2 words of the day!
May. 21st, 2001 10:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scottobearbibelot \BEE-buh-loh\, noun:
A small decorative object without practical utility; a trinket.
Bibelot is from French, from Old French beubelot, beubelet, "a small jewel, a trinket," from a reduplication of bel, "beautiful," from Latin bellus, "pretty, handsome." It is related to bauble.
albedo \al-BEE-doh\, noun:
1. The fraction of light reflected from a body or surface.
For example, earth's albedo is around 0.39.
2. The white, spongy inner lining of a citrus fruit rind.
[From Late Latin albedo, whiteness, from Latin albus, white.]
Some of the most interesting, unusual words describe everyday things. Who would have thought that this fleshy, spongy, white thing inside an orange had a word for itself... and that it would share it with astronomers? Or that it would have the same ancestor as the words for an egg part, a photo book, or smearing of a canvas? What all these words have in common is whiteness or albus, Latin for white. Albumen is egg white, an album is a book with white pages, and when we daub a sheet of paper, we de-albus it.
A small decorative object without practical utility; a trinket.
Bibelot is from French, from Old French beubelot, beubelet, "a small jewel, a trinket," from a reduplication of bel, "beautiful," from Latin bellus, "pretty, handsome." It is related to bauble.
albedo \al-BEE-doh\, noun:
1. The fraction of light reflected from a body or surface.
For example, earth's albedo is around 0.39.
2. The white, spongy inner lining of a citrus fruit rind.
[From Late Latin albedo, whiteness, from Latin albus, white.]
Some of the most interesting, unusual words describe everyday things. Who would have thought that this fleshy, spongy, white thing inside an orange had a word for itself... and that it would share it with astronomers? Or that it would have the same ancestor as the words for an egg part, a photo book, or smearing of a canvas? What all these words have in common is whiteness or albus, Latin for white. Albumen is egg white, an album is a book with white pages, and when we daub a sheet of paper, we de-albus it.
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no subject
Date: 2001-05-21 07:53 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2001-05-21 07:56 am (UTC)n.
Botany. The soft, spongelike, central cylinder of the stems of most flowering plants, composed mainly of parenchyma.
Zoology. The soft inner substance of a feather or hair.
The essential or central part; the heart or essence. See Synonyms at substance.
Strength; vigor; mettle.
Significance; importance.
Archaic. Spinal cord or bone marrow.
v. tr. pithed, pith·ing, piths.
To remove the pith from (a plant stem).
To sever or destroy the spinal cord of, usually by means of a needle inserted into the vertebral canal.
To kill (cattle) by cutting the spinal cord.
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[Middle English from Old English pitha.]
side note -
pith helmet (pth hlmt)
n.
A lightweight hat made from dried pith and worn in tropical countries for protection from the sun.
Re:
Date: 2001-05-21 08:05 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2001-05-21 08:06 am (UTC)Etymology is History
Date: 2001-05-21 08:07 am (UTC)Re: Etymology is History
Date: 2001-05-21 08:27 am (UTC)