vanilla, vagina, vapidity, vapid, vastitude, venetian blinds, Les Persienes, Veda, Vedic, veranda

Now for some words of Persian and Hindu origin for a change, along a Vedic theme...

vanilla: [vaina: sheath or vagina]  A picture of the vanilla plant shows large pods or 'sheaths' that house the vanilla bean.  

vagina is the diminutive of vaina, which means "little vagina.”  

vapidity [L. vapor, steam;  vappa, flat wine]  flat, lacking in briskness, boring

     vapid: insipid, dull, without interest, tasteless

vastitude: immensity, vastness

venetian blinds: 

The French, they say, call venetian blinds "les Persienes" (the Persians).   The idea for this kind of blind was brought to Venice (an important trading center) from Persia.  Freed Venetian slaves then brought the idea to Paris, hence "les Persienes." The blinds made their introduction to the USA in the 1700's, and are depicted in a painting in 1787 about the Constitutional Convention ("The Visit of Paul Jones to the Constitutional Convention" by J. L. Gerome Ferris).

                      Speaking of Venice, I just finished reading Shakespeare's Othello (the play is set in Venice) and I am exhausted and emotionally spent.   So many of Shakespeare's plays were set in Italy which, sadly, is a 'new' discovery for me.  (Romeo and Juliet occurs in Verona.)  I was reading Jhumpa Lahiri's In Other Words today and she mentions that she did her PhD thesis on 17th century plays set in Italy...now I understand.

      I saw this play enacted professionally when I was a teenager in high school and it is disconcerting that the only thing I recall about the play was that the main actor playing Othello was a very dark-skinned African American speaking eloquently on stage…  nothing about the plot or the theme.  Amazing and disconcerting how little we remember and experience at a young age.  Little did I know of the tremendous emotions, the rage, the jealousy, the evil intent (Iago), the tragedy that is housed in this play.  

Veda:  [Sanskrit 'knowledge']  the Vedas are the earliest Hindu writings, comprising four canonical collections of prayers and hymns.

Vedic: referring to the Vedas or the Hindu culture (1,500 to 500 BC)

veranda: [Hindu, varanda]