—in a good way.
I saw three more productions in Stratford over the weekend and I’ll get to them this week. I’m doing ordinary, long overdue, neglected chores. I also have a backlog of books I’ve been reading to comment on, not as many as usual, but some. There’s a neglected pile here, too; I can’t stop buying them. And then there are words.
embouchure noun: 1 [ mass noun ] Music the way in which a player applies their mouth to the mouthpiece of a brass or wind instrument, especially as it affects the production of the sound. • [ count noun ] the mouthpiece of a flute or a similar instrument.2 archaic the mouth of a river or valley. ORIGIN mid 18th cent.: French, from s'emboucher ‘discharge itself by the mouth’, from emboucher ‘put in or to the mouth’, from em- ‘into’ + bouche ‘mouth’.
I really hate the use of the plural [their] with a singular antecedent. If you don’t want to write his/her, then write the —the mouth. I’m fighting a long -lost battle, along with lay - should be lie when it’s intransitive.
moggie (also moggy) noun (pl.moggies) Brit. informal: a cat, typically one that is does not have a pedigree or is otherwise unremarkable. I have three other cats (two moggies and one Bengal/Tonkinese cross). ORIGIN late 17th cent.: variant of Maggie, pet form of the given name Margaret.
zeitgeist noun [ in sing. ]: the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time: the story captured the zeitgeist of the late 1960s. DERIVATIVES zeitgeisty adjective( informal); ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from German Zeitgeist, from Zeit ‘time’ + Geist ‘spirit’.
I keep having to look this one up. I know what it means but I have never used it.
polydactyly noun [ mass noun ]: a condition in which a person or animal has more than five fingers or toes on one, or on each, hand or foot. polydactyly of both hands was noted at birth. DERIVATIVES polydactyl adjective& noun. ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from Greek poludaktulos (from polu- ‘many’ + daktulos ‘finger’) + -y3.
I always want to make this a poetic measure - you know, a dactyl? — or else the name of another of those prehistoric dinosaurs with a related name. It’s a nice one, though, as is. Good to use in a murder mystery.
seitan noun [ mass noun ]: a type of textured vegetable protein made from wheat gluten, used as a meat substitute. ORIGIN perhaps from Japanese shokubutsusei tanpaku ‘vegetable protein’.
I don’t want to remember this one. I’ve had it and I don’t like it.
jackfruit noun: a fast-growing tropical Asian tree related to the breadfruit. ●Artocarpus heterophyllus, family Moraceae. • the very large edible fruit of the jackfruit tree, resembling a breadfruit and important as food in the tropics. ORIGIN late 16th cent.: from Portuguese jaca (from Malayalam chakka) + fruit.
So I still read recipes.