Word Of The Day

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Rottack

NOUN

Scottish
rare
Something decayed or musty; (figurative) rubbish, nonsense. (Like the rubbish Corbyn spouts)
Origin
Late 15th century; earliest use found in St. Erkenwald. Probably from either rot or rot + -ock.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

I proudly present to you all, the Queen of Rottack...

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The secret face behind Jeremy Corbyn is revealed !!!

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PARALLAX noun (par-uh-laks)

noun

1. the apparent displacement of an observed object due to a change in the position of the observer.
2. Astronomy. the apparent angular displacement of a celestial body due to its being observed from the surface instead of from the center of the earth (diurnal parallax or geocentric parallax) or due to its being observed from the earth instead of from the sun (annual parallax or heliocentric parallax). Compare parallactic ellipse.

3. the difference between the view of an object as seen through the picture-taking lens of a camera and the view as seen through a separate viewfinder.

4. an apparent change in the position of cross hairs as viewed through a telescope, when the focusing is imperfect.
5. Digital Technology. a 3D effect observed when images and other elements in the foreground of a screen move at a different rate than those in the background (often used attributively): parallax scrolling; Does this phone have parallax?


Quotes

It is hard for a man walking rapidly along like Arthur not to mistake the parallax of objects in the different planes for the motion of a person in the shadows ...
--*Paul Goodman,*The Empire City: A Novel of New York City, 1959

Voices ... come from everywhere and nowhere, sometimes catching up with lips, sometimes floating in the general parallax that sitting near the sides of the Penthouse Theater (where the movie opened yesterday) brings on.
--*Renata Adler,*"Petula Clark and Fred Asaire Head Cast: 2 Other Movies Begin Local Engagements," New York Times, October 10, 1968



Origin

Parallax drifts into Mr. Leopold Bloom’s head about 1:00 in the afternoon as he is walking to Davy Byrne’s pub for lunch (Episode 8, “Lestrygonians,” of Ulysses), and he attempts a partial etymology: “Parallax…Par it’s Greek: parallel, parallax.” Parallel and parallax both come from the same Greek elements: the preposition and combining form pará- “beside, from beside” and the adjective állos “other.” Parállēlos “beside one another, side by side” comes from pará- and the reciprocal pronoun allḗlōn “each other,” a derivative of állos. The second element of parállaxis is from another derivative of állos, the verb allássein (one of whose inflectional stems is allag-) “to make other, change.” Both parállēlos and parállaxis are most common in Hellenistic Greek technical and scientific works, e.g., in medicine, geometry, cartography, and astronomy. Parallax entered English in the 16th century.

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INTERDIGITATE verb (in-ter-dij-i-teyt)

verb

1. to interlock, as or like the fingers of both hands.

Quotes

Linguistic history is so much harder for two primary reasons. First, branches can reconnect, interweave, interdigitate, borrow from and filter through one another.
--*Stephen Jay Gould,*"Talk Gets Around," New York Times, December 11, 1988

... there are times when their feelings become too much for them. Then, if the occasion is too formal for unrestrained shrieks, they silently interdigitate.
--*Ian Hay,*The Right Stuff, 1910



Origin

Interdigitate is a derivative of the Latin noun digitus, most commonly meaning is “finger” and secondarily “toe” and finally, as a measure of length, “the breadth of a finger, inch.” The Latin noun derives from the Proto-Indo-European root (and its variants) deik-, doik-, dik- (also deig-, doig-, dig-) “to point, point out, show.” One of the Germanic derivatives of doik- is taih(wō), which in Old English develops into tahe and then tā, whence Modern English “toe,” except that human beings cannot interdigitate with their toes. Interdigitate entered English in the 19th century.

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OPHIDIAN noun (oh-fid-ee-uh n)

noun

1. a snake.

adjective

1. belonging or pertaining to the suborder Ophidia (Serpentes), comprising the snakes.


