sandman

E.T.A. Hoffmann
The Sandman (short story)
sandman

From sand + -man. The mythological sense may be from German Sandmann, Sandmännchen, as it is apparently first attested in English in the context of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s novella The Sandman (1816). The German is attested in the relevant sense since at least the mid-18th century.

This then was the Sandman; but what was his occupation, and what was his purpose ? The nursery-maid being applied to, gave a nursery-maid's explanation, that the Sandman was a bad man, who flung sand in the eyes of little children who did not go to bed.

1827, “On the Supernatural in Composition; and particularly on the Works of Ernest Theodore William Hoffman”, in Museum of Foreign Literature and Science, volume 11, page 458:

(folklore) A figure that brings sleep and dreams by sprinkling magical sand into people's eyes.


pitting

en-noun

pitting (countable and uncountable, plural pittings)

Test pittings were carried out prior to the main excavation.


polytypic

en-adj

polytypic (comparative more polytypic, superlative most polytypic)

more polytypic (comparative)
most polytypic (superlative)

From Ancient Greek πολῠ- (polŭ-) + τῠπῐκός (tŭpĭkós). By surface analysis, poly- + type + -ic.

(conservation biology) of a habitat, not dominated by a single species


petroglyph

/ˈpɛ.tɹəˌɡlɪf/

/ˈpɛ.tɹəʊˌɡlɪf/

/ˈpɛ.tɹəˌɡlɪf/

From French pétroglyphe, from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra, “rock”) + γλυφή (gluphḗ, “carved work”). By surface analysis, petro- + glyph.

The petroglyphs of Central Asia form a long sequence from the Neolithic onwards.

1998, Henri-Paul Francfort, “17: Central Asian petroglyphs: between Indo-Iranian and shamanistic interpretations”, in Paul S. C. Taçon, editor, The Archaeology of Rock-Art, page 302:

Ninety-six petroglyph sites were reported in the original study (DiazGranados 1993). The majority of the petroglyphs are worn.

2000, Carol Diaz-Granados, James R. Duncan, The Petroglyphs and Pictographs of Missouri, page 102:

The islands of Tonga are not known for petroglyphs; however, one of the frontal stones of a langi called Mala'e Lahi on 'Uiha Island has one petroglyph of a human foot.

2001, Georgia Lee, “18: Oceania”, in David S. Whitley, editor, Handbook of Rock Art Research, page 578:

(archaeology) A rock carving, especially one made in prehistoric times.

maenengravadur

a rock carving, especially one made in prehistoric times


mamelon

(paleontology) A structure resembling a small bump found on the outer surface of stromatoporoids.


belemnite

From Ancient Greek βέλεμνον (bélemnon, “dart, arrow”) + -ite.

af

In the universal decay this volatile substance had chanced to survive, perhaps through many thousands of centuries. It reminded me of a sepia painting I had once seen done from the ink of a fossil Belemnite that must have perished and become fossilized millions of years ago.

1895, H. G. Wells, chapter VIII, in The Time Machine:

The guts of fossilized marine reptiles are packed with belemnites, and it's been theorized that some prehistoric sharks even died from the overconsumption of heavy belemnite shell guards.

2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 101:

(paleontology) Any member of the extinct order †Belemnitida of Mesozoic marine cephalopods, very similar in many ways to the modern squid and closely related to the modern cuttlefish.

blemnit

a member of the extinct order Belemnitida

vættelys

fossil remain of a belemnite arm, resembling a short candle


leveling

en-noun

leveling (countable and uncountable, plural levelings)

levelings (plural)
levelling (alternative)

(surveying, archaeology) The process of measuring levels to establish heights and altitudes.


microblade

The upper Palaeolithic period saw the first production of microblade tools.

(archaeology, sometimes attributive) A small blade, typically produced in prehistoric times from silica-rich minerals.


bladelet

(archaeology) A small stone blade with one sharp and one blunt edge


Iberomaurusian

(archaeology) Of or pertaining to a population of early humans that occupied the Mediterranean littoral from Morocco to Tunisia 22,000 to 9,000 years ago

ibéromaurusien

of or pertaining to a population of early humans that occupied the Mediterranean littoral from Morocco to Tunisia 22,000 to 9,000 years ago


Capsian

From French capsien, from Latin Capsianus, from Capsa (“Gafsa”) + -ianus (“-ian”).

(archaeology) of or pertaining to a Paleolithic culture of North Africa (named after primary findings there, in the now southern Tunisian oasis Gafsa) and southern Europe


retouch

en-verb

retouch (third-person singular simple present retouches, present participle retouching, simple past and past participle retouched)

retouches (present singular third-person)
retouching (participle present)
retouched (participle past)
retouched (past)

(archaeology) To modify a flint tool by making secondary flaking along the cutting edge.


endscraper

(archaeology) A small, rounded flint tool used to scrape hides; sometimes fitted to a bone handle.


aceramic

At Çatal Hüyük we can actually study the transition from an aceramic Neolithic with baskets and wooden vessels to a ceramic Neolithic with the first pottery.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, quoting James Mellaart, Çatal Hüyük, 1967, p. 22, quoted in The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 138:

(archaeology, of a culture, period, or site) Having no pottery or other ceramicware items.


bifacial

(archaeology, of a flint tool) Having two sharp cutting edges.


Acheulean

From French acheuléen, from Saint-Acheul, a suburb of Amiens where the first tools from this period were found.

Assuming that language ability extends back to the hominids, we see a slow process of cultural development over millions of years, and then in the Acheulean period of Homo erectus, about three hundred thousand years ago, we find the first engraved tool.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 95:

When early modern humans – the ones who would eventually become us – started to move out of Africa something over a hundred thousand years ago, Acheulean tools were the technology of choice.

2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA, published 2003, page 402:

(archaeology) Of or pertaining to a lower Paleolithic period characterized by the presence of flaked bifacial hand axes.


Acheulean

(archaeology) A lower Paleolithic period characterized by the presence of flaked bifacial hand axes.


cursus

en-noun

cursus (plural cursuses or (both rare) cursus or cursūs or (nonstandard) cursi)

cursuses (plural)
cursus (plural rare)
cursūs (plural rare)
cursi (nonstandard plural rare)

Learned borrowing from Latin cursus. Doublet of course and cour.

(archaeology) A long ditch or trench of unknown function, constructed in Neolithic Britain and Ireland.


dipinto

Borrowed from Italian dipinto (literally “painting”).

(archaeology, epigraphy) a sketched or painted (as opposed to engraved) inscription.


nahualism

From nahual + -ism. The first element is from Nahuatl nahualli (“sorcerer, spirit, animal form a person may take”).

uder

(folklore, mythology) The Mesoamerican belief that certain human beings can transform into animals.


roundhouse

roundhouses (plural)
round house (alternative)

Coordinate term: wheelhouse

A central stone slab cist containing the burial was surrounded by a circles of stones placed on edge, probably to represent the round house in which the deceased had lived.

2019, Alan Staniforth, Cleveland Way, page 66:

(archaeology) A prehistoric dwelling typical of northwest Europe in the Iron Age and Bronze Age.


shrink-wrap

en-verb

shrink-wrap (third-person singular simple present shrink-wraps, present participle shrink-wrapping, simple past and past participle shrink-wrapped)

shrink-wraps (present singular third-person)
shrink-wrapping (participle present)
shrink-wrapped (participle past)
shrink-wrapped (past)

Such shrink-wrapped models gave generations of schoolchildren mental images of dinosaurs that are probably much uglier and scrawnier than the creatures were in reality.

(paleontology, derogatory) To reconstruct an extinct creature known from its fossils by depicting it with minimal soft tissue, yielding a thinner and less accurate representation of the creature.


Netherlandish

From Netherland(s) + -ish. Compare Netherlandic, which is used mainly in linguistics.

It has been said that Old English is Dutch, and to no other nation is the study of the Netherlandish more interesting than to the English.

Low Dutch means both Low Frankish (or Netherlandish) and Low Saxon (or “Low German”).

1991, Sarah Grey Thomason, Terrence Kaufman, Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oxford: University of California Press, page 321:

(chiefly art, linguistics, history) The Dutch language.


Netherlandish

Even more strikingly assumptive of a Low Countries context is Article 12's prescription that any guild brother who maimed another 'shall compownde with' and 'recompense and satisfy' the person whom he hurt. Composition or settlement of interpersonal wrongs by money compensation, rather than state prosecution, was common in much of Europe, including in Netherlandish cities.

2023, Shannon McSheffrey, Ad Putter, “The Formation of the Hatmakers' Fraternity”, in The Dutch Hatmakers of Late Medieval and Tudor London: with an edition of their bilinguial Guild Ordinances, Boydell & Brewer, →JSTOR, page 48:

(chiefly art, linguistics, history) Of or pertaining to the Netherlands.


seigneur

seigneurs (plural)
seignior (alternative)

Borrowed from Middle French seigneur, from Old French seignor. Doublet of seignior, senhor, senior, señor, senyor, signore, sir, and sire.

doublet

There was less and less love lost between peasants and seigneurs. The services which the latter had provided for the peasant community in the past had diminished in value.

2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 156:

(history) A feudal lord or noble in French contexts.


overburden

overburdens (plural)
overburthen (alternative)

/ˈəʊ̯vəˌbɜːdn̩/

/ˈəʉ̯vəˌbɜːdn̩/

[ˈɐʉ̯.vɐˌbɜːdn̩]

(archaeology) A sterile stratum that lies above the stratum being investigated


preform

(archaeology) The rough, incomplete and unused basic form of a stone tool.


macrofossil

The only other identifiable plant macrofossil present was a nutlet of club-rush that was morphologically most similar to grey club-rush (Schoenoplectus cf tabernaemontani). This form of club-rush is most often found near the sea, although it also grows in marshes and dune-slacks.

2017 January 9, Dan Garner, Hillforts of the Cheshire Ridge, Archaeopress Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 253:

(paleontology) Any fossil large enough to be examined without a microscope.


situla

(archaeology) A deep ceramic vase with a wide opening.

ruukku

archaeology: deep ceramic vase with a wide opening


shovelbum

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

(US, archaeology, humorous) A professional excavator on cultural resource management projects, who has done extensive field work.


shovelbum

en-verb

shovelbum (third-person singular simple present shovelbums, present participle shovelbumming, simple past and past participle shovelbummed)

shovelbums (present singular third-person)
shovelbumming (participle present)
shovelbummed (participle past)
shovelbummed (past)

(US, archaeology, humorous) To excavate, to do archaeology digs.


debitage

en-noun

debitage (countable and uncountable, plural debitages)

(archaeology) The sharp-edged waste material that remains after creation of a stone tool


faience

faience (countable and uncountable, plural faiences)

faiences (plural)
faïence (alternative)
fayence (alternative)

From French faïence, named after the city of Faenza, Italy, where it was made in the 16th century.

