“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."
I'm imagining the sitcom now. Equal parts Will & Grace, Cagney & Lacey, and Turner & Hooch, "Crime & Elly" is the story of Elly, a by-the-book manager at a coffee shop, who teams up with "Crime," a corgi who happens to be an undercover detective.
Two days ago, I went to a coffee shop. The guy at the cash register was trying to ring me up, but his computer screen kept giving him trouble. "Criminelly," he said.
I'd only ever heard it as criminently. I assume any variations come from criminy.
As with the Christmas tree, the evergreen tree itself, for Christians, "symbolizes the eternal life Jesus Christ provides". However, the Chrismon tree differs from the traditional Christmas tree in that it "is decorated only with clear lights and Chrismons made from white and gold material", the latter two being the liturgical colours of the Christmas season.
Wow. Bilby has some amazing reviews in the example sentences:
"The Bilby also serves as a cover for a restaurant highchair." -- Ten Tips for All Day Shopping with a Toddler | Thingamababy
"The Bilby slides on and off in seconds, without straps or snaps." -- Ten Tips for All Day Shopping with a Toddler | Thingamababy
"The back of the cover has a huge 2-foot opening for you attach the extra Bilby strap or the cart strap." -- Review: Bilby Shopping Cart Liner | Thingamababy
Do you know, I think gin is what led me to this old wordie site in the first place. See, I'd been at a pesto-making party with a bunch of former English professors, and they were trying to figure out the etymology for cotton gin. The hosts had a compact edition of the OED, but it's so hard to read those entries--even with the magnifying glass--so I was looking it up for them on my phone. It was probably yarb's comments on gin that made me think I wanted to read more here. But I forgot about the site for a while. Eventually I got fascinated by something else--peacock mantis shrimp probably--and someone over on Twitter who followed wordie and wordnik reminded me this place existed. When I came back, I found bilby's animal-identity-crisis list, &c., and the rest, as they say, was history.
"One who brings persons into a place or condition of restraint, in order to subject them to swindling, forced labor, or the like; especially, one who, for a commission, supplies recruits for the army or sailors for ships by nefarious means or false inducements; a decoy; a kidnapper. Such practices have been suppressed in the army and navy, and made highly penal in connection with merchant ships."
From the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English:
"n. One of a breed of fancy frilled pigeons allied to the owls and turbits, having the body white, the shoulders tricolored, and the tail bluish black with a large white spot on each feather."
Alloxan was used in the production of the purple dye murexide, discovered by Carl Wilhelm Scheele in 1776. Murexide is the product of the complex in-situ multistep reaction of alloxantin and gaseous ammonia. Murexide results from the condensation of the unisolated intermediate uramil with alloxan, liberated during the course of the reaction.
Scheele sourced uric acid from human calculi (such as kidney stones) and called the compound lithic acid. William Prout investigated the compound in 1818 and he used boa constrictor excrement with up to 90% ammonium acid urate.
In the chapter "Nitrogen" of his memoir The Periodic Table, Primo Levi tells of his futile attempt to make alloxan for a cosmetics manufacturer who has read that it can cause permanent reddening of the lips. Levi considers the droppings of pythons as a source for uric acid for making alloxan, but he is turned down by the director of the Turin zoo because the zoo already has lucrative contracts with pharmaceutical companies, so he is obliged to use chickens as his source of uric acid. The synthesis fails, however, "and the alloxan and its resonant name remained a resonant name."
I might have a lead on a guy who can loan me a pyrophone for the closing number. It's funny how you can just casually mention the name almost Solveig and people go out of their way.
I was at a local coffee shop's self-service station this morning--trying to decide whether to get dark roast, medium roast, or the flavor of the day. I hate having to choose, so I just got a bit of each. The person behind me in line said, "Wait. Is that like a suicide, but with coffee?" I laughed and said, "Yes!"
I don't remember when I first heard "suicide" as the term for combining all the soda pop options from a fountain machine--it's common enough. But it still kinda weirds me out.
Misnegation is an obscure word for a common phenomenon. You won’t find it in dictionaries, but you can probably figure out that it means some kind of ‘incorrect negation’ – not to be confused with double negatives (‘multiple negation’), criticism of which tends to be dubious.
So what exactly are we talking about here?
Misnegation is where we say something with negatives in it that don’t add up the way we intend. We lose track of the logic and reverse it inadvertently. For example, I might say that the likelihood of misnegation cannot be understated, when I mean it cannot be overstated – it is, in fact, easily understated.
n. The morbid state induced by the excessive ingestion of ergot, as from the use of spurred or ergoted rye as food. Spasmodic and gangrenous forms are distinguished.
“Based on the genetic analysis they've done so far, the Dalhousie team has determined that hemimastigotes are unique and different enough from other organisms to form their own "supra-kingdom" — a grouping so big that animals and fungi, which have their own kingdoms, are considered similar enough to be part of the same supra-kingdom.”
“Very early on a weekday, before the sun rose over the town of Aalsmeer, I stepped into Royal FloraHolland, the largest flower auction in the world.
FloraHolland (royal designates a firm that has been in business for more than 100 years) is a single building so large that the numbers describing it make no sense: It covers 1.3 million square meters, 320 acres, the area of 220 football fields. It is one unfathomably large room, but a gantry stretches across it at the level of a second story, for visitors to walk along without getting in the way of business. Suspended in the middle of the gantry is the auction itself, rooms of traders in bleacher seating, wearing headsets and stabbing keyboards, staring at wall-sized screens of flower lots while electronic clocks tick down.“
“Initially, the octopus survey was launched to try to answer a question that staff members got regularly at the Seattle Aquarium: How many giant Pacific octopuses live in the Puget Sound? It turns out it’s not an easy question to answer, since there isn’t a firm population number for giant Pacifics.
These octopuses normally live about three years. They eat a lot of crustaceans, mollusks, squid, fish and sometimes other species of octopus. They are so big that they only really have to watch out for extremely large fish, such as halibut and lingcod, and some marine mammals. But they hatch from an egg the size of a rice grain, so for more than a year after they’re born, they are at the mercy of a wide array of predators.”
When I was a kid, I used to listen to an album where Jean Ritchie sang "Children's Songs & Games from the Southern Mountains." One of the songs was about a bunch of farmyard animals--a horse that "goes neigh-neigh" and a sheep that "goes baa-baa" and a pig that "goes griffy-gruffy."
Maybe grumphie and griffy-gruffy aren't related, but I feel a little more at ease about why that pig wasn't just oinking.
"Counter-mapping refers to efforts to map "against dominant power structures, to further seemingly progressive goals". The term was coined by Nancy Peluso in 1995 to describe the commissioning of maps by forest users in Kalimantan, Indonesia, as a means of contesting state maps of forest areas that typically undermined indigenous interests. The resultant counter-hegemonic maps had the ability to strengthen forest users' resource claims."
"The equals sign or equality sign (=) is a mathematical symbol used to indicate equality. It was invented in 1557 by Robert Recorde. In an equation, the equals sign is placed between two (or more) expressions that have the same value."
"Narayana's cows is an integer sequence created by considering a cow, which begins to have one baby a year, beginning in its fourth year, and all its children do the same."
“A hat with three points or horns; a cocked hat having the brim folded upward against the crown on three sides, producing three angles; hence, by popular misapplication, the hat worn by the French gendarmes, which has only two points: usually written as French, tricorne. See cut 13 under hat.”
"An inselberg or monadnock (/məˈnædnɒk/) is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In southern and south-central Africa, a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, an Afrikaans word ("little head") from the Dutch word kopje. If the inselberg is dome-shaped and formed from granite or gneiss, it can also be called a bornhardt, though not all bornhardts are inselbergs."
"Brazil's vast inland cerrado region was regarded as unfit for farming before the 1960s because the soil was too acidic and poor in nutrients, according to Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug, an American plant scientist referred to as the father of the Green Revolution. However, from the 1960s, vast quantities of lime (pulverised chalk or limestone) were poured on the soil to reduce acidity. The effort went on and in the late 1990s between 14 million and 16 million tonnes of lime were being spread on Brazilian fields each year. The quantity rose to 25 million tonnes in 2003 and 2004, equalling around five tonnes of lime per hectare. As a result, Brazil has become the world's second biggest soybean exporter and, thanks to the boom in animal feed production, Brazil is now the biggest exporter of beef and poultry in the world."
"Minkowski is perhaps best known for his work in relativity, in which he showed in 1907 that his former student Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity (1905) could be understood geometrically as a theory of four-dimensional space–time, since known as the "Minkowski spacetime"."
"Louis Pasteur could rightly be described as the first stereochemist, having observed in 1842 that salts of tartaric acid collected from wine production vessels could rotate plane polarized light, but that salts from other sources did not. This property, the only physical property in which the two types of tartrate salts differed, is due to optical isomerism."
""We really don't understand what makes the human brain special," said Ed Lein, Ph.D., Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. "Studying the differences at the level of cells and circuits is a good place to start, and now we have new tools to do just that."
In a new study published today in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Lein and his colleagues reveal one possible answer to that difficult question. The research team, co-led by Lein and Gábor Tamás, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at the University of Szeged in Szeged, Hungary, has uncovered a new type of human brain cell that has never been seen in mice and other well-studied laboratory animals.
Tamás and University of Szeged doctoral student Eszter Boldog dubbed these new cells "rosehip neurons" -- to them, the dense bundle each brain cell's axon forms around the cell's center looks just like a rose after it has shed its petals, he said. The newly discovered cells belong to a class of neurons known as inhibitory neurons, which put the brakes on the activity of other neurons in the brain."
"Idiothetic literally means "self-proposition" (Greek derivation), and is used in navigation models (e.g., of a rat in a maze) to describe the use of self-motion cues, rather than allothetic, or external, cues such as landmarks, to determine position and movement."
"The equation of time describes the discrepancy between two kinds of solar time. The word equation is used in the medieval sense of "reconcile a difference". The two times that differ are the apparent solar time, which directly tracks the diurnal motion of the Sun, and mean solar time, which tracks a theoretical mean Sun with noons 24 hours apart."
"|Paul| McCartney's wife Linda said that he had become interested in avant-garde theatre and had immersed himself in the writings of Alfred Jarry. This influence is reflected in the story and tone of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", and also explains how McCartney came across Jarry's word "pataphysical", which occurs in the lyrics."
"Synonyms Accurate, Correct, Exact, Precise, Nice, careful, particular, true, faithful, strict, painstaking, unerring. Of these words correct is the feeblest; it is barely more than not faulty, as tested by some standard or rule. Accurate implies careful and successful endeavor to be correct: as, an accurate accountant, and, by extension of the meaning, accurate accounts; an accurate likeness. Exact is stronger, carrying the accuracy down to minute details: as, an exact likeness. It is more commonly used of things, while precise is used of persons: as, the exact truth; he is very precise in his ways. Precise may represent an excess of nicety, but exact and accurate rarely do so: as, she is prim and precise. As applied more specifically to the processes and results of thought and investigation, exact means absolutely true; accurate, up to a limited standard of truth; precise, as closely true as the utmost care will secure. Thus, the exact ratio of the circumference to the diameter cannot be stated, but the value 3.14159265 is accurate to eight places of decimals, which is sufficiently precise for the most refined measurements. Nice emphasizes the attention paid to minute and delicate points, often in a disparaging sense: as, he is more nice than wise."
"Chicken eyeglasses, also known as chickens specs, chicken goggles, generically as pick guards and under other names, were small eyeglasses made for chickens intended to prevent feather pecking and cannibalism. They differ from blinders as they allowed the bird to see forward whereas blinders do not. One variety used rose-colored lenses as the coloring was thought to prevent a chicken wearing them from recognizing blood on other chickens which may increase the tendency for abnormal injurious behavior."
"In the eastern United States, the shafts of mattocks are often fitted with a screw below the head and parallel with it to secure the head from slipping down the shaft, but in the western United States, where tools are more commonly dismantled for transport, this is rarely done. When made to be dismantled, the shaft of a mattock fits into the oval eye of the head, and is fixed by striking the head end of the shaft against a solid surface, such as a tree stump, rock, or firm ground. The head end of the shaft is tapered outwards, and the oval opening of the iron head is similarly tapered so that the head will not fly off when used. The mattock head ought never be raised higher than the user's hands, so that it will not slide down and hit the user's hands."
"In a knitting-machine, mechanism which travels on a bar called the slur-bar, and depresses the jack-sinkers in succession, sinking a loop of thread between every pair of needles."
"Elizabeth Fulhame (fl. 1794) was a Scottish chemist who invented the concept of catalysis and discovered photoreduction. She describes catalysis as a process at length in her 1794 book An Essay On Combustion with a View to a New Art of Dying and Painting, wherein the Phlogistic and Antiphlogistic Hypotheses are Proved Erroneous. The book relates in painstaking detail her experiments with oxidation-reduction reactions, and the conclusions she draws regarding Phlogiston theory, in which she disagrees with both the Phlogistians and Antiphlogistians."
"Culturally Eckstine was a fashion icon. He was famous for his "Mr. B. Collar"- a high roll collar that formed a "B" over a Windsor-knotted tie. The collars were worn by many a hipster in the late 1940s and early 1950s."
"At age 50, Dexter authored A Pickle for the Knowing Ones or Plain Truth in a Homespun Dress, in which he complained about politicians, the clergy, and his wife. The book contained 8,847 words and 33,864 letters, but without punctuation and seemingly random capitalization. Dexter initially handed his book out for free, but it became popular and was reprinted eight times. In the second edition, Dexter added an extra page which consisted of 13 lines of punctuation marks with the instructions that readers could distribute them as they pleased."
"n. A white clay pipe with the initials T. D. on the bowl. Said to be due to a legacy left by the eccentric “Lord” Timothy Dexter of Newburyport, Mass., in order to perpetuate his name. By extension, T. D. means clay pipe. Dialect Notes, III. iii."
"Catalyst poisoning refers to the partial or total deactivation of a catalyst. Poisoning is caused by chemical compounds. Although usually undesirable, poisoning may be helpful when it results in improved selectivity. For example, Lindlar's catalyst is poisoned so that it selectively catalyzes the reduction of alkynes. On the other hand Lead from leaded gasoline deactivates catalytic converters."
"In natural history, unstable; unfixed; hence, uncertain; unreliable: applied to characters which are not fixed or uniformly present, and therefore are valueless for scientific classification.
In entomology, tending to become obsolete in one part; fading out: as, antennal scrobes evanescent posteriorly."
