1. paraphyletic — of or related to taxonomic group containing most but not all of the descendants of a common ancestor The Italic branch of Indo-European is paraphyletic as usually delineated, as it leaves out the modern Romance languages. 2. aorist — simple past tense in Ancient Greek, with no further limitations or restrictions; …
Author Archives: mysterious6030
Monday Book Report: Fear to Tread
Fear to Tread, by Michael Gilbert Michael Gilbert has proven to be one of the most consistent, most versatile, and most surprising writers of thrillers and suchlike dark fiction. Not that his books are dark—far from it. At their core is an almost quaint sensibility of the power of human goodness, even as recognition that …
Friday Vocabulary
1. farrago — confused mixture, hotchpotch, medley Even taking the few moments needed to look up the actual facts to rebut this farrago of nonsense is a waste of my time. 2. crassities — [obsolete] materiality, density The soul must be devoid of crassities, taught the philosopher, else it could be broken into separate …
Friday Vocabulary
1. scorbutic — of, related to, or symptomatic of scurvy The words of denial escaped painfully from his swollen, scorbutic gums. 2. undercroft — underground chamber or vault, crypt The keys to the undercroft had gone missing in my grandfather’s time, so the police were forced to wrench open the rusted gates during their …
One Hundred and Nineteen Thousand (119,000) Songs
Around ten thirty this morning I once more crossed an imaginary line in my mind and find that I have now listened to 119,000 unique iTunes ‘songs’.* The 119,000th track was a fairly pedestrian effort by Glenn Miller’s band, with vocals by Ray Eberle, “And the Angels Sing”. It was on a Reader’s Digest compilation …
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Friday Vocabulary
1. matutinal — of or occurring in the morning He grabbed the newspaper for his matutinal visit to the smallest room in the house, there to await the results of his first cups of coffee. 2. ringent — gaping, grinning But the lip augmentation was a failure, leaving her mouth looking like a ringent …
Friday Vocabulary
1. telluric — of or related to the earth; of or from the soil; of or containing tellurium Zircon turns out to be an unreliable source of data about the telluric history of the earth’s magnetic field, leaving a mystery at the heart of paleomagnetism. 2. curate — assistant to rector or vicar I …
Friday Vocabulary
1. adumbrate — to outline; to foreshadow; to faintly indicate; to overshadow, to partially conceal Whereas some biographies illuminate their subjects, Mr. Parker’s paean to the late colonel merely adumbrates what should have been an interesting figure. 2. beck — [North England] swift running brook He knelt alongside the beck and read her letter …
Friday Vocabulary
1. pismire — ant He strode the city like a bull, but he was felled by the prattling pismires of this toxic town. 2. inviolacy — freedom from violation or desecration As we met more of our neighbors, I realized that this small trailer park was somehow untouched by the sordid changes that seemed …
Friday Vocabulary
1. scarehead — newspaper headline printed in huge type As the scareheads of every European daily proclaimed the approach to the very brink of war, events in this tiny Balkan town conspired to slow the fevered sale of the screaming newspapers. 2. saltatory — characterized by or adapted for leaping or dancing movement Suddenly …