51吃瓜 of the Day
menology
noun
a record or account arranged in the order of a calendar.
More about menology
Don鈥檛 be fooled! Menology is not a half-Greek term meaning 鈥渢he study of men.鈥� Instead, menology 鈥渁 record or account arranged in the order of a calendar鈥� comes from Late Greek 尘脓苍辞濒贸驳颈辞苍, from Ancient Greek 鈥嬧赌媘岣梟 鈥渕onth鈥� and -濒贸驳颈辞苍, a derivative of 濒贸驳辞蝉 鈥渁 word, saying, speech.鈥� The word 鈥嬧赌媘岣梟 is a distant relative of Latin mensis and English month, and all three come from the same root as English moon (and Monday) and menstrual 鈥渕辞苍迟丑濒测.鈥� Menology was first recorded in English circa 1605.
how is menology used?
The menologies form a small but distinct group of texts and follow a pattern broadly comparable to Hesiod’s Works and Days, though with much heavier cultic content. For each month, information is given relating to astronomical, religious, social, and other themes such as the expected appearance of a particular migratory bird.
[M]enologies were, in general, meant to deal with every aspect of daily life, and their content was intended for the common people. Time had its own magic in Mesopotamia, with some texts only listing favorable and unfavorable days.
juku
noun
a school, attended in addition to one's regular school, where students prepare for college entrance examinations.
More about juku
Juku 鈥渁 school where students prepare for college entrance examinations鈥� is a borrowing from Japanese. In its native language, juku means 鈥減rivate tutoring school鈥� or 鈥渃ram school鈥� and is a term borrowed from Middle Chinese, in which it once meant 鈥済ate room.鈥� Because juku is of Chinese origin, we can see the clear resemblance today between juku and Mandarin 蝉丑煤 or Cantonese suk. Juku was first recorded in English in the early 1980s.
how is juku used?
The result is another kind of 鈥渆xam hell鈥� for these young children: To prepare, many attend juku, or cram schools, a process that requires a huge investment of time and often costs far more than all but the highest echelons of Japanese socioeconomic ladder can afford.
cognoscenti
plural noun
persons who have superior knowledge and understanding of a particular field, especially in the fine arts, literature, and world of fashion.
More about cognoscenti
Cognoscenti 鈥減ersons who have superior knowledge of a particular field鈥� is the plural of cognoscente, which refers to an individual person with such knowledge. Unlike English, French, and Spanish, which usually add -s or -es to indicate a plural noun, Italian typically changes the final vowel of a word; singular -a often becomes plural -e, while singular -e and -o often become plural -i. The Italian verb meaning 鈥渢o know鈥� is conoscere, with the present participle conoscente, which lacks the g of cognoscente; the reason for the g is the influence of Latin 肠辞驳苍艒蝉肠别谤别 鈥渢o know.鈥澛�Cognoscenti was first recorded in English in the 1770s.
how is cognoscenti used?
In the past few decades a U.S. gastronomic explosion led in part by food TV has the culinary cognoscenti in a dither to define a national food character that includes barbeque, lobster rolls, foraged locavore salads, and molecular gastronomy.
With the U.S. and Cuba restoring diplomatic ties, some art-world cognoscenti are betting that the tiny island could become the next hot corner of the global art market.