tawdry, gallimaufry, meretricious, nostrum, ragbag, mish-mash, adaptive, scrape. Saint Audrey's laces.

Tawdry tactics used to discredit politicians are making a comeback


"Religion aside, the book is full of strange myths and nostrums that hint at what mattered to people in the fourteenth century: sex, money, power, perfume."

“A repugnant gallimaufry of insults and half-baked nonsense”

Malaysia’s election
Tawdry victory
The government scrapes home—allegedly aided by vote rigging 2

 

 Adaptive learning is hot. The technology, loosely defined as data-driven tools that can help professors mold coursework around individual students’ abilities, is developing at a dizzying pace. And colleges have been hard-pressed to keep up with the mishmash of adaptive offerings from emerging firms.


IBM and AT&T offer cloud mish-mash for fearful firms
Computerworld (blog)
IBM (NYSE:IBM) and AT&T (NYSE:T) will get together to offer a cloud IaaS to big enterprises in 2013. The pair claim that it'll be more secure and manageable than other cloudy infrastructures, and should overcome the worries of companies who fear for ...



Touring Streets, Highlighting Gutters
By BROOKS BARNES
Tours sponsored by TMZ highlight the tawdry stories of celebrities in Los Angeles. The villains of NBC's tawdry drama
(By Tom Shales, The Washington Post)


  George emerged as a signifier of domestic probity and obstinate patriotism, a homely and honest contrast to meretricious politicians and as providing a reassuring stability in the midst of national flux and humiliation.




The Lord James of Rusholme, the former High Master of Manchester Grammar School and the first Vice-Chancellor of York University, who has died aged 83, stood out unflinchingly for academic standards - and in particular for grammar schools - against the meretricious educational nostrums peddled with such disastrous results in the postwar years.

Ely Cathedral

If you are interested in the history of Ely Cathedral and St Etheldreda, Ely Museum have two interesting talks coming up in May and June.

Ely Museum

  · 

We have really enjoyed the first two talks in our Spring Talks programme, so we have decided to add two more.

On 23rd May join Dr Charles Moseley, author of ‘Etheldreda’s World’ for his Evening Talks at Ely Museum: A Tawdry Tale - Translating Etheldreda

Etheldreda – St Audrey – is a familiar figure in Ely, and even more so in this year, the 1350th since she founded her monastery after running away from her second husband, Ecgfrith, King of Northumbria. Princess of a royal house, related to the king who was buried at Sutton Hoo, revered as a saint for centuries – but what made her tick? What sort of world did she inhabit? In this talk Dr Moseley hopes to do something to make the sheer otherness of her life, mindset and times of this remarkable woman, whom we just glimpse through her legends, comprehensible to a modern audience in a very, very different world.

Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing.

Then, on 13th June we will be joined by Elizabeth Stazicker, Hon Archivist to Ely Cathedral for Evening Talks at Ely Museum: The Liber Eliensis - A 12th Century History of the Isle of Ely

In the 1350th year of the foundation of the monastery which became Ely Cathedral, this talk will discuss the major source for the life of our local saint, Etheldreda, and for her monastery’s growth and its transformation into our Cathedral. It will include discussion of the problems of reading a source from the 12th century which itself starts out with a description of events of 500 years earlier, and pay tribute to the work of those who have studied the text, now of course available in English in Janet Fairweather’s magnificent translation.

Find out more and book tickets here https://www.elymuseum.org.uk/events/

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meretricious

Pronunciation: /ˌmɛrɪˈtrɪʃəs/

adjective

• 1apparently attractive but having no real value:meretricious souvenirs for the tourist trade

• 2 archaic relating to or characteristic of a prostitute.

Derivatives
meretriciously

adverb

meretriciousness
noun

Origin:

early 17th century: from Latin meretricius (adjective from meretrix, meretric- 'prostitute', from mereri 'be hired') + -ous

nostrum

Pronunciation: /ˈnɒstrəm/

noun

• a medicine prepared by an unqualified person, especially one that is not considered effective: a charlatan who sells nostrums
• a scheme or remedy for bringing about some social or political reform or improvement:right-wing nostrums such as a wage freeze and cutting public spending

