Archive for February, 2006
It's possible I've seen this word before, but it's a funny word, so I'll post it anyway. It turns out that the word "flock" can be a synonym for "floc."...
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...
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...
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...
[...] 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...
His face had its usual look: it was a round plate of white faïence[....] --We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, translated by Bernard Guilbert Guerney in 1960; p. 87 of the...
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...
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....
"Any challenger to a market where one player holds 80 percent share not only has to build a better mousetrap but improve upon the mouse," said Jonathan Spira, chief...
I was amused by this headline the other day: Blair wins terror glorification vote --The Independent, 15 February 2006 Turns out the Terrorism Bill outlaws glorification of terrorism. The headline...