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• qms commented on the word algedonic

  To artists whose gig is harmonic

  Applause is an absolute tonic.

  They notice its length

  And assay its strength

  By internal rules algedonic.

  February 19, 2019

• vendingmachine commented on the word malternatives

  Noun. malternative (plural malternatives) An alcoholic beverage, an alternative to beer, that contains some malt alcohol and may contain other types of alcohol.

  February 18, 2019

• vendingmachine commented on the word malterative

  Noun. malternative (plural malternatives) An alcoholic beverage, an alternative to beer, that contains some malt alcohol and may contain other types of alcohol.

  February 18, 2019

• bilby commented on the word cold-stupid

  Unpopular theory: this may have had a factor in the demise of poor Oates.

  February 18, 2019

• ImmortalSnake commented on the user ImmortalSnake

  A gamer and a Discord bot developer

  February 18, 2019

• fabien79 commented on the word horse

  my horse, my war

  February 18, 2019

• qms commented on the word timocracy

  Oh, heed the opinions of him

  Who’s wise in even his whim!

  The world as it ought to be

  Is found in timocracy

  As limned in the wisdom of Tim.

  February 18, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word vog

  Hawaiians are familiar with the thick haze they call vog, or volcanic smog. When trade winds blow from the northeast, the vog often wraps around the Big Island from Kilauea and settles over the more densely populated western coast. When winds are variable or blow from the south, vog can spread all the way up the Hawaiian isalnd chain to Oahu . . . and beyond.

  Near the active vents, vog is made mostly of sulphur dioxide droplets. Over time and at greater distances, those droplets react with sunlight and chemicals in the air to become more complex sulphur compounds, including sulphuric acid.

  Alexandra Witze & Jeff Kanipe, Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World (New York: Island Books, 2015), ch. 8, p. 173

  February 18, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word dilute

  Applied to volcanic flows:

  flows that are relatively dilte — that is not carrying so much debris — can rush up steep slopes, or change direction quickly.

  Alexandra Witze & Jeff Kanipe, Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World (New York: Island Books, 2015), ch. 8, p. 168

  February 18, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word cold-stupid

  The main core storage (at the National Ice Core Laboratory in Denver) is at a bone-chilling -38 degrees Celsius — the kind of temperature that renders people what Hargreaves (the curator) calls 'cold-stupid'. Reflexes slow down, talking seems difficult and thinking just as arduous.

  Alexandra Witze & Jeff Kanipe, Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World (New York: Island Books, 2015), ch. 6, p. 136

  February 18, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word atmospheric extinction

  Also telling was how the haze dimmed the light of the stars, a phenomenon astronomers call atmospheric extinction. Barring light pollution, stars can normally be observed in almost every part of the sky, and so they make excellent indicators of a fog's density. Under normal circumstances, the faintest start that can be seen with the unaided eye is rates as a magnitude 6. Brighter stars range between mgnitudes 5 and 1, with 1 being the brightest.

  Alexandra Witze & Jeff Kanipe, Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World (New York: Island Books, 2015), ch. 5, p. 110

  February 18, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word plinian

  When Vesuvius exploded, (Pliny the Elder) apparently couldn't believe his luck at having an opportunity to witness such a momentous eruption. He climbed to the highest point he could find and watched the ash cloud develop. Later his nephew (Pliny the Younger) recalled how they saw the plume grow into a shape 'like an umbrella pine, for it rose to a great height on a sort of trunk and then split off into branches, I imagine because it was thrust upwards by the first blast and then left unsupported as the pressure subsided.' This classic, umbrella-like shape forms when a volanic ash plume hits winds going sideways in the upper atmosphere and spreads out. We now use the adjective 'plinian' for this type of ash cloud, after the man who first described it.

  Alexandra Witze & Jeff Kanipe, Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World (New York: Island Books, 2015), ch. 3, p. 72, Kindle loc 824

  February 18, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word supervolcano

  By the time the hotspot reached what is now Yellowstone, it let loose its wrath in three colossal eruptions. All three spread ash and debris—enough ash to fill the Grand Canyon—over nearly the entire western half o fht eUnited States, and left behind colossal craters known as calderas, formed as magma beneath the ground drained out. The most recent eruption happened around 640,000 years ago and was about 2,500 times the size of the 19880 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The oldest of the three Yellowstone blowouts happened 2.1 million years ago and was 6,000 times bigger than Mount St. Helens.

