What new word did you learn today?

[Louanne Learning]

when it comes to visualization.

In my family, we definitely have different ways of best getting language into our brains. My sister much prefers audio books, I have to read the print on the page. I guess I'm not that good at audio signals

 

[Rad Scribbler]

Gerrymandering
~ The manipulation of an electoral constituencies boundaries so as to favour one party or class.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Aye. From wikipedia:

Gerrymandering. A portmanteau of a salamander and Elbridge Gerry, a US VP until his death who -- as governor of Massachusetts in 1812 -- signed a bill that created a partisan district in the Boston area that was compared to the shape of a salamander.

The term has negative connotations, and gerrymandering is almost always considered a corruption of the democratic process. The word gerrymander can be used both as a verb for the process and as a noun for a resulting district.

A political cartoon was drawn at the time to show this. Take a look:

 

[Louanne Learning]

Barcarolle​

A barcarolle is a boating-song, generally used to describe the boating-songs of gondoliers in Venice, imitated by composers in songs and instrumental pieces in the 19th century. Chopin wrote one such Barcarolle for piano, and Mendelssohn provided four shorter piano pieces of this kind. At the end of the century and in the early 20th century the French composer Gabriel Fauré wrote thirteen Barcarolles. There is a particularly well known barcarolle in Offenbach's opera The Tales of Hoffmann (Les contes d'Hoffmann).

 

[CatrionaGrace]

I saw the word and my mind immediately thought, "Daah daah-dah, dah-dah-dah daah-dah..."

 

[Louanne Learning]

A Drudenstein is a pebble with a naturally formed hole in the center. In Bavaria, such pebbles were hung in rooms, on cradles or in stables to ward off nightmares, or to protect horses against matted manes or tails

 

[Louanne Learning]

Cryptozoology is the study of "hidden animals" (cryptids) whose existence isn't scientifically proven, like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, or Mokele-Mbembe, often based on folklore, eyewitness accounts, and limited evidence rather than scientific methodology, making it a pseudoscience in the eyes of many academics, though it seeks undiscovered or thought-extinct species.

 

[Naomasa298]

making it a pseudoscience in the eyes of many academics, though it seeks undiscovered or thought-extinct species.

Snuffleupagus disagrees.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

A Drudenstein is a pebble with a naturally formed hole in the center. In Bavaria, such pebbles were hung in rooms, on cradles or in stables to ward off nightmares, or to protect horses against matted manes or tails

We call those hag stones. When I was in Northern Ireland last year, I was trying to decide on a proper souvenier for my kitchen witch daughter-in-law. Looked down at my feet, and lo and behold, there lay two hag stones: one for each of us.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

There is a particularly well known barcarolle in Offenbach's opera The Tales of Hoffmann (Les contes d'Hoffmann).

Beautiful piece of music, a recording of which we played at our wedding (my wife has class). I did not know that's what it meant.

 

[Louanne Learning]

a recording of which we played at our wedding (my wife has class)

that's so lovely. I found a French version of it, and it's breathtaking ...

Ah! Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour … Souris à nos ivresses …

(Beautiful night, oh night of love … Smile at our intoxications…)

 

[Rigor Mortis]

I just watched that (again). It is hard to believe that sound is coming out of a human being.