lineup

After losing half the lineup, the band went on hiatus before reemerging in late 1991 with a new lineup of Goss, bassist Googe and the legendary Ginger Baker of Cream and Blind Faith on drums.

2013, Pete Crigler, Majorlabelland And Assorted Oddities, page 36:

Honing the band's anthemic sound and stance, they relocated to Richmond and created a solid lineup.

2014, Kevin Prested, Punk USA: The Rise and Fall of Lookout Records, page 79:

Throughout their career, Pearl Jam has experienced a number of lineup changes, and the band has had several members come and go over the years.

2023, Zander Pearce, The Journey Of Pearl Jam — From Grunge To Glory:

(music) The members of a music group at any one time.


ditty

From Middle English dite, ditee, from Old French ditie or dité, from ditier, from Latin dictāre (participle dictatus).

O, too high ditty for my simple rime.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 50:

A saying or utterance, especially one that is short and frequently repeated.


ditty

en-verb

ditty (third-person singular simple present ditties, present participle dittying, simple past and past participle dittied)

ditties (present singular third-person)
dittying (participle present)
dittied (participle past)
dittied (past)

Beasts fain would sing; birds ditty to their notes.

[1633], George Herbert, edited by [Nicholas Ferrar], The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […], →OCLC:


plop

en-noun

plop (countable and uncountable, plural plops)

Imitative of the sound, or perhaps a variant of plap.

onom

Imitative

He heard the plops of rain on the roof.

(countable) A sound or action like liquid hitting a hard surface, or an object falling into a body of water.


plop

en-verb

plop (third-person singular simple present plops, present participle plopping, simple past and past participle plopped)

plops (present singular third-person)
plopping (participle present)
plopped (participle past)
plopped (past)

onom

Imitative

Stooping, she picked up another pebble, sounded out the word again, and tossed it into the shallow water near the path, where it plopped into the water, sending out circles from where it fell.

2012, Augusta Trobaugh, Music From Beyond The Moon, page 43:

To make the sound of an object dropping into a body of liquid.


plop

Imitative

"[A]fter a bit the old ship went down all on a sudden with a lurch to starboard---plop. The suck in was something awful."

1900, Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, page xiii. 110:

Indicating the sound of something plopping.


deejay

Pronunciation spelling of the abbreviation DJ.


moonlight

en-noun

moonlight (usually uncountable, plural moonlights)

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

inh

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She passed away noiselessly, and the moonlight kissed the wall which her shadow had dimmed.

1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter 13, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(sometimes attributive) The light reflected from the Moon.

月ぬ光

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

kuusära

attributive: illuminated by the light from the moon


moonlight

en-verb

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

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

(British, dated) To carry out undeclared work.


root beer

en-noun

root beer (countable and uncountable, plural root beers)

/ˈɹuːt ˌbɪə/

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

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

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

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


jingle

/ˈd͡ʒɪŋɡ(ə)l/

The verb, which is older than the noun, is from Middle English gyngle. Onomatopoeic; compare jangle.

He heard the jingle of her keys in the door and turned off the screen.

The sound of metal or glass clattering against itself.

Her tambourine didn't come with any jingles attached.

(music) A small piece of metal attached to a musical instrument, such as a tambourine, so as to make a jangling sound when the instrument is played.

sonall

That used-car dealership's jingle has been stuck in my head since we heard that song.

The best of friends become the worst of enemies when Barney makes a hilarious attack ad where he viciously pummels a cardboard cut-out of Homer before special guest star Linda Ronstadt joins the fun to both continue the attack on the helpless Homer stand-in and croon a slanderously accurate, insanely catchy jingle about how “Mr. Plow is a loser/And I think he is a boozer.”

2012 June 3, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Mr. Plow” (season 4, episode 9; originally aired 11/19/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(broadcasting, advertising, music) A memorable short song, or in some cases a snippet of a popular song with its lyrics modified, used for the purposes of advertising a product or service in a TV or radio commercial.

Give me a jingle when you find out something.


jingle

en-verb

jingle (third-person singular simple present jingles, present participle jingling, simple past and past participle jingled)

jingles (present singular third-person)
jingling (participle present)
jingled (participle past)
jingled (past)

/ˈd͡ʒɪŋɡ(ə)l/

The beads jingled as she walked.

He heard then a warm heavy sigh, softer, as she turned over and the loose brass quoits of the bedstead jingled. Must get those settled really.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[IV]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 54:

(intransitive) To make a noise of metal or glass clattering against itself.

дрънча

She jingled the beads as she walked.

(transitive) To cause to make a noise of metal or glass clattering against itself.

klirre

to cause to make a noise of metal or glass clattering against itself


camera flash

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


photoautotroph

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

confix

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

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

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


repetiteur

(music, theater) A tutor or coach of ballet dancers or opera singers.


thermoluminescence

en-noun

thermoluminescence (countable and uncountable, plural thermoluminescences)

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


caterwaul

From Middle English caterwrawen, from cater (“cat”) + wrawen, wrawlen (“cry like a cat”), equivalent to cat + waul. Compare Low German katerwaulen (“to cry like a cat”) and Middle Dutch cater (“tomcat”) (Dutch kater).


wonky

From English dialectal wanky, alteration of Middle English wankel (“unstable, shaky”), from Old English wancol (“unstable”), from Proto-West Germanic *wankul (“swaying, shaky, unstable”).

inh

By the late 2000s, dubstep had splintered into numerous factions, from brostep to wonky to the evocative “purple,” […]

2015, Jan Kyrre Berg O. Friis, Robert P. Crease, Technoscience and Postphenomenology: The Manhattan Papers:

(music) A subgenre of electronic music employing unstable rhythms, complex time signatures, and mid-range synths.


whoosh

onomatopoeic

imitative

The snow burst through the trees with no warning but a last-second whoosh of sound, a two-story wall of white and Chris Rudolph’s piercing cry: “Avalanche! Elyse!”

2012, John Branch, “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in The New York Times:

A breathy sound like that of an object passing at high speed.


whoosh

en-verb

whoosh (third-person singular simple present whooshes, present participle whooshing, simple past and past participle whooshed)

whooshes (present singular third-person)
whooshing (participle present)
whooshed (participle past)
whooshed (past)

onomatopoeic

imitative

(intransitive) To make a breathy sound like a whoosh or extrude with such a sound.

Twitter whooshed your tweet away before I read all of it lmao.

2023 January 14, Trocheck Mate @RSolisByx, Twitter:


whoosh

imitative

went over their head
go over someone's head#English

(sarcastic) Indicating that somebody has missed the point (i.e. it went over their head).


harumph

I didn't get a harumph out of that guy.

Give the governor a harumph.

An expression of disdain, disbelief, protest, or dismissal; a huff, grunt, or snort.


chanterelle

/ˈtʃæntəɹɛl/

Borrowed from French chanterelle, from New Latin cantharellus, diminutive of Latin cantharus (“drinking vessel”), from Ancient Greek κάνθαρος (kántharos). Probably of Pre-Greek origin, cognate with Akkadian 𒃶𒁺𒊒𒌑 (/kanduru/, “kind of vessel”), from Sumerian 𒄑𒃶𒉡𒌉 (/gannu-tur/, “small vessel; potstand”, literally “little vessel, container, holder”).

cog

There were hushed moments of complete beauty when the melody moved out and hung above the chanterelle like a hummingbird poised over a flower.

