MASCON

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 29 February 2012

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MASCON  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a concentration of dense mass beneath the surface of a moon or planet
2. (n.) a region on the moon having a greater density of rock than the surrounding area

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: MACONS, SOCMAN
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
This word is a PORTMANTEAU, a word formed by the blending of two or more forms, such as how SMOG was formed by combining smoke and fog.  (Incidentally, Lewis Carroll was the first to use the term PORTMANTEAU in a linguistic sense, as Humpty Dumpty introduces it in Through the Looking Glass: “You see it’s like a portmanteau — there are two meanings packed up into one word.”  The older, established meaning of PORTMANTEAU is “a large suitcase,” thus the allusion to packing up two meanings into one word.) 

In this case, the word is a combination of “mass concentration,” a reference to the high concentration of dense mass found in a MASCON.  The denseness leads to the area exerting a slightly higher gravitational force on nearby objects such as satellites and spacecraft.

MASCONS, by the way, are types of MARIA (singular MARE), the dark areas on the surface of the moon.  The word derives from the Latin mare (“sea”), because when Galileo first observed them he thought they looked like seas!  Most MARIA are actually smooth, flat plains of hardened, basaltic lava.  The MARIA are also what cause the splotches that form the iconic “man in the moon” shape on its surface.


Theme:
This week we’re over the moon about some lunar words

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GIBBOUS

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 28 February 2012

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GIBBOUS  (adj.)

Definition(s):

1. (adj.) seen with more than half but not all of the apparent disk illuminated (as the moon); pertaining to a phase of a moon or planet between the first quarter and full, or between full and the last quarter
2. (adj.) irregularly rounded; marked by convexity or swelling
3. (adj.) having a hump; humpbacked

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: (none)
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: gibbousLY
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: GIBBOSE
• Related Forms: GIBBOSITY

Epilogue:
One curiosity is that the earth’s moon has no official name — though writers have often called it by poetic names associated with deities such as Hecate, Luna (the source of many lunar words), or Selene (the source of several seleno- words such as SELENOLOGY, the study of the moon).  The reason, of course, is that until modern times the moons of other planets were not known, and thus the only moon was “The Moon” — the word itself evolving from the Old English mona, with roots in an ancient Proto-Indo-European stem probably meaning “measure,” a reference to humankind’s reliance on the moon as a timekeeping object.  Since the 1600s, when Galileo discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter, astronomers have named the moons of other planets as they have been discovered.

We do, of course, have established terms for the phases of the moon, as you probably learned in grade school: new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, last quarter, and waning crescent.  The odd word GIBBOUS, now primarily used to refer to the gibbous moon, derives from the Latin gibbus, “hump.”  The word was in general use to refer to any protuberance from the 1400s, and it has been applied to moons and planets since the 1600s.


Theme:
Lunar words

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RILLE

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 27 February 2012

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RILLE  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a channel or valley on the surface of the moon
2. (n.) a channel or valley on any planet or satellite

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: G-
• Back hooks: -D, -S, -T
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: ESCADrille, ESPADrille, rilleTS, rilleTTES, QUADrille, ZOrille
• Wraparounds: BANDErilleRO/S, CHARGrilleD, DrilleD, DrilleR/S, ESCADrilleS, ESPADrilleS, FrilleD, FrilleR/S, GrilleD, GrilleS, GrilleR/S, GrilleRY, GrilleRIES, IMPErilleD, PErilleD, PRALLTrilleR/S, PREDrilleD, PrilleD, QUADrilleS, REDrilleD, SHrilleD, SHrilleR, SHrilleST, SUPERTHrilleR/S, TENDrilleD, THrilleD, THrilleR/S, TrilleD, TrilleR/S, UNDrilleD, ZOrilleS  
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
The German astronomer Johann Schröter made some significant contributions to our knowledge of the topography of the moon in the 18th century.  For this reason, a distinctive channel on the surface of the moon is still called a RILLE, from the German for “groove.”  Three kinds of RILLES are common on the moon, each featuring an interesting word in its own right:

• ARCUATE, curved like a bow
  (from the Latin arcus, “bow” — the same root behind common words such as ARC, ARCH, and ARCADE)
  
• GRABEN, straight and narrow
  (from the German for “ditch” or “trench”)
  
• SINUOUS, characterized by curves or bends
  (from the Latin sinus, “curve or bend” — the same root behind common words such as SINE, SINUS, and INSINUATE)

Theme:
This week’s theme is out of this world: words pertaining to the moon

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"Words are not as satisfactory as we should like them to be..."

