As my ash tree leaf avatar suggests, the planting and nurturing of the native broadleaf trees of the British Isles is something I’ve been involved with for many years. These would include ash (obviously) but also wych elm, blackthorn, crab apple, elder, hazel, oak, hawthorn, spindle, willow, elm, buckthorn and alder. Indeed our crab apple is currently in stunning blossom. 

I wouldn’t want it thought, however, that I was some sort of xenophobic gardener. And I certainly wouldn’t chide anyone for planting exotics as that would be a hypocritical thing for me to do considering the number of exotic trees and shrubs we have adjacent to the walled part of our garden. For instance there is a split leaf philodendon (Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum) from South America which is often mistaken for the Swiss cheese plant (Monstera deliciosa) from Central America but is much hardier and (unlike the Swiss cheese plant) can be grown outdoors here given the right soil and shelter. We also have a Snowmound (Spiraea nipponica) from the island of Shikoku in Japan and a dark red dwarf Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Firecracker’). Nearby there’s a Chilean lantern tree (Crinodendron hookerianum) and a hardy Fuschia magellanica also from Chile. And then there are the sometimes much maligned laurels – a Portuguese laurel (Prunus lusitanica), a Cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) from Asia Minor and last (but not least) a potted Bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) from the Mediterranean which, needless to say, is a regular contributor to the kitchen. We think that our collection is exquisite but others might see it as being a veritable gallimaufry of ornamental trees.

GALLIMAUFRY
 
A hodge-podge, hash or ratatouille of variegated ingredients.

I don't think much about trees, they're just things that are there. But when I was a kid we used to play in and around an abandoned warehouse. Outside it was all overgrown with the usual nettles, brambles etc and a few gnarled tough looking trees with a soft cork-like bark. I've seen them growing in areas with poor, even polluted soil, they look as if they just hanging on where no other tree will grow.
I now know they were alders.

The noun "alder" meaning the tree (specifically Alnus sp.) comes from the Old English, alor, which originally often encompassed birches, poplars, willows and other similarly small, usually riverside, types of tree. It has cognate forms in most Germanic and Scandinavian languages, with the common root seemingly related to a specific red-brown colour, likely on account of the alder tree's bark and the colour of the freshly-cut stems or roots.

In Spanish alders and poplars were often collectively known as "alamos", from alno "poplar," or aliso "alder", and ultimately from the Latin alnus "alder". Accordingly this became the nickname of the Spanish mission at San Antonio in Texas on account of the trees (native American cottonwoods, but still very closely related to the Old World species) that grew alongside the San Antonio river and which resembled the familiar riverside trees of Spain. Thus the Spanish name for alder/poplar gave its name to the famous symbol of Texan and US independence, the Alamo, as well as to the WW2 scientific research centre for the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos in New Mexico.

Meles meles wrote:

... the nickname of the Spanish mission at San Antonio in Texas ...

Nickname

Old English had a word ēac, meaning roughly "also" (it is cognate with the modern German auch of much the same meaning) which was related to the verb ēcan or ēacan meaning "to increase upon". Both usages continued into Middle English with eken or echan  (13c.) meaning 'to increase or extend" (and in that sense it persists today in the phrase "to eke out"), while eek or eke, meant "also/as well as/in addition to", such as in Chaucer's prologue to the Canterbury Tales:
Whan Zephyrus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

So to distinguish between two people with the same name one might use an eek-name, that is an "also name" or "extra name". However in spoken Middle English the pronouns a and an were commonly run into the following noun (elided, is that the correct term?) which could cause confusion over how such words ought to be spelled when written. In the same way that an island might be "a neilond" (13c.), an arrow "a narawe" (14c.), an apple "a nappyle" (15c.) and an egg "a negge" (15c.), so too did an eek-name became "a neekname" or nickname.

I thought in some words it could go the opposite way - the 'n' would be omitted, but I have been through my small dictionary and can't find an example of this so I must be mistaken. I did see the word 'nowhere' and remembered when I was learning to read I read this as 'now-here'.

