Wordsmith.org
Posted By: wwh Monday - 03/10/03 08:36 PM
clairaudient, adjective, noun.
adj. having the power of hearing or knowing
about sounds beyond the range of hearing.
noun a clairaudient person.


excipient, noun.
1. any inert drug substance used as
a medium or carrier for an active drug.
2. one that takes up or receives.

In pharmacology, most tablets have such a small amount of the active agent, that lactose of starch or something of the sort is added to bind the active agent and increase size of
tablet to make it more convenient.


acrophony, noun.
the use of a picture of some object to
represent the initial sound, letter, or
syllable in the name of that object.
Using the picture of an ox, called aleph
in Phoenician, to represent the sound a,
is an example of acrophony.


capsaicin, noun.
a colorless, crystalline substance,
the bitter principle of the cayenne pepper,
used as an irritant.

eclipsareon, noun.
a globe formerly used to illustrate the
phenomena of solar and lunar eclipses.


strappado, noun, pl. -does.
1. a form of human torture in which the
victim was raised by a rope and suddenly
let fall the length of the rope.
2. the mechanism for doing this.

bastinado - a form of torture by beating soles of feet.

abscind, transitive verb. to cut off; exscind.
and remember in math graphs - abscissa
abscissa
n.,
pl. 3sas or 3sae 73c8 SAW Math. the horizontal Cartesian coordinate on a plane, measured from the y-axis along a line parallel with the x-axis to point P: see CARTESIAN COORDINATES, illus.


cistvaen, noun.
a prehistoric stone coffin or burial chamber;
a tomb made of slabs of stone; cist. Also, kistvaen.


capotasto, noun.
a device attached to a fretted musical instrument,
such as the guitar, for the purpose of raising the
pitch of all the strings at once.


sortition, noun.
1. the casting or drawing of lots;
determination or selection by lot.
2. an instance of determining by lot.

abstruse, adjective.
hard to understand; difficult.
Ex. If you do not master arithmetic,
you will find algebra complicated and abstruse.
The fields of inquiry run from simple mechanics
to abstruse atomic energy (Wall Street Journal).
(SYN) esoteric, recondite, obscure, arcane.

sybaritic, adjective.
characterized by or caring very much for luxury;
luxurious; voluptuous. Derived from name of a city on
"toe" of Italy, where a Greek city in antiquity controlled an
important trade route up a river, which became silted and no
longer navigable, so that the city was abandoned.

sacaton, noun.any one of several coarse grasses
of the dry regions of the southwestern United States,
grown for pasture or hay; zacaton.


lateritious, adjective.
1. having to do with or resembling bricks.
2. of the red color characteristic of bricks.
In many parts of the world there large areas of clay
soils with high iron content, called laterite
that easily become compacted
and difficult to till for crops.




Posted By: Wordwind Re: Monday - 03/11/03 02:19 AM
In reply to:

acrophony, noun.

the use of a picture of some object to represent the initial sound, letter, or syllable in the name of that object. Using the picture of an ox, called aleph in Phoenician, to represent the sound a, is an example of acrophony.


Fascinating list of words today, wwh. So, when we show the standard picture of an apple for "a", that use of the picture is an acrophony--or is the picture itself the acrophony? At least, that is, as long as the picture doesn't have script below that reads:

"This is not an apple."

Edit: Well, I'm incorrect. Apple for 'a' is not acrophony, according to Quinion. This is worth pasting:

"We don’t do this in English, as the names of our letters of the alphabet are just invented words that convey the sound indicated by the letter. But in some languages the names of letters are words that have a meaning of their own. The best-known cases are Classical Greek and Hebrew. In Hebrew, for example, the first four letters of the alphabet are aleph, which is also the Hebrew word for ox, beth, “house”, gimel, “camel”, and daleth, “door”. It’s as though our children’s alphabet, A for Apple, B for Ball, C for Cat, were transformed into the actual names for the letters, so that A wouldn’t be called or said ay, but apple. It used to be thought this wasn’t a coincidence, that the letters of the Hebrew alphabet had evolved from hieroglyphs that pictured the objects; as the hieroglyphs had evolved into letters, the names had been carried over with them. This is now not thought to be the case. The word combines the Greek prefix acro– meaning “uppermost; head”, with –phony, “sound”, hence “the sound of the initial letter”."

Posted By: Wordwind Re: capo tasto - 03/11/03 02:29 AM
In reply to:

capotasto, noun.
a device attached to a fretted musical instrument,
such as the guitar, for the purpose of raising the
pitch of all the strings at once.


