brigadoon and brigandine and brigand and bremsstrahlung and vest and breccia and brede and breeks

Well, I haven't even gotten to 153-167 yet, though this is supposed to be the second essay on those pages. But I have to cite one more word from earlier pages (148) because the OED definition enriches it. It only appears as brabble, defined as "squabble" in the Collegiate, but the OED has eight words derived from it, such as brabbling, brabblery, etc., which give the full view of the idea. Though there is no agreement on origin, the word means "to dispute captiously or obstinately; to cavil or quibble." You brabble with or against a person and at or about a thing. Is this a so-called portmanteau word, one that includes in its one "suitcase" two word "compartments?" Maybe it might be explained as the joining of babble and rabble. That, at least, is how I think of it.

But a brabble can be a quibble or captious objection or a frivolous action at law. In common law terminology, someone who filed frivolous lawsuits could be guilty of "maintenance" or "barratry" or "champerty." I am not going to get lost on those roads, now, but suffice it to say that one definition of brabble seems comfortable in the world of common law courts. The word hasn't much been used since the 17th century, but I can see a healthy future for it. I especially think of the word brabblery when I think of FOX-TV.

On to the Words

So, this fun has got to stop, and here I propose to cover a lot of words from 153-167 that I simply need to learn. There is breccia, a rock composed of fine fragments, which has a very rich history to it (derived ultimately from Breccia marble), but I won't go down that road. Then there is brede, an archaic term for embroidery, which isn't too archaic for our modern dictionary. Yikes, I just saw a term, breast drill, which immediately conjured up all kinds of visions of S & M equipment but it is, in fact, a word going back to 1857 and has a legitimate usage in the construction trade. Phew. I wouldn't want our dictionary to get us sidetracked with forays into dark worlds.

Breeks are Scottish for breeches, brisling is a fish of the herring family, a brocatelle is a stiff fabric with patterns, while broking is an adjective meaning brokerage ("broking usury"). Bromelain and bromeliad are two words having to do with pineapples, even though the OED takes us deeper by explaining that the genus was named by Linneaus after the Swede Olaus Bromel. As you see, there is really no way to know the precise meaning of, derivation of or spelling of lots of these words unless you know a little of the history or people behind the words. A bronc is a mustang, brose is (what else) a Scottish dish, and browallia are tropical American herbs. Brumal means occurring in Winter, and the 18th Brumaire of Louis Napolean happened in this, the second month of the year of the revolutionary calendar (Oct.22-Nov.20). Time would fail me to tell of bubkes, a Yiddish word that can be spelled two or three ways and therefore won't be in the tournament, which means "beans" or "nothing." "He received bubkes at nomination time." Isn't there a bubkes award for great linebackers in the NFL?

I guess I need to pause a second on this. The Bee has a rule where a word with alternate spellings won't be tested. At least I think that is the rule. Well, this would mean that our wonderful word bubkes won't be there, because the dictionary also has bupkes and bupkus as alternative spellings. If you ask me, I would also add bubkus, but no one is asking me. Well, last year in the final round we had the word tchotchke, which is another Yiddish word, of at least as obscure origin/meaning, and one of the spellers slipped up on it. Isn't this a rather arbitrary rule, where we have to know the Yiddish word for trinket, but not the Yiddish word for nothing? Worthless, if you ask me.

Straying

As you can tell, I am already straying from the task, and so let me continue to do so until the end of this essay. I was arrested by the word bremsstrahlung, which is so obviously an obscure German word that I wondered how it made it into the Collegiate. Well, I guess, weimaraner did, but at least they are cute. Literally meaning "decelerated radiation," bremsstrahlung is the "electromagnetic radiation produced by the sudden retardation of a charged particle in an intense electric field." This really doesn't tell me much, but the OED examples informed me that bremsstrahlung, a most important process affecting the penetrating power of electrons, is the emission of radiation by the electron when it is passing through the field of a nucleus. Now that makes a little more sense. I think I like the word.

Then, let's close this essay by a brief consideration of brigandine. It has nothing to do with an idyllic never-never land (Brigadoon) and also does not refer to brigands, though the words are derived from the same Latin root, meaning "to fight." It is defined in the Collegiate as "medieval body armor of scales or plates." For some reason the vision of a big fish came into mind, but then I consulted the Century, and they had a nice picture of a brigandine. In short, it is a vest, covering the entire torso from the neck to the waist. It was made of linen or leather, and normally the plates of steel were quilted between two thicknesses of the stuff, as the dictionary says. It was especially used by infantry soldiers, who had to move a lot more quickly, I suppose, than those who wore plate-armor in gladiatorial competitions.

If this isn't enough for you for today, you just will have to do it yourself.

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