Let's say you're hiking, and you drop a piece of glass on the trail. Eventually someone will walk along the trail and might cut themselves on the glass.
You'd be really sorry to hear if it happens to someone you know in a week. But what if the victim lived thousands, even millions of years in the future?
Philosopher William MacAskill, 35, likes to bring up this scenario to drive home a point: "If you're thinking about the possibility of harming someone, |it doesn't| really matter that person will be harmed next week or next year, or even in a hundred or a thousand years. Harm is harm."
That's MacAskill's argument behind longtermism, a term he coined to describe the idea that humans have a moral responsibility to protect the future of humanity, prevent it from going extinct — and create a better future for many generations to come. He outlines this concept in his new book, What We Owe the Future.
One of the Century definitions ("The art or method of assisting the memory by associating the objects to be remembered with some place which is well known.") reminds me of a memory palace.
"The name Nostoc was coined by Paracelsus and is a combination of the English nostril and German Nasenloch "nose hole, nostril", likely due to appearance of many species colonies being similar to nasal mucus."
I'm reminded of the joke about a grasshopper that walks in to a bar. The bartender says, "Hey, we have a drink named after you," and the grasshopper says, "You have a drink named Steve?"
Oh, jinx! I was just coming here to say that about states. Some people's names do this, too: Jo, Ed, etc. (though then there's the whole Elizabeth, Margaret, Betsy, and Bess thing to ponder).
Edit: Wait. Duh. Are you just looking for the ones where you'd say it like an initialism? (In which case this list is even cooler.)
Puffballs were traditionally used in Tibet for making ink by burning them, grinding the ash, then putting them in water and adding glue liquid and "a nye shing madecoction", which, when pressed for a long time, made a black dark substance that was used as ink. Rural Americans likewise burned the common puffball with some kind of bee smoker to anesthetize honey bees as a means to safely procure honey; the practice later inspired experimental medicinal application of the puffball smoke as a surgical general anesthetic in 1853.
I started out specifically looking for words with "professional wrestling slang" in their definitions, but feel free to make more suggestions (I somehow uncharacteristically created this as a closed list).
Nicolson pavement, alternatively spelled "Nicholson" and denominated wooden block pavement and wood block pavement, is a road surface material consisting of wooden blocks. Samuel Nicolson invented it in the mid-19th century. Wooden block pavement has since become unfavored because of its poor surface quality and high cost of maintenance.
This is great! Is there a name for words such as this—words which are made of other complete words? For instance, I’m thinking carrot is made of car and rot.
Often as I’m waking up from a dream, there will be one last word or phrase that lingers. Today it was a riddle: Name something that feels old and structured, but isn’t.
I'm still discovering entries that had gotten the wordie treatment--often when I'm looking up something that I thought was new, but that bilby already entered a citation for in 2009.
"The phenomenon that (Bradley) Voytek and other scientists are investigating in a variety of ways goes by many names. Some call it “the 1/f slope” or “scale-free activity”; Voytek has pushed to rebrand it “the aperiodic signal” or “aperiodic activity.”"
Then in the 1960s, geologists finally agreed on a definition of what a continent is – broadly, a geological area with a high elevation, wide variety of rocks, and a thick crust. It also has to be big. "You just can't be a tiny piece," says |Nick| Mortimer. This gave geologists something to work with – if they could collect the evidence, they could prove that the eighth continent was real.
Still, the mission stalled – discovering a continent is tricky and expensive, and Mortimer points out that there was no urgency. Then in 1995, the American geophysicist Bruce Luyendyk again described the region as a continent and suggested calling it Zealandia.
One of |Jack| Gallant’s graduate students at the time, Alex Huth, used the Gallant lab’s cutting-edge techniques to analyze where the brain might encode different kinds of visual information. Huth, Gallant and their colleagues had participants watch hours of silent videos while inside fMRI scanners. Then, segmenting the data into records for roughly pea-size volumes of brain tissue called voxels, they analyzed the scans to determine where hundreds of objects and actions were represented across the cortex.
Thanks, vm, I'm fond of it too. I especially appreciate the sandhills, but there are a lot of scenic spots if you're brave enough to venture off of I-80.
"A karst window, also known as a karst fenster, is a geomorphic feature found in karst landscapes where an underground river is visible from the surface within a sinkhole."
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was a well-known German physicist and satirist in the 18-th century. Honoured as an extraordinary professor of physics at the University of Göttingen, he was known to be one of the first scientists to introduce experiments with apparatus in their lectures.
He also maintained relations with other great German figures of the era such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Immanuel Kant. Legendary mathematician Karl Friedrich Gauss is known to have sat on Lichtenberg’s lectures. He is also well known for his discovery of tree-like electrical discharge patterns which came to be known as Lichtenberg figures.
"Whenever the TRAHOR FATIS inscription appears, it is accompanied by a seven–pointed “bearded” star (pogonius), raining influence toward Earth and its denizens."
Heartsette is another very early variant that is still played. Its distinguishing feature is a widow. When four play, the 2♠ is removed, twelve cards are dealt to each player and the remaining three cards are placed face down in the centre of the table to form the widow. For other numbers of players, the full pack is used, the widow comprising three cards when three play, two when five play and four when six play. The player winning the first trick takes in the widow and any hearts it contains. That player may look at these cards but may not show them to anyone. Otherwise, the game is played as normal. The key difference from basic Hearts is that the first winner is the only one who knows how many and which hearts are still to be played.
Nebraska can offer Geneva, Peru, Cairo, Syracuse, York, Prague, and Gothenburg, among others--but there used to be more: Lancaster was renamed Lincoln in 1869, and Berlin changed to Otoe in 1918.
Able seaman, one able to do any sort of work required on a ship, may be the origin of this:
"Able-whackets - A popular sea-game with cards, in which the loser is beaten over the palms of the hands with a handkerchief tightly twisted like a rope. Very popular with horny-fisted sailors. |Smyth, "Sailor's Word-Book," 1867|"
"The researchers, based in Singapore, Denmark and Poland, chose a tardigrade to try to entangle because of its ability to enter long hibernation to withstand things like searing heat, freezing cold, extraordinarily high pressures, and high levels of ionizing radiation. This hibernation is called cryptobiosis; the animal desiccates, shedding the moisture from its body, and only reanimates when conditions become more manageable."
"Typically, Socrates' opponent would make what would seem to be an innocuous assertion. In response, Socrates, via a step-by-step train of reasoning, bringing in other background assumptions, would make the person admit that the assertion resulted in an absurd or contradictory conclusion, forcing him to abandon his assertion and adopt a position of aporia."
"A version of a folk tale about a girl made of snow and named Snegurka (Snezhevinochka; Снегурка (Снежевиночка)) was published in 1869 by Alexander Afanasyev in the second volume of his work The Poetic Outlook on Nature by the Slavs, where he also mentions the German analog, Schneekind ("Snow Child")."
I just saw your question over on the page for the word synchronously. Generally, the best way to show a word is one of your favorites is to log in and select "love" at the top of the page for that word. Hope that helps!
Umbrage! Everyone knows it's wasteful to use only half a ruzuzu. What'll you do, stick the ruz in the fridge with some lemon juice? Throw the uzu away? Feh.
Oh, hey, ruzuzu from 2018--thank you. I was stuck on this again.
This time I'll add that C.S. Peirce also wrote about abduction, but it's the kind of rabbit hole that leads one to muttering about confectio Damocritis.
"The term “abduction” was coined by Charles Sanders Peirce in his work on the logic of science. He introduced it to denote a type of non-deductive inference that was different from the already familiar inductive type."
"The Flower of Kent is a green cultivar of cooking apple. According to the story, this is the apple Isaac Newton saw falling to ground from its tree, inspiring his laws of universal gravitation. It is pear-shaped, mealy, and sub-acid, and of generally poor quality by today's standards. As its name suggests, this cultivar likely originated from Kent, England."
"The name "takotsubo" comes from the Japanese word takotsubo "octopus trap", because the left ventricle of the heart takes on a shape resembling an octopus trap when affected by this condition."
In September 2014, |Peter| Scholze was teaching a special course at the University of California, Berkeley. Despite being only 26, he was already a legend in the mathematics world. Two years earlier he had completed his dissertation, in which he articulated a new geometric theory based on objects he’d invented called perfectoid spaces. He then used this framework to solve part of a problem in number theory called the weight-monodromy conjecture.
Furthermore, Italian aristocratic titles first originated as military titles: the Latin imperator, “general,” became “emperor”; centurions were called princeps, “first citizen,” eventually “prince”; dux, “leader,” led to “duke”; comes, “companion,” to “count”; late Latin baro, “soldier,” evolved into “baron.”
— “Light in the Palazzo” by Ingrid D. Rowland, New York Review of Books.
I once got in trouble for using a phrase I’d heard Flo the waitress say on an old episode of “Alice.” I had turned to a classmate on the playground and said, “Kiss my grits,” but I don’t think any of us—students or staff—actually knew what grits were, so it was hard to defend myself.
Welcome to Wordnik! Just saw your comment on elide. If you press the button that says “love” on the page for a word, that word will automatically show up here under your “Favorites” on your profile. If you decide to make a new list and add a word, everyone can see the list and what you’ve added—but you can set the list up initially so that nobody else can add words to your list. (Open lists are amusing though.) Have fun!
“On November 1, 2016, NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over Indonesia, allowing the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board to capture a stunning true-color image of oceanic nonlinear internal solitary waves from the Lombok Strait.”
“Warp speed” may be a term of the moment, thanks to the federal coronavirus vaccine program. But it’s also one with a history — which goes back farther than “Star Trek,” to a forgotten 1952 science fiction story in the pulp magazine Imagination.