(archaeology) Beads or small ornaments made from frit, from the eastern Mediterranean of the Bronze and Iron Ages.


ammonite

From French ammonite, from Latin Ammōnis (cornū) (“horn of Ammon”), as it was called by Pliny the Elder in reference to coiling ram horns used to symbolise the Egyptian god Amun. Equivalent to Ammon + -ite.

Ammonites floated through the world's shallow oceans for more than three hundred million years, and their fossilized shells turn up all around the world.

2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Picador, →ISBN, page 83:

(paleontology) Any of an extinct group of cephalopods of the subclass Ammonoidea; a fossil shell of such an animal.


tribrach

English tri- + Ancient Greek βρᾰχῑ́ων (brăkhī́ōn, “arm”)

trefot

surveying: circular platform on three legs used to connect a theodolite to a tripod

In a recent examination of the registers of the Ryde Philosophical Society, Mr. Martin has found, as I have been informed through Mr. Westropp’s kindness, the entry, that the flint tribrach was presented to the collection by the late Dr. Martin in 1853, with other objects from Ventnor, and as having been obtained on the shore at that place.

1873, Albert Way, “Notes on an Unique Implement of Flint, Found, as Stated, in the Isle of Wight”, in The Archæological Journal, XXX, page 31:

A singular instrument chipped out of flint, like three celts conjoined…, so as to form a sort of tribrach.

1897, Sir John Evans, chapter IV, in The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain, revised second edition, page 78:

A figure or object having three arms or branches.

(archaeology) A tribrachial prehistoric flint implement.


endura

From New Latin endūra, from Old Occitan endurar (“to fast, endure”).

There was a particularly horrible travesty of extreme unction called the ‘endura’.

1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate, published 2006, page 173:

Guillemette was consoled by the Good Men and went through the endura, the Cathars' purifying death-fast.

2000, René Weis, The Yellow Cross, Penguin, published 2001, page 60:

(ecclesiastical history) A fast or series of privations undertaken by the Cathars to purify the soul, often resulting in death.


flanker

Audio (US)

From flank + -er. The verb is from the noun (sense 3).

recumbent stone circle
recumbent stone circle

(archaeology) One of a pair of large upright monoliths erected on either end of the recumbent, in recumbent stone circles of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and the counties of Cork and Kerry in south-west of Ireland.


globalist

Coordinate term: continentalist

(historiography) One who believes that Adolf Hitler intended to extend the Third Reich beyond the continent of Europe.


memorate

memorates (plural)
memorat (alternative)

From Latin memorātus, past participle of memorāre (“to bring to remembrance, mention, recount”), from memor (“remembering”); see memory.

An undemonstrable legend is no legend at all. One must postulate that every fabulate is based on a memorate.

1974, Linda Dégh, Andrew Vázsonyi, “The memorate and the proto-memorate”, in The Journal of American Folklore, volume 87, →DOI, page 232:

(folklore) an oral narrative from memory relating a personal experience, especially the precursor of a legend.


scutiform

There are similarities between the form of the central boss on scutiforms and the central setting on filigree pendants, and between the use of punched dot decoration on scutiforms and beaded wire on filigree pendants. Scutiforms, however ...

1997, Helen Geake, The Use of Grave-goods in Conversion-period England, c.600-c.850, British Archaeological Reports Limited:

... suggest that the purported depictions of bees' combs were extremely similar to what he described as four scutiforms from the cave of Altamira in Spain.

2015, Siyakha Mguni, Termites of the Gods: San Cosmology In Southern African Rock Art, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 64:

(archaeology) A symbol that is shaped like a shield.


soucouyant

soucouyants (plural)
soucriant (alternative)

1986, Kenneth Ramchand, “Wayne Vincent Brown”, in Daryl Cumber Dance (ed.), Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 90,
We can notice, for example, that “Vampire” combines the folkloric soucouyant (blood-sucking old woman in the shape of a ball of fire), a science fiction creature (“clammy, from its bed of hairs / And thirsty” [p. 24]), the moon again (Brown’s poems are obsessed by the moon); …

2002, David E. Jones, Evil in Our Midst: A Chilling Glimpse of the World's Most Feared and Frightening Demons, Square One Publishers, Inc., →ISBN, page 133,
The Soucouyant is an evil fire, a kind of witch, that robes itself entirely in the skin of an old woman to hide its true identity from neighbors.

“The soucouyant is an old woman that sheds her skin,” Beth said. “She flies out of her house and looks for human blood. When she finds it, she changes into an animal of some kind and sucks the blood away.”

2003, Ken Douglas, Jack Stewart, Diamond Sky, Bootleg Press, →ISBN, page 110:

(Caribbean, folklore) A night witch who sucks people's blood, sheds her skin, and can transform into a fireball and fly.


sherd

the thigh […] which all in sherds it drove

[1611?], Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume (please specify the book number), London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC:

(dated or archaeology) Alternative form of shard


whiggish

en-adj

whiggish (comparative more whiggish, superlative most whiggish)

more whiggish (comparative)
most whiggish (superlative)
Whiggish (alternative)

Near-synonym: presentist

Finally, whiggish narratives, strewn with heroes, only hinder understanding of how the world works.

2012 October 3, Rebekah Higgitt, “Why whiggish won't do”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Abilafia’s article is a classic example of an old-fashioned “Whiggish” narrative. It claims a uniquely moderate and progressive advance toward the development of British institutions, traced continuously from Magna Carta and isolated from the rages and radicalism of the Continent.

2015 May 15, Rebekah Higgitt, “Beware Eurosceptic versions of history and science”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Because this whiggish view depends on the expectation of progress, liberal politicians are more suspectible to it than their conservative brethren.

2015 December 21, David A. Graham, “The Wrong Side of 'the Right Side of History'”, in The Atlantic:

(history, often capitalized) Characterized by a belief in inevitable progress, and tending to evaluate the past by the standards of the present; see Whig history.


proscription

en-noun

proscription (countable and uncountable, plural proscriptions)

From Middle English proscripcion, from Latin prōscrīptiō, from prōscrībō (originally "publish in writing"), from prō- and scrībō (“write”).

He was wholly unopposed, for the boldest spirits had fallen in battle, or in the proscription [...]

1837, Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb, Tacitus' Annals, book 1:

(history) Decree of condemnation toward one or more persons, especially in the Roman antiquity.


fire dog

fire dogs (plural)
firedog (alternative)

(archaeology) Bronze Age artifact used in worshipping either bulls or the moon, or as a holder for wooden logs to be used in a fire altar.


Maliakos Gulf

(history) A gulf in Greece adjacent to Thermopylae or the so called "hot gates". This was the site where the 300 Spartans built a massive wall to block alternate route to Sparta, giving the Persians no choice but to choose Thermopylae as the only path.


mammal-like reptile

mammal-like reptile (plural mammal-like reptiles)

The mammal-like reptiles, constituting the subclass Synapsida, were among the earliest to appear of known reptilian groups and had passed the peak of their career before the first dinosaur appeared on the earth.

1966 — Alfred S. Romer, Vertebrate Paleontology, 3rd ed.; ch 14, p 173

Synapsida: amniotes with one lower temporal fenestra, surrounded by the postorbital, jugal and squamosal. Includes the extinct mammal-like reptiles and the mammals.

1997 — Michael J. Benton, Vertebrate Paleontology, 2nd ed.; ch 5, p 109

(paleontology, dated) Any basal member of the Synapsida, related to the mammals but superficially resembling reptiles.


protaspis

From prot- + aspis (from Ancient Greek ἀσπίς (aspís, “shield”)).

(paleontology) A stage in the development of a trilobite where the creature has not yet developed articulated segments.


holaspis

A similar situation may also characterize S. wenlockiana, a species with six segments in holaspis, the smallest holaspids of which have similar glabellar lengths to those of the sixth degree meraspis of A. konincki.

2001, Jonathan M. Adrain, Gregory D. Edgecombe, Bruce S. Lieberman, editors, Fossils, Phylogeny, and Form: An Analytical Approach, page 46:

The pygidial spines are stout and direct outward in the early holaspis (Fig. 2, A-B, F), but become slender and direct inward in the late holaspis (Fig. 2, D, E).

2008, Xuejian Zhu, Shanchi Peng, Jingxun Zuo, “Revision an Ventral Structure of Guangxiaspis guangxiensis Zhou, 1977 (Trilobita)”, in Isabel Rábano, Rodolfo Gozalo, Diego García-Bellido Capdevila, editors, Advances in Trilobite Research, page 444:

The holaspis stage has a full complement of thoracic segments for the species but growth continues through further molts and maturity may not be reached until some time after the holaspis stage was reached.

2009, Michael J. Benton, David A. T. Harper, Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record, page 366:

(paleontology, zoology) A stage in the development of a trilobite at which the creature has gained its adult segmentation, but continues to molt and grow.


septal

(archaeology, of a stone or slab) Separating compartments in a burial chamber.


tumulus

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

From Latin tumulus (“mound, hill”), from tumeō (“I swell”). Doublet of tombolo.

They planted the cannon on the tumuli, sole elevations in this level country, and formed themselves into column and hollow square.

1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in The Last Man. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

Near Smeinogorsk an octagonal tumulus has been found containing the corpse of a horse near a rectangular one with a human corpse, both within stone circles.

1898, Friedrich Ratzel, The History of Mankind, volume III, London: Macmillan and Co., page 325:

The delicate white body will be covered to-day,
The tumulus be reared, the green sod give way:
And there, oh Cynvarch, thy son they will lay.

1898, Ernest Rhys, “The Lament for Urien from the Herbest”, in Welsh Ballads:

The tumulus is one of mankind's oldest burial monuments, dating back to 4,000 to 5,000 years B.C. […] Examples of tumuli can be seen peppering the landscape all over Western Europe.

2004, Douglas Keister, Stories in Stone, Gibbs Smith, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 14:

(archaeology) A mound of earth, especially one placed over a prehistoric tomb; a barrow.


cavate

From Latin cavātus (“hollowed out”), from cavō (“to hollow out, to excavate”).

Given the absence of other means of dating the cavates, ceramic dating was the focus of the data collection, but we also recorded vessel form.

1995, Peter McKenna, Analysis of Surface Ceramics From the Study Area:

The reader may wonder about the significance of the Ahuitzotl figure in a cavate near Los Alamos National Laboratory.

