Word of the day

Uxorious – excessively devoted or submissive to one’s wife.

Is that possible? 🙂

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 7th, 2010 at 2:35 pm and is filed under language. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to Word of the day

  1. Richard says:
    07/08/2010 at 5:10 pm

    Uxorious? This is a word that is seldom used these days. It originates from a Maori word (adopted by the Roman’s) “tatahau” – “fierce, violent, stormy,-talking unintelligently during sleep.” Apparently, Calpurnia Pisonis, Julius Cæsar’s third wife, talked in her sleep. Such was Calpurnia’s “nagging”- an ancient English word- the best I can come up with: “to annoy by persistent faultfinding, complaints, or demands”- that Julius became so tired that he failed to anticipate his later assassination. Google is a wonderful research facility.

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  2. homepaddock says:
    07/08/2010 at 5:54 pm

    What’s the Maori word for good story but . . . 🙂

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  3. pdm says:
    08/08/2010 at 6:08 am

    Sounds like home.

    In answer to your question of Richard HP – Maori had to make do with a pakeha word bull…t.

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  4. JC says:
    08/08/2010 at 8:48 am

    Which reminds me of the five most common swearwords in NZ..

    1. ——–
    2. —-
    3. ———–
    4. ——
    5. ————— (Maori)

    JC

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  5. Richard says:
    08/08/2010 at 11:43 am

    -pdm – well done, teka is the word
    -Ele-korero paki: to joke at, tell stories particularly at night, just like Calpurnia
    -JC, email Hone H, he has a great Maori vocab, his children’s potential partners have less so.

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