LEA (lexicology)
sub for Dr Vorel
7.4.2015
1. Words from Alice Walker's short story Really, Doesn't Crime Pay? p. 183
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arbor 1 ¦ ɑrbər¦
noun
an axle or spindle on which something revolves.
• a device holding a tool in a lathe.
ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from French arbre ‘tree, axis.’ The spelling change was due to association with Latin arbor ‘tree.’
arbor 2 ¦ ɑrbər¦ ( Brit. arbour)
noun
a shady garden alcove with sides and a roof formed by trees or climbing plants trained over a wooden framework.
ORIGIN Middle English (also denoting a lawn or flower bed): from Old French erbier, from erbe ‘grass, herb,’ from Latin herba.
The phonetic change to ar- (common in words having er- before a consonant) was assisted by association with Latin arbor ‘tree.’
Axis mundi = the Tree of Life (Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil)
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peculiar ¦pə kjuljər¦
adjective
1 strange or odd; unusual : his accent was a peculiar mixture of Cockney and Irish.
• [ predic. ] informal slightly and indefinably unwell; faint or dizzy : I felt a little peculiar for a while, but I'm absolutely fine now.
2 [ predic. ] ( peculiar to) belonging exclusively to : the air hung with an antiseptic aroma peculiar to hospitals.
• formal particular; special : any attempt to explicate the theme is bound to run into peculiar difficulties.
noun chiefly Brit.
a parish or church exempt from the jurisdiction of the diocese in which it lies, through being subject to the jurisdiction of the monarch
or an archbishop.
ORIGIN late Middle English (in the sense [particular, special] ): from Latin peculiaris ‘of private property,’ from peculium
‘property,’ from pecu ‘cattle’ (cattle being private property). The sense [odd] dates from the early 17th cent.
Old Peculier is a brand of British beer. The brewery is located in a diocese that had special ecclesiastical status.
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occupy ¦ ɑkjə pa ¦
verb ( -pies, -pied) [ trans. ]
1 reside or have one's place of business in (a building) : the apartment she occupies in Manhattan.
• fill or take up (a space or time) : two long windows occupied almost the whole wall.
• be situated in or at (a place or position in a system or hierarchy) : on the corporate ladder, they occupy the lowest rungs.
• hold (a position or job).
2 (often be occupied with/in) fill or preoccupy (the mind or thoughts) : her mind was occupied with alarming questions.
• keep (someone) busy and active : Sarah occupied herself taking the coffee cups over to the sink | [as adj. ] ( occupied) tasks that kept her
occupied for the remainder of the afternoon.
3 take control of (a place, esp. a country) by military conquest or settlement : Syria was occupied by France under a League of Nations mandate.
• enter, take control of, and stay in (a building) illegally and often forcibly, esp. as a form of protest : the workers occupied the factory.
DERIVATIVES
occupier ¦ ɑkjə pa (ə)r¦ noun
ORIGIN Middle English : formed irregularly from Old French occuper, from Latin occupare ‘seize.’ A now obsolete vulgar sense
[have sexual relations with] seems to have led to the general avoidance of the word in the 17th and most of the 18th cent.
“Occupy movement” is a loose term for international protest groups which are directed against social or economic inequality. The
movements model themselves after the New York City-based movement network called Occupy Wall Street. These protests are ongoing
all across the world.
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wig 1 ¦w g¦
noun
a covering for the head made of real or artificial hair, typically worn by people for adornment or by people trying to conceal their
baldness or in England by judges and barristers in courts of law.
DERIVATIVES
wigged ¦w gd¦ adjective
wigless adjective
ORIGIN late 17th cent.: shortening of periwig .
wig 2 ¦w g¦
verb ( wigged ¦w gd¦, wigging ¦ w g ŋ¦) [ trans. ] Brit., informal dated
rebuke (someone ) severely : I had often occasion to wig him for getting drunk.
PHRASAL VERBS
wig out informal become deliriously excited; go completely wild.
1
ORIGIN early 19th cent.: apparently from wig , perhaps from bigwig and associated with a rebuke given by a person in authority.
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shtick ¦ʃt k¦
noun informal
an attention-getting or theatrical routine, gimmick, or talent.
ORIGIN 1960s: Yiddish, from German Stück ‘piece.’
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busk 1 ¦bəsk¦
verb [ intrans. ]
play music or otherwise perform for voluntary donations in the street or in subways : the group began by busking on Philadelphia sidewalks |
[as n. ] ( busking) busking was a real means of living.
• ( busk it) informal improvise
.
DERIVATIVES
busker ¦ bəskər¦ noun
ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from obsolete French busquer ‘seek,’ from Italian buscare or Spanish buscar, of Germanic origin.
Originally in nautical use in the sense [cruise about, tack,] the term later meant [go around selling,] hence [go around performing]
(mid 19th cent.).