I'm sure the reverse occurred: just off the top of my head I can think of nadder (the snake) that has now become an adder, as well as noranja, which is now commonly known in English as an orange (the fruit). I think also (albeit with rather less certainty) that during the 17th-century the somewhat academic term, natomia - that is, pertaining to the human body and the study thereof - picked up its preposition and so thereafter became known as anatomy.

And in semi-fiction, 'The Horse Narrow' pub frequented by the 3 rural unworthies,  nicknamed Nym, Bardolph and Pistol in Richard Jefferies superb observations of rural life, comes to mind. There must still be many similar localised pub names

One example of the "n" transfer is the newt, whilst the juvenile remains an eft. Newt is frequently considered to be a Staffordshire dialect formation.

Another atomic site named frm its grove of fat cottonwoods was the first atomic bomb test at Alomogordo.

Possible "mobile N" in "attercop" spider cf "natterjack" toad. "atter" seems to mean (or at least imply) venomous.

The north Staffordshire or Potteries dialect is an odd one. To many who are unfamiliar with it it sounds vaguely Liverpudlian. Personally I don't like it and don't think I speak it, but I suspect I have a trace having lived close to the Potteries all my life and with one parent who was from up there.
It has such ear-wrenching words as "skuel" for school and i is pronounced as an e, so "it" becomes eat.

ITEMS OF CLOTHING: I don't mean that generically, but there are so many items of clothing that come from places or people: off the top of my head I can think of jerseys, denim jeans, cardigans, bikini. Are there more?

Homburg, fez, panama, balmoral, glengarry and balaclava hats, guernsey pullovers, duffel coats and tuxedos?

Must be many Proper noun clothing related words if I can think of some this early in the day; Wellingtons boots, Eton collar, Jackie..... style favoured by Jackie Kennedy, Windsor knot - Tweed, Harris tweed...... of course Daisy Roots does not qualify but has appeal. derby seems to be a town name word with several uses - there is a hat also, I think?

Jodhurs, of course fill the bill named for the cut of leg covering in that region with baggy  bums and tight leggingss. But isthis  riding version still worn? White tights seem to be more the riding style now.

Hitler worn something similar but his uniform was based on the Austrian postmen of his region; anyway, smarter than our local lot here who, for the most part dress like unmade beds. Or, possibly, similar have inspired our PM,

Priscilla wrote:

Hitler worn something similar but his uniform was based on the Austrian postmen of his region...

Is that so? I may be wrong but I can find nothing to suggest Austrian posties ever wore jodhpurs. I rather thought the Nazi high command's adoption of jodhpurs rather copied the British military practice. In the British army jodhpurs had never been a part of any unit's uniform, even for elite cavalry regiments, however it seems they were permitted as an affectation implying a prowess in horsemanship, but only to very senior officers.

In truth, MM, I have no idea about Hitler's Trouses.... that could be the name of a saucy review... I think it was the hat and jacket he admired of local posties. Jodphurs, of course would have been worn by the riding aristocracy - and some British generals worn similar to official functions and parades if memory of old film, serves right.

The use of jodhpurs or riding breeches was still fairly common in WW2, being regarded as the mark of an officer.

Note the difference in quality between the tailored officer uniform in the foreground and the ordinary soldiers in the background:

 

They were in use with all nations, keen horseman, General George S Patton:



and sometimes with civilians, Cecil B DeMille in 1937.

Gate

A currently overworked word tagged on to indicate  unlawful pursuit by someone in authority. I expected we have a few more to go before it goes away.... the word gate, not unlawful pursuit; there will always be lots of that about.

Agreed P. And it's a lot worse in the UK than in America where the use originated. As far back as the 1980s American broadcasters and print reporters stopped using of the term 'Irangate' when it became clear that there wasn't going to be another Nixon-style resignation. They began calling it the Iran-Contra Affair. Not so in the UK where lazy journalists continued to refer to 'Irangate' and have then spent the last 35 years inventing endless other gates. 

That said - with regard to 'Beergate', then I'm not sure if such a street exists but it's quite likely that somewhere in the former Danelaw of eastern England there must be an Alegate or a Meadgate. In York there is this street:



No doubt the tabloid hacks will find a use for that name in some future scandal or other.

