#100

limn \LIM\, transitive verb:
1. To depict by drawing or painting.
2. To portray in words; to describe.

#99

impactful
Part of Speech: adj
Definition: having a great impact or effect

#98

Genuphobia - Fear of knees.

#97

banana boat

noun
a ship designed to transport bananas

#96

imbroglio \im-BROHL-yoh\, noun:
1. A complicated and embarrassing state of things.
2. A confused or complicated disagreement or misunderstanding.
3. An intricate, complicated plot, as of a drama or work of fiction.
4. A confused mass; a tangle.

Imbroglio derives from Italian, from Old Italian imbrogliare, "to tangle, to confuse," from in-, "in" + brogliare, "to mix, to stir." It is related to embroil, "to entangle in conflict or argument."

#95

effulgence \i-FUL-juhn(t)s\, noun:
The state of being bright and radiant; splendor; brilliance.

The purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues.
-- "Congressman Henry Lee's Eulogy for George Washington" , December 4, 1908

The setting sun as usual shed a melancholy effulgence on the ruddy towers of the Alhambra.
-- Washington Irving, The Alhambra

Nice gave him a different light from Paris -- a high, constant effulgence with little gray in it, flooding broadly across sea, city and hills, producing luminous shadows and clear tonal structures.
-- Robert Hughes, "Inventing A Sensory Utopia: The paintings Matisse did in Nice include some of his best", Time, November 17, 1986

From Latin ex, "out of, from" + fulgere, "to shine." The adjective form of the word is effulgent.

#94

Cool is an aesthetic of attitude, behavior, comportment, appearance, style and Zeitgeist. Because of the varied and changing connotations of cool, as well its subjective nature, the word has no single meaning. It has associations of composure and self-control (cf. the OED definition) and often is used as an expression of admiration or approval.

platitude \PLAT-uh-tood; -tyood\, noun:
1. Staleness of ideas or language; triteness.
2. A thought or remark that is banal, trite, or stale.

Yet a curious thing happens in this book: Whatever promise it offers of satire and enlightened vision dissipates into cliche and platitude.
-- Edward Rothstein, "Against Galactic Rhetoric", New York Times, April 3, 1983

The average sports memoir is a prodigy of simpering modesty and high-minded platitude: enough to rot the mind and sap the morals of the sturdiest child.
-- Wilfrid Sheed, "Take Me Back to the Ballgame", New York Times, September 18, 1966

She'll have to cut the platitudes and start saying something unusual and provocative, which she hasn't yet.
-- Jonathan Alter, "Why It's Time to Let Loose", Newsweek, December 6, 1999

Platitude derives from French plat, "flat." It is related to plate, a flat piece of metal or a flat dish in which food is served or from which it is eaten; and plateau, a broad, level, elevated area of land. The adjective form of platitude is platitudinous.

#91

paean \PEE-uhn\, noun:
1. A joyous song of praise, triumph, or thanksgiving.
2. An expression of praise or joy.

Bud Guthrie had written a paean to the grizzly, calling it the "living, snorting incarnation of the wildness and grandeur of America."
-- David Whitman, "The Return of the Grizzly", The Atlantic, September 2000

If you look at what British writers were saying about England before and after the war, you read for the most part a seamless paean to the virtues of the nation's strength and identity.
-- Hugo Young, This Blessed Plot

Paean comes from Latin paean, "a hymn of thanksgiving, often addressed to god Apollo," from Greek paian, from Paia, a title of Apollo.

#90

ersatz \AIR-sahts; UR-sats\, adjective:
Being a substitute or imitation, usually an inferior one.

Meanwhile, a poor copy was erected in the courtyard; many an unsuspecting traveler paid homage to that ersatz masterpiece.
-- Edith Pearlman, "Girl and Marble Boy", The Atlantic, December 29, 1999

All we can create in that way is an ersatz culture, the synthetic product of those factories we call variously universities, colleges or museums.
-- Sir Herbert Read, The Philosophy of Modern Art

Then there was the sheaf of hostile letters larded with ersatz sympathy, strained sarcasm or pure spite.
-- "Time for GAA to become a persuader", Irish Times, April 13, 1998


Ersatz derives from German Ersatz, "a substitute."

#89

Aphenphosmphobia - Fear of being touched.

