1. corm — [botany] swollen stem of plant serving as storage organ, bulbotuber Transforming your corm into a burgeoning banana plant is a labor of love and … well, labor, which is the reason for the much lower price. 2. graupel — mushy hail, granular snow To distinguish hail from graupel is most easily …
Tag Archives: vocabulary
Friday Vocabulary
1. motorik — driving 4/4 beat—often with pop! on 3rd beat—typical of krautrock Though of course most are familiar with the motorik used in Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn”, aficionados still argue whether Jaki Liebezeit of Can or Klaus Dinger of Neu! deserves more credit for the spread of perhaps the most popular beat of the late 20th …
Friday Vocabulary
1. mews — alley where stables are found; street with houses built from former stables or built to look like stables No other passerby were on the streets at that hour, and as the tattered waif limped into the dark mews he looked about and behind in fear or resignation. 2. burr — to …
Friday Vocabulary
1. tripper — [British] excursionist, one who goes on a trip Liz would often go into the city for the weekend, and history was made when the young tripper met the editor of New Moon magazine in an Edinburgh pub. 2. medinal — sodium salt of barbital, first commercial barbiturate “Neil had made himself …
Friday Vocabulary
1. longeron — load-bearing brace or frame running lengthwise in an airplane’s fuselage, or spanwise in its wing structure The strut was hinged to the bottom longeron of the small craft, but had become warped during the previous landing. 2. cami-knicks (also camiknickers) — ladies’ undergarment combining camisole and knickers; a teddy Alice put …
Friday Vocabulary
1. wally — [British slang] fool, doofus Brett always acted the wally but I suspected there was more going on behind those blue eyes than any of us ever knew. 2. chough — birds belonging to a genus within the crow family The choughs of Iona seemed to resent our presence, their dark forms …
Friday Vocabulary
1. cog — to load dice so as to cheat; to cheat; to plagiarize Someone had obviously cogged the dice—too obviously, for I couldn’t imagine anyone being gulled by dice that always threw sevens. 2. haggard — [Scots] enclosure on farm for storage of grain or hay We piled high the hay-bogy and Alf …
Friday Vocabulary
1. advowson — [British] right to nominate person to fill an vacant church benefice But the third Lord Ermley had never severed the advowson from those land holdings, and thus confusion ensued when Mr. Symonds asserted ownership of the parcel alongside the banks of the river. 2. prevent — [obsolete] to come before, to …
Friday Vocabulary
1. lithia water — mineral water containing lithium salts While it is true that 7-Up tried to capitalize on the craze for lithia water with its original name, the soft drink never contained any lithium, unlike the Coca-Cola product mentioned above. 2. kirmess (also kermesse or kermis) — street fair in Dutch or German …
Friday Vocabulary
1. chalybeate — containing iron salts The town council decided that our chalybeate springs should be highlighted in the promotional materials. 2. gynander — woman with characteristics of a man In response to the nascent women’s movements of the fin de siècle, the forces of reaction posited a pretended threat from gynanders who would …