rodomontade & singularity

[scottobear]

rodomontade (rod-uh-muhn-TADE; roh-duh-; -TAHD), noun:
Vain boasting; empty bluster; pretentious, bragging speech; rant.

Rodomontade comes from Italian rodomontada, from Rodomonte, a great yet boastful warrior king in Italian epics of the late 15th - early 16th centuries. At root the name means "roller-away of mountains," from the Italian dialect rodare, "to roll away" (from Latin rota, "wheel") + Italian monte, "mountain" (from Latin mons).

and for the math fans...

singularity (sing-gyuh-LAR-i-tee) noun

1. Something that is distinctive, unusual, or remarkable.

2. A unique quality.

3. Mathematics: A point at which a complex function is undefined, one where no derivative exists but the neighborhood of which contains point where the derivative exists. Also known as a singular point.

4. Astrophysics: A point or region where gravitation forces cause space and time to be infinitely distorted and matter to be infinitely compressed -- the state of matter falling into a black hole.

[From Late Latin singularitas.]

Comments

[keith-london.livejournal.com]

Love the word "rodomontade" ! Unfortunately it's a bit of a mouthful and most people would not know the meaning.. but I would love to hear someone say e.g. to a politician - "What a load of rodomontade..!" I suspect more people would have heard about singularities.

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[scottobear.livejournal.com]

I figure you're right... I've heard folks bandying it about, but not really knowing the meaning of singularity...

[swerve.livejournal.com]

I love these daily word entries. How do you decide what to post?

Re:

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

It varies. :) I'm on a lot of word-a-day mails, and sometimes I just find one in my travels that is fun. I like to post ones that seem a little odd or not generally known.

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[swerve.livejournal.com]

I'll say you do. I have a decent vocabulary but I learn new words just about every day from your entries. Do you have "etymology" on your interests list too? :)

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[scottobear.livejournal.com]

I did before they trimmed the list of interests to 150 entries. :) thanks for your kind words!

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[swerve.livejournal.com]

I'll see if I can find new words for compliments. I'm running out. :)

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[scottobear.livejournal.com]

I'm fond of Kudos, myself. :)