azorubine

en-noun

azorubine (countable and uncountable, plural azorubines)

(organic chemistry) a red azo dye used as a food colouring, mostly in baked goods


luminaire

/ˌluːməˈnɛɹ/

Unadapted borrowing from French luminaire. Doublet of luminary.

ubor

An electrical device that contains an electric lamp that provides illumination.


woad

en-noun

woad (usually uncountable, plural woads)

From Middle English wode, from Old English wād (“woad”), from Proto-West Germanic *waiʀd, from Proto-Germanic *waizdaz (“woad”), from Proto-Indo-European *woydʰ-. Cognate with Old Frisian wēd (“woad”), Dutch wede (“woad”), German Waid (“woad”), and with French guède, Italian guado (“woad”) (both borrowed from Frankish). See also weed.

To prevent this, it was enacted, that no wines of Gaſcony and Guienne, or woads of Tholouſe, should be imported into England, except in ships belonging to the King, or some of his ſubjects; and that all ſuch wines and woads imported in foreign bottoms ſhould be forfeited.

1814, Robert Henry, The History of Great Britain, 5th edition, volume XII, page 309:

But in the middle of the sixteenth century indigo was introduced from the East Indies: and in the seventeenth century its use became extended, and supplanted that of woad.

1856, Albrecht Daniel Thaer, The Principles of Practical Agriculture, page 462:

Huge quanitities of alum and woad were disembarked each year at Southampton.

1983, E. B. Fryde, Studies in Medieval Trade and Finance, page 360:

For example, woad, a blue dye obtained from the plant Isatis tinctoria, was used throughout the Mediterannean and Europe and is often identified as indigo.

2007, Richard L. Myers, The 100 Most Important Chemical Compounds: A Reference Guide, page 152:

(countable and uncountable) The blue vat dye made from the leaves of the plant through partial drying and fermentation.


yellow-green

en-adj

yellow-green (comparative more yellow-green, superlative most yellow-green)

more yellow-green (comparative)
most yellow-green (superlative)

yellow-green:

web yellow-green:


complementary colour

en-noun

complementary colour (plural complementary colours)

complementary colours (plural)
complementary color (alternative)

(British spelling, colour science) Either of two colours which, when mixed, produce a white or grey.


incinerate

en-verb

incinerate (third-person singular simple present incinerates, present participle incinerating, simple past and past participle incinerated)

incinerates (present singular third-person)
incinerating (participle present)
incinerated (participle past)
incinerated (past)

/ɪnˈsɪnəɹət/

From Latin incinerātus, perfect participle of incinerō (“to burn into ashes”), from cinis (“ashes”).

His mother was incinerated in the Dresden fire-storm. So it goes.

1969 March 31, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., chapter 1, in Slaughterhouse-Five […] (A Seymour Lawrence Book), New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →OCLC, page 1:


combustible

en-adj

combustible (comparative more combustible, superlative most combustible)

more combustible (comparative)
most combustible (superlative)

From Middle French combustible, equivalent to combust + -ible.

Arnold, however, was a combustible character.

1855–1859, Washington Irving, The Life of George Washington:

The world’s richest man has inserted himself in some of the world’s most combustible conflicts.

2022 October 26, Cade Metz, Adam Satariano, Chang Che, “How Elon Musk Became a Geopolitical Chaos Agent”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(figurative, dated) Easily kindled or excited; quick; fiery; irascible.


strobe

White all light sources illuminate the subject, the strobe both illuminates and "freezes" the subject.

2006, Michael Grecco, Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, Amphoto Books, →ISBN, page 59:

A stroboscopic lamp: a device used to produce regular flashes of light.


streetlight

en-noun

streetlight (countable and uncountable, plural streetlights)

streetlights (plural)
street light (alternative)
street-light (alternative)

At night the streetlights of Paris are beautiful to see.

(countable) Any large outdoor light used to illuminate a public area, usually urban.

مِصْبَاح الشَّارِع

miṣbāḥ aš-šāriʕ


lamppost

lampposts (plural)
lamp post (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-lamppost.wav

"What is really good is they haven't just painted the station building, they've done all the lampposts to match as well, right down to the end of the platform.

2023 January 25, Tom Allett, “Sleaford restored to its 'true' identity”, in RAIL, number 975, page 51:

The pole that holds up a light so it can illuminate a wide area, such as holds up a streetlight.


electroluminescence

electroluminescence (usually uncountable, plural electroluminescences)

(physics) The generation of light by the application of an alternating current to a semiconductor or phosphor, or by an electric discharge through a gas.

elektroluminestsents

generation of light by application of an alternating current or by electric discharge


light-emitting diode

light-emitting diode (plural light-emitting diodes)

light-emitting diodes (plural)
LED (alternative)

electromagnetic radiation
electromagnetic radiation

(physics) A rectifying semiconductor device which converts electrical energy into electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength in or near the visible spectrum of light.


lambency

lambency (countable and uncountable, plural lambencies)

The property of being lambent, brightness.


lamplight

lamplight (countable and uncountable, plural lamplights)

From Middle English lampe lyght, laumpe-lyth, lombe-lyȝt, equivalent to lamp + light. Compare West Frisian lampeljocht (“lamplight”), Dutch lamplicht (“lamplight”), German Lampenlicht (“lamplight”), Danish lampelys (“lamplight”), Swedish lampljus (“lamplight”), Icelandic lampaljós (“lamplight”).

We sat around reading by lamplight all night.

I turned my head, and as I lay gasping in the throes of that awful struggle I could see that Leo was off the rock now, for the lamplight fell full upon him.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.[…]It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped.

2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:


rhodamine

(organic chemistry) Any of a class of pink to red polycyclic fluorone dyes.


luminously

en-adv

luminously (comparative more luminously, superlative most luminously)

more luminously (comparative)
most luminously (superlative)

In a luminous manner, brightly, glowingly.


arsonist

One who has committed the act of arson, or illegally setting fire to property.


overillumination

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-overillumination.wav

Excess light supplied beyond the amount required for a given task.

Wasted light through illumination of an unoccupied space, creating energy wastage.

The building's architect failed to account for natural light availability and specified more lighting fixtures than needed, resulting in over-illumination and leading to increased headache incidence for some building occupants.

Excessive or annoying light producing glare, annoyance and adverse health effects.


moderator

moderators (plural)
moderatour (alternative)

/ˈmɒdəˌɹeɪtə(ɹ)/

Learned borrowing from Latin moderātor. First attested as Middle English moderatour.

(Ireland) At the University of Dublin, either the first (senior) or second (junior) in rank in an examination for the degree of Bachelor of Arts.


quarter moon

(astronomy) Either of the intermediate stages between the new and full moons.


plunket

en-noun

plunket (countable and uncountable, plural plunkets)

Burels at this time seem to have been made in lengths of 20 ells and sold at 8d. the ell, while the better quality cloths - browns, plunkets, blues, and greens - were nearly twice the length, and cost about 22d. the ell.

1964, L. F. Salzman, English Industries of the Middle Ages, page 199:


mercury-vapour lamp

mercury-vapour lamp (plural mercury-vapour lamps)

mercury-vapour lamps (plural)
mercury-vapor lamp (alternative)

By night the carriage yard is illuminated by mercury vapour lamps on 50ft lattice steel towers remotely controlled from the diesel depot.

1962 June, “The Eastern Region completes the Colchester scheme”, in Modern Railways, page 412:

(British spelling) a gaseous discharge lamp in which the arc discharge takes place in mercury vapour; used for highway illumination and as an industrial source of ultraviolet radiation


metal halide lamp

metal halide lamp (plural metal halide lamps)

A high-pressure discharge lamp that is enclosed in a quartz envelope containing metal halides (usually iodides), and produces high-efficacy white light.


flavescent

en-adj

flavescent (comparative more flavescent, superlative most flavescent)

more flavescent (comparative)
most flavescent (superlative)


midnight sun

en-noun

midnight sun (usually uncountable, plural midnight suns)

He has only retained three engravings; namely, a map of the country, which is very little known, from Torneo to North Cape; a View of Torneo by the midnight moon; and a View of North Cape by the midnight sun.

1806 November, “Observanda Externa [Lapland. North Cape.]”, in The Literary Panorama. […], volume I, London: Printed by Cox, Son, and Baylis, […] for C. Taylor, […], published 1807, →OCLC, column 414:

Locked icebergs splintering through the awful night; / And quenchless midnight suns with their wild scarlet light.

1856 August 28, Alfred B[illings] Street, Science: A Poem Dedicated to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Albany, August 28, 1856, Albany, N.Y.: Van Benthuysen, printer, […], →OCLC, page 6:

This wonderful midnight sun has a peculiar effect on the polar vegetation. Although the foliage of ligneous plants, such as shrubs and trees, which here sink down to the condition of dwarfs, is tough and coriaceous, and of a dark and sombre green, gloomy as the long night of the polar world, yet in the steady light which comes from the sun as he circulates above the horizon for weeks, that sombre green tint of the foliage is beautifully softened in the grasses and other herbaceous plants.

1863 January 3, “The Sleep of Plants”, in William, Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts, volume XIX, number 470, London, Edinburgh: Printed and published by W. & R. Chambers, […], →OCLC, pages 15–16:

But when we come to the winter solstice, we get no more midnight suns: as shown in the figure, all the circle is situated in the shaded portion; hence, again in spite of the Earth's rotation, we cannot get out of the darkness, and we do not see the Sun even at noonday.

1868, J[oseph] Norman Lockyer, “Lesson XII.—The Earth’s Movements. Rotation. Movement Round the Sun. Succession of Day and Night.”, in Elementary Lessons in Astronomy, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, paragraph 171, page 70:

Like the seasons, the "Midnight Sun" has its origin in the inclination of the earth's axis during its annual motion. […] The effect of this inclination is to produce variations in the length of the day to such an extent, that in polar regions the duration of sunlight is reckoned in months instead of hours.

1894, J[oseph] Norman Lockyer, “The Midnight Sun”, in Spitzbergen and Norway in August 1894: Pleasure Cruise to the “Land of the Midnight Sun” and the Spizbergen Polar Sea, by the Orient Company’s S. S. “Lusitania,” Leaving London August 1st, 1894, London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Limited. […], →OCLC, page 61:

There are strange things done in the midnight sun / By the men who moil for gold; / The Arctic trails have their secret tales / That would make your blood run cold; / The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, / But the queerest they ever did see / Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge / I cremated Sam McGee.

1907, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”, in The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses, New York, N.Y.: Barse & Hopkins, publishers, →OCLC, page 50:

The phenomenon occurring when the Sun does not set but only approaches the horizon at midnight; it occurs near the summer solstice in the polar regions.

sol de mitjanit

phenomenon occurring when Sun does not set


pyromancy

one type of which involves casting salt into a fire

thin smoke that rose straight up was a good omen

one type of which involves heating to produce cracks

this was done by heating pits carved into them

The magical power of conjuring or controlling fire.


blake

en-adj

blake (comparative blaker or more blake, superlative blakest or most blake)

tlb

(UK dialectal, Northern England, poetic, uncommon)

blaker (comparative)
more blake (comparative)
blakest (superlative)
most blake (superlative)

From Middle English blak, blac (“pale”), from Old English blāc (“pale, pallid, wan, livid; bright, shining, glittering, flashing”) and Old Norse bleikr (“pale; yellow, pink; any non-red warm color”); both from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz (“pale; shining”). Compare Scots bleg (“light, drab”). More at bleak.

inh

White shows the rye, the big of big of blaker hue,[…]

1747, Josiah Relph, A Miscellany of Poems,: Consisting of Original Poems, Translations, Pastorals in the Cumberland Dialect, Familiar Epistles, Fables, Songs, and Epigrams, page 13:

[…] the E. blake (identical with AS. blac, G. bleich, pale) is provincially used in the sense of yellow. As blake as a paigle, as yellow as a cowslip.

1859, Hensleigh Wedgwood, A Dictionary of English Etymology: A - D, page 184:

Miss Lizzie's ower dark for my fancy. I mind nowt aboot your dark lasses - as blake as marygowds an' as black as corbies.

1876, Elizabeth Lynn Linton, Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg: A Novel ..., page 271:

Noo, that's a bit o' neyce blake butter. Thoo nobbut leeaks blakeish.

1911, Richard Blakeborough, Wit, Character, Folklore & Customs of the North Riding of Yorkshire, page 340:


fire and brimstone

Calque of Biblical Hebrew גׇּפְרִ֣ית וָאֵ֑שׁ (gofrit va’esh) and Ancient Greek πυρὸς καὶ θείου (puròs kaì theíou), appearing in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. "brimstone" is an old word for sulfur.

calque

גׇּפְרִ֣ית וָאֵ֑שׁ

πυρὸς καὶ θείου

And the third Angel followed them, ſaying with a lowd voice, If any man worship the beaſt and his image, and receiue his marke in his forehead, or in his hand, / The ſame ſhall drinke of the wine of the wrath of God, which is powred out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and hee ſhall be tormented with fire and brimſtone, in the preſence of the holy Angels, and in the preſence of the Lambe:

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 14:9–10:


hellfire

en-noun

hellfire (countable and uncountable, plural hellfires)

hellfires (plural)
Hellfire (alternative)
hell-fire (alternative)
Hell-fire (alternative)
fires (alternative)
hell (alternative)
hell-fire (alternative)

/ˈhɛlˌfaɪəɹ/

From Middle English helle fire, helever, from Old English hellefȳr, equivalent to hell + fire. Cognate with West Frisian helfjoer (“hellfire”), Dutch hellevuur (“hellfire”), German Höllenfeuer (“hellfire”).

(uncountable) Fire produced by the Devil, or a similar supernatural creature connected to Hell.


hydrogen spectral series

hydrogen spectral series (plural hydrogen spectral series)

(physics) Any of several series of spectral lines of hydrogen that correspond to quantum transitions between the various allowed energy levels of the hydrogen atom.


hydrogen spectrum

(physics) all the lines in the emission or absorption spectrum of hydrogen; each one corresponding to an allowed transition between quantum energy levels


elucubrate

en-verb

elucubrate (third-person singular simple present elucubrates, present participle elucubrating, simple past and past participle elucubrated)

elucubrates (present singular third-person)
elucubrating (participle present)
elucubrated (participle past)
elucubrated (past)

From the past participle of Latin elucubrare (“compose by lamplight”).

uder

To solve, write or compose by working studiously at night; to study.


photohydrogen

(biochemistry) hydrogen produced (along with oxygen) by the photolytic decomposition of water in certain anaerobic algae etc


ozone hole

Callis says that the ozone hole now developing over the Antarctic is as deep as last year's hole, but seems to cover a smaller area.

1986 November 6, “Air chemists braced for battle over ozone hole”, in New Scientist, page 22:

When [Richard] Stolarski double-checked, he found that the depleted region covered all of Antarctica—and the “ozone hole” was born. It wasn't an instrument error. It was a real phenomenon.

2010, Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway, chapter 4, in Merchants of Doubt:

A region of the stratosphere over Antarctica (and a smaller one over the Arctic) that is depleted of ozone in the local spring.

ozonová díra

region of the stratosphere over Antarctica that is depleted of ozone in the local spring


yel

en-verb

yel (third-person singular simple present yels, present participle yelling, simple past and past participle yelled)

yels (present singular third-person)
yelling (participle present)
yelled (participle past)
yelled (past)


fluorescein

fluoresceins (plural)
fluoresceine (alternative)

(organic chemistry) Any of a class of yellow xanthene dyes which are visible when highly diluted; used forensically to detect traces of blood, and in analytical chemistry as an indicator in silver nitrate titrations

fluorescéine

any of a class of yellow xanthene dyes which are visible when highly diluted


firestorm

firestorms (plural)
fire storm (alternative)
fire-storm (alternative)

A fire whose intensity is greatly increased by inrushing winds.

fajroŝtormo

Fire intensity greatly increased by winds


swinge

From Middle English swengen (“to strike”), from Old English swenġan (“to dash, strike; to cause to swing”), from Proto-West Germanic *swangijan (“to cause to swing”).


blondie

A sweet, chewy, generally vanilla-flavoured and chocolate-free baked good: a blond-colored brownie.


caramelize

en-verb

caramelize (third-person singular simple present caramelizes, present participle caramelizing, simple past and past participle caramelized)

caramelizes (present singular third-person)
caramelizing (participle present)
caramelized (participle past)
caramelized (past)
caramelise (alternative)
carmelize (alternative)

(cooking, transitive) To convert (sugar) into caramel.


meline

A meline musteloid carnivorous mammal, usually burrowing, nocturnal, and having a flat stout body, short legs with long-clawed toes, and a long snout.

1894, Isaac Kaufman Funk, A Standard Dictionary of the English Language, page 153, definition of "badger"

Having the qualities of or relating to a badger.


berylline

en-adj

berylline (comparative more berylline, superlative most berylline)

more berylline (comparative)
most berylline (superlative)

He held out his leg so that I could examine the shackle about his ankle. His berylline flesh was swollen about it, as I have seen the bark of a tree swollen that had grown through an iron ring.

1981, Gene Wolfe, chapter III, in The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun; 2), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 28:

Beryl-like; having a light blue-green colour.


fulgurous

/ˈfʊl.ɡɪə.ɹəs/


towering inferno

en-noun

towering inferno (plural towering infernos)

We fed the campfire until it became a towering inferno before us.

[T]he most compelling argument for avoiding Chungking Mansion is one of safety — it could be a towering inferno waiting to happen.

[A]nyone saying now that humans are a towering inferno of irrationality ought to be challenged, and aggressively so.

2000, Michael S. Gazzaniga, The Mind's Past:


searchlight

From search + light. Compare West Frisian sykljocht (“searchlight”), Dutch zoeklicht (“searchlight”), Danish søgelys (“searchlight”), Swedish sökarljus (“searchlight”).

A light source that projects a bright beam of light in any direction, generally for military use.

soeklig

a light source that projects a bright beam of light in any direction


bistre

bistre (countable and uncountable, plural bistres)

A brown pigment made from soot, especially from beech wood.


serge

serge (countable and uncountable, plural serges)

From Middle English sarge, from Old French sarge, serge, from Vulgar Latin *sarica, from Latin sērica (“silken, silk things”), from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós, “silken”), from σήρ (sḗr, “silkworm”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”), possibly from Old Chinese 絲 (*sə, “silk”). Doublet of silk and seric.

der

(by metonymy) A garment made of this fabric.


ocher

[…] facing the sea with buff and ocher houses that rise five or six stories above a curving boulevard […]

1973 July, Melville Bell Grosvenor, “Homeward with Ulysses”, in National Geographic, volume 144, number 1:


ocher

en-verb

ocher (third-person singular simple present ochers, present participle ochering, simple past and past participle ochered)

ochers (present singular third-person)
ochering (participle present)
ochered (participle past)
ochered (past)


neon sign

Just listen to the music and the traffic of the city / Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty

1979, “Downtown”, performed by The B-52's:

An illuminated sign constructed from fluorescent lights in the form of bent glass tubes; the different colours being obtained by adding different noble gases to the neon.

霓虹燈招牌 /霓虹灯招牌

an illuminated sign constructed from fluorescent lights


neon lighting

en-noun

neon lighting (usually uncountable, plural neon lightings)


irradiate

en-adj

irradiate (comparative more irradiate, superlative most irradiate)

more irradiate (comparative)
most irradiate (superlative)

From Middle English irradiate (“illuminated, shining”), borrowed from Medieval Latin irradiātus, perfect passive participle of irradiō, from ir- (“against; into; on, upon”) + radiō (“to cause to radiate, irradiate; to emit beams, radiate”), from radius (“ray of light; rod, staff; spoke of a wheel”) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix) (further etymology uncertain; possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁t- (“beam; pole; post”)). The adjective is attested earlier than the verb.
The English word is analysable as in- (“against; into; on, upon”) + radiate.

af

There ſeek the Theban Bard, depriv'd of ſight, / VVithin, irradiate vvith prophetic light; […]

1725, Homer, “Book X”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume III, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 52, lines 582–583:

The co-existent Flame / Knew the Destroyer; it encircled him, / Roll'd up his robe, and gathered round his head, / Condensing to intenser splendour there, / His crown of glory, and his light of life, / Hovered the irradiate wreath.

1801, Robert Southey, “The Twelfth Book”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume II, London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC, page 317:

When, disappearing from our hemisphere, / The world's enlightener vanishes, and day / On all sides wasteth, suddenly the sky, / Erewhile irradiate only with his beam, / Is yet again unfolded, putting forth / Innumerable lights wherein one shines.

1814, Dante Alighieri, “Canto XX”, in H[enry] F[rancis] Cary, transl., The Vision; or, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, of Dante Alighieri. […], volume III (Paradise), London: […] [J. Barfield] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 89, lines 1–6:

Made brilliant or bright; irradiated, illuminated.


irradiate

en-verb

irradiate (third-person singular simple present irradiates, present participle irradiating, simple past and past participle irradiated)

irradiates (present singular third-person)
irradiating (participle present)
irradiated (participle past)
irradiated (past)
irradiate (infinitive)

/ɪˈɹeɪdɪeɪt/

From Middle English irradiate (“illuminated, shining”) (more at etymology 1), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

облъчвам

to apply radiation other than visible light to (someone or something); to treat (food) with ionizing radiation to destroy pathogens; to treat (a patient, or a cancerous growth or tumour) with radiation

To send out (heat, light, or some other form of radiation) in the form of rays; to radiate.

[W]e regarded with awe and reverence the sublime features of Madame Columbus, now irradiated with triumph.

1877, William Black, “Mid-Atlantic”, in Green Pastures and Piccadilly. […], volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 186:

To cause (one's face) to look beautiful, happy, or lively; to light up.

(intransitive, often literary or poetic)

To become bright; to brighten, to light up.


shimmer

shimmer (third-person singular simple present shimmers, present participle shimmering, simple past and past participle shimmered)

shimmers (present singular third-person)
shimmering (participle present)
shimmered (participle past)
shimmered (past)

From Middle English schimeren, from Old English sċymrian, sċimrian, sċimerian, from Proto-Germanic *skimarōną. Cognate with Dutch schemeren, German schimmern.

1581, John Studley (translator), Medea, Act 4, in Seneca his Tenne Tragedies, London: Thomas Marsh, p. 135,
With dusky shimmering wanny globe, her lampe doth pale appeare

The shimmering glimpses of a stream

1850, Alfred Tennyson, The Princess: A Medley, 3rd edition, London: Edward Moxon, Conclusion, p. 173:

I looked then and saw that his robes, which had seemed white, were not so, but were woven of all colours, and if he moved they shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was bewildered.

1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1973, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 339:

Pale tourists, tired but excited, emerge like apparitions from the heat haze that shimmers over the tarmac.

2018, Tsitsi Dangarembga, chapter 22, in This Mournable Body, Minneapolis: Graywolf Press:

(intransitive) To shine tremulously or intermittently; to gleam faintly.

առկայծել

to shine with a veiled light; to gleam faintly; to glisten; to glimmer


shimmer

I shut the closet, to conceal the strange, wraith-like apparel it contained; which, at this evening hour—nine o’clock—gave out certainly a most ghostly shimmer through the shadow of my apartment.

1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter X, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 254:

The hives […] were scattered towards the back of the clearing, like small mounds of clean vegetable refuse. Over each mound there hung a dusty golden shimmer of bees.

1922, Katherine Anne Porter, “María Concepción”, in Flowering Judas and Other Stories, New York: The Modern Library, published 1940, page 6:

He’d aimed film lamps at the rectangular pools, which sent reflections up the gallery wall in veined and fractured shimmers.

2013, Rachel Kushner, chapter 16, in The Flamethrowers, New York: Vintage, published 2014, page 294:

A faint or veiled and tremulous gleam or shining.

блещукане

faint or veiled and tremulous gleam or shining; a glimmer


shimmer

(crime) A thin electronic device that is fit inside a card reader, such as on automated teller machines (ATMs), or point-of-sale terminals (POS's), that acts as an intermediate interface between the chip on a chip-and-pin technology card and the chip reader of the machine, to allow one to clone the chip.


feuillemorte

feuille-morte (alternative)
feuillemort (alternative)
foliomort (alternative)

From French feuille-morte, feuille morte (“a dead leaf”).

feuillemorte:

Of the color of dead or dying leaves: dull yellowish or orangish brown.


bucket brigade

The long line of people, in a primitive firefighting technique, who pass buckets of water hand-to-hand from the nearest water source to the site of a fire, in an attempt to douse it.

Eimerkette

line of people who pass buckets of water


go up

go up (third-person singular simple present goes up, present participle going up, simple past went up, past participle gone up)

goes up (present singular third-person)
going up (participle present)
went up (past)
gone up (participle past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-go up.wav

(intransitive, British, dated) To attend university.


whitish

en-adj

whitish (comparative more whitish, superlative most whitish)

more whitish (comparative)
most whitish (superlative)
whiteish (alternative)

From Middle English whitisch, whytyssh, equivalent to white + -ish.

The skin was somewhat pigmented, especially in certain regions, while over the whole there appeared whitish, rounded or oval mottlings or dapplings, most obvious where the surrounding cuticle was most deeply colored.

1910, The Year Book of Dermatology, page 124:


delphinium

en-noun

delphinium (countable and uncountable, plural delphiniums or delphinia)

[dɛɫˈfɪnɪəm]

From the genus name (translingual Delphinium).

(countable) A cultivated plant, belonging to the genus Delphinium, with tall blue-colored spikes containing flowers; a larkspur.

delphinium:

(countable and uncountable) A shade of blue, named for the flowers.


mercurial phosphorus

a glow produced by friction when mercury is shaken in an evacuated glass vessel; the luminous barometer


anthracite

anthracite (countable and uncountable, plural anthracites)

/ˈænθɹəˌsaɪt/

Via Latin from Ancient Greek ἀνθρακῖτις (anthrakîtis, “a kind of coal”), from ἄνθραξ (ánthrax, “charcoal”). By surface analysis, anthrac- + -ite.

der

A form of carbonized ancient plants; the hardest and cleanest-burning of all the coals.

anthracite:

In the past, when the author was studying, architects only employed a very restricted palette of colours: the white of modernism, black, a “friendly” shade of anthracite and light grey!

2013, Sylvia Leydecker, Designing Interior Architecture, page 32:


broon

en-noun

broon (countable and uncountable, plural broons)

Conserved from Middle English broun, from Old English brūn as opposed to the Standard English pronunciation.


broon

en-adj

broon (comparative more broon, superlative most broon)

more broon (comparative)
most broon (superlative)

(Geordie, Scotland) Of the colour brown.


firewater

en-noun

firewater (countable and uncountable, plural firewaters)

A calque of a Native American language term, probably Ojibwe ishkodewaaboo (“alcohol”), from ishkodew- (“fire”) + -aaboo (“liquid”, glossed in older works as “water”). A number of other Algonquian and Siouan languages also refer to whiskey with compounds that mean "fire-water" (on which basis noted Algonquianist Leonard Bloomfield even reconstructed a Proto-Algonquian word for it, *eškwete·wa·po·wi, although this could not have existed). The motivation of the name is not entirely clear: It may refer to the “burning” feeling of ingesting high-proof alcohol. Low-quality spirits also often included ingredients such as pepper, tobacco juice, molasses, etc. Alternatively it may refer to the flammability of alcohol.
Non-alcohol-related senses are simply fire + water.

A continuously circulated firewater line supplies a deluge cooling system in each gathering center for fire containment.

A break in a firewater line at BP Whiting Refinery caused water with an oil-like sheen to spread outside the refinery's walls along a section of Indianapolis Boulevard Tuesday night.

2015 March 18, Karen Caffarini, “Cause of line break unknown at BP”, in Post-Tribune:

(especially manufacturing) Water for use in firefighting.


racemization

racemization (countable and uncountable, plural racemizations)

(organic chemistry, physical chemistry) The formation of a racemate from a pure enantiomer.


radiation pressure

radiation pressure (plural radiation pressures)

(physics) The pressure exerted by electromagnetic radiation on an object on which it impinges, as a consequence of its momentum.


Jewish lightning

From the stereotype of Jews engaging in this practice.

According to Manchu the fire had forced all the families upstairs to get out, the fire department had closed down the bar for repairs. Manchu said the bar wasn't bad off but the Jew collected all he could for fire and water damage ¶ "You mean it wasn't no Jewish lightning."

1974, Francis A. J. Ianni, Black Mafia; Ethnic Succession in Organized Crime, New York, N.Y., : Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 133:

I can refute any charges that it was a case of 'Jewish lightning', but I admit that the fire did happen at the most opportune moment!

1992, James Edmist, The Sterling Years: Small-Arms and the Men, London: Leo Cooper, →ISBN, page 45:

The torching of overinsured buildings was so common that arson became known as "Jewish lightning." Forty-four percent of the arson cases reported by the New York Times in the 1890s were linked to Jews.

[1996, William Kleinknecht, The New Ethnic Mobs: The Changing Face of Organized Crime in America, New York, N.Y. […]: The Free Press, →ISBN, page 31:

The insurance companies, many of which were Jewish, referred to "Jewish lightning" when unfortunate fires burned down warehouses in the East End.

[1996 October 28, Andrew Ross, quoting John le Carré, “John le Carr”, in Salon.com, archived from the original on 2022-05-20:

The fire was a mysterious and tragic event upon which Mom is unwilling to elaborate. Was it a case of spontaneous combustion, perhaps due to poor wiring or improper storage of bulk dry goods? Or was it a case of "Jewish lightning" (a suspicious fire caused in order to collect the insurance money)? This is another family mystery left unsolved with all the individuals involved long gone.

2012, Jane Genende, Lost Tribe of the Andes: A Jewish-American Family's Struggle With Assimilation, Bloomington, I.N.: iUniverse, Inc., →ISBN, pages 20–21:

Why not burn down the place and take the insurance? A little Jewish lightning never hurt anyone.

2019 December 27, “Being Harley Quinn”, in Harley Quinn, season 1, episode 5, spoken by Golda (Rhea Perlman):

(now offensive) A fire which is deliberately started to collect insurance money. But leaving no evidence of arson.


ignitable

en-adj

ignitable (comparative more ignitable, superlative most ignitable)

more ignitable (comparative)
most ignitable (superlative)


glowing

The coldness having now arrived at its acme, or highest point of intensity, glowings of heat were perceived in the intervals between the rigors or successions. These glowings grew gradually stronger […]

1791, Robert Jackson, A Treatise on the Fevers of Jamaica, page 287:


glowing

glowing (comparative more glowing, superlative most glowing)

more glowing (comparative)
most glowing (superlative)

glowing embers

He received glowing references from his previous employers.

But beyond the quantitative imbalance, the researchers identified significant qualitative biases favoring Russia in the course descriptions. They looked for “superlatives” like “masterpiece,” “genius” and “great” used to describe Russian literature and culture. About 31% of Russian literature course descriptions contained such glowing language, compared to only 11% for non-Russian literature.

2023 December 29, Orysia Hrudka, “US academia still in thrall of “great Russia” myth”, in Euromaidan Press:


Berlin green

en-noun

Berlin green (countable and uncountable, plural Berlin greens)

(organic chemistry) Ferric ferricyanide; a complex cyanide with a structure similar to that of Prussian blue, used as a green dye.

(art) A color of oil paint thought to resemble the color of the chemical.


red lead

A bright red, poisonous oxide of lead, Pb₃O₄, used as a pigment and in glass and ceramics.


punkie

Possibly an alteration of the first two syllables of pumpkinseed (“the North American sunfish Lepomis gibbosus”) + -ie (diminutive suffix).

But, although anything but a wary fish, the sunfish is not easy to catch because of its small mouth. Unless a small hook is used, meager results are secured in proportion to the antics of the cork or bobber, which in good "punkie" territory is likely to jiggle, stand on end and depart bottomward on short notice.

