28487
#ielts #toefl #gre #english_vocabulary #english
Idiom of the Day
live and kicking
Alive, healthy, and alert. (A truncated version of "alive and kicking.") Watch the video
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Word of the Day
hypnotic
Definition: (adjective) Attracting and holding interest as if by a spell.
Synonyms: mesmeric, mesmerizing, spellbinding.
Usage: For a moment she tore her gaze from the hypnotic fascination of that awful face and breathed a last prayer to her God.
Discuss
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Language Log
"I will think fewer of you"
A relative's new refrigerator magnet:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/LessFewerMagnet.png
Some relevant past posts:
"Less than three years: A policy revision", 1/4/2007
"10 English majors or less", 8/10/2008
"More on less", 8/31/2008
"Still more on less", 9/4/2008
"Eleven mistakes about grammar mistakes", 3/10/2010
"Stupid less/fewer automatism at the WSJ", 12/2/2010
"Less with plural count nouns in formal usage", 12/5/2010
"The less… umm… fewer the better", 10/13/2017
Commenters may wish to explain why the phrase on the magnet is actually a mistake — and also one that never occurs naturally.
That last post includes a picture worth displaying again:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/trumppence.png
➖ @EngSkills ➖
ral rudders).[1] "Hybrid" ships (referred to as the "South China Sea tradition") integrating technologies from both the chuán and the djong also started to appear by the 15th century.
(Wikipedia)
From Portuguese junco or Dutch jonk (or reinforced), from Arabic جُنْك (junk), from Malay or Javanese djong, variant of djung, from Old Javanese jong (“seagoing ship”), ultimately from either Hokkien 船 (chûn) or Teochew 船 (zung5), from Proto-Min *-džionᴬ (“ship, boat”).
It's interesting that the main, completely unrelated meaning of the English word "junk" also has an unexpected nautical origin:
From earlier meaning "old refuse from boats and ships", from Middle English junk, jounke, jonk, joynk (“an old cable or rope”, nautical term), sometimes cut into bits and used as caulking; of uncertain origin; perhaps related to join, joint, juncture. Often compared to Middle English junk, jonk, jonke, junck (“a rush; basket made of rushes”), from Old French jonc, from Latin iuncus (“rush, reed”); however, the Oxford English Dictionary finds "no evidence of connexion".
(Wiktionary — for both of the preceding two etymologies)
So the two most characteristic types of Chinese watercraft during the last millennia and more appear to be known in English and in Sinitic by words of Southeast Asian derivation. Selected reading
* "Rivers and lakes: quackery" (6/16/23)
* "Topolect: a Four-Body Problem" (6/18/24) — discussion of different ways to propel watercraft
* "Phono-semantic rebranding" (10/25/16)
[Thanks to Mark Metcalf]
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Language Log
Junks and sampans
These are two premodern words for Chinese watercraft that have worked their way into the English lexicon. Their etymology, however, is not as straightforward as it might seem.
"Language Matters | Where did English get the words ‘sampan’ and ‘junk’ from? Probably Cantonese and Javanese: Scholars are split on the roots of ‘sampan’ and ‘junk’, with some pointing to Chinese and others to Old Malay and Javanese respectively", by Lisa Lim, SCMP (9/30/24)
Sampans – typically small, light, wooden boats with a relatively flat bottom, propelled by a pole, oars, or a single long stern sculling oar – have a long history in East and Southeast Asian coastal and river waters.
Usually open, with a shelter aft, they were – and still are – used as a means of transporting passengers and goods over short distances; fishing; or to get to larger vessels out at sea. They also constituted homes for sea-dwelling communities, including the Tanka or Séuiseuhngyàn “people born on or of the water”, of coastal southern China and Hong Kong and Macau.
The name sampan began being used in European accounts of the China seas for such small boats. The earliest documentation in English is from a 1620 diary entry by Richard Cocks, merchant and East India Company servant, describing how “Yt was thought fytt and brought in question by the Hollanders to trym up a China sampan to goe with the fleete”.
Many accounts explain the name as deriving from Sinitic, most likely Cantonese 三板 sāam báan – or Hokkien 舢板 sam-pán – meaning “three boards”, referring to the construction of the craft’s keel-less hull which usually comprised three planks or pine boards.
However, several scholars have demonstrated an Austronesian origin. In the earliest written texts in Malay, inscriptions from the 680s, which relate the dispatching of war fleets to establish the newly founded polity of Srivijaya, a specific boat type is named, namely the sampan, in the Old Malay form sāmvau. This is believed to have served as the origin for cognate words in South, East, and Southeast Asian languages.
