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ZOÖNOSIS

PRONUNCIATION: (zo-AHN-uh-sis, zo-uh-NOH-sis)

MEANING: noun: Any disease that can be transmitted from animals to humans.

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek zoo- (animal) + nosos (disease). Earliest documented use: 1873.

NOTES: It’s too late now. The COVID-19 has already jumped from animals to humans. Let’s not make it jump from humans to humans. So, let’s wear a mask when in a public place.
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OZONOSIS - what you get from too much tri-molecular oxygen

ZOOMOSIS - what you get from participating in too many streamed on-line meetings

ZONOSIS - I'm sick of this defense !

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FOMITES

PRONUNCIATION: (FOM-uh-teez, FOH-myts)

MEANING: noun: Any inanimate object, such as a book, money, carpet, etc., that can transmit germs from one person to another.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin fomites, plural of fomes (touchwood, tinder), from fovere (to warm). Earliest documented use: 1803.

NOTES: The word fomites is a plural of fomes, but the s at the end of the word led people to assume it’s a plural and make a singular: fomite (FOH-myt). Some would say that it’s an error, but then there are many more words formed like this: cherry, from the singular cherise, pea from the singular pease, for example. The word is often used as a singular nowadays, similar to other technically plural words such as agenda or errata.
All this should be the least of our worries right now. Don’t be a walking fomites. Wear your mask when away from home.
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FORMITES - things that are shaped like ants

UFO MITES - parasites that infest visiting spaceships

FO-LITES - what the enemy uses to see, when it's dark

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ASYMPTOMATIC

PRONUNCIATION: (ay-simp-tuh-MAT-ik)

MEANING: adjective: Not showing any symptoms of disease.

ETYMOLOGY: From a- (not) + Latin symptoma (symptom), from Greek symptoma (occurrence), from sym- (together) + piptein (to fall). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pet- (to rush or fly), which also gave us appetite, feather, petition, compete, perpetual, propitious, appetence, lepidopterology, peripeteia, pinnate, petulant, and pteridology. Earliest documented use: 1932.

NOTES: If you’re asymptomatic you don’t show any symptoms, but it’s still possible you are infected and can transmit the infection to others. That’s why it’s important to wear a mask.
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ASYMPTOMATIN - genetic material that confers freedom from disease symptoms (we wish)

ASYMPTOMAGIC - what it looks like when you have the trait above

ASYMMTOMATIC - having symptoms on only one side of your body

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TYPHOID MARY

PRONUNCIATION: (TY-foid MAIR-ee)

MEANING: noun: A person from whom a disease or something undesirable spreads.

ETYMOLOGY: After Mary Mallon (1869-1938), a cook in New York, who was a healthy carrier (contagious but showing no symptoms: asymptomatic) of typhoid. She died of pneumonia. Earliest documented use: 1909.

NOTES: One Typhoid Mary is enough in the history of humankind. Don’t let yourself be the new Typhoid Mary. Wear your mask when out and about.
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TYPHOID WARY - worried about getting a Salmonella disease

TYCHOID MARY - another late 16th century Danish astronomer, daughter of Mr Brahe

TOPHOID MARY - unfortunate woman afflicted with crippling gout

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VACCINATE

PRONUNCIATION: (VAK-si-nayt)

MEANING: verb tr., intr.:
1. To administer a vaccine to produce immunity against a disease.
2. To immunize against something.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin vacca (cow), because in the beginning the cowpox virus was used against smallpox. Earliest documented use: 1803.

NOTES: Don’t vacillate when it’s time to vaccinate. But until a COVID-19 vaccine appears, the next best thing is to wear a mask. Some are resistant to the idea, so we see billboards with encouraging messages: “Real Heros Wear Masks”
No, wearing a mask does not make you a hero. Neither is having to wear a mask some sort of tyranny any more than having to wear a seat belt is. But if you need a medal, we can nominate you for a Presidential Medal of Freedom. They are going cheap these days.
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VACCINNATE - born with smallpox immunity

VA: CC IN A TEE - veterans can get their shot even if casually dressed

VACCINA-TEL - offers disease prevention and Web access together

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CLITICIZE

PRONUNCIATION: (KLIT-uh-syz)

MEANING: verb tr., intr.: To attach or become attached.

ETYMOLOGY: From clitic (an unstressed word that occurs in combination with another word), from enclitic/proclitic, from klinein (to lean), from klitos (slope). Ultimately from the Indo-European root klei- (to lean), which also gave us decline, incline, recline, lean, client, climax, ladder, heteroclite, and patrocliny. Earliest documented use: 1970s.

NOTES: In linguistics, to cliticize is to attach a clitic to another word. What’s a clitic? An unstressed linguistic element that can’t exist on its own and is dependent on its neighbor. An example in the previous sentence is ’t in can’t”.
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CLINICIZE - translate from research to patient care

GLITICIZE - add a single medication treat diabetes, kidney trouble, and heart failure (see SGLT2 inhibitor)

CLIO-TICIZE - reduce to the stature of a small goldfish, so it fits in a Walt Disney cartoon movie

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ORDONNANCE

PRONUNCIATION: (OR-dn-uhns, or-duh-NAHNS)

MEANING: noun: The systematic arrangement of parts in art, literature, architecture, etc.

ETYMOLOGY: From French, from alteration of Old French ordenance (order), from Latin ordinantia, from ordinare (to put in order), from ordo (order). Earliest documented use: 1660.

NOTES: The same Old French ordenance has also given us two more cousins of today’s word. So the whole lineup is:
ordnance: military supplies
ordinance: an order, decree, law, etc.
ordonnance: a systematic arrangement
I say we go back to communicating in grunts.
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OR DON NANCY - then again, maybe it's the Italian nobleman with the unusual name

ORLONNANCE - conversion to a synthetic fabric

ORDO NUANCE - the ordering is very subtle

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SETTLOR

PRONUNCIATION: (SET-luhr/lohr)

MEANING: noun: One who makes a settlement of property.

ETYMOLOGY: From alteration of settler, from settle, from Old English setlan (to seat or place). Earliest documented use: 1818.
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SENT L.O.R. - I've just dispatched the Letter of Recommendation

SEAT L'OR - King Midas' Golden Chair

S.E.T.I.-LOR - the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence has its own mythology

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EXORCISE

PRONUNCIATION: EK-sor/suhr-syz)

MEANING: verb tr.:
1. To drive out something or someone undesirable, such as an evil spirit, malign influence, troubling feeling, etc.
2. To free a person or place of an evil spirit.

ETYMOLOGY: From Old French exorciser, from Latin exorcizare, from Greek exorkizein (to swear a person), from ex- (out) + horkizein (to make one swear), from horkos (oath). Earliest documented use: 1546.
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EXHORCISE - to issue a command

EXO-CISE - to peel away the outer covering

EXPORCISE - to decree that bacon no longer comes from a pig

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EQUIPOLLENT

PRONUNCIATION: (ee-kwuh-PAH-luhnt)

MEANING: adjective: Equal in power, force[align:center][/align], effect, etc.

ETYMOLOGY: From Old French equipolent, from Latin aequipollent (of equal value), from aequus (equal) + pollens (able), present participle of pollere (to be strong). Earliest documented use: 1420.
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EQUIPOLLEN - allergic to two irritants exactly the same amount

EQUIPULLENT - tugging just as strongly but in opposite directions

AQUIPOLLENT - determining whether people say they prefer Evian or Poland Springs water or some other brand entirely

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