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beloid: shaped like an arrow The only interesting word in this group. Greek "belos" = dart
bema: raised part of an Eastern church containing the altar
benet: exorcist
bergamask: country dance
besom: curler's broom
bezel: oblique side or face of a cut gem
bibelot: trinket; miniature book of elegant design
bibliolatry: worship of the Bible or other books
bibliophily: love or fondness for books or reading
bibulous: addicted to alcohol
bidenticulate: having two teeth
bigential: consisting of two races, genera, or subspecies
bilious: ill-tempered; very unpleasant
binate: doubled; coupled
biocenosis: state of association of creatures in a certain region
biolith: rock formed by living creatures
biotope: region of uniform environment and types of organisms
birostrate: double-beaked
bistoury: narrow surgical knife
biverbal: relating to two words; having a double sense
blandiloquence: complimentary speech; flattery
blauwbok: extinct bluish-coloured antelope of southern Africa
blennophobia: fear of slime
blissom: subject to or having strong sexual desires
blype: piece of skin that peels off after a sunburn
bodach: old man; churl; goblin or spectre
boethetic: helpful, curative
bolide: large meteor that bursts; a fireball
boman: well dressed criminal
bombous: convex; rounded
bonify: to improve or ameliorate
boopic: ox-eyed
bordure: border surrounding a heraldic shield
boschveldt: bush country; wilderness
bot: larva of a botfly that infests horses
bouillotte: card game resembling poker
bourdon: drone bass of a bagpipe or organ
bowery: seedy or run-down district of a city I have never heard this used. The Bowery,
a part of New York City, became notorious for petty crime. There was even a song about it.
The name is derived from Dutch word meaning farm.
bow[er[y 7b/4!r c, b/4rc8
n.,
pl. 3er[ies 5Du bouwerij, farm < bouer, boer, farmer: see BOOR6 a farm or plantation of an early Dutch settler of New York
the Bowery a street in New York City, or the surrounding district, center of cheap hotels, bars, etc.
braccate: having feathered legs or feet
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besom: curler's broom
Surely a besom has uses other than brushing the ice to guide heavy stones? Hansel and Gretel's family might have used one. Wouldn't any old collection of tied-up sticks on a pole qualify?
I disapprove of giving one instance as a "definition." (I know, Bill, you're not offering this as a list of definitions, just reproducing the Spelling Bee collection - it's their presentation I'm grumbling about.)
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bowery: seedy or run-down district of a city I have never heard this used. The Bowery, a part of New York City, became notorious for petty crime. There was even a song about it.
the Bowery: a street in New York City, or the surrounding district, center of cheap hotels, bars, etc.from http://www.melodylane.net/bowery.html: The Bowery From The Show "A Trip To Chinatown" Words by Charles H. Hoyt Music by Percy Gaunt (1892) I'm working on getting the words. All I know by heart is one verse and the chorus:"...Someone said two dollars, I said three. He emptied the box and he gave it to me. "Isaid the box, not the socks," said he. I'll never go there any more." CHORUS: Oh the Bowery, the Bowery, They do such things and they say such things On the Bowery, the Bowery, I'll never go there any more." You get the idea of cheap merchandise and underhanded shenannigans.
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Dear of troy; please give us an update on The Bowery.
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Here's a start:
THE BOWERY
Oh, the night that I struck New York
I went out for a quiet walk,
Folks who were on to the city say
better by far that I take Broadway
But I was out to enjoy the sights
there was the Bowery ablaze with lights,
I had one of the Devil's own night
I'll never go there anymore. (Refrain)
The Bow'ry, the Bow'ry
They say such things,
And they do strange things,
On the Bow'ry, the Bow'ry
I'll never go there anymore.
The Bow'ry, the Bow'ry
They say such things,
And they do strange things,
On the Bow'ry, the Bow'ry
I'll never go there anymore.
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Surely a besom has uses other than brushing the ice to guide heavy stones?
Besom is, as far as I know, the standard Scots English word for broom. I suspect the only time you're going to run into the word, outside of Scots English dialect uses, is going to be in the sport of curling, hence…
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>I disapprove of giving one instance as a "definition."
you must detest the Official Scrabble® Players Dictionary.
the thing to remember about these specialized glossaries* is that they're not intended to be used for looking up definitions, but merely to provide some validation, or maybe just context, for spellings. the OSPD includes this disclaimer:
It is important to remember that The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary was edited soley with this limited purpose [a guide to settle challenges] in mind. It is not intended to serve as a general dictionary of English; thus, such important features of general dictionaries as definitions of multipile senses, pronunciation respellings, etymologies, and usage labels are omitted.
*the specialized field in this case being spelling itself
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wofa: Surely a besom has uses other than brushing the ice to guide heavy stones?
Faldage: Besom is, as far as I know, the standard Scots English word for broom. I suspect the only time you're going to run into the word, outside of Scots English dialect uses, is going to be in the sport of curling, hence…
Technically, I believe a broom is one with the bristles on a brush attached to a pole, while a besom, as wofa pointed out, is one where a bundle of twigs is tied or otherwise attached around a pole. In this sense it's by no means confined to Scots English.
Bingley
Bingley
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I've thought for a long time that a besom was a broom that had been fashioned in a more conical shape than a flat broom. And what the heck is a curler here?