Quote of the Week:

Words are not as satisfactory as we should like them to be, but, like our neighbors, we have got to live with them and make the best and not the worst of them.
~ Samuel Butler (1835-1902)

GRAPPA

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 24 February 2012

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GRAPPA  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a dry colorless brandy from Italy, distilled from the fermented residue of grapes

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
The word for this type of brandy comes from an Italian dialect word meaning “grapes” or “grape stalk,” and true GRAPPA must be made in Italy.  It is obviously related to our common word GRAPE, which itself derives from an Old French word meaning “bunch of grapes” or “grape.”  The ultimate origin of these GRAPY (or GRAPEY) words is probably in the Old High German krapfo (“hook”), perhaps in reference to a hook used to pick the vine.  In any case, the word GRAPE started appearing in English in the 1200-1300s, gradually replacing the delightful Old English compound winberige, or “wine berry.”


Recapping this week’s bunch of words:
BOTRYOID, RACEME, and GRAPPA

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RACEME

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 21 February 2012

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RACEME  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a cluster-like arrangement of flowers along an axis
2. (n.) a cluster of berries

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -D, -S
• Anagrams: AMERCE
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: EMBracemeNT, EMBracemeNTS
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: RACEMED, RACEMOSE, RACEMOUS and more distantly RACEMIC, RACEMATE, RACEMISM, RACEMIZE, RACEMOID, RACEMIZATION

Epilogue:
The Latin root racemus (“bunch of grapes”) has spawned a cluster of words.  It is behind the botanical word RACEME and the adjectival forms RACEMED, RACEMOSE, and RACEMOUS.  The words RACEMIC, RACEMATE, RACEMISM, RACEMIZE, RACEMOID, and RACEMIZATION, all of which refer to a type of chemical compound, are also derived from the same root (because a type of the compound can be obtained from grape juice).

Even more interestingly, the common word RAISIN is from the same root.  Today, grapes are grapes, and raisins are raisins, but the distinction was not always so clear.  In Anglo-Norman and Old French, the word RAISIN meant “grape,” and it was often used similarly in English up through the 1600s.  After that period, the word tended to be used only to mean dried grapes (i.e. raisins) or to refer to a purplish-brown color suggestive of them.  The phrase “raisins of the sun” was sometimes used to emphasize that one meant dried grapes, as when William Bullein wrote “Raisins of the sunne be very holsome” in a 1558 medical treatise — hundreds of years before Sun-Maid Seedless Raisins hit the market.


This week’s theme:
A cluster of words pertaining to grapes

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BOTRYOID

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 20 February 2012

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BOTRYOID  (adj.)

Definition(s):

1. (adj.) resembling a cluster of grapes

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: (none)
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: botryoidAL
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: BOTRYOSE (adj.), BOTRYOIDAL (adj.), BOTRYTIS (n.)

Epilogue:
If you’re like me, you get a little thrill out of encountering unusual scrabble words in the wild.  A few months ago while perusing the wares at a local arts and crafts show, a vendor referred to a BOTRYOIDAL gem in a piece of jewelry.  “Ah,” I said, “shaped like a cluster of grapes.”  The vendor gave me a funny look and stopped short for a moment — I don’t think he encountered many folks who knew the meaning of the word — before continuing on with his spiel.  My wife just gave me that look of exasperation, the one that says “I can’t take you anywhere....”

The Greek botrys (“bunch of grapes”) is the root of English words such as BOTRYOID, BOTRYOIDAL, BOTRYOSE, and BOTRYTIS (a type of fungus having botryoidal spores).  The ancient Greeks not only (seemingly) had a word for everything; sometimes they had several.  Another Greek root, staphyle, also meaning roughly “bunch of grapes,” shows up in words such as STAPHYLINID (a type of beetle) and STAPHYLOCOCCUS (a group of bacteria that appear round and bunched together under a microscope). 


Theme:
This week we’ll harvest a cluster of words pertaining to grapes

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"Always cool and unruffled..."

Quote of the Week:

Nothing gives one person so great advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
~ Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

VENERY

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 17 February 2012

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VENERY  (n. pl. VENERIES)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) the practice or pursuit of sexual pleasure or intercourse; indulgence of sexual desire
2. (n.) the practice or sport of hunting

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: (none)
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
How is it that VENERY means both “sexual pleasure” and “hunting”?  Some have jokingly suggested that both activities are all about “the chase,” but the identical spelling of the two words simply stems from two similar-looking roots. 

