51吃瓜 of the Day
pellucid
adjective
clear in meaning, expression, or style: a pellucid way of writing.
More about pellucid
English pellucid comes from the Latin adjective 辫别濒濒奴肠颈诲耻蝉 (the usual Latin spelling is 辫别谤濒奴肠颈诲耻蝉) 鈥渧ery clear, transparent.鈥� The Latin adjective 濒奴肠颈诲耻蝉 is thoroughly naturalized in English lucid, but the Latin prefix and preposition per- is worth explanation. In Latin per- is used to intensify adjectives, adverbs, and verbs, e.g., perbonus 鈥渧ery good, excellent,鈥� perbrevis 鈥渧ery short,鈥� perbene 鈥渧ery well,鈥� 辫别谤产别濒濒脓 鈥渧ery charmingly,鈥� and 辫别谤肠别濒别产谤腻谤别 鈥渢o make thoroughly known.鈥� The Greek prefix and preposition 辫别谤铆- serves the same purpose, as in Perikl锚s (c495-429 b.c.), the Athenian statesman, from the adjective 辫别谤颈办濒别锚蝉 鈥渧ery famous.鈥� Pellucid entered English in the 17th century.
how is pellucid used?
His art is highly complex, but its expression is so pellucid, so simple, that we can see only its body, never the mechanism of its body.
Trump鈥檚 ramblings about Vladi颅mir Putin were positively pellucid in their clarity compared with his March 29 comments on the U.S.-South Korea trade deal …
summerize
verb
to prepare (a house, car, etc.) so as to counteract the hot weather of summer: to summerize a house by adding air conditioning.
More about summerize
In the late 18th century, summerize meant 鈥渢o spend the summer,鈥� a sense rarely used nowadays. In the mid-19th century in the U.S. in colloquial usage, summerize acquired its usual meaning 鈥渢o prepare for summer.鈥�
how is summerize used?
Swap out the stiff white shirt for button-downs in mellower colors. “If you鈥檙e in finance, it鈥檚 hard to make a big fashion statement, but this is a good way to summerize your wardrobe,” says Coats.
The spark plugs don’t need to be changed for three years, and the motor can 鈥�summerize鈥� itself by fogging the cylinders with oil when you put your machine away in the spring.
thigmotropism
noun
Biology. oriented growth of an organism in response to mechanical contact, as a plant tendril coiling around a string support.
More about thigmotropism
Thigmotropism is a very rare word, restricted to biology, especially botany. All three of the components of the word come from Greek: 迟丑铆驳尘补 means 鈥渁 touch鈥�; 迟谤贸辫辞蝉 and 迟谤辞辫岣� are both nouns meaning 鈥渁 turning, turn鈥�; and -ism comes from the Greek suffixes -颈蝉尘贸蝉, isma, used to form nouns denoting the result of an action. Thigmotropism entered English in the early 20th century.
how is thigmotropism used?
When touch is the stimulus, the response is thigmotropism. Positive thigmotropism occurs when a tendril touches an object and, by growing toward it, wraps around it.
Thigmotropism is what makes a vine curl around a stake or an epiphyte cling to a branch in the wild.