#88

jejune \juh-JOON\, adjective:
1. Lacking in nutritive value.
2. Displaying or suggesting a lack of maturity; childish.
3. Lacking interest or significance; dull; meager; dry.

Were I to make this public now, it would be dismissed as the raving of a mind at the end of its tether, unable to distinguish fiction from reality, real life from the jejune fantasies of its youth.
-- Ronald Wright, A Scientific Romance

By the inflection of his voice, the expression of his face, and the motion of his body, he signals that he is aware of all the ways he may be thought silly or jejune, and that he might even think so himself.
-- Jedediah Purdy, For Common Things

A while ago, Michael Kinsley wrote that Jewish Americans envied Israelis for living out history in a way that made the comfort and security of life in New York or Los Angeles seem jejune.
-- Geoffrey Wheatcroft, "The Big Kibbutz", New York Times, March 2, 1997

Jejune derives from Latin jejunus, "fasting, hence hungry, hence scanty, meager, weak."

#87

deus ex machina \DAY-uhs-eks-MAH-kuh-nuh; -nah; -MAK-uh-nuh\, noun:
1. In ancient Greek and Roman drama, a god introduced by means of a crane to unravel and resolve the plot.
2. Any active agent who appears unexpectedly to solve an apparently insoluble difficulty.

In times of affluence and peace, with technology that always seems to arrive like a deus ex machina to solve any problem, it becomes easy to believe that life is perfectible.
-- Stephanie Gutmann, The Kinder, Gentler Military

But we also need the possibility of cataclysm, so that, when situations seem hopeless, and beyond the power of any natural force to amend, we may still anticipate salvation from a messiah, a conquering hero, a deus ex machina, or some other agent with power to fracture the unsupportable and institute the unobtainable.
-- Stephen Jay Gould, Questioning the Millennium

Deus ex machina is New Latin for "god from the machine"; it is a translation of the Greek theos ek mekhanes.

Trivia: The dramatic device dates from the 5th century BC and is especially associated with Euripides, one of the greatest classical tragedians.

#86

slugabed \SLUHG-uh-bed\, noun:
One who stays in bed until a late hour; a sluggard.

Nemecek's business is not for slugabeds. He opens for business every weekday at 4 a.m.
-- Drew Fetherston, "He Can Really Make Pigs Fly", Newsday, December 12, 1994

I found Oriana, as usual, up before me, for I always was a sad slugabed.
-- W. Hurton, Doomed Ship

All save Whit elected to sleep in that morning. Whit came back to report that he had spotted the tracks of a doe and a fawn made in the new snow directly beneath my unoccupied stand, and I regretted being a slugabed.
-- "Paying Tribute to Deer in Minnesota Woods", New York Times, December 6, 1998

Slugabed is from slug, "sluggard" + abed, "in bed."

#85

raillery \RAY-luh-ree\, noun:
1. Good-humored banter or teasing.
2. An instance of good-humored teasing; a jest.

I moved from one knot of people to another, surrounded by a kind of envious respect because of Sophie's interest in me, although subjected to a certain mordant raillery from some of this witty company.
-- Peter Brooks, World Elsewhere

Her raillery and mockery are fun -- but ultimately rather tiring, and tiresome.
-- Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, "Eastward Ho!" review of Shards of Memory, by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, New York Times, September 17, 1995

Raillery is from French raillerie, from Old French railler, "to tease, to mock."



http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/diy-flash-diffuser-airline-barf-bags/

#84

diffident \DIF-uh-dunt; -dent\, adjective:
1. Lacking self-confidence; distrustful of one's own powers; timid; bashful.
2. Characterized by modest reserve; unassertive.

He lived naturally in a condition that many greater poets never had, or if they had it, were embarrassed or diffident about it: a total commitment to his own powers of invention, a complete loss of himself in his materials.
-- James Dickey, "The Geek of Poetry", New York Times, December 23, 1979

This schism is embodied in Clarence's two sons: cheerful, pushy, book-ignorant Jared, a semicriminal entrepreneur who has caught "the rhythm of America to come" and for whom life is explained in brash epigrams from the trenches, versus slow, diffident Teddy, the town postman, uncomfortable with given notions of manhood, uncompetitive ("yet this seemed the only way to be an American") and disturbed that others misstate "the delicate nature of reality as he needed to grasp it for himself."
-- Julian Barnes, "Grand Illusion", New York Times, January 28, 1996

Minny was too delicate and diffident to ask her cousin outright to take her to Europe.
-- Brooke Allen, "Borrowed Lives", New York Times, May 16, 1999

Diffident is from the present participle of Latin diffidere, "to mistrust, to have no confidence," from dis- + fidere, "to trust." The noun form is diffidence.

