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Shakespearean Imagination
Good day to you, friends!
It's Wednesday, which means another installment of Shakespearean Imagination!
I mentioned in my last post that I was off to the airport - a much-needed vacation in honour of my anniversary! So, as a nod to my dear spouse, today's word is:
courtship: court·ship : \ˈkôrtˌSHip\ (n): (1.) A period during which a couple ( ... )Leave a comment ( 3 )
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caparison
caparison, noun, verb
kuh-PAR-eh-suhn
noun:
1 - a decorative covering for a horse or for the tack or harness of a horse; trappings
2 - rich and sumptuous clothing or equipment
verb:
3 - to cover with a caparison
4 - to dress richly; deck
Origin 1590 from Middle French caparasson. Also from Old Spanish caparazon and capa (cape).
Also a Japan-based ( ... )Leave a comment ( 3 )
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epimyth(ium)
epimyth, noun. The moral of a story.
Epymythium (plural epimythia) is a moral appended to the end of the story...but epimyth is sometimes listed with the same definition.
Greek, from ἐπί ‘upon’ + μῦθος ‘story, fable’.
'Epimyth' has been in use in English for a while; here's the definition from the 1878 book A Vocabulary of the Philosophical Sciences ( ... )Leave a comment ( 2 )
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Xenobiology
Xe·no·bi·o·lo·gy (ˌzɛnəʊbaɪˈɒlədʒi):
origin: from Ancient Greek (xenos) "foreign, strange" + biology (bios, "life" and -logia, "study")
noun
1. the study of the biology of alien life forms (a branch of astrobiology).
It's important to note a related word, exobiology, whereupon a fine line shall be drawn. Exobiology examines life outside of planet ( ... )Leave a comment ( 1 )
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Friday word: Witling
From the "scholarly insults" category: (thanks to capt_facepalm for the word! ;)
Witling: 1 : a would-be wit
2 : a person of little wit
First known use: 1693
"A beau and witling perished in the throng,
One died in metaphor, and one in song."
(from Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock [a poem about the theft of a lock of hair])
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fusillade
fusillade, noun, verb
FYOO-suh-leyd
or
FYOO-suh-lahd
noun:
1 - a simultaneous or continuous discharge of firearms
2 - a general discharge or outpouring of anything
verb:
3 - to attack or shoot by a fusillade
Origin French, 1801, from fusiller (to shoot) and fusil (musket)
In the context of military tactics, the term is generally used to refer to a type of ( ... ) -
cephalophore
cephalophore, noun.
1. A person - usually a saint - depicted as carrying his or her own head. For a saint, the depiction often refers to martyrdom by beheading.
2. (medical) a cephalostat designed to take in-sequence-oriented facial photographs and gnathostatic models. (I think that definition refers to a head-stabilizing mechanism and camera ( ... )Leave a comment ( 6 )
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Matricide
Mat·ri·cide (mætrɪˌsaɪd):
origin: from Latin- mātrīcīdium (the act), mātrīcīda (the agent). See matri-, -cide
noun
1. the killing of one’s mother.
2. a person who has killed his mother. - matricidal, adj.
Plus a handy list of additional words under the cut, so that you can keep all your murders straight~!
( HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! )Leave a comment ( 10 )
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Friday word: Eleemosynary
Eleemosynary: of, relating to, or supported by charity
Etymology: Medieval Latin eleemosynarius, from Late Latin eleemosyna alms, from Greek eleēmosynē pity, alms, from eleēmōn merciful, from eleos pity.
First Known Use: circa 1616
"In Soapy's opinion the Law was more benign than Philanthropy. There was an endless round of institutions, municipal and ( ... )Leave a comment ( 2 )
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