alburnum

[Cacasenno]

Al*bur"num (#),

n. [L., fr. albus white.] (Bot.) The white and softer part of wood, between the inner bark and the hard wood or duramen; sapwood.

Webster's Revised Unabridged, 1913 Edition


See also Grogie's good word entry blea

[Perry]

Nice word, but it saps my brain.

[Slava]

Nice word, but it saps my brain.

Isn't that good? Now no one can call you a sap.

[Cacasenno]

Now I know why 'sap' sounded familiar to me. And remembering 'sapper' and its translation, here it is:

sap2

PRONUNCIATION: sp
NOUN: A covered trench or tunnel dug to a point near or within an enemy position.
VERB: Inflected forms: sapped, sap·ping, saps
TRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To undermine the foundations of (a fortification). 2. To deplete or weaken gradually.
INTRANSITIVE VERB: To dig a sap.
ETYMOLOGY: Obsolete French sappe or Italian zappa, hoe, from Old French and Old Italian, both from Late Latin sappa.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.


Entirely different root from 'sap1', as expected, though.

( Or is it?)

[Stargzer]

Al*bur"num (#),

n. [L., fr. albus white.] (Bot.) The white and softer part of wood, between the inner bark and the hard wood or duramen; sapwood.

Webster's Revised Unabridged, 1913 Edition


See also Grogie's good word entry blea

When Al Burnham, who makes trinkets from the heartwood of logs, was asked what he was going to do with all the alburnum dunnage in his yard, he replied, "Ah'll burn 'em in mah woodstove nex' winner."

[Slava]

When Al Burnham, who makes trinkets from the heartwood of logs, was asked what he was going to do with all the alburnum dunnage in his yard, he replied, "Ah'll burn 'em in mah woodstove nex' winner."

Please accept my obeisance. I bow to a king of PUN-ditry.

[Stargzer]

When Al Burnham, who makes trinkets from the heartwood of logs, was asked what he was going to do with all the alburnum dunnage in his yard, he replied, "Ah'll burn 'em in mah woodstove nex' winner."

Please accept my obeisance. I bow to a king of PUN-ditry.

Thanks, but I've worked with some REAL masters in the past. This one just leapt right out and begged to be used. We have to thank Johnny Littledrum for supplying us with the word that started it all.

[Cacasenno]

We have to thank Johnny Littledrum for supplying us with the word that started it all.

A modest notation for your vast records:
Littledrums and Drummers are undifferentiated in Italian.
-Ini is diminutive plural for 'drums', tamburi, and 'drummers' was probably generated by the fact that an army drum player, tamburino, -ino dimunutive singular, was generally a young soldier; the plural undifferentiates the two words.
Either one is a correct translation, but rendering different meanings.

[Stargzer]

We have to thank Johnny Littledrum for supplying us with the word that started it all.

A modest notation for your vast records:
Littledrums and Drummers are undifferentiated in Italian.
-Ini is diminutive plural for 'drums', tamburi, and 'drummers' was probably generated by the fact that an army drum player, tamburino, -ino dimunutive singular, was generally a young soldier; the plural undifferentiates the two words.
Either one is a correct translation, but rendering different meanings.

Grazie, Gianni!

So that should have been Johnny the Drummer?

Systranet , my usual translation tool, doesn't translate the -ino or -ini directly. It translates tamburino and tamburini from Italian to English as tamburino and tamburini, meaning that it can't translate them, so I had to play around a bit until I tried tamburo and saw that it came up as drum. I just tried translating drummer into Italian but it couldn't translate it. It translates both baby and child as bambino. It translates bambo (the presumed root of bambino) as fool, but it translates fool from English into Italian as sciocco. All I can say is, what kind of fool am I?

[Perry]

Are you the kind that rushes in, where angels fear to tread?

[Cacasenno]

So that should have been Johnny the Drummer?

Systranet , my usual translation tool, doesn't translate the -ino or -ini directly. It translates tamburino and tamburini from Italian to English as tamburino and tamburini, meaning that it can't translate them, so I had to play around a bit until I tried tamburo and saw that it came up as drum. I just tried translating drummer into Italian but it couldn't translate it. It translates both baby and child as bambino. It translates bambo (the presumed root of bambino) as fool, but it translates fool from English into Italian as sciocco. All I can say is, what kind of fool am I?

It happens: I too, when I reverse the translation enquiry, I do not always get back to the original word, English or Italian that was.
I suppose it has to do with prevailing usage.
With Babylon, I get tamburino right (drummer), but not the second meaning (small drum) and no responde for the plural tamburini. Yet tamburino (small drum) is known and referred to by Babylon in a reverse enquiry to translate 'drummer' (player of a tamburo or a tamburino, ie a drum or a small drum).

We generally use bambino for 'baby' and 'child'. A 'newborn' is a neonato and when we need to be more specific, 'baby' is a bebè.

Originally bambino was the now obsolete bambo, now used, more frequently in the form bamba, fig. to indicate a fool.

Yes, Drummers is probably more appropriate for a surname.
The first known record of a cognomen Tamburini is dated back to the 13th century when a drummer was knighted for gallantry (clearly an ancestor of mine ). In this case, the given plural might have been a reference to back generations of drummers in the family or, although both could be true, Italian for 'The Drummer' or 'Mac Drummer' or 'Von Drummer'.
Of course, this kind of mechanics were independently repeated when church and/or registry records were introduced, just as it happened in most other countries.

[Stargzer]

Hey, Perry! With all this -ino and -ini going around, does that mean that Shemini Atzeret is a diminutive of Shem Atzeret?

[Perry]

Good one! But as your link shows, the short answer is no.

The ini in this case changes the word for eight into eighth.