One Word

Saola

2010-03-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

Saola - a very rare large mammal, a bovid, which has only been know to scientists since the 1990s (although undoubtedly to resident peoples much longer), and is native to the mountains between Laos and Vietnam; there have only been a few animals seen and it is believed to be critically endangered.

Solfège

2010-03-10T12:51:00.000-08:00

Solfège - a system of sight singing (do, re, mi, etc.), which can use either a fixed do (do is always C) or moveable do (do is the first note in the scale). There are variants of the sung syllables for notes that are flat or sharp from the usual scale note.

Ghazal

2010-02-25T14:14:00.000-08:00

Ghazal - A lyric poem, from the Persian tradition (also Arabic, Turkish or Urdu), involving a theme of love and loss, with at least five couples and a common refrain (AA, BA, CA, etc.).

Kamut

2010-02-01T17:47:00.000-08:00

Kamut - a brand name for a rare and unusual variety of wheat, with grains that are much larger than those of normal wheat, and with somewhat different nutritional properties.

Hemidemisemiquaver

2010-01-10T19:33:00.001-08:00

Hemidemisemiquaver - the British term for the (American term) sixty-fourth note.

Barycenter

2010-01-08T02:44:00.000-08:00

So far we seem to have an astronomical theme. The word for today is:

Barycenter - the center of gravity, and specifically the center of gravity of two objects that have an orbital relationship, like the earth and the moon, or the earth/moon complex and the sun. Did you know that the barycenter of the earth/moon pair is actually inside the earth's surface due to the much greater mass of the earth?

Syzygy

2010-01-07T03:48:00.000-08:00

My crossword yesterday had one of my favorite strange-looking words:

Syzygy - this comes to us from Greek through Late Latin from the word for yoke or pair. The meaning I am most familiar with is the second meaning - "conjunction or opposition of two celestial objects" and "either of the points (in space or time) at which these take place, esp. in the case of the moon with the sun (new moon and full moon)" (The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 1993 edition). There are also other meanings, one from poetry, one from Gnostic philosophy, and a couple from zoology, all meaning a joining or conjunction.