I've heard of these referred to only as "capos"--but never as capotastos. Cool, wwh!

The only listing of the word I could find on Onelook.com was a slightly different spelling: capo tasto with a reference to the Italian as capotasto

I wish Emanuela would look in here and translate. I would think capo might have something to do with the head...

Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: capo tasto - 03/11/03 10:36 AM
yes, similar to our word "cap", capo means "head" or perhaps better, "top". at least that's what I teach all my students!

I had never put "capo" as for a guitar, and "capo" meaning head, together. probably because I pronounce them differently. capo for guitar gets the long A.

I don't have time to do the little sound thing right now, unfortunately...

Posted By: Wordwind Re: capo tasto - 03/11/03 02:23 PM
In reply to:

yes, similar to our word "cap", capo means "head" or perhaps better, "top". at least that's what I teach all my
students!


I do the same with my kids.

I do wonder what the guitar capo has to do with "the head." And I'd love to know what "tasto" means.

Posted By: tsuwm Re: capo tasto - 03/11/03 02:29 PM
>I'd love to know what "tasto" means.

but not enough to LIU?!
(note time)

Posted By: tsuwm Re: capo tasto - 03/11/03 02:33 PM
from OneLook (Ultralingua):
  No. Italian                                  English

1 tasto [agg.] key [adj.]
2. tasto [s.m.] button [n.]
3. tasto (•di chitarra•) [s.m.] fret [n.]


(and more than half the time was formatting the data :)

Posted By: Faldage Re: capo tasto - 03/11/03 02:39 PM
AHD has capo (di tastiera), head (of the fingerboard)

http://www.bartleby.com/61/86/C0088600.html

I'm assuming y'all can figure out the sense here.

Posted By: wofahulicodoc Re: capo tasto - 03/11/03 06:42 PM
And, for completeness, this kind of "capo" is pronounced "KAY-poe." or as least, it was in NYC around 1955

Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: capo tasto - 03/12/03 01:51 AM
pronounced "KAY-poe."

ouch! my liver's been chopped!



Posted By: wwh Re: capo tasto - 03/12/03 02:20 AM
Dear etaoin: A big bowl of Maypo will cure you.

Posted By: wwh Re: capo tasto - 03/12/03 02:34 AM
And, for completeness, this kind of "capo" is pronounced "KAY-poe."
And for safety, a "capote".

Posted By: Wordwind Re: excipient - 03/12/03 02:37 AM
In reply to:

excipient, noun.
1. any inert drug substance used as
a medium or carrier for an active drug.
2. one that takes up or receives.


wwh, it's the second definition that is intriguing. And it's the one that I can't find reference to in any online dictionary.

Posted By: tsuwm Re: excipient - 03/12/03 03:56 AM
[ad. L. excipient-em, pr. pple. of excipere to take out, except, take up, receive, f. ex- out + capere to take.]
A. adj. That takes exception; objecting.
1726 Ayliffe Parerg. 252 The persons pronouncing it [Excommunication], ought to be set forth in the Pleading by the Party Excipient within eight Days.

B. n.

1. One who takes up or receives in succession. rare.
1852 Tait's Mag. XIX. 605 That excipient of avuncular traditions first quotes from the reply made by Napoleon.

2. a term used to express that ingredient in a compound medicine, the business of which is to receive all the rest.

3. The material or surface that receives the pigments in painting.


---

avuncular traditions? Napoleon??
Posted By: Bingley Re: excipient - 03/12/03 05:03 AM
It doesn't say who the excipient is, but Louis Napoleon, President of France,who staged a coup to become the Emperor Napoleon III because the constitution did not allow him a second term as President, was the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Bingley
Posted By: dxb Re: Monday - 03/12/03 04:58 PM
Bastinado as a form of torture has always left me wondering as to the point of it. Obviously it would be very painful and ultimately crippling, but so would many other things. Was this used when there was a need for the torture not to be visible to a casual observer? It could be covered up easily.

Posted By: wwh Re: Monday - 03/12/03 05:53 PM
I have read of N.Y. police applying nightstick to soles of bums failing
to awake and leave park benches before the tax paying patrons arrived.
Even the most painful deterrents often fail to achieve their objective.


Posted By: Bingley Re: Monday - 03/13/03 05:30 AM
They had soles on their bums? More details of what surely must be a medical rarity from our doctors please.

Bingley
© Wordsmith.org