People are allowed to ask for cites around here, even selectively. Please refrain from throwing a tantrum if they do.
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twickster, MPSIMS moderator
Cecil on this subject What’s the meaning of the expression, “That’s the exception that proves the rule?” - The Straight Dope
"Cicero was defending one Bilbo. (No relation to Frodo.) Bilbo was a non-Roman who was accused of having been illegally granted Roman citizenship. The prosecutor argued that treaties with some non-Roman peoples explicitly prohibited them from becoming Roman citizens. The treaty with Bilbo’s homeboys had no such clause, but the prosecutor suggested one should be inferred.
Nonsense, said Cicero. “Quod si exceptio facit ne liceat, ubi non sit exceptum …” Oops, I keep forgetting how rusty folks are on subjunctives. Cicero said, if you prohibit something in certain cases, you imply that the rest of the time it’s permitted. To put it another way, the explicit statement of an exception proves that a rule to the contrary prevails otherwise."
“Proof” is still used in this sense outside of the pudding context, although the uses are somewhat specialized. You sometimes proof yeast, for example, by mixing it with water to verify that it’s still live before using it in your recipe. You proofread text. You print proofs, test copies of material to check for errors, before doing a full print run, though I don’t know that anyone does actual galley proofs anymore.
Yes, in relation to hawks. It refers to a bird beating its wings in agitation, usually in an attempt to escape. Again, it’s admittedly a pretty specialized usage.
I haven’t heard most of these phrases in ten or twenty years (and even then it was somebody trying to sound either insufferably quaint or hopelessly old fashioned), so I’m not sure they’re really being preserved. They’d probably die off if we’d all stop making reference to them in threads like this.
How about “Wherefore art thou Romeo?”
Wherefore certainly isn’t used in modern English anymore, and most people don’t realize it means “why”, as in “the whys and wherefores”.
‘Jetsam’- does it ever appear without ‘flotsam’? I’ve seen flotsam used by itself occasionally, but never t’other.
How about “boot” as in “boot the computer” to start it? It’s only a few decades old, but everyone younger than me looks at me like I’m a quaint old geezer when I say (and any other computerisms circa 1990).
Also, the somewhat related word ‘cleave’ which I use in normal conversation when warranted, has fallen into diminished use.
The thing I find fascinating about cleave, which is probably why I began using it in the first place, is it can mean to either split apart, or cling together, depending on context.
To Split: “With a mighty swing, Jack cleaves the base of the trunk in two.”
To Cling: “She cleaves to another man…” (5 points if you can guess the movie this is from, without cheating)
“Cleave” and some other examples like “fell”, are being preserved in the role-playing game jargon. Though it never means cling together there. Just did a quick Google search and maybe 1/3 - 1/4 of the top hits were RPG related.
Feelin’ Groovy.
Oh, come on, now, groovy is hep! I mean, it’s da Bomb!
I think the word is used by itself in maritime law. Jetsam is cargo or equipment that has been deliberately thrown overboard.
Dead Zone, one of Walken’s best performaces, IMHO.
No.
In fact, Earl’s cite specifically says:
At best, your etymology is “loose”, which is a polite way of saying “wrong”.
The links you provided do not support your claim, either. Only the Free Dictionary offers “beg the question” as a synonym for “sidestep” and that is a user-generated source.
“Wax” as a verb meaning “to grow” is almost never heard outside of phrases like “She waxed poetic” (or discussions of the moon’s phases).
A few years ago, there was a heated argument on USENET - someone who had never heard of the second meaning of “cleave” accused someone of using the word incorrectly, and then got more and more deranged in insisting that it was an obscure meaning that no one should know (see here if you’re interested http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/browse_frm/thread/d02dd9c3823123b0)
Well, you can also wax eloquent.
As exemplified here.
“Wont” to mean “inclined or accustomed to”, as in “as we are wont to do”. I just used that in a thread I started today.
And wax lyrical, and occasionally wax wroth, but outside those (fairly rare) stock phrases, people just don’t wax much (in the sense of “to grow”)