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17 Aug 03 - 02:35 PM (#1003642) Subject: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Peter T. A student in Britain just won 1,500,000 dollars for knowing what an "arctophile" is -- someone who collects teddy bears. I think she deserves it -- I had no idea there was such word. There is also a recent film, Spellbound (fun film, by the way), which had a word "terrine" (or was it "terrene"?) I had never heard of, and I pride myself (well into flaming arrogance) on knowing all kinds of words that are actually in use, but out of the ordinary. A friend of mine, upon hearing about spelling bees, said they were "nugatory", which turns out to mean "worthless". Anyone know of any words that you have actually run across recently, in use, that might be worth storing away? yours, Peter T. |
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17 Aug 03 - 02:48 PM (#1003646) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Amos Of interest re nugatory is its descent from a word meaning jokes or trifles. (Latin, nugae). Currently meaning without force or validity. I am completely undone by arctophile. I'ld have thought it was someone fond of northern climes, but lo and behold the word in fact comes from t he same root by means of the Great Bear constellation:Alteration (influenced by Latin arcticus) of Middle English artic, northern, from Medieval Latin articus, from Latin arcticus, from Greek arktikos, from arktos, bear, the northern constellation Ursa Major . As to unusual words I offer baccaceous ( like a berry; bearing berries). And, for other purposes altogether, babuina, female baboon. For hours of interesting exploration I suggest the Dictionary of Difficult Words found at this site. Regards, A |
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17 Aug 03 - 02:52 PM (#1003652) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: katlaughing Good for her! Timely thread, Peter. I just read in today's paper that Utah's governor Mike Leavitt, the Resident's new choice for the EPA, is using the newly coined term "Enlibra" which is supposed to mean "balance and stewardship." If one reads his words and looks at his record, though, it is just a new form of double-speak for raping and pillaging our natural resources. From the article: Enlibra envisions moving environmental decision-making down from the federal level as much as possible -- a move that raises environmentalists' fears that state and local governments will engage in a 'race to the bottom,' luring industry with loose rules or enforcement. Leavitt has distributed his own "Enlibra principles" sheet. One of them requires that costs be strictly considered in setting environmental policy. Carol Brown, Clinton's EPA administrator says that such rigid cost-benefit analyses traditionally overestimate costs to industry and underestimate environmental benefits. All one may ever want to know about Enlibra. |
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17 Aug 03 - 03:13 PM (#1003661) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Leadfingers I have always had a great difficulty in remembering peoples names,and find it somewhar ironic that I CAN remember tha ANOMIA is the technical name for the inability to rmember peoples names! |
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17 Aug 03 - 03:22 PM (#1003665) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: open mike ursa-phile? |
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17 Aug 03 - 03:56 PM (#1003677) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Rapparee I should think that arctophile meant a lover of bears, not teddy bears. Someone like Uncle Walter. I've always been partial to "dottle," but since I gave up smoking have little occassion to use it. |
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17 Aug 03 - 04:18 PM (#1003693) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Amos Terrene means mundial, of the earth. I can't speak to the difference between terrene and terrestrial, though. A |
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17 Aug 03 - 04:56 PM (#1003707) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Bill D "And, for other purposes altogether, babuina, female baboon." ...and, for that strange, garish display on the south end of a Baboon headed north... "ischial callosity" |
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17 Aug 03 - 05:15 PM (#1003716) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: open mike dottle? a tittle and a jot? by the way for you word lovers out there (there must be a word for that word-o-phile or something?) I am looking for a word to name a new kitty that just adopted me.. she (he?) is grey (gray?) and so i am looking for a word that means smoke or ash.... in some other language perhaps? spanish? there is also a blaze-like marking on her fore head (or his? haven't looked that close yet) if it was a horse it would be called a blaze... so if you have any suggestions, i am open to considering them... |
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17 Aug 03 - 05:52 PM (#1003722) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: McGrath of Harlow Artos - alternative name for King Arthur, means the bear. Cognate with Latin Ursus. Rhodomontade is a good round word. Means vain and empty boasting, and sounds like it does too. |
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17 Aug 03 - 05:55 PM (#1003723) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Peter T. I think in Spellbound the word is "terrine" which I had never heard of (and can't remember the meaning,not "terrene"). yours, Peter T. |
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17 Aug 03 - 06:19 PM (#1003731) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: McGrath of Harlow Isn't "terrene" more or less the same as what Americans call a meatloaf? |
