It’s Friday and on Friday mornings I receive digital copies of ‘Building‘ and ‘Estates Gazette‘ magazines. I usually post the issue covers on MEROVEE because they sync so much, but with the overflowing comments, the latest page has become difficult to load…
So for the Meroveeps, or Mirror VIPs, here’s what’s…
Ding Dong, Clicky! What does the little Gazette (‘e states *rolls eyes*) have to say?
Kinda black and white, Clicky. I wonder what it means…
Etymologyonline is a fantastic resource if words grab your inner rest…
property (n.) c. 1300, properte, “nature, quality,” later“possession, thing owned” (early 14c., a sense rare before 17c.), from an Anglo-French modification of Old French propriete“individuality, peculiarity; property” (12c., Modern French propreté; see propriety), from Latin proprietatem (nominative proprietas) “ownership, a property, propriety, quality,” literally “special character” (a loan-translation of Greek idioma), noun of quality from proprius “one’s own, special” (see proper). For “possessions, private property” Middle English sometimes used proper goods. Hot property“sensation, a success” is from 1947 in “Billboard” stories.
If you clicked on ‘property’ EOL you’ll see four pages of listings where the word is used. These can be fascinating – both ‘black’ and ‘white’ via ‘bleach’ are Shining words, revealed to me whilst looking for hidden things in ‘The Shining’
Look down the first page for ‘Property’ and you’ll find ‘waif’…
waif (n.) late 14c., “unclaimed property, flotsam, stray animal,” from Anglo-French waif (13c., Old French guaif) “ownerless property, something lost;” as an adjective, “not claimed, outcast, abandoned,” probably from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse veif “waving thing, flag,” from Proto-Germanic *waif-, from PIE *weip- “to turn, vacillate, tremble ecstatically” (see vibrate). Compare Medieval Latin waivium “thing thrown away by a thief in flight.” A Scottish/northern English parallel form was wavenger (late 15c.).
Meaning “person (especially a child) without home or friends” first attested 1784, from legal phrase waif and stray (1620s), from the adjective in the sense “lost, strayed, homeless.” Neglected children being uncommonly thin, the word tended toward this sense. Connotations of “fashionable, small, slender woman” began 1991 with application to childishly slim supermodels such as Kate Moss.
Look again at the ‘Building’ cover *scrolls up* and find the waving flag…
Wow, Clicky… Big Ben, flag and Kate Moss…
Anyway, it was whilst I was taking digital snapshots of the magazine covers, when the fire alarm suddenly screamed into life. A drill – just enough time to grab cigs, phone, hat and coat before being ushered down the spiraling fire escape by orange fluorescent wardens.
Too wet and windy to smoke during roll call, so I waited until everyone else sprinted for the lifts and settled my back into a covered corner to smoke and read. “Yippee!” there was a new post from The Slog to think about…
Now if you add all this mayhem up, you could be forgiven for concluding that the two government institutions Britain should steer completely clear of are The United States of America, and the European Union. And if you then look at their disgraceful citizen rights record and parlous econo-fiscal positions, you’d probably add Saudi Arabia, Turkey and China to that list. So it does say quite a lot about the judgement of the so-called British élite that they continue to laud the Special Relationship with the US, are desperate to stay in the rapidly collapsing EU bed, like nothing better than selling arms to the Saudis, have hired Beijing to oversee our nuclear power development, and toddle off to Ankara at regular intervals in order to praise Recep Erdogan to the Heavens.
“Not just power, John” thought I, “quite a bit of London.”
Oh we just have to waif until… TY, Clicky 😉 Have a Song…
Library of Libraries 