ellipsis

en-noun

ellipsis (countable and uncountable, plural ellipses)

Unadapted borrowing from Latin ellīpsis, from Ancient Greek ἔλλειψις (élleipsis, “omission”). Doublet of ellipse.

der

The ellipsis in 1, 2, 3, ..., 7, 8 means that the numbers 4, 5, and 6 are not explicitly included, but are considered to be a part of the pattern.

The ellipsis in 0.333... means that the number is a repeating decimal, having threes that go on forever.

CARD: Hey Baby. Thanks for the … last night. Love you!
HAZEL: Wow. I've never despised an ellipsis so much in my life.

2006, Danielle Corsetto, Girls with Slingshots: 114:

(typography, mathematics) A mark consisting of multiple full stops (with or without spaces), used to indicate omitted, missing, or illegible words; or (in mathematics) that a pattern continues.


synopsis

From Late Latin synopsis, itself from Ancient Greek σύνοψις (súnopsis), from σύν (sún, “with or whole”) + ὄψις (ópsis, “view”) meaning whole view.

(authorship) A brief summary of the major points of a written work, either as prose or as a table; an abridgment or condensation of a work.


Venus

en-noun

Venus (countable and uncountable, plural Venuses or Veneres)

From Middle English Venus, from Latin Venus.

Immoderate Venus in excess, as it is a cause, or in defect; so, moderately used, to some parties an only help, a present remedy.

(obsolete or poetry) Sexual activity or intercourse, sex; lust, love.


diamond

diamond (countable and uncountable, plural diamonds)

From Middle English dyamaunt, from Old French diamant, from Late Latin diamās, from Latin adamās, from Ancient Greek ἀδάμᾱς (adámās, “diamond”). Doublet of adamant. The printing sense is a calque of Dutch diamant, used by Dirck Voskens who first cut it around 1700; compare pearl, ruby (“size of type between pearl and nonpareil”).

der

(printing, dated) The size of type between brilliant and pearl, standardized as 4+¹⁄₂-point.


teleporter

(science fiction) A device used for teleporting.


cyberspace

en-noun

cyberspace (countable and uncountable, plural cyberspaces)

Blend of cybernetics + space, equivalent to cyber- + space, coined by American-Canadian speculative fiction writer William Gibson in his short story collection Burning Chrome (1982) and popularized in his novel Neuromancer (1984).

coin

I knew every chip in Bobby's simulator by heart; it looked like your workaday Ono-Sendai VII, the ‘Cyberspace Seven’, but I'd rebuilt it so many times that you'd have had a hard time finding a square millimetre of factory circuitry in all that silicon.

1982 July, William Gibson, “Burning Chrome”, in Omni, volume 4, number 10, page 72:

Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts… A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding…

1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 51:

(science fiction) A three-dimensional representation of virtual space in a computer network.

կիբերտարածք

science fiction: three-dimensional representation of virtual space


entity

From the Medieval Latin entitās, from ēns (“being”) (stem: ent-) + -tās (compare essentia), see there for more information.

Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 1. Existence

(science fiction) An alien lifeform that has no corporeal body.

生命體 /生命体

(science fiction) alien lifeform that has no corporeal body


basilisk

basilisks (plural)
basilisc (alternative)

From Middle English basilicke, borrowed from Old French basilique, from Latin basiliscus, from Ancient Greek βασιλίσκος (basilískos) (literally "minor king or chieftain", possibly based on descriptions or rare encounters with different types of cobra which have crown-like patterns on their head; the "deadly gaze" could have been from the spitting cobra's ability to spit venom into the eyes of predators or prey from a distance), from βασιλεύς (basileús, “king”). The cognitohazard/infohazard sense is by analogy with the deadly gaze of the mythical creature.

A basilisk, in this context, is information that can hurt you simply because you are aware of it.

2019 June 13, Tom Chivers, The AI Does Not Hate You, Orion Publishing Group, →ISBN:

(science fiction) An infohazard or cognitohazard, especially a Langford's basilisk.


cannon

en-noun

cannon (countable and uncountable, plural cannons or (mainly UK) cannon)

cannons (plural)
cannon (UK mainly plural)

Attested from around 1400 as Middle English canon, canoun, from Old French canon, from Italian cannone, from Latin canna, from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”), from Sumerian 𒄀𒈾 (gi.na). Doublet of canyon. This spelling was not fixed until about 1800.

(printing, uncountable) Alternative form of canon (“a large size of type”).


speaker

→ Brunei Malay: speaker

→ Belarusian: спі́кер (spíkjer)

→ Estonian: spiiker

→ French: speaker

→ Georgian: სპიკერი (sṗiḳeri)

→ Italian: speaker

→ Japanese: スピーカー (supīkā)

→ Malayalam: സ്പീക്കർ (spīkkaṟ)

→ Maltese: speaker, spiker

→ Norwegian Bokmål: speaker

→ Polish: spiker

→ Romanian: speaker

desctree

→ Russian: спикер (spiker)
→ Kazakh:
Cyrillic script: спикер (spiker)
Latin script: spiker

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Latin script: spiker

Cyrillic script: спикер

→ Spanish: speaker

→ Swahili: spika

→ Turkish: spiker

→ Ukrainian: спі́кер (spíker)

From Middle English speker, spekere, an alteration (with change of suffix) of Old English speca, spreca (“speaker”), from Proto-Germanic *sprekô (“speaker”), equivalent to speak + -er. Compare Saterland Frisian Spreeker (“speaker”), West Frisian sprekker (“speaker”), Dutch spreker (“speaker”), German Low German Spreker (“speaker”), German Sprecher (“speaker”).

puhuja

linguistics: producer of a given utterance

Popular culture often incorrectly attributes quotes from the speakers of poems or songs to the authors thereof, as when "I took the one less traveled by" is attributed to Robert Frost rather than to the speaker in Frost's "The Road Not Taken".

(especially in linguistics) The producer of a given utterance, whether speech or text.

(poetry) The literary character uttering the lyrics of a poem or song, as opposed to the author writing the words of that character.


canon

en-noun

canon (countable and uncountable, plural canons)

From Middle English canoun, from Old French canon and Old English canon, both from Latin canōn, from Ancient Greek κανών (kanṓn, “measuring rod, standard”), akin to κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Semitic (compare Hebrew קָנֶה (qane, “reed”) and Arabic قَنَاة (qanāh, “reed”)). Doublet of qanun. See also cane, cannon, canyon, canal.

der

(printing, dated, uncountable) A large size of type formerly used for printing the church canons, standardized as 48-point.


carrier

From Middle English cariere, partly from carien + -ere, after Anglo-Norman carier, cariour, and partly directly from Anglo-Norman. By surface analysis, carry + -er.

но́сьбіт

And each was hideously powerful: an attack carrier could destroy a world, a force of cruisers and spinship destroyers could destroy a sun.

1990, Dan Simmons, The Fall of Hyperion, 1st edition, New York: Doubleday, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 114:

The first carrier completely ignored us, sir! Blew through the Malta’s debris field and headed straight for Earth!

2004 November 9, Bungie, Halo 2, spoken by Cortana (Jen Taylor), Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox, level/area: Cairo Station:

In fleet combat, carriers stay clear of battle, launching fighters bearing disruptor torpedoes. Fighters are the primary striking power of the ship; if a carrier enters mass accelerator range of the enemy, things have gone very wrong.
It is possible to recover and rearm fighters during combat, though most carriers seal the flight deck and try to stay out of the way. The flight deck is essentially a corridor through the armor and into the heart of the vessel. A single well-placed torpedo is enough to gut a carrier.
Alliance carriers are named after great leaders, artists, and intellectuals from human history.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Starships: Carriers Codex entry:

aircraft carrier
aircraft carrier#English

A person or object that carries someone or something else.

(science fiction, by extension) A starship designed to carry starfighters


worm

From Middle English worm, werm, wurm, wirm, from Old English wyrm (“worm, snake”), from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz, from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥mis, possibly from *wer- (“to turn”). Doublet of vermin and wyrm, the latter of which is a fairly recent borrowing directly from the Old English.
(computing): First computer usage by John Brunner in his 1975 book The Shockwave Rider.
Cognates
Germanic cognates include Dutch worm, West Frisian wjirm, German Wurm, Swedish orm (“snake”), Norwegian Nynorsk orm (“earthworm or snake”), Danish orm and Yiddish וואָרעם (vorem).
Indo-European cognates include Latin vermis (“worm”), Lithuanian var̃mas (“insect, midge”), Albanian rrime (“rainworm”), Ancient Greek ῥόμος (rhómos, “woodworm”).

шнек

something helical, especially the thread of a screw

Mongolian death worm
Mongolian death worm

(fantasy, science fiction) Either a mythical "dragon" (especially wingless), a gigantic sea serpent, or a creature that resembles a Mongolian death worm.


credit

en-noun

credit (countable and uncountable, plural credits)

Borrowed from Middle French crédit (“belief, trust”), from Latin crēditum (“a loan, credit”), neuter of crēditus, past participle of crēdere (“to believe”). The verb is from the noun. Doublet of shraddha, creed.

To repair your star cruiser will cost 100,000 credits.

Aside from the fact that she means nearly ten million credits investment, which no one will insure on this trip, there will necessarily be seventy-three men aboard.

1934 December, John W. Campbell, Jr., “The Mightiest Machine”, in Astounding Stories, volume XIV, number 4, Street & Smith, page 12:

The standard credit was established by the Citadel's Unified Banking Act as the currency of interstellar trade. The credit has a managed floating exchange rate, calculated in real time by the central bank to maintain the average value of all participating currencies. Some regional currencies are worth more than a credit and some less.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Credits ("Creds") Codex entry:

"First the Patrons wipe-out our home world, now you blow any chance of us making any credits," Kane said in his gruff sinking voice.

2016, A.K. Brown, Jumpstart (Champagne Universe Series: Book 1), page 19:

(science fiction) A unit of currency used in a fictional universe or timeframe.


copy

copies (plural)
coppy (alternative)
coppie (alternative)
copie (alternative)

Etymology tree
Middle English copy
English copy
From Middle English copy, copie, from Old French copie (“abundance, plenty; transcript, copy”), from Medieval Latin copia (“reproduction, transcript”), from Latin cōpia (“plenty, abundance”), from *coopia, from co- (“together”) + ops (“wealth, riches”). More at opulent.

ру́копись

для сда́чи в печа́ть

материа́л

для статьи́, заме́тки, книги, публика́ции

en:text that is to be typeset or similarly prepared and published

en:output of copywriters, as marketing or advertising matter

(typography, journalism, publishing) The text (words, content) that is to be typeset or similarly prepared and published.

(marketing, advertising) The output of copywriters, who are employed to write material which encourages consumers to buy goods or services.

Submit all copy to the appropriate editor.

(uncountable) The text to be set into newspaper articles, magazine pages, or similar.

This organization doesn't publish any copy that hasn't been edited by a good copy editor.


fool

full (accents with FOOT-GOOSE merger or full-fool merger)

From Middle English fole (“fool”), from Old French fol (cf. modern French fou (“mad”)) from Latin follis. Doublet of fals and follis. Displaced native Old English dwæs.