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17 Aug 03 - 06:50 PM (#1003744) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Rapparee Dottle: the unburned tobacco left in a pipe when it goes out. Collected by Sherlock Holmes at the end of each day and dried so that it became his first smoke of the next day. |
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17 Aug 03 - 06:51 PM (#1003745) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Amos No -- dottle is the clot at the bottom of a well-smoked pipe, formed of compressed tobacco, ash, carbon and other byproducts of burning. A terrine is an earthenware container for cooking and serving food, or various dishes prepared or cooked in a terrine. A |
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17 Aug 03 - 06:53 PM (#1003750) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Joe_F I'm an arcterast myself. I have always been enamored of the names for the three types of liquid crystal: nematic, smectic, cholesteric. One seldom gets a chance to use them in ordinary conversation, but if one recalls that the first comes from the Greek for needle and the second for soap, there are obvious applications of all three to persons of various temperaments. Another set of technical terms makes a poem in itself -- the six motions of a ship: Roll, pitch, yaw, Surge, sway, heave. If there is ever a song about seasickness, that could be the chorus. |
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17 Aug 03 - 06:55 PM (#1003753) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Rapparee Isn't heave what those aboard do when the ship makes the other five motions? |
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17 Aug 03 - 06:56 PM (#1003755) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Bill D 'philtrum' - the mid-line groove in the upper lip, from the nose to the lip |
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17 Aug 03 - 07:38 PM (#1003783) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Amos Philtrum--what scientists do to various strains of bacilli... |
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17 Aug 03 - 08:02 PM (#1003791) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: The Walrus If you have philtrum, you might as well have 'ullula', the 'dangly thing' at the back of the throat. |
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17 Aug 03 - 09:25 PM (#1003804) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Bill D ummm..uvula, perhaps? ullula is an aboriginal community in Australia |
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17 Aug 03 - 09:55 PM (#1003816) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Mudlark Quidnunc has always been a favorite of mine...means gossip, busybody. Sphygmomanometer has always sounded a lot more icky/scary than it really is. Mumchance...dopily silent, blighted by fairies. |
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17 Aug 03 - 10:51 PM (#1003826) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Amos Mumchance!! I love it!!! Bemused by Mab's sprites, dazzled by elvin doings, phazed by fairies, enthralled by the ethereal, lip-locked by leprechauns, entranced by trolls and gobsmacked by goblins!! Loverly word!! A |
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17 Aug 03 - 10:53 PM (#1003828) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: GUEST,misophist My 3 favourite words of all time must be merkin, smegma, and quiddity. Quotidian isn't bad, either. |
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17 Aug 03 - 11:02 PM (#1003832) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Amos Woooeee!! Joe F stops the clock with a BRANDNNEW WORD, plausible in form and function! The first human known to coin the term arcterast, a back-formation from arctophile, lover of bears, and presumably meaning one who engages in sexual intercourse with teddy bears. Or perhaps real ones.... Well, in ANY case, congratulations on a fine neologism, Joe F!! A |
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18 Aug 03 - 12:07 AM (#1003842) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Amos Merkin: What Georgians are proud to be one of. Seriously, ...A pubic wig for women. Alteration of obsolete malkin, lower-class woman, mop, from Middle English, from Malkin, diminutive of the personal name Matilda. Smegma:A sebaceous secretion, especially the cheesy secretion that collects under the prepuce or around the clitoris. Latin smgma, detergent, from Greek Quiddity:.The real nature of a thing; the essence. 2. A hairsplitting distinction; a quibble. Medieval Latin quiddits, from Latin quid, what. Ya gotta wonder, out of all the 100,000 plus words in use in English, why these three rise to the forefront of misoph's attention! :>) Are the some sort of delicate links of association involved? A |
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18 Aug 03 - 07:34 AM (#1003930) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: McGrath of Harlow I'm getting discombobulated by all this. |
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18 Aug 03 - 08:20 AM (#1003952) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Peter T. quidditas -- the essential "whatness" of something (Hamlet of Yorick: "Where be your quips and quiddities?"); related to the Scotist term "haeccitas", which is the essential "thingness" of something. I have always been big on Gerard Hopkins' word "inscape" -- the unique graininess of something that makes it what it is, unlike anything else in the world. yours, Peter |
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18 Aug 03 - 09:58 AM (#1004013) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: McGrath of Harlow Hence the term "quid" for £1. I've long held that half the opposition in Britrian to joining the euro would dissipate if it could been refer to buy that eminently european name. |
