Posted by Phil Jamieson on Tue, Aug 17, 2010 @ 04:00 AM
Okay, so your last name is Farmer. Duh. But what if your last name is Crocker? Some long-lost ancestor was into making pottery crocks. Read on - the list gets more interesting.
1. cooper: (a) one that makes or repairs wooden utensils; (b) one that makes or repairs book bindings; (c) one that makes or repairs wooden casks or tubs; (d) a keeper of records.
2. chandler: (a) a maker or seller of tallow or wax candles and usually soap; (b) a collector of natural dyes, especially yellow; (c) a person who cans food; (d) an instructor.
3. tinker: (a) a silverworker; (b) a usually itinerant mender of household utensils; (c) a person who makes knives and scissors; (d) none of the above.
4. farrier: (a) a person who shoes horses; (b) a person who collects and sells feathers (for bedding); (c) a person who raises and trains falcons to hunt wild game; (d) a maker of gloves.
5. smith: (a) a barrelmaker; (b) a wheel maker; (c) a worker in metals; (d) a seller of metal goods.
6. currier: (a) one that dresses furs; (b) a glassworker; (c) a person who shoes horses; (d) one who cleans the coat of a horse.
7. wainwright: (a) a maker and repairer of wagons; (b) a maker and repairer of boats; (c) a maker and repairer of farm equipment, especially plows; (d) one who dowses for water.
8. packman: (a) thief; (b) peddler; (c) minstrel; (d) musician.
9. draper: (a) a man who guides a plow; (b) a man who operates a loom; (c) one who operates a saw mill, especially a water-powered mill; (d) a dealer in cloth and sometimes also in clothing and dry goods.
10. clark: (a) cartmaker; (b) soldier; (c) lawyer; (d) clerk.
To see the answers, click here.
Posted by Phil Jamieson on Tue, Aug 03, 2010 @ 04:00 AM
Variety of Garden Words
Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With prose that sells, and no misspells, and smart quotes all in a row.
So how's your green thumb today?
Test your knowledge of these garden vocabulary words. You'll find the answers at the bottom of the post. No cheating allowed!
1. beneficials: (a) the basic chemicals necessary for plant life, being nitrogen, phosphorous, and iron; (b) service plants that assist other plants in healthy growth; (c) organisms (as ladybugs, lacewings, and bacteria) that feed on or parasitize pests of crops, gardens, and turf; (d) British: the receipts of a well-tended vegetable garden.
2. bower: (a) a shelter (as in a garden) made with tree boughs or vines twined together; (b) a garden plant (Brassica oleracea botrytis) related to the mushroom that grows in a characteristic bent low shape; (c) a garden or park walk bordered by trees or bushes; (d) British: a frog.
3. knot garden: (a) a garden of hemp weeds; (b) an elaborately designed garden especially of flowers or herbs; (c) a garden specially planted in the rotted stump of a felled tree; (d) a garden in which thistles are allowed to thrive in order to crowd out other, more prolific weed forms.
4. marrowfat: (a) a fungal disease attacking primarily tomatoes; (b) the liquid produced from the squeezing of petunia leaves, valued for its medicinal qualities; (c) any of several wrinkled-seeded garden peas; (d) capitalized: the gardener in Dickens' Great Expectations.
5. parterre: (a) a scoop-shaped or flat-bladed garden tool for taking up and setting small plants; (b) a maze (as in a garden) formed by paths separated by high hedges; (c) an ornamental garden with paths between the beds; (d) a trench in the earth made by a plow.
6. rockery: (a) a garden swing; (b) a quarry; (c) a breeding ground or haunt especially of gregarious birds or mammals (as penguins or seals); (d) British: a rock garden.
7. Gethsemane: (a) the garden outside Jerusalem mentioned in Mark 14 as the scene of the agony and arrest of Jesus; (b) the Roman god of gardening; (c) a legendary garden at the western extremity of the world producing golden apples; (d) the garden where according to the account in Genesis Adam and Eve first lived.
