1word1day | Entries tagged with noun

stupa [stoo-puh]

noun

a usually dome-shaped structure (such as a mound) serving as a Buddhist shrine

examples

1. At one edge of the lawn, tall Tibetan prayer flag stands next to a white incense-burning stupa, much like the one on the family property in Taktser.
—Anne F. Thurston, Foreign Affairs, 23 Feb. 2016
2. The stupa, a Buddhist structure, is one of the oldest forms of sacred architecture on Earth.
—Roger Naylor, The Arizona Republic, 18 Oct. 2024
3. But in 2022, Chilean engineers built similar ice stupa prototypes in the Andes.
—Cameron Pugh, The Christian Science Monitor, 4 Jan. 2024
All around me, amid a handful of stupas and temples, were the flattened foundations of buildings in the religious complex.
—Aatish Taseer, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2023

origin

Sanskrit stūpa

Today (first full moon in May) is Vesak, the celebration of the birth of the Buddha.

stupa

stonepicnicking_okapi

haulm (or halm)

[hawm]

noun

1. stems or stalks collectively, as of grain or of peas, beans, or hops, especially as used for litter or thatching.
2. a single stem or stalk

Examples

1. Potato haulms, and club-rooted cabbage crops should, however, never be mixed with ordinary clean vegetable refuse, as they would be most likely to perpetuate the terrible diseases to which they are subject. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition

2. There was a bad to be prepared for planting out late cabbages for succession, and fresh seed to be sown for the kind that can weather the winter, as well as pease to be gathered, and the dead, dried haulms of the early crop to be cleared away for fodder and litter. One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters

origin

First recorded before 900; Middle English halm, Old English healm; cognate with Dutch, German halm, Old Norse halmr; akin to Latin culmus “stalk,” Greek kálamos “reed”

sallymn

fumarole [fyoo-muh-rohl]

noun:
a hole in or near a volcano, from which vapor rises

(click to enlarge)

Examples:

On Wednesday afternoon, Popocatépetl emitted a huge fumarole that split in the middle, eventually taking the shape of a giant heart as it rose into the sky. (Flights suspended in Puebla as Popocatépetl volcano grumbles, The Washington Post, Mexico News Daily 2024)

Gas vents, also known as fumaroles, are also activating around the volcano's summit and Crater Peak vents, the latter being the location where the 1953 and the 1992 eruptions occurred. (Sam Walters, Activity at Alaska’s Mount Spurr Suggests That The Volcano Is About To Erupt, Discover, May 2025)

Downhill from Viti, the landscape belches audible steam blasts from a fumarole at Hverir, a misty, moody landscape with hiking paths that go past scalding ponds not far from the warm Myvatn Nature Baths, where we recovered from our hikes and talked geology with the Danish couple. (Elaine Glusac, Driving Iceland’s Overlooked North, The New York Times, June 2022)

He did the trick with a fumarole of cigarette smoke escaping from her lips. ( Robert D McFadden, Hiro, Fashion Photographer Who Captured the Surreal, Dies at 90, The New York Times, August 2021)

In ordinary climates, a fumarole, or volcanic vapour-well, may be detected by the thin cloud of steam above it, and usually one can at once feel the warmth by passing one's hand into the vapour column, but in the rigour of the Antarctic climate the fumaroles of Erebus have their vapour turned into ice as soon as it reaches the surface of the snow plain. (Ernest Shackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic)

Directly overhead, in the face of an almost perpendicular cliff, were three of the cavern mouths, which had the aspect of volcanic fumaroles. (Clark Ashton Smith, The Seven Geases)

Origin:

Italian fumarola, from Italian dialect (Neapolitan), from Late Latin fumariolum vent, from Latin fumarium smoke chamber for aging wine, from fumus (Merriam Webster)

simplyn2deep

Tuesday, Apr. 29, 2025

Paregmenon (noun)
paregmenon [ puh-reg-muh-non ]

noun, Rhetoric.
1. the juxtaposition of words that have a common derivation, as in “sense and sensibility.”

Origin: 1670–80; < Greek parēgménon derived, neuter of perfect passive past participle of parágein to bring side by side, derive. See par-, paragon

Examples of 'pareidolia' in a sentence
Rationality insists that this is pareidolia – the tendency to perceive patterns in abstract stimuli.
The Guardian (2019)

Face pareidolia – seeing faces in random objects or patterns of light and shadow – is an everyday phenomenon.
The Guardian (2021)

Our brains are so eager to spot faces that this accounts for the most common form of pareidolia, the human tendency to make meaningful shapes out of random patterns.
The Guardian (2021)

One possibility is pareidolia, where the mind ' sees' patterns that are not there.
The Sun (2013)

Seeing patterns in randomness is known by psychologists as pareidolia.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)

This summer there were some great opportunities for pareidolia in cumulus clouds that were full of fascinating shapes.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)

Pareidolia is a phenomenon rarely heard of but is so common that everyone has experienced it.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)

Boffins say our brains are wired to look for faces in objects, calling the phenomenon pareidolia.
The Sun (2012)

stonepicnicking_okapi

cromlech [krom-lek]

noun

definition
1. a circle of monoliths usually enclosing a dolmen [an ancient group of stones consisting of one large flat stone supported by several vertical ones] or mound

examples
1. And again beyond the cromlech was a hut, shaped like a beehive of straw, built of many stones most wonderfully, both walls and roof. A Prince of Cornwall A Story of Glastonbury and the West in the Days of Ina of Wessex, 1884
2. In autumn a memorial garden will be created around the stone cromlech to complete what is a lasting reminder of the sacrifice made by the people of Wales who fought in the First World War. BBC, Aug 17, 2014
3. Not only / the storm's / breakwater, but the sudden / frontier to our concurrences, appearances, / and as the full of the offer of space / as the view through a cromlech is. from the poem "The Door" by Charles Tomlinson

origin
Welsh, literally, 'arched stone'

stonepicnicking_okapi

gibus [jahy-buhs]

noun

1. opera hat, a collapsible top hat

examples

1. Ask little Tom Prig, who is there in all his glory, knows everybody, has a story about every one; and, as he trips home to his lodgings in Jermyn Street, with his gibus-hat and his little glazed pumps, thinks he is the fashionablest young fellow in town, and that he really has passed a night of exquisite enjoyment. The Book of Snobs, 2006
2. Ispenlove stood leaning against the piano, as though intensely fatigued; he crushed his gibus with an almost savage movement, and then bent his large, lustrous black eyes absently on the flat top of it. Sacred and Profane Love, Arnold Bennett, 1899

origin

French gibus, from Gibus, name of its 19th century French inventor

med_cat

Ladramhaiola (Irish Gaelic): a day that was frittered away, despite one's planning to get a lot done

calzephyr

Pavlova - noun.

I sense a theme happening--today's word is another dessert, pavlova. One of those words often mentioned, but never really defined, a pavlova is a baked meringue topped with fruit and whipped cream. It has a fascinating history as it is a 20th century invention, named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova.

By Hazel Fowler - Own work, Public Domain, Link

stonepicnicking_okapi

catafalque [kat-uh-fawk, -fawlk, -falk]

noun

a raised structure on which the body of a deceased person lies or is carried in state.

examples
1. The casket was placed in the middle of the room on the catafalque built in 1865 to hold assassinated President Abraham Lincoln’s casket in the same place. Bill Barrow, The Denver Post, 7 Jan. 2025
2. A cardinal dispersed incense around the body, and then — before the basilica doors opened to the public — workers roped off the catafalque, such that the body of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI would stand apart. The Washington Post, 2 Jan 2023

origin

Italian catafalco, from Vulgar Latin catafalicum scaffold, from cata- + Latin fala
siege tower

Lincoln catafalque in the US Capitol

sallymn

mudlark [muhd-lahrk]

noun:
1a Chiefly British. a person who gains a livelihood by searching for iron, coal, old ropes, etc., in mud or low tide
1b someone who scavenges the banks and shores of rivers for items of value

2 Chiefly British Informal. a street urchin

3 either of two black and white birds, Grallina cyanoleuca, of Australia, or G. bruijni, of New Guinea, that builds a large, mud nest

(click to enlarge)
verb:
to play, dig, or search in mud or on muddy ground

Examples:

Mudlarking's popularity has grown steadily in recent years, driven in part by social media communities where enthusiasts share their finds, and tour groups that offer a trudge through the shards of history's castoffs (Megan Specia, Mudlarks Scour the Thames to Uncover 2,000 Years of Secrets, The New York Times, February 2020)

On a freezing January day during the recent cold snap, those walking along The Weirs might have been surprised to see Jane Eastman - Winchester's premier mudlark - waist-deep in the Itchen, bent double as she scoured the riverbed not so much for treasure, as trash. (Sebastian Haw, Hampshire mudlark looks for treasure and trash in Itchen, Hampshire Chronicle, January 2025)

Thames mud - damp and oxygen-free - is a 'magical preserver', Maiklem writes, and extracting an object from its embrace takes care, skill and an extraordinary level of patience, from both the mudlark and those who share her household. (Joanna Scutts, Unearthing London's history from a muddy riverbank, The Washington Post, December 2019)

"It always makes me smile, how emphatically people say, 'the piping shrike — that's the mudlark, we call it the mudlark' … and just how powerfully this myth has stuck," he said. (Daniel Keane, Magpies, magpie-larks and the striking mystery of South Australia's piping shrike, ABC News, March 2024)

