countershading

countershading (usually uncountable, plural countershadings)

A pattern of animal colouration, existing as a form of camouflage, characterised by darker pigmentation of the upper side and lighter of the underside.


quarter tone

(music) The musical interval equal to one quarter of a tone or 1/24 of an octave; half a semitone.


positive punk

So called because it lacked the nihilistic aggression of the wider subculture. Coined by English journalist, author and musician Richard Cabut in 1983.


chemical engine

en-noun

chemical engine (plural chemical engines)

(historical, 19th century, firefighting) A large cart-mounted fire extinguisher using caustic chemical-extinguishing chemicals.


fire cabinet

(firefighting) a cabinet filled with firefighting equipment

(firefighting) a wall installation where a firehose and tap is located


fire grenade

(obsolete, 19th century, firefighting) A glass bulb filled with caustic and often carcinogenic liquid chemicals that, when thrown and broken in a fire, smother the fire by removing oxygen.

消火弾

glass bulb filled with fire-extinguishing liquid


fire bucket

Now he rushed to the platform edge carrying a full fire bucket, in a forlorn attempt to douse the flames as the now brightly burning wagon rolled past.

2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 42:

(firefighting) A bucket holding water or sand, etc., used to extinguish fires.


bélé

Possibly from French belle aire, though African origins have been suggested.

(music, dance, Caribbean) A genre of music and group dance from the Creole cultures of Dominica and other Caribbean islands, in modern times mostly performed to celebrate holidays and special occasions.

(music, Caribbean) A type of folk drum found on Dominica, Martinique and Saint Lucia.


hauntological

en-adj

hauntological (comparative more hauntological, superlative most hauntological)

more hauntological (comparative)
most hauntological (superlative)

Boards of Canada also pioneered the hauntological approach to creating old-timey and elegiac atmospheres through the use of sound treatments suggestive of decay and wear-and-tear.

2011, Simon Reynolds, Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past, Faber & Faber, →ISBN, page 331:

In that spirit, some young musicians now are creating music that has been described as “hypnagogic” or “hauntological.” The melodies and rhythms are reminiscent of catchy pop songs of previous decades, but recorded in a way that simulates the effects of age — fuzzy and staticky — as if worn out or heard at a great distance through a grimy haze.

[2011 August 4, Carl Wilson, “‘My So-Called Adulthood’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Vaporwave and its more developed form, Simpsonwave, are of course concerned with an entirely different set of tropes–but they are no less hauntological for it. Both are recognizably hauntological by virtue of the techniques they employ—VHS crackle, Windows start-up sounds, etc.

2019, Tom Whyman, “Oh, They Have the Internet on Computers Now?”, in Alfie Bown, Dan Bristow, editors, Post Memes: Seizing the Memes of Production, punctum books, →ISBN, page 212:

(music, art) Using digital effects that simulate the effects of aging; reminiscent and nostalgic of obsolete media.


Peking opera

en-noun

Peking opera (countable and uncountable, plural Peking operas)

(music) A form of traditional Chinese theatre which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics.


centonate

(music) A piece composed according to the rules of centonization.


centonization

centonization (countable and uncountable, plural centonizations)

(music) A theory about the composition of a melody or piece based on pre-existing melodic figures and formulas.


adult contemporary

MTV is a singles medium, as is the hottest (warmest?) new radio strategy God help us, “adult contemporary”; even AOR devotes the contemporary portion of its programming to putative singles.

1990 January 2, Robert Christgau, “1980–1989: Rockism Faces the World”, in The Village Voice:

A category of music including soft rock, ballads, easy listening, soul, and rhythm and blues.


supra-aural

(audio, headphones, sound engineering) Pressing onto the ears, and sealing the outer ear (as opposed to being placed in the ear, or hanging onto the ear, or surrounding the ear).


escape fire

A fuel-free safe spot, consisting of burning grass as a method of defense against a forest fire.


milonguero

Someone who performs milonga music, especially as a singer.


sound isolation

(sound, headphones) the property of blocking off outside sound through use of materials that reduce sound transmission from the exterior environment into the interior environment


noise cancellation

Coordinate term: sound isolation

(sound, headphones) The active cancellation of outside noise by creation of an inverse waveform to null out noise soundwaves within the subject environment.

إِلْغَاء الضَّوْضَاء

ʔilḡāʔ aḍ-ḍawḍāʔ


sonophobia

Patients with this condition often develop so-called sonophobia marked by fears of and/or aversions to sounds that individuals with normal hearing tolerate easily and find innocuous.

2013, David Brian Arciniegas, Management of Adults with Traumatic Brain Injury, Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Publishing, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 403, →ISBN:

There is no aura, there is some photophobia, sonophobia, and he goes to bed if possible.

1999, Bernard Swerdlow, Whiplash and Related Headaches, Boca Raton: CRC-Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 595, →ISBN:

Like migraine headache, hemicrania continua is associated with nausea and vomiting, as well as sonophobia and phonophobia.

2019 September 19, Steven D. Waldman, Atlas of Uncommon Pain Syndromes E-Book, Amsterdam: Elsevier Health Sciences, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 11, →ISBN:

An unusual fear of sounds (especially loud noises).


castaneous

en-adj

castaneous (comparative more castaneous, superlative most castaneous)

more castaneous (comparative)
most castaneous (superlative)

From the Latin castanea (“a chestnut, a chestnut tree”) + -ous (“full, full of”).

uder

Elytra piceous, gradually shaded into a castaneous margin, irregularly and minutely punctured, covered with ochraceous pubescence.

Having the colour of a chestnut; chestnut-coloured.


splent coal

(archaic) An inferior kind of cannel coal from Scottish collieries, having a slaty structure.


superfluous interval

en-noun

superfluous interval (plural superfluous intervals)

(music) An interval that exceeds a major or perfect interval by a semitone.


point d'appui

From French point d’appui (“point of support”).

bor

Any note belonging to these forms a point d'appui, which may be used mentally to pass to any note standing in a simple relation to the point d'appui.

1878, “Musical Association”, in The academy, volume 13, page 328:

One thing, indeed, is frequently lacking in Chopin's compositions—especially in those written in the larger forms—the thematic work, which is the point d'appui in the works of Beethoven and the older masters.

1879, Moritz Karasowski, Frederic Chopin: His Life, Letters, and Works, page 138:

Whatever intrinsic melodic interest the theme may hold, its point d'appui, like the "faith" theme's, bears on the symphony's plot.

2013, Andrew Deruchie, The French Symphony at the Fin de Siècle, page 76:

(music) A specific note, chord, or phrase that serves as a stable reference point within a piece of music, providing harmonic or melodic grounding.


holding note

(music) A note sustained in one part, while the other parts move.


invisible green

(archaic, dyeing) A very dark shade of green that is almost black.


methyl violet

(chemistry) An artificial dye consisting of certain methyl halogen derivatives of rosaniline.


just intonation

(music) The correct sounding of notes or intervals; true pitch.

(music) The giving all chords and intervals in their purity or their exact mathematical ratio, or without temperament; a process in which the number of notes and intervals required in the various keys is much greater than the twelve to the octave used in systems of temperament.


Eurodisco

European dance music that originated from disco in the 1970s


Eurobeat

A style of European dance music derived from Italo disco, mostly popular in Japan.


neutron activation analysis

en-noun

neutron activation analysis (countable and uncountable, plural neutron activation analyses)

(inorganic chemistry) An analytical technique that measures the decay of elements when bombarded with neutrons

Neutronenaktivierungsanalyse

technique to measure the decay of elements


depressive black metal

The first MCD was sometimes really depressive, and the new full-length CD (out March/May 2001) will be definitively pure Depressive Black Metal, something in between Abyssic Hate, old Katatonia, old Burzum, Dolorian.

January 22, 2001, marchisio, “Re: Depressing Black Metal”, in alt.music.black-metal (Usenet):

Dunkel - Evighed (depressive black metal in the Burzum vein - rare tape!) $6

August 1, 2003, Convivial Hermit, “various stuff for sale”, in alt.music.black-metal (Usenet):

- FORGOTTEN TOMB "Songs to Leave" CD (great depressive black metal) 15$

October 6, 2003, O.T., “Tour de Garde mail order.”, in alt.music.black-metal (Usenet):

For in spite of the opposition of authentic inner “strength” to corrupt, worldly “weakness” that often characterises depressive black metal artists’ statements of intent, it is not inner resolve that protects the listener from despair but a failure of rational consisency.

2009, Dominic Fox, Cold World: The Aesthetics of Dejection and the Politics of Militant Dysphoria, O Books, page 47:

Our recent discovery of a blog dedicated to “depressive black metal” We guess the music sounds neat.

The SPIN 20 in SPIN, September 2011 edition, SPIN Media LLC, page 30

Active since 1997, Sin Nanna currently resides in Hobart, Tasmania, where he records and releases LPs, CDs, and DVDs to an avid global fan base of devotees of “depressive black metal,” a style of extreme heavy metal centered upon lyrical themes of ennui, abjection, and mourning.

2013, Drew Daniel, The Melancholy Assemblage: Affect and Epistemology in the English Renaissance, Fordham University Press, page 241:

A subgenre of black metal that focuses on slow, repetitive instrumentation and depressive or suicidal lyrics and imagery.


floor-filler

Kenner had passed the song on to Fats Domino; Rufus Thomas had picked it up for his Stax LP Walking the Dog; along the way, it had been lyrically updated and adopted as an easy-to-play floor-filler and crowd-pleaser by seemingly every white garage band that had popped up across the United States in the wake of the British Invasion.

2017, Tony Fletcher, In the Midnight Hour: The Life and Soul of Wilson Pickett, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 91:

(informal) A music track that is likely to encourage people to dance when played at a club, etc.


dragadiddle

(music) In drumming, a paradiddle where the first note is a drag.


queek

From reeds moorhens called to each other, the sounds light metallic “queeks.”

2007, Samuel F. Pickering, Edinburgh Days: Or, Doing what I Want to Do, page 169:

A vocal sound produced by certain birds.


queek

en-verb

queek (third-person singular simple present queeks, present participle queeking, simple past and past participle queeked)

queeks (present singular third-person)
queeking (participle present)
queeked (participle past)
queeked (past)


queek

A soft “Queek, queek!” made her look up and listen.

1865, Louisa May Alcott, Nelly's Hospital:

No nest was to be seen, no parent birds hovered overhead, and little Robin could only tell its troubles in that mournful “Queek, queek, queek!”

2002?, James Marten, The Boy of Chancellorville and Other Civil War Stories (page 67)


lunar mansion

(astronomy, astrology) a segment of the ecliptic (often called a station or house) through which the moon moves in its orbit around the earth, often used by ancient cultures as part of their calendar system.

اختر

a segment of the eliptic through which the moon moves


Selenite

From Selene (“the Moon”) + -ite. From Ancient Greek Σελήνη (Selḗnē, “goddess of the Moon”).

uder

My first impression was of some clumsy quadruped with lowered head. Then I perceived it was the slender pinched body and short and extremely attenuated bandy legs of a Selenite, with his head depressed between his shoulders.

