Lee.
人興则张，人寒则闭。
English: when prosperous, you celebrate and make noises. When not doing well, you keep to yourself.
〈The History of English in 10 Minutes, Chapter 2: The Norman Conquest〉, annotated, at The History of English in 10 Minutes
〈The History of English in 10 Minutes〉 Annotated
In the following days, each day i'll annotate a chapter of a education video called The History of English in 10 Minutes. Each video is about 1 minute, but are packed with info.
Do you know exactly where Anglo or Saxo were? Do you know what are the gods referred to in the names of weekday? How about the connection of martyr and scope? See the first installment: The History of English in 10 Minutes.
Do you know all the following words?
Deference soliciting disinterest meekness colloquial rub supplication fret diffidently stratagem proffering beseechment vexation coitus deciphered asserted pitch wreck perennial immemorial fixation infatuation explicable edict exigent show stopper
If not, you failed the courtship test. Read: ABBA - Take a Chance on Me; Human Courtship Analized by Alien.
English: Etymology of Blasphemy
Today's wordy english: lackadaisical.
See this song to learn the word: Anya Marina - All the Same to Me
Just learned that the Spanish word for Deep Throat is Garganta Profunda!
It's like, profound! Gargantuan Profundity!
It tells us, that the etymology of profound must have something to do with deep. And, of course, gargantuan means big, huge.
#english #porn #language
Today's wordy english: English Vocabulary: Animalistic Cries (Onomatopoeia).
English: the Etymology of Blurb
Anne Rice's Vampire and Sleeping Beauty
The History of English in 10 Minutes
From Rags to Riches: the Story of J K Rowling (Harry Potter)
A little something for those of you aspiring writers: J. K. Rowling. Quote:
Joanne “Jo” Rowling, OBE (born 31 July 1965), better known as J. K. Rowling, is the British author of the Harry Potter fantasy series. The Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, sold more than 400 million copies and been the basis for a popular series of films, in which Rowling had overall approval on the scripts as well as maintaining creative control by serving as a producer on the final instalment. Rowling conceived the idea for the series on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990.
Rowling has led a “rags to riches” life story, in which she progressed from living on welfare to multi-millionaire status within five years. As of March 2011, when its latest world billionaires list was published, Forbes estimated Rowling's net worth to be US$1 billion.
Lingustics: Old Variant Form of the Letter “s”: ſ
Discovered a old variant form of the letter “s”, called Long s. It looks like this: ſ. Quote:
The long, medial or descending s (ſ) is a form of the minuscule letter s formerly used where s occurred in the middle or at the beginning of a word, for example “ſinfulneſs” (“sinfulness”). The modern letterform was called the terminal, round, or short s.
The long s fell out of use in roman and italic typefaces well before the middle of the 19th century. In Spain the change was mainly accomplished between the years 1760 and 1766; in France, the change occurred between 1782 and 1793; in Britain and the United States, between 1795 and 1810. For example, in Spain, the multi-volume work España Sagrada made the switch with volume 16 (1762); The Times of London switched to the short s with its issue of September 10, 1803; and in the United States, acts of Congress were published with the long s throughout 1803, switching to the short s in 1804. But Britain's colony Nova Scotia's statutes used the long “s” as late as 1816.
Note that there's a Unicode for this character: ſ, LATIN SMALL LETTER LONG S, U+017F.
The long s has connection to math too, the integral sign ∫. Quote:
The long s survives in elongated form, and with an italic-style curled descender, as the integral symbol ∫ used in calculus; Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz based the character on the Latin word summa (“sum”), which he wrote ſumma. This use first appeared publicly in his paper De Geometria, published in Acta Eruditorum of June 1686, but he had been using it in private manuscripts at least since 1675.
See also: Math Symbols in Unicode.
Stephen King on Stephen Meyer (Twilight) and Jo Rowling (Harry Potter)
Stephenie Meyer, millionaire due to her Twilight vampire books, can't write. Stephen King said of her, qutoe from Wikipedia:
Comparing Meyer to J. K. Rowling, Stephen King stated, “the real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer, and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn. She's not very good.” King went on to say that “people are attracted by the stories, by the pace and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it's very clear that she's writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It's exciting and it's thrilling and it's not particularly threatening because it's not overtly sexual.” He further explains, “A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like, the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that's a shorthand for all the feelings that they're not ready to deal with yet.”
Note that Jo Rowling is the author of the Harry Potter series, a overnight billionaire.
