species, deadly, table talk, conversation, conference, We Got Shellacked, postmortem press conference

The email of the species is deadlier than the mail.— Stephen Fry (1957-)


Childhood: TV Reduces Adult-Child Conversations
By ERIC NAGOURNEY
Conversations between children and their caregivers decrease when a television is on, even if no one seems to be watching it, a new study says.



Obama: We Got Shellacked
In a postmortem press conference at the White House, President Obama took "direct responsibility" for historic Democratic losses but didn't apologize for his ambitious agenda.

shellac

Syllabification: (shel·lac)

Pronunciation: /SHəˈlak/

noun

• lac resin melted into thin flakes, used for making varnish.

verb (shellacs, shellacking /-ˈlakiNG/, shellacked /-ˈlakt/)

[with object]

• 1 (often as adjective shellacked) varnish (something) with shellac.

• 2 (usually be shellacked) North American informal defeat or beat (someone) decisively:they were shellacked in the 1982 election

Origin:

mid 17th century: from shell + lac¹, translating French laque en écailles 'lac in thin plates'

shel·lac shel·lack (shə-lăk')
also
n.

1. A purified lac in the form of thin yellow or orange flakes, often bleached white and widely used in varnishes, paints, inks, sealants, and formerly in phonograph records.
2. A thin varnish made by dissolving this substance in denatured alcohol, used to finish wood.
3. An old phonograph record containing this substance, typically played at 78 rpm.

tr.v.

1. -lacked, also -lacked, -lack·ing, -lack·ing, -lacs, -lacks. To coat or finish with shellac.
2. Slang.
   1. To strike repeatedly and severely; batter.
   2. To defeat decisively.

[SHEL(L) + LAC (translation of French laque en écailles, lac in thin plates).]

deadly

Syllabification: (dead·ly)

Pronunciation: /ˈdedlē/

Translate deadly | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish

adjective (deadlier, deadliest)

• causing or able to cause death:a deadly weapon
• filled with hate:his voice was cold and deadly
• (typically in the context of shooting or sports) extremely accurate, effective, or skillful:his aim is deadly
• informal extremely boring:he’s well meaning, but so utterly deadly
• [attributive] complete; total:she was in deadly earnest

adverb

[as submodifier]

• in a way resembling or suggesting death; as if dead:her skin was deadly pale
• extremely:a deadly serious remark

Derivatives

deadliness

noun

Origin:

Old English dēadlīc 'mortal, in danger of death' (see dead, -ly¹)

table talk
n.
Casual mealtime conversation.

Wikipedia (部分)
Table talk refers to informal conversation, generally at the dining table or in small get-together, which an important person indulges into with the purpose that message conveyed through such talks should get widely disseminated. Collections of such table talks by royal persons, celebrities, and other important personalities dating back to the 3rd century exist. The phrase table talk has been in use in the English language since the 16th century.

As a Memoir or Biographical Form

"Table Talks" are also a species of memoir in which a collector (biographer, colleague, friend, etc.) records impromptu comments made by some personage with the intention of collecting them in anticipation of their lasting value, apart from any intent by the speaker. The collector may go on to publish the remarks as a work unto themselves. (These are distinct from table talks that are intended by the speakers to be recorded as speeches of sort.)
As examples, published table talks exist for:
* Frederick the Great
* Martin Luther 這據說是傑作
* John Milton
* Samuel Johnson 這會會指 Boswell的傳記中的文章
* Samuel Taylor Coleridge
* Ludwig van Beethoven
* Napoleon Bonaparte
* Johann von Goethe 可能指{哥德談話錄} 最早有朱譯本
* Bronson Alcott
* William Hazlitt 這可以多介紹點
"On Criticism" ¹ Criticism is an art that undergoes a great variety of changes, and aims at different objects at different times.

1 Hazlitt's "On Criticism" is to be found in Table Talk, Essays on Men and Manners (1822).

-->燕谈录＝Tabdle Talk / (英)威廉•赫兹里特著; 严辉, 胡琳译. - 上海: 上海社会科学院出版社, 2001322页; 21cm ISBN 7-80618-930-0: CNY18.00
《燕谈录》是作者自己创作的随笔集，共有30篇随笔

本书选译了其中有代表性的22篇，以议论为主，针对社会中普遍存在的一些现象，独辟蹊径地谈出一番新鲜而深刻的道理。

穿鑿附會之說。見郢書燕說條。唐˙黃庭堅˙奉和文潛贈無咎篇末多以見及以既見君子云胡不喜為韻：談經用燕說，束棄諸儒傳。
書名。清史官夢蘭撰，一卷。列舉北京一帶方言，證以古訓，其體裁略同恆言錄。

【郢書燕說】
注音一式 ｜ㄥˇ　ㄕㄨ　｜ㄢ　ㄕㄨㄛ
解釋 郢人在給燕相的信中誤寫舉燭二字，而燕相則解釋尚明、任賢之義。典出韓非子˙外儲說左上。後比喻穿鑿附會，扭曲原意。清˙紀昀˙閱微草堂筆記˙卷四．濼陽消夏錄四：是不必然，亦不必不然，郢書燕說，固未為無益。亦作燕說。

燕談錄

比喻玩弄手法，串通作弊。宋˙王闢之˙澠水燕談錄˙卷五˙官制： 太祖慮其任私，高下其手，乃置司寇參軍。 清史稿˙卷二八八˙張廷玉傳：
刑部引律例，往往刪截，但用數語，即承以所斷罪；甚有求其彷彿，比照定議者：高下其手，率由此起。
澠水燕談錄》：「子瞻雖才行高世，而遇人温厚，有片善可取者，輒與之傾盡城府，論辨 唱酬，間以談謔。」

* George Bernard Shaw
* Adolf Hitler
Occasionally, comments are collected from others by a notable person as part of that person's working notes and may survive in the papers of that person. Ralph Waldo Emerson, for example, kept notes on the conversations of his family and friends, many of whom, of course, were noteworthy.

species

Syllabification: (spe·cies)

Pronunciation: /ˈspēsēz, -SHēz/

Translate species | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish

noun (plural same)

• 1 (abbreviation: sp., spp.) Biology a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding. The species is the principal natural taxonomic unit, ranking below a genus and denoted by a Latin binomial, e.g., Homo sapiens.
• Logic a group subordinate to a genus and containing individuals agreeing in some common attributes and called by a common name.
• a kind or sort:a species of invective at once tough and suave
• used humorously to refer to people who share a characteristic or occupation:a political species that is becoming more common, the environmental statesman
• Chemistry & Physics a particular kind of atom, molecule, ion, or particle:a new molecular species

• 2 Christian Church the visible form of each of the elements of consecrated bread and wine in the Eucharist.

Origin:

late Middle English: from Latin, literally 'appearance, form, beauty', from specere 'to look'