word of the day: roundelay

The word of the day is roundelay:

Etymology:  < Middle French rondelet roundlet n., with remodelling of the ending (through folk-etymological association) after lay n.⁴ or virelay n. Compare earlier roundel n. II., roundlet n.

Now somewhat arch. Freq. in pastoral poetry, or with pastoral associations.

 

1.a. A short simple song with a refrain. 

b. The competitive singing of such songs. Obs. rare.

2. A bird's song. 

3.a. A round dance. Cf. roundel n. 12. 

b. = fairy ring n. Obs. rare. 

4. A piece of music based on or accompanying such a song or dance. Also fig.5. fig. (orig. U.S.). A repetitive and apparently pointless cycle of events; a farce. (OED)

"Despite the bubbly erotic wit of Ernst Lubutisch's comedy 'Ninotchka' (playing at Film Forum through Jan. 3), the movie's political satire is chillingly serious.  Greta Garbo stars as Nina Ivanovna Yakushova, a stone-faced Soviet agent who arrives in Paris to sell jewelry confiscated from an exiled Russian noblewoman, Grand Duchess Swana (Ina Claire).  There, she allows herself to be seduced by Count Leon d'Algout (Melvyn Douglas), a debonair French idler, who happens to be Swana's lover.  The romantic roundelay, linking fine emotions with fine lingerie, is shadowed by the brutality of Soviet tyranny."

 - Richard Brody, "Red all over", 7 January 2013 The New Yorker

word of the day: expiate

The word of the day is expiate:

Etymology:  < Latin expiāt- participial stem of expiāre to make satisfaction, < ex- (see ex- prefix¹) + piāre to seek to appease (by sacrifice), < pius devout. 

1. trans. To avert (evil) by religious ceremonies; to avert the evil portended by (a prodigy or prophecy). Obs. exc. Hist. 

2. To cleanse, purify (a person, a city) from guilt or pollution by religious ceremonies. Occas. Const. of. Obs. 

3. To do away or extinguish the guilt of (one's sin); to offer or serve as a propitiation for. †to expiate oneself (rare): to do penance.

4. To pay the penalty of.

5. To make amends or reparation for. 

6. intr. To make expiation for. Obs. 

7. To extinguish (a person's rage) by suffering it to the full; to end (one's sorrows, a suffering life) by death. Obs.  (OED)

"The sets, by Jasmine Catudal, rich in gold and red, offer all kinds of spaces in which singers and dancers can move about: stage, auditorium, trap room, prompter's box, catwalks.  When, at the beginning of Act III, the action goes backstage, with the Met's own back wall towering in the distance, it's as if Lepage were expiating for the colossal clautsrophobia of his 'Ring'."

 - Alex Ross, "Retaking the stage: 'The Tempest' and 'Un Ballo in Maschera', at the Met", 3 December 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: fugacious

The word of the day is fugacious:

Etymology:  < Latin fugāci-, fugax ( < fugĕre to flee) + -ous suffix.

1. Apt to flee away or flit.

a. Of immaterial things: Tending to disappear, of short duration; evanescent, fleeting, transient, fugitive. 

b. Of persons: †Ready to run away. Also humorously (of persons), fleeing; (of things) slippery. rare. 

c. Of a material substance: Volatile. 

2. Bot. and Zool. Falling or fading early; soon cast off. (OED) 

 

 

"The oxygen fugacity of the deepest rock samples from Earth’s mantle is found to be more oxidized than previously thought, with the result that carbon in the asthenospheric mantle will be hosted as graphite or diamond but will be oxidized to produce carbonate melt through the reduction of Fe³⁺ in silicate minerals during upwelling."

 

 - Vincenzo Stagno et al., "The oxidation state of the mantle and the extraction of carbon from Earth's interior", Nature 493:84 (3 January 2013), doi:10.1038/nature11679

word of the day: ascites

The word of the day is ascites:

Etymology:  Latin, < Greek ἀσκίτης (sc. ὕδρωψ dropsy), < ἀσκός bag.

Pathol.

A collection of serous fluid in the peritoneal cavity; dropsy of the abdomen. (OED)

"This antibody is an IgG2a isotype from mouse ascites fluid."

 - ebiotrade.com

word of the day: gouache

The word of the day is gouache:

Etymology:  French, < Italian guazzo.

