ˌæntɪəˈɡæθɪk anti-agathic: serving to prevent death; a drug that has this function This is a science fiction word. It was coined during the 1950s by James Blish as a key concept for his Cities in Flight series of novels, to designate the drugs that his characters took to give them potential immortality, allowing them to … Continue reading Anti-agathic
Tag Archives: Etymology
Perihelion: Part 2
pɛrɪˈhiːlɪən perihelion: that point in the orbit of a planet, comet or other body at which it is closest to the sun Well, time flies. Back on January 4, when the Earth was at its closest to the sun, I started off to write about words relating to perihelion, and got side-tracked into writing about … Continue reading Perihelion: Part 2
Sidlaws: Dunsinane to King’s Seat
Dunsinane Hill (NO 214316, 310m) Black Hill (NO 219319, 360m) Little Dunsinane (NO 224325, 295m) King’s Seat (NO 230330, 377m) 8.5 kilometres 360 metres of ascent Do you think I may be becoming obsessed with King’s Seat? I think it’s possible. But I wanted to get some photos on this part of the ridge for … Continue reading Sidlaws: Dunsinane to King’s Seat
Magpies & Grasshoppers
I was trying to explain the content of this blog to someone the other day, and I said that it combined two states of mind, the magpie and the grasshopper—the magpie’s hoarding of appealing objects, the grasshopper’s leaping from place to place And that, in a self-referential kind of way, got me thinking about the … Continue reading Magpies & Grasshoppers
Serendipity
sɛrɛnˈdɪpɪtɪ serendipity: The faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident. Also, the fact or an instance of such a discovery People like the word serendipity—there’s something cheerful and unexpected about that “-dipity” ending which makes them want to say it or write it, and so its original meaning has gradually eroded away. The … Continue reading Serendipity
Perihelion: Part 1
pɛrɪˈhiːlɪən perihelion: that point in the orbit of a planet, comet or other body at which it is closest to the sun Not to be confused with the parhelion, which I wrote about last month. Today (4 January 2017), the Earth is at perihelion, its closest to the sun, a mere 98% of its average … Continue reading Perihelion: Part 1
Yuletide
ˈjuːltaɪd Yuletide: The Christmas season Yule is a bit of an etymological orphan. The origins of the word are obscure, but it seems to have been the name of a twelve-day pagan winter festival, celebrated among the ancient speakers of the Germanic language family, and called jól in Old Norse*. As with many other pagan … Continue reading Yuletide
Names Of Trigonometric Functions
saɪn sine: Originally, the length of a straight line drawn from one end of a circular arc parallel to the tangent at the other end, and terminated by the radius; in modern use, the ratio of this line to the radius ˈsiːkənt secant: Originally, the length of a straight line drawn from the centre of … Continue reading Names Of Trigonometric Functions
-ize
-aɪz -ize: a suffix used to form verbs from adjectives and nouns Ubiquitization: This is a strategy adopted by service firms in order to physically distribute their products and services ‘everywhere’. Jones & Robinson, Operations Management (2012) A variety of specific E2 carrier protein and E3 enzyme pairs impart another important level of selectivity through … Continue reading -ize
Xenophobia
zɛnəˈfəʊbɪə xenophobia: a deep antipathy to foreigners Recent political events in the the USA, Europe and elsewhere have meant that this word keeps popping into my head. It comes from two Greek words: xenos, “stranger”, and phobos “fear”. In Greek myth, Phobos was the god of terror; a son of Mars, the god of war. … Continue reading Xenophobia