leonine

The adjective is derived from Late Middle English leonin, leonine (“of or pertaining to a person named Leo; specifically Pope Leo IV”), from Latin leōnīnus, from Leo (“man’s name”) (from leo (“lion”): see etymology 1) + -īnus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’).
Sense 2 (“being or relating to a kind of verse with internal rhyme”) is said to refer to a (possibly apocryphal) medieval monk named Leo or Leonius who composed verse with this characteristic; his identity is uncertain, but the composer Léonin (also known as Leo, Leoninus, or Leonius; flourished 1135s–1201) has been suggested. Alternatively, the word may refer to Pope Leo II (c. 611–683): see the c. 1760–1761 quotation.
The noun is derived from the adjective.

leonine rhyme

In the Church of St. Dominick is a ſmall Picture of the Bleſſed Virgin, vvith the Infant JESUS in her Arms, vvell painted, and yet, appears to have been done in the Iron Age of Painting and other Arts, by the follovving verses, vvrit under it. […] Theſe Leonine Verſes, as plainly appears by them, expreſs a Senſe contrary to the Intention of the VVriter.

1712, [Bernard de] Montfaucon, “My Journey to Siena; […]”, in [John Henley?], transl., The Travels of the Learned Father Montfaucon from Paris thro’ Italy. […], London: […] D. L. for E[dmund] Curll […], E[gbert] Sanger […], R[obert] Gosling […], and W. Lewis […], →OCLC, page 403:

Observe, that, if the date of this poem be true, the general opinion, that the Leonine verse owes its name to Leonius, seems to be false; […] It is not therefore very likely, as Leonius flourished in 1154, that he should give name to such Latin verses upwards of thirty years before. Indeed some people have thought that it was called after Leo, probably the Second, who lived in 684, a pope who is said to have reformed the hymns and the music of the church.

c. 1760–1761 (date written; published 1814), Thomas Gray, “[Essays. Metrum.] Observations on the Pseudo-Rhythmus.”, in Edmund Gosse, editor, The Works of Thomas Gray in Prose and Verse. […], volume I (Poems, Journals, and Essays), London: Macmillan and Co., published 1884, →OCLC, pages 374–375:

[T]he Latin poetry, instead of Leonine rhymes, or attempts at regular hexameters almost equally bad, becomes, in the hands of Gunther, Gualterus de Insulis, Gulielmus Brito, and Joseph Iscanus, to whom a considerable number of names might be added, always tolerable, sometimes truly spirited; […]

1837–1839, Henry Hallam, “On the General State of Literature in the Middle Ages to the End of the Fourteenth Century”, in Introduction to the Literature of Europe, in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, paragraph 84, page 100:

(poetry) Being or relating to a kind of medieval Latin verse, generally alternative hexameter and pentameter, with rhyming at the middle and end of a line (that is, internal rhyme); also (by extension), of or relating to modern verse having internal rhyme.

leoniininen

being or relating to a kind of medieval Latin verse; of or relating to modern verse having internal rhyme


leonine

A[llen]. The Clink of Syllables call'd Rymes, / Brought in ith' barb'rous Runick times, / To ſober Criticks ſeems to be / A paultry part of Poetry, / Becoming Monkiſh dull Divines, / VVho traded much in Leonines. / J[ohn]. Altho' to ſpoil I ſhould be ſorry, / An undergraduate Antiquary, / Yet I'll produce a Line or tvvo / Of Leonines in Cicero, / Before the Monks long time ago.

1715, “Canto III”, in The Miller of Trompington: being an Exercise upon Chaucer’s Reeve’s Tale, London: […] Jonas Brown, […]; and sold by J[ames] Roberts […], →OCLC, pages 44–45:

[F]rom the jingling of the Greek couplet juſt before, and ſimilar inſtances of his taſte, I am perſuaded Sir VVilliam intended theſe as Leonines perfect in their kind.

1771 December, “Illustration of the Inscription on Sir W[illiam] Browne’s Monument. […] Continued from Our Last. The Notes.”, in The Town and Country Magazine; or, Universal Repository of Knowledge, Instruction, and Entertainment, volume III, London: […] A[rchibald] Hamilton Junr. […]; [a]nd sold by Robinson and Roberts, […], →OCLC, page 648, column 1:

The manuscript of Trinity College, Cambridge, which we have already mentioned, was written at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the proverbs which it contains are translations into Latin leonines of some of the more popular English, and, in one or two instances, Norman proverbs of that time.

1835 March, “Art. V.— […] 4. Collection of English Proverbs of the Twelfth Century, Translated into Latin Leonines. MS. Trin. Coll. Camb. O. 2. 45. (Unpublished.) [book review]”, in Cochrane’s Foreign Quarterly Review, volume I, number II, London: Whittaker & Co. […]; Edinburgh: Robert Cadell, Edinburgh. Sold by all booksellers in Great Britain, Ireland, the Colonies, and the continents of Europe and America., →OCLC, page 395:

(poetry) Chiefly in the plural: synonym of Leonine verse (“a kind of medieval Latin verse, generally alternative hexameter and pentameter, with rhyming at the middle and end of a line (that is, internal rhyme)”)


decant

en-verb

decant (third-person singular simple present decants, present participle decanting, simple past and past participle decanted)

decants (present singular third-person)
decanting (participle present)
decanted (participle past)
decanted (past)

From French décanter, from Medieval Latin dēcanthāre, from dē- + canthus (“beak of a cup or jug”).

“We also predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future …” He was going to say “future World controllers,” but correcting himself, said “future Directors of Hatcheries,” instead.

(science fiction) To remove (a clone or other artificially-gestated baby) from its chamber, vat, or artificial womb.


chuff

en-noun

chuff (countable and uncountable, plural chuffs)

(scriptwriting, uncountable) Superfluous small talk that is free of conflict, offers no character development, description or insight, and does not advance the story or plot.


motif

From Dutch motief, from Middle Dutch motijf, from Old French motif (Modern French motif), from Late Latin mōtivus.

(music, literature) A short melodic or lyrical passage that is repeated in several parts of a work.


haiku

nb-noun

haiku m or n (definite singular haikuen or haikuet, indefinite plural haiku, definite plural haikuene)

haikuen (definite singular)
haikuet (definite singular)
haiku (indefinite plural)
haikuene (definite plural)

Ultimately borrowed from Japanese 俳(はい)句(く) (haiku).

Det opprinnelige haikuet er japansk


haiku

haikuen (definite singular)
haikuet (definite singular)
haikuar (indefinite plural)
haiku (indefinite plural)
haikuane (definite plural)
haikua (definite plural)

der finst ikkje så mange ord i eit haiku

Paal-Helge Haugen sette om japanske haikuar til norsk[.]

1998, Hadle Oftedal Andersen, editor, Poesiens pil, [Oslo]: Cappelen, page 170:

Paal-Helge Haugen translated Japanese haikus into Norwegian.


haiku

(poetry) haiku (Japanese poem in three lines, the first and last consisting of five morae, and the second consisting of seven morae, usually with an emphasis on the season or a naturalistic theme)

(poetry) haiku (three-line poem in any language, with five syllables in the first and last lines and seven syllables in the second, usually with an emphasis on the season or a naturalistic theme)


haiku

(poetry) haiku (type of poem used in Japanese poetry)


coca

From cocatriz, probably from Old French cocatriz, from Latin calcātrīx.

de baleas, de cocas, de orças et de todoslos outros pescados quea ẽnas agoas

c. 1300, R. Martínez López, editor, General Estoria. Versión gallega del siglo XIV, Oviedo: Archivum, page 134:

of whales, of cockatrices, of orcas and of all the other fishes that are in the waters

que ordenaba e mandaba que andase logo a dita confraría de Santa Oufémea depúus a confraría de Santa María a Madre con sua danza de espadas e çirios e outros jogos algúus, se os tebesen, saluo que o jogo da qoqa que andase aalende das confrarías de San Sebastián e de San Migeel, junto con a confraría dos carniçeyros, por que a dita coqa he escandallosa

1441, X. Ferro Couselo, editor, A vida e a fala dos devanceiros. Escolma de documentos en galego dos séculos XIII ao XVI, Vigo: Galaxia, page 145:

they ordered and commanded that the guild of Saint Euphemia be the firt [in the parade], then the guild of Saint Mary Mother, with its sword dance and candles and other amusements, if they have any, with the exception of the game of the cockatrice, which should go after the guilds of Saint Sebastian and Saint Michael, with the butcher's guild, because said cockatrice is scandalous

(mythology, folklore) cockatrice, in Galician folklore a water creature


canto

From Old Galician-Portuguese canto, from Latin cantus (“song; singing”), perfect passive participle of canō (“to sing”), from Proto-Indo-European *kan- (“to sing”). Cognate of English chant.


stasis

en-noun

stasis (usually uncountable, plural stases)

From New Latin stasis, from Ancient Greek στάσις (stásis). See the doublet stead.

(science fiction) A technology allowing something to be artificially frozen in time, so that it does not age or change.

pysäytin

scifi: technology allowing something to be artificially frozen in time


rondo

rondko (diminutive)
rondo (nominative singular)
ronda (nominative plural)
ronda (genitive singular)
rond (genitive plural)
rondu (dative singular)
rondom (dative plural)
rondo (accusative singular)
ronda (accusative plural)
rondem (instrumental singular)
rondami (instrumental plural)
rondzie (locative singular)
rondach (locative plural)
rondo (singular vocative)
ronda (plural vocative)


berserker

Illustrations of Northern Antiquities
Swedish History Museum
Torslunda plates
Walter Scott

Borrowed from Old Norse berserkr (“Norse warrior who fights with frenzy”), probably from bjǫrn (“bear”) + serkr (“coat; shirt”), referring to the bearskins worn by the warriors. Bjǫrn is possibly ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“brown”); and serkr from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind, tie together; thread”). Alternatively, it has been suggested that the first element of the word is from berr (“bare, naked”), suggesting warriors who went into battle without armour, but this is now thought unlikely. Doublet of berserk.
The word was introduced in English by the Scottish author and historian Walter Scott (1771–1832) in Illustrations of Northern Antiquities (1814) (spelled berserkir), and in his novel The Pirate (1822) (spelled berserkar). Sense 3 (“type of von Neumann probe whose mission is to exterminate alien lifeforms”) was coined by the American author Fred Saberhagen (1930–2007) in 1963 in his Berserker series of novels and short stories.
cognates
* Icelandic berserkur
* Swedish bärsärk

ref

From the collection of the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm, Sweden.

coinage

(science fiction) A type of von Neumann probe whose mission is to exterminate alien lifeforms.


Borrowed from Latin nānus, from Ancient Greek νᾶνος (nânos).

(folklore) in Catalan celebrations, someone who wears a large papier-mâché head


vamp

en-verb

vamp (third-person singular simple present vamps, present participle vamping, simple past and past participle vamped)

vamps (present singular third-person)
vamping (participle present)
vamped (participle past)
vamped (past)

A Fool There Was (1915 film)
Derby shoe
Oxford shoe
Theda Bara

Clipping of vampire. From a character type developed first for silent film, notably for Theda Bara's role in the 1915 film A Fool There Was.
The verb is derived from the noun.

If I knew what I know now before I got vamped, I'd do the same thing.

2004, David Sosnowski, Vamped: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 277:

Astonishing how few peasants and regular people got vamped back in the olden days, when it wasn't regulated.

2012, Justine Larbalestier, Sarah Rees Brennan, Team Human, Harper Collins, →ISBN:

Nobody ever got the drop on Shades, not even when he was alive, and certainly not in the fifty years since he got vamped.

