quarter moon

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


valve oil

en-noun

valve oil (countable and uncountable, plural valve oils)

A liquid used to lubricate valves in brass instruments.


thrash metal

/ˈθɹæʃ ˌmɛtəl/

A heavy and intense form of heavy metal music with a focus on speed, technical precision, alternate picking, and extended guitar solos, and often having aggressive lyrics.


guqin

/ɡuːˈt͡ʃiːn/

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 古琴 (gǔqín), made up of 古 (gǔ, “ancient”) and 琴 (qín, “stringed instrument”).

Among those who will be making the Otter valley resound to the strains of the guzheng and erhu is Wu Wenguang, who plays a piece of music 1,800 years old on the guqin, an instrument known to have existed 3,000 years ago.

The kuchin is one of China’s oldest and most revered stringed instruments; its meditative character serves as a symbol of the CD’s inspiration.

[2006 September 22, Noah Buchan, “A Moving Sound gathers monentum”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2007-12-25, Features, page 13:

A plucked zither-like stringed instrument (chordophone), traditionally featuring seven unfretted strings, originating in ancient China.

gu-qin

NB: these variants may be incorrect, but nevertheless may be encountered


major chord

(music) Any musical chord which has the tones a major third (as opposed to a minor third) and a perfect fifth above its root, i.e. the notes of a major triad, but possibly containing other intervals, such as a seventh or ninth.

duurisointu

musical chord containing a major third and perfect fifth above its root


atomic pile

From the fact that the first nuclear reactor, at the University of Chicago in 1942-1943, was literally constituted by a tall pile (heap) of graphite moderator blocks. Compare also charcoal pile, a traditional improvised kiln used in charcoal making, which uses a similar basic design to contain a volatile process. The fact that English pile also is related to French pile (“battery”) (with senses of a collection of components and a power source, often both coinstantiated) has also been noted as an interesting nexus of word roots and semantic themes.

1948 The second atomic pile at the Government's research establishment at Harwell […] is expected to be brought into use this summer – The Times (London), May 11 1948, pg 2 col A

(nuclear physics) An early nuclear reactor fueled by uranium and moderated with graphite.

mile

an early nuclear reactor fueled by uranium and moderated with graphite

nuclear stockpile

semantically quite different from a nuclear pile


augmented

en-adj

augmented (comparative more augmented, superlative most augmented)

more augmented (comparative)
most augmented (superlative)


nuclear aircraft

en-noun

nuclear aircraft (plural nuclear aircraft)

A proposed aircraft that would be powered by nuclear energy.


Atomic Age

→ Dutch: atoomtijdperk (calque)

/əˈtɒmɪk ˌeɪd͡ʒ/

/əˈtɑːmɪk ˌeɪd͡ʒ/

The era, starting in the mid-1940s, during which nuclear energy was developed, and in which it was thought that all energy would be provided by such sources.

عصر الذرة

era during which nuclear energy was developed


keyboardist

The absence of keyboardist Sadie Shaw (who split for the Bay Area garage rawkers the Husbands) allows the group more space to indulge in dark wordless experiments; […]

2004, CMJ New Music Monthly, number 129, page 59:


Star-Spangled Banner

the Star-Spangled Banner (canonical)
The Star-Spangled Banner (canonical)

Francis Scott Key
The Star-Spangled Banner

From a description of the United States flag in Defence of Fort McHenry by Francis Scott Key.

তারায় সাজা ঝাণ্ডা

the national anthem of the United States

In the course of a single lifetime, the average fan will be forced to hear 1,500 fiendishly unattractive women ... take four and a half minutes to butcher “The Star-Spangled Banner”[.]

2004, Joe Queenan, True Believers, page 158:

On Monday, February 21, 1972, as a Chinese military band played “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Nixon became the first American president to visit China while in office.

2015, Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America, Threshold Editions, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 71:

The national anthem of the United States of America.


plunket

plunket (countable and uncountable, plural plunkets)

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

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


nuclear energy

The energy released by a nuclear reaction; either through nuclear fission or nuclear fusion


pipe down

en-verb

pipe down (third-person singular simple present pipes down, present participle piping down, simple past and past participle piped down)

pipes down (present singular third-person)
piping down (participle present)
piped down (participle past)
piped down (past)

The sex sense is related to lay the pipe.

Pipe down, children. I'm trying to work.

(idiomatic, intransitive) To be quiet; to refrain from being noisy.


nuclear reactor

en-noun

nuclear reactor (plural nuclear reactors)

Some newspapers in the United States, in Japan, and in South Korea printed photographs of North Korean nuclear reactors and nuclear plants, photos that were said to have been taken by U.S. military satellites. Most of the exposures were from a nuclear research establishment at Ninghian Chun in Pingan Beidao, only 80 km from Pyongyang.

1993 August 9 [1993 April 8], Zhongqing Tian, “Change in Overall Situation on the Korean Peninsula”, in JPRS Report China, number 93-057, United States Joint Publications Research Service, →OCLC, page 7, column 2:

(physics) Any device in which a controlled chain reaction is maintained for the purpose of creating heat (for power generation) or for creating neutrons and other fission products for experimental, medical or other purposes.


metal halide lamp

metal halide lamp (plural metal halide lamps)

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


mercury-vapour lamp

mercury-vapour lamp (plural mercury-vapour lamps)

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

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

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


moderator

/ˈmɒdəˌɹeɪtə(ɹ)/

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

(nuclear physics) A substance (often water or graphite) used to decrease the speed of fast neutrons in a nuclear reactor and hence increase likelihood of fission.

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


flavescent

en-adj

flavescent (comparative more flavescent, superlative most flavescent)

more flavescent (comparative)
most flavescent (superlative)


waul

en-verb

waul (third-person singular simple present wauls, present participle wauling, simple past and past participle wauled)

wauls (present singular third-person)
wauling (participle present)
wauled (participle past)
wauled (past)

From Middle English wraulen, wrawlen (“cry like a cat; roar”). Compare Danish vræle, vråle, Swedish vråla (“to bellow; roar; howl; yell”).

cog

Thou know’st, the first time that we smell the air, / We waul, and cry.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi]:

The Catapult wauled, "What if some poor man's dog was saved, — it was his comfort and defence; — he shared with the faithful creature his bread and butter: and when he dies, who watches his grave, — who, if we may so say, sheds a tear for the departed? — who, who, but his dog?[…]"

1850, Sylvester Judd, Richard Edney and the Governor's Family, page 298:

A cattish ghost-familiar wauls from a monument's bronze shoulder, seeing him see it, and he shrieks back in its own language, pulling a face so horrible that pedestrians scatter out of his path, their white cottons flapping.

2004, Michael Cisco, The San Veneficio Canon, page 75:


vocable

From French vocable or Latin vocābulum, from Latin vocō (“I call”).

Many Native American songs employ vocables, syllables that do not have referential meaning. These may be used to frame words or may be inserted among them; in some cases, they constitute the entire song text.

a. 2010, Victoria Lindsay Levine, Native American Music, Encyclopaedia Britannica:

(music) A syllable or sound without specific meaning, used together with or in place of actual words in a song.

lallatus

music: syllable or sound without specific meaning


whicker

en-verb

whicker (third-person singular simple present whickers, present participle whickering, simple past and past participle whickered)

whickers (present singular third-person)
whickering (participle present)
whickered (participle past)
whickered (past)

Of a horse, to neigh softly, to make a breathy whinny.


paradiddle-diddle

/ˈpæɹəˌdɪdəl dɪdəl/

(music) A percussive exercise (one of many rudiments) which involves playing six even strokes in the order ‘right left right right left left’ or ‘left right left left right right’.


midnight sun

en-noun

midnight sun (usually uncountable, plural midnight suns)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

sol de mitjanit

phenomenon occurring when Sun does not set


rangy

en-adj

rangy (comparative rangier, superlative rangiest)

rangier (comparative)
rangiest (superlative)

The Star Spangled Banner has been criticized as too rangy for many people to sing along to comfortably

(music) Requiring a large vocal range; having a great difference from the highest to the lowest notes.


pyromancy

one type of which involves casting salt into a fire

thin smoke that rose straight up was a good omen

one type of which involves heating to produce cracks

this was done by heating pits carved into them

The magical power of conjuring or controlling fire.


cackle

en-verb

cackle (third-person singular simple present cackles, present participle cackling, simple past and past participle cackled)

cackles (present singular third-person)
cackling (participle present)
cackled (participle past)
cackled (past)

From Middle English caclen, cakelen, perhaps from Old English *caclian, *cacolian, from Proto-West Germanic *kakulōn, *kakilōn (“to cackle, gaggle, yelp, snarl”), perhaps of imitative origin.
Compare Dutch kakelen (“to cackle”), German Low German kakeln (“to cackle”), German kakeln (“to blather”), Danish kagle (“to cackle”), Swedish kackla (“to cackle”). Compare also Old English cahhetan, ċeahhettan (“to laugh loudly; cackle”), German gackern (“to cackle”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

When every goose is cackling.