"The black swallow-wort was recently spotted in the Grand Traverse County community of Kingsley, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported. The vine has heart-shaped leaves and small, dark purple flowers. The plant, which typically grows along roadsides, pastures and gardens, can choke out native vegetation and poison insects and wildlife."
"A pronic number is a number which is the product of two consecutive integers, that is, a number of the form n(n + 1). The study of these numbers dates back to Aristotle. They are also called oblong numbers, heteromecic numbers, or rectangular numbers; however, the "rectangular number" name has also been applied to the composite numbers."
I have a few of these over on my antonomasia list, but this one is better. In fact, I'd be willing to say that rolig is a regular rolig with these (to coin a phrase).
"Alfred Thaddeus Crane Pennyworth is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, most commonly in association with the superhero Batman.
"Pennyworth is depicted as Bruce Wayne's loyal and tireless butler, housekeeper, legal guardian, best friend, aide-de-camp, and surrogate father figure following the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne. As a classically trained British actor and an ex-Special Operations Executive operative of honor and ethics with connections within the intelligence community, he has been called "Batman's batman"."
"In American English, the original word for this seems to have been mantissa (Burks et al.), and this usage remains common in computing and among computer scientists. However, the term significand was introduced by George Forsythe and Cleve Moler in 1967, and the use of mantissa for this purpose is discouraged by the IEEE floating-point standard committee and by some professionals such as William Kahan and Donald Knuth, because it conflicts with the pre-existing use of mantissa for the fractional part of a logarithm (see also common logarithm). For instance, Knuth adopts the third representation 0.12345 × 10+3 in the example above and calls 0.12345 the fraction part of the number; he adds: "it is an abuse of terminology to call the fraction part a mantissa, since this concept has quite a different meaning in connection with logarithms".
The confusion is because scientific notation and floating-point representation are log-linear, not logarithmic. To multiply two numbers, given their logarithms, one just adds the characteristic (integer part) and the mantissa (fractional part). By contrast, to multiply two floating-point numbers, one adds the exponent (which is logarithmic) and multiplies the significand (which is linear)."
The significand (also mantissa or coefficient, sometimes also argument or fraction) is part of a number in scientific notation or a floating-point number, consisting of its significant digits. Depending on the interpretation of the exponent, the significand may represent an integer or a fraction. The word mantissa seems to have been introduced by Arthur Burks in 1946 writing for the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, although this use of the word is discouraged by the IEEE floating-point standard committee as well as some professionals such as the creator of the standard, William Kahan."
"An overline, overscore, or overbar, is a typographical feature of a horizontal line drawn immediately above the text. In mathematical notation, an overline has been used for a long time as a vinculum, a way of showing that certain symbols belong together. The original use in Ancient Greek was to indicate compositions of Greek letters as Greek numerals. In Latin it indicates Roman numerals multiplied by a thousand and it forms medieval abbreviations (sigla)."
I just noticed this definition from the Century: "In book-binding, to paste the end-papers and fly-leaves at the beginning and end of (a volume), before fitting it in its covers."
"In 1786, the German scientist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg described the advantages of basing a paper size on an aspect ratio of √2 in a letter to Johann Beckmann. The formats that became ISO paper sizes A2, A3, B3, B4, and B5 were developed in France. They were listed in a 1798 law on taxation of publications that was based in part on page sizes.
The main advantage of this system is its scaling. Rectangular paper with an aspect ratio of √2 has the unique property that, when cut or folded in half midway between its shorter sides, each half has the same √2 aspect ratio and half the area of the whole sheet before it was divided. Equivalently, if one lays two same-sized sheets paper with an aspect ratio of √2 side-by-side along their longer side, they form a larger rectangle with the aspect ratio of √2 and double the area of each individual sheet."
“As numbers go, the familiar real numbers — those found on the number line, like 1, π and -83.777 — just get things started. Real numbers can be paired up in a particular way to form “complex numbers,” first studied in 16th-century Italy, that behave like coordinates on a 2-D plane. Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing is like translating and rotating positions around the plane. Complex numbers, suitably paired, form 4-D “quaternions,” discovered in 1843 by the Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton, who on the spot ecstatically chiseled the formula into Dublin’s Broome Bridge. John Graves, a lawyer friend of Hamilton’s, subsequently showed that pairs of quaternions make octonions: numbers that define coordinates in an abstract 8-D space.”
When I talk with folks who've studied mathematics, they like to tell me how helpful induction is--but I've been confused, because it sounds much more like they're using deduction. Instead I've learned that they're actually talking about mathematical induction.
I'll just leave this here for the next time I need to remember which is which:
"For the history of the name "mathematical induction", see
•Florian Cajori, Origin of the Name "Mathematical Induction" (1918):
The process of reasoning called "mathematical induction" has had several independent origins. It has been traced back to the Swiss Jakob (James) Bernoulli |Opera, Tomus I, Genevae, MDCCXLIV, p. 282, reprinted from Acta eruditorum, Lips., 1686, p. 360. See also Jakob Bernoulli's Ars conjectandi, 1713, p. 95|, the Frenchmen B.Pascal |OEuvres completes de Blaise Pascal, Vol. 3, Paris, 1866, p. 248| and P.Fermat |Charles S Peirce in the Century Dictionary, Art."Induction," and in the Monist, Vol. 2, 1892, pp. 539, 545; Peirce called mathematical induction the "Fermatian inference"|, and the Italian F.Maurolycus |G.Vacca, Bulletin Am. Math. Soc., Vol. 16, 1909, pp. 70-73|."
"As 17 is a Fermat prime, the regular heptadecagon is a constructible polygon (that is, one that can be constructed using a compass and unmarked straightedge): this was shown by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1796 at the age of 19."
From the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English:
"A supposed collection of particles of very subtile matter, endowed with a rapid rotary motion around an axis which was also the axis of a sun or a planet. Descartes attempted to account for the formation of the universe, and the movements of the bodies composing it, by a theory of vortices."
And from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia:
"In the Cartesian philosophy, a collection of material particles, forming a fluid or ether, endowed with a rapid rotatory motion about an axis, and filling all space, by which Descartes accounted for the motions of the universe. This theory attracted much attention at one time, but is now entirely discredited."
"According to Bergman and Hausknecht (1996): "There is no generally accepted word for a set with a not necessarily associative binary operation. The word groupoid is used by many universal algebraists, but workers in category theory and related areas object strongly to this usage because they use the same word to mean 'category in which all morphisms are invertible'. The term magma was used by Serre |Lie Algebras and Lie Groups, 1965|." It also appears in Bourbaki's Éléments de mathématique, Algèbre, chapitres 1 à 3, 1970."
"Heliox generates less airway resistance than air and thereby requires less mechanical energy to ventilate the lungs. "Work of Breathing" (WOB) is reduced. It does this by two mechanisms:
"In botany, a name applied by Richard to a second small cotyledon which is found in wheat and some other grasses.
In embryology, the outer or external blastodermic membrane or layer of cells, forming the ectoderm or epiderm: distinguished at first from hypoblast, then from both hypoblast and mesoblast. See cut under blastocæle."
"While reading Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac's edition of Diophantus' Arithmetica, Pierre de Fermat concluded that a certain equation considered by Diophantus had no solutions, and noted in the margin without elaboration that he had found "a truly marvelous proof of this proposition," now referred to as Fermat's Last Theorem. This led to tremendous advances in number theory, and the study of Diophantine equations ("Diophantine geometry") and of Diophantine approximations remain important areas of mathematical research."
"Euler's work touched upon so many fields that he is often the earliest written reference on a given matter. In an effort to avoid naming everything after Euler, some discoveries and theorems are attributed to the first person to have proved them after Euler."
"A significant note, character, sign, token, or indication; a determinative attestation. In logic, to say that a thing has a certain mark is to say that something in particular is true of it. Thus, according to a certain school of metaphysicians, “incognizability is a mark of the Infinite.”"
But, to my shame and horror, I just realized that bilby must have already added foredeck to this list ages ago. I'll still keep searching for fore words, though.
"An iron bar bent at right angles at one end, used in the operation of puddling for stirring the melted iron, so as to allow it to be more fully exposed to the action of the air and the lining of the furnace."
"The first vending machine was also one of his constructions; when a coin was introduced via a slot on the top of the machine, a set amount of holy water was dispensed. This was included in his list of inventions in his book Mechanics and Optics. When the coin was deposited, it fell upon a pan attached to a lever. The lever opened up a valve which let some water flow out. The pan continued to tilt with the weight of the coin until it fell off, at which point a counter-weight would snap the lever back up and turn off the valve."
"In a poem by Ausonius in the 4th century AD, he mentions a stone-cutting saw powered by water. Hero of Alexandria is credited with many such wind and steam powered machines in the 1st century AD, including the Aeolipile and the vending machine, often these machines were associated with worship, such as animated altars and automated temple doors."
"Coordination complexes have been known since the beginning of modern chemistry. Early well-known coordination complexes include dyes such as Prussian blue. Their properties were first well understood in the late 1800s, following the 1869 work of Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand."
"In chemistry, a coordination complex consists of a central atom or ion, which is usually metallic and is called the coordination centre, and a surrounding array of bound molecules or ions, that are in turn known as ligands or complexing agents."
"Tartaric acid may be most immediately recognizable to wine drinkers as the source of "wine diamonds", the small potassium bitartrate crystals that sometimes form spontaneously on the cork or bottom of the bottle. These "tartrates" are harmless, despite sometimes being mistaken for broken glass, and are prevented in many wines through cold stabilization (which is not always preferred since it can change the wine's profile). The tartrates remaining on the inside of aging barrels were at one time a major industrial source of potassium bitartrate."
"A limit situation (German: Grenzsituation) is any of certain situations in which a human being is said to have differing experiences from those arising from ordinary situations.
The concept was developed by Karl Jaspers, who considered fright, guilt, finality and suffering as some of the key limit situations arising in everyday life."
I have a friend who's reading Plutarch and told me she's been thinking about virtue. We were talking about indulgences and Martin Luther. Then I was reading a Wikipedia article about criticism, which led to critical thinking, then sapere aude, then limit-experience, then limit situation, then antinomianism, and I was right back to faith and good works.
"Fincke was born in Flensburg, Schleswig and died in Copenhagen. His lasting achievement is found in his book Geometria rotundi (1583), in which he introduced the modern names of the trigonometric functions tangent and secant."
"A bone in the human body which the Rabbinical writers affirmed to be indestructible, and which is variously said to have been one of the lumbar vertebræ, the sacrum, the coccyx, a sesamoid bone of the great toe, or one of the triquetrous or Wormian bones of the cranium."
““Trojan-horsing” is a term beloved among show creators, who believe that network executives want a dab of originality, but mostly for marketing purposes. When Jenji Kohan explained to NPR why she’d created the prison show “Orange Is the New Black” around the character of Piper, an attractive, upper-middle-class white woman, she said, “Piper was my Trojan horse. You’re not going to go into a network and sell a show on really fascinating tales of black women and Latina women and old women and criminals.””
"In machinery, a gearwheel of which the teeth are so formed that they are acted on and the wheel is made to revolve by a worm or shaft on which a spiral is turned—that is, by an endless screw. See cuts under Hindley's screw (at screw), steam-engine, and odometer."
"In grammar, pertaining to or expressing an attribute; used (as a word) in direct description without predication: as, a bad pen, a burning house, a ruined man."
"An Italian oil-measure, equal in Lucca and Modena to 26⅜ United States (old wine) gallons: but in the Lombardo-Venetian system of 1803 tho coppo or cappo was precisely a deciliter."
I just read Peggy Guggenheim's Confessions of an Art Addict, which reminded me of De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, so forgive me if I get stuck in that vein (as it were).
"The issues — which would ultimately claim ten lives — turned out to be the result of a rare phenomenon known as “thunderstorm asthma.” Though still not fully understood, the weather event is thought to occur due to the spread of pollen and mold that gets swept into the high humidity of the clouds, broken into smaller particles, and rained back down. For a person with asthma — whose airways are chronically inflamed — the spread of these particles can set off an attack."
Man. That GNU Webster's definition is something I'd have expected from the Century: "The anguish, like gnawing pain, excited by a sense of guilt; compunction of conscience for a crime committed, or for the sins of one's past life."
“Richard Bernstein is the medical director of the Comprehensive Stroke Center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, and delivers his expertise to me in the patient-if-slightly brusque tone to which I am accustomed in every doctor I speak to. On a hunch I asked him if “beauty parlor stroke syndrome” is a real medical term, and he said no — getting one’s hair washed is merely one possibility in a range of options that cause the actual medical condition properly known as “vertebral artery dissection from hyperextension of the neck,” a considerably less grabby, though ultimately scarier name. What seems to happen is that certain movements of or pressures on the neck can result in a flap-like tear in the vertebral artery, which supplies blood to the brain. From there blood enters (and thereby thickens) the arterial wall, which can cause a blood clot, impeding blood flow and potentially causing a stroke.”
"All around |Walter| Cannon, theorists were thrilling to the idea of self-righting systems, resistant to the buffeting forces of change. The English botanist Arthur Tansley coined the word “ecosystem” in 1935; the maintenance of stability would soon be described as one of the cardinal properties of ecologies. Soon economists were relating homeostasis to self-correcting markets; Norbert Wiener, the mathematician, saw that machines and creatures might be governed by autonomous control systems stabilized by “feedback” loops. Cells, cities, societies, even political institutions—all had the capacity to steady their states through the actions of self-regulated and counterpoised forces."
"In the late nineteen-twenties, the physiologist Walter Cannon coined the term “homeostasis”—joining together the Greek homoios (similar) and stasis (stillness). The capacity to sustain internal constancy was an essential feature of an organism, he argued."
"Of course, you might dismiss my suspicions as no more than the vivid imagination of a writer, and that’s certainly possible, because an occupational hazard of reading and writing about crime is spotting possible criminal enterprise everywhere and in everyone. To be a writer is to be curious, or to use Pittsburgh parlance, a nebnose."
"|Robert| Proctor had found that the cigarette industry did not want consumers to know the harms of its product, and it spent billions obscuring the facts of the health effects of smoking. This search led him to create a word for the study of deliberate propagation of ignorance: agnotology.
It comes from agnosis, the neoclassical Greek word for ignorance or ‘not knowing’, and ontology, the branch of metaphysics which deals with the nature of being. Agnotology is the study of wilful acts to spread confusion and deceit, usually to sell a product or win favour."
"Rod Bray of developers Northbridge Properties told Newshub that the culprits were probably trying to cut their own demolition costs by fly-tipping the house.