2017, Keith R. A. DeCandido, Blackout, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

(fiction, slang, transitive) To turn (someone) into a vampire.


troop

nl-noun

troop f (plural tropen, diminutive troopje n)

tropen (plural)
troopje (diminutive neuter)


nave

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese nave, from Latin nāvis, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *néh₂us. Doublet of nau.

inh+

(colloquial, usually in science fiction) Ellipsis of nave espacial (“spaceship”).


soma

Transliteration of Sanskrit सोम (soma). Doublet of haoma.

[…] there is always soma, delicious soma, half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon […]

1932, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, London: Chatto & Windus:

(by extension, science fiction) Any kind of intoxicating drug.


corona

A favorite and most attractive combination is that of the corona or series of sonnets, employed to frame or develop some one theme. A list of these corone is given by Biadene, who selects and publishes from among them a series of three by Petrarch, and the famous corona of the months by Folgore da San Gemignano.

1889 May, F. M. Warren, “The Sonnet. Morfologia del Sonetto nei secoli xiii e xiv. L. Biadene [Studj di Filologia Romanza, Fasc. 10.]”, in A. Marshall Elliott, editor, Modern Language Notes, volume IV, Baltimore, Md.: [Johns Hopkins University Press], →ISSN, →OCLC, column 308:

But the poets of Siena, and particularly the Academy of the Intronati, found the proper way of constructing coronas—since the ones mentioned above should really be called sequences ['catene'] rather than coronas.

1997, Michael R. G. Spiller, The Sonnet Sequence: A Study of Its Strategies (Studies in Literary Themes and Genres; 13), New York, N.Y.: Twayne Publishers, →ISBN, page 144:

[Lady Mary] Wroth alludes to these contexts as the corona of sonnets that crowns the sequence opens: "In this strang labourinth how shall I turne?" (Wroth, Poems 127).

2000, Mary B. Moore, “The Labyrinth of Style: Lady Mary Wroth and the Idea of Petrarchism”, in Desiring Voices: Women Sonneteers and Petrarchism, Carbondale, Edwardsville, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, →ISBN, page 125:

Both sets of echoes derive from the poets' first poems, and since first poems in Petrarchan sequences set stylistic, tonal, and thematic expectations, Robert [Sidney]'s double allusion to first poems should color readings of this, the first poem of his corona.

2015, Mary B. Moore, “Robert Sidney’s Poetry”, in Margaret P. Hannay, Mary Ellen Lamb, Michael G. Brennan, editors, The Ashgate Research Companion to The Sidneys, 1500–1700, volume 2 (Literature), Farnham, Surrey, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, →ISBN, part VI (Poetry), page 250:

(poetry) A series of sonnets linked together such that the last word of each is the first word of the next.


gritty

en-adj

gritty (comparative grittier, superlative grittiest)

grittier (comparative)
grittiest (superlative)

(film, literature) Intense and starkly realistic; depicting harsh reality, especially violence.

drsný

intense and starkly realistic, especially if violent


volta

(poetry) A turning point or point of change in a poem, most commonly a sonnet.


corvette

Unadapted borrowing from French corvette.

ubor

(nautical) In a modern navy, a lightly armed and armoured blue water warship, smaller than a frigate, capable of transoceanic duty.

(science fiction, by extension) A starship of comparable role


novelette

Best novella was Nnedi Okorafor’s African-flavoured space opera Binti (Tor), while best novelette was Folding Beijing by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu.

2016 November 30, Adam Roberts, “The best SF and fantasy books of 2016”, in The Guardian:


beam

en-verb

beam (third-person singular simple present beams, present participle beaming, simple past and past participle beamed)

beams (present singular third-person)
beaming (participle present)
beamed (participle past)
beamed (past)

German: beamen

Dutch: beamen

Japanese: ビーム

From Middle English beem, from Old English bēam (“tree, cross, gallows, column, pillar, wood, beam, splint, post, stock, rafter, piece of wood”), from Proto-West Germanic *baum, from Proto-Germanic *baumaz (“tree, beam, balk”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to grow, swell”). Cognate with West Frisian beam (“tree”), Saterland Frisian Boom (“tree”), Dutch boom (“tree”), German Low German Boom (“tree”), German Baum (“tree”), Luxembourgish Bam (“tree”), Albanian bimë (“a plant”). Doublet of boom.
The original English meaning of beam ("tree") is preserved in some compound words such as quickbeam.
The verb is from Middle English bemen, from Old English bēamian (“to shine, to cast forth rays or beams of light”), from the noun.

inh

Beam me up, Scotty; there's no intelligent life down here.

The injured crewmembers were immediately beamed to sickbay.

Beam me up (x4) / Beam me up town / Beam me down (x3) / Beam me back downtown

2010, “Beam Me Up”, in Walking the Midnight Streets, performed by Midnight Magic:

(transitive, science fiction) To transmit matter or information via a high-tech wireless mechanism.

säteilyttää

scifi: to transmit over high-tech wireless mechanism


bait

id-noun

bait (plural bait-bait, first-person possessive baitku, second-person possessive baitmu, third-person possessive baitnya)

bait-bait (plural)
baitku (first-person possessive)
baitmu (possessive second-person)
baitnya (possessive third-person)

From Malay bait, from Arabic بَيْت (bayt), from Proto-Semitic *bayt-.

(literature) couplet (a pair of lines in poetry)

(literature) stanza (a unit of a poem, often in the form of a paragraph)


bait

ms-noun

bait (Jawi spelling بيت, plural bait-bait, informal 1st possessive baitku, 2nd possessive baitmu, 3rd possessive baitnya)

بيت (Jawi)
bait-bait (plural)
baitku (first-person informal possessive)
baitmu (possessive second-person)
baitnya (possessive third-person)

→ Indonesian: bait

From Arabic بَيْت (bayt), from Proto-Semitic *bayt-.


premise

From Middle English premise, premisse, from Old French premisse, from Medieval Latin premissa (“set before”) (premissa propositio (“the proposition set before”)), feminine past participle of Latin praemittere (“to send or put before”), from prae- (“before”) + mittere (“to send”).
The sense "a piece of real estate" arose from the misinterpretation of the word by property owners while reading title deeds where the word was used with the legal sense.

der

In 1949, the simple premise of discovering ordinary people who have hidden, extraordinary talents came to prominence in the UK with Opportunity Knocks, which started out as a nationwide touring radio show, before moving onto TV in 1956.

2021 September 15, Laura Martin, “How talent shows became TV's most bizarre programmes”, in BBC:

(authorship) The fundamental concept that drives the plot of a film or other story.


scan

en-verb

scan (third-person singular simple present scans, present participle scanning, simple past and past participle scanned)

scans (present singular third-person)
scanning (participle present)
scanned (participle past)
scanned (past)

⇒ Lithuanian: skenuoti

From late Middle English scanne (“to mark off verse to show metrical structure”), from earlier scanden, from Late Latin scandere (“to scan verse”), from Classical Latin scandō (“I climb, rise, mount”), from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump, dart, climb, scale, scan”).

مَحَّصَ

to examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely

In such cases as these, almost any one with a good ear will "scan" the verse correctly enough without instruction. It is not proposed to give here a list of Shakspere's slurred and contracted words; […]

1886, Francis Barton Gummere, A Handbook of Poetics for Students of English Verse, page 218:

(poetry, transitive) To read or mark so as to show a specific metre.

escandir

to read or mark so as to show a specific metre

You're right, sir, it doesn't scan very well in the English, but in the Gaelic it's sheer poetry. Have you the Gaelic?

1998, Milton Acorn, Cedric Smith, edited by James Deahl, The Road to Charlottetown: A Play, UnMon Northland:

(poetry, intransitive) To conform to a metrical structure.


stave

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-stave.wav

Back-formation from staves, the plural of staff.

Let us chaunt a passing stave / In honour of that hero brave.

1815, William Wordsworth, Rob Roy's Grave:

(poetry) A metrical portion; a stanza; a staff.

Ley, in his work on the Metrical Forms of Hebrew Poetry, 1866, has taken too little notice of these frequently occurring alliteration staves; Lagarde communicated to me (8th Sept. 1846) his view of the stave-rhyme in the Book[…]

1874, Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, page 73:

[The] stave that binds the two halves of the line together the on-verse must be classified as D in spite of the f-stave . . stave-rhyme (OED s.v. Stave sb.)

1974, John Collins Pope, Old English Studies in Honour of John C. Pope, page 193:

... consisting only of the two staves, folches . . . fehta. […] Line 63 contains the two-stave rhyme, aerist ... asckim; the suggested reduplicative rhyme [...] is technically doubtful according to the standards we have[…]

1975, Studies in Medieval Culture, page 11:

This may seem sparse and incomplete, but is reminiscent of the Old Norse stave rhyme technique in which one avoided two alliterating staves in one dipod – which the poets of that time considered superfluous.

(poetry, rare) The initial consonant, consonant cluster, or vowel of a word which rhymes with another word with the same consonant or vowel in stave-rhyme.


synecdoche

nl-noun

synecdoche f (plural synecdoches, diminutive synecdochetje n)

synecdoches (plural)
synecdochetje (diminutive neuter)

From Latin synecdoche, from Ancient Greek συνεκδοχή (sunekdokhḗ, “receiving together”).


dimeter

en-noun

dimeter (countable and uncountable, plural dimeters)

(poetry) A line in a poem having two metrical feet.

(poetry) A poetic metre in which each line has two feet.


pentameter

pentameter (countable and uncountable, plural pentameters)

PIE word
 *pénkʷe
From Middle French pentamètre, by surface analysis, penta- + meter.

The best verses, more especially pentameters, are written on the principle of attracting and fixing the attention to their close.

1822, Robert Bland, Elements of Latin Hexameters and Pentameters, third edition, London: John Robinson, page vi:

(poetry, countable) A line in a poem having five metrical feet.

(poetry) Poetic metre in which each line has five feet.


tetrameter

tetrameter (countable and uncountable, plural tetrameters)

(poetry) A line in a poem having four metrical feet.

tetrametër

a line in a poem having four metrical feet (poetry)


seagull

From sea + gull. The second element is from a Brythonic language. Compare Welsh gwylan, Breton gouelan.

(orthography) The symbol ̼, which combines under a letter as a sort of accent.


punk

punk (countable and uncountable, plural punks)

Uncertain. Possibly from punk ("rotten wood dust used as tinder", attested since 1678; see Etymology 2 below) to anything worthless (attested since 1869) and then to any undesirable person (since 1908).

gl

(uncountable, science fiction) Any of the punk genres: dieselpunk, solarpunk, steampunk etc.


strain

From Middle English streen, strene, streon, istreon (“race, stock, generation”), from Old English strēon, ġestrēon (“gain, wealth”), from Proto-Germanic *streuną (“heap, treasure, profit, gain”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread, strew”) (cognate with Old Saxon gistriuni, Old High German gistriuni (“gain, property, wealth, business”), Latin strues (“heap”)). Confused in Middle English with the related noun strend, strynd, strund, from Old English strȳnd (“race; stock”), from strēonan, strȳnan (“to beget; acquire”). Related also to Dutch struinen (“to prowl, root about, rout”).

cog

Yet Keats, though for so many years he has given nothing to the world, is understood to have devoted himself to the composition of an epic poem. Some passages of it have been communicated to the inner circle of his admirers, and impressed them as the loftiest strains that have been audible on earth since Milton’s days.

1846, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “P.'s Correspondence”, in Mosses from an Old Manse:

A baby gurgled, a photographer dropped her lens cap, and the strains of the U.S. Army Brass Quintet echoed off the murals depicting seminal moments in American history.

2024, Christa Case Bryant, As US marks 9/11, a divided Congress unites to honor 13 fallen in Afghanistan, in: The Christian Science Monitor, September 11, 2024

(music, poetry) Any sustained note or movement; a song; a distinct portion of an ode or other poem; also, the pervading note, or burden, of a song, poem, etc.

