51吃瓜 of the Day
phantasmagoric
adjective
having a fantastic or deceptive appearance, as something in a dream or created by the imagination.
More about phantasmagoric
Phantasmagoric 鈥渉aving a fantastic appearance鈥� is a compound of two elements. The first is phantasm 鈥渁pparition, fantasy,鈥� from Ancient Greek 辫丑谩苍迟补蝉尘补 鈥渋mage, vision.鈥� This, in turn, comes from the verb 辫丑补铆苍别颈苍 鈥渢o bring to light, cause to appear,鈥� which is the source of many fant- and phant- words in English, from fantastic and fantasy to hierophant and phantom. The second element in phantasmagoric is likely to be either from Ancient Greek 补驳辞谤谩 鈥渁ssembly, gathering鈥� (as in agoraphobia) or its derivative 补濒濒脓驳辞谤铆补 鈥渇igurative language鈥� (as in allegory). Phantasmagoric was first recorded in English in the early 1810s.
how is phantasmagoric used?
When you take a tour through the main street, you will find bonfires at every step. They are built with branches collected by villagers a few days earlier in the forest around the village. The street lighting is dimmed to accentuate the almost phantasmagoric atmosphere around you.
archetypal
adjective
of or having the nature of an original model or prototype.
More about archetypal
Archetypal 鈥渉aving the nature of an original model,鈥� the adjective form of the noun archetype, comes from Ancient Greek 补谤肠丑茅迟测辫辞苍 鈥渁 model, pattern.鈥� The first element in 补谤肠丑茅迟测辫辞苍 is based on one of three related words鈥�补谤肠丑岣� 鈥渂别驳颈苍苍颈苍驳,鈥� 谩谤肠丑辞蝉 鈥渓别补诲别谤,鈥� 谩谤肠丑别颈苍 鈥渢o be the first, command鈥濃�攁ll of uncertain ultimate origin. The second element is 迟媒辫辞蝉 鈥渕old, type鈥� (earlier 鈥渂low, impression鈥�), which may be distantly related to a variety of English st- words once connected to pushing, knocking together, cutting off, or sticking out, including steep, steeple, stepchild, stint, stock, stoop, stub, stunt, and stutter. Archetypal was first recorded in English in the 1640s.
how is archetypal used?
Often cited as the archetypal 鈥淩enaissance man,鈥� Leonardo came from an era in which the well-rounded individual, prolific and curious of mind, was highly valued.
In their book The Fourth Turning, Howe and Strauss identified four generational archetypes: Hero, Artist, Prophet, and Nomad. Each consists of people born in a roughly 20-year period. As each archetypal generation reaches the end of its 80-year lifespan, the cycle repeats.
intercalate
verb (used with object)
to insert (an extra day, month, etc.) in the calendar.
More about intercalate
Intercalate 鈥渢o insert an extra day in the calendar鈥� is based on the Latin verb 颈苍迟别谤肠补濒腻谤别, of the same meaning, which is a compound of the preposition inter 鈥渂etween, among鈥� and the verb 肠补濒腻谤别 鈥渢o proclaim.鈥� Though 肠补濒腻谤别 looks and sounds quite a bit like English call, the two are not related; Grimm鈥檚 law shows that Latin c tends to correspond to Old English h, while Old English c is equivalent to Latin g. In this way, Latin 肠补濒腻谤别 is related to Old English 丑濒艒飞补苍 鈥渢o roar,鈥� becoming English low 鈥渢o moo.鈥� Meanwhile, English call may be related to Latin gallus 鈥渞辞辞蝉迟别谤.鈥� Intercalate was first recorded in English circa 1610.
how is intercalate used?
Chinese New Year, like Passover, Rosh Hashanah and all Jewish holidays, pops up at various times each year within two months of the Gregorian calendar (January and February), because the Chinese calendar, like the Hebrew calendar, is based on the Metonic cycle, a lunisolar calendar that intercalates an extra month seven times in a 19-year cycle (as opposed to the Gregorian, with its months of varying lengths and its additional day every four years).
Once the existence and the length of the fraction of a day has been discovered, this difficulty can be corrected, as it is in our calendar, by intercalating a single day at regular intervals, but the discovery requires very precise methods of measurement, and throughout antiquity only approximate values for the fraction were known.