Word of the day: glair

The word of the day is glair:

Etymology:  < French glaire, found in 13th cent. The forms in the other Romance languages (Provençal glara, clara, Italian chiara, Spanish clara) indicate Latin clāra, feminine of clārus bright, clear, as the source of the French word. 

 

1. The white of an egg; freq. in full the glair of an egg, of eggs . Also, a technical term for preparations made from the whites of eggs and used in various trade-processes, esp. book-binding. 

 2. transf. Any similar viscid or slimy substance. (OED)

"So I put it in my mouth and taste
Two dank gobbets–salty, glairy, and grayish–
I should have recognized as the waste
That was my old self,
A loofah having scraped it from each crevice


And bulge, from every salacious thought and deed."


 - J. D. McClatchy, "Cağaloğlu", 15 & 22 August 2011 The New Yorker

Word of the day: grotto

The word of the day is grotto:

Etymology:  < Italian grotta (for which Dante has also grotto) = Old French crote, croute, Provençal crota, Spanish gruta, Portuguese gruta < popular Latin crupta, grupta (= literary Latin crypta), < Greek κρύπτη vault; < κρύπτειν to hide. (The modern French grotte is from Italian). 

1. A cave or cavern, esp. one which is picturesque, or which forms an agreeable retreat. 

2. An excavation or structure made to imitate a rocky cave, often adorned with shell-work, etc., and serving as a place of recreation or a cool retreat. 

3. A structure of oyster-shells in the form of a grotto erected and exhibited by London street-boys on the 5th of August. (OED)

"The same unlikely
Places–a battlefield or grotto–
Are returned to, while again the hollow-eyed
Ogle in flagrante devoto
And obey, shyly,
The scrambled revelations so true-and-tried."


 - J. D. McClatchy, "Cağaloğlu", 15 & 22 August 2011 The New Yorker