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#82567 10/02/02 03:05 PM
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The Vocabula Review had a post asking for a word meaning able to grow without any light.
A reply gave the word "scotohil" which was new to me, but is in my dictionary.
Edit: Thank Alex williams for telling me about typo. I should indeed have been "scotophil".

#82568 10/02/02 04:07 PM
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Hi, Bill

Would this word just be restricted to either plants or animals--or is it all-inclusive? I'm between classes, so have to fly!

Happy you're here!

WW


#82569 10/02/02 07:37 PM
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Sear WW: all of the organisms found in the deep ocean trenches would have to
be scoptophilic.There are blind fishes deep in aquifers below limestone deposits.
It might even fit earthworms, perhaps the starnose moles. I haven't seen but
just the one sentence about it.


#82570 10/07/02 11:49 AM
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All these various spelling have me in the dark. (Sorry, bad pun intended.) "Scotohil" seems like it should be scotophil, as in eosinophil. Now we have scoptophilic.. So what is the correct root for "dark," and how is it related to "scotomata," the visual disturbances experienced by migraine sufferers?


#82571 10/07/02 01:38 PM
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Scoto- is the proper prefix; -phil is the proper root. The word is scotophil.


#82572 10/08/02 12:13 AM
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Scotophil looks like a person who likes Scots.


#82573 10/08/02 03:32 PM
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And a scatophile is someone who likes... jazz music with scat singing.


#82574 10/10/02 08:51 PM
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"scotomata," the visual disturbances experienced by migraine sufferers

I think the scotoma itself is just the small area of disordered vision/blind spot. The migraine sufferer has "scintillating scomata;" macular problems will give a "central scotoma," etc.


#82575 10/11/02 04:11 PM
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In reply to:

I think the scotoma itself is just the small area of disordered vision/blind spot. The migraine sufferer has "scintillating scomata;" macular problems will give a "central scotoma," etc.


Now I see (sorry, bad pun). I had a migrine once with scintillating scomata. It was truly horrible. I was in eighth grade, had this splitting headache all day, and ended up throwing up when I got home. Didn't even know what a migraine was at the time.

One of Oliver Sacks' books compares the drawings some historic nun made of her visions (I forget her name) to scintillating scomata, and he makes a pretty good case that she was in fact having migraines.


#82576 10/11/02 04:37 PM
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some historic nun

Hildegard?

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/hildegarde.html

Scroll down to the last section. Or read the whole thing. She was a fascinating woman, migraines or no.

#82577 10/12/02 07:24 PM
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Her name's on the tip of my tongue... it was Sister Mary somebody... [/attempt at humor]


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