Friday 7 May 2021
Ab Vrbe Condita 2774
05/02/2021
Rhotic (adjective)
Pronouncing all the Rs in one’s speech wherever they occur. Non-rhotics, for example speakers of Received Pronunciation in England, usually drop Rs that aren’t immediately followed by vowels.
Rhotic (adjective)
Pronouncing all the Rs in one’s speech wherever they occur. Non-rhotics, for example speakers of Received Pronunciation in England, usually drop Rs that aren’t immediately followed by vowels.
Recent entries
Touch word to see definition.
04/25/2021: Gegenschein (noun) A faint glowing patch in the night sky caused by sunlight reflecting off dust particles in the solar system’s plane. It shows up at 180° away from the sun.
04/18/2021: Saponifiable (adjective) Capable of being made into soap
04/11/2021: Keranography (noun) The supposed process whereby a lightning flash creates a photographic image onto a surface. (The light from powerful nuclear blasts can do this.)
04/04/2021: Gride (verb) To make a grinding or scraping sound
03/28/2021: Aphaeresis (noun) Omission of the beginning syllable of a word. Example: “You’ve got a lot of ‘splaining to do.”
03/21/2021: Catholepistemiad (noun) A place to acquire universal knowledge. Coined by University of Michigan founder Augustus B. Woodward (1774-1827).
03/14/2021: Ludibund (adjective) Playful. A kind of opposite to moribund.
03/07/2021: Tughra (noun) An ornamental Arabic signature used as an official seal, traditionally associated with Ottoman Empire sultans.
02/28/2021: Morcellation (noun) The removal of something, as in surgery, by cutting it into pieces
02/21/2021: Lateritious (adjective) Having the color of a brick, reddish brown
02/14/2021: Promession (noun) Freeze-drying the dead. Technicians cool the body down to -320°F (-196°C), then vibrate it to a powder. A vacuum pump draws out the moisture. Buried, the powder vanishes completely in 6-12 months.
02/07/2021: Cultrate (adjective) Sharp-edged and pointy, such as a holly leaf
01/31/2021: Chiliad (noun) A thousand of something; a tenth of a myriad
01/24/2021: Exergual (adjective) Pertaining to a concavity on the reverse (“tails”) of a coin where an incription might appear, such as a date or motto
01/17/2021: Bistre (noun) A brownish yellow pigment [
] made from boiled chimney soot. The ideal raw material was beechwood.
01/10/2021: Resile (verb) To reverse from an agreement, to recant a previously held belief, to shrink or recoil, or to return to one’s original dimension after being stretched
01/03/2021: Fulgurous (adjective) Brilliant, dazzling, or flashing. Fulgurites, for example, are branch-shaped tubes that form when lightning strikes sand and fuses it into a glass.
12/27/2020: Rantoon (noun) Nineteenth century tricycle with a single steerable small wheel in front and two large side-by-side wheels behind
12/20/2020: Pycnostyle (adjective) The architectural quality of having columns very closely spaced — one and a half diameters between them or less (which I imagine would discourage all but the skinniest burglars)
12/13/2020: Autotomy (noun) The ability of some animals to sacrifice a body part in order to escape from a predator. Many lizards can do this; but at least one mammal, the dormouse, also has this talent.
Touch word to see definition.
04/25/2021: Gegenschein (noun) A faint glowing patch in the night sky caused by sunlight reflecting off dust particles in the solar system’s plane. It shows up at 180° away from the sun.
04/18/2021: Saponifiable (adjective) Capable of being made into soap
04/11/2021: Keranography (noun) The supposed process whereby a lightning flash creates a photographic image onto a surface. (The light from powerful nuclear blasts can do this.)
04/04/2021: Gride (verb) To make a grinding or scraping sound
03/28/2021: Aphaeresis (noun) Omission of the beginning syllable of a word. Example: “You’ve got a lot of ‘splaining to do.”
03/21/2021: Catholepistemiad (noun) A place to acquire universal knowledge. Coined by University of Michigan founder Augustus B. Woodward (1774-1827).
03/14/2021: Ludibund (adjective) Playful. A kind of opposite to moribund.
03/07/2021: Tughra (noun) An ornamental Arabic signature used as an official seal, traditionally associated with Ottoman Empire sultans.
02/28/2021: Morcellation (noun) The removal of something, as in surgery, by cutting it into pieces
02/21/2021: Lateritious (adjective) Having the color of a brick, reddish brown
02/14/2021: Promession (noun) Freeze-drying the dead. Technicians cool the body down to -320°F (-196°C), then vibrate it to a powder. A vacuum pump draws out the moisture. Buried, the powder vanishes completely in 6-12 months.
02/07/2021: Cultrate (adjective) Sharp-edged and pointy, such as a holly leaf
01/31/2021: Chiliad (noun) A thousand of something; a tenth of a myriad
01/24/2021: Exergual (adjective) Pertaining to a concavity on the reverse (“tails”) of a coin where an incription might appear, such as a date or motto
01/17/2021: Bistre (noun) A brownish yellow pigment [
] made from boiled chimney soot. The ideal raw material was beechwood.
01/10/2021: Resile (verb) To reverse from an agreement, to recant a previously held belief, to shrink or recoil, or to return to one’s original dimension after being stretched
01/03/2021: Fulgurous (adjective) Brilliant, dazzling, or flashing. Fulgurites, for example, are branch-shaped tubes that form when lightning strikes sand and fuses it into a glass.
12/27/2020: Rantoon (noun) Nineteenth century tricycle with a single steerable small wheel in front and two large side-by-side wheels behind
12/20/2020: Pycnostyle (adjective) The architectural quality of having columns very closely spaced — one and a half diameters between them or less (which I imagine would discourage all but the skinniest burglars)
12/13/2020: Autotomy (noun) The ability of some animals to sacrifice a body part in order to escape from a predator. Many lizards can do this; but at least one mammal, the dormouse, also has this talent.