2003, Paul Bowles, edited by Timothy Mangan and Irene Herrmann, Paul Bowles on Music, University of California Press, →ISBN, page 123:

(music) The highest string of the violin or similar instrument.


backlight

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

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

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

(uncountable) Light that is behind a photographic subject.


splosh

en-noun

splosh (countable and uncountable, plural sploshes)

Onomatopoeic. Connected with splash and splish; compare also slosh.


dotted

en-adj

dotted (comparative more dotted, superlative most dotted)

more dotted (comparative)
most dotted (superlative)

(music, of notes and rests) With a dot after, increasing the value of the duration by half of the basic note.

παρεστιγμένος

(of music notes and rests) with a dot after


cadence

en-noun

cadence (countable and uncountable, plural cadences)

Borrowed from Middle French cadence, from Old Italian cadenza (“conclusion of a phrase of music”), from Latin *cadentia (literally “a falling”), form of cadēns, the present participle of cadō (“I fall, I cease”). The Latin verb is inherited, via Proto-Italic *kadō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱad-e- (“to fall”, thematic present). Doublet of cadenza and chance.

der

(music) A progression of at least two chords which conclude a piece of music, section or musical phrases within it. Sometimes referred to analogously as musical punctuation.

(music) A cadenza, or closing embellishment; a pause before the end of a strain, which the performer may fill with a flight of fancy.


sss

"Sss," said the snake.

2017, Brian Fox, The Hollow Rasping of an American Nightmare, page 420:

(onomatopoeia) The hiss of a snake or other reptile.


backing

en-noun

backing (countable and uncountable, plural backings)

(music) Musicians and vocalists who support the main performer.


backing

(music) Providing support for the main performer.


house music

Probably from The Warehouse, a nightclub in Chicago, Illinois, USA, where the music became popular around 1985.

Gotta have house music, all night long / With that house music, you can't go wrong / Give me that house music, set me free

1986, Marshall Jefferson (lyrics and music), “Move Your Body”:

House is an uncontrollable desire to jack your body / And, as I told you before, this is our house and our house music

1987, “My House”, Chuck Roberts (lyrics), performed by Rhythm Controll:

Corrugated-steel ceilings, a dozen blue-felted pool tables and DJ house music Thursday to Saturday.

2007, Danny Palmerlee, South America on a Shoestring, page 66:

(music) A particular type of electronic dance music with an uptempo beat and recurring kickdrum.


scintillating

en-adj

scintillating (comparative more scintillating, superlative most scintillating)

more scintillating (comparative)
most scintillating (superlative)

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

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

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

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

That scintillates with brief flashes of light; sparkling.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


headliner

(music) The headlining band or performer at a concert or similar event; the best-known and first billed musician, comedian, etc., often performing as the final act of the evening.


strawberry blonde

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

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

strawberry blonde:

An uncommon hair colour that is a combination of blonde and red. Strawberry blonde hair appears blonde in dim light, but when exposed to sun or a bright light, the hair may assume a slight tinge of pink or red color.


ragged

ragged (comparative more ragged, superlative most ragged)

more ragged (comparative)
most ragged (superlative)

From Middle English ragged, from North Germanic. Compare with Old Norse rǫgvaðr (“tufted”) and Norwegian ragget (“shaggy”).

(music) Performed in a syncopated manner, especially in ragtime.


crooner

My mom likes to listen to old crooners like Frank Sinatra and Tommy Dorsey.

One who croons; a singer, usually male, especially of popular music.


dazzling

dazzling (comparative more dazzling, superlative most dazzling)

more dazzling (comparative)
most dazzling (superlative)

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

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


coruscation

en-noun

coruscation (countable and uncountable, plural coruscations)

/ˌkɒɹəsˈkeɪʃən/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


ploop

Imitative; compare the more common plop.

onom

Imitative

The pebbles went ploop and sunk to the bottom of the pond.

(onomatopoeia) The sound of a small object falling into liquid.


ploop

Imitative

I heard a ploop, but I couldn't tell where it came from.


plectrum

Borrowed from Latin plēctrum, from Ancient Greek πλῆκτρον (plêktron, “anything to strike with, an instrument for striking the lyre, a spear point”), from πλήσσειν (plḗssein, “to strike, to smite, to sting”).

uder

For sounds in winter nights, and often in winter days, I heard the forlorn but melodious note of a hooting owl indefinitely far; such a sound as the frozen earth would yield if struck with a suitable plectrum, the very lingua vernacula of Walden Wood, and quite familiar to me at last, though I never saw the bird while it was making it.

1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Winter Animals”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 292:

(music) A small piece of plastic, metal, ivory, etc., for plucking the strings of a guitar, lyre, mandolin, etc.


heavy metal

en-noun

heavy metal (countable and uncountable, plural heavy metals)

Lester Bangs
Mike Saunders
Sandy Pearlman
William S. Burroughs

The origin of the music genre sense is often disputed; it was used by William S. Burroughs in Soft Machine and Nova Express and various music critics claim to have coined it: Sandy Pearlman, Lester Bangs and Mike Saunders.

(music, uncountable) A genre descended from rock music, characterized by the use of emphatic drumbeats, highly amplified distortion, and overall loudness; often featuring extended instrumental solos and powerful vocals.


formalism

formalism (countable and uncountable, plural formalisms)

/ˈfɔɹml̩ˌɪzm̩/

(music) The tendency to elevate formal above expressive value in music, as in serialism.

形式主義

music: tendency to elevate formal above expressive value


scree

I think both of our hearts must have gone into overdrive when we heard the metallic scree of a door being rolled open and the men's voices that accompanied it.

2008 September 3, Brad Fear, “The ‘Captives’ Entry”, in A Macabre Myth of a Moth-man, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 130:

For a few moments the only sound was the rasp of a file as Lee moved onto the last of Rowdy's hooves, the sound of John clipping, the scree of a hawk flying overhead and the occasional nicker from the horses already tied up.

2015, Carolyne Aarsen, chapter 7, in The Cowboy’s Homecoming, New York, N.Y.: Love Inspired Books, Harlequin, →ISBN, pages 113–114:

A harsh, high-pitched sound or cry (as of a hawk).


scree

en-verb

scree (third-person singular simple present screes, present participle screeing, simple past and past participle screed)

screes (present singular third-person)
screeing (participle present)
screed (participle past)
screed (past)

They smelled the land before they saw it. A rich, dark odor of sweet earth, coming at them through a misty rain. Then seabirds appeared, crying and screeing.

2003, Pete Hamill, chapter 38, in Forever: A Novel, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, →ISBN:

She didn't want to scream to alert Malicia or a guard. What could she do to get the boy's attention? Suddenly, the memory of the mountaintop came to her. The hawk. She screed like a hawk. The boy stopped and searched the sky, […]

2009, Linda Ross Meyer, The First Quest of Match, the Whining Dragon, [s.l.]: Linda Ross Meyer, →ISBN, page 62:

To make a high-pitched cry like that of a hawk.


scree

A contract of lease was entered into between the pursuer, who is the proprietor of the estate of Bargaddie, on the one part, and William M'Creath and others, carrying on business under the firm of the Bargaddie Coal Company, on the other part, […] and the lessees becoming bound to pay to the pursuer the sum of £500 sterling of fixed yearly rent, or, in his option, a lordship of 5½d. per cart of the gross output of coals, such cart weighing 13 cwt., and the coals being riddled through a riddle or scree of the customary size.