Ditto for “transporter,” “moon base” and “deep space,” to name just a few of the more than 400 words whose origins are getting pushed back earlier than their previously first appearance, thanks to the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, a new free online resource released on Tuesday.”
“Harnessing this form of nuclear power, though, has proven extremely difficult, requiring heating a soup of subatomic particles, called plasma, to hundreds of millions of degrees – far too hot for any material container to withstand. To work around this, scientists developed a donut-shaped chamber with a strong magnetic field running through it, called a tokamak, which suspends the plasma in place.“
— “Is nuclear fusion the answer to the climate crisis? Promising new studies suggest the long elusive technology may be capable of producing electricity for the grid by the end of the decade.” By Oscar Schwartz, Mon 28 Dec 2020 05.00 EST
“Though all boids are constrictors, only this species is properly referred to as a "boa constrictor" – a rare instance of an animal having the same common English name and scientific binomial name. (Another such animal is the extinct theropod dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex.)”
Mostly I remember being angry at those bouncers—especially the tall one with the bulging thews—but they were probably right about not shooting off fireworks in that enclosed space.
“Born in Barcelona in 1916, Cirlot was a composer, a musicologist, an art critic, a translator, and a collector of antique swords. In the 1940s he became well-acquainted with, and translated the poetry of, avant-garde writers such as Paul Éluard, André Breton, and Antonin Artaud.”
From “A Dictionary Takes Us Through the Fascinating History of Symbols: Juan Eduardo Cirlot’s A Dictionary of Symbols has been an invaluable resource for decoding symbols since it was first published in 1958.” By Angelica Frey, Hyperallergic, October 31, 2020 (https://hyperallergic.com/597174/juan-eduardo-cirlot-a-dictionary-of-symbols )
"A Bradel binding (also called a bonnet or bristol board binding) is a style of book binding with a hollow back. It most resembles a case binding in that it has a hollow back and visible joint, but unlike a case binding, it is built up on the book."
“The word cultigen was coined in 1918 by Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858–1954) an American horticulturist, botanist and cofounder of the American Society for Horticultural Science. He was aware of the need for special categories for those cultivated plants that had arisen by intentional human activity and which would not fit neatly into the Linnaean hierarchical classification of ranks used by the International Rules of Botanical Nomenclature (which later became the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants).”
"An important phenomenon responsible for dissipating energy in a channel is the hydraulic jump. A hydraulic jump occurs in a channel when shallow, high velocity (supercritical) water meets slower moving (subcritical) water. The short and turbulent transition between the two water depths is called a hydraulic jump."
“Lothar Collatz, like most German students of his time, studied at a number of different universities. He entered the University of Greifswald in 1928, moving to Munich, then to Göttingen, and finally to Berlin where he studied for his doctorate under Alfred Klose.”
“Each day brings further entries into the popular lexicon: ventilator, community spread, doomscrolling. (The latter is slang for an excessive amount of screen time devoted to the absorption of dystopian news.)”
— “‘Quarantini.’ ‘Doomscrolling.’ Here’s how the coronavirus is changing the way we talk” by Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, April 11, 2020.
“The Antonine Plague of 165 to 180 AD, also known as the Plague of Galen (after Galen, a Greek physician who lived in the Roman Empire and described it), was an ancient pandemic brought to the Roman Empire by troops who were returning from campaigns in the Near East.”
In these many reviews, the preciousness and sensuousness of both the building and the Collection are frequently referenced, often by referring to the building as a “jewel box.” Ada Louise Huxtable, the venerable architectural critic of the New York Times, was perhaps the first to do this. She introduced the building by stating: “Small. Elegant. Its contemporary style has been planned to complement, rather than copy, the Georgian-style mansion to which it is connected by a simple corridor. The effect is of ancient treasures in a modern jewel box.”
The great breakthrough in quaternions finally came on Monday 16 October 1843 in Dublin, when Hamilton was on his way to the Royal Irish Academy where he was going to preside at a council meeting. As he walked along the towpath of the Royal Canal with his wife, the concepts behind quaternions were taking shape in his mind. When the answer dawned on him, Hamilton could not resist the urge to carve the formula for the quaternions . . . into the stone of Brougham Bridge as he paused on it. Although the carving has since faded away, there has been an annual pilgrimage since 1989 called the Hamilton Walk for scientists and mathematicians who walk from Dunsink Observatory to the Royal Canal bridge in remembrance of Hamilton's discovery.
Uh, I don't know much about heraldic symbolism--but it sure seems like if Wordnik were to have some sort of coat of arms, then this is the way to include fufluns.
Texas Red or sulforhodamine 101 acid chloride is a red fluorescent dye, used in histology for staining cell specimens, for sorting cells with fluorescent-activated cell sorting machines, in fluorescence microscopy applications, and in immunohistochemistry.
While exploring the western part of Nebraska, Barbour collected dozens of examples of the giant spiral structures, reporting on them in 1892 and naming them Daimonelix (Greek for “devil’s screw,” often spelled Daemonelix). Their origin was a mystery and there was nothing else like them in the fossil record. After first considering them as possible remains of giant freshwater sponges, Barbour surmised that the fossils of Daimonelix were the remains of plants, possibly root systems, because he had discovered plant tissues inside the helices.
A year later, the legendary American vertebrate paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope rejected Barbour’s interpretation of the fossils, noting that “the most probable explanation of these objects seems to be that they are the casts of the burrows of some large rodent.”
An animal can only die once, and when it does, there’s a vanishingly slim chance that it will become a fossil: Far, far more often than not, an animal’s carcass will decay and rot until there’s little proof that it ever existed at all. While it’s alive, though, a creature can stamp proof of itself all across the landscape. Ichnology is the study of those preserved tracks, burrows, and other “trace fossils”—and it’s a way for researchers to visualize an animal’s behavior and biomechanics without a body in sight.
When I first saw this, I read it as "antisurgeon," and now I'm trying to come up with a joke about my aunt who is a Christian Scientist and loves caviar. (My auntie who's anti-surgeon but pro-sturgeon, &c.)
Dreamed I was at a gas station by a college campus, consoling a friend who’d been told she wasn’t allowed to study Aristotle any longer. I led her over to the used dvds, trying to cheer her up. One of her classmates was there—she had just been to a lecture about poetry. I asked whether there had been any mention of cauliflower as a symbol. She was just starting to say, “Right, so as you know, cauliflower is a soltentanue,” and I was just about to say, “Do you mean solanaceae? I thought it was cruciferous,” but my alarm woke me up before I could question her further.
Leibniz’s central argument was that all human thoughts, no matter how complex, are combinations of basic and fundamental concepts, in much the same way that sentences are combinations of words, and words combinations of letters. He believed that if he could find a way to symbolically represent these fundamental concepts and develop a method by which to combine them logically, then he would be able to generate new thoughts on demand.
The idea came to Leibniz through his study of Ramon Llull, a 13th century Majorcan mystic who devoted himself to devising a system of theological reasoning that would prove the “universal truth" of Christianity to non-believers.
Llull himself was inspired by Jewish Kabbalists’ letter combinatorics . . . which they used to produce generative texts that supposedly revealed prophetic wisdom. Taking the idea a step further, Llull invented what he called a volvelle, a circular paper mechanism with increasingly small concentric circles on which were written symbols representing the attributes of God. Llull believed that by spinning the volvelle in various ways, bringing the symbols into novel combinations with one another, he could reveal all the aspects of his deity.
1662, in sense “flutter as blown by wind”, as whiff + -le (“(frequentive)”) and (onomatopoeia) sound of wind, particularly a leaf fluttering in unsteady wind; compare whiff. Sense “something small or insignificant” is from 1680."
Wikipedia also offers the following etymology: "The term became known to European composers through lectures by acoustician Werner Meyer-Eppler at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music in the beginning of the 1950s. According to his definition, "a process is said to be aleatoric ... if its course is determined in general but depends on chance in detail" (Meyer-Eppler 1957, 55). Through a confusion of Meyer-Eppler's German terms Aleatorik (noun) and aleatorisch (adjective), his translator created a new English word, "aleatoric" (rather than using the existing English adjective "aleatory"), which quickly became fashionable and has persisted (Jacobs 1966). More recently, the variant "aleatoriality" has been introduced (Roig-Francolí 2008, 340)."
"In petrography, in the quantitative system of classification, a division of igneous rocks lower than the ‘order,’ based on the character of the chemical bases in the preponderating group of standard minerals in each class. See rock."
"Alum and green vitriol (iron sulfate) both have sweetish and astringent taste, and they had overlapping uses. Therefore, through the Middle Ages, alchemists and other writers do not seem to have discriminated the two salts accurately from each other. In the writings of the alchemists we find the words misy, sory, and chalcanthum applied to either compound; and the name atramentum sutorium, which one might expect to belong exclusively to green vitriol, applied indifferently to both.
"Edward Elzear "Zez" Confrey (April 3, 1895 – November 22, 1971) was an American composer and performer of novelty piano and jazz music. His most noted works were "Kitten on the Keys" and "Dizzy Fingers.""
I was just looking at the word arm and realized that it could be anagrammed to ram and mar. Is there a word for words where each and every variation in the order of the letters leads to another word?
"Visual comparisons by the human eye and a suitable, uniform light source is one method to assess how good an old, now discontinued pigment relates to a new substitute. Another way is to take a measurement using a device called a spectrophotometer that assesses the color reflectance at wavelength segments within the range of visible light detectable by a human eye."
