Words & Stuff

Will Q. recently introduced me to the word "fnug," also spelled "fnuck"; it's a Danish word meaning "fluff" or "speck." Presumably if you have a big pile of fnucks, they're...

I happened across this word a couple weeks ago, and made a note to myself to post it; then on the way back from WisCon, Lisa M. mentioned that people...

"Pietism" was "a 17th century religious movement originating in Germany in reaction to formalism and intellectualism" (sez MW11); I guess a "Pietist" was a member of that movement, but I've...

To "parget" is "to coat with plaster," especially ornamental or waterproofing plaster. I'm surprised that we have a word for such a thing, and particularly that it's been around since...

This is one of those words that I'm reluctant to list because it's such an obvious alteration of well-known words. On the other hand, it's one of the few words...

A "pessary" is a vaginal suppository, or any of various devices worn in the vagina for various purposes. Ultimately from Greek "pessos," which MW11 says is an "oval stone for...

I'm sorry for the hiatus. One of those things where the longer I went without posting here, the more uncertain I got about the whole enterprise. I have some ideas...

The halteres are a pair of organs in a fly that "function as sensory flight stabilizers." (To quote from MW10.) Now that I write that, I have a vague idea...

According to Wikipedia, a statite is a hypothetical type of artificial satellite that employs a solar sail to continuously modify its orbit in ways that gravity alone would not allow....

A "craton" is a part of the Earth's crust that's particularly old and stable. They're apparently often found at the heart of a continent or ocean. I don't know that...