"The options are either pay to have it demolished, or you dump it somewhere else and make it someone else's problem," he said, pointing out that it would cost his company over NZ$20,000 ($13,800; £10,300) to remove it."
"Earthquake Baroque is a style of Baroque architecture found in the Philippines, which suffered destructive earthquakes during the 17th century and 18th century, where large public buildings, such as churches, were rebuilt in a Baroque style. Similar events led to the Pombaline architecture in Lisbon following the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and Sicilian Baroque in Sicily following the 1693 earthquake."
"The exhibition’s title suggests an agon — Overlook: Teresita Fernández Confronts Frederic Church at Olana. Fernández admits that’s the intention in a promotional video where she addresses the viewer, relating that she “wanted to create a somewhat confrontational and immersive experience” that would reinsert the “cultural component that’s always erased.”"
"Beginning in the mid-1960s, investigators recognized that many HSPs function as molecular chaperones and thus play a critical role in protein folding, intracellular trafficking of proteins, and coping with proteins denatured by heat and other stresses."
The usage examples for this suggest something quite different: "The so-called phene, or lammergeier, is fond of its young, provides its food with ease, fetches food to its nest, and is of a kindly disposition. (The History of Animals)"
"The physician reading this mysterious letter was no ordinary doctor. He was the Honorable Gustav Scholer, head Coroner for the city of New York, and one of the era’s leading alienists—an arcane term for specialists who studied the mental pathology of those deemed “alienated” from society."
-- "Peek Inside the Grisly, Salacious Case Files of NYC’s Head Coroner in the Early 1900s"
"Of course, if a piano and a violin play the same high C at the exact same volume, there is still some quality that feels different between the two notes. It turns out that pure tones do not occur naturally, and when a piano or violin produces a high C, the sound wave is made up of a specific combination of different pure tones. The different amplitudes and frequencies have nice relationships with one another, which is why you hear a specific note rather than a mess of clashing noises, but the single pitch you hear does not correspond to a single frequency. The hard-to-define quality of sound that allows you to identify what instrument you’re listening to is determined by the exact combination of pure tones. When different instruments all play at the same time, the various pure tones add together to create the music you hear.
"So what do pure tones have to do with the groove on a record being able to tell David Bowie and Nina Simone apart? It turns out that any curve can be written in exactly one way as a combination of curves with uniform amplitude and frequency. In other words, the single squiggle captured in the groove of a record player can be written as a combination of pure tones. And there is only one combination that will produce any particular squiggle. The tool that makes this possible comes from mathematics and is called the Fourier transform. Combined with the fact that the sound we experience is determined by the exact combination of pure tones, this bit of mathematics explains how the vinyl record groove can completely determine the music you hear."
Heck yeah, it's interesting. I've been trying to figure out how to collect and grind my own pigments (mostly for paper marbling on alum-mordanted paper, but it's fun no matter what).
"Proteins were recognized as a distinct class of biological molecules in the eighteenth century by Antoine Fourcroy and others, distinguished by the molecules' ability to coagulate or flocculate under treatments with heat or acid. Noted examples at the time included albumin from egg whites, blood serum albumin, fibrin, and wheat gluten.
"Proteins were first described by the Dutch chemist Gerardus Johannes Mulder and named by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1838. Mulder carried out elemental analysis of common proteins and found that nearly all proteins had the same empirical formula, C400H620N100O120P1S1. He came to the erroneous conclusion that they might be composed of a single type of (very large) molecule. The term "protein" to describe these molecules was proposed by Mulder's associate Berzelius; protein is derived from the Greek word πρώτειος (proteios), meaning "primary", "in the lead", or "standing in front", + -in."
"Linnaeus' remains comprise the type specimen for the species Homo sapiens, following the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, since the sole specimen he is known to have examined when writing the species description was himself."
"The concept of avian milk (Ancient Greek: ὀρνίθων γάλα, ornithon gala) stretches back to ancient Greece. Aristophanes uses "the milk of the birds" in the plays The Birds and The Wasps as a proverbial rarity. The expression is also found in Strabo's Geographica where the island of Samos is described as a blest country to which those who praise it do not hesitate to apply the proverb that "it produces even bird's milk" (φέρει καί ὀρνίθων γάλα). A similar expression lac gallinaceum (Latin for "chicken's milk") was also later used by Petronius (38.1) and Pliny the Elder (Plin. Nat. pr. 24) as a term for a great rarity. The idiom became later common in many languages and appeared in Slavic folk tales. In one such tale the beautiful princess tests the ardor and resourcefulness of her suitor by sending him out into the wilderness to find and bring back the one fantastical luxury she does not have: bird's milk. In the fairy tale Little Hare by Aleksey Remizov (who wrote many imitations of traditional Slavic folk tales) the magic bird Gagana produces milk."
"A genus of parmeliaceous lichens having a fruticulose or pendulous thallus, and apothecia with a concave disk of a color different from that of the thallus. Evernia Prunastri is used for dyeing, and was formerly used, ground down with starch, for hair-powder."
I like this part from the Century: "In printing, one of a number of pieces of wood or metal, channeled in the center with a groove or gutter, used to separate the pages of type in a form. Also gutter-stick."
"Sea silk sounds like the stuff of legend. Harvested from rare clams, this thread flashes gold in the sunlight, weighs almost nothing, and comes with a heavy load of misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and misinformation. But the fiber itself is no myth. Its flaxen strands come from Pinna nobilis, or the pen shell, a giant Mediterranean mollusk that measures up to a yard in length. To attach themselves to rocks or the seafloor, some clams secrete proteins that, upon contact with seawater, harden into a silky filament called byssus. The byssus of the pen shell makes sea silk, the world’s rarest thread."
"As human settlements expand across the earth’s surface, conflicts with wildlife are increasing. According to a review in the journal Animal Conservation, this represents “one of the most widespread and intractable issues facing |conservationists| today.” Researchers have been paying closer attention to these clashes: The number of scientific articles published annually about human-wildlife conflict (ranging from grain theft by rodents to farmers being trampled by elephants) increased from zero to more than 700 between 1995 and 2015, as indexed by Google Scholar. There have even been calls to coin an entire new discipline for studying the issue: anthrotherology, combining the Greek words for human (anthropos) and wild animal (ther). To understand the anthrotherologist’s dilemma, look to other countries’ parallels, like Japan’s wild hog problem or, closer to home, many national parks’ issues with bears."
So I was just doing a bit of Wiki-ing and found this: "In addition, polyploidy occurs in some tissues of animals that are otherwise diploid, such as human muscle tissues. This is known as endopolyploidy."
"In the 1950s, Philip Anderson, a physicist at Bell Laboratories, discovered a strange phenomenon. In some situations where it seems as though waves should advance freely, they just stop — like a tsunami halting in the middle of the ocean.
Anderson won the 1977 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of what is now called Anderson localization, a term that refers to waves that stay in some “local” region rather than propagating the way you’d expect. He studied the phenomenon in the context of electrons moving through impure materials (electrons behave as both particles and waves), but under certain circumstances it can happen with other types of waves as well."
"The researchers focused on a small amphipathic compound known as guaiacol. This molecule is linked with the smoky taste that develops when malted barley is smoked on peat fires, and is far more common in Scottish whiskies than in American or Irish ones, the researchers said."
"The biggest limitation to this research may be the definition of swaddling itself. The authors of the study acknowledge one of the “several” limitations to their meta-analysis is the fact that none of the studies they reviewed clearly outlined what constitutes a swaddle. And besides that, as anyone who has tried to swaddle a baby can confirm, good swaddling takes practice. Many parents, for fear of too tightly wrapping their babies, end up swaddling too loosely, which is itself a suffocation hazard. (Some daycare centers in the United States don’t allow swaddling for this reason.)"
"The term "sousveillance", coined by Steve Mann, stems from the contrasting French words sur, meaning "above", and sous, meaning "below", i.e. "surveillance" denotes the "eye-in-the-sky" watching from above, whereas "sousveillance" denotes bringing the camera or other means of observation down to human level, either physically (mounting cameras on people rather than on buildings), or hierarchically (ordinary people doing the watching, rather than higher authorities or architectures doing the watching)."
"In music of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras, a bicinium (pl. bicinia) was a composition for only two parts, especially one for the purpose of teaching counterpoint or singing."
"Nutation and counternutation refer to movement of the sacrum defined by the rotation of the promontory downwards and anteriorly, as with lumbar extension (nutation); or upwards and posteriorly, as with lumbar flexion (counternutation)."
"Few neuroscientists still believe in an immaterial soul. Yet many follow Descartes in claiming that conscious experience involves awareness of a ‘thinking thing’: the self. There is an emerging consensus that such self-awareness is actually a form of bodily awareness, produced (at least in part) by interoception, our ability to monitor and detect autonomic and visceral processes. For example, the feeling of an elevated heart rate can provide information to the embodied organism that it is in a dangerous or difficult situation."
"As the name suggests, the original function of a millwright was the construction of flour mills, sawmills, paper mills and fulling mills powered by water or wind, mostly of wood with a limited number of metal parts. Since both of these structures originated from antiquity, millwrighting could be considered, arguably, as one of the oldest engineering trades and the forerunner of the modern mechanical engineer.
In modern usage, a millwright is engaged with the erection of machinery. This includes such tasks as leveling, aligning and installing machinery on foundations or base plates and setting, leveling and aligning electric motors or other power sources such as turbines with the equipment, which millwrights typically connect with some type of coupling."
"A bit of calm doesn’t sound so bad, but the sedative dose of bromide is too near bromide’s toxicity level. Plus, bromide can accumulate in our bodies. Back in the 1930s-1950s, overuse of bromide products led to appropriately named medical conditions. Bromide-induced coma was dubbed ‘the bromide sleep’. General bromide toxicity was ‘bromism’. Outside medicine, if you were just a bit of a bore you were insultingly called a ‘bromide’."
"Brominated vegetable oil, called BVO for short, is made by adding bromine across the double bonds of certain fatty acids in vegetable oil, usually soybean oil. Like plain vegetable oil, BVO does a good job of dissolving water-insoluble food flavour, fragrance and colouring agents, serving as a carrier for these agents in soft drinks, which are mostly water. Neither plain vegetable oil or BVO is water soluble, but we can make oil/water emulsions, dispersing tiny droplets of flavour-carrying oil throughout a soda solution.
"But why use BVO when plain ol’ vegetable oil could work? Density. Over time, gravity does its job and the emulsion breaks down, causing the oil and water to separate. If a plain vegetable oil is used, the oil fraction – which contains those all-important flavouring agents – would float to the top. Food scientists call this ‘creaming’."
"On the occasion of receiving his degree in 1536, Ramus allegedly took as his thesis Quaecumque ab Aristotele dicta essent, commentitia esse, which Walter J. Ong paraphrases as follows: 'All the things that Aristotle has said are inconsistent because they are poorly systematized and can be called to mind only by the use of arbitrary mnemonic devices.'"
"One of the most significant changes between the original and the second version of the Art was in the visuals used. The early version used 16 figures presented as complex, complementary trees, while the system of the Ars Magna featured only four, including one which combined the other three. This figure, a "Lullian Circle," took the form of a paper machine operated by rotating concentrically arranged circles to combine his symbolic alphabet, which was repeated on each level. These combinations were said to show all possible truth about the subject of inquiry."
"Leibniz’s broader vision of the power of logical calculation was inspired by many thinkers — from the logical works of Aristotle and Ramus to Thomas Hobbes’s proposal to equate reasoning with computation. But Leibniz’s curiosity around the art of combinations per se was sparked by a group called the “Herborn Encyclopaedists” through whom he became acquainted with the works of Ramon Llull, a Majorcan philosopher, logician, and mystical thinker who is thought to have died seven centuries ago this year. Llull’s Ars magna (or “ultimate general art”) from 1308 outlines a form of analysis and argumentation based on working with different permutations of a small number of fundamental attributes."
Wikipedia says "the term elephant test refers to situations in which an idea or thing, 'is hard to describe, but instantly recognizable when spotted'."
"And sometimes your gut distress isn’t caused by a germ at all. It could be an overdose of fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols, known in public health circles as Fodmaps. These are essentially carbohydrates that, eaten in excess, are not well absorbed in the small intestine and then make their way into your colon to cause all kinds of trouble. They include myriad things we’re encouraged to eat including broccoli, brussels sprouts, radicchio, asparagus, avocados, mushrooms, peaches, whole grains and legumes."
Comments by ruzuzu
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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
ruzuzu commented on the word mellophone
Dude.
January 10, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word almost Solveig
Anyone have a mellophone I can borrow?
January 10, 2019
ruzuzu commented on the word Buzzbyfeed
See Ten.
December 28, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Ten
Thank you, Buzzbyfeed.
December 28, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Ten
Brackets around Buzzbyfeed, please.
December 27, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word criminelly
I'm imagining the sitcom now. Equal parts Will & Grace, Cagney & Lacey, and Turner & Hooch, "Crime & Elly" is the story of Elly, a by-the-book manager at a coffee shop, who teams up with "Crime," a corgi who happens to be an undercover detective.
December 26, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word criminelly
One of the managers came over and fixed it--it'd be great if her name were Nelly.
December 26, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word criminelly
Two days ago, I went to a coffee shop. The guy at the cash register was trying to ring me up, but his computer screen kept giving him trouble. "Criminelly," he said.
I'd only ever heard it as criminently. I assume any variations come from criminy.
December 26, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Chrismon tree
I'm not sure. Perhaps someone should fund a research trip for me.
December 20, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Chrismon tree
"A Chrismon tree is an evergreen tree often found in the chancel or nave of a church during Advent and Christmastide."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chrismon_tree&oldid=871803470
December 20, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Chrismon
-- From https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chrismon_tree&oldid=871803470 (footnote references removed)
December 20, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Bilby
Wow. Bilby has some amazing reviews in the example sentences:
"The Bilby also serves as a cover for a restaurant highchair." -- Ten Tips for All Day Shopping with a Toddler | Thingamababy
"The Bilby slides on and off in seconds, without straps or snaps." -- Ten Tips for All Day Shopping with a Toddler | Thingamababy
"The back of the cover has a huge 2-foot opening for you attach the extra Bilby strap or the cart strap." -- Review: Bilby Shopping Cart Liner | Thingamababy
December 19, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list thank-you-for-being-eponymous
This is the Best list.
December 18, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word mammillated
I love that the reverse dictionary options for this are Lachesis and mammillated.
