gambol & heteronym
Dec. 11th, 2001 10:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scottobeargambol (GAM-buhl),
intransitive verb: To dance and skip about in play; to frolic.
noun: A skipping or leaping about in frolic.
I've been told dolphins like to gambol in the waves in these waters, and that sighting them brings good luck. --Barbara Kingsolver, "Where the Map Stopped,"
Gambol, earlier gambolde or gambalde, comes from Medieval French gambade, "a leaping or skipping," from Late Latin gamba, "hock (of a horse), leg," from Greek kampe, "a joint or bend."
heteronym (HET-uhr-uh-nim) noun
A word that has the same spelling as another word but with a different
pronunciation and meaning.
In the following poem, each end-word is heteronymic:
Listen, readers, toward me bow.
Be friendly; do not draw the bow.
Please don't try to start a row.
Sit peacefully, all in a row.
Don't act like a big, fat sow.
Do not the seeds of discord sow.
In a pure heteronymic pair, the two words must be etymologically unrelated, as in bass, buffet, deserts, dove, entrance, lead, moped, unionized, wind, and wound.
intransitive verb: To dance and skip about in play; to frolic.
noun: A skipping or leaping about in frolic.
I've been told dolphins like to gambol in the waves in these waters, and that sighting them brings good luck. --Barbara Kingsolver, "Where the Map Stopped,"
Gambol, earlier gambolde or gambalde, comes from Medieval French gambade, "a leaping or skipping," from Late Latin gamba, "hock (of a horse), leg," from Greek kampe, "a joint or bend."
heteronym (HET-uhr-uh-nim) noun
A word that has the same spelling as another word but with a different
pronunciation and meaning.
In the following poem, each end-word is heteronymic:
Listen, readers, toward me bow.
Be friendly; do not draw the bow.
Please don't try to start a row.
Sit peacefully, all in a row.
Don't act like a big, fat sow.
Do not the seeds of discord sow.
In a pure heteronymic pair, the two words must be etymologically unrelated, as in bass, buffet, deserts, dove, entrance, lead, moped, unionized, wind, and wound.
