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Runcible
"Runcible" is a nonsense word invented by Edward Lear. The word appears (as an adjective) several times in his works, most famously as the "runcible spoon" used by the Owl and the Pussycat. The word "runcible" was apparently one of Lear's favourite inventions, appearing in several of his works in reference to a number of different objects. In his verse self-portrait, ''The Self-Portrait of the Laureate of Nonsense'', it is noted that "he weareth a runcible hat". Other poems include mention of a "runcible cat", a "runcible goose" (in the sense of "silly person"), a "runcible wall", and "the Rural Runcible Raven". Origin Edward Lear's best-known poem, ''The Owl and the Pussy-Cat'', published in 1870, includes the passage: Another mention of this piece of cutlery appears in Edward Lear's alphabetical illustrations ''Twenty-Six Nonsense Rhymes and Pictures''. Its entry for 'D' reads Lear often illustrated his own poems, and he drew a picture of the "dolomphious duck" holding ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Lear
Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised. His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to make illustrations of birds and animals; making coloured drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; and as a (minor) illustrator of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poems. As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes and alphabets. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennyson's poetry. Biography Early years Lear was born into a middle-class family at Holloway, North London, the penultimate of 21 children (and youngest to survive) of Ann Clark Skerrett and Jeremiah Lear, a stockbroker formerly working for the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Owl And The Pussycat
"The Owl and the Pussy-cat" is a nonsense poem by Edward Lear, first published in 1870 in the American magazine '' Our Young Folks: an Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls'' and again the following year in Lear's own book ''Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets''. Lear wrote the poem for a three-year-old girl, Janet Symonds, the daughter of Lear's friend and fellow poet John Addington Symonds and his wife Catherine Symonds. The term "runcible", used for the phrase "runcible spoon", was invented for the poem. Synopsis "The Owl and the Pussy-cat" features four anthropomorphic animals – an owl, a cat, a pig, and a turkey – and tells the story of the love between the title characters who marry in the land "where the Bong-tree grows". Unfinished sequel Portions of an unfinished sequel, "The Children of the Owl and the Pussy-cat" were published first posthumously, during 1938. The children are part fowl and part cat, and love to eat mice. The family live by places ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Owl And The Pussy-Cat
"The Owl and the Pussy-cat" is a nonsense poem by Edward Lear, first published in 1870 in the American magazine '' Our Young Folks: an Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls'' and again the following year in Lear's own book ''Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets''. Lear wrote the poem for a three-year-old girl, Janet Symonds, the daughter of Lear's friend and fellow poet John Addington Symonds and his wife Catherine Symonds. The term " runcible", used for the phrase "runcible spoon", was invented for the poem. Synopsis "The Owl and the Pussy-cat" features four anthropomorphic animals – an owl, a cat, a pig, and a turkey – and tells the story of the love between the title characters who marry in the land "where the Bong-tree grows". Unfinished sequel Portions of an unfinished sequel, "The Children of the Owl and the Pussy-cat" were published first posthumously, during 1938. The children are part fowl and part cat, and love to eat mice. The family live by pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roncevaux
Roncesvalles ( , ; eu, Orreaga ; an, Ronzesbals ; french: Roncevaux ) is a small village and municipality in Navarre, northern Spain. It is situated on the small river Urrobi at an altitude of some in the Pyrenees, about from the French border as the crow flies, or by road. History Battle of Roncevaux Roncesvalles is famous in history and legend for the death of Roland in 778, during the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, when Charlemagne's rearguard was destroyed by Basque tribes. When a party of horsemen from the Kingdom of Navarre arrived at the Duchy of Burgundy in 1439 to negotiate Prince Charles of Navarre's marriage to Agnes of Cleves, the Duke of Burgundy's niece, the prior of Roncesvalles was their chief ambassador. He was described as a "noble knight". The small collegiate church contains several curious relics associated with Roland. The battle is said to have been fought in the valley known as Valcarlos, which is now occupied by a hamlet bearing the same name, and in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Altemus Company
The Henry Altemus Company was a publishing company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for almost a century, from 1842 to 1936. History The firm started as a bookbindery. In 1863, Altemus was awarded a patent for a particular type of binding for photographic albums. These albums were huge sellers for Altemus and were the mainstay of their publishing business until the mid-1880s. The albums were supplanted by Bibles in the 1880s. Starting in 1889, books were published with the Henry Altemus imprint. Like other publishers of its era, it published a wide variety of titles, in a wide variety of formats. The company published over two hundred series. These series can be seen listed at henryaltemus.com. More than 95% of all the published works of Henry Altemus were in series form. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merriam-Webster