1900 December – 1901 August, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Selenite’s Face”, in The First Men in the Moon, London: George Newnes, […], published 1901, →OCLC, page 136:

(science fiction) Synonym of Lunarian (“inhabitant of the Moon”).


sploosh

Onomatopoeic; compare splish, splash, and splosh for typically small, medium, and large objects respectively.


sploosh

en-verb

sploosh (third-person singular simple present splooshes, present participle splooshing, simple past and past participle splooshed)

splooshes (present singular third-person)
splooshing (participle present)
splooshed (participle past)
splooshed (past)


free jazz

(music, jazz) A form of jazz music of the 1950s and 1960s that attempted to overcome existing limitations and conventions, often by discarding features such as fixed chord changes or tempos.


skatepunk

en-noun

skatepunk (countable and uncountable, plural skatepunks)

From skate + punk, from its popularity among skateboarders.

Similar to how Green Day, The Offspring, and Rancid brought the early 90s punk revival to the top of alternative rock, blink-182 took skate-punk to the masses in 1999 with Enema of the State.

2021, Mike Damante, Hey Suburbia: A Guide to the Emo/Pop-Punk Rise, Di Angelo Publications, →ISBN:

(uncountable, music) A fast, intense, melodic form of hardcore punk music, associated with skateboarding culture.


decay chain

(nuclear physics) A series of nuclides, such that one nuclide radioactively decays into another, which decays into another, and so on, until a stable nuclide is reached. For example, uranium-238 must undergo eight alpha decays and six beta decays in order to become stable lead-206; intermediate nuclides include uranium-234, radium-226, and radon-222.


organette

An early mechanical accordion that played music encoded on rolls of perforated paper.


frame drum

(music) An early form of drum with a drumhead width greater than its depth.

tambourine

both a synonym, and specific type, of frame drum


reco-reco

percussion instrument
percussion instrument

A scraped percussion instrument used in Brazilian music, traditionally having a sawtooth-notched cylindrical body made of bamboo or wood, and played with a wooden stick.


pahu

A traditional drum of Polynesia, made from a single log and covered with sharkskin.


fountain lamp

A familiar application is the fountain lamp that has several hundred fibers spraying out of the top.

1989, Ron Whittaker, Video Field Production, page 349:

A lamp that consists of a large number of fiber optic tubes that mimic the spray of water from a fountain.


ringbang

Coined by Eddy Grant, imitating a phrase in scat singing.

A Caribbean fusion of music genres with an associated philosophy and aesthetic based on communication.


rap metal

A music genre that fuses vocal and instrumental elements of hip-hop with heavy metal.


wub

For the uninitiated, a wub (or wobble bass, its technical name) is that distinctive long bass note that is “torn” or “bent” rhythmically or…wubbed, and is one of the distinctive features of dubstep music.

2012 February 2, Jimbo Ivy, “Lucky's Live!”, in The Hype Weekly, number 23, page 5:

Though the audience wasn’t instantly sold on Datsik’s opening wubs, the cheer that erupted when the DJ segued into Skrillex’s remix of “Levels” further shook the already-vibrating venue.

2012 February 24, Allegra Dimperio, “Grimy chills, champagne thrills on Deadmeat Tour”, in The Badger Herald, volume 43, number 93, University of Wisconsin, page 5:

It's an impressive, almost overwhelming synthesis of commercial influences, including, in their monster hit Radioactive, some rather mannered dubstep wubs.

2013 April 9, Graeme Virtue, “Imagine Dragons – review”, in The Guardian:

(music) wobble bass, a style of bass synthesizer heavily deployed by dubstep and drum and bass artists


minimoon

The trouble is, the difference in size between Supermoon and Minimoon, though apparent when placed side-by-side, is only 14 percent, too small to be seen with the naked eye.

2014 January 15, Geoff Gaherty, “Smallest full moon of 2014 rises tonight”, in NBC News, archived from the original on 2022-12-21:

At its closest point, perigee, the moon will obviously appear largest. Such a "maximoon" has an apparent diameter about 13% larger than a "minimoon" at its most distant point, apogee.

2018 January 29, Tim O'Brien, “'Super blue blood moon' to grace the sky – here's what we could learn from it”, in The Conversation, archived from the original on 2022-08-13:

For those interested in a longer-term project, Professor Horner said taking a photo of the supermoon and comparing it to the 'minimoon' in December can be an interesting experiment to compare the size.

2022 August 9, Rosie Bensley, “A supermoon will rise on Thursday: Here's a photographer's tips to get the best snap”, in The Canberra Times:

(astronomy, uncommon) Synonym of micromoon (“a full moon which appears unusually small due to coinciding with the Moon's apogee”)


pluto-

From combining form of Ancient Greek πλοῦτος (ploûtos, “wealth, riches”).


pertechnetic acid

(inorganic chemistry) A strong oxoacid of technetium with chemical formula HTcO₄.


voicebank

A prepared collection of source voice samples for use in voice synthesis software.


fuel economy

en-noun

fuel economy (countable and uncountable, plural fuel economies)

A measure of the amount of fuel consumed in a car or other vehicle based on the distance traveled.


talk box

An effects unit that allows musicians to modify the sound of a musical instrument.


effects unit

Each aux out is connected to an effects unit and the signal is then returned into the desk.

2009, Rick Snoman, Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys and Techniques, page 69:

An electronic device that alters how a musical instrument or other audio source sounds.

效果器

device that alters how a musical instrument sounds


popular beat combo

popular beat combo (plural popular beat combos)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-popular beat combo.wav

From popular + beat + combo (“small musical group”).

compound

I thought it was a bit odd that the world's most popular beat combo should choose a golf tournament at Waldviertel for their reunion concert.

1999 June 12, Lawrence Donegan, Maybe It Should Have Been a Three Iron: My Year as Caddie for the World's 438th Best Golfer, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 199:

An early indication of crabbitness can be identified in teenage years by an inability to move either hips or shoulders no matter what popular beat combo are playing.

2006 October 5, John K. V. Eunson, Crabbit Old Buggers!, Black & White Publishing, →ISBN:

When I was younger, I was quite an adherent of the popular beat combo known as The Moody Blues.

2020 April 10, Brian Taylor, “Coronavirus: 'A question of balance' over lockdown exit”, in BBC News:

(British, music, humorous or ironic) A pop group.


modinha

The drifters were coming back to play the guitar, sing modinhas, invent sambas they would later sell to famous samba singers in the city.

1988, Jorge Amado, translated by Gregory Rabassa, Captains of the Sands, Penguin, published 2013, page 159:

A kind of sentimental love song of Portugal and Brazil.


compound duple

(music) A metre with two beats, each divided into three.


rapso

A form of Trinidadian music that grew out of the social unrest of the 1970s, with elements of soca, calypso, and hip-hop.


spinback

en-noun

spinback (countable and uncountable, plural spinbacks)

A disc jockey's technique of suddenly playing a section of a record in reverse.


goombay

goombay (countable and uncountable, plural goombays)

Afro-Caribbean dialects; compare Kongo nkombi, a type of drum.

(music, dance, Bahamas, countable) A type of traditional Bahamian drum.

(music, dance, Bahamas, uncountable) A genre of folk music played with this drum.

(music, dance, Bahamas) A dance associated with this music genre.


jazzophone

A saxophone-shaped double-belled brass instrument with a trumpet-like mouthpiece.


violin maker

(lutherie) A person who makes violins, and usually other bowed stringed instruments such as violas, cellos and double basses.


tailgut

(music, lutherie) A cord which loops through the tailpiece and around the endpin of stringed musical instruments, and which is held at tension by a knot to secure the tailpiece to the body, traditionally made only of gut but now also made of nylon, wire and other synthetic materials.


electroencephalophone

An experimental musical instrument or diagnostic tool which uses brainwaves (measured in the same way as an EEG) to generate or modulate sounds.


harmonic series

harmonic series (plural harmonic series)

(music, physics) The sequence of all positive integer multiples of a base frequency.


pipe band

A musical band featuring bagpipes with musicians (pipers) dressed as kilted Scotsmen.


moon rocket

(finance) A company whose stock price rises dramatically following an initial public offering


moombahton

Blend of Moombah (the name of a track by Dutch house DJ Chuckie) + reggaeton

blend

(music) A fusion genre of house music and reggaeton.


hotchiku

An end-blown vertical bamboo flute used in traditional Japanese music, similar to the shakuhachi.


goregrind

A musical subgenre of grindcore and death metal.


ryūteki

a transverse flute used in the gagaku music of Japan


rose bengal

4,5,6,7-tetrachloro-2',4',5',7'-tetraiodofluorescein, a stain whose sodium salt is commonly used in eyedrops to stain damaged cells and thereby identify damage.


pornogrind

"Are you fucking with me?"
"No. It's screamo, blended in with some kawaii metal, with a touch of pornogrind."

(music) A musical subgenre of grindcore and death metal that deals with sexual themes.


nohkan

A transverse flute used to accompany Japanese noh theater.


lead sheet

A lead sheet is often the only form of written music used by a small jazz ensemble. One or more musicians will play the melody while the rest of the group improvises an appropriate accompaniment.

(music) A form of written music that specifies the melody, lyrics, and harmony.


polychoral

(music) Featuring multiple choirs, or a choir that has been divided into different groups (so as to effect antiphonal exchange)


mandolute

Not content with flailing at the playwright and the movement that had nurtured him ("the little theater of cheesecloth and mandolutes"), De Voto attacked the Theater Guild, charging that its resources and prestige, its "power to compel the admiration of multitudes," where chiefly responsible for elevating O'Neill to "a grandeur" he did not deserve.

2002, Louis Sheaffer, O'Neill: Son and Artist, page 460:

(music) A musical instrument similar to a mandolin, but larger.


counterfire

en-noun

counterfire (countable and uncountable, plural counterfires)

(firefighting, countable) A smaller fire lit at some distance from a wildfire, in order to develop a firebreak.


counterfire

en-verb

counterfire (third-person singular simple present counterfires, present participle counterfiring, simple past and past participle counterfired)

counterfires (present singular third-person)
counterfiring (participle present)
counterfired (participle past)
counterfired (past)

(firefighting, intransitive) To light a smaller fire at some distance from a wildfire, in order to develop a firebreak.


nightlamp

Dr. M'Alpin and he sat up until the extinction of the lights in the lower rooms round the square, and the glimmering of the nightlamps in the upper chambers, warned them that the world had retired to rest[…]

1842, Mrs. Monkland, The Nabob at Home; Or, The Return to England, page 7:


coal hole

A hole in the pavement with a removable hatch, leading to an underground coal bunker.


flashlamp

A kind of lamp that uses an electric current to start powder burning and produce a brief sudden burst of bright light. It was formerly used in flash photography.


cantus firmus

en-noun

cantus firmus (plural cantus firmi or canti firmi)

cantus firmi (plural)
canti firmi (plural)

Unadapted borrowing from Latin cantus firmus (literally “fixed chant”).

ubor

(music) A preexisting melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.


gravicembalo

/ˌɡɹævɪˈtʃɛmbələʊ/

(music) An early form of piano derived from the harpsichord


hypolydian

(music) Describing a mode of church music represented by a major scale from C to F.


hypomixolydian

(music) Describing a mode of church music represented by a major scale from D to G


melopiano

(music, historical) A type of piano in which a system of hammers allows a note to be prolonged indefinitely


polytextual

(music) Set to two or more texts simultaneously


hypodorian

/ˌhaɪpəʊˈdɔːɹi.ən/

(music) Describing a mode of church music represented by a major scale from A to D.


diplophonia

(music) The production, by the voice, of sounds of two different pitches simultaneously


triplophonia

(music) The production, by the voice, of sounds of three different pitches simultaneously


SATB

(music) Initialism of soprano, alto, tenor, bass.


bull fiddle

(music) A double bass (lowest-pitched of instruments of violin family).


upright bass

(music) A double bass. (lowest-pitched of instruments of violin family)


string bass

Synonym of double bass (“lowest-pitched of instruments of violin family”).


stand-up bass

Synonym of double bass (“lowest-pitched instrument of violin family”).


bass violin

(music) double bass (lowest-pitched of instruments of violin family)


tartold

Supposedly from Italian torto and German Kortholt.

(music) a low-pitched double reed musical instrument of the European Renaissance, similar to a rackett, with a bore formed from cylindrical metal tubing bent into a spiral


white-haired

From Middle English white-heered, white-harid, white-herede, whyte-harede, white hared, equivalent to white + haired. Compare Old Norse hvít-hárr and hvít-hærðr (“white-haired”).

Having white hair, especially from old age.


kortholt

(music) a low-pitched capped double reed instrument of the European Renaissance


baritone saxophone

en-noun

baritone saxophone (plural baritone saxophones)

A member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments that is smaller than the bass saxophone but larger than the tenor saxophone, with a range of D♭₂ to A₄ or similar.


foo-foo band

We sighted the Jennie Harkness, obviously American, at daylight right ahead in the S.E. trades; at noon we were alongside her, and our Foo-Foo band played "Yankee-Doodle" as we passed her.

1921, Basil Lubbock, The Colonial Clippers, pages 158–159:

(nautical) An impromptu musical band on late 19th-century sailing vessels, made up of members of the ship's crew.


plunderphonics

Coined by Canadian composer John Oswald in 1985 as a compound of plunder + phonics in the essay Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative.

coinage

Such a practice (which is autosonic, by the way) could be viewed as a “mega-editing” process; but I would like to draw a distinction between plunderphonics and edited versions, because the former clearly aim to denature the hypotext.

2007, Allan F. Moore, Critical Essays in Popular Musicology, Routledge:

A form of musical composition based on the unauthorized use of existing audio recordings.


opera seria

en-noun

opera seria (countable and uncountable, plural opere serie)


quadruple whole

quadruple whole (plural quadruple wholes)

(music) A musical note equal to two or three breves, i.e. four or six whole notes; a longa.


octave clef

(music) a symbol showing that the pitch of a note is to be raised by one or two octaves.


cover band

(music) A band that plays mostly or exclusively cover songs.


key up

en-verb

key up (third-person singular simple present keys up, present participle keying up, simple past and past participle keyed up)

keys up (present singular third-person)
keying up (participle present)
keyed up (participle past)
keyed up (past)

(music, transitive) To raise the pitch of.


Yablochkov candle

en-noun

Yablochkov candle (plural Yablochkov candles)

Named after its inventor, Pavel Yablochkov.

electrical engineering
electrical engineering

(electrical engineering) A type of electric carbon arc lamp.


light ball

(military, historical) A ball of combustible materials, used to provide light, and sometimes made so as to fired from a cannon or mortar, or to be carried up by a rocket.


rubboard

(music) A scraped percussion instrument used in zydeco music, resembling a washboard but without a frame, generally hung around the neck.


new beat

electronic dance music
electronic dance music

electronic body music
electronic body music

A Belgian electronic dance music genre of the 1980s that fused elements of new wave, hi-NRG, electronic body music, acid house and hip-hop.


nu jazz

(music, jazz) Any music that blends jazz elements with other musical styles, such as funk, soul, or electronic dance music.


French purple

French purple (usually uncountable, plural French purples)

A dyestuff obtained from certain lichen known as orchella weeds, used for colouring woollen and silken fabrics, without the aid of mordants.


double note

It is double the length of the semibreve.


mummy brown

mummy brown (usually uncountable, plural mummy browns)

mummy brown:

I then placed it [a wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus)] in an open window on a whitish bottom, and the next day it was light brown. At 2 p.m., August 24th, I put it on a jet-black shelf, with black surroundings. Forty-five minutes later it was very dark, nearly mummy brown[…], but darker.

1893 August, Clarence M. Weed, “The Color Changes of Frogs”, in The Popular Science Monthly, volume XLIII, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton and Company, […], →OCLC, page 492:

Mummy Browns, from the crushings of Egyptian corpses, for the mortally ill and melancholy.

2001, M[ichelle] R. Lovric, “The Language of Colour”, in Carnevale, London: Virago, →ISBN; republished London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, →ISBN, part 1:

Mummy brown was a common shade in artists’ colors until 1925, but it cannot be bought from any paint shop today. In 1964 Time magazine reported [“Techniques: The Passing of Mummy Brown”, Time, 2 October 1964] that London colormaker C. Roberson, which for a while had been the only distributor, had run out a few years before. “We might have a few odd limbs lying around somewhere,” managing director Geoffrey Roberson-Park told Time, “but not enough to make any more paint.”

2014, Victoria Finlay, “Mummy Brown: Funeral for Pharaohs”, in The Brilliant History of Color in Art, Los Angeles, Calif.: J. Paul Getty Museum, →ISBN, part 2 (Rocks, Minerals, Twigs, and Bugs), page 82, column 2:

The colour of this pigment, a variable brown intermediate between raw umber and burnt umber.


semiacoustic

(music, of a guitar) Having a soundbox as well as one or more electric pickups.


green fire

A pyrotechnic composition which burns with a green flame. It consists of sulfur and potassium chlorate, with some salt of barium (usually the nitrate).


blind coal

Coal that burns without a flame; anthracite coal.


open diapason

(music) A certain stop in an organ, in which the pipes or tubes are formed like the mouthpiece of a flageolet at the end where the wind enters, and are open at the other end.


soft coal

Bituminous coal, as distinguished from hard coal (anthracite).


Spanish white

Spanish white (countable and uncountable, plural Spanish whites)


gas coal

gas coal (countable and uncountable, plural gas coals)

It is a good gas-coal, and well fitted for steam purposes, and for use in reverberatory furnaces.

1870, Rossiter Worthington Raymond, Statistics of Mines and Mining in the States and Territories West of the Rocky Mountains:

A bituminous or hydrogenous coal yielding a high proportion of volatile material, and therefore available for the manufacture of illuminating gas.


dead oil

dead oil (usually uncountable, plural dead oils)

The heavy oil obtained in the distillation of coal tar, containing phenol, naphthalus, etc.


caking coal

A bituminous coal which softens and becomes pasty or semiviscid when heated. On increasing the heat, the volatile products are driven off, and a coherent, grayish-black, cellular mass of coke is left.


light oil

(petrochemistry) The oily product, lighter than water, forming the chief part of the first distillate of coal tar, and consisting largely of benzene and toluene.


dry light

dry light (usually uncountable, plural dry lights)


mother of coal

Apparently named by analogy with mother of pearl and mother of vinegar, on the theme of a matrix that produces (or was believed to produce) the end product and also coexists therewith.


mineral coal

Coal coming from the ground, as opposed to charcoal produced by recent burning.


grand action

(music) A pianoforte action, used in grand pianos, in which special devices are employed to obtain perfect action of the hammer in striking and leaving the string.


beat time

en-verb

beat time (third-person singular simple present beats time, present participle beating time, simple past beat time, past participle beaten time or beat time)

beats time (present singular third-person)
beating time (participle present)
beat time (past)
beaten time (participle past)
beat time (participle past)

(music) To measure or regulate time in music by the motion of the hand or foot.


hard coal

en-noun

hard coal (usually uncountable, plural hard coals)

Anthracite, as distinguished from bituminous soft coal.


baby pink

baby pink (countable and uncountable, plural baby pinks)

baby pink:


strawberry moon

strawberry moon (plural strawberry moons)

A calque of Ojibwe ode'imini-giizis (“strawberry moon”), because June is strawberry season.

uder

The full moon in June closest to the summer solstice.


pelog

One of the two essential scales of gamelan music native to Bali and Java in Indonesia. It has seven notes, of which sometimes only five are used.


energy weapon

The window display was made up of an assortment of rather curiously shaped guns, rifles as well as small arms; and a glowing sign in the window stated: THE FINEST ENERGY WEAPONS IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE.

1941 July, Alfred Elton van Vogt, “The Seesaw”, in Astounding Science Fiction, volume 27, number 5, page 60:

A weapon that fires a beam or pulse of energy instead of a projectile.


rare groove

The brainchild of DJ Gilles Peterson, it specializes in a dance-oriented fusion of rap, rare groove and jazz, combined with 'motivational' lyrics.

2011, Simon Reynolds, Bring the Noise: 20 Years of Writing About Hip Rock and Hip Hop:

(music) Soul or jazz music that is very hard to source or relatively obscure.


caxirola

A Brazilian percussion instrument consisting of a closed plastic basket with a flat bottom filled with small synthetic particles. It is based on the caxixi.


scrike

en-verb

scrike (third-person singular simple present scrikes, present participle scriking, simple past and past participle scriked)

scrikes (present singular third-person)
scriking (participle present)
scriked (participle past)
scriked (past)

From Middle English skriken, shrichen, scrichen, from the fusion of Old English scriccettan (“to screech”) and Old Norse skríkja (“to shriek”); both from Proto-Germanic *skrik- (“to cry; shriek”). Cognate with Icelandic skríkja (“to chirp; twitter”), Danish skrige (“to shriek”). Related to shriek.

inh

(UK dialect, Northern England) To shriek; to screech.


thermal coal

the type of coal used in coal-fired electrical power plants


metallurgical coal

en-noun

metallurgical coal (countable and uncountable, plural metallurgical coals)

The type of coal used for the making of steel.


daywalker

(fantasy) One who can go out in the sunlight, distinguished from vampires etc. who cannot.


tuballoy

(historical) Natural uranium in the refined condition.


oralloy

Highly-enriched uranium
highly-enriched uranium

(nuclear physics, historical) Highly-enriched uranium.


Mozart effect

Calque of French effet Mozart, a term coined by Alfred A. Tomatis (1920–2001), who used Mozart's music as the listening stimulus in his work attempting to cure a variety of disorders.

The supposed phenomenon by which listening to Mozart's music may induce a short-term improvement in spatiotemporal reasoning or in mental performance generally.

تَأْثِير مُوتْسَارْت

supposed phenomenon by which listening to Mozart induces improvement in mental performance


mountain green

Synonym of Paris green (“pigment from copper(II) acetate and arsenic trioxide”).


filksing

Welcome to the Boskone Filksing!

1972, Karen Blank, The Boskone 9 Filk-Song Song Book, Table of Contents:

The next LA filksing will be February 21st in Garden Grove.

2004 February 1, Lee Gold, “Re: work-related ABEND till sometime after 8-February-2004”, in rec.music.filk (Usenet), message-ID <401D226F.5B501A45@comcast.net>:

(fandom slang, music) A gathering of filkers; a filk-music performance.


Smiler

The singer was born Destiny Hope Cyrus but nicknamed Smiley (later Miley) by her parents because she often smiled as a baby; hence smile + -er.

When she rose to the throne of the iTunes charts with her single “Royals”, she was met with some hateful tweets from Smilers (aka Miley Cyrus fans).

2013, Erin McAuliffe, "Lorde's 'Pure Heroine'", The Observer (University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary's College), Volume 47, Issue 26, 1 October 2013, page 8

Smilers can expect tweets revolving around Miley's dogs, hit new album Bangerz and selfies with her classic tongue pose.