Origin:

The first published use of the word was in 1785 as a slang term meaning 'a hog'. Its origin may have been a humorous variation on 'skylark'. By 1796, the word was also being used to describe "Men and boys ... who prowl about, and watch under the ships when the tide will permit." Mudlarks made a living in London in the 18th and 19th centuries by scouring the muddy shores of the River Thames for anything and everything that could be sold to eke out a living. This could include pilfering from river traffic. Modern mudlarks have sometimes recovered objects of archaeological value from the river's shores. These are either recorded as treasure under the Treasure Act of 1996 or submitted for analysis and review under the Portable Antiquities Scheme. (Word Genius)

calzephyr

Borma - noun

Borma is a tasty Mediterranean and Middle Eastern treat! There are regional variations (and names, of course!), but they all contain chopped nuts like pistachios and cashews, rolled up into a tube and covered with honey or sugar syrup.

You've probably seen them in baklava assortments and there's many recipes out there if you care to try making them at home.

stonepicnicking_okapi

orison [awr-uh-zuhn]

noun
1. a prayer

examples
1. Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia! —Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.
Hamlet, Act 3, Scene I, Shakespeare

For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him. / For he is of the tribe of Tiger.
"Jubilate Agno" (also known as "For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry") by Christopher (Kit) Smart

origins

Middle English, from Anglo-French ureisun, oreison, from Late Latin oration-, oratio, from Latin, oration

cat jeoffy

calzephyr

Amauti - noun.

An amauti, or ᐊᒪᐅᑎ is a traditional Inuit parka for women with a pouch for carrying and nurturing infants.

By Ansgar Walk - photo taken by Ansgar Walk, CC BY 2.5, Link

simplyn2deep

Tuesday, Mar. 25, 2025

Riffraff (noun, adjective)
riffraff [ rif-raf ]

noun
1. people, or a group of people, regarded as disreputable or worthless: a pack of riffraff.
2. the lowest classes; rabble: the riffraff of the city.
3. trash; rubbish.

adjective
4. worthless, disreputable, or trashy.

See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com

Origin: 1425–75; late Middle English rif and raf every particle, things of small value < Old French rif et raf, formed on rifler to spoil ( rifle 2 ), raffler to ravage, snatch away

Example Sentences
He has some friends — acquaintances, really — whom he hates, mentally labeling them “the riffraff, the vulgarians, the slobs.”
From New York Times

She associated Georgia’s capital city with “crime” and “riffraff,” similar to how Trump once disparaged Atlanta as “crime infested” and “falling apart.”
From Seattle Times

Just before the riots he had also responded to a rowdy reception committee in one banlieue by calling them racaille - riffraff.
From BBC

Indeed, this “savage,” as Shakespeare took pains to note in his complicated depiction of Caliban, is a good deal more civilized than the drunken riffraff with whom he falls into cahoots.
From Los Angeles Times

“I’ve dealt with the riffraff on the street for 14 years so I know how to play that,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times

stonepicnicking_okapi

anaglypta

noun [a-nə-glip-tə]

1. embossed wallpaper, a type of wallpaper that has a permanent raised design [often used before another noun]

examples
1. Three coats of deep blue paint bring out the texture in the anaglypta wall covering. Barbara Hertenstein, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 29 Apr. 2000
2. These Victorian and Edwardian houses often conceal the evidence of earlier tastes in decoration—contoured Anaglypta wallpaper, dark varnishes, here and there the piece of stained glass that must have added to the general gloom. Alexander McCall Smith, Sunday Times (London), 27 Apr. 2008
3. The bed was a four-poster, hung with patterned drapes that matched the Anaglypta on the walls. Cabaret Macabre by Tom Mead

origin
earlier a trademark, borrowed from Latin, "vessels carved in low relief," from neuter plural of anaglyptus "carved in low relief"

med_cat

marcescence, n.

mar·ces·cence märˈsesᵊn(t)s

: the quality or state of being marcescent: (of a plant part) withering without falling off

Etymology:

Latin marcescent-, marcescens, present participle of marcescere to wither, inchoative from marcēre to wither; akin to Middle High German mern to dip bread in wine or water, Middle Irish mraich, braich malt, and probably to Greek marainein to waste away.

~~

Have you ever walked through a forest in winter and noticed trees with dead leaves still hanging from their branches?
Amongst the towering pines in Yosemite National Park, the California black oak stands out orange against green, its leaves clinging to its branches like stubborn memories of warmer days. These trees are winter deciduous, meaning they lose most of their leaves in fall and become dormant during the winter. But here’s the twist: while many trees gracefully let go of all of their foliage, the California black oak defiantly holds onto many of its dead leaves through winter and only lets go when spring growth pushes them off. This phenomenon is known as “marcescence.”

