#boralverse

excerpt from the afterwords of the Concise Onomatory o'Merch (sixth edition), a reference work published in 2001 and compiled by the Utcheter [Uttoxeter] Lexical Association.

…februum "offerings as a means of purification".

5. Colours

There are generally considered to be twelve fundamental colour words in Merch; that is, colour words which are not merely specific kinds of a more general colour (for example, the colour "butter" is a pale kind of yellow).

Half of these terms descend almost unchanged in meaning from Classical German [Proto-Germanic] adjectives through Old English.

white black grene yellow brown grey [/fəit blak griːn ˈjɛ.lə brəun grəi/] hwīt blæc grœ̄ne geolu brūn grēg ƕītas blacas grōnis gelvas brūnas grēvas

Two more are German but have undergone minor shifts in meaning. Rud [/ɾʊd/] reflects the Old English noun rudu "rudness", from synonymous rudo in Classical German. Glear [/gleː/] appears to reflect Old English glær "amber", presumably influenced in sense by Old Norrish glær "clear, see-through"; the former comes from Classical German glēsam "amber; glass", related to the latter's origin in glaevis "shining, bright".

Blew [/bləu/] is German in origin—its ancestor is Classical German blēvas "blew"—but it made its way via Frankish into Old French bleu and then via Norman into early Merch bleu; the word's native sibling blo survives in Northumber with the sense "dark-skinned".

The remaining three colour words are of non-German origin. Rose [/ɾuːz/] is seen in the flower sense as early as the tenth century, borrowed from synonymous rosa in Latin, itself presumably connected to the Greek ῥόδον • rhódon "rose". It is first seen as a colour word in the early Merch of the thirteenth century.

Pursy [/ˈpoː.zi/] is a hybrid form combining two older words. The first is Old English purpul, a borrowing from Latin purpura "the purple shellfish, or a dye produced from it". The second is early Merch perse "a dark blew colour, or a fabric in this colour", a borrowing from synonymous pers in Norman and persecum in contemporary Latin, perhaps referring to a cloth or dye imported from the Persias. These two words merged and acquired the adjective suffix -y (from Old English -ig) to produce the modern form.

Narage [/ˈna.ɾədʒ/] entered early Merch in reference to the fruit, borrowed from Norman narage, narange, which made its way across Europe from Arabic نارنج • nāranj, itself coming via Persian from Sanscrit नारङ्ग • nāranga "narage tree".

6. Dime measures

ligaçon /ˌli.gaˈtsɔn/ [ˌli.gɐˈtsɔn]

link, connection, bond, tie, a thing that joins two or more entities;

relationship, relations, the ongoing state of connection between persons or groups (esp in political use);

liaison, affair, dalliance, an illicit or informal romantic attachment;

(medicine) ligature, ligation, the tying-off of a vessel or duct, or the cord used to do so

Etymology: Middle Borlish, an action noun from ligar "to bind, bandage, link" < Latin ligō "I tie, bind", reinforced by direct borrowing of Latin ligātiō "a binding". The genteel use for an illicit attachment is a nineteenth-century euphemism; the surgical sense follows Latin medical usage.

mixallar /ˌmɪ.ksaˈlar/ [ˌmɪ.ksɐˈlɐː]

decapitate, behead, to execute by removing the head;

(specifically) guillotine, to do so using a partially automated mechanism;

to oust or otherwise remove the person or people in charge of;

disable, neutralise, incapacitate, to damage so as to render no longer operational

Etymology: 19th century, borrowed via Vascon from Mashick [Mexican] Arabic مِقْصَلَة • miẋ-ala "guillotine", literally "severer", from the verb قَصَلَ • ċas-ala "cut off, sever". Extension to metaphorical heads, either leaders or critical components, is seen from the mid-19th century.

coricheyar /ˌko.riˈkjar/ [ˌko.ʀɪˈkjɐː]

(of fabric) to decorate with chintz patterns;

(of a person) to dress in chintz-patterned fabric;

(of a room) to fill with chintz-patterned items of furniture;

(colloquial) zhoosh, spruce, finesse, spice up, to make more appealing or exciting

Etymology: 19C, verbal derivation from noun coricot "chintz (fabric, clothing, furniture)", as though the -ot ending were a diminutive suffix. The noun comes from the city of Coricot [Kozhikode] in Limerick [~Kerala, India], from where the fabric was exported. In metaphorical usage the term is seen from the 1950s.

reliquy /ˌre.liˈkwai/ [ˌʀe.lɪˈkwai]

relic, that which persists after loss or decay;

(mathematics) remainder, the quantity obtained by subtracting a divisor from a dividend as many times as possible without producing a negative result;

fossil, the mineralised remains of an living organism;

throwback, holdover, atavism, an item or person which has qualities of an older form of something;

skeuomorph, a feature copied from an older technology which no longer has a functional role

Etymology: Middle Borlish, reclassicised form of Old Borlish relic after the Latin reliquiae "remains, leftovers, survivors", from relinquō "I leave behind". The term has been used in mathematics since the fifteenth century, in geology since the seventeenth, and in product design since the late nineteenth.

focment /fɔkˈmɛnt/ [fʊkˈmɛnt]

breeding, (animal) husbandry, the management and care of farm animals by which quailties advantageous to humans are developed and perpetuated;

curation, selection, the act of carefully choosing a particular subset of candidates for some purpose;

nurture, upbringing, the environmental influences that contribute to a person's development

Etymology: noun derivative of focar "breed", a Middle Borlish borrowing from contemporary Willem focken "breed (animals)". This descends, possibly via Norse, from Classical German fuccō "I strike, hit; I have sex with". Extension to other winnowing processes is seen from the sixteenth century; in the last senses it is contrasted with engin "nature, innate character".

sposar /spoˈzar/ [spʊˈzɐː]

espouse, embrace, take up, to declare oneself committed to (a stance, doctrine or cause);

(legal) marry, wed, to take as a spouse;

vouch for, back, to confirm the good character of

Etymology: Old Borlish, from Latin spōnsō "I promise", the frequentative of spondeō "I pledge solemnly, give my word". The specifically matrimonial reading, not seen until the fifteenth century, may be a later back-formation from related spous "husband, wife".

salbrut /salˈbrɪt/ [salˈbʀɪt]

saltpetre, potassium nitrate, a chemical compound with the formula KNO₃ found as a white powder with a sharp and bitter taste;

(formerly) any of similar compounds such as sodium nitrate

Etymology: Middle Borlish, borrowed from Scholastic Latin sāl brūtus "dull salt". This is a folk-etymological adaption of Arabic بَارُود • bārūd "saltpetre; gunpowder", which is of uncertain origin. The term brut for a general nitrate was derived from the name of this substance in the eighteenth century.