Live and learn
This is the first in an occasional series demonstrating new vocabulary, sourced through my daily playing of Polygon. When I have exhausted my personal dictionary, all too often woefully quickly, I turn to the solution.
Recently, I discovered ‘joual,’ which may be familiar to the Canadians among us, as it is a patois, a popular form of Canadian or Quebec French. Joual derives from the rural pronunciation of ‘cheval’ (horse) There is more information here.
In the same polygon, I came across ‘rucola,’ which some may already know as rocket or arugula. It is pungent and bursting with vitamin C and iron. I always assumed that common or salad rocket and wild rocket were the same animal, just grown in different ways. I discovered that they are quite distinct.
Salad rocket (Eruca sativa) is an annual plant with a milder flavour. The flowers are white.
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Wild rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) is a perennial with a more intense piquancy. The leaves are narrower than common rocket and deeply serrated. The flowers are yellow.
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Finally, I found turaco, which ornithologists will know is a bird found among the trees of sub-Saharan Africa. Their diet consists mainly of fruit, and, though they are weak flyers, they are adept at running and leaping, with unique semi-zygodactyl feet. This means that the fourth toe can move forwards or backwards, according to need, to enable them to maintain a firm grip on branches.
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Apart from their beautiful colouring and intriguing calls, they are one of the few birds which have truly green feathers. The feathers contain a green pigment called turacoverdin.
Whether I retain any of this newly-acquired knowledge remains to be seen!
Eeek...you are making my head hurt...and I thought I liked words. All I can say is that I actually knew what "wild rocket" was....well, sort of... In these parts, we call it "yellow rocket"...and I spent many a summer's day of my childhood pulling the obnoxious weed from our hayfields.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how we rarely realise that something we love may be an absolute nuisance in other circumstances.
DeleteThese words are new to me except turaco, which I knew was a bird. I thought rocket was only one species too, never thought of a wild version. I do know that Americans call it Arugula.
ReplyDeleteThe turaco is such a pretty, striking species of bird, isn't it?
DeleteWe don't have them in Australia
DeleteWe eat a lot of rucola here; in Germany, it is generally called that, and it happens to be O.K.'s favourite leafy salad. His Mum grows it in the raised bed in her garden, so we are rarely short of it.
ReplyDeleteI am not at all familiar with Quebec French - I find it hard enough not to lose the France French I have learned as a child but rarely ever practise these days!
I can agree with O.K. as wild rocket is one of my favourite salad items.
DeleteMy schoolgirl French remains very much that. Brits are generally so bad at languages.
Are yes,acquiring knowledge is straightforward enough these days, but remembering it....
ReplyDeleteHaving a leaky memory is not good . . .
DeleteI love to learn and store things in my memory banks, but there is so often a disconnect between learning and storage.
ReplyDeleteI am most unhappy to learn that as I suffer eating rocket, it is not as good as I thought. Bring back the iceberg.
You can have both!
DeleteThank you Janice. I enjoy learning new words to increase my vocabulary but am struggling to remember some of those I already have in my memory bank!
ReplyDeleteRocket has never been my favourite salad ingredient but now I know more about it I shall try to appreciate it when it turns up on my plate.
It sounds as though it turns up uninvited . . .
DeleteI love this post, will I remember it tomorrow, I doubt it, like you I thought cultivated and wild rocket was the same.
ReplyDeleteIf I did quizzes I might retain more information, though I doubt it.
DeleteRetention of such acquired knowledge may depend on its usefulness.
ReplyDeleteThat is so true. 🤣😂
DeleteI do the free New York Times games "Wordle" and "Spelling Bee" daily.
ReplyDeleteI must have a look at the NYT, though I suspect I would have to subscribe.
DeleteWe are all probably keeping our brains ticking over, my daily routine includes Wordle, codewords and a jigsaw but I haven't learnt words yet.
ReplyDeleteWhatever we do to keep active, in mind and body, must be good.
DeleteAll new words to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one. 😀
DeleteJoual is familiar to me, having lived in Québec (my daughter was born there), and I have seen many turacos on birding trips to South Africa and Ethiopia. Rucola, however, was new to me.
ReplyDeleteI knew you would be familiar with turacos.
DeleteI so enjoy seeing plants and flowers of the world. And birds! I love seeing all birds. Thanks
ReplyDeleteThere is so much in the world to find out, with new discoveries being made every day.
DeleteWe call it arugula here and it's one of my favorite greens.
ReplyDeleteI love learning new words though these I will have to find a clever way to work into conversation.
Ha ha, working some new vocabulary into everyday conversation requires determination (and the ability to ignore pained expressions on your listeners' faces!)
DeleteFun article. Brings back memories of me flipping through the encyclopedia.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing to discover just how little we (that is , I) know.
DeleteThanks for the education this morning.
ReplyDelete😀
DeleteI know the term, joual, although I don’t experience it where I live.
ReplyDeleteI thought you would be familiar with it.
DeleteGood to keep learning -Christine cmlk79.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteI think so, too.
DeleteSome totally unknown words there. We have both those types of rocket. They're both quite spicy.
ReplyDeleteI love rocket!
DeleteSome unknown words for me. I do love the explanation on the Salad Rocket. Very nice.
ReplyDeleteI think that's something I actually will remember, as we eat a lot of rocket, common and wild! 😊
DeleteOur brilliant blogging colleague - Steve Reed at "Shadows and Light" - frequently wrote about an escaped turaco in west London. If you put turaco into his search bar you will no doubt find those posts from the past. Sadly, he hasn't mentioned that turaco in a good long while now.
ReplyDeleteThere are some exotic birds in London - and not all of them are in the zoo.
DeleteYou used to see a lot of exotic birds in Carnaby Street.
DeleteI see wild rocket around here.
ReplyDeleteFree food!
DeleteThe turaco is such a wonderful colour, a beautiful looking bird.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
Such exotic birds make our native birds seem quite drab by comparison.
DeleteI'm assuming the rocket I've had is salad rocket. I'm not familiar with a rocket that has yellow flowers. The turaco bird is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI've never had wild rocket with flowers, but the salad rocket frequently has them.
DeleteI'm not familiar with any of these words, but I am happy to learn them..
ReplyDeleteYou never know when they might come in handy!
DeleteI enjoy learning new words. This is fun!
ReplyDeleteSo do I. Some of them might stick, too. I live in hopes.
ReplyDeleteThe Turaco looks a very handsome bird with its green plumage and Mohican style crest. His eye is a bit scary though.
ReplyDeleteHe is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting - I never knew that there were two types of rocket!
ReplyDeleteMy daily use of Sporcle, a quiz site, has really expanded my knowledge. I'm not sure what I know after years of quizzes and seeing the solutions, but information pops out at the strangest time.
Likewise!
ReplyDelete