1859 March 15, John Lorimer, William E[llis] Gloag, James Paterson, “The Bargaddie of Bartonshill Coal Company (Robert Paterson, J. B. Neilson, &c.), Appellants, v. Robert Wark, Respondent”, in Geo[rge] Dingwall Fordyce, editor, The Scottish Jurist: Being Reports of Cases Decided in the Supreme Courts of Scotland, and in the House of Lords on Appeal from Scotland, volume XXXI, Edinburgh: Thomas Constable and Co. and all booksellers, →OCLC, page 324, column 1:


gangsta rap

en-noun

gangsta rap (countable and uncountable, plural gangsta raps)

(music) A subgenre of hip-hop music associated with urban street gangs and characterized by a focus on lyrics about crime, urban life, and materialistic excess.


potent

[ˈpʰoʊ̯ʔn̩t]

[ˈpʰəʉ̯ʔn̩t]

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

der

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


bellow

bellow The bellow of an elk (canonical)
bellows (plural)

From Middle English belwen, from Old English bylgian, ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to sound, roar”), whence also belg (“leather bag”), bellan (“to roar”), blāwan (“to blow”). Cognate with German bellen (“to bark”), Russian бле́ять (bléjatʹ, “baa, bleat”).

There was a tap at a door, a bull's bellow from within, and I was face to face with the Professor.

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

The deep roar of a large animal, or any similar loud noise.

мучене

the deep roar of a large animal, or any similar loud noise


chantepleure

en-verb

chantepleure (third-person singular simple present chantepleures, present participle chantepleuring, simple past and past participle chantepleured)

chantepleures (present singular third-person)
chantepleuring (participle present)
chantepleured (participle past)
chantepleured (past)

From French chanter (“to sing”) + pleurer (“to weep, to cry”).

(archaic) To sing and cry at the same time.


contrapuntal

en-adj

contrapuntal (comparative more contrapuntal, superlative most contrapuntal)

more contrapuntal (comparative)
most contrapuntal (superlative)

From Latin Latin punctus contra punctum (“note against note”).

der

(music, of a piece of music) With two or more independent melodic lines.


deafening silence

en-noun

deafening silence (usually uncountable, plural deafening silences)

The suggestion that they work through the holidays met with deafening silence.

(idiomatic) A noteworthy silence, or absence of response, especially one signifying disapproval or lack of enthusiasm.

kiusallinen hiljaisuus

noteworthy silence or absence or response signifying disapproval or lack of enthusiasm


scintillate

en-verb

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

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

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

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


cantata

en-noun

cantata (plural cantatas or (less common, modeled on Italian) cantate)

From Italian cantata. Doublet of chanty.

(music) A vocal composition accompanied by instruments and generally containing more than one movement, typical of 17th and 18th century Italian music.


gabber

gabber (countable and uncountable, plural gabbers)

Borrowed from Dutch gabber (literally “friend”), from Yiddish חבֿר (khaver). Doublet of chaver, kubber.

This, in turn, birthed all kinds of mainly regional variations that have lasted from the 90s to today, most notably gabber—a relentless mix of superfast BPMS, distorted kickdrums and roared vocals that evoked the distilled nihilism of Rotterdam skinheads.

2020 January 10, Joe Muggs, “Gabber: return of dance music’s gloriously tasteless subgenre”, in The Guardian:

(uncountable, music) A subgenre of hardcore techno characterised by an intense, distorted kick sound and controversial lyrics or samples.


lip sync

(music, singing) The synchronization of prerecorded audio signals and movement of the lips such that there is no lack of simultaneity between them.


venu

From Sanskrit वेणु (veṇu, “a bamboo, reed, cane; a flute, fife, pipe”).

der

(music) One of the ancient transverse flutes of Indian classical music.


deafening

en-adj

deafening (comparative more deafening, superlative most deafening)

more deafening (comparative)
most deafening (superlative)

At the end of a frantic first 45 minutes, there was still time for Charlie Adam to strike the bar from 20 yards before referee Atkinson departed to a deafening chorus of jeering from Everton's fans.

2011 October 1, Phil McNulty, “Everton 0 - 2 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport:


Beatlesque

Beatlesque (comparative more Beatlesque, superlative most Beatlesque)

more Beatlesque (comparative)
most Beatlesque (superlative)

The 1980s all-girl band, the Bangles, reunites for a comeback album with crisp Beatles-esque melodies.

2006 June 6, “Back with a Bang(les)”, in The Straits Times, page 18:

(music) Similar to The Beatles or their music.


concept album

First applied to the albums Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Their Satanic Majesties Request, both released in 1967.

Rather than merely a collection of unrelated songs, their new LP (which was nine months in the making) is a concept album, “an integrated and ethereal experience with a cosmic quality.”

1967 December 9, “New Stones LP ‘Landmark’”, in Record World, →ISSN, page 22:

[…] while the consistent use of lengthy forms such as the programmatic song cycle of the concept album and the multimovement suite underscores the hippies' new, drug-induced conception of time.

1996, Edward Macan, Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture, page 13:

Moore relates the concept album to the ideals of progressive rock in the 1970s, building on Sgt. Pepper 's appeal to unity at the album level (through packaging, characters, and a simulated stage performance) and articulating a "desire to establish a degree of aesthetic [that is, musical] unity greater than that of the individual song,"[…]

2010, Marianne Tatom Letts, Radiohead and the Resistant Concept Album, page 19:

They gave the Beatles' ‘Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’ as an example of a concept album.

2023, Eric Wolfson, Fifty Years of the Concept Album in Popular Music: From The Beatles to Beyoncé, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 2:

An album of music where the content follows an overall theme or narrative.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Their Satanic Majesties Request


uke

From Japanese 受け (uke), derived from the verb 受ける (ukeru, “to receive, to get”).

(judo, martial arts) The training partner against whom tori performs a move.

Yaoi uke in fanfics often bear the brunt of stereotypical "negative female characteristics" such as passivity, helplessness, and masochism.

2008, Tan Bee Kee, “Rewriting Gender and Sexuality in English-language Yaoi Fanfiction”, in Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry, Dru Pagliassotti, editors, Boys’ Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 142:

You'd rather have Sebas be an uke?

2010, Pentabu, My Girlfriend’s a Geek, volume 1, Yen Press, published 2012isbn=9780316221801:

Shizuku is so, so, so cute! I love him as an uke so much I can't stand it!

2010, Kyoka Wakatsuki, “Afterword”, in The Selfish Demon King, Digital Manga Publishing, →ISBN:

(Japanese fiction, fandom slang) A passive or submissive male fictional character in a same-sex relationship; a bottom.


mantis

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

der

mantis:

A green colour, like that of many mantises.


entrée

Borrowed from French entrée. Doublet of entrada and entry.


descending

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

تَنَازُلِيّ

ordered such that each element is less than or equal to the previous element


screech

en-noun

screech (countable and uncountable, plural screeches)

1602; altered with expressive vowel lengthening from earlier skrech (1577), variant of obsolete scritch, from Middle English skriken, shrichen, schrichen (1250), from Old English (attested as scriccettan) and Old Norse skríkja, both from Proto-Germanic *skrīkijaną (compare Icelandic skríkja, Old Saxon scricōn, Danish skrige, Swedish skrika), derivative of *skrīhaną (compare Middle Dutch schriën, German schreien, Low German dial. schrien, schriegen), ultimately of imitative origin.

onomatopoeic

imitative

(countable) A harsh, shrill cry, as of one in acute pain or in fright; a shriek; a scream.


radiochemistry

(chemistry) the chemistry of radioactive substances


radioisotope

(physics) a radioactive isotope of an element


petrochemistry

(petrochemistry) The branch of chemistry that deals with petroleum, natural gas and their derivatives.

нефтохимия

the branch of chemistry that deals with petroleum


petrochemical

(petrochemistry) Any compound derived from petroleum or natural gas.

peitriceimiceán

any compound derived from petroleum or natural gas


bazooka

→ Arabic: بازوكة (bāzūka)

→ Chinese: 巴祖卡 (bāzǔkǎ)

→ French: bazooka

→ Dutch: bazooka

→ Finnish: bazooka

→ German: Bazooka

→ Indonesian: bazoka

→ Japanese: バズーカ (bazūka)

→ Korean: 바주카 (bajuka)

→ Macedonian: базука (bazuka)

→ Maranao: basoka

→ Polish: bazooka

→ Portuguese: bazuca

→ Romanian: bazooka

→ Spanish: bazuca

→ Swedish: bazooka

Bazooka (disambiguation)
Bob Burns (humorist)
European debt crisis

From an extension of the word bazoo (“mouth, boastful talk”), which ultimately probably stems from Dutch bazuin (“trumpet”). In the finance sense first used by policymakers during the European debt crisis (2010).

(music) A primitive trombone having wide tubes.

(weaponry) A shoulder-held rocket launcher used as an antitank weapon, developed by America during World War II and so-called from its resemblance to the bazooka musical instrument.


alabaster

en-noun

alabaster (usually uncountable, plural alabasters)

From Middle English alabastre, from Old French alabastre, from Latin alabaster (“box for perfume made of alabaster”), from Ancient Greek ἀλάβαστρος (alábastros), from earlier ἀλάβαστος (alábastos, “vase made of alabaster”). This may further derive from Egyptian ꜥj-r-bꜣstjt (“vessel of the Egyptian goddess Bast”). The Latin suffix -aster is unrelated, but may have influenced the spelling of the borrowing from Ancient Greek (whence a direct loan could have been rendered as *alabastrus).

der

alabaster:

An off-white colour, like that of alabaster.


Cotton effect

optical rotatory dispersion
optical rotatory dispersion

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


circular dichroism

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

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

circularly polarized light
circularly polarized light

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


pitch-black

en-adj

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

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

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


company front

(music) a marching formation consisting of the entire band or corps standing side by side in a single row.


pitter-patter

Once or twice I heard a faint pitter-patter like the feet of the dog going hither and thither on the sand far below me, and there were more bird-like sounds, but that was all.

1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 237:

A soft, percussive sound, as of tiny feet, or of rain on a rooftop.


absorption band

en-noun

absorption band (plural absorption bands)

electromagnetic radiation
electromagnetic radiation

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


pentatonic scale

pentatonic scale (plural pentatonic scales)

Japanese mode pentatonic scale:
{\set Staff.midiInstrument=#"koto"\override Score.TimeSignature#'stencil =##f{\time6/4 e'f'a'b'c2}}

(music) A scale having five notes per octave.


conformer

(physical chemistry) Any of a set of stereoisomers characterized by a conformation that corresponds to a distinct potential energy minimum.


exposition

exposition (countable and uncountable, plural expositions)

From Middle English exposicioun, from Old French esposicion, from Latin expositiō, from expōnere (“to put forth”). The sense meaning "exhibition" is a later semantic loan from French exposition.

(music) The opening section of a movement in sonata form; the opening section of a fugue.

مَعْرِض

action of putting something out to public view


casing

(oil industry) A metal pipe used to line the borehole of a well.


critical mass

critical mass (countable and uncountable, plural critical masses)

[…] Rhodes calculated the uranium bomb would eventually need “about 42 kilograms – 92.6 pounds,” which Rhodes then stated was approximately 2.8 critical masses. In other words, critical mass can be calculated to be about 15 kilograms.

2016, Carter Hydrick, Critical Mass […] , 3rd edition, TrineDay, →ISBN:

(nuclear physics) The minimum amount of fissile material needed to support a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

tolz eizik

the minimum amount of fissile material needed to a nuclear chain reaction


rustle

rustle The rustle of paper (canonical)
rustles (plural)

From Middle English rustelen, russelen, of uncertain origin, but probably from Old English hrūxlian, hristlan, hrystlan, hristlian (“to make a noise”). Compare also Scots reesle (“to crackle; rattle; rustle”), West Frisian risselje, Dutch ritselen (“to rustle”), Afrikaans ritsel (“to rustle”), German rascheln (“to rustle”).

cog

He heard the silken rustle of a dressing-gown being drawn on.

1994, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Hippopotamus:

A soft crackling sound similar to the movement of dry leaves.


rustle

en-verb

rustle (third-person singular simple present rustles, present participle rustling, simple past and past participle rustled)

rustles (present singular third-person)
rustling (participle present)
rustled (participle past)
rustled (past)

The next day at three o'clock we were again at the door, and the footmen as before; we heard the silk dress rustle, and the lady came down the steps and in an imperious voice, she said, "York, you must put those horses' heads higher, they are not fit to be seen."

[1877], Anna Sewell, “Earlshall”, in Black Beauty: […], London: Jarrold and Sons, […], →OCLC, part II, page 104:

(ergative) To move (something) with a soft crackling sound.

шумоля

to move (something) with a soft crackling sound

When at last the lumber was piled again in its rightful place, and the boxes of food had been returned to the shelter from which they had been stolen, the two friends rustled a meal, and then set off on horseback […]

1921, William M. McCoy, The Valley of the Sun, page 48:

(transitive) To make or obtain in a lively, energetic way.


brunet

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

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


MIPI

(Australia, music) Initialism of Music Industry Piracy Investigations.


doit

Borrowed from Middle Low German doyt, cognate with Middle Dutch duit. Doublet of thwaite.

Jazz symbols include many contoured articulations and inflections, such as doits, fall-offs, and scoops.

1995, Music & Computers, volume 1, numbers 2-4, page 57:

(music) In jazz music, a note that slides to an indefinite pitch chromatically upwards.


nuclear fission

en-noun

nuclear fission (usually uncountable, plural nuclear fissions)

(nuclear physics) A nuclear reaction in which a large nucleus splits into smaller ones, sometimes accompanied by the simultaneous release of energy.


PSB

Adult love, loss, triumph and decline is catalogued by PSB's words, rhythms, clothes and politics. The Pet Shop Boys have staying power.

2008, Tara Brabazon, Thinking Popular Culture: War, Terrorism and Writing, page 155:


player piano

(music) An acoustic piano that is played automatically by mechanical means.


ictus

ictus (plural ictus or ictuses or ictusses)

ictus (plural)
ictuses (plural)
ictusses (plural)

From Latin ictus (“a blow”), from īco (“I hit, strike, or smite”; “I stab or sting”).

(music) In conducting, the indication of a musical event, most often the beat of the tempo or the entry of a section of the orchestra.


destructive distillation

destructive distillation (countable and uncountable, plural destructive distillations)

(organic chemistry, physical chemistry) The heating of a material, such as coal or wood, in an inert atmosphere, at a high temperature such as to cause decomposition; the principal products include oils and tars from which many useful organic compounds may be obtained; town gas and coke were obtained in this way.


bittersweet

[ˈbɪɾɚˌswiʔt̚]

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

cog

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

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

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

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

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

A variety of apple with a bittersweet taste.

bittersweet:

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


sunbeam

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Any hummingbird of the genus Aglaeactis.