One of the Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach is a quodlibet. Wikipedia says, "This quodlibet is based on multiple German folk songs, two of which are Ich bin solang nicht bei dir g'west, ruck her, ruck her ("I have so long been away from you, come closer, come closer") and Kraut und Rüben haben mich vertrieben, hätt mein' Mutter Fleisch gekocht, wär ich länger blieben ("Cabbage and turnips have driven me away, had my mother cooked meat, I'd have opted to stay"). The others have been forgotten. The Kraut und Rüben theme, under the title of La Capricciosa, had previously been used by Dieterich Buxtehude for his thirty-two partite in G major, BuxWV 250." (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Goldberg_Variations&oldid=903488896)
"Depending on the tectonic environment, diapirs can range from idealized mushroom-shaped Rayleigh--Taylor-instability-type structures in regions with low tectonic stress such as in the Gulf of Mexico to narrow dikes of material that move along tectonically induced fractures in surrounding rock."
"In crystalline materials, Umklapp scattering (also U-process or Umklapp process) is a scattering process that results in a wave vector (usually written k) which falls outside the first Brillouin zone.
. . . .
"The name derives from the German word umklappen (to turn over). Rudolf Peierls, in his autobiography Bird of Passage states he was the originator of this phrase and coined it during his 1929 crystal lattice studies under the tutelage of Wolfgang Pauli. Peierls wrote, "...I used the German term Umklapp (flip-over) and this rather ugly word has remained in use...."
I do like the caer part of this--at first it reminded me of the Spanish verb for "to fall," but on Wikipedia there's a bit about it as Welsh for -caster* (though in a castle-y way).
*"Caer (Welsh pronunciation: kɑːɨr; Old Welsh: cair or kair) is a placename element in Welsh meaning "stronghold", "fortress", or "citadel", roughly equivalent to the Old English suffix now variously written as -caster, -cester, and -chester." (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Caer&oldid=895292287)
Worm married Dorothea Fincke, the daughter of a friend and colleague, Thomas Fincke. Thomas Fincke was a Danish mathematician and physicist, who invented the terms 'tangent' and 'secant' and who taught at the University of Copenhagen for more than 60 years.
"The term "stalactite" was coined in the 17th century by the Danish Physician Ole Worm, who coined the Latin word from the Greek word σταλακτός (stalaktos, "dripping") and the Greek suffix -ίτης (-ites, connected with or belonging to)."
-- From Wikipedia's "Stalactite" entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stalactite&oldid=895316956), which sends us off to the wonderful Online Etymology Dictionary, where (at https://www.etymonline.com/word/stalactite#etymonline_v_21976) we find this: ""hanging formation of carbonite of lime from the roof of a cave," 1670s, Englished from Modern Latin stalactites (used 1654 by Olaus Wormius), from Greek stalaktos "dripping, oozing out in drops," from stalassein "to trickle," from PIE root *stag- "to seep, drip, drop" (source also of German stallen, Lithuanian telžiu, telžti "to urinate") + noun suffix -ite (1). Related: Stalactic; stalactitic."
"Parasitic oscillation is an undesirable electronic oscillation (cyclic variation in output voltage or current) in an electronic or digital device. It is often caused by feedback in an amplifying device."
Regmaglypts are "thumbprint-sized indentations in the surface of larger meteorites formed by ablation as the meteorite passes through a planet's atmosphere, probably caused by vortices of hot gas."
No worries! Sorry about the attention span and memory loss. Your limerick game is spot on, and your comments are always great.
Besides--I assume that the ruzuzu born into the timeline of snotty goblets and snooty relatives is probably off wasting precious resources on fancy automobiles and sparkly tiaras.
“The systems use a dog's breakfast of custom codes and command system, with no standardization, let alone basic security. All systems pose some risk of vulnerabilities, but in this case it's like they didn't even try.“
Kuzma's mother or Kuzka's mother (Russian: Кузькина мать; Kuzka is a diminutive of the given name Kuzma) is a part of the Russian idiomatic expression "to show Kuzka's mother to someone" (Russian: Показать кузькину мать (кому-либо)), an expression of an unspecified threat or punishment, such as "to teach someone a lesson" or "to punish someone in a brutal way". It entered the history of the foreign relations of the Soviet Union as part of the image of Nikita Khrushchev, along with the shoe-banging incident and the phrase "We will bury you".
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kuzma%27s_mother&oldid=878213572 (which also tells us the following: "Because of the phrase's use in Cold War diplomacy, it became a code word for the atomic bomb. In particular, the Tsar Bomba 50 MT yield thermonuclear test device was nicknamed "Kuzka's mother" by its builders.")
"A heavy low carriage mounted on three wheels, the forward wheel being pivoted to facilitate changes of direction: used for transporting cannon and ammunition within the galleries of permanent works."
"The play between the spindle of the De Bange gas-cheek and its cavity in the breech-screw: it is expressed in decimal parts of an inch, and is measured by the difference between the diameters of the spindle and its cavity."
"Lenoks (otherwise known as Asiatic trout or Manchurian trout) are a genus, Brachymystax, of salmonid fishes native to rivers and lakes in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, wider Siberia (Russia), Northern China, and Korea."
Comments by ruzuzu
Show previous 200 comments...
ruzuzu commented on the list begtodiffer-com-words-dealing-with-the-problem-of-abbreviated-names
This is a fun list. Also see the list by tankhughes found here: abbreviations-into-acronyms-QGBtAKUtfn64-q-17Y0TZ.
August 25, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word discriminal
Also see dragon's-tail.
August 24, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word longtermism
From "How can we help humans thrive trillions of years from now? This philosopher has a plan" by Malaka Gharib (https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/08/16/1114353811/how-can-we-help-humans-thrive-trillions-of-years-from-now-this-philosopher-has-a)
August 24, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word chilodipterus
See Paroncheilus affinis.
August 24, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word topology
One of the Century definitions ("The art or method of assisting the memory by associating the objects to be remembered with some place which is well known.") reminds me of a memory palace.
August 15, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word star jelly
Also see nostoc.
August 15, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word nostoc
"The name Nostoc was coined by Paracelsus and is a combination of the English nostril and German Nasenloch "nose hole, nostril", likely due to appearance of many species colonies being similar to nasal mucus."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nostoc&oldid=1098615823
August 15, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word Nostoc
See nostoc.
August 15, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word boops boops
See Boops boops.
August 15, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word Boops boops
Also see comments on boops boops.
August 15, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word Benjamin Peirce
See comment on idempotent.
August 9, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word idempotent
From the Wikipedia page for Benjamin Peirce: "In algebra, he was notable for the study of associative algebras. He first introduced the terms idempotent and nilpotent in 1870 to describe elements of these algebras, and he also introduced the Peirce decomposition." (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Benjamin_Peirce&oldid=1079065220)
August 9, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word loxodrome
Cf. lemniscate.
August 8, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word fodientia
I know it's fashionable to go solo, but there's always a spot for you in almost Solveig.
August 5, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word check-spring
If we don't, I nominate you to make one for us. (Actually, even if we do, I still nominate you to make your own for our amusement.)
August 4, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word bars-gemel
See gemel.
August 3, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word hayz
Not what I was expecting.
August 3, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list crustaceans
I just got gnathostegite as a random word.
August 3, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list lock-me-up
Ooh! An open list!
August 2, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word gimbal lock
See comments on quaternion.
August 2, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list dewdew-drops
Bulla?
August 2, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list algorithm-avoidant-inventions-D25p2r0HK_2pCayeZApKQ
May 35?
August 2, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list not-gonna-fly-Nnyhv4qDQD5cWLDxfRymr
I think it's great (which probably says something about my own lists).
August 2, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word steller
I'm reminded of the joke about a grasshopper that walks in to a bar. The bartender says, "Hey, we have a drink named after you," and the grasshopper says, "You have a drink named Steve?"
August 2, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list things-we-supect-are-collected-by-ruzuzu-SYb-wiljc4sQNMz89j1-P
You know me too well.
July 28, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word fogging
That's fun, Bilby. What era is that from?
July 28, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list topological-verb-adjectives
What a fun list!
July 27, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the user adirgeforher
I like your lists.
July 27, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word why did ruzuzu cross the road
Why did ruzuzu cross the road? To create an open list.
July 27, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list why-did-the---cross-the
That sounds like a perfectly valid reason to cross the road, tankhughes.
July 27, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word genus cerastium
"Chick-weed" makes me think of Twelfth Night: "Give me thy hand, And let me see thee in thy woman’s weeds."
July 27, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the user brokeneye
I like your lists.
July 25, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list seals-8MLRJ_pGUWZovaajZa9W9
Ah, man. Sorry. I guess the list is sealed.
In the meantime, you can send me suggestions. (I'll do some experiments to see whether this has something to do with how I'm creating these lists.)
July 25, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list abbreviations-into-acronyms-QGBtAKUtfn64-q-17Y0TZ
Oh! That's a good one, w. I've also heard people say "I,D" for id. (cf. ibid).
July 22, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word blemmatrope
I hadn't, but I will now.
July 20, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word colter
Hm. Ploughshares cut into swards.
July 20, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word jean dimmock
Has anyone made this into a list yet? It would be hilarious to have jean dimmock as a random entry on a jean dimmock list.
July 19, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the user theoread
I like your lists.
July 18, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word monk seal
(I was beginning to lose faith in the notion that every potential list is an existing list.)
July 18, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word monk seal
Is it possible that we don't have any lists about seals yet?
Edit: Ah. here's a seals-and-sea-lions list, at least.
July 18, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list dayaways
I arrived here after getting wantaways as a random word.
July 18, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the user lupin99
I like your lists.
