Unusual or rare words

[Oldtimer]

Cul-de-sac is not rude at all. An impasse is a road/pathway that leads to the end of the road; a cul-de-sac doesn’t have to be a pathway, you could be in a labyrinth, in a cave, or anywhere you’ve taken the wrong turn to get to your destination. In other words an impasse is always a cul-de-sac, the reverse is not true. In practice they are considered synonymous.
Indeed, dead end in my understanding fits both translations.

Thank you for clearing that up for me.

 

[noddy]

I know the term in music.

Same here - came up when trying to work out what a hemiola is, and other metrical firkery

 

[noddy]

I discovered today that a sixteenth century word for a kestrel was a windfucker or fuckwind.

Windfucker | Haggard Hawks

(n.) an archaic name for the kestrelLast week, a sweary fact about kestrels turned out to be not only HH’s most popular fact of the week, but one of our most popular facts ever. Back in the sixteenth century, kestrels were known as windfuckers and fuckwinds. Having said that however, there’s a...

www.haggardhawks.com

I wonder if Gerard Manley Hopkins knew that

 

[E. By Gum]

Subinfeudatory.

 

[MaC]

Flocculation.

 

[CaptainBeaky]

Flocculation.

Common usage, surely? Certainly in waste water treatment circles? Flocculants are a big part of that, separating solid suspended shite from soluble shite.

 

[MaC]

I know of it because the alum I use as a mordant is also used to flocculate the peat particles before the water from the Daer Reservoir hits the filter screens.

 

[Saint-Just]

In winemaking, egg white is used as flocculent for red wines (to limit the amount of tannins and the harshness associated with them), and casein for white wines, to limit oxidisation. The process is called fining ("collage" in French)

 

[noddy]

There is, apparently, a word for the sensation when you put your foot on the floor, expecting there to be another stair, only there isn't one. Problem is, I can't remember it, it was in German and I have a strong suspicion was made up anyway.

 

[Jaggededge]

Stepennottheren. ?

 

[BorderReiver]

There is, apparently, a word for the sensation when you put your foot on the floor, expecting there to be another stair, only there isn't one. Problem is, I can't remember it, it was in German and I have a strong suspicion was made up anyway.

Two words, "Phantom step" or "Phantom stair".

 

[Greg]

I was walking to the beach on Saturday and I was speculating whether the pavement we were on was added as a result of a 'desire line', a concept rather than a word but seems to fit the spirit of the thread as no one I was with had heard of them; the name for the trodden in path ways that people use instead of formal paths.

Michigan State university decided to formalise the desire lines on their campus:

 

[BorderReiver]

I was walking to the beach on Saturday and I was speculating whether the pavement we were on was added as a result of a 'desire line', a concept rather than a word but seems to fit the spirit of the thread as no one I was with had heard of them; the name for the trodden in path ways that people use instead of formal paths.

Michigan State university decided to formalise the desire lines on their campus:

This concept is taking a long time to catch on here.

Thank you for the name.

 

[Oldtimer]

I'd never heard the name but when our college carried out re-landscaping of the grounds following a building programme, they didn't put in any footpaths for a year then paved where students had worn paths when walking between buildings.

 

[noddy]

They dust did that in a big California campus … desire lines they called them, maybe. Shortcuts really

 

[MaC]

We can find old footpaths even thousands of years later, just by the compaction of the soil.

The National Library of Scotland has a footpaths project that allows folks to scan old maps for them.

Finding lost footpaths using GB1900 – Data Foundry

data.nls.uk

 

[Saint-Just]

‘quisquilious’: an adjective for ‘utter rubbish’ that sounds so beautiful no one will know what you really mean.(again, credit: S. Dent)

 

[Oldtimer]

As to people not knowing what you mean, I find that "Je ne donne pas d'un singe, moi" comes in useful in France.

 

[MaC]

Selcouth

 

[E. By Gum]

??? Have to Google it

 

[CaptainBeaky]

Selcouth

That's a strange one...

 

[Saint-Just]

Selcouth

Should I amend the thread title?

 

[Oldtimer]

Selcouth

That's a strange word.

 

[bushwacker]

That's a strange word.

It is probably an accurate description of us lot.

 

[BorderReiver]