Grizzled
1. Partly grey or streaked with grey.
2. Having fur or hair streaked or tipped with grey.
Usage is now mostly restricted to descriptions of hair, although the name lives on in the names of some species, eg. Grizzled Skipper butterfly.
Effluvium (plural, effluvia)
1. A, usually invisible, emanation or exhalation of vapour, gas or small particles.
2. A by-product or residue; waste.
3. The odorous fumes given off by waste or decaying matter.
4. An impalpable emanation; an aura.
Quinquereme
An ancient Roman or Carthaginian galley with five banks of oars on each side.
Perhaps the most famous of the Hellenistic-era warships, because of its extensive use by the Carthaginians and Romans, the quinquereme was invented by Dionysius I of Syracuse in 399 BC as part of a major naval armament programme directed against the Carthaginians. During most of the 4th century, the “fives” were the heaviest type of warship, and often used as flagships of fleets.
At last a pair of botanical words!
Xylem and Phloem are the two types of tissue in plants which transport food and water around the plant.
Xylem [z-eye-lem]
The supporting and water-conducting tissue of vascular plants; woody tissue.
This is the network of tubes through which the plants move water from bottom to top. It also forms a large part of the woody (supportive) structure of the plant. It is concentrated in the centre of the stem.
As might be expected the derivation is from the Greek ξύλον, wood.
Glabella
1. The small smooth area on the human forehead between the eyebrows just above the nose.
Also …
2. The smooth median portion of the cephalic shield of a Trilobite.
Glabrous
Free from hair, down, projections or pubescence; having a smooth skin or surface.
And hence used jocularly for anything smooth.
Now used only as a scientific term.
The origin in the Latin glaber, without hair, smooth, bald.
The OED records the first usage by Wilkins in 1640 who applied it to the orb of the Moon.
Bandersnatch
A fleet, furious, fuming, fabulous creature of dangerous propensities, immune to bribery and too fast to flee from. Later used vaguely to suggest any creature with such qualities.
The word was invented by Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) and it makes its first appearance in Alice Through the Looking Glass (1871). The OED suggests the name is a portmanteau word like its stock epithet frumious.
Needless to say this beast has never been photographed.
Tintinnabulation
A ringing of a bell or bells, bell-ringing; the sound or music so produced. The lingering sound that occurs after a bell has been struck.
The OED gives the first recorded use as late as 1831 and is ascribed to Edgar Allen Poe in his poem The Bells.
Oh and the word derives from the Latin tintinnābulum, a bell.
Isn’t it just a wonderful onomatopoeic word?
Offing
Yes, offing is a responsible, adult word! And not just in the phrase “in the offing” which is now perhaps its most common usage. It is actually a nautical term …
1. The part of the visible sea distant from the shore or beyond the anchoring ground.
2. A position at a distance off the shore.
Varmint
1. Vermin. An animal of a noxious or objectionable kind.
2. An objectionable or troublesome person; a mischievous boy or child.
3. Knowing, clever, cunning.
Also, 4. A sporting amateur with the knowledge or skill of a professional.