July 18, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list helmet-CZgXMkbmQU
Your lists amuse me every time you make one.
July 18, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word portrayment
*trips silent alarm*
July 18, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list abbreviations-into-acronyms-QGBtAKUtfn64-q-17Y0TZ
Oh, jinx! I was just coming here to say that about states. Some people's names do this, too: Jo, Ed, etc. (though then there's the whole Elizabeth, Margaret, Betsy, and Bess thing to ponder).
Edit: Wait. Duh. Are you just looking for the ones where you'd say it like an initialism? (In which case this list is even cooler.)
July 13, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word puffball
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Puffball&oldid=1077613917
July 12, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word Tatarian lamb
See barometz.
July 12, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list whoa-black-betty-HQ0x0b_1xVTMD9AXNjsC8
Umbrage! This otherwise perfect list contains no mention of the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary.
July 12, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list professional-wrestling-slang-5V5seeZRNJ54pzXowKeaW
I started out specifically looking for words with "professional wrestling slang" in their definitions, but feel free to make more suggestions (I somehow uncharacteristically created this as a closed list).
July 12, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list food-pellet-flavours-wPzukDApb4zscp4sivXLI
Brackets around "Skinner box Flavour Delivery AlgorithmTM" please.
July 8, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list food-pellet-flavours-wPzukDApb4zscp4sivXLI
Oh, look! A delicious food pellet list!
July 7, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list food-pellet-flavours-wPzukDApb4zscp4sivXLI
*presses lever*
July 7, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word Nicolson pavement
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nicolson_pavement&oldid=1024698411
July 6, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word Skinner box
Wheat germ, I think.
July 6, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word Skinner box
Oh, look! A delicious food pellet!
July 5, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list sacrilicious-ECwESJQci_b
What a great list!
July 5, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word Skinner box
*presses lever*
July 5, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list not-the-sum-of-their-parts
Bilby just found coinventorship.
June 7, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word coinventorship
Oh, tankhughes, that's marvelous. Thank you! Of course the brilliant sionnach already has a list.
June 7, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word coinventorship
This is great! Is there a name for words such as this—words which are made of other complete words? For instance, I’m thinking carrot is made of car and rot.
June 4, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word whichs
I'm reminded of one of my favorite jokes: Why do witches wear black? So you can't tell which witch is which.
May 13, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word bangboard
I have to admit that I never knew there was a word for this. That'll learn me. Guess I should find myself a good old-fashioned husking bee.
April 28, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list hence
Thanks!
April 28, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the user deku
I like your lists. Welcome to Wordnik!
April 28, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word nabooian
List me, like you did by the lake on Naboo!
April 28, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word feels old and structured, but isn’t
Right? I was also thinking democracy, the internet, biofilms... certain kinds of ice or glass.
April 12, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list slug-like-or-slug-shaped-NGdldFKpNd
My new favorite list.
April 12, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word feels old and structured, but isn’t
Often as I’m waking up from a dream, there will be one last word or phrase that lingers. Today it was a riddle: Name something that feels old and structured, but isn’t.
April 12, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list ras-syndrome-1fFizBdFKE2
I love this list.
April 6, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word 7458
*stalls*
April 4, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word 7458
Me? A stalwart? Aw shucks.
March 30, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list words-in-first-3-wordle-word-guess-list-fEttSrihG8
I've read that POUND, CRANE, and SALET (a variation on sallet) are good to start with, but I like STAMP and STARE.
March 30, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word 7458
I looked up the postal code--7458 must be near 7457. They're both in Hungary.
March 22, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word 7457
Oh, yay! Hi possibleunderscore!
*waves*
March 17, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word 7457
And hi rolig!
March 16, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word 7457
I'm still discovering entries that had gotten the wordie treatment--often when I'm looking up something that I thought was new, but that bilby already entered a citation for in 2009.
Hi bilby from 2009!
March 16, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list scopes-tropes-and-graphs
Likewise, vm.
March 15, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list scopes-tropes-and-graphs
This list is fantastic.
March 15, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word aperiodic
"The phenomenon that (Bradley) Voytek and other scientists are investigating in a variety of ways goes by many names. Some call it “the 1/f slope” or “scale-free activity”; Voytek has pushed to rebrand it “the aperiodic signal” or “aperiodic activity.”"
-- "Brain’s ‘Background Noise’ May Hold Clues to Persistent Mysteries" by Elizabeth Landau (https://www.quantamagazine.org/brains-background-noise-may-hold-clues-to-persistent-mysteries-20210208/)
March 15, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word 7457
I just looked it up again--it's a prime number (but it seems to be a rather boring one).
March 15, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word proleptic
Miss you, qms.
March 15, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list mathematical-words--1
My new favorite list--and currently the only one that lists injective.
March 15, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the user fifeflyer
I like your lists.
March 11, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word sea-urchin
Those are fantastic, vendingmachine. Thank you!
March 10, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word gold-solder
See chrysocolla.
March 9, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list urchins-Q6jhG5tG9_
Please sir, I want some more entries on my list.
March 4, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word heart-urchin
See heart urchin, and compare egg-urchin.
March 3, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list an-obsolete-form-QFYoW1JmA
Thank you. You've just captured all my feelings about The Century Dictionary in general.
March 3, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list a-pocket
Would caries count? (I'm thinking dental caries.)
March 2, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list nuclear-homework-xLoFAN-UQmQG
That's exciting, tankhughes. Congratulations!
March 2, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list have-a-pickle-DjYwdhoxYq
Oh, I am so there.
March 2, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list wiltons-words
My *new* new favorite list.
March 2, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list have-a-pickle-DjYwdhoxYq
Oh, yes--dancing the St. Giles's hornpipe sounds delightful, too.
March 1, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list have-a-pickle-DjYwdhoxYq
This is my new favorite list.
March 1, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word dempne
I can't believe I'm the first person to list this.
March 1, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word the rot
See bane.
March 1, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word bane
"A disease in sheep, more commonly called the rot."
--Century Dictionary
March 1, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word veg*n
See the comments on vegetarian if you dare.
March 1, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word shrewd
I thought you were a veg*n.
March 1, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word continent
See citation on Zealandia.
February 22, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word Zealandia
-- "The missing continent it took 375 years to find" (https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210205-the-last-secrets-of-the-worlds-lost-continent)
February 22, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word voxel
-- "New Map of Meaning in the Brain Changes Ideas About Memory" (https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-map-of-meaning-in-the-brain-changes-ideas-about-memory-20220208/)
February 22, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word nebraksa
I have relatives near Jeff City, I lived down by Springfield for a semester, and I have yet to hear anyone there say "Miz-ur-uh."
February 16, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list nuclear-homework-xLoFAN-UQmQG
This is my new favorite list.
February 15, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word Nebraska products
Thanks, vm, I'm fond of it too. I especially appreciate the sandhills, but there are a lot of scenic spots if you're brave enough to venture off of I-80.
February 15, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word Nebraska products
Here's a link to more exaggeration postcards from nebraksa: https://history.nebraska.gov/blog/exaggeration-postcards (my favorite is the grasshopper).
February 15, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list sausages
I knew there had to be a sausage list around here somewhere! I've got an open list, but I'll be yoinking plenty of these.
February 14, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word fenster
"A karst window, also known as a karst fenster, is a geomorphic feature found in karst landscapes where an underground river is visible from the surface within a sinkhole."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Karst_window&oldid=1065338450
February 10, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list pure-science
Hm. I see that sausage body is also here. Is there already a sausage list somewhere?
February 10, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word Lichtenberg figure
See comment on Georg Christoph Lichtenberg.
February 9, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
-- From "How You Really Use Mathematics To Define Paper Size" (https://www.cantorsparadise.com/how-you-really-use-mathematics-to-define-paper-size-c2928ba551ec)
February 9, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list pure-science
This is my new favorite list.
February 9, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word pogonius
I have some nice vegan fufluns right here--it's a new recipe. Let me know what you think.
February 7, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word pogonius
"Whenever the TRAHOR FATIS inscription appears, it is accompanied by a seven–pointed “bearded” star (pogonius), raining influence toward Earth and its denizens."
-- From "A Renaissance Riddle: The Sola Busca Tarot Deck (1491)" (https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/sola-busca)
February 3, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word open list
See ru open list zuzu.
February 3, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list us-places-named-after-non-us-places-nJSQDngyIS
Sometimes it's hard to switch back and forth once a list has been started--but the moment I can list things, I will.
After all, open list is my middle name.
February 3, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list us-places-named-after-non-us-places-nJSQDngyIS
Thanks v--I would, but it doesn't seem to be an open list.
February 2, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word heartsette
A variation on the card game hearts:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hearts_(card_game)&oldid=1069036466
February 2, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list us-places-named-after-non-us-places-nJSQDngyIS
I think there are various Albions, too--one in Nebraska, one in Iowa.
February 1, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list us-places-named-after-non-us-places-nJSQDngyIS
Nebraska can offer Geneva, Peru, Cairo, Syracuse, York, Prague, and Gothenburg, among others--but there used to be more: Lancaster was renamed Lincoln in 1869, and Berlin changed to Otoe in 1918.
February 1, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word terrel
Also see terrella.
January 28, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word able seaman
See comment on able.
January 28, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word able
From the Online Etymology Dictionary:
(See https://www.etymonline.com/word/Able)
January 28, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list full-of-bull-pE7z8c-MZ0ks
Thanks, vm! Wahoo!
January 20, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list full-of-bull-pE7z8c-MZ0ks
Oh, fun! Will you accept two-word phrases? (I'm thinking bull-beef and bull thistles, &c.)
