#definitions

[rosewind2007]

This bit from Home seems to be seen as contradictory by some:

It’s slipped in front of her, reassuring lean bulk between her and the intruder

When I read it, I thought of the definition of lean as being eg OED

3. Of flesh: Containing little or no fat (as distinguished from muscular tissue)

or Merriam-Webster

b : containing little or no fat

Though, admittedly, on reflection these are perhaps definitions more associated with meat which is intended for consumption than with flesh on a person?

But, to me, the description conjures up the concept of a solid muscular frame, but one which is spare or rangy? Muscular but without fat…

#lean bulk #murderbot #the murderbot diaries #murderbot diaries #home #home: habitat range niche territory #spare #rangy #definitions #words #secunit #martha wells #ayda mensah #dr. mensah

[mapsontheweb]

Definitions of America.

#maps #americas #geography #definitions

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

#polls #incognito polls #anonymous #tumblr polls #tumblr users #questions #polls about language #submitted nov 20 #language #definitions #vocabulary

[yesterdaysprint]

The Austin American, Texas, September 21, 1934

#1930s #vintage #history #definitions #telephone

[wronghands1]

#autumn #phonics #fall #phonetics #definitions #language #pronounciation #speech #wronghands #webcomic #john atkinson

[gnc-culture-is]

Wait there's a neutral version of sir and ma'am?

Oh there are several! None are official yet, but I tend to prefer Sai as title and honorific because while it sounds authoritative, it doesn’t sound harsh.

Others include Tiz [1], Ind [2], Mir [3], and Mistrum[4], though I encourage anyone who sees this to add the variations they’ve seen over the years, and any they may have come up with themselves!

[1] derived from, and short for Citizen

[2] Derived from, and short for Individual

[3] Mixture of sir and madam

[4] From the “Mist” part of Mistress [what Mrs is long for] and Mister, with the Latin neutral ending “-trum”

#definitions #not gnc culture #mod rob

[pratchettquotes]

"Smeems says he keeps himself to himself. He says he thinks the boy is cunning."

"Oh, good," said Vetinari, still seeming to find something totally engrossing in the layout of playing pieces.

"Good?"

"We need cunning people in Ankh-Morpork. We have a Street of Cunning Artificers, do we not?"

"Well, yes, but--"

"Ah, then it is context that has power," said Vetinari, turning around with a look of unmasked delight. "Did I say that I am a politician? Cunning: artful, sly, deceptive, shrewd, astute, cute, on the ball, and, indeed, arch. A word for any praise and every prejudice. Cunning...is a cunning word."

Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals

#havelock vetinari #mustrum ridcully #nutt #natchbull smeems #character description #self awareness #cunning #intelligence #politics #word games #word play #definitions #etymology #context #street of cunning artificers #any praise and every prejudice #a cunning word

[thirdity]

The idea of “definition,” with its suggestion of the scientific, can be associated easily with the idea of “mastery” — which, in turn, can be easily associated with the idea of “origin” and “craft.” But the fact is, we do not master an art — and certainly we do not master it through knowing the “the proper definition” or “mastering” its “origins” or simply learning its “craft.” [...] The more we study and dwell on (and in) an art, the more the art masters us.

Samuel R. Delany, "The Politics of Paraliterary Criticism"

#language #words #definitions #meaning #art #practice #quotes #Delany #Samuel R. Delany #The Politics of Paraliterary Criticism

[j-nn-ly]

quaintrelle

(n.) a woman who emphasizes a life of passion, expressed through personal style, leisurely pastimes, charm, and cultivation of life's pleasures

#word #words #definitions #dictionary #literature #reading #vocabulary #vocab #education #quotes #books #quote #life #lifequotes #text #quaintrelle #woman #womanhood #feminine #cottagecore #homemaker #homemaking

[odinsblog]

#pele #brazil #soccer #language #exceptional #definitions #⚽️

[polyamorouscultureis]

What is a QPR and how is that different from friendship? Maybe it’s because I’m arospec, but I haven’t heard a definition that makes sense to me. Thanks!

People define QPRs in many ways! My understanding is that it is a deeper, more intimate type of friendship that is somewhere between a romantic and platonic relationship. From an outsider's perspective a QPR may seem like "more than friends" but the people involved don't feel romantic feelings for each other.

If any of my followers want to correct me/expand on this that would be so appreciated!

#polyam asks #definitions #polyamory #polyam #lgbtq #polyamorous #poly #polycule

[apenitentialprayer]

There Is No Maternal Instinct In Humans

By definition, an instinct is a behavior that does not have to be learned, shows almost no variation between members of its species, and manifests in a rigid sequence of behaviors performed in response to stimulus. It's also called a fixed action pattern, or FAP. In bears and pigeons, hibernation and homing are instincts. In some species, caring for newborns is instinctive. [...] A rat has a maternal instinct. So, too, does the grayback goose, who immediately pushes any round object near her nest inside to incubate it, no matter if it is a billiard ball placed there by an impish ethologist or an actual egg. Round object (stimulus) produces rolling behavior (response). The less intelligent an animal, the more its survival depends on instinct. In contrast, almost every aspect of primate behavior is mediated by a larger and more developed brain. Evolution has equipped us with a neocortex that requires us to learn in order to survive. With a neocortex, biology remains relevant but is no longer determinant. Natural selection ultimately favored flexibility. Animals that can rapidly adapt to shifting conditions have an advantage over those that can survive only a narrow range of circumstances. [...] The neocortex allows flexibility, but the loss of instinct also comes at a cost. Charles Snowdon, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, has spent his career studying marmosets and tamarins, cooperatively breeding New World monkeys. In most groups of tamarins, the young help to take care of babies, while in a minority of groups, they do not have this opportunity. In a field study of tamarins without prior infant-care experience, Snowdon and his team discovered that babies born to first-time parents never survived. They guessed that naive mothers and fathers didn't know enough either to parent on their own or to accept help from more experienced kin. Later, from comparative data, his team discovered that the survival rate was much better in groups where young siblings helped out with babies. Across primates, infants born to inexperienced parents have higher risk of death. Snowdon explains, "When they don't have experience with infant-care skills, there's a very low breeding success rate. Parenting skills are learned. They're not innate, for males and females equally. Both are clumsy parents. [...] You have to learn to share care of your baby[...]"