"Gate" derived from the Old Norse word gat, meaning a way or path, in Scotland means a road, eg Gallowgate in Glasgow was the road running from the city to the execution site at Gallows Muir. I believe this is also the case with Newcastle, where the Gallowgate ran from the City Gaol to the execution place.

To designate a controlled opening in the city walls in medieval Scotland, the French word "Port"  was used.

Engraving of the Netherbow Port in Edinburgh during the 18th century, ironically enough viewed from the Canongate, the road running to Holyrood Abbey:

A new to me word is velominatus/velominati.  I guess it's a play on "illuminati" - as far as I can work out it means a (some) super keen/dedicated cyclist(s).  https://www.velominati.com/    https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Velominatus

Oddly. considering how Dunedin was founded by Scottish people, there are few Gates here that I can think of. I've looked up a site of Scottish place names in Dunedin and though there are upwards of 40 suburbs none of them end in 'gate'. I see there is a Bathgate Park, but that is the only one with gate in its name that I can find. A site about Scottish influence on Dunedin names said, "Dunedin is highly likely to be the only city in the world outside of Scotland where around 50% of the suburbs have names that can also be found in Scotland. This is an enduring legacy of the pivotal role that Scots settlers played in the establishment of Dunedin in 1848 and in its subsequent development to become New Zealand's fourth largest city- see First Scots in New Zealand." It's now the 6th largest by population with around 106,000 people. Cities in NZ/Aotearoa are either places with cathedrals or have over 50,000 people. Nelson used to be the only city in NZ with a cathedral but not 50,000 people, but now it has over that number.

Algorithms


We  did not have these when I was a gel - I wonder that we survived because they appear to be imperative to understanding anything these days. We had rules..... I wonder what happened to those?

Has this term long been used in -say - the sciences? Was amused to hear it being used in a row about family affairs in the modern cowboy epic 'Yellowstone Park.' The father character said he had no idea what his daughter was on about. So it is already well en route to Cliché Street.  
Expect to hear it any day now to be used in the Soooorree patter that goes along with that all too frequent  human error path of cock ups in whatever business you are trying to get done. 
 To keep my self in the swing of things I shall give it a go when passing on kitchen recipes - general points about, for instance, where laundry items are put. or would this be gross misunderstanding/use of a trendy word?

Yes. It dates back to C9th and orignially meant Arabic (really Indian, but borrowed by Arabs) numbers.
I  wonder how long before BoZo decides we should stop using this foreign stuff and go back to good, old fashioned Roman numerals?
It's not much more than a set of rules by another name, really, but some can be repeated. Take a look at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/algorithm

As a mathematical method it predates the Arabs by a long way. As you both say the term simply denotes a set of rules to be followed to obtain a desired result, so a recipe to make bread or the instructions to get from one place to another, could both be described as algorithms. But mathematically anyone that learned at school how to manually do long division or calculate a square root, were just following algorithms. Such mathematical methods - for long division, calculating square roots, plus many more applications - were originally worked out (possibly independently) in ancient Babylon, pharaonic Egypt and the Indus valley around two millennia BC, and the technique was extensively used by the Greeks, such as the so-called Sieve of Eratosthenes algorithm for determining prime numbers and the the Euclidean algorithm for finding the greatest common divisor of two numbers. The modern emphasis on algorithms is because an algorithm is essentially a fixed set of rules that precisely defines a sequence of (often repetitive) operations and so is easily adapted to being done very, very rapidly and with great precision, by a computer.

MMmmm, thanks. guys for the explanations. I feel less woolly  about it than I was - but by the same token as much else that I do, it all sounds much like knitting and best I stick to that.

Forgiveness


Following  on from the most interesting posts by Temps, GG and MM in the current Jesus thread, the word forgiveness comes to the fore - and one I have been thinking about for a while as it crops up in news stories, for instance.

