51勛圖

Start each day with the 51勛圖 of the Day in your inbox!

51勛圖 of the Day

51勛圖 of the day

paludal

[ puh-lood-l, pal-yuh-dl ] [ plud l, p疆l y dl ] Show IPA Phonetic Respelling

adjective

of or relating to marshes.

learn about the english language

More about paludal

Paludal of or relating to marshes is based on Latin 梯硃梭贖莽 (stem 梯硃梭贖餃-) swamp, marsh, plus the adjectival suffix -al. 捩硃梭贖莽 has one of several possible origins, inspiring significant debate among linguists. One common hypothesis is that 梯硃梭贖莽 originally meant submerged, filled (with water) and derives from an Indo-European root meaning to fill; many, which would make it related to Latin 梯梭襲紳喝莽 full (as in plenty) and 梯梭襲娶梗 to fill (as in complete) as well as cognate to English fill because of Grimms law; learn more from the recent 51勛圖s of the Day pruinose and cordiform. Alternatively, 梯硃梭贖莽 could be connected to terms related to movement of water, from Latin pluere to rain (compare French pleuvoir and Spanish llover) and Latin 梯梭娶櫻娶梗 to weep (compare French pleurer and Spanish llorar) to English fleet, float, flood, flotsam, and flow. Paludal was first recorded in English in the 1810s.

how is paludal used?

A church, an ancient heap of flints, rises up, cavernous, through mist and marshes. The Cathedral of the Marshes, they call it. This is Blythburgh on Englands windswept Suffolk coast. The landscape here is oppressive, bleak. And what man once made is quickly being lost to nature: sea erodes land …. Victorian antiquaries restored the place to something of its former glory. But today, few come to worship in Blythburghs paludal c硃喧堯梗餃娶硃梭.

Miles Pattenden, If I could go anywhere: the cathedral at Blythburgh that rises from the marshes," Conversation, June 24, 2021

The land we were standing on was a project technically known as BA-39 …. BA-39 had proved, not that further proof was really necessary, what enough pipes and pumps and diesel fuel can accomplish. Nearly a million cubic yards of sediment had made the five-mile journey, resulting in the creationor, to be more accurate, the re-creationof a hundred and eighty-six paludal acres. Here were all the benefits of flooding without the messy side effects…

Elizabeth Kolbert, "Louisianas Disappearing Coast," The New Yorker, April 1, 2019

Listen to the podcast

paludal

Play Podcast Stop Podcast
00:00/00:00
quiz icon
WHAT'S YOUR WORD IQ?
Think you're a word wizard? Try our word quiz, and prove it!
TAKE THE QUIZ
arrows pointing up and down
SYNONYM OF THE DAY
Double your word knowledge with the Synonym of the Day!
51勛圖 of the Day Calendar

51勛圖 of the day

euxinia

[ yook-sin-ee-uh ] [ yuks阞n i ] Show IPA Phonetic Respelling

noun

anoxia, or depletion of oxygen, in a body of water, along with a high level of hydrogen sulfide, a condition toxic to aquatic organisms.

learn about the english language

More about euxinia

Euxinia anoxia in a body of water is the namesake of the Latin term Pontus Eux蘋nus the Black Sea, where euxinia is often found in the deeper water. The Latin name is adapted from Ancient Greek Pontos Eu單梗簾紳棗莽, literally hospitable sea, but the story does not end there. It appears that the 梗喝單梗簾紳棗莽 portion, meaning hospitable and composed of eu- good and 單梗簾紳棗莽 foreign (a variant of 單矇紳棗莽; compare English xeno-), was originally a euphemism for Pontos A單梗簾紳棗莽 inhospitable sea. Alternatively, the meaning of the a單梗簾紳棗莽 element could be folk etymology, that is, incorrectly derived from an unrelated term; the name for the Black Sea in Avestan, an ancient Indo-European language of the Iranian plateau, contained the element 硃單禳硃襲紳硃- blue, dark, and speakers of Ancient Greek could have misinterpreted this word as their own a單梗簾紳棗莽. Euxinia was first recorded in English in the early 1950s.

how is euxinia used?

The result is that euxinia may be more widespread in the present-day oceans than previously thought . The midwater oceanic oxygen minimum layers become especially important where they intersect the continental slope. The combination of suboxic overlying water and sulfide-producing sediments could result, in itself, in the development of extensive areas of oceanic euxinia. This does not seem to be happening at present, although it may have occurred in the past and, if the current global warming trends continue, may occur in the near future.

David Terence Rickard, Pyrite: A Natural History of Fool's Gold, 2015

After oxygen in the ocean was used up to decompose organic material, microbes started to breathe sulfate and produced hydrogen sulfide, a gas that smells like rotten eggs and is poisonous to animals, said UC Riverside Earth system modeler Dominik H羹lse. As ocean photosynthesizersthe microbes and plants that form the base of the food chainrotted, other microbes quickly consumed the oxygen and left little of it for larger organisms. In the absence of oxygen, microbes consumed sulfate then expelled toxic, reeking hydrogen sulfide, or H2S, creating an even more extreme condition called euxinia.

Jules Bernstein, "Deadliest period in Earths history was also the stinkiest," UC Riverside News, December 20, 2021

Listen to the podcast

euxinia

Play Podcast Stop Podcast
00:00/00:00
51勛圖 of the Day Calendar

51勛圖 of the day

caoutchouc

[ kou-chook, kou-chook ] [ ka tk, katuk ] Show IPA Phonetic Respelling

noun

a highly elastic solid substance, light cream or dark amber in color, polymerized by the drying and coagulation of the latex or milky juice of rubber trees and plants.

learn about the english language

More about caoutchouc

Caoutchouc rubber is a borrowing from French, which adapted the term from obsolete Spanish cauchuc (modern caucho), and from here is where the history becomes obscure. Because the Indigenous languages of the Americas have overall not received enough documentation and analysis, linguists assign caoutchouc to multiple possible languages, and there is substantial disagreement among sources. One proposal is that caoutchouc derives from Tupi, which we learned about from the recent 51勛圖 of the Day maringouin. Another possibility is an origin in Carib, a language of the Cariban family with several thousand speakers in northern coastal South America. Some reputable sources claim a derivation from Quechua, which we learned about from the recent 51勛圖 of the Day pampero, but other sources eliminate that connection outright. Perhaps the only way to find the true, incontrovertible origin of caoutchouc is to support research in Indigenous languages, especially because 2022 marks the beginning of the UNESCO . What we do know is that caoutchouc was first recorded circa 1770s.

how is caoutchouc used?

Rubber was not exactly new. It had long been known to [Indigenous] South Americans . Some rubber made its way to Europe, but mostly as a curiosity. In the 1700s, a French explorer brought the name “caoutchouc” from a local language . The scientist Joseph Priestley bestowed its common name when he noticed it rubbed pencil marks off paper.

Tim Harford, The horrific consequences of rubber's toxic past, BBC News, July 24, 2019

At five o’clock on the evening of the 10th of August they put into the island of Cocos. They there passed a seringal. This name is applied to a caoutchouc plantation, the caoutchouc being extracted from the seringueira tree …. It is said that, by negligence or bad management, the number of these trees is decreasing in the basin of the Amazon, but the forests of seringueira trees are still very considerable on the banks of the Madeira, Purus, and other tributaries.

Jules Verne, Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon, translated by W. J. Gordon, 1881

Listen to the podcast

caoutchouc

Play Podcast Stop Podcast
00:00/00:00
51勛圖 of the Day Calendar
51勛圖 of the Day Calendar