(literature) A stock character typified by unintelligence, naïveté or lucklessness, usually as a form of comic relief; often used as a source of insight or pathos for the audience, as such characters are generally less bound by social expectations.


token

From Middle English token, taken, from Old English tācn (“sign”), from Proto-West Germanic *taikn, from Proto-Germanic *taikną, from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show, instruct, teach”) with Germanic *k rather than *h by Kluge's law. The verb is from Middle English toknen, from Old English tācnian. Cognate with German Zeichen, Dutch teken and Danish tegn.

that and a token will get you on the subway

(printing) Ten and a half quires, or, commonly, 250 sheets, of paper printed on both sides; also, in some cases, the same number of sheets printed on one side, or half the number printed on both sides.


diagonal

backslash

antonym(s) of “oblique punctuation mark”

/daɪˈæɡənəl/

/dɑɪˈæɡ.ə.nəl/

From Middle French diagonal, from Latin diagōnālis, from Ancient Greek διαγώνιος (diagṓnios, “from angle to angle”), from διά (diá, “across”) + γωνία (gōnía, “angle”).

диагонал

something forming or resembling a diagonal line

Initial inquiries among professional typists uncover names like slant, slant line, slash, and slash mark. Examination of typing instruction manuals discloses additional names such as diagonal and diagonal mark, and other sources provide the designation oblique.

1965, Dmitri A. Borgmann, Language on Vacation, page 240:

Anything forming or resembling such a line, particularly:

(typography, uncommon) Synonym of slash ⟨/⟩.


quinzaine

(poetry) A piece of verse having fifteen syllables.


serif

From earlier ceriph, ceref, of obscure derivation. There are two (not directly interrelated) candidates for a possible Dutch origin: 1.) the noun schreef (“stroke”, now also “serif” as a semantic loan), related with schrapen (“to scrape”); and 2.) the verb schrafferen (“to provide with horizontal lines, to shade”), from Italian sgraffiare. For the latter, compare German Schraffe (“serif”), although this again may be a semantic loan based on the English word rather than original to it. Alternatively, from Late Latin cerificus (“waxen”), from Latin cera (“wax”), after the ruled lines used in writing on wax tablets.

It is generally believed, by those who study such things, that serif typefaces are easier to read when reading a lot of words. The hickeys (serifs) on each letter tend to push our eye toward the next letter.

2018, Paul W. Ross, Revival: The Handbook of Software for Engineers and Scientists:

(typography) A short line added to the end of a stroke in traditional typefaces, such as Times New Roman.


serif

(typography) Of a typeface, provided with serifs.


portal

From Middle English portal, porttol, from Old French portal and Medieval Latin portāle, from porta.

jet bridge

elevated corridor permitting access to a plane from an airport

(science fiction and fantasy) A magical or technological doorway leading to another location; period in time or dimension.


portal

en-verb

portal (third-person singular simple present portals, present participle portaling or portalling, simple past and past participle portaled or portalled)

portals (present singular third-person)
portaling (participle present)
portalling (participle present)
portaled (participle past)
portaled (past)
portalled (participle past)
portalled (past)

(science fiction, fantasy) To use a portal (magical or technological doorway).


fiction

en-noun

fiction (countable and uncountable, plural fictions)

→ Irish: ficsean

→ Scottish Gaelic: ficsean

From Middle English ficcioun, from Old French ficcion (“dissimulation, ruse, invention”), from Latin fictiō (“a making, fashioning, a feigning, a rhetorical or legal fiction”), from fingō (“to form, mold, shape, devise, feign”). Displaced native Old English lēasspell (literally “false story”).

ncog

I am a great reader of fiction.

the fiction section of the library

(literature) Literary type using invented or imaginative writing, instead of real facts, usually written as prose.


encyclopedic fiction

While ostensibly a romantic novel, Moby Dick can also be viewed as an encyclopedic fiction.

(literature) A work of fiction employing a variety of forms to explore its subject exhaustively.


soul

en-noun

soul (countable and uncountable, plural souls)

souls (plural)
sowl (alternative)
soule (alternative)

→ German: Soul

→ Esperanto: soulo

→ French: soul

→ Hungarian: soul

→ Italian: soul

→ Japanese: ソウル

→ Polish: soul

→ Portuguese: soul

→ Romanian: soul

→ Russian: со́ул (sóul)

→ Scots: sowel

→ Spanish: soul

→ Ukrainian: со́ул (sóul)

From Middle English soule, sowle, saule, sawle, from Old English sāwol (“soul, life, spirit, being”), from Proto-West Germanic *saiwalu, from Proto-Germanic *saiwalō (“soul”), of uncertain ultimate origin (see there for further information). Cognate with Scots saul, sowel (“soul”), North Frisian siel, sial (“soul”), Saterland Frisian Seele (“soul”), West Frisian siel (“soul”), Dutch ziel (“soul”), German Seele (“soul”) Scandinavian homonyms seem to have been borrowed from Old Saxon *siala. Modern Danish sjæl, Swedish själ, Norwegian sjel, Icelandic sál, Finnish sielu may have come from Old English sāwol.

inh

1836, Hans Christian Andersen (translated into English by Mrs. H. B. Paull in 1872), The Little Mermaid
"Among the daughters of the air," answered one of them. "A mermaid has not an immortal soul, nor can she obtain one unless she wins the love of a human being. On the power of another hangs her eternal destiny. But the daughters of the air, although they do not possess an immortal soul, can, by their good deeds, procure one for themselves.

No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or[…]. And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46:

Flowey: See that heart? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!

2015 September 15, Toby Fox, Undertale, Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X:

(religion, folklore) The spirit or essence of a person usually thought to consist of one's thoughts and personality, often believed to live on after the person's death.

аԥсы

the spirit or essence of a person that is often believed to live on after the person's death


tape

en-noun

tape (countable and uncountable, plural tapes)

→ Danish: tape

→ Dutch: tape

→ Hausa: têf

→ Hindi: टेप (ṭep)

→ Irish: téip

→ Japanese: テープ (tēpu)

→ Korean: 테이프 (teipeu)

→ Norwegian:

Bokmål: tape, teip

Nynorsk: tape, teip

→ Spanish: teipe

→ Swahili: tepe, tepu

→ Swedish: tape, tejp

→ Thai: เทป (téep)

→ Tibetan: ཊེབ (ṭeb)

→ Turkish: teyp

→ Urdu:

→ Phalura: ṭeép

→ Welsh: tâp

From Middle English tape, tappe, from Old English tæppa, tæppe (“ribbon, tape”); further origin unclear. Probably akin to Old Frisian tapia (“to pull, rip, tear”), Middle Low German tappen, tāpen (“to grab, pull, rip, tear, snatch”), Middle High German zāfen, zāven (“to pull, tear”).

cog

(printing, historical) A strong flexible band rotating on pulleys for directing the sheets in a printing machine.


squeegee

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

Probably from squeege, an intensified form of squeeze. Compare earlier squill-gee, squillgee.

скребо́к

с рези́новой наса́дкой

silk-screen printing
silk-screen printing

A roller used to similar effect, particularly

(printing) A tool used to force the ink through the stencil in silk-screen printing.


out

outs (plural)
oute (alternative obsolete)

→ Greek: άουτ (áout)

→ Japanese: アウト (auto)

→ Korean: 아웃 (aut)

→ Spanish: out

From Middle English out, oute, from a combination of Old English ūt (“out”, preposition & adverb), from Proto-West Germanic *ūt, from Proto-Germanic *ūt (“out”); and Old English ūte (“outside; without”, adverb), from Proto-Germanic *ūtai (“out; outside”); both from Proto-Indo-European *úd (“upwards, away”).
Cognate with Scots oot, out (“out”), Saterland Frisian uut, uute (“out”), West Frisian út (“out”), Dutch uit (“out”), German Low German ut (“out”), German aus (“out”), Norwegian/Swedish ut, ute (“out; outside”), Danish ud, ude (“out; outside”).

inh

(printing, dated) A word or words omitted by the compositor in setting up copy; an omission.


imp

From Middle English impe, ympe (“tree branch; shoot, sprig; graft, scion; young tree, sapling, seedling; tree”) [and other forms], from Old English impa, impe (“shoot, sprig; graft, scion; young tree, sapling, seedling”), from impian, ġeimpian (“to graft”) (see etymology 1).

"Yes, there are a great, great many coming after us; at least a score," said the lad.—"Well, that's the troll," said the horse; "he is coming after us with his imps."

1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], “The Widow’s Son”, in H[ans] L[ien] Brækstad, transl., Round the Yule Log: Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, →OCLC, page 218:

It was as if there were little imps dancing in my mouth, and every so often, when a situation arose, they'd get together, giggle wickedly, and try to push words out of my open mouth.

1981 December 1, Ruth Geller, “The Lesbian Teacher”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 20, page 5:

(chiefly fiction and mythology) A small, mischievous sprite or a malevolent supernatural creature, somewhat comparable to a demon but smaller and less powerful, formerly regarded as the child of the devil or a demon (see sense 3.2).


tripod

PIE word
 *tréyes
Borrowed from Latin tripūs, tripodis, from Ancient Greek τρίπους (trípous); equivalent to tri- + -pod. Doublet of tripus and teapoy.

(science fiction) A fictional three-legged Martian war machine from H.G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds (1897).


-er

Li’er said hello to his father.

Yue’er began to laugh again and her tears shimmered like dew on a lotus leaf disturbed by a breeze. Then we heard a sound. It was Man’er.

The fish was laid out on the table, but Ping’er had not come back, nor had his father.

2002 [1934], Xiao Hong, “The Field of Life and Death”, in Howard Goldblatt, transl., The Field of Life and Death & Tales of Hulan River, →ISBN, page 32:

Ying’er was not yet three years old. Li’er had always been the one to play with her or to carry her places on his back.

2014 [1959], Zhong Lihe, “The Little Ridge”, in T. M. McClellan, transl., From the Old Country: Stories and Sketches of China and Taiwan, →ISBN, page 202:

(Chinese literature) Junior, child, younger person. (Attached to a name, usually one syllable of the given name.)


interpolation

en-noun

interpolation (countable and uncountable, plural interpolations)

/ɪnˌtɜː.pəˈleɪʃən/

/ɪnˌtɜː.pəˈleɪʃən/

From French interpolation, from Latin interpolatio.
Morphologically interpolate + -ion.

Today a widely established convention encloses all editorial interpolations in square brackets [like so] for clarity.

Bentley wrote a letter […] upon the scriptural glosses in our present copies of Hesychius, which he considered interpolations from a later hand.

1830, Thomas De Quincey, Life of Richard Bentley:

We, who are born into the world's artificial system, can never adequately know how little in our present state and circumstances is natural, and how much is merely the interpolation of the perverted mind and heart of man.

1843, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The New Adam and Eve”, in Mosses from an Old Manse. […], part II, New York, N.Y.: Wiley and Putnam, published 1846, →OCLC, page 1:

(editing, content analysis) That which is introduced or inserted; in contexts of content analysis of centuries-old texts, especially something foreign or spurious.


agate

agate (countable and uncountable, plural agates)

From Middle French agathe, from Latin achatēs, from Ancient Greek ἀχάτης (akhátēs, “agate”).

(uncountable, US printing, dated) The size of type between pearl and nonpareil, standardized as 5+¹⁄₂-point.