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]:

I heard a grey hen cackling among the ling; I called and thought, "If I could get a sight of you now, it would be your last cackle;" just then I heard something moving behind me on the path.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 28:

(intransitive) To make a sharp, broken noise or cry, as a hen or goose does.

крякам

to make a sharp, broken noise or cry, as a hen or goose does


engine room

And no steel band would be complete without its rhythm section or engine room, as the percussion section is known.

2018, Polly Thomas, The Rough Guide to Trinidad and Tobago, Apa Publications, →ISBN:

(figurative) The source of power in a team or other group.

(music) The rhythm section of a steel band.


progressive rock

(music) A rock music genre originating from the late 1960s and early 1970s, heavily influenced by classical music and jazz.


pyrophone

(music) a musical instrument in which the sound is produced by flames of gas in tubes of different length


compact disc

Coordinate term: DVD

A kind of plastic optical disc used to store audio or digital data, read by a laser in a drive.


swash

en-noun

swash (countable and uncountable, plural swashes)

Scandinavian. Compare Swedish dialect svasska, Norwegian svakka, English dialect swack (“a blow”).

As a first warning the boiling liquid lifts the cover and washes over it with a noisy swash and clatter.

1906, Good Housekeeping - Volume 42, page 352:

The sound of the furious "swash, swash,” as it struck, carried even to the depths of the holds where the engines churned madly to keep the prow in the teeth of the waves.

1943, Ella M. Noller, Rendezvous With Victory, page 44:

I'd wish with a swish, or I'd wash with a swash - and I'd dash (but not clash) with a dish ( but never squish your good things )

1979, Sun & Moon - Issues 6-11, page 22:

I listen to the soothing swash, swash of the waves and feel renewed strength in mind

2013, Bonnie Garmon, Jim Garmon, Indian River Country : Volume 1 1880-1889:

Dip in and out quickly and with a swash three or four times. This serves to wash off the dust that has settled while the fruit is on the trays.

1895, California. Legislature, Journals of the Legislature of the State of California, page 271:

Then he cut down a long forked stick, the anti-ophidian of the poor, and probing with the stick in one hand, began to clean the yuca grove with the machete in the other, displaying the lazy elegance of an athlete – swash, swash, swash – free and easy but looking carefully at each detail.

2005, Jimmy Weiskopf, Yajé: The New Purgatory : Encounters with Ayahuasca, page 91:

It had all been like a swash of pink cool-aid punch in her surprised face,some brigand of flailing emotions, in her golden pocket-book, where they could hear a fading swami-echo speaking out for animal rights, and damned yogic impulse.

She does not know whose hands are whose, but feels the swash and jangle of a tickle shoot up her neck.

2021, Felicia Kate Solomon, Lucia’s Poltergeist:


swash

en-verb

swash (third-person singular simple present swashes, present participle swashing, simple past and past participle swashed)

swashes (present singular third-person)
swashing (participle present)
swashed (participle past)
swashed (past)

The parts are swashed in the solution until they are clean and are then rinsed in cold running water.

1917, The Automobile - Volume 37, page 233:

I followed one set to the laundrey, where for two hours the samples were swashed and soaked, and swashed again, with strong laundry soap.

1920, Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine - Volume 99:

His gray and black hair on his head swashed in the dirty water around what used to be his face.

2008, Francisco Chicado, Mandible Museum, page 76:

First, they should be taken into the mouth, swashed and swirled around in the mouth so as to mix them with your saliva in which the saliva enzymes break down the juice for a much easier consumption.

2012, Sir Leonard, My Dual Fresh Juice and Miracle Weight Losing Plans:

He swashed the dipper around the bucket, keeping his eyes down—and took a slow step sidewise until he cleared the well box and stood behind it.

His throat worked as he poured the drink down his throat, then he took another mouthful and swashed it around before spitting it out.

(transitive, intransitive) To swirl through liquid; to swish.


chanteuse

Borrowed from French chanteuse (“female singer”).

Smith could easily be lumped in with expressive chanteuses like Norah Jones and Alicia Keys, but she has a broader palette than either. On the soulful torch song "Dream," which Smith wrote, she conveys a sophisticated allure that would seem well beyond her twenty-seven years.

2006 September 7, Evan Serpick, “10 artists to watch 2006: The Noisettes, Jibbs, Silversun Pickups and seven other up-and-comers”, in Rolling Stone, archived from the original on 2009-08-28:

A female singer; often specifically a popular or cabaret singer.


garage rock

(US, music) A simple, relatively raw form of rock and roll from the mid-1960s.


tuk

(music) A Barbadian musical style, based on British regimental music of the colonial era, but accompanied by costumed performances based on African characters.


pianola

(music) A mechanical piano which uses a roll of perforated paper to operate its keys, instead of being played by a pianist.


breakable

(usually in the plural, music) A set of customized hardware that is part of a drum kit. Breakables typically consist of: the drummer's cymbals including high-hats, the snare drum, the kick pedal and the drummer's stool.


talea

From Latin tālea. Doublet of taille and tally.

(music) A repeated rhythmic pattern used in isorhythm.


blake

en-adj

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

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

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

inh

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


siku

A type of traditional panpipe from the Andes.


fire and brimstone

Calque of Biblical Hebrew גׇּפְרִ֣ית וָאֵ֑שׁ (gofrit va’esh) and Ancient Greek πυρὸς καὶ θείου (puròs kaì theíou), appearing in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.

calque

גׇּפְרִ֣ית וָאֵ֑שׁ

πυρὸς καὶ θείου

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

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


hydrogen cycle

the electrolysis or solar photolysis of water to give hydrogen and oxygen which are then recombined in a fuel cell to produce electricity


ethnomusicology

en-noun

ethnomusicology (usually uncountable, plural ethnomusicologies)

(music) The study of music and culture; the study of music as it relates to its cultural context.


hydrogen vehicle

hydrogen vehicle (plural hydrogen vehicles)

Any vehicle that uses hydrogen as its principal fuel, normally via the electricity produced by a fuel cell.

سَيَّارَة هِيدْرُوجِينِيَّة

any vehicle that uses hydrogen as its principal fuel

veículo a hidrogénio/hidrogênio (movido)


hydrogen spectral series

hydrogen spectral series (plural hydrogen spectral series)

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


hydrogen station

hydrogen station (plural hydrogen stations)

A service station for hydrogen vehicles.


hydrogen spectrum

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


hydrogen warhead

hydrogen warhead (plural hydrogen warheads)

a small thermonuclear device in the warhead of a missile


photohydrogen

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


elucubrate

en-verb

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

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

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

uder

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


astatane

(inorganic chemistry) astatine hydride or hydrogen astatide, HAt.


lip-sync

en-verb

lip-sync (third-person singular simple present lip-syncs, present participle lip-syncing, simple past and past participle lip-synced)

lip-syncs (present singular third-person)
lip-syncing (participle present)
lip-synced (participle past)
lip-synced (past)

She lip-synced to her own recording during the show because of her laryngitis.

There was a great scandal when it was discovered the singer had been only lip-syncing.

Tolokonnikova is one of two members of the punk group Pussy Riot who are serving two-year sentences for lip-syncing and playing air guitar for 40 seconds in a peaceful protest in the largest Moscow cathedral.

2013 September 23, Masha Gessen, “Life in a Russian Prison”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-09-24:

(music, singing) To move lips in synchronization with sounds (generally recorded) so it appears they are the source of the sounds.

假唱

to move lips in synchronization with sounds


polane

(chemistry) polonium hydride, PoH₂ or H₂Po


hellfire

en-noun

hellfire (countable and uncountable, plural hellfires)

/ˈhɛlˌfaɪəɹ/

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

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


ozone hole

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

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

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

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

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

ozonová díra

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


unison

unison (usually uncountable, plural unisons)

From Middle English unisoun, from Middle French unisson, from Medieval Latin ūnisonus (“having the same sound”), from ūni- + sonus (“sound”).

der

The unison has a pitch ratio of 1:1.

The young principal timpanist, Timothy Genis, was superb throughout, though his sidekick timpanist sometimes lagged in the final unisons.

2007 July 16, James R. Oestreich, “With Levine as Tour Guide, a Journey Through Mahler’s Third Symphony”, in New York Times:

(music, acoustics) Identical pitch between two notes or sounds; the simultaneous playing of notes of identical pitch (or separated by one or more octaves).

unisoon

music: the simultaneous playing of an identical note more than once

I could not behold him without emotion; when he accosted me, his well-known voice made my heart vibrate, like a musical chord, when its unison is struck.