1949 October–November, John R. Greeley, “Sunfishes”, in P. W. Fosburgh, editor, New York State Conservationist, volume 4, number 2, Albany, N.Y.: State of New York Conservation Department, →OCLC, page 14, column 2:

(US) Synonym of pumpkinseed (“a North American sunfish, Lepomis gibbosus”).


fire marshal

fire marshals (plural)
fire marshall (alternative)

(US, Philippines) A public official with police powers responsible for enforcing fire safety regulations, and sometimes, who also investigates suspicious fires.


fireboat

A harbor boat designed for pumping large volumes of harbor water onto dockside fires.

Löschboot

1. A harbor boat designed for pumping large volumes of harbor water onto dockside fires


fire station

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-fire station.wav

The building where firefighters and fire trucks/fire engines are housed when not answering an alarm.


vair

vair (countable and uncountable, plural vairs)

From Middle English veir, veire, from Old French vair, veir, from the accusative singular masculine form of Latin varius (“variegated”).

(heraldry) An heraldic fur formed by a regular tessellation of bell shapes in two colours, (for example in the image, blue and white).


illuminating

en-adj

illuminating (comparative more illuminating, superlative most illuminating)

more illuminating (comparative)
most illuminating (superlative)


timber wolf

en-noun

timber wolf (countable and uncountable, plural timber wolves)


sulfur yellow

sulfur yellow:

A yellow colour similar to that of the element sulfur.

kénsárga

a yellow colour similar to that of the element sulfur


inky

en-adj

inky (comparative inkier, superlative inkiest)

inkier (comparative)
inkiest (superlative)

The gloved and jewelled bards who sing / Of Pippa, Maud, and Guinevere, / Have hardly done the 'handsome thing' / For you, my inky Cytherea.

1877, Henry Kendall, “Ode to a Black Gin”, in The Australian Town and Country Journal, page 24:

(obsolete, literary) Dark-skinned; black.


self-immolation

en-noun

self-immolation (countable and uncountable, plural self-immolations)

The act of self-immolation
The sweeping wave of self-immolation began in 2009 in the aftermath of the 2008 nationwide uprisings against China. Since then, Tibet has witnessed at least 152 self-immolations. Of these self-immolators,¹ 126 were men and 26 women. The burning flame has consumed 130 lives. Nearly a third of the Tibetans who resorted to self-immolation protest were monks and nuns.² The rest were laypeople from different regions and from all walks of life: students, farmers, teachers, young parents, grandparents and mothers of several children.

2018, Central Tibetan Administration, Tibet was Never a Part of China: but the Middle Way Approach Remains a Viable Solution, New Delhi: Norbu Graphics, →ISBN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-10-08, pages 6–7:

The act of setting oneself on fire, especially as a form of protest.


photoaging

The damaging effect of prolonged exposure to sunlight on the skin, especially wrinkling, discoloration and susceptibility to cancer


photocatalysis

(chemistry) catalysis by a photocatalyst

photocatalyse

Chemistry: Catalysis by a photocatalyst.


photocatalyst

(chemistry) A substance that absorbs light and, in doing so, catalyzes a reaction.

photocatalyseur

substance that absorbs light and catalyzes a reaction


photochemical

The O–O bond in benzoyl peroxide and the C–N bonds in AIBN homolyze under thermal or photochemical conditions.

2007, Robert B. Grossman, The Art of Writing Reasonable Organic Reaction Mechanisms, →ISBN:

photochemical reaction
photochemical reaction

(chemistry) Of, relating to, or produced by photochemistry or by photochemical reactions


photochemical reaction

photochemical reaction (plural photochemical reactions)

(chemistry) Any chemical reaction initiated by the absorption of electromagnetic radiation to form an excited state


photochemistry

photochemistry (usually uncountable, plural photochemistries)

(chemistry) The study of photochemical reactions.


photochemical smog

photochemical smog (countable and uncountable, plural photochemical smogs)

Air pollution caused by photochemical reactions involving hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and other pollutants, especially in still air over cities.


photochromic

en-adj

photochromic (comparative more photochromic, superlative most photochromic)

more photochromic (comparative)
most photochromic (superlative)

Of, related to, or produced by photochromism

Relating to the part of a molecule responsible for its photochromism


photochromism

en-noun

photochromism (countable and uncountable, plural photochromisms)

The reversible transformation of the optical properties of a material when exposed to electromagnetic radiation, especially the reversible darkening of a plastic lens when exposed to sunlight.

fótacrómachas

the reversible transformation of the optical properties of a material when exposed to electromagnetic radiation


xenon flash lamp

xenon flash lamp (plural xenon flash lamps)

A lamp that produces a very short, but very intense, flash of white light; used in photography and in photocoagulation

xenon villanólámpa

a lamp that produces a short, intense flash of light


photodecomposition

photodecomposition (countable and uncountable, plural photodecompositions)

(chemistry) Any photochemical reaction that results in the decomposition of a substance


photodissociation

photodissociation (countable and uncountable, plural photodissociations)

(chemistry) The dissociation of a molecule following the absorption of a photon


photoluminescence

photoluminescence (countable and uncountable, plural photoluminescences)

(physics) luminescence following the absorption of a photon.


photolysis

From Ancient Greek φωτ- (phōt-), root of φῶς (phôs, “light”) + λύσις (lúsis, “decomposition”). By surface analysis, photo- + -lysis.

(chemistry) Any chemical reaction in which a compound is decomposed after absorbing a photon


photolytic

en-adj

photolytic (comparative more photolytic, superlative most photolytic)

more photolytic (comparative)
most photolytic (superlative)


photolyase

en-noun

photolyase (countable and uncountable, plural photolyases)

(biochemistry) An enzyme that repairs DNA that has been damaged by light.

fótaláis

an enzyme that repairs DNA that has been damaged by light


moonwalk

From Moon + walk.
* (backslide): Coined by Michael Jackson in 1983, when popularizing the backslide and renaming it.

An exploration of the Moon's surface on foot by an astronaut.

(dance) A dance move in which the dancer slides backwards though the feet move as if walking forwards; the backslide.

Though the idea of placing wacky made-up characters in a real-life context was carried over from Da Ali G Show—wherein Buzz Aldrin was once asked if he was upset that Michael Jackson got all the credit for inventing the moonwalk—Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat felt like something new, an attempt to square an improvised, guerrilla style of underground comedy with reality-TV stunt shows like Jackass or Fear Factor.

2012 May 15, Scott Tobias, “Film: Reviews: The Dictator”, in The Onion AV Club:

(dance) A dance style in which the dancer appears to be moving in a low gravity environment.


moonwalk

en-verb

moonwalk (third-person singular simple present moonwalks, present participle moonwalking, simple past and past participle moonwalked)

moonwalks (present singular third-person)
moonwalking (participle present)
moonwalked (participle past)
moonwalked (past)

(intransitive) To walk on the surface of the Moon.

(intransitive) To walk in leaps, like on the Moon or on other low gravity surfaces.

Alicent’s crew intercede and try to grab the prince for themselves, Aemond restraining his fleeing brother while Criston crosses swords with Cargyll 1. That’s when Cargyll 2 moonwalks away, realizing that he wants no part of this royal shitshow.

2022 October 16, Jenna Scherer, “An enticing House Of The Dragon crowns Westeros' new ruler”, in AV Club:

(intransitive) To walk in a manner that is similar to the moonwalk dance style; to move while sliding backwards as though the feet move as if one was walking forwards.


pistachio

en-noun

pistachio (plural pistachios or pistachioes)

pistachios (plural)
pistachioes (plural)

→ Japanese: ピスタチオ (pisutachio)

→ Korean: 피스타치오 (piseutachio)

→ Malay: pistacio, pistasio

→ Thai: พิสตาชีโอ (pís-dtaa-chí-ôo)

→ Welsh: pistasio

From Italian pistacchio (1590s), from Latin pistācium (“pistachio”), from Ancient Greek πιστάκιον (pistákion), from πιστάκη (pistákē, “pistachio tree”). Of Iranian origin. Compare Northern Kurdish pisteq, Persian پسته (peste), Middle Persian pstk' (pistag, “pistachio nut”), Old Armenian պիստակ (pistak) (from Iranian), Arabic فُسْتُق (fustuq), Turkish fıstık.

cog

pistachio:

A pale green colour, like that of a pistachio seed.


fluorescence

en-noun

fluorescence (countable and uncountable, plural fluorescences)

Coined 1852 by physicist George Stokes from fluorspar + -escence.
Morphologically fluoresce + -ence.

(physics) The emission of light (or other electromagnetic radiation) by a material when stimulated by the absorption of radiation or of a subatomic particle.


Bermuda green

Bermuda green (countable and uncountable, plural Bermuda greens)

Bermuda green:

(golf, countable) A green whose surface consists of Bermuda grass.


Bermuda green

en-adj

Bermuda green (comparative more Bermuda green, superlative most Bermuda green)

more Bermuda green (comparative)
most Bermuda green (superlative)


buttery

From Middle English boterie, from Old French boterie and Medieval Latin buteria, from Late Latin botāria, from a variant form of butta (“cask, bottle”). The form was probably influenced by butter.

(UK) A room in a university where snacks are sold.


dark space

any of several regions in a glow discharge in which little or no light is produced


space reddening

en-noun

space reddening (plural space reddenings)

(astronomy, astrophysics) The reddening of the light from distant stars because of selective absorption and scattering by interstellar dust


space velocity

space velocity (plural space velocities)

(astronomy) The velocity of a star relative to the Sun


fire door

fire doors (plural)
firedoor (alternative)

There are 10,000 fire doors on the Elizabeth Line, including these two at Liverpool Street that have been tested to tolerate a two-hour blaze at temperatures as high as 3,000°C.

2022 March 23, Paul Bigland, “We're counting down the days”, in RAIL, number 953, page 39, photo caption:

A fireproof door designed to stop fires spreading through buildings.

porta tallafoc

a fireproof door designed to stop fires spreading through buildings


open fire

en-verb

open fire (third-person singular simple present opens fire, present participle opening fire, simple past and past participle opened fire)

opens fire (present singular third-person)
opening fire (participle present)
opened fire (participle past)
opened fire (past)

In warfare, whoever opens fire first has a greater chance of victory.

The Atlanta was swinging through her own turn to avoid a collision with the van when the searchlight, probably from the destroyer Akatsuki, lit upon her from abaft the port beam. Captain Jenkins reacted as commanders had been trained in peacetime: "Counter-illuminate!" he shouted. His gunnery officer, Lieutenant Commander William R. D. Nickelson, Jr., preferred to respond with other hardware. At once he shouted into his headset mike: "Fuck that! Open fire!" His assistant, Lloyd Mustin, was recording accurate ranges from the narrowcasting fire-control radar and didn't need help from other wavelengths. "Action port. Illuminating ship is target," he instructed his gun captains. Mustin, controlling the after trio of five-inch mounts, and Nickelson slewed their directors onto the lights and opened fire immediately.

2011, James D. Hornfischer, “28: Into the Light”, in Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal, New York: Bantam Books, →ISBN, retrieved 2022-11-21, pages 273–274:

(idiomatic) To begin firing (weapons) at something or someone.


fulgurant

en-adj

fulgurant (comparative more fulgurant, superlative most fulgurant)

more fulgurant (comparative)
most fulgurant (superlative)

Resembling a lightning flash; fulgurous.


quint

A musical or piquet term, or a quintuplet

From Middle French quint, from Latin quīntus.

(firefighting) A vehicle used by firefighters that combines the capabilities of a fire engine and a fire truck, having the ability to provide vertical access as well as pump water to fight a fire.


ermines

ermins (alternative)
ermynes (alternative)

Attested in this form (with s) since at least 1562, in Legh's Accedens of Armorie, which defines it ("Sable poudred with Argent, … Ermines is his proper name") and contrasts it with both ermine and erminois. Related to ermine, but the derivation is unclear; the OED suggests "possibly [from] OF. herminès, pl. of herminet" (a supposed diminutive of hermine); modern French calls the fur contre-hermine.
The Fifteenth Century Book of Arms (c. 1460) uses ermyne in a way that sometimes contrasts with ermyn (“ermine”) ("John Garther beryth of ix pecys ermyñ and ermyne"); The Ancestor says the image of that blazon "shows the furs as those usually called at this date erminees (or erminee) and ermine—erminees being ermine with the colour reversed. It is evident that the maker of this roll, whose blazonry is sadly to seek, was uncertain by what name to call the ermine with the black field and white tails. On a later page of this MS. [fo. 59] we find ermine described as ermyñ and its reverse as ermyne)." The Middle English Dictionary defines that use of ermyne as "having the fur ermines, consisting of black with white spots (instead of black on white)", although they derive it from, and it appears to be, erminé ("ermined") instead, hence the Fifteenth Century Book also records a bend "sabyll ermyne" and a lion sable with "ermyne appon the sabyll".

He beareth Or, a Cheuron Checkey Ermin & Ermines.

1572, John Bossewell, Workes of Armorie, II, 129:

(heraldry): In blazon, coloured with a heraldic fur of a black field with white spots; counter-ermine.

kontrahermelin

of black colour with white spots on a coat of arms


scooper

(aviation, firefighting, informal) A type of air tanker waterbomber airplane, which is capable of landing on water, and directly scooping up water to fill its tanks, by skimming the water's surface with scoops delopyed.


moonlit

moonlit (comparative more moonlit, superlative most moonlit)

more moonlit (comparative)
most moonlit (superlative)
moon-lit (alternative)

From moon + lit. Compare Saterland Frisian mouneljoacht (“moonlit”), West Frisian moanneljocht (“moonlit”), Dutch maanverlicht (“moonlit”), Danish månelys (“moonlit”), Swedish månljus (“moonlit”).

cog

Near-synonym: moonful

But when the moon rose and the breeze awakened, and the sedges stirred, and the cat’s-paws raced across the moonlit ponds, and the far surf off Wonder Head intoned the hymn of the four winds, the trinity, earth and sky and water, became one thunderous symphony—a harmony of sound and colour silvered to a monochrome by the moon.

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

People dispersed under a moonlit sky, with many saying they would return when the legislature resumes next week.

2024 May 24, Ann Scott Tyson, “Taiwan protesters meet China’s intimidation with defiance”, in The Christian Science Monitor:


blue-green

en-noun

blue-green (countable and uncountable, plural blue-greens)

From blue + green.
* (color): Compare with the color called orange in Modern English, which was called geoluread (“yellow-red”) in Old English and Middle English.
* (politics): from blue representing conservatism and green representing environmentalism


Greek fire

“There is yet spirit in him,” said Malvoisin apart to Mont–Fitchet, “were it well directed — but, like the Greek fire, it burns whatever approaches it.”

(historical) A highly flammable substance of unknown composition first used by the Greeks of Constantinople in the 7th century C.E. to set fire to enemy ships, buildings, etc.


duckbill

duckbills (plural)
duck-bill (alternative)

duckbill eel

Nettastoma parviceps, or Nessorhamphus ingolfianus

duckbill ray

Aetobatus narinari or Pteromylaeus bovinus

(firefighting) A device used to force padlocks.


yestreen

yestreens (plural)
yestereen (alternative)
yestere'en (alternative)

From Middle English yestreen, alteration of yestereven (“last night, yesterday evening”), from Old English ġiestranǣfen (“yesterday evening”), equivalent to yester- + e'en (“evening”). Cognate with West Frisian justerjûn (“yestreen; last night”).

cog

It was the creature Dougal that extricated me, as he did yestreen […].

1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Rob Roy. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 95:

"Well, it's a funny thing, but I can't get rid of the impression that at some point in my researches into the night life of London yestreen I fell upon some person to whom I had never been introduced and committed mayhem upon his person."

1917, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, chapter IV, in Piccadilly Jim, New York: Dodd, Mead and Company:

You have not forgotten our telephone conversation of yestreen, Jeeves?

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

Late yestreen I saw the new moon, the old moon in her arms

"Sir Patrick Spens," traditional Scottish ballad

(chiefly archaic, poetic or Scotland) The night before; last night.


snow-white

From Middle English snow whit, snowe-white, snouwite, snawhwit, from Old English snāwhwīt, from Proto-West Germanic *snaiwhwīt, from Proto-Germanic *snaiwahwītaz; equivalent to snow + white. Cognate with Dutch sneeuwwit (“snow-white”), German schneeweiß (“snow-white”), Swedish snövit (“snow-white”).

(ethnic slur, offensive, slang) A Caucasian person, especially a woman.


moonscape

In the Australian outback, industrial activity — notably open-pit coal mining — has turned verdant areas into moonscapes seemingly overnight, and the suicide rate in the region has skyrocketed.

2007 December 20, Clive Thompson, “Clive Thompson on How the Next Victim of Climate Change Will Be Our Minds”, in Wired Magazine, number 16.01, archived from the original on 2013-06-30:

Looking across the recently flattened, desolate moonscape of this former 52-acre Great Western depot and industrial area, south of Willesden Junction in west London, it's hard to imagine it will be home to the UK's largest, busiest and best-connected new railway station since Victorian times.

2020 July 15, Marion Gourlay, “Old Oak Common: no ordinary station”, in Rail, page 48:

They made their way to a geological formation called Kap Kobenhavn, a series of bare hills as desolate as a moonscape.

2022 December 7, Carl Zimmer, “Oldest Known DNA Offers Glimpse of a Once-Lush Arctic”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

They had never managed to host many events on their property, in part because some of the surrounding area remained a moonscape. The cork oak where Phillip wanted his ashes spread had burned down in the last fire.

2025 January 19, Eli Saslow, Erin Schaff, “They Built a Home to Fend Off California Wildfires. But Will They Stay?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(by extension) A desolate or devastated landscape.


sunburn

en-noun

sunburn (countable and uncountable, plural sunburns)

From Middle English *sunne burnen, *sonne brennen, *sunne brennen (suggested by derivatives sonne brennynge, sunne brennynge (“sunburn”, literally “sun-burning”) and sunne brente (“sunburnt”), equivalent to sun + burn. Compare West Frisian sinnebrân (“sunburn”), Dutch zonnebrand (“sunburn”), German Sonnenbrand (“sunburn”), Swedish solbränna (“sunburn”), and Icelandic sólbruni (“sunburn”), as well as Old English sunbryne (“sunburn”).

The neutral colours showed off her café au lait sunburn.

1956, Ian Fleming, chapter 22, in Diamonds Are Forever:


sunburn

en-verb

sunburn (third-person singular simple present sunburns, present participle sunburning, simple past and past participle sunburned or (mostly Commonwealth) sunburnt)

sunburns (present singular third-person)
sunburning (participle present)
sunburned (participle past)
sunburned (past)
sunburnt (Commonwealth participle past)
sunburnt (Commonwealth past)

My Aunt charg’d me not to pull off my Glove for fear of Sun-burning my hand.

1668, John Dryden, Sir Martin Mar-all, London: H. Herringman, act II, page 11:

As we crossed the Colorado-Utah border I saw God in the sky in the form of huge gold sunburning clouds above the desert […]

1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 1, in On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC, part 3:

“Oh shoot, I’ve sunburned the top half of my boobs,” she said, frowning down her chest.

1989, Barbara Kingsolver, chapter 7, in The Bean Trees, New York: Harper and Row, page 95:

If you are serious about protecting your eyes, look into wearing goggles or alpine glasses that protect the sides of the eyes as well as the direct path of light into them. I once hiked up Mary’s Glacier wearing only a hat. That night after the hike I couldn’t sleep. I had sunburnt my eyes. It felt like hot pokers were being stuffed into my head. I could not open my eyes for four days.

1998, Kevin Ryan, The Illustrated Guide to Snowboarding, Masters Press, The McGraw-Hill Companies, →ISBN, page 106:

(transitive) To burn or tan (someone's skin) by the sun; to allow (a part of one's body) to become sunburnt.


head

one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind

Spoken by Neil Armstrong when he first stepped onto the surface of the Moon. Armstrong intended to say "one small step for a man", but misspoke.http://www.snopes.com/quotes/onesmall.asp

(idiomatic) (used imitatively) A cliché used to exaggerate an accomplishment or milestone.


wine-colored

en-adj

wine-colored (comparative more wine-colored, superlative most wine-colored)

more wine-colored (comparative)
most wine-colored (superlative)
wine-coloured (alternative)

wine-colored:

Having the rich, deep red color of red wine.


raven-haired

raven-haired (comparative more raven-haired, superlative most raven-haired)

more raven-haired (comparative)
most raven-haired (superlative)

`Attractive, raven-haired, about twenty-three and with a figure like Diana Dors.'

1965, James Holledge, What Makes a Call Girl?, London: Horwitz Publications, page 101:

Having hair that is very black and lustrous.

黒髪の

having hair that is very black and lustrous


man in the moon

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-man in the moon.wav

nb...

Waterloo Place, London Oxford and Cambridge

ref

See S[abine] Baring-Gould (1890) “The Man in the Moon”, in Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, London: Rivingtons […], →OCLC, pages 190–191.

Cal[iban]. Ha'ſt thou not dropt from heauen ? / Ste[phano]. Out o'th Moone I doe aſſure thee. I vvas the Man ith' Moone, vvhen time vvas. / Cal. I haue ſeene thee in her: and I doe adore thee: My Miſtris [Miranda] ſhevv'd me thee, and thy Dog, and thy Buſh.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 10, column 1:

Thy VVife is a Conſtellation of Vertues; ſhe's the Moon, and thou art the Man in the Moon: Nay, ſhe is more Illuſtrious than the Moon; for ſhe has her Chaſtity vvithout her Inconſtancy, 'S'bud I vvas but in Jeſt.

1695, [William] Congreve, Love for Love: A Comedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 24:

I knevv vvell enough at firſt, that theſe vvere mad, hare-brain'd Notions, and I thought no more of being ſerious in them, than I thought of being a Man in the Moon: […]

1723, [Daniel Defoe], The History and Remarkable Life of the Truly Honourable Col. Jacque, Commonly Call’d Col. Jack, […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[ohn] Brotherton, […], →OCLC, page 314:

I declare, quoth my uncle, I knovv no more vvhich it is, than the man in the moon;—[…]

1759, [Laurence Sterne], chapter VII, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, 2nd (1st London) edition, volume II, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley […], published 1760, →OCLC, pages 52–53:

[H]ow my little bit of dinner slides itself down my throat, I know no more than a man in the moon.

1859 November 26 – 1860 August 25, [William] Wilkie Collins, “The Narrative of Walter Hartright, of Clement’s Inn, London”, in The Woman in White. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, […], published 1860, →OCLC, part I, section II, page 8, column 2:

As to all the higher questions which determine the starting-point of a diagnosis—as to the philosophy of medical evidence—any glimmering of these can only come from a scientific culture of which country practitioners have usually no more notion than the man in the moon.

1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XIII, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book II, page 220:

An image of a man perceived in the dark maria (plains or "seas") and light highlands or other features of the Moon, originally regarded as a man with a burden on his back or accompanied by a small dog, and now more commonly as a man's face in the full moon or his profile in a crescent moon; hence, an imaginary man thought to be living on the Moon.

Mo im Mond

image of a man perceived in the dark maria and light highlands or other features of the Moon; imaginary man thought to be living on the Moon


firelighter

A small block of a flammable substance, typically a combination of sawdust and wax, used to light fires.

подпа́лка

small block of a flammable substance used to light fires


fire extinguisher

en-noun

fire extinguisher (plural fire extinguishers)

fire extinguishers (plural)
fire-extinguisher (alternative)

/ˈfaɪəɹ ɪkˌstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃ.ə(ɹ)/

A device that can be used to put out a fire. Usually a portable cylinder filled with carbon dioxide, dry powder or water, in the latter two cases with some means of pressurising the cylinder to expel the contents.


drafting

drafting (countable and uncountable, plural draftings)

draftings (plural)
draughting (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-drafting.wav

(firefighting) The act or process of drawing water out of a source.


sun dog

sun dogs (plural)
sundog (alternative)
sun-dog (alternative)

PIE word
 *sóh₂wl̥
From sun + dog (“(figurative) visible atmospheric or meteorological phenomenon”).

compound

December […] the 28th [1714], the Sun being an Hour high, appeared a Sun-Dog or Parhelion, the Sky full of flying Clouds.

1749, Thomas Short, A General Chronological History of the Air, Weather, Seasons, Meteors, &c. […], volume I, London: […] T[homas] Longman, […]; and A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, page 474:

Sun-dogs, called Mock Suns, becauſe they reſemble the ſun, are tvvo ſpots that frequently appear in a cloud vvhen the ſun ſhines through it, and vvhen he is about 15 to 20 degrees above the horizon. […] One is ſituated on the north, and the other on the ſouth ſide of the ſun. The refraction and reflection of the rays of light are the cauſe of theſe phænomena.

1791, Samuel Stearns, “Of the Cause of the Rain-bow, Meteors, Sun-dogs, Jack-with-a-lanthorn, Hurricanes, Trade-winds, Monsoons, Whirlwinds, Water-spouts, Clouds, Rain, Hail, Snow, Frost, Mist, Fog, and Dew— […]”, in The American Oracle. Comprehending an Account of Recent Discoveries in the Arts and Sciences, […], London: […] J[ames] Lackington, […]; and J. Parsons, […], →OCLC, page 167:

Two sundogs dread famine bring / A bloody war, and new-crown'd king.

1837 April, F. [pseudonym], “Notices by the Way Side—from Notes Taken in 1821. No. IV. Sacket’s Harbor.”, in The Monthly Traveller, or Spirit of the Periodical Press. […], volume VIII, number 4, Boston, Mass.: Badger & Porter, […], →OCLC, page 146, column 1:

The good fog heard—like a splitten sail, to the left and right she tore, / And they saw the sun-dogs in the haze and the seal upon the shore.

1896, Rudyard Kipling, “[The Seven Seas.] The Rhyme of the Three Sealers.”, in The Seven Seas, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 68:

Sometimes it is clear, and at midday the sun looks at us for a moment over the hills to the south. The northern lights flame in the sky, and the sun-dogs dance, and the air is filled with frost-dust.

1905, Jack London, “The Sun-dog Trail”, in Love of Life and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published September 1907 (December 1907 printing), →OCLC, pages 223–224:

A sun dog on each side of the sun foretell a bad storm in the night.

1935, Harry Middleton Hyatt, “Weather”, in Folk-lore from Adams County Illinois, New York, N.Y.: Memoirs of the Alma Egan Hyatt Foundation, →OCLC, paragraph 678, page 26:

Long understood also, is the fact that sundogs—colored spots of light to the right or left of the sun or moon—belong in the same class with halos.

1941 August 31, “When there’s a ring around the sun”, in John T. Curtis, editor, The Philadelphia Inquirer, volume 225, number 62, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Philadelphia Inquirer Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, “Everybody’s Weekly” section, page 2, column 4:

Every rainbow and every sundog remind us, "Yes, you are human and you often fail to live up to God's standards. But God's covenant is eternal, and God loves you nonetheless and not the less."

2000, Michael J. Coyner, “Sundogs and Other Signs”, in Prairie Wisdom: Reflections on Life in the Dakotas, Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, →ISBN, page 126:

Some videos seem to show sun dogs jumping around. […] No one is sure what causes these "jumping" sun dogs. Some scientists think the electric field from lightning in the cloud makes the ice crystals move. When the crystals move, the sun dog moves. But this is just a hypothesis. No one is sure what causes this phenomenon.

2017, Suzanne Garbe, “Sun Dogs”, in The Science behind Wonders of the Sun: Sun Dogs, Lunar Eclipses and Green Flash, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Raintree, Capstone Global Library, →ISBN, page 28:

A bright spot in the sky, usually one of two on a parhelic circle on both sides of the sun (or occasionally above and below it), caused by the refraction of the sun's image through ice crystals.

parhelium

bright spot in the sky caused by the refraction of the sun’s image through ice crystals

úlfakreppa

to the east and west of the sun simultaneously


sunlamp

A lamp that produces ultraviolet radiation; used for therapeutic or cosmetic purposes.


charred

en-adj

charred (comparative more charred, superlative most charred)

more charred (comparative)
most charred (superlative)


fire-resistant

Capable of withstanding fire, either permanently or for a pre-determined time.


moonbeam

moonbeams (plural)
moon beam (alternative)
moon-beam (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-moonbeam.wav

Be kinde and curteous to this gentleman, / Hop in his walkes, and gambole in his eyes, / Feede him with Apricocks, and Dewberries, / With purple Grapes, greene figges, and Mulberries, / The hony bagges ſteale from the humble Bees, / And for night tapers, croppe their waxen thighes, / And light them with at the fiery Glowe-wormes eyes, / To haue my loue to bedde, and to ariſe, / And pluck the wings, from painted Butterflies, / To fanne the Moone-beames from his ſleeping eyes, / Nod to him Elues, and doe him curteſies.

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

A moonbeam pierced the heavy cloud!

1850, Lydia Sigourney, The Brother from Poems for the Sea, page 70:

Quickly the moon sent a moonbeam down, and it shone through the window, right on the face of the sleeping child, kissed him, and gave him a pleasant dream.

1972, Ardyce DeLapp, Stories that Teach: A Collection, page 31:

The mountain flanked on the east by Devil's Peak and glancing to the right Lion's Head and Signal Hill shimmers and the residents at the foot of the mountain bask in the splendour of moonbeams.

2013, Lindsay Tonkin, Moonbeams and Shadows, page 28:


capri

Named after the colour of the sea around the Italian island of Capri, especially in the Blue Grotto.

capri:

A deep shade of sky blue between cyan and azure.


lime

en-noun

lime (countable and uncountable, plural limes)

From Middle English lyme, lym, lime, from Old English līm, from Proto-West Germanic *līm, from Proto-Germanic *līmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyH- (“to smear”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Liem (“glue”), Dutch lijm, German Leim (“glue”), Danish lim (from Old Norse lím), Latin limus (“mud”).

der

Sellers moved on until he was actually trusted to operate the limes, the spotlights that can make or destroy an artist's act.

1980, Peter Evans, Peter Sellers: The Mask Behind the Mask, page 30:

Then out of the blue, a spotlight much like the “limes” in a theatre, lit up what seemed like a Punch and Judy tent […] He struggled even more, when from out of the shadows and into the bright light of the limes, stepped Uncle Jolly.

2018, Robert Charles Hines, Twists and Turns: 13 Tales of the Uneasy, page 121:


lime

From French lime, from Spanish lima, from Arabic لِيمَة (līma), from Persian لیمو (limu). Doublet of lemon.

lime:

web lime:

(uncountable) A brilliant, sometimes yellowish, green colour associated with the fruits of a lime tree.

WARNING: This is a lime. While it does not show explicit sex, as a lemon would, references to sexual situations abound.

1998 June 8, Gary Kleppe, “[Ranma][Fanfic] Tangled Web”, in rec.arts.anime.creative (Usenet):

Even with all the sex in Garden of EVA, I still think the main stories are better for just being the lemon-scented limes that they are.

1998 December 29, jiml...@earthlink.net, “[EVA][FanFic][Lemon] Garden of EVA 0:6x - Wet Dreams Bite!”, in rec.arts.anime.creative (Usenet):

I have no intention of writing any lemon scenes, limes are possibilities but unlikely and if they occur they will be few in number.

2001 November 27, Schemer, “[Ranma/SF][FanFic] A Learning Experience - Chapter 01”, in rec.arts.anime.creative (Usenet):

(fandom slang) A fan fiction story which contains sexual references, but stops short of full, explicit descriptions of sexual activity (coined by analogy with lemon).


catch fire

en-verb

catch fire (third-person singular simple present catches fire, present participle catching fire, simple past and past participle caught fire)

catches fire (present singular third-person)
catching fire (participle present)
caught fire (participle past)
caught fire (past)
catch on fire (alternative)
go on fire (alternative)

Ships' logs noted observations of the northern lights as far south as the Caribbean, and telegraph systems across the world were disrupted as electrical currents were induced in the copper lines. Several telegraph operators received electric shocks and some telegraph stations even caught fire.

2023 November 15, Prof. Jim Wild, “This train was delayed because of bad weather in space”, in RAIL, number 996, page 30:

(idiomatic) To become engulfed in flames, to combust.


arc lamp

arc lamps (plural)
arc-lamp (alternative)

This led him to the station; and the square in front of it, vivid with arc-lamps, noisy with the yellow trams that seemed to cross it in all directions, made him laugh aloud with joy.

1915, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 40, in Of Human Bondage:

The vague and careless rain looked like threads of gossamer silver passing across the light of the arc-lamps.

1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./1/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

An electric arc arranged so as to produce useful light.

buelampe

an electric arc arranged so as to produce useful light


smokejumper

smokejumpers (plural)
smoke jumper (alternative)

(US, Canada) A firefighter who parachutes into a remote area to combat wildfires and set up firebreaks.


Byzantium

From Latin Bȳzantium, from Ancient Greek Βῡζᾰ́ντῐον (Būzắntĭon), named after its legendary founder, Byzas.

byzantium:

A dark shade of purple, close to Tyrian purple and palatinate purple


heliomagnetism

the magnetic field, and associated activity, of the sun


cresset

From Middle English cresset, from Old French crasset, cresset (“sort of lamp or torch”); perhaps of Old Dutch or Old High German origin, and akin to English cruse and/or French creuset (“crucible”), the latter being from Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin *croceolus.

1805–1814, Dante Alighieri, Henry Francis Cary (translator), The Divine Comedy, "Inferno", Canto VIII
We reach'd the lofty turret's base, our eyes / its height ascended, where we mark'd uphung / two cressets and another saw from far

A metal cage, basket or cup with fire in it, used for various purposes:

(coopering) A small furnace or iron cage to hold fire for charring the inside of a cask, and making the staves flexible.


Selected by the European Union as the 3-digit number fastest to dial on cellular and rotary phones without the likelihood of accidental dialing caused by hanging up a landline telephone, sometimes interpreted by phone networks as a 1.

When you call 112 in the United Kingdom, the call is automatically rerouted to 999 operators.

The telephone number for emergency services on all GSM cell phones and in the EU, Russia, United Kingdom, Ireland, India, Indonesia, Turkey, Ukraine, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome, the Seychelles, Uganda, East Timor, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, North Macedonia, Vatican City, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and Saint Vincent.


A variant of the British 999, originally selected as an appropriate number for rotary-dial telephones and adapted in Australia because of the need to dial an initial 0 from remote exchanges to connect to the main trunk lines.

When you call 000, the Telstra operator usually answers the phone with "Emergency. Police, fire, or ambulance?"

The telephone number for emergency services in Australia.


ball lightning

en-noun

ball lightning (usually uncountable, plural ball lightnings)

A short-lived glowing ball sometimes observed to float in the air and thought to consist of ionized gas associated with thunderstorms.

llamp en bola

a short-lived, glowing ball sometimes observed to float in the air


flashover

flashover (countable and uncountable, plural flashovers)

The near simultaneous ignition of all combustible material in an enclosed area.

The overhead line was energised at 25,000 volts and the height of the contact wire was reduced to 11 in. above the chimney, then to 5 and finally to 2 in.; at this last, short distance the flashover occurred, but all the men were perfectly safe because the current went direct to earth through the locomotive.

1960 April, “Talking of Trains: Safety with 25kV a.c.”, in Trains Illustrated, page 203:

An unintended electric discharge or arc over or around an insulator.


snow line

snow lines (plural)
snow-line (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-snow line.wav

(astrophysics, specifically) The limit for water remaining solid instead of evaporating away under solar radiation.


yesternight

From Middle English yesternyght, yisternight, from Old English ġiestranniht (“yesternight”), equivalent to yester- + night.

inh

What man was he talk'd with you yesternight
 Out at your window betwixt twelve and one?

c. 1598, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, act IV, scene 1:

It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

1611, King James Version of the Bible, Genesis 31:29:

[…] when the Templar crossed the hall yesternight, he spoke to his Mussulman slaves in the Saracen language, which I well understand, and charged them this morning to watch the journey of the Jew […]

1820, Walter Scott, chapter 6, in Ivanhoe:

[…] she has disturbed me, night and day, through eighteen years—incessantly—remorselessly—till yesternight; and yesternight I was tranquil.

1847, Emily Brontë, chapter 29, in Wuthering Heights:

I came here yesternight for a call of nature and to do what none can do for me[.]

1885, Richard F. Burton, chapter XXII, in The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, volume I, The Burton Club, page 228:


candlelight

en-noun

candlelight (usually uncountable, plural candlelights)

candlelights (plural)
candle light (alternative)
candle-light (alternative)

From Middle English candel lyght, candyllyght, candyll-lyȝht, candel liȝt, candle lyȝt, candeliȝt, candel-liht, from Old English candel lēoht (“candlelight”), equivalent to candle + light.

inh

I looked across the table into her shining eyes, which were golden in the candlelight, with my fingers round the stem of my own glass, ready for the toast.

1912, Cecil Barber, “Standchen”, in The Living Age, volume 275, page 426:

Cradled in the arms of Night, the gleam of moon and candlelight bring images alive from days gone by.

2013, Will Moody, Candlelight Reflections, page 65:

Using survey data gathered from social media users who participated in the candlelight vigils, he explores the prevalence of social media use during the protests, how it differs in terms of individual-level demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, […]

2021, JongHwa Lee, Chuyun Oh, Yong-Chan Kim, The Candlelight Movement, Democracy, and Communication in Korea, page 1969:


floodlight

(chiefly in the plural) Powerful artificial illumination with a broad beam, especially in a series of units on pylons used to illuminate a sports ground.

fladebelysning

powerful artificial illumination with a broad beam


jack-o'-lantern

jack-o'-lanterns (plural)
jack-o-lantern (alternative)
jack o'lantern (alternative)
Jack O'Lantern (alternative)

Originally, a night watchman who carried a lantern. (See Jack.)
Attested as a term for ignis fatuus in English folklore in the 1660s, mostly in East Anglia but also in southwestern England.
The sense of carved pumpkin in American English is attested in 1834.

A carved pumpkin whose top and stem have been cut out and interior removed, leaving a hollow shell that is then decorated to represent a face, illuminated from within by a candle. It is a symbol of Halloween.


klieg light

From John H. Kliegl and Anton T. Kliegl, its inventors.

And with the klieg lights suddenly on her every move, Ms. Harris has an opportunity to reintroduce herself to the American public after a rough start as vice president.

2024 July 9, Linda Feldmann, Francine Kiefer, “Is Kamala Harris ready to step up?”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

An intense carbon arc lamp used in cinematography


firelight

en-noun

firelight (countable and uncountable, plural firelights)

From Middle English fire liȝt, fyre lyghte, from Old English fȳrlēoht, equivalent to fire + light.

He sat on by the cheerful firelight thrown from a bundle of green ash-sticks laid across the dogs; the sticks snapped pleasantly, and hissed out bubbles of sap from their ends.

1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXXI, in Tess of the d'Urbervilles:

He glanced continually at the diamond-panes of the casement, gleaming dimly in the firelight, and cocked his ear toward the door, as if half expecting to hear the pad of furtive feet in the corridor without.

1936, Robert E. Howard, chapter 8, in The Hour of the Dragon:

Dane was startled out of the contemplation of his misery to see the medic on his knees before their row of canteens, the vial of water purifier held to the firelight for a closer inspection.

1959, Andre Norton, chapter IV, in Voodoo Planet:

The light of a fire, such as from a campfire or fireplace.


true blue

From true (adjective) + blue (“steadfastly faithful or loyal”, adjective). The symbolism of the colour blue as representing constancy, faithfulness, loyalty, and truth may derive from the constant colour of the sky, or the tendency of certain blue dyes to resist fading, especially those made in Coventry.
Adjective senses 1.1.2 (“of or pertaining to the Tory, and now the Conservative, political party”) and 1.1.3 (“of or pertaining to the Scottish Presbyterian or Whig political party in the 17th century”) probably both allude to sense 1 (“steadfastly faithful or loyal”). Sense 1.1.2 may also allude to sense 1.1.3 which is older, and sense 1.1.3 may partly allude to the blue colour of the flag of Scotland.

истински

representing the true essence of something — see also authentic, genuine

For his Religion it was fit / To match his Learning and his Wit: / 'Twas Presbyterian true blew, / For he was of that stubbon Crew / Of Errant Saints, whom all men grant / To be the true Church Militant: […]

1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 8:

This was a tough true-blue presbyterian, called Deans, who, though most obnoxious to the Laird on account of principles in church and state, contrived to maintain his ground upon the estate […]

1818 July 25, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 190:

And werenae the folk guid sound Whigs and true-blue Prebyterians I would hae seen them ayont Jordan and Jeroozlem or I would have set hand to it.

1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Bass”, in Catriona, London; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 168:

Steadfastly faithful or loyal; unwavering in loyalty; staunch, true.

(Scotland, historical) Of or pertaining to the Scottish Presbyterian or Whig political party in the 17th century; hence, steadfastly Presbyterian.

jyrkästi presbyteerinen

of or pertaining to the Scottish Presbyterian or Whig political party in the 17th century; steadfastly Presbyterian


true blue

en-noun

true blue (countable and uncountable, plural true blues)

true blues (plural)
true-blue (alternative)

A mild Liberalism prevailed, a Liberalism that would be regarded as hide-bound Toryism now, but was daring enough in those days. One man who had been to work in Northampton proclaimed himself a Radical; but he was cancelled out by the landlord, who called himself a ‘true blue’.

1939, Flora Thompson, “At the ‘Wagon and Horses’”, in Lark Rise to Candleford: A Trilogy, London: Penguin Books, published 1973, →ISBN, pages 65–66:

(countable) A faithful partisan or supporter of a cause, person, political party, etc.

vankkumaton tukija

faithful partisan or supporter of a cause, etc.

(uncountable, historical) A blue dye from Coventry, England, famous for not washing out.

true blue

(color models and color spaces) A precisely defined pure blue, as for example web color #0000FF = RGB(0,0,255).


pean

Derived from Middle French penne (“feather”), from penna (“feather”); doublet of pen and penna.

der+

(heraldry) A heraldic fur of gold spots on a black field.


pean

(heraldry) In blazon, a heraldic fur of a black field with gold spots.

kontraguldhermelin

of black colour with gold spots on a coat of arms


sunburst

en-noun

sunburst (countable and uncountable, plural sunbursts)

(countable) A strong outburst of sunlight.

The L-30 was finished all over in black, the L-37 in sunburst.

1996, Ken Achard, The History and Development of the American Guitar, page 10:

(uncountable) A style of finish for musical instruments such as guitars, having an area of lighter color (often showing the wood grain underneath) that darkens gradually towards a dark outer rim.


burnt orange

burnt orange:


burnt orange

en-adj

burnt orange (comparative more burnt orange, superlative most burnt orange)

more burnt orange (comparative)
most burnt orange (superlative)

As for her beauty look, the Jennifer’s Body star had dyed her long tresses a burnt-orange shade, and styled them slightly curled at the ends and down across her shoulders. She also repped a bubblegum-pink manicure with an abstract black design.