(countable, typography) One fourteenth of an inch.


register

registers (plural)
registre (alternative)

/ˈɹɛd͡ʒ.ɪ.stə/

/ˈɹɛd͡ʒ.ɪ.stɚ/

/ˈɹɛd͡ʒ.ə.stɚ/

From Medieval Latin registrum, from Late Latin regesta (“list, items recorded”), from Latin regerō (“to record, to carry back”), from re- + gerō (“to carry, bear”). Compare Latin registoria (“a treasurer”). Some senses influenced by association with unrelated Latin regō (“to rule”).

der

(printing) The exact alignment of lines, margins, and colors.

soutisk

printing: exact alignment of lines, margins and colors

(printing) The inner part of the mould in which types are cast.


register

en-verb

register (third-person singular simple present registers, present participle registering, simple past and past participle registered)

registers (present singular third-person)
registering (participle present)
registered (participle past)
registered (past)
registre (alternative)

/ˈɹɛd͡ʒ.ɪ.stə/

/ˈɹɛd͡ʒ.ɪ.stɚ/

/ˈɹɛd͡ʒ.ə.stɚ/

(transitive, especially printing) To make or adjust so as to be properly or precisely aligned.

pasovat

printing: to adjust so as to be properly aligned


monk

monks (plural)
moncke (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English monk, from Old English munuc, from Proto-West Germanic *munik, from Late Latin monicus, variant of monachus, from Ancient Greek μοναχός (monakhós, “single, solitary”), from μόνος (mónos, “alone”).


guide

→ Hindi: गाइड (gāiḍ)

→ Japanese: ガイド (gaido)

→ Korean: 가이드 (gaideu)

→ Norwegian: guide

→ Swedish: guide

→ Urdu: گائیڈ (gāeḍ)

c. 1325–75. From Middle English guide, from the Old French guide, from Old Occitan guida, from guidar, from Frankish *wītan (“to show the way, lead”), from Proto-Germanic *wītaną (“to see, know; go, depart”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, know”). Cognate with Old English wītan (“to see, take heed to, watch after, guard, keep”). Related also to English wit.

cog

A device that guides part of a machine, or guides motion or action.

(printing, dated) A strip or device to direct the compositor's eye to the line of copy being set.


brilliant

en-noun

brilliant (countable and uncountable, plural brilliants)

(small type size): (German) Brillant

→ Malay: berlian
Indonesian: berlian

Borrowed from French brillant (late 17th century), present participle of the verb briller, from Italian brillare, possibly from Latin berillus, beryllus (“a beryl, gem, eyeglass”), from Ancient Greek βήρυλλος (bḗrullos, “beryl”).

der

(uncountable, printing, dated) The size of type between excelsior and diamond, standardized as 4-point.


torch

The noun is derived from Middle English torch, torche (“large candle; lighted stick; (figurative) sunbeam”), from Old French torche, torque (“torch; bundle of (twisted) straw”) (modern French torche); further etymology uncertain, probably from Vulgar Latin *torca (“coiled object”) (referring to a torch made from twisted plant fibres dipped in a flammable substance such as pitch), from Latin torqua, a variant of torquis (“collar of twisted metal, torque; wreath”), from torqueō (“to twist, wind”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”).
Sense 2.3 (Verbascum thapsus) is either due to the plant’s spike of yellow flowers, or because its leaves and stalks were used to make torches (noun sense 1). Sense 3.2 (“precious cause, etc., which needs to be protected and transmitted to others”) is derived from Latin lampada trādere, from Ancient Greek λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι (lămpắdă părădidónai, “to hand over the torch”), a reference to the torch race held at various festivals such as the Panathenaic Games in Ancient Greece, which involved a relay where a torch was passed from one runner to another.
The verb is derived from the noun.

cog

λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι

sueo'

stick of wood, etc., with one end soaked in a flammable substance and set on fire; similarly shaped implement with a replaceable supply of flammable material

(science fiction) Ellipsis of torch drive (“a spacecraft engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion”).


torch

en-verb

torch (third-person singular simple present torches, present participle torching, simple past and past participle torched)

torches (present singular third-person)
torching (participle present)
torched (participle past)
torched (past)

cog

λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι

(science fiction) To travel in a spacecraft propelled by a torch drive (“an engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion”).

to travel in a spacecraft propelled by a torch drive

matkustaa fuusiolla toimivalla avaruusaluksella


vertex

Late Middle English, borrowed from Latin vertex (“whirl, eddy; top, crown, peak, summit”). Doublet of vortex.

der

Mathworld article on vertices of polyhedra

Mathworld article on vertices of polygons

(typography) A sharp downward point opposite a crotch, as in the letters "V" and "W" but not "Y".


tone

From Middle English ton, tone, from Latin tonus (“sound, tone”) (possibly through Old French ton), from Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, “strain, tension, pitch”), from τείνω (teínō, “I stretch”). Doublet of tune, ton, tonos, and tonus.

տոն

specific pitch, quality and duration; a note

Their tone was dissatisfied, almost menacing.

1850, William Cullen Bryant, Letters of a Traveller:

en:in language, the manner of expression

(language, literature) The manner in which speech or writing is expressed, especially the aspects of diction (word choice), connotation, emotiveness, and register.


bastard

en-adj

bastard (comparative more bastard, superlative most bastard)

more bastard (comparative)
most bastard (superlative)
bastid (alternative)

From Middle English bastard, bastarde, from Old English bastard (used as an epithet), from Anglo-Norman bastard, Old French bastart (“illegitimate child”), perhaps via Medieval Latin bastardus, of obscure origin.
Possibly from Frankish *bāst (“marriage, relationship”) + Old French -ard, -art (pejorative suffix denoting a specific quality or condition). Frankish *bāst derives from a North Sea Germanic variety of Proto-Germanic *banstuz (“bond, connection, relationship, marriage with a second woman of lower status”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to tie, bind”) and is related to West Frisian boaste (“marriage, matrimony”), Middle Dutch bast (“lust, heat”), and more distantly to English boose (“cow-stall”). The term probably originally referred to a child from a polygynous marriage of heathen Germanic custom — a practice not sanctioned by the Christian churches.
Alternatively, Old French bastart may have originated from the Old French term fils de bast (“packsaddle son”), meaning a child conceived on an improvised bed (medieval saddles often doubled as beds while travelling). However chronology makes this difficult, as bastard is attested in Old French from 1089 (Middle Latin bastardus as early as 1010), yet Old French bast (modern French bât), though attested since 1130 with the meaning of "beast of burden", doesn't acquire the specific meaning of "packsaddle" until the 13c., making it too late to have given rise to the terms bastard and bastardus with this sense. The French Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales supports the Germanic theory further above as being most likely.

unk

obscure

ondermaats

of abnormal, irregular or otherwise inferior qualities (size, shape etc.)

(printing) Abbreviated, as the half title in a page preceding the full title page of a book.


imperial

en-noun

imperial (countable and uncountable, plural imperials)

From Middle English imperial, from Old French imperial, from Latin imperiālis (“of the empire or emperor, imperial”), from imperium (“empire, imperial government”) + -ālis, from imperō (“command, order”), from im- (“form of in”) + parō (“prepare, arrange; intend”). Displaced Old English cāserlīċ.

der

(paper, printing) A writing paper size measuring 30 × 22 inches, or printing paper measuring 32 × 22 inches.


waver

From wave (verb) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

affix

(printing, historical) In full waver roller: a roller which places ink on the inking table of a printing press with a back and forth, waving motion.


printer

→ Azerbaijani: printer

→ Georgian: პრინტერი (ṗrinṭeri)

→ Japanese: プリンター (purintā)

→ Korean: 프린터 (peurinteo)

→ Russian: при́нтер (prínter)

→ Serbo-Croatian: prìnter, прѝнтер

IMPRINTED at London in Fleteſtrete by Thomas Berthelet, printer to the kynges highnes, the ſeconde of July, the yere of our lorde. M. DXLV. Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum ſolum.

1545 July 2, Thomas Elyot, A Preservative agaynste Deth, Imprinted at London in Fletestrete: By Thomas Berthelet, printer to the kynges highnes, →OCLC, colophon:

The Court doth Declare, as formerly ſo now, That no Apprentices be taken into any Printing-houſe, otherwiſe than according to this Proportion following, (viz.) ever Maſter Printer that is, or hath been Maſter or Upper Warden of his Company, may have three Apprentices at one time and no more, and every Maſter-Printer that is of the Livery of his Company, may have two Apprentices at one time and no more, […]

1637 July 11, John Rushworth, “[Appendix.] A Decree of Star-Chamber Concerning Printing, Made the Eleventh Day of July Last Past, 1637”, in Historical Collections. The Second Volume of the Second Part, Containing the Principal Matters which Happened from March 26. 1639, until the Summoning of a Parliament, which Met at Westminster, April 13, 1640. With an Account of the Proceedings of that Parliament; and the Transactions and Affairs from that Time, until the Meeting of Another Parliament, November the 3d following. With Some Remarkable Passages therein during the First Six Months. Impartially Related, and Disposed within Annals. Setting forth only Matter of Fact in Order of Time, without Observation or Reflection, London: Printed by M. Wotton at the Three Pigeons against the Inner-Temple-Gate in Fleetstreet, and G. Conyers at the Golden Ring on Ludgate-Hill, published 1686, →OCLC, item XIX, pages 311–312:

[…] Pecuniary motives induced the first printers (from the large sums which were usually paid for manuscripts) to sell their works as such; so that printing was, for a period, as much the counterfeit as the substitute for writing, it being a facsimile of the most approved Scribes.

1824, J[ohn] Johnson, “The Origin, Rise, and Progress of the Typographic Art”, in Typographia, or The Printers’ Instructor: Including an Account of the Origin of Printing, with Biographical Notices of the Printers of England, from Caxton to the Close of the Sixteenth Century: A Series of Ancient and Modern Alphabets, and Domesday Characters: Together with an Elucidation of Every Subject Connected with the Art, volume I, London: Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, Paternoster Row, London, →OCLC, pages 4–5:

Never one to waste an opportunity, he says now: "The low points? You can read about them in my forthcoming book! It's at the printers now.

2021 November 3, Adrian Shooter talks to Paul Clifton, “A lifetime of railway achievements”, in RAIL, number 943, page 34:

(printing) The operator of a printing press or the owner of a printing business; (metonymic) any printing business.


hat

Sranan Tongo: ati

From Middle English hat, from Old English hætt, from Proto-Germanic *hattuz (“hat”), from Proto-Indo-European *kadʰ- (“to guard, cover, care for, protect”). Cognate with North Frisian hat (“hat”), Danish hat (“hat”), Swedish hatt (“hat”), Icelandic hattur (“hat”), Finnish hattu (“hat”), Latin cassis (“helmet”), Lithuanian kudas (“bird's crest or tuft”), Avestan 𐬑𐬀𐬊𐬛𐬀 (xaoda, “hat”), Persian خود (xud, “helmet”), Welsh cadw (“to provide for, ensure”). Compare also hood.

cog

I’lll have to leave it up to antiques experts to tell you when objects were marked that way, but I can tell you it’s called a “hacek” (with the hat over the “c” and pronounced “hacheck”.) It is used to show that a “c” is pronounced as “ch” and an “s” as “sh.” Sometimes linguists just call it the “hat.”

1997 October 6th, “Patricia V. Lehman” (user name), rec.antiques (Usenet newsgroup), “Re: Unusual Mark – made in Cechoslovakia”, Message ID: <34390399.BD7@umich.edu>#1/1

(typography, nonstandard, rare) The háček symbol.


crotchet

/ˈkɹɑt͡ʃ.ɪt/

From Middle English crochet, from Old French crochet (“small hook”), from croc + -et (diminutive suffix), from Old Norse krókr (“hook”). The musical note was named so because of a small hook on its stem in black notation (in modern notation this hook is on the quaver/eighth note). Doublet of crochet, crocket, and croquet.


small caps

1856. Compare caps (“capitals”), 1856; small capitals, 1770.

Because small caps are smaller than full size caps—slightly larger than the x-height—they are less obtrusive and do not overwhelm the upper and lower case type as full size capitals would.

2006, Nigel French, chapter 3, in InDesign Type: Professional Typography with Adobe InDesign CS2, Adobe Press, →ISBN, page 37:

(typography) Capital letters shown in the same form but in small size (typically of the same size as lower-case letters).


essay

Since late 16th century, borrowed from Middle French essay, essai (“essay”), meaning coined by Montaigne in the same time, from the same words in earlier meanings 'experiment; assay; attempt', from Old French essay, essai, assay, assai, from Latin exagium (“weight; weighing, testing on the balance”), from exigere + -ium.

der

In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.”

2013 January 7, Katie L. Burke, “Ecological Dependency”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 2017-02-09, page 64:

(publishing) A written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject.


quarto

en-noun

quarto (countable and uncountable, plural quartos)

Beneath an old ebony table were two long carved oak chests. I lifted the lid of one, and at the top was a once-white surplice covered with dust, and beneath was a mass of tracts — Commonwealth Quartos, unbound — a prey to worms and decay.

1880, William Blades, The Enemies of Books, page 40:

(printing) A book size, corresponding to the paper size.


defective

en-adj

defective (comparative more defective, superlative most defective)

more defective (comparative)
most defective (superlative)

From Middle English defectif, defective, from Old French defectif, from Late Latin dēfectīvus.

(orthography, of a script) Not capable of representing all the phonemic distinctions of a language it is used to write.


chapter

chapters (plural)
chapiter (alternative)
chapitre (alternative)
chapiture (alternative)
chaptre (alternative)
chapyter (alternative)
chapytre (alternative)
chaptire (alternative)

→ Cebuano: tsapter

From Middle English chapitre, from Old French chapitre, from Latin capitulum (“a chapter of a book, in Medieval Latin also a synod or council”), diminutive of caput (“a head”); see capital, capitulum, and chapiter, which are doublets of chapter.

der

Detective novel writers try to keep up the suspense until the last chapter.

At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy ; and what she liked best and best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

(authorship) One of the main sections into which the text of a book is divided.

CHAPTER - One of the principal divisions of a book, and, in reference to the Bible, one of the larger sections into which its books are divided. This division, as well as that consisting of verses, was introduced to facilitate reference, and not to indicate any natural or accurate division of the subjects treated in the books.

1842, Walter Farquahar Hook, A Church Dictionary, published 1896:

At least thirty-two of the first forty-seven decretal chapters were received by English ecclesiastics,

1963, Charles Duggan, Twelfth-century Decretal Collections and Their Importance in English History, page 127:

il conclut: « No pope, no collection but the masters who served the one and commented on the other ultimately determined the content of this decretal chapter».

1983, Revue théologique de Louvain - Volume 14, page 127:

But unlike a similar annotation, it has not been turned into a chapter title because the annotation “de quodam hermita” (Of a certain hermit) immediately preceded it. If a scribe had also turned Liberauit Dominus hermitam into a chapter title, he would have created a chapter that consisted of a single sentence, which even for a rather dull scribe would seem unacceptable. […] While scribe A wrote the body of the text of the De nugis curialium, scribe X contributed the rubricated chapter headings.

2017, Joshua Byron Smith, Walter Map and the Matter of Britain, page 67:

While rubrics do not appear in paper manuscripts, eight paper manuscripts contain chapter titles, which serve the same function as the medieval rubrics.

2018, Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir, Emily Lethbridge, New Studies in the Manuscript Tradition of Njáls saga, page xvii:

Characteristics: parchment; 92 fols.; 260 × 180 mm.; 32 lines; Italy; ca. 1430; two hands: humanistic rotunda with some Gothic features; marginal notes by first hand and names by a second hand; space left for initials; rubric inscriptions; superscript variants by first hand; chapters marked in margin; horizontal catchwords; quaternions.

2018, David J. Hunt, A Textual History of Cicero's Academici Libri, page 152:

From canon law, he cited Gratian's Decretum, Gregory's Decretales, the Sexto and Clementines Decretales, and the Extravagantes, and specifically referred to “the rules for understanding the Law” in a decretal chapter on Propterea.

2021, David T. Orique, The Unheard Voice of Law in Bartolomé de Las Casas’s Brevísima Relación de la Destruición de las Indias, page 97:

A section of a work, a collection of works, or fragments of works, often manuscripts or transcriptions, created by scholars or advocates, not the original authors, to aid in finding portions of the texts.


xenophobia

en-noun

xenophobia (countable and uncountable, plural xenophobias)

xenophobias (plural)
xenofobia (alternative)

xenofobie

a pathological fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners

外国人恐怖症

がいこくじんきょうふしょう

(science fiction, rare, nonstandard) A fear of aliens.


nano

nano (countable and uncountable, plural nanos)

From nano-, from Latin nānus, from Ancient Greek νᾶνος (nânos).

(countable, science fiction) A nanotechnological device, such as a computer

(countable, science fiction) A nanoscale device, such as a robot


fount

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

A variant of font, influenced by fount (etymology 1) being a synonym of font (“natural source of water, spring”).

Of each Body he provides a Fount ſuitable to ſuch ſorts of VVork as he deſigns to do; But he provides not an equal vvieght^([sic – meaning weight]) of every Fount; Becauſe all theſe Bodies are not in equal uſe: For the Long-Primmer, Pica and Engliſh are the Bodies that are generally moſt uſed; And therefore he provides very large Founts of theſe, viz. of the Long-Primmer in a ſmall Printing-Houſe; Five hundred Pounds vveight Romain and Italica, vvhereof One hundred and fifty Pounds may be Italica.

1683, Joseph Moxon, “Numb[er] II. Applied to the Art of Printing.”, in Mechanick Exercises: Or, The Doctrine of Handy-Works. Applied to the Art of Printing. […], volume II, London: […] Joseph Moxon […], →OCLC, § 2 (Of Letter), page 17:

Founts are large or ſmall, according to the demand of the printer. vvho orders them by the hundred vveight, or by ſheets. VVhen a printer orders a fount of five hundred, he means that the fount, conſiſting of letters, points, ſpaces, quadrates, &c. ſhall vveigh 500 ℔. […] [A] fount does not contain an equal number of a and b, or of b and c, &c. the letter-founders have therefore a lift or tariff, or as the French call it, a police, by vvhich they regulate the proportions betvveen the different ſorts of characters that compoſe a fount; […]

1765, Temple Henry Croker, Thomas Williams, Samuel Clark [et al.], “FOUNT, or Font”, in The Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. […], volume II, London: […] J. Wilson & J. Fell, […], →OCLC, signature [Kk3], verso, column 1:

For the small characters it was in fact imperative to use such a fount as was available; not to mention that no strictly accurate fount of Chinese type has as yet been cast.

1892, Herbert Giles, “Preface”, in A Chinese–English Dictionary, London: Bernard Quaritch […]; Shanghai; Hongkong: Kelly and Walsh, →OCLC, page v:

Mr. Tallboy corrected the misprints, damned their eyes for using the wrong name-block, made it clear to them that they had set the headlines in the wrong fount, cut the proof to pieces, pasted it up again in the correct size, and returned it.

1933, Dorothy L[eigh] Sayers, “Murder Must Advertise. Chapter 4. Remarkable Acrobatics of a Harlequin.”, in The Five Red Herrings (Suspicious Characters) and Murder Must Advertise, Garden City, N.Y.: Nelson Doubleday, published [1977?], →OCLC, page 344:

The company is to be congratulated on the neatness and businesslike look of the tickets, and also on the very clear and artistic founts of type which are used.

1940 May, G. W. J. Potter, “Tickets of the Great Southern Railways”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 292:

(UK, printing, typography, chiefly dated, historical) Synonym of font (“a set of glyphs of unified design, usually representing the letters of an alphabet and its supplementary characters belonging to one typeface, style, and weight; a typeface; a family of typefaces”).


mechanical

From Middle English mechanical, mechanicalle, mechanycalle, equivalent to mechanic + -al.

Is it a mechanical, or a man in a clockwork suit?

2012, Cindy Spencer Pape, Moonlight & Mechanicals, →ISBN, page 90:

Mechanicals arose when advanced, organic societies somehow committed suicide, from war, degeneration, unimaginable things -- or retreated, from plain simple lack of interest in the tensions of the technological life.

2013, Gregory Benford, Sailing Bright Eternity: Galactic Centre, →ISBN:

This is an example of what can take place when mechanicals are programmed with human attributes and designed to interact closely with humans.

2013, Alan Dean Foster, Greenthieves, →ISBN:

(science fiction) A robot or mechanical creature.


octothorpe

octothorpes (plural)
octothorp (alternative)

/ˈɒktəʊθɔːp/

/ˈɑːktoʊθɔːɹp/

Origin disputed. There is no known usage before it was adopted by Bell Labs in the late 1960s or early 1970s, so most sources agree it was coined by someone at Bell Labs, but accounts from Bell Labs personnel conflict on the details. The derivation as a traditional term from octo- (“eight”) + thorpe (“field, hamlet or small village”) lacks any evidence, but there is near universal agreement that the first element refers to the number eight. Eight is derived from the number of ends of the lines. Thorpe could be a reference to Jim Thorpe, as one proponent was a fan of the athlete.

unk

disputed

prefix

The pad 1 provides keys for numerals 0 to 9, while the sextile or asterisk (*) key is decoded to provide a decimal point and the octothorp ( # ) key generates a command to send the contents of the memory unto the telephone line through a send circuit 7, a coupling circuit 8 and the hybrid network 2.

1973, US patent application ser. no. 05/422,816 (filed 3 December 1973), issued as patent no. 3,920,926 (18 November 1975), Telephone Data Set Including Visual Display Means, col. 3

Octothorp is the # on a push-button telephone. Rumor at the telephone company is that a man named Charles B. Octothorp, wanting to make his name famous, would approach anyone with a Touch-Tone ’phone, stop, and say admiringly, “That’s a mighty handsome octothorp you have there.”

1982, Willard R. Espy, A Children's Almanac of Words at Play, New York: Clarkson N. Potter, →ISBN, retrieved 2022-01-18, page 230:

Strings are enclosed in double quotation marks, numbers are not enclosed in anything, and dates and Boolean values are enclosed between octothorpe (#) characters.

2004, Andrew Douglas Pitonyak, Openoffice.org Macros Explained, Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin: Hentzenwerke Publishing, →ISBN, page 139:

(chiefly US, typography) The hash or square symbol #, used mainly in telephony and computing.


complement

en-noun

complement (countable and uncountable, plural complements)

From Middle English complement, from Latin complēmentum (“that which fills up or completes”), from compleō (“I fill up, I complete”) (English complete). Doublet of compliment. The verb is from the noun.

der

(palaeography, phonetics) A phonetic complement is a graphic element that modifies another, such as (in Linear B script) a small syllabogram that is attached to a logogram as an abbreviation of its reading (as opposed to an adjunct that abbreviates an adjective that modifies that logogram).


umlaut

Borrowed from German Umlaut in the 19ᵗʰ century, from um- or um (“around, re-, trans-”) + Laut (“sound”), from Old High German hlūt. More at loud.

