DUENDE

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 29 June 2012

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Word of the Day:

DUENDE  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) the power to attract through personal magnetism and charm; charisma
2. (n.) inspiration or passion
3. (n.) a ghost or spirit

Useful info for word game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: DENUDE, DUDEEN, and ENDUED
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

Current theme:

No theme this week — just a few random selections from the good wordbook

Epilogue:

This word is sometimes considered untranslatable — words such as “magnetism,” “charm,” or “passion” only approximate the sense, some argue, since DUENDE is more of a mysterious feeling or force.  A dancer, artist, or writer may be said to have duende, an inexplicable power or quality that draws the observer or reader in.  One Spanish dictionary reportedly defined it as “mysterious and ineffable charm.”  The Spanish poet García Lorca said that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe unintentionally defined it best when he described a musician as “a mysterious force that everyone feels and no philosopher has explained.”

Fittingly, the word has a mysterious and debated history.  It probably started out as Old Spanish duen de casa, “owner or lord of a house,” and in modern Spanish it came to mean “ghost or fairy,” of the sort that inhabits houses or causes minor mischief.  From this, somehow, emerged the Spanish dialect meaning of “charm.”  Nowadays, one with duende possesses a mysterious and powerful charm or passion, as if animated by an inner spirit. 

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TEENFUL

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 27 June 2012

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Word of the Day:

TEENFUL  (adj.)

Definition(s):

1. (adj.) filled with grief; grievous
2. (adj.) sorrowful; afflicted

Useful info for word game players:

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

Current theme:

No theme this week — just a few random selections from the good wordbook

Epilogue:

The word TEEN was used throughout Middle English and Early Modern English to mean “grief, sorrow, or trouble,” or sometimes more strongly “ill fortune or harm.”  The word derives from Old English teona “injury, wrong,” and is related to Old Norse and Old Frisian forms of the same.  It was employed to good effect by some of the most famous of English writers:

Almighty and al merciable quene,
To whom that al this world fleeth for socour,
To have relees of sinne, sorwe and tene,
Glorious virgine, of alle floures flour,
To thee I flee, confounded in errour!
~ Geoffrey Chaucer, “An A.B.C.” (c. 1375)

I to grave, where peace and rest lye with mee,
Eightie odde yeeres of sorrow I have seen,
And each howres joy wrackt with a weeke of teene.
~ William Shakespeare, Richard III (c. 1597)

The vagaries of language are such that this sense of the word is not employed much anymore, and the derivative TEENFUL (“full of sorrow”) is also fading into desuetude.

Though you may know some teenful teens, the old “sorrowful” sense of the word is not related to the combining form -teen found in numbers such as THIRTEEN, FOURTEEN, etc.  That -teen was simply an inflected form of the number TEN in Old and Middle English, so that fiftene or FIFTEEN was simply a short way of saying “five and ten.”  TEEN, in the sense of a person with an age in the years ending in -teen, first appears in English in the 17th century.  Words such as TEENAGE, TEENAGER, TEENYBOP, and TEENYBOPPER are even more recent creations, all first appearing or gaining popularity in the twentieth century.

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"If you know a thing only..."

Quote of the Week: 

If you know a thing only qualitatively, you know it no more than vaguely.  If you know it quantitatively — grasping some numerical measure that distinguishes it from an infinite number of other possibilities — you are beginning to know it deeply.
~ Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

LUSTRUM

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 22 June 2012

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Word of the Day:

LUSTRUM  (n. pl. LUSTRUMS or LUSTRA)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a period of five years
2. (n.) a ceremonial purification of the ancient Roman population after the census every five years

Useful info for word game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: LUSTRAL (adj.), LUSTRATE (v.), LUSTRATION (n.)

Epilogue:

The ancient Romans held a census every few years, the primary purpose of which was to identify men capable of bearing arms.  After the census, a purification ceremony known as a LUSTRUM or LUSTRATION was performed.  The ceremony included the sacrificing of a boar (sus), sheep (ovis), and bull (taurus), a ritual known as the suovetaurilia.  Because the census was normally conducted every five years, the word LUSTRUM came to refer to any five-year period, as it usually does today.

