words

When I'm in a state where I can't bear to let time slip away without doing something productive with it, but I don't have the mental wherewithal to do anything large, I've recently rediscovered that writing definitions for words helps. Usually I go along finding noteworthy words faster than I want to stop and write definitions for them, so I pile them up on the laptop. Now I can go through the list with the OED -- takes little brain, and leads to all sorts of browsing.

Additions to the doublets file:

manoeuver		[< F. /manoeuvrer/, OF. /manuvrer/, << L. /man\_u
			oper\_ar\_i/ to work with the hand.]
manure			to hold (land), to manage; to till; to cultivate
			(a plant; the body, mind, etc.); to enrich with
			fertilizing material.  [< AF. /maynoverer/,
			< OF. /manouvrer/.]
horde			a tribe of Tartars, or of other nomadic Asiatic
			peoples.  [<< Turki /ord\_a/ camp.]
Urdu			[< Hindustani /urd\_u/ (< Turki /ord\_a/), ellipt.
			for /zab\_an-i-urd\_u/ language of the camp.]
budget			a leather pouch; the contents of a bag; a bundle,
			often of news, as a letter.
			[< F. /bougette/, dim. of /bouge/ leather bag,
			< L. /bulga/ leather bag, the womb, < OIr. /bolg/
			a sack.]
bulge			a wallet, esp. of hide.