Marcescence is an adaptation that is largely something scientists are still exploring. However, various theories offer a glimpse into its purpose. Some believe winter leaves provide protection for new buds and branches, guarding them against hungry deer. Buds hidden beneath these leaves are given a fighting chance to grow into foliage come spring. Another theory suggests that these clingy leaves play a role in moisture retention. More leaves mean more snow buildup, which eventually falls to the ground and melts into water for the tree’s roots to soak up happily. There’s even speculation that these leaves serve as a final gift of nutrients for the tree in spring, decomposing into a natural mulch that enriches the soil for the tree to feed off of.

Regardless of the reasons, marcescence is a t-oak-ally impressive survival strategy that showcases the resilience of the California black oak. Next time you wander through a winter forest, take a moment to appreciate these steadfast trees and the stories their stubborn leaves have to tell.

To learn more about the California black oak and the important role it plays to Yosemite’s ecosystem, visit: https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/nature/black-oaks.htm

(from Yosemite National Park FB page)

med_cat

Neoteny, n.: retention of childlike physical traits into adulthood.

“Other bears can also be cute, especially when they’re babies,” says James Serpell, a professor emeritus of ethics and animal welfare at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. But as other bears mature, “they have more pronounced faces, longer jaws.” They start to look more intimidating. Pandas “have very short faces for a bear. And this big, big round head.”

The big round head is key.

Also, they play with toys. And they’re clumsy, like human toddlers.

There is a scientific term for this retention of childlike physical traits into adulthood: neoteny.

And there’s a name for the way we react to neoteny: the “Cute Response.” Serpell, who has studied this, says it is a universal response to pandas across cultures."

You can read more, and see pictures in this Washington Post article (gift link)

Edit: from

full_metal_ox :

Scaled the paywall for readers who can’t bring through the link:

https://archive.ph/eCbhM

And here’s an illustrative essay by Stephen Jay Gould, explaining why cartoon characters tend to evolve cuter and more juvenile character design, with bigger eyes, shorter snouts, and larger head-to-body-size ratios as their popularity grows:

https://faculty.uca.edu/benw/biol4415/papers/Mickey.pdf

calzephyr

Zeppole - noun.

Zeppoles, pronounced zeh·puh·lee, is a classic Italian donut or dessert. Some look like simple donut holes while others are giant cream puffs. Your mileage may vary, but here's a recipe you can try at home.

simplyn2deep

Tuesday, Mar. 18, 2025

Glissade (noun, verb)
glissade [ gli-sahd, -seyd ]

noun
1. a skillful glide over snow or ice in descending a mountain, as on skis or a toboggan.
2. Dance. a sliding or gliding step.

verb (used without object), glissaded, glissading.
1. to perform a glissade.

Other Words From
glis·sad er noun

See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com

Origin: 1830–40; < French, equivalent to gliss ( er ) to slip, slide + -ade -ade

Example Sentences
For the glissade, Nancy glided over a few feet to the left.
From Literature

In the book, she glissades past this defining moment, which I would have liked to see her hold for a few more counts.
From Washington Post

From hiking a few miles to learning how to use an ice ax and glissade down a mountain, we trained and grew stronger together to ultimately reach the summit.
From Seattle Times

As I contemplated how to avoid glissading down the mountain, my phone powered down due to the cold and I lost my GPS tracker.
From Seattle Times

At about 7 a.m., around 300 dancers — boys and girls, men and women — took turns glissading across the concrete at 44th Street and Seventh Avenue, which was transformed into a scene from “Fame.”
From New York Times

Now YOU come up with a sentence (or fic? or graphic?) that best illustrates the word.

calzephyr

Inosculation - noun.

Occasionally, I see a word and screencap it to check its cromulence or veracity of the claim. In this case, inosculation is a real word referring to the grafting or braiding of stems or tree trunks. Whether encouraged or accidental, the woody stems fuse together.

By Rosser1954 Roger Griffith - Own work, Public Domain, Link

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Word of the Day!

Entries tagged with noun

Monday Word: Stupa

Monday Word: Haulm

Sunday Word: Fumarole

Tuesday word: Paregmenon

Word: Cromlech

Monday: gibus

Friday word: Ladramhaiola

Wednesday Word: Pavlova

Monday Word: Catafalque

Sunday Word: Mudlark

Wednesday Word: Borma

Monday Word: Orison

Wednesday Word: Amauti

Tuesday word: Riffraff

Monday Word: Anaglypta

Friday word: Marcescence

Thursday word: Neoteny

Wednesday Word: Zeppole

Tuesday word: Glissade

Thursday Word: Inosculation

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