8. boll: (a) to take unawares; (b) the pod or capsule of a plant (as cotton); (c) the first leaf of a potato plant forming a protective sheath about the plumule; (d) a usually glazed printed cotton fabric.
9. determinate: (a) detrimental; (b) characterized by growth in which the fruit show significant resistance to disease; (c) an old variety which has been maintained either because it has appealing attributes like extra large size, unusual coloring, special connoisseur qualities, or because of family sentimental reasons; (d) characterized by growth in which the main stem ends in an inflorescence and stops growing with only branches from the main stem having further and similarly restricted growth.
10. refugium: (a) the state of denial with regard to global warming; (b) an area of relatively unaltered climate that is inhabited by plants and animals during a period of continental climatic change (as a glaciation) and remains as a center of relict forms from which a new dispersion and speciation may take place after climatic readjustment; (c) the garden area of a monastery or nunnery; (d) a planting or growth of shrubs for the purpose of blocking access to something, as a patio edge or a rooftop garden edge.
Answers: 1:c 2:a 3:b 4:c 5:c 6:d 7:a 8:b 9:d 10:b
Rate Yourself:
- 1 to 2 correct: Can't even grow a ch-ch-ch-chia pet.
- 3 to 5 correct: Petunias...maybe.
- 6 to 7 correct: You can probably manage two varieties of tomatoes.
- 8 to 9 correct: Moving up to roses.
- All 10 correct: Neighbors voted your lawn the lawn of the week again.
Posted by Phil Jamieson on Wed, May 26, 2010 @ 04:00 AM
Time for another vocabulary test. Answers are located at the bottom of this post. But don't cheat -- see how many of these you get correct!
1. epitaph: (a) a characterizing word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing; (b) a work of art (as a novel or drama) that resembles or suggests an epic; (c) an inscription on or at a tomb or a grave in memory of the one buried there; (d) a riddle.
2. round-robin: (a) a written petition, memorial, or protest to which the signatures are affixed in a circle so as not to indicate who signed first; (b) a bill of sale returned to the buyer to memorialize the transaction; (c) slang for bird flu; (d) rockin-robin's sedentary sibling in the play Bye-Bye Birdie.
3. cairn: (a) battlefield; (b) a heap of stones piled up as a memorial or as a landmark; (c) a song or hymn of grief or lamentation; especially one intended to accompany funeral or memorial rites; (d) a burial vault.
4. buffalo soldier: (a) an African-American soldier serving in the western United States after the War Between the States; (b) a soldier dispatched to secure fresh meat for troops; (c) a scout; (d) an American pop singing group of the 1960s.
5. propitiation: (a) fortification; (b) an antagonistic military maneuver; (c) an atoning sacrifice; (d) something pleasing to the senses; especially, something aromatic.
6. antebellum: (a) existing after a war; especially: existing immediately after the American War Between the States; (b) an antitoxin to a venom; (c) serving to prevent, derail, or alleviate war; (d) existing before a war; especially: existing before the American War Between the States.
7. wraith: (a) the exact likeness of a living person seen usually just before death as an apparition; (b) an existence after death; (c) abundance of valuable material possessions or resources stored in eternity; (d) destitute.
8. Valhalla: (a) a memorial service; (b) the great hall in Norse mythology where heroes slain in battle are received; (c) in memory of; (d) the great hall in Norse mythology to which villains slain in battle are banished.
9. copperhead: (a) a white Southerner acting in support of the reconstruction governments after the American War Between the States often for private gain; (b) a shroud; (c) a member of an escort or honor guard; (d) a person in the northern states who sympathized with the South during the American War Between the States.
10. ultima ratio regum: (a) death is the final reward; (b) the final argument of kings, i.e., war; (c) if you wish peace, prepare for war; (d) the king remembers the most.
With Memorial Day on the horizon, we all start to think of summer. But let's not forget the real meaning of Memorial Day. ProofreadNOW encourages you to fly your flag this Memorial Day, thank a war veteran, and send a message of gratitude to a military person on active duty somewhere.
Answers: 1:c 2:a 3:b 4:a 5:c 6:d 7:a 8:b 9:d 10:b