#83

pi·rate (pī'rĭt) Pronunciation Key
n.

1.
1. One who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without commission from a sovereign nation.
2. A ship used for this purpose.
2. One who preys on others; a plunderer.
3. One who makes use of or reproduces the work of another without authorization.
4. One that operates an unlicensed, illegal television or radio station.


v. pi·rat·ed, pi·rat·ing, pi·rates

v. tr.

1. To attack and rob (a ship at sea).
2. To take (something) by piracy.
3. To make use of or reproduce (another's work) without authorization.


v. intr.
To act as a pirate; practice piracy.


[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pīrāta, from Greek peirātēs, from peirān, to attempt, from peira, trial; see per-3 in Indo-European roots.]

pi·rat'ic (pī-rāt'ĭk), pi·rat'i·cal (-ĭ-kəl) adj., pi·rat'i·cal·ly adv.

#82

ergo \UR-go; AIR-\, adverb:
Therefore; consequently; -- often used in a jocular way.

The general observation has always been: Dogs form packs; the leader of the pack is the strongest, wisest, and largest individual; a human being among dogs fits that description; ergo we are the leader of any dog pack.
-- Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Dogs Never Lie About Love: Reflections on the Emotional World of Dogs

Armani isn't interested in fashion that moves on (ergo he isn't interested in fashion).
-- Sinead Lynch, "The waist land", Times (London), October 9, 2000

People who do not suffer fools gladly, gladly suffer flatterers. (Ergo, flatterers are no fools.)
-- Richard Stengel, You're Too Kind: A Brief History of Flattery

Ergo is from Latin ergo, consequently, therefore.




http://www.flickr.com/photos/hog/2283018429/

#81

guff [guhff] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun Informal.
1. empty or foolish talk; nonsense.
2. insolent talk.
[Origin: 1815–25; perh. imit.]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
guff (gŭf) Pronunciation Key
n. Slang
Nonsense; baloney.
Insolent talk; back talk.


[Perhaps imitative.]

#80

wheedle \HWEE-d'l; WEE-d'l\, transitive verb:
1. To entice by soft words or flattery; to coax.
2. To gain or get by flattery or guile.

intransitive verb:
1. To flatter; to use soft words.

Editors who wished to carry original work rather than reprints found it necessary to wheedle contributions from readers by decrying inexperience as a reason for not taking up the pen and by offering prizes for submissions.
-- Ronald Weber, Hired Pens

When Wayne and I first moved here, the settlers living within twenty miles were consumed with curiosity about our relationship, and one of 'em tried to wheedle a little matrimonial information out of me.
-- Christine Wiltz, The Last Madam

He knew what it looked like to seduce, to intimidate, to wheedle, and to console; to strike a pose or preach a sermon.
-- Simon Schama, Rembrandt's Eyes

The origin of wheedle is uncertain; it is perhaps from Old English wædlian, "to beg, to be a beggar," from wædl, "want, poverty."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for wheedle

#79

pleonasm \PLEE-uh-naz-uhm\, noun:
1. The use of more words than are necessary to express an idea; as, "I saw it with my own eyes."
2. An instance or example of pleonasm.
3. A superfluous word or expression.

Dougan uses many words where few would do, as if pleonasm were a way of wringing every possibility out of the material he has, and stretching sentences a form of spreading the word.
-- Paula Cocozza, "Book review: How Dynamo Kiev beat the Luftwaffe", Independent, March 2, 2001

Such a phrase from President Nixon's era, much favored by politicians, is "at this moment in time." Presumably these five words mean "now." That pleonasm probably does little harm except, perhaps, to the reputation of the speaker.
-- Eoin McKiernan, "Last Word: Special Relationships", Irish America, August 31, 1994

Pleonasm is from Greek pleonasmos, from pleon, "greater, more."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for pleonasm




http://flickr.com/photos/junku/sets/303691/

#78

Philophobia - Fear of love.

#77

lacuna \luh-KYOO-nuh\, noun;
plural lacunae \luh-KYOO-nee\ or lacunas::
1. A blank space; a missing part; a gap.
2. (Biology) A small opening, depression, or cavity in an anatomical structure.

