Posts Tagged: Romans

  • Divination and the augur in a domestic setting -- your writer tries his hand at different divination methods--reading coffee grounds, tarot cards and watching the birds

    Augurs well

    I am getting older and I am starting to worry more. I need reassurance. Will I get enough work to pay the bills? Will my wife be satisfied with my domestic duties? Will my children find fresh reasons to criticise their upbringing? As a rugby coach, will enough players turn up on Saturday? I need […]

  • Julius Caesar being warned by the soothsayer to beware the ides of March

    The Ides of March—why should you beware?

    Introduction “Beware the Ides of March” forebodes dastardly events. Julius Caesar is told so by a soothsayer as he appears before the Roman crowd during the Lupercalia, an ancient religious holiday (according to William Shakespeare in Act 1, Scene 2 of his play “Julius Caesar”). Why beware? Why should Caesar be beware? In 44 BCE, […]

  • Tim Entwisle, Ken Buckley and two others at the Sydney Artisan Watchmakers trade show 2023 celebrating horology

    Tempus fugit—how time flies

    I was invited to the Sydney Artisan Watchmakers trade show by my watchmaker friend and his mates (2 November 2023). It did make me think about time and time passing and the meaning of horology. It is now November, and how the year has almost gone. The Romans also had an expression that we sometimes […]

  • Goth woman on some neo-gothic steps

    Roman revenge and gothic revival

    An introduction to the goths Being gothic seems to be a common thing. We have gothic and neo-gothic architecture; gothic fonts; gothic literature and even in my youth a Goth post-punk music sub-culture. I lived in London in the mid to late 1980s. I was persuaded to go out one Friday night, straight after work […]

  • Illustration: Modified illustration based on G.B. Piranesi "View of the Baths of Titus" to illustrate grotesque

    From antique to grotesque

    When we look at the history of words we often find a deep connection with the history of western culture. A word that really demonstrates this, is the word grotesque. We describe an object as grotesque if it is odd or unnatural in the way it looks, whether that be in its shape, appearance, or character. Something […]

  • The author, Tim Entwisle, is a beer barbarian. Seen here after after an evening drinking London Pride, in a pub in Sydney.

    Why do barbarians drink beer?

    Where did beer come from? The Ancient Greeks and Romans, who provided the starter words for many European languages, were wine drinkers. Beer was (as probably some would think now) a drink of the barbarian peoples (although the Egyptians and Persians did also enjoy a pint). It was first brewed in the European area by […]

  • There are so many words for books, pages and other forms of passing on the written word.

    The magic of book

    The Germanic languages spoken in Britain and Northern Europe have magically managed to keep a word for book that refers not to papyrus or parchment but to wood!

  • Cool as a WOTW cucumber -- Mr Cumcumber Head drinks a martini wearing sunglasses and brogues!

    Cucumber cool

    The temperatures have been hotter than ever this summer so we are in great need of a cool word. How much cooler can you get than cucumber? If we want to be cool, we’ll say we are as cool as a cucumber. The cucumber is a member of the gourd family, along with melons and […]