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Saturday, March 26, 2022

In other words, beasties and besties

  • anecdata, noun. Information or evidence based on reports of individual cases rather than systematic research or analysis; anecdotal evidence.
  • Archimedean point, noun. (Latin: Punctum Archimedis) A hypothetical viewpoint from which certain objective truths can perfectly be perceived (also known as a God’s-eye view) or a reliable starting point from which one may reason. A point ‘outside’ from which a different, perhaps objective or ‘true’ picture of something is obtainable.
  • barley sugar, noun. An amber-colored hard sweet made of boiled sugar, often flavored with an extract of barley, and traditionally shaped into twisted sticks or oblong drops.
  • beastie, noun. A familiar or affectionate name for an animal, often a farm animal or a pet.
  • bestie, noun. (Informal) A person’s best friend.
  • chopsy, adjective. Having prominent, fleshy jowls; jowly.
  • demonym, noun. The name used for the people who live in a particular country, state, or other locality.
  • dittography, noun. A mistaken repetition of a letter, word, or phrase by a copyist; reduplication of letters or syllables in writing, printing, etc., usually through error.
  • escarpment, noun. (Geology) A long, precipitous, clifflike ridge of land, rock, or the like, commonly formed by faulting or fracturing of the earth’s crust.
  • exegesis, noun. The study of a particular text of Scripture in order to properly interpret it; the process of understanding a text and making plain its meaning.
  • existential, adjective. (Philosophy) Concerned with existence, especially human existence as viewed in the theories of existentialism. (Logic) Affirming or implying the existence of a thing.
  • garderobe, noun. A room used for storing clothing, armour, or objects of value; (occasionally) the contents of this. More generally: any private room or chamber, as a sleeping apartment, a dressing room, etc.
  • gyaff, noun. Idle chat, gossip. Also: an instance of this; a chat; a piece of gossip.
  • jump-up, noun. (Australian) An escarpment.
  • hough, verb (used with object) To hamstring; disable (a person or animal) by cutting the hamstrings.
  • nolo contendre, noun. A plea by which a defendant in a criminal prosecution accepts conviction as though a guilty plea had been entered but does not admit guilt.
  • polymath, noun. A person of wide-ranging knowledge or learning.
  • prolix, adjective. (of speech or writing) Using or containing too many words; tediously lengthy.
  • scabble, (also scapple) verb, transitive. To work or shape roughly (as stone before leaving the quarry); to dress (as stone) in any way short of fine tooling or rubbing.
  • Sola Scriptura, noun. Christian teaching that only Scripture (or “Scripture alone”) is the infallible, sufficient, and final authority for  churches and Christians.
  • sovereignty, noun. God’s complete control over all things in nature and the affairs of men, past, present, and future.
  • taphophile, noun. A person who is interested in cemeteries and gravestones.
  • trajectory, noun. The curve described by a projectile, rocket, or the like in its flight.

2 comments:

Brian West said...

It might be helpful if you could tell us too how 'hough' should be pronounced - it did once catch me out when leading a Bible study.

R. L. Vaughn said...

Hi, Brian. Thanks for commenting. It can be pronounced as if it were spelled "hock" as a word that rhymes with "lock" (as in a device used for securing something). At Dictionary.com they have a symbol you can click on and listen to someone say it, here: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/hough (the symbol between "Show IPA" and the star)

Our grand old English language has huge variances in how we say words that end with "ough"!!

Hope this helps. God bless.