January 20, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the list in-conchology-2VMvKoRv_hDY
Thank you, yarb. I'm surprised mollusque hasn't listed more of these.
January 19, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word cryptobiosis
"The researchers, based in Singapore, Denmark and Poland, chose a tardigrade to try to entangle because of its ability to enter long hibernation to withstand things like searing heat, freezing cold, extraordinarily high pressures, and high levels of ionizing radiation. This hibernation is called cryptobiosis; the animal desiccates, shedding the moisture from its body, and only reanimates when conditions become more manageable."
-- "Scientists Tried to Quantum Entangle a Tardigrade" by Isaac Schultz (https://gizmodo.com/scientists-tried-to-quantum-entangle-a-tardigrade-1848377578)
January 19, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word struthiolaria
I can't believe I'm the first person to list this.
January 18, 2022
ruzuzu commented on the word aporia
"Typically, Socrates' opponent would make what would seem to be an innocuous assertion. In response, Socrates, via a step-by-step train of reasoning, bringing in other background assumptions, would make the person admit that the assertion resulted in an absurd or contradictory conclusion, forcing him to abandon his assertion and adopt a position of aporia."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reductio_ad_absurdum&oldid=1053094000
December 28, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word sippet
Also see sop.
December 27, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the list caves-and-cave-art-g_6DoyCfC0N9
What a fun list!
December 21, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word Snegurka
"A version of a folk tale about a girl made of snow and named Snegurka (Snezhevinochka; Снегурка (Снежевиночка)) was published in 1869 by Alexander Afanasyev in the second volume of his work The Poetic Outlook on Nature by the Slavs, where he also mentions the German analog, Schneekind ("Snow Child")."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Snegurochka&oldid=1057246156
December 16, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the list flying-into-snow
Snegurka.
December 16, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word cibus
See the definition on cib.
December 13, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word nether-vert
*trips silent alarm*
December 2, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word blood
(No mention of using soup as a dye for leather, though.)
December 2, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word blood
Oh, ew. The Century has given us this gem: "In leather-coloring, to apply a coating of blood to, in order to obtain a good black."
December 2, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word flesh and blood
Now I'm wondering about the etymology of blood.
December 2, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word flesh and blood
For what it's worth, I'm looking at the online version of the OED (through my library's subscription), and I see the following:
"a1340 R. Rolle Psalter xvii. 11 He maked his son to take fleisse and blode.
1393 W. Langland Piers Plowman C. ii. 153 Whanne hit hadde of þe folde flesch and blod ytake.
1509 Parlyament Deuylles (de Worde) lxxii I..toke flesshe and blode a mayde within.
1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost i. i. 186 I would see his owne person in flesh and blood."
December 2, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word moleomancy
Not what I was expecting.
November 19, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the user nickpatterson high
Welcome! Nice to see a fellow fan of The Century.
I just saw your question over on the page for the word synchronously. Generally, the best way to show a word is one of your favorites is to log in and select "love" at the top of the page for that word. Hope that helps!
November 19, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word trink
It did occur to me to wonder whether trink and drink were related.
There's an old klezmer song called "Skrip, klezmerl, skripe" where an uncle sings "kh’vel trinken vi a fish/ un vel tantsn bay der khupe," which is translated as "Now I will drink like a fish/ and dance by the wedding canopy," (See here: https://www.milkenarchive.org/music/volumes/view/great-songs-of-the-american-yiddish-stage/work/skrip-klezmerl-skripe/).
But, also, do folks still get thrown "into the drink"? And could we then use a trink to rescue them?
November 19, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word trink
Compare trench and tranche.
November 18, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word cow pat
Compare cow pie.
November 1, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word cow pie
Cf. cow pat.
November 1, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word goatfish
See comments on ahuruhuru.
October 26, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word the ultimate blended threat
Umbrage! Everyone knows it's wasteful to use only half a ruzuzu. What'll you do, stick the ruz in the fridge with some lemon juice? Throw the uzu away? Feh.
October 26, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word mathematical induction
Oh, hey, ruzuzu from 2018--thank you. I was stuck on this again.
This time I'll add that C.S. Peirce also wrote about abduction, but it's the kind of rabbit hole that leads one to muttering about confectio Damocritis.
October 19, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word abduction
"The term “abduction” was coined by Charles Sanders Peirce in his work on the logic of science. He introduced it to denote a type of non-deductive inference that was different from the already familiar inductive type."
-- From the "Peirce on Abduction" section of the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/abduction/peirce.html)
October 19, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the list youve-got-this-all-wrong-TjaXkcvUHyGZ
This is my new favorite list.
October 13, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word hyaline
I think it's where they play jai alai.
October 13, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word virgule
Adding this to the list of qms poems.
October 11, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word duodenotomy
Smiting seems more like an -ectomy.
September 28, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the user stuartmathergibson
Not sure why bilby is anti-anthesis.
September 25, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the list penny-phases-words
Aha! Here it is.
September 21, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word swine-penny
Do we have any penny lists?
September 20, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word Flower of Kent
"The Flower of Kent is a green cultivar of cooking apple. According to the story, this is the apple Isaac Newton saw falling to ground from its tree, inspiring his laws of universal gravitation. It is pear-shaped, mealy, and sub-acid, and of generally poor quality by today's standards. As its name suggests, this cultivar likely originated from Kent, England."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flower_of_Kent&oldid=992761945
September 13, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word bi-quinary
See biquinary.
September 6, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word portcrayon
I hadn't--but I sure will now!
September 6, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word crab wherry
See wherry.
August 27, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word doppelzentner
Not what I was expecting.
August 27, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word odd-come-short
See odd-come-shortly.
August 25, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word herb robert
Also see herb-robert.
August 25, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the user hcarson
I like your lists.
August 25, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the list bells-and-whistles
Oh. Here's one. (See comment on passing-bell.)
August 25, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word passing-bell
Do we have any bell lists yet?
August 25, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the user vendingmachine
Big hugs from me, too. So very sorry for your loss.
August 24, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word takotsubo cardiomyopathy
See takotsubo.
August 24, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word takotsubo
"The name "takotsubo" comes from the Japanese word takotsubo "octopus trap", because the left ventricle of the heart takes on a shape resembling an octopus trap when affected by this condition."
-- From Wikipedia's takotsubo cardiomyopathy page (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Takotsubo_cardiomyopathy&oldid=1032145059)
August 24, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the list may-or-may-not-be-specific-but-it-s-definitely-not-excrement
Ooh. Do we need a new list? I know there are some parasite lists here, but do we need something a bit more specific?
August 22, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word feeder-bar
Maybe just one more.
*press*
August 21, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word feeder-bar
Mphfh.
*coughs*
It’s okay.
*press*
August 21, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word feeder-bar
*press*
August 21, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the list may-or-may-not-be-specific-but-it-s-definitely-not-excrement
Can I get a ruling on whether tapeworms belong on this list or the other list? See here: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/alaskan-bears-occasionally-trail-meterslong-tapeworms-from-their-behinds/
August 20, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word food pellet
*press*
August 19, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word riffly
I love it when my fufluns have grape riffles.
August 19, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word iota
Why I oughta...
August 18, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the list train-smash-words-pAz_VfHOiYXV
My new favorite list.
August 18, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word pyow
*trips silent alarm*
August 17, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word land-beaver
I b'eave you're correct.
August 11, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word land-beaver
How much land would a land-beaver beaver if a land-beaver could beaver land?
August 10, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word origen
Thank you, ry--I had the same question.
August 10, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word QUA
Sine qua non.
July 26, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word perfectoid
— “New Shape Opens ‘Wormhole’ Between Numbers and Geometry” By Kevin Hartnett, July 19, 2021 (https://www.quantamagazine.org/with-a-new-shape-mathematicians-link-geometry-and-numbers-20210719/)
July 24, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the list eels
I found tobias fish or "sand eel," which would appear to be another fish that just looks like an eel.
Guess it's time to make another list. (https://www.wordnik.com/lists/eel-shaped-fish-gvtNIN5hT06l)
July 19, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word lanturlu
See the etymology for lanterloo ("French lanturlu, originally the refrain of a sixteenth-century song.")
July 19, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word weebill
Not likely to fall down.
July 18, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the list la-bas-8kJjgQGj4c2h
This is my new favorite list.
July 18, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the list the-universal-calculator
You're right, ry. I couldn't help myself.
And bilby, I'm surprised you haven't added corkscrew or plastic toothpick.
July 18, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word autoantonym
For a list, see this list made by oroboros: https://www.wordnik.com/lists/autantonyms.
May 31, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word emperor
— “Light in the Palazzo” by Ingrid D. Rowland, New York Review of Books.
May 16, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word s’mores
Compare with smoor.
May 2, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word smoor
This makes me hungry for s’mores.
May 2, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word what the
I once got in trouble for using a phrase I’d heard Flo the waitress say on an old episode of “Alice.” I had turned to a classmate on the playground and said, “Kiss my grits,” but I don’t think any of us—students or staff—actually knew what grits were, so it was hard to defend myself.
May 2, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word elide
Hi rculver00! I just added a comment on your profile about making lists.
May 2, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the user rculver00
Welcome to Wordnik! Just saw your comment on elide. If you press the button that says “love” on the page for a word, that word will automatically show up here under your “Favorites” on your profile. If you decide to make a new list and add a word, everyone can see the list and what you’ve added—but you can set the list up initially so that nobody else can add words to your list. (Open lists are amusing though.) Have fun!
May 2, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word orbisculate
There was just a story about this madeupical word on CBS Sunday Morning:
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/my-word/
May 2, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word oceanic nonlinear internal solitary waves
“On November 1, 2016, NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over Indonesia, allowing the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board to capture a stunning true-color image of oceanic nonlinear internal solitary waves from the Lombok Strait.”
