Roscoe Pound, Frederic Edward Clements, "Physiography," Phytogeography of NebraskaĪre you ombrophilous, rain-loving, or ombrophobous, rain-shunning? The ombro- part of both words comes from the Greek ombros, "rain shower," while - philous comes from philos, "loving," and - phobous from phobos "fear, panic, terror. Need synonyms for obscure Here's a list of similar words from our thesaurus that you can use instead. "With reference to their behavior toward precipitation, plants are ombrophilous, or rain-loving, or ombrophobous, or rain-fearing." A night owl on an evening stroll, post-party drunks, insomniac superheroes - all noctivagant in our book. While noctivagant, wandering in the night, mainly refers to animals, we see an easy application to all things night-wandering. James Russell Lowell, Charles Eliot Norton, Letters "The bat that can resist all these inducements must be little better than a brickbat, and yet who ever knew one of those wayward, noctivagant creatures to condescend even to such terms?" However, we'd argue there is one: moonglade, "the track of moonlight on water."Ī glade, in addition to meaning "an open space in a forest," also once referred to "a clear or bright space in the sky a flash (of light or lightning)," says the OED. The Turkish gumusservi, "moonlight shining on water," is often included in lists of awesome words with no English equivalent. Lucy Maud Montgomery, "A Soul That Was Not at Home," Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1909 to 1922 "Do you know what happened to the Youngest Twin Sailor once? He was sailing and he sailed right into a moonglade." The word has been in English use since at least the middle of the 17th century. Snickersnee comes from the Dutch phrase steken of snijden, 'to thrust or cut.' Over time, snick and snee, snick-or-snee, and snickersnee followed. Hibernate, while related, comes from the Latin hīberna, "winter quarters," and hībernus, "wintry." to engage in cut-and-thrust fighting with knives 2 : a large knife. While it's true most of us won't have the opportunity to use frondescence to refer to "the time at which each species of plants unfolds its leaves," it also means foliage in general. The oak and beech have as yet hardly any appearance of frondescence." "The foliage of the trees is nearly as late as last year. " Letter from France: Call Me in September," Newsweek, August 8, 2004Įstivation is "the act of passing the summer." According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the word comes from the Latin aestivation-, aestivatio, which means "summer pasturing," and in botany, the "folded arrangement of petals and sepals in a flower bud."Įarlier this fall, estivate was Fritnancy's word of the week. "In the evenings, while they force down obligatory eight-course gastronomies prepared by celebrity chefs at Relais & Chateaux resorts, we contentedly order the plat du jour at a little bistro not far from our humble two-star hotel - simple economies that help make our vacation savings last our four-week estivation." The Standard (London, Eng.), 17 Aug.Apricity comes from the Latin apricus, "having lots of sunshine" or "warmed by the sun." To apricate means to bask in the sun. The origin of the toilet loo is unknown, and the word does not come into common use until well over a century after gardyloo. Tobias George Smollett, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, 1771ĭespite this word coming from the British Isles, the fact that it ends with a - loo and deals with toilet products has nothing to do with the fact that some speakers of British English refer to the toilet as a loo. The words appears to have been in use since the late 18th century, and in early use tends to refer more often to defenestrating the contents of a chamber pot more than kitchen slops.Īnd behold there is nurro geaks in the whole kingdom, nor anything for poor sarvants, but a barrel with a pair of tongs thrown a-cross and all the chairs in the family are emptied into this here barrel once a-day and at ten o’clock at night the whole cargo is flung out of a back windore that looks into some street or lane, and the maid calls gardy loo to the passengers, which signifies Lord have mercy upon you! Gardyloo is widely supposed to have been taken from French, although it is uncertain whether it comes from an actual French phrase (such as garde à l’eau!, “attention to the water!”) or if it was a mocking and mistaken imitation of that language. Definition - used in Edinburgh as a warning cry when it was customary to throw slops from the windows into the streets
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