напев

music, poetry: any sustained note or movement; a song; a distinct portion of an ode or other poem; also, the pervading note, or burden, of a song, poem, etc.


Santa Claus

Borrowed from Dutch Sinterklaas (“Saint Nicholas”).

bor+

Last Monday the Anniversary of St. Nicholas, otherwise called St. A Claus, was celebrated at Protestant-Hall.

1773 December 26, New York Gazette, p. 3

The noted St. Nicholas, vulgarly called Santaclaus—of all the saints in the kalendar the most venerated by true hollanders, and their unsophisticated descendants.

Here, too, the winter festivals are just commencing; and the toy-shops are full of dolls and gew-gaws for the Bifana, who acts here the same comedy for children that Santiclaus does in America.

1828 November, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, letter to his mother from Italy

This is one of the developments Karl Marx failed to predict. Had he foreseen it he might have expired in guffaws, rolling in the aisle of the British Museum Library amid the notes for Das Kapital, that bearded Santa Claus of the revolution who slipped the unwanted gift of communism down the world's chimneys.

1937 August, Lawrence Martin, "The Odyssey of a Bogeyman", Esquire, Vol. 8, No. 2, p. 39

Emmeline: Oh Richard, you can't know everything. Only God knows everything.
Richard: God—He can't find us any better than Santa Claus.

1980, Douglas Day Stewart, The Blue Lagoon:

By 1900, department-store Santa Clauses were common – lodged in grottoes, cottages, and workshops or on thrones, they presided over a never-ending stream of children.

2005, Gerry Bowler, “Santa the Adman”, in Santa Claus: A Biography, McClelland & Stewart, →ISBN, page 142:

(folklore) A figure said to bring presents to people (especially children) at Christmas time.

Christkind

Christmas; different figure with same role


trope

Japanese: トロープ (torōpu)

Korean: 트로프 (teuropeu)

From Latin tropus, from Ancient Greek τρόπος (trópos, “a manner, style, turn, way; a trope or figure of speech; a mode in music; a mode or mood in logic”), related to τροπή (tropḗ, “solstice; trope; turn”) and τρέπειν (trépein, “to turn”); compare turn of phrase. The verb is derived from the noun.

der

You have to give director Colm McCarthy, a Scottish TV veteran making his feature film debut, and writer Mike Carey, adapting his own novel, credit for attempting the seemingly impossible task of doing something new with the zombie subgenre. And by blending it with the common YA [young adult] trope of a young female protagonist who leads the world into a new revolutionary era, they almost get there—largely thanks to newcomer [Sennia] Nanua, who presents her character's grappling with complex themes of identity and original sin with a childlike guilelessness.

2017 February 23, Katie Rife, “The Girl With All The Gifts tries to put a fresh spin on overripe zombie clichés”, in The A.V. Club:

They have completely supported the Russians diplomatically, they’ve abstained in key votes at the United Nations, they’ve absolutely cynically repeated all the Russian tropes, particularly in places like Africa and Latin America – [by]^([sic]) blaming Nato and all of this stuff.

2023 July 20, Helen Davidson, quoting Richard Moore, “China complicit in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, says MI6 chief”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Contrary to the familiar trope that regulation kills innovation, Harding argues that in fact the political, moral and legal clarity provided by the Warnock commission spurred investment and economic growth.

2024 May 11, John Thornhill, “More than human?”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 8:

(art, literature) Something recurring across a genre or type of art or literature; a motif.

троп

art, literature: something recurring across a genre or type of art or literature


hors-d'œuvre

hors-d’œuvre (canonical masculine)
hors-d’œuvre (plural)

(literature) digression (act of straying from the main subject that could be removed from the text without detriment to the main plot)


hors-d'œuvre

(literature) off-topic, digressive (not relating directly to the subject at hand)


lament

lament (nominative singular)
lamenty (nominative plural)
lamentu (genitive singular)
lamentów (genitive plural)
lamentowi (dative singular)
lamentom (dative plural)
lament (accusative singular)
lamenty (accusative plural)
lamentem (instrumental singular)
lamentami (instrumental plural)
lamencie (locative singular)
lamentach (locative plural)
lamencie (singular vocative)
lamenty (plural vocative)

(poetry) threnody (poem of lamentation or mourning for a dead person; a dirge; an elegy)


SF

en-noun

SF (countable and uncountable, plural SFs)

→ Japanese: エスエフ, SF (SF)

speculative fiction
speculative fiction#English

(fiction) Initialism of science fiction or speculative fiction, often used to avoid having to choose between the two.


SF

サイエンス・フィクション サイエンス・フィクション#Japanese

(fiction) SF: Abbreviation of サイエンス・フィクション (“science fiction”).


science fiction

pl-noun

science fiction n (indeclinable, abbreviation s.f. or SF)

Unadapted borrowing from English science fiction.

ubor

elementy science fiction

(literature) science fiction (genre of fiction)


science fiction

pl-adj

science fiction (not comparable, no derived adverb)

opowiadanie science fiction

(literature, postpositive, relational) science fiction (genre of fiction)


diacritic

en-adj

diacritic (comparative more diacritic, superlative most diacritic)

more diacritic (comparative)
most diacritic (superlative)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek διακριτικός (diakritikós, “distinguishing, separative”), from διακρίνειν (diakrínein, “to distinguish, separate”), from διά (diá, “between”) + κρίνω (krínō, “I separate, distinguish”).

bor+

(orthography, not comparable) Denoting a distinguishing mark applied to a letter or character.


battleship

From battle + ship; shortened from line-of-battle ship, attested 1794.

Schlachtschiff n. Schlachtschiff is used for dreadnought battleships

Linienschiff is used for pre-dreadnought battleships.

(military, nautical) A large capital warship displacing thousands to tens of thousands of tons, heavily armoured and armed with large-caliber guns; now obsolescent and replaced by smaller vessels with guided missiles.

(science fiction, by extension) A starship of comparable role


cedilla

From Spanish cedilla (literally “little zed”), c. 1600. In Spanish cedilla referred to the letter ⟨Ç⟩, which had evolved from ⟨Ꝣ⟩, a Visigothic form of the letter Z (called a Z with copete); hence the name. The lower part of ⟨Ç⟩ (which came to be reinterpreted as a diacritical mark under a C) is the remnant of the original Z, after it gradually reduced in size; whereas the upper part was originally just an ornamentation over the Z (which increased in size until it resembled letter C, and finally came to be identified with this letter).

bor

(orthography) In the spelling of Catalan, French, Portuguese and some other languages, a mark ⟨¸⟩ sometimes placed under the letter c to indicate that it is pronounced /s/ rather than /k/, as in Catalan força, French menaçant, and Portuguese almoço, and also used in various other languages to change the sounds of other letters.


cedilla

id-noun

cedilla (plural cedilla-cedilla, first-person possessive cedillaku, second-person possessive cedillamu, third-person possessive cedillanya)

cedilla-cedilla (plural)
cedillaku (first-person possessive)
cedillamu (possessive second-person)
cedillanya (possessive third-person)

Unadapted borrowing from Spanish cedilla.


cedilla

→ English: cedilla

desctree

→ French: cédille
→ English: cédille
→ Finnish: sedilji
→ German: Cedille

→ Italian: cediglia

→ Portuguese: cedilha

→ Romanian: sedilă

From Old Spanish ceda (“letter Z”) + -illa (diminutive suffix); cognate with modern Spanish zeta.


ansible

Coined by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin in 1966 in her novella Rocannon's World; Le Guin states that she derived it from answerable. The word was further spread by its adoption into other science fiction worlds, including by Orson Scott Card in Ender's Game (1986), Vernor Vinge in The Blabber (1988) and Dan Simmons in Hyperion (1989).

coin

“You remember the ansible, the machine I showed you in the ship, which can speak instantly to other worlds, with no loss of years– […] ”
“An ansible would theoretically be powered by subatomic particles that have undergone quantum entanglement, which utilizes Einstein's 'spooky action at a distance', allowing the alteration of one particle to instantaneously alter the state of its paired particle. […] ”

1966, Ursula K. Le Guin, Rocannon's World, reprinted in Worlds of Exile and Illusion, Macmillan (1996), page 25

“[…] The master ansible is there, in contact with all our invasion fleet; the ships are all working, ready to fight. […]”

1985, Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game, reprinted by Macmillan, published 2002, →ISBN, page 251:

Ky had allotted two hours here, time to strip the news from the ansible, share it, even discuss it, but she didn’t plan to have everyone clustered and vulnerable.

2008, Elizabeth Moon, Victory Conditions, reprint by Random House, published 2009, →ISBN, page 39:

(science fiction) A hypothetical device that enables users to communicate instantaneously across great distances; that is, a faster-than-light communication device.

Dan Simmons
Ender's Game
Orson Scott Card
Rocannon's World
Vernor Vinge


fairy ring

The idea of a ring where fairies danced was a traditional explanation for the fungal phenomenon before it was understood.

1914, "Rhys at the Fairy Dance" in Maud Keary, Enchanted Tulips and Other Verses for Children, Macmillan and Company, page 102,
Though many a year has passed away, / None have seen Rhys since that day! / Does he dance and does he sing / For ever in a Fairy Ring?

Welsh folklore also reveals few references to fairy rings but there is a fine example found in the legend "Rhys at the Fairy Dance" (collected in 1827) in which Rhys is lost but found again when several people venture to a nearby fairy ring.

1972, North Carolina Folklore Society, North Carolina Folklore Journal, Volumes 20-21: 1972-1973, page 51:

(folklore) A place where fairies congregate in a ring, particularly in order to dance.


Earthwoman

One was what had been born in me, what had been inextricably entangled in the structure of the germ cell from which I had been created; the other remembered all the long years on Earth when I, in common with every other Earthman and Earthwoman, had been flexed and shaped by the insistent pounding of the Combine; my brain had been conditioned to believe what it was desired that I should believe, and nothing beyond that.

1934 September, Frank King Kelly, “Famine on Mars”, in Astounding Stories, volume 14, number 1, page 77:

(usually science fiction) A female inhabitant of Earth.


magistra

Your grandmother must have provided assistance to the magistra at some point.

2002, Evelyn Vaughn, Forest of the Night, →ISBN, page 13:

What the magistra hadn’t said was that a number of the other students were children, some as young as eight or nine.

2007, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., Natural Ordermage, →ISBN, page 119:

“You will take the magistra and magister wherever they need to go, please. They have done my household great service tonight.”

2009, Alison Sinclair, Darkborn, New American Library, →ISBN:

The Magistra was waiting for him in the entrance hall, the vast double doors already opened.

2013, R. S. Ford, Herald of the Storm (Steelhaven: Book One), Headline Publishing Group, →ISBN:

It was, after all, addressed to the magistra of the branch, and technically she fit the description.

2013, Daniel Abraham, The Tyrant’s Law (book 3 of The Dagger and the Coin), Hachette, →ISBN:

With some difficulty, the magistra managed to undo the clasp.

2015, Paul E. Horsman, Rhidauna: The Shadow of the Revenaunt, Book 1, Red Rune Books, →ISBN:

Giving the magistra an apologetic nod, he turned to the karanat and observed, “You do speak Esse. Let’s have no more pretense of that kind. I have questions, which I can put to you in civilized fashion here, under Magistra Ilia’s eye, or elsewhere, under no concerned gaze.[…]”

2016, Rachel Neumeier, The Mountain of Kept Memory, Saga Press, →ISBN:

“On the contrary, show them both in, and bring us a can of Tulamyde Gold and some cookies. It will not be said that I am stingy with important guests,” Emmeran Stoerrebrandt proclaimed. Yet another violation of his dietary rules. He regretted it almost at once. At least until the Magistra rushed into the room, her face set in a grim scowl.

