stentorian

en-adj

stentorian (comparative more stentorian, superlative most stentorian)

more stentorian (comparative)
most stentorian (superlative)

From Stentor + -ian, from Ancient Greek Στέντωρ (Sténtōr). Stentor was the herald of the Greek forces in the Iliad, noted for his loud voice.

Shouts of laughter were elicited, smart biddings drawn out, from the whispers of a timid miss, to the stentorian voice of a fox-hunting squire, and not a few fracas from parties either contending for a supposed prize, or disclaiming their chance for it,...

1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], “(please specify the page)”, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 223–224:

There seemed no one to dispute his claims when he said, or rather shouted, in stentorian tones: "I am Tsa. This is my she. Who wishes her more than Tsa?"

1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter VIII, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, part II, number 12, New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, March 1927, →OCLC, page 1140, column 2:

But whenever one of the motor-trucks lumbering by bore a big U.S. on its rear panel Troy pushed his light ambulance ahead and skimmed past, just for the joy of seeing the fresh young heads rising pyramid-wise about the sides of the lorry, hearing the snatches of familiar songs—"Hail, hail, the gang's all here!" and "We won't come back till it's over over here!"—and shouting back in reply to a stentorian "Hi, kid, beat it!", "Bet your life I will, old man!"

1918, Edith Wharton, chapter IX, in The Marne, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, pages 87–88:

The Irish Caruso-Garibaldi was in superlative form and his stentorian notes were heard to the greatest advantage in the time-honoured anthem sung as only our citizen can sing it.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 304:

Giving us a last embracing and comprehensive glance he drew it, already pivoting Jupiter on the tight snaffle; his hair tossed beneath the cocked hat, the sabre flashed and glinted; he cried, not loud yet stentorian: "Trot! Canter! Charge!"

1934 September 29, William Faulkner, “Ambuscade”, in The Unvanquished, New York, N.Y.: Random House, published 1938, →OCLC; republished in The Unvanquished: The Corrected Text, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, October 1991, →ISBN, section 2, pages 12–13:

To be sure, Ubu Roi does not translate easily, if at all. Take the first word of the play, so shocking to contemporary theatergoers, Ubu's stentorian “Merdre!”—which is, of course, the basic French curse word with an added “r” for good, or bad, measure.

1989 July 17, John Simon, “The Ubu Boo-Boo”, in New York Magazine, volume 22, number 28, page 47:

(of a voice) Loud, powerful, booming, suitable for giving speeches to large crowds.

Στεντόρειος

of a voice suitable for giving speeches to large crowds


quill

From late Middle English quyl, which is first attested in the early 15th century with the meanings "fragment of reed" and "shaft of a feather", probably from Low German and Middle Low German quiele, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to pierce, stick”).
Compare Middle High German kil (“large feather, quill”), which is derived from the Low German term.

cog

(music) The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of certain instruments.

He touched the tender stops of various quills.

1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC:

(music) The tube of a musical instrument.


cakewalk

From cake + walk. Originally an African-American form of dance and music that developed after the Civil War, later popularised by minstrel shows. It was danced at social events, with the best dancers often receiving cake as a prize. It derives from dance competitions by plantation slaves in which the style of dance lampooned the ballroom dances of the slaveowners. Slaveowners seem to have found the competitions entertaining and the habit of offering cake may originate from this period. The name is sometimes also applied to the dance's precursor on the plantations. Doing the cakewalk well required virtuosity, and a major esthetic aspect of that virtuosity was the apparent ease with which the dance was performed. This gave rise to the idiom as easy as a cakewalk, which in turn led to the sense of cakewalk as something that is easy.
See the linked Wikipedia article for more.

(music) The style of music associated with such a contest.


shale oil

en-noun

shale oil (countable and uncountable, plural shale oils)

Up in the mountains along both sides of Parachute Creek the Exxon Corporation and other companies have begun to pour billions of dollars into two huge projects to turn the nation's immense reserves of oil shale into shale oil.

1981 November 6, Robert D. Hershey Jr, “Shale Oil Is Coming Of Age”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A synthetic crude oil obtained by the pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution of oil shale.

A crude oil obtained from low permeability petroleum-bearing formations (shales).


tympan

(music) The stretched membrane of a drum.

(music) A percussion instrument consisting of a hollow cylinder with such a membrane at each end.


sonic

From Latin sonus, equivalent to sono- + -ic.


secundo

Italian secondo (“second”). Doublet of second and secund.


oil shale

oil shale (usually uncountable, plural oil shales)

Can you imagine squeezing oil from rock? Oil shale is different from the shale gas that is extracted through fracking. It is geologically un-evolved oil: the remnants of organic matter buried underground for millions of years but never sunk deep enough, nor long enough, to be transformed into petroleum.

2014 April 16, Martin Lukacs, “Canada becoming launch-pad of a global tar sands and oil shale frenzy”, in The Guardian:

A sedimentary rock containing kerogen from which petroleum-like shale oil can be produced by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution.

olieskifer

shale from which hydrocarbons can be produced


dobro

From the trade name "Dobro", used by Gibson Guitar Corporation, from Dopyera or Dopjera, name of the inventors + brothers, also punning on Slovak dobro (“good”).

The longest and most incandescent track is “Twilight Kingdom,” which includes Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Jerry Douglas on dobro and David Grier on guitar.

2007 January 21, Nate Chinen, “Dueling Banjos, Gospel Harmonies, Arabesques and Electric Eels”, in New York Times:

(music) An acoustic guitar with a metal resonator


tuwhit tuwhoo

Thy tuwhits are lull'd I wot, / Thy tuwhoos of yesternight,[…]

[1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Second Song. To the Same [the Owl].”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza 1, page 21:


chiffre

Borrowed from French chiffre. Doublet of cipher and zero.

At the end of the eighteenth century, French opera composers like A. E. Grétry (Richard Coeur de Lion, 1784), L. Cherubini (Medeé, 1797), and J. Fr. Le Cueur (Ossian ou les Bardes, 1804) began to “assign musical chiffres to precise dramatic situations or single figures on the stage, which were played again when these figures appeared again,” according to Bern University professor Anselm Gerhard.

2014, Peter Wegele, Max Steiner: Composing, Casablanca, and the Golden Age of Film Music:

(music) A figure or motif (short melodic or lyrical passage that is repeated).


gargle

gargle (countable and uncountable, plural gargles)

From French gargouiller (“to gargle”), from Old French gargouille, gargole (“gutter, throat”). Compare gargoyle and Spanish garganta. Displaced Middle English gargargisen (“to gargle”) from Latin, and native Old English swillan (“to gargle”) (> English swill)..

ncog

goggle (non-rhotic, father-bother merger)

(countable) The sound or act of gargling.


CDM

en-noun

CDM (countable and uncountable, plural CDMs)

Caribbean dance music
Caribbean dance music#English

(music) Initialism of Caribbean dance music.


clatter

en-verb

clatter (third-person singular simple present clatters, present participle clattering, simple past and past participle clattered)

clatters (present singular third-person)
clattering (participle present)
clattered (participle past)
clattered (past)

From Middle English clatren (“to make a rattling sound”), from Old English *clatrian (attested as the Late Old English gerund clatrung), of onomatopoeic origin. Compare Dutch klateren, kletteren.
The noun, derived from the verb, is first attested in the 14ᵗʰ century.

inh

When all the bees are gone to settle, / You clatter still your brazen kettle.

1728, Jonathan Swift, “A Dialogue between Mad Mullinix and Timothy”, in Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume VII, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801, →OCLC, page 403:

When he came to Nottingham, he entered that part of the market where butchers stood, and took up his inn in the best place he could find. Next, he opened his stall and spread his meat upon the bench, then, taking his cleaver and steel and clattering them together, he trolled aloud in merry tones: […]

1883, Howard Pyle, “Robin Hood Turns Butcher”, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC, part second, page 49:

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard, / And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred; […]

1906 August, Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”, in Poems, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 1, stanza III, page 46:

[Hoop-and-stick] was not a little gentleman's game but was played by boys in heavy boots making a terrific noise as they clattered along on the pavements at quite a speed.

1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 127:

(intransitive) To make a rattling sound.


clatter

The patter of feet, and clatter of strap and swivel, seemed to swell into a bewildering din, but they were almost upon the fielato offices, where the carretera entered the town, before a rifle flashed.

1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:

There was something distinctly low-key, even wilfully alienating about the band’s performance. A scattering of OK Computer tracks were interspersed with more abstract latterday material – the clatter of 15 Step and Myxamatosis.

2017 June 26, Alexis Petridis, “Glastonbury 2017 verdict: Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Stormzy and more”, in the Guardian:

... disintegrated Incredibly , pitched your clattering pieces to the bottom stair Of intellect , insisting that you start Again . Or proud - flesh , clotted mental pores , might claim Authentic miracle only to decry it . Campanulas .

1978, William Cookson, Agenda, volume 16, number 1 - v. 18, Poets and Painters Press, →OCLC, page 7:

A rattling noise; a repetition of abrupt, sharp sounds.

Clatter, or, as it is sometimes called, Clitter, is the name given to the confused masses of granite rocks that are so frequently seen covering large areas of ground on the hill sides of the moor, or clustering around the bases of many of the tors.

1887, William Crossing, The Ancient Crosses of Dartmoor, Exeter: James G Commin, page 45:


radiogenetics

The study of the genetic effects of radiation.


radiohalo

A microscopic spherical disturbance in a rock caused by a grain of radioactive material.


cadmium yellow

en-noun

cadmium yellow (countable and uncountable, plural cadmium yellows)

cadmium yellow:


radiferous

containing radium (or other material used for radiotherapy)

(chemistry) constituting radium (esp. barium salts)


radon seed

A small glass or gold tube, containing radon gas, implanted in a patient as radiotherapy.


radioassay

An assay of an ore or some other radioactive sample to determine the intensity of its radiation.


radioluminescence

radioluminescence (usually uncountable, plural radioluminescences)

luminescence produced by bombardment with ionizing radiation


kerma

kerma (countable and uncountable, plural kermas)

Acronym for kinetic energy released in matter.

(physics) The sum of the initial kinetic energies of all the charged particles liberated by uncharged ionizing radiation (neutrons and photons) in a sample of matter, divided by the mass of the sample.


radioprotector

(chemistry) A substance, such as potassium iodide, that provides some protection against the harmful effects of radiation.


DS

DS (countable and uncountable, plural DSs or DSes)


decima

Borrowed from Latin decima (“a tenth”), now particularly via Italian decima. Doublet of decime.

(generally obsolete) A tenth, particularly

(obsolete, music) A tenth: a note nine degrees of the scale above or below a given note (and thus ten degrees separate counting inclusively) or the interval between such notes.

(music) An organ stop a tenth above the normal 8-foot pitch.


incandescence

incandescence (usually uncountable, plural incandescences)

Borrowed from French incandescence.
Morphologically incandesce + -ence.


obsidian

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:


back beat

(music) Any of the even beats in music, as opposed to the odd downbeats


classical music

en-noun

classical music (usually uncountable, plural classical musics)

(music) Music of the classical period; the music of Mozart, Haydn, etc; the musical period before the romantic.

(music) The more serious forms of music, taught through formal education and performed according to strict rules, as opposed to folk music or popular music.

klassieke musiek

the more serious forms of European and American music


incandescent lamp

incandescent lamp (plural incandescent lamps)

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


parhelion

parhelion (plural parhelia or parhelions)

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

A bright spot in the sky due to the refraction of the sun’s image by ice crystals.


clamorous

en-adj

clamorous (comparative more clamorous, superlative most clamorous)

more clamorous (comparative)
most clamorous (superlative)

From clamor + -ous; compare Latin clāmōrōsus and French clamoreux (obsolete), from Latin clāmōrem.

a clamorous fire alarm

[…] he took the bride about the neck,
And kiss’d her lips with such a clamorous smack
That at the parting all the church did echo.

c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

[…] the sound [of laughter] ceased, only for an instant; it began again, louder: for at first, though distinct, it was very low. It passed off in a clamorous peal that seemed to wake an echo in every lonely chamber;

1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XI, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 200:

Of or pertaining to clamor.
Of great intensity. (of sounds)

clamorous trumpets

The clamorous owl that nightly hoots

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 ii]:

Creating a loud noise. (of people, animals or things)

We are disgusted with that clamorous grief, which, without any delicacy, calls upon our compassion with sighs and tears and importunate lamentations.

1769, Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, London: A. Millar, Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 4, p. 42:

[…] in the clamorous happiness of Lydia herself in bidding farewell, the more gentle adieus of her sisters were uttered without being heard.

1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter 18, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 226:

Expressed loudly. (of emotions or feelings)

a clamorous market

Life had long been astir in the village, and clamorous labor
Knocked with its hundred hands at the golden gates of the morning.

1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC, page 49:

[…] he tried rising late, but the clamorous dawn, filled with clanging milkmen and argumentative crows, was always victorious.

1995, Rohinton Mistry, chapter 11, in A Fine Balance, London: Faber & Faber, page 425:

Filled with or accompanied by a great deal of noise. (of times, places, events or activities)

Be clamorous and leap all civil bounds
Rather than make unprofited return.

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

[…] Overbury in the mean time might write clamorous and furious Letters to his Friends,

1656, William Sanderson, A Compleat History of the Lives and Reigns of Mary Queen of Scotland, and of […] James the Sixth, King of Scotland, and […] King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, the First, London, page 418:

The people became clamorous to get land, and the rich and the great, we may believe, were perfectly determined not to give them any part of theirs.

1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, Volume 2, Book 4, Chapter 7, Part 1, p. 148:

They were clamorous for an expedition to the hills, before the calm stillness of the autumn should be disturbed by storms.

1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 2, in Ruth, volume 3, London: Chapman and Hall, page 58:

(of people or speech) Insistently expressing a desire for something.

She led them along a path edged with round, whitewashed stones and equally rounded basils of a clamorous green.

1970, Patrick White, chapter 6, in The Vivisector, New York: Avon, published 1980, page 376:

It was impossible to overlook the clamorous parrots on the new missionary’s Hawaiian shirt.

2015, John Irving, chapter 9, in Avenue of the Mysteries, New York: Simon and Schuster, page 99:

Having especially (and often unpleasantly) bright or contrasting colours or patterns.


yodeler

One who sings so that their voice fluctuates rapidly between their normal chest voice and a falsetto, one who yodels.


Muzak

The noun is a blend of music + the letters ak from Kodak, a well-known brand in 1934 when the word was coined by the American inventor, scientist, and soldier George Owen Squier (1865–1934), who developed the original technical basis for the service.
The verb is derived from the noun.

coinage

It dawned on her that he was talking about the Muzak. It had been seeping in, in its subliminal, unidentifiable way since they'd entered the place, all strings, reeds, muted brass.

1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC, page 105:

There's no way I can change internal body functions. Only yogis can do that. Muzak, for example, can't change you. Aaron Copeland [i.e., Aaron Copland] calls Muzak 'the obsequious.' We're super-saturated with shitty music. [Originally published in New Times.]

1975 February 7, Michael Gross, quoting Tom Turicchi, “The Hits Just Keep on Coming”, in Robert Atwan, Barry Orton, William Vesterman, American Mass Media: Industries and Issues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, published 1978, →ISBN, part 3 (The Sound Media), page 320, column 2:

Some people, of course, have no trouble making that decision: they know they don't like Muzak. Critics charge that Muzak invades what could be pleasurable silence, disrupts conversation, or smacks of George Orwell's 1984. [Originally published in American Way.]

1983 November, Bill Hunter, “It’s Muzak through Your Ears”, in Robert Atwan, Barry Orton, William Vesterman, American Mass Media: Industries and Issues, 3rd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, published 1986, →ISBN, part 3 (The Sound Media), page 289, column 1:

(music, trademark) Recorded background music characterized by soft, soothing instrumental sounds which is transmitted by wire, radio, or recorded media (originally on a subscription basis) to doctors' offices, shops, and other business premises.


Muzak

The sound you make is muzak to my ears / You must have learned something in all those years

1971 September 9, John Lennon (lyrics and music), “How Do You Sleep?”, in Imagine:

[T]he supermarket is very crowded, because of course it's the time of day when all other people with jobs also try to squeeze in some grocery shopping, and the store is hideously, fluorescently lit, and infused with soul-killing Muzak or corporate pop, and it's pretty much the last place you want to be, but you can't just get in and quickly out.

2005 May 21, David Foster Wallace, This is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life, New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, published April 2009, →ISBN:

(music) Easy listening music, whether played live or recorded, especially if regarded as uninteresting.

hissimusiikki

easy listening music, especially if regarded as uninteresting


petrol station

(UK, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong) A filling station, gas station; a facility selling fuel for road motor vehicles


organum

en-noun

organum (countable and uncountable, plural organums or organa)

/ˈɔː.ɡə.nəm/

/ˈɔɹ.ɡə.nəm/

Borrowed from Latin organum, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ὄργανον (órganon, “organ, instrument, tool”). Doublet of organ, organon, and orgue.

der

(music) A type of medieval polyphony which builds upon an existing plainsong.


harlequin

en-noun

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:


caller

From Middle English callar, equivalent to call + -er.

(dance) The person who directs dancers in certain dances, such as American line dances and square dances.


shuffling

en-adj

shuffling (comparative more shuffling, superlative most shuffling)

more shuffling (comparative)
most shuffling (superlative)

This world I do renounce, and in your sights / Shake patiently my great affliction off.

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:


sync

en-noun

sync (usually uncountable, plural syncs)

(music) A music synchronization license, allowing the music to be synchronized with visual media such as films.


choo-choo

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

The sound made by a steam locomotive or ship.

تُوت تُوت

sound made by a steam locomotive (childish)


shush

en-verb

shush (third-person singular simple present shushes, present participle shushing, simple past and past participle shushed)

shushes (present singular third-person)
shushing (participle present)
shushed (participle past)
shushed (past)

He wouldn't shush so I kicked him.