2010, Allan MacGillivray III, The Venus Calendar Observatory at Aztec New Mexico, page 135:

While the cavate was originally carved out generations, if not centuries, before 1680, the ceramics associated with its final substantial occupation (including Kapo Black, Tewa Polychrome, and Glaze F pottery) have led investigators to conclude that Pueblo people reoccupied it sometime between 1680 and 1700.

2012, Matthew Liebmann, Revolt: An Archaeological History of Pueblo Resistance and Revitalization in 17th Century New Mexico, page 140:

(archaeology) A cliffside dwelling made in the living rock by humans.


problematica

From Latin problēmatica (“problematic things”).

bor

(paleontology) Fossil specimens or elements that cannot be identified or assigned to a taxon.


placoderm

From placo- + -derm, after German Placoderm.

Out to sea are placoderms – heavily armoured fish, some of them more than six metres (twenty feet) long and equipped with massive, powerful jaws.

2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, Granta Books, published 2013, page 12:

(paleontology) A member of an extinct paraphyletic class (Placodermi) of jawed fish with armored heads and thoraces; the group lived during the Silurian and Devonian periods.


placoderm

en-adj

placoderm (comparative more placoderm, superlative most placoderm)

more placoderm (comparative)
most placoderm (superlative)

Research published recently on placoderm fish fossils from Scottish Devonian lakes (around 365 myo) found evidence for how this extinct group of animals copulated.

2018 January 24, Elsa Panciroli, The Guardian:

(paleontology) Pertaining to the paraphyletic class Placodermi.


Reconquista

From Spanish reconquista (“a reconquest”).

(Iberian history) The process by which the Christian countries of Spain and Portugal were reconquered and regained from the Moors.

收復失地運動 /收复失地运动

reconquest of Spain and Portugal by Christians


aborigines

Learned borrowing from Latin aborīginēs.

(history) The inhabitants of a location before colonization by the Europeans occurred.


fall-off analysis

en-noun

fall-off analysis (plural fall-off analyses)

(archaeology) A type of archaeological analysis. Finds are plotted on a map and contoured in relation to the number of finds.


ignis fatuus

From New Latin ignis fatuus (literally “foolish fire”).

bor

Fiery spirits or devils are such as commonly work by blazing stars, fire-drakes, or ignes fatui; which lead men often in flumina aut præcipitia, saith Bodine[…]

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

An Ignis Fatuus, that bewitches, / And leads Men into Pools and Ditches

1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 16:


penteconter

penteconters (plural)
pentaconter (alternative)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek πεντηκόντορος (pentēkóntoros, literally “fifty-oared”).

bor+

πεντηκόντορος

(history, obsolete) A galley-type Grecian vessel with fifty oars.


cotylosaurian

en-adj

cotylosaurian (comparative more cotylosaurian, superlative most cotylosaurian)

more cotylosaurian (comparative)
most cotylosaurian (superlative)

(paleontology) Of or pertaining to cotylosaurs.


cotylosaur

(paleontology, dated) A member of the Cotylosauria, a synonym of the family †Captorhinidae, the earliest group of true reptiles from the Carboniferous through the Permian.


proetid

(paleontology) Any trilobite of the order Proetida.


Lōmāfānu

(anthropology, archaeology) Copperplates on which inscriptions of Old Maldivian are found.


broch

From Scots broch, from Old Norse borg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz. Doublet of borough and burgh.

Finella's carles builded the Kaimes, a long line of battlements under the hills, midway a tower that was older still, a broch from the days of the Pictish men […].

1933, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Cloud Howe (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 268:

The last man slid the bolt in the single low narrow door. The broch was impregnable then.

1972, George Mackay Brown, Greenvoe, Polygon, published 2019, page 20:

Ian's eyes rolled slowly up, as though following the rough stones of the broch upwards. 'That tower rises sixty feet from the ground,' he told me, 'and it's thirty feet in diameter, wi' three floors.'

1991, Diana Gabaldon, chapter 29, in Outlander, London: Random House:

(archaeology) A type of Iron Age stone tower with hollow double-layered walls found on Orkney, Shetland, in the Hebrides and parts of the Scottish mainland.


souterrain

From French souterrain, from sous (“under”) + terrain (“ground”).

Now when my son saw that I separated them, he secretly built this souterrain and furnished it and transported to it victuals, even as thou seest; and, when I had gone out a-sporting, came here with his sister and hid from me.

1885, Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 11:

(archaeology) An underground chamber or passage sometimes used as a store, especially one associated with Iron Age settlements.


fogou

From Cornish fogo (“cave”); compare vug.

Cornish fogous typically consist of a long passage with walls built up in horizontal courses of rough granite stones, typically some 40 to 50 feet long, 6 feet in height, and 5 to 6 feet in width, constructed in a deliberate curve.

2005, Ross Heaven, Simon Buxton, Darkness Visible: Awakening Spiritual Light Through Darkness Meditation, page 8:

All known fogous are associated with settlements, and their creation would have taken considerable effort, so they obviously had some function for these communities. The fogou at Carn Euny dates from the early part of the Iron Age; here it is thought that the large, stone-lined chamber, which is circular and 5 metres in diameter, was constructed first.

2008, Sarah Chapman, David Chapman, Iconic Cornwall, page 18:

2009, Patricia Monaghan, fogou, entry in The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore, page 198,
Underground stone chambers found in Cornwall, believed to have been built between between 500 B.C.E. and 500 C.E., fogous appear to have been places of ritual. As there is evidence of occupation by Celts in the latter part of that period, it is possible that the fogous were built by or used by them, although evidence suggests a pre-Celtic spiritual vision.

Because as you are going to discover very shortly, what's under there is no Bronze Age chieftain, no medieval king, or whatever else you expect to find in a fogou like this.

2010, Gary Russell, Doctor Who: The Glamour Chase, page 139:

(archaeology) A Cornish souterrain, an underground, dry-stone-walled chamber open on two ends.


sondage

Borrowed from French sondage (“survey, sounding”).

(archaeology) A small test excavation or test pit to examine the stratigraphy of a site; a deeper investigation of a small part of a larger trench.


petrosphere

(archaeology) Any roughly spherical artefact made of stone.


petrosomatoglyph

(archaeology) An impression of part of a human or animal body incised in rock


praetor

From Middle English pretour, pretor, from the Anglo-Norman pretour, pretore, the Middle French preteur (from the Old French pretor; compare the Modern French préteur), and their etymon, the Classical Latin praetor (“leader”, “commander”, “magistrate”); the Latin praetor being contracted from *praeitor (“one who goes before”), from praeeō (“I go before”), from prae (“before”) + eō (“I go”); compare the Italian pretore, the Portuguese pretor, and the Spanish pretor.

der

(history) The title designating a Roman administrative official whose role changed over time:

(originally) A consul in command of the army.

praetor peregrīnus
praetor peregrinus#Latin

(after 366 BC) An annually-elected curule magistrate, subordinate to the consuls in provincial administration, and who performed some of their duties; numbering initially only one, later two (either of the praetor urbānus (“urban praetor”) or the praetor peregrīnus (“peregrine praetor”)), and eventually eighteen.


Hesychast

From Medieval Latin hesychasta, from ecclesiastical Greek ἡσυχαστής (hēsukhastḗs), from ἡσυχάζειν (hēsukházein, “to be quiet”), from ἥσυχος (hḗsukhos, “quiet”).

(ecclesiastical history) A monk of the Orthodox Catholic Church that engages in noetic prayer.


LCA

en-noun

LCA (countable and uncountable, plural LCAs)

Against the backdrop of these global and local climatic changes, the LCA of African apes and humans split into a gorilline clade and Pan-Homo clade, and the latter split again into panin and hominin clades.

2012, David R. Begun, A Companion to Paleoanthropology:

last common ancestor
w:last common ancestor

(biology, paleontology, countable) Initialism of last common ancestor.


parablepsis

parablepsis (countable and uncountable, plural parablepses)

parablepses (plural)
parablepsia (alternative)
parablepsy (alternative)

From Ancient Greek παρά (pará, “beside”) and βλέπω (blépō, “to look at”).

So too parablepses due to homoioteleuton in the Greek text are irrelevant for the Hebrew text.

1978, International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, Congress Volume, →ISBN, page 400:

Vertical parablebsis does not fit either, since it should be in the range of several lines (two or three lines).

2009, Raymond De Hoop, Marjo Christina Annette Korpel, Stanley E. Porter, The Impact of Unit Delimitation on Exegesis, →ISBN, page 35:

(palaeography) A circumstance in which a scribe miscopies text due to inadvertently looking to the side while copying, or accidentally skips over some of it.


hominization

hominization (usually uncountable, plural hominizations)

hominizations (plural)
hominisation (alternative UK)

From Latin homo (“human being”) + -ization.

The professional way to begin a study of the origins of human culture is to begin at the beginning with a discussion of hominization.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light:Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, page 8:

(paleontology) The process of becoming like a human.


specchia

(archaeology) A megalithic pile of stones found in the Salento region of Italy.


partage

partage (countable and uncountable, plural partages)

From Middle French partage, from partir (“to share”).

(historical, archaeology) The formerly standard practice of dividing up artifacts between archaeologists, their patrons, and the host territory.


ostracum

From New Latin ostracum, from Ancient Greek ὄστρακον (óstrakon, “pottery fragment; shell”).


eolithic

From French éolithique; from Ancient Greek Ἠώς (Ēṓs, “dawn”) + λίθος (líthos, “stone”) + -ic.

(archaeology) of or relating to the early period of the Stone Age marked by the use of eoliths.


hominin

From translingual Hominini, from the stem of Latin homo (“man”). Compare hominid.

[...] prefer the third explanation for the advanced-looking features of Neandertals (Chapter 7) and the Ngandong hominins (Chapter 6), but they have had little to say about the post-Erectine archaics from China.

Caspari and Lee carried out comparisons ranging from ancient hominins such as australopithecines through to Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, assessing the ratios of young adults to old adults.

2011, Chris Stringer, The Origin of Our Species, Penguin, published 2012, page 151:

This means that, in addition to democracy and gorillas, we must now credit Greece with being the cradle of the hominins - of which we humans are the only living representatives.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 119:

(paleontology) Any member of the taxonomic tribe Hominini, the evolutionary group that includes modern humans and now-extinct bipedal relatives.


microlith

From micro- + -lith.
In the sense of rock components, the name was suggested by Vogelsang in 1867.


dromaeosaurid

dromaeosaurids (plural)
dromæosaurid (alternative)

(paleontology) A bird-like theropod dinosaur of the family Dromaeosauridae.


lagerstätte

/ˈlɑːɡəʃtɛtə/

From German Lagerstätte (“storage place”).

A fossil lagerstätte bearing the "Guanling fauna" of Yin Gongzheng et al. (2000, p. 23) occurs 7 to 10 m above the base of the Wayao Formation...

