Democrazy

Friday, April 18th, 2025 05:35 am
darkoshi: (Default)
Another typo which I sort of like.
Democracy gone crazy.

Techniculty

Monday, April 7th, 2025 02:47 pm
darkoshi: (Default)
That is a typo I caught myself writing, but actually it seems like a pretty nice abbreviation.

Techniculty: Technical difficulty
darkoshi: (Default)
I came across this song on Youtube: The Cover Girls - Show Me Hearthrob Mix + Drumapella

The video shows an image of the vinyl record listing two separate songs on it, "Show Me (Heartthrob Mix)" and "Drumapella". I was curious what the 2nd song sounded like and wasn't clear if the video included it or not.

So I searched on that song title, "Drumapella", and was confused that the results listed many other songs by other artists with that word in their title. Searching on "what is drumapella" didn't give an answer. Wiktionary doesn't have the word listed either.

So I asked Copilot. This was the response:
"Drumapella" typically refers to a musical track or piece that combines the elements of a drumline (or drum track) with a cappella singing, which means singing without instrumental accompaniment. It's essentially a fusion of rhythmic drumming and vocal harmonies.
It’s an innovative way to blend percussive beats with vocal performances, creating a unique and dynamic sound.


Oh! So, "drum" + "a capella" = "drumapella". It makes sense.

Then I asked Copilot "What are some webpages that explain that?" The reply:
I couldn't find specific webpages that explain "drumapella" in detail, but there are some YouTube videos that showcase drumapella performances. These videos might give you a better understanding of how drumapella works...

It then gave links to 3 videos of songs with "drumapella" in the titles, none of whose descriptions explain what the word means. All 3 songs are from the same YouTube account, DjRubyEve. That account has been posting several remixes of famous songs per day, so I suspect the account uses AI to generate the remixes.

Other Youtube accounts have also posted "drumapella" songs, however. Some of these aren't drums + acapella singing, but rather only drums - a different usage/meaning of the word, which also makes sense.

A 1998 album with remixes of Madonna's song "Frozen" also has two "Drumapella" versions, so it is not a new word.

I am impressed that an LLM was able to figure out (presumably on its own, since I didn't find the word defined anywhere) that drumapella might be a combination of drums and acapella, especially as that didn't even occur to me until the LLM mentioned it.

.

I have been turning to the LLMs for answers more and more often when my web searches prove unilluminating.

.

When I originally searched on "what is drumapella", this Reddit page was one of the results: Is there a musical term for "a capella but percussion is allowed"?
I glossed over that page, because when I searched it, "drumapella" was not found. But now that I expanded all the collapsed comments in the thread, I found this one reply:
Dub?
”Drumcapella”?


So maybe the LLM partially got the answer from there even though "Drumcapella" has an extra "C" in it compared to "Drumapella".
darkoshi: (Default)
Wiktionary: till
Etymology: From Middle English til, from Northern Old English til, from or akin to Old Norse til (“to, till”); both from Proto-Germanic *til (“to, toward”), from Proto-Germanic *tilą (“planned point in time”). Not a shortening of until; rather, until comes from till with the prefix un- (“against; toward; up to”) also found in unto.


Merriam Webster: Until, till, 'til, or 'till?
...till is not a shortening of until. It actually predates the longer word.

Till has been in use in English since the 9th century; the earliest sense of the word was the same as the preposition to. It has been used as a conjunction meaning "until" since the 12th century. Until has been in use as both a preposition and a conjunction for almost as long.


I prefer to write "til" with a single L and no apostrophe because it is easier, and because "till" looks like something a farmer does, or something dealing with money. There's no other word "til" so why shouldn't it be acceptable that way?

saturnine rhymes

Thursday, May 30th, 2024 05:05 am
darkoshi: (Default)
I watched a course on Generative AI Prompting today where one of the hands-on tasks was to get ChatGPT to generate rhyming questions and answers from a paragraph taken from Wikipedia.

I took this paragraph on Saturn:
Saturn's interior is thought to be composed of a rocky core, surrounded by a deep layer of metallic hydrogen, an intermediate layer of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium, and finally, a gaseous outer layer. Saturn has a pale yellow hue due to ammonia crystals in its upper atmosphere. An electrical current within the metallic hydrogen layer is thought to give rise to Saturn's planetary magnetic field, which is weaker than Earth's, but which has a magnetic moment 580 times that of Earth due to Saturn's larger size. Saturn's magnetic field strength is around one-twentieth of Jupiter's. The outer atmosphere is generally bland and lacking in contrast, although long-lived features can appear. Wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 kilometres per hour (1,100 miles per hour).


I couldn't think of any rhymes from that myself, to provide as "few-shot" examples. So I simply asked ChatGPT to generate rhyming Q&As from the text.

It did pretty good; I liked these rhymes the best:

Q: Why does Saturn have a yellowish glow?
A: Ammonia crystals in clouds, you know,
Give it a pale hue, a soft show,
In the upper atmosphere, where they grow.