December 18, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word pesto-making gin rambler
Haha! I know it *seems* like I'd seen a bit of gin before I wrote that, but it was just cold medicine, I swear.
Also, I love this site and everyone here. For real.
December 18, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word cornel cherry
See cornel. Also see citation on sloe.
December 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word saw-gin
Also, I was just scrolling past this word again and read it as "slaw-gin" (like sloe gin, maybe).
December 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list in-cookery
No bears were harmed in the making of this list.
December 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word saw-gin
Do you know, I think gin is what led me to this old wordie site in the first place. See, I'd been at a pesto-making party with a bunch of former English professors, and they were trying to figure out the etymology for cotton gin. The hosts had a compact edition of the OED, but it's so hard to read those entries--even with the magnifying glass--so I was looking it up for them on my phone. It was probably yarb's comments on gin that made me think I wanted to read more here. But I forgot about the site for a while. Eventually I got fascinated by something else--peacock mantis shrimp probably--and someone over on Twitter who followed wordie and wordnik reminded me this place existed. When I came back, I found bilby's animal-identity-crisis list, &c., and the rest, as they say, was history.
December 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word mixer
"Specifically, a machine for mixing various substances. See malaxator."
--from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
December 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word preditor
I wonder whether Predator had a preditor.
December 14, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Boops boops
See bogue.
December 13, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word crimp
"One who brings persons into a place or condition of restraint, in order to subject them to swindling, forced labor, or the like; especially, one who, for a commission, supplies recruits for the army or sailors for ships by nefarious means or false inducements; a decoy; a kidnapper. Such practices have been suppressed in the army and navy, and made highly penal in connection with merchant ships."
-- From The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
December 13, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word ci-devant
The words found under "same context" are fantastic:
67-year-old
abstinent
arvernian
be-ribboned
chid
crutched
curmudgeonly
ever-popular
ever-youthful
gray-uniformed
moire
n'est-ce
natural-born
nursemaid
pro-german
rebuffingthe
shrivelled-up
unfrocked
vivant
yellow-bearded
your
December 13, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word iroquoisy
So, cake, obviously. But also Witter Bynner, who appears in the index of a book I've been reading--even though he's nowhere in the text--and who apparently wrote a play called Cake as revenge against Mabel Dodge Luhan. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Witter_Bynner&oldid=867008750)
December 11, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word cake
Yum! In Latvian, the word for cake sounds a bit like "kooks."
December 11, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word finska kakor
Delightful! I accept.
Should we make a party? I could probably whip up some fufluns.
December 11, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word cake
"From Middle English cake, from Old Norse kaka ("cake") . . . ."
Remind me to think twice before I call something a "piece of cake."
December 11, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word finska kakor
All these pepparkakors and finska kakors and shortcakes and piparkūkas have me wondering (yet again) about the etymology for cake.
December 11, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word finska kakor
My ancient Betty Crocker cookbook calls these "Nut-studded butter strips from Finland."
December 11, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word incult
Ooh, bilby bilby, it's a wild world.
December 11, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list cookie-monster
Oh! I wonder whether they're like Latvian piparkūkas.
December 11, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list against-nature
Wait. So is it like a cowcatcher? (Add it if you like--it's an open list.)
December 7, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word zambomba
R'amen.
December 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word zambomba
*curtseys*
December 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word catadromous
She probably got catfished.
December 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word zambomba
Thanks, bilby. It was you're something of a hotdog, aren't you (as originally seen in one of dontcry's comments over on spaghetti).
December 4, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word haha
Also see ha-ha.
December 4, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word satinette
From the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English:
"n. One of a breed of fancy frilled pigeons allied to the owls and turbits, having the body white, the shoulders tricolored, and the tail bluish black with a large white spot on each feather."
December 3, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word alloxan
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alloxan&oldid=822802116
November 30, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word murexide
For more, see alloxan.
November 30, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word spaghett
I find myself at quite a loss
To decide upon this evening’s sauce.
What goes with spaghett?
Is it just mignonette?
Perhaps I’ll decide by coin toss.
November 29, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word spaghetti
Cf. spaghett.
November 29, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word spaghett
This "noodle" is vaguely spaghetty,
Though my soup should have been alphabetty.
That cook in the back
Looks a bit like yak--
Perhaps this stray hair's from a yeti.
November 29, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word ibex dearie
I might have a lead on a guy who can loan me a pyrophone for the closing number. It's funny how you can just casually mention the name almost Solveig and people go out of their way.
November 29, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word suicide
I was at a local coffee shop's self-service station this morning--trying to decide whether to get dark roast, medium roast, or the flavor of the day. I hate having to choose, so I just got a bit of each. The person behind me in line said, "Wait. Is that like a suicide, but with coffee?" I laughed and said, "Yes!"
I don't remember when I first heard "suicide" as the term for combining all the soda pop options from a fountain machine--it's common enough. But it still kinda weirds me out.
November 29, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word metempsychotic fit
Didn't ibex dearie sing "Peel Me A Grape"?
November 26, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word apoplexy
There ought. There's afflictions-of-the-realm and lots of old pharmacy terms formerly-used-in-medicine, but I still nominate you to create a more specific one for our amusement.
November 26, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word pandowdy
Good one, qms. Yeehaw!
November 23, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the user MaryW
Your citations are inspiring. I’ve been lazy about using the blockquote HTML tag—but no more! Thank you for your precision and dedication.
November 23, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word misnegation
— https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2018/11/19/misnegation-should-not-be-overestimated-i-mean-underestimated/amp
November 23, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word yea
This must be the yea of yea-high. Yeah?
November 20, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list anything-but-standard-international
Nice! (I found this list as I was searching for yea-high.)
November 20, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word ergotism
From The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia:
"n. The spur of rye; ergot.
n. The morbid state induced by the excessive ingestion of ergot, as from the use of spurred or ergoted rye as food. Spasmodic and gangrenous forms are distinguished.
n. A logical inference; a conclusion.
n. Logical reasoning; ratiocination."
November 20, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word supra-kingdom
See citation on hemimastigote.
November 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word hemimastigote
“Based on the genetic analysis they've done so far, the Dalhousie team has determined that hemimastigotes are unique and different enough from other organisms to form their own "supra-kingdom" — a grouping so big that animals and fungi, which have their own kingdoms, are considered similar enough to be part of the same supra-kingdom.”
—“Rare microbes lead scientists to discover new branch on the tree of life” https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/hemimastigotes-supra-kingdom-1.4715823
November 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word readd
Here’s one: correctly-spelled-words-that-look-like-misspellings-of-other-words
November 16, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word gantry
“Very early on a weekday, before the sun rose over the town of Aalsmeer, I stepped into Royal FloraHolland, the largest flower auction in the world.
FloraHolland (royal designates a firm that has been in business for more than 100 years) is a single building so large that the numbers describing it make no sense: It covers 1.3 million square meters, 320 acres, the area of 220 football fields. It is one unfathomably large room, but a gantry stretches across it at the level of a second story, for visitors to walk along without getting in the way of business. Suspended in the middle of the gantry is the auction itself, rooms of traders in bleacher seating, wearing headsets and stabbing keyboards, staring at wall-sized screens of flower lots while electronic clocks tick down.“
—“Killer Tulips Hiding in Plain Sight” The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/11/when-tulips-kill/574489/
November 16, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list swim-bladder
My new favorite list.
November 13, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word lingcod
Lovely, qms! If I had at least three more sets of tentacle-y appendages, I'd be clapping them all together right now!
November 13, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word giant Pacific octopus
See citation on lingcod.
November 12, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word lingcod
“Initially, the octopus survey was launched to try to answer a question that staff members got regularly at the Seattle Aquarium: How many giant Pacific octopuses live in the Puget Sound? It turns out it’s not an easy question to answer, since there isn’t a firm population number for giant Pacifics.
These octopuses normally live about three years. They eat a lot of crustaceans, mollusks, squid, fish and sometimes other species of octopus. They are so big that they only really have to watch out for extremely large fish, such as halibut and lingcod, and some marine mammals. But they hatch from an egg the size of a rice grain, so for more than a year after they’re born, they are at the mercy of a wide array of predators.”
— https://www.citylab.com/environment/2018/11/giant-pacific-octopus-survey-puget-sound-seattle-aquarium/574408/
November 12, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word touch wood
Cf. touchwood.
November 6, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word grumphie
When I was a kid, I used to listen to an album where Jean Ritchie sang "Children's Songs & Games from the Southern Mountains." One of the songs was about a bunch of farmyard animals--a horse that "goes neigh-neigh" and a sheep that "goes baa-baa" and a pig that "goes griffy-gruffy."
Maybe grumphie and griffy-gruffy aren't related, but I feel a little more at ease about why that pig wasn't just oinking.
November 6, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word counter-mapping
"Counter-mapping refers to efforts to map "against dominant power structures, to further seemingly progressive goals". The term was coined by Nancy Peluso in 1995 to describe the commissioning of maps by forest users in Kalimantan, Indonesia, as a means of contesting state maps of forest areas that typically undermined indigenous interests. The resultant counter-hegemonic maps had the ability to strengthen forest users' resource claims."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Counter-mapping&oldid=863668724 (footnote references removed)
November 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word equals sign
"The equals sign or equality sign (=) is a mathematical symbol used to indicate equality. It was invented in 1557 by Robert Recorde. In an equation, the equals sign is placed between two (or more) expressions that have the same value."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Equals_sign&oldid=865723782
November 1, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Narayana's cows
"Narayana's cows is an integer sequence created by considering a cow, which begins to have one baby a year, beginning in its fourth year, and all its children do the same."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Narayana_Pandita&oldid=860912535
October 30, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word tricorn
“A hat with three points or horns; a cocked hat having the brim folded upward against the crown on three sides, producing three angles; hence, by popular misapplication, the hat worn by the French gendarmes, which has only two points: usually written as French, tricorne. See cut 13 under hat.”
— from The Century Dictionary
October 29, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word NASA Thesaurus
So cool--thanks for sharing this, alexz!
October 29, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list stars--1
Oh, gold star for that one, TankHughes!
October 29, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word bornhardt
See citation on inselberg.
October 29, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word inselberg
"An inselberg or monadnock (/məˈnædnɒk/) is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In southern and south-central Africa, a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, an Afrikaans word ("little head") from the Dutch word kopje. If the inselberg is dome-shaped and formed from granite or gneiss, it can also be called a bornhardt, though not all bornhardts are inselbergs."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Inselberg&oldid=854724700
October 29, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word lime
"Brazil's vast inland cerrado region was regarded as unfit for farming before the 1960s because the soil was too acidic and poor in nutrients, according to Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug, an American plant scientist referred to as the father of the Green Revolution. However, from the 1960s, vast quantities of lime (pulverised chalk or limestone) were poured on the soil to reduce acidity. The effort went on and in the late 1990s between 14 million and 16 million tonnes of lime were being spread on Brazilian fields each year. The quantity rose to 25 million tonnes in 2003 and 2004, equalling around five tonnes of lime per hectare. As a result, Brazil has become the world's second biggest soybean exporter and, thanks to the boom in animal feed production, Brazil is now the biggest exporter of beef and poultry in the world."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Agricultural_lime&oldid=854535911
October 29, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word jean dimmock
tropicopolitan
October 26, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word jean dimmock
circa?
October 25, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word letterboxing
I've heard of kangaroo boxing... is this a marsupial thing?
October 22, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list in-the-colorhouse
Man! How did I miss this great list? I just stumbled upon it only after looking up morin.
October 18, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word opuscula
See opuscule.
October 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word sirds puķīte
I'll add only that puķīte sounds a little better than it looks--that ķ in the middle makes it more like "pooch-eat."
October 15, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list blooms--2
Aw, shucks. Thanks, vm. (And it looks like that one has been fixed now.)
October 15, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list blooms--2
Thanks! Glad to see you've tossed in a few of your own.
October 12, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word plateresque
Oh, nice! I am ever in awe at your skill with these, qms.
October 11, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word chocolate bloom
Here's a blooming list for our amusement: blooms--2.
October 11, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word chocolate bloom
Has anyone made a list of blooms yet? I'd add Leopold.
October 9, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Hermann Minkowski
"Minkowski is perhaps best known for his work in relativity, in which he showed in 1907 that his former student Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity (1905) could be understood geometrically as a theory of four-dimensional space–time, since known as the "Minkowski spacetime"."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hermann_Minkowski&oldid=861259780
October 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word tartaric acid
"Louis Pasteur could rightly be described as the first stereochemist, having observed in 1842 that salts of tartaric acid collected from wine production vessels could rotate plane polarized light, but that salts from other sources did not. This property, the only physical property in which the two types of tartrate salts differed, is due to optical isomerism."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stereochemistry&oldid=858092147
October 2, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Amsterdammer
I’m reminded of a song my grandmother taught me about the three jolly fisher- fisher- men men men who should have gone to Amster- Amster- sh! sh! sh!
September 30, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Amstetdamster
Stet.
September 30, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word scop
Thanks, qms, but yours are always better.
I'm beginning to wonder whether your initials stand for Quite Masterful Scop (or some such).
September 28, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the user bilby
Mmm. Tasty lichens.
September 28, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word rosehip neuron
""We really don't understand what makes the human brain special," said Ed Lein, Ph.D., Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. "Studying the differences at the level of cells and circuits is a good place to start, and now we have new tools to do just that."
In a new study published today in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Lein and his colleagues reveal one possible answer to that difficult question. The research team, co-led by Lein and Gábor Tamás, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at the University of Szeged in Szeged, Hungary, has uncovered a new type of human brain cell that has never been seen in mice and other well-studied laboratory animals.
Tamás and University of Szeged doctoral student Eszter Boldog dubbed these new cells "rosehip neurons" -- to them, the dense bundle each brain cell's axon forms around the cell's center looks just like a rose after it has shed its petals, he said. The newly discovered cells belong to a class of neurons known as inhibitory neurons, which put the brakes on the activity of other neurons in the brain."
-- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180827180809.htm
September 27, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word allothetic
See citation on idiothetic.
September 27, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word idiothetic
"Idiothetic literally means "self-proposition" (Greek derivation), and is used in navigation models (e.g., of a rat in a maze) to describe the use of self-motion cues, rather than allothetic, or external, cues such as landmarks, to determine position and movement."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Idiothetic&oldid=800426728
September 27, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word equation of time
See citation on equation.