2014, "People to add to your timeline in 2014", The Vidette (Illinois State University), Volume 126, Number 63, 16 January 2014, page 14

The singer, who missed Jingle Ball because of bad weather in the Big Apple, invited thousands of Smilers — the not-so-clever nickname given to her adoring acolytes — to attend the afternoon soundcheck before her sold-out show at TD Garden.

2014 April 2, “‘Miserable’ Miley Cyrus mourns her pet during Boston soundcheck”, in The Boston Globe:

(slang) A fan of American singer and actress Miley Cyrus.


Swiftie

Today was the day, and it hadn't fully hit me till that very moment when the doors opened and I was rushing to the front of the stage and standing amongst the thousands of fellow Swifties.

2012 April, Ina Esclamado, “Taylor Swift”, in Cord Music Magazine, page 26:

Even for devoted Swifties, it's hard to deny that her surrealist nightmare of a Grammy performance was a definite miscalculation.

2013, Sean Keeley, "Grammys: the good, the bad and the ugly", The Heights (Boston College), Volume 94, Number 8, 14 February 2013, page B4

“RED” makes you think of Taylor Swift, so maybe we can get some confused Swifties to buy our album.

2013, Colin Orthmann, "Party Animals", Sound, Phrase & Fury, Volume 1, Issue 5, September/October 2013, page 35

Fresh off a frantic election cycle, the former Fetterman campaign social media producer — and dedicated Swiftie — takes time to shake it off.

2022 December 17, Judith Newman, “John Fetterman’s TikTok Whisperer”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(slang) A fan of American singer-songwriter and actress Taylor Swift.


Grobanite

Perhaps one for diehard 'Grobanites' rather than those new to the fold.

2011 June, Mark Wreford, “Re-Tunes”, in Re, number 14, page 52:

"All That Echoes" was named one of Billboard's Best Bets for 2013 and features an edgier sound that is pushing Groban's music to new genres and reaching the pleased ears of both seasoned Grobanites* and brand new Groban fans.

2013 March, Riesa Pascal, “16 Reasons to Buy 'All That Echoes'”, in Orlando Style, volume 10, number 3, page 46:

Critics admire his power and restraint; Grobanites, as they're called, like the way their hearts slow-motion explode into pink butterfly candy confetti when he sings to them.

2013 September, “[Initiate Grobanite Love Protocol]”, in Desert Companion, page 57:

(slang) A fan of American musician Josh Groban.


Lovatic

Her performances on this tour have been affirming but unpredictable, and the Lovatics — the name for her throngs of fans — totally relate.

2011 November 23, Kent Szlauderbach, “Teenage Dream”, in The Pitch, volume 31, number 20, page 17:

While making small talk with the audience, Demi's greetings were reciprocated with loud screams from the Lovatics.

2013, oan Kwek, “A Special Night with Demi Lovato”, in ArtJam, number 33, Nanyang Technological University Cultural Activities Club, page 31:

This is the fourth album for Demi, which she has dedicated to all her Lovatics.

2013 August, “Demi - Demi Lovato”, in TeenZone Magazine, number 117, page 48:

(music slang) A fan of American actress and singer Demi Lovato.


Glambert

So I surmise that the popular popster will bring the Glamberts out en masse when he performs here on his Glam Nation tour, […]

2010 July 14, Amy Atkins, “Adam Lambert at the Morrison Center”, in Boise Weekly:

[Adam Lambert:] That's part of the fun for the Glamberts; they've given themselves permission within that community to be kind of insane.

2012 June, Chris Azzopardi, “The Trouble with Adam Lambert”, in GayCalgary Magazine, number 104, page 47:

“Clearly, Adam Lambert was the highlight of the week. It was truly an honor to have such an A-lister want to be a part of our Pride. We had 'Glamberts' staking out their front-row positions at 8 a.m. that morning. […]

2013, Jason Parsley, "Adam Lambert Talks Love & Life", The Mirror, Volume 2, Issue 2, Summer 2013, page 40

(slang) A fan of American singer Adam Lambert.


Blackjack

From the card game blackjack, also called twenty-one, which is one of two pronunciations of 2NE1's name (the other being "to anyone").

The queens of K-pop, 2NE1, are gearing up for their world tour in March and Blackjacks could not be more excited!

2014, Julie Carlson, "2NE1 Comeback", Hallyu Magazine, Issue #11, Winter 2014, page 41 (approx.)

It’s this sort of brash ethos that resonates with Blackjacks (as 2NE1’s fans are known).

2014, Chester Chin, "2NE1 in concert: Sassy and fierce", The Star (Malaysia), 29 May 2014

Most of these 'Blackjacks' have waited five years since 2NE1's debut to finally see the girls (CL, Bom, Dara, Minzy) perform a full show in Malaysia.

2014, Lainey, "2NE1 Gives Their All For Malaysia", Campus Plus, Issue 91, July 2014, page 58

(fandom slang) A fan of the South Korean girl group 2NE1.


KatyCat

From Katy + cat, as a play on kitty cat.

The colourful pop queen entertains KatyCats with hits from her third studio album Teenage Dream at Jakarta's Sentul International Convention Centre.

2012 January, Travel 3sixty (AirAsia in-flight magazine), page 25 (image caption):

The timely releases of each single has even caused a divide between Perry's KatyCats and Gaga's Monsters (the artists' respective fan bases), […]

2013 September 4, Moriba Cummings, “Is The ‘Applause’ Louder Than The ‘Roars’?”, in The Maroon Tiger, volume 88, number 1, Morehouse College, page 11:

So whether you are a die-hard Little Monster or a loyal KatyCat, or you are just looking for some good new pop music to dance to now that winter is coming, I recommend enjoying “PRISM” AND “ARTPOP.”

2013 November 18, Michael Conroy, “A Tale of Two Princesses”, in The De Paulia, volume 98, number 9, DePaul University, page 19:

(music slang) A fan of American singer-songwriter Katy Perry (born 1984).


Wholigan

My girl's dad is a Who fan but she never really was interested until she started dating me. Now I've turned her into a Wholigan. :-)

2001 November 18, Sameer Barua, “Re: um. am i the only girl in here?”, in alt.music.who (Usenet):

Bass players, or any musicians really, will appreciate the mechanics far more, but I suspect any moderate to desperate-level Wholigan will want this DVD in his collection, it's a lovely reminder of that awesome talent who was taken from us years too soon.

2006 June 21, DGDevin, “John Entwistle: Bass Master Class DVD”, in alt.music.who (Usenet):

The Japanese Wholigan may rate “Out in the Street” as her favorite Who hit.

2014, Mike Segretto, The Who FAQ, Backbeat Books, →ISBN:

(slang) A fan of the English rock band The Who.


Durannie

These followers of Duran Duran's contemporaries, Japan, regarded themselves as being the intellectual superiors of Durannies and formed the more dignified-sounding Japan Appreciation Society.

It's been more than a decade since they've been considered teen idols, but Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon and ex-bass player John Taylor were still able to inspire hysteria from a packed audience of aging Durannies during a one-off semi-reunion at Manhattan nightspot Joe's Pub in November.

I was a Durannie and I had you on the inside of my bedroom door, didn't I, Simon?

2009, Caitlin Davies, Friends Like Us, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 42:

(slang) A fan of the English rock band Duran Duran.


Sone

From Korean 소원(所願) (sowon, “wish”), a reference to the 2009 Girls' Generation song, "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)."

The band is known as SNSD (acronym of Korean name So Nyuh Shi Dae). SNSD fans are called Sone^([sic]) and, yes, I am a Sone.

2012 February 7, Sithikorn Wongwudthianun, “[ftp://202.60.207.28/BP/2012/02_BKP_Feb2012/07022012/BK070212L02.pdf Yes, I am a Sone]”, in The Bangkok Post, page 2:

Their six-track EP, 'Mr.Mr' comes packed with electro and R&B infused songs that SONEs (as SNSD Girls' Generation fans are lovingly called) can dance and sing along to.

2014, Lainey, Mr.Mr. review, Campus Life, Issue #89, May 2014, page 60

Way to go SONEs, the fan chants during the dance break was^([sic]) so rad!

2014 May, Johanna Teo, Chew Hui Ling, “Girls Generation Uncovered!”, in Teenage, number 305, page 45:

(South Korean idol fandom) A fan of the South Korean girl group Girls' Generation.

Girls' Generation
Tell Me Your Wish (Genie) (song)


Shawol

From Korean 샤월 (syawol), shortening of Korean 샤이니 월드 (syaini woldeu, “SHINee World”), from 샤이니 (syaini, “SHINee”) and 월드 (woldeu) (from English world).

der

A few lucky Shawols standing close to the stage were able to snap exclusive Polaroid pictures and fancams of the boys as they collected their gifts.

2011, Jaelle Hwang, “SHINee's First Concert in Singapore”, in Hallyu Magazine, number 1, page 29:

“I'm a major Shawol [SHINee fan],” Lajba said.

2013, Lauren Tussey, "The Fashion Prodigy", The Network (Marian High School, Omaha, Nebraska), Volume 57, Issue 5, January 2013, page 10

Shawols will be lulled by the 24 songs including SHINee's hit songs like Replay, Lucifer, Sherlock […]

2014, "Shinee World Tour 3 Live in Jakarta", AsiaNews Magazine, 20 June 2014 - 26 June 2014, page 71 (approx.)

(South Korean idol fandom) A fan of the South Korean boy band SHINee.


windchest

(music) A chest or reservoir of wind in an organ.


fire main

Cars were first reported loose in hold 3 at 0544, at the same time the captain said it was unsafe to enter hold 3 due to "gear adrift" and "a lot of water." The bilge pumps were already running. If cars were loose by that time, one or more of them could have hit the unprotected inlet piping section of the emergency fire pump, rupturing the piping or damaging the skin valve so that it could not stop seawater from entering the hold. At 0714, the VDR recorded the chief mate reporting that the chief engineer had said that something hit the fire main and "got it ruptured, hard." (The entire fire system, including the emergency fire pump and piping, was known as the fire main.)

2017 December 12, National Transportation Safety Board, “2.4.2 Flooding”, in Marine Accident Report: Sinking of US Cargo Vessel SS El Faro, Atlantic Ocean, Northeast of Acklins and Crooked Island, Bahamas, October 1, 2015, archived from the original on 2022-05-15, page 190:

A pipe conveying water to extinguish a fire.


false relation

(music) A type of dissonance that sometimes occurs in classical polyphonic music, most commonly in vocal music of the Renaissance. It may be a chromatic contradiction between two notes sounding simultaneously (or in close proximity), in two different voices or parts; or the occurrence of a tritone between two notes of adjacent chords.


Bieberite

Few male fans were on hand Tuesday night, which according to Bieberites is purely due to envy.

2010 September 15, Jen Skerritt, “OMG!”, in Winnipeg Free Press:

It's a movie created solely for the legions of teen and younger Bieberites (or whatever they call themselves), and a chance for them to see their icon in all the glory of three-dimensions.

2011, Justin Souther, "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never", Mountain Express, Volume 17, Issue 30, 16 February 2011 - 22 February 2011, page 56

The two momentary stars were then mobbed by the Bieberites looking to debrief them for any intel they could supply on the singer’s movements inside the hotel, and possible points of entry to the safe zone.