There are many synonyms for it but its true meaning is - well to my mind - it means to withhold punishment; in fact forgetting might be a stronger concept, hence the power of forgive and forget as a joint attitude. When one cannot forgive it implies that given opportunity, only retribution  could bring solace.
Despite it being declared,   I suspect that behind the heavy curtain of  forgiveness, there often still lurks bitter grievance  and it is that which seems to mar many people's development.,,,, and forgetting ain't as easy as saying it.

To which thought I ought get back to me knitting and stay clear of these sort of  notions; so is there a religion that boasts a god with a very short memory span?  Forget I asked.

Perhaps the concept of karma evident in the two God-less faiths of Buddhism and Jainism might make forgiveness easier? Or, to quote Weird Al in "Amish Paradise"



A local boy kicked me in the butt last week
I just smiled at him and turned the other cheek
I really don't care, in fact I wish him well
'Cause I'll be laughing my head off when he's burning in hell

Wop wops
This phrase only seems to be used in Aotearoa/New Zealand and means 'remote area'. So to be out in the wop wops means it's some place the speaker doesn't quite know the whereabouts of. Or 'it's out in the wop wops' means the speaker does know where it is but is being a bit derogatory about it.

That word - or two words - is new to me, Caro.

Swingiest


This word used -with an apology  for making it up - was used a couple or so times on TV commentary during 2nd day Test England V New Zealand.... and possibly only Caro and I will have a shred interset in that. (Your loss the rest of you) 
 NZ has superb bowlers who can swing the ball to the devastation of England openers until  using non test cricket approach but more 20 - 20 style (IMO) took them on. All good stuff for those who love the myriad nuances of cricket.
The word may prevail , this one may hang about in cricket-  suppose there are other words taken from the world of sport now in common use.... but I don't think we will have seamier bowlers.

Not good stuff for those of us who wanted NZ to do well. The ratings given to the players in our news site were pretty scathing in the main.

This I understand, Caro, tho I have just read a lengthy page about the trials of the NZ team before tests so they would not be at their best However public expectations brook no excuse and losers always have further grief piled onto them; thus is the sporting world.... er.. not very sporting, actually.

Airing a white ball attitude in test cricket has been a brave move for England - only tail enders used to have the liberty of having a bash and has brought change. But that will only last whilst there are skilled batsmen  who prefer to slog than stay their ground... and can manage to do both.

Whether it will work against the Indian team I know not...they have long enjoyed the thrills of Twenty -twenty cricket with thousands of caged supporters screaming them on. 

Johnny Bairstow has led the way so a new word for the current style of test cricket play is being batted about the cricket media world

Baisball       ie current test Cricket mode    (heavy sigh) (This will hopefully go away soon)

Not as interesting as the cricket words but from today's Guardian


skimpflation


"Welcome to “skimpflation” – a term popularised in the US and gaining traction in the UK. “Skimpflation is when consumers are getting less for their money,” says Alan Cole, a writer at Full Stack Economics and formerly a senior economist at the joint economic committee of the US Congress. “Unlike typical inflation, where they’re paying more for the same goods, skimpflation is when they’re paying the same for something that worsened in quality.”   "

Think the typical UK usage is actually "shrinkflation" when for example a 453 gram tin of tomatoes has become, mirabile dictu a 400 gram one for the same price.

My husband does all our shopping and he likes to play a "game" where he finds all the deliberate (?) pricing failures of the supermarkets, like putting the price under a different object than is being sold for that price, and he enjoys changing these signs back to where they should be.
INCREDIBLE/UNBELIEVABLE
When did these words become so ubiquitous? It seems (along with AWESOME) that every second word used by young people now is one of these. We ate at a quite posh restaurant recently and the wait staff (quite young people) kept asking "What do you guys want?" And when we gave our order or received our items they responded with "Awesome." If they said it once they said it 50 times.

I find it particularly strange that the staff should use awesome (and incredible, unbelievable etc) when taking or delivering a food order. They work at the establishment so must be familiar with what's normally on offer ... unless of course they know the food is so unbelievably bad that they are simply in awe that anyone would ever order it.

One ingredient of the cocktail of tablets I was given on discharge from hospital in 2016 (for the bad anaemia which eventually turned out to have occurred because of coeliac disease) was something to combat what I've always called "rumbling tum" - though if the rumbling is in the intestines it's not in the 'tum' or stomach.

a rumbling or gurgling noise made by the movement of fluid and gas in the intestines.

