Reading a dictionary is like taking a lot of mini-courses in various subjects, except you never know quite what you're going to find, while selecting mini-courses has more predictable results. Here are some of the interesting words I've come across in the past few weeks:
* "pachypasa" = "a genus of lasiocampid moths including a Syrian silkworm (P. otus) reared by the Greeks and Romans for its silk until the introduction of the Chinese silkworm in A.D. 550." The Greeks and the Romans made their own silk from their own silkworms? I never learned about that in history. Interesting!
* "thimble": one of the definitions for thimble in my big 1971 dictionary is "a thimble-shaped cup or shell (as of filter paper or fritted glass) for containing material to be extracted by solvents esp. in chemical analysis." "Frit" is defined as "to prepare (materials for glass) by heat: FUSE." Now that I'm looking at heated silicon dioxide (i.e., glass) compounds in connection with weight loss (see my last post), I'm curious about what kind of fritted glass has been used throughout history in food and beverage preparation.
* "thigh": the etymology of thigh in my dictionary is "ME, thigh, thie, fr. OE thēoh, thīoh; akin to OHG dioh thigh, ON thjō buttock, Mir tōn buttocks, OSlav tukû fat, Skt tavīti he is strong--more at THUMB." Doesn't it seem random to throw in the last few strained-but-supposedly-possible word origins and then to send the reader off to the word "thumb"? This caught my eye because the Bible talks about patriarchs making oaths by putting their hand "under thighs" (see for example Genesis 24:2), but maybe it really is talking about handshakes where thumbs are held in specific unusual ways instead of actually putting hands under thighs (doesn't that last seem like a really awkward thing to do in societies that might not have had underwear?).
* "third world": the 1971 Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged adds the term "third world" to the dictionary with two definitions: "1: a group of nations esp. in Africa and Asia that are not aligned with either the Communist or the non-Communist blocs 2: an aggregate of minority groups within a larger predominant culture." That second definition is a new, much more inclusive one than what I thought the "third world" definition meant, especially because "predominant" means "one that predominates," and "predominate" can mean to rule, hold numerical advantage over, or even--in times gone by--"to have determining astrological influence."
* "theopneust" = "given by inspiration of the Spirit of God: divinely inspired." But the etymology description points the reader to the word "SNEEZE." Given the lack of respect for religious people shown elsewhere in this particular dictionary, this looks like an intentional wrong reference.
* "canchalagua" = "[Sp, alter of cachanglaguen, modif. of Araucan cachanlahuen, fr. cachan pain in the side + lahuen medicinal herb]: a bitter tonic herb of the genus Centaurium (esp. C. chilensis of Chile and C. venustum of California)." This appears to be talking about an herb used formerly to treat internal pain. Now that even low-dose aspirin has been connected to stomach bleeding, we should be looking at other natural sources such as this herb that might be helpful.
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