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formerly known as etaoin...
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In reply to:
biocenosis: state of association of creatures in a certain region
Now here's an interesting word to consider, wwh. Is this state of association necessarily positive--symbiotic--or negative? Or neither? Is this state of association simply the interconnection of species that happen to inhabit the same region?
Very cool word to give us here. I still think human beings should be classified as being fodient. 
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In reply to:
biolith: rock formed by living creatures
...and another one that's interesting. I can think of fossils. They would be rocks formed by living creatures. And limestone? That comes largely from shells and remains of sea creatures, so would limestone be a form of biolith?
Edit: Now that I reconsider, perhaps coral reefs would be a better example of bioliths. Perhaps limestone takes too long to form to be considered a form of biolith.
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In reply to:
birostrate: double-beaked
Name one. Name one animal that has two beaks. I will research this today.
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AThe dictionary definition says the;y are interdependent.
biocenosis
n.
5ModL < BIO3 + Gr koinbsis, a mingling < koinoun, to share < koinos, common: see COENO36 a community of biologically integrated and interdependent plants and animals Also bi#o[coe[no4sis 73si nb4sis8 or bi#o[ce$nose# 73sc4nbs#8
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Dear WW: I have read that the "rostrum" from which speakers orate, derived from
Jesus having spoken to his disciples from the bow of a boat drawn up on the shore.
Some boats have bow and stern identically pointed, or instance the New England
codfish dory. They could be described as "birostrate". Then there is the guy whose
beak looks so much like his bottom his bowels don't know which way to run. Would
you say he was "birotrate"?
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"rostrum" from which speakers orate, derived from Jesus having spoken to his disciples from the bow of a boat drawn up on the shore.
AHD lists, in its defintions of rostrum,:
2b. The speaker's platform in an ancient Roman forum, which was decorated with the prows of captured enemy ships.
Birostrate sounds to me like it should have something to do with ball-point pens.
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Dear Faldage, I have seen Biro pens, but never birostrate Biro pens. Get that strate.
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NYC's Bowery (now part of 4th Avenue) was originaly the drive entry to peter styvetson's county estate (about 3 miles north of Wall Street-- the old city line!) *Peter's name is spelled wrong... forgive me...
His estate was called the bowery because the entry drive was lined with stately trees forming a bowery. (peter also mapped out the only street in Manhattan to run true east/west--its on a diagonal to most of the city's grid of east/west and North/south streets.
later, this area (just north of chinatown/little Italy, and south east village was the area of the "Bowery Boys" -- 1920 and 30's movies about lovable but rascally kids who where borderline juvenial delinqients. the area was one of poverty and immigrants.
Just to the east of the Bowery is "alphabet city" (there is a bumbed out in Manhattan island-- and instead of the last avenue being 1st Avenue, there are 4 extra avenues, A, B, C and D. tidal action cause the bumb out to collect flotsome and jetsom (or in modern days, 'floaters' dead bodies) which do not enhance the neighborhood or its image.
the area is not unsafe, but it also has not been too gentrified, (tompkom square park area) the Bowery is only about 4 blocks long (from Canal to Houston) then from Houston to Astor Place, its 4th Avenue, above there its Lexington Avenue.
alphabet city was the first site of "public housing" (council flats) in NYC (and the US!) Part of the reform action of Jacob Riis. these are still in use 100 years later.
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Pooh-Bah
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there is a bumbed out in Manhattan island
What does this mean, please? Some river feature perhaps?
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you must detest the Official Scrabble® Players Dictionary
You're right. Not for its being precriptive but for its arbitrariness. Although the OSPD isn't really a "dictionary" at all, just a long (yet limited) word list.
It turns out that words have little to do with the game of Scrabble; what counts is how well you master the list of acceptable-tokens-made-of-letters. Stefan Fatsis' book Word Freak alludes to an occasional non-English-speaking player who nevertheless does tolerably well because of a good command of this list. The book even has at its end a list of the words used in it that aren't really "words" after all, meaning they aren't listed in the Dictionary.
Playing the game casually is fine, but at a high level, vocabulary and even the language itself are irrelevant.
[end of it-didn't-start-out-to-be-a-rant]
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if you look at the island of Manhattan, its its sort of long and thin.... the Western side is almost straigth, (it has a bit of a 'dog leg's' bend (about 14th street, near NYC Chelsea) the eastern side flares out (like the side of a funnel, getting wider and wider, the becomes dramatically narrower on the east side, and curves inward to about 14th St. (its as if the long thin wedge of the island had its tip bent) the "bend" means the out ward tidal flow of the "east River" (not a river at all but a tidal straight) rushes down to the point, where the current than has to move around the land... as it does, it 'drops off' flotsom and jetsom. this is a link to mapquest, (level 6) and you can see the bumbed out part of the island (since all of Manhattan's has land fill, and the contorts have changed (radically in places, in my lifetime!) the 'bump' is softer than is was 50 years ago. It is conveniently labeled point #6- if you zoom into level 7 or 8, you will see street names, showing "the Bowery", 4th Avenue, and the Lexington Avenue (all really the same street!) the Bowery starts just about where the radio button on the map label's New York--zoom out to 5 to see the whole island. http://makeashorterlink.com/?P2BB52D83
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