— https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/oceanic-nonlinear-internal-solitary-waves-from-the-lombok-strait
May 1, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word zenzontlruzuzu
Thank you, fbharjo. I love it.
April 7, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word warp speed
— https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/26/arts/science-fiction-dictionary.html
Here’s a link to that dictionary of “more than 400 words”: https://sfdictionary.com
January 27, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word mum-house
See mum for clarification.
January 15, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word zuzu
RU zuzu? Yes I am.
January 7, 2021
ruzuzu commented on the word ru
Why, yes—I am indeed.
December 28, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word plasma
See use in citations on tokamak.
December 28, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word tokamak
“Harnessing this form of nuclear power, though, has proven extremely difficult, requiring heating a soup of subatomic particles, called plasma, to hundreds of millions of degrees – far too hot for any material container to withstand. To work around this, scientists developed a donut-shaped chamber with a strong magnetic field running through it, called a tokamak, which suspends the plasma in place.“
— “Is nuclear fusion the answer to the climate crisis? Promising new studies suggest the long elusive technology may be capable of producing electricity for the grid by the end of the decade.” By Oscar Schwartz, Mon 28 Dec 2020 05.00 EST
(https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/28/nuclear-fusion-power-climate-crisis)
December 28, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word muffin fan
Have you ever seen the Muffin Fan and the Fuflun Man in the same room at the same time?
November 24, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word unsolicited sperm donut
Not what I was expecting.
November 24, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word muffin fan
Do you know the Muffin Fan?
November 23, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word boa constrictor
“Though all boids are constrictors, only this species is properly referred to as a "boa constrictor" – a rare instance of an animal having the same common English name and scientific binomial name. (Another such animal is the extinct theropod dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex.)”
— https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Boa_constrictor&oldid=987837065
November 23, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word bruit de diable
Venus Hum used to open for the Blue Man Group.
November 3, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word attainted
Last I heard, they were opening for Styx on the state fair circuit—but I’m not sure whether the virus has changed their tour plans.
November 2, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word attainted
Mostly I remember being angry at those bouncers—especially the tall one with the bulging thews—but they were probably right about not shooting off fireworks in that enclosed space.
November 1, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word Juan Eduardo Cirlot
“Born in Barcelona in 1916, Cirlot was a composer, a musicologist, an art critic, a translator, and a collector of antique swords. In the 1940s he became well-acquainted with, and translated the poetry of, avant-garde writers such as Paul Éluard, André Breton, and Antonin Artaud.”
From “A Dictionary Takes Us Through the Fascinating History of Symbols: Juan Eduardo Cirlot’s A Dictionary of Symbols has been an invaluable resource for decoding symbols since it was first published in 1958.” By Angelica Frey, Hyperallergic, October 31, 2020 (https://hyperallergic.com/597174/juan-eduardo-cirlot-a-dictionary-of-symbols )
November 1, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the user haiduong2010
Even better if the books being cooked are cook books.
October 15, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word Bradel binding
"A Bradel binding (also called a bonnet or bristol board binding) is a style of book binding with a hollow back. It most resembles a case binding in that it has a hollow back and visible joint, but unlike a case binding, it is built up on the book."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bradel_binding&oldid=931260546
September 10, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the user jboyd
I like your lists.
September 10, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word giant panda
Is there already a panda list somewhere? I was going to make a pun about pandan.
August 14, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word cultigen
“The word cultigen was coined in 1918 by Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858–1954) an American horticulturist, botanist and cofounder of the American Society for Horticultural Science. He was aware of the need for special categories for those cultivated plants that had arisen by intentional human activity and which would not fit neatly into the Linnaean hierarchical classification of ranks used by the International Rules of Botanical Nomenclature (which later became the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants).”
— https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cultigen&oldid=959642721
Miss you, qms.
August 14, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word hydraulic jump
"An important phenomenon responsible for dissipating energy in a channel is the hydraulic jump. A hydraulic jump occurs in a channel when shallow, high velocity (supercritical) water meets slower moving (subcritical) water. The short and turbulent transition between the two water depths is called a hydraulic jump."
-- https://krcproject.groups.et.byu.net/index.php
August 6, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word sentient six foot animatronic rats
Rodents of unusual size? I don’t believe they exist.
June 27, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word Lothar Collatz
“Lothar Collatz, like most German students of his time, studied at a number of different universities. He entered the University of Greifswald in 1928, moving to Munich, then to Göttingen, and finally to Berlin where he studied for his doctorate under Alfred Klose.”
— https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Collatz/
June 27, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word doomscrolling
Cf. schadenscrolling.
June 22, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word doomscrolling
“Each day brings further entries into the popular lexicon: ventilator, community spread, doomscrolling. (The latter is slang for an excessive amount of screen time devoted to the absorption of dystopian news.)”
— “‘Quarantini.’ ‘Doomscrolling.’ Here’s how the coronavirus is changing the way we talk” by Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, April 11, 2020.
June 22, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word schadenscrolling
“I wouldn't call schadenscrolling a *good* use of a Saturday night, but it beats the hell out of doomscrolling.”
— David Roberts (@drvox) via Twitter
June 22, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word jean dimmock
pseudotirolitid
April 27, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the user chezmoi
Welcome! Would you like to try some fufluns with grape riffles? I'm also experimenting with jimmies.
April 27, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word Plague of Galen
“The Antonine Plague of 165 to 180 AD, also known as the Plague of Galen (after Galen, a Greek physician who lived in the Roman Empire and described it), was an ancient pandemic brought to the Roman Empire by troops who were returning from campaigns in the Near East.”
— https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Antonine_Plague&oldid=950227653
April 11, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word jewel box
Oh. Here:
-- From "Critical Appraisal of the Philip Johnson Pavilion" by James N. Carder (https://www.doaks.org/resources/philip-johnson/critical-appraisal-of-the-philip-johnson-pavilion (footnote removed))
April 3, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word jewel box
Nice, ry.
For some reason, I associate it most with Philip Johnson.
April 3, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word take umbrage
I see your umbrage and raise you some unjustified indignation.
March 23, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word take umbrage
(See, e.g., marathon of phony umbrage taking.)
March 18, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word umbrage
Also see take umbrage, if you dare.
March 18, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word take umbrage
Umbrage! I can't believe this hasn't been listed more often on this site.
March 18, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word Prince Albert
Do you have Prince Albert in a can?
March 17, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the user vendingmachine
Oh! Are the vending machines running?
*waits two seconds, then shouts*
Then we'd better go catch them!!!
*wanders off to the Prince Albert page*
March 17, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word Me no Leica.
From Wikipedia's page about Walter Kerr: "Notoriously he is credited with one of the world's shortest reviews, "Me no Leica" for John Van Druten's I Am a Camera in the New York Herald Tribune, December 31, 1951." (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Walter_Kerr&oldid=940786768)
March 10, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the list red--2
Wow--this is my new favorite list.
March 6, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word paradoxical undressing
Compare terminal burrowing.
March 6, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word terminal burrowing
Compare paradoxical undressing.
March 6, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word leucocytiform
What time is it when the elephants sit on your northern fence?
March 6, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word postmeatal
Just got this as a random word. How has this not been listed yet?
February 27, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word honestly, it's not for everyone
Maybe nebraksa is the vegan alternative to Nebraska.
February 26, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word honestly, it's not for everyone
Yeah, the most amusing thing to hear in a restaurant around here is "Oh, you're a vegetarian. You eat chicken, though, right?"
February 26, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word honestly, it's not for everyone
Also? Still a better slogan than "Meth. We're on it." https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/south-dakota-s-meth-we-re-it-campaign-funny-state-n1086071
February 24, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word honestly, it's not for everyone
Ashland is great. I took a class there about sewing signatures for bookbinding.
It also happens to be where some of the folks returning from China get to hang out in quarantine whilst they wait to see whether they have the dreaded corona virus. https://www.wowt.com/content/news/Ashland-to-quarantine-70-people-from-China-for-possible-coronavirus-567565231.html
February 24, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word u v v v w v uu v vv
Ha!
February 19, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the user jasonwordperson
I like your lists!
February 19, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the list fight-scene-words-ii--the-fightening
Ooh. Them's fightin' words.
February 13, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the list anagram-poetry
*trips over inert llamas*
February 13, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word Hamilton Walk
See citation on quaternion.
January 24, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word quaternion
-- from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quaternion&oldid=936892795
January 24, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word ⎠
Ha!
January 16, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word Aleutian disease
Uh... so has anyone created a ferret list yet?
January 15, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the list 2300af
Would you consider adding ferret?
January 15, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word scatebrous
I love that one definition has "abounding" and the other has "a bounding."
January 15, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word katal
Brackets around moozuzu, please. I'm sure there's a list where you can stick it.
January 15, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word katal
Funny that this is about moles instead of cows.
January 13, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the list worms-s3tPu02Jdkd
What a great list! My favorite is the Diet of Worms, but it seems as if you're going for something else here.
January 13, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word cloud street
Ooh! That's fun.
January 10, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word manchet
Uh, I don't know much about heraldic symbolism--but it sure seems like if Wordnik were to have some sort of coat of arms, then this is the way to include fufluns.
January 3, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word HNY
Harlem, New York.
January 3, 2020
ruzuzu commented on the word Texas Red
-- Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Texas_Red&oldid=897205418)
Also see texas red.
December 30, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list list-of-heraldry-terms
Thanks for this list, hh. Just arrived here (again) after looking up mullet.