  That makes Yellowstone the quintessential example of a 'supervolcano', a word that has little technical merit but that is helpful for thinking about the relative scale of eruptions. BBC producers coined the term in 2000, to describe planet-altering eruptions that disgorge an immense volume of ash and other rock fragments—as a general rule, the volume of material that settles onto the ground is about two to three times the volue of the magma that fuelled the eruption.

  Alexandra Witze & Jeff Kanipe, Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World (New York: Island Books, 2015), ch. 3, p. 63, Kindle loc 705

  February 18, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word paint pot

  Tourists flock to Yellowstone for the views . . . . Equally astounding is the park's vast array of geothermal features. 'Paint pots' of burbling mud spray red, white and other vibrant tints across a geological artist's palette.

  Alexandra Witze & Jeff Kanipe, Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World (New York: Island Books, 2015), ch. 3, p. 61, Kindle loc 685

  February 18, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word fissure system

  Grímsvötn is but a single volcano, but it's the hub of a so-called fissure system, a network of long narrow cracks along which magma can rise to the surface.

  Alexandra Witze & Jeff Kanipe, Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World (New York: Island Books, 2015), ch. 2, p. 59, Kindle loc 666

  February 18, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word sand plain

  The equivalent of several thousand megawatts of continuous power create a meltwater lake atop the volcano, beneath the overlying ice. When enough water accumulates in the lake,the pressure forces an opening in the ice cap and the water pours out, draining most of the lake in a matter of days. . . . the floods can be immensely powerful, leaving behind 'sand plains' that stretch for kilometre after kilometre all the way to the coast.

  Alexandra Witze & Jeff Kanipe, Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World (New York: Island Books, 2015), ch. 2, p. 59, Kindle loc 662

  February 18, 2019

• clairity commented on the word palavering

  talking unproductively and at length

  February 18, 2019

• practik commented on the word antifa

  For a couple of years now American conservatives and libertarians have been having fun claiming that antifa is actually short for “anti–First Amendment.” Some examples:

  https://www.actualanarchy.com/2017/02/03/antifa-anti-first-amendment/

  https://medium.com/@therealbill/antifa-anti-first-amendment-anti-free-association-maybe-but-anti-freedom-anyway-aa0160467a80

  http://www.cairco.org/blog/antifa-stands-anti-first-amendment

  https://www.rightsidenews.com/videos/antifa-is-anti-first-amendment/

  I would quote them, but they all just say some version of what I wrote above: “antifa stands for ‘anti–First Amendment.’” In all four cases, it seems clear that the authors know the word really stands for antifascist and assume their readers know it too.

  In the next example, though, it’s unclear whether the author is unaware of the word’s real meaning or is simply omitting mention of it:

  “In addition to the student activists at Berkeley — nicknamed by their opponents as ‘Anti-First Amendment,’ or ‘anti-fa’ for short — there have been members of the mainstream press that have taken controversial positions on the Coulter clash.”

  https://ijr.com/the-coulter-wars-aclu-ny-times-take-completely-different-stances-on-the-berkeley-debacle/

  I don’t know whether this fake etymology is catching on or not, but it wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of native English speakers found the actual etymology a little dubious.

  For one thing, antifa is a very German kind of abbreviation, both in the way it’s formed (by simply dropping some of the sounds and syllables of a longer word, like WaMa for Waschmaschine) and in the structure of the resulting word (in which each syllable consists of just one vowel and one consonant, like Haribo and Adidas). We don’t normally shorten words like that in English, I don’t think.

  For another, the final a in the original German word, Antifa, is pronounced exactly the same as the corresponding a in Antifaschismus, but the final a in the English word antifa is pronounced differently from the corresponding a in antifascism.

  So to an American ear, a derivation from “anti–FA” might seem at least as plausible as a derivation from antifascist, if not more so.

  February 18, 2019

• qms commented on the word joyance

  My solitude is an annoyance

  But calls from my love give me buoyance,

  And word that she’s wending

  Toward her absence ending

  I hear with a heartwarming joyance.

  February 17, 2019

• qms commented on the word optative

  King Henry had no need to give

  An order to insert the shiv.

  He probably said,

  “Would Becket were dead!”

  But spoke in the dread optative.

  February 16, 2019

• qms commented on the word parosmia

  There was a poor fellow in Bosnia

  Who suffered persistent parosmia,

  His organs olfactory

  So badly refractory

  He spent all his days fighting nausea.