September 27, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word equation
"The equation of time describes the discrepancy between two kinds of solar time. The word equation is used in the medieval sense of "reconcile a difference". The two times that differ are the apparent solar time, which directly tracks the diurnal motion of the Sun, and mean solar time, which tracks a theoretical mean Sun with noons 24 hours apart."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Equation_of_time&oldid=861068135
September 27, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word scop
Oh, fun! I had a copy of Grendel when I was a kid, so I have a sentimental fondness for the monster.
In his novel take on the plot
John Gardner's hero was not
A prince or a poet
But (wouldn't you know it)
The beast--who finally gets caught.
September 27, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word commesso
"Commesso, also referred to as Florentine mosaic, is a method of piecing together cut sections of luminous, narrow gemstones to form works of art."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commesso&oldid=804026345
September 26, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Rufillus
See https://medievalbooks.nl/2018/09/20/me-myself-and-i/
September 24, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word adynaton
Paldies, vendingmachine! I hadn't heard that one before--though it fits perfectly with bird's milk and blooming fern.
September 24, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word erythrophyl
From The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia:
"n. A name given by Berzelius to the substance to which the red color of leaves in autumn is due."
September 18, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Mangkhut
"'Mangkhut'" (Thai pronunciation: |māŋ.kʰút|) is the Thai name for the mangosteen."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Typhoon_Mangkhut&oldid=860020566
September 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word pataphysics
Also see comment on pataphysical.
September 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word pataphysical
"|Paul| McCartney's wife Linda said that he had become interested in avant-garde theatre and had immersed himself in the writings of Alfred Jarry. This influence is reflected in the story and tone of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", and also explains how McCartney came across Jarry's word "pataphysical", which occurs in the lyrics."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maxwell%27s_Silver_Hammer&oldid=859775445
See pataphysics.
September 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list words-meaning-nonsense
Excellent. You might also like these hogwash and humbug-and-bafflegab lists.
September 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word accurate
Here's a nice bit from The Century:
"Synonyms Accurate, Correct, Exact, Precise, Nice, careful, particular, true, faithful, strict, painstaking, unerring. Of these words correct is the feeblest; it is barely more than not faulty, as tested by some standard or rule. Accurate implies careful and successful endeavor to be correct: as, an accurate accountant, and, by extension of the meaning, accurate accounts; an accurate likeness. Exact is stronger, carrying the accuracy down to minute details: as, an exact likeness. It is more commonly used of things, while precise is used of persons: as, the exact truth; he is very precise in his ways. Precise may represent an excess of nicety, but exact and accurate rarely do so: as, she is prim and precise. As applied more specifically to the processes and results of thought and investigation, exact means absolutely true; accurate, up to a limited standard of truth; precise, as closely true as the utmost care will secure. Thus, the exact ratio of the circumference to the diameter cannot be stated, but the value 3.14159265 is accurate to eight places of decimals, which is sufficiently precise for the most refined measurements. Nice emphasizes the attention paid to minute and delicate points, often in a disparaging sense: as, he is more nice than wise."
September 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word palter
Well done, qms!
September 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word cloud cuckoo land
See cloud-cuckoo-land.
September 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word cloud cuckoo
See cloud cuckoo land.
September 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list ruzuzus-ideal-list
Found another. Check out write--2.
September 14, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list write--2
Hm... pyrolytic, motor pool, Jonbar hinge, pariah dog and zopilote, contrail, gyrodyne, gum....
Yup. An ideal list.
September 14, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word chicken eyeglasses
"Chicken eyeglasses, also known as chickens specs, chicken goggles, generically as pick guards and under other names, were small eyeglasses made for chickens intended to prevent feather pecking and cannibalism. They differ from blinders as they allowed the bird to see forward whereas blinders do not. One variety used rose-colored lenses as the coloring was thought to prevent a chicken wearing them from recognizing blood on other chickens which may increase the tendency for abnormal injurious behavior."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chicken_eyeglasses&oldid=826144795
September 14, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list ptolemys-gate
Arrived here after looking up motor. What a fun list!
September 12, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word mattock
"In the eastern United States, the shafts of mattocks are often fitted with a screw below the head and parallel with it to secure the head from slipping down the shaft, but in the western United States, where tools are more commonly dismantled for transport, this is rarely done. When made to be dismantled, the shaft of a mattock fits into the oval eye of the head, and is fixed by striking the head end of the shaft against a solid surface, such as a tree stump, rock, or firm ground. The head end of the shaft is tapered outwards, and the oval opening of the iron head is similarly tapered so that the head will not fly off when used. The mattock head ought never be raised higher than the user's hands, so that it will not slide down and hit the user's hands."
--https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mattock&oldid=855853143
(I wonder whether lyron's father's mattock was actually from West Virginia.)
September 10, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word slur
From The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia:
"In a knitting-machine, mechanism which travels on a bar called the slur-bar, and depresses the jack-sinkers in succession, sinking a loop of thread between every pair of needles."
September 6, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Elizabeth Fulhame
"Elizabeth Fulhame (fl. 1794) was a Scottish chemist who invented the concept of catalysis and discovered photoreduction. She describes catalysis as a process at length in her 1794 book An Essay On Combustion with a View to a New Art of Dying and Painting, wherein the Phlogistic and Antiphlogistic Hypotheses are Proved Erroneous. The book relates in painstaking detail her experiments with oxidation-reduction reactions, and the conclusions she draws regarding Phlogiston theory, in which she disagrees with both the Phlogistians and Antiphlogistians."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elizabeth_Fulhame&oldid=850969064
September 6, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list numbering
Oh! What an ingenious list.
September 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Mr. B. Collar
See comment on Billy Eckstine.
September 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Billy Eckstine
"Culturally Eckstine was a fashion icon. He was famous for his "Mr. B. Collar"- a high roll collar that formed a "B" over a Windsor-knotted tie. The collars were worn by many a hipster in the late 1940s and early 1950s."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Billy_Eckstine&oldid=852426215
September 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list shoes
Just added shoe-boss.
September 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Timothy Dexter
"At age 50, Dexter authored A Pickle for the Knowing Ones or Plain Truth in a Homespun Dress, in which he complained about politicians, the clergy, and his wife. The book contained 8,847 words and 33,864 letters, but without punctuation and seemingly random capitalization. Dexter initially handed his book out for free, but it became popular and was reprinted eight times. In the second edition, Dexter added an extra page which consisted of 13 lines of punctuation marks with the instructions that readers could distribute them as they pleased."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Timothy_Dexter&oldid=851828716
Also see t.
September 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word t
"n. A white clay pipe with the initials T. D. on the bowl. Said to be due to a legacy left by the eccentric “Lord” Timothy Dexter of Newburyport, Mass., in order to perpetuate his name. By extension, T. D. means clay pipe. Dialect Notes, III. iii."
--from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
September 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word catalyst poison
"Catalyst poisoning refers to the partial or total deactivation of a catalyst. Poisoning is caused by chemical compounds. Although usually undesirable, poisoning may be helpful when it results in improved selectivity. For example, Lindlar's catalyst is poisoned so that it selectively catalyzes the reduction of alkynes. On the other hand Lead from leaded gasoline deactivates catalytic converters."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Catalyst_poisoning&oldid=851286480
September 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word poison
"Chemistry & Physics: A substance that inhibits another substance or a reaction: a catalyst poison."
-- from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
September 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word evanescent
"In natural history, unstable; unfixed; hence, uncertain; unreliable: applied to characters which are not fixed or uniformly present, and therefore are valueless for scientific classification.
In entomology, tending to become obsolete in one part; fading out: as, antennal scrobes evanescent posteriorly."
-- Century Dictionary
September 4, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word black swallow-wort
"The black swallow-wort was recently spotted in the Grand Traverse County community of Kingsley, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported. The vine has heart-shaped leaves and small, dark purple flowers. The plant, which typically grows along roadsides, pastures and gardens, can choke out native vegetation and poison insects and wildlife."
-- "Monarch butterfly-killing invasive plant found in northern Michigan" https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/09/03/monarch-butterfly-black-swallow-wort/1185116002/
September 4, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word pronic
"A pronic number is a number which is the product of two consecutive integers, that is, a number of the form n(n + 1). The study of these numbers dates back to Aristotle. They are also called oblong numbers, heteromecic numbers, or rectangular numbers; however, the "rectangular number" name has also been applied to the composite numbers."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pronic_number&oldid=850129619
August 29, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word recursion
Ha! Check out the "reverse dictionary" section for this word.
August 23, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list bywords
I have a few of these over on my antonomasia list, but this one is better. In fact, I'd be willing to say that rolig is a regular rolig with these (to coin a phrase).
August 23, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list antonomasia
Ooh! Thanks, rolig.
August 23, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word ago
I was wondering whether the "go" part of this was a clue.
August 22, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word metewand
hbd, qms!
August 22, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word fewmet
I'm pretty sure I first encountered fewmets in Madeleine L'Engle's book A Wind in the Door.
August 21, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word jean dimmock
I pressed Random word and got Englishly, but that seemed too on the nose. How's about paleoichnology?
August 20, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word batman
"Alfred Thaddeus Crane Pennyworth is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, most commonly in association with the superhero Batman.
"Pennyworth is depicted as Bruce Wayne's loyal and tireless butler, housekeeper, legal guardian, best friend, aide-de-camp, and surrogate father figure following the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne. As a classically trained British actor and an ex-Special Operations Executive operative of honor and ethics with connections within the intelligence community, he has been called "Batman's batman"."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alfred_Pennyworth&oldid=854935165
August 16, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word genethlialogy
Stellar work once again, qms!
August 13, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list profondeurs-de-nervose
I like that I can look at the Recently Listed Words and tell right away that they'll be on one of your wonderful lists.
August 13, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word significand
"In American English, the original word for this seems to have been mantissa (Burks et al.), and this usage remains common in computing and among computer scientists. However, the term significand was introduced by George Forsythe and Cleve Moler in 1967, and the use of mantissa for this purpose is discouraged by the IEEE floating-point standard committee and by some professionals such as William Kahan and Donald Knuth, because it conflicts with the pre-existing use of mantissa for the fractional part of a logarithm (see also common logarithm). For instance, Knuth adopts the third representation 0.12345 × 10+3 in the example above and calls 0.12345 the fraction part of the number; he adds: "it is an abuse of terminology to call the fraction part a mantissa, since this concept has quite a different meaning in connection with logarithms".
The confusion is because scientific notation and floating-point representation are log-linear, not logarithmic. To multiply two numbers, given their logarithms, one just adds the characteristic (integer part) and the mantissa (fractional part). By contrast, to multiply two floating-point numbers, one adds the exponent (which is logarithmic) and multiplies the significand (which is linear)."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Significand&oldid=850602451 (citations and emphasis removed)
August 8, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word mantissa
The significand (also mantissa or coefficient, sometimes also argument or fraction) is part of a number in scientific notation or a floating-point number, consisting of its significant digits. Depending on the interpretation of the exponent, the significand may represent an integer or a fraction. The word mantissa seems to have been introduced by Arthur Burks in 1946 writing for the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, although this use of the word is discouraged by the IEEE floating-point standard committee as well as some professionals such as the creator of the standard, William Kahan."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Significand&oldid=850602451
August 8, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list mantisic
I found myself here again after looking up mantissa. Thanks, fbharjo!
August 8, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word trifurcated
I didn't know fish had fur.
August 7, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list a-fight
I hope you won't fight me on this--I've added a couple entries.
August 7, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word chicken scratch
(Note the "n. Poultry feed" and "n. Slang Money" definitions over on scratch.)
August 7, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word chicken feed
Cf. chicken scratch.
August 7, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word chicken scratch
I'd thought "paltry sum of money" too--but I just discovered chicken feed, which seems to be the more common expression.
August 7, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word sigla
See comment on overline.
July 27, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word vinculum
See citations on radical and overline.
July 27, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word overline
"An overline, overscore, or overbar, is a typographical feature of a horizontal line drawn immediately above the text. In mathematical notation, an overline has been used for a long time as a vinculum, a way of showing that certain symbols belong together. The original use in Ancient Greek was to indicate compositions of Greek letters as Greek numerals. In Latin it indicates Roman numerals multiplied by a thousand and it forms medieval abbreviations (sigla)."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Overline&oldid=844031262
July 27, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word radical
"In 1637 Descartes was the first to unite the German radical sign √ with the vinculum to create the radical symbol in common use today."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Radical_symbol&oldid=852068667
July 27, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word flesh-brush
*sings* It's beginning to look a lot like flesh-brush....
July 25, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list honk
Honk if you love this list. (*honk!*)
July 25, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word paper
I just noticed this definition from the Century: "In book-binding, to paste the end-papers and fly-leaves at the beginning and end of (a volume), before fitting it in its covers."
July 25, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Lichtenberg ratio
"In 1786, the German scientist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg described the advantages of basing a paper size on an aspect ratio of √2 in a letter to Johann Beckmann. The formats that became ISO paper sizes A2, A3, B3, B4, and B5 were developed in France. They were listed in a 1798 law on taxation of publications that was based in part on page sizes.
The main advantage of this system is its scaling. Rectangular paper with an aspect ratio of √2 has the unique property that, when cut or folded in half midway between its shorter sides, each half has the same √2 aspect ratio and half the area of the whole sheet before it was divided. Equivalently, if one lays two same-sized sheets paper with an aspect ratio of √2 side-by-side along their longer side, they form a larger rectangle with the aspect ratio of √2 and double the area of each individual sheet."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ISO_216&oldid=836238841
July 25, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list paper-and-papermaking
Absolutely.
July 25, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word bird's milk
Cf. non-dairy-beverages.
July 25, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word casse paper
Awwww. What a cutie! Okay, fine--I'll foster a list.
July 25, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word paper
Does anybody have a list about paper and/or papermaking yet?
July 25, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Myrica
God bless Myrica.
July 25, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list galactic-milk--words-that-lead-the-whey
There's fun stuff over on this non-dairy-beverages list, too.
July 25, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list non-dairy-beverages
This is great! I'd never heard of candlenut milk.
July 25, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word ginglymus
So profoundly articulate!
July 25, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word octonion
“As numbers go, the familiar real numbers — those found on the number line, like 1, π and -83.777 — just get things started. Real numbers can be paired up in a particular way to form “complex numbers,” first studied in 16th-century Italy, that behave like coordinates on a 2-D plane. Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing is like translating and rotating positions around the plane. Complex numbers, suitably paired, form 4-D “quaternions,” discovered in 1843 by the Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton, who on the spot ecstatically chiseled the formula into Dublin’s Broome Bridge. John Graves, a lawyer friend of Hamilton’s, subsequently showed that pairs of quaternions make octonions: numbers that define coordinates in an abstract 8-D space.”
