Archive for February, 2006

widdershins

I had always assumed that "widdershins" derived somehow from "widow shins," though I was never quite sure what that had to do with anything (something about witches and shinbones, no...

topit

A "topit" is a "[l]arge pocket in the lining of a jacket that allows [a stage] magician to vanish items by tossing them secretly and smoothly into the pocket," according...

neritic

I just looked up "oceanic," and the definition distinguished oceanic waters from "littoral or neritic waters." I had a vague idea that "littoral" was something to do with margins, and...

calcine

[...] yellow, like sand calcined and made incandescent by the sun[....] --We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, translated by Bernard Guilbert Guerney in 1960; p. 92 of the 1977 Penguin edition...

distaff

I always had a vague idea that "distaff" referred to a woman specifically in the role of wife. Turns out it just means female more generally, or specifically maternal. MW11...

lac

This one isn't actually new to me now, but it was a few months ago, and I think it's a neat example of unexpected cultural differences, so I'll include it....