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18 Aug 03 - 10:57 AM (#1004043) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Allan C. Anyone remember Firesign Theater's quotation? "...from far away places with strange sounding names...like Smegma." I've always liked fulgent but can rarely work it into a conversation. |
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18 Aug 03 - 11:27 AM (#1004054) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Jeanie I saw the girl on Saturday winning all that money for knowing "arctophile" - it was wonderful to see her, totally beside herself with delight. I don't think she stopped squealing for about 5 minutes ! Peter T - you asked if anyone had come across any words lately that might be worth storing in the recesses of the brain, for future million-winning gameshow use. Well, how about : "dioscuric" ? It means, literally, "(boys) sons of Zeus", referring to the twins Castor and Pollux (Greek: Dioskouroi) and is used to describe twin gods following the Castor/Pollux model in other mythologies. You always wanted to know this ! I came across it last week in this sentence: "Hengest and Horsa can be most plausibly interpreted as dioscuric horse-gods." Yes - I read weird things. Now, there are going to be dozens of people posting saying "Dioscuric ? Hadn't she ever heard of that before ?" - well..it was new to me. Hoping it will be my "lucky word" if ever I get on "Who Wants to be a Millionnaire". - jeanie |
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18 Aug 03 - 11:35 AM (#1004057) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Amos I hope so too, Jeannie -- you deserve it!! I never heard of it before. A |
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18 Aug 03 - 11:38 AM (#1004060) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Amos A brief dissertation on the whole Cult of the Dioscurii can be found on this page. |
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18 Aug 03 - 12:38 PM (#1004092) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Mudlark Amos..." lip-locked by leprechauns"...I love it...better even than mumchance! Scaramouch has always tickled my fancy, being a posture-master and poltroon. |
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18 Aug 03 - 01:03 PM (#1004108) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Bill D just by coincidence, this cam in Michael Quinions newsletter recently Weird Words: Apocope /@'pQk@pi:/ ------------------------------------------------------------------- Leaving out the last letter, syllable, or part of a word. When you hear about the "huntin', shootin', fishin'" aristocracy of eighteenth-century Britain, the speakers are committing apocope. In the same way, when you talk about "mag" instead of magazine, "fab" when you mean fabulous, or "cred" for credibility, these are all apocopic cases. Perhaps it's our rush-hurry-urgent age, but it seems that such energetic abbreviations are becoming more common, not merely with students who produce slangy in-terms such as "psych", "chem" and "maths" ("math" in the US). "Apocope" comes from the Greek word "apokoptein", to cut off, made up of "apo-", from or away, plus "koptein", to cut. Incidentally, if you instead cut the sound off the start of a word, the right name is "aphesis" (an example being "squire", an aphetic form of "esquire"); if you drop sounds in the middle (for which the classic - and extreme - example is "fo'c's'le" for the crews' quarters on board ship, in full "forecastle"), the process is called "syncope". (that was folllowed this week by this!! "APOCOPE I walked into a minefield of definition while trying to explain this word last week. If you check various dictionaries, you find that some give much the definition I supplied ("leaving out the last letter, syllable, or part of a word") while others have a more restrictive meaning ("omission of the final sound or sounds of a word"). This is a subtle but significant difference. Linguists prefer to restrict this word to situations in which one or more sounds (technically, phonemes) are lost from the end of a word. Spelling differences or changes in pronunciation don't count. As Professor Larry Horn pointed out, the definition I quoted would allow "catalog" to be an apocopic form of "catalogue", which he is sure it isn't - the loss of the final letters is to him irrelevant, because they're not pronounced. Other linguist subscribers have similarly argued that words such as "huntin'" (an example I used) cannot be apocope, since the missing last letter signals a change in the value of the final sound, not its loss. The problem for mere interpreters of language such as myself is that some reference works take a wider view that includes this sort of abbreviation. I place in evidence, as one example, The Columbia Guide to Standard American English of 1983: "Common examples in American English are singin', dancin', and raisin' cain". " |
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18 Aug 03 - 01:14 PM (#1004112) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Amos Finally, an answer that is Blowin' in the Wind! A |
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18 Aug 03 - 01:34 PM (#1004123) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: McGrath of Harlow And if you combine "apocope" with "aphesis" and "syncope", I suppose you get the sound of silence. |
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18 Aug 03 - 01:46 PM (#1004135) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Peter T. A really useful set of words no one ever uses is "paratactic" and "hypotactic" -- "paratactic" sentences are sentences with no subordinate clauses, characteristic of John Bunyan and teenagers -- "and then I did this and then I did that and then this happened and then this happened". "Hypotactic" clauses refer to sentences that have subordinate clauses, which are often derived from Latin constructions that signal an educated elite whose background often involved the study of classical languages. Like the last sentence. yours, Peter T. |