The word LUSTRUM and its variations derive from the Latin lustrare (“to brighten, or to purify”), which is also source of words such as LUSTER and ILLUSTRATION.  Turning to other Latin roots, an even fancier word for a five-year period is QUINQUENNIUM, a combination of quinque (“five”) and annus (“year”).

Recounting this week’s featured words:
CHILIAD, LAKH, ALGORISM, and LUSTRUM

Also mentioned:
ALGEBRA, ALGORITHM, CHILIASM, CHILIARCH, CRORE, ILLUSTRATION, KILO (and KILO- words), LUSTER, LUSTRATION, MILLION, QUINQUENNIUM, and RUPEE

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ALGORISM

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 21 June 2012

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Word of the Day:

ALGORISM  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) the Arabic or decimal system of counting
2. (n.) calculating by means of the Arabic figures 1 through 9, plus zero: arithmetic
3. (n.) calculating with any form of notation
4. (n.) the rule for solving a specific kind of arithmetic problem: algorithm

Useful info for word game players:

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

Current theme:

Numbers

Epilogue:

The ninth century Persian mathematician Muhammed ibn Mūsa al-Khwārizmi (c. 780-c. 850) had an enormous influence on mathematics, as well as a surprisingly deep influence on the English language.  He wrote the book on algebra — literally — and is directly linked to several mathematical terms.

Al-Khwārizmi’s book Al-Kitāb al-mukhtasar fī hisāb al-jabr wa'l-muqābala (“The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing”) (c. 830) was an influential work that laid out the basic rules of algebra.  Although al-Khwārizmi was not the discoverer of algebraic mathematics (ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, and Greeks worked out the basics first), his work was so influential that the word al-jabr (“completion”) in the title of his book eventually became the word ALGEBRA in English. 

Al-Khwārizmi also wrote several other important texts relating to mathematics, astronomy, and geography.  His stature as a mathematician was so great that his name eventually became synonymous with the Arabic numbering system (0-9) itself: the medieval Latin form of al-Khwārizmi eventually morphed into the English ALGORISM.  In turn ALGORISM, still used today to refer to the decimal system of counting or to computation using it, also influenced the development of the word ALGORITHM (a step-by-step procedure for solving a mathematical problem).  In this case, al-Khwārizmi’s name probably became conflated with the Greek arithmos (“number”), leading to the form ALGORITHM.

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LAKH

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 20 June 2012

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Word of the Day:

LAKH  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) one hundred thousand (100000)
2. (n.) a great number

Useful info for word game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: HAlakhA/S, HAlakhIC, HAlakhAH/S, HAlakhOT/H, HAlakhIST/S
• Other Spellings: LAC
• Related Forms: (none)

Current theme:

Numbers

Epilogue:

Indian English has some distinctive words for large numbers, and their notation system reflects these terms.  A LAKH (or rarely, LAC) is one hundred thousand, usually written there as 1,00,000.  The different placement of the comma makes sense in this system, because they see it as one lakh, not one hundred thousand.  Similarly, ten lakh (written as 10,00,000) is what we in the United States would call one million.  One hundred lakhs, or what we would call ten million, is called a CRORE and is written as 1,00,00,000.  Both LAKH and CRORE derive from Hindi versions of Sanskrit words for the same concepts.

Idiosyncratic notation aside, LAKH and CRORE are handy little words to have around, much shorter and simpler than the alternatives “one hundred thousand” and “ten million.”  Perhaps someday they will be adopted and used more widely in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries.

Now that you know about LAKH and CRORE and that the word MILLION is rarely used in India, you can impress your friends with this fun fact: when the movie Slumdog Millionaire was released in India, it was titled Slumdog Crorepati. A crorepati is one with a crore (ten million) or more RUPEES — roughly the equivalent of a millionaire in terms of status and purchasing power.

