51吃瓜 of the Day
desolate
adjective
deprived or destitute of inhabitants; deserted; uninhabited.
More about desolate
Desolate 鈥渄eprived or destitute of inhabitants鈥� comes via Middle English from Latin 诲脓蝉艒濒腻迟耻蝉 鈥渇orsaken,鈥� from 蝉艒濒腻谤别 鈥渢o make lonely, abandon,鈥� a derivative of the adjective 蝉艒濒耻蝉 鈥渁lone, on one’s own, lonely.鈥� 厂艒濒耻蝉 is the source of numerous loneliness-related words in English, such as isolate, soliloquy, solitary, solitude, solo, and even sullen, and it is most likely descended from a Proto-Indo-European reflexive pronoun; compare self (via Old English) and the combining form idio- 鈥減roper to one鈥� (via Ancient Greek). Alternative origins for 蝉艒濒耻蝉 include a connection to sollus 鈥渨hole鈥� as well as a distant link to English consolation and solace (via Latin) and the German adjective selig 鈥渙verjoyed鈥濃�攁lmost the opposite of what desolate means today. Desolate was first recorded in English in the late 1300s.
how is desolate used?
Hot, harsh, arid wastelands, nothing but sand, sky, and rocks. Majestic, sweeping landscapes, teeming with a life that seems it shouldn鈥檛 be, and more things to see, experience, and explore than one could imagine to fit in a lifetime. These are two ways to describe the desert, neither wrong, and neither giving the whole picture. A land of contrasts, with razor thin lines between polar opposites: pleasure and pain, life and death, success and failure, bleakness and beauty. The desert is a truly desolate and wondrous place.
Each of [J. G.] Ballard鈥檚 98 short stories is like a dream more perfectly realized than any of your own. His personal vocabulary of scenarios imprints itself from the very first, each image with the quality of a newly minted archetype. Ballard was the poet of desolate landscapes marked by signs of a withdrawn human presence: drained swimming pools, abandoned lots littered with consumer goods, empty space stations, sites of military or vehicular tragedies.
desolate
brackish
adjective
somewhat salty or briny, as the water in an estuary or salt marsh.
More about brackish
Brackish 鈥渟omewhat salty or briny鈥� derives by way of the adjective brack 鈥渟alty鈥� from Dutch brak, which may be connected to Middle Dutch brak 鈥渨orthless.鈥� While freshwater has a relatively low sodium chloride content and seawater is far saltier, brackish water occurs where these two salt concentrations mix and merge, producing an environment between the two extremes. Because brackish water is too salty to be used for drinking or farming, the Middle Dutch definition of 鈥渨orthless鈥� surely applies. Note that brackish also contains the suffix -ish, which in this context indicates 鈥渟omewhat鈥� or 鈥渞ather鈥�; while brack is 鈥渟alty,鈥� brackish is salty to less than the full extent. Brackish was first recorded in English in the 1530s.
how is brackish used?
For decades, if you ordered oysters on the half-shell on the eastern Gulf coast, they most likely came from Apalachicola Bay鈥攁n estuary in north Florida where freshwater rivers meet the Gulf of Mexico, creating the perfect brackish mix for growing plump, salty oysters. But in recent years, they’re hard to come by.
Unfathomable Sea! whose waves are years, Ocean of Time, whose waters of deep woe are brackish with the salt of human tears! Thou shoreless flood, which in thy ebb and flow claspest the limits of mortality!
brackish
dojo
noun
a school or practice hall where karate, judo, or other martial arts are taught.
More about dojo
Dojo 鈥渁 school or practice hall where martial arts are taught鈥� is a direct borrowing from Japanese 诲艒箩艒 鈥渄rill hall, Buddhist seminary.鈥� 顿艒箩艒, in turn, follows a familiar trajectory from Middle Chinese, which is the source of hundreds of words that were exported to Japan, Korea, and Vietnam; 诲艒箩艒 derives from a Middle Chinese compound literally translated as 鈥渨ay place鈥� or 鈥減lace of the ways鈥� (compare Mandarin 诲脿辞肠丑菐苍驳), which originated as a transliteration of Sanskrit 产辞诲丑颈-尘补峁囜笉补 鈥渟eat of wisdom.鈥� This Sanskrit term is one of numerous Buddhism-related words that traveled across Asia and became part of the Japanese language, as we learned in the recent 51吃瓜 of the Day podcast about satori. Dojo was first recorded in English in the early 1940s.
how is dojo used?
On Wednesday, as preparations continued for the start of the Olympic judo competition on Saturday, buses arrived at regular intervals to disgorge groups of competitors in front of a set of unremarkable doors. Once they removed their shoes and took a few steps inside, however, it quickly became clear that they were entering a special place. Soon they fanned out across several floors and limbered up inside spartan dojos infused with a fragrance emanating from the pinewood walls.
The four-time Venezuelan youth karate champion [Ricardo Perez] was upset when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of international tournaments in El Salvador, Bolivia and Mexico that he had been preparing for. But his family quickly turned the home into a full-time karate gym, or 鈥�dojo鈥�, rearranging furniture to leave a tatami mat in the center of their living space where he works out and also leads classes via Zoom for children and other youth athletes.
dojo