Although the "three boards" theory seems simple and straightforward, it comports neither with the history of their physical construction nor with the linguistics chronologically and phonologically as well as the Old Malay derivation. Consequently, the resemblance between sāmvau and samban is the result of the latter being chosen as a sound transcription with convenient semantic content, a common phenomenon in Sinitic borrowing of words from other languages.
Here are some published etymologies for "sampan":
From Sinitic, likely Cantonese 三板 (saam1 baan2) or Hokkien 舢板 (sam-pán).
(Wiktionary)
a word applied by Europeans to any small, light boat on the Chinese pattern, used on the coasts of East Asia, 1610s, from Chinese san pan, literally "three boards," from san "three" + pan "plank." In 16c. Spanish made it cempan; Portuguese had it as champana.
(Etymonline)
Cantonese saam1 baan2 (akin to Mandarin sābǎn [sic]), from Middle Chinese sam pa⋮n´ : sam, three (ultimately from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *sum; akin to Tibetan gsum and Burmese sûm) + pa⋮n´, board (since the hulls of sampans were originally constructed from three planks of wood, two for the sides and one for the bottom);
(AHD 5th [retrieved 9/30/24])
It is sometimes claimed that the word "sampan" is derived from the Cantonese term sāam báan (三板), literally "three planks", but this is likely to be a false etymology. A possible Austronesian origin of the word has been suggested, as it is attested in an Old Malay inscription from 684 CE.
(Wiktionary)
Now, returning to "junk" in Lisa Lim's SCMP article.
Another vessel associated with local waters – a Hong Kong icon, found in the Tourism Board’s logo – is the traditional Chinese junk, the larger, efficient, [...]
Word of the Day
Word of the Day: abdicate
This word has appeared in 23 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
➖ Sent by @TheFeedReaderBot ➖
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
come under
to suddenly experience or suffer something dangerous or unpleasant
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Word of the Day
unexampled
Definition: (adjective) Without precedent; unparalleled.
Synonyms: new.
Usage: It was a time of unexampled prosperity, and the once poor family was able to move to a lovely mansion in an affluent neighborhood.
Discuss
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Funny Or Die (Youtube)
TRAILER: Inside The Funny Or Die Vault Premieres 10/1!
It’s like the Criterion Closet for internet videos. Our new show INSIDE THE FOD VAULT launches tomorrow on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
Get all 10 episodes of season 1 now, and stay in touch for new episodes, news, and show extras: https://norby.link/ctdAJD
INSIDE THE FOD VAULT is one part comedy deconstruction, one part career retrospective, and one part nostalgia trip through the first wave of internet comedy. Our guests pick a video from FOD’s storied history as a jumping off point to talk about all the ways the comedy landscape has changed since the days when TikTok was just a Kesha song. Host Marcos Gonzalez leads guests through their career trajectories and how their work was influenced by the best (and worst) the internet has had to offer. Gonzalez returns to FOD as our host, after interning at FOD a decade ago at the start of his own comedy career, which more recently included a stint as a writer/actor on the critically acclaimed series, Jury Duty.
Subscribe now: https://www.youtube.com/c/funnyordie?sub_confirmation=1
Get more Funny Or Die
-------------------------------
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/funnyordie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/funnyordie
Instagram: http://instagram.com/funnyordie
TikTok: funnyordie" rel="nofollow">https://www.tiktok.com/@funnyordie
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Language Log
Linear algebra and wine
A recent email from Jean Gallier to the members of Penn's Department of Computer and Information Sciences included this picture
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/GallierLinearA_Wine.jpg
…under the comment "Apparently the Greeks had already figured that there was a connection between wine and linear algebra." The connection to Linear A(lgebra) is provided by Jean's two-volume 2020 book Linear Algebra and Optimization with Applications to Machine Learning.
A glimpse of Jean's personal connections with wine is suggested by this page…
As for the Linear A symbol for wine, it's covered in Ester Salgarella 2020 article "A Note on the Linear A & B Ideogram AB 131/VIN (um)‘Wine’and Its Variants: References to Time Notation?", which includes Figure 1:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/SalgarellaFigure1.png
The Cretan version is in Figure 2:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/SalgarellaFigure2.png
And the Egyptian one is in Figure 3:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/SalgarellaFigure3.png
For the "Time Notation" part, I invite you to read the paper.