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

(music, acoustics) A sound or note having the same pitch as another, especially when used as the base note for an interval; a unison string.


squeaky

en-adj

squeaky (comparative squeakier, superlative squeakiest)

squeakier (comparative)
squeakiest (superlative)

Tending to produce a high-pitched sound or squeak.

писклив

producing a high-pitched sound or squeak


scratching

en-noun

scratching (countable and uncountable, plural scratchings)

/ˈskɹæt͡ʃɪŋ/

'Ugggghhhhh!' she made a face at the packet. 'Oink, oink!' Cosmo laughed, waving a scratching near her face.


parai

percussion instrument
percussion instrument

A type of percussion instrument used in the parai attam dance associated with Tamil culture.


helium dating

(archaeology) a method of determining the age of rock that depends on the production of helium during the decay of various radioactive isotopes of uranium and thorium.


helium fusion

(nuclear physics) nuclear fusion involving helium nuclei.


reggaeton

/rɛɡeɪˈtəʊn/

The Spanish islands gave the world salsa, and the more modern (and often controversial) hip-hop style reggaeton, which was forged between the islands and Miami.

2014, Carrie Gibson, Empire's Crossroads: The Caribbean From Columbus to the Present Day, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN:

A style of Latin American popular music, originally developing from reggae in Panama but now more of a type of hip hop-dance music mainly associated with Puerto Rico.


sega

(music) A genre of popular music mainly associated with Mauritius.


screamer

'Don't be frightened, mistress,' said Quilp, after a pause. 'Your son knows me; I don't eat babies; I don't like 'em. It will be as well to stop that young screamer though, in case I should be tempted to do him a mischief. Holloa, sir! Will you be quiet?'

1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the Twenty-first”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC:

He stood almost appalled for a moment, as he said to himself that she would take her up and the girl would be ruined, would force her note and become a screamer.

1885–1886, Henry James, chapter IX, in The Bostonians […], London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 16 February 1886, →OCLC:

In my opinion, Sarah was a total screamer. […] She screams in BRAIN OF MORIBUS, PYRAMIDS OF MARS, PLANET OF EVIL, REVENGE OF CYBERMEN, GENESIS OF DALEKS, SEEDS OF DOOM, ARK IN SPACE, etc, etc. In just about all her stories. When she is not screaming she is yelping, "Run Doctor RUNNNNNN!"

1999 June 27, J2rider, “Favourite companions to hate or love”, in rec.arts.drwho (Usenet):

One who screams; one who shouts; one who sings harshly.

His screamer into the right field bleachers in the sixth with Scarborough and Viau on base put Hickory out in front 9 to 8 and the lead held for the rest of the game.

2006, R. G. Utley, Tim Peeler, Aaron Peeler, Outlaw Ballplayers: interviews and profiles from the Independent Carolina Baseball League:

(music) A march played at a circus to enliven the crowd.


hyphy

en-adj

hyphy (comparative hyphier, superlative hyphiest)

hyphier (comparative)
hyphiest (superlative)

Probably an alteration of hype or hyper. American rapper Keak da Sneak is sometimes credited as coining the word in the 1990s, but no evidence exists to support this and the term is first attested in 2002.

Oakland is the place to look for 'hyphy' (hyperactive) New Bay hip-hop, while SoCal is still riding the 'crunk' (crazy-drunk) drum and bass beats with […]

2006, Andrea Schulte-Peevers et al., California, Lonely Planet Publications, →ISBN, page 46:

(music) Of or relating to the hyphy music subgenre or culture.


hyphy

It was Oakland rapper Keak Da Sneak who claims to have invented the term: upon being told by his mother that he was “hyperactive”, Keak repeated the term as “hyphy”. Since then, hyphy has come to refer to a complex group of cultural activities synonymous with Oakland: it is at once a sound, a behavior, a choice in recreational drugs.

2009, Mickey Hess, editor, Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide, volume 1, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 281:

San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area#Proper noun

(music) A subgenre of hip-hop music and dancing associated with the San Francisco Bay Area.


double time

(music) A musical rhythm twice as fast as the overall beat, with this pattern of note lengths: 3/16 3/16 1/4 3/16 3/16.


lur

(music, historical) A long natural blowing horn without finger holes, played by embouchure.


buka

(music) The short introduction to a gamelan piece, generally played by a single instrument in a free rhythm, with the kendhang coming in on the last few notes to set the tempo.


syncopate

en-verb

syncopate (third-person singular simple present syncopates, present participle syncopating, simple past and past participle syncopated)

syncopates (present singular third-person)
syncopating (participle present)
syncopated (participle past)
syncopated (past)

From Medieval Latin syncopātus, past participle of syncopō, from Late Latin syncopa, from Ancient Greek σύν (sún, “with”) + κόπτω (kóptō, “cut”).

(transitive, music) to stress or accentuate the weak beat of a rhythm; to use syncopation


in tune

I need to fiddle with the strings on my violin. It doesn't sound in tune.

(music) Having the correct musical pitch.


uphole

calculations made uphole

The shale bed is uphole from the limestone reservoir.

(oil industry) Within the wellbore, towards the top of the hole.


fluorescein

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

fluorescéine

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


atomic battery

en-noun

atomic battery (plural atomic batteries)

(physics) any device that converts the energy of particles emitted from atomic nuclei into electrical energy


jati

Borrowed from Sanskrit जाति (jāti). Doublet of gens, genesis, and kind.

(music) A rhythm pattern in Indian music.


nucleosynthesis

nucleosynthesis (countable and uncountable, plural nucleosyntheses)

(physics, astronomy) Any of several processes that lead to the synthesis of heavier atomic nuclei.

nucleosynthese

process that leads to synthesis in stars


nuclear battery

nuclear battery (plural nuclear batteries)

(physics) Any device that converts the energy of particles emitted from atomic nuclei into electrical energy.


nuclear chemistry

(chemistry) The application of chemical techniques to the solution of problems in nuclear physics, including the discovery of naturally occurring and synthetic radioactive elements and the results of nuclear fission.


carbon burning

(physics, astronomy) the nucleosynthesis process, in stars of greater than 8 solar mass that have exhausted their helium supply, in which carbon is converted to neon, sodium, magnesium and other elements


silicon burning

(physics, astronomy) the nucleosynthesis process, in stars where temperatures exceed 3x10⁹K, in which silicon undergoes photodisintegration to form fragments which in turn produce elements of atomic number up to 60, peaking at iron


oxygen burning

oxygen burning (usually uncountable, plural oxygen burnings)

(physics, astronomy) The nucleosynthesis process, subsequent to carbon burning, in which neon disintegrates to oxygen which subsequently fuses to form silicon, phosphorus sulfur and other elements of atomic number up to 40.


LiBeB process

(physics, astronomy) Any nucleosynthesis process, the details of which are unclear, that accounts for the light elements lithium, berylium and boron which cannot survive in stellar interiors because they are destroyed by proton capture.


CNO cycle

carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle
carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle


hydrogen burning

(physics, astronomy) the nucleosynthesis process, in stars of less than 1.2 solar mass, in which hydrogen is converted to helium, deuterium and some lithium

Wasserstoffbrennen

process, in which hydrogen is converted to helium


helium burning

(physics, astronomy) the nucleosynthesis process, in stars with temperatures over 10⁸K, in which helium is converted to carbon and then to oxygen, neon and magnesium

Heliumbrennen

process, in which helium is converted to carbon


r-process

(nuclear physics, astrophysics) The relatively rapid nucleosynthesis process, in supernovae, in which a large neutron flux allows rapid neutron capture and synthesis of elements up to the transuranic elements.


tar sand

tar sand (countable and uncountable, plural tar sands)


carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle

(physics, astronomy) A group of nuclear reactions, that involve the interaction of protons with carbon, nitrogen and oxygen nuclei, thought to be the main source of energy in main-sequence stars of greater than 1.4 solar mass.

ciclo del carbonio-azoto

a group of nuclear reactions thought to be the main source of energy in main-sequence stars of greater than 1.4 solar mass


oil sand

oil sand (countable and uncountable, plural oil sands)

A relatively loose sandstone, or porous carbonate rock, impregnated with bitumen.

tjæresand

relatively loose sandstone or porous carbonate rock impregnated with bitumen


s-process

(nuclear physics, astrophysics) the relatively slow nucleosynthesis process, in giant stars, in which neutron capture synthesizes elements up to atomic mass number 210 (at which point alpha decay becomes a deterrent to further building).


spina

Unadapted borrowing from Latin spīna (“a thorn; a prickle, spine”). Doublet of spine.


tabla

From Hindustani طبلہ / तबला (tablā), from Arabic طَبْلَة (ṭabla). Cognate of Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese tambor.

