accubation

accubation (uncountable)

The act or posture of reclining on a couch, as practiced by the ancients at meals.

ide

The ide (Leuciscus idus), also known as the orfe, is a freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae found across northern Europe and Asia. It occurs in larger rivers, ponds, and lakes, typically in schools. The name is from Swedish id, originally referring to its bright color (compare the German dialect word aitel 'a kind of bright fish' and Old High German eit 'funeral pyre, fire').

The body has a typical cyprinid shape and generally silvery appearance, while the fins are a pinkish red in varying degrees. The tail and backfin can be greyish. In older and bigger fish the body color can turn to yellow/bronze.

flotsam, jetsam, lagan and derelict

In maritime law, flotsam, jetsam, lagan and derelict describe specific kinds of wreck. The words have specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences in the law of admiralty and marine salvage.

Flotsam is floating wreckage of a ship or its cargo. Jetsam is part of a ship, its equipment, or its cargo that is purposefully cast overboard or jettisoned to lighten the load in time of distress and that sinks or is washed ashore. Lagan (also called ligan) is cargo that is lying on the bottom of the ocean, sometimes marked by a buoy, which can be reclaimed. Derelict is cargo that is also on the bottom of the ocean, but which no one has any hope of reclaiming.

rouleur

A rouleur is a type of racing cyclist considered a good all-rounder.

madison

The madison is a team event in track cycling, named after the first Madison Square Garden in New York, and known as the "American race" in French (course à l'américaine) and in Italian and Spanish as Americana.

The madison began as a way of circumventing laws passed in New York, USA, aimed at restricting the exhaustion of cyclists taking part in six-day races.

Bugchasing

Bugchasing is a slang term for the alleged practice of pursuing sexual intercourse with HIV-infected individuals in order to contract HIV. Individuals engaged in this activity are referred to as bugchasers. It is a form of self harm.

Bugchasers seek sexual partners who are HIV positive for the purpose of having unprotected sex and becoming HIV positive; giftgivers are HIV positive individuals who comply with the bugchaser's efforts to become infected with HIV.

Others dismiss the idea of bug chasers as urban legend.

Psychrometrics

Psychrometrics or psychrometry or Hygrometry are terms used to describe the field of engineering concerned with the determination of physical and thermodynamic properties of gas-vapor mixtures. The term derives from the Greek psuchron (ψυχρόν) meaning "cold" and metron (μέτρον) meaning "means of measurement".

plutino

In astronomy, a plutino is a trans-Neptunian object in 2:3 mean motion resonance with Neptune. For every 2 orbits that a plutino makes, Neptune orbits 3 times. Plutinos are named after Pluto, which follows an orbit trapped in the same resonance, with the Italian diminutive suffix -ino. The name refers only to the orbital resonance and does not imply common physical characteristics; it was invented to describe those bodies smaller than Pluto (hence the diminutive) following similar orbits. The class includes Pluto itself and its moons.

Plutinos form the inner part of the Kuiper belt and represent about a quarter of the k

parlous

parlous (comparative more parlous, superlative most parlous)

1. Attended with peril; dangerous; risky.

   The situation became parlous when the weather made resupply impossible.

2. Dire, terrible, appalling.

   Those manning the facility were in a parlous state.

conspicuity

conspicuity (plural conspicuities)

1. The property of being clearly discernible
2. The state or quality of being clear or bright; brightness; conspicuousness.

False precision

False precision (also called overprecision, fake precision, misplaced precision and spurious accuracy) occurs when numerical data are presented in a manner that implies better precision than is actually the case; since precision is a limit to accuracy, this often leads to overconfidence in the accuracy as well.

scrannel

scrannel (comparative more scrannel, superlative most scrannel)

slight; thin; lean; poor

Audism

Audism describes the mentality that to be able to hear and to speak is necessarily better and leads to a higher quality of life. On this basis, different forms of discriminating behavior against deaf and hard of hearing people may arise. Audism can manifest in different areas of life, done mostly by hearing people. It can also occur within the Deaf Community as some deaf or hard of hearing person attempts to shares the attitude of being hearing is better. It is this mentality that led Tom L. Humphries to coin the term in his doctoral dissertation in 1975. He defined it as the attitude that people who hear and speak (or hear and speak better) or have excellent English skills, are superior to others. The definition has since expanded to include discriminating behaviors.

Gigantopithecus

Gigantopithecus (from the Ancient Greek γίγας gigas "giant", and πίθηκος pithekos "ape") is an extinct genus of ape that existed from roughly nine million years to as recently as one hundred thousand years ago, in what is now China, India, and Vietnam, placing Gigantopithecus in the same time frame and geographical location as several hominin species. The fossil record suggests that individuals of the species Gigantopithecus blacki were the largest apes that ever lived, standing up to 3 metres (9.8 ft), and weighing up to 540 kilograms (1,200 lb).

Gabbart

A Gabbart is a type of lighter or barge, used in the 17th through 19th century. They are small one-masted sailing or coasting vessel. Used mostly for inland navigation, especially on the River Clyde in Scotland. Transported mainly coal and fish (mainly herring). Comment from 1877: Gabbarts: Boats of from 30 to 40 tons, which, before the railway was opened to Balloch, carried coals etc., from the Clyde, up the River Leven, to various places on the banks of the Loch, taking back cargoes of slates or timber.

ambisinister

ambisinister (comparative more ambisinister, superlative most ambisinister)

1. (rare) Awkward or clumsy with both or either hand. The antonym of ambidextrous...
   

anthophilous

anthophilous (comparative more anthophilous, superlative most anthophilous)

1. Living or growing on flowers

Heterodyning

Heterodyning is a radio signal processing technique invented in 1901 by Canadian inventor-engineer Reginald Fessenden, in which new frequencies are created by combining or mixing two frequencies. Heterodyning is useful for frequency shifting signals into a new frequency range, and is also involved in the processes of modulation and demodulation. The two frequencies are combined in a nonlinear signal-processing device such as a vacuum tube, transistor, or diode, usually called a mixer. In the most common application, two signals at frequencies f₁ and f₂ are mixed, creating two new signals, one at the sum f₁ + f₂ of the two frequencies, and the other at the difference f₁ − f₂. These new frequencies are called heterodynes. Typically only one of the new frequencies is desired, and the other signal is filtered out of the output of the mixer. Heterodynes are closely related to the phenomenon of "beats" in music.

Medium wave

Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. For Europe the MW band ranges from 526.5 kHz to 1606.5 kHz and in North America an extended MW broadcast band goes from 535 kHz to 1705 kHz.

Vichyssoise

Vichyssoise is a thick soup made of puréed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream, and chicken stock. It is traditionally served cold, but can also be eaten hot.

The origins of vichyssoise are a subject of debate among culinary historians; Julia Child calls it "an American invention", whereas others observe that "the origin of the soup is questionable in whether it's genuinely French or an American creation". Louis Diat, a chef at the Ritz-Carlton in New York City, is most often credited with its (re)invention.

Novopangea

Novopangea is a possible future supercontinent, postulated by Roy Livermore, now at the University of Cambridge, in the late 1990s, assuming closure of the Pacific, docking of Australia with eastern Asia, and northward motion of Antarctica.

The development of the three hypothetical supercontinents: Amasia, Novopangea, and Pangaea Ultima, were illustrated in a 2007 New Scientist article.

Festoon

A Festoon (from French feston, Italian festone, from a Late Latin festo, originally a festal garland, Latin festum, feast), is a wreath or garland, and so in architecture a conventional arrangement of flowers, foliage or fruit bound together and suspended by ribbons, either from a decorated knot, or held in the mouths of lions, or suspended across the back of bulls heads as in the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli. The motif is sometimes known as a swag when depicting fabric or linen.

Amasia

Amasia is the working title for a possible future supercontinent that could be formed by the merger of Asia and North America. This prediction relies mostly on the fact that the Pacific Plate is already subducting under Eurasia and North America, a process which if continued will eventually cause the Pacific to close. Meanwhile, because of the Atlantic mid-ocean ridge, North America would be pushed westward. Thus, the Atlantic at some point in the future would be larger than the Pacific. In Siberia, the boundary between the Eurasian and North American Plates has been stationary for millions of years. The combination of these factors would cause North America to be combined with Asia, thus forming a supercontinent.

Gentry

Gentry (origin Old French genterie, from gentil, "high-born, noble", from Latin gentilis, of the same gens or race) denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. Gentry, in its widest connotation, refers to people of good social position connected to landed estates (see manorialism), upper levels of the clergy, and "gentle" families of long descent who may never have obtained the official right to bear a coat of arms.

In England, the term often refers to the social class of the landed aristocracy or to the minor aristocracy (see landed gentry) whose income derives from their large landholdings.

Anschluss

The Anschluss (spelled Anschluß at the time of the event, and until the German orthography reform of 1996; German for "link-up"), also known as the Anschluss Österreichs, was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938.

truel

A truel is a neologism for a duel between three opponents, in which players can fire at one another in an attempt to eliminate them while surviving themselves.

hydromancy

Hydromancy (from Greek "hydro", meaning water, and "manteia", meaning divination) is a method of divination by means of water, including the color, ebb and flow, or ripples produced by pebbles dropped in a pool.

The Jesuit M. A. Del Rio (1551–1608) described several methods of hydromancy. The first method described depicts a ring hanging by a string that is dipped into a vessel of water which was shaken. A judgment or prediction is made by the number of times which the ring strikes the sides of the vessel.

A second method is when three pebbles are thrown into standing water and observations are made from the circles formed when the objects strike the water.

strop

strop (third-person singular simple present strops, present participle stropping, simple past and past participle stropped)

1. (obsolete) To strap.
2. (recorded since 1842; now most used) To hone (a razor) with a strop.

Kancho

Kancho (カンチョー kanchō) is a prank often played in Japan; it is performed by clasping the hands together so the index fingers are pointing out and attempting to insert them sharply into someone's anal region when the victim is not looking. It is similar to the wedgie or a goosing, although, as compared to kancho, the former mentioned acts do not involve physical contact which is quite as intimate or direct. A Kancho is often executed simultaneously as the offending party loudly emphasizes the second syllable of "Kan-CHO!".

Manhattanization

Manhattanization is a neologism coined to describe the construction of many tall or densely situated buildings which transforms the appearance and character of a city. It was a pejorative word used by critics of the highrise buildings built in San Francisco during the 1960s and 1970s, who claimed the skyscrapers would block views of the bay and the surrounding hills. The term has also gained usage as a buzzword for recent high-density developments in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The term "Manhattanization" has been used to describe the 2003-2008 boom of real estate developments in Miami, that brought the construction of more than 50 high rise buildings throughout the city

volant

volant (adj., not comparable)

1. (heraldry) Having extended wings as if flying.
2. Flying, or able to fly.
3. Moving quickly or lightly, as though flying; nimble.