— “The Peculiar Math That Could Underlie the Laws of Nature” (https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-octonion-math-that-could-underpin-physics-20180720/)
July 23, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word beet
"To make better; improve; alleviate or relieve (hunger, thirst, grief, the needs of a person, etc.)."
-- from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
July 16, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word tanuki
Consider yourself added to my calendar.
July 16, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Fermatian inference
See comment on mathematical induction.
July 16, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word mathematical induction
When I talk with folks who've studied mathematics, they like to tell me how helpful induction is--but I've been confused, because it sounds much more like they're using deduction. Instead I've learned that they're actually talking about mathematical induction.
I'll just leave this here for the next time I need to remember which is which:
"For the history of the name "mathematical induction", see
•Florian Cajori, Origin of the Name "Mathematical Induction" (1918):
The process of reasoning called "mathematical induction" has had several independent origins. It has been traced back to the Swiss Jakob (James) Bernoulli |Opera, Tomus I, Genevae, MDCCXLIV, p. 282, reprinted from Acta eruditorum, Lips., 1686, p. 360. See also Jakob Bernoulli's Ars conjectandi, 1713, p. 95|, the Frenchmen B.Pascal |OEuvres completes de Blaise Pascal, Vol. 3, Paris, 1866, p. 248| and P.Fermat |Charles S Peirce in the Century Dictionary, Art."Induction," and in the Monist, Vol. 2, 1892, pp. 539, 545; Peirce called mathematical induction the "Fermatian inference"|, and the Italian F.Maurolycus |G.Vacca, Bulletin Am. Math. Soc., Vol. 16, 1909, pp. 70-73|."
-- https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1080417/why-is-mathematical-induction-called-mathematical
July 16, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list this-word-is-more-than-one-word
I adore this list!
July 16, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word tanuki
You've outdone yourself once again, qms!
July 16, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word heptadecagon
"As 17 is a Fermat prime, the regular heptadecagon is a constructible polygon (that is, one that can be constructed using a compass and unmarked straightedge): this was shown by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1796 at the age of 19."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Heptadecagon&oldid=837458759
July 12, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word vortex
Ha! The first time I read that, I thought it said "vicious."
July 3, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word vortex
From the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English:
"A supposed collection of particles of very subtile matter, endowed with a rapid rotary motion around an axis which was also the axis of a sun or a planet. Descartes attempted to account for the formation of the universe, and the movements of the bodies composing it, by a theory of vortices."
And from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia:
"In the Cartesian philosophy, a collection of material particles, forming a fluid or ether, endowed with a rapid rotatory motion about an axis, and filling all space, by which Descartes accounted for the motions of the universe. This theory attracted much attention at one time, but is now entirely discredited."
July 2, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word sycee
I'll second both previous comments.
July 2, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word groupoid
See citation on magma.
July 2, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word magma
"According to Bergman and Hausknecht (1996): "There is no generally accepted word for a set with a not necessarily associative binary operation. The word groupoid is used by many universal algebraists, but workers in category theory and related areas object strongly to this usage because they use the same word to mean 'category in which all morphisms are invertible'. The term magma was used by Serre |Lie Algebras and Lie Groups, 1965|." It also appears in Bourbaki's Éléments de mathématique, Algèbre, chapitres 1 à 3, 1970."
-- From Wikipedia's page for "Magma (algebra)" (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Magma_(algebra)&oldid=848070422)
July 2, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word rewet
Not what I was expecting.
June 29, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the user jamesdye
I just found your lovely hollow-land list. Someone had listed seeing, and I was intrigued by the tags.
June 29, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word epiblast
Blast! I nominate you to make the list, bilby.
June 25, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word heliox
"Heliox generates less airway resistance than air and thereby requires less mechanical energy to ventilate the lungs. "Work of Breathing" (WOB) is reduced. It does this by two mechanisms:
1.increased tendency to laminar flow;
2.reduced resistance in turbulent flow."
-- From Wikipedia's heliox page: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Heliox&oldid=835607282
June 22, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word epiblast
From The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia:
"In botany, a name applied by Richard to a second small cotyledon which is found in wheat and some other grasses.
In embryology, the outer or external blastodermic membrane or layer of cells, forming the ectoderm or epiderm: distinguished at first from hypoblast, then from both hypoblast and mesoblast. See cut under blastocæle."
June 21, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the user postnomer
I like your lists.
June 21, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Euler's identity
See citation (with a bit about Gauss) on pons asinorum.
June 8, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Diophantus of Alexandria
"While reading Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac's edition of Diophantus' Arithmetica, Pierre de Fermat concluded that a certain equation considered by Diophantus had no solutions, and noted in the margin without elaboration that he had found "a truly marvelous proof of this proposition," now referred to as Fermat's Last Theorem. This led to tremendous advances in number theory, and the study of Diophantine equations ("Diophantine geometry") and of Diophantine approximations remain important areas of mathematical research."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Diophantus&oldid=842662729
June 7, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word can
Cogito ergo can.
June 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list remarkable-wikipedia-categories
Aw, shucks. Thanks vm. I love this site and everyone here--and I'm glad you're on the remarkable list, too.
June 4, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Euler
"Euler's work touched upon so many fields that he is often the earliest written reference on a given matter. In an effort to avoid naming everything after Euler, some discoveries and theorems are attributed to the first person to have proved them after Euler."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_things_named_after_Leonhard_Euler&oldid=844040346
June 4, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list remarkable-wikipedia-categories
I've been having fun with the "List of things named after Leonhard Euler" page.
June 4, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word farnarkle
Define pissfart.
June 1, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word harmamaxa
Ha--not sure how I missed it. Thank you, bilby!
May 29, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word mark
"A significant note, character, sign, token, or indication; a determinative attestation. In logic, to say that a thing has a certain mark is to say that something in particular is true of it. Thus, according to a certain school of metaphysicians, “incognizability is a mark of the Infinite.”"
--from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
May 22, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list curry-zone
Any time!
May 22, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word well-heeled
That's some etymology.
May 22, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list curry-zone
I went to a restaurant yesterday that offered bhendi masala, aloo govi, and baigan vartha.
May 22, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list fore
That's the risk (and joy) of open lists (and why open list is my middle name.)
But, to my shame and horror, I just realized that bilby must have already added foredeck to this list ages ago. I'll still keep searching for fore words, though.
May 18, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list fore
I'd forgotten how much I love this list. (I just added foredeck.)
May 18, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list simplified-spellings
Thanks, blby!
May 18, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list the-bindery
And fanfare.
May 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list path-finding
You're not moved by pathos?
May 15, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word rabble
"An iron bar bent at right angles at one end, used in the operation of puddling for stirring the melted iron, so as to allow it to be more fully exposed to the action of the air and the lining of the furnace."
-- from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
May 14, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list my-stupid-day
And I love that this list has rewrite.
May 14, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list retention-of-larval-traits-in-adults
My new favorite list.
May 14, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the user blafferty
*passes out spoons for everyone*
Do we all have plates? Who still needs fufluns?
May 14, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word scrumpy
Brackets around "proto-Wordie und playboy" please--I might have a couple places for it.
May 14, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word spoon
See semantic satiation.
May 14, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word dust
Yes! And/or Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
May 14, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the user qms
Just stopping by to say your prowess with the limericks is astonishing. I am ever in awe.
May 4, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word zaddy
why do you hate freedom
May 4, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list cattle
Thanks, bilby!
May 4, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word usurps the prerogative of her husband
How had I never heard of Ebenezer Brewer before? Thank you!!!
May 3, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word spinning a brody
Spinning one's car in a circle on the ice. See http://helenair.com/lifestyles/words-and-phrases-that-really-only-make-sense-to-montanans/collection_fa664822-0e12-11e5-b51b-5f1cdc6da6b1.html#18
May 3, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list a-boat
Each new list you make is my favorite!
May 3, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list washington--my-home
I think the Moines are allowed to travel where they please.
May 3, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Kentucky
See my-old-kentucky-home; also see word-derby.
May 2, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Oregon
Also see places-in-oregon by misterbaby.
May 2, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word jean dimmock
seamount
May 2, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word fish-ball
It's something that sounds infinitely more appetizing than a foot-ball.
April 24, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word a busybody
See comments on narrowbody.
April 19, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word narrowbody
Brackets around a busybody, please. I have a list for it.
Also, I looked through nobody's lists, but I didn't see this word there.
April 19, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word bilby
*presses button politely*
April 17, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word bilby
Ooh! A delicious food pellet!
What a great party.
April 16, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word bilby
*presses button*
April 16, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list o-4
Is the Italian version called lapotopogigio?
April 13, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list but-y-tho
Ythanked.
April 13, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word yfastened
See comment on yclept.
April 13, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word yclensed
See comment on yclept.
April 13, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word ypunched
See comment on yclept.
April 13, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word ylem
If those lamingtons were made with yellowcake uranium, I think I'll just hold out for a ylemon tart.
April 13, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word ylem
This word reminds me of Elam.
April 12, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word vending machine
Holy water.
"The first vending machine was also one of his constructions; when a coin was introduced via a slot on the top of the machine, a set amount of holy water was dispensed. This was included in his list of inventions in his book Mechanics and Optics. When the coin was deposited, it fell upon a pan attached to a lever. The lever opened up a valve which let some water flow out. The pan continued to tilt with the weight of the coin until it fell off, at which point a counter-weight would snap the lever back up and turn off the valve."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hero_of_Alexandria&oldid=835926439
April 12, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word vending machine
"In a poem by Ausonius in the 4th century AD, he mentions a stone-cutting saw powered by water. Hero of Alexandria is credited with many such wind and steam powered machines in the 1st century AD, including the Aeolipile and the vending machine, often these machines were associated with worship, such as animated altars and automated temple doors."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Engine&oldid=833084943
April 12, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list fresco
I think it's chapter 718, but who's counting?
Edit: No, wait--it's 717. My plaster--1 list is 718.
April 12, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word myrobalan
See comment on myrobolan.
April 6, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list hebrew-words--1
Nice! You might enjoy john's yiddishkeit list.
April 4, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list words-from-fables
I adore Fables--and now I adore this list.
April 4, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Prussian blue
"Coordination complexes have been known since the beginning of modern chemistry. Early well-known coordination complexes include dyes such as Prussian blue. Their properties were first well understood in the late 1800s, following the 1869 work of Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Coordination_complex&oldid=829385587
March 30, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word coordination complex
"In chemistry, a coordination complex consists of a central atom or ion, which is usually metallic and is called the coordination centre, and a surrounding array of bound molecules or ions, that are in turn known as ligands or complexing agents."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Coordination_complex&oldid=829385587
March 30, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the user tsukum
Aw--thanks! And welcome to Wordnik!
March 30, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list words-from-chess
Might I suggest the Latvian Gambit?
March 29, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word jean dimmock
quibbling
March 27, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list sickle-shaped
Would you consider adding falx?
March 27, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word wine diamond
"Tartaric acid may be most immediately recognizable to wine drinkers as the source of "wine diamonds", the small potassium bitartrate crystals that sometimes form spontaneously on the cork or bottom of the bottle. These "tartrates" are harmless, despite sometimes being mistaken for broken glass, and are prevented in many wines through cold stabilization (which is not always preferred since it can change the wine's profile). The tartrates remaining on the inside of aging barrels were at one time a major industrial source of potassium bitartrate."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tartaric_acid&oldid=830080069
March 27, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Rockoonnookkeeper
Cf. raccoonnookkeeper.
March 26, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Rockoon
And if that Rockoon had a nook and a keeper, you could be a Rockoonnookkeeper.
March 26, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word limit situation
"A limit situation (German: Grenzsituation) is any of certain situations in which a human being is said to have differing experiences from those arising from ordinary situations.
The concept was developed by Karl Jaspers, who considered fright, guilt, finality and suffering as some of the key limit situations arising in everyday life."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Limit_situation&oldid=814921970
March 21, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word iroquoisy
I have a friend who's reading Plutarch and told me she's been thinking about virtue. We were talking about indulgences and Martin Luther. Then I was reading a Wikipedia article about criticism, which led to critical thinking, then sapere aude, then limit-experience, then limit situation, then antinomianism, and I was right back to faith and good works.
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha strikes again.
March 21, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word siling
What do we think of the Century definition here? Should it actually be under sling? (Cf. sile.)
March 16, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list duelistic
Just arrived here after getting push-pull as a random word. I adore this list.
March 16, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Thomas Fincke
"Fincke was born in Flensburg, Schleswig and died in Copenhagen. His lasting achievement is found in his book Geometria rotundi (1583), in which he introduced the modern names of the trigonometric functions tangent and secant."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_Fincke&oldid=816128832
March 16, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word luz
"A bone in the human body which the Rabbinical writers affirmed to be indestructible, and which is variously said to have been one of the lumbar vertebræ, the sacrum, the coccyx, a sesamoid bone of the great toe, or one of the triquetrous or Wormian bones of the cranium."
-- from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
March 16, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Trojan-horsing
““Trojan-horsing” is a term beloved among show creators, who believe that network executives want a dab of originality, but mostly for marketing purposes. When Jenji Kohan explained to NPR why she’d created the prison show “Orange Is the New Black” around the character of Piper, an attractive, upper-middle-class white woman, she said, “Piper was my Trojan horse. You’re not going to go into a network and sell a show on really fascinating tales of black women and Latina women and old women and criminals.””
— From “Donald Glover Can’t Save You: The creator of “Atlanta” wants TV to tell hard truths. Is the audience ready?” By Tad Friend in The New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/05/donald-glover-cant-save-you).
March 11, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word manspalining
Spa... lining?
March 7, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word retiracy
From the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English:
"n. Retirement; -- mostly used in a jocose or burlesque way."
March 7, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list heraldry
decrement
March 6, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list heraldry
sinister
March 6, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the user mercy
I like your lists.
March 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word harlotry
"A harlot; a strumpet; a baggage."
--from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
March 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list am-and-fm
What a great list!
March 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word Mama Plethora
See plethora's "words-and-phrases-i-picked-up-from-my-mother" list.
March 2, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list words-and-phrases-i-picked-up-from-my-mother
Awww. Greetings, Mama Plethora!
March 2, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word stick
"The number of twenty-five eels, or the tenth part of a bind, according to the old statute de ponderibus. Also called strike."
-- from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
March 2, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list in-seal-engraving
No seals were harmed in the making of this list.
March 2, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list clarissa-or-the-history-of-a-young-lady
Just arrived here after getting varletess as a random word. What a great list!
