ludibrium
I saw the movie of The Da Vinci Code the other day, which led eventually to my reading the Wikipedia entry on the (fictional, as it turns out) organization known...
strake
I think (judging by the MW11 definition) that "strake" is the generic term for any strip or band of hull planking (or plating) on a boat or ship. Hard to...
presbycusis
"Presbycusis" is the condition of hearing less well as you get older. And yes, the "presby" part is as in "Presbyterian." In Greek, "presbyteros" apparently means (or meant) "priest" or...
entheogen
According to Wikipedia, an entheogen is "a psychoactive substance [. . .] that occasions enlightening spiritual or mystical experience." Specifically: In a strict sense, only those vision-producing drugs that can be shown...
LSD
I always vaguely wondered how "lysergic acid diethylamide" got abbreviated as "LSD." I think I figured (or had been told) that the S came from "lySergic," but that didn't make...
epergne
I've seen epergnes plenty of times: they're those structures used at fancy dinners and teas and such, with tiers to hold serving dishes and candles and so on. But I...
blick and fulguration
The "bleak," also known as the "blay" and the "blick," is a particular "small European river fish," according to Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. But what interests me more is that...
areal
I was familiar with the word "area," of course, but I didn't know 'til recently that the adjective form is "areal." ...you can get the same volume of magnetic dipoles...
ischemia
A recent story in Asimov's referred to a character having an "ischemic defect" in his heart. MW11 says that "ischemia" is a "deficient supply of blood to a body part...
sneeze
Related to that last entry, the etymology of "sneeze" is pretty cool: MW11 says it's from Middle English "snesen," alteration of "fnesen,"; related to Middle High German "pfnusen," to snort...