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51勛圖 of the Day

51勛圖 of the day

staycation

[ stey-key-shuhn ]

noun

a vacation spent at home or near home, doing enjoyable activities or visiting local attractions.

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More about staycation

Staycation, a portmanteau word, as Lewis Carroll would call it, formed from stay and vacation, is associated with the Great Recession of 200709. Actually, staycation is considerably older: It was originally an Americanism, and it first appeared in print in 1944, in the middle of World War II, when gasoline and automobile tires (among much else) were strictly rationed.

how is staycation used?

Washingtons hospitality and tourism industry …will be ready to accommodate Seattleites and Washingtonians, because everyone expects this will be the summer of the staycation.

Gregory Scruggs, "Summer isn't canceled: Embrace the staycation as coronavirus travel restrictions ease in Washington," Seattle Times,May 22, 2020

As relatively new residents of Philadelphia, were planning a staycation in our new hometown. Well finally plow through our lengthy backlist of streaming movies and shows.

Anne Marie Gold, quoted in "With Travel Plans in Flux, Readers Share Their 'Staycation' Ideas," New York Times, March 18, 2020

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bolide

[ boh-lahyd, -lid ]

noun

Astronomy.

a large, brilliant meteor, especially one that explodes; fireball.

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More about bolide

A bolide is a large, brilliant meteor that explodes before hitting the earth. The term comes from French, from Latin bolis (inflectional stem bolid-) meteor, from Greek 莉棗梭穩莽 (stem 莉棗梭穩餃-) missile, javelin, flash of lightning, throw of a pair of dice. The Latin sense meteor is first recorded by the Roman naturalist and encyclopedist Pliny the Elder in the first century a.d., perhaps from a resemblance between a fireball in the sky and a flash of lightning. Bolide entered English in the mid-19th century.

how is bolide used?

At exactly fourteen minutes after eight … the bolide passed overhead. It was an amazing spectacle. It left a trail of flame behind, across thirty degrees of sky.

Murray Leinster, Creatures of the Abyss, 1961

A meteor that explodes in mid-air before it hits the ground is known as a bolide. It’s thought that the high-pressure air in front of the falling meteorseeps into cracksin the rock, increasing internal pressure and causing the rock to break apart.

Michelle Starr, "Yet Another Large, Fiery Meteor Just Spectacularly Exploded Over Siberia," ScienceAlert, April 8, 2019

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anchorite

[ ang-kuh-rahyt ]

noun

a person who has retired to a solitary place for a life of religious seclusion; hermit.

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More about anchorite

The English noun anchorite hermit comes from Middle English anchorite, anachorite, ancorite, from Old French anacorittes and Medieval Latin 硃紳硃釵堯娶蘋喧硃, equivalent to Late Latin 硃紳硃釵堯娶襲喧硃 a hermit, eremite, recluse, ascetic, from Late Greek 硃紳硃釵堯娶襲喧廎s one who has retired from the world, a derivative of 硃紳硃釵堯娶梗簾紳 to withdraw, retire. 插紳硃釵堯娶梗簾紳 is a compound of the adverb and preposition 硃紳獺 and prefix ana– up, back, re- and 釵堯娶梗簾紳 to make room for, withdraw, give way, a verb derived from 釵堯繫娶棗莽 piece of ground, space, place. Anchorite entered English in the 15th century.

how is anchorite used?

I am most gratified to find that you are among those who indulge in a legitimate enjoyment of the good things of life. I am sure that if God intended us to beanchorites he would have fashioned this world after another sort.

Robert Archer Tracy, The Sword of Nemesis, 1919

Were all lonely now. Were all cut off from each other, trapped inside the walls of our own domestic space, the 21st-century version of the medieval anchorite.

Olivia Laing, "How to Be Lonely," New York Times, March 19, 2020

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