2006, Paul Enos, Triassic Evolution of the Yangtze Platform in Guizhou Province, People's Republic of China, →ISBN, page 84:

The Cretaceous Lebanese Lagerstätten have been especially generous with coleoid fossils.

2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 121:

(paleontology) A sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossil richness or completeness.


protofeather

(paleontology) The hypothetical precursors of bird feathers, believed to have been grown by certain dinosaurs.


deglaciation

(climatology, paleontology) The removal of all glacial land ice from a region, usually by melting.


microwear

/ˈmaɪkɹoʊˌwɛɹ/

/ˈmaɪkɹəʊˌwɛə/

(archaeology) Microscopic patterns of edge damage on stone tools, used to show how the tools were used.


Maccabees

(history) A Jewish liberation movement who fought for, and established, independence in the Land of Israel during the second and first centuries BC.


Berlin Wall

German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic#English

(history) A wall that parted the city of Berlin until 1989, constructed by the German Democratic Republic to keep East Germans from escaping to West Berlin.


ustav

Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic оуставъ (ustavŭ). Cognate of устав in modern Bulgarian and modern Russian.

The handsomely fashioned writing is of the type described as polu-ustav (semi-uncial), which is midway between the stately ustav and the cursive, . . . —A. Aronson, Rabindranath Through Western Eyes

(palaeography) The earliest style of Cyrillic writing developed from Greek uncial in the late 9th century, predominant in the 11th–14th centuries.


mesofossil

mesofossils (plural)
meso-fossil (alternative)

The mesofossils are small, three-dimensional and charcoalified or lignitized and yield exquisite structural details when studied with scanning electron microscopy.

1999, XVI International Botanical Congress, Abstracts, International Association of Botanical and Mycological Societies, page 180:

The present study, based on the morphology of leaves and reproductive organs, reveals much more diversified mesofossil plant assemblages.

2012, Bernard Gomez et al., “10: Mesofossil Plant Remains from the Barremian of Hautrage (Mons Basin, Belgium), with Taphonomy, Paleoecology, and Paleoenvironment Insights”, in Pascal Godefroit, editor, Bernissart Dinosaurs and Early Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems, Indiana University Press, page 105:

Currently, seeds assignable to Nitaspermum are recorded only from the early to mid-Albian mesofossil floras at Puddledock and Kenilworth localities, eastern North America.

2018, Else Marie Friis, Peter R. Crane, Kaj R. Pedersen, “17: Fossil Seeds with Affinities to Austrobaileyales and Nymphaeales From the Early Cretaceous (Early to Middle Albian) of Virginia and Maryland, USA”, in Michael Krings, Carla J. Harper, Néstor Rubén Cúneo, Gar W. Rothwell, editors, Transformative Paleobotany, Elsevier (Academic Press), page 432:

(paleontology, paleobotany) A fossil of a small part of a plant, such as a fruit, leaf or seed.


tommyknocker

Then he's down one of these adits, talking to the tommyknockers, more'n likely.

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 335:

(folklore) A mythical creature, like a brownie or leprechaun, believed to live in underground tunnels; later associated with dead miners.


abrader

1993, Nan McNutt and Marilyn Jesmain, Passages: An Archaeology Timeline of Southeast Alaska, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Alaska Region,
5,000 years ago the people of Southeast Alaska began grinding bone on a sandy stone called an abrader to form the desired shape and sharpness.

Something that abrades; a tool or machine for abrading.

(archaeology) A primitive artifact made of sandstone used for smoothing, sharpening, or shaping.


Pax Britannica

Learned borrowing from New Latin Pax Britannica, from pāx (“peace”) + Britannica (“British”) after the model of the imperial Roman Pāx Rōmāna.

lbor

(history) The period of British hegemony over the seas and most oversea colonies between the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar and the onset of World War I in 1914.


paleothermometer

paleothermometers (plural)
palaeothermometer (alternative)

(archaeology) Anything found in the natural record (such as a tree ring) that can be used to deduce the temperature at some time in the past.


regurgitalith

(paleontology) The fossilised remains of stomach contents regurgitated by an animal.


machaeridian

(paleontology) A fossil form of segmented (annelid) worm, of the class Machaeridia, that had a scaly armour of mineralised plates


ST

(linguistics, Egyptology) Initialism of Standard Theory.


Tlaxcala

/tlɑːʃˈkɑːlə/

Borrowed from Spanish Tlaxcala, from Classical Nahuatl Tlaxcallān.

Tascala (alternative obsolete)
Tascalla (alternative obsolete)
Taxcala (alternative obsolete)
Tlascala (alternative obsolete)
Tlascalla (alternative obsolete)
Tlaxcalla (alternative obsolete)

Aguascalientes · Baja California · Baja California Sur · Campeche · Chiapas · Chihuahua · Coahuila · Colima · Durango · Guanajuato · Guerrero · Hidalgo · Jalisco · Mexico · Michoacán · Morelos · Nayarit · Nuevo León · Oaxaca · Puebla · Querétaro · Quintana Roo · San Luis Potosí · Sinaloa · Sonora · Tabasco · Tamaulipas · Tlaxcala · Veracruz · Yucatán · Zacatecas

A more formidable enemy still was the little republic of Tlascala, lying midway between the Mexican Valley and the coast.

1843, W. H. Prescott, The Conquest of Mexico, London: Chatto & Windus, published 1922, volume one, book II, chapter VI, page 80:

(history) An indigenous Mesoamerican polity in what is now Mexico.

Tlascala, a province of New Spain, in the audience of Mexico; bounded on the N by Panuco, on the E by the gulf of Mexico, on the S by Guaxica and the Pacific Ocean, and on the W by the audience of Mexico.

1806, R. Brookes, Brooke’s General Gazetteer Improved; Or, a New and Compendious Geographical Dictionary, 1st American edition, Philadelphia: Jacob Johnson, & Co.:

The Biſhopricke of Tlaſcala, which by another name is called de los Angeles, between the Archbiſhopricke of Mexico, and the Biſhopricke of Guaxaca, if of 100. leagues, and more in length, from the Coaſt of the South to that of the North, and betwixt the confines of the Archbiſhopricke, and of Guaxaca 80. and as many in breadth, by the Coaſt of the North sea, and no more then 18. or 20. by that of the South.

1625, Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes, volume 3, London: William Stansby, page 872:

On information received from Julian Garces, Bishop of Tlascala, of the Order of Friars Preachers, Pope Paul III. issued in 1537 bulls vindicating the liberty of the Indians and their dignity as human beings.

1885, Heinrich Brueck, History of the Catholic Church for Use in Seminaries and Colleges, volume II, New York, Cincinnati, Chicago, Einsideln: Benziger Brothers, page 143:

Puebla de los Ángeles
Puebla de los Ángeles

(Catholicism, history) Until 1903, a Roman Catholic diocese; now the archdiocese of Puebla de los Ángeles.


quaternarist

quaternarists (plural)
Quaternarist (alternative)

Indeed, in recent years, the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) "abolished" the Quaternary, according to riled quaternarists.

2008 January 25, Richard A. Kerr, “A Time War Over the Period We Live In”, in Science, 319(5862), page 402:

(geology, paleontology) A specialist in the Quaternary period.


Romanist

(art history) A painter of the 16th century Romanist school.


Romanist

en-adjective

Romanist (comparative more Romanist, superlative most Romanist)

more Romanist (comparative)
most Romanist (superlative)

The 'Germanist' view has been countered with the 'Romanist' or 'continuity' view, which holds that the Germanic barbarians created little that was new.

2005 [1995], “The Barbarian invasions”, in The New Cambridge Medieval History (The New Cambridge Medieval History), volume 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 36:

(historiography) Pertaining to the school of thought which emphasises the continuity of legal and cultural institutions between Rome and later medieval Europe, downplaying the role of external influences or innovation in the decline of the Roman Empire.


pavis

pavises (plural)
pavisses (plural)
pavise (alternative)
pavais (alternative)
pabys (alternative)
pavese (alternative)
pavesse (alternative)

From Middle English pavis(e) (paveis, pavas), from Anglo-Norman pavis (compare French pavois), from Latin pavensis, probably from Pavia in Italy. Compare Italian pavese.

For in this proceſſe, Parrot nothĩg hath ſurmyſed
No matter pretendyd, nor nothyng enterpryſed
But that metaphora, alegoria with all
Shall be his protectyon, his pauys and his wall

(military, history) Most usually, a very large shield fitted with a stand, like a small moveable wall, carried in front to protect all or most of the bearer's body that could be positioned independently of the user, such as a crossbowman, often with a projecting ridge running vertically down the center. However, smaller, more standard shield types were also termed as such, with the central verticle ridge as a defining feature.


aetosaur

(paleontology) Any of an extinct group of heavily armoured herbivorous archosaurian reptiles, of the order †Aetosauria.


bear walker

bear walkers (plural)
Bear Walker (alternative)
bear-walker (alternative)
bearwalk (alternative)

Calque of Ojibwe me'coubmoosa (“bear walker”).

clq

The hair ornament was worn by the Bear-Walker before and during the casting of spells.

1901, Charles Edward Brown, The Wisconsin Archeologist, page 116:

He told Jim he saw a Bear-walker approaching the house then and there.

1953, Inland Seas, Great Lakes Historical Society, page 13

These bear-walkers owed their powers to their personal manito, the bear, and traveled in disguise at night, causing disease among their victims.

1983, Christopher Vecsey, Traditional Ojibwa Religion and its Historical Changes, →ISBN, page 148:

(Native American, folklore) An evil sorcerer, specifically one who walks by night in the form of a bear.


white lady

en-noun

white lady (countable and uncountable, plural white ladies)

For quotations using this term, see Citations:white lady.

(folklore) A female ghost dressed in white, who is associated with local legends of tragedy.


Clovis

Borrowed from French Clovis, from Frankish *Hlōdowig, the same Germanic source as French Louis, Dutch Lodewijk and German Ludwig, see there for further information. Doublet of Louis and Ludwig.
The New Mexican city was named after a Frankish king; the Native American site and culture were named after this city.

(archaeology) A particular site that contains evidence of an early Native American culture; the culture associated with this site.


Soviet

en-adj

Soviet (comparative more Soviet, superlative most Soviet)

more Soviet (comparative)
most Soviet (superlative)
soviet (alternative)

From Russian сове́т (sovét), сове́тский (sovétskij).

سُوفْيِتِيّ

pertaining to the Soviet Union or its republics

Later, in the 1980s, western scholars found that, notwithstanding the substantial Soviet military buildup near the Chinese borders in the late 1960s, it was Beijing that initiated the clash on Zhenbao (Damanski) Island.

2005, Vitaly Kozyrev, “Soviet Policy Toward the United States and China, 1969-1979”, in William C. Kirby, Robert S. Ross, Gong Li, editors, Normalization of U.S.-China Relations: An International History, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 258:

(history, not comparable) Pertaining to the Soviet Union or its constituent republics.


Earth Mother

Earth Mothers (plural)
earth mother (alternative)

In the ancient myth of Demeter and Persephone - which has been adopted by so many peoples under so many forms - Demeter the Earth-mother loses her daughter Persephone (who represents of course the Vegetation), carried down into the underworld by the evil powers of Darkness and Winter.

1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 73:

Taking this somewhat tenuous line of reasoning one step further, it might be suggested that witches sought enlightenment and contact with the Earth Mother and Sky Father through group activities, while wizards tended towards shamanistic methods and techniques.

1994, Tony Linsell, Anglo-Saxon Mythology, Migration & Magic, Anglo-Saxon,, →ISBN, page 165:

His mother is Jord (the Earth Mother), his foster mother is Hlora, his step mother is Frigg, his wife is Sif, his mistress is the giantess Jarnsaxa and his daughter is Thrud (one of the valkyries).

1997, Thorskegga Thorn, "Thor and the Goddesses", Thunder, issue 2 (Heathen Journal)

The following scheme further interprest the 'Skyfather(s)' - Earthmother(s) cosmology, drawing on our previous discussion of cosmogony and cosmology.

2000, Nathan J. Johnson, Robert J. Wallis, Galdrbok, The Wykeham Press,, →ISBN, page 193:

(paganism, archaeology) The Great Goddess of the Earth and fertility.

(archaeology) A figurine or depiction of this goddess.


hinge termination

en-noun

hinge termination (plural hinge terminations)

(archaeology) The abruptly truncated end of a knapped stone flake that did not reach across the entire face of the core stone; also applied to the site of the break on the core.


MIS

MIS 3 is used to refer to the period between 57 and 70 thousand years ago.

marine isotope stage
w:marine isotope stage

(archaeology) Initialism of marine isotope stage, a timescale.


artefactual

en-adj

artefactual (comparative more artefactual, superlative most artefactual)

more artefactual (comparative)
most artefactual (superlative)
artifactual (alternative)

(archaeology) Of or pertaining to artefacts


historical method

(historiography) The techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write history.


eophyte

From Ancient Greek ἠώς (ēṓs, “early in the day”) + -phyte (“plant”).

uder

(botany, paleontology) A fossil plant from the Silurian age


emplotment

en-noun

emplotment (countable and uncountable, plural emplotments)

From em- + plot + -ment; coined by Paul Ricœur.

1978, Hayden White, "The Historical Text As Literary Artifact", re-printed in Geoffrey Roberts (editor), The History and Narrative Reader, Routledge (2001), →ISBN, page 223,
Yet, I would argue, histories gain part of their explanatory effect by their success in making stories out of mere chronicles; and stories in turn are made out of chronicles by an operation which I have elsewhere called “emplotment.” And by emplotment I mean simply the encodation of the facts contained in the chronicle as components of specific kinds of plot structures, in precisely the way that Frye has suggested is the case with “fictions” in general.

(historiography) The assembly of a series of historical events into a narrative with a plot.


psychohistory

psychohistory (countable and uncountable, plural psychohistories)

/sʌɪkəʊˈhɪstəɹi/

From psycho- + history.
* The science-fictional usage was created by Isaac Asimov in the mid-20th century.

Pick argues that the general rejection of psycho-history by practising historians has left the story of ‘historical’ psychoanalysis on the shelf.

2012, Richard Overy, “The Mind of Evil”, in Literary Review, number 399:

(psychology, historiography) The scientific study of psychology and motivation in history.


deinothere

deinotheres (plural)
dinothere (alternative)

From scientific Latin Deinotherium, Dinotherium (genus names), from Ancient Greek δεινός (deinós, “fearful, terrible”) + θηρίον (thēríon, “wild beast”).

der

Over the Miocene the European deinotheres became enormous, some reaching weights of 15 tonnes—making them among the largest land mammals ever to have existed.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: The First 100 Million Years, Penguin, published 2019, page 105:

(paleontology) Any of the genus †Deinotherium of large, extinct proboscidean mammals, a relative of modern elephants.


POD

en-noun

POD (countable and uncountable, plural PODs)

point of divergence
point of divergence#English

(alternative history) Initialism of point of divergence.


Independency

(ecclesiastical history) The principle that each individual religious congregation is free from any external ecclesiastical control, as by a bishop.


mortarium

/mɔːˈtɛːɹɪəm/

From Latin mortārium. Doublet of mortar.

(archaeology) A kind of mortar used by ancient Romans for grinding.


findspot

findspots (plural)
find-spot (alternative)

(archaeology) A location at which items, or a specific item, have been found.


Osman

Osmans (plural)
Osmân (alternative transliteration)
ʿOs̱mân (alternative transliteration)
Ottoman (alternative archaic)
Otoman (alternative archaic)
Othoman (alternative archaic)
Oosman (alternative archaic)

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish عثمان (Osman) or Iranian Persian عُثْمان (osmân), from Arabic عُثْمَان (ʕuṯmān). Widely used as an anglicization of cognate names across the Islamic world, including Somali Cismaan.

der

Arabic عُثْمَان (ʕuṯmān)

Osman

member of the Ottoman dynasty — see also Ottoman

[…] the Osmans were the most enduring of all the dynastic families.

2004, Historical Atlas of Empires, page 142:

Synonym of Ottoman (“member of the Ottoman dynasty”)

Soliman […] fetched over from the Asiatic shores 3,000 Osmans […]

Synonym of Ottoman (“citizen of the Ottoman Empire”)

Osman

citizen of the Ottoman Empire — see also Ottoman


Osman

Arabic عُثْمَان (ʕuṯmān)

Osmân (alternative transliteration)
ʿOs̱mân (alternative transliteration)
Ottoman (alternative archaic)
Otoman (alternative archaic)
Othoman (alternative archaic)
Oosman (alternative archaic)

[…] the Osman dynasty […]

1854, A. Schimmelfennig, The War Between Turkey and Russia: A Military Sketch, page 16:

[…] the Osman dynasty […]

1877, The Rise and Decay of the Rule of Islam, page 199:

[…] the Osman dynasty.

1890, Studies in European History, page 7:


paten

From Middle English patene, from Old French patene, from Latin patina, from Ancient Greek πατάνη (patánē). Doublet of patina, patine, and patena.

(archaeology) Any shallow dish found in an archaeological site.


Natufian

Coined by Dorothy Garrod after Wadi an-Natuf, the location of the Shuqba cave in West Bank where these people lived, + -ian.

(archaeology, anthropology) Of, or relating to a Mesolithic-era hunter-gatherer people in the Mediterranean area around Levant, at about 13,000 to 11,000 BC.


kabouter

(Dutch folklore) A tiny folkloric man who traditionally wears a pointy red hat, lives in harmony with nature and resides in mushrooms, similar to a gnome, leprechaun or a smurf.


frondose

en-adj

frondose (comparative more frondose, superlative most frondose)

more frondose (comparative)
most frondose (superlative)

(paleontology) Possessing a frond, not discoid.


yashiki

(Japanese history) A residence or estate of a daimyo


greenstone

en-noun

greenstone (countable and uncountable, plural greenstones)

greenstones (plural)
green-stone (alternative)

(archaeology) Any of several green-hued minerals used for making various artefacts in early Mesoamerican cultures, e.g. greenschist, chlorastrolite, serpentine, omphacite, or chrysoprase.

diabaso

minerals used for making early Mesoamerican artefacts


frit

frit (countable and uncountable, plural frits)

Either from French fritte, from frit (“fried”), or else from Italian fritta f (“fried”).

(archaeology) A similar material used in the manufacture of ceramic beads and small ornaments. (eastern Mediterranean; Bronze and Iron Age)


fachan

A fachan is a large, fierce monstrosity that is as dangerous as it is strange. A fachan has one eye in the middle of its forehead, a single arm in the middle of its chest and one leg supporting it from underneath. The fachan's[…]

(Can we date this quote?), RuneQuest Monsters, Mongoose Publishing, →ISBN, page 63:

"I can handle a fachan on my own,” Sir Celes said. “Don't worry, my regiment is...” “My father...” It felt so cold all of a sudden. Like a cloud had covered the sun. A fachan. A horrible, one-eyed giant. A terrifying monster that had taken something[…]

2020 April 27, Nao Wakasa, The Extraordinary, the Ordinary, and SOAP! Volume 1, J-Novel Club, →ISBN:

(folklore and now also fantasy) A giant in Irish and Scottish folklore, which has one central leg, one hand protruding from its chest, and one eye.


Eneolithic

en-adj

Eneolithic (comparative more Eneolithic, superlative most Eneolithic)

more Eneolithic (comparative)
most Eneolithic (superlative)
Aeneolithic (alternative)
aeneolithic (alternative)
eneolithic (alternative)
Æneolithic (alternative)

Borrowed from Italian eneolitico, from Latin aeneus (“copper, bronze”).

(archaeology, paleontology) Describing the age between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.

énéolithique

describing the age between the Neolithic and Bronze age


Eneolithic

Aeneolithic (alternative)
aeneolithic (alternative)
eneolithic (alternative)
Æneolithic (alternative)

(archaeology, paleontology) The age between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.

eneolític

age between the Neolithic and Bronze age


australopithecine

australopithecines (plural)
Australopithecine (alternative)

/ˌɒstɹələ(ʊ)ˈpɪθɪsiːn/

Originally in reference to a now-obsolete subfamily Australopithecinae, formed in New Latin, from Latin austrālis (“southern”) + Ancient Greek πίθηκος (píthēkos, “ape”).

It is as if there were enshrined in these legends a racial memory of the Australopithicines who came close but never did make it to full humanity.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 28:

Australopithecines came in several varieties, some slender and gracile, like Raymond Dart's Taung child, others more sturdy and robust, but all were capable of walking upright.

2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA, published 2003, page 391:

Caspari and Lee carried out comparisons ranging from ancient hominins such as australopithecines through to Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, assessing the ratios of young adults to old adults.

2011, Chris Stringer, The Origin of Our Species, Penguin, published 2012, page 151:

(anthropology, paleontology) Any of several extinct hominids, belonging to the genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus in the subtribe Australopithecina when seen as distinct, and sometimes other closely related genera.

