unfathomable, fathom out, oligarchy, trash, stink, rolling in his grave. On George Orwell’s birthday, revisit James Wood on the author’s life and writing, which encompassed a series of intellectual and biographical contradictions

On George Orwell’s birthday, revisit James Wood on the author’s life and writing, which encompassed a series of intellectual and biographical contradictions: http://nyer.cm/ZfwVSv7

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Throughout history, borders have caused unfathomable bloodshed, ageless feuds and decades-old legal disputes, which makes plans for a friendly exchange of land between the Netherlands and Belgium all the more remarkable.

And it's all been helped along by the discovery of a headless body.

Belgium and the Netherlands exchange land – because it 'makes sense'

Discovery of body prompts nations to plan friendly exchange of land and resolve jurisdictional nightmare without the usual bitter quarrels that…

THEGUARDIAN.COM

Ed Reich spent his entire working life running two dress shops, so he knows retailing. His verdict on our trip to the mall: “Business stinks."

And now it is filing for bankruptcy, something that would have been unfathomable even a few years ago, much less decades ago, when it was a dominant force in the American economy.


'Stink' attack on Japan's whalers

BBC News - UK

The group said its members on board its ship - the Steve Irvin - threw the bottles at Japan's Kaiko Maru vessel after pursuing the Japanese whaling fleet ...


St. Louis is a place where people can still smoke in taverns. But everything else seems to be changing. The idea of the brewery belonging to foreigners seemed unfathomable to many. People like Mr. Lucas may have to get used to it. But he does not have to like it.

“It stinks,” Mr. Lucas said. “Augie would be rolling in his grave if he knew about this.”

As land-scarce Tokyo runs out of places to put its trash, the city is expanding what trash can be burned. The move has enraged environmentalists and is adding to the confusion over Tokyo's already baffling garbage-disposal rules.


America’s oligarcy is about to make its picks. Four leading GOP presidential candidates – Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker – are traveling to a Southern California luxury hotel between August 1 and 3 to make their cases directly to the Koch brothers and some 450 other wealthy conservatives planning to spend close to $1 billion in the run-up to the 2016 election.




Learn as much as you can about how the oligarchs choose to allocate their money (I’ll be following this as closely as possible). It will tell you more about these and other Republican candidates than whatever the candidates say in public.




Bush, Cruz, Rubio and Walker to court Koch donors


Four leading GOP presidential candidates – Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker – are traveling to a Southern California luxury hotel in coming days to make their cases directly to the Koch brothers and...


POLITICO.COM|由 KENNETH P. VOGEL 上傳

oligarch, fathom out, furlong, rod or pole or perch, cubit

Sven Hoppe/European Pressphoto Agency

Wealthy Russians Adopt Olympic Teams

By SAM DOLNICK 4:51 PM ET

The oligarchs have brought their connections, expertise, and, most important, unfathomably deep pockets to once obscure athletic organizations, such as the biathlon team.

oligarchy

ˈɒlɪɡɑːki/

noun

1. a small group of people having control of a country or organization.

   "the ruling oligarchy of military men around the president"

   • a country governed by an oligarchy.

     "he believed that Britain was an oligarchy"
   • government by an oligarchy.

Fathom out

Meaning

To ascertain something; to deduce from the facts.

Origin

A fathom is one of those units of linear measurement that we learned at school (at least we did when I was at an English grammar school in the 14th century) and now can't quite remember just what length they refer to. There's the furlong (a 'furrow long', or the length of a mediaeval field - about 220 yards), the rod or pole or perch (all the same measurement - of five paces), the cubit (from the elbow to the fingertips). These peculiarly named units are matched in their imprecision by the fathom, which is the span encompassed by the outstretched arms from fingertip to fingertip - about six feet. Naturally, not everyone's arms were the same length and so the fathom wasn't an agreed distance. The woolliness over the definition of the term is illustrated in Ephraim Chambers' Cyclopaedia, 1728:

Men who had fallen on hard times and had resorted to any means possible to keep body and soul together were often those who were too old to find work. A cadger was likely to be a grizzled character wanting to borrow or steal from you; a codger was a peculiar and unfashionable chap, and both were likely to be old. 'Old codger' is most likely to be the linguistic merging of all those images. What is less likely is that the first such codger was seen carrying a cage of falcons.

unfathomable	(adjective) Resembling an abyss in depth; so deep as to be unmeasurable.
Synonyms:	abysmal, abyssal
Usage:	The ship sank to the unfathomable depths of the sea and was never recovered.

