Word of the Day for Friday September 2, 2005
trammel \TRAM-uhl\, noun:
1. A kind of net for catching birds, fish, etc.
2. A kind of shackle used for making a horse amble.
3. Something that impedes activity, progress, or freedom, as a
net or shackle.
4. An iron hook of various forms and sizes, used for handing
kettles and other vessels over the fire.
5. An instrument for drawing ellipses.
6. An instrument for aligning or adjusting parts of a machine.
transitive verb:
1. To entangle, as in a net; to enmesh.
2. To hamper; to hinder the activity, progress, or freedom of.
I feel she dances a symbol of human happiness as it should
be, free from unnatural trammels.
--John Sloan, quoted in [1]New York Modern, by William B.
Scott and Peter M. Rutkoff
Is it a dull or uninstructive picture to see a whole people
shaking suddenly off the trammels of reason, and running
wild after a golden vision, refusing obstinately to believe
that it is not real, till, like a deluded hind running
after an ignis fatuus, they are plunged into a quagmire?
--Charles Mackay, [2]Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular
Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
In fact, corporate governance is based on the belief that
managers (like anyone else) work best not when their
freedom is trammelled but when they are made to account for
what they do with it.
--"The way ahead," [3]The Economist, January 29, 1994
It is quite inconsistent to claim to promote an enterprise
society on the one hand and to trammel it with regulations
on the other.
--Sir Iain Vallance, quoted in "Stop squeezing business,
CBI," by Charlotte Denny and Michael White, [4]Guardian,
May 22, 2002
And it encourages the coercive use of political power to
wipe out choice, forbid experimentation, shortcircuit
feedback, and trammel progress.
--Virginia Postrel, [5]The Future and Its Enemies
_________________________________________________________
Trammel is from Old French tramail, from Late Latin
tremaculum, a kind of net for catching fish, from Latin tres,
"three" + macula, "a mesh."
References
1. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801867932/ref%3Dnosim/lexico
2. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/051788433X/ref%3Dnosim/lexico
3. http://www.economist.com/
4. http://www.guardian.co.uk/
5. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684862697/ref%3Dnosim/lexico
JoeDirt will not appreciate that spelling.
Well, if he gets a better word of the day he is free to it...
i have a word for joe dirt: asshole
Quote from: Ryno on 09/02/05, 04:28:43 PM
i have a three words for joe dirt: tickle my asshole
I prefer this spelling.
Tramell
and yes, I'm fully aware that isn't Sharon Stone.