I never heard this word until encountering it at Futility Closet. It wasn't even in my Random House - had to dig out the OED and get the magnifying glass:
Apricate. v. rare. [fr. Latin apricat]. To bask in the sun (or to expose to sunlight).Citations from 1691 to 1858 - the latter offering this curious turn of phrase:
"Not sunning, but mooning himself - apricating himself in the occasional moonbeams."Reposted so my wife can once again enjoy seeing our old cat Boo-Boo enjoying the sun at our apartment in St. Louis fifteen years ago. And reposted again after seven more years because I found it while looking up stuff re the OED.
Ever since I had my husband neutered all he wants to do is apricate.
ReplyDeletePerhaps that's why your cat is the colour of sun-dried apricots!
ReplyDeleteAnon, your comment drove me back to the dictionary to check whether "apricot" is related. Apparently not - seems to be from "a-" and "precox" to mean "early-ripening."
ReplyDeleteThanks for the new word. When the cats bask here, we say they are solarizing.
ReplyDeleteI'm always delighted to learn a new word. Yet another reason why I enjoy your blog. Thank you! I also wondered if there was a connection between Apricate and Apricot. Thanks for looking into that.
ReplyDeleteThat's really interesting. I'd never heard a word beyond "basking" for that.
ReplyDeleteAbout the apricot, I think most 'traditional' fruits have English names from French. The two exceptions I can think of are apple (from O. E."apfel" or similar and a catch-all word for fruit [especially of trees, bush fruits were called either berry or grape...I forget] until the word "fruit" came in from French with the Conquest) and orange (which was a late-comer, from Spanish trade and Spanish name [naranja, my spelling might be off], first called "a norringe" before losing its initial N...and also giving the name for its color). Things like bananas, guavas, etc would have come even later than the orange and generally take their name, like the orange, from the word either in their country of origin or their strongest importer.
Back in 2006 I penned the following limerick for a site called the Omnicient English Dictionary in Limerick Form:
ReplyDeleteOn a Japanese beach (on vacation)
I remarked on the brilliant location.
"Oh, yes," said the man,
"That is why I'm so tan.
Here it only takes one aprication!"
Sl8ofHand
This is one of my favorite posts! I remember searching for it a couple months ago..... thought it was 'caprication', our dogs do it well!
ReplyDeleteBoo-Boo looked very happy and content. We have a cat, nicknamed Boo, who looks very similar to Boo-Boo, just slightly lighter in color. Thank you for this and all of your posts.
ReplyDeleteSlightly off topic, but I used to visit Futility Closet often. However the link on your sidebar as well as the link in the article above does not work. Is the site still active?
ReplyDeleteBoth work for me. The one above goes to a subpage -
Deletehttp://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/11/04/in-a-word-342/
Try cut and past that.
p.s. - When I lived in Dallas I used to go eat at Joe T. Garcia's restaurant over by the stockyards in FW. Is that still there?
Yes, Joe T's is still there. Love the patio.
Deleteto apricate and to frowst - what every cat desires!
ReplyDeleteI-)
thanks for sharing the picture of your cat. i love orange cats and had one, a male, some years back. best cat ever, so i thought then, and still do.
ReplyDeleteI-)
dumb question - i was told that all orange cats can only be males. there can be all orange females, and orange/white females, but males can only be one color orange. any truth to that?
ReplyDeleteI-)
You could look it up. Here you go:
Deletehttps://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=orange+female+cat
*sigh*
thanks, google search engine person! i never knew quite how to phrase that question correctly to get meaningful search results. i am pretty sure i was told that, about orange males, back when alta vista was the search engine of choice. i have lived with that unsupported factoid until now. now, i can appreciate my aprication.
DeleteI-)
That makes me cry.
ReplyDeleteMy cat Griffin was literally born into my hand 16 years ago, and your second photo shows what appears to me to be a perfect facsimile of my cat.
Sigh. When he goes I will be bereft to the power of an unconsolable magnitude.
My thoughts go to you and your partner for when you lost your Boo-Boo.
I went down the apricity/apricot rabbit hole after noticing Ammon Shea noticing apricity in the OED book. It turns out that the words are and aren’t related:
ReplyDeletehttps://mleddy.blogspot.com/2018/10/words-of-day-apricity-apricot.html
Cat Stevens wrote and sang of fire cats.
ReplyDeleteYours was Boo Boo.
Mine was Griffin.
Born into my hand late last century and my best friend for 21 years.
Appreciate the apricate photos.
The apricity post in Futility Closet gave me a lot of comfort when I moved from CA, where I am from, to the Midwest many years ago. Recognizing the beauty and warmth of sun against stark winter landscapes helped me get through the cold and my homesickness.
ReplyDelete