Idealized membranes, plates and bars are clearly inadequate and give way to the reality of tablas, gongs and zanzas.

2013, Simon Emmerson, Living Electronic Music, page 20:

(music) A pair of tuned hand drums, used in various musical genres of the Indian subcontinent, that are similar to bongos.


partita

He starts with scales and arpeggios, then something more substantial, on a recent day one of Bach’s partitas for the violin.

2007 June 3, Ian Fisher, “Fingers That Keep the Most Treasured Violins Fit”, in New York Times:

(music) A type of instrumental suite popular in the 18th century


firestorm

A fire whose intensity is greatly increased by inrushing winds.

fajroŝtormo

Fire intensity greatly increased by winds


backing band

(British) A group of musicians who accompany an artist at a live performance or on a recording. This can either be an established group, or else an ad hoc group assembled for the purpose.


VSO

(music, derogatory) Initialism of violin-shaped object., referring to a violin that is of very low quality.


reformer

Deisohexanizer bottoms are routed to the continuous reformer, where the octane of the stream is upgraded chiefly by conversion of naphthenes and paraffins to high octane aromatic compounds.

1979 December 20, Alaska Petrochemical Company, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Draft[:] Environmental Impact Statement, page 29:

(petrochemistry) A device used to convert petroleum refinery naphthas, typically having low octane ratings, into high-octane liquid products called reformates.


organoactinide

organometallic compound
organometallic compound

(chemistry) any organometallic compound of an actinide, especially one having an unusually high coordination number


longhair

I would rather see a musical, but my wife, who loves longhair music, is dragging me to the symphony again.

(derogatory, music) Concerning or characteristic of classical music.


amoroso

Borrowed from Italian amoroso. Doublet of amorous and amoureux.


pennywhistle

(music) A six-holed flute-like instrument with a fipple. They have approximately a two octave range (sometimes a little higher). Stereotypically, they are made out of tin, but in reality they come in all sorts of varieties, including tin, brass, nickel, cane, polymer, etc.


ICF

inertial confinement fusion
inertial confinement fusion#English

Initialism of inertial confinement fusion.


SSP

sound speed profile
sound speed profile#English

(hydroacoustics) Initialism of sound speed profile.


kwaito

From Camtho, from Afrikaans kwaai (“cool”, literally “angry”).

der

Kwaito is a genre-defying style blending the programmed percussion and vibrant call-and-response vocals of 1980s bubble-gum with British garage, American hip-hop and the new Jamaican ragga music; this inter-cultural mix, in turn, is framed by laid-back bass lines that can sound like Chicago-based house music in slow motion.

2005, Martin Scherzinger, “The Globalisation of South African Art Music”, in Christine Lucia, editor, The World of South African Music, Cambridge Scholars Press, →ISBN:

The residue of this otherworldliness is still audible in contemporary kwaito, which consistently thwarts any simple identification with ethnicity, language, or social position.

2016, Gavin Steingo, Kwaito's Promise: Music and the Aesthetics of Freedom in South Africa, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 43:

(South Africa, music) A style of music featuring words chanted over house music, originating in Johannesburg during the 1990s.


kwela

(South Africa, music) A style of music, first played in the townships, whose principal instrument is the penny whistle.


gurgle

en-verb

gurgle (third-person singular simple present gurgles, present participle gurgling, simple past and past participle gurgled)

gurgles (present singular third-person)
gurgling (participle present)
gurgled (participle past)
gurgled (past)

Back formation from Middle English gurguling (“a rumbling in the belly”). Akin to Middle Dutch gorgelen (“to gurgle”), Middle Low German gorgelen (“to gurgle”), German gurgeln (“to gargle”), and perhaps to Latin gurguliō (“throat”).

cog

The bath water gurgled down the drain.

Pure gurgling rills the lonely deſart trace, / And vvaſte their muſick on the ſavage race.

1727, [Edward Young], “Satire V. On Women.”, in Love of Fame, the Universal Passion. In Seven Characteristical Satires, 4th edition, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson […], published 1741, →OCLC, page 97:

The baby gurgled with delight.


gurgle

Then the conversation broke off, and there was little more talking, only a noise of men going backwards and forwards, and of putting down of kegs and the hollow gurgle of good liquor being poured from breakers into the casks.

[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:


flipside

Nice tune. What's on the flipside?

(music) The B-side of a phonograph record.


sound stage

Coordinate term: silent stage

Filmed entirely on a sound stage, with the exception of a single cutaway exterior shot (reproduced exactly in the Swedish version) , the film has all the earmarks of the "canned theatre" style: minimal camera movement[…]

1992, Robert B. Altman, Sound Theory, Sound Practice, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 145:

(film, television) A soundproof room or building used for the production of movies or of television programmes.


swinge

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


blondie

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


Dixieland

My sis is tying the knot. I want you to play for the reception. She likes Dixieland. Two of my boys say you play good Dixieland.

(music) A type of jazz that originated in New Orleans.


record label

The round sticker in the centre of a phonograph record that contains the record company's logo and information about the recording.

etiketti

label in the centre of a phonograph record

(by extension) The record company itself, as identified by its logo.


hissing

The hissings and screamings of the vulgar against him as he moved forward on his stedfast course he heeded less than those of geese on a common.

1875, John Lothrop Motley, The Life and Death of John of Barneveld Advocate of Holland:


uranous

(chemistry) Containing uranium in lower valences than uranic compounds.


gothic rock

First coined by John Stickney in reference to The Doors in 1967 and used by the late 1970s to describe the musical scene that gave rise to the goth subculture, both from a supposed aesthetic similarity to dark and moody 19th century gothic fiction and earlier gothic art and architecture.

Since the 1980s, several goth substyles have mixed the Batcave heritage with other musical genres into new goth substyles. New wave was gothed into darkwave, classic rock into gothic rock, and metal into gothic metal.

2015, Isabella van Elferen, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Goth Music: From Sound to Subculture, Routledge, →ISBN, page 25:

(music) A style of music that developed out of punk rock in the late 1970s, with lyrics and imagery often referring to morbid, spooky or mystical ideas.

The Doors
gothic architecture
gothic art
gothic fiction
gothic rock


uranic

(chemistry) Containing uranium in higher valences than uranous compounds.

From many other places in the classics the impression may be won that Uranic love attained a higher position even than her sister. More recent explanations of the homosexual instinct have emanated from philosophers, psychologists and natural scientists.

1894, Richard Krafft-Ebing (trans F. J. Rebman), Psychopathia Sexualis, page 341

The patriotic assassination that so glorified Harmodios and Aristogeiton was in a vengeance for what was a homosexual marriage, we may say, between the two youths—whose uranic love was so virilized.

1908, Edward Prime-Stevenson, The Intersexes A History of Similisexualism as a Problem in Social Life, page 189:

But the fact was that ever since Frederick the Great had forbidden women to his Praetorian Guard in the 1750s, obliging the guards to seek the company of boys for their pleasure, Berlin had been identified with soldierly inversion and uranic sexuality. Paragraph 175 of the Federal Criminal Code still forbade all homosexual activity but there were so many male prostitutes in Berlin […] that the law was more or less unenforceable.

(rare, historical) Of, related to, or characteristic of male same-sex erotic desire and relationships; homosexual.


long-lived

en-adj

long-lived (comparative more long-lived, superlative most long-lived)

more long-lived (comparative)
most long-lived (superlative)

From Middle English long-lifed, equivalent to long + life + -ed.

Of a radioisotope: having a long half-life


brachytherapy

en-noun

brachytherapy (countable and uncountable, plural brachytherapies)

From Ancient Greek βραχύς (brakhús, “short, not far off”) + θεραπεία (therapeía, “attendance, treatment, healing, service”); brachy- + therapy.

der

Coordinate term: teletherapy

Radiotherapy using radioactive sources positioned within (or close to) the treatment volume, typically with radiopharmaceuticals as opposed to external-beam sources.


teletherapy

en-noun

teletherapy (countable and uncountable, plural teletherapies)

From tele- + therapy; formed circa the 1940s.

