Saturday, May 7, 2011

sinuous



sinuous [ˈsɪnyuəs] a.

1.) Characterized by or abounding in turns, curves, or sinuosities; sinuate, curving.
2.) (Transferred sense) Intricate, complex; roundabout.
3.) (Figurative) Deviating from the right; not straight-forward or direct; morally crooked.
4.) Of movements: Taking place in curves.
5.) Of animals: Moving with supple bends of the body. Also of people.
6.) (Quasi-adverb) Sinuously (Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition).

Etymology: From Latin sinuosus, from sinus, curve.

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery" (Kubla Khan, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1816).
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I'd like to give a shout out to Wintermute, who runs a great blog for people teaching English abroad, and generously linked to MA (don't worry, Wintermute, a permanent link will be along shortly). For those that are interested, the definitive documentary about the English language was called "The Story of English" and it ran on PBS and the BBC in 1986. The DVDs are hard to come by, but luckily you can watch the whole thing on YouTube. Here's the first part of the first episode:


28 comments:

Endless said...

thx bro!

JayPower said...

Will attempt to use this at somepoint today! not sure on the pronunciation ;D

Couture Carrie said...

Beautiful post!

xoxox,
CC

DEZMOND said...

so, a person could have a sinuous mind? Metaphorically speaking :)

Hope you're having a nice weekend, dashing Mr. E!

Solsby Kid said...

Great word!

Dave said...

I will try to live my life by this.

D4 said...

Or a sinuous train of thought...

Zombie said...

The road I was driving on was sinuous!

A Beer for the Shower said...

Can a woman's body be sinuous, if she's curvy? What if she's in a car accident?

Alexandra said...

I can use this word while driving ;-) lol thanks

Mercurio said...

This word is a bit more common. Thanks!

Brandon Sample said...

oh well thank you for the shout out, very thoughtful. and I really enjoyed that story of English.

Unknown said...

I love this word. It is so...slinky. Really enjoying your blog as well. Thanks.

Team Panda said...

next time im driving "curse this sinuous road"

G said...

great word

Kicking Rocks said...

lovely word!

123 said...

i thought this word would have something to do with sinning, but i guess not :x

Robert Fünf said...

I feel so sad for not knowing so many of these words.

RedHeadRob said...

Sweet word!

HiFi said...

Awesome word. Great blog!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for expanding my knowledge on English :D

Intraman said...

that documentary seems interesting.
and reading a little bit of kubla khan in the morning is a great way to start off the day :)

ChaCha said...

A sinuous way of thinking?

Jesse Crows said...

love this word thanks

Sweet Lily said...

Absolutely inspiring!
Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed the visit. :)

Dejch said...

thanks for sharing!

good blog definitly following!

-E- said...

@A Beer for the Shower yeah that seems to be a good use. not sure what you mean by the car accident example, unless it was an attempt to be humorous.

Joel C Anatoli said...

the care spun in a sinuous manner before crushing into the the sinuous dragon which ate it

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