moonlight

moonlight (usually uncountable, plural moonlights)

From Middle English monelight, from Old English mōnan lēoht (“moonlight”, literally “moon's light, light of the moon”). Equivalent to moon + light. Cognate with Scots munelicht ~ muinlicht, West Frisian moanneljocht, Dutch maanlicht, German Mondlicht.

inh

If you will patiently dance in our round / And see our moonlight revels, go with us; / If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! / Here will we sit and let the sounds of music / Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night / Become the touches of sweet harmony.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

[…] the sight of the blade which glistened by moonlight in his face, checked, in some sort, the ardour of his assailant […]

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:

’Tis eight o’clock,—a clear March night, / The moon is up,—the sky is blue, / The owlet, in the moonlight air, / Shouts from nobody knows where;

1798, William Wordsworth, The Idiot Boy, lines 1–4:

It was the pensive oysterman that saw a lovely maid, / Upon a moonlight evening, a-sitting in the shade;

1830, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ballad of the Oysterman, lines 5–6:

[S]he passed away noiselessly, and the moonlight kissed the wall which her shadow had dimmed.

1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Further Communications on Business”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 39:

What say you, gentlemen, shall we have a moonlight hunt?

1889, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter XII, in The Master of Ballantrae. […], London, Paris: Cassell & Company, […], →OCLC:

The windows were curtainless, and the yellow moonlight, flooding in through the diamond panes, enabled one to see even colours, whilst it softened the wealth of dust which lay over all and disguised in some measure the ravages of time and the moth.

1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 3, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:

They were still under the white plum tree and their faces were touching except for a pale thin ray of moonlight between.

1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 6, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, →OCLC:

It [the Arkenstone] was as if a globe had been filled with moonlight and hung before them in a net woven of the glint of frosty stars.

1937 September 21, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “A Thief in the Night”, in The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again, revised edition, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published February 1966 (August 1967 printing), →OCLC, page 257:

1957, Sylvia Dee, “Moonlight Swim” (song recorded by Nick Noble and Elvis Presley),
Let’s go on a moonlight swim / Far away from the crowd / All alone upon the beach / Our lips and our arms / Close within each other’s reach / Will be on a moonlight swim

On a moonlight night it would be different. The happy voices of children playing in open fields would then be heard. And perhaps those not so young would be playing in pairs in less open places, and old men and women would remember their youth.

1958, Chinua Achebe, chapter 2, in Things Fall Apart, New York: Astor-Honor, published 1959:

(sometimes attributive) The light reflected from the Moon.

月ぬ光

ちちぬふぃちゃい, chichi nu fichai, ちちぬひちゃい, chichi nu hichai

kuusära

attributive: illuminated by the light from the moon


moonlight

en-verb

moonlight (third-person singular simple present moonlights, present participle moonlighting, simple past and past participle moonlighted)

moonlights (present singular third-person)
moonlighting (participle present)
moonlighted (participle past)
moonlighted (past)

(British, dated) To carry out undeclared work.


moonlighted

“It came downstairs as I went up,” said the trooper, “and crossed the moonlighted window with a loose black mantle on […]”

1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, “chapter 52”, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:

I sat for hours afterwards, gazing out of the cavern entrance at the moonlighted grove, silent and desolate beyond any telling.

1907, Upton Sinclair, The Overman, New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., page 41:


radiophotoluminescence

(physics) the luminescence observed when some minerals or glasses, having been exposed to ionizing radiation, are subsequently exposed to ultraviolet light; exploited in some dosimeters


ignition

en-noun

ignition (countable and uncountable, plural ignitions)

mechanical engineering
mechanical engineering

(automotive, mechanical engineering) A system for activating combustion in a combustion engine.

запалване

system for activating combustion in an engine


root beer

root beer (countable and uncountable, plural root beers)

root beers (plural)
rootbeer (alternative)

/ˈɹuːt ˌbɪə/

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

The term is attested since before the lifetime of Charles Elmer Hires, but he is widely credited with popularizing it much further than it had previously been; his proprietary beverage was inspired by an earlier root tea, and he planned to sell it under that name, but he changed its name to broaden the sales appeal. For more, see Wikipedia at root beer § History.

In 1919, when Roy Allen and Frank Wright started selling their new root beer beverage to a thirsty America, national Prohibition was taking its grip on the country. Their timing couldn't have been better. No longer able to legally drink real beer, thirsty patriots had to settle for this sweet, foamy concoction derived from roots, herbs, and berries.

2002, Todd Wilbur, Top Secret Recipes, Penguin, →ISBN:

A beverage, most often a carbonated soft drink made from a combination of vanilla, cherry tree bark, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, sassafras root bark, nutmeg, anise, and molasses, among other things.


camera flash

(photography) A device that produces a short flash of light to help illuminate a scene, mostly for night-time or indoors photography, to make the picture brighter.


photoautotroph

From photo- (from the combining form φωτω- (phōtō-) of Ancient Greek φῶς (phôs, “light”)) + autotroph, from auto- (from Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-, “self-”)) + -troph (from Ancient Greek τροφή (trophḗ, “nourishment”)).

confix

from Ancient Greek <i class="Polyt mention" lang="grc">αὐτο-</i> (auto-, “self-”)

from Ancient Greek <i class="Polyt mention" lang="grc">τροφή</i> (trophḗ, “nourishment”)

(biochemistry, organic chemistry) an organism, such as all green plants, that can synthesize its own food from inorganic material using light as a source of energy


thermoluminescence

en-noun

thermoluminescence (countable and uncountable, plural thermoluminescences)

(physics) The release of previously absorbed radiation upon being heated.


backlight

If I do use backlight, it's not to separate the subject from the background; I use it to set a psychological mood, or to create a look.

2006, Michael Grecco, Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, Amphoto Books, →ISBN, page 73:

(uncountable) Light shining from a source behind the object of interest or attention.

(uncountable) Light that is behind a photographic subject.


potent

[ˈpʰoʊ̯ʔn̩t]

[ˈpʰəʉ̯ʔn̩t]

From Middle English potent, borrowed from Latin potens, potentis (“powerful, strong, potent”), present participle of posse (“to be able”), from potis (“able, powerful, originally a lord, master”).

der

(heraldry) A heraldic fur formed by a regular tessellation of blue and white T shapes.


dazzling

en-adj

dazzling (comparative more dazzling, superlative most dazzling)

more dazzling (comparative)
most dazzling (superlative)

Oakland native [Andre] Ward is now unbeaten in 25 fights and can now claim to be one of the top few pound-for-pound fighters on the planet after a technically dazzling display.

2011 December 18, Ben Dirs, “Carl Froch outclassed by dazzling Andre Ward”, in BBC Sport:


scintillating

scintillating (comparative more scintillating, superlative most scintillating)

more scintillating (comparative)
most scintillating (superlative)

On the scintillating water yellow and blue boats bobbed up and down.

1994, Edward St Aubyn, Bad News, Picador, published 2006, page 147:

They sank me into the ocean / Wishing me to remain in the depths. / I became a deep sea diver / And came up covered with scintillating pearls.

2012 October 13, quoting Nguyen Chi Thien, “Nguyen Chi Thien: Nguyen Chi Thien, a Vietnamese poet, died on October 2nd, aged 73”, in The Economist, archived from the original on 13 October 2012

That scintillates with brief flashes of light; sparkling.

Her sketches and tales may be said to be cleverly written. They are lively, easy, conventional, scintillating with a species of sarcastic wit, which might be termed good were it in any respect original.

1864, Edgar Allan Poe, The Literati of New York - No. II - Anna Cora Mowatt:

The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;[…]. Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

For the last thirteen months, Beatles cofounder John Lennon has been Liverpool's darling. He can do no wrong. His group's music is scintillating. His public demeanor has been exemplary. He is a credit to our city, to rock 'n' roll musicians, and to the undead.

1964 March 24, Irvine Paris, “John Lennon in His Own Wrong: Farcical Poetry or Poetical Farce?”, in The Liverpool Herald:

The hosts maintained their discipline and shape, even threatening to grab a second goal on the break – left-back Dan Harding made a scintillating run, skipping past a few challenges before prodding a right-footed shot that did not match his build-up.

2011 January 29, Ian Hughes, “Southampton 1–2 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 2016-04-21:

A scintillating example of where the cultural politics of iconoclasm and of representation coincide, in the Hellenistic world, is offered by an inscription of the fourth century BCE from Delphi.

2012, Jaś Elsner, “Iconoclasm as Discourse: From Antiquity to Byzantium”, in The Art Bulletin, volume 94, number 3, pages 368-394:

Lots of people are looking for something scintillating and new and not finding it.

2022 August 29, Michelle Goldberg, “The Book That Explains Our Cultural Stagnation”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(figurative) Brilliantly or impressively clever, exciting, amusing or witty.


coruscation

en-noun

coruscation (countable and uncountable, plural coruscations)

coruscations (plural)
corruscation (alternative)

/ˌkɒɹəsˈkeɪʃən/

Borrowed from Latin coruscātiōnem, coruscātiō (“glitter, flash”).

[I]n the dusky galleries, duskier with unwashed heads, is a strange 'coruscation,'—of impromptu billhooks.

1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number):

The one, as a brilliant coruscation playing in a summer sky, might enchant the fancy and ensure the suffrage of a moment; the other, as a lovely constellation, though less vivid, yet from its undeviating steadfastness never failed to leave upon the observer impressions more truly gratifying, solid, and lasting.

1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter VII, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 85:

2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, Alfred A. Knopf (2001), 6,
All of these things—the rubbed amber, the magnets, the crystal radio, the clock dials with their tireless coruscations—gave me a sense of invisible rays and forces, a sense that beneath the familiar, visible world of colors and appearances there lay a dark, hidden world of mysterious laws and phenomena.

A sudden display of brilliance; a flashing of light; a sparkle.


strawberry blonde

en-adj

strawberry blonde (comparative more strawberry blonde, superlative most strawberry blonde)

more strawberry blonde (comparative)
most strawberry blonde (superlative)
strawberry blond (alternative)

strawberry blonde:

An uncommon orange hair colour; it is characterized as a combination of pale light yellow (often called blonde) and red. Strawberry blonde hair appears blonde in dim light, but when exposed to sun or a bright light, the hair may assume a slight tinge of pink or red color.


scintillate

en-verb

scintillate (third-person singular simple present scintillates, present participle scintillating, simple past and past participle scintillated)

scintillates (present singular third-person)
scintillating (participle present)
scintillated (participle past)
scintillated (past)

Borrowed from Latin scintillātus, past participle of scintillāre (“to sparkle, glitter, gleam, flash”), from scintilla (“a spark”).

(nuclear physics) Especially of a phosphor: to emit a flash of light upon absorbing ionizing radiation.


alabaster

en-noun

alabaster (usually uncountable, plural alabasters)

alabasters (plural)
alabastre (alternative)
alablaster (alternative)

From Middle English alabastre, from Old French alabastre, from Latin alabaster (“box for perfumes or unguents”), from Ancient Greek ἀλάβαστρος (alábastros), from earlier ἀλάβαστος (alábastos, “vase without handles for storing perfumes”). This may further derive from Egyptian ꜥj-r-bꜣstjt (“vessel of the Egyptian goddess Bast”). The Latin suffix -aster is unrelated, but may have influenced the spelling of the borrowing from Ancient Greek (whence a direct loan could have been rendered as *alabastrus).

der

alabaster:

An off-white colour, like that of alabaster.


heliophobia

Individuals grappling with heliophobia may go to great lengths to avoid sunlight, impacting their physical health by limiting Vitamin D production and leading to feelings of isolation and despair.

2015 February 4, “Overcome the Fear of Sunlight: Therapy for Heliophobia”, in Transform Psychology:


mantis

mantises (plural)
mantes (plural)
mantid (alternative)

From New Latin mantis, from Ancient Greek μάντις (mántis, “soothsayer”). Distant doublet of mind via Proto-Indo-European *méntis.

mantis:

A green colour, like that of many mantises.


bittersweet

bittersweets (plural)
bitter-sweet (alternative)

[ˈbɪɾɚˌswiʔt̚]

From Middle English bitterswete, biterswete, equivalent to bitter + sweet. Cognate with Saterland Frisian bitterswäit (“bittersweet”), West Frisian bittersoet (“bittersweet”), Dutch bitterzoet (“bittersweet”), German bittersüß (“bittersweet”), Danish bittersød (“bittersweet”), Swedish bittersöt (“bittersweet”).

cog

Over by the creek-bed scarlet-flamed sumac shouldered the silver-green of the willows, and orange-colored bittersweet crept through the tangle of wild plums.

1935, Bess Streeter Aldrich, chapter 43, in Spring Came on Forever:

(US) A vine, of the genus Celastrus, having small orange fruit that open to reveal red seeds.

"They had a good crop of bitter-sweets, they couldn’t grind them all"—nodding towards an orchard where some heaps of apples had been left lying ever since the ingathering.

1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, chapter VI, in The Woodlanders […], volume I, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 99:

A variety of apple with a bittersweet taste.

bittersweet:

A pinkish-orange color. Any color in between scarlet and orange.


bonfire

bonfires (plural)
bonefire (alternative)
burnfire (alternative)

[ˈbɒɱˌfaɪ̯ɚ]

Southern US, African-American Vernacular

[ˈb̥ɒ̃ɱfaɛ̯ɚ]

PIE word
 *péh₂wr̥
 The noun is derived from Late Middle English bonnefyre (“fire in which bones are burnt, bonfire”) [and other forms], apparently from bon (“bone; series of connected bones regarded as a unit; bone-like part of the body such as a piece of cartilage, tooth, tusk, etc.; animal’s dewclaw”) + fir (“fire”). Bon is derived from Old English bān (“bone”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂- (“to hit, strike; to cut, hew”)), while fir is from Old English fȳr (“fire”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *péh₂wr̥ (“fire”)). The first element of the word has sometimes been assumed to be French bon (“good; correct, right”). The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes that bonfires, originally lit as part of midsummer celebrations, were not generally associated with the burning of bones. However, the first edition of the OED (under the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 1887) stated that “for the annual midsummer ‘banefire’ or ‘bonfire’ in the burgh of Hawick [in Roxburghshire, Scotland], old bones were regularly collected and stored up, down to c. 1800”. The verb is derived from the noun.
Cognates
* Scots banefire (“bonfire”)

nb...

bonefuyr, bonffyer, bonfyre, (Northern England) banefyre

inh

[A]ll the inhabitauntes confortynge and exhortynge eche other to die, rather than to violate the leage and amitie that they of longe tyme had contynued with the Romaynes, by one hole assent, after that they hadde made sondry great pyles of wode and of other mater to brenne, they layde in it all their goodes and substaunce, and laste of all, conuayenge them selfes in to the saide pyles or bonefires with their wyfes and children, sette all on fire, and there were brenned or Annyballe coulde entree the citie.

1531, Thomas Elyot, “Of Faythe or Fidelitie, Called in Latyne Fides whiche is the Fundation of Iustyce”, in The Boke Named the Governour […], London: […] Tho[mas] Bertheleti, →OCLC:

I had thought to haue let in ſome of all Profeſſions, that goe the Primroſe way to th'euerlasting Bonfire.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 137, column 1:

He's mounted on a Hazel Bavin, / A Cropt malignant Baker gave 'em. / And to the largeſt Bonefire, riding / Th' have Roaſted Cook already, and Pride-m.

1677 (indicated as 1678), [Samuel Butler], “[The Third Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The Third and Last Part. […], London: […] Robert Horne, […], published 1679, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 183:

[M]any of the women threw down their head-dresses in the middle of his [Thomas Conecte's] sermon, and made a bonfire of them within sight of the pulpit.

1711 July 3 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “FRIDAY, June 22, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 98; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 42:

A fire lit outdoors to burn unwanted items; originally (historical), heretics or other offenders, or banned books; now, generally agricultural or garden waste, or rubbish.

խարույկ

The bodies which the plague had ſlaine were (O moſt wretched caſe) / Not caried forth to buriall now. For why ſuch ſtore there was / That ſcarce the gates were wyde inough for Coffins forth to paſſe. / So eyther lothly on the ground vnburied did they lie, / Or elſe without ſolemnitie were burnt in bonfires hie / No reuerence nor regard was had.

1567, Ovid, “The Seventh Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC, folio 90, verso:

Now wil the Chriſtian miſcreants be glad, / Ringing with ioy their ſuperſtitious belles: / And making bonfires for my ouerthrow. / But ere I die thoſe foule Idolaters / Shall make me bonfires with their filthy bones, […]

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:

For after Tertullian, in the dayes of Minucius it was obviouſly objected upon Chriſtians, that they condemned the practiſe of burning. […] And perhaps not fully diſuſed till Chriſtianity fully eſtabliſhed, vvhich gave the finall extinction to theſe ſepulchrall Bonefires.

1658, Thomas Browne, “Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall. […]. Chapter II.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, page 22:

(obsolete) A fire lit to cremate a dead body; a funeral pyre.


bonfire

en-verb

bonfire (third-person singular simple present bonfires, present participle bonfiring, simple past and past participle bonfired)

bonfires (present singular third-person)
bonfiring (participle present)
bonfired (participle past)
bonfired (past)

[ˈbɒɱˌfaɪ̯ɚ]

[ˈb̥ɒ̃ɱfaɛ̯ɚ]

[L]ike the Christmas joke of snapdragons for children, the very liquor was to be bonfired also, and drank burning.

1828 May, “[Review of New Publications.] 96. Nichols’s Progresses of King James I. Parts XIX. and XX. (Concluded from p. 154.)”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym], editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, volume XXI (New Series; volume XCVIII overall), 1st part, London: […] J[ohn] B[owyer] Nichols and Son, […]; and sold by John Harris, […], published 2 June 1828, →OCLC, page 427, column 1:

Sir, there are as many public documents as you could put in this room that must be taken out and bonfired, that have cost millions, that must be burned up, unless this provision of the honorable Senator from Illinois is carried.

1870 June 20, [James Warren] Nye, “Post Office Appropriation Bill”, in F. & J. Rives and George A. Bailey, editors, The Congressional Globe: […] (United States Senate, 41st Congress, 2nd session), volume LXIII, part V, Washington, D.C.: Blair and Rives; […], →OCLC, page 4646, column 2:

And as for ancient history, I think a good share of that could be bonfired. Kings, Emperors, Popes, Doges, Consuls, Priests, Shahs, Pharoahs, and all their quarrels and squabblings, with the times and seasons of the same—what a fine blaze they would make, and it is the only fine thing they could make, as I count it.

1894, William Hawley Smith, “House-cleaning and History”, in Walks Abroad and Talks about Them, Peoria, Ill.: Educational Press Association, →OCLC, page 210:

From one house they went to another, from that to another, until not one of the Christian[s]' houses was left standing. Everything was deliberately taken outside and bonfired; where the house adjoined others it was destroyed, where it stood alone it was given over to the devouring element.

1895 July 20, “Chinese Items”, in The Japan Weekly Mail: A Review of Japanese Commerce, Politics, Literature, and Art, volume XXIV, number 3, Yokohama: […] James Ellacutt Beale, […], →OCLC, page 67, column 3:

[L]ibraries to be bonfired on the ground that the care of books competed with the care of babies, […]

1930, Wyndham Lewis, “At the American Bar”, in The Apes of God, Santa Barbara, Calif.: Black Sparrow Press, published 1981, →ISBN, part XII (Lord Osmund’s Lenten Party), page 454:

So snug he was in his hotel premises sumptuous / But soon we'll bonfire all his trash, tricks and trumpery / And 'tis short till sheriff Clancy'll be winding up his unlimited company

1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited, →OCLC; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, →OCLC, part I, page 46:

In any case, he made a point of bonfiring most of Lane's ideas, especially the liberal ones.

1988, Bill James [pseudonym; James Tucker], chapter 24, in Protection, London: Penguin Books, published 1989, →ISBN, page 161:

'Thank you, Bruce sweetie,' Victoria said, serenely, the operating light directly behind her bonfiring her hair.

2001, Kathy Lette, “Relying on the Kindness of Passing Serial Killers”, in Nip ’n’ Tuck, Sydney, N.S.W.: Picador, →ISBN, page 234:

We fell, fell, fell all of us, Icaruses, bits of papery ash falling through dusk after the German Reich had been bonfired out of existence by French and Bolshevist guile.

2007, A[ndrew] N[orman] Wilson, “The Flying Dutchman”, in Winnie and Wolf, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN, page 28:

Skinny militia fighters with canisters on their backs had circled the compound. Burning gasoline-covered tents and corpses, bonfiring the thorn tree barrier, creating heat so profound it convoluted the air and made our plane bounce.

2016 July, James Abel, Cold Silence (A Joe Rush Novel), New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, →ISBN, page 60:

To destroy (something) by, or as if by, burning on a bonfire; (more generally) to burn or set alight.

The pots are formed by the coiling method and bonfired using palm fronds, grass and sometimes dung.

2000, Moira Vincentelli, “Running the Business”, in Women and Ceramics: Gendered Vessels, Manchester, New York, N.Y.: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 195:

In China, where huge figures have been excavated in recent years at Xian, archaeologists surmise that they were probably bonfired lying horizontally in a pit, or possibly handmade bricks were piled over the sculptures to retain heat; the bricks would have been removed from round the figure when the firing was over.

2002, Susan Peterson, Jan Peterson, “Firing Ceramics”, in Working with Clay, 2nd edition, London: Laurence King Publishing, →ISBN, page 131, column 1:

Fabricated in the coil and pinch manner of old societies, the work was bonfired—but then a unique treatment was used. Before the pot had cooled, hot melted pitch from piñon trees was poured or rubbed in a thin coating over the vessel, inside and out. This unusual technique distinguished the look and aroma of Navajo pottery.

2003, Susan Peterson, “The Legacy of Generation: Pottery by Contemporary American Indian Women”, in Susan R. Ressler, editor, Woman Artists of the American West, Jefferson, N.C., London: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, section II (Identity), page 104, column 1:

(ceramics) To fire (pottery) using a bonfire.


pitch-black

en-adj

pitch-black (comparative more pitch-black, superlative most pitch-black)

more pitch-black (comparative)
most pitch-black (superlative)
pitchblack (alternative)
pitch black (alternative)

From pitch (“tar”) + black. Compare West Frisian pikswart (literally “pitch-black”), Dutch pikzwart (literally “pitch-black”), German pechschwarz (literally “pitch-black”), Swedish becksvart (literally “pitch-black”), Icelandic biksvartur (literally “pitch-black”).


brunet

From French brunet. Compare also Middle English brunet, burnet (“brown”), from Old French brunet, which is the same word.

(rare) Of a man or boy, having brown or dark brown hair.


Cotton effect

optical rotatory dispersion
optical rotatory dispersion

(physical chemistry) The characteristic change in optical rotatory dispersion and/or circular dichroism in the vicinity of an absorption band of a substance.


circular dichroism

In the close vicinity of a chiral nanostructure, the circular dichroism of a biomolecule could be greatly enhanced, due to the interaction with the local superchiral fields.

2016, S. Hamed Shams Mousavi, Sajanlal R. Panikkanvalappil, Mostafa A. El-Sayed, Ali A. Eftekhar, Ali Adibi, “Large Enhancement of Circular Dichroism Using an Embossed Chiral Metamaterial”, in arXiv:

circularly polarized light
circularly polarized light

(physical chemistry, quantum mechanics) the differential absorption of left-handed and right-handed circularly polarized light


absorption band

en-noun

absorption band (plural absorption bands)

electromagnetic radiation
electromagnetic radiation

(physics, physical chemistry) One of any number of ranges of wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation absorbed by a substance.


sunbeam

From Middle English sonnebeem, sonne beem, from Old English sunnbēam, sunnebēam (“sunbeam”), equivalent to sun + beam.

I cut-in various other material to this; for instance, a shot of a rushing brook in springtime, with dancing sunbeams reflected in the water; of birds splashing in the village pond; and, finally, of a laughing child.

1957, Rudolf Arnheim, Film as Art, page 90:

Similarly, the rays diverging from the sun will pass by you and converge on the point directly opposite the sun, the shadow of your head. All sunbeams, and thus all shadows, appear to converge there.[…]Only perspective makes all shadows appear to converge on the antisolar point. But this point is also the center of the rainbow, so as you look at the rainbow, all sunbeams and shadows will lie along radii of the bow as they flow straight to its center.

2001, Raymond L. Lee, Alistair B. Fraser, The Rainbow Bridge: Rainbows in Art, Myth, and Science, page 116:

I had frequently had to explain to cameramen that only in the early morning or late in the evening did sunbeams fall from the window as flat as they were usually found in films. The sun being higher during the hours of work, another way of showing sunbeams had to be found.

2008, Lotte H. Eisner, translated by Roger Greaves, The Haunted Screen: Expressionism in the German Cinema and the Influence of Max Reinhardt, published 1952, →ISBN, page 68:

A visible, narrow, and intense (relative to ambient light) ray of sunlight.

(Australia, colloquial, dated) An item of cutlery or crockery laid out on a table, but not used, and which can be returned to the drawer without being washed.

Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the genus Curetis.

Any hummingbird of the genus Aglaeactis.

DOCTOR: You seem to be our best bet so far, don't you think so, Mel? Mel? Where's Mel?
DEPUTY: No, no, no, sunbeam. You're coming with us.

1987, Doctor Who (TV series), Paradise Towers (aired 5 October)

(UK) Synonym of sunshine (“ironic form of address to an inferior or troublemaker”)


glowworm

glowworms (plural)
glow-worm (alternative)

From Middle English glouworm; equivalent to glow + worm.
Compare German Glühwurm.

The glowworm shows the matin to be near
And ’gins to pale his uneffectual fire.
Adieu, adieu, adieu! Remember me.

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:

1604, William Alexander, The Alexandraean Tragedie, Act V, Scene 2, in The Monarchicke Tragedies, London: Ed. Blount, 1607,
Some things afarre doe like the Glow-worme shine,
That lookt to neere haue of that light no signe.

Glories (like glowe-wormes) a farre off, shine bright,
But look’d to neere, haue neither heate, nor light.

1612–1613 (date written), John Webster, The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy. […], London: […] Nicholas Okes, for Iohn Waterson, […], published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

Ye Glo-worms, whose officious Flame
To wandring Mowers shows the way,
That in the Night have lost their aim,
And after foolish Fires do stray;

1681, Andrew Marvell, “The Mower to the Glo-Worms”, in Miscellaneous Poems, London: Robert Boulter, page 44:

1819, William Wordsworth, “The Waggoner” Canto 1, in The Miscellaneous Poems of William Wordsworth, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1820, p. 7,
Confiding Glow-worms, ’tis a night
Propitious to your earth-born light!

Young girls lie bedded soft or glide in their dreams, with rings and trousseaux, bridesmaided by glowworms down the aisles of the organplaying wood.

1954, Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood […] , New York: New Directions, page 1:

The larva or wingless grub-like female of a beetle from the families Phengodidae or Lampyridae that gives out a green light from its abdomen.

(Australia, New Zealand) A carnivorous gnat larva in the keroplatid genus Arachnocampa that spins threads to capture insects attracted by its glow.


verdigris

verdigris (countable and uncountable, plural verdigrises)

From Middle English vertegrez, from Old French verte grez (literally “acidic green”), an alteration of older verte de Grece (literally “green of Greece”). The modern French writing of this word is vert-de-gris (literally “green of gray”).

der

(organic chemistry, dated) Copper acetate.


jet-black

en-adj

jet-black (comparative more jet-black, superlative most jet-black)

more jet-black (comparative)
most jet-black (superlative)

Year after year unto her feet, / She lying on her couch alone, / Across the purpled coverlet, / The maiden's jet-black hair has grown, […]

1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Day-Dream. The Sleeping Palace.”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 152:


infernal

infernal (comparative more infernal, superlative most infernal)

more infernal (comparative)
most infernal (superlative)
infernall (alternative)

celestial

antonym(s) of “of or relating to hell, underworld or fire”

From Middle French infernal, from Medieval Latin infernalis, from Latin īnfernus, from īnferum (“netherworld, underworld, hell”), equivalent to inferno + -al.

(by extension) Of or relating to a fire or inferno.

infernaal

by extension: of or relating to a great fire or inferno


flambé

(cooking) Being, or having been, flambéed.

(ceramics, of Chinese porcelain) Decorated by glaze splashed or irregularly spread upon the surface, or apparently applied at the top and allowed to run down the sides.


flambé

(cooking) A showy cooking technique where an alcoholic beverage, such as brandy, is added to hot food and then the fumes are ignited.


flambé

en-verb

flambé (third-person singular simple present flambés, present participle flambéing, simple past and past participle flambéed or flambéd)

flambés (present singular third-person)
flambéing (participle present)
flambéed (participle past)
flambéed (past)
flambéd (participle past)
flambéd (past)
flambe (alternative)

“Flambé the dessert”, ordered the Chef, “but take the dish off the heat before adding the brandy or you'll burn your eyebrows off.”

To cook with a showy technique where an alcoholic beverage, such as brandy, is added to hot food and then the fumes are ignited.


backdraught

(firefighting, chiefly British spelling) Alternative spelling of backdraft


headlight

Lysergic acid diethylamide
lysergic acid diethylamide#English

(US, slang, chiefly in the plural) Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).


gridelin

From French gris de lin (“grey of flax”).

Having a dusky color between white and red; gray-violet.


gridelin

en-noun

gridelin (usually uncountable, plural gridelins)

gridelin:

A dusky color between white and red; gray-violet.


cremate

en-verb

cremate (third-person singular simple present cremates, present participle cremating, simple past and past participle cremated)

cremates (present singular third-person)
cremating (participle present)
cremated (participle past)
cremated (past)

Borrowed from Latin cremō (“to burn to ashes; to cremate”).

bor

(transitive) To burn something to ashes.


stroboscope

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

From Ancient Greek στρόβος (stróbos, “whirl”) and Ancient Greek σκοπέω (skopéō, “examine, inspect, look to or into, consider”).

der

A photograph produced by such a machine.


alpenglow

en-noun

alpenglow (usually uncountable, plural alpenglows)

A partial calque of German Alpenglühen, with the second element replaced by the English equivalent glow.

But Jim was all smiles and, as if in added welcome, alpenglow suddenly flared to flood the summit hot pink and lit up the cabin.

2021 February 16, Dan Richards, “Peak cabin: a fire-spotter's lonely vantage point in Washington state”, in The Guardian:

A rosy or reddish glow seen during sunset or sunrise on the summits of mountains, especially snow-covered mountains on the opposite side of the sun.

alpegloei

a reddish glow seen near sunset or sunrise on the summits of mountains


sconce

en-verb

sconce (third-person singular simple present sconces, present participle sconcing, simple past and past participle sconced)

sconces (present singular third-person)
sconcing (participle present)
sconced (participle past)
sconced (past)

Unclear. Perhaps a use of sconce (“light fixture”) or sconce (“fortification”), but seemingly older than the latter

I sconce anyone who has ever…

(Oxford University slang) During a meal or as part of a drinking game, to announce some (usually outrageous) deed such that anyone who has done it must drink; similar to I have never; commonly associated with crewdates; very similar to fining at Cambridge University.


refulgence

en-noun

refulgence (countable and uncountable, plural refulgences)

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

In a parallel way the refulgence of Jesus's body at the Transfiguration was miraculous, transitory, like sun lighting up the air.

2022 August 6, Christopher Howse, “Spoken from the bright cloud on the mountain”, in The Daily Telegraph, number 52,013, page 27:

the quality of being refulgent; refulgency


mahogany

mahogany (countable and uncountable, plural mahoganies)

mahoganies (plural)
mahoganey (alternative)
mahoganee (alternative)
mahogeney (alternative)
mahogeny (alternative)
mohogeny (alternative)
mohogeney (alternative)
mahagony (alternative)
mahagoney (alternative)

→ German: Mahagoni

Honduras
Indigenous languages of the Americas
mahogany

A word of unknown origin, concocted in either English or Middle Dutch from one or more exotic phytonyms and common European words.
Alternatively from Portuguese mogano, mógono, obsolete forms of mogno, itself of unknown origin (often suggested to be from the English word instead of the reverse), perhaps from an extinct indigenous language, such as a Mayan language originally spoken in Honduras or a South American language, but no known cognates survive. Another theory attempts to link Yoruba moganwo (“trees”, literally “tall ones”), but this has been criticized.

bastard mahogany

Eucalyptus botryoides or Matayba apetala

Brazilian mahogany

Cariniana legalis; Plathymenia foliolosa, Plathymenia reticulata

A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away[…].

1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

(uncountable) The valuable wood of any of various tropical American evergreen trees, of the genus Swietenia, mostly used to make furniture.

(countable)(by extension) Any of various trees which resemble those of the genus Swietenia.

William Murdoch […] produced a bottle of port; but I chose mahogany (two parts gin and one part treacle, which Lord Eliot made us at Sir Joshua Reynolds's as a Cornish liquor, but it seems they make it also with brandy, and often add porter to it).

1792, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 178

(regional) A Cornish drink made from gin and treacle.

Better she, my dear, than a black Mrs. Sedley, and a dozen of mahogany grandchildren.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 6, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

mahogany:

A reddish-brown color, like that of mahogany wood.


mahogany

en-adj

mahogany (comparative more mahogany, superlative most mahogany)

more mahogany (comparative)
most mahogany (superlative)
mahoganey (alternative)
mahoganee (alternative)
mahogeney (alternative)
mahogeny (alternative)
mohogeny (alternative)
mohogeney (alternative)
mahagony (alternative)
mahagoney (alternative)

Having the colour of mahogany; dark reddish-brown.


inferno

From Italian inferno (“hell”), from Latin infernus (“of the lower regions”), inferna (“the lower regions”); see infernal.
The meaning "big fire" came as a figurative use from the traditional idea of hellfire.

At each sudden explosion in the inferno below they sprang back from the brink [of the volcanic crater].

1899, D. C. Worcester, The Philippine Islands and Their People:

When Jurgis had first inspected the packing plants with Szedvilas, he […] found that each one of these lesser industries was a separate little inferno, in its way as horrible as the killing beds, the source and fountain of them all[, and t]he workers in each of them had their own peculiar diseases.

Blast after blast, fiery outbreak after fiery outbreak, like a flaming barrage from within,[…]most of Edison's grounds soon became an inferno. As though on an incendiary rampage, the fires systematically devoured the contents of Edison's headquarters and facilities.

2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion:

Unfortunately for Admiral Kurita, this is where the good news ends. The fire started by New Jerseys hit amidships has spread, and there is now a towering inferno' that occupies the middle third of the Japanese battleship.

2021 May 5, Drachinifel, 34:59 from the start, in Battle of Samar - What if TF34 was there?, archived from the original on 2022-08-08:


nighttime

en-noun

nighttime (countable and uncountable, plural nighttimes)

nighttimes (plural)
night time (alternative)
night-time (alternative)

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

From Middle English nyght tyme, nyȝttyme, equivalent to night + time. Compare Dutch nachttijd, German Nachtzeit, Danish nattetid, Swedish nattetid. Compare also Middle English nyȝter tyme (“nighttime”), from Old Norse náttartími, nætrtími (“nighttime”).

cog

Nighttime fell like the opening / In the final act of the beginning of time

1986, R.E.M. (lyrics and music), “Hyena”, in Lifes Rich Pageant:

Smith Barney, for example, goes so far as to shift the hours during which taxi rides home are expensable as nighttime lengthens and shortens, says Moszkowski.

1996, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, volume 50, number 7, page 52:

The hours of darkness between sunset and sunrise; the night.


chemiluminescence

en-noun

chemiluminescence (usually uncountable, plural chemiluminescences)

chemiluminescences (plural)
chemoluminescence (alternative)
chemiluminesence (alternative)

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

(chemistry) The emission of light as the result of a chemical reaction.


chemoluminescence

chemoluminescence (countable and uncountable, plural chemoluminescences)


bioluminescence

bioluminescence (countable and uncountable, plural bioluminescences)

(biology, biochemistry) The emission of light by a living organism (such as a firefly).


glow discharge

A form of electrical conduction in low-pressure gases (plasmas) that emits light.

cathode dark space

also called Crookes dark space or Hittorf dark space


terracotta

terracotta (usually uncountable, plural terracottas)

terracottas (plural)
terra cotta (alternative)
terra-cotta (alternative)

/ˌtɛɹ.əˈkɒt.ə/

/ˌtɛɹ.əˈkɑt.ə/

Borrowed from Italian terra (“earth”) + cotta (“baked”).

terracotta:

A reddish brown colour, like that of terra cotta.


sangria

sangria (countable and uncountable, plural sangrias)

Borrowed from Spanish sangría, from sangre (“blood”) + -ía.

Just a perfect day / Drink sangria in the park

1972, Lou Reed (lyrics and music), “Perfect Day”, in Transformer:

Sipping a sangria with a girl named Julia / Hot Jamaican sand beneath our feet

1978, “Last Summer”, in Blondes Have More Fun, performed by Rod Stewart:

A cold drink, originating in Spain, consisting of red or white wine, brandy or sherry, fruit juice, sugar and soda water and garnished with orange and other fruit.

سانجريا

Spanish wine drink with fruit, sugar and soda


glisten

en-verb

glisten (third-person singular simple present glistens, present participle glistening, simple past and past participle glistened)

glistens (present singular third-person)
glistening (participle present)
glistened (participle past)
glistened (past)

From Middle English glisnen, glistnen, from Old English glisnian, itself from Proto-West Germanic *glisnōn, while ultimately deriving from Proto-Germanic *glisnōną.

The sun was fierce, the land seemed to glisten and drip with steam.

1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 202:

(intransitive, of a wet or greasy surface) To reflect light with a glittering luster; to sparkle, coruscate, glint or flash.

لَمَعَ

to reflect light with a glittering luster


jonquil

jonquils (plural)
jonquille (alternative)

/ˈd͡ʒɑŋkwəl/

/ˈd͡ʒɒŋkwəl/

Borrowed from French jonquille, itself a borrowing from Spanish junquillo.

A fragrant bulb flower (Narcissus jonquilla), a species of daffodil.


bushfire

bushfires (plural)
bush fire (alternative)

1985, Australian House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, Weekly Hansard, Issues 4-6, page 1322,
Many homes, a great deal of property and a number of lives were lost as a result of the bushfires in this country.

It should also be kept in mind that often bushfires start and move quickly and the information relating to their location and activity may take some time to assemble and make available.

2011, Tracey Dickson, Tonia Gray, Risk Management in the Outdoors: A Whole-of-Organisation Approach for Education, Sport and Recreation, page 199:

The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of apocalyptic blazes that burned on – and for some weeks after – Saturday, 7 February 2009. As a result of the bushfires, 173 people died. It was the nation′s largest loss of life from a bushfire event, and 414 people were injured.

2011, Larry Writer, The Australian Book of Disasters, unnumbered page:

(Australia) An uncontrolled fire in a wooded or grassy area; a wildfire.


bleen

Blend of blue + green; coined by American philosopher Nelson Goodman in 1955 to illustrate concepts in the philosophy of science

coinage

(philosophy) Of an object, blue when first observed before a specified time or green when first observed after that time.

bert

of an object blue that is first blue, then green


cameo lighting

A sort of spotlight that accentuates a single person and possibly a few props in the scene.


brian

en-verb

brian (third-person singular simple present brians, present participle brianing, simple past and past participle brianed)

brians (present singular third-person)
brianing (participle present)
brianed (participle past)
brianed (past)

From dialectal English, probably variant of brine (“to burn”), from brine (“a burning”), from Middle English brüne (“a burn, a burning”), from Old English bryne (“a burning, conflagration, fire, flame, heat, inflammation, burn, scald, torch, fervor, passion”), from Proto-Germanic *bruniz (“fire, burning”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenu- (“burn, fire”). Cognate with Scots brin (“a flash”), Scots brin, bryne (“to be on fire, be inflamed, burn”), Old Norse bruni (“fire, burning”). More at burn.

der

(dialectal, Northern England) To keep fire at the mouth of (as of an oven), to give light or to preserve heat.


dyestuff

en-noun

dyestuff (countable and uncountable, plural dyestuffs)

Any soluble pigment used for dyeing the hair, fabric, etc.


colly

From Middle English *colien, variant of *colwen (attested in Middle English colwed and colwinge), from Old English *colgian. More at collow.

besmeared with soot , colly

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:


firehosing

(videography) Video camera movement intended to record as much of a scene as possible, such as by swinging the camera from side to side, usually in a way that makes the resulting footage worthless.


aerial ladder

(firefighting) A mechanically-extendable ladder mounted to a fire engine.


thunderbolt

News of the actress’s death came as a thunderbolt to her fans.

Our quiuering Lances ſhaking in the aire, / And bullets like Ioues dreadfull Thunderbolts, / Enrolde in flames and fiery ſmoldering miſtes, / Shall threat the Gods more than Cyclopian warres, […]

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iii:

He describes the operation thus: "The heavy ram employed to impart the finishing strokes, hoisted up with double purchase and snail's pace to the summit of the Piling Engine, and then falling down like a thunderbolt on the head of the devoted timber, driving it perhaps a single half inch in to the stratum below, is well calculated to put to the test the virtue of patience, while it illustrates the old adage of—slow and sure."

1952 July, W. R. Watson, “Sankey Viaduct and Embankment”, in Railway Magazine, page 487:

A flash of lightning accompanied by a crash of thunder.

صَاعِقَة

flash of lightning accompanied by thunder

Substitute Niko Kranjcar's injury-time thunderbolt gave Tottenham a dramatic win over Bolton.

2011 February 5, Michael Kevin Darling, “Tottenham 2 - 1 Bolton”, in BBC:

(paleontology) A belemnite, or thunderstone.

(heraldry) A charge in the form of two joined bundles with four rays of lightning emerging from them, resembling the thunderbolt of Jupiter.


thunderbolt

en-verb

thunderbolt (third-person singular simple present thunderbolts, present participle thunderbolting, simple past and past participle thunderbolted)

thunderbolts (present singular third-person)
thunderbolting (participle present)
thunderbolted (participle past)
thunderbolted (past)


starlight

en-noun

starlight (usually uncountable, plural starlights)

Nor walk by moon, / Or glittering starlight, without thee is sweet.

1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

Bright starlight enabled us to see much of the country.

1944 January and February, Major J. C. F. Lloyd Williamson, “Ambulance Trains in Algeria and Tunisia”, in Railway Magazine, page 5:

Light emitted from stars other than the Sun.

звездна светлина

light emitted from stars other than the Sun


luminary

From Late Middle English lūminārī, lūminārīe (“lamp; source of spiritual light, example of holiness; glory”), borrowed from Old French luminarie (“lamp, lights, lighting; candles; brightness, illumination”), variant of luminaire (“light fixture”) (modern French luminaire), from Medieval Latin lūminārium, from lūmināre (“that which gives light; light; lamp; body giving light, especially a heavenly body”), from lūmen (“light; brightness”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to shine”)) + -āris (suffix forming adjectives indicating a relationship or a pertaining to). Doublet of luminaire.

der

[…] then firſt adornd / With thir bright Luminaries that Set and Roſe, / Glad Evening & glad Morn crownd the fourth day.

1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 384–386:

The first eye of consequence (under the invisible Author of all) is the visible luminary of the universe.

1711 December 28 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “MONDAY, December 17, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 250; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 246:

The Intercourſe between God and his Soul was as conſtant and periodical as the Riſing and Setting of the Great Luminary of Heaven; […]

1741, John Pinsent, “The Character of Andrew Barker, Esq; …”, in [John Wilford], editor, Memorials and Characters, together with the Lives of Divers Eminent and Worthy Persons. […], London: Printed for John Wilford, […], →OCLC, page 287:

For all things, even Celestial Luminaries, much more atmospheric meteors, have their rise, their culmination, their decline.

1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Symbols”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 155:

(archaic) A body that gives light; especially, one of the heavenly bodies.


caramel

en-verb

caramel (third-person singular simple present caramels, present participle caramelling or carameling, simple past and past participle caramelled or carameled)

caramels (present singular third-person)
caramelling (participle present)
carameling (participle present)
caramelled (participle past)
caramelled (past)
carameled (participle past)
carameled (past)
caromel (alternative)

General American, Mary–marry–merry merger

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

Borrowed from French caramel, from Spanish caramelo, from Portuguese caramelo, dissimilated from Late Latin calamellus, diminutive of calamus (“reed”) (and a doublet of chalumeau and shawm). Alternatively from Medieval Latin cannamellis, which is a compound of canna + mellis.

To turn out, place the dish over the mould, and invert both together, when, if the caramelling has been complete, the pudding should slip out without any difficulty at all.

1900, M. M. Mallock, The Economics of Modern Cookery: Or, A Younger Son's Cookery Book:

(transitive, cooking, dated) To caramelize.


firebomb

A Molotov cocktail is a simple firebomb.

The firebombs were small, and burst into flames when they hit the ground.

2005, Jennifer Worth, Shadows of the Workhouse, Weidenfeld & Nicholson (2009), page 269:

A weapon that causes fire; an incendiary weapon.


incendiary

en-adj

incendiary (comparative more incendiary, superlative most incendiary)

more incendiary (comparative)
most incendiary (superlative)

ĭnsĕn´dĭĕ'rē

From Middle English incendiarie, from Old French incendiaire, from Latin incendiārius (“setting alight”), from incendium (“destructive fire”), from incendō (“I set on fire, kindle”), from in- (“into, in, on, upon”) + candeō (“I am hot”).

Earlier that year Italian Jews had come under serious attack when an incendiary publication, Gli ebrei in Italia (The Jews in Italy), had flooded the bookshops. The author, Paolo Orano, was a Fascist publicist whose book helped to harden Italian public sensibility against the Jews and pave the way for their eventual persecution.

2014, Ian Thomson, Primo Levi: A Life, Metropolitan Books, →ISBN, page 123:

(figurative) Intentionally stirring up strife, riot, rebellion.

تَحْرِيضِيّ

intentionally stirring up strife, riot, rebellion


firebreak

firebreaks (plural)
fire break (alternative)

The firefighters used a bulldozer to clear a firebreak in the forest to try to contain the forest fire.

An area cleared of all flammable material to prevent a fire from spreading across it.

tallafoc

area cleared of flammable material to prevent a fire from spreading


cochineal

en-noun

cochineal (countable and uncountable, plural cochineals)

cochineals (plural)
cochinille (alternative)

/ˌkɒt͡ʃɪˈniːl/

The noun is borrowed from Middle French cochenille (modern French cochenille), from Italian cocciniglia or Spanish cochinilla; further etymology uncertain, possibly from Latin coccineus, coccinus (“scarlet-dyed; scarlet in colour”) (whence Italian coccineo (“scarlet in colour”)) + Italian -iglia (suffix forming collective nouns), Spanish -illa (“diminutive suffix”). Coccinus is derived from Ancient Greek κόκκῐνος (kókkĭnos, “scarlet; (figurative) blushing”, adjective), from κόκκος (kókkos, “kermes oak (Quercus coccifera); insect of the genus Kermes living on the oak; scarlet dye made from crushed kermes insects”) (possibly from Pre-Greek) + -ῐνος (-ĭnos, suffix forming adjectives).
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, cochineal is not derived from Spanish cochinilla (“pill bug, especially the common pill bug (Armadillidium vulgare)”), a diminutive of cochina (“female pig, sow”) (from the animal’s shape), which coincidentally has the same spelling as cochinilla (“cochineal”).
The adjective is derived from the noun.

noncog

The Cochineel is an Inſect, bred in a ſort of Fruit much like the Prickle Pear. […] The Silveſter gives a colour almoſt as fair as the Cochineel; and ſo like it as to be often miſtaken for it, but it is not near ſo valuable.

1697, William Dampier, chapter VIII, in A New Voyage Round the World. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, pages 228–229:

A prodigious quantity of insects of all sorts (but no mosquitoes) assailed us at our evening meal. […] There were some that were larger—earwigs, cochineals, a little mole-cricket, and an enormous mantis. I stuffed a number of them into my poison-bottle.

1930, André Gide, “Back Again”, in Dorothy Bussy, transl., Travels in the Congo […], red seal edition, New York, N.Y.: Modern Age Books, published 1937, →OCLC, part 2 (Back from the Chad), page 194:

The cochineal insects belong to the genus Dactylopius and are interesting not only on account of the dye, used in confectionery, that is obtained from them, but also because of the effect certain kinds have on their host-plants. The cochineals that infest certain kinds of prickly pear of the genus Monacantha have such an adverse effect on the plants, that the latter are completely destroyed. […] One of the cochineals that infest the last-named does have a killing effect at times, but by no means so marked.

1936, H. K. Munro, F. A. Fouché, “Introduction”, in A List of the Scale Insects and Mealy Bugs (Coccidae) and Their Host-plants in South Africa = ’n Lys van die Dopluise en Wolluise (Coccidae) en hul Voedsterplante in Suid-Afrika (Union of South Africa, Department of Agriculture and Forestry Bulletin; no. 158), Pretoria, South Africa: Government printer, →OCLC, page 6:

The red dye—or cochineal red as it is called—is present in the body of cochineals, as is clearly apparent if one of the bugs is accidentally squashed. Cochineals were cultivated for their dye in the New World long before the arrival of the Spaniards. When Hernán Cortés entered Mexico in 1519 he was much taken by the widespread use of red in Aztec culture, and was downright dazzled by the magnificence of Montezuma's [i.e., Moctezuma II's] robe.

2003, Thomas Eisner, “The Opportunists”, in For the Love of Insects, Cambridge, Mass.; London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 318:

(countable) A scale insect of the species Dactylopius coccus, native to the tropical and subtropical Americas, which lives on prickly pear cacti (genus Opuntia).


damson

en-adj

damson (comparative more damson, superlative most damson)

more damson (comparative)
most damson (superlative)
damascene (alternative)

From Middle English damascene, damasyn, damacene, from Latin prūnum damascēnum (“Damascene plum, plum of Damascus”). Doublet of damascene.

der

damson:

The color of the fruit of this tree, a very deep purple.


cantaloupe

cantaloupes (plural)
cantaloup (alternative)
canteloupe (alternative)
cantelope (alternative)

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

From French cantaloup, from Italian Cantalupo (a place name), from Italian canto + lupo, literally "howl of the wolf".
Named after a former Papal summer estate near Rome, where the melons were first grown after being introduced to Europe.

Cucumis melo Cantalupensis Group, a cultivar group melon with sweet aromatic orange flesh, including two main types:

(UK, Ireland) Cantalupensis Group sensu stricto, with non- or slightly netted rind, also known as true cantaloupe or European cantaloupe, found in the Middle East and Europe.

Trevor, like an Aussie outbacker, eats snacks and a pickup meal of bread, cantaloupe, olives, mangoes, and melon.

2010, Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Peter Carey: A Literary Companion, page 100:

(Australia, Canada, US) Reticulatus Group (now merged into Cantalupensis Group), with strongly netted rind, also known as American cantaloupe, muskmelon or rockmelon.

cantaloupe:

An orange colour, like that of cantaloupe flesh.


greige

The adjective is borrowed from French grège and Middle French grège (“of silk: raw, unfinished; of the colour of such silk, greyish-beige”, adjective), from Italian greggio (“raw, unrefined; unbleached”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Vulgar Latin *gregius (as in lana *gregia (“untreated wool as obtained from the flock”)), from grex (“flock (of sheep, etc.)”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ger- (“flock, herd; to gather”).
The noun is borrowed from French grège and Middle French grège (“raw or unfinished silk; the colour of such silk, greyish-beige”, noun), from Italian greggio: see above.
The spelling of the word is probably influenced by beige, likely because it was thought to be a blend of grey and beige.

bor

To those who still deludedly think they prefer Star Wars over Ghostbusters, all I need to ask you is this: you don't really want to be a Jedi, do you? In a greige cowl, getting off with your sister, without a single gag across three films?

2009 June 29, Caitlin Moran, “Sorry Star Wars fans, but Ghostbusters is the best film ever made”, in The Times, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-04-11:

Of a colour like that of unbleached or undyed fabric, between grey and beige.

harmaanruskea

of a colour like that of unbleached or undyed fabric, between grey and beige


greige

en-noun

greige (countable and uncountable, plural greiges)

greiges (plural)
grege (alternative)
grège (alternative)

greige:

Brilliant, sparkling reds will complement the bright, new beauty of Fall fashions and accent the subtle reserve of pale Priority beiges and greiges.

1943, S[idney] J[oseph] Perelman, “Bend Down, Sister”, in The Dream Department, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →OCLC, page 74:

The rise of the neutral family of greige colors has put the decorating emphasis squarely on accents. The August issue of Better Homes & Gardens, for example, features an article showing which accents look best with greiges and other popular colors.

1959, Paint, Oil and Chemical Review, volume 122, Chicago, Ill.: Trade Review Co., →OCLC, page 12, column 2:

To accessorize the server, we arranged a grouping of mahogany candlesticks in a variety of interesting shapes, a small greige-colored vase, and a platter that incorporates the colors of the candlesticks as well as the greige of the vase.

2005 September, Lauri Ward, “Views on Retirement: Moving from Coast to Coast”, in Home Therapy: Fast, Easy, Affordable Makeovers (A Perigee Book), Perigee trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Group, published September 2006, →ISBN, page 256:

Canadian colour consultants The Paint People recently reached the same conclusion, declaring on YouTube “the death of greige: a paint colour category that has absolutely dominated interior design for well over a decade”.

2022 May 25, Elle Hunt, “It’s not beige, it’s not grey: it’s greige – and it’s why all our houses look the same”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-09-08:

A colour like that of unbleached or undyed fabric between grey and beige, closely akin to taupe.

harmaanruskea

(textiles, archaic) Clothing, textiles, etc., which have neither been bleached nor dyed, nor otherwise fully processed; greige goods.


lemony

en-adj

lemony (comparative lemonier, superlative lemoniest)

lemonier (comparative)
lemoniest (superlative)

The walls were painted a lemony yellow colour.

We were served a lemony cheesecake for dessert.

[…] she guided the spirited little pair along the dusty road, and then in between the long stretches of fir-wood, whence came delicious warm breathings of that lemony aromatic scent of the growing pines brought forth by the mid-day sun.

1884, George Manville Fenn, chapter 2, in The Rosery Folk, volume I, London: Chapman & Hall, pages 17–18:

My class was wearing butter-yellow piqué dresses, and Momma launched out on mine. She smocked the yoke into tiny crisscrossing puckers, then shirred the rest of the bodice. Her dark fingers ducked in and out of the lemony cloth as she embroidered raised daisies around the hem.

1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 23, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, published 1971, page 144:

“This is the lemoniest cake I’ve ever tasted!” Delores exclaimed, and Hannah could tell that her very proper mother was dangerously close to smacking her lips in appreciation.

2012, Joanne Fluke, chapter 14, in Cinnamon Roll Murder, New York: Kensington, page 142:

Resembling or characteristic of lemons, especially in terms of aroma, taste or colour.

sitruunainen

resembling or characteristic of lemons, especially in terms of aroma or taste


half-moon

half-moons (plural)
halfmoon (alternative)
half moon (alternative)

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

The moon in its first or last quarter when only half the visible face is illuminated; a quarter moon.


flambe

en-verb

flambe (third-person singular simple present flambes, present participle flambeing, simple past and past participle flambeed or flambed)

flambes (present singular third-person)
flambeing (participle present)
flambeed (participle past)
flambeed (past)
flambed (participle past)
flambed (past)


once in a blue moon

See blue moon. First use appears c. 1833. See cite below.

Coordinate term: once in a purple moon

We are no advocates for the eternal system of producing foreign operas to the exclusion of the works of English composers, but once in a blue moon such a thing may be allowed.

1833, J. Lection (publisher), The Athenæum, page 780:

[T]ime expanded and space contracted, and the name Blue Moon took on a symbolic meaning, as if the future, so delicately plausible, were of a kind that might happen once in a blue moon only.

1933, James Hilton, Lost Horizon, published 1973, page 133:

(idiomatic) Very rarely; very infrequently.


helioseismology

Helioseismology, like terrestrial seismology, provides information about the interior of the body under study by using observations of slight motions on the surface.

1989, John N. Bahcall, Neutrino Astrophysics, Cambridge University Press, page 104:

Helioseismology provides unique information about the global dynamics of the Sun and local flows in active regions in the upper convection zone.

2003, Alexander Kosovichev, “Helioseismic Observations of Plasma Motions in the Solar Convection Zone”, in R. Erdélyi, K. Petrovay, B. Roberts, Markus Aschwanden, editors, Turbulence, Waves and Instabilities in the Solar Plasma: Proceedings of the NATO Research Workshop, Kluwer Academic, page 57:

2012, T. L. Duvall, Jr., S. M. Hanasoge, Subsurface Supergranular Vertical Flows as Measured Using Large Distance Separations in Time-Distance Helioseismology, Solar Physics, reprinted in 2014, Nagi N. Mansour, Alexander G. Kosovichev, Rudolf Komm, Dana Longcope (editors), Solar Dynamics and Magnetism from the Interior to the Atmosphere, Springer, page 71,
We find that the large-separation travel times associated with supergranulation cannot be studied using the standard phase-speed filters of time–distance helioseismology.

The study of the propagation of pressure waves in the Sun.

helioseismologia

the study of the propagation of pressure waves in the Sun


brushfire

brushfires (plural)
brush fire (alternative)
brush-fire (alternative)

A large fire in a scrubland or prairie, as opposed to a forest fire, which occurs in forests.


forest fire

If the forest fire is not contained soon the town will be at risk!

A fire, often large, that consumes a forest or woodland.


Brigid

/ˈbɹɪ.d͡ʒɪd/

From Irish Brighid, from Old Irish Brigit, from Proto-Celtic *Brigantī (“high, exalted”).

der

A female given name from Irish, equivalent to English Bridget, sometimes borrowed from Irish.


luminosity

en-noun

luminosity (countable and uncountable, plural luminosities)

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

Borrowed from French luminosité, equivalent to luminous + -ity.

(uncountable) the state of being luminous, or a luminous object; brilliance or radiance


lunar phase

(astronomy) Any of the near-monthly cyclically occurring aspects or appearances presented by a moon as seen from its planet (unless otherwise specified, the Moon as seen from Earth).

fase lunar

any one of the aspects presented by the moon

harvest moon

these are recurrent but less frequently than near-monthly


first quarter

(astronomy) The waxing lunar phase, from new moon to half way between new moon and full moon.


last quarter

the waning lunar phase halfway between full moon and new moon.


gibbous moon

A bat, against the gibbous moons,
Danced, implike, with its lone delight;
The glowworm scrawled a golden rune
Upon the dark; and, emerald-strewn,
The firefly hung with lamps the night.

(astronomy) A lunar phase either side of the full moon when the moon's disc as seen from the Earth is larger than a semicircle.


lunation

The irregular period from one new moon until the next.

lunacja

the name of term given the irregular period from one new moon until the next


light spectrum

light spectrum (plural light spectrums or light spectra)

light spectrums (plural)
light spectra (plural)

From light (“visible”) + spectrum (“range of electromagnetic wavelengths”).

compound

(physics) The portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to humans.


flameproof

en-adj

flameproof (comparative more flameproof, superlative most flameproof)

more flameproof (comparative)
most flameproof (superlative)

One hundred and fifty miles of flameproof wire have been used in the signalboxes and relay rooms.

1952 December, “Brighton Line Resignalling, Southern Region”, in Railway Magazine, page 830:


fireproof

fireproof (comparative more fireproof, superlative most fireproof)

more fireproof (comparative)
most fireproof (superlative)
fire-proof (alternative)

The fireproof safe will protect documents inside for up to four hours in a standard house fire.


flamethrower

flamethrowers (plural)
flame thrower (alternative)
flame-thrower (alternative)

/ˈfleɪmˌθɹəʊ.ə/

From flame + thrower, calque of German Flammenwerfer.

A device that projects a flame for starting fires, and sometimes also additional fuel to help ignition. Used either as a weapon or a tool.


fire-retardant

fire-retardant (comparative more fire-retardant, superlative most fire-retardant)

more fire-retardant (comparative)
most fire-retardant (superlative)
fire retardant (alternative)


fire-retardant

fire-retardants (plural)
fire retardant (alternative)

A substance that makes an object resistant to burning.


empyreal

From Latin empyreus, from Ancient Greek ἐμπύριος (empúrios, “fiery”), from ἐν (en, “en-”) + πῦρ (pûr, “fire”) (English pyre).


nightclub

They respond instantly to the faintest rustling in the covert of a sheaf of Ulysses S. Grants, or the homely, rustic tinkle of a wheelbarrow full of rubies being jounced along over a nightclub floor.

1957, The Monthly Record, volume 61, page 22:

EARLY this summer, Joshua J. Pelton decided that he was meant to live in Orlando, Fla. So he quit his sales job in Detroit, packed his car with all the belongings that fit, put the rest in storage, and drove southeast daydreaming about sundrenched winters and packed nightclubs.

2007 September 6, Lisa Belkin, “What Do Young Jobseekers Want? (Something Other Than the Job)”, in The New York Times:

A public or private establishment that is open late at night to provide entertainment, food, drink, music or dancing.


Established in the United Kingdom as the first emergency service number in the world, initially chosen because of its suitability at a time of rotary-dial telephones.

nine nine nine (alternative)
triple nine (alternative)

(UK, Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, colloquial, metonymically) Emergency services; emergency service personnel.


phosphorescence

en-noun

phosphorescence (countable and uncountable, plural phosphorescences)

From phosphorescent.
Morphologically phosphoresce + -ence.

We saw a round red sun rise over the City, paint the glassy towers with phosphorescence and, as it brightened and lost its shape, sprinkle across the sky feathers of pink and lilac.

2002, Barbara Vine, Grasshopper, page 138:

The emission of light without any perceptible heat; the quality of being phosphorescent.


jasmine

jasmine (countable and uncountable, plural jasmines)

jasmines (plural)
jassamine (alternative)
jessamine (alternative)

Etymology tree
Middle Persian yʾsmn'
Classical Persian یَاسَمِین (yāsamīn)bor.
Arabic يَاسَمِين (yāsamīn)bor.
French jasminbor.
English jasmine
Borrowed from French jasmin, from Arabic يَاسَمِين (yāsamīn).

etymon

National Museum of Singapore
William Farquhar
jasmine

Italian jasmine

Chrysojasminum humile, syn. Jasminum humile


squad

From French escouade, from Italian squadra (“square”) (whence also French escadre). Doublet of squadra and square.

ջոկատ

small group of people organized for a purpose


cimmerian

en-adj

cimmerian (comparative more cimmerian, superlative most cimmerian)

more cimmerian (comparative)
most cimmerian (superlative)

/sɪˈmɪəɹ.ɪ.ən/

There, under ebon shades... in dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.

As ragged as thy locks,
In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.

1740, George Frideric Handel, Charles Jennens, L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato:

...the darkness of antiquated barbarism, in which he buries himself like a mole, to throw up the barren hillocks of his Cimmerian labours.

1820, Thomas Love Peacock, The Four Ages of Poetry:

1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter VI, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks16/1600641.txt
The glimpse of blue vault far above only heightened the cimmerian gloom of the canyon, and the frowning rocks, which rose abruptly gave one the impression that they were on the point of crashing into the ravine.

The source of man’s unhappiness is his ignorance of Nature.... To remove this Cimmerian darkness... requires the clue of Ariadne.

1770, Baron D'Holbach, The System of Nature:


taxi yellow

en-noun

taxi yellow (usually uncountable, plural taxi yellows)

taxi yellow:

“No,” Emma said, “this could be important. Not taxi yellow, so what kind of yellow did it seem?”

1999, Gillian Roberts, Time and Trouble:

The car was painted an authentic “taxi-yellow” and featured an off-white or red interior, complete with driver.

“I remember. The walls were taxi yellow,” she added, hoping he might smile.

A bright yellow color used for New York taxicabs.


fandango

fandango (countable and uncountable, plural fandangos or fandangoes)

/fænˈdæŋ.ɡəʊ/

Borrowed from Spanish fandango, of uncertain origin. Possibly related to Portuguese fado, or of West African origin.

fandango:


creamy

en-adj

creamy (comparative creamier, superlative creamiest)

creamier (comparative)
creamiest (superlative)

creamy chocolate

Of food or drink, having the rich taste or thick, smooth texture of cream, whether or not it actually contains cream.

قشدي

of food or drink, having the taste or texture of cream


first-degree burn

en-noun

first-degree burn (plural first-degree burns)

A mild burn that causes redness of the skin but no blistering.


second-degree burn

second-degree burn (plural second-degree burns)

a burn, more severe than a first-degree burn, that blisters the skin


third-degree burn

third-degree burn (plural third-degree burns)

A severe burn that destroys skin and underlying tissue and exposes nerve endings.


celeste

celeste (countable and uncountable, plural celestes)

Borrowed from French céleste (“heavenly”), from Latin caelestis.


pyrokinesis

(parapsychology, fantasy, science fiction) The ability to set objects or people on fire or to supernaturally project fire from one's own being through the concentration of psychic power.

控火

the ability to set objects or people on fire


traffic light

ពន្លឺចរាចរណ៍

pɔɔnlɨɨ cɑɑraacɑɑ

Turn left at the traffic lights and the hospital is on your right.

A signalling device positioned at a road intersection or pedestrian crossing indicating the moment it is safe to drive, ride or walk, using a universal color code.

(usually in the plural) A road intersection controlled by one or more such devices.


lighthouse

lighthouses (plural)
light house (alternative)

A tower or other structure exhibiting a light or lights to warn or guide sailors.

vuurtoring

building containing a light to warn or guide ships


sublunary

PIE word
 *upó
The adjective is a learned borrowing from Late Latin sublūnāris (“sublunar, sublunary”) + English -ary (suffix meaning of or pertaining to forming adjectives). Sublūnāris is derived from Latin sub- (prefix meaning ‘below, beneath, under’) + lūnāris (“of or pertaining to the moon, lunar”) (from lūna (“moon”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to see; to shine”)) + -āris (suffix forming adjectives denoting a pertaining to or relationship)). By surface analysis, sub- + lunary.
The noun is derived from the adjective.

der

(beneath the moon):

(between the moon and earth):

Patritius [Franciscus Patricius?] doth not onely auerre this, but that the Sea is as a ſublunarie Planet, mouing it ſelfe, and moued by the ſuperiour bodies to effect the generation of things: […]

1614, Samuel Purchas, “[Asia.] A Generall Discourse of the Sea, and of the Seas in and about Asia.”, in Purchas His Pilgrimage. Or Relations of the World and the Religions Observed in All Ages and Places Discouered, from the Creation vnto this Present. […], 2nd edition, London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, book V (Of the East-Indies, and of the Seas and Ilands about Asia, with Their Religions), page 512:

They [devils] are confined vntill the day of iudgement, to this ſublunary vvorld, and can vvorke no farther then the foure Elements, and as God permits them. VVherefore of theſe ſublunary Diuels, Pſellus [Michael Psellos] makes ſix kindes, fiery, aeriall, terreſtriall, vvatery, and ſubterranean Diuels, beſides thoſe Fairies, Satyres, Nymphs, &c.

1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “A Digression of Divels, and How They Cause Melancholy”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 2, member 1, subsection 2, page 63:

Ye Sublunary VVorlds avvake, avvake, / Ye Rulers of the Nations hear and ſhake?

1713, Edward Young, “Book I”, in A Poem on the Last Day, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Edward Whistler, →OCLC, page 6:

(chiefly historical) Situated beneath the moon; specifically, between the moon and the earth.

sublunarisch

situated beneath the moon; specifically, between the moon and the earth

For Simonie doth vſually poyſon and corrupt tvvo VVell-heads, vvhence the ſtreames of good life doe generally flovv vnto all the people; that is, the Parſon, and the Patron. Theſe be, as the tvvo great Lights in the Firmament of the Church, from vvhom the ſublunary and ſubordinate people receiue the direction and conduct of their life.

1624, Henry Burton, “Of the Miserable Fruits and Effects of Simonie”, in A Censure of Simonie. Or A Most Important Case of Conscience Concerning Simonie […], London: […] William Stansby, for Edmund Weauer and Iohn Smethwicke, →OCLC, page 93:


sublunary

A less important person; an inferior, a subordinate.


dubonnet

en-noun

dubonnet (usually uncountable, plural dubonnets)

[…] greens, and blues through deep-toned dubonnets, grays, and greens.

dubonnet:

The reddish purple colour of the apéritif Dubonnet.


glimmer

glimmer (countable and uncountable, plural glimmers)

From Middle English glimeren, glemeren (“to glimmer”), equivalent to glim (“to shine”) + -er (frequentative suffix). Cognate with German Low German glimmern (“to glimmer”), German glimmern (“to glimmer”), Danish glimre (“to glimmer”), Swedish glimra (“to glimmer”). Doublet of glimpse.

cog

The glimmer of the fireflies was pleasant to watch.


glimmer

en-verb

glimmer (third-person singular simple present glimmers, present participle glimmering, simple past and past participle glimmered)

glimmers (present singular third-person)
glimmering (participle present)
glimmered (participle past)
glimmered (past)

the glimmering dawn a glimmering lamp

The fireflies glimmered in the dark.

The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

(intransitive) To shine with a faint, unsteady light.


flicker

en-noun

flicker (countable and uncountable, plural flickers)

From Middle English flikeren (“to flutter”), from Old English flicerian, flicorian (“to flutter”), from Proto-West Germanic *flikurōn.
Akin to Saterland Frisian flikkerje (“to flicker”),
West Frisian flikkerje (“to flicker”), Dutch flikkeren (“to flicker, flutter”), German Low German flickern (“to light up, flash, flicker”). Compare Old English flacor (“flickering, fluttering”), German flackern (“to flicker, flutter”), Old English flēogan (“to fly”).

cog

the flicker of the dying candle

the flicker of an old movie


flickering

With 3,600 h.p. underfoot, acceleration was reasonably brisk, but the flickering wheel-slip indicator light showed the prudence of not putting full power through the traction motors while there were traces of early-morning dampness on the rails.

1960 August, R. K. Evans, “Railway Modernisation in Spain”, in Trains Illustrated, page 494:

shining unsteadily or varying rapidly in brightness (referring to a light or a source of light)


hot spot

hot spots (plural)
hotspot (alternative)

пизэке

A location which has a higher temperature or amount of radiation than surrounding areas.

(firefighting, forestry) A part of a forest fire which is burning actively.

titik panas

(figuratively) A place notable for a high level of activity or danger.

A part of an application that consumes a significant amount of execution time.


stoplight

stoplights (plural)
stop light (alternative)

(US, Philippines) A traffic control signal, traditionally consisting of three lights, colored green, yellow/amber, and red, meaning proceed, prepare to stop, and stop, respectively.

The rear lamps are combined with the service stoplights and are contained in stoplight part and blackout marker light assemblies at the rear of the vehicle.

1973, United States. Department of the Army, Organizational Maintenance Manual (TM-9-2320-211-20), page 2-52:

A light on the rear of a vehicle that is activated when braking; a brake light.


ash blond

ash blonde (alternative)
ash-blonde (alternative)
ash-blond (alternative)


obsidian

en-noun

obsidian (usually uncountable, plural obsidians)

From Latin obsidianus; named after Obsidius, who was, according to Pliny, the Roman who discovered the stone in Aethiopia.

The Neolithic culture from 8000 to 6000 B.C., however, was a brilliant period of the revival of crafts, the transformation of gathering into gardening, the growth of a cross-cultural obsidian trade, and the rise of towns.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 130:

(mineralogy) A type of naturally occurring black glass produced by volcanoes.

lawaglas

a type of black glass produced by volcanoes

obsidian:

A slightly bluish black, the color of obsidian glass.


obsidian

en-adj

obsidian (comparative more obsidian, superlative most obsidian)

more obsidian (comparative)
most obsidian (superlative)

Looks like a yellow biscuit of a buttery cue ball moon / Rolling maverick across an obsidian sky

1975, “Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)”, in Nighthawks at the Diner, performed by Tom Waits:


bailout

bailouts (plural)
bail-out (alternative)

(firefighting) The situation where a firefighter uses equipment to escape a structure where fire has proven uncontrollable.


cadmium yellow

en-noun

cadmium yellow (countable and uncountable, plural cadmium yellows)

cadmium yellow:


radioluminescence

radioluminescence (usually uncountable, plural radioluminescences)

luminescence produced by bombardment with ionizing radiation


incandescence

incandescence (usually uncountable, plural incandescences)

Borrowed from French incandescence.
Morphologically incandesce + -ence.

(physics) the emission of visible light by a hot body


incandescent lamp

incandescent lamp (plural incandescent lamps)

A light bulb whose metallic filament is heated by an electric current.


harlequin

harlequin (countable and uncountable, plural harlequins)

From earlier Harlicken, from Middle French Harlequin (in Italian Arlecchino, the name of a popular servant character in commedia dell'arte plays), from Old French Harlequin, Halequin, Herlequin, Hellequin, Hierlekin, Hellekin (a demon, malevolent spirit), probably of Germanic origin, connected to the Old English figure of Herla Cyning (“King Herla”, a mythical figure identified with Woden) or possibly to Old Frisian helle kin, Old English helle cyn, Old Norse heljar kyn (“the kindred of Hell”). Related to Middle English Hurlewain (“a mischievous sprite or goblin”).

cog

harlequin:


parhelion

en-noun

parhelion (plural parhelia or parhelions)

From Latin parelion, from Ancient Greek παρήλιον (parḗlion), from παρά (pará) + ἥλιος (hḗlios, “sun”).

Synonym of sun dog (“a bright spot in the sky, usually one of two on the 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

synonym of sun dog (cognates) — see also sun dog


hotshot

hotshots (plural)
hot shot (alternative)
hot-shot (alternative)

A type of firefighter highly skilled in wildfire firefighting without external support, using basic tools that are backpacked in and manhandled about.

(US) A portable device that is used to jump-start an automobile battery, or the electrical output of such a device.

I sniffed glue, transmission fluid, gasoline, whatever drug anybody gave me, I took. […] [Y]ears ago, I was in a drug rehabilitation program and found out that my brother was killed after somebody gave him a hotshot, drugs laced with poison.

1997, Andi Rierden, The Farm: Life inside a women's prison, page 120:

(slang) A dose of recreational drugs deliberately laced with poison.


hotshot

en-verb

hotshot (third-person singular simple present hotshots, present participle hotshotting, simple past and past participle hotshotted)

hotshots (present singular third-person)
hotshotting (participle present)
hotshotted (participle past)
hotshotted (past)
hot shot (alternative)
hot-shot (alternative)

(transitive, slang) To give (somebody) a dose of recreational drugs deliberately laced with poison.


interstellar extinction

(astronomy) the dimming of light from the stars due to absorption and scattering from dust in the interstellar medium


fustic

en-noun

fustic (usually uncountable, plural fustics)

fustics (plural)
fustet (alternative)
fustoc (alternative)
fustick (alternative)

From Middle English fustik, from Middle French fustec, variant of fustet.

[…]nor can I tell to this day what wood to call the tree we cut down, except that it was very like the tree we call fustic, or between that and the Nicaragua wood, for it was much of the same colour and smell.

1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:

A tropical American tree (Maclura tinctoria), whose wood produces a yellow dye.

Cotinus coggygria
Cotinus coggygria#Translingual

A European tree, Eurasian smoketree (Cotinus coggygria), whose wood produces an orange dye.

A yellow dye obtained from the wood of these trees.


café au lait

café au lait (countable and uncountable, plural café au laits or cafés au lait)

café au laits (plural)
cafés au lait (plural)
coffee au lait (alternative)
cafe au lait (alternative)

/ˌkæfeɪ əʊ ˈleɪ/

/kæˌfeɪ əʊ ˈleɪ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-café au lait.wav

Borrowed from French café au lait (literally “coffee with milk”).

bor

café au lait:

Seen all of a piece like this, in a picture that fits snugly into the lens of any camera, Kersey is a peaceful, multi-coloured Toytown of a village, whose red-tiled roofs are subdued by just the right amount of weathering and lichen, and whose overhanging gables thrust forward in a quiet brilliance of red-and-yellow ochre, pink, white and café-au-lait.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 240:


azo dye

(organic chemistry) Any of a large number of mostly yellow to red synthetic dyes that contain an azo or diimide (-N=N-) functional group.


chrysoine resorcinol

(organic chemistry) a golden-yellow azo dye used as a food coloring


quinoline yellow

(organic chemistry) a yellow food coloring now known to be toxic and banned in some countries


rutilant

en-adj

rutilant (comparative more rutilant, superlative most rutilant)

more rutilant (comparative)
most rutilant (superlative)

From Late Middle English rutilaunt (“shining with a gold or red colour”), from Latin rutilantem, accusative masculine or feminine singular of rutilāns (“reddening”) (or directly from the latter), an adjective use of the present participle of rutilō (“to redden”) (from rutilus (“(yellowish) red”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewdʰ- (“red”)) + -āns (suffix forming the present active participle of first conjugation verbs). The English word is cognate with Italian rutilante (literary), Portuguese rutilante, Spanish rutilante.

inh

[S]tately Hyperion or the lordly ſonne, the moſt rutilant planet of the ſeuẽ, in Lent when Heralius herring enters into his chiefe reign and ſcepterdome, ſkippeth and danſeth[,] the goats iumpe on the earth for ioy of his entrance.

1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 36:

[T]he colour of a Comet ſignifies the Nature of the Ruling Planet. This was of a Fiery Red, but mixed with a dusky Silver colour, which made it look but dim in appearance, (unleſs in clear Nights before the Moon was up, for then it look'd more Rutilant:) and therefore it was likewiſe in this reſpect of the Nature of Mars and Mercury, [...]

a. 1682, George Wharton, “An Excellent Discourse of the Names, Genus, Species, Efficient and Final Causes of All Comets, &c.”, in John Gadbury, compiler, The Works of that Late Most Excellent Philosopher and Astronomer, Sir George Wharton, Bar[onet]. […], London: […] H[enry] H[ills] for John Leigh, […], published 1683, →OCLC, pages 170–171:

Thy Candour, which the Opticks Quondam drew, / And o'er the Viſible Ideas rang'd, / Was by the Gore of that Lewd Goddeſs chang'd / To Rutilant Purpureous Sanguin Hue.

1707, “The Life of Estevanillo Gonzales, the Pleasantest and Most Diverting of All Comical Scoundrels”, in [Andrés Pérez de León (or Francisco López de Ubeda); Fernando de Rojas; Juan de Ávila], translated by John Stevens, The Spanish Libertines: […], London: […] Samuel Bunchley, […], →OCLC, chapter XIV, page 507:

Nitrous acid. #92;#123; It is nitric acid holding nitrous acid in solution, nearly absorbs its weight from it; then in a rutilant vapour more volatile than nitric acid.

1813, “CHEMISTRY”, in John Mason Good, Olinthus Gregory, Newton Bosworth [et al.], editors, Pantologia. A New Cyclopædia, […], volumes III (Cea–Czo), London: […] G. Kearsley; […], →OCLC:

His [Percy Bysshe Shelley's] genius lay outside the general trend of our poetical evolution; he is exotic and unique, and such influence as he has had, apart from the effect on the pulse of the individual of the rutilant beauty of his strophes, has not been very advantageous.

1897, Edmund Gosse, “The Age of Byron: 1815–1840”, in A Short History of Modern English Literature, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 314:

Mother's milk, Purefoy, the milk of human kin, milk too of those burgeoning stars overhead, rutilant in thin rainvapour, punch milk, such as those rioters will quaff in their guzzlingden, milk of madness, the honeymilk of Canaan's land.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 14: Oxen of the Sun]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 403:

[Jack] Kearns is as rutilant a personality as [Joey] Maxim apparently isn't, and from many of the newspaper stories that appeared in the weeks leading up to the fight one would have thought that Kearns, not Maxim, was signed to fight [Sugar Ray] Robinson.

1956, A[bbott] J[oseph] Leibling, “Kearns by a Knockout”, in The Sweet Science, New York, N.Y.: North Point Press, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, published 2004, →ISBN, page 63:

She was now 16 and sending off her first radiations and vibrations dressed in Varda's own rutilant colors.

1964, Anaïs Nin, Collages, Denver, Colo.: Alan Swallow, →OCLC:

He had a round head as bare as a knee, a corpse's button nose, and very white, very limp, very damp hands adorned with rutilant gems.

1969, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 11, in Ada, or, Ardor: A Family Chronicle, Harmondsworth, London: Penguin Books, published 1970, →ISBN, part 2, page 347:

In their absence, the rosy, rutilant glow of Stone Canyon Road was rendered bogus and counterfeit. Like the period houses that lined the stage streets on Metro's Lot 3, Judy [Garland]'s dream house was little more than a set, a beautiful façade, with nothing, nothing at all, behind it.

2000, Gerald Clarke, “Production No. 1060—The Wizard of Oz”, in Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland (A Delta Book), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing, published March 2001, →ISBN, page 111:

(literary or sciences, also figuratively) Shining or glowing with a red colour or light.

rutilante

shining or glowing with a red colour or light


fervid

en-adj

fervid (comparative more fervid or fervider, superlative most fervid or fervidest)

more fervid (comparative)
fervider (comparative)
most fervid (superlative)
fervidest (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin fervidus, from ferveō.

Four years ago—in 1874—two young Englishmen had occasion to go to the United States. They crossed the ocean at midsummer, and, arriving in New York on the first day of August, were much struck with the fervid temperature of that city.

1878, Henry James, An International Episode:

(figurative) lively, spirited, or frenzied due to being ardent, passionate, and zealous.


Lunarian

From the stem of Latin lunaris (“of the moon, lunar”) + -ian.

(science fiction) An inhabitant of Earth's Moon (Luna): either an indigenous one or a human one.


sprinkler

An irrigation device that sprays water into the air whilst moving back and forth.

A heat-activated device that sprays water in the event of a fire, usually mounted on a ceiling.

(preceded by definite article) A dance move in which the dancer places one hand on the head behind the ear, with elbow bent, stretches the other arm forwards and mimics the motions of an irrigation sprinkler with a rotary head.


sprinkler

en-verb

sprinkler (third-person singular simple present sprinklers, present participle sprinklering, simple past and past participle sprinklered)

sprinklers (present singular third-person)
sprinklering (participle present)
sprinklered (participle past)
sprinklered (past)

(transitive) To fit with automatic sprinklers for fire prevention.


Solar System

the Solar System (canonical)
Solar system (alternative)
solar system (alternative)

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

This morning we are celebrating a beginning. A beginning of what we think is great promise. It's the opening of a new era in the history of manned space flight. We are ready to take that first great step out into the Solar System and onto the surface of the nearest of the many mysterious worlds that surround us in Space.

November 2, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson, 5:32 from the start, in The President: November 1968. MP902 (1280x720), Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum:

(astronomy) The Sun and all the heavenly bodies that orbit around it, including the eight planets, their moons, the asteroids, and comets.

Sonnestelsel

the Sun and all the heavenly bodies that orbit around it


backburn

A controlled burn, lit in the path of a wildfire, in order to deprive it of combustible material.


orcein

en-noun

orcein (usually uncountable, plural orceins)

(chemistry) a dye, related to litmus, that is extracted from the lichen Rocella tinctoria; used as a microscopic stain and as a food colouring


orchil

orchil (countable and uncountable, plural orchils)

orchils (plural)
archil (alternative)
archall (alternative)
orchel (alternative)
orchal (alternative)

From Old French orchel, orseil (modern French orseille), of uncertain origin.

Lecanora tartarea
Lecanora tartarea#Translingual

The purple dye, orcein, extracted from them (especially Lecanora tartarea) and often used as substitute for Tyrian purple.


fallow

en-adj

fallow (comparative more fallow, superlative most fallow)

more fallow (comparative)
most fallow (superlative)

[Alt: A photograph of a light brown deer.]
From Middle English falwe, from Old English fealu, from Proto-Germanic *falwaz (compare West Frisian feal, Dutch vaal, German falb, fahl), from Proto-Indo-European *polwos (compare Lithuanian pal̃vas (“sallow, wan”), Russian поло́вый (polóvyj, “wan, light yellow”), Serbo-Croatian plâv (“blond, blue”), Ancient Greek πολιός (poliós, “grey”)), from Proto-Indo-European *pelH- (“pale, gray”).

der

a fallow deer or greyhound

fallow:

How does your fallow greyhound, sir?

a. 1597, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, act 1, scene 1:

Of a pale red or yellow, light brown; dun.


Wadjet

Borrowed from Egyptian wAD-t-I12 (wꜣḏt, “Wadjet”, literally “green one”), an allusion to the skin of the cobra. Doublet of Buto.

bor+

<i class="Latn mention" lang="egy">wꜣḏt</i>

(Egyptian mythology) The patron goddess and namesake of the Ancient Egyptian city of Per-Wadjet, known as Buto to the Greeks. Wadjet takes the form of a cobra and is associated with the Eye of Horus.