Definitions
ratafia: (n) 1. A liqueur made by steeping nuts, kernels, fruits, or herbs in any sweetened spirit; a sweet aperitif traditional in several regions of France, made by adding brandy to unfermented grape juice and ageing it in a barrel; sometimes flavoured with herbs and other fruits.
2. More fully ratafia essence. An essence used as a flavouring for food and drink, typically extracted from almonds or the kernels of cherries, apricots, and peaches.
3. A kind of cake or biscuit flavoured with ratafia essence.
4. A variety of sour cherry; specifically (in later use) the morello.
morello: (n) A dark variety of sour cherry, used chiefly in cooking; the tree producing this fruit (Prunus cerasus).
curricle: (n) 1. A course, running.
2. A light two-wheeled carriage, usually drawn by two horses abreast.
deedy: (adj) 1. Full of deeds or activity; active. Also, earnest, serious.
2. Actual, real.
hetaera: (n) A female companion or paramour, a mistress, a concubine; a courtesan, harlot.
gudgeon: (n) 1. A small European fresh-water fish (Gobio fluviatilis), much used for bait.
2. Applied to fishes of the genus Gobius or family Gobiidæ; goby. sea gudgeon: the Black Goby or Rock-fish.
3. One that will bite at any bait or swallow anything: a credulous, gullible person.
4. A bait, something swallowed greedily or credulously.
5. A pivot, usually of metal, fixed on or let into the end of a beam, spindle, axle, etc., and on which a wheel turns, a bell swings, or the like; in recent use more widely applied to various kinds of journals and similar parts of machinery.
6. The ring or ‘eye’ in the ‘heel’ of a gate which turns on the hook or pintle in the gate-post.
7. Nautical: A metal socket in which the pintle of a rudder turns.
8. Nautical: One of the notches made in the carrick-bits for receiving the metal bushes wherein the spindle of a windlass works.
9. A wedge or block (of metal).
10. A metallic pin used for securing together two blocks or slabs of stone, etc.
medawlinno: (n) An Abenaki word for a shaman or medicine man.
coliform: (n) A bacillus of the coli-group of bacteria.
bacillus: (n) A genus of Schizomycetæ, microscopic vegetable organisms of the lowest grade among what were once called Infusoria. Separated from Bacterium, with which it agrees in its rod-like form, and characterized by its larger size and mode of reproduction. First described by Müller ante 1850; recently brought into note by the discovery of some of the species in the diseased tissues in Anthrax, and in Phthisis and other tubercular diseases.
quaalude: (n) The sedative and hypnotic drug methaqualone. Also: a tablet of this drug.
satyagraha: (n) The Indian form of passive resistance, as formulated by M. K. Gandhi.
covary: (v) A verb back-formed from covariation: Correlated variation.
catabolism: (n) That phase of the metabolism of living bodies which consists in the breaking down of complex organic compounds into simpler ones; destructive metabolism.
raphe: (n) 1. In Anatomy and Zoology: A seam-like line or ridge, especially between the two halves of a bilaterally symmetrical organ or part of the body; specifically a zone of decussating fibres and cells in the median plane of the medulla oblongata and pons.
2. In Botany: A ridge formed on a seed by fusion of the funiculus with the nucellus of an anatropous ovule.
3. In fruits of umbelliferous plants: the commissure between two mericarps.
4. A longitudinal slit in the valves of many pennate diatoms, believed to be involved in gliding motility.
5. In Ornithology: A groove running along the underside of the shaft of a developing feather.
6. A radish root or plant.
raphe nucleus: (n) One of a moderate-size cluster of nuclei found in the brain stem. Their main function is to release serotonin to the rest of the brain.
decussate: (v) 1. To cross, intersect, lie across, so as to form a figure like the letter X.
funiculus: (n) 1. A little rope.
2. A hypothetical ‘string’ or filament of extremely rarefied matter, imagined to be the agent operating in the suspension of the mercury in the Torricellian experiment.
3. The umbilical cord.
4. In Botany: A little stalk by which a seed or ovule is attached to the placenta.
5. In Entomology: A term for the part of the antenna which lies between the scape and the club in certain insects
6. In Anatomy: Applied to the primitive cord or bundle of nerve fibres, bound together in a sheath of connective tissue, called the perineurium or neurilemma.
perineurium: (n) The sheath of connective tissue surrounding a bundle of nerve fibres.
neurilemma: (n) 1. The sheath of connective tissue around a nerve or nerve fascicle; the perineurium or epineurium.