A method of painting with opaque colours ground in water, and mixed with gum and honey so as to form a sort of paste. Also, a painting executed in this way, and the pigment itself. (OED)

"Tamimi writes poetry, in Arabic, and paints.  There is a haunting gouache on his living-room wall - lines of script painted over with bright-yellow flowers and green leaves.  The poem, he told me, is 'about the things you're supposed to remember and the things you have to forget'; the flower are 'the way I felt after it was written'."

 - Jane Kramer, "The philosopher chef: Yotam Ottolenghi's ideas are changing the way London eats", 3 December 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: bogie

The word of the day is bogie:

Etymology:  A northern dialect word, which has recently been generally diffused in connection with railways as applied to the plate-layer's bogie, but especially in sense 2. Of unknown etymology: notwithstanding absurd stories in the newspapers (invented ad rem ), it has (as the sense might show) nothing to do with bogy n.¹, which is not a northern word. 

 

1. north. dial. A low strong truck upon four small wheels, also called trolly, hurly, etc. ‘A kind of cart with low wheels and long shafts, used by masons to remove large stones’ (Peacock Lonsdale Gloss.); ‘a rude contrivance for moving heavy articles, consisting of a simple plank on low wheels’ ( Lanc. Gloss.). esp. in Newcastle, A strong low truck (about 1 ft. high) on 4 small wheels, used, since c1817, for transporting a single cask or hogshead from the quay to the town; also a flat board with 4 very small wheels on which lads career down steep banks or roads, as in the Canadian sport of tobogganing. Hence, in general use, the low truck used by platelayers on a railway.

2. A low truck or frame running on two or more pairs of wheels and supporting the fore-part of a locomotive engine or the ends of a long railway-carriage, to which it is attached by a central pivot, on which it swivels freely in passing curves; a revolving under-carriage. (OED)

"In those years, we always travelled to the farm in the south by overnight train.  Arriving at the Lahore station by night, in two or three straggling cars, among hissing gas lanterns on venders' carts and the shouts of red-coated porters greasing their way through the crowd with suitcases stacked on their heads, we were bustled into a cream-and-green railway bogie, onto a train that seemed always to begin clanking and rolling just as we boarded, onto the Tezgam, the Khyber Mail, the Karachi Express, so that bedrolls and hampers of food and bottles and leaking thermoses, cases of tinkling silverware and rattling dishes, enormous leather-strapped suitcases would be thrust up into the moving vestibule, and Ghulam Rasool, my father's portly valet, galloping alongside the surging locomotive, would make a last desperate lunge, both feet seemingly in the air and his torso blown sideways in the slipstream, and be triumphantly hauled in by numerous hands."

 - Daniyal Mueenuddin, "Sameer and the samosas: a son, an inheritance, and a battle of wills", 3 December 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: janky

The word of the day is janky:

Etymology:  Origin unknown.

U.S. slang (chiefly in African-American usage).

Of poor quality, bad; untrustworthy, suspicious. (OED)

"Eventually, he moved to Los Angeles, and in 2007, through an agency, got a job working for Nicolas Cage and his family as a private chef. While with the Cages, he began to assemble the pieces to build Wolvesmouth: the table, the chairs, china, glasses, and flatware. “I didn’t want to do it janky,” he told me."

 - Dana Goodyear, "Toques from underground: The rise of the secret supper club", 3 December 2012 The New Yorker

microwave popcorn fail

A recipe for microwave popcorn, from The Food Matters Cookbook, also by Mark Bittman:

***

"Real hot popcorn is one of nature's ultimate convenience foods.  I can't say this strongly enough: There's no reason to use microwavable packages, no matter how "natural" they claim to be.  Any popcorn can be microwaved, as you'll see below.

Toss the popcorn with extra ingredients while it's still warm and the seasonings will stick pretty well, even without adding any more fat.

Microwave Popcorn (Makes 2 to 4 servings).  In a small glass container, or a brown paper lunch bag, combing 1/4 cup popping corn with 1/4 teaspoon salt and fold the top of the bag over a couple of times.  Microwave on high for 2 to 3 minutes, until there are 4 or 5 seconds between pops.  Open the bag or container carefully, because steam will have built up.  Toss with your seasonings and a drizzle of butter or olive oil or serve as is.

