aquarius 23: a big bear sitting down and waving all its paws

8/3/2019 Aquarius 23: A big bear sitting down and waving all its paws

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Aquarius 23: A big bear sitting down and waving all its paws

The word big appears to have entered the Engl ish language in the very

early 14 t h century and in the northern

E ng l a nd d i a l ect meant “powerful , strong.”

While i ts or ig in is unknown, i t may have

S c a nd i na v i a n s o u r c e , p e r h a p s t h e N o r w e g i a n

bugge which means “great man.” The Old

E ng l i s h u s e d micel to convey the same

s e ns e . 1

The word bear descends from the Indo-

European (IE) root bher-2 which means

“bright , brown” and from which also descend

berserker , bruin , burnet , and burnish . 2

The word sitt ing descends from the IE

root sed-1 which means “to s i t . ” 3 Among i ts paronyms are séan ce ,

sedi m en t , sess i o n , sew er (a medieval servant who supervised the serving

of meals) , assess , ass i ze , d i ss i den t, ass i du o us , r es i de , su b si dy ,

su per sede , cat h edr al , s i t , seat , saddl e , n i ck , n est , n i ch e , co sset , sedat e , a nd see ( the of f icia l seat , center of authority , jurisdict ion, or of f ice of a

bishop) .

Th e w o r d down has three dist inct meanings descending from two

dif ferent roots . The f irst def ini t ion means “ from a higher to a lower

pl ac e o r po s i t i o n” 4 and i t descends from the IE root dheue- , “ t o c l o s e ,

f inish , come ful l c ircle .” 5 Also descending from this root is down as “an

expanse of rol l ing , grassy , treeless upland used for grazing .” 6 The third

sense of down is as “ f ine, soft , f luf fy feathers forming the f irst plumage

1 h t t p : / / w w w . e t y m o n l i n e . c o m / i n d e x . p h p ? t e r m = b i g

2 W a t k i n s , C . ( 2 0 0 0 ) , T h e A m e r i c a n H e r i t a g e D i c t i o n a r y o f I n d o E u r o p e a n R o o t s , p . 1 0


4 h t t p : / / e d u c a t i o n . y a h o o . c o m / r e f e r e n c e / d i c t i o n a r y / e n t r y / d o w n


6 h t t p : / / e d u c a t i o n . y a h o o . c o m / r e f e r e n c e / d i c t i o n a r y / e n t r y / d o w n _ 3



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of a young bird and underlying the conto ur feathers in certain adult

b i r d s ” and “a s o f t , si lky , or feathery substance , such as the f irst growth

o f a h u m an b ear d . ” 7 This meaning descends from the Middle English doun

and the Old Norse dunn.

The verb wave descends from the IE root webh- w h i c h m eans “ t o

w eav e , t o m o v e qu i c kl y . ” 8 Among i ts paronyms are wafer , waff le , wave ,

waver , web, weevi l , weave , wobble , weft , a n d woof .

F inal ly , the word paw entered the English language in the early 14 t h

century from the Old French powe and poe but i ts more remote origins

are unknown.

THEMES: O ne ke y t h e m e h e r e c o nc e r ns LORDSHIP (a man of high rank

i n a f e u d a l s o c i e t y ; t o a c t l i ke a l o r d ; d o m i ne e r ) . O ne o f t h e m o r e o bv i o u s

contrasts is that of the bugge , the great or big man versus the sewer , t h e

r e l a t i v e l y l o w l y s e rv a nt w h o s p e c i a l i ze d i n t h e s e r v i ng o f m e a l s . A t l e a s t

one compound word can be formed from the above keywords and

p a r o ny m s , na m e l y s i t -do w n which means both “a meal for people seated

at a t ab l e” and “a w o r k s t o ppag e i n w h i c h t h e w o r ker s r e f u s e t o l eav e

their place of employment unti l their demands are considered or met .”

Ta ke n t o g e t h e r i t is not hard to imagine a story or s i tuation where a “big

m an” , a bear o f a m a n, p e r h a p s a n o w ne r o f o ne o r m o r e e a t i ng

establ ishments whose workers (waiters , servers) go on str ike to protest

m i s t r e a t m e nt a t t h e h a nd s ( p a w s ) o f t h e i r berserk bo s s . Th e

mistreatment could include pawing the servers , i .e . sexual harassment

a nd s o m e o f t h e w o r ke r s c o u l d , qu i t e na t u r a l l y, waver in their resolve to

confront their tormentor . Not surprisingly , such a story has been told in

the form of rather poorly rated movie enti t led,The Slammin’ Salmon

.The f i lm’s Wikipedia page summarizes the plot as fol lows:

7 h t t p : / / e d u c a t i o n . y a h o o . c o m / r e f e r e n c e / d i c t i o n a r y / e n t r y / d o w n _ 2

8 h t t p : / / w e b . a r c h i v e . o r g / w e b / 2 0 0 8 0 2 1 1 1 8 3 12 6 / w w w . b a r t l e b y . c o m / 6 1 / r o o t s / I E 5 5 0 . h t m l



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"Slammin" Cleon Salmon, the formerHeavyweight Champion of the world, a mean,hard, crazy, and sometimes infantile bull of aman, owes $20,000 to the head of the JapaneseYakuza and needs to come up with the moneytonight. So he challenges the waiters in the

restaurant that he owns, The Slammin Salmon, ahigh end, boxing themed seafood eatery inMiami, to sell more food than they have eversold in their lives. It’s going to be a contest

between the waiters with some prizes andpenalties: the top waiter gets $10,000 cash andthe lowest waiter gets a "broken ribs sandwich"courtesy of the Champ.9

9 h t t p : / / e n . w i k i p e d i a . o r g / w i k i / T h e _ S l a m m i n ' _ S a l m o n

aquarius 23: a big bear sitting down and waving all its paws

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