Word of the Day
noctilucent
adjective
(of high-altitude clouds) visible during the short night of the summer.
More about noctilucent
In noctilucent, the nocti- element comes from Latin nox, meaning “night.” Meanwhile, -lucent derives from Latin lucēre, “to shine,” from lux, meaning “light.” In this way, anything noctilucent is literally a night-light. Noctilucent was first recorded in English in the early 1690s, originally referring generally to things that shone in the dark.
EXAMPLE OF NOCTILUCENT USED IN A SENTENCE
A thin, threadlike patch of noctilucent clouds slowly came into view as the sun set behind the mountains.
More about Stygian
Stygian originally referred to Styx, one of the mythological rivers of the underworld. Ancient Greek Stýx likely shares an origin with several words relating to hatred, and the Greeks once believed that swearing on the river’s name created an unbreakable vow. Stygian was first recorded in English in the 1560s.
EXAMPLE OF STYGIAN USED IN A SENTENCE
The basement was a windowless, Stygian space, with only a single flickering fluorescent providing the weakest of light.
sewellel
noun
a small, burrowing rodent of the Pacific coastal region of North America, also known as the mountain beaver.
More about sewellel
Sewellel is an adaptation of š-walál, a term from the Lower Chinook language of the Pacific Northwest that refers to a robe made of mountain beaver skins. When explorer Meriwether Lewis (of the Lewis and Clark expedition) heard š-walál, he misunderstood the term as referring to the mountain beaver itself and transcribed it as sewellel in 1806.
EXAMPLE OF SEWELLEL USED IN A SENTENCE
The sewellel poked its head out from its burrow and went off to forage for food.