Sunday, 6 October 2013

Sunday Rest: nervure.

Some words set your nerves a-jangle: and nervure is one of them.

It's partly the beginning, which is reminiscent of nervous, and partly the end, which is reminiscent of coiffure; and coiffure gives me, for one, an instant sense of deep inadequacy.

(For an explanation I here refer you to the mug shot that disfigures this post.)

Not only do I not know what nervure means, I'm not sure I ever will want to know what it means. It'll be something twitchy and unpleasant.

But still, in the interests of knowledge...

Here we are. Nervure (ouch!). And it means...

Oh no! It's something stunningly beautiful.

It can be either one of these veins:






Or one of these:

Bee_-_wiki_public_domain(1).jpg

Well, you can say what you like, but I think calling something so lovely a nervure is just plain wicked.

Word Not To Use Today: nervure. This word comes from either a tin ear or an unquiet mind. It's also from the French nerve, from the Latin nervus, and is related to the Greek neuron.

3 comments:

  1. I know the meaning of the word, but even knowing it, it makes me dang twitchy!
    Next word please!
    Quickly now!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How about the old plural of shoe, shoon?
      Walter de la Mare's poem SILVER starts off calmingly:

      Slowly, silently, now the moon
      Walks the night in her silver shoon;

      but then it just gets silly, I'm afraid.

      Hope you feel better, now.

      Delete

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