March 2, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word warp-beam
Not what I was expecting.
March 1, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word worm gear
"In machinery, a gearwheel of which the teeth are so formed that they are acted on and the wheel is made to revolve by a worm or shaft on which a spiral is turned—that is, by an endless screw. See cuts under Hindley's screw (at screw), steam-engine, and odometer."
-- from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
March 1, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word attributive
"In grammar, pertaining to or expressing an attribute; used (as a word) in direct description without predication: as, a bad pen, a burning house, a ruined man."
-- from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
March 1, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list the-bindery
And undercut.
February 28, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word coppo
"An Italian oil-measure, equal in Lucca and Modena to 26⅜ United States (old wine) gallons: but in the Lombardo-Venetian system of 1803 tho coppo or cappo was precisely a deciliter."
-- from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
February 27, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word askutasquash
See comments on squash.
February 23, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word coral
I like how different these definitions are:
"The unfertilized eggs of a female lobster, which turn a reddish color when cooked."
-- from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
"The ovaries of a cooked lobster; -- so called from their color."
-- from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
"The unimpregnated roe or eggs of the lobster, which when boiled assume the appearance of coral."
--from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
February 22, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word rutsutsumu
Thanks, Bilby Baggins.
February 22, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word tsutsumu
With a furoshiki?
February 21, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word hbty
Hottest baseball team yet.
February 15, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word hbty
How 'bout them Yankees?
February 15, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list our-potential-autobiographies
I just read Peggy Guggenheim's Confessions of an Art Addict, which reminded me of De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, so forgive me if I get stuck in that vein (as it were).
February 13, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word btvs
(Best to view surreptitiously.)
February 13, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list underside-of-a-body--as-in-a-bird
I'd say this is my favorite of your lists so far, but I'd end up having to say that every time you make a new one.
February 8, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word unrestrained condiments
Ooh--brackets around "misuse of mustard" please.
February 8, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list quacksalvers-et-al--nostrum
Arrived here after seeing armamentarium on the list of Recently Loved Words. What a fun list!
February 5, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list triple-anagrams
What a fantastic list!
February 2, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word thunderstorm asthma
"The issues — which would ultimately claim ten lives — turned out to be the result of a rare phenomenon known as “thunderstorm asthma.” Though still not fully understood, the weather event is thought to occur due to the spread of pollen and mold that gets swept into the high humidity of the clouds, broken into smaller particles, and rained back down. For a person with asthma — whose airways are chronically inflamed — the spread of these particles can set off an attack."
-- https://undark.org/article/thunderstorm-asthma-australia/
January 31, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word terminal burrowing
See comments on aporrhipsis.
January 14, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word aporrhipsis
Cf. terminal burrowing.
January 14, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word remorse
Man. That GNU Webster's definition is something I'd have expected from the Century: "The anguish, like gnawing pain, excited by a sense of guilt; compunction of conscience for a crime committed, or for the sins of one's past life."
January 12, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list potential-names-for-my-autobiography
I favorited this list even before it had any entries--but now if I could favorite it again, I would.
January 12, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word knifegun
Brackets around "bilbutt" and "Captain Cranky Bowtie Bilbutt," please. I have a list for them.
January 12, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list calendar-stories
Ach! How did I miss this? Sionnach, you are the best.
January 10, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word jean dimmock
brumaire?
January 10, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word nihil ex nihilo
Nothing ever could.
January 8, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the user tsukum
I like your lists.
January 8, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the list things-that-could-go-in-a-house-or-mansion
What a fun list!
January 8, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word beauty parlor stroke syndrome
“Richard Bernstein is the medical director of the Comprehensive Stroke Center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, and delivers his expertise to me in the patient-if-slightly brusque tone to which I am accustomed in every doctor I speak to. On a hunch I asked him if “beauty parlor stroke syndrome” is a real medical term, and he said no — getting one’s hair washed is merely one possibility in a range of options that cause the actual medical condition properly known as “vertebral artery dissection from hyperextension of the neck,” a considerably less grabby, though ultimately scarier name. What seems to happen is that certain movements of or pressures on the neck can result in a flap-like tear in the vertebral artery, which supplies blood to the brain. From there blood enters (and thereby thickens) the arterial wall, which can cause a blood clot, impeding blood flow and potentially causing a stroke.”
— “Is Beauty Parlor Stroke Syndrome Going to Kill Me?” by Katie Heany (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/03/is-this-going-to-kill-me-beauty-parlor-stroke-syndrome/517851/)
January 7, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word aglaja
I’m so sorry for your loss, rolig. It sounds like she was a delightful friend.
January 7, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word feedback loop
See citation on ecosystem.
January 4, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word ecosystem
"All around |Walter| Cannon, theorists were thrilling to the idea of self-righting systems, resistant to the buffeting forces of change. The English botanist Arthur Tansley coined the word “ecosystem” in 1935; the maintenance of stability would soon be described as one of the cardinal properties of ecologies. Soon economists were relating homeostasis to self-correcting markets; Norbert Wiener, the mathematician, saw that machines and creatures might be governed by autonomous control systems stabilized by “feedback” loops. Cells, cities, societies, even political institutions—all had the capacity to steady their states through the actions of self-regulated and counterpoised forces."
-- "My Father’s Body, at Rest and in Motion" by Siddhartha Mukherjee (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/08/my-fathers-body-at-rest-and-in-motion)
January 4, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word homeostasis
"In the late nineteen-twenties, the physiologist Walter Cannon coined the term “homeostasis”—joining together the Greek homoios (similar) and stasis (stillness). The capacity to sustain internal constancy was an essential feature of an organism, he argued."
-- "My Father’s Body, at Rest and in Motion" by Siddhartha Mukherjee (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/08/my-fathers-body-at-rest-and-in-motion)
January 4, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word nebnose
"Of course, you might dismiss my suspicions as no more than the vivid imagination of a writer, and that’s certainly possible, because an occupational hazard of reading and writing about crime is spotting possible criminal enterprise everywhere and in everyone. To be a writer is to be curious, or to use Pittsburgh parlance, a nebnose."
-- "The Suburban Serial Killer Next Door: On the Dark, Imagined Secrets of Pittsburgh" by Rebecca Drake (http://lithub.com/the-suburban-serial-killer-next-door/)
January 4, 2018
ruzuzu commented on the word jean dimmock
assay
December 29, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word agnotology
"|Robert| Proctor had found that the cigarette industry did not want consumers to know the harms of its product, and it spent billions obscuring the facts of the health effects of smoking. This search led him to create a word for the study of deliberate propagation of ignorance: agnotology.
It comes from agnosis, the neoclassical Greek word for ignorance or ‘not knowing’, and ontology, the branch of metaphysics which deals with the nature of being. Agnotology is the study of wilful acts to spread confusion and deceit, usually to sell a product or win favour."
-- http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160105-the-man-who-studies-the-spread-of-ignorance
December 29, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word jean dimmock
clinquant?
December 27, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word jean dimmock
moire
December 26, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word fly-tipping
"Rod Bray of developers Northbridge Properties told Newshub that the culprits were probably trying to cut their own demolition costs by fly-tipping the house.
"The options are either pay to have it demolished, or you dump it somewhere else and make it someone else's problem," he said, pointing out that it would cost his company over NZ$20,000 ($13,800; £10,300) to remove it."
-- "Entire house fly-tipped in New Zealand" http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-42166058
November 29, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word Earthquake Baroque
"Earthquake Baroque is a style of Baroque architecture found in the Philippines, which suffered destructive earthquakes during the 17th century and 18th century, where large public buildings, such as churches, were rebuilt in a Baroque style. Similar events led to the Pombaline architecture in Lisbon following the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and Sicilian Baroque in Sicily following the 1693 earthquake."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Earthquake_Baroque&oldid=808426572
November 13, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list first-letter-removed-anagram
Wow! What a cool list.
November 6, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list molding--or-having-the-capacity-to-mold-disparate-things-into-a-unified-whole
Would you accept plasticity?
November 6, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word Thorsday
Ha!
November 6, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word agon
"The exhibition’s title suggests an agon — Overlook: Teresita Fernández Confronts Frederic Church at Olana. Fernández admits that’s the intention in a promotional video where she addresses the viewer, relating that she “wanted to create a somewhat confrontational and immersive experience” that would reinsert the “cultural component that’s always erased.”"
-- https://hyperallergic.com/396690/grappling-with-the-hudson-river-school/
October 25, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word heat shock protein
"Beginning in the mid-1960s, investigators recognized that many HSPs function as molecular chaperones and thus play a critical role in protein folding, intracellular trafficking of proteins, and coping with proteins denatured by heat and other stresses."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Heat_shock_protein&oldid=797825597
October 23, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word lammergeier
See the examples on phene.
October 18, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word phene
The usage examples for this suggest something quite different: "The so-called phene, or lammergeier, is fond of its young, provides its food with ease, fetches food to its nest, and is of a kindly disposition. (The History of Animals)"
October 18, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word alienist
"The physician reading this mysterious letter was no ordinary doctor. He was the Honorable Gustav Scholer, head Coroner for the city of New York, and one of the era’s leading alienists—an arcane term for specialists who studied the mental pathology of those deemed “alienated” from society."
-- "Peek Inside the Grisly, Salacious Case Files of NYC’s Head Coroner in the Early 1900s"
by Luke Spencer (http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/peek-inside-the-grisly-salacious-case-files-of-nycs-head-coroner-in-the-early-1900s)
October 13, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list i-hate-perfume
I just noticed that this is the only listing of "ointmint" (my new favorite word).
October 11, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list exposure
What a great list!
October 11, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word Fourier transform
"Of course, if a piano and a violin play the same high C at the exact same volume, there is still some quality that feels different between the two notes. It turns out that pure tones do not occur naturally, and when a piano or violin produces a high C, the sound wave is made up of a specific combination of different pure tones. The different amplitudes and frequencies have nice relationships with one another, which is why you hear a specific note rather than a mess of clashing noises, but the single pitch you hear does not correspond to a single frequency. The hard-to-define quality of sound that allows you to identify what instrument you’re listening to is determined by the exact combination of pure tones. When different instruments all play at the same time, the various pure tones add together to create the music you hear.
"So what do pure tones have to do with the groove on a record being able to tell David Bowie and Nina Simone apart? It turns out that any curve can be written in exactly one way as a combination of curves with uniform amplitude and frequency. In other words, the single squiggle captured in the groove of a record player can be written as a combination of pure tones. And there is only one combination that will produce any particular squiggle. The tool that makes this possible comes from mathematics and is called the Fourier transform. Combined with the fact that the sound we experience is determined by the exact combination of pure tones, this bit of mathematics explains how the vinyl record groove can completely determine the music you hear."
-- "Which Sounds Better, Analog or Digital Music?" by Katrina Morgan (https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/which-sounds-better-analog-or-digital-music/)
October 11, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word fresh
These are my favorites from the Century:
"Tipsy."
"Sober; not tipsy."
October 10, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list confectio-damocritis
Aw, thanks, c_b. Anything to further our studies.
October 10, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list nets
Would you consider adding set-net?
October 4, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list a-perfect-red
Another book to add to my list! Thanks, c_b.
October 4, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word st johns blood
Heck yeah, it's interesting. I've been trying to figure out how to collect and grind my own pigments (mostly for paper marbling on alum-mordanted paper, but it's fun no matter what).
October 4, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word protein
"Proteins were recognized as a distinct class of biological molecules in the eighteenth century by Antoine Fourcroy and others, distinguished by the molecules' ability to coagulate or flocculate under treatments with heat or acid. Noted examples at the time included albumin from egg whites, blood serum albumin, fibrin, and wheat gluten.
"Proteins were first described by the Dutch chemist Gerardus Johannes Mulder and named by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1838. Mulder carried out elemental analysis of common proteins and found that nearly all proteins had the same empirical formula, C400H620N100O120P1S1. He came to the erroneous conclusion that they might be composed of a single type of (very large) molecule. The term "protein" to describe these molecules was proposed by Mulder's associate Berzelius; protein is derived from the Greek word πρώτειος (proteios), meaning "primary", "in the lead", or "standing in front", + -in."
-- from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Protein&oldid=799576822 (footnote citations removed)
October 3, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list mauve
*favorited* (and also added to my request list at the library)
October 3, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list latinized-meme-animals
This list makes me happy.
October 3, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word seythe
Further affiant sayeth naught.
October 3, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word coal tar
These are great, c_b!
October 2, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list meme-animals
Would you accept doge and/or doggo?
October 2, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word type specimen
"Linnaeus' remains comprise the type specimen for the species Homo sapiens, following the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, since the sole specimen he is known to have examined when writing the species description was himself."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carl_Linnaeus&oldid=801408157
September 29, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list linnaean-lexicon
Are there any lists of scientific names coined by Linnaeus? (And have I just nominated myself to make one?)
September 29, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word lac gallinaceum
See comment on bird's milk.
September 28, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word Gagana
See comment on bird's milk.
September 28, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word bird's milk
"The concept of avian milk (Ancient Greek: ὀρνίθων γάλα, ornithon gala) stretches back to ancient Greece. Aristophanes uses "the milk of the birds" in the plays The Birds and The Wasps as a proverbial rarity. The expression is also found in Strabo's Geographica where the island of Samos is described as a blest country to which those who praise it do not hesitate to apply the proverb that "it produces even bird's milk" (φέρει καί ὀρνίθων γάλα). A similar expression lac gallinaceum (Latin for "chicken's milk") was also later used by Petronius (38.1) and Pliny the Elder (Plin. Nat. pr. 24) as a term for a great rarity. The idiom became later common in many languages and appeared in Slavic folk tales. In one such tale the beautiful princess tests the ardor and resourcefulness of her suitor by sending him out into the wilderness to find and bring back the one fantastical luxury she does not have: bird's milk. In the fairy tale Little Hare by Aleksey Remizov (who wrote many imitations of traditional Slavic folk tales) the magic bird Gagana produces milk."
-- From https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ptasie_mleczko&oldid=781825215 (footnote citations removed)
September 28, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word ring
"In salt-making, a fire-brick arch of varying length, placed under the evaporating-pans to temper the heat and so prevent the salt from being burned."
--from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
September 27, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word evernia
From The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia:
"A genus of parmeliaceous lichens having a fruticulose or pendulous thallus, and apothecia with a concave disk of a color different from that of the thallus. Evernia Prunastri is used for dyeing, and was formerly used, ground down with starch, for hair-powder."
September 27, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the user Josh.thomaa
I thought the first rule of linguistics fight club was that we weren't allowed to verb about linguistics fight club.
