51吃瓜 of the Day
hocus-pocus
noun
unnecessarily mysterious or elaborate activity or talk to cover up a deception, magnify a simple purpose, etc.
More about hocus-pocus
Hocus-pocus is a pseudo-Latin rhyming formula used by jugglers and magicians. It was first recorded in 1615鈥�25.
how is hocus-pocus used?
Maybe the English are right: [writer’s] block is just a hocus-pocus covering life鈥檚 regular, humbling facts.
How, exactly, does the president’s budget propose to use the surplus to “save” Social Security? With accounting hocus-pocus.
diablerie
noun
diabolic magic or art; sorcery; witchcraft.
More about diablerie
English diablerie is a borrowing from French diablerie 鈥渕ischief,鈥� from Old French diablerie, deablerie 鈥渁n act inspired by the devil, sorcery.鈥� French diable comes from Late Latin diabolus 鈥渢he devil鈥� (in the Vulgate and church fathers), from Greek 诲颈谩产辞濒辞蝉 鈥渟landerer; enemy, Satan鈥� (in the Septuagint), 鈥渢he Devil鈥� (in the Gospels). Diablerie entered English in the 17th century.
how is diablerie used?
This tragedy, which, considering the wild times wherein it was placed, might have some foundation in truth, was larded with many legends of superstition and diablerie, so that most of the peasants of the neighbourhood, if benighted, would rather have chosen to make a considerable circuit, than pass these haunted walls.
He was, to one friend, “cometlike from some other world of diablerie, burning himself out upon our skies.”
ossature
noun
the arrangement of bones in the skeleton or a body part.
More about ossature
Ossature is a borrowing from French ossature, probably modeled on French musculature. The base of ossature is the Latin noun os (stem oss-) 鈥渂one,鈥� which comes from the Proto-Indo-European root ost- 鈥渂one.鈥� Greek derives from the same root 辞蝉迟茅辞苍 鈥渂one鈥� (as in osteology), 贸蝉迟谤补办辞苍 鈥減otsherd鈥� (as in ostracize), and 贸蝉迟谤别辞苍 鈥渙yster鈥� (the English noun comes from Greek via Old French and Latin). Ossature entered English in the 19th century.
how is ossature used?
The ossature of its wings had been like the exquisite work of some Japanese cabinet-maker …
… thus the whole vault was furnished with an ossature or skeleton of ribs which was clothed upon by filling in with with arched masonry the triangular spaces or panels between rib and rib.