Language desk
< September 4	<< Aug \| September \| Oct >>	September 6 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

September 5

Cast a Dispersion?

What does it mean when someone "casts a dispersion"?

Ex. "I was afraid he'd cast a dispersion on my mother."

There is remarkably little to be found on the internet about this colloquialism. So I am thinking the person I heard it from didn't say it right.

Any help would be greatly appreciated Mr Vain 18:29, 5 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's actually "cast aspersions", meaning to question someone's good faith or motives. --Richardrj ^talk ^email 18:33, 5 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's not a colloquialism but a malapropism, a (perhaps intentional) mangling of a word or phrase. +ILike2BeAnonymous 18:35, 5 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Mildly off-topic: my family use the malapropism "casting nasturtiums" for the same phrase. SaundersW 19:47, 5 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Mine too! DuncanHill 20:12, 5 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"Casting nasturtiums"! What a dreadful insult to one of my favorite garden flowers. It is incredibly easy to grow (huge seeds), has beautiful flowers, can be used as a border plant, a ground cover, or a vine. Not to mention the fact that the flower buds and leaves are edible in salads--they have a sort of peppery flavor like water cress. Also, they make great cut flowers for small bouquets. Casting nasturtiums, indeed!--Eriastrum 22:31, 5 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Keep the Aspidistra Flying... AnonMoos 00:26, 6 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

One time when someone asked me "Are you casting aspersions?" I cracked her up by replying "No, I'm not Catholic!" —Tamfang 00:53, 6 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Translation

What does "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet sed diam nonummy" mean? Is it Latin or gibberish? It is on the bottom of a page on the Apple website. Xarr☎ 23:36, 5 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sure it means something, but when putting it in a language translator I get: "Lorem itself pain he is amet but diam ninth" :S ::Manors:: 00:12, 6 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Lorem ipsum --Reuben 00:15, 6 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

We have an article Lorem Ipsum -- AnonMoos 00:22, 6 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

So yes, in reply to the OP, it's Latin and gibberish. :) FiggyBee 10:04, 6 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What it means is that the Apple web designer likely forgot to delete this commonly used "dummy" or placeholder text before publishing the page to the website! From www.lipsum.com: "Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum." "Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old."