(orthography) The diacritical mark ( ¨ ) placed over a vowel when it indicates a (rounded) front vowel

"Naïve" takes an umlaut because it is pronounced as two syllables.

(informal, orthography) Synonym of diaeresis.


flying saucer

From an interview given by amateur pilot Kenneth Arnold who described seeing nine flying objects that were "moving like saucers being skimmed across a lake". The description was not meant to describe the shape of the objects, only how they maneuvered, yet the misinterpretation took hold and gained popularity.

en:Flying saucer (confectionery)
en:flying saucer

(science fiction) An alien interplanetary vessel, typically disc-shaped and of metallic construction.


devil

devils (plural)
davil (alternative pronunciation-spelling)
debbil (alternative pronunciation-spelling)
diuel (alternative archaic dialectal)
divel (alternative archaic dialectal)
deuill (alternative obsolete)
devel (alternative obsolete)
devell (alternative obsolete)
devill (alternative obsolete)
diuell (alternative obsolete)

Tok Pisin: tewel

→ Chuukese: tefin

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁
Proto-Indo-European *dwísder.
Ancient Greek διά (diá)
Ancient Greek δια- (dia-)
Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH-der.
Ancient Greek βᾰ́λλω (bắllō)
Ancient Greek διαβάλλω (diabállō)
Ancient Greek διάβολος (diábolos)bor.
Latin diabolusbor.
Proto-West Germanic *diubul
Old English dēofol
Middle English devel
English devil
From Middle English devil, devel, deovel, from Old English dēofol, from Proto-West Germanic *diubul, from Latin diabolus, ultimately from Ancient Greek διάβολος (diábolos, “false accuser, slanderer”), also as "Satan" (in Jewish/Christian usage, translating Biblical Hebrew שָׂטָן (śātān)), from διαβάλλω (diabállō, “to slander”), literally “to throw across”, from διά (diá, “through, across”) + βάλλω (bállō, “throw”). The Old English word was probably adopted under influence of Latin diabolus (itself from the Greek). Other Germanic languages adopted the word independently: compare Saterland Frisian Düüwel (“devil”), West Frisian duvel (“devil”), Dutch duivel, duvel (“devil”), German Low German Düvel (“devil”), German Teufel (“devil”), Bavarian Teifl (“devil”), Danish djævel (“devil”), Swedish djävul (“devil”) (older: djefvul, Old Swedish diævul, Old Norse djǫfull). Doublet of diable, diablo, and diabolus.

der

better the devil you know than the devil you don't know

better the devil you know than the one you don't know

devil is beating his wife and marrying his daughter

he who sups with the devil should have a long spoon

the devil we know is better than the devil we don't know

the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know

(folklore) A fictional image of a man, usually red or orange in skin color; with a set of horns on his head, a pointed goatee and a long tail and carrying a pitchfork; that represents evil and portrayed to children in an effort to discourage bad behavior.


stub

From Middle English stubbe (“tree stump”), from Old English stybb, stubb (“tree stump”), from Proto-West Germanic *stubb, from Proto-Germanic *stubbaz (compare Middle Dutch stubbe, Old Norse stubbr, Faroese stubbi (“stub”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tew-; compare steep (“sharp slope”). Doublet of stob.
Sense extended in Middle English to similarly shaped objects. Verb sense “strike one’s toe” is recorded 1848; “extinguish a cigarette” 1927.

(typography, in tabular matter) A row heading in a table (with horizontal reference, whereas a column heading has vertical reference).


sub

* Shortened form of any of various words beginning with sub-.

(publishing, colloquial) Clipping of submission (of a work for publication).


super

For quotations using this term, see Citations:super.


antique

en-adj

antique (comparative antiquer, superlative antiquest)

antiquer (comparative)
antiquest (superlative)
antic (alternative obsolete)
anticke (alternative obsolete)
antiq. (alternative abbreviation)

Borrowed from French antique (“ancient, old”), from Latin antiquus (“former, earlier, ancient, old”), from ante (“before”); see ante-. Doublet of antic.

der

(typography) Designating a style of type.


antique

antiques (plural)
antic (alternative obsolete)
anticke (alternative obsolete)
antiq. (alternative abbreviation)

(typography) A style of type of thick and bold face in which all lines are of equal or nearly equal thickness.


bicameral

From bi- + Latin camera (“chamber”) + -al.

Aspect values on bicameral fonts are based on the size of the lowercase characters.

2001, Yves Savourel, XML Internationalization and Localization, page 80:

Bicameral (upper- and lowercase) unserifed roman fonts were apparently first cut in Leipzig in the 1820s.

2004, Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style, version 3.0, page 255:

2004, Parmenides, Peter Koch, et al., Carving the Elements: A Companion to the Fragments of Parmenides, page 91,
For more than a thousand years, classical Greek has been habitually written in a bicameral, polytonic alphabet (one with caps and lower case and a set of diacritics marking tone and aspiration).

(typography) Of a script or typeface: having two cases, upper case and lower case.

bikameraalinen

(typography, of a typeface or script) Having two cases: uppercase and lowercase


alba

First attested in 1821; borrowed from Occitan alba, ultimately from Latin albus (“white”); compare Spanish alba (“dawn”).

(poetry) A type of lyrical poetry, traditionally Provençal, about lovers who must part at dawn.


bizarro

en-adj

bizarro (comparative more bizarro, superlative most bizarro)

more bizarro (comparative)
most bizarro (superlative)

Variant of bizarre, equivalent to bizarre + -o; see that entry for more information. In the sense of “logical inverse”, derived via the comic book character Bizarro, an inverted version of Superman from a planet where “good” means “bad” and so on, and further popularized by "The Bizarro Jerry", a 1996 episode of the sitcom Seinfeld.

An incredibly fucked-up parody of B-horror movies with a bizarro slant.

2010, Caris O'Malley, The Egg Said Nothing, Caris O'Malley, →ISBN, page 97:

(literature) Pertaining to bizarro fiction.


bowl

Bislama: bol

→ Esperanto: bovlo

desctree

→ French: bol
→ Catalan: bol
→ Greek: μπολ (bol)

→ German: Bowle, → Bowl

→ Hungarian: bólé

→ Ido: bolo

→ Irish: bolla

→ Japanese: ボール (bōru)

→ Latvian: bole (probably via German)

→ Korean: 볼 (bol)

→ Scottish Gaelic: bòl

→ Swedish: bål

From Middle English bolle, from Old English bolla, bolle (“bowl, cup, pot, beaker, measure”), from Proto-West Germanic *bollā, from Proto-Germanic *bullǭ (“ball, round vessel, bowl”).
Cognate with North Frisian bol (“bun, bread roll”), Middle Low German bolle, bole (“round object”), Dutch bol (“ball, sphere, scoop, dot”), German Bolle (“bulb”), Danish bolle (“bowl, bread roll”), Icelandic bolli (“cup”). Doublet of boule and pulla.

inh

(typography) A rounded portion of a glyph that encloses empty space, as in the letters d and o.


web

From Middle English webbe, from Old English webb, from Proto-Germanic *wabją, from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“weave”).

what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive

(lithography) A long sheet of paper which is fed from a roll into a printing press, as opposed to individual sheets of paper.


friar

friars (plural)
frier (alternative obsolete)
fryar (alternative obsolete)

PIE word
 *bʰréh₂tēr
From Middle English frere, from Old French frere, from Latin frāter (“brother”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr (“brother”). Doublet of bhai, brother, bru, frater, pal, and vai.

doublet

(printing, dated) A white or pale patch on a printed page caused by poor inking.


royal

royals (plural)
r. (alternative abbreviation)
roial (alternative obsolete)
roiall (alternative obsolete)
royall (alternative obsolete)
royaler (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English royal, from Old French roial (Modern French royal), from Latin rēgālis, from rēx (“king”). Doublet of regal (“befitting a king”), real (“unit of currency”), ariary, and riyal. Cognate with Spanish real. Displaced native Old English cynelīċ.

(paper, printing) A standard size of printing paper, measuring 25 by 20 inches.


rule

en-noun

rule (countable and uncountable, plural rules)

From Middle English reule, rewle, rule, borrowed from Old French riule, reule, from Latin regula (“straight stick, bar, ruler, pattern”), from regō (“to keep straight, direct, govern, rule”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃réǵeti (“to straighten; right”), from the root *h₃reǵ-; see regent. Doublet of rail, regal, regula, and rigol.

doublet

Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class V § 613. Habit

Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 82. Conformity

(printing, dated) A thin plate of brass or other metal, of the same height as the type, and used for printing lines, as between columns on the same page, or in tabular work.


scanlation

en-noun

scanlation (countable and uncountable, plural scanlations)

scanlations (plural)
scanslation (alternative)

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

(comics, chiefly manga) The process of scanning and translating foreign-language comics (especially Japanese manga or Korean manhwa) into the translator's language, for free distribution over the Internet.

(comics) A comic that has been scanned, translated, and with translation overlaid onto the original text to produce a second-language version of the comic; a scanlated comic.


retrograde

en-adj

retrograde (comparative more retrograde, superlative most retrograde)

more retrograde (comparative)
most retrograde (superlative)

The adjective is derived from Middle English retrograd, retrograde (“of a planet: appearing to move in a direction opposite to the order of the zodiac signs, retrograde; unfortunate”), from Middle French retrograde and Old French retrograde (“of a celestial object: appearing to move backwards; moving backwards; reverse; palindromic; opposed to change”) (modern French rétrograde), and from their etymon Latin retrōgradus (“of a celestial object: appearing to move backwards”) (compare Late Latin retrōgradus (“reverse; palindromic”)), from retrō (“back, backwards; behind; before, formerly”) + gradus (“pace, step”). By surface analysis, retro- + -grade.
The adverb and noun are derived from the adjective.

cog

/ˈɹɛtɹə(ʊ)ɡɹeɪd/

/ˈɹɛtɹəˌɡɹeɪd/

retrògrad

reverting to an inferior or less developed state — see also declining, regressing

(poetry, archaic) Of verse: reading the same forwards or backwards; palindromic.


Frankenstein

en-proper noun

Frankenstein (countable and uncountable, plural Frankensteins)

From German Frankenstein, various places named for Franken (“Franks, Frankish”) + Stein (“stone”). The use of referencing mad scientists derives from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, where Victor Frankenstein assembles a man from pieces of various corpses and brings him to life with electricity. Use of the reference to the monster itself is an ellipsis of the earlier Frankenstein's monster, with the monster's usual modern appearance derived from Boris Karloff's performance in the 1931 film Frankenstein.

(fiction) Victor Frankenstein, a fictional character and the main protagonist and title character in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

(fiction, sometimes proscribed) The unnamed monster created by Victor Frankenstein: a fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus as the main antagonist.


chaser

Inherited from Middle English chaser, chacer, chasour, borrowed from Old French chaceür, chaceor, from chacier (“to chase, hunt”); later senses from or influenced by chase (“pursue”) + -er. Doublet of chasseur.

преследва́ч

person or thing (ship, plane, car, etc.) who chases

(fiction, Harry Potter) In the sport of Quidditch or Muggle quidditch, a player responsible for passing the quaffle and scoring goals with it.


breve

From Middle English breve, variant of bref, from Old French brieve, breve (feminine form of brief, bref), from Latin brevis (“short”).

(orthography, printing) A semicircular diacritical mark (˘) placed above a vowel, commonly used to mark its quantity as short.


z-variant

z (axis) + variant; from the three dimensions visualized for the character space. The x-axis separates characters by semantics (function and meaning, e.g. A from B), the y-axis separates them by their general form (abstract shape, e.g. A from a), and the z-axis by their actual shape (minor details such as typeface, e.g. a from a).

(typography, Unicode) A shape variant of a Han character, encoded for historical reasons.


Sapphic

Sappho (Ancient Greek Σαπφώ (Sapphṓ)) + -ic, whence Latin Sapphicus. Sense related to sexuality alludes to Sappho's poetry discussing love between women (see also lesbian).

(poetry) Of a certain kind of verse reputed to have been invented by Sappho, consisting of five metrical feet, of which the first, fourth, and fifth are trochees, the second is a spondee, and the third a dactyl.


Sapphic

Sapphics (plural)
Sapphick (alternative)

His Sapphics, on the story of Bacchus and Ariadne, are easy, elegant, and poetical.

1824, Vicesimus Knox, The Works of Vicesimus Knox, D.D.: With a Biographical Preface:

The first line (which goes by the name of Aristophanes) is a Sapphic without the initial trochees.

1887, Horace, Horace: The Odes, Carmen Seculare, and Epodes, page 174:

"A real Sapphic," said Crane, dropping into a poetical tone, as an elocutionist does when he is hungry for an opportunity to recite a favorite sketch.

1888, Maurice Thompson, A Fortnight of Folly, page 41:


pick

From Middle English piken, picken, pikken, from Old English *piccian, *pīcian (attested in pīcung (“a pricking”)), and pīcan, pȳcan (“to pick, prick, pluck”), both from Proto-West Germanic *pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną (“to pick, peck, prick, knock”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew-, *bu- (“to make a dull, hollow sound”). Doublet of pitch and peck.
Cognate with Dutch pikken (“to pick”), German picken (“to pick, peck”), Old Norse pikka, pjakka (whence Icelandic pikka (“to pick, prick”), Swedish picka (“to pick, peck”)).

inh

If it be in the smallest degree gritty, it clogs the form, and consequently produces a thick and imperfect impression; no pains should, therefore, be spared to render it perfectly smooth; it may then be made to work as clear and free from picks

c. 1866, Thomas MacKellar, The American Printer:

(printing, dated) A particle of ink or paper embedded in the hollow of a letter, filling up its face, and causing a spot on a printed sheet.


letteral

From letter + -al. The Lojban sense was coined by James Cooke Brown by analogy with numeral.

In order to avoid the character of being slovenly, always read the lines as composed. This should be done as soon as they are finished and before spacing out; in time the habit will become so fixed, that in spacing out, or even in composing the line, the eye will wander over the words, and detect any letterals.

1898, Charles Thomas Jacobi, Printing: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Typography as Applied More Particularly to the Printing of Books, pages 57–58:

LITERALS type characters: to read proof for literals is to read letter for letter, watching for proper spelling, punctuation, etc., as well as for typos: formerly spelled letterals.

[1971, Ruth Kimball Kent, The Language of Journalism: A Glossary of Print-communications Terms, page 82:

(printing) Obsolete form of literal (“a misprint that affects a letter”).


justification

en-noun

justification (countable and uncountable, plural justifications)

/ˌd͡ʒʌstɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/

From Middle English justificacioun, justification, from Middle French justification, from Late Latin iustificationem, justificationem < iustificatio, from iustifico, from Latin iustus.

der

(typography, uncountable) The alignment of text to the left margin (left justification), the right margin (right justification), or both margins (full justification).


block

→ Dutch: block

→ German: Block

→ Irish: bloc

→ Manx: block

→ Maori: poraka

→ Norwegian: blokk

→ Polish: blok

desctree

→ Russian: блок (blok)
→ Armenian: բլոկ (blok)
→ Yakut: блок (blok)

→ Spanish: block

→ Vietnamese: lốc

From Middle English blok (“log, stump, solid piece”), from Old French bloc (“log, block”), from Middle Dutch blok (“treetrunk”), from Old Dutch *blok (“log”), from Proto-West Germanic *blokk, from Proto-Germanic *blukką (“beam, log”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (“thick plank, beam, pile, prop”). Cognate with Old Frisian blok, Old Saxon blok, Old High German bloh, bloc (“block”), Old English bolca (“gangway of a ship, plank”), Old Norse bǫlkr (“divider, partition”). More at balk. See also bloc, bulk.

طَابُوقَة

substantial often approximately cuboid piece

թաղամաս

group of buildings demarcated by streets

A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.

(printing, dated) A piece of hard wood on which a stereotype or electrotype plate is mounted.

pölkky

printing: piece of hardwood on which a plate is mounted


furniture

en-noun

furniture (usually uncountable, plural furnitures)

From Middle French fourniture (“a supply, or the act of furnishing”), from fournir (“to furnish”).

uder

(printing, historical) The pieces of wood or metal put around pages of type to make proper margins and fill the spaces between the pages and the chase.


time travel

(chiefly science fiction) Travel to the past or to the future, typically by means of a time machine or a wormhole.

пътуване във времето

hypothetical or fictional travel to the past or future


time machine

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

Coined by British science fiction author H. G. Wells in 1895 in his novel The Time Machine.

coinage

If I had a time machine / And if life was a movie scene / I'd rewind, and I'd tell me / "Ru-u-u-u-u-u-u-un"

2014, Ingrid Michaelson, Trent Dabbs, busbee, “Time Machine”, in Lights Out, performed by Ingrid Michaelson:

(chiefly science fiction) A hypothetical device used to travel into the past or the future.


mythos

en-noun

mythos (countable and uncountable, plural mythoi or mythoses)

Borrowed from Late Latin mȳthos (“myth”), from Ancient Greek μῦθος (mûthos, “report, tale, story”). Doublet of myth.
The plural form mythoi is from Ancient Greek μῦθοι (mûthoi), and the form mythoses from mythos + -es.

der

To get most benefit from the four mythoi, one must avoid making two errors. First, a work embodying the comic mythos may be called comic but should not be confused with comedy since the latter term has too many meanings that are exclusively dramatic. The same stricture applies to tragedy and the tragic mythos. The second error is to assume that a work embodying the ironic mythos is an anti-romance.

1984, Kathryn Hume, “Fantasy as a Function of Form”, in Fantasy and Mimesis: Responses to Reality in Western Literature, New York, N.Y.: Methuen, →ISBN; republished Abingdon, Oxon., New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2014, →ISBN, part III (The Functions of Fantasy: why Use Fantasy?), page 151:

In addition to mythoi drawn from myths and fairy tales, romances also employ mythoi derived from chivalric romances.

2011, Laura Vivanco, “Mythoi”, in John Lennard, editor, For Love and Money: The Literary Art of the Harlequin Mills & Boon Romance (Genre Fiction Monographs), Penrith, Cumbria: Humanities-Ebooks, →ISBN, page 76:

(literature) A recurring theme; a motif.


diaeresis

diaereses (plural)
diaresis (alternative)
dieresis (alternative)
diæresis (alternative)
diaëresis (alternative)

/daɪˈɛɹɪsɪs/

/daɪˈɪəɹɪsɪs/

/daɪˈɪəɹɪsɪs/

/daɪˈɛɹəsɪs/

/daɪˈɪəɹɪsiːz/

PIE word
 *dwís
Unadapted borrowing from Late Latin diaeresis (“distribution; division of a diphthong into two syllables”), from Ancient Greek δῐαίρεσῐς (dĭaíresĭs, “distribution, division; division of a poetic line when the end of a word and a metrical foot coincide; division of a diphthong into two syllables”), from δῐαιρέω (dĭairéō, “to divide; to distinguish; to resolve a diphthong or contracted form”) + -σῐς (-sĭs, suffix forming abstract nouns or nouns of action, process, or result). Δῐαιρέω (Dĭairéō) is derived from δῐᾰ- (dĭă-, prefix meaning ‘across; through; in different directions’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dwís (“doubly, twice; in two”)) + αἱρέω (hairéō, “to grasp, seize, take”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to grasp, seize, take”)).
The plural is borrowed from Latin diaeresēs.

diërese

separation of one syllable (especially a vowel which is a diphthong) into two distinct syllables

Diæreſis is vvhen tvvo points ouer a vovvell diuide it from another vovvel, as bouë, queuë, read bou-e, queu-e, not bo-ue, que-ue.

1611, Randle Cotgrave, compiler, “Briefe Directions for Such as Desire to Learne the French Tongue. And First, of the Vowels, and Diphthongs.”, in A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, signature Nnnn, recto, column 2:

The Diæresis is used to divide a diphthong into two syllables; as, Creätor.

1841, William Corry, “Grammatical Terms, with Their Respective Marks and Explanations”, in An English Spelling Book, with Reading Lessons; for the Use of the Parish and Other Schools of New Brunswick, St. John, N.B.: […] Henry Chubb, […], →OCLC, page 8:

An 85-year injustice has been rectified at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey with the corrected spelling of one of the greatest of all literary names. Reader, it is finally Brontë, not Bronte. An amended memorial to Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë was unveiled on Thursday with added diaereses (two dots) that ensure people pronounce it with two syllables. As if it rhymed with Monty, not font. The memorial was installed in 1939 and, for whatever reason, came without the diaereses that the Brontës used.

2024 September 26, Mark Brown, “Brontë sisters finally get their dots as names corrected at Westminster Abbey”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-10-05:

A separation of one syllable (especially a vowel which is a diphthong, that is, beginning with one sound and ending with another) into two distinct syllables; distraction.

(orthography) The diacritical mark consisting of two dots (¨) placed over a letter (especially the second of two consecutive vowels) to indicate that it is sounded separately, usually as a distinct syllable.

deelteken

diacritical mark consisting of two dots (¨) placed over a letter to indicate that it is sounded separately


tesseract

tesseracts (plural)
tessaract (alternative)

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

From tessara- (“four-”) + Ancient Greek ἀκτίς (aktís, “ray”).

af

"I shall just sit down for a moment and pop on my boots and then I'll be on my way. Speaking of ways, pet, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract."

1962, Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time, published 2019, unnumbered page:

(science fiction) Any of various fictional mechanisms that explain extradimensional, superluminal, or time travel outside the geometry of the physical universe.


page

→ Hindi: पेज (pej)

→ Japanese: ページ (pēji)

→ Korean: 페이지 (peiji)

Borrowed from Middle French [Term?], from Latin pāgina, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ-. Doublet of pagina.

(typography) The type set up for printing a page.


patch

From Middle English patche, of uncertain origin. Perhaps an alteration of earlier Middle English placche (“patch, spot, piece of cloth”), from Old English *plæċċ, *pleċċ (“a spot, mark, patch”), from Proto-West Germanic *plakkju, from Proto-Germanic *plakjō (“spot, stain”). For the loss of l compare pat from Middle English platten. Germanic cognates would then include Middle English plecke, dialectal English pleck (“plot of ground, patch”), West Frisian plak (“place, spot”), Low German Plakk, Plakke (“spot, piece, patch”), Dutch plek (“spot, place, stain, patch”), Dutch plak (“piece, slab”), Swedish plagg (“garment”), Faroese plagg (“cloth, rag”).
Or, possibly a variant of Old French pieche, dialectal variant of piece (“piece”). Compare also Old Occitan petaç (“patch”).

tilkku

small piece of material used to clean a gun barrel

flejtuch

piece of greased cloth used to fit a rifle ball to the bore

(printing, historical) An overlay used to obtain a stronger impression.


phase

en-verb

phase (third-person singular simple present phases, present participle phasing, simple past and past participle phased)

phases (present singular third-person)
phasing (participle present)
phased (participle past)
phased (past)

From New Latin phasis, from Ancient Greek φάσις (phásis, “an appearance”), from φάω (pháō, “to shine”); compare phantasm and see face.


stunner

March holstered his pistol, reached into his coat, and drew out his own neural stunner, shifting the weapon to his right hand.

2018, Jonathan Moeller, Silent Order: Omnibus One:

(science fiction) A pistol firing a beam capable of stunning an enemy.


tabloid

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

The noun is derived from tabl(et) + -oid (suffix meaning ‘having the likeness of, resembling’), originally coined by the United Kingdom firm Burroughs, Wellcome & Company as a brand name for their medicines and other products such as tea in tablet form and registered as a trademark on 14 March 1884.
Sense 2 (“compact or compressed version of something; especially something having a popular or sensational nature”) is influenced by sense 2.3 (“newspaper characterized as favouring stories of a popular or sensational nature over serious news”).
The adjective and verb are derived from the noun.

tiivistetty muoto

(figurative) A compact or compressed version of something; especially something having a popular or sensational nature.

(Canada, US, printing) A paper size 11 × 17 inches (279 × 432 millimetres) in dimensions.


skeleton

skeletons (plural)
skeleta (plural)
sceleton (alternative)

From New Latin sceleton, from Ancient Greek σκελετόν (skeletón), the neuter of σκελετός (skeletós, “dried up, withered, dried body, parched, mummy”), from σκέλλω (skéllō, “dry, dry up, make dry, parch”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelh₁- (“to parch, wither”); compare Ancient Greek σκληρός (sklērós, “hard”).

der

(printing) A very thin form of light-faced type.


metaverse

From meta- + (uni)verse. Analyzable as meta- + -verse. In the sci-fi sense coined by American science fiction writer Neal Stephenson in 1992.

coin

It is closer, in other words, to another science fiction vision, the “metaverse” Neal Stephenson envisioned in his 1992 Snow Crash. That particular moniker has not caught on, but many of Stephenson's ideas about what the on-line world can look like are driving a new generation of entrepreneurs to try to match it.

1997 July 7, Zina Moukheiber, “The geeks have inherited the earth”, in Forbes, →ISSN, pages 354–356:

But now, with 350 million players who are used to hanging out in a vibrant, ridiculous online world filled with dancing bananas and cartoon skirmishes, Party Royale could be the experience that finally realises the idea of a playful, mass participation online metaverse.

2020 May 15, Keith Stuart, “Fortnite Party Royale is the most fun you can have in the metaverse”, in The Guardian:

Video games like Roblox and Fortnite and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, in which players can build their own worlds, have metaverse tendencies, as does most social media. If you own a non-fungible token or even just some crypto, you’re part of the metaversal experience. Virtual and augmented reality are, at a minimum, metaverse adjacent.

2021 July 10, John Herrman, Kellen Browning, “Are We in the Metaverse Yet?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

In the world of Snow Crash, the metaverse is not viewed as particularly cool—it is necessary, because the real world has become so unbearable.

2021 July 30, Brian Merchant, “The Metaverse Has Always Been a Dystopian Idea”, in VICE:

The metaverse is the convergence of two ideas that have been around for many years: virtual reality and a digital second life.

2022 January 18, Brian X. Chen, “What’s All the Hype About the Metaverse?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(science fiction, Internet, computing) A hypothetical future (counterpart or continuation of the) Internet, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space.


rest

en-noun

rest (countable and uncountable, plural rests)

From Middle English rest, reste, from Old English ræst, from Proto-West Germanic *rastu, from Proto-Germanic *rastō, from Proto-Indo-European *ros-, *res-, *erH- (“rest”). Cognate with West Frisian rêst (“rest”), Dutch rust (“rest”), German Rast (“rest”), Swedish rast (“rest”), Norwegian rest (“rest”), Icelandic röst (“rest”), Old Irish árus (“dwelling”), German Ruhe (“calm”), Albanian resht (“to stop, pause”), Welsh araf (“quiet, calm, gentle”), Lithuanian rovà (“calm”), Ancient Greek ἐρωή (erōḗ, “rest, respite”), Avestan 𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬨𐬈 (aⁱrime, “calm, peaceful”), Sanskrit रमते (rámate, “he stays still, calms down”), Gothic 𐍂𐌹𐌼𐌹𐍃 (rimis, “tranquility”). Related to roo.

rest

stick used to support the cue in snooker

(poetry) A short pause in reading poetry; a caesura.


Old English

Wiktionary’s coverage of Old English terms

(typography, historical) The form of black letter used by 16th-century English printers.


bulldog

→ French: bouledogue

→ German: Bulldogge

→ Portuguese: buldogue

From bull + dog, in reference to bullbaiting.

The bulldog's just gone to press.


chase

Perhaps from French châsse (“case”, “reliquary”), from Old French chasse, from Latin capsa. Doublet of case, cash, and chasse.

The die-maker should work upon the surface of an imposing table. First, he places on the table the chase in which the die is to be locked up. Second, he fills in the chase with regular printer’s wood furniture, leaving space in the center for the die, and placing locking quoins near the top of the chase and on the right-hand side of the chase. Third, the cutting and creasing rules are set in the open space in the center of the chase, filling in with metal or wood furniture.

1920, Robert F. Salade, chapter IX, in How Paper Boxes are Made:

(printing) A rectangular steel or iron frame into which pages or columns of type are locked for printing or plate-making.


whack

Uncertain. Originally Scottish; probably onomatopoeic, but compare Middle English thakken, from Old English þaccian (whence Modern thwack by conflation with whack). Sense 6 of the verb is likely a semantic loan from Malay hentam (“to strike; to do something carelessly”).

sl

del c:\docs\readme.txt
Delete c colon whack docs whack readme dot text.

(slang, computing, typography) The backslash, ⟨ \ ⟩.


proof

en-noun

proof (countable and uncountable, plural proofs)

→ Russian: пруф (pruf), пру́фы (prúfy)

desc

⇒ Russian: пруфли́нк (pruflínk, literally “proof + link”)

From Middle English proof, from Old French prove, from Late Latin proba (“a proof”), from Latin probō (“to prove”); see prove; compare also the doublet probe.

the proof of the pudding is in the eating

And these men scour the printed proof for error, blunder, and misspelling.

2010, Andrea Levy, The Long Song, Tinder Press (2017), page 382:

(countable, printing) A proof sheet; a trial impression, as from type, taken for correction or examination.


oblique

From Middle French oblique, from Latin oblīquus (also spelled oblīcus) (“slanting, sideways, indirect, envious”).

uder

Initial inquiries among professional typists uncover names like slant, slant line, slash, and slash mark. Examination of typing instruction manuals discloses additional names such as diagonal and diagonal mark, and other sources provide the designation oblique.

1965, Dmitri A. Borgmann, Language on Vacation, page 240:

Other Chaucerian manuscripts had the virgule (or virgil or oblique: /) at the middle of lines.

1990, John McDermott, Punctuation for Now, page 20:


Romeo

Borrowed from Italian Romeo, from Ancient Greek Ῥωμαῖος (Rhōmaîos, “Roman”).

der

(fiction) One of the main characters of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: the ardent lover of Juliet.


Dracula

Dracula
Order of the Dragon
Vlad II Dracul
Vlad the Impaler

From the name Vlad III Dracula (also known as Vlad Țepeș (“Vlad the Impaler”)), from the name of his father Vlad II Dracul, who was given the name Dracul by the Order of the Dragon. Dracul (literally “the Devil”) comes from the Romanian drac (“devil”), itself deriving from the Latin dracō (“dragon”).

(fiction) The fictional vampire in the novel of the same name by Bram Stoker.


puck

From Middle English pouke, from Old English pūca (“goblin, demon”), from Proto-West Germanic *pūkō, from Proto-Germanic *pūkô (“a goblin, spook”), of uncertain origin.
Cognate with Old Norse púki (“devil”) (dialectal Swedish puke). Doublet of pooka.

inh

(mythology, literature) The mischievous fairy-like creature from English folklore, like Puck from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Robin Goodfellow

a small being, human in form who is playful and has magical powers


foil

en-noun

foil (countable and uncountable, plural foils)

From Middle English foyle, from Middle French fueille, from Old French fueille (“plant leaf”), from Late Latin folia, the plural of folium, mistaken as a singular feminine.
The literary sense is from the practice of backing a gem with metal foil to make it shine more brilliantly.
Doublet of folio and folium, distantly also with phyllo and phyllon.

As Puss comes to realize his legendary status is not a substitute for interpersonal connection, his interactions with Kitty and the therapy dog start to take on a surprising amount of weight, while Goldilocks serves as a well-realized foil who has more in common with Puss that is at first apparent.

2022 December 20, Leigh Monson, “Puss In Boots: The Last Wish review: Antonio Banderas leads the best film yet in the Shrek franchise”, in AV Club:

(authorship, figuratively) In literature, theatre/theater, etc., a character who helps emphasize the traits of the main character and who usually acts as an opponent or antagonist, but can also serve as the sidekick of the protagonist.

contrastfiguur

character who helps emphasise the traits of the main character


blank verse

blank verse (countable and uncountable, plural blank verses)

Milton's command of blank verse exceeds even Shakespeare's.

[T]here is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and beeing an absolute Iohannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey.

1592, Robert Greene, Groats-Worth of Witte, Bought with a Million of Repentance, London: imprinted for William Wright, folio F¹v:

I could have spoken in blank verse of Shakespearean beauty, all sorts of great ideas flashed through my mind; it was as though the bonds of my flesh had been loosened, and left the spirit free to soar to the empyrean of its native power.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “The Spirit of Life”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 288:

Soon after Surrey's translation of Virgil, blank verse became a persuasive rival to the heroic couplet.

2006, Philip Hobsbaum, “The heroic couplet”, in Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form, Routledge, →ISBN, page 18:

(poetry) A poetic form with regular meter, particularly iambic pentameter, but no fixed rhyme scheme.


brownie

brownie (countable and uncountable, plural brownies)

→ Belarusian: бра́ўні (bráŭni)

→ Chinese: 布朗尼 (bùlǎngní)

→ Dutch: brownie

→ French: brownie

→ German: Brownie

→ Hungarian: brownie

→ Irish: donnóg (calque)

→ Italian: brownie

→ Japanese: ブラウニー (buraunī)

→ Lithuanian: braunis

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: brownie

→ Polish: brownie

→ Portuguese: brownie

→ Russian: бра́уни (bráuni)

→ Kazakh: брауни (brauni)

→ Spanish: brownie

→ Thai: บราวนี (bpraao-níi)

→ Turkish: brownie, browni, brovni

→ Welsh: browni

From brown + -ie (diminutive suffix). In folkloric sense, originally Scots.

Thus, offer Brownie a piece of bread, a cup of drink, or a new coat and hood, and he flouted at it, and perhaps, in his huff, quitted the place for ever ; but leave a nice bowl of cream, and some fresh honeycomb, in a snug private corner, and they soon disappeared, though Brownie, it was to be supposed, never knew any thing of them.