Influencer


This may have been here before - I have come to understand from recent use that it means young people who are all mouth and trousers giving  views on social media with forthright opinion about any thing whether conversant with it or not. We had one called  Aunt Marge in our family - her following  tended to seem brain dead.

Not a word of the day but  the lack of one


This week a teacher in Ireland is in jail for refusing to use the word 'they' with a trans pupil; 'he' and 'she' not being acceptable to the pupil and 'they' not being acceptable to the teacher.

A new word is required for the circumstances, but nothing comes naturally.

Legion - "for we are many"?

It is indeed the stuff of madness - the arguments over pronouns, I mean, not people being free to be what they are, something I'm all for, as long as no horses are (badly) frightened in the process.

All a bit silly, but an excellent way to tie a teacher up in knots - or, in this instance, chains, which is actually very worrying, and a very different kettle of fish - a matter not all silly, but very, very serious in its implications. Freedom works both ways, doesn't it?

Why did the said teacher object to using "they" (and them, theirs etc) as a gender-neutral singular pronoun? It's been commonly used for that purpose for about 500 years. Does he/she/they perhaps insist that "they" is a uniquely plural form and so it cannot be used for an individual, or is he/she/they just trying to be deliberately difficult in order to make a political or religious point? I rather suspect it is the latter but admit I do not know the background to the story.

Perhaps we should have kept on using Old English which, rather like modern German, had three genders - masculine, feminine and neuter - and even sometimes had words that had a gender other than the obvious one. For example wifmann (masculine) and frowe (feminine) both referred to a woman, while mægden (neuter) referred to a young girl. Bear in mind also that Old English, while it had definite articles (which matched the gender of the noun) - hence se wifmann, seo frowe and þæt mægden - had no indefinite article, so no "a" or "an".

I don't know, either, but I suspect everyone  everybodies is are being "deliberately difficult", with all sorts of agendas, religious, political and gender-based. I'm wondering how a good teacher would deal sensibly and sanely with this tricky situation involving the correct use of pronouns. Asking whether language is ever "correct" would be a good discussion point. What do we mean by "correct" and who decides? Does it matter? Why did Elizabeth I always refer to herself as " your Prince" - even when she (they?) was (were?) actually queen? Why "your Prince" and not " your King"?

The fascination of language rather than the weaponisation of language - as you suggest - would be my ploy to attempt to defuse the situation (I think).

I'm glad I am old, and that I don't have to worry any more. That said, I got into terrible trouble joking about Denis (aka Denise), our village's trans cat. You have to be so careful these days - I dursn't open my mouth any more, even here.

PS

It's from "princeps" - which can be translated as "first person".

Meanwhile in France - which still routinely distinguishes between the genders of job titles depending on whether they are being performed by a man or a woman, such as un facteur (a postman) and une factrice (a postlady) - I recently got taken to task because I referred to a microwave (oven) as feminine, ie une micro-onde, when it should be masculine because in full it's un four micro-onde, ie a (masculine) oven of microwave type. Une micro-onde is the electro-magnetic radiation that the oven uses and that is feminine because a wave, une onde, is feminine. All in all I doubt many French are ready for gender-neutral personal pronouns for people just yet.

Priscilla wrote:

Not a word of the day but  the lack of one


This week a teacher in Ireland is in jail for refusing to use the word 'they' with a trans pupil; 'he' and 'she' not being acceptable to the pupil and 'they' not being acceptable to the teacher.

A new word is required for the circumstances, but nothing comes naturally.

Not really.  He's in jail for insisting, despite a court injunction, on attending the school whilst suspended pending disciplinary action over what is (inelegantly) referred to as "misgendering" the pupil. The teacher claims it violates his christian beliefs to use the non-specific pronoun.

Temperance wrote:

Asking whether language is ever "correct" would be a good discussion point. What do we mean by "correct" and who decides?