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Language Log
"She stopped every single one of them"
A couple of months ago ("A new Trump speaking style?", 8/10/2024), I gave an example to support my subjective impression that Donald Trump's speaech is becoming less fluent. The clip included some cases of word-finding difficulties, as in this characterization of vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz:
Your browser does not support the audio element.
She picked a
radical left
uh
man
that is uh
he's got things done that he's-
he has positions that are just not-
it's not even possible to believe
that they exist.
In a more recent 9/28/2024 rally speech, after another spate of re-starts and pauses, Trump produces a phrase that seems to be the opposite of what he means:
Your browser does not support the audio element.
Putting it in context:
Your browser does not support the audio element.
Earlier this year, while Rachel was out on a run
she was brutally raped and murdered by this
disgusting
illegal alien,
who was let into the United States
by Kamala
and her
lax law. She-
they- they-
every one of my killer-
we had the great-
she would have-
he would have never been able to get in.
She stopped every single one of them.
She was the border czar,
now she doesn't admit that.
In earlier years (see e.g. "Presidential fluency", 10/31/2017), I was struck by the fact that Trump rarely used filled pauses like "uh" and "um", or silent pauses ("dead air"), or rapidly-repeated initial function words like "she- they- they-".
I don't have systematic counts to show that things have changed — maybe later — but I'll register again my subjective impression of a difference.
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
meathead
a stupid person
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Idiom of the Day
liquid courage
slang The decrease in timidity or inhibition that comes from imbibing alcoholic beverages. Watch the video
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Language Log
Silent Suiters
A bluesky post linked to this reddit page showing a display of the "rack of consent badges at a furry convention":
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/FurryConsentBadges.png
Being ignorant of furry lingo, my first thought was that "silent suiter" was an idiosyncratic spelling for "silent suitor", but Google's AI Overview set me straight:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/AI_OverviewFursuiter.png
For more on the etiquette involved, there's the page "Do's and Don'ts of interacting with fursuiters" from 2024 Anthrocon.
And it turns out that there's a whole wikifur, whose Fursuit page seems even better than Wikipedia's. It also includes links to Furry Dictionaries and Furspeech.
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
known as
to be called a certain name, even though it mightn't be a real or official name
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Funny Or Die (Youtube)
Do better, comedy clubs. And also, America.
Subscribe now: https://www.youtube.com/c/funnyordie?sub_confirmation=1
Get more Funny Or Die
-------------------------------
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/funnyordie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/funnyordie
Instagram: http://instagram.com/funnyordie
TikTok: funnyordie" rel="nofollow">https://www.tiktok.com/@funnyordie
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Funny Or Die (Youtube)
The Landlord has reemerged! Learn why on our new podcast. (Spoiler alert: Beth Stelling picked it)
Subscribe now: https://www.youtube.com/c/funnyordie?sub_confirmation=1
Get more Funny Or Die
-------------------------------
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/funnyordie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/funnyordie
Instagram: http://instagram.com/funnyordie
TikTok: funnyordie" rel="nofollow">https://www.tiktok.com/@funnyordie
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Funny Or Die (Youtube)
Beth Stelling liked this video so much she wants to name her kid Pearl.
Subscribe now: https://www.youtube.com/c/funnyordie?sub_confirmation=1
Get more Funny Or Die
-------------------------------
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/funnyordie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/funnyordie
Instagram: http://instagram.com/funnyordie
TikTok: funnyordie" rel="nofollow">https://www.tiktok.com/@funnyordie
➖ @EngSkills ➖
sturdy, multi-masted vessel with fully battened sails, compartmentalised hull, stabilising lee- and centreboards, and stern-mounted rudder.
Again, some accounts have suggested the English word junk comes from Sinitic 船 “ship”, specifically Southern Min chûn – or Mandarin chuán – not least because of the vessel’s prominence in the Chinese world for naval warfare and trade.
Developed in the Han dynasty (220BC-200AD), the earliest descriptions of such ships are in 2nd century Chinese writings. Their development and expansion peaking through the 10th to the 13th centuries, they are described in superlative terms by 14th century travellers like Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta, with immense ships and fleets comprising Zheng He’s 15th century Indian Ocean expeditions.
…
However, the origin of the English name again lies in pre-colonial Southeast Asia’s vibrant maritime trade, which was dominated by the Javanese from the Srivijaya empire of the 7th to 12th centuries through to the Majapahit empire of the late 13th to 16th centuries.
Their word for “ship” was jong, tracing back to a 9th century Old Javanese inscription, with the word entering Malay by the 15th century.
