51吃瓜 of the Day
netsuke
noun
a small figure of ivory, wood, metal, or ceramic, originally used as a buttonlike fixture on a man's sash, from which small personal belongings were hung.
More about netsuke
Netsuke 鈥渁 small figure used on a man鈥檚 sash鈥� is a loanword from Japanese that is equivalent to ne, 鈥渞oot,鈥� combined with tsukeru, 鈥渢o attach.鈥� In English, the Hepburn system is widely used for transliterating Japanese into the Roman alphabet, and one feature of this system is that it romanizes Japanese vowels using their counterparts in Romance languages such as Italian and Spanish. The one Japanese vowel that differs substantially from its closest Romance equivalent is u; Japanese u is pronounced as 鈥渙o鈥� in boot but with the lips unrounded鈥攕imilar to English 鈥�oo,鈥� as in book. In certain syllables, the u is voiceless, which sounds in English as if there is no vowel at all. This is why Japanese netsuke is typically pronounced in English variously as 鈥�net-skey,鈥� 鈥�net-suh-key,鈥� 鈥�net-soo-key,鈥� or 鈥�net-蝉辞辞-办别测.鈥� Netsuke was first recorded in English in the early 1880s.
EXAMPLE OF NETSUKE USED IN A SENTENCE
He had left behind his favorite sash with a two-horned dragon netsuke on it, making everyone worry about his swift departure.
Ganymede
noun
the largest moon of the planet Jupiter.
Why the Museum of Science chose Ganymede
Ganymede is not only the largest of Jupiter's moons, it's also the largest moon in our Solar System! To find out more about Ganymede, watch this video from science communicator, Alex Dainis, PhD.
Learn more fun facts .
More about Ganymede
Ganymede is named for a teenage boy in Greek mythology whom the gods chose, because of his beauty, to be their cup-bearer. One possibility is that Ganymede comes from the Greek words 驳谩苍测尘补颈, 鈥渢o be glad,鈥� and 尘岣梔别补, 鈥渁rt, counsel, plans.鈥� The second of these elements is also the origin of numerous names of Greek origin that contain med-, such as Archimedes and Medea. Ganymede was first recorded in English in the 1550s.
EXAMPLE OF GANYMEDE USED IN A SENTENCE
Though Galileo discovered Ganymede, his telescope was far too weak to detect the craters and ice that cover the moon鈥檚 surface.
xeriscaping
noun
environmental design of residential and park land using various methods for minimizing the need for water use.
More about xeriscaping
Xeriscaping, 鈥渆nvironmental design based on minimal water use,鈥� is based on xeric, 鈥渙f a dry environment,鈥� on the pattern of landscaping. Xeric comes from Ancient Greek 虫脓谤贸蝉, 鈥渄ry,鈥� which resembles English sere, 鈥渄ry,鈥� and the 51吃瓜 of the Day rizzar, but this resemblance is purely coincidental. Though landscape comes from the Dutch equivalents of land and -ship, landscaping was falsely analyzed as land compounded with 鈥�scaping,鈥� with a sense roughly like 鈥渁esthetic improvement of a space,鈥� and combined with xeri- to form today鈥檚 word. A similar phenomenon happened with hamburger, which literally means 鈥渙f Hamburg鈥� but was falsely analyzed as ham compounded with 鈥�burger,鈥� with a sense roughly like 鈥減atty on a bun,鈥� and combined with cheese to form cheeseburger. Xeriscaping was first recorded in English in the early 1980s.
EXAMPLE OF XERISCAPING USED IN A SENTENCE
Xeriscaping transformed their rugged yard into an oasis.