Origin:

early 17th century: from Latin, used in the sense '(something) of our own making', neuter of noster 'our'

scrape

Pronunciation: /skreɪp/

Definition of scrape

verb

• 1 [with object] drag or pull a hard or sharp implement across (a surface or object) so as to remove dirt or other matter:remove the green tops from the carrots and scrape them [with object and complement]:we scraped the dishes clean
• [with object and adverbial] use a sharp or hard implement to remove (dirt or unwanted matter) from something:she scraped the mud off her shoes
• [with object and adverbial] apply (a hard or sharp implement) to a surface so as to remove dirt or other matter:he scraped the long-bladed razor across the stubble on his cheek
• make (a hollow) by scraping away soil or rock:he found a ditch, scraped a hole, and put the bag in it

• 2rub or cause to rub by accident against a rough or hard surface, causing damage or injury: [no object]:he smashed into the wall and felt his teeth scrape against the plaster [with object]:she reversed in a reckless sweep, scraping the Range Rover
• [with object] draw or move (something) along or over something else, making a harsh noise:she scraped back her chair and stood up
• [no object] move with or make a harsh scraping sound:she lifted the gate to prevent it scraping along the ground
• [no object, with adverbial] narrowly pass by or through something:there was only just room to scrape through between the tree and the edge of the stream
• [no object] humorous play a violin tunelessly:Olivia was scraping away at her violin
• [with object] (scrape something back) draw one’s hair tightly back off the forehead:her hair was scraped back into a bun
• [with object and adverbial] British spread (butter or margarine) thinly over bread: she became involved with scraping butter on to a piece of toast

• 3 [with object] just manage to achieve; accomplish with great effort or difficulty:Scotland scraped a lucky home draw with Portugal for some years he scraped a living as a tutor
• (scrape something together/up) collect or accumulate something with difficulty:they could hardly scrape up enough money for one ticket, let alone two
• [no object] try to save as much money as possible; economize:they had scrimped and scraped and saved for years
• [no object] (scrape by/along) manage to live with difficulty:she has to scrape by on Social Security
• [no object, with adverbial] barely manage to succeed in a particular undertaking:Bowden scraped in with 180 votes at the last election he scraped through the entrance exam

• 4 [with object] copy (data) from a website using a computer program: all search engines scrape content from sites without permission and display it on their own sites

noun

• 1an act or sound of scraping:he heard the scrape of his mother’s key in the lock
• an injury or mark caused by scraping:there was a long, shallow scrape on his shin
• a place where soil has been scraped away, especially a shallow hollow formed in the ground by a bird during a courtship display or for nesting: ringed plovers incubate eggs in shallow scrapes
• [in singular] British a thinly applied layer of butter or margarine on bread:when making sandwiches, use only the thinnest scrape of fat
• archaic an obsequious bow in which one foot is drawn backwards along the ground.

• 2 Medicine, informal a procedure of dilatation of the cervix and curettage of the uterus.

• 3 informal an embarrassing or difficult predicament caused by one’s own unwise behaviour:he’d been in worse scrapes than this before now

Phrases

scrape acquaintance with

dated contrive to get to know: I’d like you to stay at the hotel and try to scrape acquaintance with her

scrape the barrel (or the bottom of the barrel)

informal be reduced to using things or people of the poorest quality because there is nothing else available: the party was scraping the barrel for competent politicians

Origin:

Old English scrapian 'scratch with the fingernails', of Germanic origin, reinforced in Middle English by Old Norse skrapa or Middle Dutch schrapen 'to scratch'

gallimaufry

Line breaks: gal¦li|maufry

Pronunciation: /ˌɡalɪˈmɔːfri/

Definition of gallimaufry in English:

NOUN

[IN SINGULAR]

A confused jumble or medley of things:a glorious gallimaufry of childhood perceptions

MORE EXAMPLE SENTENCES

Origin

mid 16th century: from archaic French galimafrée'unappetizing dish', perhaps from Old French galer 'have fun' + Picard mafrer 'eat copious quantities'.

 ragbag

A motley assortment of things.
Synonyms:	farrago, gallimaufry, hodgepodge, melange, mishmash, mingle-mangle, oddments, omnium-gatherum
Usage:	The bottom drawer of the teacher's desk contained a ragbag of confiscated items ranging from comic books to false teeth.

meretricious (mer-i-TRISH-uhs)

adjective:
1. Appealing in a cheap or showy manner: tawdry.
2. Based on pretense or insincerity.

