thalassic
adj. of or relating to seas and oceans
dégringolade
n. a quick deterioration or breakdown, as of a situation or circumstance
supersalient
adj. leaping upon
sperate
adj. hoped for; not hopeless
Shipwreck With a Surviving Dog, by the Danish artist Carl Bille (1815–1898).
prasophagy
n. the eating of leeks
sybotism
n. the tending of swine
philobiblist
n. a lover of books
Created by Slovakian artist Matej Kren, the Idiom Installation in Prague’s municipal library seems to present an infinite tower of books, thanks to some conveniently placed mirrors.
It debuted at the São Paulo International Biennial in 1995 and moved permanently Prague in 1998.
imperspicable
adj. that cannot be seen or discerned; invisible
acerbate
v. embitter
resarciate
v. to make amends for, compensate for
ultion
n. revenge
From geographer Simon Kuestenmacher: a world map centered on New Zealand.
Also: Maps without New Zealand, maps with New Zealand, maps with too much New Zealand.
quadragenarian
n. one in her forties
repentine
adj. sudden
monomachy
n. a duel; single combat
labefaction
n. overthrow, downfall
The longest-lived spider on record is Number 16, a wild female trapdoor spider that lived on the North Bungulla Reserve near Tammin, Western Australia. She’d reached age 43 when ecologist Leanda Mason discovered that something, probably a parasitic wasp, had pierced the silk door of her burrow, which was now empty.
“She was cut down in her prime,” Mason told the Washington Post. “It took a while to sink in, to be honest.”
compatchment
n. a thing patched together
emulous
adj. seeking to emulate
concinnity
n. harmony in the arrangement of parts with respect to a whole
featly
adv. neatly
amphiscians
n. inhabitants of the tropics
angustation
n. the condition of being narrowed, constricted, limited, or confined
caducity
n. frailty, transitoriness
avolation
n. the act of flying away
This is the song of the last male Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, recorded in the Alaka’i Wilderness Preserve on Kauaʻi in 1987. Rats, pigs, hurricanes, and disease-carrying mosquitoes had reduced the species to a single pair by 1981, and the female was not found after Hurricane Iwa in 1982. The male was last seen in 1985. This appears to be his song, overheard two years later, the last trace of a vanishing species.
hortulan
adj. of or belonging to a garden
micacious
adj. sparkling, shining
bumfuzzle
v. to astound or bewilder
asomatous
adj. having no material body
Artist Gary Drostle designed this trompe l’oeil mosaic for a public garden in Croydon in 1996.
He calls it “the ideal low maintenance fishpond.”
nasute
adj. having a strong sense of smell