Like most other writers of his generation, he was a profoundly apolitical being, not from any lacuna in his education but as a matter of principle.
-- Walter Laqueur, "The Artist in Politics", New York Times, May 15, 1983

Between the time of my first memory . . . and my second and third memories, I remember nothing. The lacunae of these years I've been able to fill sketchily from the entries in my baby book, which notes such incidents as my first smile.
-- Jaime Manrique, Eminent Maricones

The exodus of wives, relatives, friends and hangers-on had left a big howlinglacuna which wrapped the homestead in webs of glorious nostalgia.
-- Moses Isegawa, Abyssinian Chronicles

Lacuna is from the Latin lacuna, "a cavity, a hollow," from lacus, "a hollow."

#76

The titis, or titi monkeys, are the New World monkeys of the genus Callicebus. They are the only extant members of the Callicebinae subfamily, which also contains the extinct genera Xenothrix, Antillothrix (German article), Paralouatta, Carlocebus, Homunculus, Lagonimico and possibly also Tremacebus.

Titis live in South America, from Colombia to Brazil, Peru and north Paraguay.

Titis are monogamous, mating for life. The female bears a single young animal after about a five-month gestation. Twins occur rarely.[citation needed] The more "laid-back" adult cares for the young.[citation needed] Often it is the father who cares for the young, carrying it and bringing it to the mother only for nursing. The young are weaned after 5 months and are fully grown after two years. After three or more years, they leave their family group in order to find a mate. Their life expectancy is up to 12 years in the wild.

#75

Bowerbirds (IPA: [ˈbaʊəˌbɜːd(UK)/ˈbaʊɚˌbɝːd(US)]) and catbirds make up the family Ptilonorhynchidae. All are small to medium in size. Although their distribution is centered around the tropical northern part of Australia-New Guinea, some species extend into the central Australian desert and the cold mountainous regions of southeast Australia.

The most notable characteristic of bowerbirds is the extraordinarily complex behaviour of males, which is to build a bower to attract mates. Depending on the species, the bower ranges from a circle of cleared earth with a small pile of twigs in the center to a complex and highly decorated structure of sticks and leaves — usually shaped like a walkway, a small hut or a maypole — into and around which the male places a variety of objects he has collected. These objects — usually strikingly blue in hue — may include hundreds of shells, leaves, flowers, feathers, stones, berries, and even discarded plastic items or pieces of glass. The bird spends hours carefully sorting and arranging his collection, with each object in a specific place; if an object is moved while the bowerbird is away he will put it back in its place. No two bowers are the same, and the collection of objects reflects the personal taste of each bird and its ability to procure unusual and rare items (going as far as stealing them from neighboring bowers). At mating time, the female will go from bower to bower, watching as the male owner conducts an often elaborate mating ritual and inspecting the quality of the bower. Many females end up selecting the same male, and many underperforming males are left without mates.


http://www.cryptolizard.com/blog/?p=126

#74

ring finger
–noun
the finger next to the little finger, esp. of the left hand, on which an engagement ring or wedding band is traditionally worn.
[Origin: bef. 1000; ME, OE]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.



Hidden significance of a man's ring finger

Scientists at The University of Liverpool have found a link between finger length and depression in men: the longer a man's fingers are relative to his height, the more likely he is to suffer from depression. Ironically, perhaps, the strongest single indicator is the relative length of his ring finger.

Susceptibility determined before birth
[Dr John Manning]The key to this improbable link appears to be testosterone. Some kind of link has been suspected for some time: the loss of libido which accompanies many episodes of depression has led scientists to hypothesise that testosterone levels diminish during depression, and rise again upon recovery - but in fact, research results have been equivocal. The University of Liverpool study confirms suspicions regarding testosterone and depression, but suggests that the culprit is prenatal testosterone, produced from week 8 of a pregnancy, rather than day-by-day testosterone levels in adults.

Dr John Manning displaying a series of photocopied hands (illustrated)

Dr John Manning of the University's School of Biological Sciences explains: "Foetal testosterone plays a key role in the development of the male genital system. It also impacts on the development of fingers and thumbs, and the central nervous system.

"Men who experienced high concentrations of foetal testosterone have relatively long fingers - in particular, fourth digits which are longer than their second digits. Conversely, men who experienced low concentrations of foetal testosterone have shorter fourth digits than their second digits."

