51吃瓜 of the Day
postprandial
adjective
after a meal, especially after dinner: postprandial oratory; a postprandial brandy.
More about postprandial
The Latin noun prandium means 鈥渕idday meal, lunch, luncheon鈥�; the verb 辫谤补苍诲脓谤别 鈥渢o have breakfast or lunch鈥� is a derivative of prandium. There is no Latin adjective 辫谤补苍诲颈腻濒颈蝉 鈥減ertaining to breakfast or lunch,鈥� let alone the adjectives pre辫谤补苍诲颈腻濒颈蝉 (prae辫谤补苍诲颈腻濒颈蝉) or post辫谤补苍诲颈腻濒颈蝉. There is, however, the Late Latin noun prandiculum 鈥渂reakfast,鈥� which is found only in lexicographical writings–a salutary warning! Postprandial is used in medicine in its literal meaning 鈥渄one or happening after a meal.鈥� Apart from medical usage postprandial is a jocular word, as in this example from George Bernard Shaw, 鈥淭he whole thing was mere postprandial brag, war-game and club-fender gossip鈥� (1917). Postprandial entered English in the first half of the 19th century.
how is postprandial used?
Most people seem to switch on the game a few minutes after having wolfed down their fifth slice of pie, but if you do that, there鈥檚 the cognitive dissonance of watching professional athletes and cheerleaders vigorously moving their bodies while your own body lies on the couch in a state of postprandial lethargy and bloat.
The postprandial conversation goes on until dawn.
More about stargazer
Stargazer originally had a very derogatory meaning. The word first appears in English in the Geneva Bible, an English translation that appeared between 1557 and 1560. In Isaiah 47:13 in the King James Version, differing only slightly from the earlier Geneva Bible, the text reads 鈥淭hou [i.e. the 鈥渧irgin daughter of Babylon鈥漖 art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.鈥� The text is scornful of idolatrous customs. In Daniel Defoe鈥檚 A system of magick (1727), we still see the same contemptuous usage as in the Geneva Bible but somewhat qualified to mean astronomer, 鈥淭he Eminent Dr. H鈥斺�� may be call’d the King’s Astronomer, or as the more Eminent Mr. Flamstead usually call’d himself, the King’s Star-gazer.鈥� It is only in the first half of the 19th century that stargazer acquires the benign sense of amateur astronomer, “The mere star-gazer who is an Astronomer simply in the respect that he is the owner of a telescope.鈥� Stargazer in the sense 鈥渄aydreamer, impractical idealist鈥� first occurs in Emerson鈥檚 Transcendentalist, 鈥淭he materialist..mocks at..star-gazers and dreamers.鈥�
how is stargazer used?
The materialist, secure in the certainty of sensation, mocks at fine-spun theories, at star-gazers and dreamers, and believes that his life is solid,
He was a stargazer in both senses. … a man who questioned givens, resisted the forces of fate and tradition, saw himself as part of the picture.
horologium
noun
a timepiece, as a clock or sundial, or a building supporting or containing a timepiece.
More about horologium
There are nearly a score鈥�20!鈥攕pellings in Middle English for horologium, and nearly as many in Old French. Horologium comes from the Latin noun 丑艒谤辞濒辞驳颈耻尘 鈥渁n instrument for showing the time, a dial, sundial, hourglass, clock, clepsydra (water clock).鈥� 贬艒谤辞濒辞驳颈耻尘 is a Latin borrowing of Greek 丑艒谤辞濒贸驳颈辞苍 with the same meaning. Greek 丑艒谤辞濒贸驳颈辞苍 is a compound of 丑艒谤辞濒贸驳辞蝉 鈥渢eller of time鈥� and the diminutive noun suffix -ion. 贬艒谤辞濒贸驳辞蝉 is a compound of 丑峁搑补 鈥測ear, season, hour, time, time of day, the right time, time of ripening or florescence,鈥� which was taken into Latin wholesale as 丑艒谤补 with all its meanings (hour comes into English via Old French from Latin). The element or word logos 鈥渨ord, speech, account, computation, reason鈥� is very familiar in English as the suffix –logy, as in philology, theology, paleontology. Horologium entered English in the second half of the 14th century.
how is horologium used?
In this Horologium moves the hand or arrow towards the twenty-four, and to the right of the twenty-four it was yesterday, and to the left, today.
It appears this horologium was an elaborate piece of mechanism furnished with many painted images, which no doubt performed curious evolutions.