Given the nature of this poem, I don’t think that the author would mind me posting it. This was found in the introduction to O Thou Improper, Thou Uncommon Noun by Willard R. Espy.
Enjoy:
“I bring my bona fides forth
That all the world may marvel;
For I researched my facts in North,
Who borrowed his from Carvel,Who owes his evidence to Morse,
Who filched from Connolly,
Whose source was Bevan, who of course,
Stole his research from me.”-Willard R. Espy
-Otto
Raconteur
noun
A person who is skilled at telling amusing stories.
According to my dictionary, it comes from 19th century French “raconter.”
I came across this word in my musical browsings, when I found a CD by The Raconteurs. After listening to that CD (Broken Boy Soldiers) many times, I have determined that I like the word more than the band. It just slips from the tongue, does it not? “Ra-con-teur”
Praxis
Noun
The practice of putting theory into practice.
I first encountered the word several years ago when I took the Praxis II exam for receiving my teaching license (which, by the way, I passed with flying colors). Praxis seems to have a variety of specialized meanings depending on the area to which it is applied. The overall connotation of the word, however, is that of putting some learned skill or knowledge into practice.
Thats all for Praxis. Short and sweet.
(Wikipedia has a slightly longer discussion of the word as it applies to various disciplines)
One of the reasons that I like reading so much is that it exposes me to new words. Take, for example, the following word:
Tetragrammaton
I first came across the word when watching the science fiction film Equilibrium, where it referred to some sort of governmental organization. Yeh, whatever.
I came across it again yesterday while reading a steampunk novel, in which it apparently is returned to its proper meaning. The tetragrammaton is a Greek expression for the mystical 4-letter name of God ( יהוה ). Nobody knows exactly how to pronounce the word. Observant Jews make no attempt to speak the sacred name, instead replacing it with phrases (in hebrew) that mean “The Name”, “The Ineffable Name”, “My Lord” etc. Later scholars abandoned this fearful respect and attempted to pronounce it as “Yahweh” or “Jehovah” (arriving at these by plugging in vowel sounds and translating the hebrew into other languages).
Interesting. Now, back to reading this fine novel (review to be posted in a few days).
//Note:
This post has inspired me to create a new section on this site, especially for words. I have quite a collection of words on my home computer and this will give me the opportunity to ponder them, and perhaps get some input on their origins.
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