The Liverpool investigation
Dr Manning, his colleague Sue Martin and Professor Chris Dowrick of the University's Department of Primary Care studied 102 men and women from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Each had a variety of physical measurements taken, including wrist size, ear size, height - and the length of digits 2 to 5 (ie their fingers) from the basal crease to the tip. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) - widely used to detect depression in the population as a whole, as well as psychiatric patients - was then deployed to identify those who suffered from depression, and to score the severity of their depression.

The results showed that in men - but not women - a high BDI score was positively related to long digits, particularly the fourth digit (ie the ring finger). Dividing digit length by height, to take account of the fact that taller men tend to have longer limbs, fingers and feet, gave an even stronger predictor of high BDI scores in men.

top of page[top of page]

Likely explanation
Foetal testosterone concentrations are the most likely explanation, given the sex-dependent pattern of the data. Says John Manning: "Testosterone has strong influences on the development of the male nervous system - not all of them beneficial.

"It is believed that excess testosterone promotes the growth of the right hemisphere of the brain at the expense of the left hemisphere. This can lead to impaired reading ability, but also to enhanced mathematical and musical abilities. Unfortunately, there seem to be other, less welcome effects: excess testosterone has already been implicated in the origins of migraine, autism, stuttering, schizophrenia - and now depression, too.

"Interestingly, the study's results suggest that depression in women has a different and as yet undetermined origin".

Simple, objective indicator
Having relatively long ring fingers does not necessarily mean that a man will, in fact, suffer from depression - just as people with high cholesterol levels do not necessarily have a heart attack. However, since the symptoms of depression can discourage sufferers from acknowledging their condition and seeking treatment, ring finger length could offer GPs a simple, objective indicator of susceptibility in men.

Wellcome Trust
This is not the first time that John Manning's research has identified a hidden significance of finger length. Last year he established a link between the relative length of women's ring fingers and their fertility levels: women with shorter ring fingers than forefingers tend to have high fertility.

Conversely, men with relatively long ring fingers are more likely to have high fertility. His work has now attracted the interest of the Wellcome Trust, which recently awarded him an innovative research grant to support an investigation into a possible association between risk of heart attack and second to fourth digit ratio.

The results of this study were published by Martin SM, Manning JT & Dowrick CF in "Fluctuating Asymmetry, Relative Digit Length and Depression in Men", Evolution and Human Behaviour 20: 203-214 (1999)

For further information see www.liv.ac.uk/biolsci/html/population___evolutionary_biol.html


-------------


Academics find that finger of destiny points their way
Male scientists are good at research because they have the hormone levels of women and long index fingers, a new study says.

A survey of academics at the University of Bath has found that male scientists typically have a level of the hormone estrogen as high as their testosterone level.

These hormone levels are more usual in women than men, who normally have higher levels of testosterone. The study draws on research that suggests that these unusual hormone levels in many male scientists cause the right side of their brains, which governs spatial and analytic skills, to develop strongly.

The study, which as been submitted to the British Journal of Psychology, also found that:
# these hormonal levels may make male scientists less likely to have children.
# those men with a higher level of estrogen were more likely than average to have relatives with dyslexia, which may in part be caused by hormonal levels.
# women social scientists tended to have higher levels of testosterone, making their brains closer to those of males in general.

The study drew on work in the last few years which established that the levels of estrogen and testosterone a person has can be seen in the relative length of their index (second) and ring (fourth) fingers. The ratio of the lengths is set before birth and remains the same throughout life.

The length of fingers is genetically linked to the sex hormones, and a person with an index finger shorter than the ring finger will have had more testosterone while in the womb, and a person with an index finger longer than the ring finger will have had more estrogen. The difference in the lengths can be small – as little as two or three per cent – but important.

A survey of the finger lengths of over 100 male and female academics at the University by senior Psychology lecturer Dr Mark Brosnan has found that those men teaching hard science like mathematics and physics tend to have index fingers as long as their ring fingers, a marker for unusually high estrogen levels for males.

It also found the reverse: those male academics with longer ring fingers than index fingers – the usual male pattern – tended not to be in science but in social science subjects such as psychology and education.

A further study also suggests that prenatal hormone exposure, and hence index finger length, can also influence actual achievement levels. In a survey of male and female students on a JAVA programming course at the University, the researchers found a link between finger length ratio and test score. The smaller the difference between index and ring finger - the higher the test score at the end of the year.

