20 May 2019
savate
[suh-vat]
noun
a sport resembling boxing but permitting blows to be delivered with the feet as well as the hands.
Origin of savate
1860–65; French: literally, old shoe. See sabot
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for savate
Historical Examples of savate
Max had not expected the savate from an Englishman, and he was very glad of the warning.
A Soldier of the Legion
C. N. Williamson
Savate , boxing and kicking; canne, cane (fencing expression).
John Bull, Junior
Max O’Rell
“I have some acquaintance with the savate ,” he said suavely.
Cynthia’s Chauffeur
Louis Tracy
Then his right foot rose, in the famous and deadly blow of the savate .
The Blue Lights
Arnold Fredericks
It was with the Revolution that the rapier went out, and the savate came in.
Sword and Gown
George A. Lawrence
Today’s quote
Persecution is the first law of society because it is always easier to suppress criticism than to meet it.
– Howard Mumford Jones
On this day
20 May 325 – commencement of the First Council of Nicea, a cabal of 1800 bishops convened by Roman Emperor Constantine I (Constantine the Great) to gain consensus within the church for various doctrinal issues, such as the divinity of Christ, the Holy Trinity and the date for Easter which were articulated in the ‘Creed of Nicea’. The Council concluded on 25 August 325.
20 May 1896 – a 6 ton chandlier falls from the ceiling of the Palais Garnier, Paris, onto the crowd below. One person is killed and many injured. The theatre was used as the setting for Gaston Leroux’s novel, Phantom of the Opera.
20 May 1944 – birth of Joe Cocker. English rock and blues singer. His first big hit was in 1968 with his cover of the Beatles song, ‘With a Little Help from my Friends’, which he performed at Woodstock the year later. In 1972, while touring Australia, he and six band members were arrested in Adelaide for possession of cannabis. The following day he was charged with assault following a brawl in Melbourne. Australian Federal Police gave him 48 hours to leave the country and banned him from re-entry. From this he earned the nickname ‘Mad-dog’. The incident raised the profile of cannabis legalisation in Australia. He toured Australia again in 1975, after the new Labor government allowed him back into the country. He won a Grammy Award in 1983 and was awarded an OBE in 2007. Died 22 December 2014.
20 May 1998 – The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) was formally announced. It was formed by major technology companies, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba and Nokia to develop a standard low-range radio standard that could connect disparate items, such as phones to headsets, regardless of the manufacturers. After considering a number of names for the technology, including Flirt (with the catchphrase ‘getting close, but not touching’), the SIG settled on the name Bluetooth, which was named after a 10th century Viking king, Harald Blatand, which translates as Bluetooth. He was so named because he had a dead tooth that turned blue from all the blueberries he ate. The name was proposed by Jim Kardach of Intel, who was reading a historical novel about vikings, by Frans G. Bengtsson called The Long Ships. Harald Bluetooth had united disparate Dane tribes to form a united Denmark. The Bluetooth logo is a bind rune which combines the two runic letters H and B, for Harald Bluetooth.