Noun: An arrangement of five objects with four at the corners of a square or rectangle and the fifth at its centre, used for the five on a dice or playing card.
If you're into dark novels of Victorian intrigue and skulduggery, I highly highly recommend "The Quincunx" by Charles Palliser. One critic compared it favorably to Charles Dickens' "Bleak House"; I'd say it's easier to read and faster-paced than Dickens' work. Why Palliser's work hasn't been made into a film or series is beyond me.
If you want to dig into "Bleak House" but are daunted by its length and convoluted sentences, check out the TV series "Bleak House" with Gillian Anderson, Charles Dance, Timothy West (father of the guy who plays Siegfried in the new "All Creatures Great and Small"), Carey Mulligan, Phil Davis (looking like a feverish, malignant marmot), etc. Absolutely top drawer stuff.
That was fascinating—thanks! I remember being struck years ago that the accents in Baltimore had some things in common with the ones in Pittsburgh. And the Boston accent seems to be softening...
Doozy, is one of my favorites. Via the usual references:
"While it's often maintained that the word doozy derives from the "Duesenberg" in the name of the famed Duesenberg Motor Company, this is impossible on chronological grounds. Doozy was first recorded (in the form dozy) in eastern Ohio in 1916, four years before the Duesenberg Motor Company began to manufacture passenger cars; the related adjective doozy, meaning "stylish" or "splendid," is attested considerably earlier, in 1903. So where did doozy come from? Etymologists believe that it's an altered form of the word daisy, which was used especially in the late 1800s as a slang term for someone or something considered the best."
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This is Doozy. Or the Dooz, or Doozerino, if you're not into that whole brevity thing.
20 Delightful Idioms From Around the World
Idioms are by definition non-literal, but native speakers of a language rarely think about just how nonsensical these sayings can sometimes be. For instance, using the catâs pajamasâa phrase popularized by flappers during the Roaring Twentiesâto describe something as amazing doesnât make a whole lot of sense. But English isnât alone in having idioms that sound delightfully bizarre; here are 20 examples from languages around the world.
20 Delightful Idioms From Around the World
Idioms are by definition non-literal, but native speakers of a language rarely think about just how nonsensical these sayings can sometimes be. For instance, using the catâs pajamasâa phrase popularized by flappers during the Roaring Twentiesâto describe something as amazing doesnât make a whole lot of sense. But English isnât alone in having idioms that sound delightfully bizarre; here are 20 examples from languages around the world.
