hosepipe

hosepipe (third-person singular simple present hosepipes, present participle hosepiping, simple past and past participle hosepiped)

hosepipes (present singular third-person)
hosepiping (participle present)
hosepiped (participle past)
hosepiped (past)

(film, television) To film with erratic panning movements of the camera.


bleacher

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From Middle English blechere, equivalent to bleach + -er. Compare Dutch bleker, Swedish blekare.

In practice, audience members often have badly obstructed views of the sets—whether due to obstructive camera dollies and production personnel or viewers sitting in the bleachers off to the side of the set that is currently being used.

2010, Jeremy G. Butler, Television Style:

(US, television, usually in the plural, by extension) The tiered seating provided for the audience at a television filming.


stock character

en-noun

stock character (plural stock characters)

(writing, theater, film) Any fictional character drawn from some stereotype who is instantly recognizable.

ամպլուա

fictional character based on a recognizable stereotype


dissolve

en-verb

dissolve (third-person singular simple present dissolves, present participle dissolving, simple past and past participle dissolved)

dissolves (present singular third-person)
dissolving (participle present)
dissolved (participle past)
dissolved (past)

Recorded since c. 1374 (displacing Old English toliesan) as Middle English dissolven, from Latin dissolvere (“to loosen up, break apart”) but with the sense from Anglo-Norman dissoldre (variant of Old French dissoudre), itself from dis- (“apart”) + solvere (“to loose, loosen”). By surface analysis, dis- + solve.

ərimək

intransitive: to be disintegrated into a solution by immersion

(cinematography, intransitive) To shift from one shot to another by having the former fade out as the latter fades in.


dissolve

While most of the film is done in medium and long shots (connected with dissolves and wipes which lend a lovely period effect)

1986 April 19, Michael Bronski, “Two Views on Desert Hearts: Sexy? or simply Slow?”, in Gay Community News, page 9:

(cinematography) a form of film punctuation in which there is a gradual transition from one scene to the next


hamartia

en-noun

hamartia (usually uncountable, plural hamartias)

/ˌhæˌmɑɹˈtiː.ə/

/ˌhɑːˌmɑɹˈtiː.ə/

From Ancient Greek ἁμαρτία (hamartía, “tragic failure, sinful nature”), from the verb ἁμαρτάνω (hamartánō, “to miss the mark”).

der

Creon's main hamartia was his excessive pride.

Understanding hamartia as “ignorance of the injurious act,” Lacan distinguishes Greek tragedy from the Renaissance version on the basis that the latter supplants hamartia with the hero's privileged knowledge.

2006, David Ratmoko, On Spectrality: Fantasies of Redemption in the Western Canon, Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 71:

The plot and the tragic figure at its center, destroyed through an act of hamartia, should be tailored to the production of pity and fear. Oedipus is not so much a person as he is a hamartia delivery system, a moving, empty center within the motions of the play, who through his vulnerability to hamartia and its disastrous consequences reveals the pitiable and the fearful to the audience.

2008, Daniel Greenspan, The Passion of Infinity: Kierkegaard, Aristotle and the Rebirth of Tragedy, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 81:

But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and dramatically low.

2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years […] ”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport):

(Greek drama) The tragic flaw of the protagonist in a literary tragedy.


mature

en-adj

mature (comparative more mature, superlative most mature)

more mature (comparative)
most mature (superlative)

From late Middle English mature, from Middle French mature, from Latin mātūrus. Doublet of maduro. Partially displaced ripe, from Old English rīpe (“ripe, mature”).

/məˈt͡ʃʊ(ə)ɹ/

mature content

(television, film) Suitable for adults only, due to sexual themes, violence, etc.


facial

Early 17th century, borrowed from Medieval Latin faciālis (“face-to-face, direct, open”), from faciēs (“form, configuration, figure; face, visage, countenance”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix).

af

But in facials, moving picture technology also enabled an exaggeration of this performance tradition, bringing a new emphasis to the details […]

2004, Simon Popple, Joe Kember, Early Cinema: From Factory Gate to Dream Factory, page 92:

(film) A kind of early silent film focusing on the facial expressions of the actor.

Coordinate term: self-facial

Chuck gave his co-star a creamy facial.

(slang, pornography, sex) A sex act of male ejaculation onto another person's face.


heteronym

Coined around 1900, either from hetero- (“different”) + -onym (“name”) or from Ancient Greek ἑτερώνυμος (heterṓnumos), or perhaps both.

polyphone

a letter [or combination of letters] that can be pronounced in two or more different ways, such as 長 / 长 in Chinese, pronounced [cháng] in the sense of ’long’ and [zhǎng] in the sense of ’to grow’

(literature) A fictitious character created by an author for the purpose of writing in a different style.

heteronyymi

fictitious character writing in a different style


treatment

en-noun

treatment (countable and uncountable, plural treatments)

From treat + -ment. Compare French traitement.

(countable, film) A brief, third-person, present-tense summary of a proposed film.


initial

From Middle French initial or directly from its Latin etymon initiālis (“of the beginning, incipient, initial”), from initium (“a going in, entrance, beginning”), from inire (“to go in, enter upon, begin”), from in (“in”) + ire (“to go”).

(typography, calligraphy) A distinguished initial letter of a chapter or section of a document.

caplletra

calligraphy: distinguished initial letter


gods

So called from the idea of gods (deities) reigning from on high.

(printing, historical) The quadrats used by printers in throwing on the imposing stone, similar to the movement in casting dice.


fusion

fusion (countable and uncountable, plural fusions)

fission

antonym(s) of “nuclear reaction in which nuclei combine”

First appears c. 1555, in a translation by Richard Eden. From Middle French fusion, from Latin fūsiōnem (the accusative of fūsiō), from fusus, past participle of fundō (“I pour, I melt”) (see also found). Doublet of foison.

The act of merging separate elements, or the result thereof.

(fiction) The act of two characters merging into one, typically more powerful, being; or the merged being itself.


A roll

A roll (usually uncountable, plural A rolls)

(television, film) The primary footage for non-narrative or interview-based film, usually involving talking heads or footage that directly relates to the moment.


biorobot

(science fiction) A biological organism that has been created and designed by artificial means.


programming

programming (usually uncountable, plural programmings)

/ˈpɹəʊɡɹəmɪŋ/

/ˈpɹoʊɡɹæmɪŋ/

The network changed its programming to mess with DVRs again.

(broadcasting) The designing, scheduling or planning of a radio or television program/programme.

udsendelse

broadcasting: designing, scheduling, or planning of a radio or TV program


edition

From French édition, from Latin ēditiō, from ēdere (“to publish”).

She wanted a copy of the Clericotes edition, but had to settle for the 1921 edition. She had never liked abridged editions.

(publishing) A written work edited and published, as by a certain editor or in a certain manner, or at a certain time.


corpsicle

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Blend of corpse + popsicle. The cryogenic sense is a coinage by author Frederik Pohl in The Age of the Pussyfoot (1969).

'Your newspapers called you people corpsicles,' said the blond man. 'I never understood what the tapes meant by that.'
'It comes from Popsicle. Frozen sherbet.' Corbell had used the word himself before he became one of them. One of the corpsicles, the frozen dead.

There are dozens of companies that will turn you into a human corpsicle and store your chilled earthly remains indefinitely.

2007, Daniel H. Wilson, Where's My Jetpack?:, page 176:

I won't turn you into a corpsicle and hope somebody knows how to fix you in a hundred years.

(science fiction) A person who has been cryonically frozen in the hope of later revival.


optical

It is a glossy film with gross, opulent opticals and little comic, or any, relief; it has the jaundiced complexion of an early 60s underground film, which it is; it is ponderous, Wagnerian, and feels about five hours long (its running time is about an hour).

1976 August 14, Gary Jane Hoisington, “Locker Room As The Site Of Religious Ecstasy”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 7, page 9:

If you plan to output back to film, opticals and effects can be shot on film or generated by computer and then transferred to film.

2006, David K. Irving, Peter W. Rea, Producing and Directing the Short Film and Video, page 294:

(film) Any special effect requiring laboratory work on the film.


mutton

mutton (countable and uncountable, plural muttons)

From Middle English motoun, moton, from Old French mouton (“sheep”), from Vulgar Latin moltō, from Gaulish *multon-, from Proto-Celtic *moltos (“ram, wether”). Doublet of mouton.

(typography slang) Em, a unit of measurement equal to the height of the type in use.


meridian

The noun is derived from Late Middle English meridian, meridien (“midday, noon; position of the sun at noon; the south; longitude of a place; (astronomy) celestial meridian”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman meridien (“midday”), Middle French meridien (“midday; the south; terrestrial meridian; (astronomy) celestial meridian”) (modern French méridien), and Old French meridiane, meridiiene, and from their etymon Latin merīdiānum (“midday; position of the sun at noon; the south”), a noun use of the neuter form of merīdiānus (“relating to midday; southern”); see further at etymology 1.
Sense 1.1 (“celestial meridian”) is ultimately modelled after Latin merīdiāna līnea (“meridian line”). Sense 5.2 (“midday rest; siesta”) is modelled after Late Latin meridiana (“midday; midday rest”), probably short for Latin merīdiāna hōra (“midday time”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

nb...

meridene, meridiane, meridien, meridyan, meridyen, merydien, merydyen,

cog

(US, printing, dated) The size of type between double great primer and canon, standardized as 44-point.


Dvorak

August Dvorak
Dvorak Simplified Keyboard

From Czech Dvořák. The keyboard is named after the American inventor August Dvorak.

Dvorak keyboard

(computing, typography) Describing an optimized keyboard layout for the English language, in which the alphabet is arranged in the order PYFGCRL on the top row, AOEUIDHTNS on the middle, or home row, and QJKXBMWVZ on the bottom row, thus placing the letters most frequently used in the home row. Many variants on Dvorak layouts also exist, including keyboards for right-hand-only and left-hand-only-typists.


oviposition

en-noun

oviposition (usually uncountable, plural ovipositions)

From oviposit + -ion, from ovi- (“egg”) + Latin pōsitus (“placed”).

If an opsiblastic egg is produced by an individual, it is usually the last oviposition by that animal even if it is also the first.

1963, Ellsworth C. Dougherty, “Other Disciplines of Comparative Biology”, in The Lower Metazoa: Comparative Biology and Phylogeny, Berkley: University of California Press, page 474:

(zoology or pornography) The process or instance of ovipositing, laying eggs.


emphasis

emphasis (countable and uncountable, plural emphases)

From Latin emphasis, from Ancient Greek ἔμφασις (émphasis, “significance”), from ἐμφαίνω (emphaínō, “I present, I indicate”), from ἐν- (en-, “in”) + φαίνω (phaínō, “I show”).

der

(typography) The use of boldface, italics, or other such formatting to highlight text.

èmfasi

typography: the use of boldface, italics, or other such formatting to highlight text


SBS

(Australia, broadcasting) Initialism of Special Broadcasting Service.

Seoul Broadcasting System
w:Seoul Broadcasting System

(South Korea, broadcasting) Initialism of Seoul Broadcasting System.


baseline

Several characters typically have descenders below the lower baseline.

(typography) A line used as the basis for the alignment of glyphs.

účaří

typography: line used as the basis for the alignment of glyphs


crotch

Of disputed origin; two possibilities seem likely:
* From Middle English croche, variant of crucche (“crutch”); compare crook.
* From Middle English croche, variant of crouche (“cross, crozier”).

could eat the crotch out of a low flying duck

(typography) The open counter (negative space) formed by two downward strokes that meet at an internal acute angle, potentially above a vertex, as in the letters "V" and "Y".


gallows

en-noun

gallows (plural gallows or (rare) gallowses)

gallows (plural)
gallowses (plural rare)

From Middle English galwes, galewes, plural of galwe, galowe, from Old English galga, gealga, from Proto-West Germanic *galgō, from Proto-Germanic *galgô, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰalgʰ-, *ǵʰalg- (“long switch, rod, shaft, pole, perch”). The plural construction probably refers to the vertical and horizontal beams.
Compare West Frisian galge, Dutch galg, German Galgen, Danish galge, Icelandic gálgi.
For the pronunciation /ˈɡæləs/, compare bellows, bodice.

(printing, obsolete) The rest for the tympan when raised.


ghosting

ghosting (countable and uncountable, plural ghostings)

(electronics, television) The blurry appearance of a television picture resulting from interference caused by multipath reception.

Geisterbild

appearance of ghosts on a television screen


octavo

From Latin octavo. Doublet of octave, oitava, and ochava.

(paper, printing) A sheet of paper 7 to 10 inches (= 17.78 to 25.4 cm) high and 4.5 to 6 inches (= 11.43 to 15.24 cm) wide, the size varying with the large original sheet used to create it. It is made by folding the original sheet three times to produce eight leaves.

He was also much of a politician; too much, perhaps, for his station. There fell lately into my hands, in London, a collection he had made of all the principal pamphlets, relating to public affairs, from 1641 to 1717; many of the volumes are wanting as appears by the numbering, but there still remain eight volumes in folio, and twenty-four in quarto and in octavo.

1909 [1793], Benjamin Franklin, edited by Charles W. Eliot, LL.D., The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (The Harvard Classics; 1), U.S.A.: P. F. Collier & Son Corporation, published 1937, page 8:


obelisk

Hippodrome of Constantinople
Obelisk of Theodosius
Theodosius I
Thutmose III

From Middle French obelisque, from Latin obeliscus (“obelisk”), from Ancient Greek ὀβελίσκος (obelískos), diminutive of ὀβελός (obelós, “needle”). Compare obelus.

(historical) A symbol resembling a horizontal line (–), sometimes together with one or two dots (for example, ⨪ or ÷), which was used in ancient manuscripts and texts to mark a word or passage as doubtful or spurious, or redundant.

A dagger symbol (†), which is used in printed matter as a reference mark to refer the reader to a footnote, marginal note, etc.; beside a person's name to indicate that the person is deceased; or beside a date to indicate that it is a person's death date.


archdevil

/ɑɹt͡ʃˈdɛvəl/

/ɑɹt͡ʃˈdɛvɪl/

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From the context and other parts of the work, we are to understand that the demons here described are the personal friends of our sovereign, and that the archdevil was the mother of our sovereign.

1802, The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine, Volume 12, Open Court Publishing Company, page 30:

In short, it is purely the work of the devil that they are doing, and especially that of the archdevil, who presides at Muhlhausen, and directs nothing but robbery, murder and bloodshed.

1841, George Waddington, A History of the Reformation on the Continent: In Three Volumes, Duncan and Malcolm, page 155:

A spirit of ultraism seems to pervade the whole community. The language of Milton's archdevil "Evil, be thou my good" is the creed of modern reformers, or, in other words — anything for a change. What is to come of all this, I have not wisdom even to guess. It is an age of transition and whether you and I live to see the elements of the moral and political world at rest, is, I think, extretmely doubtful.

1851, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers: With Brief Notices of Passing Events, Facts, and Opinions, A.D. 1812 to A.D. 1842, Lippincott, Grambo and Company, page 517:

The bishops in question were described as archdevils, priests of Baal, standard-bearers of the Balaamites, and children of perdition.

1896, Marvin Richardson Vincent, The Age of Hildebrand, Christian Literature Company, page 267:

They are archdevils. Partake not of anything from their hands. Now I shall sell myself and do this act if only I have thee at my back.

1940, United States Congress, The Madras Law Journal, page 813:

(theology, rare, religion, fantasy, science fiction) A chief or reigning devil.


caption

Borrowed from Latin captiō (“deception, fraud”), from the past participle of capiō (“I take, I seize”) (English capture). Compare Middle English capcioun (“seizure, capture”).

cog

(typography) The descriptive heading or title, of a document or part thereof.

заглавие

descriptive title or heading of (part of) a document

(theater, performance production) By analogy, text in a similar system used in a performance venue for transcription of a live event.

(cinematography, television) A piece of text appearing on screen as a subtitle or other part of a film or broadcast, describing dialogue (and sometimes other sound) for viewers who cannot hear.

надписи

piece of text appearing on screen as part of a film or broadcast

sous-titrage pour sourds et malentendants


gutter

Sranan Tongo: gotro

From Middle English gutter, guttur, goter, from Anglo-Norman guttere, from Old French goutiere (French gouttière), ultimately from Latin gutta (“drop”).

(typography) A space between printed columns of text.

(printing) One of a number of pieces of wood or metal, grooved in the centre, used to separate the pages of type in a form.

(comics) A space between comic strip panels.


dek

Deliberate misspelling of deck, to distinguish the word as not belonging in the story.

(journalism, slang) The subhead of a news story.


gray hat

From being grey (“gray”), a mix between black and white, morally grey/gray. From white hat + black hat. From cowboy country and western fiction, where good guys wear white Stetson hats with light attire, and bad guys wear black ones with black attire. From chivalric fiction, with white knights and black knights. From the association of the color white with good and black with evil.

(idiomatic, fiction) A morally ambiguous character; an antihero.


multiplex

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From multi- + -plex or multi- + complex.

(television) a grouping of program services as interleaved data packets for broadcast over a network or modulated multiplexed medium


taut

en-adj

taut (comparative tauter, superlative tautest)

tauter (comparative)
tautest (superlative)

The adjective is derived from Middle English taught [and other forms], Early Middle English tohte, towehte (“strained, stretched; distended; tight; firm”), probably from tough, touth, touʒth, toʒt (“powerful, strong; fierce, violent; not tender, tough; hardy, resilient; steadfast, stout; difficult to do or endure”) and possibly influenced by togen, towen, past participle of ten (“to extend, stretch out; to drag, haul, pull, tow, tug”) (modern English tee (“(obsolete) to draw, lead; to draw away; to go, proceed”)), or directly from its etymon Old English tēon (“to drag, draw, pull”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to draw, pull”)) The word may be related to thight (“(dialectal) compact, dense; close-fitting, tight”) and tight; and is cognate with Scots tacht, taght (“taut”).
The verb is probably derived from the adjective.

nb...

toft, toght, tohte, toth, tought, touht, tout, touȝt, touʒt, towght, towht, towt, towte, toȝt, toʒte

der

If he curbs his swing a little and gets something crisper and tauter in his methods he may yet be very good.

1921 March 19, Bernard Darwin, “Golf on the Forest”, in Peter Anderson Graham, editor, Country Life, volume XLIX, number 1263, London: George Newnes […], →OCLC, page 321, column 2:

The superbly crafted suspense thriller that director Jonathan Demme has made from Thomas Harris's taut best-selling novel The Silence of the Lambs slams you like a sudden blast of bone-chilling, pulse-pounding terror.

1991 February 14, Peter Travers, “The Silence of the Lambs [film review]”, in Rolling Stone, New York, N.Y.: Wenner Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-12-05:

Quick action and dialogue create a taut story, although it is illustration that shapes the characters.

1997, “Minty: A Story of a Young Harriet Tubman (written by Alan Schroeder, 1996) [book review]”, in Linda R. Andres, editor, Children’s Literature Review, volume 43, Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research, →ISBN, page 174, column 2; quoted in Milton C. Sernett, “‘Minty’”, in Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory and History, Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2007, →ISBN, page 35:

Guitarist Jade Puget and vocalist Davey Havok have distilled AFI's strengths (a ferocious, post-hardcore rhythmic backbone; goth-tinctured, post-punky guitars; and Havok's desperate, dramatic croon) into 14 taut, hook-driven songs.

2017 January 20, Annie Zaleski, “AFI Sounds Refreshed and Rejuvenated on Its 10th Album, AFI (The Blood Album)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2019-11-03:

(of music, writing, etc.) Containing only relevant parts; brief and controlled.

napínavý

containing only relevant parts; brief and controlled


distribute

en-verb

distribute (third-person singular simple present distributes, present participle distributing, simple past and past participle distributed)

distributes (present singular third-person)
distributing (participle present)
distributed (participle past)
distributed (past)
distribute (infinitive)

PIE word
 *tréyes
From Latin distributus, past participle of distribuere (“to divide, distribute”), from dis- (“apart”) + tribuere (“to give, impart”); see tribute.

(printing) To separate (type which has been used) and return it to the proper boxes in the cases.

(printing) To spread (ink) evenly, as upon a roller or a table.


out-of-print

I'm sorry, but that book has been out-of-print for twenty years.

(publishing) No longer offered for sale by a publisher; no longer on the firsthand market.


skip

skip (third-person singular simple present skips, present participle skipping, simple past and past participle skipped)

skips (present singular third-person)
skipping (participle present)
skipped (participle past)
skipped (past)

From Middle English skippen, skyppen, of North Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skupjaną, perhaps related to *skeubaną (“to drive, push”), iterative *skuppōną (“to push/move repeatedly, skip”), from Proto-Indo-European *skewbʰ- (“to push, throw, shake”).
Related to Icelandic skopa (“to take a run”), Old Swedish skuppa (“to skip”), modern dialectal Swedish skopa, skimpa (“to skip, leap”), and English shove. See also dialectal English skimp (“to mock”) (Etymology 1), considered by some to be related.

der

(printing) To have insufficient ink transfer.


out of sorts

en-adj

out of sorts (comparative more out of sorts, superlative most out of sorts)

more out of sorts (comparative)
most out of sorts (superlative)

Comes from printing terminology where "sort" means a metal type for printing a particular letter.

(printing, dated) With some letters or sorts of type deficient or exhausted in the case or font.


deconstruction

en-noun

deconstruction (countable and uncountable, plural deconstructions)

(philosophy, literature) A philosophical theory of textual criticism; a form of critical analysis that emphasizes inquiry into the variable projection of the meaning and message of critical works, the meaning in relation to the reader and the intended audience, and the assumptions implicit in the embodied forms of expression.

αποδομισμός

a philosophical theory of textual criticism


quad

Shortened, via clipping or abbreviation, from various English terms. Ultimately related to Latin quattuor (“4”); compare quadri-, quadruple.
The typography senses are from the abbreviation quad. for obsolete quadrat; the keyboard command comes from the verb sense.

“Quadrats, sir. We call 'em quads.” . . . Quads are the spaces left between the paragraphs that come white on the paper. If you look here, at this page that is set-up, you will see that they are deeper than the spaces left between the words and letters—regular little trenches.

1853 April 16, Charles Dickens, Household Words, number 160, page 148:

Horizontal spacing is further divided into multiples and fractions of the em. The multiples are called quads. The fractions are called spaces.

1979, Marshall Lee, Bookmaking, page 110:

Other larger spaces – known as quads – were used to space out lines.

2005, Phil Baines, Andrew Haslam, Type & Typography, 2nd edition, page 91:

(typography, obsolete) Abbreviation of quadrat.

(letterpress typography) A blank metal block used to fill short lines of type.

(printing slang) A joke used to fill long days of setting type.

(typography, phototypesetting and digital typesetting) A keyboard command which aligns text with the left or right margin, or centred between them. In combination, as quad left, quad right, or quad centre.

Clipping of quadruplet (“a set of four; one of a set of four”).

(radio) A quad antenna, a directional radio antenna consisting of multiple loop antennas.


quad

en-verb

quad (third-person singular simple present quads, present participle quadding, simple past and past participle quadded)

quads (present singular third-person)
quadding (participle present)
quadded (participle past)
quadded (past)

(typography, letterpress typography, transitive, intransitive) To fill spaces in a line of type with quads. Also quad out.

(typography, phototypesetting and digital typesetting, transitive, intransitive) To align text with the left or right margin, or centre it.


macaroni

en-noun

macaroni (countable and uncountable, plural macaronis or macaronies)

→ Japanese: マカロニ (makaroni)

→ Korean: 마카로니 (makaroni)

→ Malay:

Arabic script: ماكاروني

Latin script: makaroni

→ Scottish Gaelic: macaroni

From Italian maccaroni, plural of maccarone, obsolete variant of maccheroni (“macaroni, fool”), of uncertain origin. Variously derived from late Byzantine Greek μακαρία (makaría, “food made from barley”), from Ancient Greek μακάριος (makários, “blessed, favored by the gods”), and from maccare (“to bruise, to crush”), archaic variant of ammaccare, from Latin maccāre (“to bruise, to crush”). Compare Sicilian maccarruni (“a single piece of macaroni”). As a fop, apparently from the British Macaroni Club rather than from Italian use of maccarone for fools and bumpkins. As a former form of currency, used to calque Spanish macuquino, 18th-century colonial Spanish slang for a similarly clipped coin.

cog

... political songs in Latin or in a maccaroni of Latin and English ...

1884, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages, volume I, page 166:

(uncountable, literature, obsolete) A mix of languages in macaronic verse.


knockdown

en-noun

knockdown (countable and uncountable, plural knockdowns)

We shot 'The Caterpillar' at General Service Studios, and the dressing rooms for the actors were what they call knockdowns: wooden frames covered in grungy, dirty red canvas. It looked like a circus tent.

1999, Scott Skelton, Jim Benson, Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After-hours Tour, page 294:

(film, television) A shelter erected for use as a temporary dressing room.


orientation

orientation (countable and uncountable, plural orientations)

/ˌɔɹiɛnˈteɪʃən/

From French orientation. By surface analysis, orient + -ation.

(typography, countable) The direction of print across the page; landscape or portrait.


italicize

en-verb

italicize (third-person singular simple present italicizes, present participle italicizing, simple past and past participle italicized)

italicizes (present singular third-person)
italicizing (participle present)
italicized (participle past)
italicized (past)

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


cartoon

Punch (magazine)
Russian Bear
The Great Game
cartoon

→ Portuguese: cartune, cartum

→ Swahili: katuni

In British English first, from French carton (“sketch, cardboard, card”), from Italian cartone (“cardboard, carton, box”), augmentative of carta (“paper”), from Latin carta (“papyrus, paper”), from Ancient Greek χάρτης (khártēs) (see there for further etymology). Doublet of carton and card.

der

(comics) A humorous drawing, often with a caption, or a strip of such drawings.

(comics) A drawing satirising current public figures.

tekenprent

animated cartoon — see also animated cartoon


cartoon

en-verb

cartoon (third-person singular simple present cartoons, present participle cartooning, simple past and past participle cartooned)

cartoons (present singular third-person)
cartooning (participle present)
cartooned (participle past)
cartooned (past)

(art, comics, animation) To draw a cartoon, a humorous drawing.


italics

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

There is no need to put the whole paragraph in italics.

[T]hey [the Catholics and Puritans] encumbered their verſion [of the Bible] with a load of uſeleſs Italics; often without the leaſt neceſſity, and almoſt always to the detriment of the text. In fact, either the words in Italics are virtually implied in the Hebrew, or they are not. In the former caſe they are a real part of the text, and ſhould be printed in the ſame character: in the latter, they are generally ill aſſorted and clumſy ekes, that may well be ſpared; and which often disfigure the narration under pretence of connecting it.

1786, Alexander Geddes, Prospectus of a New Translation of the Holy Bible from Corrected Texts of the Originals, Compared with the Ancient Versions. […], Glasgow: Printed for the author, and sold by R[obert] Faulder, […]; C. Eliot, […]; and —— Cross, […], →OCLC, page 95:

Writing of cyclic diagramming, he speaks of ". . . the practical state of locomotives that pass through any number of engine and maintenance crews' hands in the course of a week's common user working, receiving love from none". The italics are mine.

1959 May, G. F. Fiennes (reviewer), “New Reading on Railways: British Railways Today and Tomorrow. By G. Freeman Allen. Ian Allan. 25s.”, in Trains Illustrated, page 271:

(typography, plural only) Letters in an italic typeface.


xenophilia

While it may appear that Sturgeon has thus become an advocate of homoeroticism, incest, xenophilia, and other exotic or decadent sexual practices, he remains committed rather to the ideals of understanding and tolerance.

1983, Frank Northen Magill, Survey of modern fantasy literature, Volume 4, Salem Press, →ISBN, page 1707:

An alien—seemingly just a tourist—lands in the middle of Washington, assumes human, male form, and is adopted by four college kids for fun and sex. The story is told in snatches of dialogue and scraps of poetry (the title is from e.e. cummings), and is all goofy juxtapositions, happy xenophilia, and affection for the enthusiastic and accepting youth.

2007, Julie Phillips, James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon, →ISBN, page 300:

Xenophilia (header) From a young age, even before I knew what sex was, I always had a thing for girls. Alien girls I mean — Alorians in particular. I broke out in a sweat every time I saw them. They were so beautiful.

2012, Mark Guinane, Horizon's Edge, →ISBN, page 303:

(science fiction) love (especially sexual love) between humans and extraterrestrials


blink

blink (third-person singular simple present blinks, present participle blinking, simple past and past participle blinked)

blinks (present singular third-person)
blinking (participle present)
blinked (participle past)
blinked (past)

From Middle English blynken, blenken, from Old English blincan (suggested by causative verb blenċan (“to deceive”); > English blench), from Proto-Germanic *blinkaną, a variant of *blīkaną (“to gleam, shine”).
Cognate with Dutch blinken (“to glitter, shine”), German blinken (“to flash, blink”), Danish blinke (“to flash, twinkle, wink, blink”), Swedish blinka (“to flash, blink, twinkle, wink, blink”). Related to blank, blick, blike, bleak.

blikat

to flash on and off at regular intervals

(science fiction, video games) To teleport, mostly for short distances.


mediasphere

(journalism) The collective ecology of the world's media, including newspapers, journals, television, radio, books, novels, advertising, press releases, publicity and the blogosphere; any and all media both broadcast and published.


knock up

en-verb

knock up (third-person singular simple present knocks up, present participle knocking up, simple past and past participle knocked up)

knocks up (present singular third-person)
knocking up (participle present)
knocked up (participle past)
knocked up (past)

(obsolete, printing) To straighten up a stack of paper.


ultraism

en-noun

ultraism (countable and uncountable, plural ultraisms)

The eight young signers of this “Ultra manifesto” could not have known at the time how accurate and prescient their declaration was. Spanish ultraism, born as a movement with that document, would be distinguished, ironically, by its indiscriminate and eclectic borrowings from the other European vanguard tendencies.

1981, Thorpe Running, Borges' Ultraist Movement and its Poets, Lathrup Village, Mich.: International Book Publishers, →ISBN, page 1:

(poetry) A Spanish poetic movement opposed to modernism.


TAC

The American Conservative
w:The American Conservative

(publishing) Initialism of The American Conservative.


getup

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

(publishing) Layout and production style, as of a magazine.


insert

From Latin insertus, past participle of inserō, from in- + serō (“join, bind together, connect, entwine, interweave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind, put together, to line up”). Compare exsert.

der

(television) A pre-recorded segment included as part of a live broadcast.

[…] close-ups of her legs on the escalator, an insert of the emergency stop button (ARRET D'URGENCE), intercut close-ups of her glance and the cinema sign, […]

2013, David Bordwell, Narration in the Fiction Film, page 316:

(film, television) A close-up shot used to draw attention to a particular element of a larger scene.


tramline

The tramline is therefore much less obvious on the screen. Also, if the scratch is on the base (i.e., on the back of the film), then it will not be in sharp focus.

1984, Movie Maker, volume 18, number 2, page 47:

(film) A scratch on a film, usually vertical, that extends through multiple frames.


IR

(pornography) Initialism of interracial.


picaresque

en-adj

picaresque (comparative more picaresque, superlative most picaresque)

more picaresque (comparative)
most picaresque (superlative)

From picaro (“adventurer, rogue”) + -esque (suffix meaning ‘in the style or manner of’ forming adjectives), modelled after Spanish picaresco (“in the style or manner of a picaro; picaresque”), from pícaro (“rogue”) + -esco (suffix forming adjectives indicating a relation). Compare French picaresque (attested later than the English word), Italian picaresco, Portuguese picaresco.

der

A mere piece of roguery told in the abstract, without the proper picaresque ornaments, its manifold sinuosities and dexterities, has no interest for the reader; it may recommend the executor of it to the administration of a cat-o-nine-tails, or to an honourable post in the gallies: but there is no music in it without the proper accompaniments.

1822, “Art. I.—Primera, y Segunda Parte de Guzman de Alfarache, por Matheo Aleman, Criado del Rey nuestro Senor, Natural, y Vezino de Sevilla. Madrid, 1723. 4to. The Rogue; or, The Life of Guzman de Alfarache. Written in the Spanish by Matheo Aleman, Servant to His Catholic Majestie, and Borne in Sevill. London, printed for Edward Blount, 1623.”, in The Retrospective Review, volume V, part II, London: Charles Baldwyn, […], →OCLC, pages 189–190:

Spain became celebrated about the end of this century for her novels in the picaresque style, of which Lazarillo de Tormes is the oldest extant specimen.

1839, Henry Hallam, “Section III. On Works of Fiction.”, in Introduction to the Literature of Europe, in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, volume II, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, paragraph 41, pages 435–436:

He [Daniel Defoe] produced an amazing variety of wares: newspapers, magazines, ghost stories, biographies, journals, memoirs, satires, picaresque romances, essays on religion, reform, trade, projects, – in all more than two hundred works.

1923, William J[oseph] Long, “Eighteenth-century Literature”, in Outlines of English Literature: […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Ginn and Company, →OCLC, page 189:

Opening in France just before the Revolution and concluding just after the attack on the Tuileries, [Rafael] Sabatini's novel deftly combines historical romance, picaresque novel and revenge tragedy.

2009 November 1, Neil McDonald, “Scaramouche and the Swashbuckler”, in Quadrant, volume LIII, number 11 (number 461 overall), Sydney, N.S.W.: Quadrant Magazine Limited, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-04-15, page 103:

The picaresque novel finds its origins in the humanist search for an expansion of the historiographical genre. [...] The protagonist of the picaresque novel is the pícaro, a character of lowly descent who, by passing through a wide array of professions, attempts to rise in social standing.

2014, Konstantin Mierau, Binne de Haan, “Introduction: Bringing together Microhistory and the Picaresque Novel: Studying Menocchio, Guzmán de Alfarache, and Kin”, in Binne de Haan, Konstantin Mierau, editors, Microhistory and the Picaresque Novel: A First Exploration into Commensurable Perspectives, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, →ISBN, page 2:

(literature) Characteristic of a genre of Spanish satiric novel dealing with the adventures of a roguish hero.

приключенски

characteristic of a genre of Spanish satiric novel dealing with the adventures of a roguish hero


picaresque

Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas [From the sublime to the ridiculous there is only one step]; and that step in Spain was taken by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (already dealt with in his higher walk), the originator of the Picaresque, or low rogue's march novels, of which his Lazarillo de Tormes was the type— [...]

1850 September, “Art. I.—History of Spanish Literature. By George Ticknor. 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1849. [book review]”, in John Taylor Coleridge, editor, The Quarterly Review, volume LXXXVII, number CLXXIV, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 326:

[T]he word picaro, which is almost synonymous with rogue, [...] has given a name to a whole series of novels in Spain called "Picaresques," the heroes of which are adventurers.

1856, Louis de Loménie, chapter XXVII, in Henry S. Edwards, transl., Beaumarchais and His Times. Sketches of French Society in the Eighteenth Century from Unpublished Documents. [...] In Four Volumes, international copyright edition, volume IV, London: Addey and Co., […], →OCLC, page 121:

And we had agreed completely as to the main stream in the history of the novel … as to its passing from Lope da Vega and the Spanish picaresques, by way of [Danie] Defoe and Richardson, to [Denis] Diderot, Stendahl and [Gustave] Flaubert [...]

1937, Ford Madox Ford, “[Theodore] Drieser”, in Portraits From Life: […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company; […], →OCLC, page 175:

In picaresques, the protagonist usually acts as narrator to provide coherence and unity to the genre's inherent structural weakness—its episodic plot.

1992, Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola, “The New England Frontier and the Picaresque in Sarah Kemble Knight’s Journal”, in Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola, editor, Early American Literature and Culture: Essays Honoring Harrison T. Meserole, Newark, N.J.: University of Delaware Press; Cranbury, N.J.; London: Associated University Presses, →ISBN, pages 122–123:


multiverse

First appears c. 1895. Blend of multiple + universe, coined by American philosopher William James. By surface analysis, multi- + -verse.

coined

In the DC multiverse, our reality is called "Earth-33". But in the Marvel multiverse, it's "Earth-1218".

(fiction) The different canons, continuities or timelines of a fictional property, considered as a whole.


en dash

Named for its width, which is equal to the width of the letter n or N, or approximately half the width of an em dash.

(typography) The punctuation mark –, which is used, for instance, to indicate a range.


engraving

en-noun

engraving (countable and uncountable, plural engravings)

(printing) The art of producing an image from an engraved printing form, typically made of copper.


em dash

Named for its width, which is equal to the width of the letter m or M, or approximately twice the width of an en dash.

(typography) The symbol (—) (used to demarcate a parenthetical thought or to indicate a break, or for emphasis)


pancake

pancake (countable and uncountable, plural pancakes)

→ Cantonese: 班戟 (baan¹ gik¹)

→ Mandarin: 班戟 (bānjǐ)

→ Cebuano: pankeyk

→ French: pancake

→ German: Pancake

desc

→ Hijazi Arabic: بانكيك (bānkēk, pānkēk)

→⇒ Irish: pancóg

→ Japanese: パンケーキ (pankēki)

→⇒ Khmer: នំផេនខេក (num pheenkheek)

→ Korean: 팬케이크 (paenkeikeu)

→ Nauruan: epankeik

→ Portuguese: panqueca, (dated) panqueque, (dated) pancake

→ Russian: панкейк (pankejk)

→ Spanish: (Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay) panqueque, (Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico) pancake, (Venezuela) panqueca

→ Thai: แพนเค้ก (pɛɛn-kéek)

→ Turkish: pankek

→ Azerbaijani: pankek

→ Yoruba: pan̄kéèkì

Inherited from Middle English pancake, panne cake, pankake, ponkake, equivalent to pan + cake.
Perhaps adapted from Middle Low German pankôke, pannekôke, from Old Saxon *pannakōko (suggested by derivatives Old Saxon pannakōkilo and pannakōkilīn), where the compound is much older; compare Old High German phankuohho (8th century), whence Middle High German phankuoche, German Pfannkuchen (“pancake”); further
Saterland Frisian Ponkouke, Ponkuuke (“pancake”), West Frisian pankoek (“pancake”), Dutch pannenkoek (“pancake”), German Low German Pannkook (“pancake”).
The juggling sense is by analogy with a pancake being tossed in a pan.

(countable, film, slang) A box on which an actor stands to make them appear taller.


wide-angle

en-adj

wide-angle (comparative wider-angle, superlative widest-angle)

wider-angle (comparative)
widest-angle (superlative)

(cinematography, photography) Of or pertaining to a short focal length lens that has an angle of view greater than about 70°; of or pertaining to an image produced with such a lens.


wilco

Wilco, Bravo Six Three will take the north road. Bravo Six Four will take the south road, out.

(radio communications) Indicates agreement and compliance.


wilco

en-verb

wilco (third-person singular simple present wilcos, present participle wilcoing, simple past and past participle wilcoed)

wilcos (present singular third-person)
wilcoing (participle present)
wilcoed (participle past)
wilcoed (past)

(radio communications, rare) To give the "wilco" indication.


lipogram

From Ancient Greek λειπογγράμμα (leipongrámma), from λείπω (leípō, “leaving out”) + γράμμα (grámma, “letter”), 18th c.

der

λειπογγράμμα

compound

"Transubstantiationalists" is a particularly long single-word lipogram, not using the letter "e".

(literature) A word or writing that does not use a particular symbol or symbols.


runt

The OED classifies this word as "of obscure origin". Some see a connection to Middle Dutch runt (“ox”), but the OED considers this to be unlikely.

unk

obscure

(typography) A single word (or portion of a hyphenated word) that appears as the last line of a paragraph.

orposana

single word that appears as the last line of a paragraph


timeline

graphical representation of a chronological sequence of events

SISKO: I don't quite know how to say this... but now that we know about the accident that sent the ship back in time, we should be able to avoid it.
WORF: Well if we do that, your timeline will collapse and everything here will cease to exist.

1997 May 5, Children of Time (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), season 5, number 22 (Science Fiction), Paramount Domestic Television, →OCLC:

(science fiction) An individual universe or reality, especially a parallel/alternate one in which events differ from actual history, or differ from the established canon of a fictional world.


counter

From Old French contre, Anglo-Norman cuntre, both from Latin contra.

[ˈkʰaʊ̯.ɾ̃ɚ]

(typography) The enclosed or partly closed negative space of a glyph.


aubade

Princess Christina of the Netherlands
Rosalía de Castro

PIE word
 *albʰós
Borrowed from French aubade, from Old French albade, from Old Spanish albada (“musical or poetic composition to be performed in the morning”), from alba (“dawn”), from Vulgar Latin *alba (“dawn; sunrise”), from Latin albus (“bright, clear; white”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *albʰós (“white”).

beuregan

And there he lingered till the crowing cock, / The Alectryon of the farmyard and the flock, / Sang his aubade with lusty voice and clear, / To tell the sleeping world that dawn was near.

1873 August, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[I. Tales of a Wayside Inn.] The Student’s Tale. Emma and Eginhard.”, in Aftermath, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 27:

Alladad Khan woke to the far crying of kampong cocks in the dark. That noise had been the farmyard aubade in the Punjab in his dream.

1956, Anthony Burgess, chapter 11, in Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), London: William Heinemann, published 1968, →ISBN, page 155:

(music, poetry) A poem or song evoking or greeting the dawn or early morning.

(music, specifically) A morning love song, or a song of lovers parting in the morning.

aubade

morning love song; song of lovers parting in the morning


cruiser

(military, nautical) A class of fast warships of medium tonnage, having a long cruising range but less armour and firepower than a battleship.

(science fiction, by extension) A starship of comparable role


probe

For verb: borrowed from Latin probare (“to test, examine, prove”), from probus (“good”). Doublet of prove.
For noun: borrowed from Late Latin proba (“a proof”), from probare (“to test, examine, prove”); Doublet of proof. Compare Spanish tienta (“a surgeon's probe”), from tentar (“try, test”); see tempt.

сонда

any of various medical instruments used to explore wounds, organs, etc

You know, XR178.9, we haven't done any anal probes in a while.

2004 August 2, Bayard Russell, nonemorecomic:

You listen here! We don't do anal probes like other aliens, but I'm about to make an exception!

2009 September 14, Ryan Hudson, “Can I Abduct You?”, in ChannelATE:

(surgery) Any of various medical instruments used to explore wounds, organs, etc.

(comedy, fiction) An anal probe, a fictional instrument commonly used by aliens on abducted humans.


huddle

From Middle English *hudelen, alteration (due to hudels, hidels (“hiding place”), see hiddle) of *huderen, hoderen (“to cover; press together; huddle”), a frequentative form of Middle English huden, hiden (“to hide”), equivalent to hide + -le and/or hide + -er. Compare Low German huderken (“to brood; coddle; nurse; lull children to sleep”).

cog

(journalism) A session in which a group of journalists assemble to question a person of interest.


supernumerary

From Late Latin supernumerarius (“extra soldier added to a legion; supernumerary”), from super (“above; beyond”) + numerus (“number; collection, quantity”) + -ārius (suffix forming adjectives from nouns or numerals). The word is analysable as super- + numeral + -ary.

refn

From Joseph C. Hughes (1897 September) “Supernumerary Finger Growing from First Metacarpal Bone”, in James Moores Ball, editor, Tri-State Medical Journal and Practitioner, volume IV, number 9, St. Louis, Mo.: [s.n.] 3509 Franklin Avenue, →OCLC, figure 2, page 436.

bor

[A] minor actor or supernumerary often has a better opportunity to watch great actors than the great actors themselves.

1983, H[endrik] B[rugt] G[erhard] Casimir, “Introduction”, in Haphazard Reality: Half a Century of Science (A Sloan Foundation Book), New York, N.Y.: Harper and Row, →ISBN; republished Amsterdam: Amsterdam Academic Archive, Amsterdam University Press, 2010, →ISBN, page 1:

Though little is known about Noble Luke Usher before his first recorded performance in Washington, D.C., in 1800, it is certain that he made the rounds of the eastern theatres as a supernumerary before as well as after that year.

2009, West T. Hill, Jr., “The First Western Circuit”, in The Theatre in Early Kentucky 1790–1820, paperback edition, Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 72:

(film, theater) An extra or walk-on, often non-speaking, in a film or play; a spear carrier.


widow

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From Middle English widwe, from Old English widuwe, from Proto-West Germanic *widuwā, from Proto-Germanic *widuwǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂, possibly from *h₁weydʰh₁-, *widʰ- (“to separate, split, cleave, divide”), whence also wood from Old English widu, wudu.
Cognates include German Witwe, Dutch weduwe, Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍅𐍉 (widuwō), Old Irish fedb, Latin vidua, Old Church Slavonic въдова (vŭdova), Sanskrit विधवा (vidhavā) and Persian بیوه (bive, bêva), Middle Persian wēwag, Avestan viðavā- "widow" .

(typography) A single line of type that ends a paragraph but is separated from it by being carried over to the next page or column.

intañvez

single line of type carried over to the next page


walker

→ Irish: válcaeir

→ Persian: واکر (vâker)

From Middle English walkere (“one who walks, traveller”), equivalent to walk + -er.

inh

Dead people, walkers, as you call them, are somehow, and for some reason, attacking.

1980, Gary Brandner, chapter 17, in Walkers (fiction; paperback), Fawcett Publications, →ISBN:

Two of the walkers circled the pillars. Their searchlights played through the trees, then turned back to Leia and the others.

2011, Dave Wolverton, The Courtship of Princess Leia: Star Wars Legends, page 144:

It also takes a good amount of inspiration from Metal Gear Solid 4s biomechanical designs, namely the Gekko walkers' and their synthetic musculature.

2019, Joe Meno, BrickJournal #60, page 37:

(science fiction) A kind of military robot or mecha with legs for locomotion.


dead air

(idiomatic, broadcasting) An unintended interruption in a broadcast during which nothing is transmitted: a silent period on radio or a silent period with no picture on television.


sapient

en-adj

sapient (comparative more sapient, superlative most sapient)

more sapient (comparative)
most sapient (superlative)

From Middle English sapient, from Old French sapient, or its source, Latin sapiēns. Doublet of savant.

When EXPLORATION blazed through space / The first sky-trail to far-flung stars, / And found men, sapient, on Mars, / He gained renown's most honored place.

1935 February, Bob Olsen, “Who Deserves Credit?”, in Amazing Stories, volume 9, number 10, page 81:

It was inhabited by a sapient humanoid race, and some of them were civilized enough to put it in Class V, and Colonial Office doctrine on Class V planets was rigid.

1962 January, Henry Beam Piper, “Naudsonce”, in Analog Science Fact and Science Fiction, volume 68, number 5, page 9:

Nessus had not spoken mockingly; but Speaker reacted with rage. “What sapient being would not fear such power?”

a high degree of self-awareness
self-awareness

(chiefly science fiction) Of a species or life-form, possessing intelligence or a high degree of self-awareness.


sapient

It seemed to him a possibility that the Cold War Corps of March might have contacted hitherto unknown sapients on some just discovered interstellar planet.

1960, Philip José Farmer, A Woman a Day, page 30:

(chiefly science fiction) An intelligent, self-aware being.


dodge

en-verb

dodge (third-person singular simple present dodges, present participle dodging, simple past and past participle dodged)

dodges (present singular third-person)
dodging (participle present)
dodged (participle past)
dodged (past)

Likely from dialectal dodge, dod, dodd (“to jog, trudge along, totter", also "to jerk, jig”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from unrecorded Middle English *dodden, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *dud- (“to move”), related to Old English dydrian, dyderian (“to delude, deceive”), Middle English dideren (“to tremble, quake, shiver”), English dodder, Norwegian dudra (“to tremble”).

cog

Coordinate term: burn

(photography, videography) To decrease the exposure for certain areas of an image in order to make them darker.

varjostaa

photography: to decrease the exposure for certain areas of a print


resolution

en-noun

resolution (countable and uncountable, plural resolutions)

/ˌɹɛzəˈluːʃ(ə)n/

Recorded since 1412, as Middle English resolucioun (“dissolution”), either from Anglo-Norman resolucion or directly from Latin resolūtiō (“a loosening, solution”), from resolvō (“I loosen”), itself from the intensive prefix re- + solvō (“I loosen”).

der

Near-synonym: dénouement

(literature) The moment in which the conflict ends and the outcome of the action is clear.

ratkaisu

moment when the outcome of action is clear


playback singer

en-noun

playback singer (plural playback singers)

(singing, cinematography) A singer whose songs are pre-recorded for use in films, especially Bollywood musicals, where actors lip-sync them.

নেপথ্য গায়ক

singer whose songs are lip-synced by an actor


get in

en-verb

get in (third-person singular simple present gets in, present participle getting in, simple past got in, past participle (UK) got in or (US) gotten in)

gets in (present singular third-person)
getting in (participle present)
got in (past)
got in (UK participle past)
gotten in (US participle past)

(obsolete, printing, of a matter) To produce fewer copies than anticipated.


tofu

en-noun

tofu (countable and uncountable, plural tofus)

Borrowed from Japanese 豆腐(とうふ) (tōfu), from Middle Chinese 豆腐 (dəuᴴ bɨo^X, “curdled bean”). Doublet of dubu.

der

(computing, typography) A box or rectangle, empty or with a question mark or hexadecimal code inside, displayed by some systems in place of a character not supported by available fonts. (such as _□ or 𐕪)


overnight

Inherited from Middle English overnyght, from Old English ofer niht (“through the night, overnight”), equivalent to over + night. Verbal use (late 19th c.) may have been influenced by German übernachten (16th c.), though it could also have developed independently.

inh

Word spread that Barney was on his way out to the location and that the Nielsen overnights had been terrific, or why else would he come.

2000, Dorothy C. Swanson, Story of Viewers For Quality TV: From Grassroots to Prime Time:

The TV critic had the results of the June rating survey by Arbitron and Nielsen. […] He has the hard numbers on the June book plus the recent Nielsen overnights.

(television, in the plural) Viewership ratings for a television show that are published the morning after it is broadcast, and may be revised later on.


soliloquy

en-noun

soliloquy (countable and uncountable, plural soliloquies)

Augustine of Hippo
Hamlet
Soliloquiorum libri duo
To be, or not to be
William Shakespeare

1595–1605; From Late Latin sōliloquium in the title of St. Augustine's Soliloquiorum libri duo ("Two Books of Soliloquies"), from sōlus (“only, sole”) + loquor (“I speak”).

Coordinate term: aside

At the end of the second act the main villain gave a soliloquy detailing his plans to attack the protagonist.

Yet if I were to say […] that Hamlet's soliloquy had been much over-rated, it would not be said, on this account, that I was unable to appreciate Shakespeare.

1901, Edmund Selous, Bird Watching, J.M. Dent & Co, London, Chapter XII: Watching Blackbirds, Nightingales, Sand-martins, etc., page 315:

(drama) The act of a character speaking to themselves so as to reveal their thoughts to the audience.

The feeling of Singleton's bosom grew heightened in its tone of melancholy, and a more passionate emphasis of thought broke forth in his half-muttered soliloquy:— ¶"How I remember as I look […]

1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XI, page 135:

Here is a very over-simplified example, this time expressed in the form of a subjective soliloquy rather than a computer simulation.

1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, page 126:

(authorship) A speech or written discourse in this form.


graphic novelist

graphic novelist (plural graphic novelists)

graphic novel + -ist or graphic + novelist

(comics) A person who creates fiction using a succession of pictures interspersed with text (i.e. a comic book).


strip cartoon

(comics) A series of illustrations depicting a humorous narrative.

comic

illustrations depicting humorous narrative


graphic novel

(comics) A comic book containing a single and full nonepisodic story.


matt

(film) Alternative spelling of matte (“background, often painted or created with computers”)


cartoonist

→ Indonesian: kartunis

(comics) One who creates a cartoon or strip cartoon.

cartooniste m or f dessinateur de dessins animés

(comics) One who both writes and illustrates comic books or graphic novels.

sarjakuvataiteilija

person who writes and illustrates comic books


drop letter

(typography) A large letter at the beginning of a line of text, positioned in a decorative way below the baseline of the rest of the type.


hyperspace

hyperspace (countable and uncountable, plural hyperspaces)

We can only get to the Nimrodian Galaxy if we go through hyperspace.

I'm in command of 18 competitively selected super-perfect physical specimens with an average age of 24.6 who have been locked up in hyperspace for 378 days.

1956, Cyril Hume, Forbidden Planet, spoken by Commander Adams (Leslie Nielsen):

(science fiction) A notional space orthogonal to the usual dimensions of space-time often used for faster-than-light travel.


hyperspace

en-verb

hyperspace (third-person singular simple present hyperspaces, present participle hyperspacing, simple past and past participle hyperspaced)

hyperspaces (present singular third-person)
hyperspacing (participle present)
hyperspaced (participle past)
hyperspaced (past)

If she hyperspaced out to Tionisla or Lave the Courier would simply follow through her witchspace wormhole.

2010, Drew Wagar, Status Quo (Oolite Saga), Drew Wagar, →ISBN:

(science fiction, transitive, intransitive) To travel or transport into hyperspace.


wigging

en-noun

wigging (countable and uncountable, plural wiggings)

“So why are there so few women in the stunt industry? Many point to the practice of “wigging” – which is when male stunt actors play female characters.”

2018, Daniel Lavelle, “Why stuntwomen are angry about 'wigging' – and are changing the industry from within”, in The Guardian:

(film) The practice of male stuntmen performing for actresses.


shojo

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

From the Japanese 少女 (shōjo, “young woman”).

(anime, manga) A style of anime and manga intended for young women.


shojo

en-adj

shojo (comparative more shojo, superlative most shojo)

more shojo (comparative)
most shojo (superlative)

(anime, manga) Being in the style of shōjo manga or anime.


shojo

(folklore) A creature in Japanese folklore, often depicted as a sea spirit with red hair and a fondness for alcohol.


bump

en-noun

bump (countable and uncountable, plural bumps)

From Early Modern English bump (“a shock, blow from a collision”), probably of North Germanic origin; compare Danish bump (“a thump”), Danish bumpe (“to thump”), Old Danish bumpe (“to strike with a clenched fist”), all probably of imitative origin.
Apparently related to Middle English bumben, bummen (“to make a hollow noise”), Dutch bommen (“to hum, buzz”), German Low German bumsen (“to bump, push”), German bummen (“to hum, buzz”), Icelandic bumba (“drum”). More at bum, bumble. Compare also bomb.

onom

imitative

cog

(US, broadcasting) A short, self-promotional spot on a radio or television station.


bump

en-verb

bump (third-person singular simple present bumps, present participle bumping, simple past and past participle bumped)

bumps (present singular third-person)
bumping (participle present)
bumped (participle past)
bumped (past)
Lighter (canonical)
1917-1919: An Historical Glossary” (canonical)
volume 47 (canonical)
number 1 (canonical)
page 24 (canonical)

onom

imitative

(printing, dated) To spread out material so as to fill any desired number of pages.


Terran

(chiefly science fiction) Of Earth; of terrestrial origin.


Terran

The magazines, in the nearby rack, were in English. And on their covers, laughing Terrans.

1966, Philip K. Dick, Now Wait for Last Year:

(chiefly science fiction) An inhabitant of Earth; an earthling, especially a human.


lector

From Middle English lector, lectoure, lectour, from Late Latin lēctor, from legō (“I read”). “Voice-over” sense probably adapted from Polish lektor.

The Hungarian viewer of The Colbert Report wants to experience authentic American comedy, and the lector—like an interpreter performing chuchotage at a high-level meeting of heads of state—serves primarily as a check on the viewer's grasp of the real thing.

2011, David Bellos, chapter 12, in Is that a Fish in Your Ear?:

(television, film) A person doing voice-over translation of foreign films, especially in Eastern European countries.


italic

Named after the nation of Italy, as it was first used by an Italian printer, Aldo Manuzio, around 1500. Literally Italy + -ic.

(typography, of a typeface or font) Designed to resemble a handwriting style developed in Italy in the 16th century.

курсивен

designed to resemble a handwriting style

The text was impossible to read: every other word was underlined or in a bold or italic font.

(typography, of a typeface or font) Having letters that slant or lean to the right; oblique.


italic

Names of vessels, as the Kearsarge or the Alabama, are frequently put in italic.

1902, Theodore Low DeVinne, The Practice of Typography: Correct Composition, page 104:

[…] ROBERT GRANJON, possibly in collaboration with CLAUDE GARAMOND, had created an italic which matched Garamond Roman.

1983, Ida M. Kimber, The Art of Lettering, translation of original by Albert Kapr, page 329:

(typography) A typeface in which the letters slant to the right.

շղատառ

typeface whose letters slant to the right


petit

From French petit (“brevier”) directly or via German Petit (“brevier”).

(printing, dated, French and German contexts) Synonym of brevier.


conscience

en-noun

conscience (countable and uncountable, plural consciences)

From Middle English conscience, from Old French conscience, from Latin conscientia (“knowledge within oneself”), from consciens, present participle of conscire (“to know, to be conscious (of wrong)”), from com- (“together”) + scire (“to know”).

der

(chiefly fiction, narratology) A personification of the moral sense of right and wrong, usually in the form of a person, a being or merely a voice that gives moral lessons and advices.


warp

en-verb

warp (third-person singular simple present warps, present participle warping, simple past and past participle warped)

warps (present singular third-person)
warping (participle present)
warped (participle past)
warped (past)

→ Japanese: ワープ (wāpu)

From Middle English werpen, weorpen, worpen, from Old English weorpan (“to throw”), from Proto-West Germanic *werpan, from Proto-Germanic *werpaną (“to throw, turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *werb- (“to bend, turn”).
Cognate with Scots warp (“to throw, warp”), North Frisian werpen (“to throw”), Dutch werpen (“to throw, cast”), German werfen (“to throw, cast”), Icelandic verpa (“to throw”).

der

Then we warp a ball of atmosphere right out of the sky into the domes, and some fruit trees to go with them, and we also abduct some livestock.

2004, Travis S. Taylor, Warp Speed, →ISBN:

Valerie asked why they couldn't warp to the planet.

2012, Jonathan Henry, The Revelation of Earth: First Contact, page 188:

(transitive, intransitive, science fiction) To travel or transport across a medium without passing through it normally, as by using a teleporter or time warp.


backbench

A good spread could be allotted on a news page if the dead person was deemed worthy by the powerful and sceptical members of the “backbench” of the senior sub-editors.

1996, David Twiston-Davies, Canada from Afar: The Daily Telegraph Book of Canadian Obituaries, →ISBN:

The attitude of the Observer backbench when I filed the story the following sunday showed how happy my sub-editing colleagues from the previous winter were with my feat.

2006, Ken Haley, Emails from the Edge: A Journey Through Troubled Times, →ISBN, page 17:

After his copy had dropped, MacKenzie had gone over to the backbench and instructed them: 'Don't change a word of this. Then if he's got it wrong the little fucker won't be able to wriggle out of this one!'

2013, Chris Horrie, Peter Chippindale, Stick It Up Your Punter!: The Uncut Story of the Sun Newspaper, →ISBN:

(newspaper, publishing) A group of top-level journalists who jointly review submissions and decide on the layout and emphasis of the newspaper.


ATV

Associated Television
w:Associated Television

(broadcasting, television) Initialism of Associated Television.

Asia Television Limited
w:Asia Television Limited

(broadcasting, television) Initialism of Asia Television Limited.

(broadcasting, television) Initialism of ATV (Austria).


ATV

en-noun

ATV (countable and uncountable, plural ATVs)

(broadcasting, television) Initialism of amateur television.


unity

unity (countable and uncountable, plural unities)

Etymology tree
Middle English unite
English unity
From Middle English unite, from Anglo-Norman, Old French unité, from Latin ūnitās, from ūnus (“one”) + noun of state suffix -itās, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *óynos (“one, single”), hence distantly related to one and an. Displaced native Old English ānnes (literally “oneness”).

der

(drama) Any of the three classical rules of drama: unity of action (nothing should be admitted not directly relevant to the development of the plot), unity of place (the scenes should be set in the same place), and unity of time (all the events should be such as might happen within a single day).

eenheid

drama: any of the three classical rules of drama


flush

en-adj

flush (comparative flusher, superlative flushest)

flusher (comparative)
flushest (superlative)

Same as Etymology 3, according to the American Heritage Dictionary.

flush left and right
flush left and right#English

(typography) Short for flush left and right: a body of text aligned with both its left and right margins.


portrait

en-noun

portrait (countable and uncountable, plural portraits)

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

From Middle French portraict, pourtraict, nominal use of the past participle of portraire (“portray”), from Latin prōtrahō.

(computing, printing) A print orientation where the vertical sides are longer than the horizontal sides.

κατακόρυφος προσανατολισμός

εκτύπωσης-χαρτιού


slur

en-verb

slur (third-person singular simple present slurs, present participle slurring, simple past and past participle slurred)

slurs (present singular third-person)
slurring (participle present)
slurred (participle past)
slurred (past)

From Middle English sloor (“thin or fluid mud”). Cognate with Middle Low German sluren (“to trail in mud”). Also related to dialectal Norwegian sløra (“to be careless, to scamp, dawdle”), Danish sløre (“to wobble, be loose”) (especially for wheels); compare Old Norse slóðra (“to drag oneself along”).
* (an extremely offensive term): Influenced by various compounds of sense 1 such as racial slur, ethnic slur, etc.

cog

(printing, dated) To blur or double, as an impression from type; to mackle.

dissimuler

printing: to blur or double, as an impression from type; to mackle


filmic

en-adj

filmic (comparative more filmic, superlative most filmic)

more filmic (comparative)
most filmic (superlative)

(literature) Of or relating to movies; cinematic.


tieback

(journalism) A newspaper rewrite or short synopsis of the information presented in the original story. in order to refresh the memories of readers who saw the old story and to update new readers.


thriller

(film, literature) A suspenseful, sensational genre of story, book, play or film.

إِثَارَة

a suspenseful, sensational genre of fiction

pulp novel

A suspenseful, sensational genre of fiction


refactor

en-verb

refactor (third-person singular simple present refactors, present participle refactoring, simple past and past participle refactored)

refactors (present singular third-person)
refactoring (participle present)
refactored (participle past)
refactored (past)

Two significant activities which to contribute to community projects, such as Wikipedia, are to refactor complicated articles into simpler ones, and to refactor duplicated content into reusable templates.

(writing) To rewrite existing text in order to improve its readability, reusability or structure without intentionally affecting its meaning. Similar to, but sometimes involving more extensive restructuring than, copy editing.


blaxploitation

Blend of black + exploitation (from exploitation film) or blend of blax + exploitation.

(film) A genre of exploitation films of the 1970s that starred black actors.


doggerel

Probably from dog + -rel (“pejorative suffix”), akin to Dog Latin, late 14th c.

True Wit has ſeen its best days long ago, / It ne're look'd up, ſince we were dipt in Show: / When Senſe in Dogrel Rimes and Clouds was loſt, / And Dulneſs flouriſh'd at the Actors coſt.

1677 (date written), John Dryden, “Prologue”, in The Kind Keeper; or, Mr. Limberham: A Comedy: […], London: […] R[ichard] Bentley, and M[ary] Magnes, […], published 1680, →OCLC:

(poetry) Of a crude or irregular construction.


doggerel

en-noun

doggerel (countable and uncountable, plural doggerels)

Taffy drew a long breath into his manly bosom, and kept it there as he read this characteristic French doggerel (for so he chose to call this touching little symphony in ère and ra).

1894, George du Maurier, “Part Sixth”, in Trilby: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 302:

As he marched he sang a bit of doggerel in a high and quavering voice: / "Sing a song 'a vic'try, / A pocketful 'a bullets, / Five an' twenty dead men / Baked in a—pie."

1895 October, Stephen Crane, chapter VIII, in The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 86:

(poetry) A comic or humorous verse, usually irregular in measure.


byline

Paste Magazine opted not to put a byline on its harsh review of Swift’s album, citing safety concerns for the writer.

2024 April 22, Matt Stevens, Shivani Gonzalez, “Taylor Swift Has Given Fans a Lot. Is It Finally Too Much?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(journalism) A line at the head of a newspaper or magazine article carrying the writer's name.


byline

en-verb

byline (third-person singular simple present bylines, present participle bylining, simple past and past participle bylined)

bylines (present singular third-person)
bylining (participle present)
bylined (participle past)
bylined (past)

Mitchell, Lange and Brus (2013) find that in a top international relations Journal^([sic])—ISQ—83 percent of men's citation are to research bylined by just men, while 57 percent of women's citations are to articles bylined by just men (table 2).

2020, Colin Elman, John Gerring, James Mahoney, editors, The Production of Knowledge: Enhancing Progress in Social Science, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, footnote 34, page 416:

(journalism, transitive) To provide (an article) with a byline.


transcription

en-noun

transcription (countable and uncountable, plural transcriptions)

From Middle French transcription, or directly from Latin transcriptiōnem, from trānscrībō (“transcribe”).

From the outset, Selvage had hoped to interest NBC or CBS in broadcasting the American Family Robinson on a sustaining basis. Neither did, and the series ended up in transcription, recorded and circulated to individual stations by the World Broadcasting System.

1999, William L. Bird, "Better Living": Advertising, Media and the New Vocabulary of Business Leadership, 1935-1955, Northwestern University Press, →ISBN:

Something that has been transcribed, including:

(broadcasting) A recorded radio or television programme.


xenocide

xenocide (countable and uncountable, plural xenocides)

The age that began with one xenocide attempted had now ended with other xenocides prevented or, at least, postponed.

1996, Orson Scott Card, Children of the Mind:

(science fiction) The genocide of an entire alien species.


bodkin

From Middle English boydekin (“dagger”), apparently from *boyde, *boide (of unknown [Celtic?] origin) + -kin. Cognate with Scots botkin, boitkin, boikin (“bodkin”).

(printing) A sharp tool, like an awl, formerly used for pressing down individual type characters (e.g. letters) from a column or page in making corrections.


transmissible

en-adj

transmissible (comparative more transmissible, superlative most transmissible)

more transmissible (comparative)
most transmissible (superlative)

(radio communications or broadcasting, of a message or program) Capable of being transmitted from a transmitter to a receiver.


lay down

en-verb

lay down (third-person singular simple present lays down, present participle laying down, simple past and past participle laid down)

lays down (present singular third-person)
laying down (participle present)
laid down (participle past)
laid down (past)

From Middle English leyen doun, leien doun (“to lay down”), equivalent to lay + down.

(obsolete, printing) To place a sheet in a printing press for printing.


transorbital

(science fiction) A commercial spacecraft operating between the planets of the solar system.


syllabary

/ˈsɪləˌbɛɹi/

From Neo-Latin syllabārium, from syllaba.

(orthography) A table or list of syllabic letters or syllables.

It shouldn't be hard to come up with a musical syllabary in which pitches code for vowels and timbres code for consonants.

(orthography) A writing system where each character represents a complete syllable.


branch out

branch out (third-person singular simple present branches out, present participle branching out, simple past and past participle branched out)

branches out (present singular third-person)
branching out (participle present)
branched out (participle past)
branched out (past)

(obsolete, printing) To white out or expand the whitespace around the title or other words, lines, etc. in a document.


forward slash

A retronym coined to distinguish the slash from the backslash, particularly in computing contexts.


geminatio vocalium

Borrowed from Latin geminatio vocalium (“doubling of vowels”).

bor

The least-used method is geminatio vocalium, as in Oscan and (occasionally) Umbrian: PAASTORES.

2008, Andrew L Sihler, New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin:

(epigraphy) The process of indicating that a vowel is pronounced long by writing it twice, especially as was sometimes done in Latin due to influence from Oscan.


Harvard comma

From Harvard University Press, where such use is the house style.


Oxford comma

From Oxford University Press, where such use is the house style.

It was Collins who invented the ‘Oxford comma’, for which he obtained supported from Herbert Spencer.

2002 [1978], Peter Sutcliffe, “Making the Press what it ought to be”, in The Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, page 114:

Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma? / I've seen those English dramas too; they're cruel / So if there's any other way to spell the word / It's fine with me, with me

2008, “Oxford Comma”, in Vampire Weekend, performed by Vampire Weekend:

It is a debate that has torn the nation in two, ripped friends and family apart, and entrenched deep and uncrossable lines throughout the land. Should the Royal Mint have used an Oxford comma on its Brexit 50p piece?

2020 January 27, Alison Flood, “Philip Pullman calls for boycott of Brexit 50p coin over 'missing' Oxford comma”, in The Guardian:


mortise

en-verb

mortise (third-person singular simple present mortises, present participle mortising, simple past and past participle mortised)

mortises (present singular third-person)
mortising (participle present)
mortised (participle past)
mortised (past)

From Middle English morteys, from Old French mortaise, from Arabic مُرْتَزّ (murtazz), from اِرْتَزَّ (irtazza).

(typography) To adjust the horizontal space between selected pairs of letters; to kern.


nutgraf

(journalism, colloquial) The sentence or paragraph that summarizes a story.


transporter

(science fiction) A device that instantaneously transports, or teleports, a person or object.


script

en-noun

script (countable and uncountable, plural scripts)

From Middle English scrit, borrowed from Old French escrit, from Latin scriptum (something written), from scrībō (“write”).

(typography) Type made in imitation of handwriting.


overplay

en-verb

overplay (third-person singular simple present overplays, present participle overplaying, simple past and past participle overplayed)

overplays (present singular third-person)
overplaying (participle present)
overplayed (participle past)
overplayed (past)

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

When Chris overacted his part again, the director warned that anyone overplaying would be barred from the next production.

Nevertheless, 3 Body Problem does well to pull us onward, as much through the relentless, but never overplayed, suffering and hardening of Ye Wenjie as she endures her effective imprisonment in the project grounds – and the stealing of her work by others – as by the present day mystery.

2024 March 21, Lucy Mangan, “3 Body Problem review – the creators of Game of Thrones have done it again”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(transitive, intransitive, acting) To overdo or overact one's effect or role.


set up

set up (third-person singular simple present sets up, present participle setting up, simple past and past participle set up)

sets up (present singular third-person)
setting up (participle present)
set up (participle past)
set up (past)

(obsolete, printing) Synonym of compose (To arrange (types) in a composing stick for printing; to typeset)


shooting

en-noun

shooting (countable and uncountable, plural shootings)

From Middle English shoting, schoting, from Old English scotung (“shooting”), from Proto-Germanic *skutungō, equivalent to shoot + -ing. Cognate with Dutch schieting, German Erschießung (“shooting”), Swedish skjutning (“shooting”).


retrace

From French retracer, from Middle French retracier.

(television) The period when the beam of the cathode-ray tube returns to its initial horizontal position in order to start the next line of the display.


coverage

coverage (countable and uncountable, plural coverages)

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-?
Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm
Proto-Italic *kom
Old Latin com
Latin cum
Latin con-
Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-?
Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi
Proto-Indo-European *h₂wer-
Proto-Indo-European *-yeti
Latin operiō
Latin cooperiō
Old French covrirbor.
Middle English coveren
English cover
Proto-Italic *-ātos
Latin -ātus
Proto-Italic *-kos
Latin -cus
Latin -icus
Latin -āticus
Latin -āticum
Old French -agebor.
Middle English -age
English -age
English coverage
From cover + -age. First attested in 1912. Compare Middle English coverage (“a charge for having or stall or booth at a fair”).

cog

Through services using the Elizabeth line were increased from November 6, but this did not attract significant media coverage - mainly because it has been an operational success, […].

2022 November 30, Industry Insider, “Autumn Statement boost”, in RAIL, number 971, page 84:

(journalism) The amount and type of attention given to an event or topic in news media or other media.

լուսաբանում

(journalism) the amount and type of attention given to an event or topic in news media


quoin

Next fit the quoins, using the “persuader” to squeeze in the pages, and tap up all around.

1898, John Southward, Modern Printing: A Handbook of the Principles and Practice of Typography and the Auxiliary Arts:

(printing, historical) A metal wedge which fits into the space between the type and the edge of a chase, and is tightened to fix the metal type in place.


thunderclap

[…] the thunderclaps, and advised Cage on their meaning. Cage considered composing new star-map music, in which microphones attached to the throats of the chorus members would make their singing of Joyce's verbal thunderclaps sound like […]

2012, Kenneth Silverman, Begin Again: A Biography of John Cage, page 292:


baka

en-adj

baka (comparative more baka, superlative most baka)

more baka (comparative)
most baka (superlative)

Borrowed from Japanese 馬鹿(ばか) (baka, “stupid”).

(anime manga, fandom slang, endearing) Stupid, silly.


baka

(anime manga, fandom slang, endearing) A foolish person, a dummy, a silly goose.


persuader

(printing, historical, colloquial) A tool used to pack the type into the form.

These electrons are guided to the second dynode by the resultant electric field of this dynode and the persuader.

1953, Stanley William Amos, D. C. Birkinshaw, Television Engineering, Principles and Practice, page 108:

(television) An electrode that directs electrons into a multiplier.


cowcatcher

Coordinate term: hitchhiker

Hitchhiker and cowcatcher plugs will be considered.

National advertisers have probably been major contributors to this practice through the use of so-called hitchhike and cowcatcher announcements.

1945, Charles Harold Sandage, Radio Advertising for Retailers, page 185:

Sometime in the mid-40s, the Hummerts canceled Mr. Keen and Easy Aces from their early evening periods on CBS, which also killed my cowcatchers and hitchhikes.

2009, George Ansbro, I Have a Lady in the Balcony, page 138:

(radio, advertising) An advertisement at the start of a programme.


layout

→ German: Layout

→ Dutch: lay-out

→ Polish: layout

→ Portuguese: layout

→ Russian: лейаут (lejaut)

→ Swedish: layout

(publishing) The process of arranging editorial content, advertising, graphics and other information to fit within certain constraints.

佈局 /布局

process of arranging media content for publishing


slick

From Middle English slicke, slike, slyke, from Old English slīc (“sleek, smooth; crafty, cunning, slick”), from Proto-Germanic *slīkaz (“sleek, smooth”),
from Proto-Indo-European *sleyg-, *sleyǵ- (“to glide, smooth, spread”). Akin to Dutch sluik, dialectal Dutch sleek (“even, smooth”), Old Norse slíkr (“sleek, smooth”), Old English slician (“to make sleek, smooth, or glossy”).

cog

The project was delayed because the slick had not been delivered to the printer.

(printing) A camera-ready image to be used by a printer. The "slick" is photographed to produce a negative image which is then used to burn a positive offset plate or other printing device.

Many of the stories in SSB [Sex Behind Bars] first appeared in gay slicks, Mandate, Honcho, First Hand, et al.

1981 December 1, Freddie Greenfield, “Insulting Prison Porn”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 20, page 11:

When Carver, wild to be published in a major slick, decided to accept the changes, Maryann accused him “of being a whore, of selling out to the establishment.”

2009 November 20, Stephen King, “Raymond Carver’s Life and Stories”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:


cherry-pick

en-verb

cherry-pick (third-person singular simple present cherry-picks, present participle cherry-picking, simple past and past participle cherry-picked)

cherry-picks (present singular third-person)
cherry-picking (participle present)
cherry-picked (participle past)
cherry-picked (past)

A metaphor, from the idea of picking through a bowl of cherries and seeking the best for oneself, or the idea of picking off the cherries for oneself from a cake or dessert.

Those stations that will send CNN tapes of their local and regional news for CNN to cherry-pick from, in turn will be allowed to cherry-pick themselves.

1980, Television/radio age, volume 28, page 80:

(US, idiomatic, broadcasting) To broadcast selected programming from another network.


bearer

desc

→ Bengali: বেয়ারা (beẏara), বেহারা (behara) (borrowed from sense 4)

From Middle English berer, berere, from Old English berere (attested in Old English wæterberere (“waterbearer”)), equivalent to bear + -er.

(printing) A strip of reglet or other furniture to bear off the impression from a blank page.

(printing) A type or type-high piece of metal interspersed in blank parts to support the plate when it is shaved.


behind the scenes

Many videos come with features that show what went on behind the scenes to make the movie and special effects.

(idiomatic, theater, film) behind the scenery and stage area; backstage; among the actors; during the production or rehearsal


chancery

en-noun

chancery (countable and uncountable, plural chanceries)

/ˈt͡ʃɑːnsəɹɪ/

/ˈt͡ʃænsəɹɪ/

/ˈt͡ʃɑːnsəɹi/

From French chancellerie, from Late Latin cancellaria, from Latin cancellarius, from Latin cancellus (“lattice”) (English chancel), from Latin cancelli (“grating, bars”), from the lattice-work that separated a section of a church or court.
See related chancellor and chancellery, and the more distantly related incarcerate (“put behind bars”), from carcer (“prison”).
The adverbial form is an allusion to the condition of a person involved in the chancery court.


ham it up

en-verb

ham it up (third-person singular simple present hams it up, present participle hamming it up, simple past and past participle hammed it up)

hams it up (present singular third-person)
hamming it up (participle present)
hammed it up (participle past)
hammed it up (past)

You can count on him to ham it up for the camera.

(idiomatic, acting) To deliberately exaggerate one's emotions or movements, or to overact or act hammily.

有意誇張 /有意夸张

performing arts: exaggerate one's emotions or movements


archetype

From Old French architipe (modern French archétype), from Latin archetypum (“original”), from Ancient Greek ἀρχέτυπον (arkhétupon, “model, pattern”), the neuter form of ἀρχέτυπος (arkhétupos, “first-moulded”), from ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “beginning, origin”) (from ἄρχω (árkhō, “to begin; to lead, rule”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ergʰ- (“to begin; to command, rule”)) + τῠ́πος (tŭ́pos, “blow, pressing; sort, type”) (from τύπτω (túptō, “to beat, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp- (“to push; to stick”)).

der

Archetypes are figures and creatures that inhabit the pools of the world's mythology, folk tales, epics, and ballads. […] Thus archetypes are universal essences that we all recognize: the Mother, the Lover, the Trickster, the Spiritual and Temporal Leader, the Devil.

2009, Janet B. Rodgers, Frankie Armstrong, “Introduction: Acting and Singing with Archetypes: Tapping into Creative Potential”, in Acting and Singing with Archetypes, Milwaukee, Wis.: Limelight Editions, Hal Leonard Corporation, →ISBN, page Xiii:

(literature) A character, object, or story that is based on a known character, object, or story.

arquetip

character, object, or story based on a known character, object, or story


lifeboat

(science fiction) An emergency vehicle carried aboard a spaceship.


bit part

2005, Most of her work, however, consisted of bit parts. She often was cast in movies credited only as "flower vendor," "warden" or "suntan lady," — 'Five Easy Pieces' waitress dead at 85, CNN online.

(acting) A minor role, generally not assigned a name.


biter

From Middle English biter, bitere, equivalent to bite + -er. Cognate with West Frisian biter (“biter”), Dutch bijter (“biter”), German Low German Bieter (“biter”), German Beißer (“biter”).


lightsaber

Compound of light + saber; coined by American filmmaker George Lucas for the Star Wars film franchise. First mentioned in the film Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope) which was released on 25 May, 1977.

coined

[Obi-Wan Kenobi to Luke Skywalker] Your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

1977 May 25, George Lucas, Star Wars, spoken by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness):

Wielding his flashlight like a lightsaber, Kyle sent golden shafts slicing through the swirling vapors.

2004, Rob N. Hood, Beyond the Wind, Binghamton, N.Y.: Southern Tier Editions/Harrington Park Press, →ISBN, page 1:

This was the era of Star Wars, the reinvention of science fiction with the homely Luke Skywalker. But even Luke had the Force and a tie-fighter. The Doctor was a humanist, and his spacecraft was an obsolete phone box redolent of bobbies with whistles. He would never resort to lightsabre against villains, preferring to confront them with jelly babies.

2006 September, Steve Tomkins, “Icon of the Month No. 82: Dr Who”, in Simon Jones, editor, Third Way, volume 29, number 7, Harrow, London: Third Way Trust, →ISSN, page 24:

Poster Power / Get the scheme behind the scene with Star Wars Blueprints: The Ultimate Collection. This boxed set includes five double-sided posters with blueprints of the Death Star, R2-D2, and C-3PO, lightsabers and blasters, Darth Vader and the Millennium Falcon.

2008 November, “Collecting”, in Boys' Life, volume XCVIII, number 11, Irving, Tx.: Boy Scouts of America, →ISSN, page 52:

(science fiction) A sword having a blade made of a powerful beam of light or energy.


HD

en-noun

HD (countable and uncountable, plural HDs)

Exploring a new place through seasonal work was like “experiencing life in HD”, she said. “It really cemented the idea that the best way to learn about things is just to dive straight in and get as much information as possible, particularly at that age.”

2024 October 7, Jem Bartholomew, “‘Doesn’t feel fair’: young Britons struggle with losing right to work in EU since Brexit”, in The Guardian:

(television) Initialism of high definition (“1280×720 pixels”).


verisimilar

en-adj

verisimilar (comparative more verisimilar, superlative most verisimilar)

more verisimilar (comparative)
most verisimilar (superlative)

/ˌvɛɹɪˈsɪmələ/

/ˌvɛɹɪˈsɪməlɚ/

/ˌvɛɹəˈsɪməlɚ/

From Latin vērisimilis, prop. vērī similis (“having the appearance of truth”), from vērī (genitive of vērus (“true”)) + similis (“like, similar”); see very and similar.

af

genitive of <i class="Latn mention" lang="la">vērus</i> (“true”)

(fiction) Faithful to its own rules; internally consistent.


madrigal

/ˈmæd͡ɹɪɡəl/

From Italian madrigale, from Latin mātrīcālis.

(poetry) A short poem, often pastoral, and suitable to be set to music.


gafiate

From GAFIA (“getting away from it all”) + -ate (noun-forming suffix).

Westlake's piece is so reminiscent of the old days of fandom, when no gafiate felt he had actually departed until he had alienated everybody on his mailing list.

Herman Stowell King, a long-time gafiate (we first met in the 60s) and collector, turned up in the local Sunday paper with a well-written review of Whitley Streiber's The Forbidden Zone.

1993 October, It Goes On The Shelf, number 10:

Perhaps the disappearance of the vast majority of the copies Dan mailed out in 1981 granted him limited immunity; he did just run for TAFF and win last year, hardly the act of an over-the-hill gafiate.

1996 November, Andy Hooper, “Walking into Midnight”, in Science-Fiction Five-Yearly, number 10, page 37:

(dated, fandom slang, science fiction) A science fiction fan who has become inactive in the fandom community.


gafiate

en-verb

gafiate (third-person singular simple present gafiates, present participle gafiating, simple past and past participle gafiated)

gafiates (present singular third-person)
gafiating (participle present)
gafiated (participle past)
gafiated (past)

From GAFIA (“getting away from it all”) + -ate (verb-forming suffix).

af

She gafiated the moment she first picked up a pulp magazine.

(dated, fandom slang, science fiction) To leave the mundane world and enter the science fiction fandom community.

QUANDRY (Hoffwoman) The famous fanzine published by Lee Hoffman of Savannah Ga. before she gafiated for the first time.

1959, Richard "Dick" Harris Eney, Fancyclopedia II:

He was quite active in the 1940's, vanished for a long while, then reappeared in the 1960's to put out lots of issues of this fanzine with the help of his wife, only to gafiate a second time as abruptly and totally as anyone ever has quit fandom.

1976 November, Harry Warner, Jr., “In One Lustrum and Out the Other”, in Science-Fiction Five-Yearly, number 6, page 11:

And I didn't so much gafiate as move to Asia.

2003 December 3, Marian Rosenberg (brucianna), “Re: Fandom”, in alt.polyamory (Usenet), message-ID <4VPxb.514513$6C4.365955@pd7tw1no>:

(fandom slang, science fiction) To drop out of fandom community activities, with the implication of "getting a life".


justified

en-adj

justified (comparative more justified, superlative most justified)

more justified (comparative)
most justified (superlative)

(typography) Of text, arranged on a page or a computer screen such that the left and right ends of all lines within paragraphs are aligned, with the space between words adjusted as necessary. Also called fully justified to contrast with left-justified and right-justified.

tasattu

having lines arranged on a page or computer screen


sidekick

From side + kick, which in the late 19th and early 20th century was a slang term for the front side pocket of a pair of trousers, known as the pocket safest from theft. Thus, by analogy, a "side-kick" was a person's closest companion.

So even though he had – no question – the best lines in Friends, he was never what he would have been in an earlier era: the sidekick.

2023 October 29, Zoe Williams, “‘An ironic, self-deprecating metrosexual’: how Matthew Perry captured the spirit of the age”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(authorship, figuratively) In literature, theatre/theater, etc., a good foil of the protagonist, a character who helps emphasize the traits of the main character.


trim

en-noun

trim (countable and uncountable, plural trims)

From Middle English trimen, trymen, trümen, from Old English trymman (“to make firm; strengthen”), from Proto-West Germanic *trummjan, from Proto-Germanic *trumjaną (“to make fast; strengthen”), from Proto-Germanic *trumaz (“firm; strong; sound”).

varustelutaso

the manner in which something is equipped

(printing, binding, publishing) Any of the three cut edges of book pages, trimmed with a shear after binding.


spit take

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

When the wombat-riding chimp jumped onto the bar, Smith, who had been enjoying a beer, did a massive spit take.

(acting) A take (recorded performance), generally expressing surprise or disbelief, in which the actor in the act of drinking spits out the drink.


sorcerer

/ˈsɔːsəɹə(ɹ)/

From Middle English sorcerere, from Old French sorcier, from Early Medieval Latin sortiārius, derived from Latin sortem (“fate, fortune”), from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind”).

Pope Joan, who once occupied the throne of the Vatican, was reputed to be the blackest sorcerer of them all.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 105:

"Well, sorcerer?" growled the Norman. "Nay, not well," replied Catweazle shivering miserably, "I have the bone-ache."

1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 7:

(mythology, folklore, fantasy) A magician or wizard. Sometimes specifically male.

yshtës

magician/wizard drawing upon natural powers


Bloody Mary

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

(folklore) A ghost, witch or demonic spirit said to appear in a mirror if her name is chanted repeatedly.


Chaos

From Latin chaos (“chaos”), from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).

19521 Chaos
Chaos (Warhammer)
Chaos (cosmogony)

Chaos warrior, Chaos daemon

(fantasy, science fiction) In the Warhammer franchise, a demonic antagonist that sends demons, monsters, warriors, and beasts to wage war on the games' setting.


Guardian

(newspapers) A British daily national newspaper.


confession

en-noun

confession (countable and uncountable, plural confessions)

From Middle English confessioun, from Old French confession, from Latin cōnfessiō, cōnfessiōnem (“confession, acknowledgment, creed or avowal of one's faith”). Displaced native Old English andetnes. Doublet of confessio.
Morphologically confess + -ion.

der

(chiefly Japanese media) The act of professing one's love.


Ionic

From Ancient Greek ἰωνικός (iōnikós, “related to Ionians”).

uder

(printing, dated) Of or relating to a kind of heavy-faced type.


Ionic

(poetry) A four-syllable metrical unit of light-light-heavy-heavy (‿ ‿ — —) that occurs in Ancient Greek and Latin poetry.


justify

en-verb

justify (third-person singular simple present justifies, present participle justifying, simple past and past participle justified)

justifies (present singular third-person)
justifying (participle present)
justified (participle past)
justified (past)

From Middle English justifien, from Old French justifier, from Late Latin justificare (“make just”), from Latin justus, iustus (“just”) + ficare (“make”), from facere, equivalent to just + -ify.

The text will look better justified.

(transitive, typography) To arrange (text) on a page or a computer screen such that the left and right ends of all lines within paragraphs are aligned.

подравня́вам

arrange lines on a page or computer screen


Krypton

(fiction, DC Comics fictional milieu) A fictional planet, the native world of Superman, named after the element krypton.