Yesterday was Day Two of the same blog, a double one. It took a while to do, looking up all those words. So, back to the blog/essay question.

You may have noticed that when you look up something in Wikipedia you often get a message that the information is only a squib and that they would welcome more from you. So what is a squib?

squib noun 1 a small firework that burns with a hissing sound before exploding. 2 a short piece of satirical writing.• N. America, a short news item or filler in a newspaper. 3 informal a small, slight, or weak person, especially a child .4 verb American Football kick (the ball) a comparatively short distance on a kick-off; execute (a kick) in this way. we decided to squib the kick. 2 [ no obj. ] archaic utter, write, or publish a satirical or sarcastic attack. it is a sport now to taunt and squib and deride at other men's virtues.• [ with obj. ] lampoon: the mendicant parson, whom I am so fond of squibbing. ORIGIN early 16th cent. (in sense 1 of the noun ): of unknown origin; perhaps imitative of a small explosion. The verb was first recorded in sense 2 of the verb, late 16th century.

Well, you know. Wikipedia isn't always accurate and that's why you should double check before you rely on its accuracy. My knowledge of squib was gleaned from my brother; he loved fireworks and he called the little strings of them squibs. That's the first definition, you will note, and probably the most common. As for a short piece of satirical writing, I don't think that's what Wikipedia is saying. They are thinking short and filler, not satirical. Thus is a new meaning born.

A squib is extra (accurate?) information for Wikipedia. Just be careful.

Be careful using some information too much, without double checking. I used a report from Australia in one of my books. Well, you never know how much you are read until you make a mistake and then you find out. I had an e-mail via my publisher that I had made an egregious error and the writer demanded an apology and a reprint. Apologies are easy and I was not only apologetic but ashamed of my own carelessness. Reprints are hard, and dependent on the publisher and sales. All we/I could do was promise a correction when the book went into a second edition. (Don't hold your breath.)

Ah, the joys of writing! Little glitches never occur to you when you start writing. Tomorrow I'll tell you about Russell Meade, and if he's still alive, I hope he reads this.

Maybe you're tired of learning new words with me and I know that not many of them stick the first time. Actually, I often seed my list with words I sort of know but don't have a firm grasp on, or pick them up them in a different context. So most of the words in the current list are from Ted Chiang's book of short stories - science fiction with a different vocabulary.

knurl noun a small projecting knob or ridge, especially in a series around the edge of something. DERIVATIVES knurled adjective ORIGIN early 17th cent.: apparently a derivative of knurl.

I like that one. Chiang used it as an adjective to describe wheels.

euonym: euonymus noun a shrub or small tree that is widely cultivated for its autumn colours and bright fruit. ●Genus Euonymus, family Celastraceae: numerous species, including the spindle tree. ORIGIN modern Latin (named by Linnaeus), from Latin euonymos, from Greek euōnumos ‘having an auspicious or honoured name’, from eus ‘good’ + onoma ‘name’.

Linnaean (system of classification): Linnaeus, Carolus (1707–78), Swedish botanist, founder of modern systematic botany and zoology; Latinized name of Carl von Linné. He devised an authoritative classification system for flowering plants involving binomial Latin names (later superseded by that of Antoine Jussieu), and also a classification method for animals .DERIVATIVES Linnaean (also Linnean) adjective& noun

dimorphic adjective chiefly Biology occurring in or representing two distinct forms: in this sexually dimorphic species only the males have wings. DERIVATIVESdimorphism nounORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from Greek dimorphos (from di- ‘twice’ + morphē ‘form’) + -ic.

ontogenic: ontogeny noun [mass noun] the branch of biology that deals with ontogenesis. Compare with phylogeny.• another term for ontogenesis. DERIVATIVES adjective,ontogenically |- adverb ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from Greek ōn, ont- ‘being’ + -geny.

ontogenesis noun [ mass noun ] Biology the development of an individual organism or anatomical or behavioural feature from the earliest stage to maturity. Compare with phylogenesis DERIVATIVES ontogenetic adjective, ontogenetically adverb ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from Greek ōn, ont- ‘being’ + genesis ‘birth’.

hermeneutics plural noun [ usu. treated as sing. ] the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, especially of the Bible or literary texts. hermeneutic adjective concerning interpretation, especially of the Bible or literary texts. noun a method or theory of interpretation. DERIVATIVES hermeneutical adjective,hermeneutically adverb ORIGIN late 17th cent.: from Greek hermēneutikos, from hermēneuein ‘interpret’.

