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| With thanks and respect, Beatrix Potter. |
“The Moon's current phase for today and tonight is a Waxing Gibbous phase. Visible through most of the night sky setting a few hours before sunrise. This phase is when the moon is more than 50% illuminated but not yet a Full Moon. The phase lasts about 7 days with the moon becoming more illuminated each day until the Full Moon.”
So much of the language around the lunar information is lovely. ‘A gibbous moon’ is what we will have tonight, with high shredded cloud occasionally obscuring it. A ghostly galleon, tossed upon cloudy seas. And ‘wax’ and ‘wane’ are also, for me, lovely words. They go back to the fourteenth century, at least, in written form. ‘Wax’ is from the Old English word, weaxan "to increase, grow". And if you are being poetic, you can use ‘wax’ still to mean ‘increase’, sort of. ‘He waxed eloquent in his description’, for instance.
And then we get modern. ‘Moonshot’ is abrupt and rough on the tongue. ‘Mooning’ someone is not only naughty, it is an ugly way to express dissent. Although it sure beats shooting. ‘Mooning about’ is dismissive, a downplaying of how someone, usually a young someone, is feeling. I am sure there are more, but I am not coming up with any of them. Reminders welcome.
I am feeling somewhat fraught this afternoon as I cleaned the [censored] Keurig coffeepot this morning. One puts a dedicated cleaning liquid through the machine, leaves it to soak and then rinses with nine, count them, nine 16 ounce cups of clean water. This flushing requires one to refill the reservoir several times and, afterwards, remove one's footprints from the floor where the water dripped and was walked in. The floor has not yet been wiped, even though I am.
However I am, as I write this, slurping down a fine cup of hot and tasty coffee. Before I go, again, to see if the moon has climbed high enough to be seen between the trees.
Grammarly does not, of course, like ‘weaxan’. And the argument over comma placement wages on.
Moonshine in the illegal alcohol sense comes to mind. That’s where my head is tonight.
ReplyDeleteRight on! There is a folksong about it, too. Ah, moonshine, how I love thee. Good call.
DeleteAll of our coffee is consumed in the morning. I'll have one at 10 today at Tims, but that is late. By lunchtime it is tea, particularly for Sue.
ReplyDeleteI move to decaff. Tea? Only if it is impolite to refuse it. And, you are welcaem.
DeleteOh . . . and thanks for the etymology primer. 😎
ReplyDeleteDo not get me started on Keurigs.
ReplyDeleteI am decaf only since I quit teaching. I add all sorts of spices and a slurp of vanilla extract to the brew basket. Lovely. I find coffee so cozy now.
Since I know the rules of commas, I can now break them at will and call it Style. You could, too. If you want to see commas frightfully overused, take a look at the letters of President Lincoln's widow, Mary. She was prolific in her comma usage (to the point of abuse).
I am on, I think, my fourth Keurig. And I like commas - my style uses them. But not like Mary Lincoln. No. I have seen some of her writing, and she was, indeed, making them march about. Another diary/letter writer who is fun to read is Queen Victoria. I think she must have been writing late at night, mostly. Yeah.
DeleteI need my caff and my commas. And 'cozy' is a lovely word. Like wrapping the baby in a shawl.