These large ocean-going Javanese trading jongs, which dominated the spice routes between Maluku, Java and Melaka, were what the Portuguese encountered when they arrived on the scene in the early 16th century. They described them as towering over their warships and withstanding their cannon.
…
The local word was adopted as Portuguese junco. And with Portuguese, and Portuguese creole, a lingua franca of Indian Ocean trade, many Portuguese vocabulary items entered the languages of other Europeans in the region, including Dutch jonk and English junk.
After the decline of Southeast Asian jongs in the 1700s – losing out to smaller and more agile Western ships in battle – the term junk has come to be used exclusively for the Chinese (and Japanese) junks.
And here are some published etymologies for "junk":
"large, seagoing Chinese sailing ship," 1610s, from Portuguese junco, from Malay (Austronesian) jong "ship, large boat" (13c.), probably from Javanese djong. In English 16c. as giunche, iunco.
(Etymonline)
The English word "junk" comes from Portuguese junco from Malay jong. The word originally referred to the Javanese djong, very large trading ships that the Portuguese first encountered in Southeast Asia. It later also included the smaller flat-bottomed Chinese chuán, even though the two were markedly different vessels. After the disappearance of the jong in the 17th century, the meaning of "junk" (and other similar words in European languages) came to refer exclusively to the Chinese ship.[4][5][1][6][7]
The Chinese chuán and the Southeast Asian djong are frequently confused with each other and share some characteristics, including large cargo capacities, multiple (two to three) superimposed layers of hull planks, and multiple masts and sails. However the two are readily distinguishable from each other by two major differences. The first is that Southeast Asian (Austronesian) ships are built exclusively with lugs, dowels, and fiber lashings (lashed lug), in contrast to Chinese ships which are always built with iron nails and clamps. The second is that Chinese ships since the first century AD are all built with a central rudder. In contrast, Southeast Asian ships use double lateral rudders.
The development of the sea-going Chinese chuán (the "junk" in modern usage) in the Song Dynasty (c. 960 to 1279) is believed to have been influenced by regular contacts with sea-going Southeast Asian ships (the k'un-lun po of Chinese records) in trading ports in southern China from the 1st millennium CE onward, particularly in terms of the rigging, multiple sails, and the multiple hull sheaths. However, the chuán also incorporates distinctly Chinese innovations from their indigenous river and coastal vessels (namely watertight compartments and the cent[...]
Funny Or Die (Youtube)
"The Landlord" with Beth Stelling (Inside The FOD Vault - Ep. 1)
On the first episode of our new podcast, "Inside the Funny Or Die Vault," we are joined by comedian and writer, Beth Stelling (If You Didn’t Want Me Then on Netflix). Beth has selected “The Landlord” from the Funny or Die Vault. She and our host, Marcos Gonzalez talk through starting out in comedy, stand up online, and the differences between internet and in-person performance. Whether you’re a seasoned comedy pro or just dipping a toe, Beth and Marcos have endless anecdotes to share.
Beth Stelling is an American stand-up comedian and writer. She has performed in the Netflix series The Standups and served as a writer for the HBO television series Crashing. Stelling has released two comedy albums, Sweet Beth and Simply the Beth, and two comedy specials, Girl Daddy (Hulu) and If You Didn't Want Me Then (Netflix). She also co-hosts the Sweethearts podcast with Mo Welch.