Q: What's the look of Saturn's outer layer?
A: Bland and lacking contrast there,
Yet long-lived features can appear,
In the atmosphere's drifting air.

a daily Waffle

Saturday, April 6th, 2024 04:06 am
darkoshi: (Default)
The zany example sentences are what I enjoy most about the daily Waffle word game. Getting to read them after solving the puzzle is always a treat.

From today:
"R2D2 was the naughtiest robot on set; they had to bleep out all of his lines."

From before:
"I tried a cow joke, but it just went in one ear and out the udder."

"I had a dream that I had invented a new colour; but it was just a pigment of my imagination."

Many puns. Some head scratchers.

Oh! And did you know that the word "robot" comes from Czech? It also comes from the same root as does the German word "Arbeit" (work).
darkoshi: (Default)
Wiktionary: kayfabe
(professional wrestling) The act, situation, or code of portraying staged events, performances, rivalries, etc as authentic or spontaneous.
(figurative) Similar fakery or suspension of disbelief in other contexts.


Wikipedia: kayfabe

I came across the term on this page:
James Holzhauer Delivered the Greatest ‘Jeopardy!’ Burn of All Time, which reposted one of James' tweets:
Thanks to [profile] kenjennings and [profile] bradrutter for a hell of a match. Ken and Brad are great [personal profile] jeopardy players but even better people, and have been incredibly good sports about my kayfabe feuding and trash talk.

That confirms suspicions I've had after hearing those type of contestant interactions a few times on Jeopardy, that (while amusing) they were likely to have been scripted.
darkoshi: (Default)
While reading someone's profile, I realized for possibly the first time that the German word for a sweater, "Pullover", is based on the English words "pull over". I may not have ever thought about the word in that way before. It was just a German word to me, sort of like "palaver" is a just an English word if you don't know its etymology.

I'm also not sure I've heard it used as a word like that in English before (which helps explain why I didn't make the connection), even though wiktionary lists it as English.

.

Updated to add:
I just remembered this too: Germans often use a short form of the word, Pulli.

tippy tappy

Monday, July 31st, 2023 04:30 pm
darkoshi: (Default)
I am amused at myself for the term I just used when speaking to my dog about me using my laptop:
"doing my little tippy-tappy".


Tippy-tappy also describes the sound of her paws when she walks across wood floors. It's a cute sound except when you keep hearing it when you're trying to fall asleep. But from what I've read, it indicates her nails are too long. It's difficult for me to cut her nails as she squirms so much and pulls her paws away when I try. Also, the last time I did, I cut one nail too far and it started bleeding. That made me feel bad. Before I try again, I plan to buy some styptic powder to stop the bleeding in case it happens again.

To get her quicks to recede to make them less likely to get hurt and bleed, I will need to cut her nails fairly often, little by little (some tips I found are listed below). At her annual vet checkup last week, they trimmed her nails for us, so that's a good start.

Dog Grooming: How To Trim Nails On Difficult Dogs
(Wrap dog in towel like a burrito, but with paws sticking out. So actually, more like an enchilada.)

How To SUCCESSFULLY Recede The Quicks (Watch If You Have Struggled!)
(She says to cut around the quick from the front, top, and sides. That way it will recede.
Make sure the clippers are sharp, not dull, so they can slice thru the nails rather than crush them.)

How often should you do a dog's nails to recede the quicks? | ADVICE FROM A DOG GROOMER
@2:48 photo of nails before & after trim - shows them ground from the top edge not just the bottom.
She grinds them every 2 weeks for normal trimming.
@4:45 even 3 sessions 5 weeks apart made the quicks recede.

..

Note to self: To include an "at symbol" (@) in my posts before another character, and to avoid it being interpreted as a mention and replaced with a user head icon and invalid link, I should use the HTML code: @
"commat" stands for commercial at.

types of cars

Friday, July 14th, 2023 02:19 am
darkoshi: (Default)
Today I learned that in Britain, a sedan is called a saloon; a station wagon is called an estate; a coupe is pronounced "coo-pay".
Also, a "cabriolet" is a convertible.

Types of cars (visual chart/guide)
Another visual
Video about different car types (British)

passion, enthusiasm

Saturday, March 25th, 2023 05:36 am
darkoshi: (Default)
German "Leiden" means "suffering".
German "Leidenshaft" means "passion".

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=passion
passion (n.)
Origin and meaning of passion
c. 1200, "the sufferings of Christ on the Cross; the death of Christ," from Old French passion "Christ's passion, physical suffering" (10c.), from Late Latin passionem (nominative passio) "suffering, enduring," from past-participle stem of Latin pati "to endure, undergo, experience," a word of uncertain origin. The notion is "that which must be endured."
The sense was extended to the sufferings of martyrs, and suffering and pain generally, by early 13c.
...
The specific meaning "intense or vehement emotion or desire" is attested from late 14c., from Late Latin use of passio to render Greek pathos "suffering," also "feeling, emotion."