  February 15, 2019

• alexz commented on the word spoilering

  Spotted in the news "Josh Gad is very worried about spoilering Frozen 2"

  
  

  February 15, 2019

• alexz commented on the word now-casting

  Spotted in a tweet by a local Vancouver meteorologist. People's tweets are helping them update their weather reporting.

  February 15, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word seastead

  From the Seasteading Institute's FAQs:

  What does seasteading mean?

  The term comes from homesteading, which means making a home for oneself in new, uninhabited places. It generally has associations with self-sufficiency and a frontier lifestyle. Seasteading is reminiscent of that idea, but at sea.

  . . .

  What do you call a seastead?

  We generally refer to a seastead as a community living at sea and largely responsible for setting its own rules and culture. They will likely come in all shapes and sizes. Early seasteads are expected to be near land and have less autonomy.

  February 14, 2019

• qms commented on the word leman

  You say that she apples your eye,

  Your peach, your adored sweetie pie,

  But “leman,” though apt

  Will get your face slapped -

  Too bitter a fruit to apply.

  February 14, 2019

• alexz commented on the word tuckamore

  Spotted this in a Twitter post.. a Maritimes word for a tree. In this case it was a twisted windswept tree near a coastal cliff.

  February 14, 2019

• detectiverse commented on the word detectiverse

  detectiverse is a skit based youtube channel

  February 13, 2019

• qms commented on the word perficient

  The brown nose is smugly proficient

  And lazybones barely sufficient,

  But have we no name

  For steady but game,

  The student who’s calmly perficient?

  February 13, 2019

• qms commented on the word gloriole

  The painter of portraits perceived

  His subject’s most evident need

  So gave the sorry soul

  A golden gloriole,

  Which Donald thought fitting indeed.

  February 12, 2019

• alexz commented on the word setmance

  Spotted in Vancouver news for on set romance. (Hollywood North Buzz)

  February 12, 2019

• ElMasterKiller420 commented on the user ElMasterKiller420

  haha yes

  February 11, 2019

• slumry commented on the word celebritude

  Ouch, I say. "...That extreme celebritude aside..." Kurt Andersen in a NYT review of Thomas Mallon's novel about GW Bush, today.

  February 11, 2019

• qms commented on the word pyramidion

  Madame Speaker Contemplates the Washington Monument

  That obelisk, dully euclidian,

  Taught Nancy a truth non-quotidian:

  There’s skillful statecraft

  In giving the shaft

  But art in the sharp pyramidion.

  February 11, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word tourist eruption

  'The story of Eyjafjallajökull began uneventfully with what Icelanders call a 'tourist' eruption, one that's scenic but not very dangerous.

  Alexandra Witze & Jeff Kanipe, Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World (New York: Island Books, 2015), ch. 2, Kindle loc 622

  Eyjafjallajökull finally roared to life on 20 March. Fire fountains exploded out of a rocky ridge just east of the mountain's ice-covered summit. It was one of the prettiest eruptions in years. During the day, the dusky light of a northern spring noon highlighted the spectacular orange bursts, while at night the cool green glow of the northern lights shimmered overhead. . . .

  Icelanders call this sort of event a 'tourist eruption', and enterprising operators quickly started running daily trips from Reykjavík.

  Id., ch. 9, Kindle loc 2245

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word mantle plume

  In a mantle plume, a jet of volcanic heat fuels a constant, massive outpouring of lava on the seafloor. Scientists think that a few dozen mantle plumes dot the planet, of which the Hawaiian Islands are the most famous example.

  Alexandra Witze & Jeff Kanipe, Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World (New York: Island Books, 2015), ch. 2, Kindle loc 509

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word geopoetry

  Harry Hess of Princeton revived Wegener's ideas. . . . In 1962 he published what he called an 'essay in geopoetry', written two years earlier. It proposed that heat churning through the Earth's mantle might be responsible for the movement of the plates.

  Alexandra Witze & Jeff Kanipe, Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World (New York: Island Books, 2015), ch. 2, Kindle loc 454

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word Pele's hair

  Cinders fell from the sky on the 14th. They were, Jón (Steingrímsson) wrote, 'blue-black and shiny, as long and thick around as a seal's hair'. This was the first description of what volcanologists today refer to as Pele's hair—thin strands of volcanic glass formed by molten particles ejected in a lava fountain and stretched into fibres as they are carried through the air. Just half a millimetre across, they may be as long as two metres. The unusual fallout covered the ground across the region, and the winds worked some of the hairs into long hollow coils.