━━ a. 測り［底］知れない, 不可解な.

 un・fathomably　━━ ad.

trash 

━━ n. くず, がらくた; たわごと; 能なし; 【コンピュータ】(MacOSでの）ゴミ箱 ((Windowsではrecycle bin)).
━━ vt. 〔俗〕 こわす; 攻撃する; 〔米俗〕 （人を）糞味噌に言う, バカにする, からかう.
 trash can　〔米〕 くず入れ.
 trash compactor　〔米〕 ごみ圧縮器.
 trash・er　━━ n. 〔話〕 （手当たり次第の）破壊行為者.
 trash・i・ly　━━ ad.
 trash・man　〔米〕 （トラックによる）ごみ収集員.
 trash-talking　〔米俗〕 相手を侮辱し合う会話.
 trash・y　━━ a. くずの; たわごとの.

noun [U]
1 INFORMAL something that is worthless and of low quality:
I can't believe that someone of his intelligence can read such trash!
There's only trash on the television tonight.

2 US FOR rubbish:
The trash really stinks - why don't you take it out?

trash
group noun [U] US INFORMAL
an insulting way of referring to a group of people you consider worthless:
We don't have anything to do with the people in the apartment below us - they're trash.

trash
verb [T] INFORMAL
1 to throw away, destroy or severely damage something:
I simply trash that sort of mail.
The guys got angry and trashed the bar.

2 to criticize something or someone severely:
The boss completely trashed her work, in front of everyone.

trashy 
adjective INFORMAL
worthless and of low quality:
Why do so many people watch such ridiculous trashy programmes?

unfathomable 
adjective SLIGHTLY FORMAL
impossible to understand:
For some unfathomable reason they built the toilet next to the kitchen.

stink (BE BAD)
verb [I] stank or US AND AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH ALSO stunk, stunk INFORMAL DISAPPROVING
to be extremely bad or unpleasant:
I think her whole attitude stinks.
His acting stinks but he looks good, so he's offered lots of movie roles.

stinker 
noun [C] OLD-FASHIONED INFORMAL
someone or something that is very unpleasant:
What a stinker that man is!
She'd had a real stinker of a day at work.

stinking
adjective INFORMAL
describes something which is very unpleasant or bad:
I hate this stinking job!
She had a stinking cold and felt very sorry for herself.

stink (SMELL) Show phonetics
verb [I] stank or US AND AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH ALSO stunk, stunk INFORMAL
to smell very unpleasant:
Your feet stink!
The morning after the party, the whole house stank of beer and cigarettes.
He hadn't washed for over a week and stank to high heaven (= greatly).
The woman next to me sprayed on some perfume and UK stank out/US stunk up the whole shop (= filled it with an unpleasant smell).

stink Show phonetics
noun [C usually singular] INFORMAL
a strong unpleasant smell:
The stink of rotting seaweed was strong along the seashore.

stinking Show phonetics
adjective INFORMAL
having a very unpleasant smell:
a pile of stinking rotten food
v., stank (stăngk) or stunk (stŭngk), stunk, stink·ing, stinks. v.intr.

1. To emit a strong foul odor.
2. 1. To be highly offensive or abhorrent.
   2. To be in extremely bad repute.
3. Slang. To have something to an extreme or offensive degree: a family that stinks with money; a deed that stinks of treachery.
4. Slang.
   1. To be of an extremely low or bad quality: This job stinks.
   2. To have the appearance of dishonesty or corruption: Something about his testimony stinks.

v.tr.
To cause to stink: garbage that stinks up the yard.
n.

1. A strong offensive odor; a stench. See synonyms at stench.
2. Slang. A scandal or controversy: “the stink over sexual politics in the military” (David Nyhan).

idiom:
make (or raise) a stink Slang.

1. To make a great fuss.

[Middle English stinken, from Old English stincan, to emit a smell.]

stinky stink'y adj.

roll (TURN OVER)