Thursday, April 30, 2009

Ochlocracy

Ochlocracy (Greek: οχλοκρατία or okhlokratía; Latin: ochlocratia) is government by mob or a mass of people, or the intimidation of constitutional authorities. In English, the word mobocracy is sometimes used as a synonym. As a pejorative for majoritarianism, it's akin to the Latin phrase mobile vulgus meaning "the easily moveable crowd," from which the term "mob" originally derives.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Tyvek


Tyvek (TIE-veck) is a brand of flashspun high-density polyethylene fibers, a synthetic material; the name is a registered trademark of DuPont. The material is very strong; it is difficult to tear but can easily be cut with scissors or any other sharp object. Water vapor can pass through Tyvek (highly breathable), but not liquid water, so the material lends itself to a variety of applications: medical packaging, envelopes, car covers, air and water intrusion barriers (housewrap) under house siding, labels, wristbands, mycology, and graphics.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Thursday, April 23, 2009

iatrogenesis

The terms iatrogenesis and iatrogenic artifact refer to adverse effects or complications caused by or resulting from medical treatment or advice. In addition to harmful consequences of actions by physicians, iatrogenesis can also refer to actions by other healthcare professionals, such as psychologists, therapists, pharmacists, nurses, dentists, and others. Iatrogenisis is not restricted to conventional medicine and can also result from complementary and alternative medicine treatments.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

collocation

Within the area of corpus linguistics, collocation is defined as a sequence of words or terms which co-occur more often than would be expected by chance.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Qualia

The plural word 'Qualia', from the Latin for ‘what sort’ or ‘what kind’, is a term of art used in philosophy for sensory occurrences of all kinds. The word itself originates with the American philosopher of the early twentieth century, Clarence Irving Lewis, who considered them distinct from the properties of objects.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Kremlinology

Kremlinology is the study and analysis of Soviet (and today, Russian) politics and policies based on efforts to understand the inner workings of an extremely opaque central government. The term is named after the Kremlin, the seat of the Russian/Soviet government. Kremlinologist refers to academic, media, and commentary experts who specialize in the study of Kremlinology. Sovietology/Sovietologist describes specialists of the country as a whole.

During the Cold War, lack of reliable information about the country forced Western analysts to "read between the lines" and to use the tiniest tidbits, such as the removal of portraits, the rearranging of chairs, positions at the reviewing stand for parades in Red Square, and other indirect signs to try to understand what was happening in internal Soviet politics.

The term "Kremlinology" is still in use in application to the study of decision-making processes in the politics of the Russian Federation, and it has also been used in the context of other similarly closed regimes such as China and North Korea. In popular culture, the term is sometimes used to mean any attempt to understand a secretive organization or process, such as plans for upcoming products or events, by interpreting indirect clues.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Mossback

Mossback:

  1. A turtle that, because of its age, has a growth of algae on its back
  2. (by extension) A very conservative or reactionary person, especially one with old-fashioned views

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Sputum

Sputum is matter that is expectorated from the respiratory tract, such as mucus or phlegm, mixed with saliva, which can then be spat from the mouth. It is usually associated with air passages in diseased lungs, bronchi, or upper respiratory tract. It can be found to contain blood if in a chronic cough possibly from severe cases of tuberculosis.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

mahori

The mahori (also spelled mohori) is a form of Thai and Cambodian classical ensemble which was traditionally played by women in the courts of both Central Thailand and Cambodia. It combines the xylophones and gong circles (but not the pi, or oboe) of the piphat with the strings of the khruang sai ensemble.

Historically the ensemble included smaller instruments more appropriate, it was thought, to the build of female performers. Today the ensemble employs regular sized instruments—a combination of instruments from both the khruang sai and piphat ensembles but excluding the loud and rather shrill oboe. The ensemble, which is performed in three sizes—small, medium and large—includes the three-string so sam sai fiddle, a delicate-sounding, middle-range bowed lute with silk strings. Within the context of the mahori ensemble, the so sam sai accompanies the vocalist, which plays a more prominent role in this ensemble than in any other classical Thai orchestra.