  Alexandra Witze & Jeff Kanipe, Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of a Forgotten Volcano That Changed the World (New York: Island Books, 2015), ch. 1, Kindle loc 357

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word pig-nut

  pignut

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word doit

  small coin:

  "There ain't a thing left here," said Merry, still feeling round among the bones, "not a copper doit nor a baccy box."

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 31

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word holus bolus

  adv. all at once Merriam-Webster

  "I'll take it on my shoulders, holus bolus, blame and shame, my boy; but stay here, I cannot let you."

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 30

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word kelson

  "the whole blessed boat, from cross-trees to kelson."

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 28

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word gall

  to irritate or cause pain

  I went below and did what I could for my wound; it pained me a good deal and still bled freely, but it was neither deep nor dangerous, nor did it greatly gall me when I used my arm.

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 27

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word cat's-paw

  In the sense of ripples on the water:

  "Now," said Hands,"look there; there's a pet bit for to beach a ship in. Fine flat sand, never a cat's paw, trees all around of it, and flowers a-blowing like a garding (garden) on that old ship."

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 26

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word gully

  knife:

  One cut with my sea-gully and the HISPANIOLA would go humming down the tide.

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 23

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word gallipot

  the little gallipot of a boat that we were in was gravely overloaded.

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 17

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word warp

  Nautical sense:

  We had a dreary morning's work before us, for there was no sign of any wind, and the boats had to be got out and manned and the ship warped three or four miles round the corner of the island and up the narrow passage to the haven behind Skeleton Island.

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 13

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word gentleman of fortune

  "Here it is about gentlemen of fortune. They lives rough, and they risk swinging,, but they eat and drink like fighting-cocks, and when a cruise is done, why, it's hundreds of pounds instead of hundreds of farthings in their pockets. . . .

  "a finer figurehead for a gentleman of fortune I never clapped my eyes on."

  By this time I had begun to understand the meaning of their terms. By a "gentleman of fortune" they plainly meant neither more nor less than a common pirate . . . .

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 11

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word bumboat

  "how long are we a-going to stand off and on like a blessed bumboat?"

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 11

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word deadlight

  In Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883), the pirates use "deadlights" to mean "eyes."

  "The same broadside I lost my leg, old Pew lost his deadlights." -- ch. 11

  "I saw him dead with these here deadlights." -- ch. 31

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word parrot

  "Now treasure is ticklish work; I don't like treasure voyages on any account, and I don't like them above all, when they are secret and when (begging your pardon, Mr. Trelawney) the secret has been told to the parrot."

  "Silver's parrot?" asked the squire.

  "It's a way of speaking," said the captain. "Blabbed, I mean."

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 9

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word poll

  "hair" meaning:

  the doctor, as if to hear the better, had taken off his powdered wig and sat there looking very strange indeed with his own close-cropped black poll.

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 6

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word state of smash

  I went back with him to the Admiral Benbow, and you cannot imagine a house in such a state of smash; the very clock had been thrown down by these fellows in their furious hunt after my mother and myself; and though nothing had actually been taken away except the captain's money-bag and a little silver from the till, I could see at once that we were ruined.

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 5

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word smash

  I went back with him to the Admiral Benbow, and you cannot imagine a house in such a state of smash; the very clock had been thrown down by these fellows in their furious hunt after my mother and myself; and though nothing had actually been taken away except the captain's money-bag and a little silver from the till, I could see at once that we were ruined.

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 5

  February 10, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word teetotum

  Merry tumbled head foremost into the excavation; the man with the bandage spun round like a teetotum and fell all his length upon his side, where he lay dead, but still twitching; and the other three turned and ran for it with all their might.

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883), ch. 33

  February 10, 2019

• alexz commented on the word NanoPutians

  Spotted in an Astronaut Massimo tweet.

  "NanoPutians are a series of organic molecules whose structural formulae resemble human forms. James Tour et al. (Rice University) designed and synthesized these compounds in 2003 as a part of a sequence on chemical education for young students ..."

  February 10, 2019

• oroboros commented on the word azygophrenia

  "The psychoneurosis of everyday unmarried life, especially on the weekend." From: https://pressf1.pcworld.co.nz/showthread.php?39244-WFTWE-74-Azygophrenia-This-one-is-for-all-you-single-PF1-ers

  February 10, 2019

• biocon commented on the word ructus

  ructus = The voiding of gas or of a small quantity of acidic fluid from the stomach through the mouth (Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 9th ed.

