I have collected vocabulary for years, as my kids might recall. To dissuade them from using swear words they'd heard I told they could use the bad words as soon as they learned all the good ones. And I stayed ahead of them for a long time. But here's a cool new one on me. It's from Word of the Day on the Internet which this week is taking vocabulary from the opinions of senior federal appeals court Judge Bruce M. Selya, who is known for his distinctive writing. How's that for obscure?
HABOOB
(huh-BOOB) noun A violent dust storm or sandstorm, especially in Sudan[From Arabic habub (strong wind).]
"What appellant labors to portray as a robust haboob is not even a gentle zephyr. The house, we think, is sturdy enough to withstand the prevailing winds." Excerpt from opinion of the court (Selya, J.) in Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp. 1988.
In the summer of 2012, I'm back in Sarajevo working with people who are good journalists and after all this time also good friends. My language skills are no better, alas, but I hang out with natives and internationals in the know. So I'm planning in this space to tell Bosnian stories to American readers, with my Bosnian friends free to call me out on errors or wrong headed interpretations. This is a fascinating area of the world and these are interesting times.
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1 comment:
A haboob was the dust storm that complicated the rescue of the hostages in Iran back during that crisis. Forced a helicopter to turn back and mucked up the engine of another, if I remember right.
Brett
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