Search Results for: in a word

In a Word

locodescriptive
adj. describing a particular place or places

hippocrepiform
adj. shaped like a horseshoe

elsewhither
adv. in a different direction

mirific
adj. working wonders; wonderful

The Rochester Institute of Technology contains a portal to another dimension. In 2013, student Michael Lacanilao deliberately set out to create a record of an “Escherian stairwell” on campus that forms a perpetual downward loop.

Lacanilao has long since graduated, but the stairwell is still commemorated on the school’s website.

(Thanks, Colin.)

| Hoaxes · Language · Oddities

In a Word

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Duval_(painting).png

ladrone
n. a thief; robber; highwayman; rogue

depeculation
n. a robbing or embezzling

desponsate
adj. married

adhorn
v. to make a cuckold of

According to legend, French highwayman Claude Duval agreed not to rob one gentleman if his wife would dance the courante with him by the wayside.

He was hanged at Tyburn in 1670 “to the great grief of the women.” A memorial in Covent Garden reads, “Here lies DuVall: Reder, if male thou art, Look to thy purse; if female, to thy heart.”

| Crime · Language

In a Word

stillicide
n. the dropping of rainwater from the eaves of a house upon another’s land or roof

sub tegmine fagi
adv. under the cover of a beech tree

tenson
n. a contest in verse between rival troubadours

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In a Word

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/the-chevening-maze-in-kent-is-the-first-multiplyconnected-puzzle-maze-this-means-it-cannot-be-solved-by-the-put-your-left-hand--48624870947902374/

anfractuous
adj. having many windings and turnings

loof
n. the palm of the hand

penetralia
n. the innermost recesses of a building

swither
n. a state of perplexity

It’s commonly said that you can defeat a hedge maze by placing one hand on a wall and carefully maintaining that contact as you advance. If the hedges are all connected, this method will reliably lead you to the center of the maze (and, indeed, to every other part of it before you return to the entrance).

The maze at Chevening House, in Kent, was designed deliberately to thwart this technique. Its center is concealed in an “island” of hedges distinct from the outer wall, so following either a left- or a right-hand rule will return you to the entrance without ever passing the goal. It was designed by mathematician Earl Stanhope, one of at least three hedge mazes he produced in the 1820s in the first serious application of mathematics to maze design.

| Puzzles · Science & Math

In a Word

chartaceous
adj. made of paper

admarginate
v. to add or note in the margin

subdititious
adj. fraudulently substituted for a person or thing

prepense
n. malice aforethought

Alexander Pope made use of every scrap of paper that offered a clean surface — nearly the entire first draft of his translation of the Iliad was written on the backs of envelopes, bills, miscellaneous letters, and stray bits of paper. Jonathan Swift suggested that other writers might turn this to their advantage: They could print their own works in editions with wide margins, lend these to “paper-sparing Pope,” wait for him to fill in the spaces with poetry — and then sell this as their own.

| Language · Literature

In a Word

tesserarian
adj. pertaining to play

aspernate
v. to scorn

absit
n. a student’s temporary leave of absence

denegate
v. to deny or refuse

In 1873, when the University of Michigan challenged Cornell to the new game of football, Cornell president Andrew D. White declined. He said, “I will not permit thirty men to travel four hundred miles to agitate a bag of wind.”

| Entertainment · Language

In a Word

ampullosity
n. pretentious use of language

Though much hath been written and said in order to render the Lexiphantic style ridiculous, yet it is surprising to see how it keeps its ground among circles of a certain kind, where even good sense is by no means a stranger: — let the following card witness, which was really sent by a gentleman to a lady, who had asked his company to tea and supper: — ‘Mr. F—-‘s compliments to Miss S—-, at your post meridian computation, be not fascinated with the ardescence of my bibulating in co, since anterior motives stimulate me to itinerate in a transverse direction. But after the diurnal operosity hath increased the delectability of Vesper, perhaps I may saturate a wonted appetite, by the contuding that petacious root, so nice an esculent, if humidated by butter, joined to mellifluous conviviality.’ — It was read twice before the lady found out that the writer excused himself from coming to tea, but would probably eat a roasted potatoe with her at night.

— Geoffry Gambado, New Oddest of All Oddities, for 1813

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