Thursday 24 September 2020
Ab Vrbe Condita 2773
09/20/2020
Billingsgate (noun)
Abusive or vulgar language. Derived from Billingsgate, an old London fish market where people supposedly swore a lot.
Billingsgate (noun)
Abusive or vulgar language. Derived from Billingsgate, an old London fish market where people supposedly swore a lot.
Recent entries
Touch word to see definition.
09/13/2020: Belletristic (adjective) Of writing that aspires to be aesthetically perfect (optimal rhythm, not repeating the same word too often, etc.), with less emphasis on actual content. Author Gustave Flaubert, for example, was noted for this.
09/06/2020: Panjandrum (noun) A rolling rocket-propelled device resembling a cable spool developed experimentally as a weapon by the British military during World War II. Also, a person who affects an air of authority — deserved or otherwise.
08/30/2020: Blodder (verb) To flow from a small opening with a gurgling sound
08/23/2020: Drachenfutter (noun) An offering made by a husband to appease an angry wife
08/16/2020: Autochthonous (adjective) Derived purely from one's own culture or ethnicity
08/09/2020: Zenzizenzizenzic (noun) The eighth power of a number. Coined by sixteenth century Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde, who also introduced the plus (+) and equals (=) signs.
08/02/2020: Algolagnia (noun) Pleasure taken in both the infliction and the suffering of pain. Old-time English boarding schools, for example, traditionally/allegedly) featured this.
07/26/2020: Sinistrodextral (adjective) Left-to-right. The written forms of most modern languages, for example, are sinistrodextral.
07/19/2020: Quale (noun) The subjective experience one gets from a particular sensory stimulus — a color, a sound, or a fragrance, say — that may or may not be the same from one individual to another.
07/12/2020: Scunner (verb) To feel disgust or to otherwise dislike intensely
07/05/2020: Nauscopy (noun) The purported, and as yet unexplained, ability to see ships over the horizon
06/28/2020: Tectiform (adjective) Roof-shaped
06/21/2020: Quango (noun) An organization created and/or supported by a government but independent of that government
06/14/2020: Hirudinoid (adjective) Leech-like
06/07/2020: Mumpsimus (noun) A cherished adherence to a mistaken doctrine or to a garbled use of language (for example, the corruption of hoc est corpus meum into “hocus pocus”). Also, a person who does such things.
05/31/2020: Etiolate (verb) To whiten by blocking exposure to sunlight. (You might do this to asparagus, for example.)
05/24/2020: Piacular (adjective) Said of a sin or sacrilege requiring atonement, or conversely of an act that’s intended to effect that atonement
05/17/2020: Perioecian (noun, adjective) A person who lives at the same latitude that you do, but exactly 180 degrees opposite in longitude
05/10/2020: Chuff (verb) For a tiger or snow leopard to make a low frequency non-threatening sound, through the nostrils with the mouth closed, equivalent to the purr of domestic cats
05/03/2020: Petrichor (noun) That earthy smell you notice when the weather has been dry for a while and it starts to rain. It's produced by geosmin and other compounds given off by bacteria in the soil and held there until moisture releases it into the air.
Touch word to see definition.
09/13/2020: Belletristic (adjective) Of writing that aspires to be aesthetically perfect (optimal rhythm, not repeating the same word too often, etc.), with less emphasis on actual content. Author Gustave Flaubert, for example, was noted for this.
09/06/2020: Panjandrum (noun) A rolling rocket-propelled device resembling a cable spool developed experimentally as a weapon by the British military during World War II. Also, a person who affects an air of authority — deserved or otherwise.
08/30/2020: Blodder (verb) To flow from a small opening with a gurgling sound
08/23/2020: Drachenfutter (noun) An offering made by a husband to appease an angry wife
08/16/2020: Autochthonous (adjective) Derived purely from one's own culture or ethnicity
08/09/2020: Zenzizenzizenzic (noun) The eighth power of a number. Coined by sixteenth century Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde, who also introduced the plus (+) and equals (=) signs.
08/02/2020: Algolagnia (noun) Pleasure taken in both the infliction and the suffering of pain. Old-time English boarding schools, for example, traditionally/allegedly) featured this.
07/26/2020: Sinistrodextral (adjective) Left-to-right. The written forms of most modern languages, for example, are sinistrodextral.
07/19/2020: Quale (noun) The subjective experience one gets from a particular sensory stimulus — a color, a sound, or a fragrance, say — that may or may not be the same from one individual to another.
07/12/2020: Scunner (verb) To feel disgust or to otherwise dislike intensely
07/05/2020: Nauscopy (noun) The purported, and as yet unexplained, ability to see ships over the horizon
06/28/2020: Tectiform (adjective) Roof-shaped
06/21/2020: Quango (noun) An organization created and/or supported by a government but independent of that government
06/14/2020: Hirudinoid (adjective) Leech-like
06/07/2020: Mumpsimus (noun) A cherished adherence to a mistaken doctrine or to a garbled use of language (for example, the corruption of hoc est corpus meum into “hocus pocus”). Also, a person who does such things.
05/31/2020: Etiolate (verb) To whiten by blocking exposure to sunlight. (You might do this to asparagus, for example.)
05/24/2020: Piacular (adjective) Said of a sin or sacrilege requiring atonement, or conversely of an act that’s intended to effect that atonement
05/17/2020: Perioecian (noun, adjective) A person who lives at the same latitude that you do, but exactly 180 degrees opposite in longitude
05/10/2020: Chuff (verb) For a tiger or snow leopard to make a low frequency non-threatening sound, through the nostrils with the mouth closed, equivalent to the purr of domestic cats
05/03/2020: Petrichor (noun) That earthy smell you notice when the weather has been dry for a while and it starts to rain. It's produced by geosmin and other compounds given off by bacteria in the soil and held there until moisture releases it into the air.
