51吃瓜 of the Day
More about chevelure
The pronunciation of English chevelure, accented on the final syllable, reveals the still unnaturalized status of the word after nearly six centuries. Chevelure looks like–and is–a French word meaning 鈥渉ead of hair, wig.鈥� In Old French the word was spelled 肠丑别惫别濒别眉谤别, from Latin 肠补辫颈濒濒腻迟奴谤补 鈥渉airlike flaw in a gem or gemstone,鈥� a derivative of the adjective 肠补辫颈濒濒腻迟耻蝉 鈥渓onghaired,鈥� itself a derivative of capillus 鈥渢he hair on the head鈥� (and like English hair a collective noun). Chevelure entered English in the 15th century.
how is chevelure used?
The arrangement of this chevelure is performed for the chiefs by professional barbers, and is a work of great labour. Six hours are sometimes occupied in dressing a head; and the process is repeated at intervals of two or three weeks.
… time has stolen away his raven locks, and given him a chevelure of snow instead.
More about vespine
English vespine is a straightforward borrowing from the Latin noun vespa 鈥渨asp鈥� plus the adjective suffix -ine, from Latin -墨苍耻蝉, and one could reasonably–but wrongly–conclude that 飞别蝉辫腻 was the original Proto-Indo-European word for wasp. The original form was 飞别辫蝉腻, 飞辞辫蝉腻, and Latin and English (among other languages) simply metathesized (or transposed) the consonants. Old English has many different forms for the insect: 飞忙蹿蝉, 飞忙辫蝉, 飞忙蝉辫, etc. The other Germanic languages also display the -ps- and -sp- forms. Outside Germanic, the extremely conservative Baltic languages have 惫补辫蝉惫脿 (Lithuanian) and wobse (Old Prussian), both meaning 鈥渨asp.鈥� The Baltic forms, especially the Old Prussian, also show more clearly the Proto-Indo-European root behind wasp and vespa: webh-, wobh- 鈥渢o weave鈥� (from the nests that wasps construct). Vespine entered English in the 19th century.
how is vespine used?
From above the cubicles looked like a magnified insect battery, a nest uncovered by mistake, a glimpse of geometrically precise rows of pods, lines of tiny vespine heads, shining with black Sony ovals, trembling with larval energy on T-shirt thoraces.
The trees had turned a vespine yellow, as if trying to terrify what would eat them.
More about squiz
The noun squiz is a piece of slang used in Australian and New Zealand. Most slang terms are of uncertain origin, and squiz is no exception: it is possibly a blend of quiz and squint. Squiz entered English in the 20th century.
how is squiz used?
He’d been at me for months to come in and have a squiz at the work he’d done, but I really didn’t care that much, and kept putting him off.
She shrugged–which sort of annoyed me too–and I led her clomping to the front room where the sun was streaming in, and I had another squiz.