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CHILIAD

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 18 June 2012

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Word of the Day: 

CHILIAD  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a group of one thousand
2. (n.) a millennium: a period of one thousand years

Useful info for word game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: chiliadAL, chiliadIC
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: CHILIADAL (adj.), CHILIADIC (adj.)

Current theme:

Numbers

Epilogue:

The ancient Greek word for “one thousand” can be transliterated as either chilioi or khilioi.  The CH- form gave English words such as CHILIAD, CHILIASM (belief in the millennium of Christian prophecy), and CHILIARCH (a commander of one thousand troops in ancient Greece). 

You are probably more familiar with words with spellings based on the K- form, such as KILO, KILOBYTE, KILOGRAM, KILOWATT, KILOMETER/KILOMETRE, and KILOCALORIE, since the kilo- prefix was adopted for use in the metric system, first devised in France in the late 18th century and now widespread throughout the industrialized world — with the notable exception of the United States.  A few lesser-known words with the kilo- prefix, all pertaining to units of measure, include KILOBAR, KILORAD, KILOTON, KILOBAUD, KILOMOLE, KILOVOLT, KILOCURIE, KILOCYCLE, KILOGAUSS, KILOJOULE, KILOPARSEC, and KILOPASCAL.

This week we will play the numbers game, by accounting for unusual words related to numbers. 

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"Knowledge is power"

Quote of the Week:

As your body grows bigger
Your mind must flower
It's great to learn
'Cause knowledge is power!
~ "Schoolhouse Rock" theme song

LAMBENT

 TileHead’s Word of the Day for 15 June 2012

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Word of the Day:

LAMBENT  (adj.)

Definition(s):

1. (adj.) flickering lightly over a surface
2. (adj.) softly bright or radiant; luminous
3. (adj.) marked by lightness or brilliance

Useful info for word game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: (none)
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: lambentLY
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: LAMBENCY (n.), LAMBENTLY (adv.)

Epilogue:

This word calls to mind images of flames licking at the edges of a fire — appropriately so, since it derives from the Latin lambere, meaning “to lick.”  It is often used in relation to fire or light:

Behind on the little hill the darkling woods lie calm, the edges of the fir-trees cut sharp against the sky, which is clear with a crescent moon and the lambent lights of the starry hosts of heaven.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The Newcomes (1854)

Out of airless space, a lambent column of blue-white light shot down into the two-story Victorian farmhouse, instantly vaporizing a core two meters in diameter. The rest of the structure exploded. Flames filled the night.
~ Dean Koontz, Dark Rivers of the Heart (2007)

Though it can also be used figuratively to refer to mental wit or brilliance:

He had a quick and lambent mind which could shear its way through a mass of detail and seize upon those aspects of a problem which are fundamental and decisive.
~ Graya magazine (1946)

Speaking of brilliance, our week of fun with adjectives has come to an end, but tune in next week for more shining examples of lambent wordsmithery!

Recapping this week’s featured words:
ADUMBRAL, IRENIC, MEPHITIC, and LAMBENT

Also mentioned:
ADUMBRATE, IRENICS, MEPHITIS, PACIFIC, PEACEFUL, PENUMBRA, UMBRA, and UMBRAGE

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MEPHITIC

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 13 June 2012

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Word of the Day:

MEPHITIC  (adj.)

Definition(s):

1. (adj.) having a foul odor; poisonous or noxious

Useful info for word game players:

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

Current theme:

Unpack Your Adjectives

Epilogue:

Mephitis (or Mefitis) must have gotten picked last when Roman deities were being assigned spheres of influence.  While the other gods and goddesses got to personify cool things such as the moon (Luna), the sea (Neptune), love (Venus), and wine (Bacchus), Mephitis was stuck tending to poisonous gases and noxious vapors, such as those emanating from swamps and volcanoes!  Her name is preserved in the scientific names of types of skunks (Mephitis mephitis and Mephitis macroura), as well as in the English noun MEPHITIS (a foul odor or vapor) and in the adjective MEPHITIC.  The latter is a particularly descriptive word that English writers have employed since at least the seventeenth century.  Thomas Blount defined it in his 1656 Glossographia as “stinking, dampish, as the stink or ill savour of the earth,” and the meaning remains similar today:

