Monday, December 03, 2007

vespertinal fossicking

When vespertine showed up, it reminded me of my prandial entry.

vespertine (VES-per-TINE) also verpertinal (VES-per-TIE-nuhl) adj 1. Of, relating to, or occurring in the evening. 2. (botany) Opening or blooming in the evening. 3. (zoology) Becoming active in the evening, as bats and owls; crepuscular.
So what's crepuscular?
crepuscular (kri-PUS-kyuh-ler) adj 1. Of or like twilight; dim: “the period's crepuscular charm and a waning of the intense francophilia that used to shape the art market” (Wall Street Journal). 2. Zoology Becoming active at twilight or before sunrise, as do bats and certain insects and birds.
Here's one that sounds like it means something but actually means something else:
disabuse (DIS-a-BYOOZE, like dis-abuse). tr.v. To free from a falsehood or misconception: I must disabuse you of your feelings of grandeur.
If you were disabused, someone might have set you straight or even put you in your place.

fossick (FOS-ick) v. intr. 1. To search for gold, especially by reworking washings or waste piles. 2. To rummage or search around, especially for a possible profit. v. tr. To search for by or as if by rummaging.

This is a fun word--I bet you've fossicked at a yard sale.
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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. --Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance"