cave painting

en-noun

cave painting (countable and uncountable, plural cave paintings)

cave paintings (plural)
cave-painting (alternative)

For several decades, now, he [the modern artist] has taken the liberty of learning how to draw and compose by studying and borrowing ideas from the high periods in all art, as far back as prehistoric cave painting.

1959, Erle Loran, Cézanne’s Composition: Analysis of His Form with Diagrams and Photographs of His Motifs, 2nd edition, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif., London: University of California Press, →OCLC, page 4, column 2:

[C]ave painting appears to have flourished during the last 8–10,000 years of this period and to be concentrated in limestone caves of southwestern Europe (especially southwestern France and north coastal Spain), [...]

1989, Margaret W. Conkey, “The Structural Analysis of Paleolithic Art”, in C[lifford] C[harles] Lamberg-Karlovsky, editor, Archaeological Thought in America, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, published 1995, →ISBN, page 135:

In another topic on prehistoric man, pupils used 'active learning' methods to construct a 'cave set'; re-enacted cave-painting by homemade candlelight; [...]

1995, Alex Webster, “Differentiation”, in Geoffrey Moss, editor, The Basics of Special Needs: A Routledge/Special Children Survival Guide for the Classroom Teacher, London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 1996, →ISBN, page 42:

Art-making may have emerged as early as 1.5 million years ago with the arrival of Homo erectus, our humanlike ancestors. [...] Cave painting and early sketching were ways to enhance thinking, serving as a medium for idea manipulation, enhancement, and storage.

2001, Eric Jensen, “Visual Arts”, in Arts with the Brain in Mind, Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, →ISBN, page 50:

(uncountable) The activity of applying pigments to the interior surfaces of caves to create images, especially when carried out in prehistoric times.

grotschildering

I understand from Paṇḍita Baghavánlál, who lately visited the caves, that the painting and writings in these caves are fast going to decay. Those at Ajaṇṭhá are more durable, whereas the Bagh cave paintings will, it is feared, be entirely obliterated after some years.

1818 July 28, F. Dangerfield, “IX. Some Account of the Caves near Baug, Called the Panch Pandoo”, in Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, volume II, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and John Murray, […], published 1876, →OCLC, editorial note, page 216:

No natives of this country could, I think, have drawn the cave-paintings [in Buddhist caves found in Khandesh].

1851 January, J. Rose, “Art. VIII.—Extracts from the Proceedings of the Society for the Year 1849–50.”, in The Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, volume IV, Bombay, Maharashtra: American Mission Press; T. Graham, […], →OCLC, page 351:

Mr. George W. Stow, of Queenstown, South Africa, refers in a letter to the interesting subject of the old cave-paintings by the Bushmen, [...]

1871 February 4, “Scientific Notes. Cave-paintings by Bushmen.”, in Appletons’ Journal of Literature, Science, and Art, volume V, number 97, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, […], →OCLC, page 143, column 2:

Prehistoric pottery, art, cave painting, engraving can be incorporated into the exhibition as an added colourful attraction.

1972 January–March, Dilip Kumar Ray, “Some Thoughts on the Problems of Arrangement of Anthropological Specimen in Museums”, in Amalendu Bose, editor, The Calcutta Review, volume III, number 3 (New Series), Calcutta, West Bengal: University of Calcutta, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 232:

Although somewhat difficult to date, the earliest direct evidence of human interest in honey occurs in the famous stone-age cave painting from southern Spain, of a man robbing a wild bees' nest.

1998, Don Brothwell, Patricia Brothwell, “Sugars”, in Food in Antiquity: A Survey of the Diet of Ancient Peoples, expanded edition, Baltimore, Md., London: Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 72:

Rooted in precinematic cultural activities such as walking and traveling, on the one hand, and in all forms of visual representation – including cave painting – on the other, the compound term ["mobilized virtual gaze"] is meant to describe forms of scopic pleasure that travel "in an imaginary flânerie through an imaginary elsewhere and an imaginary 'elsewhen'.'"

1999, Lutz Koepnick, “Benjamin’s Actuality”, in Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Power (Modern German Culture and Literature), Lincoln, Neb., London: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, part 2 (Rethinking the Spectacle), page 213:

The well-known Neolithic cave painting from Morella la Villa in Spain unmistakably shows a battle between two small groups of archers.

2002, Christon I. Archer, John R. Ferris, Holger H. Herwig, Timothy H. E. Travers, “Introduction: The Origins of Warfare”, in World History of Warfare, Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 1:

By 30,000 years ago, modern humans in Europe were producing stunning cave paintings of ice age animals, and carved human figurines.

2009, Jonathan Adams, “The March of Cain: Humans as a Destroyer of Species”, in John Mason, editor, Species Richness: Patterns in the Diversity of Life (Springer–Praxis Books in Environmental Sciences), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; Chichester, West Sussex: Praxis Publishing, →ISBN, section 5.3 (The Secrets of Our Success over Other Human Species), page 211:

Human beings have been students of animal behavior from their earliest days. [...] Further evidence for this appreciation of animal behavior can be seen in the many cave paintings depicting animals, while not depicting any of the other facets of the painters' lives.

2011, “Introduction”, in Victor S. Lamoureux, editor, Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach, Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press; Oakville, Ont.: Apple Academic Press, →ISBN, page 7:

(uncountable) The paintings resulting from this activity regarded collectively, especially if prehistoric; cave art; (countable) an individual painting of this type.

grotkuns

paintings resulting from this activity regarded collectively, especially if prehistoric; an individual painting of this type


Pythoness

From Late Latin pythonissa, from Ancient Greek Πυθία (Puthía). Compare Pythia.

The office of Pythoness appears not to have been desirable. Either the emanations from the cavern, or some art of the managers, threw her into real convulsions. Priests entitled prophets led her to the sacred tripod, force being often necessary for that purpose, and held her on it till her frenzy rose to whatever pitch was in their judgement most fit for the occasion.

1784, William Mitford, The History of Greece, volume 1:

The unconnected words which the Pythoness screamed out in her madness were arranged into sentences by the attendant priests, who could easily place them in such an order, and fill up the breaks in such a way, as to make them express whatever was most suitable to the interests of the shrine, which was the main object.

1857, William Chambers, Robert Chambers, Chambers's Information for the People:

Less becomingly Origen states that when the Pythoness sat down at the mouth of the cave, "the prophetic spirit of Apollo entered her private parts"; ...

1913, Elsie Worthington Clews Parsons, Religious Chastity: an Ethnological Study:

But at Delphi the sun-god's spiritual bride was known in the days of Herodotus as the Pythoness, and later as Pythia.

1970, Esmé Wynne-Tyson, The Philosophy of Compassion: The Return of the Goddess:

(history) The priestess of the oracle of Apollo at Delphi.

pythie

priestess of the oracle of Apollo at Delphi — see also Pythia


banjo enclosure

banjo enclosure (plural banjo enclosures)

(archaeology) A feature found on mid-Iron Age sites in Great Britain that resembles a banjo in plan.


preceramic

(archaeology) Describing a society that did not use pottery.


Areopagite

/æɹiːˈɒpəɡaɪt/

From the Middle English Ariopagite, Ariopagyte, from the Latin arēopagītes, from the Ancient Greek Ἀρεοπαγίτης (Areopagítēs); equivalent to Areopagus + -ite.

Each year the Athenians elected ten archons from among the rich and noble, and at the end of that year the ten graduated into the Areopagus, where they served for life. […¶] In the year 487/6, however, a new law provided that the archons should be chosen by a procedure ending in a lottery. Henceforth, these officials would be selected by chance and not because of their special qualities of lineage, mind, or character. […¶…] Aristotle reports that “After the Persian Wars the Council of the Areopagus grew strong again and controlled the city . . . . For seventeen years the constitution remained the same, with the Areopagites in charge.” (Aristotle, Ath.Pol. 23.1; 25.1) These seventeen years (479 – 462) were the period when Cimon came to exercise the dominant position in Athens. Right after the Persian War, most Areopagites had still been elected rather than allotted, and their prestige had been enhanced by their good service in the war. They passed no new laws: they merely began to exercise their old informal rights, shielded by a favorable political climate, especially the support of the increasingly popular Cimon.

1990: Donald Kagan, Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy, chapter 2: “Politician”, pages 37–38 (Guild Publishing; CN 2239)

(Ancient Greek history) A member of the ancient-Athenian conciliary court of the Areopagus.

areopagita

a member of the ancient Athenian conciliary court of the Areopagus


claviform

The adjective is derived from Latin clāvifōrmis (“club-shaped, claviform”), from Latin clāva (“a club”) (from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₂- (“to beat; to break”)) + -fōrmis (suffix meaning ‘having the form of’) (equivalent to -form, -iform). The English word is cognate with French claviforme.
The noun is probably derived from the adjective.

der

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

The claviform comprises a vertical line with a bulge at one side; but unlike the buttocks on the stylized females, the bulge is usually on the middle or the upper half of the 'sign'! It has been suggested that the 'upper bulge' on a claviform instead represents breasts, but this is based on supposedly stylized statuettes from Dolni Vestonice and elsewhere, comprising a rod with two little lumps near the top, and thus on analogies with sites even further away in space and time from the claviforms.

1997, Paul G. Bahn, Jean Vertut, “What was Depicted?”, in Journey through the Ice Age, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 164, column 2:

In the early days of research, the images were often read very literally, and this was certainly taken to extremes – the classic example, of course, is the ‘signs’ in Ice Age cave art which the first researchers assumed to represent actual objects, and gave them names accordingly – for example, ‘claviforms’ were thought to be clubs, ‘tectiforms’ were thought to be roofs or huts, and so forth [...].

2006, Paul G. Bahn, “Myths and Meanings”, in Prehistoric Rock Art: Polemics and Progress […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, published 2010, →ISBN, page 32:

There is also a faded red painting of a claviform (a thick curved line with a raised bump or point in the middle) that looks awfully similar to those found at a few other sites in northern Spain. A claviform from Altamira was dated using the uranium-series technique and is at least 35,000 years old.

2016, Genevieve von Petzinger, “Signs across the Ages: The Many Styles of the Oldest Art”, in The First Signs: Unlocking the Mysteries of the World’s Oldest Symbols, New York, N.Y.: Atria Paperback, published March 2017, →ISBN, page 140:

In Niaux, claviforms played a special role in that respect because we also find them very far inside the cave near the end of the galleries. [...] The same structure is visible at the Salon Noir itself. There, a claviform and a parallel bar were made on the first panel to the right, at the entrance.

2018, Jean Clottes, “European Palaeolithic Rock Art and Spatial Structures”, in Bruno David, Ian J. McNiven, editors, The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part II (Conceptual Approaches to Rock Art: Investigating Meaning), page 406:

(palaeography) An image or symbol which is club-shaped, that is, larger at the tip than at the base.


penniform

Even in the palaeolithic periods symbols abound such as cup markings, tectiforms, penniforms, groups of dots, rectangles, lattice designs, symbolic vulvas, and so on.

1970, Stuart Macdonald, The History and Philosophy of Art Education, Lutterworth Press, published 2004, page 335:

Startlingly, the much earlier Blombos cave engravings clearly fit neatly into several of Von Petzinger's categories: lines, crosshatching, cruciforms, penniforms, and perhaps others.

2011, Pat Shipman, The Animal Connection: A New Perspective on What Makes Us Human, page 145:

The symbols she found ranged from dots, lines, triangles, squares and zigzags to more complex forms like ladder shapes, hand stencils, something called a tectiform that looks a bit like a post with a roof, and feather shapes called penniforms. In some places, the signs were part of bigger paintings. Elsewhere, they were on their own, like the row of bell shapes found in El Castillo in northern Spain (see picture below), or the panel of 15 penniforms in Santian, also in Spain.[…]The earliest known penniform is from about 28,000 years ago in the Grande Grotte d’Arcy-sur-Cure in northern France, and later appears a little to the west of there before spreading south. Eventually, it reaches northern Spain and even Portugal.

2016 November 12, “Hidden Symbols”, in New Scientist, number 3099, page 36:

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


kleroterion

kleroteria (plural)
cleroterion (alternative)
cleroterium (alternative)

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κληρωτήριον (klērōtḗrion), from κληρόω (klēróō, “appoint by lot”) + -τήριον (-tḗrion, adjective suffix).

lbor

(history, Athenian democracy) A device used in sortition, consisting of a stone slab incised with rows of slots and with an attached tube, and operating on tokens representing citizens.


seigneurie

seigneuries (plural)
seigneury (alternative)

Conventionally, seigneuries were divided between, first, the domain land […]; and, second, the tenures (or censives) which were divided among the peasantry and others.

2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 153:

(history) An area governed by a seigneur (French noble).


uncinus

(paleontology) The curved tip of the hooks associated with belemnite tentacles.


lichenometry

In lichenometry, a lichen is presumed to grow radially at a specific, constant rate: this rate is used to estimate the age of the largest lichen on a rock surface, and thus the length of time the rock has been exposed.

The sophistication of approach to lichenometry has increased markedly in the last decade or two.

2004, Jean M. Grove, Little Ice Ages: Ancient and Modern, Volume 1, 2nd edition, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 7:

Lichenometry is a surface-exposure dating method that uses lichen-growth rates to infer the age of young ([a] few thousand years old or younger) glacial landforms, typically bouldery deposits such as moraines.[…]Several approaches have been employed to measure lichens, and a distinct advantage of lichenometry over other techniques is its simplicity (Bradwell, 2009).

2011, Jason P. Briner, “Dating Glacial Landforms”, in Vijay P. Singh, Pratap Singh, Umesh K. Haritashya, editors, Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers, Springer, page 177:

Lichenometry is a dating method which is based upon the direct relationship between lichen diameter and age.

2012, Matti Saarnisto, “I.4: Time-scales and dating”, in B. Huntley, T. Webb III, editors, Handbook of vegetation science, Volume 7: Vegetation history, Kluwer Academic, page 102:

(archaeology, paleontology, geomorphology) A geomorphic method of geochronologic dating that uses lichen growth to determine the age of exposed rock.

lichenometrie

geochronologic dating method that uses lichen growth


Sasanian

Sāsānian (alternative)
Sassanian (alternative dated)
Sāssānian (alternative dated)

Of or pertaining to the Sasanian dynasty or the Sasanian Empire.

سَاسَانِيّ

of or pertaining to the Sasanian dynasty or the Sasanian Empire


Sasanian

Sasanians (plural)
Sāsānian (alternative)
Sassanian (alternative dated)
Sāssānian (alternative dated)


emeritum

From the Latin ēmeritum (“a thing earned upon completion of a term of service”), a substantive use of the neuter singular form of ēmeritus (“earned, merited, having been earned; served, having done one’s service”), the perfect passive participle of ēmereō (“I earn, I merit”).

uder

At the expiration of the term of service, the soldiers received a bounty or donation in land or money, which was sometimes called emeritum; those who had served their time out being also called emeriti.

1854, Johann Joachim Eschenburg, Manual of Classical Literature, page 275:

(Ancient Roman history) A bounty awarded to a soldier upon the completion of his term of service.


perfectissimate

(history) the office of a perfectissimus


Rising Sun

Sixty years after the end of World War II, the thinning ranks of American ex-POWs have received neither compensation for their slave labor under the Rising Sun nor an apology from Japan.

2006, John Glusman, chapter 26, in Conduct Under Fire: Four American Doctors and Their Fight for Life as Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941–1945, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, pages 464–5:

(history, metonymic) Imperial Japanese rule.


ploughzone

ploughzones (plural)
plowzone (alternative)

(archaeology) The upper region of soil that has undergone ploughing.


decan

(Egyptology, astrology) One of a collection of 36 small constellations or zodiacal subdivisions that appear heliacally at intervals of 10 days or are separated by approximately 10 degrees.


European miracle

As Karl Ferdinand Werner has pointed out, the 'European miracle' 'did not take place after the 'Middle Ages' or in spite of the 'Middle Ages', but because of the existence of a Christian world dominated in the West by Catholic doctrines, a world we have become accustomed to call the Middle Ages.'

1999, Hans Albert, Between Social Science, Religion and Politics, Essays in Critical Rationalism, page 205:

(history, economics) The rise of Europe to geopolitical dominance during the modern period.


scarabaeoid

(jewelry, archaeology) Resembling a scarab in form, but without being made to look like a beetle.


aptychus

Modern Latin, from a- + Ancient Greek πτυχή (ptukhḗ, “fold, layer”).

It wasn't until the 1970s that paleontologists had amassed enough evidence to be certain that aptychi were modified lower jaws.

2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 95:

(paleontology) A hard calcareous plate forming part of the body of an ammonite.


saltern

From Old English sealtærn, from sealt (“salt”) + ærn (“place, building”).

(archaeology) An area used for saltmaking, especially in the East Anglian fenlands.


nothosaur

From scientific Latin Nothosaurus (genus name).

Nothosaurs were equipped with large, slightly curved teeth, which could provide a scissor-like bite like crocodiles.

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 68:

(paleontology) An extinct marine reptile of the order Nothosauroidea, from the Triassic period.


pothunter

From pot + hunter – in hunting sense, “for the (cooking) pot (to eat)”; in the archeology sense, “seeking old pots (to sell)”.

But hundreds, perhaps thousands of artifacts have been taken by amateur pothunters, whose activities can disturb the soil and ruin the chance of serious research.

2007 December 12, Anthony Depalma, “An Island in the Hudson, Plundered in Search of Indian Artifacts”, in New York Times:

(archaeology) A person who seeks artifacts for their personal collection or to sell without regard to their cultural importance.


uniface

(archaeology) A prehistoric stone tool that has been flaked on one surface only.


fenestrate

From Latin fenestrō, from fenestra (“window”).

(paleontology) Any extinct bryozoan in the order Fenestrida (also known as Fenestrata).


level staff

en-noun

level staff (plural level staffs or level staves)

level staffs (plural)
level staves (plural)

(surveying, archaeology) A graduated rod used by surveyors to measure differences in level.


saros

saroses (plural)
saroi (plural)
Saros (alternative)

From Ancient Greek σάρος (sáros), from Akkadian 𒊹 (šar₂ /šār/, “3600, total, many, a great quantity or measure”).
The modern astronomical usage is attributed to Edmond Halley, who based it on the word σάρος, defined in the Suda as "a measure and a number among Chaldeans. For 120 saroi make 2222 years according to the Chaldeans' reckoning, if indeed the saros makes 222 lunar months, which are 18 years and 6 months."

der

(history, Babylon) A quantity of 3600, such as a period of 3600 years.


mirrnyong

mirrnyongs (plural)
mirnyong (alternative)

Along the Creek′s west bank there were three small mirnyongs or native ovens, the first of which, about 200 yards north of the Princes Highway, was the best preserved, until it was bull-dozed out of existence in March 1966 by the Country Roads Board[…].

1969, Aldo Massola, Journey to Aboriginal Victoria, page 26:

(Australia, archaeology) A mound of cooking debris accumulated by Aborigines; a kitchen midden.


rudist

From French rudistes (plural), from rude (“rough, uneven”), or its source, Latin rudis. Compare scientific Latin Rudista.

In its shallow waters, now-extinct clams known as rudists formed extensive beds.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: The First 100 Million Years, Penguin, published 2019, page 27:

(paleontology) Any of many box-, tube- or ring-shaped marine heterodont bivalves from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.


striid

(paleontology) A valley between two cusps on a lower tooth, especially in rodents such as beavers


vacat

Unadapted borrowing from Latin vacat (“it is empty”).

ubor

(palaeography) Indicates a willingly empty portion of an inscription.


cladium

When well preserved the polypary often shows graceful curvature of the stipe, and the cladium is the exact counterpart of the termination of the stipe, the curvature being equal in amount, but opposite in direction.

1914, Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society, page 509:

Of the eighteen thecæ of the proximal type thirteen are usually developed before the cladium is given off. The proximal end is straight and never enrolled, though from the frequency with which specimens are broken about midway between the sicula and the cladium, it is possible that the whole did not lie exactly in one and the same plane.

1918, Gertrude Lilian Elles, Mrs. Ethel M. R. (Wood) Shakespear, Charles Lapworth, A Monograph of British Graptolites - Part 1, page 509:

Several stages in the development of a cladium, showing the secondary nema as the leading rod of the cladial stipe (based on Bulman 1970a, Fig. 65).

2017, Jörg Maletz, Graptolite Paleobiology, page 36:

(paleontology) A branch in a colony of graptolites.


bose

en-verb

bose (third-person singular simple present boses, present participle bosing, simple past and past participle bosed)

boses (present singular third-person)
bosing (participle present)
bosed (participle past)
bosed (past)

This criticism applies also to bosing in which the ground is thumped with a heavy rammer; over filled-in pits, tombs, […] Bosing is successful where the top-soil is thin and firm, with an unstratified rock such as chalk beneath.

1974, Martin Jim Aitken, Physics and archaeology:

(usually archaeology) To strike the ground with an object in order to determine, from the resulting sounds, what lies underground.


duat

(Egyptology, Egyptian mythology) The realm of the dead in Egyptian mythology.


reliquiae

(archaeology) Artifacts; things made or modified by human art.


hypercarnivore

(paleobiology) Any creature with an increased slicing component of dentition relative to the grinding component.


Sundaland

From Sunda + land. The geographical use derives from Dutch Soendaland.

(paleogeography) The area of the Sunda Shelf exposed during ice age glacial periods.


vrykolakas

Borrowed from Greek βρυκόλακας (vrykólakas).

(folklore) In Greek folklore, a harmful undead creature that eats flesh, somewhat like a vampire or zombie.


hidation

(history) Division (of a larger territory, such as a shire or hundred) into hides


Early Middle Ages

Western Roman Empire
Western Roman Empire

(history) The period of the Middle Ages that followed the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, c. 500 to 1000 CE.


High Middle Ages

(history) The period of European history, between the Early Middle Ages and the Late Middle Ages, that saw great social and political change, c. 1000 to 1300 CE.


Late Middle Ages

(history) The period of European history between the High Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, c. 1300 to 1500 CE.


screenwash

screenwash (third-person singular simple present screenwashes, present participle screenwashing, simple past and past participle screenwashed)

screenwashes (present singular third-person)
screenwashing (participle present)
screenwashed (participle past)
screenwashed (past)

(paleontology) To sift sediment through open boxes with screens at the bottom, as a technique for finding microfossils.


Late Antiquity

A calque of German Spätantike. Popularised in English by American historian Peter Brown with his influential 1971 book The World of Late Antiquity.

late antiquity (alternative)
late Antiquity (alternative)
Late antiquity (alternative misspelling)

The production of coins for jewelry, on the other hand, was prosecuted as high treason or a crimen maiestatis: counterfeiting coin always constituted a major offense, and in Late Antiquity it became a sacrilege.

1993, Jutta-Annette Bruhn, Coins and Costume in Late Antiquity, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, page 1:

Unlike Jews and Manichaeans, who could be found in most parts of the Roman empire during Late Antiquity, Zoroastrians were a geographically and numerically restricted religious group, confined to certain eastern provinces, especially in Asia Minor.

2000, A. D. Lee, Pagans and Christians in Late Antiquity: A Sourcebook, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 169:

Yuhanna b. Mansur b. Sargun (ca. 655–ca. 749 C.E.), better known as John of Damascus, lived through the cultural transition from Late Antiquity to Early Islam and thus offers an important window into the practice of Late Antique Christian faith in a changing cultural milieu.

2000, David Vila, “38: Texts on Iconoclasm: John of Damascus and the Council of Hiereia”, in Richard Valantasis, editor, Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice, Princeton University Press, page 454:

(history) The period of Mediterranean and Eurasian history from around the 3rd to the 7th centuries C.E., marked especially by the transition from the Roman and Persian Empires to the Middle Ages and the Islamic and Byzantine civilizations.

Late antiquity
Peter Brown (historian)
The World of Late Antiquity (1971)

Henamzer diwezhañ

the period between classical antiquity and the Middle Ages


Saci

Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese saci, from Old Tupi sa'si.

(folklore) A black, one-legged, prankster youngster in Brazilian folklore, who smokes a pipe and wears a magical red hat that enables him to disappear.


cinques

A quarter peal of plain bob cinques was rung.

(campanology) bell changes rung on eleven bells


censitary

From Medieval Latin censitarius, from Latin censere (“assess (for tax)”). Compare French censitaire, Spanish and Italian censitario.

The composition of the Provincial and District Assemblies out of representatives of the three orders (peasants, clergy, and nobles), and the censitary provisions taken for keeping the representatives of the peasants in a minority, were, as experience has shown, a useless and vexatious precaution.

1895 "The Present Condition of Russia" Peter Kropotkin, Littell's Living Age (reprinted from Nineteenth Century) Volume 207, Number 2677 (26 October 1895) p.223, fn

By 1791-92, the two camps were moving toward a property-based, or censitary, compromise

1988 "Peasant movements and communal property during the French Revolution" David Hunt, Theory and Society Volume 17, Number 2, p.255

(history) (of an elective franchise, especially in the nineteenth century) dependent on or proportional to a poll tax (cense) or property qualification; restricted.


palæologist

From palæ- + -ologist, from Ancient Greek: παλαιός (palaiós, “old”) in combination with -λογία (-logía, “explanation, oration”).

But to whatever conclusions the palæologist may come on that head, the original scientific and logical veto on that hypothesis of two or more independent evolutions of the human species must for the present hold good.

1929, John Mackinnon Robertson, “Pagan Christs”, in American Racial Origins, second edition, page 349:

(archaeology) One that researches and studies pre‐historic antiquities.


Orneae

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ὀρνεαί (Orneaí).

Orneæ seems to have been situated very near the southern side of the plain of Ai Ghiórghi.

1830, William Martin Leake, chapter XXX, in Travels in the Morea, volume III, page 350:

(history) A city, mentioned in the Iliad, situated north of Leontio in Corinthia in Ancient Greece.


Judæus

Spinoza was rejected by his contemporaries from the congregation of Israel; Philo‐Judæus was neglected by the generations that followed him.

1910, Norman De Mattos Bentwich, Philo‐Judæus of Alexandria, preface, page 7:

(history) A male given name from Ancient Greek.


Œchalia

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Οἰχαλία (Oikhalía).

But Hecateus the Mileſian writes that Œchalia is in Scium, a part of Eretria.

1794, Pausanias, The Description of Greece, book IV, chapter II, page 341 (translated from Greek)

(history) A city that was located in Ancient Greece.


Œnotria

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Οἰνωτρία (Oinōtría).

Oenotria (alternative)
Enotria (alternative)

From this grove the nations of Italy, and all the land of Œnotria, look for responses when in perplexity.

(history) Ancient territory in southern Italy.


adelphopoiesis

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀδελφοποίησις (adelphopoíēsis), from ἀδελφός (adelphós, “brother”) + ποίησις (poíēsis, “creation”). By surface analysis, adelpho- + -poiesis.

bor

ἀδελφοποίησις

surf

(history, Christianity) A ceremony where males are unionised with one another.

vëllamësi

a ceremony where two men are united with one another


Kushan

Epigraphic (Bactrian in Greek script) ΚΟϷΑΝ košan, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Guṣāṇa, Parthian kšn, ultimately from Chinese 貴霜／贵霜 (Guìshuāng). The conventional name Kushan and the proposed connection with the Chinese term is due to Alexander Cunningham's Coins of the Indo-Scythians, Sakas & Kushans (1899).

(history) An ancient Indo-Scythian or Tocharian kingdom in Central Asia and Northern India.


Kushan

(history) A member of the dynasty that founded and ruled the Kushan realm.


Kushan

en-adj

Kushan (comparative more Kushan, superlative most Kushan)

more Kushan (comparative)
most Kushan (superlative)

(history) Of or relating to the Kushans or the Kushan realm.

Kušanų

of or relating to the Kushans or the Kushan realm


Sacred War

Calque of Ancient Greek ἱερὸς πόλεμος (hieròs pólemos)

calque

ἱερὸς πόλεμος

(history) Any of three wars fought (in 595-585 BCE, 449 BC-448 BCE and 357-346 BCE) by the Amphictyonic Council.


OOA

en-noun

OOA (countable and uncountable, plural OOAs)

(genetics, paleontology) Initialism of Out of Africa (hypothesis).


yokai

From Japanese 妖怪 (yōkai, “ghost, phantom”).

(folklore, Japanese mythology) Any of various supernatural monsters, sometimes shapeshifters, in Japanese folklore.


runestone

(archaeology) An ancient monument consisting of a typically raised stone with a runic inscription.


Ubaid

(archaeology) A prehistoric period of Mesopotamia, circa 6500 to 3800 BCE.


budyonovka

budyonovkas (plural)
budenovka (alternative)

Borrowed from Russian будёновка f (budjónovka), after Semyon Budyonny, Семён Будённый (Semjón Budjónnyj).

(history) a distinctive type of hat and an essential part of the Red Army uniform during the Russian Civil War and later


Ypresian

From the French ypresien, from Ypres + -ien; equivalent to Ypres + -ian; compare yperite.

(geology, paleontology) A subdivision of the Eocene epoch


estover

estover (usually uncountable, plural estovers)

From Middle English estovers pl, from Old French estover (“obligation”).

Your husband was seised of only one carucate of land, to which was appurtenant house-bote and hay-bote to be taken in that wood for burning at only one hearth in his chief messuage ; and if you by reason of your third part could in that wood take house-bote and hay-bote at your pleasure, there would be taken house-bote and hay-bote and fuel for two hearths, whereas they were previously appendant to only one hearth: wherefore, estovers for house-bote &c. you can not have; and we paray judgment.

1873, Alfred John Horwood, Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the First: XXI-XXII:

(archaic, law, history) An allowance provided from an estate for a person's support; an allowance of wood for repairs, firewood and fencing.


wyakin

(folklore) In Native American folklore, a personal guardian spirit in the form of an animal or bird.


centesimation

centesimation (countable and uncountable, plural centesimations)

From the Latin centēsimātiō, from centēsimō, from centēsimus (“hundredth”); compare quintation, septimation, decimation, vicesimation, and tricesimation.

CENTESIMATION, a milder kind of military puniſhment, in caſes of deſertion, mutiny, and the like, when only every hundredth man is executed.

1763, A New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, second edition, page 522:

Sometimes the criminals were decimated by lot, as appears in Polybius, Tacitus, Plutarch, Appian, Dio, Julius Capitolinus, who also mentions a centesimation.

1897, The Columbian Cyclopedia VI, “centesimate”
To inflict the punishment of centesimation.

Centesimation…carries only one-tenth the sensation value of “decimation”.

1980, Stephen Spender, Irving Kristol, editors, Encounter, LIV, page 71:

Decimate, to select by lot and put to death every tenth man of (a captured army or body of prisoners or mutineers) […] Compare 1/100: centesimation.

1992, Laurence Urdang, Three Toed Sloths and Seven League Boots, page 151:

(military history, rare) The selection by lot of every hundredth man (of an army or group of prisoners or mutineers) for execution.

quintation (1

proportionate reduction, by single aliquot part


tricesimation

From the German Tricesimation, ultimately from the Latin trīcēsimus (“thirtieth”).

On 25 June a fifth emergency tax was introduced to cover the increased expense. This was the Tricesimation which was the ducal answer to the estates’ Accise. For the first time the duke had a tax that both approximated to the level of economic production and above all was under his control.⁷⁷
⁷⁷ The Tricesimation was a one-thirtieth purchase and produce tax collected by ducal officials…. No records of the level collected survive, but around 1700 the Tricesimation brought in about 100,000fl. annually.

1995, Peter H. Wilson, War, State and Society in Württemberg, 1677–1793, page 117:

Between 1691 and 1724 cultivators were subject to the Tricesimation, a tax of one-thirtieth of grain and wine produced.

2006, Paul Warde, Ecology, Economy and State Formation in Early Modern Germany, page 148:

(history, rare) A one-thirtieth tax introduced in the Duchy of Württemberg in 1691.


mitrate

From a substantivation of the above adjective through the associated taxon's name (Mitrata). Equivalent to mitre + -ate (noun-forming suffix).

(paleontology) One of an extinct group of stem group echinoderms.


antivampire

en-adj

antivampire (comparative more antivampire, superlative most antivampire)

more antivampire (comparative)
most antivampire (superlative)

This is a revealing passage, for van Helsing is the stern realist, the guiding hand directing the antivampire confederacy.

1996, Howard L. Malchow, Gothic images of race in nineteenth-century Britain, page 146:

The Oscar, Time, and Murrow formed a magical antivampire crucifix that would do more than protect Mr. S from the bloodsuckers of Hollywood; this figurative talisman would also convert the naysayers into idolators.

2003, George Jacobs, William Stadiem, Mr. S: my life with Frank Sinatra, page 137:

(folklore, fantasy) Opposing or countering vampires.


Toomooroo

There lay, in the space between the head-quarters of [the first] brigade and of the second at Gullery, the military posts of Koladah and Toomooroo, both furnished from the second division.

1842, The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australasia XXXIX (№ 155), “Sketches of the Goomsur Campaign” № III, page 189

(history of British India) A former military post located in what is now the Ganjam district of Orissa state in the Republic of India.


Clœlius

(chiefly history) A male given name from Latin.


ichthyolite

(obsolete, paleontology) A fossil of a fish.


typolite

From Ancient Greek τύπος (túpos, “impression”) + -lite.

der

(paleontology, obsolete, uncommon) A stone or fossil bearing impressions of plants and animals.


baculite

The shell of a baculite was quite simply straight—an unexpected throwback to the early days of cephalopods.

2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 89:

(paleontology) Any of the genus †Baculites of extinct cephalopod heteromorph ammonites.


ptychopariid

(paleontology) Any trilobite of the order Ptychopariida.


interdome

(archaeology) The open space between the inner and outer shells of a dome or cupola of masonry.


fenestral

(archaeology) A casement or window sash closed with cloth or paper instead of glass.


thecodont

Ancient Greek θήκη (thḗkē, “case, chest”) + -odont.

uder

(paleontology, archaic) Any of the Thecodontia (a former group of archosaurs).


intermodillion

(archaeology, dated) The space between two modillions.


antholite

He considers this Antholite from the coal to be "the spike of a very highly organised flowering plant in full flower,", p. 20.

1858, Charles Lyell, “Supplement to the Fifth Edition of a Manual of Elementary Geology”, in The British Review, volume 28:

Göppert , in his Permian Flora , figures an Antholite (pl. xxi., fig. 1-3), which he considers to be teh inflorescence of Nöggerathia, a genus placed by him among the monocotyledons; while Ettingshausen, on the other hand, believes teh forms he found in the Coal-Measures at Stradonitz to be the fruits of Calamites ("Steinkohlenflora Stradonitz," pl. v. fig. 1-3).

1872 February, William Carruthers, “Notes on some Fossil Plants”, in Geological Magazine, volume 9, page 53:

It is not, as you have perhaps surmised, a work of sculpture, but it is an antholite, or fossil blossom, brought, with others of the same kind, from the world to which I am native.

1948, Clark Ashton Smith ·, Genius Loci, and Other Tales, page 65:

(paleontology) A fossil plant resembling a petrified flower.


nautilite

(obsolete, paleontology) A fossil nautilus.


dendrolite

From dendro- + -lite, from Ancient Greek δένδρον (déndron, “tree”) and λίθος (líthos, “stone”).

(paleontology) A petrified or fossilised tree, plant, or part of a plant.


ostracite

(paleontology, archaic) A fossil oyster.


tichorrhine

From Ancient Greek τείχος (teíkhos, “wall”) + -ῥῑνός, genitive of ῥῑ́ς (rhī́s, “nose”).

(paleontology, used to describe a fossil rhinoceros) Having a vertical bony medial septum supporting the nose.


strombite

(paleontology) A fossil shell of the genus Strombus.


ventriculite

(paleontology) Any of numerous species of siliceous fossil sponges belonging to Ventriculites.


lycopodite

(paleontology, obsolete) A fossil club moss.


lithocarp

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

(paleontology, archaic) A fossilised fruit


ornithichnite

Mr. Lyell next visited the red and green shales of Cabotville, north of Springfield in Massachusetts, where some of the best Ornithichnites have been procured, chiefly in the green shale.

1834 October 6, Charles Lyell, “On the fossil foot-prints of birds”, in The American Journal of Science, volume 45, page 395:

Mr. Hitchcock has nowhere maintained the existence of an ornithichnite in the graywacke of Hudson valley.

1839 January 6, T.A. Conrad, “Notes on American geology”, in The American Journal of Science and Arts, volume 35, page 246:

(paleontology) A fossilised footprint left by a bird.


capsquare

(military, history) A metal plate that covers the trunnions of a cannon and holds it in place.


laminarite

(paleontology) A broad-leafed fossil alga.


ganocephalous

(paleontology) Of or pertaining to the Ganocephala, a former group of temnospondyls.


gryphite

(paleontology, archaic) A shell of the genus Gryphaea.


Homologoumena

From New Latin homologūmena, from Ancient Greek ὁμολογούμενα (homologoúmena, literally “things agreed upon”), neuter plural form of the present mediopassive participle of ὁμολογέω (homologéō, “to agree with”).

der

ὁμολογούμενα

(Christianity, history) The books of the New Testament which were acknowledged as canonical by the early church, as opposed to Antilegomena.


racloir

(archaeology) A prehistoric flint scraper.


ornithichnology

Ornithichnology; or Description of the Footmarks of Birds

1858, Edward Hitchcock, Ichnology of New England: A Report on the Sandstone of the Connecticut Valley, Especially Its Fossil Footmarks:

(paleontology, obsolete) The branch of science that deals with ornithichnites (fossilised bird footprints).


blastoid

(paleontology) A member of an extinct class of echinoderms, the Blastoidea.


blastoid

(paleontology) Of or relating to blastoids.


Arminius

From Latin Arminius, probably from Proto-Germanic *ermunaz, but has been associated, at least since the 16th century, with the name Herman, German Hermann.

(history) A chieftain of the Cherusci (an ancient Germanic tribe) who defeated the Romans in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.


fungite

en-noun

fungite (countable and uncountable, plural fungites)

(paleontology, archaic) A fossil coral resembling Fungia.


snakestone

snakestone (countable and uncountable, plural snakestones)

(paleontology, countable) An ammonite (because of its coiled form).


tentaculite

From the genus name, from Latin tentaculum + -ites.

(paleontology) Any of numerous species of small, conical shells found in Paleozoic rocks, fossils from the extinct genus †Tentaculites.


ornitholite

(paleontology) The fossil remains of a bird.


megaceros

New Latin, from Ancient Greek, meaning "great horn".


coire licet

Latin: coīre (“to assemble”, “to come together”, present active indicative form of coeō, “I assemble”, “I come together”) + licet (“it is permitted”) = “it is permitted [for a group] to assemble”.

The evidence seems to be that a whole category of collegia or associations was thus exempt from compliance with the requirement of special approval, coire licet.

1992, Susan Ford Wiltshire, Greece, Rome, and the Bill of Rights, page 128:

(Ancient Roman history and law) The requirement of a grant bestowing right of assembly and allowing the formation of a collegium under the Roman Empire.


Valley of the Kings

The tomb chapel has no burial shaft below it, and it has been suggested that Rekhmira was buried in a shaft tomb in the Valley of the Kings, although the location of this burial-place remains unknown.

1995, Ian Shaw, Paul Nicholson, “Rekhmira”, in The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, The British Museum Press, published 2002, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 244, column 1:

(Egyptology) A valley in Egypt, on the west bank of the Nile, known for the tombs constructed there for the pharaohs.


asterophyllite

(paleontology) A fossil plant from the coal formations of Europe and America, now regarded as the branchlets and foliage of calamites.


spongiolite

(paleontology) One of the microsporic siliceous spicules which occur abundantly in the texture of sponges, and are sometimes found fossilized, as in flints.


anaptychus

From New Latin anaptychus, from Ancient Greek ἀνάπτυχος (anáptukhos, “unfolding”), from ἀναπτύσσω (anaptússō, “to unfold”).

der

(paleontology) One of a pair of shelly plates found in some cephalopods, such as the ammonites. They are now considered to have been parts of the jaw.


eozoön

eozoöns (plural)
eozoa (plural)
eozoon (alternative)

(paleontology, dated) A pseudofossil with banded structures of coarsely crystalline calcite and serpentine.


paleospecies

paleospecies (plural)
palaeospecies (alternative)

The problem of recognizing paleospecies is linked to a more fundamental problem in taxonomy —determining how species should be segregated.

1996, Donald E. Johanson, Donald C. Johanson, Blake Edgar, From Lucy to Language:

Similarly, my main source for confidence about paleospecies arises from proven correspondences with true biospecies in favorable cases providing sufficient information for such a test (particularly when species with lengthy fossil records are still extant).

2001, Alan H. Cheetham, Jeremy B. C. Jackson, Scott Lidgard, Evolutionary Patterns, page 197:

I do not, of course, argue that all named paleospecies are true biospecies, or that I can even estimate the percentage properly so defined (any more than we know the relative frequency of modern taxa that represent true biospecies).

2009, Stephen Jay Gould, Punctuated Equilibrium, page 64:

(taxonomy, paleontology) A species that is derived from the paleontological record; chronospecies.


paradoxid

(paleontology) Any of the genus Paradoxides of large trilobites.


arenicolite

From Latin arena (“sand”) + colere (“to cherish or live”); and see -ite.

(paleontology) A wormhole or other burrowing tunnel preserved in sandstone or another rock.


cynanthropy

Coined based on Ancient Greek κύων (kúōn, “dog”) and ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos, “man; human”).

(anthropology, folklore) A shape-shifting ability between human and canine forms.


psarolite

From ψάρος (psáros, “speckled”) + -lite.

(paleontology) A silicified stem of tree fern, found in abundance in the Triassic sandstone.


trochite

(paleontology) A wheel-like joint of the stem of a fossil crinoid.


milleporite

(archaic, paleontology) A fossil millepore.


encrinus

From translingual Encrinus, from Ancient Greek ἐν- (en-, “in”) + κρίνον (krínon, “lily”).

(dated, paleontology) Any of a genus Encrinus of fossil encrinoidea from the Mesozoic rocks.


ornithoidichnite

Regarding the names Ornithichnites , Ornithoidichnite , &c., as provisional merely , I now propose names for the animals that made the tracks

1855, Edward Hitchcock, Elementary Geology:

(paleontology, obsolete) A fossil track resembling that of a bird.


Netherlandic

en-adj

Netherlandic (comparative more Netherlandic, superlative most Netherlandic)

more Netherlandic (comparative)
most Netherlandic (superlative)

From Netherland(s) + -ic. Compare Netherlandish, which is used mainly in the context of art and culture.

(chiefly art, linguistics, history) Dutch, of the Netherlands or the Dutch language


entrochite

(paleontology) A fossil joint of a crinoid stem.


tubiporite

(paleontology) Any fossil coral of the genus †Syringopora consisting of a cluster of upright tubes united together by small transverse tubules.


micraster

(paleontology) Any of the extinct genus †Micraster of infaunal echinoids.


anthropolite

It was in conglomerates of this kind that were discovered the famous Carib skeletons, known as anthropolites, that is, "stone men," one of which is preserved in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington.

1901, Augustus Henry Keane, Central and South America, volume 2, page 401:

(paleontology, dated) A petrified human body, or of any portion of it.


gyrogonite

Ancient Greek γῦρος (gûros, “circle, ring”) + γόνος (gónos, “fruit”)

uder

The shells and gyrogonites also agree specifically with some of those most common in the French deposits […]

1833, Charles Lyell, chapter XX, in Principles of Geology […] , volume III, London: John Murray, page 280:

(paleontology) The petrified fruit of several species of stonewort


marsupite

From Latin marsupium, marsuppium (“pouch, purse”) + English -ite; see also marsupial.

The most remarkable fossil of this class is the marsupite, which I have thus named from its resemblance, when closed, to a purse. The marsupite (Tab. 51) was a molluscous animal, of a sub-ovate form, having the mouth, which was surrounded by arms, or tentacula, in the centre.

1839, Gideon Algernon Mantell, The Wonders of Geology, volume 1, page 309:

The crinoideans are sparingly distributed in the cretaceous group; the most remarkable is the marsupite, which appears to have been an unattached crinoidean.

1839, Rosina Maria Zornlin, Recreations in Geology, page 84:

The plates of the head are thin and broad, and marked on their outer surface by lines of growth, and radiating ridges resembling the plates of the marsupite.

1843, J. Chaning Pearce, On an entirely new form of Encrinite from the Dudley Limestone: The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Zoology, Botany and Geology, volume 12, page 472:

(paleontology) A fossil crinoid of the genus Marsupites, resembling a purse.


galerite

Latin galerum a hat, cap: compare French galérite. See -ite.

(paleontology) A cretaceous fossil sea urchin of the genus †Galerites.


incavation

Instead, what is incavated is archaeological evidence in itself, and incavations are thus about the very possibility of archaeology.

2004, Neil Brodie, Catherine Hills, Material Engagements: Studies in Honour of Colin Renfrew, page 48:

During this incavation, eight contemporary and mundane domestic assemblages were buried in the garden of a Berlin townhouse. In undertaking this 'incavation', Holtorf made a powerful statement about archaeology as a performance and a particular form of material engagement with the past.

2010, Rodney Harrison, John Schofield, After Modernity: Archaeological Approaches to the Contemporary Past, page 116:

To revert to my earlier imagery, while conventional archaeological excavations aim to methodically purify what its practitioners conceive of as a target signal from a specific past, by amplifying it over and above the temporal pile-up of object noise that surrounds it, Afro-Cuban ritual 'incavations', if I may call them that, proceed no less methodically in scrambling the frequencies of space and time upon which disciplined historicist archaeological praxis depends.

2013 April, Stephan Palmié, “Signal and Noise: Digging up the Dead in Archaeology and Afro-Cuban Palo Monte”, in Archaeological Review from Cambridge, volume 28, number 1, page 127:

(archaeology) An act of earthing artifacts; the burial or entombment of archaeologically interesting items.


favosite

favosite fossils

(paleontology) Belonging to the extinct genus of coral Favosites.


encrinite

From Ancient Greek ἐν- (en-, “in”) + κρίνον (krínon, “lily”): compare French encrinite.

(paleontology, obsolete) A fossil crinoid, especially one belonging to, or resembling, the genus †Encrinus.


Atticism

en-noun

Atticism (countable and uncountable, plural Atticisms)

Atticisms (plural)
Atticisme (alternative obsolete)

From Ancient Greek Ἀττῐκῐσμός (Attĭkĭsmós). By surface analysis, Attic + -ism.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus
w:Dionysius of Halicarnassus

Loeb Classical Library
w:Loeb Classical Library

Harvard University Press
w:Harvard University Press

(singular only) The prestige dialect of Classical Greek, as spoken and written by the inhabitants of Attica (chiefly Athens) in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E.; Attic Greek.

(history, singular only) The enduring rhetorical movement, begun in the 1st century B.C.E., whose members strove to emulate the style of the best Attic orators of that Classical period; especially in contrast with Asianism or Hellenism. (Its leading early proponent, Dionysius of Halicarnassus [c. 60–p. 7 B.C.E.], identified Lysias [c. 445–380 B.C.E.] as “the perfect model of the Attic dialect”, whose virtues he enumerates to be “purity of language, correct dialect, the presentation of ideas by means of standard, not figurative expressions; clarity, brevity, concision, terseness, vivid representation…, the pleasing arrangement of words after the manner of ordinary speech…, charm and a sense of timing which regulates everything else”.)

(chiefly historical or dated, singular only, by extension) The stylistic principles of Greek Atticism in application to other languages, especially to Latin.


lituite

(paleontology) Any ammonite of the genus †Lituites, found in the Cretaceous formation.


cyathophylloid

(paleontology) A fossil coral of the family Cyathophyllidae.


lepidodendroid

en-adj

lepidodendroid (comparative more lepidodendroid, superlative most lepidodendroid)

more lepidodendroid (comparative)
most lepidodendroid (superlative)

(paleontology) Belonging to Lepidodendron.


tambaran

tambarans (plural)
tambaram (alternative)
tamberan (alternative)

(folklore) A demon or spirit, among certain peoples of Papua New Guinea.


eurypteroid

(paleontology) Like, or pertaining to, the genus Eurypterus of extinct sea scorpions.


eurypteroid

(paleontology) Any sea scorpion of the genus Eurypterus.


argilliturbation

From Latin argilla (“clay”) + turbation.

At SBA-1807 and SBA-2061, these processes include bioturbation, argilliturbation, chemical weathering, downslope movement, natural addition of faunal remains to the midden, wildfires, trampling, grading, plowing, and discing.

1994, Jon Erlandson, Early Hunter-Gatherers of the California Coast, page 165:

In extreme situations, argilliturbation can result in a surface stone pavement (Johnson and Hester 1972, Muhs 1982).

2005, Randall J. Schaetzl, Sharon Anderson, Soils: Genesis and Geomorphology, page 291:

A site′s stratigraphy can become thoroughly churned if this argilliturbation process takes place over and over for hundreds or thousands of years.

2012, Robert L. Kelly, David Hurst Thomas, Archaeology, page 112:

(geology, archaeology) A mixing process in clay rich soils subjected to cycles of wet and dry, whereby the soil expands when wet and contracts as it dries, causing soil, stones and artefacts to move up and down.


Neolithic Revolution

the Neolithic Revolution (canonical)
Neolithic revolution (alternative)

The end of the last ice age around 10,000 b.c. was followed by what is called the Neolithic Revolution; that is, the revolution that occurred in the New Stone Age (the word Neolithic is Greek for “New Stone.”)

1997, Jackson J[oseph] Spielvogel, “[The Ancient Near East: The First Civilizations] The First Humans”, in Western Civilization, 3rd edition, volume I (To 1715), Saint Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 5, column 1:

The Neolithic Revolution (about 8000-3000 B.C.E.) was characterized by people moving from nomadic lifestyles to agricultural lifestyles.

2004, Monty Armstrong, David Daniel, Abby Kanarek, Cracking the AP World History Exam, 2004-2005, The Princeton Review, page 328:

For most people, the concept of the Neolithic Revolution refers to the actual origin of agriculture with domesticated plants, this occurring in Southwest Asia in the late PPNA or early PPNB at around 9000-8500 BC.

2005, Peter S. Bellwood, The First Farmers: the origins of agricultural societies, Wiley-Blackwell, page 65

The Neolithic Revolution brought about the greatest material transformation in human history.

2010, I. Peter Martini, Landscapes and Societies: Selected Cases, Springer, page 25

(archaeology) the discovery of agriculture


entomolite

(archaic, paleontology) A fossil insect.


bellerophon

(paleontology) Any of the genus †Bellerophon of fossil gastropod shells, believed to belong to the Heteropoda, and peculiar to the Paleozoic age.


turbinite

(archaic, paleontology) A petrified turbinate[[ [[shell.


oreodont

(paleontology) A member of the extinct genus Oreodon or extinct superfamily Merycoidodontoidea of ruminating hogs.


sigillarid

(archaic, paleontology) Any of an extinct family of cryptogamous trees, especially of the genus Sigillaria, and similar species.


megatheroid

The more striking phenomena first and most strongly impress the mind, which contrasts for example, the great Cave-Bears of Europe with the actual Brown Bear, the Megatheroids of South America with the small existing sloths, and the gigantic Glyptodons with the Armadillos.

1851 June 11, The Geelong Advertiser, Victoria, page 1, column 2:

(paleontology) One of a family of extinct edentates found in America, including the megatherium and the megalonyx, among others.


corallinite

(archaic, paleontology) A fossil coralline.


enaliosaur

/ɪˈnæliəˌsɔɹ/

/ɪˈnælɪəˌsɔː/

(paleontology, obsolete) One of the Enaliosauria (now known as the ichthyosaurs or sauropterygians.


rhyncholite

From rhyncho- + -lite. Compare French rhyncholithe.

(paleontology) A fossil cephalopod beak.


ichthyosaurian

ichthyosaurian (comparative more ichthyosaurian, superlative most ichthyosaurian)

more ichthyosaurian (comparative)
most ichthyosaurian (superlative)

(paleontology) Of or relating to the Ichthyosauria.


ichthyosaurian

(paleontology) Any of the Ichthyosauria; an ichthyosaur.


rotalite

(paleontology, archaic) Any fossil foraminifer of the family Rotaliidae, abundant in chalk formations.


bufonite

From Latin bufo (“toad”) + -ite. It was once believed to be formed in the head of a toad.

(paleontology, obsolete) A fossil consisting of the petrified teeth and palatal bones of fishes belonging to the family of pycnodonts, whose remains occur in the oolite and chalk formations.


turrilite

From Latin turris (“tower”) + -lite or directly from translingual †Turrilites.

(paleontology) Any fossil ammonite of the genus †Turrilites, the shell forming an open spiral with the later whorls separate.


Archaeolithic

Archaeolithic industry

Archaeolithic Period

(archaeology) Of, from, or relating to the earliest Stone Age; applied to a prehistoric period preceding the Paleolithic.

archéolithique

of or relating to the earliest Stone Age


teleosaur

(paleontology) Any of several species of marine crocodylomorphs belonging to Teleosauridae . They are similar to the modern-day gharial.


hippurite

Ancient Greek ἵππος (híppos, “horse”) + οὐρά (ourá, “tail”) + -ite

(paleontology) A fossil bivalve mollusk of the genus Hippuritida, having a conical, cup-shaped undervalve, with a flattish upper valve or lid.


conchite

(paleontology) A fossilised conch or shell.


coryphodont

(paleontology) Any of the genus †Coryphodon.


soundage

en-noun

soundage (countable and uncountable, plural soundages)

The establishment of a stratigraphic continium for Deh Morasi Ghundai and Said Qala Tepe will have to wait until the analysis of the soundage is completed.

The first phase is known only from a very small soundage on the eastern side of a large building of the third phase .

1994, Vibha Tripathi, Ajeet K. Srivastava, The Indus Terracottas, page 51:

It is a huge soundage, which was purposely dug for robbing the brick structure .

2006, Devi Prasad Tewari, Excavations at Pirvitanisarif-Trilokpur, page 35:

(archaeology) An excavated trench or pit.


titanotherium

From Ancient Greek Τιτάν (Titán, “Titan”) + translingual -therium.

(paleontology, obsolete) Synonym of brontotheriid


glyptodon

From the New Latin genus name Glyptodon (from Ancient Greek Ancient Greek γλυπτός (gluptós, “sculptured”) + -odon (“tooth”), 'grooved or carved tooth').

af

The more striking phenomena first and most strongly impress the mind, which contrasts for example, the great Cave-Bears of Europe with the actual Brown Bear, the Megatheriods of South America with the small existing sloths, and the gigantic Glyptodons with the Armadillos.

Statues of beasts stood with their backs to the four walls of the court, eyes turned to watch the canted dial: hulking barylambdas; arctothers, the monarchs of bears; glyptodons; smilodons with fangs like glaives.

1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter IV, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 43:

(paleontology) A member of the genus Glyptodon of extinct giant armadillos.


enaliosaurian

en-adj

enaliosaurian (comparative more enaliosaurian, superlative most enaliosaurian)

more enaliosaurian (comparative)
most enaliosaurian (superlative)

(paleontology) Relating to the Enaliosauria.


enaliosaurian

(paleontology) enaliosaur (any reptile of the Enaliosauria)


iguanodont

(paleontology) Any member of the genus Iguanodon.


theriodont

(paleontology) Any of the Theriodontia, a major group of therapsids which appeared during the Middle Permian.


CPE

Carnian pluvial episode
Carnian pluvial episode#English

(paleontology, geology) Initialism of Carnian pluvial episode.


hillman

A farmer on whose ground there was a little hill, resolved not to let it lie idle, and began at one end to plough it up. The hill-man, who lived in it, came to him and asked him how he dared to plough on the roof of his house.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 186:

(folklore) A supernatural being, such as a dwarf, that lives beneath a hill.


stigmaria

/stɪɡˈmɛəɹi.ə/

(paleontology) The fossilized roots of a plant of the genus Sigillaria.


baroque piety

From baroque + piety, after French piété baroque.

Outside the crypto-Protestants and a small elite attracted to Jansenism after 1750 the bulk of the population, in Bohemia as in Austria, had been won over to baroque piety.

1979, Jean Bérenger, ‘The Austrian Church’, Church and Society in Catholic Europe of the Eighteenth Century, Cambridge, page 101:

Post-Tridentine worship was in essence a baroque piety which expressed itself in florid ostentation and which used all the media of communication and the material culture of worship to make a powerful sensorial assault on the life of the spirit.

2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 94:

This shifting stance among both educated elites and secular rulers toward Baroque piety would be a crucial precondition for the spread of enlightened ideas in Catholic Germany [...].

2011, Helmut Walser Smith, editor, Oxford Handbook of Modern German History, Oxford, page 213:

(history) An ostentatious form of popular Catholic piety, especially in Counter-Reformation Europe.


paleothere

(paleontology) Any extinct mammal of the genus Palaeotherium.


abelisaurid

(paleontology) Any of the Abelisauridae, a family of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaurs.


spirifer

From Latin spira (“a coil”) + fero (“I bear”).

(paleontology) Any of numerous species of fossil brachiopods of the genera †Spirifer and †Delthyris and allied genera in order †Spiriferida, in which the long calcareous supports of the arms form a large spiral, or helix, on each side.


toxodon

"Finally, I will assuredly give some account of the toxodon, the giant ten-foot guinea pig, with projecting chisel teeth, which we killed as it drank in the grey of the morning by the side of the lake."

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, “‘Our Eyes have seen Great Wonders’”, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, page 277:

(paleontology) A gigantic extinct herbivorous mammal from South America, having teeth bent like a bow. It is the type of the order Toxodonta.


Cymro-

From B.C. 390, to B.C. 900, is the fall and rise of the Etrurian or Tyrrhenian empire, of the establishment of the Cymro-Gallic empire in Northern Italy, and of the Etrurian domination in Rome

1862, Britannicus (pseudonym), “Vindication of the mosaic ethnology of Europe”, in The Cambrian Journal, page 149:

And as for the physical type or types, the light complexion is very unlike that of the earlier British or Iberian race, though we cannot say that the ruling Cymro-Gaelic stocks were not fair.

1907, John Beddoe, Joseph Hamberly Rowe, “The Ethnology of West Yorkshire”, in The Yorkshire Archæological Journal, volume 19, page 32:

Some people derive Berwick from the Cymro-Teutonic compound Aber-wick. This sounds most reasonable, Aber signifying the mouth of a river, while some of the Saxons whom Ida gathered into one kingdom certainly then or later had a "wick" or town here. The Celts would naturally have emphasized the penultimate and made it Aberwick [...]

1909, A. G. Bradley, The Romance of Northumberland, page 137:


turbite

(paleontology) A fossil sea snail of the genus Turbo.


lit de justice

From French lit de justice, referring to the throne occupied by the king when sitting in one of his judicial courts. Compare earlier bed of justice.

They would then be officially registered by edicts of the King in that special process, the lit de justice (which could also be used to enforce edicts that the Parlement resisted).

The Parlement's remonstrances were not effective, and the Six Acts were enforced by a lit de justice in March 1776.

2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 300:

This, however, is only a hypothesis which leaves out of account the special circumstances that led to the lit de justice of 24 July.

2015, Robert J Knecht, Francis I and Sixteenth-Century France, Routledge:

A decision of a lit de justice could only be stamped by the Parliament.

2024, Mehmet Baha Karan, A History of Banks, Springer, page 147:

(history) A special parliamentary session headed by the king in pre-Revolutionary France, where royal edicts could be forcibly registered.


bed of justice

Calque of French lit de justice, referring to the throne occupied by the king when sitting in one of his judicial courts.

when [...] he himself announced that the king would hold a Bed of Justice to compel the instant registration of the necessary edicts, the Parliament became more exasperated than ever.

1866, Charles Duke Yonge, The History of France under the Bourbons, pages 43–4:

D'Argenson was prepared with advice. ‘A bed of justice will suffice, Highness.’

1949, Rafael Sabatini, The Gamester, Stratus Books 2001, p. 137


Academy

* French académie, from Latin acadēmīa, from Ancient Greek Ἀκαδημία (Akadēmía), a grove of trees and gymnasium outside of Athens where Plato taught; from the name of the supposed former owner of that estate, the Attic hero Akademos. Compare academe, academia, Akademeia.

(classical studies, history) The school for advanced education founded by Plato; the garden where Plato taught.

(classical studies) The disciples of Plato.

(classical studies, philosophy) Platonism.


scolithus

From Ancient Greek σκώληξ (skṓlēx, “worm”) +
λίθος (líthos, “stone”)

(paleontology) A tubular structure found in Potsdam sandstone, believed to be the fossil burrow of a marine worm.


Thermidorian

/ˌθɜːmɪˈdɔːɹɪ.ən/

/ˌθɝməˈdɔɹi.ən/

From Thermidor + -ian, after French thermidorien.

By then, the Thermidorians’ sights were already trained on a further target, namely, ‘the Four’, as they became known: Billaud-Varenne, Collot d'Herbois and Barère from the old CPS and Vadier from the CGS.

2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 501:

(history) Someone who took part in, or supported, the overthrow of Robespierre on the 9th Thermidor (27 July) 1794.


Thermidorian

Thermidorian (comparative more Thermidorian, superlative most Thermidorian)

more Thermidorian (comparative)
most Thermidorian (superlative)

/ˌθɜːmɪˈdɔːɹɪ.ən/

/ˌθɝməˈdɔɹi.ən/

The Thermidorian spirit of revenge focused particularly on the most extreme – and most unrepentant – former Terrorists within the Convention.

(history) Pertaining to such people (in French history).


labyrinthodon

One day they unearthed some bones in a sandhill that Mr Shinglar said were of the labyrinthodon, a great sloth-lizard that roamed in forests submerged for a thousand thousand years.

1941, Ernestine Hill, My Love Must Wait, A&R Classics, published 2013, page 35:

(paleontology) Alternative form of labyrinthodont


hammerstone

Striking a hand-held isotropic block or cobble (a core) with a hammerstone initiates a cone-shaped crack at roughly 60° from the axis of force, exemplified by the hole in a plate glass window made by a pellet gun (18, 19 ).

2001 March 2, Stanley H. Ambrose, “Paleolithic Technology and Human Evolution”, in Science, volume 291, number 5509, →DOI, pages 1748–1753:

On the other hand, in the same crannog, a hammerstone broken in two was found, each half in a different place, as were two parts of a figurine at Dumbuck.

(archaeology) A type of stone used to hit or strike in a similar way to a modern-day hammer.


squalodon

(paleontology) Any of a genus of extinct whales with serrated teeth, belonging to the family Squalodontidae.


protohistory

en-noun

protohistory (countable and uncountable, plural protohistories)

(archaeology, history) The period between prehistory and history, during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have already noted its existence in their own writings.


Taylorism

Taylorism (usually uncountable, plural Taylorisms)

The brisk and lively narrative is spiced with Taylorisms: ' Hitler lost , as someone has to do in war, and has therefore been written off as a psychopath'.

It is full of what friends of mine at Oxford used to call 'Taylorisms', and as research students there we used to collect them — from his 'except the Italians ' in The Struggle for Mastery to his famous claim at the end of The Origins of the Second World War that Hitler 'became involved in war through launching on 29 August a diplomatic manoeuvre which he ought to have launched on 28 August'.

1983, Peter Quennell, History Today - Volume 33, page 30:

What makes Ponsonby significant is that he was one of A.J.P. Taylor's ' troublemakers' whom Taylor credits with all change and advance in history. While some would say that this is a typically large and perverse Taylorism, it is not without an element of truth when applied to the role played by Ponsonby and his fellow troublemakers in the search for a new international order.

1989, Raymond A. Jones, Arthur Ponsonby: The Politics of Life, page Arthur Ponsonby: The Politics of Life:

A.J.P. Taylor, The Second World War (Hamish Hamilton 1975), like Jacobsen's book, consists of pictorial history; liberally sprinkled with taylorisms, and not inclined to overstress resistance.

2016, M. R. D. Foot, Resistance: European Resistance to the Nazis, 1940-1945:

international relations
international relations

(countable, history) One of the witty, epigrammatic remarks on international relations for which the historian Alan John Percivale Taylor was well-known.


megalonyx

(paleontology) An extinct ground sloth of the genus Megalonyx.


molarize

en-verb

molarize (third-person singular simple present molarizes, present participle molarizing, simple past and past participle molarized)

molarizes (present singular third-person)
molarizing (participle present)
molarized (participle past)
molarized (past)
molarise (alternative)

Macrodontia and microdontia are relatively common human craniofacial abnormalities, and macrodontia of premolars has frequently been described as molarized premolars.

1998 November 6, Abigail S. Tucker et al., “Transformation of Tooth Type Induced by Inhibition of BMP Signaling”, in Science, volume 282, number 5391, →DOI, pages 1136–1138:

All are characterized by extreme postcanine megadontia, premolars with molarized roots, lower molars with accessory cuspules, and thick molar enamel.

1999 April 9, Melanie A. McCollum, “The Robust Australopithecine Face: A Morphogenetic Perspective”, in Science, volume 284, number 5412, →DOI, pages 301–305:

In the Eocene, slender chocropotamids (e.g. younger species of Amphirhagatherium) belong to this group, which display a tendency to elongate the skull and molarize the premolars.

2007, Donald R. Prothero, Scott E Foss, The Evolution of Artiodactyls, →ISBN, page 81:

(paleontology) To evolve or develop into molar teeth.


sea monk

[…] three sea monks being found in 1530, 1546 and 1549. In fact the first sea monk was not a sea monk at all, having been found in the Rhine. The second one was found near Copenhagen with a black head and the clothes of a monk and the final one was found near Hafnia (Copenhagen), tonsured like a monk. […] Nonetheless walruses remain a possible explanation for the occurence of sea monks prior to 1546.

2005, Steenstrupia, volume 29, pages 40-45:

Sea monks had failed to assert themselves into the popular imagination the way mermaids had. They lacked a certain appeal. The few pictorial depictions stuck a tonsured human head on a fish body, scaly fins and tail forming the monk's ...

2019, Holly MacArthur, Tin House 80: 20th Anniversary Edition:

(folklore) A sea creature in European folklore (in the 16th century), a sort of fish that resembled (and was sometimes robed or tonsured like) a European monk.


dinoturbation

(paleontology, geology) Bioturbation caused by the movements of dinosaurs.


v. a.

(epigraphy, obsolete) Acting in place of; from Latin vices agens.


Gulf War

(history) One of several wars fought at the Persian Gulf in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, principally the one from 1990 to 1991.


egression

The reason for this lies in the fact that a wide-shell-band, running along the margin of the egression, is superposed directly upon the shell of the preceding whorl.

1899, Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, page 11:

According to Klinger and Kennedy (1989), the hoplitoidean Placenticeras kaffarium displays a rather strong umbilical egression, which gives it a scaphitoid adult morphology.

2015, Christian Klug, Dieter Korn, Kenneth De Baets, Ammonoid Paleobiology: From anatomy to ecology, page 288:

Egression of the umbilical suture line on the last whorl of an adult and complete speciment is one morphologic feature which is unambiguous evidence of maturity in ammonites.

2012, Reinhart A. Gygi, Quantitative Geology of Late Jurassic Epicontinental Sediments in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland, page 66:

(paleobiology) The location of a feature on an ammonite fossil outward from the line of the shell's spiral.


Haunebu

It has been suggested that the Haunebu, an “ethnic” name known from most periods, were a partly assimilated group living in this environment and reported in recognizable form only in Classical texts.

1996, John Baines, Jerrold S. Cooper, Glenn M. Schwartz, editors, The Study of the Ancient Near East in the Twenty-First Century: The William Foxwell Albright Centennial Conference, Eisenbrauns, page 362:

He studied ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic records and in Atlantis of the North (New York, Van Norstrand Reinhold Company, 1980) he discussed the mystery of the Haunebu or North People. The Haunebu were mentioned in texts dating to 2400 B.C.

1997, Jon Douglas Singer, Lost lands and cities beneath the sea: legends, folklore, and facts of the North Atlantic, page 5:

They were called Haunebu, and a treasurer of the Eleventh Dynasty, whose duty was the maintenance of safe frontier ports, boasts of himself as one “who quells the Haunebu.”

2003, James Henry Breasted, History of Egypt from the Earliest Time to the Persian Conquest, Kessinger Publishing, page 188:

(Egyptology, plural "Haunebu") A member of a people from the Aegean Sea.


albanerpetontid

The bones of strange amphibians known as albanerpetonids (sic), and the ancestors of the midwife toads, which are among the most ancient of European creatures, have been recovered, as have the bones of python-like snakes known as matsoiids, terrestrial crocodiles with serrated teeth, legless lizards, ancestral skink-like creatures, and whiptail lizards.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 25:

(paleontology) Any member of the family Albanerpetontidae.


xenacanthid

(paleontology) Any prehistoric shark of the family Xenacanthidae.


younginid

(paleontology) Any member of the Younginidae.


anurognathid

Some fed on fish and dead floating animals, while others, like the anurognathids, may have chased insects on the wing.

2014, Héctor E. Rivera-Sylva, Dinosaurs and Other Reptiles from the Mesozoic of Mexico, page 130:

(paleontology) Any pterosaur of the family Anurognathidae.


asaphid

(paleontology) Any trilobite of the order Asaphida.


bothremydid

But the European fossils are from a most unusual branch of the family known as bothremydids.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 29:

(paleontology) Any extinct turtle of the family Bothremydidae.


hesperornithid

From translingual Hesperornithidae, from Hesperornis (“genus name”).

Finally, the Volgorod locality, Maastrichtian in age, has yielded two dinosaurs (an indeterminate hesperornithid and a basal theropod) and a few turtles.

2011, David B. Weishampel, Coralia-Maria Jianu, Transylvanian Dinosaurs, Johns Hopkins University Press, page 109:

The arrival of these hesperornithids in more southern waters during the early Campanian may indicate a cooler climate, closer shores, adaptations to changes in prey, or other factors.

2017, Michael J. Everhart, Oceans of Kansas, Indiana University Press, page 365:

2020, Alan Feduccia, Romancing the Birds and Dinosaurs, Universal Publishers (BrownWalker Press), page 83,
9. Cretaceous foot-propelled divers, the hesperornithids, were grouped cladistically with loons (Eocene) and grebes (Miocene) as a clade, which would require re-evolution of teeth from an edentulous ancestor.

(paleontology) Any extinct avialan in the family Hesperornithidae.


lytoceratid

(paleontology) Any member of the family Lytoceratidae of ammonites.

(paleontology, dated) Any member of the order Lytoceratida (now the suborder Lytoceratina).


miacid

From scientific Latin Miacidae (family name), from Miacis (genus name), of uncertain origin.

The trenchant talonid is a character of some miacids and distinguishes these teeth from the hyaenodontids and oxyaenids.

1971, Thomas H. V. Rich, Deltatheridia, Carnivora, and Condylarthra (Mammalia) of the Early Eocene, Paris Basin, France:

Miacids were long-bodied, had long tails, were pine marten sized or smaller, and some lived in trees while others spent their time on the ground.

2016 November 26, Elsa Panciroli, “Rifling through the 'wastebaskets' of palaeontology reveals surprises”, in The Guardian:

(paleontology) Any member of the Miacidae family of extinct mammals.


odontopleurid

(paleontology) Any trilobite of the order Odontopleurida.


phacopid

(paleontology) Any trilobite of the order Phacopida.


redlichiid

(paleontology) Any member of the Redlichiida.


spirulid

There are a lot of fossil spirulids, though, enough to show us the probably evolution of the ram's horn coil.

2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 113:

(chiefly paleontology) A cephalopod of the order Spirulida, including the ram's horn squid.


stagonolepidid

Clipping of translingual Stagonolepididae

clipping

translingual <i class="Latn mention" lang="mul">Stagonolepididae</i>

(paleontology) Any archosaur in the family Stagonolepididae.


rodelero

(history, military) A type of trooper from Spain, who sported a rodela (a round type of shield) and often a side-sword.

रोडेलेरो

trooper from Spain who would sport a rodela


Moscovian

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


Moscovian

(geology, paleontology) Relating to the Moscovian stage.


technocomplex

(archaeology) A distinct culture that employed a specific technology


Himyaritic

Himjaritic (alternative)
Himyaric (alternative)
Himjaric (alternative)
Ḥimyaritic (alternative)
ḥimyaritic (alternative)

If the traditional Arab and Islamic scholars are to be believed, the Ḥimyaritic language was incomprehensible to a speaker of Arabic.

2007, Christian Robin, edited by Versteegh, Kees, Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, volume 2, Leiden: Brill, page 257b

(historiography) Any language or dialect belonging to Himyarites and reported from an ancient Arabic perspective as peculiar.


methodist

The story about Popper's actual epistemological commitments is at odds with the expectations for the father of the natural scientific method, the one revered by those who swear by their datasets as well as reviled as a banal "methodist" in the well-known essay by political theorist Sheldon Wolin:

2011, Jacqueline Stevens, “Anarchist Methods and Political Theory”, in Jimmy Casas Klausen, James R. Martel, editors, How Not to be Governed: Readings and Interpretations from a Critical Anarchist Left, page 8:

(history of science) One who limits the domain of science to that which can be investigated using the scientific method.


diffusionism

en-noun

diffusionism (usually uncountable, plural diffusionisms)

(archaeology) The belief that changes in one culture are caused by diffusion of ideas from another.


Cerealia

/sɛɹɪˈeɪlɪə/

/ˌsɛɹɪˈɑːlɪə/

/ˌsɛɹɪˈeɪlɪə/

The club of Marlott alone lived to uphold the local Cerealia. It had walked for hundreds of years, and it walked still.

1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 12:

(history) A festival in Ancient Rome, celebrated on the 10th of April, for the grain goddess Ceres.


Lernean

(Greek mythology, archaeology) From or pertaining to Lerna, a former coastal lake and Helladic site on the Peloponnese.


cornu ammonis

cornua ammonis (plural)
cornu Ammonis (alternative)

From Latin cornū Ammōnis (“Ammon's horn”). See ammonite.

(paleontology, obsolete) A fossil shell, curved like a ram's horn; an ammonite.


archaeomalacological

(paleontology) relating to archaeomalacology


archaeomalacology

(paleontology) The study of the remains of molluscs from archaeological sites


monotypy

(conservation biology) The condition of a habitat being dominated by a single species.


paleohabitat

paleohabitats (plural)
palaeohabitat (alternative)

(ecology, archaeology) An extinct habitat that can only be reconstructed from fossils


PPN

Pre-Pottery Neolithic
Pre-Pottery Neolithic#English

(archaeology) Abbreviation of Pre-Pottery Neolithic.


Upper Egypt

(Egyptology) The part of Ancient Egypt south of Memphis, so named because the Nile flows south to north.


Lower Egypt

Coordinate term: Upper Egypt

(Egyptology) The half of Ancient Egypt north of Memphis, the Nile Delta, so named because the Nile flows South to North.


diprionidian

Two leading types may be distinguished amongst the Graptolites, which are termed respectively "monoprionidian" and "diprionidian." The monoprionidian Graptolites, such as Monograptiis priodon (fig. 54), are distinguished by the fact that the polypary, whether simple or branched, possesses but a single row of cellules or "hydrothecæ." In the diprionidian forms, on the other hand, as in Diplograptus (fig. 63), the polypary possesses a row of cellules on each side.

1879, Henry Alleyne Nicholson, A manual of palaeontology for the use of students with a general introduction on the principles of palaeontology:

(paleontology, of a graptolite) Having a polyparium with a row of cells on each side.


monoprionidian

(paleontology, of a graptolite) Having a polyparium with a single row of cells.


erathem

(geology, paleontology) The total stratigraphic unit deposited during a certain corresponding span of time during an era in the geologic timescale.


paleotherian

(paleontology, archaic) Of or relating to Palaeotherium.


encrinital

encrinital limestone

(paleontology, dated) Relating to, or containing, encrinites.


Bashkirian

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


natural philosopher

natural philosopher (plural natural philosophers)

(history) A person who studied natural philosophy


Academicism

Academicisms (plural)
academicism (alternative)
academism (alternative)

(classical studies, sometimes capitalized) The doctrines of Plato's academy; specifically the skeptical doctrines of the later academy stating that nothing can be known; a tenet of the Academic philosophy; state of being Academic.


belemnite battlefield

belemnite battlefield (plural belemnite battlefields)

After the visual similarity of belemnite fossils to bullet shells.

(idiomatic, informal, paleontology) A fossil site with an unusually high concentration of belemnite rostra.


acanthopore

/əˈkæn.θəˌpɔɹ/

(paleontology) A tubular spine in some bryozoans.


proostracum

From Ancient Greek προ- (pro-, “before”) + ὄστρᾰκον (óstrăkon, “shell”).

(paleontology) The anterior prolongation of the guard of the phragmocone of belemnites and allied fossil cephalopods, whether horny or calcareous.


Migration Period

the Migration Period (canonical)
Migration period (alternative)

(history) The age of mass migration of Germanic people in Europe during the early Middle Ages, circa 376 to 800 CE.


Barbarian Invasions

en-proper noun

the Barbarian Invasions pl (plural only)

the Barbarian Invasions (canonical plural)

Theoderic's life conventionally takes up part of the history of the barbarian invasions of Europe, the Völkerwanderung or “migration of peoples.”

2011, James J. O'Donnell, The Ruin of the Roman Empire, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 72:


Pictland

He, through the wealth wherein he did abound, / This daughter thought in wedlocke to have bound / Unto the Prince of Picteland […].

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

Either the long-dead wheelwright didn't think of that – or else early Pictland had gravelled roads.

(Scottish history) The northeastern part of Scotland, formerly inhabited by the Picts.


little person

en-noun

little person (plural little people or little persons)

little people (plural)
little persons (plural)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-little person.wav

The little people then disappeared, and went each about their work or their pleasure.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 298:

His nurse had told him all about changelings, and how the little people would always try to steal a beautiful human child out of its cradle and put in its stead one of their own ailing, puking brats[…]

1961, Muriel Saint Clare Byrne, Elizabethan Life in Town and Country, page 285:

(folklore, fantasy) A small magical humanoid creature, such as an elf, leprechaun, or fairy.


grave goods

grave goods pl (normally plural, singular grave good)

grave good (singular)
grave-goods (alternative)

(archaeology) The artefacts (jewellery, animals, slaves, etc) buried with a dead person in a grave or tomb.


Kaguya

Borrowed from Japanese 赫映, かぐや (Kaguya).

(Japanese folklore) The protagonist of 赫映姫の物語 (Kaguya-hime no Monogatari, “The Tale of Princess Kaguya”), a mysterious girl from the moon, discovered as a baby inside the stalk of a glowing bamboo plant.

かぐや姫

Japanese folklore: mysterious girl from the moon


Boreal

(geology, paleontology) A subdivision of the Holocene epoch.


Tarantian

(geology, paleontology) A subdivision of the Pleistocene epoch.


Gelasian

From Italian Gelasiano, the adjectival form of Gela, a town in Sicily near the reference stratotype.


Gelasian

Gelasian Sacramentary

(history) Pertaining to Pope Gelasius I.


Piacenzian

(geology, paleontology) A subdivision of the Pliocene epoch.


Zanclean

From Ancient Greek Ζάγκλη (Zánklē), the name originally given to the city of Messina, Sicily, by its ancient Greek founders. (Compare Messinian, the preceding age.)

1881, "A. W. W.", Notices of Memoirs: I.—Tertiary Geology of the Reggiano (Calabria), in Henry Woodward (editor), Geological Magazine, New Series, Decade 2, Volume 8, Trübner & Co., page 324,
The Pliocene is found at a much greater elevation than any of the other Tertiary series, reaching in the Zanclean to 1200 mètres above the sea, and as the conditions of deposition were quite different here from those which obtained in north Italy, the series in one part of the peninsula forms a complement to those in the other.

In the first case the Early Pliocene coincides with the Zanclean and its upper boundary with the last occurrence of Globorotalia margaritae (Mazzei et al., 1978).

1989, Silvia Iaccarino, “8: Mediterranean Miocene and Pliocene planktic foraminifera”, in Hans M. Bolli, John B. Saunders, Katharina Perch-Nielsen, editors, Plankton Stratigraphy, Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, page 288:

Warmer climates and sea level rises did not occur until the early Zanclean Pliocene (4.5 million years).

2003, Edward J. Petuch, Cenozoic Seas: The View From Eastern North America, page 135:

(geology, paleontology) A geological subdivision, the earliest age of the Pliocene epoch.


Messinian

From Messina (“Sicilian city near to where evaporite rocks of this period outcrop”) + -ian; coined by Swiss stratigrapher Karl Mayer-Eymar in 1867.

suffix

(geology, paleontology) The final subdivision of the Miocene epoch.


Tortonian

(geology, paleontology) A subdivision of the Miocene epoch.


Langhian

Named for the Langhe, Piedmont, Italy, the area where the period was first established.


Chattian

From Chatti + -an. The original type locality is in Hesse, whose name derives from "Chatti".

(geology, paleontology) A subdivision of the Oligocene epoch.


Priabonian

(geology, paleontology) A subdivision of the Eocene epoch.


Lutetian

Albert de Lapparent
Lutetian
Paris Basin

From Lutetia + -an; geological sense coined by French geologist Albert de Lapparent in reference to the Paris Basin.

There are good reasons for believing that the “Paniselian” is a local shallow-water representative of the lower part of the Lutetian.

1921, Henry Woodward, Geological Magazine, volume 58, page 198:


Thanetian

(geology, paleontology) A subdivision of the Paleocene epoch.


Santonian

Late (Upper) Cretaceous
Upper Cretaceous

(geology, paleontology) A stage or age, a subdivision of the Late (Upper) Cretaceous epoch.

Santonià

subdivision of the Late Cretaceous epoch


Coniacian

(geology, paleontology) A subdivision of the Late (Upper) Cretaceous epoch.

Coniacià

a subdivision of the Late (Upper) Cretaceous epoch


Aptian

(geology, paleontology) A subdivision of the Early (Lower) Cretaceous epoch.

Aptià

subdivision of the Early Cretaceous epoch


Tithonian

From Tithonus + -ian. Named by German paleontologist Albert Oppel in 1865. In Greek mythology, Tithonus was the lover of Eos, goddess of the dawn. The Tithonian is the last age of the Jurassic, coming immediately before the dawn of the Cretaceous.

Titonian (alternative)
Tithonic (alternative)

(geology, paleontology) A geological age or stage, from 152.1 ±0.9 to ~145.0 mya.


Kimmeridgian

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


Callovian

From French callovien, coined by Alcide d’Orbigny from Latin Calloviensis, from the Latinized name of the Kellaways area near Chippenham in Wiltshire, England.


Hettangian

From French Hettange, now Hettange-Grande, a commune in northeastern France, (German Hettingen, Luxembourgish (Lorraine Franconian) Hetténgen).

(geology, paleontology) The earliest age of the Jurassic period, from 199.3–201.3Ma


Ladinian

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


Changhsingian

From Mandarin 長興 /长兴 (Chángxīng), Wade-Giles romanization: Chʻang²-hsing¹; named after Changxing County in China.

Changxingian (alternative)
Changshingian (alternative)

There is no evidence for a large drop in PCO2, and independent proxy data indicate only a minor temperature decrease of a few degrees Celsius during the Changhsingian (22), suggesting that these mechanisms alone cannot explain the pH increase (fig. S5).

2015 April 10, M. O. Clarkson, S. A. Kasemann, R. A. Wood, T. M. Lenton, S. J. Daines, S. Richoz, F. Ohnemueller, A. Meixner, S. W. Poulton, E. T. Tipper, “Ocean acidification and the Permo-Triassic mass extinction”, in Science, volume 348, number 6231, →ISSN, pages 229–230:

Anoxic/euxinic benthic marine conditions prevailed throughout the middle Wuchiapingian to the early Changhsingian at Shangsi, which persisted for 3.9 Myr (256.974–253.073 Ma). This long-term middle Wuchiapingian-early Changhsingian anoxia event could be correlated both regionally and globally, and was caused by paleogeographic restrictions, relative high sea levels, high marine productivities, and possible global climate changes.

2022 January 11, Li Yuan, “Investigating benthic marine redox conditions from late Permian to earliest Triassic”, in Phys.org, archived from the original on 2022-01-11, Earth Sciences:

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


Wuchiapingian

From the Wade–Giles romanization of Mandarin 吳家坪 /吴家坪 (Wújiāpíng, literally “Wu Family Flatland”) in Shaanxi Province in China: Wu²-chia¹-pʻing².


Gzhelian

Named after the Russian village Gzhel, + -ian.

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


Visean

Named in 1832 by Belgian geologist André Dumont, after the city of Visé in the Belgian province of Liège.

Viseà

A subdivision of the Carboniferous period


Famennian

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


Ludfordian

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


Hirnantian

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


Jiangshanian

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


Guzhangian

From Mandarin 古丈 (Gǔzhàng, “Guzhang County”) + -ian.


Fortunian

From Fortune (town in Newfoundland) + -ian.