All through the Dark Valley I was tormented, and pestered, and dolefully bewildered with the same kind of waking dreams. The mephitic gases of that region intoxicate the brain.
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Celestial Railroad” (1843)

As a medical man, I tell you she cannot long survive in that damp, mephitic, lightless cupboard. She too must have air.
~ Patrick O’Brian, Desolation Island (2011)

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IRENIC

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 12 June 2012

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Word of the Day: 

IRENIC  (adj.)

Definition(s):

1. (adj.) promoting peace; peaceful or conciliatory in purpose

Useful info for word game players:

• Front hooks: E-
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: irenicAL, irenicALLY
• Wraparounds: EirenicAL
• Other Spellings: EIRENIC
• Related Forms: IRENICS, E/IRENICAL, IRENICALLY

Current theme:

Unpack Your Adjectives

Epilogue:

This adjective, similar in meaning to PEACEFUL or PACIFIC, is chiefly used in theological writing:

Erasmus is noteworthy in his persistent effort to take the high road by promoting modest, tolerant, and irenic discourse.
~ Terence J. Martin, Living Words: Studies in Dialogues about Religion (1998)

 Though it has also been used in literary and other secular contexts:

If anybody was jealous, if any of the usual bourgeois hangups festered beneath the surface of the long irenic dream that was Drop City, Marco never saw it.
~ T.C. Boyle, Drop City (2004)

Words such as IRENIC and IRENICAL derive from Eirene, the ancient Greek goddess of peace and one of the Horae, or the goddesses of the seasons and rightful order.  Her name means “peace” and is often rendered as Irene today, though the old Greek form did lead to alternate spellings with the E- in front, such as EIRENIC and EIRENICAL.  On the other end of the word, although IRENIC is an adjective, the form IRENICS is a plural noun referring to a branch of theology dealing with Christian unity.

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ADUMBRAL

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 11 June 2012

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Word of the Day: 

ADUMBRAL  (adj.)

Definition(s):

1. (adj.) shadowy; shady; dark

Useful info for word game players:

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

Current theme:

Unpack Your Adjectives

Epilogue:

The word ADUMBRAL is usually employed in literary or poetic writing, where it suggests a dark, shadowy feeling:

Gloom settled on him as he trudged along. It was a gloom, too, adumbral in its depth, its density.
~ Maximilian Foster, Shoestrings (1917)

The dark shape of the Tor rose behind him, a brooding presence commanding all his attention and then drawing his eyes upward toward the vast adumbral sky, far and far above the wind-rustled boughs of the mysterious oak grove at the mountain’s base.
~ Donna Fletcher Crow, Glastonbury: The Novel of Christian England (1992)

The Latin umbra, meaning “shadow,” is the source of ADUMBRAL, as well as a number of other shadowy words, such as UMBRA (a dark area), UMBRAGE (a feeling of resentment), PENUMBRA (a partial shadow), and ADUMBRATE (to foreshadow, to suggest).

In recent weeks we’ve focused a lot on unusual things and concepts — such as symbols, dances, language, and foods — all interesting, but almost all nouns.  Now, in the memorable words of Schoolhouse Rock, it is time to “unpack our adjectives,” those handy words that help us describe, modify, or quantify nouns.  This week we will focus on some intriguing adjectives, along with examples of how they have been put to good use by writers — for adjectives are best appreciated and understood in context.

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Scrabble Pangrams

Last week I asked for readers to send in their best Scrabble-themed pangrams (sentences using all 26 letters of the alphabet).  Evidently there are not many pangram enthusiasts among this crowd, because I did not receive many entries.  That said, what follows still represents the best (and possibly only) collection of Scrabble-themed pangrams you will find!