2. The covering formed by Schwann cells around peripheral nerve fibres (also enclosing the myelin sheath where present). [On a personal note, *this* is what multiplies uncontrolled in my body, that causes my neurofibromas. Nice to have terms for it.]
nucellus: (n) In Botany: The undifferentiated tissue of the ovule, in which the embryo sac develops.
anatropous: (adj) Said of the ovule of phanerogamous plants when its nucleus, with its integuments, is inverted, so that its apex points to the base of the ovule. Opposed to orthotropous, in which the nucleus is erect within the ovule.
phanerogamous: (adj) In Botany: Belonging to the plant division Phanerogamia; of or relating to phanerogams; spermatophytic.
commissure: (n) 1. A joining or connecting together; the line or surface along which two parts touch each other or form a connexion; a joining, juncture, seam.
2. A joint between two bones; formerly often applied to the seams of the cranial bones.
3. The line formed by the meeting surfaces of the two lips, eye-lids, etc.
4. The connexion of the lips, eye-lids, etc. at the angles.
5. Various bands or bundles of white or grey nerve-substance, which connect the two hemispheres of the brain, different parts of the cerebrum and cerebellum, and the two sides of the spinal cord; also, a nerve-cord connecting two ganglia of the nerve system in insects, etc.
6. A band of muscle, etc., connecting two parts of the animal body.
7. In Botany: The line of the cohering faces of two carpels; in mosses, the line of junction of two cells, or of the lid and mouth of the sporangium.
carpel: (n) In Botany: One of the divisions or cells of a compound pistil or fruit; or the single cell of which a simple pistil or fruit consists.
mericarp: (n) In Botany: Each of the one-seeded units into which a schizocarp separates at maturity, each unit forming a dry indehiscent fruit; especially either of the halves of the fruit (cremocarp) of a plant of the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) .
schizocarp: (n) In Botany: a term applied to dry fruits which break up into two or more one-seeded mericarps without dehiscing.
dehisce: (v) 1. To gape.
2. In Botany: to burst open, as the seed-vessels of plants.
indehiscent: (adj) In Botany: Not dehiscent: said of fruits that do not split open when mature, but retain the seed till they decay.
cremocarp: (n) In Botany: A species of fructification, occurring in the Umbelliferæ, in which the simple inferior fruit divides into two indehiscent one-seeded mericarps, which remain for some time suspended by their summits from the central axis.
lordosis:(n) 1. Anterior curvature of the spine, producing convexity in front (occurring as a physical deformity).
2. A temporarily assumed posture, characteristic of some female mammals during mating, in which the back is arched downwards; the assumption of such a posture.
sartorial: (adj) Of or belonging to a tailor or his art; characteristic of a tailor.
2. More fully ratafia essence. An essence used as a flavouring for food and drink, typically extracted from almonds or the kernels of cherries, apricots, and peaches.
3. A kind of cake or biscuit flavoured with ratafia essence.
4. A variety of sour cherry; specifically (in later use) the morello.
morello: (n) A dark variety of sour cherry, used chiefly in cooking; the tree producing this fruit (Prunus cerasus).
curricle: (n) 1. A course, running.
2. A light two-wheeled carriage, usually drawn by two horses abreast.
deedy: (adj) 1. Full of deeds or activity; active. Also, earnest, serious.
2. Actual, real.
hetaera: (n) A female companion or paramour, a mistress, a concubine; a courtesan, harlot.
gudgeon: (n) 1. A small European fresh-water fish (Gobio fluviatilis), much used for bait.
2. Applied to fishes of the genus Gobius or family Gobiidæ; goby. sea gudgeon: the Black Goby or Rock-fish.
3. One that will bite at any bait or swallow anything: a credulous, gullible person.
4. A bait, something swallowed greedily or credulously.
5. A pivot, usually of metal, fixed on or let into the end of a beam, spindle, axle, etc., and on which a wheel turns, a bell swings, or the like; in recent use more widely applied to various kinds of journals and similar parts of machinery.
6. The ring or ‘eye’ in the ‘heel’ of a gate which turns on the hook or pintle in the gate-post.
7. Nautical: A metal socket in which the pintle of a rudder turns.
8. Nautical: One of the notches made in the carrick-bits for receiving the metal bushes wherein the spindle of a windlass works.