2023 May 19, Chelsey Sanchez, “Megan Fox Makes Her Red-Carpet Comeback in a Body-Sculpting Sheer Gown”, in Harper's Bazaar:


slash and burn

His slash and burn approach to management resulted in few friends and many enemies.

Rough, coarse and lacking finesse, performed with little skill.


red hair

en-noun

red hair (countable and uncountable, plural red hairs)


murrey

murrey (countable and uncountable, plural murreys)

From Middle English murrey, murreye, from Middle French moré, morée, from Latin moratum, morata, from neuter and feminine respectively of moratus (“mulberry-colored”), from morum (“mulberry”) + -atus (“-ate”).

murrey:

(heraldry) A tincture, the colour of mulberries, between gules (red) and purpure (purple).


luminous energy

luminous energy (plural luminous energies)

(physics) The radiant energy of the visible portion of a spectrum of light


interlunar

From inter- + lunar: compare Latin interlunis.

Of the four-day period between an old moon and a new moon, when the moon is not visible.


sidelight

He is well up to form when dealing with passenger stock, notably Victorian and Edwardian and on this and on East Coast motive power he throws many sidelights.

1962 October, “New Reading on Railways: The Flying Scotsman 1862-1962. By C. Hamilton Ellis. Allen & Unwin. 6s.”, in Modern Railways, unnumbered page:

A piece of incidental information that helps one understand a subject.


standpipe

The water supply of a building for the use of firefighters.


coppery

en-adj

coppery (comparative more coppery, superlative most coppery)

more coppery (comparative)
most coppery (superlative)

coppery:

That night I dreamed I had a very disagreeable taste in my mouth, which caused me to spit all the time. I awoke and found my mouth full of saliva, with a coppery taste, and sure enough, I was obliged to spit.

2002, E. P. Anshutz, New, Old and Forgotten Remedies, page 380:

Venetian women who wanted coppery hair colors applied bleaching mixtures, such as one that contained alum, sulfur, soda, and rhubarb. Then they sat in the sun, where heat produced a chemical reaction that developed the color.

2006, Victoria Sherrow, Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History, page 155:

Resembling the metal copper, especially in color.


fluorescently

en-adv

fluorescently (comparative more fluorescently, superlative most fluorescently)

more fluorescently (comparative)
most fluorescently (superlative)

Fully air-conditioned and fluorescently lit, it is strikingly decorated and there is a magnificent outlook through the wide windows.

1960 December, “Modern lightweight coaches of the Swiss Federal Railways”, in Trains Illustrated, page 745, photo caption:

In a fluorescent manner; using fluorescence.


fireline

The ranger said that working a fire is called being "on the fireline."

A row of firefighters seeking to stop spread of a forest fire.

The line where firefighters intend to stop a spreading fire.


fireline

en-verb

fireline (third-person singular simple present firelines, present participle firelining, simple past and past participle firelined)

firelines (present singular third-person)
firelining (participle present)
firelined (participle past)
firelined (past)


alizarin

en-noun

alizarin (countable and uncountable, plural alizarins)

alizarins (plural)
alizarine (alternative)

Borrowed from French alizarine, corresponding to alizari + -in.

glass headed pins,
oil-golds and copper greens,
anthracite blues, alizarins,

1946, Elizabeth Bishop, “Roosters”, in North and South:

In 1883, the German output of alizarin, the brilliant red chemical that imitated natural carmine, reached twelve thousand tons, dwarfing the amount being produced by Perkin's factory in London.

2010, Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of all Maladies, Fourth Estate, published 2011, page 82:

(organic chemistry) A red substance, 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone, extracted from madder root and used as a dye.


dead of night

Write loyal cantons of contemnèd love / And sing them loud even in the dead of night.

c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:

I was feeling just as I had felt in the old Malvern House epoch when I used to sneak down to [the schoolmaster]'s study at dead of night in quest of the biscuits he kept there in a tin on his desk, and there came back to me the memory of the occasion when, not letting a twig snap beneath my feet, I had entered his sanctum in pyjamas and a dressing-gown, to find him seated in his chair, tucking into the biscuits himself.

1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VII:

Blackbird singing in the dead of night / Take these broken wings and learn to fly

1968, “Blackbird”, in Paul McCartney (lyrics), The Beatles, performed by The Beatles:


foxfire

fox fire (alternative)
fox-fire (alternative)

Possibly from fox + fire, though the semantic connection is unclear. Alternatively, the first element may be ultimately from Old French fols (“false”), or the term may derive by folk etymology from phosphor.

The foxfire,—as the country people call it,—glowed hideously from the cold and matted bosom of the marsh; and, far from us, in the depths of darkness, the screech-owl sat upon his perch, brooding over the slimy pool, and whooping out a dismal curfew, that fell upon the ear like the cries of a tortured ghost.

1832, Mark Littleton [pseudonym; John Pendleton Kennedy], “The Goblin Swamp”, in Swallow Barn, or A Sojourn in the Old Dominion. In Two Volumes, volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: Carey & Lea, […], →OCLC, page 311:

Perhaps you've seen a foxfire in the woods. Well, in the dark, it looks like a live, burning coal; but when you go to it, and take it up, it's only a piece of rotten wood.

1874 June, Philip Quilibet, “Drift-wood. A Famous Evangelist.”, in The Galaxy. […], volume XVII, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Sheldon & Co., →OCLC, page 842, column 2:

[Nathaniel] Hawthorne in one of his books records a remarkable personal encounter with this weird fox-fire, and one which cost him dearly. He was on a journey by canal-boat, which had stopped en route for a brief period at midnight. During the interval he had stepped ashore, and was decoyed into a neighboring wood by the bright glow, which proved to be a fallen tree ablaze with phosphorescence. In his surprise and interest he lost all account of time, and thus missed his boat, [...] Almost any damp woods, especially after a rain, is likely to disclose its fox-fire, but it occasionally appears under circumstances where we little expect it.

1894 January 9, William Hamilton Gibson, “Foxfire”, in Harper’s Young People, volume XV, number 741, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 189, column 1:

People calls this "spunk," but it's foxfire. You see this hole in it? You see where I sawed it in two with the chain saw? See, this grows in hollow trees in a maple or a oak. No, it ain't mushroom; it's just really foxfire.

1911, Patsy Moore Ginns, quoting Stanley Hicks, “Ghosts, Haints, and Witches”, in Snowbird Gravy and Dishpan Pie: Mountain People Recall, Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, published 1982, →ISBN, page 185:

The rain stopped falling. They passed, leaving a trail of foxfire shuffled up out of the wet leaves like stars plowed in a ship's wake.

1965, Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →OCLC; republished London: Picador, 2010, →ISBN, page 201:

Curiously enough, there were fluorescent displays underground that could be enjoyed without benefit of an ultraviolet lamp. One of these was fox fire, the spectral glow given off by fungi on decaying timber. In the damp darkness of the mine, pine planks 3 inches thick could become feather light and crumbly in a year.

1983, Manuel Robbins, “Collecting Fluorescent Minerals”, in The Collector’s Book of Fluorescent Minerals, New York, N.Y., London: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, →DOI, →ISBN, page 50:

(mycology, chiefly US) Bioluminescence created by some types of fungus, particularly those growing on rotting wood.

فوكسفيري

bioluminescence created by some types of fungus


bluey

bluey (countable and uncountable, plural blueys)

‘Doc’ […] shouldered his bluey and whistled up his lame fox-terrier before formally wishing them all well.

1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 318:

(Australia) A collection of clothes and other belongings rolled up into a bundle for carrying; a swag.

(Australia) A blue cattle dog, especially a blue heeler.


blowtorch

blowtorches (plural)
blow torch (alternative)

/ˈbləʊˌtɔːtʃ/

When the firecan jockeys have flown their blowtorches some 100,000 miles, the doctors take over for the ground physical.

1949, Popular Science, volume 155, number 6, page 120:


combustibleness

The state or quality of being combustible.


burnable

en-adj

burnable (comparative more burnable, superlative most burnable)

more burnable (comparative)
most burnable (superlative)


butternut

en-noun

butternut (countable and uncountable, plural butternuts)

Juglans cinerea
Juglans cinerea#Translingual

A North American walnut tree, Juglans cinerea.

A dye made from the fruit of this walnut tree.

He made a delicious butternut soup.

Butternut squash
butternut squash#English

(informal outside South Africa) Butternut squash.


blackout lamp

A hand-held lamp that has sliding or rotating doors to adjust the amount of light emitted.


matchbox

A small cardboard box in which matches are kept.


sables

Argent, a fesse between 3 cressauntes Sables. Sables, a sunne Argent.

1899, Thomas Abingdon, A Survey of Worcestershire, page 465:

[…] this letter H sables and to the Creast upon the Healme on a wreathe silver & sables a Turtle-dove azure manteled gules doubled silver. Fifthly the Greke Reader the field silver & sables & perty^([sic]) per cheveron in the first these two Greke letters Α Alpha and Ω Omega sables & in the second a Cicade or Grasshoper silver […] Rob: Cooke alias Clarencieulx Roy D'Armes / The foregoing is taken from Baker's transcript of the original grant (v. Baker's MSS. in the University Library, Cambridge, vol. xxvi., p. 27).

1899, The Genealogical Magazine, page 126:

The arms of his father, John Smith, were ratified and confirmed by Christopher Barker, Garter King of Arms, on March 12, 1545, and according to the description of them given in the dead, his crest was "an eagle rysing sables, holding in his right claw a pen argent, issuing thereout flames of fyer set upon a wreath argent and azure, mantelles gules, lined argent, botoned gold."

1900, Ex Libris Society (London, England), Journal, page 33:

(uncommon) Alternative form of sable (“heraldry: black”)


burn up

en-verb

burn up (third-person singular simple present burns up, present participle burning up, simple past and past participle burned up or burnt up)

burns up (present singular third-person)
burning up (participle present)
burned up (participle past)
burned up (past)
burnt up (participle past)
burnt up (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-burn up.wav

From burn + up. Compare Middle English upbrennynge, upbrennende (“burning up”, present participle), German Low German upbrannen (“to burn up”).

cog

Near-synonyms: go up in smoke; see also Thesaurus:combust

The rocket may burn up on reentry.

(intransitive) To catch fire and burn until destroyed.


forecastle lamp

en-noun

forecastle lamp (plural forecastle lamps)

(nautical) A lamp hung in the forecastle of a ship to allow sailors to work and relax after dark.


crystal violet

A dye, derived from gentian violet, that is used as an acid-base indicator and as a biological stain.