pangolin |paŋˈgə(ʊ)lɪn|nounan African and Asian mammal that has a body covered with horny overlapping scales, a small head with an elongated snout, a long sticky tongue for catching ants and termites, and a tapering tail. Also called scaly anteater.: ORIGIN late 18th cent.: from Malay peng-guling, literally ‘roller’ (from its habit of rolling into a ball).
Now, where did I find that one?
yaffle A friend sent me this one. Apparently birds do this - guess it's a noise? - Does anyone know this? The online dictionary doesn't have it. When I have time I'll look it up elsewhere. I have been too busy with my screenwriting homework. I can't find skeeve out either.
cloaca |kləʊˈeɪkə|noun (pl.cloacae |-siː, -kiː| )1 Zoology a common cavity at the end of the digestive tract for the release of both excretory and genital products in vertebrates (except most mammals) and certain invertebrates.2 archaic a sewer. DERIVATIVES cloacal, adjective ORIGIN late 16th cent. (in the sense ‘sewer’): from Latin, related to cluere ‘cleanse’. The first sense dates from the mid 19th cent.
I know i looked this one up last week but I didn't retain it. It doesn't appeal to me.
The screenwriting homework continues inexorable. Some of it requires a gestation period before I can come up with a scene. That's when I am very grateful for my peculiar sleeping habits. I've been staying awake but not sitting up when I wake about 4 a.m. I lie there and think my way through it. I think some more while I swim and then by the time I get to the typewriter (computer -Final Draft plus Word) I can write. Yesterday morning I didn't get it right and I knew it, but this morning I figured out what was wrong and tweaked my erroneous scene into the new one. That probably doesn't make sense but it did to me.
More to come.