December 11, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Daimonelix
I've never had any, but that doesn't mean it isn't out there somewhere.
December 10, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Daimonelix
You might have to travel to nebraksa to find them.
December 5, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list serious-scrabble-mlfrY38fftk
This is a great list!
December 4, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Daemonelix
See Daimonelix.
December 3, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Daimonelix
-- From https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-scientists-resolved-mystery-devils-corkscrews-180973487
See, also, ichnology.
December 3, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word ichnology
-- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/white-sands-fossil-footprints
December 3, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word précis
See comments on précising.
December 3, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list best-of-qms-f3E-ECnAs3S
It's hard to narrow down my favorites--qms was prolific, and each one was a gem.
November 25, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list archaic-words--2
Ha! I just noticed "e-mail message."
November 25, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word herke
Has anyone made a list of Middle English words yet?
November 25, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list moonblink-Aihj6loFEm
I concur.
November 25, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Funderdome
Do bilbies prefer the DownUnderDome?
November 25, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Brodie knob
Thanks, vm--you just answered a question I didn't even know I had!
November 22, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word antisturgeon
When I first saw this, I read it as "antisurgeon," and now I'm trying to come up with a joke about my aunt who is a Christian Scientist and loves caviar. (My auntie who's anti-surgeon but pro-sturgeon, &c.)
November 22, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word soltentanue
Thanks, fb! Had I slept longer, I might have convinced my friend to study Solon.
November 22, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word soltentanue
Dreamed I was at a gas station by a college campus, consoling a friend who’d been told she wasn’t allowed to study Aristotle any longer. I led her over to the used dvds, trying to cheer her up. One of her classmates was there—she had just been to a lecture about poetry. I asked whether there had been any mention of cauliflower as a symbol. She was just starting to say, “Right, so as you know, cauliflower is a soltentanue,” and I was just about to say, “Do you mean solanaceae? I thought it was cruciferous,” but my alarm woke me up before I could question her further.
November 21, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word foomo
Oof. *favorited*
November 18, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word longueur
Does that mean a flaneur is a person who loves spending time on flan?
November 18, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list french-in-english
Would you consider cul-de-sac?
November 15, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word longueur
Ha. It's like if you took longer and made it even lonnnnnger.
November 15, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word volvelle
Uh, I think the best coffee to accompany custard-filled fufluns is definitely kopi-LEWDwak. Amirite? (Wocka wocka.)
November 5, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list approved-icelandic-female-names-cH9qECJAzMu6
Fantastic--and I love that you're the first person to list Björk!
November 4, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Ramon Llull
See citation on volvelle.
November 4, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word volvelle
-- https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/robotics/artificial-intelligence/in-the-17th-century-leibniz-dreamed-of-a-machine-that-could-calculate-ideas
November 4, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list ice-nomenclature-2YkOZ__kW6GB
Nice!
November 4, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list retro-names-for-movie-houses-BJX43YqsEME9
Rivoli!
October 31, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word eyeleteers
Dear bilby,
I think your ears are lovely. Now make that list for us!
Yours truly, ruzuzu
October 25, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word 2-8-0+0-8-2s
From "Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
noun
Plural form of 2-8-0+0-8-2."October 16, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list plants-named-after-animals-fJh6uvbbzEBD
You might enjoy madmouth's love-across-kingdoms list--which goes both ways (I think it has animals named after plants, too).
October 16, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word epiploon
I have a list of those! (See found-poetry.)
October 10, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word frequentive
"frequentive (not comparable)
Misspelling of frequentative."
-- https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=frequentive&oldid=54581305
October 4, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word whiffle
"from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
1662, in sense “flutter as blown by wind”, as whiff + -le (“(frequentive)”) and (onomatopoeia) sound of wind, particularly a leaf fluttering in unsteady wind; compare whiff. Sense “something small or insignificant” is from 1680."
October 4, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word magnanerie
Not what I was expecting.
October 1, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word whiffletree
"|F|rom The Century Dictionary.
noun
Same as swingletree.""|F|rom the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
noun
Same as whippletree."October 1, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list interrogative-animals-G78xbJ5pP_Nz
Thanks, ry!
September 25, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list interrogative-animals-G78xbJ5pP_Nz
It's an open list--have at!
September 24, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list to-indicate
*favorited*
September 23, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list chambers-missing-words-syBbU4NnraS1
I like that you're the first person to list sieve of Eratosthenes.
September 23, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list potential-names-for-our-dog-rg4BuSN2-YNo
I like how if you combine Chimborazo and Rizzo, it almost sounds like Ratso Rizzo.
September 23, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list interrogative-animals-G78xbJ5pP_Nz
How do we feel about "how"?
September 20, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list interrogative-animals-G78xbJ5pP_Nz
And minerals are here: interrogative-minerals-d7PvM26GxlBl.
September 20, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list interrogative-animals-G78xbJ5pP_Nz
All right. I've started the plant list here: interrogative-plants-GGm7K8ksj_aG.
September 20, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list interrogative-animals-G78xbJ5pP_Nz
I see your point. Should we have a second list for plants?
September 20, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word werewolf
Ooh. That's definitely how I'll start pronouncing it now.
*wanders over to wereweasel*
September 19, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word werewolf
(A HORRIFYING CRY OF A WOLF!)
INGA: Werewolf!
FREDDY: Werewolf?
IGOR: There.
FREDDY: What?
IGOR: (Pointing to the woods.) There, wolf. (Pointing to the castle.) There, castle.
FREDDY: Why are you talking that way?
IGOR: I thought you wanted to.
FREDDY: No, I don't want to.
IGOR: Suit yourself... I'm easy.
--From the movie Young Frankenstein (1974)
September 19, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word whincow
That's excellent!
September 19, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word whincow
So, let's see: whincow... werewolf.
Are there any "what" or "why" animals? (I'm guessing who is reserved for owls.)
September 19, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the user yarb
Agreed! Yarb is excellent.
September 18, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word aleatory
Compare aleatoric.
September 17, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word aleatoriality
See comment on aleatoric.
September 17, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word aleatoric
Wikipedia also offers the following etymology: "The term became known to European composers through lectures by acoustician Werner Meyer-Eppler at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music in the beginning of the 1950s. According to his definition, "a process is said to be aleatoric ... if its course is determined in general but depends on chance in detail" (Meyer-Eppler 1957, 55). Through a confusion of Meyer-Eppler's German terms Aleatorik (noun) and aleatorisch (adjective), his translator created a new English word, "aleatoric" (rather than using the existing English adjective "aleatory"), which quickly became fashionable and has persisted (Jacobs 1966). More recently, the variant "aleatoriality" has been introduced (Roig-Francolí 2008, 340)."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aleatoric_music&oldid=896913303
September 17, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word rock milk
See agaric.
September 17, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Scheele's Green
Copper arsenite.
September 9, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word copper arsenite
Scheele's Green.
September 9, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word poison dress
One appears in the Cate Blanchett movie about Elizabeth I.
I wonder whether dresses dyed with copper arsenite (or Scheele's Green) would fit.
September 9, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word echolocution
That's fantastic. There should be a word for when you're sure you've coined something new, come here to claim it, then see it's already listed.
September 9, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word cryptozoic
See definition on Cryptozoic.
September 4, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word pelite
Cf. psephite.
September 4, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word rang
From the Century Dictionary:
"In petrography, in the quantitative system of classification, a division of igneous rocks lower than the ‘order,’ based on the character of the chemical bases in the preponderating group of standard minerals in each class. See rock."
You rang?
You rock!
September 4, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word soluble glass
See sodium silicate.
September 4, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word sodium silicate
See soluble glass.
September 4, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word atramentum sutorium
See comment on green vitriol.
August 28, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word chalcanthum
See comment on green vitriol.
August 28, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word sory
See comment on green vitriol.
August 28, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word misy
See comment on green vitriol.
August 28, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word green vitriol
"Alum and green vitriol (iron sulfate) both have sweetish and astringent taste, and they had overlapping uses. Therefore, through the Middle Ages, alchemists and other writers do not seem to have discriminated the two salts accurately from each other. In the writings of the alchemists we find the words misy, sory, and chalcanthum applied to either compound; and the name atramentum sutorium, which one might expect to belong exclusively to green vitriol, applied indifferently to both.
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alum&oldid=907117212
August 28, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list solvents-T8D_61_v9VF
I nominate you to make that list! (Should I ask whether anyone has a theremin I can borrow?)
August 23, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word cass
Funny that there’s a Wiktionary entry that says this is “obsolete,” but nothing from the Century, etc.
August 21, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the user manolito
Excellent.
*polishes tiara*
*polishes off a tray full of Fufluns*
August 16, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Zez Confrey
"Edward Elzear "Zez" Confrey (April 3, 1895 – November 22, 1971) was an American composer and performer of novelty piano and jazz music. His most noted works were "Kitten on the Keys" and "Dizzy Fingers.""
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zez_Confrey&oldid=908338871
August 16, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the user harpshot
47
August 13, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the user manolito
I think teanner sounds lovely.
But I have so many questions:
Is this English tea and dinner business like the supper/dinner question I deal with in the middle of America?
Must one wear a tiara to tea?
When is bilby inviting us all over?
Should I bring fufluns?
August 12, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word lost for word
I was just looking at the word arm and realized that it could be anagrammed to ram and mar. Is there a word for words where each and every variation in the order of the letters leads to another word?
August 1, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word spectrophotometer
"Visual comparisons by the human eye and a suitable, uniform light source is one method to assess how good an old, now discontinued pigment relates to a new substitute. Another way is to take a measurement using a device called a spectrophotometer that assesses the color reflectance at wavelength segments within the range of visible light detectable by a human eye."
