I still haven't solved my problem, just maddened a human voice in California who was trying to help me - didn't work. So I quit for the day and read a new-to-me book given to me as a birthday present from a dear friend. it's a novel, All Passion Spent, by Vita Sackville-West, (1892-1962), first published in 1931, my birth year. It's important you know that date because it's the reason for my one criticism of the book, The protagonist is 88 years old and still functioning, sensitive and acute, butt very frail. Very. Worse than me. I'm stiff and careful and slow and I do sit down "to admire the view" or "watch birds or children" or whatever is an excuse for sitting a while, but I'm not as fragile as this woman is.
But the characterisation is good and the book is beautifully written and I noted some words to look up. Some of them I already knew but needed poliishing. Most are new to me.
myrmidon(s) noun: a follower or subordinate of a powerful person, typically one who is unscrupulous or carries out orders unquestioningly: one of Hitler's myrmidons. ORIGIN late Middle English: from Latin Myrmidones (plural), from Greek Murmidones, a warlike Thessalian people who accompanied Achilles to Troy.
brunt noun: (the brunt) the worst part or chief impact of a specified action: education will bear the brunt of the cuts. ORIGIN late Middle English (denoting a blow or an attack, also the force or shock of something): of unknown origin. THERE! I KNEW THIS WORD BUT WONDERED WHERE IT CAME FROM. "Of unknown origin."
truckle noun: a small barrel-shaped cheese, especially Cheddar. ORIGIN late Middle English (denoting a wheel or pulley): from Anglo-Norman French trocle, from Latin trochlea ‘sheaf of a pulley’. The current sense dates from the early 19th cent. and was originally dialect. truckle 2 |verb : no obj. submit or behave obsequiously: she despised her husband, who truckled to her. DERIVATIVES truckler noun: ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: figuratively, from truckle bed; an earlier use of the verb was in the sense sleep in a truckle bed. THAT'S ALL I KNEW, THE TRUCKLE BED. (Do they sell them at IKEA?) I LIKE THE VERB.
rugosity rugose: adjective, chiefly Biology: wrinkled; corrugated: rugose corals. DERIVATIVES noun ORIGIN late Middle English: from Latin rugosus, from ruga ‘wrinkle’. I DON'T THINK I CAN USE THAT.
cheiromancy chiromancy noun [ mass noun ]: the prediction of a person's future from interpreting the lines on the palms of their hands; palmistry. GOOD ONE
peripeteia noun : formal, sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances, especially in reference to fictional narrative. the peripeteias of the drama. 1936 is the peripeteia, the point where the action turned. ORIGIN late 16th cent.: from Greek peripeteia ‘sudden change’, from peri- ‘around’ + the stem of piptein ‘to fall’. ONE COULD SOUND VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE IF ONE USED THIS WORD.
ophthalmia noun: Medicine innflammation of the eye, especially conjunctivitis. ORIGIN late Middle English: via late Latin from Greek, from ophthalmic ‘eye’. WE COULD HAVE GUESSED THIS ONE.
leveret noun: a young hare in its first year. ORIGIN late Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French, diminutive of levre, from Latin lepus, lepor- ‘hare’. NICE
And here is the last one, that I think I know, but not the origin:
bedizened bedizen verb (with), literary: dress up or decorate gaudily: a uniform bedizened with resplendent medals. ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from be- (as an intensifier) + obsolete dizen ‘deck out’, probably of Dutch origin.
That's it for Vita Sackville-West. I enjoyed the book.
I feel better.