Take Our Word For It Issue 199
Melanie and Mike
http://www.takeourword.com
For Mac users who have trouble with our regular homepage:
http://www.takeourword.com/indexmac.html
**Greetings**
Clearly we are having trouble with publishing two issues a month, so
until we gain some scheduling confidence, we'll make this a monthly
newsletter.
The switch to the new server went relatively well. Some images were
corrupted, but we had good back-up copies and have re-loaded all the
ones we know about. If you see a corrupted or missing image in the
Back Issues or elsewhere at the site, feel free to let us know.
We still get lots of e-mail, so if you do not receive a personal reply,
please don't despair. We try to answer messages that are not queries
or submissions for our various columns, but we simply cannot promise
that we'll be able to answer them all.
**This Week's Issue**
NOTE: The links in this newsletter are good until the next issue is
published.
In Spotlight we cook up some origins of herbs and spices
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page1.html
In Words to the Wise we bring you the following words:
fence
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page2.html#fence
kid
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page2.html#kid
human
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page2.html#human
pope
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page2.html#pope
In Curmudgeons' Corner Guestmudgeon Joseph Chiaravalloti notes that
someone suffers from homophonophobia
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page3.html
In Sez You... we hear about berries; magazines vs. newspapers; "swag"
the acronym; and nunneries and brothels
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page4.html
In Laughing Stock we show you how to get fired
http://www.takeourword.com/current/page5.html
**Newsletter-Only Etymology (NOE)**
Reader Emily Lewis asks where "gutter" comes from. The OED tells us
that it was "gutiere" in Old French (and "gouttière" in modern
French), and that derives from "goutte" meaning "to drop". If you have
seen a gutter in action, you know why it was given this name.
Interestingly, the word also referred to a watercourse (1300) or a
furrow made by running water (1586). The "trough under the eaves of a
roof" meaning dates from the mid-14th century. Gutter was also used to
refer to a channel in the middle of a street starting in the early 15th
century.
The disease "gout" comes from the same source; it is the supposed
"dropping" of poisonous material from the blood and into the joints
that gave this illness its name. Gout is characterized by the swelling
of joints due to the deposit of sodium urate.
**Laughing Stock**
Please send us material for Laughing Stock. This week's winner, Ryan
McCarthy, will receive a $10 gift certificate to Amazon.com. Thanks,
Ryan!
**Curmudgeons' Corner**
Send us your complaints and you may be the next Guestmudgeon.
**Next Issue**
We plan to bring you a NOE soon -- we will aim to get it out in a week,
but if we don't accomplish that, we'll try to have it out two weeks
from today. Once we are confident that we can keep this schedule, we
will consider returning to our bi-weekly publishing schedule. Thanks
again for your patience (if you have any left).
**Book Store**
Don't forget to check the book store:
http://www.takeourword.com/bookStore.html.
Until next time,
Take Our Word For It!
Melanie and Mike
http://www.takeourword.com
http://www.takeourword.com/indexmac.html