Shush, my parents are back!

(onomatopoeia, intransitive) To be quiet; to keep quiet.

The boy in front of us was making too much noise, so we shushed him.

The sequence where Sam carves off Jorah’s infected tissue in secret, stopping every few moments to shush his patient, is presented as comic relief why? Jorah reels back into a diagonal close-up whimpering like a dog. Yellow pus oozes to get those good gross-out laughs. Is the substance of this operation funny to anyone on its face?

2017 July 23, Brandon Nowalk, “The great game begins with a bang on Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club:

(onomatopoeia, transitive or intransitive) To ask someone to be quiet, especially by saying shh.


choo

We could hear the choo choo choo

(onomatopoeia) The sound of a locomotive whistle


hotshot

en-adj

hotshot (comparative more hotshot, superlative most hotshot)

more hotshot (comparative)
most hotshot (superlative)

Keep up those hotshot baskets, the scouts are sure to take notice.


infrasonic

infrasonic (comparative more infrasonic, superlative most infrasonic)

more infrasonic (comparative)
most infrasonic (superlative)

(of sound waves, acoustics) Having frequencies below the human audible range


clunk

A dull, metallic sound, especially one made by two bodies coming into contact.

(dated) The sound of liquid coming out of a bottle, etc.; a glucking sound.


clunk

en-verb

clunk (third-person singular simple present clunks, present participle clunking, simple past and past participle clunked)

clunks (present singular third-person)
clunking (participle present)
clunked (participle past)
clunked (past)

Her old bicycle was clunking along the road.


clomp

From Dutch klomp (“clump, mass, wooden shoe”), from Old Dutch *klumpo, from Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“clump, lump, mass; clasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *glembʰ- (“clamp, mass”).

der

There was just a pause in the clomps, then Bill's boots went on toward the house.

1990, Laura C[aroline] Stevenson, chapter 11, in Happily after All, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 132:

"Hello?" he called toward the closed door. "Anybody here?" Somebody must have heard him, because he heard something move on the opposite side of the door. First a distant sound like animals grunting, then a clomp, clomp, clomp like boots approaching.

2010, Mark Peter Hughes, “Savages and Kings”, in A Crack in the Sky, Delacorte Press, →ISBN, page 226:

Amidst the clomps of oncoming horses, he could now hear men's low, conferring voices.

2012 January, Frank Leslie, chapter 6, in The Last Ride of Jed Strange, Signet, New American Library, →ISBN:

The sound of feet hitting the ground loudly.


clomp

en-verb

clomp (third-person singular simple present clomps, present participle clomping, simple past and past participle clomped)

clomps (present singular third-person)
clomping (participle present)
clomped (participle past)
clomped (past)

[…] so having smoothed my hair as well as I could, and repeatedly twitched my obdurate collar, I proceeded to clomp down the two flights of stairs, philosophizing as I went; […]

1847, Acton Bell (pseudonym; Anne Brontë), Agnes Grey: A Novel, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, publisher, 72, Mortimer St., Cavendish Sq., →OCLC:

The next day I couldn't use my black pair to school and in order not to spoil my white pair I used my bakias or wooden clogs instead. As I clomped into the classroom, for I was late that morning, my school teacher—a German nun—looked up and I saw her face wrinkle with displeasure, […]

1974, Liesel Commans Quirino, Why the Great Balls of Fire if I am Going to Go Pffttt Anyway?: 1931 to 1971, [s.l.]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 43:

Ambrose laughed as he lurched backwards and then clomped with his gold-tipped walking stick to the bed.

2000, Robin Maxwell, chapter 14, in The Queen's Bastard: A Novel, Scribner Paperback Fiction, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 100:

My exasperation turned to horror with the realisation that a cat cast in plaster would sink which sent me scrambling for the scoop net. Adding insult to injury, the bystanders cheered his [the cat's] undignified retrieval. With a mortified hiss and yowl he clomped with bedraggled hauteur below decks.

2003, June Kant, “Castaway”, in Jan Fook, Susan Hawthorne, Renate Klein, editors, Cat Tales: The Meaning of Cats in Women's Lives, North Melbourne, Vic.: Spinifex Press, →ISBN, page 17:

[W]e clomped up the steep rear concrete steps to the main (study hall) level and entered the hallway, where we then quite innocently clomped with our well-worn brogues into the study hall, where we sat to await the appearance of Witch Robinson.

2005, Alton L. Provost, Reflections in an Orphan's Eye: A Decade at Oxford 1947–1957, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 278:

Then she'd be startled when a peasant clomped with heavy shoes into this world of seductive images, his pipe clamped between his teeth, his eyes bovine and sleepy, to ask for a few stamps, and reflexively she'd find something to dress him down for.

2008, Stefan Zweig, translated by Joel Rotenberg, The Post-Office Girl, New York, N.Y.: New York Review Books, →ISBN:

I shoved the door closed and took off running for the steps. The clogs were too big and not the best shoes for sprinting. My feet clomped along the broken sidewalk.

2011, Lisa Hughey, chapter 6, in Blowback: A Romantic Thriller (A Black Cipher Files Thriller; 2), [s.l.]: [CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform], →ISBN:

But now that we were running so late, I didn't have time to fuss with them. I jammed my feet back into my plain brown clogs and clomped back downstairs […]

2015 February, Coco Simon, “Cupcake Panda-monium”, in Alexis's Cupcake Cupid, Simon Spotlight, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, →ISBN, page 126:

(intransitive) To walk heavily or clumsily, as with clogs.

When Sarah pointed at the door, Thea took a few steps toward it, clomping her feet with each stride.

2010, Amanda Cabot, Scattered Petals: A Novel (Texas Dreams; book 2), Grand Rapids, Mich.: Revell, →ISBN, page 47:

Kurt Fuehlen's brother, Helmut, waited at the basement doorway behind the cathedral, stomping his feet and clomping his mittened hands against his beefy arms.

2012, William J. O'Malley, The Place Called Skull, Indianapolis, In.: Dog Ear Publishing, →ISBN, page 7:

(transitive) To make some object hit something, thereby producing a clomping sound.


deacon

deacon (third-person singular simple present deacons, present participle deaconing, simple past and past participle deaconed)

deacons (present singular third-person)
deaconing (participle present)
deaconed (participle past)
deaconed (past)

Inherited from Old English diacon, from Ecclesiastical Latin diāconus, from Ancient Greek διᾱ́κονος (diā́konos, “servant, minister”).

der

(Christianity, music) For a choir leader to lead a hymn by speaking one or two lines at a time, which are then sung by the choir.


quatreble

(obsolete, music) A voice pitched a fifth above treble.


clip-clop

Onomatopoeia for two footsteps in succession.

onomatopoeic

Onomatopoeia

The wagon creaked, swayed, moved on to strange accompaniment— clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop. The horses were trotting on hard road.

1984, Anthony C. Yu, tr. 吴承恩, 西游记 (Wu Cheng'en, Journey to the West) http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0226971538&id=1q2jr5jttaUC&pg=PA39&lpg=PA39&dq=%22clip-clops%22&sig=AK8LZaIEHgK0n1Bxa7jLM3YK_Xo
With loud clip-clops, several middle-aged women ran out from within to stare at the T’ang monk, grinning stupidly all the time.

Suddenly I heard the familiar “clip-clop, clip-clop” of shower shoes coming up the path behind me—and a rapid pace it was.

2001, Dave Zorn, Dinky Dau: Love, War, and the Corps:

2003, Ann Redisch Stampler, Something for Nothing http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0618159827&id=F6U_tU8-FFkC&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=clip-clop&sig=bhYqdn7LQFMg6a0BuBGFIgpnP2E
All night long, Dog heard the clip-clop of horses hauling the wagons to market.

(onomatopoeia) The sound of steps on hard ground, especially of a horse's hooves.


clip-clop

en-verb

clip-clop (third-person singular simple present clip-clops, present participle clip-clopping, simple past and past participle clip-clopped)

clip-clops (present singular third-person)
clip-clopping (participle present)
clip-clopped (participle past)
clip-clopped (past)

onomatopoeic

Onomatopoeia

At the some moment, a horse clip-clops past, hauling a wagon.

1999, Mary Downing Hahn, Anna All Year Round:

2002, D J Vallone, For the Love of Freedom http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0595226183&id=xKV1VCsAwZIC&pg=PA92&lpg=PA92&dq=%22clip-clops%22&sig=-LkO8mWX7qKZGvv2vcIXOHpIqYM
One of several pairs of mounted police in flak jackets clip-clops past, patrolling the perimeter.

There was a single arrivals platform, nearest to King's Cross. The large arch beneath the clock gave access to Hansom carriages clip-clopping up the cobbled ramp from the main gate in Euston Road, directly onto the platform, to meet well-to-do passengers.

