Word of the day: carceral

The word of the day is carceral:

of, relating to, or suggesting a jail or prison

Late Latin, from Latin carcer prison (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/carceral)

"In Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics, Marie Gottschalk traces the explosive growth of the U.S. prison population over the last four decades.  She also broadens the focus beyond incarceration to what she calls 'a tenacious carceral state' that reaches far beyond the prison gate and creates a permanent class of outcasts—the millions on parole or probation, and the millions more who, as a result of criminal conviction, cannot vote, work in certain occupations, or even live in their own homes."

 - David Fathi, Winter 2016 Stand (https://www.aclu.org)

Word of the day: exaptation

The word of the day is exaptation:

1. a process in which a feature acquires a function that was not acquired through natural selection.
2. a feature having a function for which it was not originally adapted or selected.
3. a morphological or physiological feature that predisposes an organism to adapt to a different environment or lifestyle.
4. predisposition toward adaptation.

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

"Scientists speculate that the repeated evolution of blue skin in birds may be due to the inherent nature of collagen.  In their role of supporting skin, collagen fibers are organized parallel to the surface in the facial region and spaced closely enough to be near the distance to interfere with wavelengths of visual light...  The repeated exaptation of collagen for generating blue makes the unique nature of the beta-keratin nanofibers in penguins all the more interesting...  Perhaps other methods of creating blue await discovery even now."

 - Daniel T. Ksepka, "The Penguin's Palette—More Than Black and White", January-February 2016 American Scientist (http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/2016/1/the-penguins-palette-more-than-black-and-white)

Word of the day: sacralize

The word of the day is sacralize:

1. to make sacred; imbue with sacred character, especially through ritualized devotion: a society that sacralized science.

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

"In his weaker writing, there creeps into the verse a slightly reflexive, choric fatalism, a sacralizing of the land’s conflicts, in which Israel is evoked as a place haplessly soaked in thousands of years of religious strife: “In my land, called holy, / they won’t let eternity be: / they’ve divided it into little religions, / zoned it for God-zones.” But who, in these words, is “they”? “Jewish history and world history / grind me between them,” he writes, as if the soldier-poet, who helped found his nation, lacked all political agency."

 - James Wood, "Like a prayer: the poetry of Yehuda Amichai", 4 January 2016 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/04/like-a-prayer)

Word of the day: choric

The word of the day is choric:

—adjective

1. of, pertaining to, or written for a chorus.

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

"In his weaker writing, there creeps into the verse a slightly reflexive, choric fatalism, a sacralizing of the land’s conflicts, in which Israel is evoked as a place haplessly soaked in thousands of years of religious strife: “In my land, called holy, / they won’t let eternity be: / they’ve divided it into little religions, / zoned it for God-zones.” But who, in these words, is “they”? “Jewish history and world history / grind me between them,” he writes, as if the soldier-poet, who helped found his nation, lacked all political agency."

 - James Wood, "Like a prayer: the poetry of Yehuda Amichai", 4 January 2016 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/04/like-a-prayer)

Word of the day: perseverate

The word of the day is perseverate:

to repeat something insistently or redundantly

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

"Lula feels any social rejection acutely. She has memorized the birthdays of all of her friends but knows she is only invited to two parties a year. On a recent afternoon, as she arranged and rearranged her Hello Kitty-themed room, she perseverated about not seeing her friends at camp and about not wanting to get older."

 - Apoorva Mandavilli, "The Lost Girls", 19 October 2015 spectrumnews.org (https://spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/the-lost-girls/)