Coordinate term: brachytherapy

Radiotherapy using a source of ionizing radiation at some distance from the patient, typically tens of centimetres.


tapping

tapping (countable and uncountable, plural tappings)

(music) A guitar technique in which the strings are tapped against the fingerboard


meline

From Latin melinus (“relating to honey”).


caramelize

en-verb

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

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

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


concerted

en-adj

concerted (comparative more concerted, superlative most concerted)

more concerted (comparative)
most concerted (superlative)

(music) Having separate parts for voices and instruments.


lithium deuteride

thermonuclear weapon
thermonuclear weapon

(inorganic chemistry) a form of lithium hydride in which the normal hydrogen is replaced with deuterium; used in thermonuclear weapons


(physics) a radioactive isotopes of carbon, ¹⁴₆C, having six protons and eight neutrons; it is used in radiocarbon dating


berylline

berylline (comparative more berylline, superlative most berylline)

more berylline (comparative)
most berylline (superlative)

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

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

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


fulgurous

/ˈfʊl.ɡɪə.ɹəs/


scratch

en-verb

scratch (third-person singular simple present scratches, present participle scratching, simple past and past participle scratched)

scratches (present singular third-person)
scratching (participle present)
scratched (participle past)
scratched (past)

From Middle English scracchen, of uncertain origin. Probably a blend of Middle English scratten (“to scratch”) and cracchen (“to scratch”). More at scrat and cratch.

scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist

you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours

(music) To produce a distinctive sound on a turntable by moving a vinyl record back and forth while manipulating the crossfader (see also scratching).


scratch

en-noun

scratch (countable and uncountable, plural scratches)

(music) A genre of Virgin Islander music, better known as fungi.


towering inferno

towering inferno (plural towering infernos)

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

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

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

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


guembri

Borrowed from Arabic كَمْبْرِي (kambrī).

A mu'alim (master musician) directs his musicians even as he also actively participates by playing an instrument known as the guembri to help draw the attention of the spirit world. The guembri, a three-stringed lute plucked with the fingers to […]

2016, Abdelmajid Hannoum, Practicing Sufism: Sufi Politics and Performance in Africa, Routledge, →ISBN, page 137:

(music) A kind of lute used by Berber musicians.


carbon dating

carbon dating (countable and uncountable, plural carbon datings)


singsong

I ne'r vvith VVits and VVitlings paſt my days, / To ſpread about the Itch of Verſe and Praiſe, / Nor like a Puppy daggled thro' the Tovvn, / To fetch and carry Sing-ſong up and dovvn; […]

1735 January 13 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1734), [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London: […] J[ohn] Wright for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC, page 12, lines 218–221:


djembe

From French djembé, from Mandinka jembe which derives from the Bambara language, "djé" is the verb for "gather" and "bé" translates as "peace." As a result, "Anke djé, anke bé" which translates to "everyone gather together in peace" and defines the drum's purpose.

There are three principal types of traditional drums in Guinean Sousou culture: the djembe, the dundun, and the tama. The djembe is a single-headed goblet-shaped drum with a relatively high-pitched tone.

2007, Karin Gaynell Patterson, Expressions of Africa in Los Angeles Public Performance, 1781—1994, page 133:

The djembe is one of the best-known and popular African drums, particular with those in the West who are interested in learning a drumming tradition.

2009, Tamara Dean, Composition for Computer Musicians, page 51:

The djembe has become the most recognizable drum from West Africa, with a history that can be traced to the twelfth century Mali Empire and the Mandinka people.

2010, Randy Raine-Reusch, Play the World: The 101 World Instrument Primer, page 91:

Very few djembes are perfectly round. Most are slightly egg- or triangle-shaped. Lack of roundness is not a problem for sound: many such djembes sound excellent.

2012, Michi Henning, Djembe Construction: A Comprehensive Guide, page 13:

(music) A large, rope-tuned, skin-covered drum played with the bare hands, used in West African and some fusion music.


panpipes

From Pan (“Greek god of nature”) + pipes.

(music) An instrument consisting of a series of ten or more tubes of different lengths, typically closed at the bottom and open at the top, and is played by blowing across the open end at the top.


polonaise

Borrowed from French polonaise (“Polish”).


clank

A loud, hard sound of metal hitting metal.


clank

en-verb

clank (third-person singular simple present clanks, present participle clanking, simple past and past participle clanked)

clanks (present singular third-person)
clanking (participle present)
clanked (participle past)
clanked (past)

The chains clanked.

Far less straightforward was what happened at about 0130 on Friday June 2 1944, as a long goods train was chuffing and clanking its unhurried way across the darkened landscape towards Soham, from Ely.

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

The prisoners clank their chains.

(transitive) To cause to sound with a clank.


sputter

sputter (third-person singular simple present sputters, present participle sputtering, simple past and past participle sputtered)

sputters (present singular third-person)
sputtering (participle present)
sputtered (participle past)
sputtered (past)

Probably representing Middle English *sputren, *sputrien, a frequentative form of Middle English sputen (“to spout, vomit”), equivalent to spout + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian spüttern (“to inject, spray, splash”), West Frisian sputterje (“to sputter”), Dutch sputteren (“to sputter”), Low German sputtern, spruttern (“to sprinkle”), German sprudeln (“to spout, squirt”). Compare splutter.

cog

They could neither of them speak their rage, and so fell a sputtering at one another, like two roasting apples.

1700, William Congreve, The Way of the World:

In the midst of caresses, and without the least pretended incitement, to sputter out the basest and falsest accusations.

1730, Jonathan Swift, A Vindication of Lord Carteret:

(transitive, intransitive) To speak so rapidly as to emit saliva; to utter words hastily and indistinctly, with a spluttering sound, as in rage.

sopertaa

to speak so rapidly as to emit saliva; to utter words hastily and indistinctly


sciolto

Borrowed from Italian sciolto, from sciogliere (“to set free”).

(music) Light, free and easy; without strictness or legato.


sciolto

(music) A directive in a score specifying that the music is to be played in this manner.


searchlight

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

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

soeklig

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


bistre

en-noun

bistre (countable and uncountable, plural bistres)

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


in rilievo

Borrowed from Italian in rilievo (“in relief”), from in + rilievo.

(music) The musical notation that indicates that a particular instrument to play slightly louder than the others so as to stand out over the ensemble; in relief.


al niente

I would, anyhow, put my money on Nunc Dimittis with its atmospheric mood and beautifully original ending where, after the impact of a robust Gloria a solo soprano quietly reiterates the opening phrase senza misura with the rest of the choir singing Amens al niente on open fifths.

There is a strong feeling of renunciation, but this is softened somewhat by her enigmatic smile which implies a certain contentment and satisfaction, and the music dies away al niente.

2005, Michael Halliwell, Opera and the Novel: The Case of Henry James:

The Prelude ends ambiguously, in that the two crotchet rests in bar 26 act as a fermata of indeterminate length as the resonance sustained by the open pedal fades al niente.

2016, Mine Doğantan-Dack, Artistic Practice as Research in Music: Theory, Criticism, Practice:

(music) Indicating in music notation that the dynamics fade to nothing.


marcato

Borrowed from Italian marcato, past participle of marcare (“to stress”).


Jew's harp

The word harp is often applied to a wide variety of instruments in English, including many (such as this one) that are not "harps" in the most specific sense. The origin of Jew's is uncertain, it is widely accepted that the instrument has no musicological or etymological connection with Jews and the word was capitalized due to the mistaken belief of a connection. Some have connected it to the Cleveland dialectal gew-gaw, related to the Old Norse giga, compare modern Swedish giga, Danish gige, German Geige (“fiddle”). Others have suggested a connection with jaws, the synonym jaw harp may have therefore come first. Other theories point to French jeu-trompe (literally “toy-trumpet”), compare Jew's-trump.

cog

The lad, his son, had obtained a Jew's-harp, and learned to play upon it the profane airs of "Yankee Doodle," "Hail Columbia," "St. Patrick's Day," and "Auld Lang Syne."

1850, T. S. Arthur, “Deacon Smith and his Violin”, in Sketches of Life and Character, Philadelphia: J. W. Bradley, →OCLC, page 70:

A musical instrument consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo “tongue” attached to a frame. This tongue is placed in the performer's mouth and plucked with the finger to produce a note of constant pitch. Melodies can be created by changing the shape of the mouth and causing different overtones.


barytone

en-adj

barytone (comparative more barytone, superlative most barytone)

more barytone (comparative)
most barytone (superlative)

From Latin barytonos, from Ancient Greek βαρύτονος (barútonos, “not oxytone”). Doublet of baritone and baryton.


power chord

(music, idiomatic) A chord or combination of notes used in rock music and typically selected to sound good at high volume and high levels of distortion. Power chords make extensive use of intervals such as open fourths and fifths.


repercussion

en-noun

repercussion (countable and uncountable, plural repercussions)

/ˌɹiː.pəˈkʌʃ.ən/

/ˌɹɛ.pɚˈkʌʃ.ən/

From Middle French répercussion, from Latin repercussio (“rebounding; repercussion”), from repercutio (“cause to rebound, reflect, strike against”), from re- + percutio (“beat, strike”), from per- (“thoroughly”) + quatio (“shake”).

uder

(music) Rapid reiteration of the same sound.

reperkussio

music: rapid reiteration of the same sound


ocher

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

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


ocher

en-verb

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

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


serge

en-noun

serge (countable and uncountable, plural serges)

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

der

(by metonymy) A garment made of this fabric.


brown dwarf

en-noun

brown dwarf (plural brown dwarfs or brown dwarves)

brown dwarfs (plural)
brown dwarves (plural)

(astronomy) A starlike object that contracts to about the volume of Jupiter after its formation phase; its mass may range from several times that of Jupiter, such that it fuses deuterium, up to just below the threshold of sustained hydrogen fusion.


pleochroic halo

pleochroic halo (plural pleochroic halos or pleochroic haloes)

pleochroic halos (plural)
pleochroic haloes (plural)

(geology) A microscopic spherical region in which there is a change in color from the surrounding mineral; due to radiation damage from alpha particles.


duple

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From Latin duplus (“twofold, double”). Attested since the 16th century. Doublet of double and doppio.

