Word of the day: wadi

The word of the day is wadi:

1. the channel of a watercourse that is dry except during periods of rainfall.
2. such a stream or watercourse itself.
3. a valley.

"watercourse," 1839, from Arabic wadi "seasonal watercourse," prop. part. of wada "it flowed."

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

"As has already been indicated, the Luggage seldom shows any sign of emotion, or at least any emotion less extreme than blind rage and hatred, and therefore it is hard to gauge its feelings when it woke up, a few miles outside Al Khali, on its lid in a dried-up wadi with its legs in the air."

 - Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Word of the day: Fata Morgana

The word of the day is Fata Morgana:

1. Meteorology. a mirage consisting of multiple images, as of cliffs and buildings, that are distorted and magnified to resemble elaborate castles, often seen near the Straits of Messina.

1818, lit. "Fairy Morgana," mirage especially common in the Strait of Messina, Italy, from Morgana, the "Morgan le Fay" of Anglo-Fr. poetry, sister of King Arthur, located in Calabria by Norman settlers. Morgan is Welsh, "sea-dweller." There is perhaps, too, here an infl. of Arabic marjan, lit. "pearl," also a fem. proper name, popularly the name of a sorceress.

"It was just a vision in the distance, maybe fifty miles off, a nub of gray standing proud of the hummocks and pressure ridges.  For several days, Captain De Long studied this curiosity, wondering if it might be an illusion—a refraction of light, perhaps, a fata morgana."

 - Hampton Sides, In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette

Word of the day: rebec

The word of the day is rebec:

1. a Renaissance fiddle with a pear-shaped body tapering into a neck that ends in a sickle-shaped or scroll-shaped pegbox.

"medieval stringed musical instrument," 1509, from Fr. rebec, an unexplained alteration of O.Fr. ribabe (perhaps somehow infl. by bec "beak"), ultimately from Arabic rebab (cf. O.Prov. rebec, It. ribeca). It has three strings and is played with a bow.

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

"Behind the canoe armada was a floating orchestra of horns, pipes, and rebecs like three-stringed lutes."

 - Charles Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

Word of the day: drub

The word of the day is drub:

1. to beat with a stick or the like; cudgel; flog; thrash.
2. to defeat decisively, as in a game or contest.
3. to drive as if by flogging: Latin grammar was drubbed into their heads.
4. to stamp (the feet).

1630s (in an Oriental travel narrative), probably from Arabic darb "a beating," from daraba "he beat up." Related: Drubbing.

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

"Foot soldiers have often drubbed mounted troops.  At the battle of Marathon in 490 B.C., the outnumbered, outarmored Athenian infantry destroyed the cavalry of the Persoan emperor Darius I."

 - Charles Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

word of the day: arrack

The word of the day is arrack:

Etymology:  Ultimately Arabic, ʿaraq sweat, juice, especially in ʿaraq at-tamr ‘the (fermented) juice of the date,’ whence extended to all sorts of fermented beverages.

 

A name applied in Eastern countries to any spirituous liquor of native manufacture; especially, that distilled from the fermented sap of the coco-palm, or from rice and sugar, fermented with the coco-nut juice. (OED)

"The expo was as much a social affair as a scientific endeavor: as patrons wandered through exhibits about sanitation and sewers, they gulped mint juleps and spiked arrack punch and kumiss (fermented mare's milk produced by horses on-site) and generally had a gay old time."

 - Sam Kean, The Violinist's Thumb and Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by our Genetic Code