Etymology
From Latin meretricius, meretrix (prostitute), from merere (to earn money).

Usage
"For most of the 20th century John Singer Sargent's skills as a portraitist were deemed to be meretricious." — Waldemar Januszczak; A Dirty Old Man And the Sea?; The Sunday Times (London, UK); Jul 11, 2010.

mishmash - definition of mishmash by the Free Online Dictionary ...

www.thefreedictionary.com/mishmash - Cached

A collection or mixture of unrelated things; a hodgepodge. [Middle English misse-masche, probably reduplication of mash, soft mixture; see mash.] mishmash ...

mishmash[mish・mash]

  発音記号[míʃmɑ`ːʃ | -mæ`ʃ | -mɔ`ʃ]

[名][U]((時にa 〜))((略式))（…の）ごた混ぜ, 寄せ集め((of ...)).

adaptive

[形]((形式))適応する, 適応できる, 適応性のある.a・dap・tive・ly[副]a・dap・tive・ness[名]

tawdry motels俗麗而廉價

tawdry

Pronunciation: /ˈtɔːdri/

Translate tawdry | into Italian | into Spanish

Definition of tawdry

adjective (tawdrier, tawdriest)

• showy but cheap and of poor quality:tawdry jewellery
• sordid or unpleasant:the tawdry business of politics

noun

[mass noun] archaic

• cheap and gaudy finery.

Derivatives

tawdrily

adverb

tawdriness

noun

Origin:

early 17th century: short for tawdry lace, a fine silk lace or ribbon worn as a necklace in the 16th–17th cents, contraction of St Audrey's lace: Audrey was a later form of Etheldrida (died 679), patron saint of Ely where tawdry laces, along with cheap imitations and other cheap finery, were traditionally sold at a fair

tawdry[taw・dry]

• 発音記号[tɔ'ːdri]
• [形]（-dri・er, -dri・est）〈服・装身具などが〉けばけばしい, はでで安っぽい；下劣な.

━━[名]けばけばしい飾り［服］.

［St. AudreyでSt. のtがAudreyにくっついたもの. その縁日では安っぽいきらびやかな品物が売られた］

-dri・ly

[副]

-dri・ness

[名]

Tawdry

Meaning

Showy, but of poor quality.

Origin

Why should the derivation of a single word like 'tawdry' be listed on a site that specialises in the etymology of phrases? Two reasons: one, it is short for the phrase 'tawdry lace' (of which more later) and another, I like the derivation so decided to sneak it in.

For the explanation of the word tawdry we have to go back to 7th century England and the story of Etheldrida, the daughter of the king of East Anglia, who was otherwise known as Saint Audrey. Audrey died in 679 AD of a tumour of the throat. It was recorded by the Venerable Bede in Ecclesiasticall History, 731 AD, that her fate was considered just retribution as she had "for vain show adorned her neck with manifold splendid necklaces".

In the 16th century Nicholas Harpsfield, the Archdeacon of Canterbury, published his own ecclesiastical history Historia Anglicana Ecclesiastica and commented that:

"Our women of England are wont to wear about the neck a certain necklace, formed of thin and fine silk."

These silks were known as Saint Audrey's laces.

As time went by, 'St. Audrey's lace' became shortened to 'taudrey lace'. That comes as little surprise to those of us who live in Yorkshire, where expressions like 'the other' and 'down the hole' have long been replaced by 't'other' and 'down t'ole'. In his 1579 poem The Shepheardes Calendar, Edmund Spenser referred to 'tawdrie lace', in a warning to shepherd's daughters:

See, that your rudenesse doe not you disgrace:
Binde your fillets faste,
And gird in your waste,
For more finesse with a tawdrie lace.

'Tawdry' hadn't by that date developed the 'showy/poor quality' meaning that we now use but had started on its route there. What began as a name for fine lace ribbon became a disparaging term for the poor quality lace bought by country wenches at rural fairs. When Shakespeare wanted to establish Mopsa, the country bumpkin girlfriend of the Clown in A Winter's Tale, as less than sophisticated, he portrayed her as interested in frivolous showy dress and gave her this line:

Come, you promised me a tawdry-lace and a pair of sweet gloves.

'Tawdry' has long departed from any association with saints or expensive necklaces and is now entirely a negative description. To all the Audrey's out there, sorry but, as they would say around here, you're just t'Audrey.

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