αυστραλοπιθηκίνος

member of the subtribe Australopithecina


australopithecine

australopithecine (comparative more australopithecine, superlative most australopithecine)

more australopithecine (comparative)
most australopithecine (superlative)
Australopithecine (alternative)

/ˌɒstɹələ(ʊ)ˈpɪθɪsiːn/

(anthropology, paleontology) Of or pertaining to these hominids.


enantiornithine

ἐναντίος (enantíos, “opposite”) + ὄρνις (órnis, “bird”) + -ine.

The enantiornithines were rather diverse in form and size, so it is not clear if Junornis was typical or unusual but it does mean that this form of flight was one of a number being explored by early birds.

2017 October 25, Dave Hone, The Guardian:

The lineage that led to all living birds is known as the ornithuromorphs. But it was the other branch, called the enantiornithines, that dominated the skies for tens of millions of years.

2023 June 3, Carl Zimmer, “How Did Birds First Take Off?”, in The New York Times:

(paleontology) Any of an extinct group of protobirds of the Enantiornithes.


notoungulate

From Notoungulata (order name), from Ancient Greek νότος (nótos, “south”) + Ungulata.

At its extreme, there are creatures whose teeth grow continuously, even as their gums recede with a lifetime of grit and grass, a strategy only known in woolly rhinos and notoungulates among larger animals.

2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherworlds, Penguin, published 2023, page 72:

(paleontology) Any of several extinct, hoofed, herbivorous mammals of the order †Notoungulata, from Cenozoic South America.


rupestral

From New Latin rupestris, from Latin rūpes (“rock”).

Having departed from Sardis and before reaching the mnema of Tos, the traveller saw a monument which was either a free-standing pillar or a rupestral tablet, depending on how we interpret the word.^([στήλη])

1982, William Kendrick Pritchett, Studies in Ancient Greek Topography, page 277:

In the course of the last decade, a fair number of ancient rupestral (rock-cut) horoi have been published from various sites in southern Attica.

1995, Josiah Ober, “Greek Horoi: Artifactual Texts and the Contingency of Meaning”, in David B. Small, editor, Methods in the Mediterranean: Historical and Archaeological Views on Texts & Archaeology, page 115:

Representational art appears in two major categories: rupestral art (as in the paintings of the Palaeolithic caves) and mobiliary art (also called mobile or portable art).

2008, Harald Haarmann, Joan Marler, Introducing the Mythological Crescent: Ancient Beliefs and Imagery connecting Eurasia with Anatolia, page 14:

(art, archaeology) Made on or placed on rock surfaces.


acritarch

/ˈækɹɪtɑː(ɹ)k/

From Ancient Greek ἄκριτος (ákritos, “doubtful, indistinguishable”) + -arch.

der

Acritarchs represent some of the earliest evidence of life on Earth.

2018, Mark Carnall, “Unidentifiable fossils: palaeontological problematica”, in The Guardian:

(paleontology, palynology) Any small, non-acid-soluble (i.e. non-carbonate, non-siliceous) organic fossil that cannot be classified.


palynomorph

(paleontology) An organic microfossil: a particle of 5–500 micrometers in diameter, found in sedimentary deposits and composed of organic material.


Belle Époque

the Belle Époque (canonical)
Belle Epoque (alternative)
belle époque (alternative)
belle epoque (alternative)
La Belle Époque (alternative)

Borrowed from French Belle Époque (“good epoch”).

Among these cultured hostesses, a leading figure in the belle époque was the Comtesse de Greffulhe.

1973, Raymond Rudorff, The Belle Époque: Paris in the Nineties, Saturday Review Press, page 240:

1994, Jennifer R. Waelti-Walters, Steven C. Hause, editors, Feminisms of the Belle Epoque: A Historical and Literary Anthology, University of Nebraska Press:

Spanning the turn of the century and capitalizing on fortunes accumulated before the democratizing notion of income tax existed, the Belle Époque held out a lavish style of life to the relative few who could afford it.

2008, Ellen Hymowitz, “1900-1918”, in Jill Condra, editor, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through World History, Volume 3: 1801 to the Present, Greenwood Press, page 89:

(history) A period of European history, extending over several decades until the start of the First World War, characterized by artistic and cultural refinement.


great hall

Coordinate term: great room

Even in castles and manor houses space was limited, and rooms including the great hall were used for other functions beyond dining.

2004, Melitta Weiss Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, →ISBN, page 156:

(history, architecture) The main room of a palace, castle or large manor house in the Middle Ages, or in a country house of the 16th and early 17th centuries.

"Now this" — he indicated the great building facing them, with a handsome flight of steps up to the open door — "this is the great hall."

2005, Philippa Gregory, The Constant Princess, →ISBN:

(history, architecture) The principal building of a manor or castle compound.


Linear B

Named by British archaeologist Arthur Evans, to distinguish it from the other linear script, Linear A.

(archaeology, linguistics) A syllabary used to write Mycenaean Greek in the second millennium BC, before the invention of the Greek alphabet.


Linear A

Named by British archaeologist Arthur Evans, to distinguish it from the other linear script, Linear B.

(archaeology, linguistics) A syllabary used to write the as-yet-undeciphered Minoan language, and an apparent predecessor to other scripts, such as Linear B.


macroblock

In 1975 the macroblock area was stepped back so that a smaller block excavation could extend below Horizon 8.

2003, David L. Carlson, “Figuring Out "What Happened in the Middle Archaic?"”, in Theory, Method, and Practice in Modern Archaeology, →ISBN, page 78:

(archaeology) An area of a dig where there are multiple adjacent block excavations


post mold

(archaeology) An infilled soil cavity interpreted to be the result of a humanmade post that was once embedded in the ground.


Hispanian

(history) Of, from, or pertaining to the historical region of Hispania.


hobelar

hobelars (plural)
hobeler (alternative)
hobilar (alternative)

(military, history) A type of mounted infantry, during the Middle Ages, who rode on hobbies.


fill soil

en-noun

fill soil (countable and uncountable, plural fill soils)

(construction, horticulture, archaeology) Soil used for filling, that is, found within or contemporaneously placed within a cavity, or a supply of soil for use as fill.


ichnogenus

(paleontology) Any genus known only from trace fossils, such as footprints, coprolites or nests.


postcranium

Upper half of postcranium with the cerebral plate concave in profile, inferior margin of cerebral plate raised and slightly prominent, lower part of postcranium more or less convex.

1878, Proceedings of the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution Press, page 324:

In contrast, in Bronze Age samples cranial traumas are concentrated in males (with 5 of 6 cases in this sample; sexed postcrania are too sparse to analyze), and both cranial and postcranial traumas in the Iron Age are more frequent among males.

1997, Debra K. Martin, Troubled Times: Violence and Warfare in the Past, page 137:

However, King (1994) revealed four lead-shot balls with a skull with evidence of fracture from a post-Medieval cemetery at Glasgow Cathedral, Scotland, and Willey and Scott (1996) report six of ten skeletons from the Battle of the Little Bighorn with gunshot wounds to either the cranium or the postcranium.

2013, Charlotte A Roberts, The Archaeology of Disease:

(paleontology) The portion of a vertebrate skeleton located caudal to the cranium (that is, in bipeds, inferior to it).


buchiid

Back-formation from Buchiidae, from the genus name Buchia.

The buchiids were certainly the most abundant bivalve group in the oceans of British Columbia during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous.

1997, Rolf Ludvigsen, Life in Stone: A Natural History of British Columbia's Fossils, →ISBN, page 177:

(malacology, paleontology) A bivalve mollusc of the extinct family †Buchiidae.


paleolatitude

paleolatitudes (plural)
palaeolatitude (alternative UK)

(geology, paleontology) The former latitude of a particular geologic formation at a time in the geologic past, often specifically the time of formation


hadrosaur

Back-formation from Hadrosauridae, from the type genus Hadrosaurus, which in turn was derived from Ancient Greek ἁδρός (hadrós, “strong”) + σαῦρος (saûros, “lizard”).

Bipedal hadrosaurs, great hulking lambeosaurs, certain rhino-like ceratopsians and relatives of the velociraptors - all large and probably able swimmers - had the greatest success.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 31:

(paleontology) Any ornithopod dinosaur of the family Hadrosauridae.


lambeosaur

From translingual Lambeosaurus, from Lambe + -saurus, named for Lawrence Lambe.

(paleontology) A crested duck-billed dinosaur of the family Hadrosauridae.


lambeosaurid

From Lambeosauridae, in turn from the type genus Lambeosaurus, after Lawrence Lambe.

(paleontology, archaic) A member of the putative family of crested hadrosaurs, the Lambeosauridae.


elpistostegid

The recently discovered elpistostegid Tiktaalik probably already had a pair of fins, which could function like vertebrate limbs in shallow waters.

2012, Winand Brinkmann, Kenneth De Baets, editors, Paleontological Museum of the University of Zürich: Exhibition Guide, Paleontological Institute and Museum of the University of Zürich, →ISBN, page 64:

(paleontology) Any lobe-finned fish of the extinct family †Elpistostegidae, from the late Devonian period.


Flying Dutchman

(nautical folklore) A mythical Dutch-flagged ghost clipper that is very fast sailing, and never makes it to port, seen on the high seas, where upon being hailed, occupants request information on persons long dead, or leave messages for said people. In European naval folklore, it was considered to portend bad luck.


limace

(archaeology) A kind of slug-shaped chisel.


allosauroid

From the clade name Allosauroidea, first proposed by Currie & Zhao in 1993.

(paleontology) Any member of a superfamily clade of dinosaurs including the sinoraptorids, carcharodontosaurids and allosaurids.


paleoethnobotany

palaeoethnobotany (alternative)
palæoethnobotany (alternative)

(archaeology) The study of plant remains from archaeological sites.

archéobotanique

the study of plant remains from archaeological sites


arris

From Old French areste, from Latin arista (“beard (of grain), fishbone”). Doublet of arista.

der

(archaeology) A ridge formed on the surface of flaked stone, such as an arrowhead or hand axe, as the result of the intersection of two or more flake removals.


bluecoat

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

The shot wounded Thomas Lord, a 73-year-old former New York City police officer from Suffolk, Va., and a bluecoat with the Seventh New York Volunteer Cavalry.

2009 January 18, Ralph Blumenthal, “Re-enactor Is Indicted in Shooting of a Yankee”, in New York Times:

(US history) A soldier or officer in the Union army during the American Civil War


archaeogenetic

(archaeology, genetics) Of or pertaining to archaeogenetics


archaeogenetics

(archaeology, genetics) The application of population genetics to archaeology

archeogenetika

the application of population genetics to archaeology


archaeometallurgy

(archaeology, metallurgy) The study of the prehistory of metal extraction and working


Reggio Calabria

From Italian Reggio Calabria, Old Italian Reggio from Late Latin Rēgium, Latin Rhēgium, from Ancient Greek Ῥήγιον (Rhḗgion).

