clip, clipper, poignant, plain sailing, vagaries

For all the boldface names among the Titanic’s victims, many more might have been aboard, but for the vagaries of fate.

BlackRock, which manages $23 billion of property around the world, is better known for buying offices in New York than marinas in southern Britain. But as capital has flooded into property in search of decent yields, the obvious investments are starting to look relatively expensive again. Investors are now hunting for “alternative properties”, and returns have been good. But it is not all plain sailinghttp://econ.st/1EIflb6

This is the horrifying moment when the ‪#‎TransAsia‬ Airway plane came down.















































































BBC News


This horrifying footage shows the moment a #TransAsia plane carrying 58 people clipped a bridge and crashed into a river near the Taiwanese capital, Taipei.


Video courtesy of: YouTube/aronchen2k



A compelling new documentary tells the story of three members of Pussy Riot, a Russian punk-art collective, who were arrested on charges of hooliganism inspired by religious hatred after staging a protest at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The film succeeds in showing how punk activism is a poignant, relevant and sometimes flawed form of expression for contemporary youth http://econ.st/1cYWf4f







Beijing Seeks to Cool Prices By Reining In Bank Lending

China announced an increase in the share of deposits banks must hold in reserve, its fourth such move this year, a fresh step in its battle against inflation that came after data showed consumer prices rising at their fastest clip in nearly three years in March.

And that in turn is a huge opportunity for manufacturers of clean technology in Germany and Europe. But it's not all plain sailing in China, as Ruth Kirchner reports from Beijing.


But as the iconic funishings chain celebrates a middle age milestone, its first 40 years have been far from plain-sailing.

Plain sailing

Meaning
An easy, uncomplicated course.
Origin
'Plain sailing' is a nautical phrase that has the literal meaning of 'sailing that is easy and uncomplicated'. We now use the phrase to describe any straightforward and trouble-free activity.

 plain sailing

Easy going; straightforward, unobstructed progress. For example, The first few months were difficult, but I think it's plain sailing from here on. Alluding to navigating waters free of hazards, such as rocks or other obstructions, this term was transferred to other activities in the early 1800s.

Origin

'Plain sailing', along with the variants 'smooth sailing' and 'clear sailing', which are more common in the USA than elsewhere, is a nautical phrase that has the literal meaning of 'sailing that is easy and uncomplicated'. All of these variants of the expression are now used figuratively to describe any straightforward and trouble-free activity. There might seem to be be little more to say about 'plain sailing', if it weren't for the existence of the phrase 'plane sailing'.
'Plane sailing' is a simplified form of navigation, in which the surface of the sea is considered to be flat rather than curved, that is, on what mathematicians call a 'plane surface'. The plane method of approximation made the calculations of distance much easier than those of 'Mercator's sailing', in which the curvature of the earth was taken into account.
These days we are pretty unequivocal in our spelling - 'plain' means 'ordinary and uncomplicated' and 'plane' means 'flat'. The vagaries of spelling in the 17th century made no such distinction and 'plain' and 'plane' were used interchangeably. It is the 'plain' spelling that is found first in print, in Adam Martindale's A Collection of Letters for Improvement of Husbandry & Trade, 1683:

A token for ship boys, plain-sailing made more plain and short than usually, in three particular methods.

The first known use of the 'plane sailing' spelling isn't found until much later, in James Atkinson's Epitome of the Art of Navigation, 1749:

Plane Trigonometry applied in Problems of Sailing by the Plane Sea-Chart, commonly called Plane-Sailing.

The spelling is variable but there can be no doubt that whoever coined 'plain sailing' meant 'navigating the sea as though it were completely flat', that is, what we now call 'plane sailing'.
In recent years the introduction of the phrase 'clear sailing' as an alternative to 'plain sailing' may have cleared things up a little. This was used to good, if rather poignant, comic effect in The Simpsons' cartoon The Simpsons Bible Stories, 1999:

Milhouse: Well, Lisa, we're out of Egypt. So, what's next for the Israelites? Land of milk and honey?
Lisa: [consulting a scroll] Hmm, well, actually it looks like we're in for forty years of wandering the desert.
Milhouse: Forty years! But after that, it's clear sailing for the Jews, right?
Lisa: [nervously] Uh-huh-hum, more or less.

clip
n.

