Word of the day: bagatelle

The word of the day is bagatelle:

1. something of little value or importance; a trifle.
2. a game played on a board having holes at one end into which balls are to be struck with a cue.
3. pinball.
4. a short and light musical composition, typically for the piano.

1630s, "a trifle," from Fr. bagatelle "knicknack, bauble, trinket" (16c.), from It. bagatella "a trifle," dim. of L. baca "berry." As "a piece of light music," it is attested from 1827.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bagatelle)

"Until we solve the world's desperate socio-economic problems, we can't waste our time on bagatelles like obscure Native American languages."

 - Jared Diamond quoting a hypothetical counterargument in The World Until Yesterday

word of the day: hagiography

The word of the day is hagiography:

the writing and critical study of the lives of the saints (dictionary.com)


"More generally, high valuation on land has translated into Australians'  embracing rural agricultural values justified by their British background but not justified by Australia's low agricultural productivity.  Those rural values continue to pose an obstacle to solving one of modern Australia's built-in political problems: the often disproportionate influence of rural voters.  In the Australian mystique even more than in Europe and the U.S., rural people are considered honest, and city-dwellers are considered dishonest.  If a farmer goes bankrupt, it's assumed to be the misfortune of a virtuous person overcome by forces beyond his control (such as a drought), while a city-dweller who goes bankrupt is assumed to have brought it on himself through dishonesty.  This rural hagiography and disproportionately strong rural vote ignore the already-mentioned reality that Australia is the most highly urbanized nation.  They have contributed to the government's long-continued perverse support for measures mining rather than sustaining the environment, such as land clearance and indirect subsidies of uneconomic rural areas."

 - Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

word of the day: eutrophication

The word of the day is eutrophication:

Ecology. (of a lake) characterized by an abundant accumulation of nutrients that support a dense growth of algae and other organisms, the decay of which depletes the shallow waters of oxygen in summer. (dictionary.com)

 

 

"Behind those impressive statistics on the scale and growth of China's economy lurks the fact that much of it is based on outdated, inefficient, or polluting technology.  China's energy efficiency in industrial production is only half that of the First World; its paper production consumes more than twice as much water as in the First World; and its irrigation relies on inefficient surface methods responsible for water wastage, soil nutrient losses, eutrophication, and river sediment loads."

 

 - Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed 

word of the day: relict

The word of the day is relict:

noun

1. Ecology. a species or community living in an environment that has changed from that which is typical for it.

2. a remnant or survivor.

3. a widow.

< Medieval Latin relicta widow, noun use of feminine of Latin relictus, past participle of relinquere to relinquish (dictionary.com) 

 

 

"Charcoal, piles of stones, and relict stands of crop plants showed that the northeast part of the island had been burned and laboriously converted to garden patches where crops could be planted in natural pockets of soil, extended by piling surface stones into mounds."

 

 - Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed