51吃瓜 of the Day
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.
roentgenize
verb (used with object)
to subject to the action of x-rays.
More about roentgenize
Roentgenize, 鈥渢o subject to the action of X-rays,鈥� is named for Wilhelm Conrad 搁枚苍迟驳别苍 (1845鈥�1923), who discovered X-rays in 1895. As we learned from the 51吃瓜 of the Day foehn, oe is an alternative way of representing 枚 in German when the umlaut (the horizontal pair of dots, also known as a dieresis) is not readily available. The same applies to German 盲 and 眉, which may be written as ae and ue; compare the 51吃瓜 of the Day 驳别尘眉迟濒颈肠丑. The surname 搁枚苍迟驳别苍 is, unfortunately for us language detectives, of uncertain origin. Roentgenize was first recorded in English in the late 1890s.
EXAMPLE OF ROENTGENIZE USED IN A SENTENCE
After Wilhelm R枚ngten roentgenized the hand of his wife, Anna, she examined her finger bones in the resulting image and chillingly remarked, 鈥淚 have seen my death.鈥