bittersweet, nary, shlep, prance, nightshade, Solanaceae

"This is the most exciting news story of the year and then the reality of the day to day is a lot of schlepping around to Holiday Inn Expresses (and) eating out of your lap in plastic containers."

bittersweet VICTORY

The New Yorker

Rebecca Mead on the artistry and popular charm of Beatrix Potter, and the discovery of the author's “lost” book.

The Bittersweet Announcement of a New Beatrix Potter Book

“The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots,” a “lost” Beatrix Potter work to be published this…

NYER.CM|由 REBECCA MEAD 上傳

• New Orleans victory is bittersweet for towns flooded by Lee

Bittersweet Fruit
NEW YORK Just before Marie Brenner's brother died, he tried to eliminate as many traces of himself as possible. He schlepped his computer's hard drive to the dump. He spent hours erasing entries from his calendar. No correspondence that so much as hinted at intimacy would be left for his only sib...
(By Bob Thompson, The Washington Post)

• JULY 31, 2009

Reader Survey

Toyota Is First Across the Finish Line in Japan

But Victory for the Auto Maker Is Bittersweet, as It Overtakes GM to Become the World's No. 1 Auto Maker in a Time of Turbulence

 bittersweet

n. - 又苦又甜的東西, 
adj. - 又苦又甜的, 苦樂參半的
n.

1. A woody vine of the genus Celastrus, especially the North American species C. scandens and the eastern Asian species C. orbiculata, having small, round, yellow-orange fruits that open at maturity to expose red seeds. Also called staff tree.
2. See bittersweet nightshade.
3. A dark to deep reddish orange.

adj.

1. Bitter and sweet at the same time: bittersweet chocolate.
2. Producing or expressing a mixture of pain and pleasure: a movie with a bittersweet ending.
3. Dark to deep reddish-orange.

[After its roots, which are said to taste bitter, then sweet when chewed.]

 

   It is perhaps not superfluous to add a word of caution.

    When we speak of the family likeness of mass movements,

    we use the word 'family' in a taxonomical sense. The tomato

    and the nightshade are of the same family, the Solanaceae.

    Though the one is nutritious and the other poisonous, they

    have many morphological, anatomical and physiological

    traits in common so that even the non-botanist senses a

    family likeness. T

番茄(西紅柿)與
龍葵nightshade 果實像小番茄https://www.google.com/search?num=10&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm

schlep

ʃlɛp/

NORTH AMERICANinformal

verb

1. 1.

   haul or carry (something heavy or awkward).

   "she schlepped her groceries home"

noun

1. 1.

   a tedious or difficult journey.

   "a rush hour schlep to the airport and back"
2. 2.

   another term for schlepper.

   "all the schleps who say that 2010 was the beginning of a new decade are wrong"

schlep (-pp-), schlepp
verb [I or T; + adverb or preposition] MAINLY US INFORMAL
to move yourself or an object with effort and difficulty:
Do I really have to schlep all that junk down to the cellar?

schlep, schlepp 
noun [S] MAINLY US INFORMAL
something that takes a lot of effort to do:
It's a real schlep getting it all home.

A Light in the Attic

by Shel Silverstein

Last night while I lay thinking here
Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
And pranced and partied all night long
And sang their same old Whatif song:
Whatif I flunk that test?
Whatif green hair grows on my chest?
Whatif nobody likes me?
Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?...

Here in the attic of Shel Silverstein you will find Backward Bill, Sour Face Ann, the Meehoo with an Exactlywatt, and the Polar Bear in the Frigidaire. You will talk with Broiled Face, and find out what happens when Somebody steals your knees, you get caught by the Quick-Digesting Gink, a Mountain snores, and They Put a Brassiere on the Camel.
From the creator of the beloved poetry collections Where the Sidewalk Ends and Falling Up, here is another wondrous book of poems and drawings.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (MOT), where it's currently on show, has even provided capes to prance around in and music on headphones to get visitors in the mood. But on a recent visit there was nary a dancing art savant in sight. This is a shame, since the show, organized in-house by chief curator Yuko Hasegawa, is very much worth the shlepp.

WordNet: nary

The adjective has one meaning:
Meaning #1: (used with singular count nouns) colloquial for `not a' or `not one' or `never a'

adj.
Not one: “Frequently, measures of major import . . . glide through these chambers with nary a whisper of debate” (George B. Merry).

[Alteration of ne'er a.]

shlep

or schlepp also shlep
v., schlepped or schlepped also shlepped, schlep·ping or schlepp·ing shlep·ping, schleps or schlepps shleps.

v.tr.
To carry clumsily or with difficulty; lug: schlepped a shopping bag around town.
v.intr.
To move slowly or laboriously: schlepped around with the twins in a stroller.
n.

1. An arduous journey.
2. A clumsy or stupid person.

[Yiddish shlepn, to drag, pull, from Middle Low German slēpen.]

prance

v., pranced, pranc·ing, pranc·es. v.intr.

1. 1. To spring forward on the hind legs. Used of a horse.
   2. To spring or bound forward in a manner reminiscent of a spirited horse.
2. To ride a horse moving in such a fashion.
3. To walk or move about spiritedly; strut.

v.tr.
To cause (a horse) to prance.
n.
The act or an instance of prancing.

[Middle English prauncen.]

prancer pranc'er n.
prancingly pranc'ing·ly adv.