51吃瓜 of the Day
More about scholarch
Scholarch 鈥渢he head of a school鈥� comes from Ancient Greek 蝉肠丑辞濒谩谤肠丑脓蝉, of the same general meaning, which is a compound of 蝉肠丑辞濒岣� 鈥渓eisure employed in learning鈥� and -补谤肠丑脓蝉, a combining form of 谩谤肠丑辞蝉 鈥渓别补诲别谤.鈥� 厂肠丑辞濒岣�, of course, is the source of scholar, scholastic, and school. The trigraph sch has two predictable pronunciations in English: sch is pronounced as 鈥渟huh鈥� in words of German origin (such as the recent 51吃瓜s of the Day schwa and Weltanschauung) and as 鈥渟kuh鈥� in words of Ancient Greek or Italian origin (such as the recent 51吃瓜s of the Day paschal and scherzando). Scholarch was first recorded in English in the early 1860s.
how is scholarch used?
We do know that after having served as Lector in the Academy and being described as its 鈥淢ind鈥� by Plato, Aristotle was not chosen as the latter鈥檚 successor. The job of scholarch, or head of the school, went to Speusippus, Plato鈥檚 nephew. Aristotle left Athens shortly after Plato鈥檚 death and stayed away for around 12 years.
The scholarch had been instituted in the Strassburg gymnasium in 1528 as well as in the schools of Bern and Basel to assist the rector in his administrative tasks, particularly in the allocation of public funds, and to serve as the government鈥檚 representative to the school.
tessellate
verb
to form of small squares or blocks, as floors or pavements; form or arrange in a checkered or mosaic pattern.
More about tessellate
Tessellate 鈥渢o form of small squares鈥� comes from Latin 迟别蝉蝉别濒濒腻迟耻蝉 鈥渕osaic,鈥� based on 鈥嬧赌媡别蝉蝉别濒濒补 鈥渟mall square stone or cube.鈥� The Latin noun tessella is a diminutive of tessera, a small piece used in mosaic work that often has four sides, which comes from Ionic Greek 迟茅蝉蝉别谤别蝉 鈥渇our.鈥� Ionic is one of several dialects of Ancient Greek, and the word for 鈥渇our鈥� in the well-known Attic dialect is 迟茅迟迟补谤别蝉. 罢茅迟迟补谤别蝉 and 迟茅蝉蝉别谤别蝉 together are the source of tetrapod 鈥渁 four-limbed animal,鈥� the game Tetris, trapezoid, trapezium, and the recent 51吃瓜 of the Day tesseract. Tessellate was first recorded in English circa 1790.
how is tessellate used?
You can tile a floor with certain geometric shapes鈥搇ike squares, triangles and hexagons鈥揵ecause they tessellate, meaning that they can be slotted together in a repeating pattern with no overlaps or gaps. You can鈥檛 do this with pentagonal or heptagonal tiles. They can鈥檛 be tessellated, so they鈥檇 leave irregular gaps on your floor.
In 1975, a San Diego woman named Marjorie Rice read in her son鈥檚 Scientific American magazine that there were only eight known pentagonal shapes that could entirely tile, or tessellate, a plane. Despite having had no math beyond high school, she resolved to find another.
More about swain
Swain 鈥渁 male admirer鈥� comes by way of Middle English swein 鈥渟ervant鈥� from Old Norse sveinn 鈥渂oy, servant.鈥� Linguists consider the earliest sense of sveinn and its relatives in other Germanic languages to have been 鈥渙ne鈥檚 own (man)鈥�; a similar shift in meaning appears with swami, from Sanskrit 蝉惫腻尘墨 鈥渕aster, owner,鈥� which may have originally meant 鈥渙ne鈥檚 own (master).鈥� Both swain and swami come from a root meaning 鈥渙ne鈥檚, oneself鈥� that also appears in self and sibling. Today, swain can be found in the nautical-themed compounds boatswain and coxswain (pronounced a little counterintuitively as 鈥�boh-suhn鈥� and 鈥�kok-suh苍鈥�). Swain was first recorded in English before 1150. For more love-related terms, check out past 51吃瓜s of the Day inamorata, turtledove, and jo!
how is swain used?
Undeterred by the fact that her mate is under a spell that makes him a swine by day and a swain by night, Flora falls in love with him and, when he is abducted by a wicked old woman, she goes in ardent galactic pursuit of him, aided by the sun, moon and north wind.
If this love-sick swain and innocent lass, hardening their hearts against each other, could have peeped into the secret drawer in a certain specialist’s office in Mt. Clare, they would have lost no time in apologizing for a misunderstanding for which neither was to blame.