2017, Kevin MacGregor, editor, The Dark Eye: Starless Sky, Ulisses Spiele, →ISBN:

The magistra, who came to inspect the cleaning, interrupted her, “Why are you standing there staring at the wall when there’s much work to do, Floriana?[…]”

2019, Eleanor Cripps, The Countess Choir Woman, Christian Faith Publishing, Inc., →ISBN:

She had always been jealous of the Magistras and their proximity to Queen Leona and now she could solve a problem for one of them.

2020, A.N. Sage, Kartega, Cauldron Press, →ISBN:

It didn’t help that Zuri pulled out her saltiest language in Ky’s required meetings with the coven council. He was convinced she did it on purpose. For one thing, she always looked far too smug at the outraged expressions on the magistras’ faces.

2020, E.J. Russell, Witch Under Wraps, Riptide Publishing, →ISBN, page 34:

Our physician is not available, and we have sought aid from the magistra and Leah Sara Garcia.

2022, Esther Erman, Rebecca of Salerno: A Novel of Rogue Crusaders, a Jewish Female Physician, and a Murder, She Writes Press, →ISBN:

(fiction, especially fantasy) A woman with power or authority, such as a teacher or archmage; a mistress.


Earthling

From earth + -ling (suffix indicating a resident); earth is ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₁er- (“earth”). Old English ierþling (“farmer, husbandman, ploughman”, literally “one of the earth”) is formed from the same roots but generally did not outlive Old English; all modern uses are historical: see earthling. Compare also human, which is derived from Latin humus (“ground, soil”).

noncog

(chiefly science fiction) An inhabitant of Earth, as opposed to one of another planet; specifically, a sentient member of any species native to Earth. [from 20th c.]

أَرْضِيّ

Mercurian · Venusian · Lunarian · Marsling

Jupiterian · Saturnian · Uranian · Neptunian · Plutonian


tellurian

Benjamin Martin
Harvard Science Center
Harvard University

[tʰəˈlɝː.iː.ɨ̃n]

From Latin tellūs (“earth, ground; the globe, planet Earth; country, land”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- (“ground, bottom”), + -ian (suffix meaning "from, related to, or like" when forming an adjective, or "one from, belonging to, relating to, or like" when forming a noun).

suffix

Friends are not alone in this magnanimity, that likes truth only when it suits them. But among all tellurians or lunarians of my acquaintance, they are distinguished for liking those like them, and liking no others.

[1833, Samuel Hanson Cox, Quakerism Not Christianity: Or, Reasons from Renouncing the Doctrine of Friends. In Three Parts, Boston, Mass.: Printed by D. Fanshaw; sold by Jonathan Leavitt, […]; and Crocker & Brewster, […], →OCLC, part first, pages 166–167:

But it's well that that bunch of tellurians are dead! Our diamond was the cause of that much good for the earth!" Nega slowed her orbital speed, oscillated a bit, and twinkled: "Are all tellurians like those we've met in the last year?"

1935 May, Joseph William Skidmore, “A Saga of Posi and Nega”, in T[homas] O’Conor Sloane, editor, Amazing Stories, volume 10, New York, N.Y.: Teck Publishing Corporation, →OCLC, page 107:

(chiefly science fiction) Alternative letter-case form of Tellurian (“inhabitant of the planet Earth”)


mai

(anime, manga, fandom slang, Internet slang) Alternative form of my (used in the expressions mai waifu and mai husbando)


troll

Partly:
* from Middle English trol (“demon (?); sorcerer (?)”) [and other forms], from Old Norse trǫll (“conjurer, mage; witch”), from Proto-Germanic *truzlą (“supernatural being; demon, fiend; giant; monster”), probably from *trudaną (“to step on; to tread”) + *-ilą (suffix forming agent nouns); and
* borrowed from Norwegian Bokmål troll, Swedish troll, or Danish trold, from Old Norse trǫll (see above).
Doublet of droll and trow.
cognates
* Danish fortrylle (“to bewitch”), trylle (“to conjure”)
* Icelandic tröll
* Middle High German trol, trolle (“spook, wraith; ogre, monster”)
* Norwegian fortrylle (“to bewitch”), trylle (“to conjure”)
* Swedish trolla (“to conjure”)

der

He followed their advice, and rode through a rye-field, where the Trolls were unable to follow him, but in their exasperation cried after him, "The red cock shall crow over thy dwelling." And behold! his house stood in a blaze.

1851, Benjamin Thorpe, “Norwegian Traditions. [The Girl at the Sæter.]”, in Northern Mythology, […], volumes II (Scandinavian Popular Traditions and Superstitions), London: Edward Lumley, […], →OCLC, page 7:

The Scandinavian fancied himself surrounded by Trolls,—a kind of goblin men, with vast power of work and skilful production,—divine stevedores, carpenters, reapers, smiths, and masons, swift to reward every kindness done them, with gifts of gold and silver.

1856, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Ability”, in English Traits, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC, page 81:

The bear got so angry that he rushed at the trolls and scratched them all over, while Peter took the other handspike and hammered away at them as if he wanted to beat their brains out. The trolls had to clear out at last, but Peter stayed and enjoyed himself with all the Christmas fare the whole week. After that the trolls were not heard of there for many years.

1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], “Peter Gynt”, in H. L. Brækstad, transl., Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, →OCLC, page 150:

In these manuscripts we are again in an atmosphere of eotens and trolls, there are traces of even older terrors, when the first Teuton settlers in Europe struggled with the aborigines who lived in caves, hints as elusive as the phantom heroes in the Saxon poems, and as unforgettable.

1922, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, “The Anglo-Saxon Herbals”, in The Old English Herbals, London: Longmans, Green and Co. […], →OCLC, page 3:

(originally Scandinavian mythology, now also European folklore and fantasy) a giant supernatural being, especially a grotesque humanoid creature living in caves or hills or under bridges.

طْرُول

giant supernatural being; grotesque humanoid creature living in caves or hills or under bridges


troll

trollet (definite singular)
troll (indefinite plural)
trolla (definite plural)

From Old Norse trǫll, from Proto-Germanic *truzlą, from Proto-Indo-European *dreh₂-.

Dat eine Trollet skræmer inkje dat andre.

1856, Ivar Aasen, Norske Ordsprog [Norwegian Proverbs]:


troll

troll (nominative singular)
trolle (nominative plural)
trolla (genitive singular)
trolli (genitive plural)
trollowi (dative singular)
trollom (dative plural)
trolla (accusative singular)
trolle (accusative plural)
trollem (instrumental singular)
trollami (instrumental plural)
trollu (locative singular)
trollach (locative plural)
trollu (singular vocative)
trolle (plural vocative)

(European folklore, Norse mythology) troll (grotesque humanoid creature living in caves or hills or under bridges)


troll

troll (indefinite nominative singular)
trollet (definite nominative singular)
troll (indefinite nominative plural)
trollen (definite nominative plural)
trolls (genitive indefinite singular)
trollets (definite genitive singular)
trolls (genitive indefinite plural)
trollens (definite genitive plural)

När trollmor har lagt sina elva små troll, och bundit fast dom i svansen, då sjunger hon sakta för [de] elva små trollen, de vackraste ord hon känner: ho aj aj aj aj buff, ho aj aj aj aj buff, ho aj aj aj aj buff, buff, ho aj aj aj aj buff.

1943, Margit Holmberg (lyrics and music), “Trollmors vaggsång [Mother troll's lullaby]”:

When mother troll has put her eleven little trolls to bed, and tied them up by their tails [tail], then she slowly sings to the eleven little trolls, the most beautiful words she knows: ho ay ay ay ay buff, ho ay ay ay ay buff, ho ay ay ay ay buff, buff, ho ay ay ay ay buff.


Father Christmas

en-proper noun

Father Christmas (plural Father Christmases or Father Christmasses or Fathers Christmas)

Father Christmases (plural)
Father Christmasses (plural)
Fathers Christmas (plural)

The old men who had moustaches came with their breath frozen on them, and looked like so many old Father Christmasses: although all seemed poor and were indifferently clad, they almost all looked in good health and spirits.

1879 May, “Famine Relief. Welcome Words from Shan-si in a letter from Mr. James.”, in J[ames] Hudson Taylor, editor, China’s Millions, number 47, London: Morgan and Scott, […], page 63, column 2:

Again Donna Maria’s anger was interrupted by the rising of the curtain; or, rather, diverted from Carlo’s décadent æsthetics to the extreme badness of the mise en scène, to rows of Father Christmasses and ladies in grey waterproofs, who bellowed and gesticulated as unhappy shades at the gates of hell, and the chains of thick thighed and tight waisted furies who capered about in the rose-coloured Bengal light.

1889 June, Vernon Lee [pseudonym; Violet Paget], “Orpheus in Rome: Irrelevant Talks on the Use of the Beautiful”, in The Contemporary Review, volume LV, London: Isbister and Company […], section I, page 833:

The five Father Christmases walked slowly on, oblivious alike of the children who gaped at them and the man-hunt that was taking place under their noses.

1939, Nicholas Blake [pseudonym; Cecil Day-Lewis], The Smiler with the Knife, Harper & Row, page 199:

‘Yeah, I’ve seen those things they think are gnomes,’ said Ron, bent double with his head in a peony bush. ‘Like fat little Father Christmases with fishing rods …’

1998 July 2, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], “The Burrow”, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter; 2), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

At the beginning of the 1990s, therefore, Bardo moved to the current establishment, and was finally able to house his Father Christmases in the style they deserve.

2003, Piers Letcher, Eccentric France: The Bradt Guide to Mad, Magical and Marvellous France, Bradt Travel Guides; The Globe Pequot Press, →ISBN, page 207:

At Christmas, also in 2004, members processed as Fathers Christmas, employing the slogan ‘Put the fathers back into Christmas’.

2007, Duncan Watts, Pressure Groups (Politics Study Guides), Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 122:

After the confrontation with the fictitious peer’s solution process, namely actually drawing rectangles around the Fathers Christmas’ irregular shapes, in Phase 4, another nine of the remaining 22 students (five 12–13- and four 15–16-year olds^([sic])) exchanged their initial linear answer for the correct nonlinear one.

2007, Dirk De Bock, Wim Van Dooren, Dirk Janssens, Lieven Verschaffel, The Illusion of Linearity: From Analysis to Improvement, Springer, →ISBN, page 103:

I was paid £1.92 an hour to wear a pink tutu and entertain the children waiting to see the two Father Christmases (one on either side of the grotto) as the increasingly irate families inched their way past the hour wait markers.

2011, Clare Hemmings, “Crossings”, in Kathy Davis, Mary Evans, editors, Transatlantic Conversations: Feminism as Travelling Theory, Routledge, published 2016, →ISBN, part I (Becoming a Feminist in a Transatlantic Context), page 29:

The smiling carol singers and the laughing Father Christmasses on the television seemed to make my misery more acute.

2016, Bryony Gordon, “I think I might be dying”, in Mad Girl, London: Headline Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 20:

In 1836, English artist Robert Seymour illustrated Thomas K. Hervey’s Book of Christmas with a couple of boozy, wild-haired Fathers Christmas that set the tone for the next fifty years in which the London newspapers were more likely to emphasize the good father’s drinking than anything else.

2020, Tom A. Jerman, Santa Claus Worldwide: A History of St. Nicholas and Other Holiday Gift-Bringers, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, pages 166–167:

In 1958, it was reported that for "the fourth year in succession, staff of four South London stations have combined to decorate the booking hall at Peckham Rye station". They installed a nativity scene, models of Father Christmas, and a sleigh driven by huskies, and Christmas trees were placed around the station.