The Latin venus (“love, desire”) is behind the sexual meaning, as it is in the name Venus (originally, the Roman god of beauty and love) and in the word VENEREAL (related to the genital organs; relating to sexual desire).  Meanwhile, the Latin venari (“to hunt”) is responsible for the hunting sense, as it is in VENISON, VENATIC (pertaining to hunting), and the phrase “terms of venery” for animal collective nouns (which was covered in the CLOWDER entry of last May). 

While you might be tempted to hunt for more connections with other vener- words, neither of those roots should be confused with the Latin venerari (“to worship”), which is the source of words such as VENERATE, VENERABLE, and VENERATION. 


Recapping this week’s love-struck words:
OEILLADE, AMORETTO, DULCINEA, and VENERY

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DULCINEA

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 15 February 2012

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DULCINEA  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a sweetheart; a ladylove or mistress

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
A Spanish derivative of the Latin dulce (“sweet”), this word comes from the name of Quixote’s sweetheart in Miguel de Cervantes’ famous novel Don Quixote (c. 1615).  The character is further immortalized in a memorable song from the Broadway production Man of la Mancha:

Thou hast always been with me,
Though we have been always apart.
Dulcinea... Dulcinea...
I see heaven when I see thee, Dulcinea,
And thy name is like a prayer
An angel whispers... Dulcinea... Dulcinea!

 The Latin dulce also figures in a number of other “sweet” words, including DULCET, DULCIFY, DULCIANA, DULCIMER, DULCIMORE, and EDULCORATE.


This week’s theme:
Love is all you need

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AMORETTO

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 14 February 2012

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AMORETTO  (n. pl. AMORETTOS or AMORETTI)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a cupid; a representation of a cupid or cherub in art
2. (n.) a sweetheart

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
Not to be confused with AMARETTO (an Italian almond-flavored liqueur), an AMORETTO is usually depicted as a chubby little winged boy with a bow and arrow — also variously called an AMORINO, CUPID, CHERUB, or PUTTO.  The word comes straight from the Italian amoretto (“a little love”).

Happy Valentine’s Day!



This week’s theme:
Love is in the air

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OEILLADE

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 13 February 2012

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OEILLADE  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) an amorous look; a meaningful or suggestive glance

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
An OEILLADE is a little flirtatious stare, an admiring glance.  It comes from the French oeil (“eye”), itself derived from the Latin oculus (for more about that root, cast your eye on the OCULUS entry from last August). 

Theme:
This week, in honor of the Valentine’s Day holiday, we’ll steal a few glances at words related to L-O-V-E

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"If you had studied Middle English..."

Quote of the Week:

Professor Kingsfield: V-A-V-A-S-O-R.
Hart: VAVASOR? I’ve never heard of VAVASOR!
Professor Kingsfield: If you had studied Middle English, you would.
~ From the “Scrabble” episode of the PBS series Paper Chase

"How potent for good and evil..."

Quote of the Week:

Words — so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

AHIMSA

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 3 February 2012

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AHIMSA  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) the principle of nonviolence, especially the Buddhist, Hindu, or Jainist doctrine expressing belief in the sacredness of all living things

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
Deriving from a Sanskrit word roughly meaning “noninjury,” AHIMSA is part of the belief systems of several Eastern religions.  Mohandas Gandhi believed strongly in AHIMSA, and he melded it into a moral philosophy he called SATYAGRAHA (a combination of the Sanskrit satya “truth” and agraha “persistence”).  Gandhi’s powerful system of nonviolent political resistance was, in turn, influential in the work of later civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.

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MARTINET

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 1 February 2012

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MARTINET  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a strict or inflexible disciplinarian
2. (n.) one who demands rigid adherence to rules

Useful information for game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: INTERMAT
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

Epilogue:
The word MARTINET that is currently in use is an EPONYM, meaning that it is derived from the name of a real or fictional person: it traces to a Lieutenant-Colonel Jean Martinet, who was a drillmaster of the French army in the 17th century.  He implemented strict drills and disciplinary methods that were subsequently adopted by the military units of several other nations, and his name eventually became a common word for anyone who demands adherence to rules or order.

An unrelated English word MARTINET, meaning a type of small bird (a MARTIN or SWIFT) or a type of small whip resembling the bird’s tail, was current from approximately the 1400s through the early 1800s, but those senses are now rarely used.

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