A Dozen Ways to Spike Your Popcorn

Toss any of these with just-cooked popcorn, alone or in combination.  Since some are more potent than others, start with a light sprinkle and taste as you go.

Chopped fresh herbs

Black pepper

Chili powder

Curry powder, or garam or chaat masala

Old Bay seasoning

Five-spice powder

Toasted sesame seeds

Cayenne or red chile flakes

Grated Parmesan cheese

Brown sugar

Finely ground nuts or shredded, unsweetened coconut

Chopped dried fruit"

 

***

 

So I tried the paper bag version just now and made a horrible burnt mess.  Perhaps the paper bag wasn't big enough?  Will try with a container next time.

Does anyone have any experience with homemade microwave popcorn?

word of the day: caesura

The word of the day is caesura:

Etymology:  < Latin cæsūra ‘cutting, metrical pause’, < cæs- participial stem of cædĕre to cut. The earlier form was immediately < French césure. (Some writers appear to have erroneously associated it with cease.) 

 

1.a. In Greek and Latin prosody: the division of a metrical foot between two words, especially in certain recognized places near the middle of the line.

b. Used for the lengthening of the last syllable of a word by arsis which sometimes occurs in the cæsura.

2. In English prosody: a pause or breathing-place about the middle of a metrical line, generally indicated by a pause in the sense. 

3. transf.a. A formal break or stop. 

b. A break, interruption, interval. (OED)

"The director suggested that he not move around too much, or at all, contending that theatre is ultimately not spectacle but sound.  With a cynical chuckle, Malkovich would invoke Faulkner's line about man's 'puny, inexhaustible voice still talking'.  Pinter's plots are rife with exhausted intervals, of course, and onstage, Sands parses the varieties: a beat is a breath, a pause is a moment of consideration, and a silence - he lets the caesura linger - is an absence so emphatic that it becomes a presence."

 - Tad Friend, "Skyping John Malkovich", 3 December 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: mensch

The word of the day is mensch:

Etymology:  < Yiddish mensh < Middle High German mensch , mensche person (see mannish n.).

colloq.

 In Jewish usage: a person of integrity or rectitude; a person who is morally just, honest, or honourable. (OED)


"Mixing readings with recollections of Pinter's pugnacious judgments, he argues that the playwright, while justly celebrated for his merciless dialogue and eerily aloof characters, was underappreciated as a poet and a mensch."

 - Tad Friend, "Skyping John Malkovich", 3 December 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: vulpine

The word of the day is vulpine:

Etymology:  < Latin vulpīn-us, < vulpēs fox

1. Characteristic of a fox; similar to that of a fox.

2.a. Resembling a fox; spec. in vulpine opossum or phalanger .

b. fig. Cunning, sly.3. Consisting of foxes.  

 4. Of or pertaining to a fox or foxes. (OED)

"Thanksgiving was still two weeks away when the Republican Party, to its evident shock, found itself stuffed, trussed, roasted, and ready to be served with all the trimmings. This was not the menu that the Party’s nominees, donors, and operatives had looked forward to. It was emphatically not the feast they had been primed to expect by their vulpine cheerleaders in the island universe of the illiberal media."

 - Hendrik Hertzberg, "Mandate with Destiny", 3 December 2012 The New Yorker


No, I still don't know what he means.

word of the day: bourse

The word of the day is bourse:

Etymology:  < French bourse in same sense, literally ‘purse’. The form burse n. was in regular use from c1550 to c1775, when it became obsolete; bourse is a re-adoption of the word from modern French, as an alien term. 

 

An exchange, or place of meeting for merchants; the money-market (of a foreign town). Used esp. of the French institution corresponding to the Stock Exchange in London.  (OED)

"They were joined by national flagships: in the UK, Celltech, then British Biotech, then Celltech again (after British Biotech's demise on the stock exchange); for a while, Genset shone in France and Lion Bioscience in Germany, until they, too, disillusioned their bourses; then there was ES Cell International in Singapore and Macrogen in South Korea; and now we have Genmab in Denmark and Actelion in Switzerland and several potential flagships in Belgium (as is much in the nature of things Belgian)."

 -  "Where have the flagships gone?", Nature Biotechnology, 7 December 2012


The flowery prose is cute, but I fear the editors are losing control.

word of the day: moiré

The word of the day is moiré:

Etymology:  Probably < French moiré

A. n. 

1. A variegated or clouded appearance like that of watered silk, originally as an ornamental finish applied to metal (in full moiré metallique); a pattern or effect giving this appearance.2. = moire n.¹ 1. Also: an item of clothing made of this fabric. 

B. adj.  

1.a. Of silk: having a rippled, lustrous finish; watered. Also, of paper, metal, etc.: having a clouded appearance like watered silk.

b. Of a garment, shoes, etc.: made of moire. 

2. Designating a wavy or geometrical pattern of light and dark fringes (stripes) observed when one pattern of lines, dots, etc., is visually superimposed on another similar pattern, or on an identical one that is slightly out of alignment with the first. (OED)

"Please do not scan laser printouts of figures and send them to us as digital files. The dot pattern on a laser print often creates a moiré pattern when scanned."

 - Scientific Reports submission guidelines

word of the day: putsch

The word of the day is putsch:

Etymology:  < German Putsch (first half of the 19th cent.), spec. use of German regional (Swiss) Putsch knock, thrust, blow (1431), sudden rush, especially against an obstacle (1555), revolt, riot (19th cent., perhaps also 1524 in an apparently isolated attestation), of imitative origin. Compare earlier putschism n., putschist n. With the sense development compare also coup n.³ 2b, coup d'état n. at coup n.³ 5a, stroke of state n. at stroke n.¹ 14b.The German word became known outside Switzerland following the Zurich Putsch (German regional (Swiss) Züriputsch) of 1839.1. An attempt to overthrow a government, esp. by violent means; an insurrection or coup d'état.2. In a weakened sense: a sudden or forceful attempt to take control of an organization, business, etc.; a sudden vigorous effort, a concerted drive or campaign. (OED)

"Pakistan has a way of cutting careers short, some tragically.  One Prime Minister was sent to the gallows after being toppled in a coup.  Nine years later, the general who led the putsch died in a plane crash; conspiracists posit that it was brought down by combustible crates of mangoes on board."

 - Nicholas Schmidle, "Homecoming dept.: after Pakistan", 26 November 2012

word of the day: bezel

The word of the day is bezel:

Etymology:  < Old French *besel, *bezel, in modern French biseau , bizeau (compare Spanish bisel ), also basile ; of unknown origin: it may be diminutive of bis , bez , or contain that word. (It does not represent medieval Latin bisalus .) Compare belef adv., bevel n.² 

 

1. A slope, a sloping edge or face: esp. that of a chisel or other cutting tool (commonly basil.) 

2. The oblique sides or faces of a cut gem; spec. the various oblique faces and edges of a brilliant, which lie round the ‘table’ or large central plane on the upper surface, comprising the 8 star-facets, 16 skill-facets, and 8 lozenges.  [Compare Spanish bisel ‘edge of a looking-glass, or crystal plate.’] 

3. ‘The groove and projecting flange or lip by which the crystal of a watch or the stone of a jewel is retained in its setting.’ (OED)

"Johnson was in New York to promote a limited-edition luxury wristwatch called the Big Unit ($15,500), which incorporates, at his suggestion, a baseball (on the second hand) and his old uniform number (on the bezel, which marks fifty-one minutes after the hour, rather than fifty)."

 - Reeves Wiedeman, "Second acts: pitchman", 26 November 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: abeyance

The word of the day is abeyance:

Etymology:  < Anglo-Norman abeiaunce, abeyaunce (in en abeiaunce ) (of a legal right or title) the state of waiting for a claimant or owner (late 14th cent.; compare Old French abeance aspiration, desire, longing (late 13th cent.)) < Anglo-Norman abayer , abeier , abaier , Anglo-Norman and Old French abaer to gape (c1200 in Anglo-Norman), to open (the mouth) wide (c1220 in Anglo-Norman), to expect, to wait for (late 13th cent.), to wait impatiently (c1300) < a- a- prefix⁵ + Old French beer, baer (Middle French baer, Middle French, French béer, French bayer) to open (the mouth) wide (1121–35), (of a person) to gape (1173), to long for, desire (something) (c1190; compare Old Occitan badar, Catalan badar (14th cent.), Italian badare (1294)) < post-classical Latin badare to open the mouth wide, gape, of uncertain origin; perhaps ultimately imitative.
1. Law. Of a right or title: the position of waiting for or temporarily being without a claimant or owner. Also: a period of being without a claimant or owner.  

2. Temporary inactivity or disuse; suspension; latent condition. (OED)

"We surmise that our patient (like everybody) is stacked with an almost infinite number of 'dormant' memory-traces, some of which can be reactivated under special conditions, especially conditions of overwhelming excitement.  Such traces, we conceive - like the subcortical imprints of remote events far below the horizon of mental life - are indelibly etched in the nervous system, and may persist indefinitely in a state of abeyance, due either to a lack of excitation or to positive inhibition."

 - Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

word of the day: supererogatory

The word of the day is supererogatory:

Etymology:  < post-classical Latin supererogatorius (14th cent. in British sources) < supererogat- , past participial stem of supererogare supererogate v. + classical Latin -ōrius -ory suffix².

 

A. adj.  Characterized by, or having the nature of, supererogation; going beyond what is commanded or required; (more generally) superfluous.  (OED)

"We can usually tell a man's story, relate passages and scenes from his life, without bringing in any physiological or neurological considerations: such considerations would seem, at the least, supererogatory, if not frankly absurd or insulting."

 - Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

word of the day: zek

The word of the day is zek:

Etymology:  < Russian, probably representing the pronunciation of z/k, abbrev. of zaklyuchënnyĭ prisoner. 

In Russian-speaking contexts: (originally) a person confined in a forced labour camp in the U.S.S.R. (hist.); (now) a person held in a Russian prison. (OED)

"At the same time, Snyder also asks us to extend our circles of compassion, making us see that the child dying in the gas chamber was no different from the one being starved to death in the siege of Leningrad, or that the fate of the zek in the Gulag was not very different from that of the Russian prisoner in a German lager."

 - Adam Gopnik, "Faces, places, spaces: the renaissance of geographic history", 29 October & 5 November The New Yorker

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6HDnsclThe

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6HDnscl

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6HDnscl

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6HDnscl

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6H9DRj1

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6H9DRj1

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6H9DRj1

word of the day: loess

The word of the day is loess:

Etymology:  < German dialect lösz.

Geol.

 A deposit of fine yellowish-grey loam which occurs extensively from north-central Europe to eastern China, in the American mid-west, and elsewhere, esp. in the basins of large rivers, and which is usually considered to be composed of material transported by the wind during and after the Glacial Period. Also attrib. (OED)

"Kaplan's big picture includes the idea that a natural geographic force has driven European power over the centuries from the arid Mediterranean toward the more fertile north, and we hear about the north's rich, mineral 'loess earth.'"

 - Adam Gopnik, "Faces, places, spaces: the renaissance of geographic history", 29 October & 5 November The New Yorker

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6HDnsclThe

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6HDnscl

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6HDnscl

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6HDnscl

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6H9DRj1

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6H9DRj1

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6H9DRj1

word of the day: pilothouse

The word of the day is pilothouse:

Etymology:  < pilot n. + house n.¹ and int.

Naut.

1. A house in which a pilot lives or stays. Now chiefly hist. 

2. The wheelhouse of a ship or boat. (OED)

"The West made history, but the East drove it.  Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen."

 - Adam Gopnik, "Faces, places, spaces: the renaissance of geographic history", 29 October & 5 November The New Yorker

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6HDnsclThe

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6HDnscl

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6HDnscl

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6HDnscl

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6H9DRj1

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6H9DRj1

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6H9DRj1

word of the day: cabal

The word of the day is cabal:

Etymology:  < French cabale (16th cent. in Littré), used in all the English senses, < medieval Latin cab(b)ala (Italian cabala , Spanish cabala , Portuguese cabala )

1. = Cabbala n. 1: The Jewish tradition as to the interpretation of the Old Testament. Obs. 

2. = Cabbala n. 2:a. Any tradition or special private interpretation. 

b. A secret. Obs. 

3.a. A secret or private intrigue of a sinister character formed by a small body of persons; ‘something less than conspiracy’ (Johnson).

b. as a species of action; = caballing n.

 4.a. A secret or private meeting, esp. of intriguers or of a faction. arch. or Obs.

 b. phrase. in cabal. arch. or Obs.

 5. A small body of persons engaged in secret or private machination or intrigue; a junto, clique, côterie, party, faction. 

6.a. Applied in the reign of Charles II to the small committee or junto of the Privy Council, otherwise called the ‘Committee for Foreign Affairs’, which had the chief management of the course of government, and was the precursor of the modern cabinet. 

b. in Hist. applied spec. to the five ministers of Charles II, who signed the Treaty of Alliance with France for war against Holland in 1672: these were Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley (Earl of Shaftesbury), and Lauderdale, the initials of whose names thus arranged chanced to spell the word cabal.  (OED)

"My studies have shown misprints and mispellings in the average publication in England to be approaching 0.67345 per page!  The trade of booksellers and publishers - whose scurrilous cabal I expose in 'Machinery and Manufacturers' (price 6 bound in cloth, 'an unmixed gratification' - The Athanaeum) have done nothing!"

 - Charles Babbage, "User Experience", Sydney Padua

word of the day: oxa

The word of the day is oxa:

Chem.

Forming names of compounds in which an oxygen atom is regarded as having replaced a methylene (—CH₂—) group.  (OED)

"Furthermore, addition of a benzene ring at C5 adjacent to an oxa group in the carbon chain, as in FTY20, does not prevent binding and phosphorylation by SK2 or SK1, but does affect the reaction efficiency."

 - M. R. Pitman and S. M. Pitson, "Inhibitors of the Sphingosine Kinase Pathway as Potential Therapeutics", Current Cancer Drug Targets 10:354 (2010)


Here's the structure of FTY20:

And of sphingosine:

I don't see any ethers anywhere.  Am I losing my mind?

word of the day: cant

The word of the day is cant:

Etymology:  < cant n.¹; compare Dutch and German kanten in several of the same senses.

 I. trans.

1. To give a cant edge to; to bevel; esp. to bevel off a corner. 

2.a. To bring or put (a thing) into an oblique position, so that it is no longer vertical or horizontal; to slope, slant, tilt up. 

b. To turn over completely, turn upside down.c. fig. (?) To incline, adapt with a bias. Obs.3. To throw off, e.g. to empty out, the contents of a vessel by tilting it up. to cant off : to decant.

4. To pitch as by the sudden lurching of a ship; to toss, to throw with a sudden jerk.  

II. intr. 

5. To tilt, take an inclined position, pitch on one side, turn over; often to cant over . 

6. To have a slanting position, lie aslant, slope. 

7. Naut. To take, move into, or have an oblique position in reference to any defined course or direction; to swing round from a position. (OED)

"The world cants.

"Knox drops to his knees and rocks back and forth as waves of guilt wash over him."

 - William T. Vandemark, "Let slip the dogs",  15 November 2012 Nature

word of the day: revanche

The word of the day is revanche:

Etymology:  < French revanche revenge n. (c1525 in Middle French in sense ‘action of making requital or retaliation for an injury’, 1588 in sense ‘action of making requital or recompense for a benefit received’).

1. The action or an act of returning a favour or (now chiefly) avenging an injury; requital, recompense; revenge, retaliation. in revanche: in return; in revenge.

 2. Polit. Also with capital initial. The return of a nation's lost territory; a policy, movement, or act of aggression aimed at achieving this. Now chiefly hist. 

Freq. with reference to the desire of France to regain the province of Alsace-Lorraine after its annexation in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. (OED)

"Nussbaum’s belief that religious liberty, especially for Muslims, is in crisis in the Western world led to a book, The New Religious Intolerance: Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012). It offers a protest against  revanchist anti-Muslim trends in Europe and the United States."

 - Sarah Miller-Davenport, "Faith Healer", November-December 2012 The University of Chicago Magazine

word of the day: whing

The word of the day is whing:

Etymology:  Imitative.

 

A word expressing a high-pitched ringing sound. (OED)

"After the final letter was published on Nov. 22, 1997, Rushdie told journalist (and mutual friend of le Carré’s) William Shawcross, 'If le Carré wants to get his friends to do a little proxy whinging, that’s his business. I’ve said what I have to say.'"

