francophone

The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person.

Stoa

Stoa in Ancient Greek architecture; covered walkways or porticos, commonly for public usage. Early stoae were open at the entrance with columns lining the side of the building, creating a safe, enveloping, protective atmosphere and were usually of Doric order. Later examples consisted of mainly two stories, with a roof supporting the inner colonnades where shops or sometimes offices were located and followed Ionic architecture. These buildings were open to the public; merchants could sell their goods, artists could display their artwork, and religious gatherings could take place. Stoae usually surrounded the marketplaces of large cities.

subduction

In geology, subduction is the process that takes place at convergent boundaries by which one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate, sinking into the Earth's crust, as the plates converge. A subduction zone is an area on Earth where two tectonic plates move towards one another and subduction occurs. Rates of subduction are typically measured in centimeters per year, with the average rate of convergence being approximately 2 to 8 centimeters per year (about the rate a fingernail grows).

fissile

In nuclear engineering, a fissile material is one that is capable of sustaining a chain reaction of nuclear fission.

Posek

Posek is the term in Jewish law for "decider"—a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive.

hortative

The hortative is a group of semantically similar deontic moods in some languages, especially English. Hortative moods encourage or urge. There are seven hortative moods in English: the adhortative, exhortative, suprahortative, cohortative, dehortative, inhortative, and infrahortative. They differ by intensity, attitude (for or against) and in the case of the cohortative, person.

Hortative moods signal the speaker's encouragement or discouragement toward the addressee's bringing about the proposition of an utterance. For this reason hortative constructions can only be used in the first person plural (cohortative) and second person singular and plural (adhortative, exhortative, dehortative, and inhortative).

e.g. Let's go!

• (cohortative) - mutual encouragement to leave

Sunnah

Sunnah is an Arabic word that means habit or usual practice.

oligopsony

An oligopsony (from Ancient Greek ὀλίγοι (oligoi) "few" + ὀψωνία (opsōnia) "purchase") is a market form in which the number of buyers is small while the number of sellers in theory could be large. This typically happens in market for inputs where a small number of firms are competing to obtain factors of production. It contrasts with an oligopoly, where there are many buyers but just a few sellers. An oligopsony is a form of imperfect competition.

Tautology

Tautology may refer to:

• Tautology (rhetoric), using different words to say the same thing twice where the additional words fail to provide additional clarity when repeating a meaning.
• Tautology (logic), a technical notion in formal logic, universal unconditioned truth, always valid

Śrāvaka

Śrāvaka or Shravaka (Sanskrit) or Sāvaka (Pāli) means "a hearer" or, more generally, "disciple."

Spalacidae

The Spalacidae, or spalacids are a family of rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. They are native to eastern Asia, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and south-eastern Europe. It includes the blind mole rats, bamboo rats, root rats, and zokors. This family represents the oldest split (excluding perhaps the Platacanthomyinae) in the muroid superfamily, and comprises animals adapted to a subterranean way of life. It was thought that these rodents evolved adaptations to living underground independently until recent genetic studies demonstrated that they form a monophyletic group. Members of the Spalacidae are often placed in the family Muridae along with all other members of the Muroidea.

shrubbery

An area of cultivated shrubs in a park or garden is known as a shrubbery.

Vaisakhi

Vaisakhi (Punjabi: ਵਿਸਾਖੀ, Hindi: बैसाखी vaisākhī, also known as [Baisakhi] or Vasakhi) is an ancient harvest festival in the Punjab region, which also marks beginning of a new solar year, and new harvest season. Baisakhi is a Sikh religious festival. It falls on the first day of the Baisakh month in the solar Nanakshahi calendar, which corresponds to April 13 in the Gregorian calendar.

commensalism

In ecology, commensalism is a class of relationship between two organisms where one organism benefits but the other is unaffected. There are three other types of association: mutualism (where both organisms benefit), competition (where both organisms are harmed), and parasitism (one organism benefits and the other one is harmed).

Spacewatch

Spacewatch is a project at the University of Arizona currently led by Dr. Robert S. McMillan that specializes in the study of minor planets, including various types of asteroids and comets. It was founded in 1980 by Prof. Tom Gehrels and Dr. Robert S. McMillan.

Dragoon

The word Dragoon originally meant mounted infantry, who were trained in horse riding as well as infantry fighting skills. However, usage altered over time and during the 18th century, dragoons evolved into conventional light cavalry units and personnel. Dragoon regiments were established in most European armies during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

Censure

Censure is a process by which a formal reprimand is issued to an individual by an authoritative body. In a deliberative assembly, a motion to censure is used.

Post-capitalism

Post-capitalism, refers to any hypothetical future economic system which are proposed to replace capitalism as the dominant economic system.

