1. trunnion — one of pair of pivots supporting something; cylindrical projection from cannon supporting same on its carriage The bearings inside the telescope’s trunnions were manufactured to a previously unheard of precision, allowing the new astronomical wonder unparalleled accuracy in viewing the heavens. 2. okta — measurement of cloud cover equal to one …
Author Archives: mysterious6030
Friday Vocabulary
1. doryphore — persistent pest, obstinately pedantic critic And of course Reinhard, the office doryphore, noticed that we’d had to change the printer paper, and that the later pages of the report used 92 brightness paper instead of the 96 bright at the beginning. 2. aoudad — Barbary sheep The hills around Hearst Castle …
Friday Vocabulary
1. lithotomy — removal of stone by surgery from organ or vessel The display of 19th-Century surgical implements, especially the lithotomy tools, frightened him viscerally, almost causing nausea and vertigo. 2. plus fours — baggy trousers gathered below the knee Inspired by Gert Fröbe’s golf attire in Goldfinger, Jeremy started wearing plus fours everywhere, …
10% (Ten Percent)
Anyone with a large library will frequently be asked the same tiresome question: “Have you read all of these books?” As if books were objects merely to be read, and not treasures to be savored, to be stored up against the (seemingly) inevitable collapse of all that is good and holy in this world. Now, …
Friday Vocabulary
1. gallipot — small glazed jar used by an apothecary Between the two of them they left hardly one gallipot of the sweet German wine given us by the count. 2. galipot — unrefined turpentine found on some European pines Though the galipot is of better quality than the dried barras more often found, …
Friday Vocabulary
1. lamella — gill of a mushroom; plate or scale of bone or other tissue The secondary lamellae arise within the spaces between the primary or earlier gills as those latter grow away from the stem. 2. syntagma (also syntagm [linguistics]) — syntactic component; arrangement of components producing meaning or a greater whole; phalanx …
Friday Vocabulary
1. gubbins — [British informal] odds and ends; thing of no value “You don’t have time to worry about that gubbins,” Sheila said, “our packs are full enough already.” 2. nomothetic — based upon law; of or related to universal laws Dr. Hardwithe’s success stemmed ultimately from his misapprehension of the fundamental divide in …
Friday Vocabulary
1. azote — nitrogen Azote is necessary for most plants, though the form in which it can be absorbed varies; beets, for example, require nitrates for an abundant crop. 2. phlegm — sticky mucus from throat and lungs; one of the four humors of medieval medical theory, causing sluggish temperament; composure, calmness, apathy Funds …
Friday Vocabulary
1. raptus — seizure; ravishing, rape; medieval form of marriage by abduction Of course the most famous person accused of raptus is last week’s featured poet, Geoffrey Chaucer. 2. posture chair — office chair designed to support and conform to natural human form Ryback leaned back in the dark wooden posture chair which was …
Book List: 1000 Books
As I’m trying not to procrastinate quite as much as I did last time I finished a tranche of one hundred books, let’s get right down to the listing of all those last books read, from #901 through my thousandth (!) book read since beginning this silly little book tracking project back in the two-thousand-teens. …