1828, Thomas Keightley, Fairy Mythology, volume II, page 169:

"Oh, auntie, do you know what Stine says?" cried a little brown-eyed beauty; "she says I shall go with her into the hayloft to-night and give the brownie his Christmas porridge."

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 5:

1908, Dinah Craik, The Adventures of A Brownie:

Stories were told of a brownie riding horseback to fetch the midwife at childbirth or helping his master to win at checkers.

1985, The Encyclopedia Americana, volume 1, page 636:

There are no brownies in my house, though. I know because there's always a pile of dishes in the sink.

2004, Justin Hocking, Jeffrey Knutson, Jared Jacang Maher, editors, Life and Limb: Skateboarders Write from the Deep End, page 37:

Pseudunus and his group looked around, frightened, and realized that three more treents surrounded them, accompanied by a myriad of other creatures. Centaurs, elves, humans, satyrs, halflings, mémechares and brounies surrounded them on all sides, except the one they had come from. Bears and wolves, clearly under the effect of natural magic spells, gritted their teeth and growled menacingly, while snakes hissed in defiance.

2018 May 26, Joel Puga, “Chapter 6 Faiths”, in The Godungava, Joel Puga:

(folklore) A mythical creature, a helpful elf who would secretly do people's housework for them.


septet

PIE word
 *septḿ̥
From Latin septem (“seven”).

A group of seven, particularly
(poetry) A set of seven lines.

A group of seven, particularly
A set of seven lines.


Shakespearean

en-adj

Shakespearean (comparative more Shakespearean, superlative most Shakespearean)

more Shakespearean (comparative)
most Shakespearean (superlative)
Shakespearian (alternative)
Shakesperian (alternative archaic)
Shaksperian (alternative archaic)

[…]there were those who had them set far over back—wide-awake men, who wanted a clear prospect; while careless men, who did not know, or care, how their hats sat, had them shaking about in all directions. The various hats, in fact, were quite a Shakespearean study.

1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, chapter XI, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume I, Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC:

The boisterous Bulmer playfully made a pass at him with his drawn sword, going forward with the lunge in the proper fencing fashion, and making a somewhat too familiar Shakespearean quotation about a rodent and a Venetian coin.

1922, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Hole in the Wall”, in The Man Who Knew Too Much […] , London: Cassell and Company, pages 80–81:

Meanwhile, I presided over the Senate. I also dined quite frequently with the President who continued to delight and fascinate me with his conversation, not to mention his wonderful malice which was positively Shakespearean in its variety.

There was indeed something Shakespearean about both the service in the abbey and the marches that surrounded it. By Shakespearean I mean there was a blend of pageantry, procession, music and mystery.

2023 May 7, Michael Billington, “The Coronation review – immaculately rehearsed, touching and Shakespearean”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

This is the distinctive milieu of Succession, the HBO juggernaut which turned the pitiful exploits of a bunch of media mogul failsons into Shakespearean drama for four critically acclaimed seasons.

2025 June 2, Adrian Horton, “Tech-bro satire Mountainhead is an insufferable disappointment”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(literature) Of or pertaining to, characteristic of, associated with, or suggestive of William Shakespeare (an English playwright), his works, or his authorship, or the time in which he lived.


Shakespearean sonnet

en-noun

Shakespearean sonnet (plural Shakespearean sonnets)

Named after English playwright and poet William Shakespeare (1564–1616) and strongly associated with his authorship.

named-after

(poetry) A sonnet comprising three quatrains and a final couplet, in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg.


Spenserian sonnet

en-noun

Spenserian sonnet (plural Spenserian sonnets)

Named after English poet Edmund Spenser (1552/1553–1599) and associated with his authorship.

named-after

(poetry) A sonnet comprising three quatrains with the latter rhyme part being carried over from one quatrain to the next, and a concluding couplet, therefore comprising a rhyme scheme of abab bcbc cdcd ee.


Petrarchan sonnet

en-noun

Petrarchan sonnet (plural Petrarchan sonnets)

Named after Italian scholar, poet and humanist Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), who did not invent but made large use of this form in his authorship.

named-after

(poetry) A sonnet comprising an octave and a closing sestet, following the rhyme scheme of either abba abba cde cde or abba abba cd cd cd or abba abba cce dde or abba abba cdd cee.


tag

From Middle English tagge (“small piece hanging from a garment”), probably of North Germanic origin. Compare Norwegian tagg (“point; prong; barb; tag”), Swedish tagg (“thorn; prickle; tine”), Icelandic tág (“a willow-twig”). Compare also tack.

cog

Seems here like Russ would be speaking. You could use a tag here.

(Can we date this quote?), michael, alt.fiction.original (Usenet):

If you want to start with talk, stick a tag in right away

(Can we date this quote?), Jane MacDonald, alt.fiction.original (Usenet):

You could combine these two paragraphs, I think, and rewrite to lose the tag portion of the third sentence.

(Can we date this quote?), bart_...@hotmail.com, alt.fiction.original (Usenet):

(informal, authorship) An attribution in narrated dialogue (eg, "he said") or attributed words (e.g. "he thought").


quiescent

en-adj

quiescent (comparative more quiescent, superlative most quiescent)

more quiescent (comparative)
most quiescent (superlative)

Learned borrowing from Latin quiēscēns, quiēscentem.

lbor

The k is quiescent in "knight" and "know".


blast

en-verb

blast (third-person singular simple present blasts, present participle blasting, simple past and past participle blasted)

blasts (present singular third-person)
blasting (participle present)
blasted (participle past)
blasted (past)

⇒ Italian: blastare

From Middle English blasten, blesten, from Old English blǣstan (“to blow, blast”), from Proto-West Germanic *blēstijan, from Proto-Germanic *blēstijaną. Possibly related to Middle High German blesten (“to stand out, plop, splash”).

noncog

Chewbacca blasted the Stormtroopers with his laser rifle.

(transitive, science fiction) To shoot, especially with an energy weapon (as opposed to one which fires projectiles).


measure

→ Japanese: メジャー (mejā)

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

From Middle English mesure, from Old French mesure, from Latin mēnsūra (“a measure”), from mēnsus, past participle of mētīrī (“to measure”). Largely displaced native Old English metan ("to measure" whence modern mete) and ġemet (“a measure”).

lainsäädäntötoimenpide

piece of legislation as course of action

a poem in iambic measure

(poetry) The manner of ordering and combining the quantities, or long and short syllables; meter; rhythm; hence, a metrical foot.

размер

poetry: manner of ordering and combining the quantities


-id

Borrowed from Middle French -ide f, from Latin -is f (genitive: -idis; plural: -ides), from Ancient Greek -ῐς f (-ĭs) (genitive: -ῐδος (-ĭdos); plural: -ῐδες (-ĭdes)).

Aeneas + -id → Aeneid

Achilles + -id → Achilleid

Perseus + -id → Perseid (epic poem)

(literature) Forming the names of epic poems.


style

en-noun

style (countable and uncountable, plural styles)

styles (plural)
stile (alternative)
stylee (alternative)
stile (alternative obsolete)

→ Finnish: staili

→ Scottish Gaelic: stoidhle

→ Iban: stail

→ Japanese: スタイル (sutairu)

→ Korean: 스타일 (seutail)

→ Malay: stail

→ Portuguese: style

→ Swahili: staili

The noun is derived from Middle English stile, stel, stele, stiel, stiele, stil, still, stille, styele, style, styill, styll, styyl (“writing tool, stylus; piece of written work; characteristic mode of expression, particularly one regarded as high quality; demeanour, manner, way of life; person's designation or title; stem of a plant; period of time”), from Old French style, estile, stil, stile (modern French style), or from Medieval Latin stylus, both from Latin stilus (“pointed instrument, pale, spike, stake; writing tool, stylus; act of setting down in writing, composition; characteristic mode of expression, style; stem of a plant”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp; to pierce, prick, puncture, stab; to goad”). Doublet of stylus.
The English word is cognate with Catalan estil (“engraving tool, stylus; gnomon; manner of doing something, style; fashionable skill, grace”), German Stiel (“handle; stalk”), Italian stilo (“needle, stylus; fountain pen; beam; gnomon; part of pistil, style”), Occitan estil, Portuguese estilo (“writing tool, stylus; manner of doing something, style”), Spanish estilo (“writing tool, stylus; manner of doing something, style; fashionable skill, grace; part of pistil, style”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

styl

manner of expression in writing or speech

styl

the house style of the journal

If you have to settle for an expert typist who has not completed recent dissertations for your school, buy two copies of the style manual, one for you and one for the typist.

1993, Evelyn Hunt Ogden, “Spending Money and Using the 20th Century to Your Advantage”, in Completing Your Doctoral Dissertation or Master’s Thesis in Two Semesters or Less, 2nd edition, Lanham, Md., Toronto, Ont.: ScarecrowEducation, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, published 2003, →ISBN, page 60:

There are many excellent style manuals, and every good writer should have one or more of these at hand, along with the appropriate formatting instructions for the particular standard beng followed. This book is a how-to survival manual for students, researchers, and family members who need to learn and use APA [American Psychological Association] style and who would like to use some of the tools provided by Microsoft Word.

2012, Larry A. Pace, “Preface and Acknowledgments”, in Using Microsoft Word to Write Research Papers in APA Style, Anderson, S.C.: TwoPaces.com, →ISBN, page 5:

A particular manner of creating, doing, or presenting something, especially a work of architecture or art.

(printing, publishing) A set of rules regarding the presentation of text (spelling, typography, the citation of references, etc.) and illustrations that is applied by a publisher to the works it produces.

styl

set of rules applied by a publisher to the works it produces


anti-gravity

(science fiction) Any concept, system or device that would oppose or cancel out the force of gravity.


shield

From Middle English scheld, shelde, from Old English scield (“shield”), from Proto-West Germanic *skeldu, from Proto-Germanic *skelduz (“shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“cut, split”). Cognate with West Frisian skyld, Dutch schild (“shield”), German Schild (“shield”), Danish skjold (“shield”), Icelandic skjöldur (“shield”) and Faroese skjøldur (“shield”).
Compare Latin scūtum (“shield”), Irish sciath (“shield”), Latgalian škīda (“shield”), Lithuanian skydas (“shield”), Russian щит (ščit, “shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover, protect”), *skey- (“to cut, split”).

noncog

Kinetic barriers, colloquially called "shields", provide protection against most mass accelerator weapons. Whether on a starship or a soldier's suit of armor, the basic principle remains the same.
Kinetic barriers are repulsive mass effect fields projected from tiny emitters. These shields safely deflect small objects traveling at rapid velocities. This affords protection from bullets and other dangerous projectiles, but still allows the user to sit down without knocking away their chair.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Kinetic Barriers ("Shields") Codex entry:

Anything that protects or defends; defense; shelter; protection.

(science fiction) A field of energy that protects or defends.

schild

sci fi: a field of energy that protects or defends


orphan

orphans (plural)
orphane (alternative obsolete)

Late Middle English, from Late Latin orphanus, from Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (orphanós, “without parents, fatherless”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos.
 PIE word
 *h₃órbʰos
Cognate with Sanskrit अर्भ (árbha), Latin orbus (“orphaned”), Old High German erbi, arbi (German Erbe (“heir”)), Old English ierfa (“heir”). More at erf.

weeskind

person whose (parent or) parents have died

anak yatim (who has lost father, literally means orphan child)

(typography) A single line of type, beginning a paragraph, at the bottom of a column or page.

fransk horeunge

single line of type at the bottom of page