 - Prachi Gupta, "Salman Rushdie and John le Carré reconcile after 15-year feud", 12 November 2012 Salon

HT: Wormbook

word of the day: whimbrel

The word of the day is whimbrel:

Etymology:  ? < whimp v. or whimper v., from the bird's cry. Compare for the ending dotterel, titterel.
Applied to various small species of curlew, esp. the European Numenius phæopus. (OED)


"Birds are sometimes blown astray, but many apparently have a coping strategy. Hurricane Katrina destroyed the habitat of breeding colonies in Louisiana's Pearl River Basin, for instance, but bird numbers held steady, researchers noted in the journal Forest Ecology and Management. Some birds are especially adept: Scientists at the College of William & Mary Center for Conservation Biology tracked a migratory shorebird, a whimbrel, as it flew through Hurricane Irene in 2011."

 - Marissa Fessenden, "Myth-Conceptions: 5 Falsehoods about Superstorm Sandy", 7 November 2012 Scientific American

word of the day: philodendron

The word of the day is philodendron:

Etymology:  < scientific Latin Philodendron, genus name (H. W. Schott 1829, in Wien. Zeitschr. 3 780) < Hellenistic Greek ϕιλόδενδρον , neuter of ϕιλόδενδρος fond of trees ( < ancient Greek ϕιλο- philo- comb. form + δένδρον tree: see dendro- comb. form), in reference to the epiphytic habit of most members of the genus.(Show Less)

 

A genus of tropical American evergreen plants (family Araceae), chiefly lianas, some species and hybrids of which are cultivated as house plants; (also philodendron) a plant of this genus.  (OED)

"Chlorophyll C₅₅H₇₂N₄O₅Mg

differs from human blood

only by substitution of one

atom of magnesium

in philodendron

for the single atom of iron

in Keats."

 - Stephen Sandy, "Alchemy", 29 October & 5 November 2012 The New Yorker

For comparison, here's chlorophyll:

And here's heme:

You see how similar they are to one another: not quite identical, but I'm willing to give that to poetic license.

word of the day: appurtenance

The word of the day is appurtenance:

Etymology:  < Anglo-Norman apurtenance (12th cent. in Littré), Old French aper- and, regularly, apartenance (compare Provençal apartenensa , Italian appartenenza ) < late Latin appertinēntia , < appertinēre : see appertain v. and -ance suffix. The second vowel has varied, as a , e , o , u , but the last is now the accepted spelling. For instances assimilated to appertain , see appertainance n. Formerly often used unchanged in the plural. 

 

1. Law and gen. A thing that belongs to another, a ‘belonging’; a minor property, right, or privilege, belonging to another more important, and passing in possession with it; an appendage.

2. A thing which naturally and fitly forms a subordinate part of, or belongs to, a whole system; a contributory adjunct, an accessory. 

3. esp. in pl. The mechanical accessories employed in any function or complex scheme; apparatus, gear. Also fig. 

4. The fact or state of appertaining.  (OED)

"Sibyl Hathaway, the indomitable Dame of Sark, had ruled the island for forty-seven years, after inheriting the title from her father, whose grandmother bought it off the Le Pelley family, which had acquired it in 1730 from creditors of the descendants of the nobleman Hélier de Carteret, to whom Elizabeth I, in 1565, first granted the fief 'with all its rights, members, liberties, and appurtenances, and all and each of its castles, fortresses, houses, buildings, structures, ruined or collapsed with age, lands, meadows, pastures, commons, wastes, woods, waters... vicarages, chapels and churches of every kind,' on the condition that he insure its continuous habitation by forty armed men."

 - Lauren Collins, "Sark Spring: a feudal feud in the Channel Islands", 29 October & 5 November 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: trammel

The word of the day is trammel:

Etymology:  In sense 1, < Old French tramail (c1220 in Godefroy Compl.), modern French trémail a fishing- or fowling-net, with three layers of meshes, = Italian tramaglio, Spanish trasmallo, Portuguese trasmalho < late popular Latin tramaculum for tri-, tremaculum (in Salic Law, Hessels, Cod. 1, xxvii. 20, tremaclem, v.rr. tremalem, tremagilo, tramaculam, trimaclem, tremagolum, tremachlum, etc.) a kind of fishing-net, generally explained as < Latin tri- three + macula mesh. In the Romanic languages the prefix appears to have been taken as = tra-, Latin trans.