Audrey Tumbarello wins the prize for composing the shortest one, though some might find it a bit contrived:

Vext? Play: qursh, zonk, cwm, jib, fudge.  (28 letters)

Jeff Kastner sent two short ones, a variation on the same theme:

Vext jock bumping flashy word quiz.  (29)
Jock vext by dumping flash word quiz.  (30)

I prefer the second one, which wins the prize for a very short (30 or fewer letters) pangram that reads (more-or-less) like a natural sentence.  Jeff also sent in a longer, contrived example, explaining “it's a shortcut, true... but at least these actually were bingos I've played before”:

My bingos: AQUAVIT, FOXHOLE, MUZJIKS, and SCREWUP.  (39)

My own compositions, which I first unveiled in the original PANGRAM entry, were the only ones that aimed for slightly longer but more conversational pangrams:

Joyful word maven picks tough quiz box.  (32)
Joky wiz vanquished expert scrabble game foe.  (38)

I prefer the second one and hope that it may inspire others to take up the whimsical art of the Scrabble pangram.  If you should be moved to compose some now, or if you discover others, please pass them on to me.  Or, in pangram form:

Jovial hack besought zany mix of word quips.  (36)

"You cram these words into mine ears..."

Quote of the Week:

You cram these words into mine ears against
The stomach of my sense.
~ William Shakespeare (c. 1564-1616), The Tempest

ACKEE

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 8 June 2012

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Word of the Day:

ACKEE  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a tropical tree, native to West Africa but also grown in the Caribbean, Florida, and Hawaii
2. (n.) the reddish, pear-shaped fruit of the ackee tree, the flesh of which is edible when ripe but poisonous when immature or overripe

Useful info for word game players:

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

Epilogue:

The ACKEE (or AKEE) tree was introduced to the Caribbean via slave ships from west Africa in the late 18th century.  A few years later, Captain William Bligh (of Mutiny on the Bounty fame) transported samples to London, leading to the scientific name Blighia sapida.  The word is of African etymology, probably from either Kru (spoken in Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia) or Akan (spoken in Ghana). 

The ackee is now considered the national fruit of Jamaica and figures prominently in its cuisine and culture.  The fruit is allegedly tasty and harmless when ripe, but immature or overripe flesh contains harmful toxins that can induce a violent condition known as “Jamaican vomiting sickness,” symptoms of which include vomiting, convulsions, coma, and, often, death.  As Jamaicans know, the fruit is ripe when the reddish pod opens to reveal the seeds and flesh inside, a fact that is the inspiration for a Jamaican riddle recorded by Martha Warren Beckwith in Black Roadways: A Study of Jamaican Folk Life (1929): “Me fader send me to pick out a wife; tell me to tek only those that smile, fe those that do not smile wi' kill me.”

Recapping this week’s featured words:
   DURIAN, TREHALA, ORTOLAN, and ACKEE

Also mentioned:
   BUNTING, FUGU, HAGGIS, MANNA, TREHALOSE, and WEEVIL

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ORTOLAN

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 7 June 2012

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Word of the Day:

ORTOLAN  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a small, greenish brown European songbird
2. (n.) any of various small songbirds formerly eaten as a delicacy

Useful info for word game players:

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

Current theme:

Weird Foods

Epilogue:

If you tend to be squeamish, particularly about the use of animals for food, you may wish to know only that ORTOLAN is a cute little songbird, also known as a BUNTING, and that the word comes from French and Italian forms of the Latin hortulanus (“of the garden”), apparently because the bird often nests in garden hedges.

So far, so good.  The culinary history and lore surrounding this little creature, however, is anything but cute — for the ortolan as food is the height of culinary ecstasy to some, mere culinary barbarism to others.

The latest edition of the Larousse Gastronomique takes pains to point out that the ortolan has been “considered since early times to be the finest and most delicate of birds to eat.”  And, indeed, several ancient Roman accounts refer to the consumption of ortolans, larks, and other small songbirds.  In more modern times, the ortolan, in particular, has come to be regarded by some foodies as a forbidden and almost preternaturally flavorful culinary delicacy.  Former French President Francois Mitterand, for example, was famously said to have consumed ortolan as the pièce de résistance in a lavish “last meal” in 1995, just a few days before dying of cancer.