9. A wedge or block (of metal).
10. A metallic pin used for securing together two blocks or slabs of stone, etc.
medawlinno: (n) An Abenaki word for a shaman or medicine man.
coliform: (n) A bacillus of the coli-group of bacteria.
bacillus: (n) A genus of Schizomycetæ, microscopic vegetable organisms of the lowest grade among what were once called Infusoria. Separated from Bacterium, with which it agrees in its rod-like form, and characterized by its larger size and mode of reproduction. First described by Müller ante 1850; recently brought into note by the discovery of some of the species in the diseased tissues in Anthrax, and in Phthisis and other tubercular diseases.
quaalude: (n) The sedative and hypnotic drug methaqualone. Also: a tablet of this drug.
satyagraha: (n) The Indian form of passive resistance, as formulated by M. K. Gandhi.
covary: (v) A verb back-formed from covariation: Correlated variation.
catabolism: (n) That phase of the metabolism of living bodies which consists in the breaking down of complex organic compounds into simpler ones; destructive metabolism.
raphe: (n) 1. In Anatomy and Zoology: A seam-like line or ridge, especially between the two halves of a bilaterally symmetrical organ or part of the body; specifically a zone of decussating fibres and cells in the median plane of the medulla oblongata and pons.
2. In Botany: A ridge formed on a seed by fusion of the funiculus with the nucellus of an anatropous ovule.
3. In fruits of umbelliferous plants: the commissure between two mericarps.
4. A longitudinal slit in the valves of many pennate diatoms, believed to be involved in gliding motility.
5. In Ornithology: A groove running along the underside of the shaft of a developing feather.
6. A radish root or plant.
raphe nucleus: (n) One of a moderate-size cluster of nuclei found in the brain stem. Their main function is to release serotonin to the rest of the brain.
decussate: (v) 1. To cross, intersect, lie across, so as to form a figure like the letter X.
funiculus: (n) 1. A little rope.
2. A hypothetical ‘string’ or filament of extremely rarefied matter, imagined to be the agent operating in the suspension of the mercury in the Torricellian experiment.
3. The umbilical cord.
4. In Botany: A little stalk by which a seed or ovule is attached to the placenta.
5. In Entomology: A term for the part of the antenna which lies between the scape and the club in certain insects
6. In Anatomy: Applied to the primitive cord or bundle of nerve fibres, bound together in a sheath of connective tissue, called the perineurium or neurilemma.
perineurium: (n) The sheath of connective tissue surrounding a bundle of nerve fibres.
neurilemma: (n) 1. The sheath of connective tissue around a nerve or nerve fascicle; the perineurium or epineurium.
2. The covering formed by Schwann cells around peripheral nerve fibres (also enclosing the myelin sheath where present). [On a personal note, *this* is what multiplies uncontrolled in my body, that causes my neurofibromas. Nice to have terms for it.]
nucellus: (n) In Botany: The undifferentiated tissue of the ovule, in which the embryo sac develops.
anatropous: (adj) Said of the ovule of phanerogamous plants when its nucleus, with its integuments, is inverted, so that its apex points to the base of the ovule. Opposed to orthotropous, in which the nucleus is erect within the ovule.
phanerogamous: (adj) In Botany: Belonging to the plant division Phanerogamia; of or relating to phanerogams; spermatophytic.
commissure: (n) 1. A joining or connecting together; the line or surface along which two parts touch each other or form a connexion; a joining, juncture, seam.
2. A joint between two bones; formerly often applied to the seams of the cranial bones.
3. The line formed by the meeting surfaces of the two lips, eye-lids, etc.
4. The connexion of the lips, eye-lids, etc. at the angles.
5. Various bands or bundles of white or grey nerve-substance, which connect the two hemispheres of the brain, different parts of the cerebrum and cerebellum, and the two sides of the spinal cord; also, a nerve-cord connecting two ganglia of the nerve system in insects, etc.
6. A band of muscle, etc., connecting two parts of the animal body.
7. In Botany: The line of the cohering faces of two carpels; in mosses, the line of junction of two cells, or of the lid and mouth of the sporangium.
carpel: (n) In Botany: One of the divisions or cells of a compound pistil or fruit; or the single cell of which a simple pistil or fruit consists.
mericarp: (n) In Botany: Each of the one-seeded units into which a schizocarp separates at maturity, each unit forming a dry indehiscent fruit; especially either of the halves of the fruit (cremocarp) of a plant of the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) .
schizocarp: (n) In Botany: a term applied to dry fruits which break up into two or more one-seeded mericarps without dehiscing.
dehisce: (v) 1. To gape.
2. In Botany: to burst open, as the seed-vessels of plants.
indehiscent: (adj) In Botany: Not dehiscent: said of fruits that do not split open when mature, but retain the seed till they decay.
cremocarp: (n) In Botany: A species of fructification, occurring in the Umbelliferæ, in which the simple inferior fruit divides into two indehiscent one-seeded mericarps, which remain for some time suspended by their summits from the central axis.
lordosis:(n) 1. Anterior curvature of the spine, producing convexity in front (occurring as a physical deformity).
2. A temporarily assumed posture, characteristic of some female mammals during mating, in which the back is arched downwards; the assumption of such a posture.
sartorial: (adj) Of or belonging to a tailor or his art; characteristic of a tailor.