Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Wondrous Words Wednesday 18

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Kathy at the Bermuda Onion where you "can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. Feel free to get creative!
Random words from The Irish Game by Matthew Hart just for fun ... 

There is scarcely a village in the republic that does not have its neat, white-painted Garda post with the blue light burning on the outside wall. 
 An Garda Síochána
The name of the national police service of Ireland - it literally translates as Guardian of Peace. More commonly referred to as the Gardaí ("Guardians").

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The hills were yellow with furze

Furze
another term for gorse. (well that is helpful!)
Origin: Old English fyrs, of unknown origin.

Gorse
A yellow-flowered shrub of the pea family, the leaves of which are modified to form spines, native to western Europe and North Africa. Origin: Old English gors, gorst, from an Indo-European root meaning 'rough, prickly', shared by German Gerste and Latin hordeum 'barley'.

Ulex (gorse, furze or whin) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae.

Okay - enough of that ... we need pictures !


I always knew that gorse was a thorny bush, but I had no idea about the yellow flowers. Wow!

This is gorse, sans flowers ...

 Ouch !!!

"At once dreamlike and real, elliptical and quotidian," one critic wrote, "Vermeer's luminous canvases freeze and magnify time ..." 

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 quotidian
\kwō-ˈti-dē-ən\
1: ordinary or very common
2: done each day
Origin:  Middle English via Old French from Latin quotidianus, earlier cotidianus, from cotidie 'daily'.

In which case it is really the world elliptical that isn't making sense here ... 

So ... in terms of verbiage (rather than shape or possession of ellipsis ...)
3. (of speech, literary style, etc)
  1. very condensed or concise, often so as to be obscure or ambiguous 
  2. circumlocutory or long-winded 
So I assume that the critic is calling the paintings both obscure and common but in elliptical language.


Well,  given the complex symbology of Vermeer's paintings, all hidden in views of ordinary activities, that makes sense - but what a pompous way to put it !

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This time he was sentenced to two years in St. Conleth's reformatory in Daingean, County Offaly, an institution staffed by priests and brothers of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. 


Oblates
From Wikipedia:
Oblates are individuals, either laypersons or clergy, normally living in general society, who, while not professed monks or nuns, have individually affiliated themselves with a monastic community of their choice. They make a formal, private promise (annually renewable or for life, depending on the monastery with which they are affiliated) to follow the Rule of the Order in their private life as closely as their individual circumstances and prior commitments permit.

"Oblate" is also used in the official name of some religious institutes as an indication of their sense of dedication.

Oh, dear. I also realize that the St. Conleth Reformatory School was not a good place to be - worse than I realised (I will simply say child abuse and scandal - if you want to know you can look it up.) Now I have some sympathy for Martin Cahill (aka The General), but not that much - he was a truly awful person.

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I will close with a photo of Russborough House - aka the scene of the crime (twice!) - just because it is much nicer to think about then that last word.


1 comment:

  1. We have an Irish friend so I knew Garda and I remembered quotidian from my French. There's a restaurant chain named Le Pain Quotidian here in the US. The rest of your words are new to me!

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