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

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

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


plonk

The sound made by something solid landing.


discant

en-verb

discant (third-person singular simple present discants, present participle discanting, simple past and past participle discanted)

discants (present singular third-person)
discanting (participle present)
discanted (participle past)
discanted (past)


sinew

From Middle English synwe, synewe (“tendon; ligament or other connective tissue; muscle; nerve; leaf vein”), from Old English sinu (“tendon, sinew; nerve”), from Proto-West Germanic *sinu, from Proto-Germanic *sinwō, *senawō (“sinew”), from Proto-Indo-European *snéh₁wr̥ (“sinew, tendon”), from *(s)neh₁- (“to twist (threads), spin, weave”).
The word is cognate with sinnow (“sinew”), Scots senon, sinnon, Saterland Frisian Siene (“sinew”), West Frisian senuw, sine (“sinew; nerve”), Dutch zenuw (“nerve, sinew”), German Sehne (“tendon, sinew; cord”), Icelandic sin (“tendon”), Swedish sena (“sinew”), Avestan 𐬯𐬥𐬁𐬎𐬎𐬀𐬭 (snāuuar, “tendon, sinew”), Ancient Greek νεῦρον (neûron, “tendon; nerve; cord”), Latin nervus (“tendon, sinew; nerve”), Sanskrit स्नावन् (snāván, “sinew, tendon; muscle”), Tocharian B ṣñor (“sinew”). Doublet of nerve and neuron.

cog

A cord or string, particularly (music) as of a musical instrument.


tonality

en-noun

tonality (countable and uncountable, plural tonalities)

(music) The system of seven tones built on a tonic key; the 24 major and minor scales.

(music) A sound of specific pitch and quality; timbre.

(music) The quality of all the tones in a composition heard in relation to the tonic.


outro

Blend of out + intro, an analogy using out as the opposite of in.

[…] talking over the intro of a record and off the outro, weaving back and forth between two records spinning […]

1977, Claude Hall, Barbara Hall, This business of radio programming:

Find the spot in the script where you want the outro to start fading up.

1992, Bruce Bartlett, Jenny Bartlett, Practical recording techniques:

2009, 24 September, Jude Rogers in The Guardian, The trouble with remastered records
But then something happens on I Want You (She's So Heavy), two minutes into the song's intense outro, when a cloud of white noise comes in, […]

(music, informal) A portion of music at the end of a song; like an intro, but at the end instead of the beginning.


gallop

From Middle English galopen (“to gallop”), from Old French galoper (compare modern French galoper), from Frankish *wala hlaupan (“to run well”), from *wala (“well”) + *hlaupan (“to run”), from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną (“to run, leap, spring”), from Proto-Indo-European *klaup-, *klaub- (“to spring, stumble”). Possibly also derived from a deverbal of Frankish *walhlaup (“battle run”) from *wal (“battlefield”) from a Proto-Germanic word meaning "dead, victim, slain" from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“death in battle, killed in battle”) + *hlaup (“course, track”) from *hlaupan (“to run”).
More at well, leap, valkyrie. See also the doublet wallop, coming from the same source through an Old Northern French variant.

der

A gallop rhythm:
\drums{\repeat unfold4{wbl8wbh16 16}}

(music) A rhythm consisting of an 8th note followed by two 16th notes, resembling a horse's gallop.


glowworm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


diva

From Italian diva (“diva, goddess”), from Latin dīva (“goddess”), female of dīvus (“divine, divine one; notably a deified mortal”), from Old Latin deivā, from Proto-Italic *deiwā (“goddess”), feminine of *deiwos (“god”), from Proto-Indo-European *deywós (“god”).

Any female celebrity, usually a well known singer or actress.


continuum

en-noun

continuum (plural continuums or continua)

Borrowed from Latin continuum, neuter form of continuus, from contineō (“contain, enclose”).

(music) A touch-sensitive strip, similar to an electronic standard musical keyboard, except that the note steps are ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a semitone, and so are not separately marked.


bass bomb

An extremely low bass note that, when played through a subwoofer, physically shakes the listener.


sestet

From Italian sestetto, from sesto (“sixth”), Latin sextus, from sex (“six”).

(music) A piece of music composed for six voices or six instruments; a sextet or sestuor.


geothermal

Pertaining to heat energy extracted from reservoirs in the earth's interior.


ensemble

(music) A piece for several instrumentalists or vocalists.

но́мер

многоголо́сый вока́льный


ensemble

en-verb

ensemble (third-person singular simple present ensembles, present participle ensembling, simple past and past participle ensembled)

ensembles (present singular third-person)
ensembling (participle present)
ensembled (participle past)
ensembled (past)

(music) To perform in a musical ensemble.


saturation

en-noun

saturation (usually uncountable, plural saturations)

Etymology tree
Late Latin saturatiobor.
English saturation
Borrowed from Late Latin saturatio, saturationem.

etymon

(music) An effect on the sound of an electric guitar, used primarily in heavy metal music.


shredding

en-noun

shredding (countable and uncountable, plural shreddings)

(music, uncountable) A style of very fast and very complex guitar playing.


verdigris

verdigris (countable and uncountable, plural verdigrises)

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

der

(organic chemistry, dated) Copper acetate.


jet-black

en-adj

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

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

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

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


VDL

(oil industry) Initialism of variable density log.


embouchure

en-noun

embouchure (countable and uncountable, plural embouchures)

/ˌɒm.bʊˈʃʊə/

/ˌɑm.bəˈʃʊɹ/

From French embouchure, from emboucher (“to put in one’s mouth”), from en- (“in”) + bouche (“mouth”), from Latin bucca (“cheek”).

you could see the twin lines running down from either side of his lower lip, etched in by the force of his embouchure, looking like extensions of his mustache.

(music) The use of the lips, facial muscles, tongue, and teeth when playing a wind instrument.


dodecaphony

(music) Twelve-tone music, a form of composition using all twelve tones of the chromatic scale in such a way that they are equal, i.e. having no tonic, no dominant, no major key or minor keys, and no distinction between harmony and dissonance.


backdraught

(firefighting, chiefly British spelling) Alternative spelling of backdraft


mouthpiece

A part of any device that functions in or near the mouth, especially:

The part of a wind instrument that is held in or against the mouth.


flambé

(cooking) Being, or having been, flambéed.

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


flambé

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


flambé

en-verb

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

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

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

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


cracking

(organic chemistry, petrochemistry) The thermal decomposition of a substance, especially that of crude petroleum in order to produce petrol / gasoline.


back end

Together, the MathDocument and PaperController classes comprise the MathPaper application's front end, while the Evaluator makes up the application's back end. This technique of having separate front and back ends is a common […]

2002, Simson Garfinkel, Michael K. Mahoney, Building Cocoa Applications: A Step-by-step Guide, "O'Reilly Media, Inc.", →ISBN, page 295:

(computing) That part of a hardware or software system that is farthest from the user; the internals rather than the user interface.

後端

computing: part of a system that is farthest from the user

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) The latter end of any given time, especially the latter part of the year; autumn; late autumn.

so-called “back end” deals is speculative at best. Ideally, the author or book publisher will secure a percentage of gross revenues rather than net profits, but such deals are rare indeed.

1995, Jonathan Kirsch, Kirsch's Handbook of Publishing Law, page 212:

How does the taking of “back end” compensation affect the creative control asserted by an actor?

2003, Melvin Simensky, Entertainment Law, page 1222:

That kind of money, he can get a piece of anybody's back end he wants." “It's an industry phrase. Means if the picture is a big hit, he gets a share of the profits, sometimes even a percentage of gross.

[…] Miramax was going to buy out the U.S. and Canadian rights to the picture and terminate everyone else's participation for a payout that included a guaranteed amount for the back end, as well as bonuses if the film exceeded certain levels of U.S. box office performance.

2013, Peter Biskind, Down and Dirty Pictures:

(entertainment, etc.) Money paid on a contingent deferred basis, for example, as a proportion of the profits or revenue of a work.

The processing of spent fuel from a nuclear reactor into reusable materials.


colliery

From the hillock a score of red paths diverged as black ones do from a colliery, one of them leading to the homestead itself […]

1938, Xavier Herbert, “Chapter VII”, in Capricornia, page 91:

(British) An underground coal mine, together with its surface buildings.


trigger

Originally tricker, from Dutch trekker (“pull”, noun, as in drawer-pull, bell-pull), from Dutch trekken (“to drag, draw, pull”).

laukaisin

music: electronic transducer allowing a percussion instrument to control an electronic device

(music) An electronic transducer allowing a drum, cymbal, etc. to control an electronic drum unit or similar device.

(music) A device that manually lengthens (or sometimes shortens) the slide or tubing of a brass instrument, allowing the pitch range to be altered while playing.

liipaisin

music: device that manually lengthens the slide or tubing of a brass instrument


gridelin

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

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


gridelin

en-noun

gridelin (usually uncountable, plural gridelins)

gridelin:

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


relic

From Middle English relik et al., from Old French relique, from Latin reliquiae (“remains, relics”), from relinquō (“I leave behind, abandon, relinquish”), from re- + linquō (“I leave, quit, forsake, depart from”).

One of the primary targets of current and especially future cosmological observations are light thermal relics of the hot big bang.

2019, Wallisch, Benjamin, “Abstract”, in Cosmological Probes of Light Relics, page ix:

(cosmology) A particle or entity that has existed since the Big Bang.


headlight

Lysergic acid diethylamide
lysergic acid diethylamide#English

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


stroboscope

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

der

A photograph produced by such a machine.


cajón

From Spanish cajón, augmentative of caja (“box”). Doublet of caisson and cassone.

(music) A box-shaped percussion instrument played by slapping the front or rear faces (generally thin plywood) with the hands, fingers, or sometimes various implements.


phaser

* (science fiction): For the fictional weapon coined for Star Trek: originally a "ph(oton ma)ser," later changed canonically to a "phas(ed)-e(nergy) r(ectifier)" (of "nadions", not photons).
* (phase modulation): phase + -er

(music) An electronic device that produces special effects on the sound produced by an electric guitar etc.


bonfire

en-verb

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

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

[ˈbɒɱˌfaɪ̯ɚ]

Southern US, African-American Vernacular

[ˈb̥ɒ̃ɱfaɛ̯ɚ]

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

nb...

bonefuyr, bonffyer, bonfyre, (Northern England) banefyre

inh

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


cremate

en-verb

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

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

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

bor

(transitive) To burn something to ashes.


frequency modulation

en-noun

frequency modulation (countable and uncountable, plural frequency modulations)

(sound, radio) the use of a modulating wave to vary the instantaneous frequency of a carrier wave


rebar

en-verb

rebar (third-person singular simple present rebars, present participle rebarring, simple past and past participle rebarred)

rebars (present singular third-person)
rebarring (participle present)
rebarred (participle past)
rebarred (past)

/ɹiːˈbɑː(ɹ)/

(music, transitive) To redistribute the notes of a musical score across the bars, e.g. when changing time signature.


taille

en-noun

taille (countable and uncountable, plural tailles)

From Middle French taille (“cut”, noun). Doublet of talea and tally.

(music, obsolete) The tenor voice or part, especially the part for the tenor viol or viola.


G-string

(music) On a stringed musical instrument, the string that produces the note of G.

G-streng

on a stringed musical instrument, the string that produces G


Doric

en-adj

Doric (comparative more Doric, superlative most Doric)

more Doric (comparative)
most Doric (superlative)

From Ancient Greek Δωρικός (Dōrikós, “related to Dorians”). The senses referring to dialects of Scottish are thought to have come from the Scots' rusticness associated with the Athenians' view of Dorians as uncivilised.

der

(music) Belonging to a certain mode of Ancient Greek music, the Dorian mode.


comes

Borrowed from Latin comes (“a companion”). Doublet of comte, conte, and count.

(music) The answer to the theme, or dux, in a fugue.


reedy

en-adj

reedy (comparative reedier, superlative reediest)

reedier (comparative)
reediest (superlative)

From Middle English reedy, reedi, reeddy, equivalent to reed + -y.

"I'd Be Lost Without You" seems somewhat out of place from a vocal viewpoint — Lewis's slightly reedy middle soprano is very expressive and absolutely true, but doesn't have enough dark body to fully deal with the torchy melody.

1989 August 12, Caroline Foty, “Hindsights”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 5, page 7:

(of a sound or voice) High and thin in tone.


thump

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

onomatopoeic

imitative

... and so the universal thump is passed round, and all hands should rub each other’s shoulder-blades, and be content.

1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 1:

The watchman gave so very great a thump at my door last night, that I awakened at the knock.

1710 January 4 (Gregorian calendar), Isaac Bickerstaff [et al., pseudonyms; Richard Steele et al.], “Saturday, December 24, 1709”, in The Tatler, number 111; republished in [Richard Steele], editor, The Tatler, […], London stereotype edition, volume II, London: I. Walker and Co.; […], 1822, →OCLC:


thump

en-verb

thump (third-person singular simple present thumps, present participle thumping, simple past and past participle thumped)

thumps (present singular third-person)
thumping (participle present)
thumped (participle past)
thumped (past)

onomatopoeic

imitative

The cat thumped its tail in irritation.

(transitive) To cause to make a thumping sound.

Dance music thumped from the nightclub entrance.

Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.

2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55:

(intransitive) To throb with a muffled rhythmic sound.


alpenglow

en-noun

alpenglow (usually uncountable, plural alpenglows)

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

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

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

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

alpegloei

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


sarabande

Borrowed from French sarabande, from Spanish zarabanda.

(music) The music for either of these dances.


fuel cell

A new energy source claimed by Mr. Coultas to be potentially applicable to locomotives is the fuel cell, now becoming more commonly known as the fuel battery. [...] The fuel cells which are furthest advanced in engineering development today use hydrogen as the fuel.

1962 February, “Talking of Trains: Fuel battery locomotives?”, in Modern Railways, page 87:

The Mako is powered by a sealed hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell, and includes a small element zero core. While not large enough to nullify the vehicle’s mass, the core can reduce it enough to be safely air-dropped.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Vehicles: M35 Mako Codex entry:

Fuel cells have a shorter lifetime than batteries and their overall efficiency of a hydrogen train is much less - recent figures from Stadler show that just 25% of the energy reaches the wheels for a hydrogen train, compared with 80% for conventional electric tration or around 68% for a battery-electric train.

2023 August 23, Ben Jones, “A Fast Charge to DMUs' demise?”, in RAIL, number 990, page 30:

(energy) An electrochemical device in which the intrinsic chemical free energy of fuel and oxidant is catalytically converted to direct current energy.


infernal

en-adj

infernal (comparative more infernal, superlative most infernal)

more infernal (comparative)
most infernal (superlative)

celestial

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

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

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

infernaal

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


pipa

From Mandarin 琵琶 (pípá). Doublet of bipa and biwa, and possibly barbat and barbitos.


refulgence

en-noun

refulgence (countable and uncountable, plural refulgences)

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

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

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

the quality of being refulgent; refulgency


soundtrack

A narrow strip running down a movie film that carries the recorded sound in synchronization with the pictures.

звукова пътечка

a narrow strip running down a movie film that carries the recorded sound in synchronization with the pictures

The sound (especially the music) component of a movie, video game, etc.

banda sonora

the sound (especially the music) component of a movie


soundtrack

en-verb

soundtrack (third-person singular simple present soundtracks, present participle soundtracking, simple past and past participle soundtracked)

soundtracks (present singular third-person)
soundtracking (participle present)
soundtracked (participle past)
soundtracked (past)

The world, in turn, watched, clicked, cried, danced, sang along, swooned, caravanned to stadiums and movie theaters, let her work soundtrack their lives.