  February 10, 2019

• qms commented on the word ogive

  Mankind’s fertile brain can contrive

  Many ways to apply the ogive,

  In weapons that will

  Only threaten and kill

  And temples to keep hope alive.

  February 10, 2019

• BamboozlePizzazz commented on the word Ollendorffian

  an adjective meaning 'written in the artificial and overly formal style of foreign-language phrase books- Totally Weird and Wonderful Words

  An example of an Ollendorffian saying could be, "We expect then, the little book (for the care that we wrote him, and her typographical correction) that may be worth the expectation of the studious persons, and especially of the Youth, at which we dedicate him particularly."

  February 9, 2019

• actung commented on the word garlic fingers

  "Garlic fingers are an Atlantic Canadian dish, similar to a pizza in shape and size and made with the same type of dough. Instead of being cut in triangular slices, they are presented in thin strips, or 'fingers.'" Via Wikipedia

  February 9, 2019

• BamboozlePizzazz commented on the word zyzzyva

  One of my favorite words! Unless one includes zzz, a term for sleep, or even zzzs, which some people consider as a word, zyzzyva is the last word in many dictionaries. I love zyzzyva. Nobody cares about zythum, Zyrian, or zymurgy.

  February 9, 2019

• BamboozlePizzazz commented on the word spanghew

  This definition seemingly does not mention frogs or toads.

  February 9, 2019

• qms commented on the word mandrel

  Buying means to give metal some shape

  Beware of the practical jape:

  Be sure of a handle

  On what is a mandrel -

  Know mandrill’s a bright-bottomed ape.

  February 9, 2019

• erinmckean commented on the word snatiation

  "Therefore, I propose the newly described condition be called the SNATIATION reflex--a combination of sneezing and satiation and easily remembered by the acronymous handle of Sneezing Non-controllably At a Time of Indulgence of the Appetite - a Trait Inherited and Ordained to be Named." —Judith G Hall, J Med Genet 1990;27:275-278

  February 9, 2019

• BamboozlePizzazz commented on the word xzyqt

  Sure, xzyqt looks grand, but how do you say it?

  IDK. But it looks grandiose.

  February 8, 2019

• woiqhyyi commented on the word cynomorphic

  Specifically: of, like, or relating to a dog's point of view. If you say that your friend said a cynomorphic statement, you are in effect calling him a dog.

  February 8, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word hotep

  }”Don’t assume that everyone knows what a hotep is,” he told a student who had written about an encounter at a barbershop with an exemplar of the type, a man whose Afrocentrism was mixed with regressive sanctimony. “Hoteps are pro-black but anti-progress,” James explained to the class. “They’re stunningly sexist. Your favorite rapper is probably a hotep. He also might be gay.”

  Jia Tolentino,The Book of Spirits, New Yorker (Jan. 28, 2019) (quoting Marlon James)

  February 8, 2019

• woiqhyyi commented on the word netop

  You mean the school network blocking software? Doesn't sound like a friend to me...

  February 8, 2019

• qms commented on the word dimidiate

  Thank you, zuzu.

  February 8, 2019

• ruzuzu commented on the word pontoon

  *swoons*

  February 8, 2019

• ruzuzu commented on the word dimidiate

  Well done, qms!

  February 8, 2019

• qms commented on the word dimidiate

  King Solomon once had to mediate

  A hotly disputed wee kiddy’s fate.

  He brought truth to light

  And set things aright,

  Proposing the claimants dimidiate.

  February 8, 2019

• alexz commented on the word 🤏

  This is the 'pinching hand' emoji.

  In Canada, my generation has the 'squishing your head like a grape' gesture from a 'Kids in the hall' comedy sketch..

  Colbert referred to this as the 'tiny penis' emoji.

  February 8, 2019

• alexz commented on the word 🤏🎻

  The new 'pinching hand' emoji and violin =  "the tiniest violin"

   gesture.

  (spotted in looking up usage of the 'pinching hand' emoji.

  February 8, 2019

• alexz commented on the word SalArm

  Spotted in a friends update.

  Short for Salvation Army thrift store

  Looking this up has salarm Sal Arm and sal arm in a search.