(of time or music) Having two beats, or a multiple of two beats, in each measure.


Woodstock

en-proper noun

Woodstock (countable and uncountable, plural Woodstocks)

From Old English wudu (“wood”) + stoc (“dwelling”).

(music) Ellipsis of Woodstock Festival., an American rock music festival originally held in 1969 in New York state near Woodstock.


English horn

(music) a woodwind instrument similar to an oboe, but larger and pitched a fifth lower


neon lighting

en-noun

neon lighting (usually uncountable, plural neon lightings)


uranium hexafluoride

uranium hexafluoride (plural uranium hexafluorides)

(chemistry) a binary compound of uranium and fluorine, UF₆; it is a grey solid, or heavy gas, and is used in the uranium enrichment process to produce fuel for nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons

किरणातु षटतरस्विनेय

binary compound of uranium and fluorine, UF6


neon sign

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

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

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

霓虹燈招牌

an illuminated sign constructed from fluorescent lights


kick-off

(music) The opening sequence of notes in a song, usually played by the song's main instrument, to indicate the beginning of the song.


roup

en-verb

roup (third-person singular simple present roups, present participle rouping, simple past and past participle rouped)

roups (present singular third-person)
rouping (participle present)
rouped (participle past)
rouped (past)


ripsaw

en-noun

ripsaw (countable and uncountable, plural ripsaws)

Turks and Caicos Islands
Turks and Caicos Islands

(uncountable, music, Caribbean) A genre of music played with a ripsaw and other instruments, originally associated mainly with Turks and Caicos Islands.


virga

virga (countable and uncountable, plural virgas or virgae)

Borrowed from Latin virga (“rod”). Doublet of verge.

(music) A type of note used in plainsong notation, having a tail and representing a single tone.


lapa

(South Africa) An open structure in South Africa, typically a thatched roof supported by wooden poles.


lapa

(music) A metal wind instrument of 19th-century China, resembling the oboe.


noise pollution

Excess noise which is unpleasant or harmful.


helicon

Probably from Ancient Greek ἕλῐξ (hélix) + -on, after bombardon.

(music) A large tuba whose coils fit around the player's shoulders.


downhole

In the work over, part of the new "string" was a down-hole titanium gauge.

2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, page 44:

Pressure readings are taken downhole next to the feed zone and the total flow is measured on the surface using a separator.

2015, Ronald DiPippo, Geothermal Power Plants:

(oil industry) Located in the drilled bore of an oil well either underground or undersea.


ratamacue

(music) A percussion rudiment consisting of a diddled grace note followed by a triplet and downbeat, with right and left as (LL)RLRL or (RR)LRLR.


weapons-grade

For 75 years, it has fulfilled a wide range of roles: producing weapons-grade plutonium for early atomic weapons in the aftermath of the Second World War; the world's first commercial nuclear power station supplying electricity to the National Grid; reprocessing and storage of nuclear fuel; and the processing of lower grades of radioactive waste for off-site storage.

2023 December 27, Ben Jones, “Inside Sellafield... by rail”, in RAIL, number 999, page 20:

(of a radioactive or other substance) Of a purity suitable for the manufacture of weapons.


cotillion

/kəʊtɪlˈjɒ̃/

Circa 1750, in the sense of the dance, from French cotillon (“petticoat”), extended to the dance because of the distinctive lift of dress revealing the petticoat, from cotte (“dress”) + -illon (diminutive). Said to derive from the then-popular song Ma commère, quand je danse, mon cotillion va-t-il bien.

1848 I kept a parlor open for the reception of visitors, many came here to practise with me, and many more to listen to us—several young men put themselves under my tuition, and although I had never been taught myself, they progressed finely in their studies and I soon brought out, not only the best field music, but also for dinners, balls, cotilion and tea parties, weddings, &c. THRILLING SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE DISTINGUISHED CHIEF OKAH TUBBEE ALIAS, WM. CHUBBEE, Son of the Head Chief, Mosholeh Tubbee, of theChoctaw Nation of Indians. BY REV. L. L. ALLEN, AUTHOR OF “PENCILLINGS UPON THE RIO GRANDE,” &c. NEW YORK, 1848. ENTERED according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by Okah Tubbee, alias William Chubbee, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. AN ESSAY UPON THE INDIAN CHARACTER.http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/tubbee1848/tubbee1848.xml

(music) The music regulating the cotillion.


actinobiology

The study of the effects of radiation upon living organisms.


dubbing

dubbing (countable and uncountable, plural dubbings)

(music) The transfer of recorded music from one medium to another.


feuillemorte

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

feuillemorte:

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


Fach

Unadapted borrowing from German Fach, short for Stimmfach. Doublet of fack.

(music) A method of classifying singers, primarily opera singers, according to the range, weight, and color of their voices.


earworm

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

/ˈɪ(ə)ɹˌwɚm/

From ear + worm; senses 1 and 3 (“tune that keeps replaying in one’s head”; “earwig”) are a calque of German Ohrwurm (“tune that pops up in one’s memory all the time; earwig”) (from the idea of a creature burrowing into the ear, an erroneous belief where earwigs are concerned), while sense 2 (“moth larva”) refers to the fact that these pests infest, among other things, ears of maize or sweet corn.

calque

I had planned in mind to tell you [...] how I protected, that is, guaranteed, Evergreen sweet corn against the bud worm and the ear worm; [...]

1924 January–March, Martin V. Calvin, “Agricultural Research”, in Annual Report of Georgia Department of Agriculture for 1923 (Quarterly Bulletin of the Georgia Department of Agriculture; serial no. 95), Atlanta, Ga.: Georgia Department of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 44:

The number of bollworms or ear worms increases greatly as the season advances. This indicates a need for hastening the maturity of all crops affected.

1929 June, F[red] C[ory] Bishopp, “Control Measures”, in The Bollworm or Corn Ear Worm as a Cotton Pest (U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmers’ Bulletin; no. 1595), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 7:

Encouraging progress is being made, however, in the search for and utilization of earworm-resistant strains of both field and sweet corn. We mentioned the protection of ears from earworms, weevils, and grain moths by tight husks that extend beyond the tip of the ear.

1952, C. M. Packard, John H. Martin, “Resistant Crops, the Ideal Way”, in Alfred Stefferud, editor, The Yearbook of Agriculture 1952: Insects, Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture; United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 434, column 1:

The fall armyworm and the corn earworm attack sweet corn as earworms. [...] Although they may sometimes eat through the husk to attack the side of the ear, most earworms feed on the silks and enter through the silk channel to attack the tip of the ear. The earworm population may be almost completely composed of corn earworms or of fall armyworms, or of a mixture of the two species.

1967 February, Victor L. Guzman et al., “Insects and Their Control”, in Sweet Corn Production on the Organic and Sandy Soils of Florida (Bulletin (Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Florida); no. 714), Gainesville, Fla.: Agricultural Experiment Stations, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, →OCLC, pages 27–28:

A single earworm may seriously damage or destroy the bud of a cole crop plant, causing the plant to be disfigured or to produce several secondary buds. Earworms may disfigure the heads of cabbage plants by their feeding and tunneling [...].

1980 October, C. S. Creighton, J. E. Halfhill, “Caterpillars and How They Damage Plants”, in Control of Caterpillars on Cabbage and Other Cole Crops (United States Department of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin; no. 2271), Washington, D.C.: Science and Education Administration, United States Department of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 10, column 2:

[I]nsects exert undesirable influence on tropical maize production, with stem borers, ear worms and weevils being the most ubiquitous groups.

1984, J. M. Fajemisin, S. K. Kim, Y. Efron, M. S. Alam, “Breeding for Durable Disease Resistance in Tropical Maize with Special Reference to Maize Streak Virus”, in Breeding for Durable Disease and Pest Resistance […] (FAO Plant Production and Protection Paper; 55), Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization, published 1985, →ISBN, page 49:

(originally US) Short for corn earworm (“larva of the moths Helicoverpa zea (syn. Heliothis zea) and Helicoverpa armigera, which are agricultural pests”).


shimmer

en-verb

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

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

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

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

The shimmering glimpses of a stream

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

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

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

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

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

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

առկայծել

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


shimmer

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

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

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

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

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

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

A faint or veiled and tremulous gleam or shining.

