51吃瓜 of the Day
plasticity
noun
the capability of being molded, receiving shape, or being made to assume a desired form: the plasticity of social institutions.
More about plasticity
Plasticity is made up of plastic and the noun suffix –ity. Plastic comes via Latin plasticus 鈥渇or molding or modeling,” from Greek 辫濒补蝉迟颈办贸蝉 with the same meanings. 笔濒补蝉迟颈办贸蝉 is a derivative of the verb 辫濒谩蝉蝉别颈苍, 辫濒谩迟迟别颈苍 鈥渢o mold, form.” Other derivatives from the Greek include plaster, from Medieval Latin plastrum 鈥減laster (both medical and building senses),鈥� ultimately an alteration of Greek 茅尘辫濒补蝉迟辞苍 鈥渕olded on, daubed鈥�; plastid 鈥渁n organelle of plant cells鈥�; plastique (as in the explosive); and plastron “a piece of armor; part of a turtle’s shell.鈥� Plasticity entered English in the 18th century.
how is plasticity used?
Studies reveal adolescence to be a period of heightened 鈥�plasticity鈥� during which the brain is highly influenced by experience.
Comic actors, like dramatic ones, have their comfortable niches, from Bill Murray’s sardonic schlubbism to Jim Carrey’s manic plasticity.
More about anthophobia
Anthophobia, 鈥渁n abnormal fear of flowers,鈥� is surely one of the odder phobias, as opposed to acrophobia 鈥渁n abnormal fear of heights鈥� or arachnophobia 鈥渁n abnormal fear of spiders鈥� or鈥攁 good one!鈥�chiroptophobia 鈥渁n abnormal fear of bats (the flying mammal).鈥� Anthophobia is composed of two Greek nouns: 谩苍迟丑辞蝉 鈥渇lower鈥� and the combining form –辫丑辞产铆腻 鈥渇ear.鈥� Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603) suffered from anthophobia, especially of a fear of roses, which has no technical name. Anthophobia entered English in the 19th century.
how is anthophobia used?
And if you dislike the task of summer gardening, you may even be a victim of anthophobia, the fear of flowers, although that’s a rare malady indeed.
Queen Elizabeth I is said to have been terrorized by roses, a subcategory of anthophobia, a generalized fear of flowers.
multiverse
noun
a hypothetical collection of identical or diverse universes, including our own.
More about multiverse
Multiverse, a combination of the common prefix multi– and (uni)verse, nowadays means 鈥渁 hypothetical collection of identical or diverse universes, ours included,鈥� a sense first suggested in 1952 by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schr枚dinger (1887鈥�1961). Multiverse, however, was coined by the American psychologist and philosopher William James (1842鈥�1910). Multiverse to James was an alternative to or an opposite of universe and meant 鈥渢he universe imagined as lacking order, unity, or a single ruling and guiding power.鈥� James used multiverse in a lecture 鈥淚s Life Worth Living?鈥� in 1895.
how is multiverse used?
Multiverse proponents advocate the idea that there may exist innumerable other universes, some of them with totally different physics and numbers of spatial dimensions; and that you, I and everything else may exist in countless copies.
Ten days before he died, Stephen Hawking sent one more written insight out into the cosmos鈥攁 paper, co-written with physicist聽Thomas Hertog聽of the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium,聽tackling the problem of a multiverse.