1. pulchritude
(n) [PUL-kri-tood]
Definition—physical beauty (especially of a woman)
Usage—“Beginning Monday: Pumped up pulchritude. Women on Weights kicks off at the Southeast YMCA.”
~ The Huntsville Times
2. tessera 
Definition—a small square tile of stone or glass used in making mosaics
Usage—“The cramped walls of Santa Maria della Concezione are covered with individual tessera from which transcendent mosaics emerge.”
~ The Time Paradox
3. mandala 
(n) [MŬN-də-lə]
Definition—any of various geometric designs (usually circular) symbolizing the universe; used chiefly in Hinduism and Buddhism as an aid to meditation
Usage—“Thousands of individual vertebrae create intricate mandalas.”
~ The Time Paradox
4. seine
(n) [SĀN]
Definition—a large fishing net made to hang vertically in the water by weights at the lower edge and floats at the top
Usage—“First-century fishermen used large, heavy seine nets for their work.”
~ Fearless
5. anarthrous
(adj) [ăn-AR-thrəs]
Definition—occurring without a definite article. Used especially of Greek nouns.
Usage—“Love of money is a root, not the root, as the KJV translators imprecisely translated (the anartherous noun).”
~ The Heart of Anger
7 comments:
You found some great words! I would have guessed that mandala was a musical instrument! Do you live near Huntsville? We've lived in Alabama twice and our son considered UAH for college.
I love that you have pictures of your words! I always think pulchritude should have the opposite meaning, because it sounds kind of ugly.
My words are here.
@Bermudaonion: yes, I live outside Huntsville. And graduated from UAH.
I knew 3&4, but the others are new to me! Love the photos you added!!
I also like the pictures you used beside your new words. I especially like the one for mondala. It's so beautiful.
I love these word entries, but you didn't know seine? I grew up down the road from a catfish pond (the BIG one, where everybody got their fish, it was a family business) and it would overflow when there was a heavy rain. Voila' -- free catfish!!! Then he installed some seine nets... People used to always talk about seining the pond too. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was just to catch the fish, but seems like it was preparation before doing something else...
I'm learning lots of new words in my doctoral classes as well. I joke about them being $1,000 per word with this high tuition. (You probably know about that with a daughter in college.) I'm keeping a list on my Treo. I need to publish them sometime. (They do make their way into fb statuses at times.) The first one, and the most useful so far, is obdurate -- a fancy word for stubborn and unrepentant. Apparently it was used a lot previously but fell out of popular usage. e.g., I was listening to Frederick Douglass' autobiography on audio book on my drive to visit the Feltons, and he used it often. I'm like, hey! I know that word!
Hmm...not sure about free catfish from an overflow, but whatever. Hope you ate them quickly.
Finding a way to use the words in your own context is probably the best way to remember them. If you're paying for $1000 words, you're entitled to use them wherever you can. Probably can't fit too many in a tweet though.
Post a Comment