2023 December 27, David Turner, “Silent lines...”, in RAIL, number 999, page 29:

(folklore) A mythical figure said to bring presents to people (especially children) at Christmas time.


identical

The strictest construction of the rule requires complete and unvarying repetition of end-words, but some license is granted in the use of identicals.

1992, Clarence Hugh Holman, William Harmon, A Handbook to Literature, page 439:

(poetry) A rhyme on the same syllable, such as "leave" and "believe".


oda

ōda (canonical feminine)
ōdae (genitive)
ōda (nominative singular)
ōdae (nominative plural)
ōdae (genitive singular)
ōdārum (genitive plural)
ōdae (dative singular)
ōdīs (dative plural)
ōdam (accusative singular)
ōdās (accusative plural)
ōdā (ablative singular)
ōdīs (ablative plural)
ōda (singular vocative)
ōdae (plural vocative)

→ Catalan: oda

→ Galician: oda

→ Italian: ode

→ Middle French: ode

French: ode

→ Dutch: ode
Afrikaans: ode

→ Romanian: odă

desctree

→ Russian: ода (oda)
→ Georgian: ოდა (oda)

→ English: ode

→ Japanese: オード

→ Occitan: òda

→ Polish: oda

→ Portuguese: ode

→ Spanish: oda

→ Tagalog: oda

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”).


oda

oda (nominative singular)
ody (nominative plural)
ody (genitive singular)
od (genitive plural)
odzie (dative singular)
odom (dative plural)
odę (accusative singular)
ody (accusative plural)
odą (instrumental singular)
odami (instrumental plural)
odzie (locative singular)
odach (locative plural)
odo (singular vocative)
ody (plural vocative)

Learned borrowing from Latin ōda, from Ancient Greek ᾠδή (ōidḗ).


kreska

pl-noun

kreska f (diminutive kreseczka, augmentative krecha, related adjective kreskowy)

kreseczka (diminutive)
krecha (augmentative)
kreskowy (adjective)
kreska (nominative singular)
kreski (nominative plural)
kreski (genitive singular)
kresek (genitive plural)
kresce (dative singular)
kreskom (dative plural)
kreskę (accusative singular)
kreski (accusative plural)
kreską (instrumental singular)
kreskami (instrumental plural)
kresce (locative singular)
kreskach (locative plural)
kresko (singular vocative)
kreski (plural vocative)

(orthography) diacritic closely resembling an acute accent


fantasy

en-noun

fantasy (countable and uncountable, plural fantasies)

→ Armenian: ֆենտեզի (fentezi)

→ Belarusian: фэнтэзі (fentezi)

→ Bulgarian: фентъзи (fentǎzi)

→ Czech: fantasy

→ Danish: fantasy

→ Dutch: fantasy

→ French: fantasy

→ Georgian: ფენტეზი (penṭezi)

→ German: Fantasy

→ Hindi: फंतासी (phantāsī)

→ Italian: fantasy

→ Japanese: ファンタジー (fantajī)

→ Korean: 판타지 (pantaji)

→ Malay: fantasi

→ Norwegian Bokmål: fantasy

→ Polish: fantasy

→ Russian: фэ́нтези (fɛ́ntɛzi)

→ Swahili: fantasia

→ Swedish: fantasy

→ Thai: แฟนตาซี (fɛɛn-dtaa-sii)

→ Ukrainian: фе́нтезі (féntezi)

Noun inherited from Middle English fantasie, from Old French fantasie (“fantasy”), from Latin phantasia (“imagination”), from Ancient Greek φαντασία (phantasía, “apparition”), from φαντάζω (phantázō, “to render visible”), from φαντός (phantós, “visible”), from φαίνω (phaínō, “to make visible”); from the same root as φάος (pháos, “light”); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰh₂nyéti, from the root *bʰeh₂- (“to shine”). Doublet of fancy, fantasia, phantasia, and phantasy.
Verb from Middle English fantasien, from Old French fantasier. Doublet of fancy.

doublet

(literature) The literary genre generally dealing with themes of magic and the supernatural, imaginary worlds and creatures, etc.


fantasy

Borrowed from English fantasy. Doublet of fantasie.


fantasy

Borrowed from English fantasy. Doublet of fantasi.


fantasy

Unadapted borrowing from English fantasy. Doublet of fantaisie.


fantasy

head

fantasy m (definite singular fantasyen, indefinite plural fantasyer, definite plural fantasyene)

fantasyen (definite singular)
fantasyer (indefinite plural)
fantasyene (definite plural)


Venusian

(science fiction) An inhabitant of the planet Venus.


Venusian

(science fiction) A hypothetical language spoken on Venus.


waka

Borrowed from Japanese 和歌 (waka), from Middle Chinese 和 (ɣwa), a gloss for 倭 (ʔwa, “Japan”) + 歌 (ka, “song”).

“Hey, look. There's one of those Jap waka poems on the back of this cigarette package.”

1962, Philip K. Dick, “The Man in the High Castle”, in Four Novels of the 1960s, Library of America, published 2007, page 122:

(poetry) A kind of classical Japanese poem.


feuilleton

→ English: feuilleton

→ German: Feuilleton

→ Italian: feuilleton, fogliettone

→ Swedish: följetong

(literature) serial, feuilleton, literary article


prompt

From French prompt, from Latin prōmptus (“visible, apparent, evident”), past participle of prōmō (“to take or bring out or forth, produce, bring to light”), from prō (“forth, forward”) + emō (“to take, acquire, buy”).

der

(writing) A suggestion for inspiration given to an author.


Martian

Amazing Stories
Frank R. Paul
H. G. Wells
Hubble Space Telescope
The War of the Worlds

From Latin Mārtius (“of or relating to the planet Mars”) + -an (adjective-forming suffix). The word is cognate with Middle English marcien, marcyan, mercien (“subject to the influence or power of the planet Mars; relating to the god Mars, that is, warlike”), Middle French martien (“Martian”) (modern French martien), French Martien (“imaginary inhabitant of Mars; any extraterrestrial”), Italian marziano, Latin Mārtiānus (“Martian”), Portuguese marciano, Spanish marciano.

cog

Thus she [one of the moons of Mars] has a disc, always on this assumption be it remembered, equal to about a quarter of our moon's; and being illuminated by the sun, like the other moon, with a light varying from one-half to one-third that which he pours on the earth, it follows that the light she reflects to Martians, or would reflect to them if there were any such beings, varies from one-eighth to one-twelfth of that which we receive from the full moon.

1877 October, Wentworth Erck, “The Moons of Mars”, in The Cornhill Magazine, volume XXXVI, number 214, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 424:

Those who have never seen a living Martian can scarcely imagine the strange horror of their appearance. The peculiar V-shaped mouth with its pointed upper lip, the absence of brow ridges, the absence of a chin beneath the wedge-like lower lip, the incessant quivering of this mouth, the Gorgon groups of tentacles, [...]

1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Cylinder Unscrews”, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC, book I (The Coming of the Martians), page 28:

[...] M. le Coultre, the distinguished astronomer of Geneva, has once more declared that the Martians are trying to signal to us. [...] How long M. le Coultre's suggestion will stand before it goes the way of other similar conjectures now exploded, no one can say.

1913 November 8, “Signals from Mars”, in The North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette: The Weekly Edition of the North-China Daily News, volume CIX (New Series), number 2413, Shanghai: Printed and published at the offices of the North-China Daily News & Herald, Ld., →OCLC, page 399, column 2:

If the Martian understood and could analyze the character of men and women, he would find in shops, factories, mills, schools, offices, in business, in the professions and arts, multitudes of men and women in the unhappy position of the fish out of water. Floundering hopelessly in vocations for which they have no aptitude, unless some merciful wave carry them to their native element, the place for which nature especially equipped them, their lives will be wrecked.

1921 May, Orison Swett Marden, “Are You a Fish Out of Water?”, in Orison Swett Marden, editor, The New Success: Marden’s Magazine, volume V, number 5, New York, N.Y.: The Lowrey-Marden Corporation, →OCLC, page 54:

Like a philosopher, or rather the hermit crab, he [Hoo Keng Tuck] lives in complete retirement, looking out occasionally from his coign of vantage upon his luckless compatriots who are struggling to make this world a better place to live in for themselves and their children, pretty much as a Martian might watch the social activities of the earth's inhabitants.

1923, Song Ong Siang, “The Third Decade (1839–49)”, in One Hundred Years’ History of the Chinese in Singapore: […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 57:

However, despite a declared interest in Mexico's Indian past, he feels that his country's uneducated and mostly Indian citizens are like creatures of another species. To then, "we are like Martians," Javier says, "We don't speak as they do or think as they do … If we do see them, it's like the zoo … We are their enemies and they know it" [...].

1982, Malva E. Filer, “A Change of Skin and the Shaping of a Mexican Time”, in Robert Brody, Charles Rossman, editors, Carlos Fuentes: A Critical View (Texas Pan American Series), Austin, Tx.: University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 128:

A Martian who landed in Britain in the past few weeks—assuming he managed to get a visa—would take it for a place that dislikes visitors. [...] And yet, if he lingered, the Martian might find himself being asked how health care was organised on his planet, or how its retailers were coping with the internet.

2013 August 24, “Bagehot” [pseudonym], “Go away, we need you: In Britain, xenophilia runs almost as deep as xenophobia”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8850, archived from the original on 2013-08-22:

(chiefly science fiction) An inhabitant of the planet Mars.

Coordinate term: Martianess

An inhabitant of the planet Mars.
A male Martian.


Martian

Although impressed by [Catherine Elise] Muller as a person, [Théodore] Flournoy regarded her experiences as a marvel of psychology rather than spiritualism. One of his key findings was that, while Muller's Martian had a consistent 23 letter alphabet, grammar and syntax, it was in fact a twisted variant of French.

2004 January 8, Mark Pilkington, “Martian spoken here”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 2014-09-12:

Suvi: Between the Remnant city, Meridian, and however the Scourge fits in... pardon my Martian, but it's all weird as shit.

2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Tempest:

(science fiction) A hypothetical language spoken on Mars.


בית

he-noun

בַּיִת • (báyit, báyiṯ) m (plural indefinite בָּֽתִּים, singular construct בֵּית־, plural construct בָּֽתֵּי־, Biblical Hebrew pausal form בָּיִת) [pattern: קֶטֶל]

בַּיִת (canonical)
báyit (romanization)
báyiṯ (romanization)
בָּֽתִּים (indefinite plural)
בֵּית־ (construct singular)
בָּֽתֵּי־ (construct plural)
form בָּיִת (Biblical-Hebrew pausal)
בַּיִת (indefinite singular)
בֵּיתִי (feminine first-person masculine possessed-form singular)
בֵּיתֵנוּ (feminine first-person masculine plural possessed-form)
הַבַּיִת (definite singular)
בֵּיתְךָ (masculine possessed-form second-person singular)
בֵּיתֵךְ (feminine possessed-form second-person singular)
בֵּיתְכֶם (masculine plural possessed-form second-person)
בֵּיתְכֶן (feminine plural possessed-form second-person)
בֵּית־ (construct singular)
בֵּיתוֹ (masculine possessed-form singular third-person)
בֵּיתָהּ (feminine possessed-form singular third-person)
בֵּיתָם (masculine plural possessed-form third-person)
בֵּיתָן (feminine plural possessed-form third-person)
בָּֽתִּים (indefinite plural)
בתיי (feminine first-person masculine possessed-form singular)
בָּֽתַּי (feminine first-person masculine possessed-form singular)
בָּֽתֵּינוּ (feminine first-person masculine plural possessed-form)
הַבָּֽתִּים (definite plural)
בָּֽתֶּיךָ (masculine possessed-form second-person singular)
בתייך (feminine possessed-form second-person singular)
בָּֽתַּיִךְ (feminine possessed-form second-person singular)
בָּֽתֵּיכֶם (masculine plural possessed-form second-person)
בָּֽתֵּיכֶן (feminine plural possessed-form second-person)
בָּֽתֵּי־ (construct plural)
בָּֽתָּיו (masculine possessed-form singular third-person)
בָּֽתֶּיהָ (feminine possessed-form singular third-person)
בָּֽתֵּיהֶם (masculine plural possessed-form third-person)
בָּֽתֵּיהֶן (feminine plural possessed-form third-person)

desctree

→ Yiddish: בית (beys)
→ Alemannic German: Beiz
→ German: Beiz

From Proto-Semitic *bayt- (“house”). Cognate with Akkadian 𒂍 (bītum) and Arabic بَيْت (bayt).

(poetry) stanza (a unit of a poem, written or printed as a paragraph; equivalent to a verse)


torpedo

* Borrowed from Latin torpēdō (“a torpedo fish; numbness, torpidity, electric ray”), from torpeō (“I am stiff, numb, torpid; I am astounded; I am inactive”) + -ēdō (noun suffix), from Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“stiff”). In the military sense coined by Robert Fulton in 1805. Cognate with Old English steorfan (“to die”), Ancient Greek στερεός (stereós, “solid”), Lithuanian tirpstu (“to become rigid”), Old Church Slavonic трупети (trupeti).
* (type of car): From 1908, after "the Torpedo", a car designed by Captain Theo Masui.

cog

(military) A cylindrical explosive projectile that can travel underwater and is used as a weapon.

(science fiction) A similar projectile that can travel through space.


apóstrofo

From Latin apostrophus, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστροφος (apóstrophos, “accent of elision”).

der

A expressão "d’água" deve ser escrita com apóstrofo.
The expression "d’água" [of the water] must be written with an apostrophe.

(orthography) apostrophe (the character ’)


Area 51

Unclear, but perhaps from a grid numbering system of the area by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). While Area 51 is not part of this system, it is adjacent to Area 15.

Nevada Test and Training Range
w:Nevada Test and Training Range

(science fiction or ufology, informal) A secret military facility, airport, and airbase in Nevada Test and Training Range, Nevada, United States. It is the subject of conspiracy theories claiming it is where the US government hides extra-planetary alien visitors.

Atomic Energy Commission
en:Area 51
en:Area 51 (disambiguation)

Area 51

military base in Nevada rumored to contain extraterrestrial life


Area 51

de-prop

Area 51 f (proper noun, genitive Area 51)

Area 51 (genitive)
Area 51 (nominative singular)
Area 51 (genitive singular)
Area 51 (dative singular)
Area 51 (accusative singular)

Unadapted borrowing from English Area 51.

ubor

(science fiction or ufology, informal) Area 51 (a secret military facility, airport, and airbase in Nevada Test and Training Range, Nevada, United States)


boustrophedon

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βουστροφηδόν (boustrophēdón, literally “turning like an ox”), from βοῦς (boûs, “ox”) + στροφή (strophḗ, “turning”) + -ηδόν (-ēdón, adverbial suffix).

bor+

βουστροφηδόν

af

(historical, calligraphy, of writing) In a fashion such that the reading direction changes from right-to-left to left-to-right with each new line.


boustrophedon

bor+

βουστροφηδόν

(historical, calligraphy, of writing) Written from right-to-left and left-to-right on alternate lines.


boustrophedon

en-noun

boustrophedon (countable and uncountable, plural boustrophedons)

bor+

βουστροφηδόν

The number of Attic boustrophedon texts is fairly small; most of those just cited have been brought down by the experts to a date close to 550 B.C., a date to which several texts of more than one line inscribed left to right may also be assigned (cf. pp.56—57 infra), besides the four-line retrograde sep. mon. of Pediarchus cited in the previous section (cf. p.52 supra). Stone texts only really become numerous in Attica about 550, and by this time it is clear that left-to-right writing is just as common as boustrophedon, and may have been so even earlier.[…]After 540 boustrophedon was certainly unusual.

1980, Leslie Threatte, The Grammar of Attic Inscriptions: Phonology, page 55:

(Venetic apparently had both kinds of boustrophedon, either flipping the face of the characters when switching direction or else inverting them (Lejeune, 1974, pages 180-181).)

2000, Richard Sproat, A Computational Theory of Writing Systems, page 61:

He draws a sharp distinction between true boustrophedon, which has the tops of the runes pointed in the same direction, but with a change in the direction of writing with each line, and false boustrophedon, which changes from upright to inverted runes with each line, but the lines themselves are each written in the same direction.

2002, Elmer H. Antonsen, Runes and Germanic Linguistics, page 132:

(historical, calligraphy, of writing) Writing that is right-to-left and left-to-right on alternate lines.

بُطْرُفَة

writing that is alternately right-to-left and left-to-right


coco

Borrowed from Portuguese côco (“bogeyman, grinning face”), probably from Latin coccum (“kernel, seed”).

Duérmete niño, duérmete ya… que viene el coco y te comerá.

Sleep child, sleep now… lest the bogeyman come and eat you.


beamer

From beam (“project, transmit”) + -er (agent noun suffix), or, for the ball, + -er (patient suffix).

suf

For several days he went about his charge with disgust, trying everything he could to avoid the stench of rotting vegetation and of human feces, which was overpowering even as it all burned under the plasma from his beamer.

2013, Paul Alcorn, The Rhoedraegon Chronicles: Book Two:

(science fiction) A device that projects or transmits matter, information, or energy.


organic

From Middle English organic, organik, from Old French organique, from Latin organicus.

(science fiction) A living organism, as opposed to a robot or hologram.


stun

en-noun

stun (countable and uncountable, plural stuns)

From Middle English stunien, stonien, stounien, from Old English stunian (“to crash, make a loud sound, resound, roar, strike with a loud sound, dash, impinge, knock, confound, astonish, stupefy”), from Proto-West Germanic *stunōn, from Proto-Germanic *stunōną, *stunjaną (“to sound, crash, bang, groan”), from Proto-Germanic *stenaną (“to moan, shout”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tona-, *(s)tena- (“to thunder, roar, groan”) (compare thunder). Cognate with Middle Low German stonen (“to groan”), Middle High German stunen, stunden (“to drive, push, knock, strike”), Swedish stöna (“to moan, groan”), Danish stønne (“to moan, groan”), Icelandic stynja (“to moan”). Related also to Dutch steunen (“to groan; support”), German stöhnen (“to groan, moan”), German staunen (“to be astonished, be amazed, marvel at”), Russian стонать (stonatʹ), стена́ть (stenátʹ, “to moan, groan”). See also Occitan estonar, Old French estoner, English astonish.

cog

Captain James Kirk: "Set your phaser on one quarter. I'll leave mine on stun."

1966 September 8, George Clayton Johnson, The Man Trap (Star Trek), season 1, episode 1:

(science fiction, uncountable) A low-range setting for an energy weapon that will stun its target but not injure or kill it.


will o' the wisp

en-noun

will o' the wisp (plural will o' the wisps)

/ˌwɪləðəˈwɪsp/

Will (“male given name”) + of + the + wisp (“bundle of straw or hay used as a torch”)

1988, Michael Weikath, "Keeper of the Seven Keys", Helloween, Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part II.
Will o' the wisps / Misguiding your path / You can't throw a curse / Without takin' their wrath

Any of several kinds of pale, flickering light, appearing over marshland in many parts of the world with diverse folkloric explanations and multiple possible scientific explanations including bioluminescence and chemiluminescence.

(British folklore) A flickering light or lantern, especially over bogs, swamps or marshes, held by a supernatural creature who uses it to lure travelers at night to their demise.


terminator

[ˈtɜː.mɪ.næɪ.ɾə]

* Partly from post-classical Latin terminator (5th century), from Latin terminō; partly from terminate + -or.
* (android that kills humans): After the 1984 film The Terminator.

(science fiction) An intelligent android created to destroy humans.


comic strip

(comics) A series of drawings, in sequence, often but not necessarily depicting something funny or satirical in nature.


comic book

(comics) A book or magazine that uses sequences of drawings to narrate a story or a series of stories, primarily in a serialized form, usually fiction.


pixie

Uncertain; 17thC, originally in the folklore of southwest England; perhaps diminutive of Swedish pysk (“fairy”); perhaps Puck + -sy; see Wikipedia.

Then she saw pixies — dozens and dozens of pixies — dancing and singing.

2005, Dan Keding, “The Pixies’ Bed”, in Dan Keding, Amy Douglas, editors, English Folktales, page 98:

When she looked around, Mary saw four pixies flying toward her. She had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit. Then the pixies turned around and attacked again.

2005, Kathryn Reyes, Mystery Door Manor and the Dragon Realm, page 72:

The servant that had raised him, an elderly pixie called Rolog, had died. On his deathbed he had called the young Captain to his side. Seeing the pixie dying had had no effect on him.

2007, Jeremy Phillips, The Wizardon Star, page 165:

Tiffy froze as the two pixies looked directly into each other's eyes.
Then Tiffy raised her hand and said, “Hi, I'm Tiffy the Tooth Fairy.” Even though the other pixie lifted her hand too, she didn't answer.

2010, Sandra A. Filbin, The Enchanted World: A Tooth Fairy's Tale, page 49:

(mythology, fantasy literature, fairy tales) A playful sprite or elflike or fairy-like creature.


villain

Probably from Middle English vilein, from Old French vilein (modern French vilain), in turn from Late Latin villanus, meaning serf or peasant, someone who is bound to the soil of a Latin villa, which is to say, worked on the equivalent of a plantation in late Antiquity, in Italy or Gaul. Doublet of villein.

Count Dracula
Darth Vader
Dracula
Harry Potter
Lady Macbeth
Macbeth
Macbeth (character)
Othello
Sauron
Star Wars
The BFG
The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings
The Merchant of Venice

Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.

1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

July 18 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Riseshttp://www.avclub.com/articles/the-dark-knight-rises-review-batman,82624/
As The Dark Knight Rises brings a close to Christopher Nolan’s staggeringly ambitious Batman trilogy, it’s worth remembering that director chose The Scarecrow as his first villain—not necessarily the most popular among the comic’s gallery of rogues, but the one who set the tone for entire series.

(fiction) In fiction, a character who has the role of being bad, especially antagonizing the hero; an antagonist who is also evil or malevolent.


hug

hugen (definite singular)
hugar (indefinite plural)
hugane (definite plural)

From Old Norse hugr (“thought”), from Proto-Germanic *hugiz og uncertain origin. Cognates include Norwegian Bokmål hu.

(uncountable, folklore) an itch in the nose which comes when someone is thinking of one, or as a warning that someone is about to arrive


cyberpunk

cyberpunk (countable and uncountable, plural cyberpunks)

From cyber- + -punk, coined by American writer and software developer Bruce Bethke as the title of a 1983 short story, and later popularized by Gardner Dozois.

coin

But by 1987, cyberpunk had become a cliche. Other writers had turned the form into formula: implant wetware (biological computer chips), government by multinational corporations, street-wise, leather-jacketed, amphetamine-loving protagonists and decayed orbital colonies.

1991 January 7, Lewis Shiner, “Confessions of an Ex-Cyberpunk”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Cyberpunk stories are set in a futuristic, dystopic environment—the opposite of utopian—in which computer technology plays an important role. […] The protagonists of cyberpunk stories are technologically proficient, lonely adventurers struggling with issues of identity and forced to use computer skills to fight menacing forces of domination.

2015, Abby H. P. Werlock, Encyclopedia of the American Short Story, Infobase Learning, →ISBN:

information technology
information technology

(science fiction, uncountable) A subgenre of science fiction which focuses on computer or information technology and virtual reality juxtaposed with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order.


cyberpunk

cyberpunk (nominative singular)
cyberpunku (genitive singular)
cyberpunkowi (dative singular)
cyberpunk (accusative singular)
cyberpunkiem (instrumental singular)
cyberpunku (locative singular)
cyberpunku (singular vocative)

Unadapted borrowing from English cyberpunk.

ubor

(film, science fiction) cyberpunk (sci-fi subgenre)


cyberpunk

cyberpunk (nominative singular)
cyberpunki (nominative plural)
cyberpunka (genitive singular)
cyberpunków (genitive plural)
cyberpunkowi (dative singular)
cyberpunkom (dative plural)
cyberpunka (accusative singular)
cyberpunków (accusative plural)
cyberpunkiem (instrumental singular)
cyberpunkami (instrumental plural)
cyberpunku (locative singular)
cyberpunkach (locative plural)
cyberpunku (singular vocative)
cyberpunki (plural vocative)

(film, science fiction) cyberpunk (cyberpunk character, a hacker punk, a high-tech low life)


cyberpunk

cyberpunk (indefinite nominative uncountable)
cyberpunken (definite nominative uncountable)
cyberpunks (genitive indefinite uncountable)
cyberpunkens (definite genitive uncountable)

(science fiction, uncountable) cyberpunk


catalyst

The current view by both Labour and Conservative politicians is that the state of the UK railway is unsustainable, and the pandemic acted as a catalyst in exposing its weaknesses.

2023 May 31, Tammy Samuel, Fergus McLaverty, “The political picture: what lies ahead for Britain's railways?”, in RAIL, number 984, page 31:

(literature) An inciting incident that sets the successive conflict into motion.


quaderno

From Latin quaternus (“fourfold”), from quater (“four times”), from quattuor (“four”).


bugbear

From obsolete meaning of bug (“something terrifying”) + bear. See Middle English bugge, modern bogey.

Ha, ha: alas poore wretch: a poore Chipochia, haſt not ſlept to night? would he not (a naughty man) let it ſleepe: a bug-beare take him.

c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

“How could you lie so glaringly as to affirm I hated the ‘poor child’? and invent bugbear stories to terrify her from my door-stones?[…]”

1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XXII, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:

"My young friends," quietly replied Jason, "I do not wonder that you think the dragon very terrible. You have grown up from infancy in the fear of this monster, and therefore still regard him with the awe that children feel for the bugbears and hobgoblins which their nurses have talked to them about.[…]"

1853, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Golden Fleece”, in Tanglewood Tales:

The partisans of the Administration object to the word “imperialism,” calling it a mere bugbear having no real existence.

1900, Carl Schurz, For Truth, Justice and Liberty:

(folklore, fantasy) A generic creature, often described as a large goblin, meant to inspire fear in children.


stichomythia

en-noun

stichomythia (countable and uncountable, plural stichomythias)

/stɪkəˈmɪθɪə/

From Latin, from Ancient Greek στιχομυθία (stikhomuthía), from στίχος (stíkhos, “line of verse”) (see sticho-) + μῦθος (mûthos, “speech”).

The trial in the great hall under its high vaults, dusty sunlight shafting in, full of murmurers and growlers quietened by beadles and bailiffs, with howlers in the street held back with pikes, was by way of being a play without plot or exercise in what the Senecans term stichomythia.

1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man In Deptford:

The stichomythias are just as necessary in Sophocles' tragedies as are his choruses.

2006, Olga Freidenberg, Image and Concept, page 297:

The two modes have different effects: while a rhesis allows the speaker to give an account of himself, attempt to persuade his hearers, or move freely across a range of emotions or types of argument, stichomythia is better suited to swift exchange of information through question and answer, though it can also be used for spicy polemic, aggressive interrogation, or accusation and defence.

2012, R. B. Rutherford, Greek Tragic Style: Form, Language and Interpretation, page 165:

(poetry) A technique in drama or poetry, in which alternating lines, or half-lines, are given to alternating characters, voices, or entities.


cred

cred (countable and uncountable, plural creds)

And you're getting well paid, of course, but that's nothing to them, is it? They could double your salary, Gertler—pay you two million creds a year —and it'd still be peanuts to these people […]

2021, Michael Carroll, Laurel Sills, Matthew Smith, Judge Dredd Year Three:

(science fiction, slang) A credit (currency unit).


lyric

en-adj

lyric (comparative more lyric, superlative most lyric)

more lyric (comparative)
most lyric (superlative)

From French lyrique, or its source, Latin lyricus, from Ancient Greek λυρικός (lurikós), from λύρα (lúra, “lyre”). Its English equivalent would be lyre + -ic.
The original Greek sense of "lyric poetry"—"poetry accompanied by the lyre" i.e. "words set to music"—eventually led to its use as "lyrics", first attested in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Stainer and Barrett used the word as a singular substantive: "Lyric, poetry or blank verse intended to be set to music and sung". By the 1930s, the present use of the plurale tantum "lyrics" had begun; it has been standard since the 1950s for many writers. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song by authorities such as Alec Wilder, Robert Gottlieb, and Stephen Sondheim. However, the singular form is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics.

(poetry) Of, or relating to a type of poetry (such as a sonnet or ode) that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings, often in a songlike style


blank

From Middle English blank, blonc, blaunc, blaunche, from Anglo-Norman blonc, blaunc, blaunche, from Old French blanc, feminine blanche, from Frankish *blank (“gleaming, white, blinding”), from Proto-Germanic *blankaz (“white, bright, blinding”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ- (“to shine”). Akin to Old High German blanch (“shining, bright, white”) (German blank), Old English blanc (“white, grey”), blanca (“white steed”), Spanish blanco. More at blink, blind, blanch. Doublet of blanc.


macron

From Ancient Greek μακρόν (makrón), neuter form of μακρός (makrós, “long”) (English macro-).

We say such words belong to a Long family, because of the long macron hat the vowels wear. Like the other twin o's, one hat is enough for both, for these twins are always found together.

1889, Rebecca S[mith] Pollard, A Complete Manual: Pollard’s Synthetic Method of Reading and Spelling. Designed to Accompany Synthetic Readers and Spellers, New York, N.Y.: American Book Company, →OCLC, page 75:

A macron is a mark placed above a long vowel to mark its quantity.

1974, Floyd L. Moreland, Rita M. Fleischer, Latin: An Intensive Course, University of California Press, page 13:

All vowels are pronounced short unless marked with a ¯ (macron) over them. So observe different vowel length of ‘i ’ in, e.g., fīlia, etc. It may be helpful, but is not essential, to mark macra in your exercises.

1986, Peter V. Jones, Keith C. Sidwell, “Introduction”, in Reading Latin, volumes 1 (Grammar, Vocabulary and Exercises), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 2, general note 1:

(orthography) A short, straight, horizontal diacritical mark (◌̄) placed over a letter, usually to indicate that the pronunciation of a vowel is long.


macron

nl-noun

macron m (plural macrons, diminutive macrontje n)

macrons (plural)
macrontje (diminutive neuter)

From Ancient Greek μακρόν (makrón), neuter form of μακρός (makrós, “long”).


kasha

(folklore) A yokai that steals the corpses of those who have died as a result of accumulating evil deeds.


mimesis

Learned borrowing from Latin mīmēsis, from Ancient Greek μῑ́μησις (mī́mēsis).

(art, literature) mimesis (representation of aspects of the real world, especially human actions)


hyper

en-noun

hyper (countable and uncountable, plural hypers)

Shortenings, ultimately from the prefix hyper-.

(uncountable, science fiction, informal) Clipping of hyperspace.


leprechaun

→ German: Leprechaun

→ Italian: leprecauno

→ Japanese: レプラコーン (repurakōn)

→ Korean: 레프러콘 (repeureokon)

→ Portuguese: leprechaun

→ Russian: лепреко́н (leprekón)

→ Spanish: leprechaun

/ˈlɛpɹəkɔːn/

/ˈlɛpɹəˌkɔn/

/ˈlɛpɹəˌkɑn/

From Irish leipreachán, luprachán, from Middle Irish luchrupán, from Old Irish luchorpán. See also Irish lucharachán.
The word's further etymology is disputed; it is traditionally explained as a compound containing lú (“small”, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lengʷʰ-) + corp (“body”, which is from Latin corpus). However, an alternative suggestion is that it is a derivative of Latin Lupercī (“priests of Lupercus”), who were misinterpreted as an antediluvian species by medieval Irish scholars.

af

from Proto-Indo-European <i class="Latn mention" lang="ine-pro">*h₁lengʷʰ-</i>

which is from Latin <i class="Latn mention" lang="la">corpus</i>

Do you not catch the tiny clamour, / Busy click of an elfin hammer, / Voice of the leprechaun singing shrill, / As he merrily plies his trade?

1888, William Allingham, “The Lepracaun; or Fairy Shoemaker”, in William Butler Yeats, editor, Irish Fairy and Folk Tales, pages 86–87:

(Irish folklore) One of a race of elves that can reveal hidden treasure to those who catch them.

（爱尔兰民间传说里的）短妖精

[Àiěrlán mínjiān chuánshuō lǐ de] duǎn yāojing


leprechaun

Unadapted borrowing from English leprechaun, from Irish leipreachán.


antikva

head

antikva (countable and uncountable, plural antikvák)

antikvák (plural)
antikva (nominative singular)
antikvák (nominative plural)
antikvát (accusative singular)
antikvákat (accusative plural)
antikvának (dative singular)
antikváknak (dative plural)
antikvával (instrumental singular)
antikvákkal (instrumental plural)
antikváért (causal-final singular)
antikvákért (causal-final plural)
antikvává (singular translative)
antikvákká (plural translative)
antikváig (singular terminative)
antikvákig (plural terminative)
antikvaként (essive-formal singular)
antikvákként (essive-formal plural)
antikvában (inessive singular)
antikvákban (inessive plural)
antikván (singular superessive)
antikvákon (plural superessive)
antikvánál (adessive singular)
antikváknál (adessive plural)
antikvába (illative singular)
antikvákba (illative plural)
antikvára (singular sublative)
antikvákra (plural sublative)
antikvához (allative singular)
antikvákhoz (allative plural)
antikvából (elative singular)
antikvákból (elative plural)
antikváról (delative singular)
antikvákról (delative plural)
antikvától (ablative singular)
antikváktól (ablative plural)
antikváé (possessed-single possessive predicative singular)
antikváké (plural possessed-single possessive predicative)
antikváéi (possessed-single possessive predicative singular)
antikvákéi (plural possessed-single possessive predicative)
antikvám (first-person possessed-single possessive singular)
antikváim (first-person possessed-many possessive singular)
antikvád (possessed-single possessive second-person singular)
antikváid (possessed-many possessive second-person singular)
antikvája (possessed-single possessive singular third-person)
antikvái (possessed-many possessive singular third-person)
antikvánk (first-person plural possessed-single possessive)
antikváink (first-person plural possessed-many possessive)
antikvátok (plural possessed-single possessive second-person)
antikváitok (plural possessed-many possessive second-person)
antikvájuk (plural possessed-single possessive third-person)
antikváik (plural possessed-many possessive third-person)

From Latin antīqua littera (“classic letter”), from the nominative feminine singular of antīquus (“old, ancient, classic”). Doublet of antik.

der

Coordinate term: (incunable, printed before the 16th century) ősnyomtatvány

(palaeography) a (historically significant) sixteenth-century publication


climax

nl-noun

climax m (plural climaxen, diminutive climaxje n)

climaxen (plural)
climaxje (diminutive neuter)

Borrowed from Latin climax, from Ancient Greek κλῖμαξ (klîmax).

De climax van het verhaal was voor mijn gevoel wel erg snel afgelopen.

The climax of the story felt like it ended too quickly.