  February 7, 2019

• qms commented on the word copple

  The eager new candidate crop’ll

  Encounter a panicked estopple.

  The engines of slime

  Will waste little time

  In heaping a slanderous copple.

  February 7, 2019

• bilby commented on the word cwemation

  See aquamation.

  Or go hunt some wabbits.

  February 7, 2019

• bilby commented on the word aquamation

  As compared to cwemation, presumably.

  February 7, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word aquamation

  In Australia, one company recently started selling a greener alternative. Aquamation Industries claims to offer a unique, cheaper, more carbon-neutral method of body disposal. Aquamation employs a process called alkaline hydrolysis, in which a body is placed in a stainless-steel vat containing a 200°F (93°C) potassium-hydroxide-and-water solution for four hours until all that remains is the skeleton. The bones, which are soft at that point, are then crushed and presented to the deceased's family. The residual liquid contains no DNA, and the procedure uses only 5% to 10% of the energy that cremation uses, says John Humphries, a former funeral-home director who is now the chief executive of Aquamation Industries, which launched its services in August. According to Humphries, Aquamation accelerates the processes that occur in nature.

  Marina Kamenev, Aquamation: A Greener Alternative to Cremation?, Time (September. 28, 2010)

  February 7, 2019

• bilby commented on the word pontoon

  Oooo!

  February 7, 2019

• bilby commented on the list indexers

  *boom*

  February 7, 2019

• qms commented on the word pontoon

  Cohorts of bold coho croon on top of pontoons.

  February 6, 2019

• qms commented on the word cohomology

  Damn! I’ve been using this to mean the study of salmon.

  February 6, 2019

• ruzuzu commented on the word pontoon

  Just got cohomology as a random word and thought of this.

  February 6, 2019

• ruzuzu commented on the list indexers

  I do.

  Wait.

  Does that mean I just read about myself? Ach. *added*

  February 6, 2019

• qms commented on the word edicule

  Security forces have set a rule:

  No backpack, no bag nor reticule,

  And minimize talking

  While doing your gawking

  Inside of the sanctified edicule.

  February 6, 2019

• bilby commented on the list indexers

  Do you keep your notes on index cards?

  February 6, 2019

• mairegm87 commented on the word nafungry

  not full not hungry

  February 6, 2019

• mairegm87 commented on the word turkeydillo

  it is a blend word turkey and picadillo,that means turkey ground meat

  February 6, 2019

• alexz commented on the word supershear

  Spotted in a @nasa tweet.

  "A team including @NASAJPL researchers finds the Sept. 2018 major earthquake near Indonesia was a 'supershear' – a rare, extra-powerful event. "

  February 6, 2019

• bilby commented on the word analemma

  Conceivably we could have a list for egg-shaped things.

  February 5, 2019

• bilby commented on the word pontoon

  Satisfying amount of o's.

  February 5, 2019

• ruzuzu commented on the word bewusstseinslage

  Well, I don't know about that, but there certainly was a time when I was known as the Wordnik Mustard Girl.

  edit: Corn on the side.

  February 5, 2019

• qms commented on the word penannular

  A Celtic cloak fastener penannular

  Tells everybody how grand you are,

  And some chiefs more chic

  Give fashion a tweak

  With belt buckles big and triangular.

  February 5, 2019

• bilby commented on the word bewusstseinslage

  www.youresomethingofamustarddogarentyou.corn

  February 5, 2019

• ruzuzu commented on the word bewusstseinslage

  You could also turn it into a corndog, which would go well with mustard. Silage on the side.

  February 4, 2019

• qms commented on the word engobe

  Some schooling’s required by laws

  For each one and every because

  It’s there they enrobe

  Our clay in engobe

  To hide all the natural flaws.

  February 4, 2019

• MaryW commented on the word lyra

  The other night, Feeley hosted one of her last lessons on the trapeze rigging in her apartment. Her student was Violet Oliphant O’Neill, an artist who paints large-scale backdrops for photographers. Feeley sat inside the steel hoop, called a lyra, in a black onesie with a skeleton design.

  Gabriel Packard, Little Big Top, New Yorker (Jan. 28, 2019)

  February 4, 2019

• qms commented on the word bewusstseinslage

  Bewusstseinslage on a bun with mustard. Corn on the side.

  February 4, 2019

• bilby commented on the word bewusstseinslage

  Will be a huge hit in Nebraksa.

  February 3, 2019