51吃瓜 of the Day
grisly
adjective
causing a shudder or feeling of horror; horrible; gruesome.
More about grisly
Grisly 鈥渃ausing a shudder or feeling of horror鈥� is of Germanic origin, from Old English 驳谤颈蝉濒墨肠 鈥渉orrible.鈥� A widespread assumption is that grisly is related to grizzly or to French gris 鈥済ray,鈥� but for the second time this week, we have a common misconception on our hands. Grizzly and gris are in fact related to one another but not to grisly; grizzly is a derivative of gris, which is a borrowing from Frankish, if not another Germanic source, that was also borrowed into Italian as grigio, as in the white wine Pinot Grigio, which is made from grapes with grayish-blue skin. Gris is not, in fact, likely related to English gray, which derives from a similar-sounding yet distinct root with the same meaning. Grisly was first recorded in English before the 12th century.
how is grisly used?
Any insect unlucky enough to land on the mouth-like leaves of an Australian pitcher plant will meet a grisly end. The plant鈥檚 prey is drawn into a vessel-like 鈥榩itcher鈥� organ where a specialized cocktail of enzymes digests the victim.
If I鈥檓 murdered as part of a grisly conspiracy that demands a ten-part true-crime podcast, don鈥檛 let them advertise underwear on it. If a secret will appears after my demise, ignore it. I鈥檓 leaving everything to the dog.
grisly
sepulchral
adjective
proper to or suggestive of a tomb; funereal or dismal.
More about sepulchral
Sepulchral 鈥減roper to or suggestive of a tomb,鈥� the adjectival counterpart of the noun sepulcher, spelled sepulchre in British English, derives from Latin 蝉别辫耻濒肠谤腻濒颈蝉 鈥渞elating to a tomb,鈥� from sepulcrum 鈥渢omb.鈥� There is no clear reason for the addition of the h to these two Latin terms as they passed via Old French into English, though it is possible that influence from the similar-sounding adjective pulcher 鈥渂eautiful鈥� may have been the culprit. Alternatively, because spelling rules became lax in Medieval Latin (which was roughly contemporaneous with Old French) and the letter h had become silent, h started cropping up in words where it had no reason to appear, and the change of Middle English sepulcre to sepulchre in the 1200s could have followed this trend. A similar phenomenon occurred with 肠腻谤颈迟腻蝉 鈥渄earness, charity,鈥� which was often misspelled in Medieval Latin as charitas by conflation with Ancient Greek 办丑谩谤颈蝉 鈥済race, charm.鈥� Sepulchral first appeared in English in the early 1600s.
how is sepulchral used?
Hermione came down to dinner strange and sepulchral, her eyes heavy and full of sepulchral darkness, strength. She had put on a dress of stiff old greenish brocade, that fitted tight and made her look tall and rather terrible, ghastly. In the gay light of the drawing-room she was uncanny and oppressive. But seated in the half-light of the dining-room, sitting stiffly before the shaded candles on the table, she seemed a power, a presence.
sepulchral
nyctophobia
noun
an irrational or disproportionate fear of night or nighttime darkness.
More about nyctophobia
Nyctophobia 鈥渇ear of night or nighttime darkness鈥� is a compound of the combining forms nycto- 鈥渘ight鈥� and -phobia 鈥渇别补谤.鈥� Nycto- derives from Ancient Greek 苍媒虫, of the same meaning, and comes from the same Proto-Indo-European root, nekwt-, found in English night, German nacht, and the Latin-derived terms equinox and nocturnal. In Greek mythology, Nyx was the primordial goddess and personification of nighttime who mated with Erebus, the god of darkness, to create Aether, the god of the upper air, and Hemera, the goddess of daytime. The ending -phobia is commonly used to indicate fear, and the opposite is -philia; while nyctophobia is fear of darkness, nyctophilia is love of darkness. The ending 鈥损丑辞产颈补 derives from Ancient Greek 辫丑贸产辞蝉 鈥渇ear鈥� (but originally 鈥渇light鈥�), which is related to Latin fugere 鈥渢o flee,鈥� as in fugitive. 听Nyctophobia was first recorded in English in the early 1890s.
how is nyctophobia used?
鈥淏ut wasn鈥檛 it dark inside the trunk?鈥� Nora asked. 鈥淚f Ashley had nyctophobia she wouldn鈥檛 have climbed in there鈥� …. He shook his head. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know what to think. I didn鈥檛 recognize the Ashley I knew in any of this, this witch we鈥檝e been tracking. Curses on the floor? Nyctophobia? Ashley wasn鈥檛 afraid of the dark. She wasn鈥檛 afraid of anything.鈥�
nyctophobia