frass noun : 1 fine powdery refuse or fragile perforated wood produced by the activity of boring insects.. 2 the excrement of insect larvae. ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from German Frass, from fressen ‘devour’.
preterition noun the action of passing over or disregarding a matter, especially the rhetorical technique of making summary mention of something by professing to omit it. the favourite rhetorical trope of the historical novelists is preterition, saying that you are not going to say something and thereby saying it: he made successive preteritions. ORIGIN late 16th cent.: from late Latin praeteritio(n-), from praeterire ‘pass, go by’.
cagoule noun Brit. a lightweight, hooded, thigh-length waterproof jacket. ORIGIN 1950s: from French, literally ‘cowl’. (I like this one, the sound of it. I wish it had a more interesting meaning.)
stochastic adjective, technical: having a random probability distribution or pattern that may be analysed statistically but may not be predicted precisely. DERIVATIVES stochastically, adverb. ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Greek stokhastikos, from stokhazesthai ‘aim at, guess’, from stokhos ‘aim’.
quincunx noun (pl.quincunxes) 1 an arrangement of five objects with four at the corners of a square or rectangle and the fifth at its centre, used for the five on a dice or playing card, and in planting trees. quincunx 1 2 [ mass noun ] Astrology an aspect of 150°, equivalent to five zodiacal signs. DERIVATIVES quincuncial adjective quincuncially |-ˈkʌnʃ(ə)li| adverb ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Latin, literally ‘five twelfths’, from quinque ‘five’ + uncia ‘twelfth’.
gamalog a term for a simpleton heard in the Gaeltacht region of Ireland
sordor noun [ mass noun ] chiefly literary, physical or moral sordidness; the cleaned-up sordor of Soho side streets. ORIGIN early 19th cent.: from sordid, on the pattern of the pair squalid, squalor .
shambolic adjective informal, chiefly Brit. chaotic, disorganized, or mismanaged: the department's shambolic accounting.
DERIVATIVES shambolically adverb ORIGIN 1970s: from shambles, probably on the pattern of symbolic.
hendiadys noun [ mass noun: the expression of a single idea by two words connected with ‘and’, e.g. nice and warm, when one could be used to modify the other, as in nicely warm. ORIGIN late 16th cent.: via medieval Latin from Greek hen dia duoin ‘one thing by two’. (I want to use this one. l I think i’ve given it to you before.)
(And the next one too.)
marasmus noun [ mass noun ] Medicine: undernourishment causing a child's weight to be significantly low for their age. DERIVATIVES marasmic adjective ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: modern Latin, from Greek marasmos ‘withering’, from marainein ‘wither’.
emesis noun [ mass noun ] technical: the action or process of vomiting. the drug allows you to control emesis. ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from Greek, from emein ‘to vomit’.
That’s enough isn’t it?
I came across the following and don’t know whether I wrote it or someone else. Anyway, it’s an appropriate way for me to end this blog and let you go. (i imagine you left some time ago.)
“Not everything I learned is worth my reader’s time.”