Instagram: @bethstelling
TikTok: @bethstelling
Key moments
02:53 Pearl The Landlord
06:43 Starting stand up
19:52 Social clips vs. full special
22:41 Women in comedy
26:14 Early inspirations in comedy
39:24 Going viral
42:36 The rise of crowd work
46:50 Combatting lack of confidence
Get all 10 episodes of season 1 now, and stay in touch for new episodes, news, and show extras: https://norby.link/ctdAJD
Subscribe now: https://www.youtube.com/c/funnyordie?sub_confirmation=1
Get more Funny Or Die
-------------------------------
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/funnyordie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/funnyordie
Instagram: http://instagram.com/funnyordie
TikTok: funnyordie" rel="nofollow">https://www.tiktok.com/@funnyordie
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
afters
dessert, sweet dish eaten after the main course of a meal
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Idiom of the Day
(it's) little wonder
It is not at all surprising (that something is the case). Watch the video
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Funny Or Die (Youtube)
Our new show INSIDE THE FOD VAULT launches tomorrow on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
Subscribe now: https://www.youtube.com/c/funnyordie?sub_confirmation=1
Get more Funny Or Die
-------------------------------
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/funnyordie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/funnyordie
Instagram: http://instagram.com/funnyordie
TikTok: funnyordie" rel="nofollow">https://www.tiktok.com/@funnyordie
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Funny Or Die (Youtube)
Everything is Samuel L. Jackson's Fault (2013) Pt. 2 #samuelljackson #sketchcomedy
Subscribe now: https://www.youtube.com/c/funnyordie?sub_confirmation=1
Get more Funny Or Die
-------------------------------
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/funnyordie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/funnyordie
Instagram: http://instagram.com/funnyordie
TikTok: funnyordie" rel="nofollow">https://www.tiktok.com/@funnyordie
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Language Log
The languages of refugees fleeing to Bosnia
"A path towards freedom: the new route to Europe for desperate Chinese migrants
Revealed: a small but growing number of Chinese people are travelling to the Balkans with the hope of getting into the EU" Amy Hawkins," The Guardian (9/24/24)
In a sleepy Bosnian town, barely five miles from the border with the European Union, a crumbling old water tower is falling into ruin. Inside, piles of rubbish, used cigarette butts and a portable wood-fired stove offer glimpses into the daily life of the people who briefly called the building home. Glued on to the walls is another clue: on pieces of A4 paper, the same message is printed out, again and again: “If you would like to travel to Europe (Italy, Germany, France, etc) we can help you. Please add this number on WhatsApp”. The message is printed in the languages of often desperate people: Somali, Nepali, Turkish, the list goes on. The last translation on the list indicates a newcomer to this unlucky club. It is written in Chinese.
“Staying here is not a very good option,” one of the Chinese refugees says, but “if I go back to China, what awaits me is either being sent to a mental hospital or a prison.”
Fleeing from China to Bosnia is dangerous and expensive. So why do Chinese do it?
Part of the reason that Bosnia is an attractive staging post for Chinese migrants, is that like its neighbour Serbia, it offers visa-free travel. Aleksandra Kovačević, spokesperson for Bosnia’s Service for Foreigner’s Affairs, a government department, said that Chinese people were “gaining statistical significance as persons who increasingly violate migration regulations of Bosnia and Herzegovina”. She said that along with Turkish citizens, Chinese people were trying to use legal entry into Bosnia as a way to “illegally continue their journey to the countries of western Europe”.Part of the reason that Bosnia is an attractive staging post for Chinese migrants, is that like its neighbour Serbia, it offers visa-free travel. Aleksandra Kovačević, spokesperson for Bosnia’s Service for Foreigner’s Affairs, a government department, said that Chinese people were “gaining statistical significance as persons who increasingly violate migration regulations of Bosnia and Herzegovina”. She said that along with Turkish citizens, Chinese people were trying to use legal entry into Bosnia as a way to “illegally continue their journey to the countries of western Europe”.
Everybody who wants to escape from China has their own reasons for taking such a huge risk. Often it is a burning desire for freedom of speech or craving for access to information that is severely limited by the Great Firewall. From private and public sources, it is clear that these restrictions are growing increasingly harsh as time passes, so don't expect the volume of Chinese refugees fleeing to Bosnia to diminish during the coming months and years.
Since (as shown by a UNHCR graphic in The Guardian article), the numbers of Chinese seeking asylum in Europe rose dramatically in the years following 2012, you can put 2 and 2 together and figure out what the probable main cause is. Selected readings
* "RUN = wrong" (9/29/22)
* "RUNning away from Shanghai" (5/13/22)
* "Epochal Shanghai drone quote: 'Control your soul’s desire for freedom.'" (5/8/22)
* "Fissures in the Great Firewall caused by X" (6/10/24) — with a very long bibliography on censorship in China
[h.t.: many Language Log readers called this article to my attention]
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Word of the Day
Word of the Day: seismic
This word has appeared in 308 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
get out of (2)
to take off clothes because they're uncomfortable or inappropriate
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Word of the Day
overabundance
Definition: (noun) A going or being beyond what is needed, desired, or appropriate.
Synonyms: overmuch, overmuchness, superabundance.
Usage: Four-year-olds have an overabundance of energy and quickly exhaust even the most active, fit adults.
Discuss
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
itch
a strong desire to do something (n.) | to have a strong desire to do something (v.)
➖ @EngSkills ➖
Idiom of the Day
the lion's den
A particularly dangerous, hostile, or oppressive place or situation, especially due to an angry or sinister person or group of people within it. Watch the video
➖ @EngSkills ➖