There have been a number of proposals for a new economic system to replace capitalism.

Erythropoiesis

Erythropoiesis is the process by which red blood cells (erythrocytes) are produced.

Endemism

Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a particular geographic location, such as a specific island, habitat type, nation or other defined zone. To be endemic to a place or area means that it is found only in that part of the world and nowhere else. For example, many species of lemur are endemic to the island of Madagascar. Physical, climatic and biological factors can contribute to endemism. For example, the Orange-breasted Sunbird is endemic to Fynbos, meaning it is exclusively found in the Fynbos vegetation type of southwestern South Africa.

Akasha

Akasha (or Akash, Aakaashá, Ākāśa, आकाश) is the Sanskrit word meaning "aether" in both its elemental and mythological senses.

Kuchipudi

Kuchipudi (pronounced as 'Koochipoodi') is a Classical Indian dance form from Andhra Pradesh, India. Kuchipudi is the name of a village in the Divi Taluka of Krishna district that borders the Bay of Bengal and with resident Brahmins practicing this traditional dance form, it acquired the present name.

Charivari

Charivari or shivaree or chivaree was originally a French folk custom, a noisy mock serenade for newlyweds. It was also sometimes used as a form of social coercion, to force an as-yet-unmarried couple to wed. "Charivari" is the original French word, and is used in both English and French in Canada. Similar customs arose in England and were carried to the colonies. They also existed in Italy. The term "shivaree" is used in the United States and "chivaree" is used in Ontario Canada. The custom was often used to demonstrate community disproval of adulterous relationships, wife beaters, unwed mothers and most commonly unnatural marriages and remarriages.

Sinophobia

Sinophobia (from Latin Sinae "the Chinese" + Ancient Greek φόβος -phobos, "fear") or anti-Chinese sentiment is the fear of or dislike of China, its people, or its culture. Sinophobia can affect both the actions and attitudes of individuals or the policies of governments and other organizations.

prefecture

A prefecture (from the Latin Praefectura) is an administrative jurisdiction or subdivision in any of various countries and within some international church structures, and in antiquity a Roman district governed by an appointed prefect.

arranger

In investment banking, an arranger is a provider of funds in the syndication of a debt. They are entitled to syndicate the loan or bond issue, and may be referred to as the "lead underwriter". This is because this entity bears the risk of being able to sell the underlying securities/debt or the cost of holding it on its books until such time in the future that they may be sold. They do not necessarily acquire all the debt - this may be split into various parts and sold to a variety of Arrangers.

Variegation

Variegation is the appearance of differently coloured zones in the leaves, and sometimes the stems, of plants. This may be due to a number of causes. Some variegation is attractive and ornamental and gardeners tend to preserve these. The term is also sometimes used to refer to colour zonation in flowers and minerals.

Phorusrhacids

Phorusrhacids ("Rag-Thieves"), or terror birds, were a family of large carnivorous flightless birds that were the dominant predators in South America during the Cenozoic, 62–2 million years (Ma) ago.

Pteropus

Bats of the genus Pteropus, belonging to the Megachiroptera sub-order, are the largest bats in the world. They are commonly known as the Fruit Bats or Flying Foxes among other numerous colloquial names. They live in the tropics and subtropics of Asia (including the Indian subcontinent), Australia, Indonesia, islands off East Africa (but not the mainland Africa), and a number of remote oceanic islands in both the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Markhor

The Markhor (Capra falconeri) is a large species of wild goat that is found in northeastern Afghanistan, northern and central Pakistan and the disputed territory of Kashmir, southern Tajikistan and southern Uzbekistan. The species is classed by the IUCN as Endangered, as there are less than 2,500 mature individuals which continued to decline by an estimated 20% over 2 generations. The Markhor is the National Animal of Pakistan.

Scaphism

Scaphism, also known as the boats, was an ancient Persian method of execution designed to inflict torturous death. The name comes from the Greek word skaphe, meaning "scooped (or hollowed) out".

The naked person was firmly fastened within a back-to-back pair of narrow rowing boats (or a hollowed-out tree trunk), with the head, hands, and feet protruding. The condemned was forced to ingest milk and honey to the point of developing severe diarrhea, and more honey would be rubbed on his body in order to attract insects to the exposed appendages. He or she would then be left to float on a stagnant pond or be exposed to the sun. The defenseless individual's feces accumulated within the container, attracting more insects, which would eat and breed within his or her exposed and increasingly gangrenous flesh. The feeding would be repeated each day in some cases to prolong the torture, so that dehydration or starvation did not provide him or her with the release of death. Death, when it eventually occurred, was probably due to a combination of dehydration, starvation and septic shock. Delirium would typically set in after a few days.