- Darcy Lockman (All the Rage: Mothers, Fathers, and the Myth of Equal Partnership, pages 71, 71-72, 73-74). Slightly reformatted to avoid wall of text, bolded emphases added.

#biology #parenting #parenthood #feminism #definitions #human development #evolution

[horizon-verizon]

HOTD IS ALREADY A VIOLENTLY ANTI BLACK SHOW BUT RACIST PIGS WANT TO HAVE ANOTHER BLACK GIRL SIDELINED IN FAVOR OF AN IRRELEVANT & UNINTERESTING WHITE NON-CHARACTER.

When Aegon III look at Jaehaera, her face, her eyes, I know he saw Aegon II’s face. With Jaehaera, he can’t escape him, he can’t escape his mother’s violent death, he isn’t allowed to think of anything else, he’s forced to revive his olympic trauma over and over again. But with Daenaera, it’s UTTERLY different.

Jaehera dying is the story coming full circle. A greedy and ambitious hand wanting to make his daughter queen started the war but now his line ended by another greedy and ambitious hand who wanted to make his daughter queen. The point is that the Greens didn’t get what they want in the end because someone, one of their supporters, had the exact same mindset as Otto. Karma got to them. The Greens started this entire war to get their blood on the throne and their last chance to get their victory is dashed by one of their own people doing the same thing to them, GRRM is a genius, it’s ABSOLUTELY PERFECT.

Y’all REFUSE to let Rhaenyra have some crubs, it’s so disgusting. The Greens already have their own victory, Aegon II is the one remembered as king and Rhaenyra as an usurper, but he must also have descendants (the Blackfyres I guess) who tries to usurp Rhaenyra’s descendants and grandsons who became kings ??? OUT OF QUESTION, LET IT GO. You cannot have your cake and eat it too.

The Greens started this entire war to get their blood on the throne and their last chance to get their victory is dashed by one of their own people doing the same thing to them

Heavy on this, anon. In fact, let me go back an insert the part about Jaehaera being the green's last botched "chance".

Anon refers to this post I wrote from a person expressing why they thought Jaehaera's death was "narratively irrelevant". And why Daenaera can still be written in without marrying Aegon.

It's true Aegon the Elder is held as one of the kings in the line of monarchs while she is not. That is not bc she usurped Aegon, but because they wanted to discourage the idea and practice of naming women or girls as heirs altogether. It was about female rulership being made into the cause of disaster or conflict, not Rhaenyra necessarily!

I still don't think Rhaenyra is universally remembered as the/a usurper, because by their own vocabulary Rhaenyra can never be a usurper...she was declared heir by the monarch and held as the true heir for years. Gyldayn calls her "Queen" several times and unironically and out of the then-living people's perspective. To be a usurper, you need to violently or unlawfully seize power, which Rhaenyra never ever did. The greens did that.

Once again, Stannis is not a reliable source to judge history, because the man is a walking self-denier and nihilistic user of fear to get his way. In the actual novels, Rhaenyra is thought of a civil conflict more than the direct cause of one through usurpation and "usurpation" itself is never mentioned unless it's Stannis saying so. And yes, Arianne Martell had the right of it, even though she is also using history for her own claims...the difference is that her reading of history and Rhaenyra's position is correct.

The people who want things to be more "equal" or "balanced" bt the greens and the blacks or have the greens have a sort of victory like the blacks just sound really desperate. And for what? For patriarchy to reaffirm itself deeper than ever and more than if Rhaenyra had just been queen?🙄

#asoiaf asks to me #jaehaera targaryen #daenaera velaryon #fire and blood writing #aegon iii #fandom critical #hotd fandom #definitions #usurpation #usurper #fire and blood #westeros succession #westerosi history #character comparison #asoiaf

[poll-position]

#poll #polls #words #grammar #definitions

[wronghands1]

#humor #wronghands #webcomic #john atkinson #wordplay #phonics #phonetics #speech #pronounciation #words #geology #definitions

[emilywrites185]

10 Additional Words to Love

Here are ten more words I found to be helpful. May they help or inspire you on your writing adventures!

Abase (Verb)- To lower in esteem, degrade, to humble. To behave in a way that belittles or degrades someone or yourself.

Brazen (Adj)- Bold and without shame. Made of brass.

Chasten (Verb)- To have a restraining or moderating effect on.

Demure (Adj)- Sober or serious in manner. Reserved.

Flair (Noun)- A special or instinctive aptitude or ability for doing something well. Stylish and originality.

Harangue (Noun)- A lengthy and aggressive speech. (Verb)- To lecture someone in an aggressive and critical manner.

Lissome (Adj)- Thin, supple, graceful.

Morass (Noun)- An area of muddy or boggy ground. A complicated or confusion situation.

Opaque (Adj)- Not able to be seen through; not clear or lucid; dense, stupid.

Wily (Adj)- Skilled at gaining an advantage, especially through deceit. Sly, cunning

#vocabulary #writeblr #writers of tumblr #word choice #word list #list of vocab #list of words #adjectives #nouns #verbs #grammar #definitions #vocab #writeblur #words #writing community