* "hr factor" = "an agglutinogen present in Rh-negative blood and apparently reciprocally related to the Rh factor." I have Rh-negative blood and have read a fair amount about why it is advisable for pregnant woman with that kind of blood to get the Rhogam shot, and I never saw anything about an "hr factor"; the articles all talked only about the absence of the Rh factor. What is this? I'd like to know what is in my blood.
* "huarizo" = "the offspring of a male llama and a female alpaca." I didn't know they could cross-breed. I'd like to see the result of such a match someday.
* "haustorium" = "a food-absorbing outgrowth of a hypha, stem, or other plant organ: as a: a projection from various fungous hyphae b: a cell of the embryo sac or embryo in some seed plants c: an ougrowth of the stem or root in a parasitic seed plant (as dodder)." Part b appears most interesting because it seems to have disappeared from modern dictionary definitions of haustorium even though "cells of embryo sac[s] or embryo[s]" are not the same thing at all as parts a and c. I'm currently looking at soybeans in connection with weight loss, and I was already realizing that a specific part of dormant soybeans is involved; perhaps it is the haustorium I'm looking for! (Interestingly, the word that led me to look up haustorium was "dodder," which is on page 666 of this dictionary and has a weird font thing with haustoria where it is partially faded.)
* "dod": one of the given definitions of "dod" is "[euphemism for God]--used as a mild oath esp. as an intensive with a verb."
* "devote": one of the given definitions of "devote" is "to consign to the powers of evil: give over to destruction: DAMN, DOOM." Have you ever seen "to devote" used in such a way? This is frankly bizarre. The dictionary doesn't even include an example of it being used this way.
* "sonochemistry" = "a branch of chemistry that deals with the chemical effects of ultrasound." I'd like to see studies on this, as well as on the chemical effects of infrasound, too, especially in connection with their biochemical effects on humans.
* "cauma" = "[Gr. kauma, heat] in medicine, burning heat; febrile heat. [Rare.]" This one is from a smaller 1977 dictionary, and my much larger 1971 dictionary (both are Webster dictionaries) doesn't have it. What is going on? Greek is a very old language, and a word like this is unlikely to have come into the English language from Greek medical terminology within a space of six years in modern times. Is it connected to the idea of a medical "coma"?
* "catacoustics" = "[cata-, and Gr. akoustikos, from akouein, to hear.] that part of the science of acoustics which treats of reflected sounds; cataphonics." Again, this word definition is from a smaller 1977 dictionary, and my much larger 1971 dictionary doesn't have it; the larger dictionary doesn't have "cataphonics" either. What is going on with this word? Surely in a world saturated with multimedia presentations and digital music, catacoustics should be a very important field.
That's all for today.
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