How are you on words? Read any good ones lately? Try these on for size:
potter verb: we pottered down to the library: amble, wander, meander, stroll, saunter, maunder; informal mosey, tootle, toddle; Brit. informal mooch; N. Amer. informal putter.
PHRASES: potter about/around I spent Monday at home, just pottering about: do nothing much, amuse oneself, tinker about/around, fiddle about/around, footle about/around, do odd jobs; informal mess about/around, piddle about/around, puddle about/around; Brit. informal muck about/around, fanny about/around; N. Amer. informal putter about/around.
Puttering is enormously time-consuming.I puttered too much today, not that it didi’t seem necessary but that it was not what I wanted to do. So now I have time for only a few words before I try to sleep.
chthonic adjective relating to or inhabiting the underworld: a chthonic deity. ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from Greek khthōn ‘earth’ + -ic.
and
autochthony No entries found. (in the same book I was reading, must be related—a self-created deity?)
epigenetic adjective 1 Biology resulting from external rather than genetic influences: epigenetic carcinogens.
• relating to or of the nature of epigenesis. 2 Geology formed later than the surrounding or underlying rock formation.
DERIVATIVES epigenetically adverb, epigenetics plural noun
apotropaic adjective supposedly having the power to avert evil influences or bad luck: apotropaic statues.
DERIVATIVES apotropaically adverb ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from Greek apotropaios ‘averting evil’, from apotrepein ‘turn away or from’ + -ic.
phalanstery noun (pl.phalansteries) a group of people living together in a community and holding property in common.
ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from French phalanstère (used by Charles Fourier in his socialist scheme for the reorganization of society), blend of Latin phalanx ‘band (of soldiers), group’ and French monastère ‘monastery’.
hyperaemia noun [ mass noun ] Medicine an excess of blood in the vessels supplying an organ or other part of the body.
DERIVATIVES hyperaemic adjective ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from hyper-‘above normal’ + -aemia.
riad noun (in Morocco) a large traditional house built around a central courtyard, often converted into a hotel. ORIGIN Arabic riyāḍ, riad, literally ‘gardens’, plural of rawḍa ‘garden’.
sgraffito noun (pl.sgraffiti |-ti| ) [ mass noun ] a form of decoration made by scratching through a surface to reveal a lower layer of a contrasting colour, typically done in plaster or stucco on walls, or in slip on ceramics before firing. ORIGIN mid 18th cent.: Italian, literally ‘scratched away’, past participle of sgraffiare .
That’s enough.