Words & Stuff

An "ostinato" is (according to Wikipedia) a musical phrase that's played or sung repeatedly at the same pitch. (Found this word in the Wikipedia entry for "dhikr.")...

"Salawat" (also transliterated "salawaat" and perhaps other ways as well) is apparently the term for certain blessings used by Muslims, particularly the Arabic phrase "salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam" (abbreviated...

Another one from a submission. "Catchpenny" is an adjective, meaning "using sensationalism or cheapness for appeal" (sez MW11). Useful in all sorts of circumstances. Dates back to 1750. Presumably refers...

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."...

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...

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....

Also used in the same story as "salle." An "adit" is a near-horizontal entrance shaft to a mine. This is yet another word that it's possible I've encountered before; it...