BERTH

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BERTH

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue May 01, 2007 10:18 pm

• berth •

Pronunciation: bêrth • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. Sufficient space for a ship to maneuver. 2. Sufficient space for anything to maneuver. 3. A place for a ship to dock or a person to sleep on board (a ship, train, etc.)

Notes: Today's Good Word seems to have a variety of unrelated meanings but they all revolve around required space. The plural is often pronounced slightly softer than the singular ([bêrdhz]) with a voiced TH-sound like that of this and that rather than that of thistle. Either way is OK. Just remember to give a wide berth to birth so as not to confuse the spellings.

In Play: Today's word commonly occurs in the idiom meaning to keep a distance, steer clear (of): "I understand the health benefits of garlic so long as those who eat it keep a wide berth of me." However, this sense may be used elsewhere: "The horse I bet on came in a good berth behind the rest of the pack." Of course, sleeping places on board ships and trains are also berths: "I thought it was raining on the train until I realized that my traveling companion in the upper berth had been unable to keep his dinner down."
Champs-Elysees

Word History: Although the spelling berth has now solidly established itself, before the 19th century today's word was spelled birth. That is because both words are nouns derived from the same verb: bear. Exactly why is anyone's guess but seamen have always liked this verb (see also a ship's bearing). In Germanic languages it also refers to birth and that which is born: a bairn "child", as the Scots say. Bear is a member of a huge derivational family that stretches across all the Indo-European languages. In Latin it became ferre "to carry", found in dozens of English words (infer, defer, etc.); in Russian it appears in brat' "take" and in Sanskrit bharati "he carries, takes". (We would like to take the opportunity to thank Kathleen McCune for finding a berth for this word in our Good Word series.")[/url]
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skinem
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Postby skinem » Tue May 01, 2007 11:48 pm

Our Mark Bailey is a Kathleen?!
Is that bunk?

Perry
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Postby Perry » Wed May 02, 2007 7:51 am

How do you figure?
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
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engineer27
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Re: BERTH

Postby engineer27 » Wed May 02, 2007 11:52 am

• berth •

"I thought it was raining on the train until I realized that my traveling companion in the upper berth had been unable to keep his dinner down."
eeww. I hope that in the future Dr. Goodword gives this sort of gruesome exemplar a wider berth.

skinem
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Postby skinem » Wed May 02, 2007 9:15 pm

How do you figure?
I may have been mistaken, but I thought "berth" was a word suggested by Bailey...

Perry
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Postby Perry » Thu May 03, 2007 7:50 am

Who knows? I looked at 2-3 pages of suggested words, and then went on to more productive activities. Nu, Bailey. End the conjecturing.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
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Bailey
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Postby Bailey » Thu May 03, 2007 12:35 pm

no, I suggested bunk and berth figured prominately therein.

mark but-there-were-many-other-times-I-didn't-get-proper-credit Bailey

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