• fracas •
Pronunciation: fræ-kês, fray-kês • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A fight, scuffle, or loud argument.
Notes: We need to remember a couple of things about this word. First, there is no K in its spelling. If it were an original English word it would need the digraph CK for the [k] sound. Second, in pluralizing it, we need to insert an E between the Ss: fracases. With these two notes in mind, we should have no problem using today's Good Word.
In Play: A fracas is first and foremost a fight: "Rather than starting a fracas when the motorcyclists insulted him, Gerald simply left the diner and 'accidentally' backed over the row of bikes outside as he drove his tractor-trailer away." It has been extended, however, to cover loud, raucous arguments where tempers flare: "A fracas broke out at the office meeting when the boss asked Marsha Lartz to get him a cup of coffee."
Word History: French borrowed fracas from Itallian fracasso "fracas", the noun from fracassare "to smash, shatter". This verb was derived from Latin fractus "broken", the past participle of frangere "to break", a verb with a notorious Fickle N. We see it in the infinitive frangere but not in the derived adjective fragilis "breakable", the origin of fragile. Notice that English also borrowed fracture and infraction, two other words based on the N-less past participle fractus. (Let's all thank Eric Berntsen without any fracas for suggesting today's Good Word.)
FRACAS
- Dr. Goodword
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FRACAS
• The Good Dr. Goodword
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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BOOK: Bound Optimally Organized Knowledge.
Maybe if you read the Gutenberg version onscreen it won't seem like a book, just a long, rambling post.
Maybe if you read the Gutenberg version onscreen it won't seem like a book, just a long, rambling post.
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
- Slava
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This is one of the best e-mail joke things out there. Is the full text available here? I admit to being to lazy to look for it just now. If it's missing, this lapse must be corrected, ASAP.BOOK: Bound Optimally Organized Knowledge.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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BOOK: Bound Optimally Organized Knowledge.
Well, Cacasenno was acting as if he didn't want to read a book, and I plopped up the BOOK quote in reply to that, and meant to have him read the Gutenburg version of Captain Fracasse by Théophile Gautier that he linked to.This is one of the best e-mail joke things out there. Is the full text available here? I admit to being to lazy to look for it just now. If it's missing, this lapse must be corrected, ASAP.
Books are good; you don't need an Internet connection to read one, and you only need power if you're reading at night and don't have a fire or candle handy to read by.
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
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