блещукане

faint or veiled and tremulous gleam or shining; a glimmer


shimmer

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


inverted

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

(music, of a chord) Having the lowest note transposed an octave higher.


bucket brigade

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

Eimerkette

line of people who pass buckets of water


half-time

en-noun

half-time (countable and uncountable, plural half-times)

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

(music) A tempo in which the rhythm is emphasized so that it seems to have half as many metric divisions (e.g. emphasizing the start of every other bar rather than every bar).


mineral oil

mineral oil (countable and uncountable, plural mineral oils)

Any mixture of aliphatic and alicyclic hydrocarbons derived from petroleum used for very many applications, but not as a fuel.

E905a when used as an anti-foaming agent


sampler

→ Russian: се́мплер (sémpler)

(music) An electronic musical instrument that records and plays back samples of recordings.


beatboxing

The practice of using one’s mouth, lips, tongue, voice, etc. as a percussive instrument to create beats, rhythms and melodies for music, mainly hip hop.


go up

en-verb

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

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

The building went up in smoke. Once the fire got out of the basement, the building went up in minutes.

(intransitive, British, dated) To attend university.

He went up in the spring.


singjay

A Jamaican style of reggae combining toasting and singing in an elastic scat format.


Europop

Coordinate term: Eurodance

And why do you have the Aqua album? It hasn't really stood the test of time, has it? Wasn't quite the ‘post-ironic Europop masterpiece’ you declared it to be back in 1997 […]

2010, John O'Connell, The Midlife Manual, Hachette, →ISBN:

A style of continental European pop music from the 1970s and 1980s characterized by catchy beats, slick songs and frothy lyrics.


J-pop

Borrowed from Japanese J-POP (jeipoppu), from J- + pop, an abbreviation of English Japanese pop, coined by Tokyo radio station J‑WAVE in 1988.

The girls are constantly reshuffled into new permutations in order to feed the J-pop market's insatiable demand for fresh looks and faces.

2005 August 21, Chris Campion, “J-Pop's dream factory”, in The Observer, →ISSN:

She may be declining in popularity, relevance and quality, but Ayumi Hamasaki is still the undisputed Queen of J-Pop, and it will be a long while before anyone can surpass her.

2010 March 25, Teresa Nieman, “Why Japanese pop matters”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(music) Japanese pop music influenced by western genres.


programmatic

/ˌpɹəʊ.ɡɹəˈmæt.ɪk/

/ˌpɹoʊ.ɡɹəˈmæt.ɪk/

[ˌpɹoʊ.ɡɹəˈmæɾ.ɪk]

/ˌpɹəʉ.ɡɹəˈmæt.ɪk/

[ˌpɹəʉ.ɡɹəˈmæɾ.ɪk]

/ˌpɹoː.ɡɹəˈmæt.ɪk/

/ˌpɹoː.ɡɹɑːˈmæt.ɪk/

(music) Of or relating to program music.


ripieno

[…] on Sunday four more violinists, a second violist and a harpsichordist were added to give the ripieno sections of the fast movements a heftier punch than the smaller group delivered.

2009 January 20, Allan Kozinn, “Shafts of Sun in Winter From the Italian Baroque”, in New York Times:

(music) The part of a concerto grosso in which the ensemble plays together; contrasted with the concertino.


album track

Any individual piece of music, normally separated from the others by a short pause, on an LP, CD etc.


retardation

en-noun

retardation (countable and uncountable, plural retardations)

The act of retarding or delaying; hindrance.

(acoustics) The distance by which one wave is behind another.

(music) The act of diminishing the rate of speed.

(music) A suspension which resolves upwards.


irradiate

en-verb

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

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

/ɪˈɹeɪdɪeɪt/

The verb is a learned borrowing from Medieval Latin irradiātus + English -ate (suffix forming verbs denoting ‘to act in the specified manner’). Irradiātus is the perfect passive participle of irradiō, from Latin ir- (a variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘against; into; on, upon’)) + radiō (“to cause to radiate, irradiate; to emit beams, radiate”) (from radius (“ray of light; rod, staff; spoke of a wheel”) (further etymology uncertain; possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁t- (“beam; pole; post”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)).
The adjective is derived from Late Middle English irradiate (“illuminated, shining”), borrowed from Medieval Latin irradiātus (see above) + Middle English -at (suffix forming past participles of verbs). The adjective is attested earlier than the verb.
The English word is analysable as ir- (prefix meaning ‘against; into; on, upon’) + radiate.

облъчвам

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

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

An inherent protection in labeling of the shipping containers will be the prevention of irradiating the commodity again, insuring that the produce has been treated within the safety limits established by the FDA [Food and Drug Administration].

1985 November 18, J. Richard Graves, jr., witness, “Statement of J. Richard Graves, jr., Chairman, Government Relations Committee, United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association”, in Federal Food Irradiation Development and Control Act of 1985: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Department Operations, Research, and Foreign Agriculture of the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Ninety-Ninth Congress, First Session on H.R. 696 […] (Serial No. 99-14), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published 1986, →OCLC, page 100:

(technology) To apply radiation other than visible light to (someone or something).

To treat (food) with ionizing radiation to destroy pathogens.

(medicine) To treat (a patient, or a cancerous growth or tumour) with radiation.

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

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

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

(intransitive, often literary or poetic)

To become bright; to brighten, to light up.


irradiate

en-adj

irradiate (comparative more irradiate, superlative most irradiate)

more irradiate (comparative)
most irradiate (superlative)
or poetic (literary)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Made brilliant or bright; irradiated, illuminated.


delphinium

en-noun

delphinium (countable and uncountable, plural delphiniums or delphinia)

[dɛɫˈfɪnɪəm]

From the genus name (translingual Delphinium).

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

delphinium:

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


introit

PIE word
 *h₁én
From Late Middle English introite (“act of entering in or into, entrance; place of entrance”), borrowed from Old French introït, introïte (“introit”) (modern French introït), or from its etymon Latin introitus (“act of entering in or into, entrance; passage; place of entrance; (figuratively) beginning, introduction, prelude”), from introeō (“to enter, go in”) + -tus (suffix forming action nouns from verbs). Introeō is derived from intrō (“to enter, go into”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁én (“in”)) + eō (“to go”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- (“to go”)).

refn

From the collection of the Helsinki University Library in Helsinki, Finland.

der

The Glossary of Terms used by ecclesiastics in the middle ages, who describe a day by the “introit,” or commencement of the service appointed by the church to be performed thereon, and an explanation of the Canonical Hours, Watches, &c. will frequently be found useful.

[1833, [Nicholas] Harris Nicolas, “Preface”, in Dionysius Lardner, editor, The Chronology of History. […] (The Cabinet Cyclopædia; XLIV), London: […] Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, […]; and John Taylor, […], →OCLC, page xvii:

Adorate Dominum. The introit* and name of the third Sunday after the Epiphany. [Footnote *: Introit.—The first two or more words that form the commencement of a mass, which, from being appropriated to a certain Sunday, or other festival, give the name of such commencement or "introit" to these days.]

1833, [Nicholas] Harris Nicolas, “A Glossary of Dates; […]”, in Dionysius Lardner, editor, The Chronology of History. […] (The Cabinet Cyclopædia; XLIV), London: […] Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, […]; and John Taylor, […], →OCLC, page 110, column 1:

At some time during these sacerdotal preces the choir will usually have started the sung introit, the exact time for beginning the item dependent on a number of features such as the distance from sacristy to altar.

1982, Andrew Hughes, “Mass”, in Medieval Manuscripts for Mass and Office: A Guide to Their Organization and Terminology, Toronto, Ont., Buffalo, N.Y.: University of Toronto Press, published 2004, →ISBN, page 84:

The earliest unequivocal reference to the Roman introit is from the turn-of-the-eighth-century Ordo romanus I, where the chant is described in its fully developed early medieval form. Consisting of an antiphon and psalm, it is sung during the entrance of the pope at the beginning of Mass.

2000, James [W.] McKinnon, “The Introit”, in The Advent Project: The Later-seventh-century Creation of the Roman Mass Proper, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif., London: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 195:

(Roman Catholicism, music) A prayer, typically part of a psalm or other portion of the Bible, read or sung at the start of Mass while or immediately after the priest ascends to the altar.