"The results are a fascinating insight into how testosterone and estrogen levels in the womb can affect people's choice of career and how these levels can show up in the length of fingers on our hands," said Dr Brosnan.

In the general population, men typically have higher levels of testosterone than women, but the male scientists at the University of Bath have lower testosterone levels than is usual for men – their estrogen and testosterone levels tend to match those of women generally.

This research now suggests that lower than average testosterone levels in men lead to spatial skills that can give a man the ability to succeed in science. Other research has in the past also suggested that an unusually high level of testosterone can do the same thing by encouraging the development of the right hemisphere.

This right brain development is at the expense of language abilities and people skills that men with a more usual level of testosterone develop and which can help them in social science subjects like psychology or education.

Dr. Brosnan said that men having levels of testosterone very much higher than normal for males would also create the right hemisphere dominated brain, which could help in science. The extremes of low testosterone and high testosterone for men would create the scientific brain, and the normal range in the middle would create the 'social science' brain.

The question also arises as to why more women, who have this lower level of testosterone, are not in science, which is male-dominated, with only one in 40 science professors being a woman.

The short answer is that we don't know: the high levels of estrogen in women may act differently on the brain and not give them the spatial skills that men with similar levels of the hormone have.

There may be social reasons: science has been male-dominated the past and this may be putting women off entering it, even though they are able to. Why male scientists should have fewer children is not known.

"The study of my colleagues at the University of Bath was also interesting in that it shows that women in social science tend to have a higher level of testosterone level relative to their estrogen level, making their brains closer to those of men in general, said Dr. Brosnan."

#73

verisimilitude \ver-uh-suh-MIL-uh-tood; -tyood\, noun:
1. The appearance of truth; the quality of seeming to be true.
2. Something that has the appearance of being true or real.

In an attempt to create verisimilitude, in addition to the usual vulgarities, the dialogue is full of street slang.
-- Wilborn Hampton, "Sugar Down Billie Hoak': An Unexpected Spot to Find a Father", New York Times , August 1, 1997

For those plays, Ms. Smith interviewed hundreds of people of different races and ages, somehow managing to internalize their expressions, anger and quirks enough to be able to portray them with astonishing verisimilitude.
-- Sarah Boxer, "An Experiment in Artistic Democracy", New York Times , August 7, 2000

The old man's massive forehead, penetrating eyes and enormous beard lent verisimilitude to this unappealing portrait.
-- "Charm itself", Economist , October 16, 1999



Verisimilitude comes from Latin verisimilitudo, from verisimilis, from verus, "true" + similis, "like, resembling, similar." The adjective form is verisimilar.

#72

Quotidian WORD : (noun)
A word that you are supposed to use all day long. In as many ways as possible.



http://www.storyofstuff.com/

#71

The pansy or pansy violet is a plant cultivated as a garden flower. Pansies are derived from Viola tricolor also called the Heartsease or 'Johnny Jump Up'. However, many garden varieties are hybrids and are referred to as Viola × wittrockiana but sometimes they are listed under the name Viola tricolor hortensis. The name "pansy" also appears as part of the common name of a number of wildflowers belonging, like the cultivated pansy, to the genus Viola. Some unrelated species, such as the Pansy Monkeyflower, also have "pansy" in their name.

The name pansy is derived from the French word pensée meaning "thought", and was so named because the flower resembles a human face; in August it nods forward as if deep in thought. Because of this the pansy has long been a symbol of Freethought[1] and has been used in the literature of the American Secular Union. Humanists use it too, as the pansy's current appearance was developed from the Heartsease by two centuries of intentional crossbreeding of wild plant hybrids. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) uses the pansy symbol extensively in its lapel pins and literature.

The word "pansy" has indicated an effeminate male since Elizabethan times and its usage as a disparaging term for a man or boy who is effeminate (as well as for an avowedly homosexual man) is still used. (There is a queercore musical band called Pansy Division, drawing on this association.) The word "ponce" (which has now come to mean a pimp) and the adjective "poncey" (effeminate) also derive from "pansy".

The pansy remains a favorite image in the arts, culture, and crafts, from needlepoint to ceramics. It is also the flower of Osaka, Japan.