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18 Aug 03 - 02:03 PM (#1004144) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Bill D "And if you combine "apocope" with "aphesis" and "syncope", I suppose you get the sound of silence." ...or mime...or sign language..(maybe sign language has it's own version of those terms) |
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18 Aug 03 - 02:18 PM (#1004153) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Amos Wonderful to know someone actually pinned words onto those extremes, PT. Another piece of wasted nineteenth century genius!! A |
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18 Aug 03 - 02:49 PM (#1004165) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: McGrath of Harlow "syncope" is also another word for fainting. |
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18 Aug 03 - 07:42 PM (#1004292) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Joe_F Amos: Little do you know. See e.g. www.resourcesforbears.com. Another lovely word that is hard to fit into conversation is "epitaxy". It means laying down atoms on a solid surface so that they conform to the structure of that surface. |
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18 Aug 03 - 07:58 PM (#1004301) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Amos JOE -- Just wow 'em with epitaxial depositions. Tell them it's a nanotech word!! They'll just go crosseyed, for sure. That bear site is a wonder...every place I went, I went "I wonder....". LOL! A |
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28 Aug 11 - 01:06 PM (#3214045) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: dick greenhaus Oe can play with autological---words that describe themselves, like polysyllabic, and heterological---words hat don't, like monosyllabic. THe eternel debate is whether the word heterological is autological or heterological. |
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28 Aug 11 - 01:36 PM (#3214057) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: GUEST,999 The Grelling–Nelson paradox. |
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28 Aug 11 - 02:46 PM (#3214084) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: mayomick Apocope might get some street cred if it was shortened to "apo" ? |
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28 Aug 11 - 03:54 PM (#3214113) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Amos How grand to see this five-year-old thread revived!! S |
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28 Aug 11 - 05:12 PM (#3214151) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Bill D Yes....I am enthralled! Previously, I was merely 'thralled'. |
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28 Aug 11 - 05:19 PM (#3214153) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: GUEST,Paul Burke You can have great fun with a Greek dictionary. Archaeologists talk of "grave goods", but wouldn't "synthaptochremata" add cachet to their reports? A small town can be called a "monippopolis". And "ecdysichorist" gives Classical tone to strippers. |
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28 Aug 11 - 09:40 PM (#3214273) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Mrrzy Yes, I knew about arcto from reading about King Arthur as well. But I'm not sure I would have come up with it in a game... Some of my early favorites were ubiquitous and antepenultimate. Now I'm partial to callipygean (nice ass!) and liripip (little tassel tail of a monk's hood)... But I thought it was liririp. Then again I also thought conspicuous was consuspicious, after all, it's sticking out so much that people are wary of you rather than just aware of you! |
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29 Aug 11 - 10:08 AM (#3214487) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: BrooklynJay "Antepenultimate" - Flanders and Swann immortalized that one for me in Madeira, M'dear - and didn't the Limeliters use "callipygean" in Vikki Dugan? Jay |
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29 Aug 11 - 10:54 AM (#3214515) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Lox I had always imagined that the quality of being concise was "conciseness". I was right, but when I corrected a friend for using the word "concision" I was proved wrong. So if you say something in a concise way, you say it with concision. |
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29 Aug 11 - 03:35 PM (#3214698) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: gnu Would a pedoarctophile be someone who attempts to lure children with teddy bears? |
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29 Aug 11 - 07:27 PM (#3214833) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: GUEST No, I think it's a lover 0f bear cubs... Yours would be arctipedophile. |
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29 Aug 11 - 07:31 PM (#3214837) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: gnu Mine? I have NEVER ****** a teddybear. I prefer large black bears. |
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29 Aug 11 - 11:20 PM (#3214937) Subject: RE: 'Arctophile' -- Who knew? From: Sandra in Sydney Paul Burke - And "ecdysichorist" gives Classical tone to strippers. I've seen this word used for strippers, but Google couldn't find it found it - ecdysiast in Wikipedia's article about Gypsy Rose Lee. Trying to describe what Gypsy was (a "high-class" stripper), H. L. Mencken coined the term ecdysiast. Her style of intellectual recitation while stripping was spoofed in the number "Zip!" from Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey, a play in which her sister June appeared. Gypsy can be seen performing an abbreviated version of her act (intellectual recitation and all) in the 1943 film Stage Door Canteen. sandra (Arctophile & teddy bear maker) |