51吃瓜 of the Day
velutinous
adjective
having a soft, velvety surface, as certain plants.
More about velutinous
Velutinous, 鈥渉aving a soft, velvety surface or hairs,鈥� is a very rare adjective, a technical term used in botany and entomology. Velutinous comes directly from the New Latin adjective 惫别濒奴迟墨苍耻蝉 鈥渧elvety,鈥� from Medieval Latin 惫别濒奴迟耻尘 鈥渧别濒惫别迟.鈥� 痴别濒奴迟耻尘 possibly comes from assumed Vulgar Latin 惫颈濒濒奴迟耻蝉, from Latin villus 鈥渟haggy nap.鈥� Velutinous entered English in the 19th century.
how is velutinous used?
He picked up his bread, pulled open the crust so the soft velutinous white inside was exposed, pushed it into a piece of omelet, then lifted the dripping morsel to his lips and bit upon it.
The deep shag of a plush carpet was beneath our feet and velutinous purple flocked wallpaper covered the walls.
nadir
noun
the lowest point; point of greatest adversity or despair.
More about nadir
Nadir comes via Middle French and Late Latin nadir 鈥減oint opposite the sun, point opposite the zenith鈥� from Arabic 苍补岷撃玶 (as-samt) 鈥渙pposite (the zenith).鈥� Arabic samt is the source of zenith. Nadir (and zenith) entered English in the late 14th century.
how is nadir used?
At the nadir of the global stock market crash in March 2009, the kronor hit a low of 8.48 euro cents per kronor ….
… [the] fragment was hurled from what had seemed the nadir of horror to black, clutching pits of a horror still more profound.
metathesis
noun
the transposition of letters, syllables, or sounds in a word, as in the pronunciation aks for ask.
More about metathesis
In linguistics, metathesis is the transposition of two consecutive letters or sounds of a word, as in the now nonstandard pronunciation aks for ask (Old English has the verbs 谩蝉肠颈补苍 and axian, and Middle English has asken and axen). Every well-disciplined schoolboy knows that in Greek quantitative metathesis is the change of long vowel + short vowel, e.g., 脓辞, to short vowel + long vowel, 别艒. Metathesis comes via Late Latin metathesis “transposition of the letters of a word,” from Greek 尘别迟谩迟丑别蝉颈蝉 鈥渃hange, change of position, transposition,鈥� a compound formed of the common Greek preposition and prefix 尘别迟谩, meta– 鈥渨ith, in the middle of, among鈥� (尘别迟谩 is related to German mit and Old English mid 鈥渨ith,鈥� as in the first syllable of midwife). 罢丑茅蝉颈蝉 鈥減lacing, location, setting鈥� is a derivative of the verb 迟颈迟丑茅苍补颈 鈥渢o put, place,鈥� from the very common Proto-Indo-European root 诲丑脓– 鈥渢o place, put,鈥� and the source of Latin facere 鈥渢o do鈥� and English do. Metathesis entered English in the 16th century.
how is metathesis used?
”NOO-kyuh-luhr”-sayers, who number in the many millions, in fact, move the l in nuclear to the final syllable and thus avoid the unusual pattern. (Linguists refer to this sound-switching process as metathesis.)
Remember this when the next time you hear someone complaining about聽aks聽for ask or聽nucular聽for nuclear, or even聽perscription. It’s called聽metathesis, and it’s a very common, perfectly natural process.