Reading the Merriam Webster Dictionary Backwards
September 11, 2014 Thursday
blog address: Readingthedictionarybackwards.blogspot.com
email: ishmaelish36@blogspot.com
You can find my other blog of pediatric anecdotes, poetry, artwork and literature at ishmaelish36.blogspot.com
Thus begins the mysterious "X" category…the shortest segment with only one and one-half pages.
Xanadu: [the derivation is from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's wondrous poem Kubla Khan (1789)]
a place of idyllic beauty
The poem starts,
"In Xanadu did kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree"
I have not found the pleasure dome yet…
xantho- [Greek, xanthos]
yellow
related words: 'xanthic' or 'xanthochromic'
Xanthippe noun \zan 'thip ee\ [the shrewish wife of Socrates]
an ill-tempered woman
Who knew? I do have to say that reading the dictionary backwards has made for some interesting conversations. I was listening to NPR and the puzzle maestro gave a clue…'Who was Socrate's wife?"
I immediately answered, "Xanthippe…of course." It was so obvious. It rolled off my tongue…because I had just read it.
My brother asked me about a word or concept in conversation and I gave my now standard joke..."I'm on the 'r's'…I'm not in the "G's" yet. Ask me later."
One last anecdote: similarly, while we (four siblings) at the request of our loving parents were discussing who would like to inherit which of their major pieces, I felt compelled, having read the "U's," to tell them about ultimogeniture…the opposite of primogeniture, i.e. the youngest son inherits everything (apologies to the the feminists, of whom I am one).
Xanadu: [the derivation is from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's wondrous poem Kubla Khan (1789)]
a place of idyllic beauty
The poem starts,
"In Xanadu did kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree"
I have not found the pleasure dome yet…
xantho- [Greek, xanthos]
yellow
related words: 'xanthic' or 'xanthochromic'
Xanthippe noun \zan 'thip ee\ [the shrewish wife of Socrates]
an ill-tempered woman
Who knew? I do have to say that reading the dictionary backwards has made for some interesting conversations. I was listening to NPR and the puzzle maestro gave a clue…'Who was Socrate's wife?"
I immediately answered, "Xanthippe…of course." It was so obvious. It rolled off my tongue…because I had just read it.
My brother asked me about a word or concept in conversation and I gave my now standard joke..."I'm on the 'r's'…I'm not in the "G's" yet. Ask me later."
One last anecdote: similarly, while we (four siblings) at the request of our loving parents were discussing who would like to inherit which of their major pieces, I felt compelled, having read the "U's," to tell them about ultimogeniture…the opposite of primogeniture, i.e. the youngest son inherits everything (apologies to the the feminists, of whom I am one).
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