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Does anyone else have random words, often names, or phrases pop up in their head with no apparent connection to anything?

I regularly find myself with words in my head first thing in the morning, oddly enough often when cleaning my teeth or other morning ablutions.

Today's seems totally off the wall, how the heck did the name Evadne Price arrive in my head? 

I had a vague recollection she was some sort of TV astrologer but what depths of my memory have suddenly regurgitated that?

Is it just me, if not feel free to add your word or words of the day.

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Hi everyone,

 

In a place I once worked a colleague came across an old home nursing book from during WW2.  The game became that each morning one of us would randomly open the book, and the first word our eyes alighted upon had to be used appropriately in as many situations as possible around the office that day.  My 'lucky' word was 'purulent' - fifteen years later it continues to pop into my head for no apparent reason.  (Left that place shortly after the game began.)

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

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Systembolaget is the only word I remember....

 

An off licence type of place that was more like an Argos. I think it's changed now, but you couldn't buy beer or wine in normal shops. You had to go to the till, order what you wanted, then wait for about half an hour before they brought out your order. No service if you have been drinking and you needed ID no matter how old you were.

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Rogation: a solemn supplication consisting of the litany of the saints chanted on the three days before Ascension Day.

 

It reminds me of my name and next year, it falls close to my birthday!

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Which brings to mind that, in the early stages of the Afghan war, there was a rather unpleasant Taliban warlord called Mullah Naki Bullah, which always made me smile a little. Word of the day from me, though, is ‘cromulent’. 

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Lunar libration: which I am given to believe is the proper term for what news reports today are calling a "wobble" which with rising sea levels is predicted to cause higher tidal flooding in the 2030s.

 

How this is different from axial precession (historically called precession of the equinoxes) I'm not sure - other than "precession of the equinoxes" is explicitly related to the earth rather than the moon.

 

Edited by Ozexpatriate
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What a fascinating word!

 

I vaguely remembered that the moon rotates slightly (wobbles!) to periodically reveal parts of the lunar surface that are ordinarily not seen so I looked at the Wikipedia article for Libration and was not much the wiser!  It seems that the Earth has a tidal effect on the moon, causing the "wobble", which may have confused journalists.

 

Perhaps rising sea levels will cause more Lunar Libration events by 2030?

 

 

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On 14/07/2021 at 19:28, The Johnster said:

Are we allowed place names.  If so, Longwoodswidger.

 

I read this and the word Lansenwith came into my head. It's the name of the farm in Cornwall I lived on between the ages of 6 and 17.

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On 14/07/2021 at 03:37, Ozexpatriate said:

Lunar libration: which I am given to believe is the proper term for what news reports today are calling a "wobble" which with rising sea levels is predicted to cause higher tidal flooding in the 2030s.

 

How this is different from axial precession (historically called precession of the equinoxes) I'm not sure - other than "precession of the equinoxes" is explicitly related to the earth rather than the moon.

 

Libration is just seeing a bit to either side because the moon's orbit isn't exactly circular, so the angle you view it from changes very slightly (it rotates once per orbit but that means when the moon's slightly further from the Earth so moving slower the rotation goes slightly ahead, and the other way around when it's at its closest).

 

Axial precession is a much slower process, it's where (true) north moves around, in the same way as the top of a spinning top slowly (at least relative to the rate the thing's spinning) circles around.

 

On to other words, one I once noticed in the dictionary and made a note for future Scrabble games - "zax" (a tool for splitting slate).

Edited by Reorte
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On 13/07/2021 at 16:51, The Johnster said:

Which brings to mind that, in the early stages of the Afghan war, there was a rather unpleasant Taliban warlord called Mullah Naki Bullah, which always made me smile a little. Word of the day from me, though, is ‘cromulent’. 

 

I see your 'Cromulent' and raise you 'Embiggen'

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'See that train of Jebediah Springfield

Watch those covered wagons roll!

That a people might embiggen, America,

That a man might embiggen his soul, his soul, hah! (whipcrack), his soul (fading)'.

 

As good an anthem for Manifest Destiny as any...

 

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2 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

I used to think the spelling was Maurice dancing.  :sarcastichand:

 

Wasn't that Disco?  :dance:

 

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Comes from Moorish or Moresca dancing.

 

Morris dancing is not something that is popular around here in the grim North. What we know as Morris Dancing is more a thing for young girls rather than the proper folk stuff where they hit each other with sticks.

 

 

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