Word of the Day
claddagh
noun
a ring in the form of two hands clasping a crowned heart, given in friendship or love.
More about claddagh
The claddagh ring is Irish in name and origin. Claddagh in Irish means “shore” and is also the name of a fishing village on the western edge of Galway City, on the west coast of Ireland. The rings, with the design of two hands (friendship) clasping a heart (love), surmounted by a crown (loyalty), symbolized betrothal or marriage and were used at least as early as 1700. Claddagh entered English in the 19th century.
how is claddagh used?
One of the rings was becoming visible thanks to the bright light. “Are those hands?” “It’s a claddagh.”
Taking note of the thick band of sterling silver, I saw alternating squares of intricately engraved pictures: one was a Scottish thistle, one a Celtic knot, one a raven and the last I recognized because of my studies: a Claddagh: two hands clasping a heart together.
scry
verb
to use divination to discover hidden knowledge or future events, especially by means of a crystal ball.
More about scry
Aphesis is the loss of an unstressed vowel or syllable from the beginning of a word, as descry becoming scry. The adjective formed from aphesis is aphetic. Descry means “to see something unclear or distant by looking carefully”; scry has a narrower meaning, “to use divination to learn hidden events or the future, especially by gazing into a crystal ball or water.” Scry was obsolete by the 16th century, but it was revived in the 19th century by Andrew Lang (1844–1912), the Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, anthropologist, and collector of folk and fairy tales.
how is scry used?
Merlin could scry in any clear or shiny surface. Even now he had a basin of water ready at this elbow for watching his boy king.
And my lord had a great mirror where he wanted me to scry–to see the future.
nepenthe
noun
anything inducing a pleasurable sensation of forgetfulness, especially of sorrow or trouble.
More about nepenthe
In Greek and English nepenthe and pathos are opposites. Greek nēpenthḗs is an adjective meaning “banishing pain, without sorrow.” Nēpenthḗs breaks down to the (unusual) negative prefix nē- (ultimately from the same Proto-Indo-European source as English un-), the stem penth- of the noun pénthos “pain,” and the adjective suffix -ḗs, -és. The Greek nouns pénthos and páthos “sensation, suffering” are derivatives of the complicated verb páschein, all three words showing variants of the Greek root penth-, ponth-, path- “to suffer, experience.” Nepenthe entered English in the 16th century.
how is nepenthe used?
There must have been in him a remarkable capacity for forgetfulness; he might seem to have drunk every morning a nepenthe that drowned in oblivion all his yesterdays.
Of course, he was feverish and in great pain, despite the draughts of nepenthe he was given …