Merriam-Webster, Inc. is an American company that publishes reference books and is especially known for its dictionaries. It is the oldest dictionary publisher in the United States. In 1831, George and Charles Merriam founded the company as G & C Merriam Co. in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1843, after Noah Webster died, the company bought the rights to ''An American Dictionary of the English Language'' from Webster's estate. All Merriam-Webster dictionaries trace their lineage to this source. In 1964, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. acquired Merriam-Webster, Inc. as a subsidiary. The company adopted its current name in 1982. History Noah Webster In 1806, Webster published his first dictionary, ''A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language''. In 1807 Webster started two decades of intensive work to expand his publication into a fully comprehensive dictionary, ''An American Dictionary of the English Language''. To help him trace the etymology of words, Webster learne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Notes & Queries
Notes & Queries is a weekly column in ''The Guardian'' newspaper which publishes readers' questions together with (often humorous) answers submitted by other readers. The column first appeared on 13 November 1989, and was the idea of leader writer and columnist David McKie and Alan Rusbridger, then newly appointed as features editor of the paper. David McKie says he was inspired by seeing an information exchange notice board outside the poetry library at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Although originally envisaged as a serious column, ''Notes & Queries'' quickly became known for the bizarre and whimsical nature of its questions and the wit and humour of its answers. Spin offs from the column include six books and two BBC television series. It has also given rise to various imitations and parodies. The very first question to appear in ''Notes & Queries'' was: As well as serious answers, one reply was "Concrete one or the other", thereby setting the tone for subsequent a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited, Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Straight Dope
"The Straight Dope" was a question-and-answer newspaper column written under the pseudonym Cecil Adams. Contributions were made by multiple authors, and it was illustrated (also pseudonymously) by Slug Signorino. It was first published in 1973 in the ''Chicago Reader'' as well as in print syndication nationally in the United States, and on a website with the same name. On more than one occasion, the authors (i.e. Cecil Adams) were forced to retract or modify an answer when confronted by the readers. Following the column of June 27, 2018, the "Straight Dope" column was placed on hiatus, with no decision made regarding its future. The website and associated forum continue to be active. Chicago's public radio station, WBEZ, has purchased Sun-Times Media (STM), which owns the Straight Dope, including the SDMB. Name and tagline The column derives its name from the American idiom meaning roughly "the true information; the full story" and covers many subjects, including history, scienc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nonsense Word
A nonsense word, unlike a sememe, may have no definition. Nonsense words can be classified depending on their orthographic and phonetic similarity with (meaningful) words. If it can be pronounced according to a language's phonotactics, it is a pseudoword. Nonsense words are used in literature for poetic or humorous effect. Proper names of real or fictional entities are sometimes nonsense words. Nonsense words are also used by researchers and educators as a tool to assess a learner's phonetic decoding ability. The words follow phonetic rules but have no meaning. A stunt word is a nonsense word used for a special effect, or to attract attention, as part of a performance. Such words are a feature of the work of Dr. Seuss ("Sometimes I am quite certain there's a Jertain in the curtain"). The ability to infer the (hypothetical) meaning of a nonsense word from context is used to test for brain damage. See also *"Gostak" *"Jabberwocky" *"Runcible" *Meaning (linguistics) * Nonce wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Roncevaux Pass
The Battle of Roncevaux Pass ( French and English spelling, ''Roncesvalles'' in Spanish, ''Orreaga'' in Basque) in 778 saw a large force of Basques ambush a part of Charlemagne's army in Roncevaux Pass, a high mountain pass in the Pyrenees on the present border between France and Spain, after his invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. The Basque attack was a retaliation for Charlemagne's destruction of the city walls of their capital, Pamplona. As the Franks retreated across the Pyrenees back to Francia, the rearguard of Frankish lords was cut off, stood its ground, and was wiped out. Among those killed in the battle was Roland, a Frankish commander. His death elevated him and the paladins, the foremost warriors of Charlemagne's court, into legend, becoming the quintessential role model for knights and also greatly influencing the code of chivalry in the Middle Ages. There are numerous written works about the battle, some of which change and exaggerate events. The battle is r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teaspoon
A teaspoon (tsp.) is an item of cutlery. It is a small spoon that can be used to stir a cup of tea or coffee, or as a tool for measuring volume. The size of teaspoons ranges from about . For cooking purposes and dosing of medicine, a teaspoonful is defined as , and standard measuring spoons are used. Cutlery A teaspoon is a small spoon suitable for stirring and sipping the contents of a cup of tea or coffee, or adding a portion of loose sugar to it. These spoons have heads more or less oval in shape. Teaspoons are a common part of a place setting. Teaspoons with longer handles, such as iced tea spoons, are commonly used also for ice cream desserts or floats. Similar spoons include the tablespoon and the dessert spoon, the latter intermediate in size between a teaspoon and a tablespoon, used in eating dessert and sometimes soup or cereals. Much less common is the coffee spoon, which is a smaller version of the teaspoon, intended for use with the small type of coffee cup. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