Good question. In 1820 William Cobbett attempted to do so, although to be fair, he called his book A Grammar of the English Language. Note the use of the indefinite article ‘a’ rather than the definite article ‘the’ and so he wasn’t claiming absolute authority on this. The very fact that I used the terms ‘definite article’ and ‘indefinite article’ should itself be remarkable. The reason being that those who went thru the school system in England anytime between the years 1960-1990 (as I did) would have been at school during the decades when the teaching of English grammar was officially frowned upon. The reality, however, is that even if one where not studying languages such as French or Latin (in which case the teaching of grammar was permitted), teachers, whether they were teaching physics or geography or whatever, would occasionally have to resort to pointing out and explaining the parts of speech for the sake of clarity and precision. I seem to remember learning more about English grammar from my physics and chemistry teachers than ever I did from those charged with teaching English language and English literature. I suspect, however, that those latter 2 lived in particular fear of the ministry’s anti-grammar police.

That said - I do sympathise with those who were against the concept of ‘correct grammar’ during those years because (as Meles has suggested) English is a living language and the idea of ‘correct grammar’ could stifle its development. To add my own penny’s worth tho, I’m much more in favour of freespelling than freegrammar when it comes to the promoting of public literacy – but that, perhaps, is for another thredd. Returning to the teaching (or rather the learning) of grammar in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, then I was helped by my father who bought me Cobbett’s Grammar which was sort of appropriate as the book consists of a series of letters from William to his young son James. At the time I disliked the gift because I thought that it might be the precursor to some form of home-schooling or ‘double’ homework. But my dad never tested me on the book nor even enquired if I had been reading it and I came to appreciate its value later.

I still have it and note that in Letter V of the book Cobbett has some pertinent things to say about 'the genders'. For instance, he says that the English (of 1820) still consisted of masculine, feminine and neuter but that ‘in speaking of living creatures of which we do not know the gender, we consider them to be the neuter’. I take your point though, Temp, that those well-meaning educationalists of the 1960s who sought to free-up learning (and by extension society) by removing the strait-jacket concept of ‘correct grammar’ probably never envisaged the criminal justice system being used to discipline schoolteachers on this. Meles is probably also right that in this particular case the teacher in question has deliberately sought to engineer his own criminalisation as some sort of socio-political stunt. I'd like to say that there is right and wrong on both sides but it just seems that both the teacher and the education authority have reponded crassly in equal measure to what really should have just been a minor matter within the school.

Green George wrote:

...pending disciplinary action over what is (inelegantly) referred to as "misgendering" the pupil.

Good grief, it makes the wretched child sound like a guinea pig or a hamster - or even worse, a tortoise, creatures which are regularly "misgendered". What nonsense all this is - might have known there was a "Christian" (please note the inverted commas) agenda.

Really interesting stuff about Cobbett, Viz - thank you.

I once told a class (sometime around 1976) that I was going to teach them about apostrophes, but I swore them to secrecy for fear I could be disciplined. I had a rabid Marxist Head of Department - a terrifying man, who regularly ranted against "the system", rather like the peasant in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I think he believed that an interest in punctuation marks and the rules of grammar was indicative of a slavish devotion to the corrupt capitalist and imperialist oppressors.

Temperance wrote:

I had a rabid Marxist Head of Department - a terrifying man, who regularly ranted against "the system", rather like the peasant in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I think he believed that an interest in punctuation marks and the rules of grammar was indicative of a slavish devotion to the corrupt capitalist and imperialist oppressors.

You could have pointed out to him that the First Russian Revolution was triggered in part over an issue of apostropes and other punctution marks - not because they were deemed irrelevant but because they were so important. In January 1905 the Moscow typesetters, many of whom were women, were the first workers to go on strike. They were paid by the number of letters they composed into the print blocks, but they weren't paid for punctuation marks despite them requiring equal work. Accordingly the typesetters came out on strike and overnight stopped the publication of all the newspapers: their demand was that punctuation marks should be recognized as being as important as letters and that therefore they should be paid equally for both.

Oh, I do wish I'd known that back in 1976!

I did mutter something at the time about Edward II and that unfortunate business with the comma, but the remark was lost on him. Probably just as well.

They drove me banana's!