 

I.  1.a. A long narrow fishing-net, set vertically with floats and sinkers; consisting of two ‘walls’ of large-meshed netting, between which is a net of fine mesh, loosely hung. More fully trammel-net n.The fish enters through the large mesh on one side, drives the fine netting through the large mesh on the other, and is thus trapped in a pocket or bag of the fine netting. Also sometimes applied to other kinds of fishing nets.

 b. A fowling-net; = trammel-net n. b. 

II.  2. A hobble to prevent a horse from straying or kicking; also, a contrivance for teaching a horse to amble, consisting of lines and straps connecting the fore and hind feet on each side, with a strap over the back to which both lines were fastened for support. Obs. 

3. transf. and fig. Anything that hinders or impedes free action; anything that confines, restrains, fetters, or shackles. Chiefly pl. 

4. Mech. An instrument for describing ellipses (French compas à ellipse), consisting of a cross with two grooves at right angles, in which slide pins carrying a beam or ruler with a pencil; also applied to the beam-compass (beam-compass n. at beam n.¹ Compounds 2). Also pl. 

So called because the motion of the beam carrying the pencil is trammelled or confined by the restriction of the pins to the grooves.

 III.  5. A series of rings or links, or other device, to bear a crook at different heights over the fire; the whole being suspended from a transverse bar (the crook-tree), built in the chimney, or from a small crane or gallows, the vertical member of which turns in sockets in the jamb and lintel. Now local Eng. and U.S. 

IV.  6. pl. The plaits, braids, or tresses of a woman's hair; in quot. 1594   with play on sense 1.  (OED)

"The mighty difference engine and its cogitating cogs has unleashed the hitherto dormant power of the mathematical algorithm, and the glorious kingdom of Great Britain thus becomes every day more rational and freer of error!

"The inventive faculties of the scientific classes fling off their trammels, filling the skies with airships!"

 - Sydney Padua, "User Experience"

word of the day: pith

The word of the day is pith:

Etymology:  < pith n. 

1. intr. To supply a person with strength or courage. Obs. rare^—1. 

2. trans. To pierce, sever, or destroy the upper spinal cord or brainstem of (an animal), so as to cause death or insensibility. 

3. trans. To remove or extract the pith from. Also fig.  (OED)

"It's like something's been scooped right out of me, right at the centre...that's what they do with frogs, isn't it?  They scoop out the centre, the spinal cord, they pith them...  That's what I am, pithed, like a frog...  Step up, come and see Chris, the first pithed human being.  She's no proprioception, no sense of herself - disembodied Chris, the pithed girl!"

 - Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

word of the day: kulak

The word of the day is kulak:

Etymology:  < Russian kulák fist, tight-fisted person, plural kulaki, < Turki ḳul hand.

 

In pre-Revolution Russia, a well-to-do farmer or trader; in the Soviet Union, a peasant-proprietor working for his own profit. Also transf. (OED)

"But my grandfather's big nose and wary drinker's eyes keep breaking through
the mask and posing an alternative enigma: what if his surplus value
led him not to solidarity with the worker but instead made him into a kulak
who must be killed?"

 - Thomas Sleigh, "A short history of communism and the enigma of surplus value",  8 October 2012 The New Yorker

word of the day: immiserate

The word of the day is immiserate:

1.  to make miserable.

2.  to cause to become impoverished. (dictionary.com)  (not sure why the OED doesn't have an entry on this, if it really is a real word)

"The final appearance at the United Nations General Assembly by the Iranian President, who will leave office after the elections next summer, reprised all the familiar numbers: anti-Israeli statements to the press; insinuations that the September 11, 2001, attacks were an inside job; a long sitdown with a TV interviewer (this time, Piers Morgan), in which he gleefully parried questions about Iran’s nuclear program and the threat of an attack from Israel; and a sanctimonious speech to the General Assembly, minus those delegates who walk out or absent themselves, about the perfidy of certain powerful Western nations that arrogate to themselves the authority to police a world they have aggressed, oppressed, and immiserated."

 - Laura Secor, "Road Show", 8 October 2012 The New Yorker