Nurse

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Slava
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Nurse

Postby Slava » Tue May 13, 2014 8:37 am

The GW of 5/13/14:

• nurse •

Pronunciation: nêrs • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, Verb

Meaning: 1. (Noun) A person trained to care for the sick, especially under supervision of doctors in hospitals. 2. (Noun) A person charged with the care of children, short for nursemaid. 3. (Verb) To attend carefully, as to nurse a sore ankle. 4. (Verb) To breastfeed (a baby) or be breastfed, as the baby peacefully nursed in her arms. 5. (Verb) To drag something out maximally, for as long as possible, as to nurse a drink or nurse a grudge for years.

Notes: The verb nurse has gone through several metaphorical changes that reveal our attitudes toward nursing. The first new meaning to come out of this is a sense of carefulness, as to nurse a sore foot back to health. Second, trust is implied in the verb nurse, for would we entrust the care of our children to someone we distrust? Finally, it has taken on the sense of endurance, as to nurse a drink or a grudge. These characteristics reveal what we expect from well-defined nurses.

In Play: Since the noun is common enough, let's focus on the meanings of the verb nurse: "Porphyria carefully nursed her husband back to good health for the satisfaction of divorcing him before he died." Now for a sentence exemplifying protracted action: "Jason Sanborn never really liked alcoholic drinks, but he always orders one, carefully nursing it throughout the evening."

Word History: English reduced today's Good Word from Middle English norice "nurse, wet nurse", from Old French norrice, a simplification of Late Latin nutricia, the feminine of Latin nutricius "that suckles", used as noun. Nutricius is the adjective accompanying nutrix (nutric-s) "wet nurse", the personal noun from the verb nutrire "to suckle, nourish". English borrowed several other words based on this same root: nutritious, nurture, nourish and nutrient among them. (We now thank Rob Towart for not nursing the recommendation of today's Good Word any longer than he did.)

George Kovac

Re: Nurse

Postby George Kovac » Tue May 13, 2014 8:53 am

When snorkeling down here in Florida, it is common to encounter nurse sharks, relatively small non-aggressive fish. On one of these trips, I mentioned to one of the other snorkelers, an inexperienced visitor from Atlanta, that there were a lot of nurse sharks that day. She asked which ones they were and I explained they were the ones that appeared to be "nursing"...they poke their heads into rocks, other fish, boat bottoms, anything that might have food. I said they were so named because someone thought the behavior looked like an infant nursing. Blank stare, and I tried again. Several explanations later, the visitor still did not get it. Exasperated, I finally told her to look for the fish with little white starched hats. At that point she ceased asking for my guidance.

LukeJavan8
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Re: Nurse

Postby LukeJavan8 » Tue May 13, 2014 12:21 pm

gives another example of the meaning of "clueless'.
I wonder if it comes from staring at cell phones all day?
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

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Slava
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Re: Nurse

Postby Slava » Tue May 13, 2014 12:40 pm

Coincidentally, today's Dilbert cartoon is on this topic.

[attachment=0]221205.strip.gif[/attachment

That is to say, on cluelessness, not nurse.
Attachments
221205.strip.gif
221205.strip.gif (51.9 KiB) Viewed 6264 times
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

LukeJavan8
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Re: Nurse

Postby LukeJavan8 » Tue May 13, 2014 6:00 pm

totally agree
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

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call_copse
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Re: Nurse

Postby call_copse » Wed May 14, 2014 7:09 am

As long as you didn't try to kiss the poor sharkies.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... shark.html
Iain

George Kovac

Re: Nurse

Postby George Kovac » Wed May 14, 2014 9:01 am

Thanks for the video. I guess the moral of the story is that being dependent on an artificial oxygen supply clouds your judgement and impulse control. Never kiss a nurse under those circumstances; you'll find yourself in the hospital.


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