snuff \SNUHF\, verb:
名 烛蕊燃焦部;香味;弄熄;以鼻闻
1. To extinguish or suppress.
2. To cut off or remove the snuff of (candles, tapers, etc.).
noun:
1. The charred or partly consumed portion of a candlewick.
2. A preparation of tobacco, either powdered and taken into the nostrils by inhalation or ground and placed between the cheek and gum.
verb:
1. To draw in through the nose by inhaling.
Derek Jeter bashed Duensing's sixth pitch into the bullpen, then almost single-handedly made the run hold up with a spectacular play to snuff a second-and-third Twins threat, and the Yankees won for the 10th time in their last 11 games against the Twins.
-- Phil Miller, "Twins do everything right but win", FoxSportsNorth.com, May 2010
They augur misgovernment at a distance; and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze.
-- Edmund Burke, Second Speech on Conciliation with America
The verb form of snuff has acquired layers of meaning through time: "to cut or pinch off the burned part of a candle wick," is an adaptation from the noun snoffe, the "burned part of a candle wick." The sense "to die" stems from the 1800s, and "to kill" appears in the 1930s, as in a snuff-film.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
sibylline
sibylline \SIB-uh-leen\, adjective:
1。先知;玄妙。
2。预言;玄妙。
3。神秘，难以理解。
1. Prophetic; oracular.
2. Of, resembling, or characteristic of a sibyl; prophetic; oracular.
3. Mysterious; cryptic.
OPN, an American actually called Daniel Lopatin, has been around since 2006 and already amassed a ton of loop-based otherworldly music pieces released under an array of suitably sibylline monikers.
-- Thomas Corlin, "Interview: Oneohtrix Point Never", Spoonfed.co.uk
The response, by the bye, was of the true sibylline stamp,—nonsensical in its first aspect, yet on closer study unfolding a variety of interpretations, one of which has certainly accorded with the event.
-- Nathanial Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance
Sibylline derives from the Greek Sibylla, any of several prophetesses consulted by ancient Greeks and Romans, of uncertain origin.
1。先知;玄妙。
2。预言;玄妙。
3。神秘，难以理解。
1. Prophetic; oracular.
2. Of, resembling, or characteristic of a sibyl; prophetic; oracular.
3. Mysterious; cryptic.
OPN, an American actually called Daniel Lopatin, has been around since 2006 and already amassed a ton of loop-based otherworldly music pieces released under an array of suitably sibylline monikers.
-- Thomas Corlin, "Interview: Oneohtrix Point Never", Spoonfed.co.uk
The response, by the bye, was of the true sibylline stamp,—nonsensical in its first aspect, yet on closer study unfolding a variety of interpretations, one of which has certainly accorded with the event.
-- Nathanial Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance
Sibylline derives from the Greek Sibylla, any of several prophetesses consulted by ancient Greeks and Romans, of uncertain origin.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
bijou
bijou \BEE-zhoo\, adjective:
1. Something small, delicate, and exquisitely wrought.
noun:
1. A jewel.
Adding to its appeal is the fact that the Streak is a compact and bijou five inches, compared to the iPad's relatively chunky 9.7-inches.
-- Jonathan Leggett, "Dell Streak Free on Mobile Broadband Deals", Top 10 Broadband, June 2010
This was followed by bijou slices of grilled swordfish belly swathed in a homemade sesame sauce ($5).
-- Annette Tan, "Small bites to a big meal", Singapore Today, June 2010
Bijou comes from the French Breton bizou, "ring."
1. Something small, delicate, and exquisitely wrought.
noun:
1. A jewel.
Adding to its appeal is the fact that the Streak is a compact and bijou five inches, compared to the iPad's relatively chunky 9.7-inches.
-- Jonathan Leggett, "Dell Streak Free on Mobile Broadband Deals", Top 10 Broadband, June 2010
This was followed by bijou slices of grilled swordfish belly swathed in a homemade sesame sauce ($5).
-- Annette Tan, "Small bites to a big meal", Singapore Today, June 2010
Bijou comes from the French Breton bizou, "ring."
couvade
couvade \koo-VAHD\, noun:
产翁制 http://baike.baidu.com/view/1839403.htm
A practice in certain cultures in which the husband of a woman in labor takes to his bed as though he were bearing the child.
Whether men experience couvades or not, there are plenty of other birth rituals for them to partake in: sitting through prenatal classes, going to ultrasound appointments, strapping on thirty pound lead empathy bellies, attending coed baby showers, making smalltalk during epidural sessions, photographing the birth, cutting the umbilical cord. . .
-- Tina Cassidy, Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born
Although husband involvement in the birth process is not uncommon in preindustrial societies, as we showed in Chapter 5, the emerging American practice of having the husband present at the delivery itself is almost unique in world societies. The increasing popularity of this new form of "couvade" in the United States is particularly intriguing theoretically and represents an unexplored issue in social-psychological research.
-- Karen Paige, Jeffery M. Paige, The politics of reproductive ritual
Couvade comes from the French couver, "to incubate or hatch."
产翁制 http://baike.baidu.com/view/1839403.htm
A practice in certain cultures in which the husband of a woman in labor takes to his bed as though he were bearing the child.
Whether men experience couvades or not, there are plenty of other birth rituals for them to partake in: sitting through prenatal classes, going to ultrasound appointments, strapping on thirty pound lead empathy bellies, attending coed baby showers, making smalltalk during epidural sessions, photographing the birth, cutting the umbilical cord. . .