(history) Regium, an important flourishing Ancient Greek colonial settlement in Magna Graecia on the Strait of Messina from the early 1st millennium BCE thru the Hellenistic, Ancient Roman, Byzantine Roman and medieval epochs.


geoarchaeology

(archaeology) Usage of geological techniques in archaeology.


nuraghe

/nʊəˈɹɑːɡeɪ/

Borrowed from Italian nuraghe, from Sardinian.

(archaeology) A dry-stone round megalithic tower found in Sardinia.


archaeobotanical

(archaeology) Of or pertaining to archaeobotany


conventionalist

(history) A member or supporter of the French National Convention.


fishapod

A blend of fish + tetrapod, Coined by American paleontologist Neil Shubin circa 2006. Analyzable as fish + -a- + -pod

coined

In these conditions, ‘fishapods’, able to do push-ups on proto-limbs to gulp fresh air from just above its river habitat, would have had an edge over those relying only on gills to extract meagre oxygen from the murky water.

2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, Granta Books, published 2013, page 12:

(informal, paleontology) Any of several extinct creatures of the subclass Tetrapodomorpha having features both of fish and tetrapods, especially Tiktaalik.


foraminiferan

/fəˌɹamɪˈnɪfəɹən/

Eocene foraminiferans are very different from Pliocene ones, and even within the Eocene there are many fine time divisions that can be recognised using foraminifera.

2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 146:

(zoology, paleontology) An organism of the phylum Foraminifera; a foraminifer.


beaker people

(archaeology) People of a late Neolithic and early Bronze Age culture of northern and western Europe who made distinctive earthenware vessels.


archaeozoological

(archaeology) Of or pertaining to archaeozoology


building site

(archaeology) The site of a former structure, indicated by an assemblage of features, artifacts or debris, remote-sensing data, or historic records (e.g., deed records).


projectile point

en-noun

projectile point (plural projectile points)

(archaeology) The head or tip of a shaft that is thrown (that is, projected away from the user) as a weapon.


Danelaw

From Middle English Dene lawe, from Old English Dena lagu, from Dene (“Dane”) and lagu (“law”).

(history) The part of Great Britain in which the laws of the Scandinavians dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons.

(history) The set of legal terms and definitions created in the treaties between the English Alfred the Great and the Danish Guthrum the Old.


geoglyph

/ˈd͡ʒiːə(ʊ)ɡlɪf/

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

/ˈd͡ʒiːəɡlɪf/

From geo- (“the Earth; geography”) + glyph (“figure carved in relief or incised”), modelled after petroglyph.

prefix

These, and almost 100 others stretched along the Colorado River in the California and Arizona deserts, are called geoglyphs or earth carvings by scientists. [...] Although their exact purpose and meaning are still a mystery, we do know these large and delicate geoglyphs are easily damaged by vehicles breaking through the desert surface and obliterating the figures.

1982, “6,000 Years Ago: Blythe, California: Giants of the Desert”, in Your Fragile Legacy: Cultural and Fossil Resources on the Public Lands, [Washington, D.C.]: Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of the Interior, →OCLC, columns 2–3:

Geoglyphs usually are found on fans sparse of rock, but what seems the oldest of the scraped designs are on cobbled terraces at Denning Springs, Ocotillo, Death Valley, and above the Mojave River.

1987, Ken Hedges, editor, Rock Art Papers (San Diego Museum Papers; number 23), volume 5, San Diego, Calif.: San Diego Museum of Man, →ISBN, page 38:

Two of the prehistoric sites, a quarry and a special task area, are common in the region, but the other site, a geoglyph, is rare and unique.

1989 May, “Affected Environment”, in Proposed 1988 Plan Amendments to the California Desert Conservation Area Plan of 1980: Environmental Assessment, Riverside, Calif.: California Desert District, Bureau of Land Management, United States Department of the Interior, →OCLC, page 3-3:

Another important form of artistic expression during the ERD period, particularly on the south coast of Peru, was gigantic geoglyphs or man-made desert markings. The idea is ancient. [...] Large geoglyphs are found as far south as the far north coast of Chile. However, by far the largest and best-known concentration occur on the stony desert plains around the Río Grande de Nazca drainage (in a roughly 200-km² area). They are popularly known as the "Nazca Lines."

1999, Izumi Shimada, “The Evolution of Andean Diversity: Regional Formations (500 b.c.e.–c.e. 600)”, in Frank Salomon, Stuart B. Schwartz, editors, The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, volume III (South America, Part 1), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 421–422:

What a wonderful adventure, the making of a geoglyph. Geoglyphs include the largest images ever produced by prehistoric man. [...] A geoglyph [To Life (1999), a sculpture by Andrew Rogers] is unusual in the world and even more unusual in Israel where it is located in the wonderful and spectacular desert wilderness near the Dead Sea next to the Jordanian border.

2003, Andrew Rogers, “The Making of a Geoglyph”, in Ken Scarlett, Rhythms of Life: The Art of Andrew Rogers, South Yarra, Vic.: Macmillan Art Publishing, →ISBN, page 226:

Initially crop circles were just that, circles. However, over the years they have evolved into complex and elaborate pictograms – such as the recent ‘Mayan’ circle at West Kennet Long Barrow. Hence, some prefer to speak of them as ‘geoglyphs’. This shift from ‘crop circle’ to ‘geoglyph’ follows a change in their interpretation. Whereas the circle was understood simply to indicate alien presence, the pictogram has led to a belief in explicit communication.

2005, Christopher Partridge, “The Sacralization of the Extraterrestrial”, in The Re-enchantment of the West, volumes II (Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture, and Occulture), London, New York, N.Y.: T&T Clark International, →ISBN, page 203:

The Palpa Valleys have also yielded petroglyphs and geoglyphs, which comprise the direct antecedents of the famous Nasca Lines.

2015, Elsa Tomasto-Cagigao, Markus Reindel, Johny Isla, “Paracas Funerary Practices in Palpa, South Coast of Perú”, in Peter Eeckhout, Lawrence S. Owens, editors, Funerary Practices and Models in the Ancient Andes: The Return of the Living Dead, New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 69:

IBM Japan and Yamagata University last year presented the first geoglyph — a large human-made ancient formation or design on the ground — identified by AI.

2020 July 1, Carly Minsky, “How AI helps historians solve ancient puzzles”, in Financial Times, retrieved 2021-04-12:

(chiefly archaeology) A large-scale drawing or image made on the ground by arranging lines of stones, scratching the earth, etc., and often only fully visible from a distance or the air.


stadial

en-adj

stadial (comparative more stadial, superlative most stadial)

more stadial (comparative)
most stadial (superlative)

He drew on the growing ethnographic record contained in travellers' tales about extra-European societies to develop a stadial view of human evolution according to which each society passed through the stages of hunting, pastoral life, farming, and trading – a schema which had no place for scriptural precept.

2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 188:

(archaeology, sociology) Pertaining to or existing in successive stages of a given culture, society etc.


spearthrower

spearthrowers (plural)
spear-thrower (alternative)

1988, Joyce A, Tyldesley, S. R. Snape, Nazlet Tuna: An Archaeological Survey in Middle Egypt, British Archaeological Reports International Series: 414, page 50,
The broad spearthrowers and the long spearthrowers, depicted in ‘early’ and ‘late’ styles respectively, can likewise be related to Cundy′s analysis.

The bearer usually also holds a spearthrower (atlatl), fashioned as an arm-length wand that has circular white (shell) finger holds and a hooked end to launch the spears; these spearthrowers may be embellished with eagle feathers and down balls (Fig. 19ac).

2007, Elizabeth Hill Boone, Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate, page 58:

In the Bunjilaka Gallery of the Melbourne Museum the spearthrower, shown in Figure 4, is on display. The lines on the spearthrower interpret the Journey of the Great Snake Liru, a Dreamtime ancestor.

2010, Dale Kerwin, Aboriginal Dreaming Paths and Trading Routes: The Colonisation of the Australian Economic Landscape, page 10:

(anthropology, archaeology) A hand-held tool used as a lever to increase the throwing distance and penetrating force of a spear or dart, an atlatl; a woomera.


manuport

From Latin manū (“with a hand”) portāre (“to carry”).

(archaeology) A natural (not man-made) object of an excavation site, which was originally brought into the site by humans.


archaeometry

(archaeology) The application of techniques and methodologies of the natural sciences to archaeology, mostly for dating, analysis, survey and confirmation of provenance or authenticity.

arkeometria

the application of scientific techniques and methodologies to archaeology


fedayee

From Arabic فِدائِيّ (fidāʔiyy), plural: فِدائِيُّون (fidāʔiyyūn). Plural in oblique cases or colloquial/dialectal in all cases is فِدائِيِّين (fidāʔiyyīn).

(history) fedayi, an Armenian partisan fighter in the Ottoman Empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries


anthracothere

From scientific Latin Anthracotherium (genus name; see Anthracotherium § Etymology). By surface analysis, anthraco- + -there from Ancient Greek θηρίον (thēríon, “beast”).

One mysterious anthracocthere known as Diplopus […] entered Europe just before la grande coupure, presumably by swimming the Turgai Strait.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: The First 100 Million Years, Penguin, published 2019, page 86:

(paleontology) Any of several artiodactyl ungulates, of the extinct family Anthracotheriidae, related to the hippopotamus.

antracotério

any of several artiodactyl ungulates of the extinct family Anthracotheriidae


prenuclear

(history) Occurring before the start of the nuclear age.


beakhead

beakheads (plural)
beak-head (alternative)

(archaeology) An ornament used in rich Norman doorways, resembling a head with a beak.


marchland

(history) Land comprising the marches of a territory; borderland.


maskette

(archaeology) A small mask, especially one that does not cover the whole head.


Germanist

en-adjective

Germanist (comparative more Germanist, superlative most Germanist)

more Germanist (comparative)
most Germanist (superlative)

Borrowed from German Germanist, along the model of earlier English Romanist (“scholar of Romance languages”). By surface analysis, German + -ist, doublet of Germanicist.

m+

The Germanist view also led to the description of post-Roman lawcodes as Germanic law, and, in archeology, to the new types of rural settlement which replaced the old Roman villas being called 'Germanic', and to the new burial forms, like furnished inhumation (with grave-goods), similarly being ascribed to Germanic influence.

2005 [1995], “The Barbarian invasions”, in The New Cambridge Medieval History (The New Cambridge Medieval History), volume 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 36:

(historiography, law) Pertaining to the school of thought which downplays or denies the continuity of legal and cultural institutions between Rome and later medieval Europe, highlighting the role of external influences and innovation in the decline of the Roman Empire.


unworked

en-adj

unworked (comparative more unworked, superlative most unworked)

more unworked (comparative)
most unworked (superlative)

From Middle English unwerked, unwerched, equivalent to un- + worked. Doublet of unwrought.