ܒܝܬܐ

part of a psalm or other portion of the Bible read or sung at Mass immediately after the priest ascends to the altar

(Christianity, chiefly Protestantism, music) Any piece of vocal music, especially a setting of an anthem or a psalm, sung at the opening of a church service.


whitish

en-adj

whitish (comparative more whitish, superlative most whitish)

more whitish (comparative)
most whitish (superlative)

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

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

1910, The Year Book of Dermatology, page 124:


brekekekex

en-verb

brekekekex (third-person singular simple present brekekekexes, present participle brekekekexing, simple past and past participle brekekekexed)

brekekekexes (present singular third-person)
brekekekexing (participle present)
brekekekexed (participle past)
brekekekexed (past)

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek βρεκεκεκέξ (brekekekéx), coined by Aristophanes in the comedy The Frogs.

lbor

There was not a fisherman on the river, not a peasant in the fields, nothing but those little vole-catchers and skimming wagtails, the waterbirds and the massed larks and the frogs, whose steady diurnal croak, though universal, seemed milder than the full-moon brekekekexing the night before.

1977, Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts, page 306:


cran

(music) An embellishment played on the lowest note of a chanter of a bagpipe, consisting of a series of grace notes produced by rapid sequential lifting of the fingers of the lower hand.


Hawking radiation

Named from the English physicist Stephen Hawking.

The radiation presumed to be given off by a black hole by quantum mechanical processes.


stringed

From Middle English strynged, y-strenged, equivalent to string + -ed.

The violin is a stringed instrument but without frets.


mercurial phosphorus

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


broon

en-noun

broon (countable and uncountable, plural broons)

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


broon

en-adj

broon (comparative more broon, superlative most broon)

more broon (comparative)
most broon (superlative)

(Geordie, Scotland) Of the colour brown.


anthracite

en-noun

anthracite (countable and uncountable, plural anthracites)

/ˈænθɹəˌsaɪt/

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

uder

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

anthracite:

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

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


prospect

From Latin prospectus, past participle of prospicere (“to look forward”), from pro (“before, forward”) + specere, spicere (“to look, to see”), equivalent to pro- + -spect. Doublet of prospectus.


radiation damage

en-noun

radiation damage (countable and uncountable, plural radiation damages)

(physics, chemistry) Harmful changes in the properties of materials caused by interactions with ionizing radiation.


radiation shielding

physical barriers designed to provide protection from the effects of ionizing radiation, including radioactive material


keyboarder

tallentaja

one who enters data into a computer system


radiation hardening

(physics, chemistry) The protection of semiconductor devices from the effects of ionizing radiation.


radiation pressure

radiation pressure (plural radiation pressures)

electromagnetic radiation
electromagnetic radiation

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


radiation therapy

(medicine) The use of ionizing radiation to treat disease, especially cancer.


racemization

racemization (countable and uncountable, plural racemizations)

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


radiation biology

(physics, biology) The study of the effect of ionizing and nonionizing radiation on biological systems.


ketjak

1999: An innovation on Mule Variations is the employment of a turntable artist, who as it turns out is so discrete you hardly notice, except on “Eyeball Kid”, which makes brilliantly apposite use of a sampled gospel choir and Balinese ketjak chanters — Luc Sante, Village Voice 12 May 1999 (Innocent When You Dream, Orion 2006, p. 250)

A form of Balinese musical drama featuring rhythmic, percussive chanting.


glub

en-verb

glub (third-person singular simple present glubs, present participle glubbing, simple past and past participle glubbed)

glubs (present singular third-person)
glubbing (participle present)
glubbed (participle past)
glubbed (past)

(informal) To make a sound like underwater bubbling; to glug.


ignitable

en-adj

ignitable (comparative more ignitable, superlative most ignitable)

more ignitable (comparative)
most ignitable (superlative)


Jewish lightning

From the stereotype of Jews engaging in this practice.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(now offensive) A fire which is deliberately started to collect insurance money.


mariachi

/ˌmæɹiˈɑ.t͡ʃi/

Borrowed from Mexican Spanish mariachi. The origin of the Spanish word is unclear. It has often been claimed to derive from French mariage (“marriage”), reputedly because the Europe-born Emperor Maximilian of Mexico (which France had invaded) encouraged the music to be played at weddings. However, new evidence shows the word to have been used prior to the French invasion. Most other theories suggest indigenous roots. See Wikipedia.

Of or pertaining to a band playing such music, or to the singers of such songs.


glowing

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

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


glowing

glowing (comparative more glowing, superlative most glowing)

more glowing (comparative)
most glowing (superlative)

glowing embers

He received glowing references from his previous employers.

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

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


radioecology

the study of the fate and effects of radioactive materials in the environment


radioactive fallout

en-noun

radioactive fallout (countable and uncountable, plural radioactive fallouts)


radioactive tracer

radioactive tracer (plural radioactive tracers)

(physics, chemistry, medicine) A radioactive isotope which, when injected into a chemically similar substance, or artificially attached to a biological or physical system, can be traced by radiation detection devices.


tibial

(music) Of or relating to a pipe or flute.


glug

Uncorking, first pour, and re-corking of a bottle of bourbon whiskey. During the pour, glugging can be heard.
Onomatopoeic, imitating the sound of pouring or swallowing liquid.

listen/core

Uncorking and first pour of Wild Turkey 101 bottle - 2021-10-15 - Andy Mabbett.mp3

listen

The blood did not come out of him in a glug but in a steady silent gush.

2004, Tom Bissell, “Death Defier”, in God Lives in St. Petersburg: Short Stories, Knopf Doubleday, published 2007:

The sound made when a significant amount of liquid is poured suddenly out of something, such as a jug or bottle.

Pour a glug of bleach into the toilet.

Slowly, Khoklov removed a silver flask from within his suit jacket. He had a long contemplative glug, then shuddered violently.

1996, Bruce Sterling, “The Littlest Jackal”, in A Good Old-Fashioned Future, Bantam Spectra, published 1999, →ISBN:

She turned the taps to start the water running, poured in a generous glug of vanilla bubble bath, then moved into the bedroom, to the desk in the corner where her laptop sat open.

2015, Cindy Myers, Above It All, Kensington, →ISBN:

(informal) The amount of liquid issued when the "glug" sound is heard.


glug

The sound made when a significant amount of liquid is poured out of a jug, bottle, etc., or when such an amount is swallowed by a person.


volute

From French volute, from Italian voluta, from Latin volūta, from the feminine of volūtus, perfect passive participle of volvō. Doublet of vault.

(music) A scroll-shaped carving at the tuning head of a stringed musical instrument, similar to architectural volutes.

šnek

scroll shaped carving at the tuning head of stringed musical instruments


recitative

From Italian recitativo, from recitare, from Latin recitō.

In Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience, Bunthorne performs the recitative "Am I Alone and Unobserved?" before going on to his solo aria "If You're Anxious For To Shine".

(music) dialogue, in an opera etc, that, rather than being sung as an aria, is reproduced with the rhythms of normal speech, often with simple musical accompaniment or harpsichord continuo, serving to expound the plot.


roulade

From French roulade, from rouler (“to roll”), from Old French roler.

He leaned back in his chair, and little more than the whites of his upturned eyes were visible; and beating time upon the table with one hand, claw-wise, and with two or three queer, little thrills and roulades, which re-appeared with great precision in each verse, he delivered himself thus, in what I suspect was an old psalm tune: […]

1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

He heard only here and there the ecstatic burst of a mocking-bird's wonderful roulades.

1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 71:

(music) An elaborate embellishment of several notes sung to one syllable.


Mozart

Borrowed from German Mozart. First recorded in the 14th century as Middle High German Mozahrt, from motzen (“to roll in filth”); originally used as a given name with the -hart suffix, as a name for dirty or sloppy people.

How do we know what we think we know about Mozart? And why is he still the most popular composer of the western classical tradition? He is one of the most written-about, dissected and mythologised composers in the history of western music.

2005 September 16, Nicholas Kenyon, “Myth, Muzak and Mozart”, in The Guardian:

Of course, this only raises once more the conundrum why the general public should value gothic cathedrals, Mozart's operas, and Kafka's stories so highly, but not the Method of Infinite Descent or Fourier analysis.

1999, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, translated by Tom Artin, Drawbridge Up: Mathematics—A Cultural Anathema, Natick, MA: A K Peters, page 25:

Individuals who are biologically “young” (whatever that means) have no monopoly on “young” or “fresh” ideas. Thus Mozart can write Eine Kleine Nachtmusik before he is dead at the age of 31, Thomas Jefferson can draft the Declaration of Independence at age 34 and Buchminster Fuller, after reaching the age of 70, can continue to get patents for his inventions.

1997, Larimer v. Dayton Hudson Corportation, Appeal no. 97-2127: Brief of the Defendants-Appellees, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, see footnote 6, page 11:

A surname from German; (music) used specifically of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period.