besot

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eberntson
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besot

Postby eberntson » Tue Feb 04, 2014 11:21 pm

1) infatuated ( drink with love)

2) drunk, drunkard.

Middle English: sot = drunk
EBERNTSON
Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more,
and all good things will be yours.
--R. Burns

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Slava
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Re: besot

Postby Slava » Wed Feb 05, 2014 5:22 pm

I note that etymonline says the drunken aspect of sot comes only in the late 16th century. Previously it meant only an idiot or a fool. Which helps explain why I feel besotted is more smitten to idiocy than drunk to that extent.

I do like our be- words. Benight, bewitch, bedizen, etc. are all great. There is one, however, that bucks the trend. Usually, the be- prefix means to make someone X, or to do X to someone. Besotted - you have become "sotted." Bedizen - to decorate. Yet, behead goes quite the other way, unless, as with besotted, you've really lost it.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

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Re: behead

Postby Audiendus » Wed Feb 05, 2014 9:37 pm

There is one, however, that bucks the trend. Usually, the be- prefix means to make someone X, or to do X to someone. Besotted - you have become "sotted." Bedizen - to decorate. Yet, behead goes quite the other way, unless, as with besotted, you've really lost it.
Heading can refer to a type of pruning of plants. Perhaps this explains "behead" – if you are beheaded you become "pruned".

Perry Lassiter
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Re: besot

Postby Perry Lassiter » Wed Feb 05, 2014 9:49 pm

Of course, clipping all the dead flowers is called deadheading, especially with regard to roses. I also knew a girl, now a woman, whose initials were BB. Not surprisingly, she was known and is still known as BeBee.
pl

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Re: besot

Postby Philip Hudson » Fri Feb 07, 2014 3:27 am

The first definition of deadheading that comes to my mind is off duty flight crew-members flying on an airplane. I have clipped thousands of dead flower heads in my garden over the year. I never thought I was deadheading.
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Re: besot

Postby Perry Lassiter » Fri Feb 07, 2014 7:14 pm

I believe truck drivers also use the word "deadheading" to mean returning to its point of origin with an empty trailer.
pl


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