2011 April 12, Ben Hartman, “Bieber loyalists keep vigil outside the pop star’s TA hotel”, in Jerusalem Post:


devil's interval

en-noun

devil's interval (plural devil's intervals)


FFO

2014, “Sea of Bones (Connecticut)/Snakewing/Titties/Spooky Basements/Ajna”
SNAKEWING (FFO: Black Flag, Negative Approach, Integrity, Melvins, the sound Sharon Osborne would make if Ozzy had a heart attack during sex)

(music) Initialism of for fans of (used by promoters to describe a band)


jungle green

jungle green:

Keir, in jungle green, sneered up at Nabby Adams[.]

1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 22:

A dark bluish-green colour, like the vegetation in a tropical jungle.


jungle green

Of a dark bluish-green color, like the plants in a jungle


harmonichord

(music) A kind of upright piano whose strings are set in vibration not by the blow of the hammer but by indirectly transmitted friction.


harvest gold

harvest gold (countable and uncountable, plural harvest golds)

harvest gold:


desert sand

desert sand:

A very light and very weakly saturated reddish yellow (orange or brown) colour that resembles the color of sand in a desert


davul

A large Turkish double-headed drum, played with mallets.


nipple gong

A gong with a central raised boss or nipple, often made of a different metal to the rest of the gong.


kempul

(music) A set of pitched hanging knobbed gongs used in gamelan music.


bell tree

A percussion instrument consisting of vertically nested inverted metal bowls.


toi, toi, toi

/tɔɪ tɔɪ tɔɪ/

From German toi, toi, toi, which see for more.

good luck

considered to bring misfortune if used in the theatre

(theater, opera) A superstitious expression of encouragement prior to a performance.


lexidronam

(medicine) Any of a class of chelation complexes (normally of radiosamarium) used to control in bone cancer cases


xylorimbist

As a xylorimbist you put new pep into any party — "make" the school orchestra — maybe even pay your way through college.

She did not belong either to that gentler but more rhapsodic band who seek to extract strange worshipful music from the male, the xylorimbists or tympanists or flute players.

1999, Howard Jacobson, Peeping Tom, page 207:


dahu

A large bowed two-stringed chordophone of Chinese origin, a tenor part of the erhu family of instruments.


moly cow

From moly (informal term for molybdenum) + cow. The word cow alludes to the fact that the device “milks” technetium-99m from molybdenum-99: see quotations.

When the ⁹⁹Tcₘ isotope is needed for medical imaging purposes, it has to be created on the spot because its half-life is only six hours. This is done using a device filled with longer-lived ⁹⁹Mo, which decays into ⁹⁹Tcₘ, continually replenishing the supply within the device. Because the process of removing the accumulated ⁹⁹Tcₘ is called "milking", the device is informally known as a "moly cow."

2012, Theodore [W.] Gray, The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe, New York, N.Y.: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, →ISBN:

The radioactive isotope molybdenum-99 (half-life of 66 hours) decays to generate technetium-99m, which has a half-life of only six hours and is used in hospitals for medical imaging. The technetium isotope collects in various parts of the body, in particular bone. Scanners detect the radiation from the isotope to create an image, enabling diagnosis. The process uses a device that is filled with Mo-99, which decays into Tc-99m, forming a continuous supply that is ‘milked off’. The device is nicknamed the ‘moly cow’.

2013, Paul Parsons, Gail Dixon, The Periodic Table: A Field Guide to the Elements, London: Quercus, →ISBN:

Clearly, transporting the daughter in equilibrium with the parent is a more economical, safer, and environmentally friendlier approach. This is the reason that "technetium generators," dubbed "moly cows," are transported around the globe instead of the ⁹⁹ᵐTc isotope.

2013 November 6, Chary Rangacharyulu, “Radioactivity”, in Physics of Nuclear Radiations: Concepts, Techniques and Applications, Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN, page 43:

(chemistry, medicine, informal) A device used to extract from a source of decaying molybdenum-99 the metastable isotope ⁹⁹ᵐTc of technetium, which is the most commonly used medical radioisotope.


moon guitar

Calque from Chinese 月琴 (yuèqín), "moon-shaped stringed instrument".


yüeh-ch'in

yüeh-ch'in (usually uncountable, plural yüeh-ch'ins)

The Wade romanization of Mandarin 月琴 (yuèqín, literally “moon(-shaped) stringed instrument”).

bor

(music, obsolete) Alternative form of yueqin


yueqin

From the pinyin romanization of Mandarin 月琴 (yuèqín, literally “moon(-shaped) stringed instrument; moon guitar”).

(music) A small short-necked Chinese lute-like stringed instrument (chordophone) with a round, hollow wooden body and four strings in pairs in its traditional form, now more often with three or four unpaired strings.


so quiet one can hear a pin drop

one could hear a pin drop
one could hear a pin drop#English

Alternative form of one could hear a pin drop


noisenik

Bjork's musical dalliance with German punk noisenik Alec Empire has long been a point of contention for fans, many of whom resent the way he generally suffocates his source material with a giant cloud of distortion.

2003, Mark Pytlik, Bjork: Wow and Flutter:

(informal) A musician who produces harsh, discordant music.


neopsychedelia

The Bunnymen's tasteful neopsychedelia gained fans from Courtney Love to Pavement.

2004, Nathan Brackett, Christian David Hoard, The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, page 271:

(music) Music that emulates or is heavily influenced by the psychedelic music of the 1960s.


backstep

en-verb

backstep (third-person singular simple present backsteps, present participle backstepping, simple past and past participle backstepped)

backsteps (present singular third-person)
backstepping (participle present)
backstepped (participle past)
backstepped (past)

Le Vau is responsible for the jutting central core, while the wings that backstep so elegantly were designed Hardouin-Mansart.

2001, Giovanna Magi, All Paris, →ISBN, page 122:

To be arranged in steps going backwards.


polychoric

The polychoric motets of the Venetian school (Willaert, the Gabrielis, etc., some of whose motets are found in CW vol. 10 and IM vols. 1-2) furnish striking possibilities for multiple brass choirs.

1962, Brass Quarterly, volumes 5-6, page 116:

The brilliant polychoric canzona has contrasting sections of imitation and homophony; this evolved into the Baroque sonata.

1988, Harold Gleason, Warren Becker, Catherine Gleason, Music in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, page 142:

Here, a spatial polychoric effect is attained in an acoustical polarity between the deaconesses and missionaries in the "hallelujah corner" and the deacons in the "amen corner," or in churches where the seating arrangement is segregated by gender.

1990, Jon Michael Spencer, Protest & Praise: Sacred Music of Black Religion, page 235:

(music) Of or pertaining to the use of more than one chorus; that uses or is intended to use more than one chorus.


cerulein

en-noun

cerulein (usually uncountable, plural ceruleins)

A fast dyestuff with chemical formula C₂₀H₈O₆, made by heating gallein with strong sulfuric acid. It dyes mordanted fabrics green.


chillwave

From chill + -wave. Coined tongue-in-cheek on the blog Hipster Runoff in 2009.

As music created and shaped by the lens of blogs, music forums, and other forms of online comment, chillwave was subject to a backlash almost as soon as it had been labeled and defined.

2016, Sheila Whiteley, Shara Rambarran, editors, The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 418:

A genre of music of the late 2000s, characterized by effects processing, synthesizers, looping, sampling, and heavily filtered vocals with simple melodic lines.


fire beater

A simple tool for fighting wildfires, consisting of a piece of rubber at the end of a pole.


hosho

In the yard, unmarried uncles, cousins and aunts began on the drums and hosho in a circle, dancing and singing while individuals freestyled in the centre.

1988, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions, Faber & Faber Limited (2021), page 68:

(music) Either of a pair of gourds with seeds inside, used as musical instruments in Zimbabwe.


UK hardcore

A genre of electronic dance music that evolved in the United Kingdom from happy hardcore and rave.


shoosh

Many women hear the shoosh—shoosh of the unborn heart at the first prenatal exam and see the face of their moving, growing unborn child in an ultrasound image early in the second trimester.

1988, Camille S. Williams, “Abortion and Equality Under the Law”, in Neil L. York, editor, Toward A More Perfect Union: Six Essays on the Constitution, State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 151:

Shoosh! Shoosh! Ouch! The tragic deaths of Sonny Bono and Michael Kennedy remind us that sliding down the side of a mountain, like any recreational activity, must be approached with safety in mind.

2002, John C. Myre, Live Safely in a Dangerous World, Safety Times, →ISBN, page 182:


shoosh

As I drove through the vacant lot, the only sounds were the crunch of gravel beneath my tires and the yawp of blue jays overhead and the shoosh of wind through the pines.

2012 [1990], Scott Russell Sanders, “"After the Flood"”, in Earth Works: Selected Essays, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 97:

I'm a small sea captain, tasting the day's weather—battering rams at the seawall, a spray of grapeshot on my mother's brave geraniums, or the lulling shoosh-shoosh of a full mirrory pool

2008 [1962], Sylvia Plath, “Ocean 1212-W”, in Johnny Panic and the bible of dreams : short stories, prose, and diary excerpts, New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, →ISBN, page 20:

The only sound a skier brings to the woods is the occasional creak of a rucksack strap and the faint “shoosh” of skis gliding over the crisp snow.

1970, Pat Snook, “Ski Touring”, in National Wildlife, volume 8, numbers Dec 1969–Jan 1970, page 23:

He visually picked his way through the alpine, hearing the shoosh of his skis in the otherwise silent world.

2018, Dani Collins, On the Edge, Tule, →ISBN, page 34:


shoosh

en-verb

shoosh (third-person singular simple present shooshes, present participle shooshing, simple past and past participle shooshed)

shooshes (present singular third-person)
shooshing (participle present)
shooshed (participle past)
shooshed (past)

"Sh!"
"I won't shoosh!["]

1916, George Barr McCutcheon, From the Housetops, Chicago, New York: M. A. Donohue, page 110:

She raised two fingers to Boogaloo's lips, lightly touched them, shooshed him quiet.

2012, Fred Arroyo, “A Case of Consolation”, in Western Avenue and Other Fictions (Camino del Sol), Tucson: University of Arizona Press, →ISBN, page 8:

Actually, what she'd be telling him now was to get Ed home. Because he was really crying.
'Shoosh Ed, shoosh little Eddie-boy.'

2021, Breton Dukes, “What Sort of Man”, in What Sort of Man and other stories, Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press, →ISBN:

To shush, to hush, to be quiet; to tell someone to be quiet.


Hi-NRG

As a regular visitor to New York's Saint and resident at the newly opened Heaven in London, Levine also pioneered hi-NRG – the sound of gay dancefloors worldwide that was later co-opted by Stock, Aitken & Waterman and sold on as pre-teen pop.

2010, Bill Brewster, Frank Broughton, The Record Players: DJ Revolutionaries, Black Cat, →ISBN, page 81:

During the late 1980s Italo began fading away and some groups moved into the Hi-NRG genre, which combined high-paced Italo and house.

(music) A style of uptempo disco or electronic dance music that originated in the United States and United Kingdom in the late 1970s.


wizard rock

At this point, he swears, he had never heard of Harry and the Potters or any wizard rock.

2008, Melissa Anelli, Harry, A History, Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 128:

In 2002, the first wizard rock band, Harry and the Potters, formed.

2008, Susan Gunelius, Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon, Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 122:

An example of this can been seen in the ways the HPA members present participated in wizard rock performances that were broadcasted through the video feed.

2014, Jennifer Terrell, “The Harry Potter Alliance: Sociotechnical Contexts of Digitally Mediated Activism”, in Martha McCaughey, editor, Cyberactivism on the Participatory Web, Routledge, →ISBN, page 49:

A genre of music produced by fans of the Harry Potter series, characterized by costumed performances and humorous lyrics about characters, settings, and plot elements from the series.


wrock

There are, at present, dozens of these “wizard rock” or “wrock” bands, some of which tour nationally and internationally performing at small clubs, libraries and Harry Potter conferences and other special events.

2007, Racheline Maltese, The Book of Harry Potter Trifles, Trivias & Particularities, Volume 1, Sterling & Ross Publishers, →ISBN, page 175:

Not all wrock is punk wrock. There's plenty of stylistic diversity in the scene, which ranges from the electric girl pop of the Parselmouths to the darkly gleaming hip-hop of Swish and Flick.

2009 July 20, Lev Grossman, “The Boy Who Rocked”, in Time:

The phenomenon of wrock (wizard rock) within Harry Potter fandom has not yet produced mainstream crossovers.

2011, Aaron Schwabach, Fan Fiction and Copyright: Outsider Works and Intellectual Property Protection, Ashgate, →ISBN, page 78:

(fandom slang) A genre of music produced by fans of the Harry Potter series, characterized by costumed performances and humorous lyrics about characters, settings, and plot elements from the series.


blunket

en-noun

blunket (countable and uncountable, plural blunkets)

From Middle English plunket (noun), from plunket (“of a blue or greyish colour”, adj), perhaps the past participle of *plunken (“to cover with lead or lead-colouring”), from Old French plonquier, plonchier (“to cover with lead”), in imitation of Old French plunkié, plonquié (“lead-coloured", also "grey cloth”); ultimately from Latin plumbum (“lead”). The adjective is attested earlier than the noun, yet it remains unclear whether the fabric (which often retained the spelling plunket) gave its name to the color or the other way around. The word is similar to blanket (“cloth”), inviting speculation that it derives (like that word) from Old French blanchet, blanquet (“whitish”), but the most common form even as late as Early Modern English was blunket, and some early works seem to identify it as dark red or violet, which makes that theory phonologically and semantically problematic.

der

For quotations using this term, see Citations:blunket.

(obsolete) A color, generally a light bluish gray or blue or gray, but sometimes seemingly a dark red or violet.


Trock

Blend of Time Lord + rock, after the pattern of wrock.

Allegra is more of an indie upstart, "though (she's) one of the people who always comes up when you talk about Trock," says Perry Michael Simon, who edits "The Nerdist," comedian Chris Hardwick's popular, geek-centric website.

2011 December 14, Christopher Borrelli, “Allegra Rosenberg is all plugged in, ready to Trock”, in Chicago Tribune:

One of the more interesting activities is the writing of “Trock,” or Timelord rock, a genre of music well known among the show's fans that celebrates the show and its characters.

2012 December 26, Veronica Austin, “New club celebrates science fiction”, in The Issaquah Press, page B6:

The originators of the Trock phenomenon, Chameleon Circuit's ode to the TARDIS is a delightfully retro-eighties-sounding jaunt, Gary Numan with an even more one-track mind than the original.

2013, Dave Thompson, Doctor Who FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Most Famous Time Lord in the Universe, Applause Theatre and Cinema Bokos, →ISBN:

(fandom slang) A genre of music produced by fans of the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, characterized by lyrics about its characters, settings, and plot elements.


Heepster

From Heep + -ster, possibly as a play on hipster.

Dave White takes up the story: “The Heepsters on the Web are the Uriah Heep fans around the world, who use the internet to exchange messages and feelings about the wonderful and inspiring music of Uriah Heep. […]

2002, Dave Ling, Uriah Heep - Uncensored On the Record, Coda Books, published 2011, →ISBN:

"We will try to cover 35 years," was Uriah Heep's promise to all Heepsters who turned up on a chilly Bangalore evening to listen to them live after a gap of 22 years.

2006 February 9, Anand Sankar, “Uriah Heep enthralls fans in city”, in The Hindu:

16-minute epic featuring a 22-piece orchestra, and a lengthy guitar solo by Mick Box that many Heepsters (a term used by fans of the band to refer to each other) consider his finest performance, […]

2009, William Phillips, Brian Cogan, Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal Music, Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 243:

(slang) A fan of the English rock band Uriah Heep.


Modie

Any true Modie (such as myself) will tell you that Martin Gore is the songwriter, singer on most of the slower tunes and the all-round token weird guy (he's the dude with the cauliflower haircut).

1993 February 21, Gopalan Balaji, “Re: Depeche Mode Video”, in alt.music.alternative (Usenet):

I was having a spirited discussion with a fellow Modie the other night and he said to me that he *HATED* "Songs of Faith and Devotion" because it wasn't "Violator".

1999 August 26, Grrlmitzi [username], “SoFaD vs the rest”, in alt.music.depeche-mode (Usenet):

I'm glad to read a life sign from another Dutch Modie […]

1999 November 23, Erik Hagebeek, “Re: Hi, we're Dutch, sorry for that!”, in alt.music.depeche-mode (Usenet):

(slang) A fan of the English electronic band Depeche Mode.


tocking

The clicking sound of the hands of a clock.


Maniloony

The studio audience, packed with his diehard fans, the "Maniloonies," went wild.

1998, George Mair, Rosie O'Donnell: Her True Story, Carol Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 223:

“A fellow Fanilow!”
“Look how young she is! A mini Maniloony!”

2009, Megan McCafferty, Perfect Fifths, Crown Publishers, →ISBN, page 35:

I don't like everything he does, I'm not one of Barry's 'Maniloonies', and neither is Nell, but I think everyone agrees that 'Could It Be Magic?' is a great song.

2012, Graham Rawle, The Card, Atlantic Books, →ISBN:

(fandom slang) A fan of American singer-songwriter Barry Manilow.


Ringhead

And Ringheads aren't the only ones who are drawn to Wagner: only Hitler and Shakespeare have attracted so many biographers, analysts and apologists.

2005 August 7, Melinda Bargreen, “Ringheads have fiery devotion”, in The Seattle Times:

Ringheads, also known as Wagnolaters, often travel the world to hear the cycle, reserving special devotion for Bayreuth, Germany, where Wagner’s own theater stands.

2008 April 10, Daniel J. Wakin, “‘Ring’ Fans and the Met Lock Horns Over Ticket Rule”, in The New York Times:

Sherwin Sloan retired early as an ophthalmologist to pursue an obsession that bestowed another title — leader of the "Ringheads," a nickname for fans of Richard Wagner's four-opera cycle known as "The Ring."

2010 June 5, Valerie J. Nelson, “Wagner fan led 'Ringheads'”, in Chicago Tribune:

(slang) A fan of the opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner.


Fanilow

I am a huge Fanilow and had the good fortune of meeting and spending a little time with Barry a few years ago.

2011, Elise Ballard, Epiphany: True Stories of Sudden Insight to Inspire, Encourage, and Transform, Harmony Books, →ISBN, page 233:

You don't have to be one of the almost obsessive “Fanilows” to be totally won over by Barry Manilow's latest Vegas show at Paris Las Vegas.

2011, Rick Garman, Las Vegas for Dummies, Wiley Publishing, →ISBN, page 248:


Ringnut

From ring + nut, by analogy with wingnut.

27. Sit next to a ringnut and ask "so what's the deal with the ring?" every time it comes on the screen

2003 December 22, toto, “Fun for non-Tolkien fans (was Re: DON'T PUT SPOILERS IN SUBJECT LINES)”, in misc.kids (Usenet):

And to borrow a LotR reference for a moment -- and forgive me, 'cause I'm just a casual fan of the LotR movies, not a Ringnut -- Emily is Bilbo to Lorelai's Frodo and Rory's Sam.

2004 March 18, Rob Jensen, “Re: Yesterday episode”, in alt.tv.gilmore-girls (Usenet):

And I'm sure I'll get plenty of hate mail for single-handedly declaring all Ringnuts and Jackson fanboys are losers when I'm the guy spending time writing a review to post on the Internet, but hey, I never said I wasn't a hypocrite.

2006 August 26, webmaster@themovieaddict.com, “Retrospective: Dead Alive (1992)”, in rec.arts.movies.reviews (Usenet):

(slang, humorous or derogatory) A fan of the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien and/or the film trilogy based on it.


Wagnerite

Coordinate term: Wagnerism

The magic and charm of Bayreuth will never vanish. It is an experience every music lover in general and every Wagnerite in particular owes to himself at least once in a lifetime.

1999 August 23, Michael Ajzenstadt, “Bayreuth's magic endures”, in The Jerusalem Post:

As always, this year's 30 performances were sold out well before curtain time, with nearly 60,000 Wagnerites paying hundreds of euros for the best tickets.

2005 July 31, George Jahn, “Wagner festival attracts stars and opera lovers”, in Deseret News:

Herrmann, like many Wagnerites, started listening to opera as a youngster: "My father played the old 78 rpm recordings for me, and had me read the Edda [Old Norse sagas, one of Wagner's major sources for his 'Ring']."

An admirer of the German composer Richard Wagner or his work.


shehnai

From Hindi शहनाई (śahnāī), from Persian شهنای (šahnāi).

The next seven days the shehnais played in the Naupatkhana and every morning I offered my prayers to the founder of our dynasty […]

1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 125:

(music) An ancient reeded woodwind instrument from India with a long slim body and bulbous sound bowl, with or without keys.


angklung

A percussion instrument, originally from Indonesia, made of two bamboo tubes attached to a bamboo frame.


stylee

In state-of-the-art dance hall, the bass booms like electrified tympani, the snare gets busy inna quasimilitary techno stylee […]

Thrill as Babyface protégé Jon B sings "Pride & Joy" inna ragga stylee, and keep in mind that hardcore reggae (see last year's blockbuster "Who Am I") makes the best crossover.

1999, SPIN, volume 15, number 8, page 155:

CMJ New Music Monthly
A cornucopia of hyped-up breakbeats, keyboard squiggles, surf grooves, dancehall stylee, dumb loops and much atonal shouting along, Far In dares you not to smile.


tamburica

Any of a family of long-necked lutes popular in Eastern and Central Europe.


Lambeg drum

Named after the village of Lambeg in County Antrim.

A large Irish drum beaten with curved Malacca canes.


octaviation

(music) The repetition of a chord an octave higher or lower than the original.


Gibsonesque

en-adj

Gibsonesque (comparative more Gibsonesque, superlative most Gibsonesque)

more Gibsonesque (comparative)
most Gibsonesque (superlative)

(music) Reminiscent of the guitars made by the Gibson Guitar Corporation.


betavoltaic

pertaining to electricity of beta rays from beta radiation due to beta particles


graser

Acronym of Gamma Ray Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

acronym

The Russians are working on the graser. One B. V. Chirkov has published a theoretical study in the Soviet Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics. He thinks a very pure crystal, "pumped" with a powerful source of radiation (such a "hard" X rays), much as a ruby crystal is pumped with high-intensity light in one form of laser, could be stimulated to emit coherent gamma rays—pulses of high-energy radiation perfectly in step.

1964 February, Wallace Cloud, “Science newsfront”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 184, number 2, →ISSN, page 29:

Not lasers. Grasers. Gamma Ray Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

1974 October, Harlan Ellison, “Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W”, in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, volume 47, number 4, page 59:

electromagnetic radiation
electromagnetic radiation

(physics, science fiction) A device for the coherent amplification or generation of electromagnetic radiation in the gamma ray wavelength by the use of excitation energy in resonant atomic or molecular systems.


urucum

Martius found most dressed in bits of clothing, their hair wildly tangled and their faces dyed red with urucum.

2006, William Bryant, The Birds of Paradise: Alfred Russel Wallace: a Life, page 67:

They paint them, or at least parts of them, with urucum (reddish) plant dye or even their own blood if there are no urucum plants nearby.

2012, Daniel Everett, Language: The Cultural Tool, Profile, published 2013, page 122:

Bixin results from lycopene oxidation and it is the main carotenoid found in the seed coat of urucum fruits (Bixa orellana L.), which is cultivated in tropical countries of South and Central America, Africa and Asia.

2013, Uchoa et al., ‘Antioxidant Properties of Singlet Oxygen Suppressors’, in Natural Antioxidants and Biocides from Wild Medicinal Plants, p. 78


fireworthiness

The state, condition, or quality of being fireworthy.


molimo

A bent trumpet-like musical instrument used in sacred ceremonies among the Baka people.


sunstead

From sun + stead (“place, point, spot, position”).

compound

Now was it the season of the yeer past sun-stead in summer and neer unto the houre of noon-stead in the day, so as they journeyed in a way full of dust, when the sun was exceeding hot; and even now they began to feel thirst and weariness already.

1600, Livy, translated by Philemon Holland, The Romane Historie, London: Printed by Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 1193:

The summer-sunnestead falleth out alwaies [in Italie] to be just upon the foure and twentie day of June, at what time as the sunne is entred eight degrees within Cancer.

1635, Pliny the Elder; Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the VVorld: Commonly Called, the Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. Translated into English by Philemon Holland Doctor of Physicke, London: Printed by Adam Islip, and are to be sold by Iohn Grismond, in Ivy-lane at the signe of the Gun, OCLC 926240555, book XVIII, chapter xxvi; cited in Edward Smedley; Hugh James Rose; Henry John Rose, editors, Encyclopædia Metropolitana; or, Universal Dictionary of Knowledge, on an Original Plan: Comprising the Twofold Advantage of a Philosophical and an Alphabetical Arrangement, with Appropriate Engravings, volume XXV (Miscellaneous and Lexicographical, volume 12), London: B. Fellowes [et al.], 1845, OCLC 20598255, page 237

Sun-ſteads or Tropicks

1657, Plutarch, “The Table”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonly Called, the Morals, Written by the Learned Philosopher, Plutarch of Chæronea. Translated out of Greeke into English, and Conferred with the Latine Translations, and the French, by Philemon Holland, Doctor of Physicke. Whereunto are Annexed the Summaries Necessary to be Read Before Every Treatise. Newly Revised and Corrected, 2nd rev. and corr. edition, London: Printed by S. G. for J. Kirton, and are to be sold at his shop, at the Kings Armes in Saint Paules Church-yard, →OCLC, page 1161:

The Summer Solstice is the central point of the tropic (trepo, to turn), which begins upon the festival of Barnaby bright, and continues for three weeks. […] According to Olympiodorus, an Egyptian of the fifth century, the rising of the Dog-star was just twenty days after the estival "sunsted."

1832, The Anniversary Calendar, Natal Book, and Universal Mirror: Embracing Anniversaries of Persons, Events, Institutions, and Festivals, of All Denominations, Historical, Sacred, and Domestic, in Every Period and State of the World, from the Creation to the Present Age. … In Two Volumes, volume I, London: William Kidd, 228, Regent Street, →OCLC, page 413:

Sun-stead = solstice.

1859, Philological Society, Proposal for the Publication of a New English Dictionary by the Philological Society, London: Trübner and Co., 60 Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page 12:

Sirius in the mouth of the watch dog vied in the dignity and importance of the significance of its ascent with the midnight appearance of Vindemiatrix in the left elbow of the headless virgin, on the horizon at the winter "sunstead" of six months later.

1908, Frank Pierce Foster with Charles Euchariste de Medicis Sajous, International Record of Medicine and General Practice Clinics, volume 88, New York, N.Y.: MD Publications, →OCLC, page 156:

Solitary Winter Sunstead and Yule (December 21) If a follower of the Old Way cannot find others of like mind to share a seasonal ritual in honor of High Valhalla, this rite may be performed by the solitary individual […]

1990, Ed Fitch, The Rites of Odin, St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn Publications, →ISBN, page 178:


flashfire

A sudden, intense fire caused by the ignition of flammable substances in the air.


blackline

From black + line; compare redline, greenline.

A second squad uses drip torches to begin burning a 15- to 20-foot barrier or “blackline” inside the wetline.

2011, Colorado Outdoors, volumes 49-50, page 11:

The helicopter is used to burn blacklines when the relative humidity is above 50%, temperature is below 50 degrees F, and wind speed is less than 6 mph.

1991, Rangeland Technology Equipment Council Annual Report, USDA Forest Service:

(firefighting) A line of deliberately burned material created to stop the advance of a larger fire.


cratedigger

/ˈkɹeɪtdɪɡə/

/ˈkɹeɪtˌdɪɡəɹ/

Serious vinyl collectors will have a minor epiphany at Car City Classics[…], where notorious crate-diggers like the UK's Kirk Degiorgio (a.k.a. As One) have been known to close the store.

1998 April, Scott Sterling, “Localzine: Detroit, Michigan”, in Scott Frampton, editor, CMJ New Music Monthly, Great Neck, N.Y.: College Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 77:

Our audience tends to be what I would call ‘crate diggers’—people who like digging for new stuff.

2001 November 3, Brian Garrity, quoting Derrick Oien, “MP3.com Recasts Itself as Tech Outfit, Promo Vehicle”, in Timothy White, editor, Billboard: The International Newsweekly of Music, Video and Home Entertainment, volume 113, number 44, New York, N.Y.: Billboard Music Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 71, column 4:

A little crate-diggers’ paradise for collectors of Latin and easy listening music on vinyl.

2003, Fiona McAuslan, Matthew Norman, Sarah Lazarus, “Havana and around”, in The Rough Guide to Cuba, 2nd edition, London: Rough Guides, →ISBN, page 154:

Long a crate-digger’s grail and never before available on CD, this is one obscurity that really lives up to the hype.

2008, Signal to Noise: The Journal of Improvised and Experimental Music, South Hero, Vt.: Pete Gershon, →OCLC, page 103:

But it was a chance encounter with Gilles Peterson, an influential U.K. radio personality and cratedigger with a knack for discovering raw talent, that helped move his [José James's] career into high gear.

2010 April 3, David J. Prince, “All that Jazz: Jose James Covers the Classics”, in Craig Marks, editor, Billboard, volume 122, number 13, New York, N.Y.: e5 Global Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 27, column 1:

The Beehive is half of a two-room shop that also contains Casbah Records, where cratediggers can flick through stacks of vinyl records while their friends or partners try on clothes next door.

2013 May, Frances Ambler, Emily Bick, Samantha Cook, Nicholas Jones, Lara Kavanagh, “South London”, in Wayne Hemingway, editor, The Rough Guide to Vintage London, London: Rough Guides, →ISBN, part 1 (Shopping, Eating and Drinking), page 94:

(music, slang) A person who habitually looks through crates of vinyl records at music shops, especially in pursuit of interesting or rare records.


floghera

(music) A Greek folk instrument of the end-blown flute family; a simple form of recorder.


tamborim

A small, round Brazilian frame drum of Portuguese and African origin.


spike fiddle

(music) Any of a number of stringed instruments in which the handle passes diametrically through the resonator and which are played with a bow.


murky bass

(music) Intervals, each containing a low note followed by the pitch that is one octave higher, played on a keyboard, especially a harpsichord


tingsha

One of a pair of small cymbals bound by a strap or chain, used in prayer and rituals by Tibetan Buddhist practitioners.


fly ash

From fly (“(obsolete) act of flying”, noun) + ash.

Heat exchangers should be kept free of debris to minimize the possibility of fire. Fly ash deposited in heat exchangers may cause nonuniform temperatures. Therefore, the exchangers should be disconnected and cleaned out regularly.

1956 December, Edmund F. Rasmussen [et al.], “Heating System”, in Inspection and Maintenance of Lumber Dry Kilns and Equipment: Information on Ways and Means of Keeping Lumber Dry Kilns Operating Efficiently (Report no. 1900-4), Madison, Wis.: Forest Products Laboratory, Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture in association with the University of Wisconsin, →OCLC, page 19:

Among new freight vehicles was a prototype 21-ton wagon with pressure discharge for the conveyance of fly ash from power stations, […]

1964 August, “BR [British Rail] in 1963 – ‘We have Turned the Financial Corner’”, in Modern Railways, Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 115:

Furnaces and boilers with horizontal heating surfaces require frequent cleaning, because fly ash (fine powdery ash) collects on these surfaces.

1975 May, Joseph W[inslow] Simons, “Fuels and Burners”, in Home Heating: Systems, Fuels, Controls (Farmers’ Bulletin; no. 2235), Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 19, column 2:

Besides our sending out of cement by rail, we also bring in pulverised fly-ash, typically once a week, which comes from Drax Power Station and is used in the cement manufacturing process, […]

2022 September 7, Gareth David, “Class 20 Stronghold in the Peak District”, in Rail, number 965, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 45:

A residue generated in the combustion of powdered coal or other materials, comprising the fine particles that rise with the flue gases; when generated industrially it is usually captured and can be recycled for use in construction materials.


porphyrous

en-adj

porphyrous (comparative more porphyrous, superlative most porphyrous)

more porphyrous (comparative)
most porphyrous (superlative)


tresillo

(music) A type of Latin American musical rhythm consisting of three-beat units.


xiqin

Borrowed from the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 奚琴 (xīqín). Doublet of haegeum.

An ancient Chinese vertical bowed string instrument with two strings.


tickle the dragon's tail

en-verb

tickle the dragon's tail (third-person singular simple present tickles the dragon's tail, present participle tickling the dragon's tail, simple past and past participle tickled the dragon's tail)

tickles the dragon's tail (present singular third-person)
tickling the dragon's tail (participle present)
tickled the dragon's tail (participle past)
tickled the dragon's tail (past)

Los Alamos National Laboratory
Louis Slotin

From the obvious risk of tickling a dragon's tail. In physics, it was coined by American physicist Richard Feynman to describe the experiments of Louis Slotin at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

coin

The laboratory head tickles the dragon's tail whenever we have guests as a show of machismo.

Every real boy likes to tickle the dragon's tail. Maybe I was a little old for it, but that's what I was doing there in the Moran III jungle. I got the shield off my cigarette lighter and jerked out the dinky little damper rods for the pile and started easing the two little bricks toward each other with the point of my lead pencil

1957, Jim Harman, “Break a Leg”, in Galaxy Magazine, volume 6, numbers 1-6, page 130:

PHYSICIST SLOTIN (manipulating the two hemispheres of the bomb at a table): Come closer. Watch me tickle the Dragon's tail

1993, James Erwin Schevill, 5 Plays 5, page 52:

And so it happened that Japan and the United States had also tickled the dragon's tail. The two subcritical masses called pride and cultural misunderstanding had been shoved together into one critical mass.