2023 August 23, Nigel Harris, “Comment: End damaging drift at Euston”, in RAIL, number 990, page 3:


interstellar extinction

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


drum cadence

(music) A work played exclusively by the percussion section of a modern marching band, descended from early military marches, primarily as a purposefully emphasized means of providing a beat to marchers.


pneuma

From Ancient Greek πνεῦμα (pneûma, “wind, breath, spirit”), from πνέω (pnéō, “I blow, breathe”). Doublet of neume.

bor

With swaying arms they wail in pneuma over the recreant Bloom.


kombu

[T]he productions of Jeso, in particular, are as follows: konbu, or sea-cabbage, birds of prey for hawking, whales and other sea-fish, skins of otters, beavers, seals, and stags, castoreum, gold, silver, adamantine spar.

1855, Richard Hildreth, “[Appendix.] Note H. Account of Japan, Chiefly Extracted from Japanese Works. […]”, in Japan as It Was and Is, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson and Company; New York, N.Y.: J[ames] C[ephas] Derby, →OCLC, page 567:

The chief occupation along the shore is gathering the seaweed called kombu (something like our kelp, or quite the same), which is sent in such large quantities to China; and a certain amount of fishing is also done. The kombu grows upon submarine rocks, but for drying it a wide, flat space is needed, and the houses, therefore, are placed along the sandy beaches; and almost every beach however small is occupied.

1874 December 31, Benj[amin] Smith Lyman, “[Letter to General Horace Capron, Commissioner and Adviser to the Kaitakushi]”, in Horace Capron et al., Reports and Letters to the Kaitakushi, […], Tokyo: Published by the Kaitakushi [Hokkaidō Development Commission], published 1875, →OCLC, page 424:

A kombu or kombu-shiitake stock is also quick and mineral rich and makes a fragrant base for broth or miso soup. Wipe a six-inch piece of kombu seaweed with a damp cloth to remove dust and excess salt. Place the kombu in a pot with four to six cups of water. Bring to a light boil and simmer for five minutes. Steep for five minutes. Remove seaweed and use stock. The kombu can be cut and used again in soups or other dishes.

1987 January–February, Margaret Lee Braun, “Warming Up with Winter Soups”, in Stephan Bodian, editor, Yoga Journal, number 72, Berkeley, Calif.: California Yoga Teachers Association, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 80, column 1:

The Japanese tangles are called konbu and represent important genera of seaweeds which have been used as food since ancient times. […] Konbu is harvested mainly in the various coastal areas of Hokkaido during the period from the last ten days of May to the end of September. Konbu is mostly dried in the sun soon after harvest, but sometime^([sic]) in a hot-air drier depending on weather.

1987, Kazutosi Nisizawa, Hiroyuki Noda, Ryo Kikuchi, Tadaharu Watanabe, “The Main Seaweed Foods in Japan”, in Mark A. Ragan, Carolyn J. Bird, editors, Twelfth International Seaweed Symposium: Proceedings of the Twelfth International Seaweed Symposium Held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, July 27 – August 1, 1986 […] (Developments in Hydrobiology; 41), Dordrecht, Boston, Mass.: Dr. W. Junk Publishers, →DOI, →ISBN, section 4 (Laminaria (konbu) and Hizikia (hiziki)), page 12:

When it comes to kaiseki, there can be no avoiding a discussion on the subject of dashi, the simple stock based on dried bonito flakes. Almost every dish is built on a foundation of dashi. Although there are many variations, its fundamental ingredients are kombu kelp, dried bonito flakes and water. Kombu contains amino acids such as glutamic acid and aspartic acid and dried bonito flakes contain inosinic acid. In combination these flavor-enhancing acids act to amplify the umami flavor in any dish.

2006, Yoshihiro Murata, Kaiseki: The Exquisite Cuisine of Kyoto’s Kikunoi Restaurant, Tokyo: Kodansha International, →ISBN, page 161:

It [monosodium glutamate] was discovered in 1908 by a Japanese scientist, Kikunae Ikeda, who was trying to pinpoint the source of the intense deliciousness of broth made from kombu seaweed.

2007 February 18, Fuchsia Dunlop, “China’s true dash of flavor”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-04-18:

Edible kelp (“a type of brown seaweed”) (from the class Phaeophyceae) used in East Asian cuisine.


homophonic

(music) Having a single, accompanied, melodic line; not polyphonic.

homofon

music: having a single, accompanied, melodic line


antinoise

en-noun

antinoise (usually uncountable, plural antinoises)

A sound wave, of the same amplitude but of opposite phase to that of an unwanted sound, that can neutralize the unwanted sound using destructive interference.


hepcat

From hep + cat, from hep (“sophisticated, aware”). Compare cat (“jazz enthusiast”). Attested in the sense of “sophisticated person” from the 1920s.

(informal, music) A jazz performer, especially one from the 1940s and 1950s.

Everybody is asking, Why is Harry such a solid sender? Well, hear my version. As you are seated or are trying to stay seated you feel that sensation that hits every hep-cat. First your feet get the sensation, then it runs up your leg and you start to keep time to the music with your feet and you feel like getting up and jiving to that fine music that comes out of the magic trumpet of Harry James.

1943 May 9, Orlando Suero, “Jive, as a Hep-Cat Hears it”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Leaders of the eight or nine name dance bands, who can throw a cordon of jitterbugging youths around any big city's theatre on a half hour's notice, are not complaining aloud these days, but privately they admit that “government competition” is having a lot to do with their ability to get it hot or sweet to suit the mood of the hepcats.

1943 June 20, John Desmond, “Making Catnip for the Hepcats”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(informal, dated, now often humorous) A person associated with the jazz subculture of the 1940s and 1950s.


drummer

From drum + -er (occupational suffix) or + -er (relational noun suffix).

march to the beat of a different drummer


chrysoine resorcinol

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


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.


quinoline yellow

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


fustic

fustic (usually uncountable, plural fustics)

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.


vocalize

en-verb

vocalize (third-person singular simple present vocalizes, present participle vocalizing, simple past and past participle vocalized)

vocalizes (present singular third-person)
vocalizing (participle present)
vocalized (participle past)
vocalized (past)


wah

onom

Imitative


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.


rutilant

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. #x5C;#x7B; 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


shamisen

(music) A kind of three-stringed Japanese fretless lute.

jabisen

used mainly in reference to archaic forms of the instrument from the Ryukyu Islands


isotope shift

(nuclear physics) a small difference in the transition energies of isotopes that corresponds to a given spectral line transition


syncope

en-noun

syncope (countable and uncountable, plural syncopes)

Learned borrowing from Late Latin syncopē, from Ancient Greek συγκοπή (sunkopḗ), from συγκόπτω (sunkóptō, “cut up”) + -η (-ē, nominalization suffix), from σύν (sún, “beside, with”) + κόπτω (kóptō, “strike, cut off”).

lbor

She was a volatile creature, full of mischievous surprise: at their first music practice, after playing over some hymns on the pipe-organ, she burst into jazz, filling the quiet grove with the clamorous syncope of Paddy-Paws, a favourite song that summer.

1922, Christopher Morley, Where the Blue Begins:

(music) A missed beat or off-beat stress in music resulting in syncopation.


café au lait

en-noun

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

café au laits (plural)
cafés au lait (plural)

/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:


loudspeaker

desc

гучнагавары́цель

→ Belarusian: гучнагавары́цель (hučnahavarýcjelʹ) (calque)

високоговори́тел

→ Bulgarian: високоговори́тел (visokogovorítel) (calque)

→ Danish: højtaler, højttaler (calque)

→ Dutch: luidspreker (calque)

→ Estonian: valjuhääldi (calque)

→ French: haut-parleur (calque)

→ German: Lautsprecher (calque)

→ Icelandic: hátalari (calque)

→ Italian: altoparlante (calque)

→ Latvian: skaļrunis (calque)

→ Lithuanian: garsiakalbis (calque)

→ Marathi: लाउडस्पीकर (lāuḍaspīkar)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: høyttaler (calque)

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: høgtalar (calque)

громкоговори́тель

→ Russian: громкоговори́тель (gromkogovorítelʹ) (calque)

гучномо́вець

→ Ukrainian: гучномо́вець (hučnomóvecʹ) (calque)

→ Yiddish: הויכרעדער (hoykhreder) (calque)

Any such transducer that is loud, as opposed to quiet ones such as those found in headphones.


strathspey

After Strathspey, valley of the river Spey.

A Scottish dance with gliding steps, slower than a reel.


re-entry

en-noun

re-entry (countable and uncountable, plural re-entries)

(music, of a ukulele) A break in the pitch order of strings.


radiocarbon

A radioactive isotope of carbon, especially ¹⁴₆C


pallet

(music) In the organ, a valve between the wind chest and the mouth of a pipe or row of pipes.


radiocarbon dating

radiocarbon dating (usually uncountable, plural radiocarbon datings)

(physics, archaeology, paleontology) A method of estimating the age of an artifact or biological vestige based on the relative amounts of the different isotopes of carbon present in a sample.


orcein

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


azorubine

azorubine (countable and uncountable, plural azorubines)

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


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.


orchil

en-noun

orchil (countable and uncountable, plural orchils)

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.


chillout

chillout (countable and uncountable, plural chillouts)


backburn

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


riff

Uncertain. Perhaps a clipping of riffle, or an alteration of refrain.

Listen to one of the greatest guitar riffs of all time!

Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child has been named the greatest guitar riff of all time, 41 years after it was recorded, in a poll by website Music Radar.

2009 November 27, “Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child has 'best guitar riff'”, in BBC:

A repeated instrumental melody line in a song.


Solar System

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


pregnant pause

A pause that gives the impression that it will be followed by something significant.


electronic organ

electronic organ (plural electronic organs)

(music) A keyboard musical instrument, resembling a spinet, or upright, piano in size and general shape, in which tone is generated by electronic circuits and radiated by loudspeaker.


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.


calorific value

calorific value (plural calorific values)

The engine was fired with Welsh (Bedwas) coal having a calorific value of 13,800 B.T.U. per lb. as received, and 13,970 B.T.U. per lb. in the dry condition.

1960 March, “Testing a rebuilt "Merchant Navy" Pacific of the S.R.”, in Trains Illustrated, page 168:

The amount of energy produced by the complete combustion of a material or fuel. Measured in units of energy per amount of material, e.g. kJ/kg.

lämpöarvo

amount of heat produced by the complete combustion of a material or fuel


sniffle

From sniff + -le (frequentative suffix).

I sometimes have a sniffle during allergy season.

The act, or the sound of sniffling; the condition of having a runny or wet nose, as from a cold or allergies.


complementary colour

complementary colour (plural complementary colours)

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


quarter note

(Canada, US, music) A musical note one beat long in 4/4 time.


bandstand

Brian Cox as Logan Roy (2019), 31:28 from the start, in Succession, season 2, episode 8: “I saw a mistle thrush at the bandstand.”

A small, open-air platform or enclosure for bands to play on, usually roofed.


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.


chorister

/ˈkwɪɹɪstəɹ/

/ˈkwɒɹɪstəɹ/

/ˈkwæɹɪstəɹ/

Derived from late Middle English queristre, from an Anglo-Norman variant of Old French cueriste, from cuer (see Middle French cuer). Equivalent to choir + -ster.

None of the new choristers can sing in tune but they will learn soon enough.

These be my querysters
To helpe me to synge,
My hawkes to mattens rynge!

c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 65, lines 122–124:

Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

And a Salisbury Cathedral chorister complained that after working late into Christmas Day, an absence of trains meant he and his brother would not be able to get home for "our proper Christmas" until the 27th.

2023 December 27, David Turner, “Silent lines...”, in RAIL, number 999, page 30:


kerogen

any organic matter present in a sedimentary rock that is insoluble in organic solvents; the precursor of oil and natural gas


yellow-green

en-adj

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

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

yellow-green:

web yellow-green:


musette

2011 Tour de France
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Thor Hushovd

From both of the following:
* Late Middle English musette (“type of bagpipe”), from Middle French musette, Old French musette (“type of bagpipe”) (modern French musette), from muse (“bagpipe”) + -ette (diminutive suffix). Muse is derived from muser (“to play the bagpipe; (figuratively) to flatter”), perhaps from musel (“muzzle (protruding part of an animal’s head)”) (alluding to a bagpipe player puffing out the cheeks), from Late Latin mūsus (“muzzle”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps expressive of protruding lips and/or influenced by Latin mūgiō (“to bellow, low, moo”), from Proto-Indo-European *mug-, *mūg- (onomatopoeia of the lowing of cattle).
* Borrowed from French musette in the 18th century.
Sense 2 (“small bag or knapsack with a shoulder strap”) is due to the resemblance of the original knapsack to the bag of bagpipes.

ref

From the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York, U.S.A.

musette

any of various small bagpipes having a soft sound, especially with a bellows

(historical) Any of various small bagpipes having a soft sound, especially with a bellows, which were popular in France in the 17th and early 18th century.

(by extension) A pastoral air or tune that has a drone imitating such an instrument; also, a dance performed to this music.

musette

pastoral air or tune that has a drone imitating this instrument; dance performed to this music

(historical) An organ stop using reed pipes with cone-shaped resonators, found in organs in France in the 17th and 18th centuries.

musetti

A small oboe without a cap for its reed, which evolved from the chanter or pipe of bagpipes; a piccolo oboe.


fretted

The dulcimer and sitar are fretted instruments.

(music, of a musical instrument) Having frets.


patter

1610s, pat + -er (“frequentative (indicating repeated action)”), of (onomatopoeia) origin.

suffix

I could hear the patter of mice running about in the dark.

The patter of feet, and clatter of strap and swivel, seemed to swell into a bewildering din, but they were almost upon the fielato offices, where the carretera entered the town, before a rifle flashed.

1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:

A soft repeated sound, as of rain falling, or feet walking on a hard surface.


patter

en-verb

patter (third-person singular simple present patters, present participle pattering, simple past and past participle pattered)

patters (present singular third-person)
pattering (participle present)
pattered (participle past)
pattered (past)

The bullets pattered into the log-cabin walls.

The stealing shower […] 'Tis scarce to patter heard.

a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Spring”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC:

To make irregularly repeated sounds of low-to-moderate magnitude and lower-than-average pitch.


patter

en-noun

patter (countable and uncountable, plural patters)

Noun is from Middle English pater, verb is from Middle English pateren.
Noun attested 1758, originally referring to the cant of thieves and beggers.

This particularly rapid, unintelligible patter isn't generally heard, and if it is it doesn't matter.

1887, Gilbert and Sullivan (lyrics and music), “My Eyes Are Fully Open”, in Ruddigore:

Dad, I want to be a jock. All a jock needs is some hep patter and a real gone image. Now, they just don't teach that jazz in college.

1975, Garry Marshall et al., “Richie's Flip Side”, in Happy Days, season 2, episode 21, spoken by Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard):

As a young man he [Beppe Grillo] performed with a guitar in local bars, but fans preferred his pre-show patter, and he evolved into a successful stand-up comedian.

2017, Jamie Bartlett, chapter 5, in Radicals, William Heinemann, →ISBN:

Glib and rapid speech, such as from an auctioneer or a sports commentator.


patter

(intransitive, obsolete) To repeat the Lord's Prayer.


feedback

en-verb

feedback (third-person singular simple present feedbacks, present participle feedbacking, simple past and past participle feedbacked)

feedbacks (present singular third-person)
feedbacking (participle present)
feedbacked (participle past)
feedbacked (past)

The show ended with a riot of feedbacking guitars.

(music) To generate the high-frequency sound by allowing a speaker to cause vibration of the sound generator of a musical instrument connected by an amplifier to the speaker.


diatonic

From French diatonique or Late Latin diatonicus, ultimately from Ancient Greek διατονικός (diatonikós), in the phrase [γένος (génos, “type, genus”)] διατονικός (diatonikós) (in reference to the diatonic tetrachord, and in contrast to the chromatic and enharmonic tetrachords), from διάτονος (diátonos) (διά (diá) + τόνος (tónos)), of disputed etymology, as both components are ambiguous.
Most plausibly, διάτονος (diátonos) refers to “stretched intervals”, as the intervals of the diatonic tetrachord are the most evenly distributed or “stretched out”, compared to the chromatic and enharmonic tetrads, which use smaller, more crowded together intervals. Compare pyknon, from πυκνός (puknós, “dense, compressed”), referring to the lower part of the non-diatonic tetrachords: the diatonic tetrachord has widely spaced notes (“stretched out”), while the other tetrachords have a closely spaced notes (“compressed”).

(music) Relating to or characteristic of a musical scale which contains seven pitches and a pattern of five whole tones and two semitones; particularly, of the major or natural minor scales.


number one

(music) The single that has sold the most in a given period.


bassist

A musician who plays a bass instrument, especially the bass guitar.


ragtime

en-noun

ragtime (countable and uncountable, plural ragtimes)

Likely from ragged + time, in reference to its heavy use of syncopation, or from rag, an American dialect term for a dance ball.

(music, uncountable) A musical form having a rhythm characterized by strong syncopation in the melody with a regularly accented accompaniment.

(music, countable) A piece of music in this style.


juju

juju (countable and uncountable, plural jujus)

From a West African language, probably originally from French joujou.

/ˈd͡ʒuːd͡ʒu/

Pendants round the neck, bangles round the wrists or ankles, potatoes or nutmegs in the pocket are as old or older than civilisation, carrying the same prophylactic magic as any juju in an African witchdoctor's armamentarium.

1976 March 27, F. Dudley Hart, “History of the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis”, in British Medical Journal, volume 1, number 6012, →DOI, →JSTOR, page 763:

(countable) A fetish or charm believed by West Africans to have magical or supernatural powers.


woad

woad (usually uncountable, plural woads)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


electronica

By mid-decade, electronica began to chart, in the music of acts such as Bjork, Chemical Brothers, and Moby, and the resources of electronica were integrated into other non-pop styles, such as the industrial music of Trent Reznor […]

2012, Michael Campbell, Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On:

New Age music […] like all musics, has its margins, and these are blurred with ambient, techno, and other electronica.

2014, Timothy D. Taylor, Strange Sounds: Music, Technology and Culture:

(music) Any of a wide range of electronic music genres.

電子樂

any of a wide range of electronic music genres

(Internet) The data trail of an individual on the public internet.


turntable

Inside a belt-driven turntable is a small motor with a rubber band linking it to the underside of the deckplatter (the part you put the record on). […] Direct-driven turntables are a better option than belt-driven ones. […] [I]n direct-driven turntables the centre spindle is the motor (so it drives the motor directly).

2006, John Steventon, “Getting Decked Out with Turntables”, in DJing for Dummies (For Dummies), Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, part II (Navigating the Maze: Equipment Essentials), page 66:

He played two copies of the same record, one on each turntable, at the same time. He cut back and forth between the two records by lifting the turntables’ needles and dropping them back on the vinyl. This allowed him to replay the same part of the record over and over again, which lengthened the break from several seconds to several minutes.

2015, Marylou Morano Kjelle, chapter 1, in Trends in Hip-hop Dance (Dance & Fitness Trends), Hockessin, Del.: Mitchell Lane Publishers, →ISBN, page 8:

(music) The circular rotating platform of a record player or a disk jockey's console on which the record rests during play; (by extension), a record player.


turntable

en-verb

turntable (third-person singular simple present turntables, present participle turntabling, simple past and past participle turntabled)

turntables (present singular third-person)
turntabling (participle present)
turntabled (participle past)
turntabled (past)

Traditional carols we all know. Holiday Baroque, Renaissance and medieval music is not, and therefore makes a distinctive gift for the discriminating recordphile and is certain to be turntabled other times of the year, too: […]

1982, “Holiday Music”, in Westways, volume 74, Los Angeles, Calif.: Automobile Club of Southern California, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 66, column 3:

Rik Shaw of Deadly Dragon Soundsystem continues his weekly residency by turntabling the rudest Jamaican dance records ever pressed.

2006, Spin, volume 22, New York, N.Y.: Spin Magazine, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 101, column 2:

(transitive, music) To play (a record) using a turntable.

We particularly like hovering next to DJ Sid Wilson and seeing how he spends the large chunks of time where he's not turntabling.

2017 May 6, Zach Dionne, “Slipknot Classic ‘The Shape’ Gets a 360 Virtual Reality Live Video”, in Fuse, archived from the original on 2017-10-06:

(intransitive, music) To manipulate sound using turntables; to perform turntablism; to scratch


keep one's lips sealed

keep one's lips sealed (third-person singular simple present keeps one's lips sealed, present participle keeping one's lips sealed, simple past and past participle kept one's lips sealed)

keeps one's lips sealed (present singular third-person)
keeping one's lips sealed (participle present)
kept one's lips sealed (participle past)
kept one's lips sealed (past)

You can certainly trust me to keep my lips sealed about the matter.

(idiomatic) To keep quiet; to keep a secret; to not tell.


one's lips are sealed

You're talking a lot / But you're not saying anything / When I have nothing to say / My lips are sealed

1977, Talking Heads (lyrics and music), “Psycho Killer”, in Talking Heads: 77:

(idiomatic) One will not tell anyone else; one is keeping a secret.


philharmonic

(music) Appreciative of music, but especially to its performance; devoted to music.

filharmònic

appreciative of the performance of music


predominant

From Middle French prédominant, equivalent to pre- + dominant.


motor oil

en-noun

motor oil (countable and uncountable, plural motor oils)

internal-combustion engine
internal-combustion engine

Oil for lubricating an internal-combustion engine.

機油

oil to lubricate an internal-combustion engine


glitter rock

Glitter rock isn't associated with a specific musical style as much as a period of time, roughly between 1972 and 1975 when it reached a glorious apex in the cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show (featuring the debut of Meat Loaf).

1992, Ted Greenwald, Rock and Roll, Mallard Press, →ISBN:

(music) Glam rock, a music style popular in the early 1970s.


glam rock

Although David Bowie is perhaps glam rock’s best-known star today, it was his friend, Marc Bolan – they met in their late teens in Soho – who sparked the movement.

2020 June 22, Joobin Bekhrad, “Glitter and curls: Marc Bolan and the birth of glam rock style”, in The Guardian:

(music) A style of English rock music from the early 1970s, distinguished by the glamorous, glittery costumes of its performers and its bouncy beat and lyrics.


glam rocker

Lady Gaga has announced two UK dates – when she will be supported by glam rockers the Darkness – as part of her world tour.

2012 April 10, “Lady Gaga announces two UK dates as part of Born This Way Ball tour”, in the Guardian:


Magnificat

Borrowed from Latin magnificat, the first word of the Latin version of the canticle.

(Christianity, music) The liturgical canticle of the Virgin Mary, sung in Christian churches; taken from her reported words upon the occasion of her Visitation to her cousin Elizabeth.


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.


tacet

Borrowed from Latin tacet (“it is silent”), third-person singular present active indicative form of taceō (“I am silent”).

(music) An instruction indicating silence on the part of the performers of a piece.


scrunch

en-verb

scrunch (third-person singular simple present scrunches, present participle scrunching, simple past and past participle scrunched)

scrunches (present singular third-person)
scrunching (participle present)
scrunched (participle past)
scrunched (past)

Attested since about 1800. Probably an intensive form of crunch; ultimately derived from the onomatopoeia of a crumpling sound; or perhaps a blend of squeeze + crunch.

He scrunched the paper into a ball and threw it at the whistling girl.

[…] and the scrunching of ashes under our feet I have often observed to be disagreeable to many.

1793–1799, Robert Townson, Tracts and Observations in Natural History and Physiology, page 154:

Then I put them under my heel, and scrunched them up, every one.

1800, Walter Besant, James Rice, With Harp and Crown, page 828:

(transitive) To crumple and squeeze to make more compact.

He scrunched his face at his wife's request.

(with object "one's face") To contract the muscles of one's face so as to draw their facial features together, out of pain, discomfort, uncertainty, etc.


national anthem

en-noun

national anthem (plural national anthems)

With such focus from within the footballing community this week on Remembrance Sunday, there was something appropriate about Colchester being the venue for last night’s game. Troops from the garrison town formed a guard of honour for both sets of players, who emerged for the national anthem with poppies proudly stitched into their tracksuit jackets.

2011 November 10, Jeremy Wilson, “tEngland Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report”, in Telegraph:

The official song of a nation or sovereign state, generally of a patriotic nature and played at events to celebrate or honor said state.


glam

Blokes sporting make-up and vertiginous platform boots, songs that were precision-tooled melodramas of bubblegum pop and football-terrace stomp, a belief in pop itself as a liberating space for fantasy and shape-shifting: it’s perhaps unsurprising that glam, in whose rise Bowie played a huge part, has never been taken very seriously.

2016 October 7, Sukhdev Sandhu, “Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its Legacy by Simon Reynolds”, in The Guardian:

(music, fashion) Ellipsis of glam rock.; the fashion and culture associated with this genre.


go-go

1964, US, partly from Whisky a Go Go, an influential American nightclub (in turn from French à gogo (“abundant”)), partly by reduplication of go, from 1962 slang the go (“the rage, fashionable”), from sense the go (“in motion”) as in on the go.
Compare to French yéyé (yeah-yeah), of contemporary coinage.

(music) A style of funk music from the 1970s.


kyrie

/ˈkɪəɹ.ɪˌeɪ/

From Ecclesiastical Latin Kyrie, contraction of the Ancient Greek phrase Κύριε ἐλέησον (Kúrie eléēson, “Lord, have mercy”), from Ancient Greek Κύριε (Kúrie), vocative form of Κύριος (Kúrios, “Lord”), from κῦρος (kûros, “supremacy, authority”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱēw-, *ḱewh₁- (“to swell, spread out, be strong, prevail”).

(music) A setting of the traditional kyrie text to music for a Mass.


radiosterilization

(medicine) The sterilization (either of an organism, or a surgical implement) by ionizing radiation such as X-rays or gamma rays.


middle of the road

Damon Albarn has disappointed fans expecting the third Adele album to take a drill’n’bass direction by saying that the tracks he has heard are “very middle of the road”.

2015 September 10, Damon Albarn, quotee, “Damon Albarn suggests new Adele album is ‘very middle of the road’”, in The Guardian:

(music, sometimes derogatory) Of a type of melodic popular music that has wide appeal.


sludge

sludge (countable and uncountable, plural sludges)

→ Italian: sludge

(uncountable, music) Ellipsis of sludge metal.


(physics) The radioactive isotope of strontium, ⁹⁰₃₈Sr, that is present in the fallout from nuclear explosions and, being chemically similar to calcium, accumulates in the bones

стронций-90

стронций-девяносто


incinerate

en-verb

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

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

/ɪnˈsɪnəɹət/

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

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

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


strobe

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

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

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


lutenist

From Medieval Latin lutanista, from lutana (“lute”), from Middle French lut.


goth

Goth subculture
The Doors
gothic architecture
gothic art
gothic fiction

From gothic rock, first used by John Stickney in reference to The Doors in 1967 and used by the late 1970s to describe the musical scene that gave rise to the goth subculture, both from a supposed aesthetic similarity to dark and moody 19th century gothic fiction and earlier gothic art and architecture, from Late Latin gothicus (“Gothic, barbaric”), from Ancient Greek Γοτθικός (Gotthikós), from Ancient Greek Γότθοι (Gótthoi, “Goths”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”), proposed to derive from unattested Gothic *𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌰 (*guta).

der

(uncountable, music) A style of punk rock influenced by glam rock; gothic rock.


electroluminescence

en-noun

electroluminescence (usually uncountable, plural electroluminescences)

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

elektroluminestsents

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


light-emitting diode

light-emitting diode (plural light-emitting diodes)

electromagnetic radiation
electromagnetic radiation

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


lambency

lambency (countable and uncountable, plural lambencies)

The property of being lambent, brightness.


plink

A short, high-pitched metallic or percussive sound.


plink

en-verb

plink (third-person singular simple present plinks, present participle plinking, simple past and past participle plinked)

plinks (present singular third-person)
plinking (participle present)
plinked (participle past)
plinked (past)

He can plink out Let Me Call You Sweetheart for reporters on a piano or rib himself on television talk shows […]

1971, Louis C. Reichman, Barry J. Wishart, American Politics and Its Interpreters:

Your child may also begin to plink out a few notes on a xylophone or toy piano before her first birthday.

1997, Kevin Osborn, Signe Larson, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Bringing Up Baby:

The female deputy sat down at the ramshackle piano and proceeded to plink out the opening notes of "Heart and Soul."

2004, Angela Elwell Hunt, The Truth Teller:

percussion instrument
percussion instrument

(with "out") (colloquial) To play a song or a portion of a song, usually on a percussion instrument such as a piano.

We plinked all week long in the slow-moving days between hunting seasons. Life Savers or Necco Wafers at 25 yards offhand, or 50 yards prone, and vanilla wafers offhand at 50 yards or prone at 100, were challenging targets.

1992, Ken Warner, Gun Digest, 1993, page 19:

(firearms) To take part in the sport of plinking.


lamplight

en-noun

lamplight (countable and uncountable, plural lamplights)

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

We sat around reading by lamplight all night.

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

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

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

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


relaxation

relaxation (countable and uncountable, plural relaxations)

/ˌɹɪlækˈseɪʃən/

Borrowed from Latin relaxatio, relaxationis; equivalent to relax + -ation.

(music) The release following musical tension.


indie

indie (countable and uncountable, plural indies)

From independent, by shortening, + -ie. Used of popular music since the 1980s, and of cinema for some decades before that.

(uncountable, music) A type of rock music, generally soft-style without screaming or aggression, mixed with synthesized music and electronic.


rhodamine

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


absolute pitch

absolute pitch (plural absolute pitches)

(music, countable or uncountable) The exact pitch of a note as established by its rate of vibration based on a standard scale.

absolute toonhoogte

pitch established by its rate of vibration

(music, uncountable) Perfect pitch; the ability to identify or produce any tone without need of an external reference.


streetlight

streetlight (countable and uncountable, plural streetlights)

At night the streetlights of Paris are beautiful to see.

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

مِصْبَاح الشَّارِع

miṣbāḥ aš-šāriʕ


fackeltanz

Borrowed from German Fackeltanz (“torch dance”).

afterwards he drove her and her cousins (two guardsmen disguised as flowergirls) in his divine new convertible through the streets to see the tremendous birthday illumination, and the fackeltanz in the park, and the fireworks, and the pale upturned faces.

(music) a kind of polonaise, associated with German royal wedding celebrations


combustible

en-adj

combustible (comparative more combustible, superlative most combustible)

more combustible (comparative)
most combustible (superlative)

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

Arnold, however, was a combustible character.

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

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

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

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


attune

en-verb

attune (third-person singular simple present attunes, present participle attuning, simple past and past participle attuned)

attunes (present singular third-person)
attuning (participle present)
attuned (participle past)
attuned (past)

(music, transitive) To bring into musical accord.

(music, transitive) To tune (an instrument).


mixtape

I wasn't performing with Pimp and Smoove that much no more, but I had a solo deal with Ruthless Rap and a brand new mixtape that was creating a big buzz.

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 103:

(music) A compilation of songs on a tape, usually encompassing many different artists and assembled by fans, without legal permission.


viol

Borrowed from Middle French viole, from Old French viol, from Old Occitan viola (modern Occitan viula), from Medieval Latin vitula (“stringed instrument”). Doublet of viola.

der

He sayd that yᵉ ground opened, and he was brought into strange places underground, where they used musicall Instruments, violls, and Lutes, such (he sayd) as Mr. Thomas did play on.

1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 30:

(music) A stringed instrument related to the violin family, but held in the lap between the legs like a cello, usually with C-holes, a flat back, a fretted neck and six strings, played with an underhanded bow hold


swinger

And now that swing appears on a certain playground in the dusk, still swinging without the swinger, who has disappeared[…]

2009, Peter Handke, Krishna Winston, Crossing the Sierra de Gredos, page 438:

A performer of swing music or whose style is influenced by swing.

Shorten went to Blacktown to try and summon the spirit of Gough Whitlam to persuade the swingers it was time for a change of government. Shorten said vote one Labor, for the future.

2019 May 16, Katharine Murphy, “Campaign catchup 2019: close race sparks pre-election jitters”, in The Guardian:


swinger

/ˈswɪnd͡ʒəɹ/


shawm

From Middle English shalmuse, from Old French chalemel (modern French chalumeau), from Late Latin calamellus, from Latin calamus (“reed”), from Ancient Greek κάλαμος (kálamos). Doublet of caramel and chalumeau, as well as related to calame, calamus, culm, and haulm.

There are four flutes, a harp of twenty strings, a mournful shawm, and a number of drums of oxhide, some to be struck, others spanked.

1985, Anthony Burgess, The Kingdom of the Wicked:

A mediaeval double-reed wind instrument with a conical wooden body.


chemical energy

en-noun

chemical energy (countable and uncountable, plural chemical energies)

(physical chemistry) The net potential energy liberated or absorbed during the course of a chemical reaction


korng tauch

A small gong circle from Cambodia, closely resembling its larger relative, the korng thomm.


sistrum

Borrowed from Latin sīstrum, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek σεῖστρον (seîstron), from σείω (seíō, “shake”).

She moved with slow undulations of her body as lascivious as the curve of Hathfertiti’s hair, and the sistrum with its singing wires was played by a dwarf wearing nothing but a gold purse and a few bracelets on his stunted biceps.

An ancient Egyptian musical instrument, to be shaken, consisting of a metal frame holding percussive metal beads.


parang

parang (countable and uncountable, plural parangs)

Spanish parranda (“merry-making or a group of serenaders”).

uder

A style of music originating from Trinidad and Tobago, strongly influenced by Venezuelan music.


smoky

en-adj

smoky (comparative smokier, superlative smokiest)

smokier (comparative)
smokiest (superlative)

From Middle English smoky, smokie, equivalent to smoke + -y.

a few smoky jazz notes

1962, Philip Larkin, “Billie’s Golden Years,” The Daily Telegraph, 17 October, 1962, republished in All What Jazz: A Record Diary, 1961—1971, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1985, p. 73,
[…] the sombre and magnificent Davis fronts both his Quartet and Gil Evans’s orchestra, pouring out a succession of smoky and sonorous solos […]

The organ took on a dark, smoky sonority at evening service, and there was no doubt that the organ was adapting its normal sounds to accompany God’s own sepulchral responses […] to those prayers that were offered to him.

1981, Wole Soyinka, chapter 1, in Aké: The Years of Childhood, New York: Vintage, published 1983, page 1:

[…] there emerged from the car a pair of the sort of legs which soundtrack editors are unable to see without needing to slap a smoky saxophone solo all over […]

1988, Douglas Adams, chapter 11, in The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, London: Pan Books, published 1989, pages 90–91:

Then, just as the music, slow and smoky, loads up the air, his smile bright as ever, he wrinkles his nose and turns away.

1992, Toni Morrison, Jazz, New York: Plume, published 1993, page 67:

(music) Having a dark, thick, bass sound.


strap-on

→ Greek: στραπόν (strapón)

→ Russian: страпо́н (strapón)

→ Swedish: strap-on

→ Turkish: strapon

→ Ukrainian: страпо́н (strapón)

If you want a portable keyboard, a strap-on could be the answer. Strap-ons have been around since Billy Preston and Edgar Winter used to sling Univox electric pianos around their necks in the pre-MIDI days of the early ’70s.

1988, Helen Casabona, David Frederick, “Alternate Controllers”, in Brent Hurtig, editor, Advanced MIDI Applications: Computers, Time Codes, and Beyond (Keyboard Magazine Library for Electronic Musicians), Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Publishing, →ISBN, pages 34–35:

(informal, music) Synonym of keytar (“keyboard supported by a strap around the neck and shoulders”).


jubilee

en-noun

jubilee (countable and uncountable, plural jubilees)

/ˌd͡ʒuːbɪˈliː/

senses 3.3 and 3.4 when spelled jubile, obsolete

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

From Late Middle English jubile (“Jewish practice of celebrating the end of a fifty-year period; (Roman Catholicism) year declared by the Pope for remission of sins; celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of an event; (figuratively) occasion of rejoicing”) [and other forms], from Middle French jubile, from Old French jubilee, jubileus (modern French jubilé), from Late Latin iūbilaeus (adjective, also treated as a noun), from Ancient Greek ἰωβηλαῖος (iōbēlaîos, “of a jubilee”), from ἰώβηλος (iṓbēlos, “jubilee”) + -ῐος (-ios, suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Ἰώβηλος (Iṓbēlos) is derived from Hebrew יובל (yōḇēl, “ram, trumpet made from a ram’s horn; jubilee”) (because a ram’s horn trumpet was originally used to proclaim the event; see Leviticus 25:9), influenced by Latin iūbilum (“a cry, a shout”) and iūbilō (“to cheer, shout or sing joyfully”). Cognate with Italian giubileo, Spanish jubileo.

der

(countable, African-American Vernacular, music, often attributively) A joyful African-American (usually Christian) folk song.


battle axe

Another battle-ax, in the same collection.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page x:

An ancient military weapon, an axe designed for combat, including (in heraldry) when borne on arms as a mark of prowess.

(Australia, usually spelt "battleaxe") An allotment of land at the rear of another property, with a long, narrow strip of land connecting it to the roadway.


tessitura

en-noun

tessitura (countable and uncountable, plural tessituras or tessiture)

/tɛsɪˈtʊəɹə/

Borrowed from Italian tessitura. Doublet of texture.

Coordinate term: compass

Byrne shrugged. He started writing a bravura / Opera based on Cleopatra’s death, / Exploiting all Maria’s tessitura, / With a high F before her final breath.

Anne's talented voice made the lines I had written swoop, howl, and whine through an authentically Thatcherite tessitura [...].

2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 257:

In classical voice training, and in the world of classical singing, voices are divided into categories dependent on timbre or tonal colour and tessitura or comfortable average pitch range.

2014, Jane Streeton, Philip Raymond, Singing on Stage, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 146:

(music) The most acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a singer or musical instrument; the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding timbre.

äänialan sisäinen mukavuusalue

most comfortable vocal range for a given singer


diminution

diminution (countable and uncountable, plural diminutions)

From Middle English diminucioun, from Anglo-Norman diminuciun, Old French diminucion, from Latin dīminūtiō.

(music) a compositional technique where the composer shortens the melody by shortening its note values.


soca

soca (usually uncountable, plural socas)

He even turned up a few times after that—with mix-tapes of soca music, and handwritten notes, and tears.

2012, Zadie Smith, NW, London: Penguin Books, published 2013, →ISBN, page 151:

—Carnival? With soca music?

2014, Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings, Oneworld Publications (2015), page 684:

(music) A genre of music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 1970s and developed into a range of styles during the 1980s and after which primarily includes influences of African and Indian rhythms.

ソカ

a style of popular dance music from the West Indies


dur

From German Dur, from Latin dūrus (“hard, firm, vigorous”).

C dur

(music, obsolete) Major; in the major mode.


mousehole

From Middle English mosse hole, mowse hole; equivalent to mouse + hole.

(oil industry, drilling) The storage area on a drilling rig where the next joint of drilling pipe is held until needed.

oil industry; drilling; oil industry; drilling


syrinx

/sɪˈɹɪnd͡ʒiːz/

Learned borrowing from Latin sȳrinx (“reed; reed pipe, panpipes”), from Ancient Greek σῦριγξ (sûrinx, “panpipes; pipe-shaped object”), from Pre-Greek. Doublet of syringe.
The plural form syringes is a learned borrowing from Latin sȳringes.

der

[T]he Syrinx might give occaſion to the bagpipe, by leading the vvay to its invention; for it vvas certainly very natural, both for eaſe in playing, and for the ſaving of breath, and even for the health and ſafety of the performer's lungs, to contrive a method of conveying vvind to the ſeveral pipes by means of bellovvs.

1754 March 25 (date written), Paul Gemsage, “[Further Remarks on the Antient Syrinx]”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym; Edward Cave], editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, volume XXIV, London: […] D[avid] Henry and R. Cave, […], published April 1754, →OCLC, page 161, column 2:

Pipes will I fashion of the syrinx flag, / That thou mayst always know whither I roam, / When it shall please thee in our quiet home / To listen and think of love.

1818, John Keats, “Book IV”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 192, lines 690–693:

In Dr. Sven Hedin's collection there is a fragment of a neck of a jar, which shows a whole circle of Gandharvas performing on drums, harps, syrinxes, etc. Noteworthy is the existence of the syrinx on artware of Eastern Turkestan. That instrument has never, so far as I am aware, been observed in Indian art.

1901, A. F. Rudolf Hoernle [i.e., Augustus Frederic Rudolf Hoernlé], “A Report on the British Collection of Antiquities from Central Asia [Part II]”, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, volume LXX, part I (History, Literature, &c.), number 1 (extra), Calcutta: […] Baptist Mission Press [for the Asiatic Society of Bengal], →OCLC, section IV (Pottery, Terracottas, Miscellaneous Objects), page 49:

The Panpipe is indeed one of the most characteristic instruments of South America, especially of the Western regions. the ancient Peruvian civilizations produced syrinxes not only of reeds but also of terra cotta (those of the coastal civilizations, especially of Nazca, are sometimes real works of art) and even carved in stone, chiefly among the Araucans.

1961, Alain Gheerbrant, “Book 2”, in [Inca] Garcilaso de la Vega, translated by Maria Jolas, edited by Alain Gheerbrant, The Incas: The Royal Commentaries of the Inca […] (An Avon Library Book), New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, published 1966, →OCLC, footnote 26, page 87:

Actually, to cut a long story short, he began … well, playing with a rather different sort of pipe. Or syrinx, as we called it. He obviously thought he was alone. I was frankly quite shocked. Disgusted. It wasn't that I hadn't seen naked men before, at my aunt's in Cyprus.

[1982 August, John Fowles, Mantissa, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.; Toronto, Ont.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 75:

Inside, somebody was playing a duet on syrinx and lyre. Lew thought he knew the tune, but then it went off in some direction he couldn't follow.

2006, Thomas Pynchon, “Iceland Spar”, in Against the Day, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 220:


rainout

en-noun

rainout (countable and uncountable, plural rainouts)

(uncountable) Nuclear fallout deposited by means of rain.


luminously

en-adv

luminously (comparative more luminously, superlative most luminously)

more luminously (comparative)
most luminously (superlative)

In a luminous manner, brightly, glowingly.


kora

He is performing here with his Symmetric Orchestra, an ensemble of West African musicians who play both traditional instruments (kora, balafon, bolombatto, djembe) and slightly more contemporary ones (guitars, keyboards).

2009 April 17, The New York Times, “Pop Listings”, in New York Times:

(music) A type of harp played in West Africa.


arsonist

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


overillumination

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

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

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

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


conga

For the dance:
* Borrowed from Spanish Congo (“Congo dance”), so-called for being of sub-Saharan African origin.

(music) A tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban hand drum of African origin.

The conga dance, with its long line that might eventually sweep in everybody in the place, and the kick on the fourth beat and the fruited headdress that were to become her trademarks.

1979, John Storm Roberts, The Latin Tinge, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 81–82:

(dance) A march of Cuban origin in four-four time in which people form a chain, each holding the hips of the person in front of them; in each bar, dancers take three shuffle steps and then kick alternate legs outwards at the beat; the chain weaves around the place and allows new participants to join the back of the chain.


mezzo forte

(music) Louder than mezzo piano, but softer than forte.


mezzo forte

(music) Louder then mezzo piano, but softer than forte.


decrescendo

/diːˌkɹɛˈʃɛndəʊ/

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

(music) An instruction to play gradually more softly.


decrescendo

en-verb

decrescendo (third-person singular simple present decrescendos, present participle decrescendoing, simple past and past participle decrescendoed)

decrescendos (present singular third-person)
decrescendoing (participle present)
decrescendoed (participle past)
decrescendoed (past)

/diːˌkɹɛˈʃɛndəʊ/


hurdy-gurdy

Probably onomatopoeic in imitation of the sound produced by the stringed instrument. Compare obsolete hirdy-girdy (“an uproar; noise”). Attested from the 1740s.

(music) A stringed instrument that produces a droning sound by turning a handle that connects to a wheel that rubs against a rosined string, with a keyboard also used to alter the pitch of the string.

He flung open the door, and found there only a ragged boy with a hurdy-gurdy on his back.

1956 [1880], Johanna Spyri, Heidi, translation of original by Eileen Hall, page 83:

(music) Synonym of street organ, often considered a misnomer.