September 26, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word obelus
Oh, excellent, qms. Well done!
September 26, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word gutter
It certainly stands out--I guess I'd never thought about where it comes from before.
September 18, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word gutter
I like this part from the Century: "In printing, one of a number of pieces of wood or metal, channeled in the center with a groove or gutter, used to separate the pages of type in a form. Also gutter-stick."
September 18, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word sea silk
See comment on byssus.
September 14, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word byssus
"Sea silk sounds like the stuff of legend. Harvested from rare clams, this thread flashes gold in the sunlight, weighs almost nothing, and comes with a heavy load of misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and misinformation. But the fiber itself is no myth. Its flaxen strands come from Pinna nobilis, or the pen shell, a giant Mediterranean mollusk that measures up to a yard in length. To attach themselves to rocks or the seafloor, some clams secrete proteins that, upon contact with seawater, harden into a silky filament called byssus. The byssus of the pen shell makes sea silk, the world’s rarest thread."
-- http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/sea-silk-rarest-thread-italy-clams-textiles-fabric
September 14, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list encyclopedia-gustatorica
*favorited*
September 11, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word chalupa
It's also the name for a kind of boat. See la chalupa.
September 11, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list anagrams-of-placenames
I adore anagrams. Any chance we could convince you to tag each of these with their corresponding place names?
September 8, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list stormanteau
Any portmanteau in a stormanteau!
September 8, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word anthrotherology
"As human settlements expand across the earth’s surface, conflicts with wildlife are increasing. According to a review in the journal Animal Conservation, this represents “one of the most widespread and intractable issues facing |conservationists| today.” Researchers have been paying closer attention to these clashes: The number of scientific articles published annually about human-wildlife conflict (ranging from grain theft by rodents to farmers being trampled by elephants) increased from zero to more than 700 between 1995 and 2015, as indexed by Google Scholar. There have even been calls to coin an entire new discipline for studying the issue: anthrotherology, combining the Greek words for human (anthropos) and wild animal (ther). To understand the anthrotherologist’s dilemma, look to other countries’ parallels, like Japan’s wild hog problem or, closer to home, many national parks’ issues with bears."
-- "On the Front Lines of South Africa's Baboon Wars" by Kimon de Greef (https://www.outsideonline.com/2231291/frontlines-south-africas-human-vs-baboon-war)
September 6, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word polyploidy
Here's where I was looking: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polyploid&oldid=798346728
September 6, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word endopolyploidy
See comments on polyploidy.
September 6, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word polyploidy
So I was just doing a bit of Wiki-ing and found this: "In addition, polyploidy occurs in some tissues of animals that are otherwise diploid, such as human muscle tissues. This is known as endopolyploidy."
September 6, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list animal-identity-crisis
Wasn't there a list of plants that have animals in their names? Where was that?
Edit: I found it! See madmouth's love-across-kingdoms.
September 6, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list love-across-kingdoms
Ah, here it is! I was looking for this list over on bilby's animal-identity-crisis.
September 6, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word localization
See citation on Anderson localization.
August 30, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word Anderson localization
"In the 1950s, Philip Anderson, a physicist at Bell Laboratories, discovered a strange phenomenon. In some situations where it seems as though waves should advance freely, they just stop — like a tsunami halting in the middle of the ocean.
Anderson won the 1977 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of what is now called Anderson localization, a term that refers to waves that stay in some “local” region rather than propagating the way you’d expect. He studied the phenomenon in the context of electrons moving through impure materials (electrons behave as both particles and waves), but under certain circumstances it can happen with other types of waves as well."
-- "Mathematicians Tame Rogue Waves, Lighting Up Future of LEDs" by Kevin Hartnett (https://www.quantamagazine.org/mathematicians-tame-rogue-waves-lighting-up-future-of-leds-20170822)
August 30, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word fist cods
Apparently "a slaughterhouse worker who removes the hide from the rear legs of lambs and calves and curries calf carcasses."
-- https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fist%20cods
August 29, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word Moon illusion
"The Moon illusion is an optical illusion which causes the Moon to appear larger near the horizon than it does higher up in the sky."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moon_illusion&oldid=796703035
August 29, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list sick-animals
Nice! Hernesheir's got a sheepishness list.
August 28, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list test-list--23
Test.
August 17, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word amphipathic
See usage example on guaiacol.
August 17, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word guaiacol
"The researchers focused on a small amphipathic compound known as guaiacol. This molecule is linked with the smoky taste that develops when malted barley is smoked on peat fires, and is far more common in Scottish whiskies than in American or Irish ones, the researchers said."
-- https://www.livescience.com/60158-why-whiskey-tastes-good-diluted.html#undefined.uxfs
August 17, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word swaddle
"The biggest limitation to this research may be the definition of swaddling itself. The authors of the study acknowledge one of the “several” limitations to their meta-analysis is the fact that none of the studies they reviewed clearly outlined what constitutes a swaddle. And besides that, as anyone who has tried to swaddle a baby can confirm, good swaddling takes practice. Many parents, for fear of too tightly wrapping their babies, end up swaddling too loosely, which is itself a suffocation hazard. (Some daycare centers in the United States don’t allow swaddling for this reason.)"
-- https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/05/is-swaddling-safe/482055/
August 16, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word sousveillance
"The term "sousveillance", coined by Steve Mann, stems from the contrasting French words sur, meaning "above", and sous, meaning "below", i.e. "surveillance" denotes the "eye-in-the-sky" watching from above, whereas "sousveillance" denotes bringing the camera or other means of observation down to human level, either physically (mounting cameras on people rather than on buildings), or hierarchically (ordinary people doing the watching, rather than higher authorities or architectures doing the watching)."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sousveillance&oldid=788558213
August 16, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word pastry
From The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia:
"n. A place where pies, tarts, etc., are made.
"n. Viands made of paste, or of which paste constitutes a principal ingredient; particularly, the crust or cover of a pie, tart, or the like."
August 11, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word squaffles
I prefer fufluns.
August 11, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word twistical
Another great one. Thanks, qms.
August 11, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word bicinia
"In music of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras, a bicinium (pl. bicinia) was a composition for only two parts, especially one for the purpose of teaching counterpoint or singing."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bicinium&oldid=782797821
August 10, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word curculio
Is it weird that I think those weevils are kinda cute?
August 9, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word nutation
Compare counternutation.
August 9, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word counternutation
"Nutation and counternutation refer to movement of the sacrum defined by the rotation of the promontory downwards and anteriorly, as with lumbar extension (nutation); or upwards and posteriorly, as with lumbar flexion (counternutation)."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anatomical_terms_of_motion&oldid=778251662
August 9, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word et in arcadia ego
Arcades ambo.
August 9, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word scenography
Nice one, qms!
August 9, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word interoception
"Few neuroscientists still believe in an immaterial soul. Yet many follow Descartes in claiming that conscious experience involves awareness of a ‘thinking thing’: the self. There is an emerging consensus that such self-awareness is actually a form of bodily awareness, produced (at least in part) by interoception, our ability to monitor and detect autonomic and visceral processes. For example, the feeling of an elevated heart rate can provide information to the embodied organism that it is in a dangerous or difficult situation."
-- https://aeon.co/essays/psychedelics-work-by-violating-our-models-of-self-and-the-world
August 8, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word tork
See comments on torks, torque, etc.
August 7, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word torque
There were a couple of examples over on torked.
August 7, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word millwright
"As the name suggests, the original function of a millwright was the construction of flour mills, sawmills, paper mills and fulling mills powered by water or wind, mostly of wood with a limited number of metal parts. Since both of these structures originated from antiquity, millwrighting could be considered, arguably, as one of the oldest engineering trades and the forerunner of the modern mechanical engineer.
In modern usage, a millwright is engaged with the erection of machinery. This includes such tasks as leveling, aligning and installing machinery on foundations or base plates and setting, leveling and aligning electric motors or other power sources such as turbines with the equipment, which millwrights typically connect with some type of coupling."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Millwright&oldid=785197392
August 4, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word paraquat
See comment on viologen.
August 2, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word viologen
"The name is because this class of compounds is easily reduced to the radical mono cation, which is colored intensely blue.
Possibly the best-known viologen is paraquat, which is one of the world's most widely used herbicides."
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Viologen&oldid=792580672
August 2, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word bromide
"A bit of calm doesn’t sound so bad, but the sedative dose of bromide is too near bromide’s toxicity level. Plus, bromide can accumulate in our bodies. Back in the 1930s-1950s, overuse of bromide products led to appropriately named medical conditions. Bromide-induced coma was dubbed ‘the bromide sleep’. General bromide toxicity was ‘bromism’. Outside medicine, if you were just a bit of a bore you were insultingly called a ‘bromide’."
-- From "Brominated vegetable oil" by Raychelle Burks (https://www.chemistryworld.com/podcasts/brominated-vegetable-oil/9527.article)
See, also: brominated vegetable oil, creaming.
July 28, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word brominated vegetable oil
See comment on creaming.
July 28, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word BVO
Short for brominated vegetable oil. See comment on creaming.
July 28, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word creaming
"Brominated vegetable oil, called BVO for short, is made by adding bromine across the double bonds of certain fatty acids in vegetable oil, usually soybean oil. Like plain vegetable oil, BVO does a good job of dissolving water-insoluble food flavour, fragrance and colouring agents, serving as a carrier for these agents in soft drinks, which are mostly water. Neither plain vegetable oil or BVO is water soluble, but we can make oil/water emulsions, dispersing tiny droplets of flavour-carrying oil throughout a soda solution.
"But why use BVO when plain ol’ vegetable oil could work? Density. Over time, gravity does its job and the emulsion breaks down, causing the oil and water to separate. If a plain vegetable oil is used, the oil fraction – which contains those all-important flavouring agents – would float to the top. Food scientists call this ‘creaming’."
-- From "Brominated vegetable oil" by Raychelle Burks (https://www.chemistryworld.com/podcasts/brominated-vegetable-oil/9527.article)
July 28, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list dogs-named-in-russian-literature
What a delightful list!
July 20, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word iphone
See iPhone.
July 20, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list chemistry-and-alchemy
I just arrived here after clicking on lixiviate. What a nice list!
July 19, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word kali
See additional definitions on Kali.
July 19, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word Kali
From The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia:
"n. The plant Salsola Kali, the prickly saltwort or glasswort. See alkali and Salsola.
n. Potash: so called by German chemists. Also kalin.
n. A carpet with a long pile, as distinguished from the carpets without nap.
n. The largest in the set of carpets commonly used in a Persian room, filling the center of the room."
n. For words beginning thus, see cali-."
July 19, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the user luthien13
luthien13: Welcome to Wordnik!
bilby: I totally read that as ADHD.
July 17, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word encephalophone
*press*
July 14, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word encephalophone
Oh look! A delicious food pellet!
July 14, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list western-pioneer-modern-recipes
I love that bunny salad and drum major salad appear right next to each other on this list.
July 14, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word encephalophone
*waits*
July 13, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word encephalophone
*sends telepathic button-pushing signal*
July 13, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word encephalophone
Ooh! Does anyone have a theremin I can borrow?
July 13, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word buhach
See citation on pyrethrum.
July 12, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word insectifuge
See citation on pyrethrum.
July 12, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word pyrethrum
From the Century:
"n. A powdered preparation of pyrethrum, used as an insectifuge. Also called pyrethrum-powder. See insect-powder and buhach.
n. In pharmacy, the Anacyclus Pyrethrum, or pellitory-of-Spain."
July 12, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word butcha
From The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia:
"A young one; a boy, babe, bairn, urchin, chit, chicken, sapling, etc."
July 11, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word Ramus
"On the occasion of receiving his degree in 1536, Ramus allegedly took as his thesis Quaecumque ab Aristotele dicta essent, commentitia esse, which Walter J. Ong paraphrases as follows: 'All the things that Aristotle has said are inconsistent because they are poorly systematized and can be called to mind only by the use of arbitrary mnemonic devices.'"
-- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrus_Ramus
July 2, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word Lullian Circle
See comment on Ars magna.
July 2, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word Ars magna
"One of the most significant changes between the original and the second version of the Art was in the visuals used. The early version used 16 figures presented as complex, complementary trees, while the system of the Ars Magna featured only four, including one which combined the other three. This figure, a "Lullian Circle," took the form of a paper machine operated by rotating concentrically arranged circles to combine his symbolic alphabet, which was repeated on each level. These combinations were said to show all possible truth about the subject of inquiry."
-- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Llull
July 2, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word Ars magna
See comment on Herborn Encyclopaedists.
July 1, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word Llull
See comment on Herborn Encyclopaedists.
July 1, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word Herborn Encyclopaedists
"Leibniz’s broader vision of the power of logical calculation was inspired by many thinkers — from the logical works of Aristotle and Ramus to Thomas Hobbes’s proposal to equate reasoning with computation. But Leibniz’s curiosity around the art of combinations per se was sparked by a group called the “Herborn Encyclopaedists” through whom he became acquainted with the works of Ramon Llull, a Majorcan philosopher, logician, and mystical thinker who is thought to have died seven centuries ago this year. Llull’s Ars magna (or “ultimate general art”) from 1308 outlines a form of analysis and argumentation based on working with different permutations of a small number of fundamental attributes."
-- http://publicdomainreview.org/2016/11/10/let-us-calculate-leibniz-llull-and-computational-imagination/
July 1, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word elephant test
Wikipedia says "the term elephant test refers to situations in which an idea or thing, 'is hard to describe, but instantly recognizable when spotted'."
See https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Duck_test&oldid=785523971
June 30, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the word Fodmaps
"And sometimes your gut distress isn’t caused by a germ at all. It could be an overdose of fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols, known in public health circles as Fodmaps. These are essentially carbohydrates that, eaten in excess, are not well absorbed in the small intestine and then make their way into your colon to cause all kinds of trouble. They include myriad things we’re encouraged to eat including broccoli, brussels sprouts, radicchio, asparagus, avocados, mushrooms, peaches, whole grains and legumes."
-- "What to Blame for Your Stomach Bug? Not Always the Last Thing You Ate" (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/29/well/live/what-to-blame-for-your-stomach-bug-not-always-the-last-thing-you-ate.html)
June 29, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list words-that-sound-like-insults-but-are-not
Fun!
June 29, 2017
ruzuzu commented on the list drug-store-items-that-would-make-horrible-superhero-names
Exactly--with his aviator glasses and bomber jacket (which he'd have picked up last winter in the "seasonal" section).
June 28, 2017
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