COBOL noun [ mass noun ] a computer programming language designed for use in commerce. ORIGIN 1960s: from co(mmon) b(usiness) o(rented) l(anguage). [I Love Acronyms!]

terabyte (abbrev.: Tb or TB) noun Computing a unit of information equal to one million million (1012) or, strictly, 240 bytes.

aprodosia not in the online dictionary, but I know it, even without reading the story which is what it is about. I have prosopagnosia, i.e. face blindness. I can't map a face, can't remember faces until I see them a number of times. This can be very embarrassing or alienating.. People think I'm rude or ignoring them. I didn't know what it was until I read an article in the New Yorker a few years ago about tOliver Sacks () before he died. He had it, worse than mine. since then I have discovered that Brad Pitt has it and Tom Stoppard. Anyway, that osia fives it away. In Chiang's story people with aprodosia can't distinguish between appearances, good-looking or not so.

onager noun an animal of a race of the Asian wild ass native to northern Iran.●Equus hemionus onager, family Equidae. Compare with kiang, kulan. ORIGIN Middle English: via Latin from Greek onagros, from ohos ‘ass’ + agrios ‘wild’.

spall verb [ with obj. ] break (ore, rock, or stone) into smaller pieces, especially in preparation for sorting. the ore was spalled by young women seated at anvils.• [ no obj. ] (of ore, rock, or stone) break off in fragments: cracks below the surface cause slabs of material to spall off. noun a splinter or chip, especially of rock. ORIGIN late Middle English (as a noun): of unknown origin. The verb dates from the mid 18th cent.

ziggurat |noun (in ancient Mesopotamia) a rectangular stepped tower, sometimes surmounted by a temple. Ziggurats are first attested in the late 3rd millennium bc and probably inspired the biblical story of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1–9). [One of Chiang's stories is about the Tower of Babel.]

homunculus (also homuncule) noun (pl. homunculi or homuncules) a very small human or humanoid creature.• historical a microscopic but fully formed human being from which a fetes was formerly believed to develop. ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Latin, diminutive of homo, homin- ‘man’.

parthenogenesis noun [ mass noun ] Biology reproduction from an ovum without fertilisation, especially as a normal process in some invertebrates and lower plants. cyclic parthenogenesis is well displayed in aphids. DERIVATIVES parthenogenetic adjective ,parthenogenetically adverb ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: modern Latin, from Greek parthenos ‘virgin’ + genesis ‘creation’. [I knew this one only from my Greek mythology - Zeus, you know.]

paralinguistic adjective relating to or denoting paralanguage or the non-lexical elements of communication by speech.

tautology noun (pl. tautologies) [ mass noun ] the saying of the same thing twice over in different words, generally considered to be a fault of style (e.g. they arrived one after the other in succession).• [ count noun ] a phrase or expression in which the same thing is said twice in different words.• Logic a statement that is true by necessity or by virtue of its logical form. DERIVATIVES tautological adjective ,tautologically adverb, tautologist noun,tautologize (also tautologise) verb, tautologous adjective ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: via late Latin from Greek, from tautologies ‘repeating what has been said’, from tauto- ‘same’ + -logos (see -logy) . [I LOVE TO USE THIS: i.e. repeat something someone has just said - it adds a nice touch of humour to a scene.]

This last word is not from Chiang. I got it from the Manchester Guardian and I guess I should have known it before. It is used commonly now in Europe, more than in North America: Shoah noun (the Shoah: another term for the Holocaust (see holocaust). ORIGIN modern Hebrew, literally ‘catastrophe.

There. Another day, another blog.