Word of the Day
ganache
noun
a whipped frosting or filling made with semisweet chocolate and cream, used for cakes, pastries, and candies.
More about ganache
Ganache “a filling made with chocolate and cream” is a loanword from French, and before it gained its sweet, present-day meaning, it meant “horse’s jaw” and could be used as an insult for another person’s intelligence (or lack of it). Quite the peculiar changes in definition there! Prior to French, ganache was adapted from Italian ganascia “jaw”; the change in spelling from sc to ch is to preserve the “shuh” sound, which is represented in French as ch and in Italian as sc (when followed by an e or i). Ultimately, ganache comes from Ancient Greek gnathos “jaw,” which is not connected to English gnash “to grind the teeth together” but is distantly related to English chin. Ganache was first recorded in English in the early 19th century.
how is ganache used?
Yazzie’s program–supported by World Central Kitchen–continues to purchase cocoa powders that baker Vanessa Casillas (Ho-Chunk, Chicana) whips into a tasty dessert for each meal, like a Belizean chocolate chantilly or cupcakes with Belizean chocolate ganache in the middle, served to a diverse tribal community, including Ojibwe and Dakota elders at the Indian Center.
borborygmi
plural noun
rumbling or gurgling sounds caused by the movement of gas in the intestines.
Why Abiola Mubarak Mohammed chose borborygmi
As a prize for winning the Dictionary Derby, Abiola Mubarak Mohammed, a medical professional, chose today's Word of the Day. When asked why borborygmi was chosen for Word of the Day, Abiola Mubarak Mohammed wrote, "It was the first word that crossed my mind the moment this golden opportunity availed itself. It was my medical word of choice for the most intriguing medical term entry in my final year (in my yearbook). The word simply speaks for itself."
More about borborygmi
Borborygmi “gurgling sounds in the intestines” is the plural of borborygmus, which indicates a single gurgling sound. Like many singular Latin nouns ending in -us, this ending switches to -i in the plural form, but remember that not all -us nouns from Latin change in this way; one opus becomes two opera, one octopus becomes two octopodes, and—technically—one Prius should become two Priora, though the hypercorrection Prii has won over in popularity. The y in borborygmi shows that, before Latin, the word was borrowed from Ancient Greek: one borborygmós and two borborygmoí, with the -os and -oi endings becoming Latinized to -us and -i according to the custom at the time. Borborygmós was created by imitating the rumbling sound in question, and for a similarly formed word, compare bárbaros “foreign,” the source of barbarian and the name Barbara. Borborygmi was first recorded in English in the 1710s.
how is borborygmi used?
Whoo, that was embarrassing. I accidentally let my borborygmi go. Of course, borborygmi is involuntary, I can’t help it. Borborygmi, the rumbling sound of your gut, doesn’t come from your stomach, nor is it solely because you’re hungry.
For all that the dog is demonic and the detective dazzling, the genius of The Hound of the Baskervilles lies in its main location …. This bog’s borborygmi, says the novel’s villain, cause the ghostly howling that can sometimes be heard, but the natives say it’s the hound, and they’re right.
egalitarian
adjective
asserting, resulting from, or characterized by belief in the equality of all people, especially in political, economic, or social life.
More about egalitarian
Egalitarian “characterized by belief in the equality of all people” is an alteration of equalitarian, with French égal replacing the equal- component. Both English equal and French égal come from Latin aequālis “equal, like,” based on aequus “even, plain, just,” an adjective of unknown origin. Aequus is the source of English adequate, equal, equilibrium, equinox, equivalent, and iniquity. The evolution from Latin aequālis to French égal reflects three common sound changes: Latin ae usually becomes French é, Latin qu between vowels often becomes French g, and Latin suffixes such as -is are either reduced to -e or even dropped entirely. For the first of these changes, compare Latin prae with French pré- “before,” and for the other two, compare Latin aquila with French aigle “eagle.” Egalitarian was first recorded in English in the early 1880s.
how is egalitarian used?
Yet even many couples who pride themselves on a fair distribution of duties aren’t so balanced when it comes to carrying the harder-to-quantify “mental load,” the taxing work of managing a household and anticipating its many needs. (Same-sex couples tend to be more egalitarian, but can end up in lopsided arrangements as well.)
Bitcoin represents a techno-utopian dream. Satoshi Nakamoto, its pseudonymous inventor, proposed that the world run not on centralized financial institutions but on an egalitarian, math-based electronic money system distributed through a computer network.