Thursday, March 30, 2006

Tykobrahade

Meaning: To suffer a nose cut. Or simply put, a loss of face.
Pronunciation: Tie-co-bra-hade.
Usage: BJP was tykobrahade in 1984. It just won 2 seats, then.
Root: Derived from the infamous incident concerning the great astronomer Tycho Brahe. Here's the juice on the incident as recorded by Pierre Gasendi in 1654...
"The 10th of december 1566 there was a dance at Lucas Bacmeisters house in the connection to a wedding. Lucas Bacmeister was a professor of theology at the univeristy of Rostock where Tycho studied. Among the guests were Tycho Brahe and another danish nobleman, Manderup Parsberg. They started an argument and they separated in anger. The 27th of december this argument started again, and in the evening of the 29th of december a duel was held. It was around 7 in the evening and in darkness. Parsberg gives Tycho a cut over his nose that took away almost the front part of his nose. Tycho had an artificial nose made, not from wax, but from an alloy of gold and silver[*] and put it on so skillfully, that it looked like a real nose Wilhelm Janszoon Blaeu, who spent time with Tycho for nearly two years, also said that Tycho used to carry a small box with a paste or glue, with which he often would put on the nose."