1. The act of clipping.
2. Something clipped off, especially:
   1. The wool shorn at one shearing, as of sheep.
   2. A season's shearing.
3. A short extract from a movie or television program.
4. Informal. A quick sharp blow: a clip on the ear.
5. Football. An illegal block from the rear.
6. Informal. A pace or rate: go at a fast clip.
7. A single occasion; a time: could write nine pages at a clip.
8. clips A pair of shears or clippers.

Line breaks: clip

Pronunciation: /klɪp

  

/

VERB (clips, clipping, clipped)

[WITH OBJECT]

1Cut short or trim (hair, vegetation, etc.) with shears orscissors:I was clipping the hedge

MORE EXAMPLE SENTENCESSYNONYMS

1.1Trim or remove the hair or wool of (an animal):we explain how to clip your horse

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1.2(clip something off) Cut off a thing or part of a thing with shears or scissors:Philip clipped off another piece of wirefigurative she clipped nearly two seconds off theworld record

MORE EXAMPLE SENTENCES

1.3Cut (a section) from a newspaper or periodical:a photograph clipped from a magazine

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1.4Illicitly pare the edge of (a coin):they clipped the edges of gold coins and meltedthe clippings down

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1.5British Remove a small piece of (a bus or trainticket) to show that it has been used.

EXAMPLE SENTENCES

1.6Computing Process (an image) so as to removethe parts outside a certain area:once the video image is captured, it can be panned, clipped, and zoomed

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1.7Electronics Truncate the amplitude of (a signal)above or below predetermined levels:once the amplifier has boosted the signal it is clipped to provide a digital pulse

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2British Strike smartly or with a glancing blow:the car clipped the kerbhe’ll clip your ear

MORE EXAMPLE SENTENCESSYNONYMS

3informal , chiefly North American Swindle or rob:in all the years he ran the place, he was clipped onlythree times

4[NO OBJECT, WITH ADVERBIAL OF DIRECTION] informal , chieflyUS Move quickly:we clip down the track

胡適1937年9/15 從香港搭 中國飛翦號飛美 26日抵舊金山

航空史首架商業飛機　 中國飛剪號飛越太平洋75周年

http://news.sina.com 2010年11月23日 08:25 星島日報

( 本報綜合報道)
歷史學家和航空愛好者，周一慶祝首架商業飛機橫越太平洋75周年紀念。

(在1935年，名為「中國飛剪號」（China Clipper）的水陸兩用飛機，從三藩市灣區的阿拉美達海軍航空基地起飛。歷經59個小時及停靠4站後，這架泛美航空飛機成功降落菲律賓馬尼拉，將 1，800磅的郵件運抵目的地。這些郵件若由蒸汽船運送，需要花15至16天的時間。 )

poignant

Pronunciation: /ˈpɔɪnjənt/

Translate poignant | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish

adjective

• evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret:a poignant reminder of the passing of time
• archaic sharp or pungent in taste or smell: the poignant scent of her powder

Derivatives

poignantly

adverb

Origin:

late Middle English: from Old French, literally 'pricking', present participle of poindre, from Latin pungere 'to prick'

clipper

(klĭp'ər)
n.

1. One that cuts, shears, or clips.
2. An instrument or tool for cutting, clipping, or shearing. Often used in the plural: nail clippers.
3. Nautical. A sharp-bowed sailing vessel of the mid-19th century, having tall masts and sharp lines and built for great speed.
4. One that moves very fast.
5. Electronics. See limiter (sense 2).

[名]

1 （羊毛を）刈り取る人［道具］；((しばしば〜s))刈り取り器, （特に）大ばさみ

a pair of clippers
1丁のはさみ.

2 ((通例〜s))バリカン；つめ切り.

3 駿足(しゅんそく)の馬.

4 クリッパー（船）, 快速帆船；（プロペラ式の）快速大型飛行艇.

5 《電子工学》クリッパー(limiter).

6 ((俗))一流の人［物］, 逸品.

━━[動](他)((米略式))〈物を〉（快速帆船・大型旅客機などで）送る.

━━(自)〈人が〉（快速帆船などで）旅行する.

［中英語. CLIP¹（切る）＋-ER¹（人）. 速い船が水を切ることから「快速帆船」］