(literature) climax (culmination of a narrative's rising action)


rhapsody

The noun is derived from Latin rhapsōdia (“part of an epic poem suitable for uninterrupted recitation”), from Koine Greek ῥαψῳδία (rhapsōidía, “part of an epic poem suitable for uninterrupted recitation; rigmarole”), Ancient Greek ῥαψῳδία (rhapsōidía, “composition or recitation of Epic poetry”), from ῥαψῳδός (rhapsōidós, “composer or performer of Epic poetry”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-íā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). Ῥαψῳδός (Rhapsōidós) is derived from ῥᾰ́πτω (rháptō, “to sew”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *werb- (“to bend; to turn”)) + ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “ode; song”) (ultimately from Proto-Hellenic *awoidā́ (“song”)) + -ος (-os, suffix forming o-grade action nouns).
Sense 2.2 (“instrumental composition of irregular form”) probably developed from sense 2.1 (“exaggeratedly enthusiastic or exalted expression of feeling in speech or writing”), and both of these senses may have been influenced by rapture (“extreme excitement, happiness, or pleasure”), the latter being a quality associated with the senses. Sense 2.3 (“literary composition consisting of miscellaneous works”) is borrowed from Middle French rhapsodie (modern French rhapsodie), from Latin rhapsōdia: see above.
The verb is derived from the noun.
cognates
* French rhapsodie (“instrumental composition of irregular form”)
* German Rhapsodie (“instrumental composition of irregular form”)

cog

(Ancient Greece, poetry, historical) An epic poem, or part of one, suitable for uninterrupted recitation.

狂想曲

ancient Greek epic poem, or part of one, suitable for uninterrupted recitation


manikin

Borrowed from English mannequin, from French mannequin, from Dutch manneken. Doublet of maniki.


insectoid

Two hundred Earth years earlier, a race of Insectoids discovered them as the Squishys were sending their first probes to other planets in their own star system.

2017, A.K. Brown, Humans on the Menu (Champagne Universe Series: Book 2), page 24:

(science fiction, ufology) An insect-like creature.


sutra

sutra (nominative singular)
sutry (nominative plural)
sutry (genitive singular)
sutr (genitive plural)
sutrze (dative singular)
sutrom (dative plural)
sutrę (accusative singular)
sutry (accusative plural)
sutrą (instrumental singular)
sutrami (instrumental plural)
sutrze (locative singular)
sutrach (locative plural)
sutro (singular vocative)
sutry (plural vocative)

Borrowed from Sanskrit सूत्र (sū́tra, “thread, yarn, string; rule”), from Proto-Indo-Aryan *súHtram, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *súHtram, from Proto-Indo-European *súh₁trom, from *syuh₁- (“to sew”).

bor+

(literature) sutra (rule or thesis in Sanskrit grammar or Hindu law or philosophy)


panorama

pl-noun

panorama f (related adjective panoramowy)

panoramowy (adjective)
panorama (nominative singular)
panoramy (nominative plural)
panoramy (genitive singular)
panoram (genitive plural)
panoramie (dative singular)
panoramom (dative plural)
panoramę (accusative singular)
panoramy (accusative plural)
panoramą (instrumental singular)
panoramami (instrumental plural)
panoramie (locative singular)
panoramach (locative plural)
panoramo (singular vocative)
panoramy (plural vocative)

Internationalism; compare English panorama, French panorama, German Panorama, ultimately from Ancient Greek ὅραμα (hórama).

(film, literature) panorama (comprehensive presentation of an issue in a literary work or film) [with genitive ‘of what’]


pont

pontok (plural)
pont (nominative singular)
pontok (nominative plural)
pontot (accusative singular)
pontokat (accusative plural)
pontnak (dative singular)
pontoknak (dative plural)
ponttal (instrumental singular)
pontokkal (instrumental plural)
pontért (causal-final singular)
pontokért (causal-final plural)
ponttá (singular translative)
pontokká (plural translative)
pontig (singular terminative)
pontokig (plural terminative)
pontként (essive-formal singular)
pontokként (essive-formal plural)
pontban (inessive singular)
pontokban (inessive plural)
ponton (singular superessive)
pontokon (plural superessive)
pontnál (adessive singular)
pontoknál (adessive plural)
pontba (illative singular)
pontokba (illative plural)
pontra (singular sublative)
pontokra (plural sublative)
ponthoz (allative singular)
pontokhoz (allative plural)
pontból (elative singular)
pontokból (elative plural)
pontról (delative singular)
pontokról (delative plural)
ponttól (ablative singular)
pontoktól (ablative plural)
ponté (possessed-single possessive predicative singular)
pontoké (plural possessed-single possessive predicative)
pontéi (possessed-single possessive predicative singular)
pontokéi (plural possessed-single possessive predicative)
pontom (first-person possessed-single possessive singular)
pontjaim (first-person possessed-many possessive singular)
pontod (possessed-single possessive second-person singular)
pontjaid (possessed-many possessive second-person singular)
pontja (possessed-single possessive singular third-person)
pontjai (possessed-many possessive singular third-person)
pontunk (first-person plural possessed-single possessive)
pontjaink (first-person plural possessed-many possessive)
pontotok (plural possessed-single possessive second-person)
pontjaitok (plural possessed-many possessive second-person)
pontjuk (plural possessed-single possessive third-person)
pontjaik (plural possessed-many possessive third-person)

Borrowed from German Punkt, from Latin punctum.

(orthography) point, full stop, period (a terminal punctuation mark or a symbol of abbreviation)


ĉapelo

eo-head

ĉapelo (accusative singular ĉapelon, plural ĉapeloj, accusative plural ĉapelojn)

ĉapelon (accusative singular)
ĉapeloj (plural)
ĉapelojn (accusative plural)

Ido: chapelo

From French chapeau and Italian cappello, both from Medieval Latin capellus, diminutive of Late Latin cappa. Doublet of ĉapo.

La esperantista memkonscio pri la ĉapeloj, kiujn portas iuj literoj, igas min ĝoji, ke ĉi tiu libro, apud anglalingva naskiĝo, ankaŭ kromnaskiĝas en la supersignita lingvo.

2011, Probal Dasgupta, Loĝi en homaj lingvoj: la substancisma perspektivo, Mondial, →ISBN, page 9:

The Esperantist self-awareness about the circumflexes that some letters bear causes me to rejoice that this book, beside its English birth, is also born again in the diacritically marked language.


disintegrate

en-verb

disintegrate (third-person singular simple present disintegrates, present participle disintegrating, simple past and past participle disintegrated)

disintegrates (present singular third-person)
disintegrating (participle present)
disintegrated (participle past)
disintegrated (past)

There is a Latvian gentleman named Theodore Nemor living at White Friars Mansions, Hampstead, who claims to have invented a machine of a most extraordinary character which is capable of disintegrating any object placed within its sphere of influence.

1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Disintegration Machine:

(transitive) To undo the integrity of; to break into parts.

(science fiction, transitive) To cause to break up into infinitesimal parts through the use of a disintegrator.

dīlābor (Due to Latin treating the verb "to disintegrate" as purely intransitive, "X disintegrates Y" is expressed with (nominative of Y) + (appropriate form of dīlābor) + (ablative of X), faciō dīlābī (literally "to cause to fall apart")


stor

head

stor (comparative större, superlative störst)

större (comparative)
störst (superlative)
stor (common-gender indefinite positive singular)
större (common-gender comparative indefinite singular)
störst (common-gender indefinite singular superlative)
stort (indefinite neuter positive singular)
större (comparative indefinite neuter singular)
störst (indefinite neuter singular superlative)
stora (indefinite plural positive)
större (comparative indefinite plural)
störst (indefinite plural superlative)
stora (archaic indefinite masculine plural positive)
större (archaic comparative indefinite masculine plural)
störst (archaic indefinite masculine plural superlative)
store (definite masculine positive singular)
större (comparative definite masculine singular)
störste (definite masculine singular superlative)
stora (definite positive)
större (comparative definite)
största (definite superlative)

From Old Swedish stōr, from Old Norse stórr (“big, large, tall, great”), from Proto-Germanic *stōraz, from Proto-Indo-European *stāro-.

inh

Namn på länder skrivs med stor bokstav.

Names of countries are written with capital letters.

(writing, not comparable) uppercase, capital (of a letter)


intergalactic

They say he's a member of the Exchange – you know, the big intergalactic criminal organization.

2003 July 16, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic:

(proscribed, science fiction) Occurring across a single galaxy, interstellar.


super-

Learned borrowing from Latin super-. Doublet of sur-, over-, and hyper-.

superheroic


smurf

Peyo
The Smurfs
fr:Les Schtroumpfs
nl:De Smurfen

Borrowed from Dutch smurf (via the Belgian comic De Smurfen, a translation of French Les Schtroumpfs), from French schtroumpf, a word that was created by Peyo based on German Strumpf (literally “stocking, sock”), either simply because it sounds funny to the French ear or based on a regional German use for “idiot”. Armand van Raalte was an employee for the Belgian publisher of Peyo's stories who felt that schtroumpf would not have the same effect in Dutch, so he tried to find a simple word that could be used both as a noun and a verb. The result was smurf. In other languages, the term was similarly altered; compare the translations below.

der

He occasionally used the proper noun of the restaurant as an adverb, the way a Smurf would.

2021 December 8, Geraldine DeRuiter, “Bros., Lecce: We Eat at The Worst Michelin Starred Restaurant, Ever”, in The Everywhereist:

(comics, fiction) A blue pixie with white stocking cap, from the media franchise The Smurfs.


smurf

nl-noun

smurf m (plural smurfen, diminutive smurfje n)

smurfen (plural)
smurfje (diminutive neuter)

Changed from the original French schtroumpf as described above.


smurf

smurf (indefinite nominative singular)
smurfen (definite nominative singular)
smurfar (indefinite nominative plural)
smurfarna (definite nominative plural)
smurfs (genitive indefinite singular)
smurfens (definite genitive singular)
smurfars (genitive indefinite plural)
smurfarnas (definite genitive plural)
smurf (indefinite nominative singular)
smurfen (definite nominative singular)
smurfer (indefinite nominative plural)
smurferna (definite nominative plural)
smurfs (genitive indefinite singular)
smurfens (definite genitive singular)
smurfers (genitive indefinite plural)
smurfernas (definite genitive plural)

Borrowed from Dutch smurf, from French schtroumpf.


stock character

en-noun

stock character (plural stock characters)

(writing, theater, film) Any fictional character drawn from some stereotype who is instantly recognizable.

ամպլուա

fictional character based on a recognizable stereotype


heteronym

Coined around 1900, either from hetero- (“different”) + -onym (“name”) or from Ancient Greek ἑτερώνυμος (heterṓnumos), or perhaps both.

polyphone

a letter [or combination of letters] that can be pronounced in two or more different ways, such as 長／长 in Chinese, pronounced [cháng] in the sense of ’long’ and [zhǎng] in the sense of ’to grow’

(literature) A fictitious character created by an author for the purpose of writing in a different style.

heteronyymi

fictitious character writing in a different style


decorum

decorum (nominative singular)
decora (nominative plural)
decorum (genitive singular)
decorów (genitive plural)
decorum (dative singular)
decorom (dative plural)
decorum (accusative singular)
decora (accusative plural)
decorum (instrumental singular)
decorami (instrumental plural)
decorum (locative singular)
decorach (locative plural)
decorum (singular vocative)
decora (plural vocative)

Unadapted borrowing from Latin decōrum. Doublet of dekoracja and dekorować.

(literature) decorum (principle of classical rhetoric, poetry, and theatrical theory concerning the fitness or otherwise of a style to a theatrical subject)


biorobot

(science fiction) A biological organism that has been created and designed by artificial means.