51吃瓜 of the Day
ailurophile
noun
a person who likes cats.
More about ailurophile
Ailurophile 鈥渁 person who likes cats” is a compound of two Ancient Greek-origin combining forms: ailuro- 鈥渃at鈥� and -phile 鈥渓over of, enthusiast for.鈥� Ailuro- comes from Ancient Greek 补铆濒辞耻谤辞蝉 鈥渃at,鈥� which is of uncertain origin, but a popular explanation is that it is based on 补颈贸濒辞蝉 鈥渇ickle, changeful鈥� (compare aeolo-, as in aeolotropic) and 辞耻谤谩 鈥渢ail鈥� (compare uro-, as in uropod). The word 补颈贸濒辞蝉 also gives rise to the name Aeolus, the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology, and past听51吃瓜 of the Day aeolian 鈥渙f or caused by the wind,鈥� but it is not related to the combining form aero- 鈥渁ir.鈥� Take care not to confuse uro- 鈥渢ail鈥� with uro- 鈥渦rine,鈥� which comes from Ancient Greek 辞没谤辞苍. Despite the similar spelling, there does not appear to be any deeper connection between the two forms. Ailurophile was first recorded in English in the late 1920s.
how is ailurophile used?
There was a time when I managed to keep a lid on my love for all things feline …. Matters began to really get out of hand … when I married a fellow ailurophile.
Does Alicia have a dog or cat or nothing? I decide on a cat called Chestnut. An old cat with one blind eye. Alicia is not a serious ailurophile, however; she neglects Chestnut, and Chestnut knows it.
perse
adjective
of a very deep shade of blue or purple.
More about perse
Perse 鈥渙f a very deep shade of blue or purple,鈥� despite the similar spelling, is not related to per se 鈥渂y itself鈥� or purse 鈥渉andbag.鈥� Instead, perse comes from Latin perseus 鈥渒ind of blue,鈥� which does not come from Perseus, the Ancient Greek hero, but rather likely derives from Persicus 鈥淧ersian.鈥� The connection here is that fabrics containing the hue in question were imported from the Middle East. Perse is far from the only color named after an Asian country; compare turquoise, after Turkey, and indigo, after India. A fruity word with the same origin as perse is peach, which comes by way of French and Latin from Ancient Greek m锚lon persik贸n 鈥淧ersian apple.鈥� Perse was first recorded in English in the mid-14th century.
how is perse used?
We crossed the circle to the other bank, / Near to a fount that boils, and pours itself / Along a gully that runs out of it. / The water was more sombre far than perse; / And we, in company with the dusky waves, / Made entrance downward by a path uncouth.
That circle of hell where all those who had sinfully loved were whirled incessantly in the perse, dark, stormy air, appeared in the eyes even of Dante as a place less of punishment than of glory; and, especially since the Middle Ages, all mankind looks upon that particular hell-pit with admiration rather than with loathing.
ukiyo-e
noun
a genre style of painting and printmaking developed in Japan from the 17th to the 19th centuries and marked by the depiction of the leisure activities of ordinary people.
More about ukiyo-e
Ukiyo-e 鈥渁 style of painting that depicts leisure activities鈥� is equivalent to ukiyo 鈥渢ransitory world, floating world鈥� combined with e (also we) 鈥減icture.鈥� Ukiyo itself is formed from uki 鈥渇loating鈥� and yo 鈥渨orld,鈥� while e is also found in emoji, which literally means 鈥減icture character, pictograph.鈥� E is a borrowing from Middle Chinese and therefore has cognates in modern Chinese, including Mandarin 丑耻矛 and Cantonese kui 鈥渢o draw.鈥� The hyphen in ukiyo-e is merely to prevent readers from mispronouncing the yo-e portion as a single syllable, 鈥測oh,鈥� instead of as the correct 鈥測oh-ey鈥�; other transliterations include ukiyoe, 耻办颈测辞茅, and ukiyo-we. Ukiyo-e was first recorded in English in the late 1890s.
how is ukiyo-e used?
This week the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, home to the greatest collection of Japanese art outside Japan, opens a giant retrospective of the art of [Katsushika] Hokusai, showcasing his indispensable woodblock prints of the genre we call ukiyo-e, or 鈥榠mages of the floating world.鈥�
脡douard Manet, Claude Monet and Edgar Degas all studied ukiyo-e but no one absorbed its aesthetic as much as Vincent van Gogh. 鈥淎ll my work,鈥� he wrote in a letter to his brother Theo, 鈥渋s based to some extent on Japanese art.鈥