* In 1827, Pierre-Joseph Redouté painted Bouquet of Pansies.
* In 1926, Georgia O'Keeffe created a famous painting of a black pansy called simply, Pansy. She followed with White Pansy in 1927.
* D. H. Lawrence wrote a book of poetry entitled Pansies: Poems by D. H. Lawrence.
* In William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, the juice of a pansy blossom ("before, milk-white, now purple with love's wound, and maidens call it love-in-idleness") is a love potion: "the juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid, will make or man or woman madly dote upon the next live creature that it sees." (Act II, Scene I see also: Oberon at II, i). Since the cultivated pansy had not yet been developed, "pansy" here means the wild Heartsease, and the idea of using it as a love potion was no doubt suggested by that name. The folkloric language of flowers is more traditional than scientific, with conventional interpretations, similar to the clichés about animals such as the "clever fox" or "wise owl". Ophelia's oft-quoted line, "There's pansies, that's for thoughts", in Hamlet (Act IV, Scene V) comes from this tradition: if a maiden found a honeyflower and a pansy left for her by an admirer, it would mean "I am thinking of our forbidden love" in symbol rather than in writing.

#70

camarilla \kam-uh-RIL-uh; -REE-yuh\, noun:
A group of secret and often scheming advisers, as of a king; a cabal or clique.

Mr Kiselev likened Yeltsin's entourage to a "camarilla" . . . which would turn Russia "into a gigantic banana republic corrupted from top to bottom by a rotten clique of demagogues".
-- Marcus Warren, "Moguls at war over control of Kremlin", Daily Telegraph, July 23, 1999

The arrest in October 1976 of Mao's radical camarilla, the so-called Gang of Four, led by his maniacal widow, Jiang Qing, was the second "liberation," delivering the Chinese from the most extreme forms of ideological conditioning.
-- Willem Van Kemenade, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Inc.


Camarilla comes from Spanish, literally, "a small room," from Late Latin camera, "chamber" ("vault; arched roof" in Latin), from Greek kamara, "vault."

#69

nonagenarian \non-uh-juh-NAIR-ee-uhn; no-nuh-\, noun:
A ninety year old person; someone whose age is in the nineties.

There seemed to be relatively few octogenarians and nonagenarians alive in the early 1930s. Contrast that with my current practice, in which I see a great number of patients in their eighties and nineties.
-- Stephen L. Richmond, "Tales from the Death Certificate", Physician Assistant, January 1999

Good health is essential, of course--a gift that none of these nonagenarians, having outlived friends and loved ones, takes for granted.
-- Roy Huffman, "Working Past 90", Fortune, November 13, 2000


Nonagenarian derives from Latin nonagenarius, "containing or consisting of ninety," from nonageni-, "ninety each", ultimately from novem, "nine," as in November, originally the ninth month of the old Roman calendar.


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Highest Recorded Number of Children
The highest officially recorded number of children born to one mother is 69, to the first wife of Feodor Vassilyev (1707-1782) of Shuya, Russia. Between 1725 and 1765, in a total of 27 confinements, she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets. 67 of them survived infancy.

#68

Chromophobia - Fear of colors.

#67

http://www.isittuesday.com/

#66

scrabble \SKRAB-uhl\, intransitive verb:

1. To scrape or scratch with the hands or feet.
2. To struggle by or as if by scraping or scratching.
3. To proceed by clawing with the hands and feet; to scramble.
4. To make irregular, crooked, or unmeaning marks; to scribble; to scrawl.

transitive verb:
1. To mark with irregular lines or letters; to scribble on or over.
2. To make or obtain by scraping together hastily.

noun:
1. The act or an instance of scrabbling.
2. A scribble.

Mice kept me awake by scrabbling in the uncovered garbage can.
-- Edith Anderson, Love in Exile

Rather frantically I scrabble for the recollection of what exactly it does give me.
-- Robert McLiam Wilson, Ripley Bogle

In the huddle they'd talk about running "post patterns," and they'd scrabble plays in the grass.
-- George Plimpton, quoted in The Last Patrician, by Michael Knox Beran

Heard by Maidment but not seen, the dog, called Rosie, yawned, then pushed herself on to her feet, slipping about on the polished boards with a scrabble of paws.
-- William Trevor, Death in Summer


Scrabble derives from Dutch schrabbelen, from Middle Dutch, frequentative of schrabben, "to scrape; to scratch."





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