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Nov
26
Sacre bleu! It's a stinky pinky. (Phraseology, day 19)
2008 at 10am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
I’m still a little sleepy this morning, so I’m lacking inspiration for a witty introduction. Welcome to day 19 of The Book Lady’s Phraseologycelebration of wordy nerdiness.
Sacré bleu is basically “holy cow!,” but in French it means “holy blue” literally, a eupemism for sacré Dieu, “holy God.” I can’t hear this expression without thinking of this guy in The Little Mermaid.
We discussed air quotes earlier this week, and it turns out that quotes made with finger gestures are also called scare quotes. Wonder why…
The seven deadly sins are pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. The Seven Dwarfs (not dwarves…hmm…) are Sleepy, Dopey, Happy, Grumpy, Sneezy, Bashful, and Doc. I didn’t intend to have Disney thing today, but here it is.
A soul patch is a small growth of male facial hair just below the lower lip and above the chin. In my house, we call it a flavor saver.
Sparrow-fart is daybreak, very early morning. I generally refer to “the buttcrack of dawn” if I have to get up early, but I’m thinking of adoption sparrow-fart just to confuse my husband.
A stinky pinky is a noun paired with a rhyming adjective, like fat cat or big pig. I’m pretty sure it’s also a reference to something called “the shocker,” a concept beloved by frat boys the world over, but I’ll spare you the definition of that one.
To call a spade a spade is based on gardening, not poker.
Sausage dog means dachsund.
It’s safe-deposit box, not safety.
When we first met, my hubby and I spent a long evening sitting on a bench by Lake Michigan (we went to college in Chicago) and discussing a wide variety of things. Neither of us remembers how it got started, but we had an extensive conversation about sea cucumbers—a slimy relative of the sea urchin that is boiled, dried, and smoked to make beche-de-mer (“worm of the sea”), used for soups in China.
Sentence sense is the ability to recognize a grammatically complete sentence. I never knew there was a real term for that ability. Is there also a rating system to analyze how strong one’s sentence sense is? Or is it more of a magical thing, like Spidey sense?
The secondary colors are green, orange, and purple.
A sun salutation is a series of 12 yoga postures performed in a single graceful flow with each movement coordinated with the breath; also called surya namaskar. I always look forward to my Wednesday night yoga class, and I’m sure we’ll be doing several repetitions of this, though I can’t guarantee they’ll be graceful. Here’s an illustration I like.
It’s too bad my instructor doesn’t teach a Friday class because I’m sure that would be a good idea post-Thanksgiving pig-out. Have you ever tried yoga? I love it and have been trying to convince hubs to try it for quite a while, but he just won’t do it. Who doesn’t need more flexibility and relaxation? I mean, really.
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Scare quotes can also be in text and are very common on the web, where you’ll find people talking about “evolution” and “global warming” and general “book learning.” It’s basically the way Dr. Evil uses air quotes, to mean “so-called” in an implicitly skeptical way. I especially love when you find internet crazies putting things in scare quotes that don’t even make sense…yesterday I went to the “grocery store” to buy a “salad” because “everyone” knows “vegetables” are supposed to be so “healthy.”
that’s an amazing pic of the surya namaskar.. mind if i steal it?? i do yoga occasionally.. it is very relaxing!:)