-- Tina Cassidy, Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born
Although husband involvement in the birth process is not uncommon in preindustrial societies, as we showed in Chapter 5, the emerging American practice of having the husband present at the delivery itself is almost unique in world societies. The increasing popularity of this new form of "couvade" in the United States is particularly intriguing theoretically and represents an unexplored issue in social-psychological research.
-- Karen Paige, Jeffery M. Paige, The politics of reproductive ritual
Couvade comes from the French couver, "to incubate or hatch."
Monday, July 5, 2010
vespertine
vespertine \VES-per-tin\, adjective:
1. Of, pertaining to, or occurring in the evening.
2. Botany. Opening or expanding in the evening, as certain flowers.
3. Zoology. Becoming active in the evening, as bats and owls.
To my own ear, I sound hyperpoetic, and I don't mean to exaggerate these vespertine moods; I think that this restlessness that I am describing was really quite ordinary.
-- Peter Gadol, The Long Rain
So on we journey'd, through the evening sky / Gazing intent, far onward as our eyes, / With level view, could stretch against the bright / Vespertine ray: and lo ! by slow degrees / Gathering, a fog made towards us, dark as night.
-- Dante Alighieri, The vision, or, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise
Vespertine derives from Latin vespertīnus, "evening."
1. Of, pertaining to, or occurring in the evening.
2. Botany. Opening or expanding in the evening, as certain flowers.
3. Zoology. Becoming active in the evening, as bats and owls.
To my own ear, I sound hyperpoetic, and I don't mean to exaggerate these vespertine moods; I think that this restlessness that I am describing was really quite ordinary.
-- Peter Gadol, The Long Rain
So on we journey'd, through the evening sky / Gazing intent, far onward as our eyes, / With level view, could stretch against the bright / Vespertine ray: and lo ! by slow degrees / Gathering, a fog made towards us, dark as night.
-- Dante Alighieri, The vision, or, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise
Vespertine derives from Latin vespertīnus, "evening."
evanescence
evanescence \ev-uh-NES-ens\, noun:
1. A gradual dissappearance.
2. The state of becoming imperceptible.
This is one of the most beautiful circumstances connected with water surface, for by these means a variety of color and a grace and evanescence are introduced in the reflection otherwise impossible.
-- John Ruskin, The Works of John Ruskin: Modern painters, v.1-5
But this was an evanescence, and quickly repented of, as it were, by an immitigable look, pinching and shriveling the visage into the momentary semblance of a wrinkled walnut.
-- Herman Melville, Billy Budd, sailor: (an inside narrative)
Evanescence is from Latin evanescere, "to vanish," from e-, "from, out of" + vanescere, "to disappear," from vanus, "empty."
1. A gradual dissappearance.
2. The state of becoming imperceptible.
This is one of the most beautiful circumstances connected with water surface, for by these means a variety of color and a grace and evanescence are introduced in the reflection otherwise impossible.
-- John Ruskin, The Works of John Ruskin: Modern painters, v.1-5
But this was an evanescence, and quickly repented of, as it were, by an immitigable look, pinching and shriveling the visage into the momentary semblance of a wrinkled walnut.
-- Herman Melville, Billy Budd, sailor: (an inside narrative)
Evanescence is from Latin evanescere, "to vanish," from e-, "from, out of" + vanescere, "to disappear," from vanus, "empty."
rataplan
rataplan \rat-uh-PLAN\, verb:
1. To produce the sound as of the beating of a drum.
noun:
1. A sound of or as of the beating of a drum.
2. A tattoo, as of a drum, the hooves of a galloping horse, or machine-gun fire.
When his breath returned, he called aloud to space: "My drum ain't busted, but I can't reach t'other stick !" and then rat-tatted as best he could, sitting, hot in his own blood, there in what might have seemed the measured centre of the surely coming charge. As his one stick beat, rataplanning as best it might alone, his ghastly face, turned backward, saw the first man, rifle in hand who topped the low ridge, racing forward on two strong legs, furiously cursing the swinging, helpless left arm that dripped as he ran.
-- Clara Morris, The life of a star
They rataplanned through Abbeville. They saw four unknown riders, in uniforms of the North, trailing them. Harnden called an abrupt halt and waited till the riders came up.
-- Ivan Clyde Lake, "The badgers pursued Jefferson Davis", The Milwaukee Sentinel, 1965
Rataplan's origin is French, though its meaning is entirely imitative.
1. To produce the sound as of the beating of a drum.
noun:
1. A sound of or as of the beating of a drum.
2. A tattoo, as of a drum, the hooves of a galloping horse, or machine-gun fire.
When his breath returned, he called aloud to space: "My drum ain't busted, but I can't reach t'other stick !" and then rat-tatted as best he could, sitting, hot in his own blood, there in what might have seemed the measured centre of the surely coming charge. As his one stick beat, rataplanning as best it might alone, his ghastly face, turned backward, saw the first man, rifle in hand who topped the low ridge, racing forward on two strong legs, furiously cursing the swinging, helpless left arm that dripped as he ran.
-- Clara Morris, The life of a star
They rataplanned through Abbeville. They saw four unknown riders, in uniforms of the North, trailing them. Harnden called an abrupt halt and waited till the riders came up.
-- Ivan Clyde Lake, "The badgers pursued Jefferson Davis", The Milwaukee Sentinel, 1965
Rataplan's origin is French, though its meaning is entirely imitative.
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