A spelling bee word with quite a few cognates. Byssoid means filamentous. A byssus
was originally the word for a ship's anchor rope. A place too deep for an anchor rope
was an abyss. Ropes are (sometimes)made out of cotton, and workers making it inhale a lot of
cotton dust and develop byssinosis, a lung disease called brown lung disease. Workers
in sugar manufacture inhale dust of sugar cane fibers and get another brown lung disease
called bagassosis.But byssus is used now mostly to describe the foot by which mussels
attach to rocks.

For at least a century, caciquism was the form
through which democracy would reign in Mexico. In a
land of both Spanish and Indian descent and
traditions--a land of illiteracy--elective democracy was
not possible. These caciques were the revolutionaries
who fought against the Creole caudillos of the regular
army. Thus, the birth of the conflicts between
liberalism and conservatism and federalism and
centralism was confirmed. The caciques and their
followers supported a liberal system that gave local
autonomy modeled on the federalism of the United
States. They hoped to legalize their powers.