1995, George Robert Caron, Charlotte E. Meares, Fire of a Thousand Suns: The George R. "Bob" Caron Story, page 219:

Were this assembly functional, a person might manipulate the bricks of the radiant castlelike structure to slow down the neutrons, to "tickle the dragon's tail," as Morland writes

2003, Jonathan P. Binstock, Jim Sanborn, Atomic Time: Pure Science and Seduction, page 13:

(nuclear physics) To bring two subcritical masses close together in order to find the edge of criticality.


sunlighting

The amount of illumination provided by sunlight.


sunlighting

From sunlight + -ing, modelled on earlier moonlighting.

Working at another job when taking time off from one's regular (day) job.


phatness

Once you experience the phatness a bass amp can inject into a signal, […]

2013, Chris Buono, The Guitarist's Guide to Line 6 Studio Tools, Cengage, →ISBN, page 196:

He's always telling Beth about the enormity of his next gig and the extraordinary phatness of his latest beats, and to be fair he can drop a good tune.

2013, Exquisite Corpse, or, How Not to Kill Your Neighbours, Blackfriars, →ISBN:

But if a sound source is a little thin, and needs some warmth, body, or “phatness,” a tube mic could provide useful “sonic makeup.”

2015, Ian Corbett, Mic It!: Microphones, Microphone Techniques, and Their Impact on the Final Mix, Focal Press, →ISBN, page 76:

(slang, music) Fullness, richness, body.


radiation impedance

en-noun

radiation impedance (countable and uncountable, plural radiation impedances)

(acoustics) The impedance of any vibrating solid or fluid that radiates sound in the surrounding medium.


radwaste

radwaste (countable and uncountable, plural radwastes)


xenharmonics

Why, I can't even call myself avant-garde or experimental these days because that does not imply escaping the 12-tone squirrelcage; so I had to introduce the term xenharmonics to mean something that SOUNDS different.

1978 September 20, Ivor Darreg, “A Xenharmonist's Message to the Computer Musicians”, in Computer Music Journal, volume 2, number 2, The MIT Press:

(music, rare) Xenharmonic music generally.


ton-up boy

(historical) A member of the British rocker subculture of the mid-twentieth century.


howlround

(electronics) A high-pitched squeal produced by feedback when a microphone is too close to its connected speakers.


aggrotech

Modern industrial music subgenres and fusion-genres include EBM, futurepop, power-noise, aggrotech (terror-EBM), coldwave, elektro, dark-electro, and industrial-metal. Yes, it can be quite confusing.

2007, Raven Digitalis, Goth Craft: The Magickal Side of Dark Culture, page 37:

[…] a substantial offering of futurepop (e.g., Covenant, Wolfsheim, VNV Nation, Apoptygma Bezerk), a smattering of aggrotech (e.g. Suicide Commando, Combichrist), and a number of other subgenres.

2015, Isabella van Elferen, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Goth Music: From Sound to Subculture:

A genre of hard electronic dance music influenced by industrial music.


nu gaze

A form of alternative rock music originating in the 2000s and drawing influence from the shoegazing scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s.


ugly stick

You may also find an authentic ugly stick. It's masterfully constructed with beer stoppers, duct tape, a tobacco can, and a few pieces of wood. It just is…

1988 June 17, Stephen Day, “Folk Music Revived at Bridgett’s”, in The Muse, volume 38, number 23, St. John’s, N.L.: Council of the Students Union, Memorial University of Newfoundland, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 7, column 4:

Nobody's invited; everybody just comes. And there's no real planning, because the folks that come bring food and music with them. There are fiddles and squeezeboxes and ugly sticks and sometimes even drums to make the music.

2010, Penny Draper, “Bella”, in Laura Peetoom, editor, A Terrible Roar of Water (Disaster Strikes; 5), Regina, Sask.: Coteau Books, →ISBN, page 57:

A lot of you know what it is. It's an ugly stick. And you can see why. [laughter] Anyway, basically what it is is an old mop, or a new one if you're playing at the Arts and Culture Centre [prolonged laughter and clapping.] And it's an old juice can with some black tape over it. A handful of three and a half inch nails. Some felt tins, beer stoppers, wherever they came from [laughter], and that's about it, and it's supposed to make some music.

2011 December, Annie Rosalind McEwen, quoting Doug Dunne, “The Concert”, in “There Was More Strength in Singing”: Community, Identity, and the Performance of Memory in the Folk of the Sea Choir, 1994–2000 (unpublished Master of Arts thesis), St. John’s, N.L.: Department of Folklore, Memorial University of Newfoundland, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-06-28, pages 64–65:

In the main room a traditional Newfoundland band was playing regional folk music. People were dancing and singing and having the best time. Everyone looked so happy as they passed around the "Ugly Stick," a traditional musical instrument made from household and tool shed items like a mop handle with bottle caps, tin cans, small bells and other items to make noise. […] I'm not sure I've ever felt happier than I did while I was banging the boot with the stick attached on the floor, the nailed on bottle caps clinking to the rhythm of the folk song the band was playing.

2017, Patti Leo Bath, “Keeping Up with the Newfies”, in Amy Newmark, Janet Matthews, compilers, Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Spirit of Canada: 101 Stories of Love and Gratitude, Cos Cob, Conn.: Chicken Soup for the Soul, →ISBN, part 5 (We’re All in This Together), page 172:

(Canada, music) A traditional Newfoundland musical instrument fashioned from household and toolshed items, typically a mop handle attached with bottle caps, small bells, tin cans, etc., which are struck with a drumstick while one end of the handle is hit against the floor.


black as night

I wanna see it painted / painted black / black as night / black as coal

1966, The Rolling Stones (lyrics and music), “Paint It, Black”, in Aftermath:


slendro

Borrowed from Javanese ꦱ꧀ꦭꦺꦤ꧀ꦢꦿꦺꦴ (sléndro). In Javanese the term is said to derive either from "Sailendra", the name of the ruling family in the eighth and ninth centuries when Borobudur was built, or from its earlier being given by the god Sang Hyang Hendra.

bor+

(music) A pentatonic scale, the older of the two most common scales used in Indonesian gamelan music, the other being pelog.


Baily's beads

In honour of Francis Baily, who first fully explained the phenomenon in 1836.

(astronomy) A feature of total solar eclipses. As the moon "grazes" by the sun during a solar eclipse, the rugged lunar limb topography allows beads of sunlight to shine through in some places and not in others.


reed pipe

An organ pipe that is sounded by a vibrating brass strip known as a reed.


hammer blast

(music) A blast beat played as a roll of straight eighth notes with the kick and snare in unison.


barre chord

(music) A guitar chord played by pressing down multiple strings on the fretboard.


hurdy-gurdyist

viellist

in the context of French people or French music


lirnyk

Borrowed from Ukrainian лірник (lirnyk).

(historical) An itinerant Ukrainian musician who performed religious, historical and epic songs to the accompaniment of a lira, the Ukrainian version of the hurdy-gurdy.


P-Funk

Blend of parliament + funkadelic, from the names of two of the original bands associated with this style of music.

(music) A style of funk music associated with the Parliament-Funkadelic collective in the 1970s and early 1980s.


kaseko

Ultimately from French casser le corps ("break the body"), referring to a swift dance during the period when slavery was legal in the region.

A musical genre from Suriname, a fusion of African, European and American styles.


black diamond

en-noun

black diamond (countable and uncountable, plural black diamonds)

Carbonado, a natural diamond that is black in color.

conspicuous consumption
conspicuous consumption

(South Africa, derogatory) A member of the new affluent black middle class in South Africa, characterized by conspicuous consumption.


Nelsonian

(music) The Nelsonian, a one-man-band multi-instrument designed by Albert Nelson for multi-instrumentalists and one-man bands.


HC

(music, subculture) Abbreviation of hardcore.


Moffic

i've just been working on my novel more than my moffic story, cuz... well, the novel might actually make me some money some day, and the moffic won't :oX

2000 March 28, MMMBopJenn [username], “jenn update :oX”, in alt.music.moffatts (Usenet):

you write moffic better then^([sic]) anyone on^([sic]) the galaxy.

2000 May 31, Kaleeeeeee [username], “HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENN@#!(@*!_@$#*&$”, in alt.music.moffatts (Usenet):

There's soo much more Hanfic out there than Moffic.

2001 October 2, Erin, “LOL the Moffatts have published fanfiction - OT”, in alt.fan.hanson (Usenet):

(rare, fandom slang) Real person fiction focusing on the imagined activities of the Canadian band The Moffatts.


dotaku

A richly-decorated Japanese bell made from thin bronze


Hanfic

Hanfic (countable and uncountable, plural Hanfics)

I just finished and posted my very first Hanfic and I am really looking to get as much feedback as possible --- positive AND negative.

1998 December 31, ChloeNZoey [username], “Fanfic help”, in alt.fan.hanson (Usenet):

I'm not sure I've ever read a Hanfic like that.

1999 July 25, Eryn, “Re: I like this story”, in alt.fan.hanson (Usenet):

Oh, speaking of Lauries and books, someone here needs to read 'Say Goodbye.' I believe it's by Lewis Shiner, and it's like a Hanfic without the Han.

2001 June 18, NiaRhiannon, “Re: the perks of being..a wallflower..”, in alt.fan.hanson (Usenet):

(countable, fandom slang) A work of real person fiction focusing on the imagined activities of the American band Hanson.


chiff

In all these adjustments, the voicer must have regard to the steady sound of the pipe, to its promptness of speech, and to the presence or absence of any desired starting transient or chiff.

1998, N.H. Fletcher, T.D Rossing, The Physics of Musical Instruments, Springer Science & Business Media, page 570:

(music) The characteristic sound made as part of the attack of certain notes on the organ.


quasi-stellar radio-source

quasi-stellar radio-source (plural quasi-stellar radio-sources)

From quasi- + stellar + radio + source, from its appearance as a point-like object similar to a star, which is also a source of radio-energy, but with a spectrum unlike that found in a star.


fairy light

From the similarity of such a light to a fairy lamp (small candle lamp).

(usually in the plural) One of a set of decorative electric lights attached along the length of a cable.


baroque pop

(music) A subgenre of pop music that incorporates elements of classical music.


pyrodiversity

Despite ambiguities in reconstructing presuppression fire behavior, there is wide agreement that a century of fire-suppression management has resulted in a large increase of dead and living fuel, increasing the probability of surface fires becoming crown fires of greater areal extent and intensity. That is, "pyrodiversity" has declined from a once wide spectrum over space, time, and intensity. The likely consequence is that biodiversity has declined as well (Martin and Sapsis 1992).

2000, Michael G. Barbour, Richard A. Minnich, “Californian Upland Forests and Woodlands”, in North American Terrestrial Vegetation, pages 180–181:

Some scientists suggest that pyrodiversity (the diversity in frequency, scale, season, and type of fire) leads to great biodiversity of plant species and vegetation types.

2005, Kat Anderson, Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources, page 18:

Consequently, as we see later in this book, Native Californians experimented with pyrodiversity practices in an attempt to diversify plant and animal resources and to minimize the risks of serious food shortages through storage, trade, and mass harvests when resources were plentiful.

2009, Kent G. Lightfoot, California Indians and Their Environment: An Introduction, page 70:

(ecology) A variation in the kinds of fire, whether produced by natural conditions or controlled burning, in an environment or ecosystem.


librettistic

en-adj

librettistic (comparative more librettistic, superlative most librettistic)

more librettistic (comparative)
most librettistic (superlative)