Schott's Vocab

What a great blog. I think I would have imagined myself writing this sort of thing, if I had been asked at any point between age 10 and age 18. Perhaps I still could--the whimsy of it all is far more appealing that the sort of sustained inquiries I am expected to produce at present.

Ajami, Coming to Kendall, West Newton Cinemas, 2/26

I missed Ajami in the Boston Jewish Film Festival, but have been told it is excellent. It's coming now to the Kendall Cinemas in Cambridge and the West Newton Cinema on 2/26.

Writation? Malesh.

Poking around in the OED more than usual lately. It is a kind of escape, a kind of fascination, full of discoveries that are only sort of English, insofar as most are obsolete, many are from foreign languages.

Writation: n. (obs.) Poor or insipid writing.

1778 MISS CARTER Lett. to Mrs. Montagu (1817) III. 95 What writing, as somebody used to say, what writation it all is! 1787 BENTHAM Wks. (1843) X. 174 Nine-tenths of it is bad writation about the origin of society.

Malesh turns out to be "English" as well:

Int. ‘No matter!’, ‘never mind!’ Also as n.: indifference, slackness.

1913 ‘S. ROHMER’ Myst. Dr. Fu-Manchu iv. 44 ‘Ma'alesh!’ came her soft whisper; ‘but I am afraid to trust youyet.’ 1919 W. H. DOWNING Digger Dial. 33 Maleesh, it doesn't matter. 1925 E. FRASER & J. GIBBONS Soldier & Sailor Words 151 Maleesh: Never mind. It doesn't matter. Used colloquially on Eastern Fronts. 1946 Happy Landings (Air Ministry) July 12/1 The manpower problem will solve itself in time, but there is no excuse for the maleesh attitude. 1947 Landfall 1 162 Not so much of the ma lesh! 1958 L. DURRELL Mountolive xvi. 315 Ma-alesh! Let it be forgiven! Nothing avails our grief! 1971 Guardian 22 June 3/3 The general air of ‘malesh’, Arabic for ‘never mind’, or ‘forget it’, continues to hang over the police force. 1991 T. HORWITZ Baghdad without Map i. 10 ‘Malesh’ Ahmed said, producing a second oar. Malesh is an Egyptian phrase of surrender, meaning ‘never mind’ or ‘doesn't matter’.