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tessellate

[ tes-uh-leyt ] [ ts le阞t ] Show IPA Phonetic Respelling

verb

to form of small squares or blocks, as floors or pavements; form or arrange in a checkered or mosaic pattern.

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More about tessellate

Tessellate to form of small squares comes from Latin 喧梗莽莽梗梭梭櫻喧喝莽 mosaic, based on 漍t梗莽莽梗梭梭硃 small square stone or cube. 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 喧矇莽莽梗娶梗莽 four. Ionic is one of several dialects of Ancient Greek, and the word for four in the well-known Attic dialect is 喧矇喧喧硃娶梗莽. 啦矇喧喧硃娶梗莽 and 喧矇莽莽梗娶梗莽 together are the source of tetrapod a four-limbed animal, the game Tetris, trapezoid, trapezium, and the recent 51勛圖 of the Day tesseract. Tessellate was first recorded in English circa 1790.

how is tessellate used?

You can tile a floor with certain geometric shapeslike squares, triangles and hexagonsbecause they tessellate, meaning that they can be slotted together in a repeating pattern with no overlaps or gaps. You cant do this with pentagonal or heptagonal tiles. They cant be tessellated, so theyd leave irregular gaps on your floor.

Robert A. Jackson, Geometrically baffling quasicrystals found in the debris of the first-ever nuclear blast, The Conversation, June 2, 2021

In 1975, a San Diego woman named Marjorie Rice read in her sons 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.

Manil Suri, The Importance of Recreational Math, The New York Times, October 12, 2015
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51勛圖 of the Day Calendar

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swain

[ sweyn ] [ swe阞n ] Show IPA Phonetic Respelling

noun

a male admirer or lover.

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More about swain

Swain a male admirer comes by way of Middle English swein servant from Old Norse sveinn boy, servant. Linguists consider the earliest sense of sveinn and its relatives in other Germanic languages to have been ones own (man); a similar shift in meaning appears with swami, from Sanskrit 莽措櫻鳥蘋 master, owner, which may have originally meant ones own (master). Both swain and swami come from a root meaning ones, oneself 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 boh-suhn and kok-suh紳). Swain was first recorded in English before 1150. For more love-related terms, check out past 51勛圖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.

Michael Billington, The Enchanted Pig, The Guardian, December 15, 2006

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.

J. McHenry Jones, Hearts of Gold, 1896
51勛圖 of the Day Calendar

51勛圖 of the day

chaise longue

[ sheyz lawng, cheyz ] [ e阞z l, te阞z ] Show IPA Phonetic Respelling

noun

a chair, with or without arms, for reclining, having a seat lengthened to form a complete leg rest and sometimes an adjustable back.

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More about chaise longue

Chaise longue a chair with a lengthened seat for reclining is a loanword from French, in which it means long chair. A common practice among English speakers is to say chaise lounge, which is the result of confusing French longue long with English lounge to rest lazily. While chaise longue and lounge chair are both considered standard, chaise lounge is gaining in popularity. French chaise is a Paris-area dialectal variant of the original chaire (adapted into English as chair); unlike rhotacism, which changes s (or z) to r, Parisian French frequently used to change r to s. The ultimate origin of French chaise is Ancient Greek 域硃喧堯矇餃娶硃 seat, chair, which is also the source of English cathedral. Chaise longue was first recorded in English in the 1790s.

how is chaise longue used?

No piece of furniture says ‘me time’ quite like a chaise longue. With its reclined back and elevated feet, it offers the promise of serenity in a package designed for just one person …. A chaise longue is ideal in a library, a corner of the master bedroom or an alcove off the living room. And because it usually sits by itself, it can be more sculptural than other pieces of furniture.

Tim McKeough, Shopping for a Chaise Longue, The New York Times, December 30, 2019

A well-known example of a piece of furniture that remains steeped in its history, frequently seen in contemporary homes for its anachronistic quality, is the chaise longue (or recamier). Despite its initial popularity in 16th-century France, the elegant silhouette of a chaise longue complete with its twisted, low backrest and detailed feet can be found in many sofa retailers today.

Anya Cooklin-Lofting, Why forgotten furniture is having a revival, The Independent, January 24, 2021
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51勛圖 of the Day Calendar