Dozens of unworked obsidian cobbles were found buried with the deceased.

(archaeology) Describing an unaltered material found associated with human tool-making or other cultural activity.


posthole

Indentations in the floor were interpreted as postholes and slots that once anchored wooden furniture.

2007 January 31, John Noble Wilford, “Village May Have Housed Builders of Stonehenge”, in New York Times:

(archaeology) A cut feature used to hold a surface timber or stone, usually much deeper than it is wide.


imbrex

(archaeology) A roof tile common in Ancient Greek and Roman architecture, used in an overlapping formation with the tegula.


cist

Borrowed from Welsh cist (“chest”) (see kistvaen), from Latin cista (“chest, casket”), see above.

A central stone slab cist containing the burial was surrounded by a circles of stones placed on edge, probably to represent the round house in which the deceased had lived.

2019, Alan Staniforth, Cleveland Way, page 66:

(archaeology) A crypt cut into rock, chalk, or a tree trunk, especially a coffin formed by placing stone slabs on edge and topping them with a horizontal slab or slabs.


rock shelter

(archaeology) A shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff, a frequent location of prehistoric archeological sites.


interrex

en-noun

interrex (plural interrexes or interreges)

From Latin inter- (“between”) + rex (“king”).

(history) An official in Ancient Rome who acted as single head of state during the interregnum between two consulates.

(history) An equivalent regent from the death of a Polish king till the election and enthronement of his successor.


Sabaean

Sabaeans (plural)
Sabean (alternative)
Sabæan (alternative)

(history) A member of the ancient Sabaean people.


jackalope

/ˈd͡ʒækələʊp/

Most jackalopes are furry and a foot or two tall; many are only heads, mounted on wood plaques; there are some six-footers, covered with fur…

1993, Jane Stern, Michael Stern, Way out west:

(folklore, mythology) A folkloric animal, a supposed cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope, goat, or deer, usually portrayed as a rabbit with antlers.


archeometry

(archaeology) The application of the various techniques of science to archeology.

archeometria

the application of the various techniques of science to archeology


conventionnel

To calm their nerves and dispel the phantoms of their imaginations, the conventionnels proposed a series of fantastic draconian measures designed to insure tranquillity during the voting.

1979, David P Jordan, The King's Trial, University of California, published 1979, page 178:

When the crowds burst again into the assembly hall, they bore with them on a pike the head of a conventionnel, Féraud, who had tried to bar their path.

2004, David Andress, The French Revolution and the People, London, page 236:

The Conventionnels who had voted for the measure included many who had worked closely with deputies now under arrest for their part in the Terror.

2006, Howard G Brown, Ending the French Revolution, University of Virginia, published 2008, page 27:

(history) A member of the French National Convention.


Homerian

(geology, paleontology) A subdivision of the Silurian period.


isobase

Assuming their zero isobase and assuming also that they have correctly identified the beaches, the Jamieson hypothesis is decidedly not favored by their field observations.

1920, Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, volume 31:

The southern limit of Wright's zero isobase should intersect the north-west coast of England 125 km further north in the vicinity of the southern shore of Morecambe Bay.

1978, Sea-level Changes: North-West England During the Flandrian Stage, M. J. Tooley:

The isobase map shows the marked spatial variability in elevation of archaeological sites from the Groswater Bay west along Lake Melville to the Goose Bay area, as identified by Fitzhugh (1972).

1992, Lucille Lewis Johnson, Melanie Stright, Paleoshorelines and Prehistory: An Investigation of Method:

(archaeology, geology) A line drawn on a map or chart connecting places of equal or constant land upheaval or subsidence.


archaeogeneticist

(archaeology, genetics) A geneticist whose speciality is archaeogenetics

archeogenetikus

a geneticist whose speciality is archaeogenetics


excavation unit

excavation unit (plural excavation units)

An excavation unit need not be rectangular, if precise measurements are made to assure good provenience.

(archaeology) A pit, trench, shovel test hole, (etc.) or other result of scientific excavation.


acrophone

There were three classes of predicted knowledge sources: (a) induced sublexical relations (i.e., induction of orthographic–phonological relations from the experience of print words), (b) acrophones from letter names, and (c) transfer from spelling experience.

1999, G. Brian Thompson et al., “Learning correspondences between letters and phonemes without explicit instruction”, in Applied Psycholinguistics, →DOI:

Where there are no certain cognates to an acrophone, but the identity of its letter is secure, I shall reconstruct the translation in square brackets.

2006, Gordon James Hamilton, The origins of the West Semitic alphabet in Egyptian scripts, page 26:

(linguistics, archaeology) The first sound of a word, or a glyph used to represent the first sound of the word it represents


praetorship

praetorships (plural)
prætorship (alternative)
pretorship (alternative)

/ˈpɹiːtəʃɪp/

The same night, wherein the Pretorship was refused him, he passed over in play.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 28, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

(history) The office or term of a praetor.


shovel test

A single shovel test was all we needed to show the site's importance.

(archaeology) An excavation unit of small extent and shallow depth, made quickly with a shovel or trowel to determine whether archeologically significant material is present below the ground surface.


shovel test

en-verb

shovel test (third-person singular simple present shovel tests, present participle shovel testing, simple past and past participle shovel tested)

shovel tests (present singular third-person)
shovel testing (participle present)
shovel tested (participle past)
shovel tested (past)

They were contracted to shovel test only within the proposed pipeline's right of way.

(archaeology) To examine a site or area using one or more small excavation units.


dolium

(history, archaeology) A large earthenware vessel used for the storage and transportation of goods in the ancient Western Mediterranean.


Danegeld

Inherited from Middle English danegeld, from Dane, genitive plural of Dan (“Dane”), plus geld (“geld, tribute, payment”). Apparently modeled on a Scandinavian word such as Old Danish Danegjeld), from Old Norse *Danagjald, from the genitive plural of Danir (“Danes”) + gjald (“payment, tribute”).

danegeld (alternative)
Danegelt (alternative)
danegelt (alternative)

And who shall then stick closest to ye, and excite others? not he who takes up armes for cote and conduct, and his four nobles of Danegelt.

(history) A tax raised originally to pay tribute or protection money to the Viking raiders in the 10th and 11th centuries to save a land from being ravaged, and later continued as a land tax.

丹麦金

(history) tax raised to protect against Viking raiders


Laozi

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the standard Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 老子 (“the Old One, the Venerable One”).

der

Laosi (alternative)
Lao Tse (alternative)
Lao Tu (alternative)
Lao-Tzu (alternative)
Lao-Tsu (alternative)
Laotze (alternative)
Lao Zi (alternative)
Laocius (alternative Latinate)

a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

(Chinese history) An honorific title for the legendary Taoist philosopher Li Er, who supposedly lived in the 6th and 5th centuries BC and (Chinese mythology) has subsequently been worshipped as a Taoist god.


limbate

en-adj

limbate (comparative more limbate, superlative most limbate)

more limbate (comparative)
most limbate (superlative)

From Latin limbātus, from limbus (“edge, border”).

(biology, paleontology) Having a distinct edge, especially one of a different colour; bordered.


australopith

australopiths (plural)
Australopith (alternative)

/ˈɒstɹələˌpɪθ/

The incisors are more similar in size to the molars compared to earlier australopiths—a condition which is also more humanlike.
The limb bones indicate A. garhi had small stature like earlier australopiths.

2007, Holly M. Dunsworth, Human Origins 101, page 78:

Most authorities would nowadays concur that the australopiths were generally committed to habitats with at least some trees, to which they were more or less tied for sleeping and for shelter from predators during the day, as well as for a large part of their sustenance.

2008, Rob DeSalle, Ian Tattersall, Human Origins: What Bones And Genomes Tell Us About Ourselves, page 118:

Later we'll consider how these principles apply to australopith craniofacial function, but first let's review briefly how different australopiths accommodated large teeth and big masticatory muscles, and how they grew large, buttressed faces.

2011, Daniel E. Lieberman, The Evolution of the Human Head, page 451:

(anthropology, paleontology) Any of the hominids of the extinct genus Australopithecus.

australopithecine

depending on the classification scheme used


australopith

australopith (comparative more australopith, superlative most australopith)

more australopith (comparative)
most australopith (superlative)
Australopith (alternative)

/ˈɒstɹələˌpɪθ/

(anthropology, paleontology) Of or pertaining to the hominids of the extinct genus Australopithecus.


LUCA

LUCAs (plural)
Luca (alternative)
L.U.C.A. (alternative)
L. U. C. A. (alternative)

Luca is now usually placed deep underground, in a fissure in hot igneous rocks, where she fed on sulphur, iron, hydrogen and carbon.

1999, Matt Ridley, Genome, Harper Perennial, published 2000, page 19:

It was around 2.9 billion years ago that LUCA split into the three domains of life: the single-celled bacteria and archaea, and the more complex eukaryotes that gave rise to animals and plants[…].

2011 November 26, Michael Marshall, “Our ancestor, the mega-organism”, in New Scientist, page 8:

last universal common ancestor
w:en:last universal common ancestor

(taxonomy, biology, paleontology) Initialism of last universal common ancestor; the hypothesised most recent primordial organism that is an ancestor to all organisms now living.

viimeinen universaali esivanhempi

hypothesised last common ancestor to all organisms


battleship-shaped curve

en-noun

battleship-shaped curve (plural battleship-shaped curves)

battleship-shaped curves (plural)
battleship curve (alternative)

From the resemblance to the outline of a battleship, as seen from above.

(archaeology) A two-dimensional region with parallel sides and pointed ends, usually representing the emergence and later disappearance of an entity in a graph over time.


Aten

(Egyptology) The deified disc of the sun, as an aspect of Re or as the sole God under Akhenaten.


punctus

From Medieval Latin punctus (“punctuation mark”).

bor

In the sacerdotal prayers in col. a the punctuation is by punctus flexus, punctus elevatus and punctus.

1993, Malcolm Beckwith Parkes, Pause and Effect, Plates and Commentaries, page 197:

The most common item of punctuation was the punctus or point.

2011 July 22, Tadao Kudouchi, edited by Akio Oizumi and Jacek Fisiak, English Historical Linguistics and Philology in Japan, De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 172:

Curiously, the punctus versus was largely replaced with a punctus by ca.1100.

2015 August 31, “Medieval Manuscripts”, in Albrecht Classen, editor, Handbook of Medieval Culture, volume 2, De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 1015:

(palaeography) The basic dot (‧) used to end a sentence in medieval punctuation (ancestral to the full stop/period).