While Thai classical music was somewhat discouraged as being unmodern and backward looking during Thailand's aggressively nationalistic modernization policies of mid-20th century, the classical arts have benefited recently from increased governmental sponsorship and funding as well as popular interest as expressed in such films as Homrong: The Overture (2003), a popular fictionalized biography of a famous early 20th century ranat ek player and composer Luang Pradit Phairao.

mulct

mulct: A fine or penalty, especially a pecuniary one

Gaijin

Gaijin is a Japanese word meaning "foreigner" or "non-Japanese". The word is composed of two words: gai , meaning "outside"; and jin , meaning "person". Thus, the word literally means "outside person." The word can refer to nationality, race, or ethnicity.

Some modern commentators feel that that the word is now primarily negative or derogatory in connotation and thus offensive. Other observers indicate that the word can also be used neutrally or even as a compliment. The term has become politically incorrect and is avoided now by most Japanese television broadcasters.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Blepharoplasty


Blepharoplasty can be both a functional and cosmetic surgical procedure intended to reshape the upper eyelid or lower eyelid by the removal or repositioning of excess tissue as well as by reinforcement of surrounding muscles and tendons. When an advanced amount of upper eyelid skin is present, the skin may hang over the eyelashes and cause a loss of peripheral vision. The outer and upper parts of the visual field are most commonly affected and the condition may cause difficulty with activities such as driving or reading. In this circumstance, upper eyelid blepharoplasty is performed to improve peripheral vision. Patients with a less severe amount of excess skin may have a similar procedure performed for cosmetic reasons. Lower eyelid blepharoplasty is almost always done for cosmetic reasons, to improve puffy lower eyelid "bags" and reduce the wrinkling of skin.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

antimacassar


An antimacassar is a small cloth placed over the backs or arms of chairs, or the head or cushions of a sofa, to prevent soiling of the permanent fabric.

The name is attributable to macassar oil, an unguent for the hair commonly used in the early 19th century — the poet Byron called it, "thine incomparable oil, Macassar."

The fashion for oiled hair became so widespread in the Victorian and the Edwardian period that housewives began to cover the arms and backs of their chairs with washable cloths to preserve the fabric coverings from being soiled. Around 1850, these started to be known as antimacassars. They were also installed in theatres, from 1865.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Ogg

Ogg: To do something forcefully, possibly without consideration of the drain on future resources.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Majoritarianism

Majoritarianism is a traditional political philosophy or agenda which asserts that a majority (sometimes categorized by religion, language, or some other identifying factor) of the population is entitled to a certain degree of primacy in society, and has the right to make decisions that affect the society. This traditional view has come under growing criticism and democracies have increasingly included constraints in what the parliamentary majority can do, in order to protect citizens' fundamental rights.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

paroxysm

paroxysm
  1. A random or sudden outburst (of activity).
    • «There, on the soft sand, a few feet away from our elders, we would sprawl all morning, in a petrified paroxysm of desire, and take advantage of every blessed quirk in space and time to touch each other [...] » - Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, 1955
  2. A sudden recurrence of a disease.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Looing

looing: to obligate to contribute to a new pool at loo for failing to win a trick

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Monday, April 6, 2009

rhinotillexomania

rhinotillexomania: Compulsive nose-picking (rhinotillexis), insertion of finger into one's nose

Sunday, April 5, 2009

heightism

heightism: A prejudiced attitude about human height that often results in discrimination; based on the belief that short statured or unusually tall people are inferior and undesirable.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Solidus

The solidus ( ⁄ ) is a punctuation mark that is not found on standard keyboards. It may also be called a shilling mark or in-line fraction bar. It is less vertical than the forward slash.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

lexeme

A lexeme is an abstract unit of morphological analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken by a single word. For example, in the English language, run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same lexeme, conventionally written as RUN.

lordosis

  Lordosis is historically defined as an abnormal inward curvature of the lumbar spine.