Word of the day: choss

The word of the day is choss:

Friable, crumbly, or loose rock, typically considered unsafe or unpleasant to climb.

1930s; earliest use found in Margaret Mitchell (1900–1949), novelist. Representing a colloquial or humorous pronunciation of chaos.

(https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/choss)

"My hands were torn and bleeding already, so I paused to wipe them, one at a time, but I lost my grip and bounced from front to back over the choss, transferred by the tumbling rubble to the bottom of the wall."

 - Lori Lansens, The Mountain Story

Today I'm thankful for: that time Mr. Taft taught me how to shake hands

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for that time Mr. Taft taught me how to shake hands.

When I was in eighth grade, on the first day of school, someone came up with the cute idea of everyone in the middle school's shaking everyone else's hand in the middle school.  As an introvert, the idea was a bit overwhelming to me, so I wasn't terribly enthusiastic.  When I shook Mr. Taft (my eighth grade U.S. history teacher)'s hand, I pinched his metacarpals (not intentionally), and he said, "Ow!"  But then he stopped, and showed me: note the web between your thumb and forefinger.  When you shake someone's hand, your web should intersect their web.  If you do that, you can squeeze someone's hand as hard as you like, and it will come across as firm, never painful.

A strong handshake is a simple thing, but crucial to success in America.  It wasn't part of his lesson plan, but Mr. Taft saw an opportunity to teach me something, and went ahead and did it, and I am thankful.

Today I'm thankful for: that time my dad flew out to take care of the babies

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for that time Morgan had a meeting in California, and my dad flew out for a week to help take care of the babies (as we speak).  Alice, Katherine, and I are lucky to have so much support in our lives, and this is just one example, and I am thankful.

Word of the day: oxblood

The word of the day is oxblood:

1. a deep dull-red color.

 

(http://www.dictionary.com/browse/oxblood?s=t)

 

"Nola, with her soulful blue eyes and neat silver hair, strode by in her oxblood poncho, and I remember thinking that a person would be able to see that shiny red poncho from space."

 

 - Lori Lansens, The Mountain Story 

Today I'm thankful for: the ACLU

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Word of the day: noodle

The word of the day is noodle:

1. Slang. the head.

2. a fool or simpleton.

(http://www.dictionary.com/browse/noodle?s=t)

"'Well to be sure!' said Joe, astounded,  'I wonder how she come to know Pip!'
"'Noodle!' cried my sister.  'Who said she knew him?'"

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Word of the day: sportive

The word of the day is sportive:

1. playful or frolicsome; jesting, jocose, or merry.

2. done in sport, rather than in earnest

3. pertaining to or of the nature of a sport or sports.

4. Biology. mutative.

5. Archaic. ardent; wanton.

(http://www.dictionary.com/browse/sportive?s=t)

"'She wants this boy to go and play there.  And of course he's going.  And he had better play there,' said my sister, shaking her head at me as an encouragement to be extremely light and sportive, 'or I'll work him.'"

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Today I'm thankful for: infant formula

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for infant formula.

Nursing and pumping are both great options for feeding babies, and while they work great for many people, they don't work for everyone, and fortunately for us, we have infant formula.  Scientists have studied what nutrition is necessary for growing babies, and infant formula stays on the cutting edge of that science.  Not only does it include everything we believe babies need, but it is also getting updated all the time as we learn more about the components of human milk.  Some babies have special dietary needs, and we have specialty infant formula that meets those babies' needs, too.

Before an infant formula manufacturer can introduce a new infant formula, they need to notify the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), who reviews the formula to make sure that it is safe and nutritious before it can be sold in stores.  I have worked with the individuals on the infant formula team at FDA: they are all highly qualified, hardworking people who are dedicated to the work they do, and I am glad that they are on the case.

I am also thankful to the manufacturers of infant formula themselves, who are committed to making formula not only safe and nutritious for infants, but also user-friendly for their sleep-deprived parents.  Powdered infant formula comes in a very fine grain, which dissolves very easily into water, with very little work on my part, while still being coarse enough to not float into the air in the way that, say, powdered LB broth does.  And for those times when you don't have the wherewithal to even mix the easy-to-use powder with water, ready-to-feed liquid formula is also available, which has already been pasteurized and is ready to go.

Another benefit of infant formula I learned to appreciate just a few weeks ago, when I was sick with some dread contagious disease, and managed not to infect the babies, which I'm not certain I could have done without infant formula.

Alice and Katherine, and so many other babies, have infant formula as a safe, nutritious, and user-friendly option, and I am thankful.

Word of the day: perspicuity

The word of the day is perspicuity:

1. clearness or lucidity, as of a statement.

2. the quality of being perspicuous.

1470-80; < Latin perspicuitās. See perspicuous, -ity

(http://www.dictionary.com/browse/perspicuity?s=t)

"Joe recited this couplet with such manifest pride and careful perspicuity, that I asked him if he had made it himself."

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Today I'm thankful for: that time I was IPP

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for that time I was immediate past president of the Hopkins Toastmasters Club.

I have learned so much from Toastmasters, and possibly the most important thing I learned was when I was IPP.  

When I was president, the previous year, I poured my little heart and soul into the club.  I had no idea what I was doing, so I made lots of mistakes, learned from them, and through my experience, formed strong opinions about what worked and what didn't work.

The next year, the club had a new president, who didn't necessarily do things the way I would have done them.  And once again, painfully, through making mistakes, I eventually learned perhaps my most important Toastmasters lesson yet: that just because someone does something differently than how I would have done it doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong.  

Knowing the difference between an actual mistake (which, depending on the situation, may require my calling attention to it) and just a different choice than I would have made is a crucial skill, in all areas of life.  It's a skill I'm still trying to develop every day, but, because of my time as IPP, I'm much better at it now than I was, and I am thankful.

Word of the day: purblind

The word of the day is purblind:

1. nearly or partially blind; dim-sighted.

2. slow or deficient in understanding, imagination, or vision.

3. Obsolete. totally blind.

1250-1300; Middle English pur blind completely blind; see pure (in obsolete adv. sense), blind

"Much of my unassisted self, and more by the help of Biddy than of Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt, I struggled through the alphabet as if it had been a bramble-bush; getting considerably worried and scratched by every letter.  After that I fell among those thieves, the nine figures, who seemed every evening to do something new to disguise themselves and baffle recognition.  But, at last I began, in a purblind groping way, to read, write, and cipher, on the very smallest scale."

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Word of the day: execrate

The word of the day is execrate:

1. to detest utterly; abhor; abominate.

2. to curse; imprecate evil upon; damn; denounce.

 

verb (used without object), execrated, execrating.

3. to utter curses.

1555-65; < Latin ex (s) ecrātus (past participle of ex (s) ecrārī to curse), equivalent to ex- ex-¹+ secr- (combining form of sacrāre to consecrate; see sacrament ) + -ātus -ate¹

"Water was splashing, and mud was flying, and oaths were being sworn, and blows were being struck, when some more men went down into the ditch to help the sergeant, and dragged out, separately, my convict and the other one.  Both were bleeding and panting and execrating and struggling; but of course I knew them both directly."

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Today I'm thankful for: David Siffert's post on anti-Semitism and Jewish politics

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for David Siffert's thoughtful post on anti-Semitism and Jewish politics (https://www.facebook.com/siffert/posts/10101064035576000).  The ability and the choice to write with great feeling, context, nuance, and consideration for other people's feelings, all at the same, in as brutal a medium as a Facebook post, gives me hope for the future, and I am thankful.

Word of the day: manzanita

The word of the day is manzanita:

1. any of several western North American shrubs or small trees belonging to the genus Arctostaphylos, of the heath family, having leathery leaves and clusters of white to pink flowers.
2. the fruit of one of these shrubs.

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

"Nola suggested a flat spot up the hill near some manzanita, which would help block the wind."

 - Lori Lansens, The Mountain Story

Word of the day: chinquapin

The word of the day is chinquapin: 

1. a shrubby chestnut, Castanea pumila, of the beech family, native to the southeastern U.S., having toothed, oblong leaves and small edible nuts.
2. a Pacific coast evergreen tree, Castanopsis chrysophylla, of the beech family, having deeply furrowed bark, dark green lance-shaped leaves, and inedible nuts.
3. the nut of either of these trees.

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

"A long branch of spiky chinquapin reached out from nowhere to snag the nylon shell of my parka, and when I stopped to free my sleeve from the yellow bush, I was surprised to spot the girl in the green flip-flops moving slyly through the distant trees."

 - Lori Lansens, The Mountain Story

Word of the day: jig-back

The word of the day is jig-back:

1. an inclined cable tramway with two cars that are connected in such a way that as one goes up the other comes down.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/jig+back)

"The tram worked on a double jig-back system, with one car headed down the mountain while the second climbed up; hung on twenty-seven miles of interlocking cable strung out between five massive towers bolted into the mountainside."

 - Lori Lansens, The Mountain Story

Word of the day: shaver

The word of the day is shaver:

1. a person or thing that shaves.

2. an electric razor.

3. Informal. a small boy; youngster.

4. a fellow.

5. a person who makes close bargains or is extortionate.

1375-1425; late Middle English; see shave, -er¹; compare chip off the old block

(http://www.dictionary.com/browse/shaver?&o=100074&s=t)

"'Excuse me, ladies and gentleman,' said the sergeant, 'but as I have mentioned at the door to this smart young shaver,' (which he hadn't), 'I am on a chase in the name of the king, and I want the blacksmith.'"

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Today I'm thankful for: Morgan's doing both drop-off and pick-up

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for the fact that Morgan both drops the babies off at day care and picks them up from day care every day.

Morgan is a really great dad, and Alice, Katherine, and I are lucky to have him.  Being a great dad takes a lot of work, and he does it enthusiastically.  Doing drop-off and pick-up is just one example, and I'm thankful.

Word of the day: ague

The word of the day is ague:


1. Pathology. a malarial fever characterized by regularly returning paroxysms, marked by successive cold, hot, and sweating fits.

2. a fit of fever or shivering or shaking chills, accompanied by malaise, pains in the bones and joints, etc.; chill.

 

1250-1300; Middle English < Middle French, short for fievre ague acute fever < Latin febris acūta  

 

(http://www.dictionary.com/browse/ague?s=t)

 

 

"He shivered all the while so violently, that it was quite as much as he could do to keep the neck of the bottle between his teeth, without biting it off.

"'I think you have got the ague,' said I."

 

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

 

Today I'm thankful for: that time that Sicilian restaurant in Rome opened early for us

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for that time that Sicilian restaurant in Rome opened early for us.

It was our last night in Rome (and indeed our last night in Italy).  We had picked out this Sicilian restaurant we wanted to go to.  A bit after seven in the evening, we walked up. The door was open, so we walked in and asked whether they had a table available for dinner.  "Of course!" they said.  "When?"  "Tonight", we said.  "...You mean now?  Uh...sure, why not?"  They ushered us to a table, and we had a great meal.

About an hour and a half later, all the other diners started coming in.  It was only then that we realized the restaurant didn't open until 8:30pm, but they had opened, just for us.

I guess we weren't doing as the Romans do, but they welcomed us nonetheless, and I am thankful.

Today I'm thankful for: that time Mr. Friedlander told me not to be sorry

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for that time Mr. Friedlander told me not to be sorry.

I was applying to summer programs while I was in high school, and I needed two recommendation letters, so I asked my 10th grade Quantitative Chemistry and Physics (QCP) teacher, Mr. Friedlander, to write one.  About a week later, I figured I should follow up, to make sure I didn't miss the deadline, and I said, "I'm sorry to bother you, but I wanted to check in on the letter of recommendation I asked you to write for me."  And, after assuring me he would have it ready by the deadline, he said to me, firmly, "Don't be sorry.  You're not bothering me."

That was the first time I recall anyone saying that to me, and it has since become a central tenet of mine.  Perhaps you've heard me say to you, "Don't be sorry", or, "There's no need to be sorry", or, "Never apologize for doing your job."  And just the other day, someone to whom I had previously said something to that effect, said back to me, "Never apologize!", so Mr. Friedlander's advice is now in at least its third generation, and I am thankful.

Word of the day: enfilade

The word of the day is enfilade:

1. Military.
   1. a position of works, troops, etc., making them subject to a sweeping fire from along the length of a line of troops, a trench, a battery, etc.
   2. the fire thus directed.
2. Architecture.
1. an axial arrangement of doorways connecting a suite of rooms with a vista down the whole length of the suite.
2. an axial arrangement of mirrors on opposite sides of a room so as to give an effect of an infinitely long vista.

1706, from F. enfilade, from O.Fr. enfiler "to thread (a needle) on a string, pierce from end to end," from en- "put on" + fil "thread." Used of rows of apartments and lines of trees before modern military sense came to predominate.

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

Like that train we took to Ostia Antica.

"Instead, Sevigny has gone for a purer form of fun: an enfilade of domed caverns where dancers away to rock and disco hits flanked by tiled nooks from which clusters of beautiful folk watch the whorling crowd."

 - Nicolas Niarchos, "Bar Tab", 16 January 2017 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/16/well-heeled-ebullience-at-pauls-casablanca)

word of the day: imbrue

The word of the day is imbrue:

1. to stain

2. to impregnate or imbue (usually followed by with or in)
1400-50; late Middle English enbrewen < Middle French embreuver to cause to drink in, soak, drench < Vulgar Latin *imbiberāre, derivative of Latin imbibere to imbibe

(http://www.dictionary.com/browse/imbrue?s=t)


"At other times, I thought, What if the young man who was with so much difficulty restrained from imbruing his hands in me should yield to a constitutional impatience, or should mistake the time, and should think himself accredited to my heart and liver to-night, instead of to-morrow!"

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Word of the day: chandler

The word of the day is chandler:

1. a person who makes or sells candles and sometimes other items of tallow or wax, as soap.
2. a dealer or trader in supplies, provisions, etc., of a specialized type
3. a retailer of provisions, groceries, etc.

early 14c. "candle-holder;" late 14c. "maker or seller of candles," from O.Fr. chandelier, from L. candelarius, from candela "candle" (see candle).

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

"Mr. Wopsle, the clerk at church, was to dine with us; and Mr. Hubble the wheelwright and Mrs. Hubble; and Uncle Pumblechook (Joe's uncle, but Mrs. Joe appropriated him), who was a well-to-do cornchandler in the nearest town, and drove his own chaise-cart."

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

word of the day: squally

The word of the day is squally:

1. characterized by squalls.

2. stormy; threatening.

(http://www.dictionary.com/browse/squally?s=t) 

"After that, he sat feeling his right-side flaxen curls and whisker, and following Mrs. Joe about with his blue eyes, as his manner always was at squally times."

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

word of the day: jack-towel

The word of the day is jack-towel:

a long towel with the ends sewed together, for hanging on a roller.
(http://www.dictionary.com/browse/jack-towel?s=ts)

"She's a coming!  Get behind the door, old chap, and have the jack-towel betwixt you."

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

word of the day: pollard

The word of the day is pollard:

1. a tree cut back nearly to the trunk, so as to produce a dense mass of branches.

2. an animal, as a stag, ox, or sheep, having no horns. 

(http://www.dictionary.com/browse/pollard?s=t)

"I pointed to where our village lay, on the flat in-shore among the alder-trees and pollards, a mile or more from the church."

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Word of the day: curvet

The word of the day is curvet:

—noun

1. Dressage. a leap of a horse from a rearing position, in which it springs up with the hind legs outstretched as the forelegs descend.

—verb (used without object), cur·vet·tedor cur·vet·ed, cur·vet·ting or cur·vet·ing.

2. to leap in a curvet, as a horse; cause one's horse to do this.
3. to leap and frisk.

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

"Instead, they rampage into dance, climbing onto the hoods and the roofs of their vehicles, making holiday in the heat, and chanting, 'Another Day of Sun.'  The camera swings and curvets in accord, then rises to survey the scene: half a mile of merriment where none should be."

 - Anthony Lane, "Dancing with the Stars:  'La La Land'", 12 December 2016 The New Yorker (https://www.google.com/amp/www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/12/dancing-with-the-stars/amp?client=safari)

Word of the day: twee

The word of the day is twee:

1. affectedly dainty or quaint

905, from childish pronunciation of sweet.

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

"Whenever the show threatened to get twee, it veered toward spooky grandeur: an assault on Akhnaten's temple is headed by a Grand Guignol general wearing a top hat capped by a skull."

 - Alex Ross, "Pyramids and Wikileaks: Modern opera thrives in Los Angeles", 12 December 2016 The New Yorker (https://www.google.com/amp/www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/12/modern-opera-thrives-in-la/amp?client=safari)

Word of the day: hieratic

The word of the day is hieratic:

1. Also, hi·er·at·i·cal. of or pertaining to priests or the priesthood; sacerdotal; priestly.
2. noting or pertaining to a form of ancient Egyptian writing consisting of abridged forms of hieroglyphics, used by the priests in their records.
3. noting or pertaining to certain styles in art in which the representations or methods are fixed by or as if by religious tradition.
4. highly restrained or severe in emotional import

1656 (implied in hieratical), from Gk.hieratikos, from hierateia "priesthood,"from hierasthai "be a priest," fromhiereus "priest," from hieros "sacred."

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

"At the same time, its static, hieratic text, derived largely from ancient Egyptian and Akkadian sources, lies far outside the operatic norm, and makes most American librettos of recent decades look bland"

 - Alex Ross, "Pyramids and Wikileaks: Modern opera thrives in Los Angeles", 12 December 2016 The New Yorker (https://www.google.com/amp/www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/12/modern-opera-thrives-in-la/amp?client=safari)

Word of the day: subvention

The word of the day is subvention:

1. a grant of money, as by a government or some other authority, in aid or support of some institution or undertaking, especially in connection with science or the arts.
2. the furnishing of aid or relief.

c.1400, from M.Fr. subvention, from L.L. subventionem (nom. subventio) "assistance," from pp. stem of L. subvenire "come to one's aid," from sub "up to" + venire "to come" (see venue).

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

"He was rescued by Miller's friend Anaïs Nin, who, after shopping the manuscript around and finding no one else who was willing to print it, offered to subvent publication."

 - Louis Menand, "People of the Book: Two faces of American publishing", 12 December 2016 The New Yorker (https://www.google.com/amp/www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/12/people-of-the-book-2/amp?client=safari)

Word of the day: buckra

The word of the day is buckra:

—noun Southern U.S. (chiefly South Atlantic States) .

1. Usually Disparaging and Offensive. a term used to refer to a white man.

disparaging term among U.S. blacks for "white person," especially a poor one, 1790, apparently from an African language; cf. mbakara "master" in Efik, a language of the Ibibio people of southern Nigeria.

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

"Marginalized and without demand for their labor, poor whites bore up under rude epithets—crackers, white trash, po buckra."

 - Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

Word of the day: apparat

The word of the day is apparat:

an organization or existing power structure, especially a political one

"administrative machinery of the Communist Party in Russia," 1950, from Rus., from Ger. apparat "apparatus, instrument," from L. apparatus (see apparatus).

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

"Fox News Business Network commentator Lou Dobbs commented in 2011 that 'as it's being run now, [the EPA] could be part of the apparat of the Soviet Union.'"

 - Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

Word of the day: menshevik

The word of the day is menshevik:

1. a member of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party in opposition to the Bolsheviks: advocated gradual development of full socialism through parliamentary government and cooperation with bourgeois parties; absorbed into the Communist party formed in 1918.

1917, from Rus. men'shevik, from men'she "lesser" (comp. of malo "little," from PIE base *men- "to lessen, diminish") + -evik "one that is." So called by Lenin because they were a minority in the party. Earlier used in ref. to the minority faction of the Social-Democratic Party, when it split in 1903. Russian pl. mensheviki occasionally was used in Eng.

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

"Maybe this was the main reason Mike was later to tell me, in reference to the 2016 presidential election and only half jokingly, that he could never bring himself to vote for the menshevik (Hillary Clinton) or the bolshevik (Bernie Sanders)."

 - Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

Word of the day: tupelo

The word of the day is tupelo:

1. any of several trees of the genus Nyssa, having ovate leaves, clusters of minute flowers, and purple, berrylike fruit, especially N. aquatica, of swampy regions of the eastern, southern, and midwestern U.S.

black gum tree, 1730, apparently from Cree (Algonquian) ito opilwa "swamp tree."

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

"The neat, modest homes faced Crawfish Stew Street on one side and a canal on the other, leading to the bayou and extraordinary vistas of wide-winged water birds swooping gracefully from water to tupelo and cypress."

 - Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

Word of the day: pirogue

The word of the day is pirogue:

1. a canoe made by hollowing out a tree trunk.
2. a native boat, especially an American dugout.

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

"Harold's father built fishing boats out of cypress, some flat-bottomed dugout pirogues traditional to Cajun culture.  He would bring logs to a nearby mill, saw them in his shop, and build them into boats, which he rented to fishermen."

 - Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

Word of the day: prat

The word of the day is prat:

1. the buttocks.

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

"The last phrase was turned in that special voice which people use for humorous self-parody, in the mistaken hope that it will make them sound less like a prat."

 - Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Phrase of the day: bunch of fives

The phrase of the day is bunch of fives:

uk old-fashioned slang

​

If you give someone a bunch of fives, you hit them hard with your hand closed.

(http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/a-bunch-of-fives)

"Or a little car runs into the back of yours and you rush out to show a bunch of fives to the driver who, it becomes apparent as he goes on unfolding more body like some horrible conjuring trick, must have been sitting on the back seat."

 - Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Word of the day: slipstream

The word of the day is slipstream:

1. Aeronautics. the airstream pushed back by a revolving aircraft propeller. Compare backwash (def 2), wash (def 31).
2. the airstream generating reduced air pressure and forward suction directly behind a rapidly moving vehicle.

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

"In fact Rincewind was already half a mile out over the dark sea, squatting on the carpet like an angry buddha, his mind a soup of rage, humiliation and fury, with a side order of outrage...

"He reached up and touched his hat for reassurance, even as it lost its last few sequins in the slipstream."

 - Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Word of the day: caddisfly

The word of the day is caddisfly:

1. any of numerous aquatic insects constituting the order Trichoptera, having two pairs of membranous, often hairy wings and superficially resembling moths.

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

Most caddisfly larvae live in cases they build out of sand, rock, twigs, leaf pieces, and any other kind of underwater debris. Some even generate their own cases out of silk. There is tremendous variation in case style and also in the way the larvae manage their cases: whether they replace it as they grow or renovate their old one, and whether they carry it around or fix it to an object.

(http://www.troutnut.com/hatch/12/Insect-Trichoptera-Caddisflies)

"'Wizards always used to build a tower around themselves, like those...what do you call those things you find at the bottom of rivers?'

"'Frogs.'

"'Stones.'

"'Unsuccessful gangsters.'

"'Caddis flies is what I meant,' said Rincewind."

 - Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Word of the day: crenelated

The word of the day is crenelated:

1. furnished with crenelations, as a parapet or molding, in the manner of a battlement.

early 14c., from Fr. créneler, from crénelé (12c.); see crenel. Sometimes also crenellate; the double -l- seems to be from a presumed L. *crenella, dim. of crena.

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

"Rincewind was used to the dressy ways of wizards, but this one was really impressive, his robe so padded and crenellated and buttressed in fantastic folds and creases that it had probably been designed by an architect."

 - Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Word of the day: geas

The word of the day is geas:

(in Irish folklore) an obligation or prohibition magically imposed on a person.

(https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/geas)

"'It's a sort of quest.'

"Nijel's eyes gleamed.

"'You mean a geas?'"

 - Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

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: gantry

The word of the day is gantry:

1. a framework spanning a railroad track or tracks for displaying signals.
2. any of various spanning frameworks, as a bridgelike portion of certain cranes.
3. Rocketry. a frame consisting of scaffolds on various levels used to erect vertically launched rockets and spacecraft.
4. a framelike stand for supporting a barrel or cask.

1574, originally, "four-footed stand for a barrel," probably from O.N.Fr. gantier, from O.Fr. chantier, from L. cantherius "rafter, frame," from Gk. kanthelios "pack ass," so called from the framework placed on its back, from kanthelion "rafter," of unknown origin.

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

"For example, the weird dream about a lead doughnut on a mile-high gantry, which in the right mind would have been the catalyst for the invention of repressed-gravitational electricity generation (a cheap and inexhaustible and totally non-polluting form of power which the world in question had been seeking for centuries, and for the lack of which it was plunged into a terrible and pointless war) was in fact had by a small and bewildered duck."

 - Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Word of the day: rill

The word of the day is rill:

1. a small rivulet or brook.

"small brook, rivulet," 1538, from Du. ril, Low Ger. rille "groove, furrow, running stream," probably from P.Gmc. *riðele (cf. O.E. rið, riþe "brook, stream," which survives only in obscure Eng. dialects), a diminutive form from PIE base *reie- "to run, flow" (see Rhine).

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

"My landscape gardeners incorporated all the essential features, I believe.  They spent simply ages getting the rills sufficiently sinuous."

 - Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Word of the day: kedgeree

The word of the day is kedgeree:

1. East Indian Cookery. a cooked dish consisting of rice, lentils, and spices.
2. a cooked dish of rice, fish, hard-boiled eggs, butter, cream, and seasonings.

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

"Sheer pressure of thaumaturgical inflow was even affecting the food.  What was a forkful of kedgeree when you lifted it off the plate might well have turned into something else by the time it entered your mouth."

 - Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Word of the day: bedder

The word of the day is bedder:

1. bedmaker (def 1).

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

"One or two wizards, stately men who had hitherto done nothing more blameworthy than eat a live oyster, turned themselves invisible and chased the maids and bedders through the corridors."

 - Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Word of the day: grapnel

The word of the day is grapnel:

1. a device consisting essentially of one or more hooks or clamps, for grasping or holding something; grapple; grappling iron.
2. a small anchor with three or more flukes, used for grappling or dragging or for anchoring a small boat, as a skiff.

1373, Anglo-Fr. dim. of O.Fr. grapil "hook," from grape "hook" (see grape).

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

"Further along the University wall there was a faint clink as a grapnel caught the spikes that lined its top."

 - Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Word of the day: chaparral

The word of the day is chaparral:

1. a dense growth of shrubs or small trees.

1850, Amer.Eng., from Sp. chaparro "evergreen oak," perhaps from Basque txapar.

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

"In a remote corner of Northern California, on a steep slope of knotty oaks, sulfur and steam rise in plumes from Wilbur Hot Springs...

"The view's nice; the chaparral smells great."

 - Rinku Patel, "Bugged", The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2016

Word of the day: hap

The word of the day is hap:

1. one's luck or lot.
2. an occurrence, happening, or accident.

c.1200, "chance, luck," from O.N. happ "chance, good luck," from P.Gmc. *khapan (source of O.E. gehæp "convenient, fit"). Meaning "good fortune" is from early 13c.

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

"Of course the moose did not choose his yes any more than Respighi chose his.  It is his hap to be born—to come out of the mama onto the Earth—his hap to be rejected by the mama novel a littler moose comes out, his hap to bear a staggering affirmation on his brow."

 - Amy Leach, "The Modern Moose", The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2016

Word of the day: flak

The word of the day is flak:

1. antiaircraft fire, especially as experienced by the crews of combat airplanes at which the fire is directed.
2. criticism; hostile reaction; abuse

1938, from Ger. Flak, acronym for Fliegerabwehrkanone "airplane defense cannon." Sense of "anti-aircraft fire" is 1940; metaphoric sense of "criticism" is c.1963 in Amer.Eng.

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

"Hamburg knew the bombs were coming, and so the prisoners of war and forced laborers had just half a year to build the giant flak bunker."

 - Robert Kunzig, "The Will to Change", The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2016

Word of the day: cavalcade

The word of the day is cavalcade:

1. a procession of persons riding on horses, in horsedrawn carriages, in cars, etc.
2. any procession.
3. any noteworthy series, as of events or activities.

1591, via M.Fr., from It. cavalcata, from cavalcare "to ride on horseback," from V.L. *caballicare, from L. caballus (see cavalier). Literally, "a procession on horseback," in 20c. -cade came to be regarded as a suffix and taken to form motorcade (1913), etc.

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

"At first I had wanted to say that it was hideous, sinister even, but the pit's engineered tiers, industrialized terra-cotta complexion, and crimson water have a hard-won refinement, like western art scenes of dusty cavalcades and buffalo runs."

 - Kea Krause, "What's Left Behind", The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2016

Word of the day: oblate

The word of the day is oblate:

1. a person offered to the service of and living in a monastery, but not under monastic vows or full monastic rule.
2. a lay member of any of various Roman Catholic societies devoted to special religious work.

"person devoted to religious work," 1756, from M.L. oblatus, noun use of L. oblatus, variant pp. of L. offerre "to offer, to bring before" (latus "carried, borne" used as suppletive pp. of ferre "to bear"), from *tlatos, from PIE base *tel-, *tol- "to bear, carry" (see extol).

"My first night in the convent, I had a quick dinner of scrambled eggs and bagels with the nuns and oblates in the cafeteria."

 - Alexandra Kleeman, "The Bed-Rest Hoax", The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2016

Word of the day: benthos

The word of the day is benthos:

1. the biogeographic region that includes the bottom of a lake, sea, or ocean, and the littoral and supralittoral zones of the shore.

"life forms of the deep ocean and sea floor," 1891, coined by Haeckel from Gk. benthos "depth of the sea," related to bathos "depth," bathys "deep." Adjective benthic is attested from 1902.

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

"Last June I talked to Dr. Paul Montagna, a marine ecologist at Texas A&M University who studies benthic organisms.  He had found significant declines in a range of species that live on the Gulf seafloor."

 - Antonia Juhasz, "Thirty Million Gallons Under the Sea", The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2016

Word of the day: distemper

The word of the day is distemper:

Veterinary Pathology.

1. Also called canine distemper. an infectious disease chiefly of young dogs, caused by an unidentified virus and characterized by lethargy, fever, catarrh, photophobia, and vomiting.

"Steve and Poul talked about four channels of warm seawater at the base of Petermann Glacier that allowed more ice islands to calve, and the 68-mile-wide calving front of the Humboldt Glacier, where Jens and I, plus seven other hunters, had tried to go one spring but were stopped when the dogs fell ill with distemper and died."

 - Gretel Ehrlich, "Rotten Ice", The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2016

Word of the day: savasana

The word of the day is savasana:

Corpse Pose, also sometimes called Final Relaxation Pose (yoga)

Its Sanskrit name, “Savasana” (shah-VAHS-uh-nuh), comes from two words. The first is “Sava” (meaning “corpse”), and the second is “asana” (meaning “pose”).  (https://m.yogaoutlet.com/guides/how-to-do-corpse-pose-in-yoga)

"The anthropologists are studying two things: how the Texas sun turns a body into a rusted mummy feeding switchgrass, and how vultures scavenge those bodies.  To learn about the former, the donated cadavers are laid under metal mesh cages.  To understand the latter, they are left exposed, tagged wrists crossed, or open, as in savasana — the corpse pose."

 - Chelsea Biondolillo, "Back to the Land", The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2016