Quotes

The head of the ophidian raised from the shoulder of the statue and disappeared, to glide out from beneath the arm in a swift undulation, its jaws open, its tongue vibrating.
--*J. Allan Dunn,*"The Treasure of Atlantis, All Around, December 1916

Squaring her shoulders, she stepped over one ophidian, then actually set her foot in the coil of another's tail before stepping across its body as well.
--*Richard Baker,*Final Gate, 2006



Origin

Ophidian is a derivative of Greek óphis “snake, serpent,” and despite appearances, óphis comes from the same Proto-Indo-European source (angwhi- or ogwhi- “snake, eel” as Latin anguis, Lithuanian angìs, Russian už, and Polish wąż, all meaning “snake”). Ophidian entered English in the 19th century.

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DIVAGATE verb (dahy-vuh-geyt)

verb

1. to wander; stray.
2. to digress in speech.


Quotes

I divagate without discipline--my mind runs all over ...
--*A. S. Byatt,*Possession, 1990

But, vague vagabond, you will seem to divagate, while in reality you will keep both eyes open and your ears pricked.
--*Umberto Eco,*The Island of the Day Before, translated by William Weaver, 1995



Origin

Divagate comes from Latin dīvagātus, the past participle of dīvagārī meaning “to wander off.” It entered English in the late 1500s.

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EXURB noun (ek-serb)

noun

1. a small, usually prosperous, community situated beyond the suburbs of a city.


Quotes

"I grew up in the exurbs of Indianapolis," Elizabeth says.
--*Emily St. John Mandel,*Station Eleven, 2014

When the neighborhood began to change, in the early eighties—when her son could no longer ride his bicycle around the corner without being pushed off it—she moved upstate, to Orange County, a burgeoning exurb.
--*Nick Paumgarten,*"There and Back Again," The New Yorker, April 16, 2007



Origin

Exurb is an Americanism dating back to the 1950s. It’s a portmanteau of the words ex- and suburb.

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SMORGASBORD noun (smawr-guh s-bohrd)

noun

1. an extensive array or variety: The company has a smorgasbord of employee benefits.
2. a buffet meal of various hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, salads, casserole dishes, meats, cheeses, etc.


Quotes

Inside, the old man held court reclining on a green divan, beside a large table heavily laden with wines and medicines and smokes and an endless untidy smorgasbord of unappetizing snacks.
--*Norman Spinrad,*Songs from the Stars, 1980

I think one always needs the sensory smorgasbord of a firsthand experience in order to truly absorb a place's atmosphere--or, to borrow Gracie's term, to read the sum of its "room-feelings."
--*Reif Larsen,*The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet, 2009



Origin

Smorgasbord comes from Swedish smörgåsbord. Smörgås means “a slice of bread and butter,” made up of the nouns smör “butter” (related to English smear) and gås literally “goose” and dialectally “a lump of butter.” Bord means "table" in Swedish and is obviously closely related to English board, both from Germanic. Smorgasbord entered English in the late 19th century.

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SOTTO VOCE adverb (sot-oh- voh-chee)

adverb

1. in a low, soft voice so as not to be overheard.


Quotes

And they are superbly complemented by Claude Pieplu, as the amoral man of concentrated ambition whose utmost cruelties are uttered sotto voce--so as not to trouble a sleeping child.
--*Judith Crist,*"A Repast of Things Remembered," New York, May 27, 1974

The prelude was projected onto a piece of white fabric that looked like a bedsheet, and probably was one--arts budgets being what they were, as Gavin commented to Reynolds, sotto voce.
--*Margaret Atwood,*"Revenant," Stone Mattress: Nine Wicked Tales, 2014



Origin

There is usually a pretty straight line from Latin to Italian. Italian sotto, meaning “under, below,” comes from the Latin adverb subtus “below, beneath.” Italian voce comes from Latin voc-, the stem of the noun vox “voice, sound.” The phrase entered English in the 18th century.