2023 December 6, Sam Lansky, “Person of Year 2023 : Taylor Swift”, in Time:

To provide, or to act as the sound or music component of a film


steel pan orchestra

en-noun

steel pan orchestra (plural steel pan orchestras)

A band made up of people who play the steel pan.


steelpan

steelpan (countable and uncountable, plural steelpans)

Inside, it’s dim and cool, quiet except for some boys up in the loft at the back playing on the steelpan, not really playing seriously, just tapping notes at random, practising rolling the sticks.

2019, Claire Adam, Golden Child, Faber & Faber, page 128:

(music, countable) A percussion instrument consisting of a drum made of steel, originally from Trinidad.

(music, uncountable) A style of music incorporating steelpans.


enrichment

enrichment (countable and uncountable, plural enrichments)


mando

Can't tell you about mandos, but the Stelling Banjos are exquisite. Geoff Stelling used to be in San Diego, Calif. but now he is out on the East Coast. His banjos have excellent crisp tone. I would suspect that his mandos are similar[.]

1995 December 4, Jm721, “Re: Stelling-Mandolin ?”, in rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic (Usenet):


drum roll

A sound produced by hitting a drum repeatedly and rhythmically over short intervals.


snare drum

A tubular drum with skins stretched over the top and bottom, and having a set of chains that can be applied to the bottom skin to create a rattling sound.


enrich

en-verb

enrich (third-person singular simple present enriches, present participle enriching, simple past and past participle enriched)

enriches (present singular third-person)
enriching (participle present)
enriched (participle past)
enriched (past)

From Middle English enrichen, from Anglo-Norman enrichir and Old French enrichier.

(physics, transitive) To increase the amount of one isotope in a mixture of isotopes, especially in a nuclear fuel. [from 20th c.]

verryk

to increase the amount of one isotope in a mixture of isotopes


ghetto house

(music) A style of house music from Chicago, featuring drum machines and sometimes sexually explicit lyrics.


sheng

A Chinese wind instrument, a free-reed mouth organ consisting of 13 or more bamboo pipes of various lengths, which are fixed at their bases in a wind chest made from a dried gourd (or, more recently, wood or chrome-plated brass).

sheng nu

also derived from Chinese, though not necessarily related


drumstick

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

She could imagine the taste of the tender drumstick seeds on her tongue.

2011, Arupa Patangia Kalita, translated by Deepika Phukan, The Story of Felanee (fiction), translation of original in Assamese:

Moringa oleifera
Moringa oleifera#Translingual

(South Asia, Myanmar) The moringa or drumstick tree, Moringa oleifera, especially its slender, cylindrical pods.


chamber organ

(music) a small pipe organ of a type suitable for domestic use as opposed to in a church or concert hall


free reed

(music) a reed in a musical wind instrument whose edges do not overlap the edges of the opening over which it is fixed and that is used typically in the accordion, harmonium, concertina.


chancel organ

(music) A division of a pipe organ for accompanying a choir.


leitmotif

From German Leitmotiv (“leading motif”), from leiten (“to lead”) + Motiv (“motif”), originally used to describe Wagnerian opera.

In Wagner's operas, especially his cycle of four operas known collectively as the Ring cycle, the leitmotif did not simply label or point to one particular character or object but rather conjured up a realm of ideas.

2014, Michael Slowik, After the Silents, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 14:

(music) A melodic theme associated with a particular character, place, thing or idea in an opera.


64th note

(music) A note whose duration is one sixty-fourth that of a whole note.


chemoluminescence

en-noun

chemoluminescence (countable and uncountable, plural chemoluminescences)

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


nighttime

nighttime (countable and uncountable, plural nighttimes)

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

cog

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

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

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

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

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


swell organ

(music) A section of a pipe organ in which the pipes are enclosed in a swell box


thematic

en-adj

thematic (comparative more thematic, superlative most thematic)

more thematic (comparative)
most thematic (superlative)

From Ancient Greek θεματικός (thematikós), from θέμα (théma, “theme”). Equivalent to theme + -atic.


agogic

From Ancient Greek ἀγωγός (agōgós, “leader”).

(music) an accent that accentuates a note by extending it slightly beyond its normal time value


chemiluminescence

en-noun

chemiluminescence (usually uncountable, plural chemiluminescences)


preside

en-verb

preside (third-person singular simple present presides, present participle presiding, simple past and past participle presided)

presides (present singular third-person)
presiding (participle present)
presided (participle past)
presided (past)

From Old French presider, from Latin praesidēre (“preside”), from pre- (“before”) + sedere (“to sit”). Displaced Old English foresittan, which might have been a calque of the Latin.

(intransitive, music) To be a featured solo performer.


voicing

(music) The final regulation of the pitch and tone of any sound-producing entity, especially of an organ or similar musical instrument.

virittäminen

music: final regulation of the pitch and tone

(music) A particular arrangement of notes to form a chord.

soinnutus

music: particular arrangement of notes to form a chord


bioluminescence

en-noun

bioluminescence (countable and uncountable, plural bioluminescences)

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


glow discharge

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

cathode dark space

also called Crookes dark space or Hittorf dark space


beatbox

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

Self-styled 'black gentleman vampire' who followed his cousin in to hip-hop by rapping in front of a beatbox for his first shows on Long Island, New York.

1992, Colin Larkin, The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Guinness, →ISBN, page 1340:

But by 1980 Fenley had collaborated with Mark Freedman on the high-energy, repetitive sound score for Energizer by manipulating a beatbox, the omnipresent instrument of late disco music.

1994, Sally Banes, Writing Dancing in the Age of Postmodernism, Wesleyan University Press, →ISBN, page 322:

Hip-hop took the language and made it graffiti—it was music video on a wall with a beatbox blowing its subwoofers next to it.

2004, Ed Gaskell, Make Your Own Music Video, CMP, →ISBN, page 26:

(music) A type of electronic percussion device.


beatbox

en-verb

beatbox (third-person singular simple present beatboxes, present participle beatboxing, simple past and past participle beatboxed)

beatboxes (present singular third-person)
beatboxing (participle present)
beatboxed (participle past)
beatboxed (past)

Hell, why do so many of us still breakdance? Why do so many of us still beatbox? The two most successful rappers to come out of Chicago, Common Sense and The Brat, had nothing to do with the city-wide hip-hop scene.

2001, William Upski Wimsatt, Bomb the Suburbs, Soft Skull Press, →ISBN, page 69:

Before you knew it, everyone, everywhere, was trying to copy Fresh's technique, and every rapper on the planet seemed intent on proving they could beatbox (with varying, occasionally embarrassing degrees of success).

2004, Neil Kulkarni, Hip Hop: Bring the Noise: The Stories Behind the Biggest Songs, Thunder's Mouth Press, →ISBN, page 43:

Turull, group elder, and Wright, the youngest, play off each other extraordinarily well, be it on cajon or when the latter jumps up to beatbox against Marina’s lyrical sidesteps.

2005, Derek Beres, Global Beat Fusion: The History of the Future of Music, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 102:

(music) To use one’s mouth, lips, tongue, voice, etc. as a percussive instrument to create beats and rhythms for music.

beatboxen

to use one’s mouth, lips, tongue, voice, etc. as a percussive instrument


fontanelle

Borrowed from French fontanelle, from Old French fontenelle, diminutive of fontaine (“fountain, spring”).

(music) A structural component of some woodwind instruments, such as recorders and shawms, resembling a barrel with holes bored into it, designed to protect the keywork and to allow the sound to project.


ligature

en-noun

ligature (countable and uncountable, plural ligatures)

From Middle English ligature, from Middle French ligature, from Late Latin ligātūra, from Latin ligātus, past participle of ligāre (“to tie, bind”).