In They Eat That? A Cultural Encyclopedia of Weird and Exotic Food from around the World, Thomas Crowley explains one traditional method for preparing, cooking, and consuming the bird:

“After netting one of the buntings (or several), the gourmand-now-turned-poacher places the bird in a darkened or artificially lit room; alternatively, he will gouge its eyes out — both are strategies for disrupting its feeding schedule.  Then, for a month, the ortolan is fed figs, millets, and oats in order to fatten it up quite severely.  Once it has grown to four times its normal size, the bird is drowned in brandy — ideally, Armagnac — before it is plucked clean, seasoned with salt and black pepper, and... baked in the high heat of an oven for six to eight minutes... The diner places the whole ortolan in his mouth, tail first, so that the bird’s head protrudes from his mouth.  He then bites in, perhaps discarding the head, or at least the beak.  The ortolan rests on his tongue to cool for a moment, while the fat runs from it.  He savors this still-sizzling-hot fat, and then begins to crunch away on the sea salty bones.  As he continues to chew, he tastes the bitterness of the internal organs rupturing, followed by the sweetness of the Armagnac that has asphyxiated it.”

It is now illegal to hunt or pay for ortolans in France, Crowley explains, more due to scarcity than morality, but certain chefs are still known to prepare them “discreetly” for “friends or high bidders.”

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TREHALA

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 6 June 2012

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Word of the Day:

TREHALA  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a sweet, edible substance obtained from the pupal case of certain Asiatic weevils

Useful info for word game players:

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

Current theme:

Weird Foods

Epilogue:

You may know MANNA from biblical stories, specifically as a type of food supposedly supplied miraculously to the Israelites in the wilderness during their flight from Egypt.  Today manna is the term for sweet substances obtained from tree or plant sap, or from the excretions of certain insects.  They are manna in that they appear to be produced out of nothing, as if by divine providence. 

TREHALA, for example, is a brittle, sweet “nest sugar” obtained from the pupal case of certain “snout beetles,” or WEEVILS, of Turkey and neighboring countries.  The term comes from Turkish and Persian forms of the word for the same substance.  It has been used as a food and as an ingredient in various drugs.  The sugary case — which includes a sugar known as TREHALOSE — does not appear out of nowhere, of course, as it is actually formed by abdominal excretions of the weevil in its larval stage.  In truth, you are unlikely to encounter trehala on your plate anytime soon, but a 2010 New York Times article did mention a few high-end restaurants that utilize plant-based forms of manna as ingredients in various foods and drinks.

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DURIAN

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 4 June 2012

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Word of the Day:

DURIAN  (n. pl. -S)

Definition(s):

1. (n.) a large greenish-brown oval fruit with a prickly rind and soft pale pulp with a strong odor
2. (n.) an East Indian tree of the silk-cotton family that bears durian fruit

Useful info for word game players:

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

Current theme:

Weird Foods

Epilogue:

The DURIAN is a large fruit about the size of a pineapple, with a prickly rind, which is grown in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and other countries in southeast Asia.  The fruit is edible and allegedly quite tasty, but it has a powerful odor that most find to be offensive.  The term comes from a word meaning “thorn” in the Malay language.

Weird foods are fashionable these days, thanks to books and television programs on the subject, as well as the proliferation of stores and restaurants with international or specialty offerings.  Perhaps you’ve heard of FUGU, the Japanese puffer fish that can be poisonous if not cut properly.  Or HAGGIS, the traditional Scottish dish consisting of minced heart, liver, and lungs of a sheep or calf, mixed with suet, onions, oatmeal, and other seasonings, traditionally simmered in the stomach of the animal.  Whether all this makes you say “mm!” or “hm?”, this week we will serve up a few more culinary oddities.

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"Spelling counts..."