German "Begeisterung" means "enthusiasm". (Not "fascination" as I always thought.)
But wait, Google Translate does show that one meaning of "begeistern" is "to fascinate". My paper German/English books don't even list that meaning. So I wonder why the noun "Begeisterung" wouldn't also mean fascination.

words - satiety

Thursday, December 29th, 2022 01:51 am
darkoshi: (Default)
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/satiety

Based on how satiate is pronounced, I always thought satiety was pronounced "say-she-eye-itty". If I'd known that was wrong, I might have guessed "say-shy-itty".

But no, I just heard it on TV (NOVA - S47 E6 "The Truth About Fat"), and the correct pronunciation is "suh-tye-itty".

heirloom-type words

Wednesday, December 21st, 2022 05:35 pm
darkoshi: (Default)
Is there a word that indicates that something has been in the family, or in your own possession, for a long time? Sort of like "heirloom", but not necessary involving multiple generations nor even multiple people? For example, to distinguish a Christmas ornament you've had for ten or twenty years versus a brand new one, or one that you've only had a few years?

Perhaps a word for a quality an object obtains in increasing quantity with age and familiarity?
(and perhaps with or without fondness... there could be ornaments you've had a long time, which you've never been particularly fond of, or not as fond of as others.)

Sometimes there are objects I've had a long time, but don't remember having gotten, so they are low on familiarity - like when you find something in the back of a drawer you must have bought some time ago and completely forgotten about.
darkoshi: (Default)
Tongue twister: Indubitably undebatable; undebatably indubitable.

(Despite "Indubitably, my dear Watson"*, I have a hard time remembering the doob syllable should be accented.)

Heard on TV: "Feeling buoyed".
(I believe it was said in regards to a town receiving support after the recent hurricane.)
The speaker pronounced it "feeling boo-ied", which is an accepted pronunciation for the word, but that sounds similar to "booed" to me. As "booed" and "buoyed" have rather opposite meanings, it seems a bad word choice to me. I would pronounce it more like "boid" or "bwoid", which wouldn't have the same problem.

Word! Word up! (interjections)
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/25086/what-are-the-meaning-and-possible-origin-of-word-and-word-up


*It seems that phrase doesn't even occur anywhere in The Complete Sherlock Holmes. There are many instances of "my dear Watson", but none of "indubitable" or "indubitably". Was the phrase used in one of the TV series then, or where did it originate?

puddle jumper

Saturday, November 12th, 2022 02:51 am
darkoshi: (Default)
Looking at a map, I saw a "Puddle Jumper Lane" and thought that was a cute name, thinking of someone who jumps over or into puddles.

Then I did a search on "puddle jumper" and found it is a term used for small aircraft (which may also be called "puddle hoppers").

Interestingly (since cars drive through puddles rather than doing any jumping), puddle jumper was used to refer to cars before it was used for airplanes:
What is the origin of the term “puddle jumper” for a smaller commercial airplane? (quora)
What is the origin of the term “puddle jumper” for a smaller commercial airplane? (reddit)
darkoshi: (Default)
I wondered if there was a word for "the vertical indentation of skin under the center of the nose". Yes, Philtrum.

About 2 years ago when looking in the mirror, I started noticing that my philtrum looked narrower and/or deeper than it used to. It was more shadowed inside. The change was slightly disconcerting.

It may be related to aging. This page mentions philtrums getting longer as you age:
How your philtrum gives your age away

While searching for the word, I came across this interesting discussion:
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/166884/what-is-the-name-of-the-area-of-skin-between-the-nose-and-the-upper-lip-mouth

It says that from an anatomical or medical sense, what I'd call the lips (or the upper and lower lip) is called vermilion, and the skin above and below those lips is called your upper and lower lip. So the terms "lip", "upper lip", and "lower lip" are ambiguous.

Per its etymology, philtrum originally meant "love charm".
darkoshi: (Default)
While checking Task Manager..
"Animalware! Did it just f'n say 'Animalware'??"

::Looks again::
"Oh, Antimalware, ok."

raring to go

Monday, July 4th, 2022 01:46 pm
darkoshi: (Default)
This expression was familiar, but I may not have seen it in writing before today.

Raring: adjective Informal.
very eager or anxious; enthusiastic: raring to go.

I expected it to be spelled "rearing to go", similar to the phrase "to rear up" (like a horse)

In fact, "raring" does derive from the term "rear" as in "rear up":
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=raring

In fact, both spellings are acceptable:
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/In-a-Word/2020/0723/Are-horses-rearing-to-go-or-raring-to-go

Based on the number of search results listed by Google, the "raring" spelling is more than 5 times as common, however.

heuer = this year

Saturday, June 25th, 2022 03:20 am
darkoshi: (Default)
https://www.wordsense.eu/heuer/

adverb (regional, southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland)
heuer: this year

Example: Der Münchner Christkindlmarkt fällt heuer aus. (GMX, 30 October 2020)


Note to self: It does not mean "heutzutage" (nowadays).


https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/heuer
Etymology:
From Middle High German hiure, from Old High German hiuro, hiuru, from hiu (“in this”) +‎ jāru (“year”).
darkoshi: (Default)
unlikely words

dompt

yes, really dompt

serpopard (see image at first link, and again with more info on that artifact here)

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