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The Swedish cunning woman Gertrud Ahlgren of Gotland (1782–1874), drawing by Pehr Arvid Säve 1870. In Scandinavia, the klok gumma ("wise woman") or klok gubbe ("wise man"), and collectively De kloka ("The Wise ones"), as they were known in Swedish, were usually elder members of the community who acted as folk healers and midwives as well as using folk magic such as magic rhymes. [11]
The sides of a ship. To describe a ship as "on her beam ends" may mean the vessel is literally on her side and possibly about to capsize; more often, the phrase means the vessel is listing 45 degrees or more. beam reach Sailing with the wind coming across the vessel's beam. This is normally the fastest point of sail for a fore-and-aft-rigged ...
Antihero is a literary term that can be understood as standing in opposition to the traditional hero, i.e., one with high social status, well liked by the general populace. Past the surface, scholars have additional requirements for the antihero. The "Racinian" antihero is defined by three factors. The first is that the antihero is doomed to ...
A definition states the meaning of a word using other words. This is sometimes challenging. Common dictionaries contain lexical descriptive definitions, but there are various types of definition – all with different purposes and focuses. A definition is a statement of the meaning of a term (a word, phrase, or other set of symbols).
The origins of the word pickaninny (and its alternative spellings picaninny and piccaninny) are disputed; it may derive from the Portuguese term for a small child, pequenino, meaning "tiny". [3] The term was apparently used in the seventeenth century by slaves in the West Indies to affectionately refer to a child of any race. [4]
Slay is a slang colloquialism that possibly originated during the 1600s, but gained its current LGBT connotation in the 1970s from ball culture.Originally having a meaning similar to "that joke was killer", slay has since gained a definition meaning being impressed or term of agreement.
An adaptation of the Old English word atter meaning "poison", and closely related to the word adder for the venomous crossed viper. Lexicographers William and Mary Morris in Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins (1977) favour this derivation because "mad as a hatter" was known before hat making was a recognized trade. [ 1 ]
In the same work, Rosten also defines the term as "that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan". Chutzpah amounts to a total denial of personal responsibility , which renders others speechless and incredulous.