Quote of the Week:

Spelling counts. Spelling is not merely a tedious exercise in a fourth-grade classroom. Spelling is one of the outward and visible marks of a disciplined mind.
~ James J. Kilpatrick (1920-2010)

2012 National Bee: Scrabble Words and a Local Connection

Congratulations to fourteen-year-old Snigdha Nandipati, of San Diego, who won the 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee.  Her winning word was GUETAPENS*, a word meaning "an ambush or trap."  Do not fall into the trap of trying to play it in Scrabble, since it is not a part of the TWL word list.  However, Snigdha did spell several Scrabble-acceptable words along the way, including RINGENT, LAHAR, STOCHASTICALLY, COMPAS, RHONCHUS, PSAMMON, and ARRONDISSEMENT. 

Truth be told, for me, the more exciting story is who finished second: fourteen-year-old Stuti Mishra, of West Melbourne, who was the central Florida representative, sponsored by the local Orlando Sentinel newspaper.  I was one of the word judges who watched her win the local bee earlier this year.  She won that contest in a marathon spell-off with another tough competitor, and I knew then that she could be a serious contender in the National Bee.  And, indeed, she was.  She did extremely well, finishing in second place (out of 278 competitors) after missing SCHWARMEREI, a Scrabble-acceptable word meaning "extravagant or excessive enthusiasm." Other Scrabble-acceptable words she conquered included ECHT, ENDERGONIC, FJELD, CHATOYANT, and PROLEGOMENON.  All in all, she finished higher than any other central Florida representative ever has, and she's an incredibly nice, polite, and sweet kid, too.  Congrats, Stuti! 

For more Bee coverage, see the official website: http://www.spellingbee.com/

MALAPROP

TileHead’s Word of the Day for 1 June 2012

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Word of the Day:

  MALAPROP  (n. pl. -S)


Definition(s):

1. (n.) a humorous, and usually unintentional, distortion or misuse of a word

Useful info for word game players:

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: malapropOS, malapropIAN, malapropISM/S, malapropIST/S
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: MALAPROPIAN (adj.), MALAPROPISM (n.), MALAPROPIST (n.)

Epilogue:

Often we focus on using words correctly, with clarity and precision.  Once in while, however, it is enjoyable to look at the humorous side of language (ab)use.  Today’s word takes us down the path of amusing linguistic gaffes.

A character named Mrs. Malaprop, in Richard Sheridan’s comedy The Rivals (1775), often misspoke in a certain humorous fashion: she tried to sprinkle her speech with learned words, but she frequently misused them in ludicrous ways.  She said things such as “he is the very pineapple of politeness” (she means “pinnacle of politeness”) or “she’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile” (for “alligator on the”).  This is the word you need when someone speaks of “the forty-eight contagious states of the U.S.” or “a vast suppository of information.”  The name of Sheridan’s memorable character was clearly formed on the pattern of the French phrase mal a propos, meaning “inappropriately.”  The English word MALAPROPOS, which means pertaining to something inappropriate, is from the same source.

Another type of humorous misspeaking is the SPOONERISM, which is the transposition, usually unintentional, of initial sounds in two or more words, such as “wottle of bater” (for “bottle of water”).  This word is named after a Reverend Dr. Spooner (1844-1930), who is alleged to have said things such as “you have hissed all my mystery lectures” (for “you have missed all my history lectures”) or “may I sew you to another sheet?” (for “may I show you to another seat?”).  A broader and more technical name for transposing letters or sounds in words is METATHESIS, from the Greek metatithenai, “to place differently.”  Metathesis includes spoonerisms, as well as common pronunciation mixups such as “flutterby,” “psaghetti,” and “nucular.”

Recapping this week’s featured words:
ZEUGMA, PANGRAM, ORTHOEPY, and MALAPROP

Also mentioned:
ANAGRAM, CACOGRAPHY, MALAPROPOS, METATHESIS, MONOGRAM, ORTHOGRAPHY, and SYLLEPSIS

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