See also: Discovering Twilight Dawn Reaction.
Movie 〈300〉 and Battle of Thermopylae
An epigram is a brief, clever, and usually memorable statement. Derived from the Greek: ἐπίγραμμα epigramma “inscription” from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein “to write on – inscribe”, this literary device has been employed for over two millennia.
The Greek tradition of epigrams began as poems inscribed on votive offerings at sanctuaries – including statues of athletes – and on funerary monuments, for example “Go tell it to the Spartans, passersby…”. These original epigrams did the same job as a short prose text might have done, but in verse. Epigram became a literary genre in the Hellenistic period, probably developing out of scholarly collections of inscriptional epigrams.
Ostentatious, Spurious, but Uranian!
Today's wordy english: spunk
Samba's New Logo
The old logo is much better designed. It has spunk. The new is boring and lame.
Chinese Simplified Character: 為→为
為→为 This is a good simplication because it's a abstract word. The traditional form makes no sense at all, especially with the misleading radical that's related to cooking.
Today's Wordy English is:
recherché
Note the word origin. So, when someone sent you a photo of a exotically beautiful woman, and you exclaimed “Wow, who is she?”, then that means she's “recherché”.
A Choker Romance
Have you heard this ghost story? The guy met a ravishingly beautiful girl, slept with her, then next day, waking up, she's not moving. When he unclasped the band-styled necklace she's wearing, her head rolled off on the floor?
Moral: never date a girl who wears a chocker.
The Adventure of the German Student by Washington Irving, 1824.
And, check out on Google Map the places where the public execution by guillotine was.
PS is there a name for the style of necklace that covers around the neck? Collar-styled necklace?
Am looking for the correct word, e.g. the term used among necklace merchants, fashion critics, or among Haute Couture community.
For this Halloween, thou shall read horror! My other favorite is: The Masque of the Red Death , by Edgar Allan Poe, 1842.
Remember to have a dictionary installed in your browser so you can lookup words freely. See: Online English Dictionary Tools.
Today's fun words and facts:
- what's the diff between rabbit vs hare
- prococial vs altricial
- cuniculture
- etymology and relations of the words coney and cunt
See: Rabbit vs Hare, Rabbit Meat Poisoning, Three-Rabits Motif, Cuniculture.
Haiku: Rapacious
I posted a word-a-day on the word Rapacious. (See: Source wordy-english.blogspot.com.)
A poet, miriam dunn, composed this haiku:
picking off the meat ~ from the bones of night long dead rapacious sunrise
Chinese Character Simplication 葉→叶
Another garbage simplication: 葉→叶
繁體简体字优劣表; Good ＆ Bad Simplified Chinese Characters
The Musical Qualities of Languages
Writing Style: Logic and Phraseme
繁體简体字优劣表; Good ＆ Bad Simplified Chinese Characters
Chinese Fonts Comparison; 中文字體比較
Epiphany In a Dream: Seat as Inverted Ass
Had a weird dream. Hard to remember the details, but the gist is that it's a epiphany about a elegant description of a idea that's a mix of linguistics and art, and was said (or written) by someone, that i need to blog about it with reference.
Here i'll try to describe what i remember. You know that human ass is padded by muscle for sitting? Seats, leather seats, are in some sense its inverse. That is, a padded surface of skin. (think of bar stool) That's the epiphany part. Then, this was mentioned somewhere, i forgot where, but described in such a elegant way that shows some linguistic elegance and the gist of the idea.
While lucid dreaming near waking, i vividly recall i need to write it down and blog about it because it's such a gem, but then i was debating whether i should, because at the time the whole thing is crystal clear, and that this idea seems well known. But then i was trying hard to go over it again, get the details, just in case. What that little effort is what made this writting now possible. Of course, in the dream, it carries quite far more significance than what little sense i described here.
Seat as inverted ass. LOL. That was the dream.
Updated: 木蘭辭 (Mulan Ballad).
李敖有话说：台湾语早晚被淘汰; Li Ao on Taiwaness Dialect
Literature: Metaphysical Conceit vs Shakespeare Sonnet 130
李敖: 才女与美女如何兼备; Li Ao: Pretty Women vs Brainy Women
Poem: The Bell Tolls for Thee; 鐘為汝鳴
How to Tell the Difference Between Chinese, Japanese, Korean?
Chinese Linguistics: 八面玲珑，典故何在?