(countable, music) A group of notes played as a phrase, or the curved line that indicates such a phrase.

легато

music: group of notes played as a musical phrase

(music) A curve or line connecting notes; a slur.


mooing

Her piteous mooings caught the ear of a hungry old he-bear which was hunting in the woods near by.

1920, Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts, Hoof and claw:

The action of the verb moo; a mooing sound.


quantize

en-verb

quantize (third-person singular simple present quantizes, present participle quantizing, simple past and past participle quantized)

quantizes (present singular third-person)
quantizing (participle present)
quantized (participle past)
quantized (past)

→ Spanish: cuantizar

(transitive, music) To shift each beat in a rhythmic pattern to the nearest beat of a given resolution (eighth note, sixteenth note, etc.), or to adjust the frequency or pitch of a note to the nearest perfect tone in a given musical scale


harmonize

harmonize (third-person singular simple present harmonizes, present participle harmonizing, simple past and past participle harmonized)

harmonizes (present singular third-person)
harmonizing (participle present)
harmonized (participle past)
harmonized (past)

From French harmoniser. By surface analysis, harmony + -ize.

(intransitive, music) To play or sing in harmony.

(transitive, music) To provide parts to.


mahogany

en-noun

mahogany (countable and uncountable, plural mahoganies)

→ German: Mahagoni

Borrowed from Malayalam മഹാഗണി (mahāgaṇi).

bastard mahogany

Eucalyptus botryoides or Matayba apetala

Brazilian mahogany

Cariniana legalis; Plathymenia foliolosa, Plathymenia reticulata

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

mahogany:

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


mahogany

en-adj

mahogany (comparative more mahogany, superlative most mahogany)

more mahogany (comparative)
most mahogany (superlative)

Having the colour of mahogany; dark reddish-brown.


bomba

This eclectic group is dedicated to preserving the Puerto Rican traditions of bomba and plena, two drum-focused (and African-derived) forms of traditional dance music.

2009 January 23, “Pop and Rock Listings”, in New York Times:

(music) A form of traditional drumming, and an associated form of dance, from Puerto Rico.


inferno

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


guitary

guitary (comparative more guitary, superlative most guitary)

more guitary (comparative)
most guitary (superlative)

(music, informal) Predominantly featuring guitars.


short-lived

short-lived (comparative shorter-lived, superlative shortest-lived)

shorter-lived (comparative)
shortest-lived (superlative)

From short + lived (“having a life, lifed”), equivalent to short + life + -ed. Compare Middle English short-livi, sort-levi (“short-lived”).

Of a radioisotope (or by extension radioelement): having a short half-life.


modality

en-noun

modality (countable and uncountable, plural modalities)

(music) The subject concerning certain diatonic scales known as musical modes.


terracotta

terracotta (usually uncountable, plural terracottas)

/ˌtɛɹ.əˈkɒt.ə/

/ˌtɛɹ.əˈkɑt.ə/

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

terracotta:

A reddish brown colour, like that of terra cotta.


jonquil

/ˈd͡ʒɑŋkwəl/

/ˈd͡ʒɒŋkwəl/

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

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


moan

en-verb

moan (third-person singular simple present moans, present participle moaning, simple past and past participle moaned)

moans (present singular third-person)
moaning (participle present)
moaned (participle past)
moaned (past)
moan (infinitive)

From Middle English mone, mane, mān, (also as mene), from Old English *mān, *mǣn (“complaint; lamentation”), from Proto-West Germanic *mainu, from Proto-Germanic *mainō (“opinion; mind”).
Cognate with Old Frisian mēne (“opinion”), Old High German meina (“opinion”). Old English *mān, *mǣn is inferred from Old English mǣnan (“to complain over; grieve; mourn”). More at mean.

cog

(intransitive, colloquial) To complain; to grumble.


glisten

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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

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

لَمَعَ

to reflect light with a glittering luster


nonuplet

A group of nine, particularly (music) a tuplet of nine notes.


cameo lighting

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


bleen

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

coinage

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


antiphony

en-noun

antiphony (countable and uncountable, plural antiphonies)

(music, singing) Alternate, or responsive singing by a choir split into two parts; a piece sung or chanted in this manner.

antífona

singing by a choir split in two parts or a piece sung in this manner


brian

en-verb

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

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

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

der

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


transondent

From French onde (“wave”), possibly modeled on transparent.

If the display system is not transondent, the loudspeakers may be placed on either side and beneath the video surface.

2014, Marshall Lang, Architectural Acoustics, page 856:

Acoustically transparent; able to freely transmit sound.


backbeat

Just let me hear some of that rock and roll music / Any old way you choose it / It's got a back beat, you can't lose it, / Any old time you use it

1957, “Rock and Roll Music”, performed by Chuck Berry:

(music) The sharp accent on the second and fourth beats of rock music in 4/4 time.


sangria

en-noun

sangria (countable and uncountable, plural sangrias)

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

Just a perfect day / Drink sangria in the park

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

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

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

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

سانجريا

Spanish wine drink with fruit, sugar and soda


bushfire

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

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

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

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

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

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


sconce

en-verb

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

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

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

I sconce anyone who has ever…

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


mandolin

From French mandoline, from Italian mandolino, diminutive of mandola, a large stringed instrument.

(music) A stringed instrument of the lute family, having eight strings in four courses, frequently tuned as a violin, and with either a bowl-shaped back or a flat back.


dyestuff

en-noun

dyestuff (countable and uncountable, plural dyestuffs)

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


jangle

en-verb

jangle (third-person singular simple present jangles, present participle jangling, simple past and past participle jangled)

jangles (present singular third-person)
jangling (participle present)
jangled (participle past)
jangled (past)

From Middle English janglen (“to talk excessively, chatter; to talk idly, gossip; to nag; to complain, grumble; to argue, debate; to discuss, talk; to talk indistinctly, jabber; to make a noise or outcry; of a bird: to chatter, twitter”) [and other forms], from Old French jangler (“to chatter, gossip; to argue noisily; to bawl”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Old Dutch *jangelon (“to jeer”) (compare Middle Dutch jangelen (“to murmur, grumble, buzz, mutter, drone, simmer”), modern Dutch jengelen (“to whine, persistently nag, whimper”), though the Oxford English Dictionary finds this improbable) and ultimately imitative.

nb...

changel, changelen, gangelen, ganglen, ganglien, iangel, iangell, iangil, iangill, iangille, iangylle, jangelen, jangillen, jangli, jengelen, yangle

onomatopoeic

imitative

/ˈd͡ʒæŋɡ(ə)l/

Now ſee what noble and moſt ſoueraigne reaſon / Like ſweet bells iangled, out of time, and harſh, /That vnmatcht forme, and ſtature of blowne youth / Blaſted with extacie, […]

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

To cause (something) to make a rattling metallic sound.

kalistaa

to cause (something) to make a rattling metallic sound

A ſincere Heart that would ſerve God with his beſt, findeth more in a duty, than he could expect: and by Praying gets more of the fervency and Ardours of praying, as a Bell may be long a raiſing, but when it is up it jangleth not as it did at firſt.

a. 1678, Tho[mas] Manton, “[The Transfiguration of Christ.] Sermon II.”, in Christs Temptation and Transfiguration, Practically Explained and Improved in Several Sermons, London: [s.n.], published 1685, →OCLC, pages 43–44:

There is hardly a week without some saint in it who has to be commemorated, and often there are two in the same week, and sometimes three. I know when we have reached another saint, for then the church bells of the nearest village begin to jangle, and go on doing it every two hours.

1920, [Elizabeth von Arnim], In the Mountains, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, page 43:

(intransitive)
To make a rattling metallic sound.