-- https://www.nga.gov/conservation/materials-study-center/amrsc-historic-modern-pigments.html
July 29, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the user qms
I’d been wondering, too. Such sad news.
Thanks for letting us know, Erin.
July 27, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Kraut und Rüben
Cabbage and turnips. See citation on quodlibet.
July 23, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word quodlibet
One of the Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach is a quodlibet. Wikipedia says, "This quodlibet is based on multiple German folk songs, two of which are Ich bin solang nicht bei dir g'west, ruck her, ruck her ("I have so long been away from you, come closer, come closer") and Kraut und Rüben haben mich vertrieben, hätt mein' Mutter Fleisch gekocht, wär ich länger blieben ("Cabbage and turnips have driven me away, had my mother cooked meat, I'd have opted to stay"). The others have been forgotten. The Kraut und Rüben theme, under the title of La Capricciosa, had previously been used by Dieterich Buxtehude for his thirty-two partite in G major, BuxWV 250." (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Goldberg_Variations&oldid=903488896)
July 23, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Word
word to the mother
July 18, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Echo
See echo.
July 8, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word echo
See Echo.
July 8, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word diapir
"Depending on the tectonic environment, diapirs can range from idealized mushroom-shaped Rayleigh--Taylor-instability-type structures in regions with low tectonic stress such as in the Gulf of Mexico to narrow dikes of material that move along tectonically induced fractures in surrounding rock."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Diapir&oldid=885376369
July 8, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list your-mailchimp-randomly-selected-word-from-the-dictionary
Ooh! I'd forgotten about scytale. Nice!
July 2, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Umklapp scattering
"In crystalline materials, Umklapp scattering (also U-process or Umklapp process) is a scattering process that results in a wave vector (usually written k) which falls outside the first Brillouin zone.
. . . .
"The name derives from the German word umklappen (to turn over). Rudolf Peierls, in his autobiography Bird of Passage states he was the originator of this phrase and coined it during his 1929 crystal lattice studies under the tutelage of Wolfgang Pauli. Peierls wrote, "...I used the German term Umklapp (flip-over) and this rather ugly word has remained in use...."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Umklapp_scattering&oldid=885935301
June 17, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word blow a kiss to ruzuzu
That explains a lot about my weekend. I would also like to question Wordnik about a few missing socks from my last load of laundry.
June 17, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word magicaer
Oh! It's like The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog.
June 10, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word magicaer
I do like the caer part of this--at first it reminded me of the Spanish verb for "to fall," but on Wikipedia there's a bit about it as Welsh for -caster* (though in a castle-y way).
*"Caer (Welsh pronunciation: kɑːɨr; Old Welsh: cair or kair) is a placename element in Welsh meaning "stronghold", "fortress", or "citadel", roughly equivalent to the Old English suffix now variously written as -caster, -cester, and -chester." (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Caer&oldid=895292287)
June 10, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word black swan
"When asked about his father-in-law President Donald Trump, Kushner told CNN's Van Jones: "He's a black swan. He's been a black swan all his life.""
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jared_Kushner&oldid=898710548
June 3, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word magicaer
Compare magic user.
June 3, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Ole Worm
Worm married Dorothea Fincke, the daughter of a friend and colleague, Thomas Fincke. Thomas Fincke was a Danish mathematician and physicist, who invented the terms 'tangent' and 'secant' and who taught at the University of Copenhagen for more than 60 years.
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ole_Worm&oldid=882439160
May 31, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Olaus Wormius
Also, see, stalactite.
May 31, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Olaus Wormius
See Ole Worm.
May 31, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word stalactite
"The term "stalactite" was coined in the 17th century by the Danish Physician Ole Worm, who coined the Latin word from the Greek word σταλακτός (stalaktos, "dripping") and the Greek suffix -ίτης (-ites, connected with or belonging to)."
-- From Wikipedia's "Stalactite" entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stalactite&oldid=895316956), which sends us off to the wonderful Online Etymology Dictionary, where (at https://www.etymonline.com/word/stalactite#etymonline_v_21976) we find this: ""hanging formation of carbonite of lime from the roof of a cave," 1670s, Englished from Modern Latin stalactites (used 1654 by Olaus Wormius), from Greek stalaktos "dripping, oozing out in drops," from stalassein "to trickle," from PIE root *stag- "to seep, drip, drop" (source also of German stallen, Lithuanian telžiu, telžti "to urinate") + noun suffix -ite (1). Related: Stalactic; stalactitic."
May 31, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word oscillation
Also see parasitic oscillation.
May 28, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word parasitic oscillation
"Parasitic oscillation is an undesirable electronic oscillation (cyclic variation in output voltage or current) in an electronic or digital device. It is often caused by feedback in an amplifying device."
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Parasitic_oscillation&oldid=886517785
May 28, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word horseapple
Are we comparing apples and oranges?
May 15, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word regmaglypt
Oh, yeah? Try lamp egg, Mr. Apt Leggy.
May 15, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word regmaglypt
Regmaglypts are "thumbprint-sized indentations in the surface of larger meteorites formed by ablation as the meteorite passes through a planet's atmosphere, probably caused by vortices of hot gas."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_meteoritics#Regmaglypts
May 14, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word most all
Is it a shortened form of almost all?
But, also, it's ringing bells for me about statistics and inferences and Thomas Bayes and (of course!) Charles Sanders Peirce.
May 14, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word coworkers = co + workers or cow + orkers
Yeehaw! Thanks, Buckaroo Bilby.
May 14, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word cowboy shot
Shoot! Well, I still nominate you to, er, put your own brand on it, VM.
May 10, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word cowboy shot
I'm having fun looking--in the meantime, I nominate you to make one!
May 9, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word ambo
Makes me think of arcades ambo.
May 9, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word gumbi gumbi
Also, bilby, is “courier numbat” the same as a pneumatic tube?
May 5, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word gumbi gumbi
Thank you, qms.
May 5, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word gumbi gumbi
No worries! Sorry about the attention span and memory loss. Your limerick game is spot on, and your comments are always great.
Besides--I assume that the ruzuzu born into the timeline of snotty goblets and snooty relatives is probably off wasting precious resources on fancy automobiles and sparkly tiaras.
I'm glad to be here. I'm glad you're here, too.
May 3, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word gumbi gumbi
Wait. Was it goblets or gobbles? I feel my entire destiny rides on this question.
May 3, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list circus-stuff
What a thrilling list!
May 3, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word gumbi gumbi
By a strange coincidence, "snotty gobbles" was one of my nicknames in high school.
May 3, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word fʊ̈ˈɫɔksʃɚ
*trips silent alarm*
May 3, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word dog's breakfast
“The systems use a dog's breakfast of custom codes and command system, with no standardization, let alone basic security. All systems pose some risk of vulnerabilities, but in this case it's like they didn't even try.“
— “Security researchers reveal defects that allow wireless hijacking of giant construction cranes, scrapers and excavators” (https://boingboing.net/2019/03/15/not-even-trying-2.html/)
March 17, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word circle-squarer
Delightful as always, qms!
March 15, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word zillion
Fun! That's definitely earlier than the OED's first example for it, which is from 1944.
March 15, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word cliche
I was sure this was a bell-shaped hat.
March 6, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list eyebrow
Perfection! I wish there were a way to set up an alert every time there's a new list from biocon.
March 6, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word pontoon
*swoons*
February 8, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word dimidiate
Well done, qms!
February 8, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word pontoon
Just got cohomology as a random word and thought of this.
February 6, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the list indexers
I do.
Wait.
Does that mean I just read about myself? Ach. *added*
February 6, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word bewusstseinslage
Well, I don't know about that, but there certainly was a time when I was known as the Wordnik Mustard Girl.
edit: Corn on the side.
February 5, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word bewusstseinslage
You could also turn it into a corndog, which would go well with mustard. Silage on the side.
February 4, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word haver
Cf. comment on Haverford.
February 1, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word melamine,
I'm so glad it worked out--commas are such pesky creatures.
February 1, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Kuzma's mother
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kuzma%27s_mother&oldid=878213572 (which also tells us the following: "Because of the phrase's use in Cold War diplomacy, it became a code word for the atomic bomb. In particular, the Tsar Bomba 50 MT yield thermonuclear test device was nicknamed "Kuzka's mother" by its builders.")
February 1, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word melamine,
Psst... note the comma at the end.
February 1, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word 7457
I was going to see what it would be in Roman numerals, but apparently anything bigger than 3,999 is just too hard to figure out.
January 24, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word jean dimmock
chomp?
January 18, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word jean dimmock
alogical?
January 17, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word tombac
Mottled tarmac.
January 16, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word tombac
Cy Twombly
January 16, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word casemate-truck
"A heavy low carriage mounted on three wheels, the forward wheel being pivoted to facilitate changes of direction: used for transporting cannon and ammunition within the galleries of permanent works."
--from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
January 15, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word windage
"The play between the spindle of the De Bange gas-cheek and its cavity in the breech-screw: it is expressed in decimal parts of an inch, and is measured by the difference between the diameters of the spindle and its cavity."
--from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
January 15, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word fomite
Also see fomes.
January 15, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word tombac
emetic ipecac
January 15, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word tombac
Montserrat Caballé.
January 14, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word tombac
Portal tomcat.
January 14, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word lewth
Forsooth.
January 14, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word lenok
"Lenoks (otherwise known as Asiatic trout or Manchurian trout) are a genus, Brachymystax, of salmonid fishes native to rivers and lakes in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, wider Siberia (Russia), Northern China, and Korea."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lenok&oldid=853445221
January 10, 2019
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