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ultramafic

[ uhl-truh-maf-ik ] [ ˌʌl trəˈmæf ɪk ] Show IPA Phonetic Respelling

adjective

(of rocks) containing iron and magnesium, with little or no silica.

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More about ultramafic

Ultramafic “containing iron and magnesium” is a compound of the combining form ultra- “going beyond what is usual or ordinary” and the adjective mafic “relating to rocks rich in ferromagnesian materials.” Ultra- is borrowed from the Latin preposition ultrā “on the far side (of), beyond,” while mafic is a coinage based on magnesium and Latin ferrum “iron.” The ultimate origin of magnesium is the Ancient Greek phrase (hē) Magnēsía (líthos) “the stone of Magnesia,” in which Magnēsía denotes an uncertain location in either modern-day Greece or Turkey. From this same source, English inherits magnet and manganese. Latin ferrum is the source of modern Romance terms for “iron” (compare French fer and Spanish hierro) and is of obscure origin, though one hypothesis connects ferrum to English brass, and another connects it to a Semitic source akin to Hebrew barzel “iron.” Ultramafic was first recorded in English in the early 1940s.

how is ultramafic used?

[George Guice] has long chased after sparkly green rocks, known to geologists as ultramafic. They’re rich in magnesium and make up the majority of our planet as the mantle. But pieces of the mantle are rare at the surface, and ultramafic rocks can form in several different ways, including in large crystallizing magma chambers. They’re also devilishly difficult to study.

Maya Wei-Haas, “Rare chunks of Earth’s mantle found exposed in Maryland,” National Geographic, April 27, 2021

Huddled up next to a small slice of muskeg, the cliffs glowed in a strange light. This was ultramafic rock, Birdman told us, placing his hand on a slab. Volcanic intrusions, brimming with iron that stained the rock red. This type of rock was as substantial as we could hope for. Our feet would stick to it even at a dangerous angle, but in places the weather was slowly crumbling the rock into tiny pebbles. We would have to be careful. We would have to respect the rock.

Mary Emerick, The Geography of Water, 2015

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ab urbe condita

[ ab ur-bee kon-di-tuh ] [ æb ˈɜr bi ˈkɒn dɪ tə ] Show IPA Phonetic Respelling

adverb

from the founding of the city (Rome, about 753 b.c.).

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More about ab urbe condita

Ab urbe condita “from the founding of the city” is a phrase borrowed from Latin; spelled with the traditional macrons to indicate vowel length, the phrase is properly ab urbe conditā, literally “(in the year) from the founded city.” The preposition ab “away from, out of, since” is a common element in Latin-origin terms such as abduct (originally “to lead away”), abrupt (“to break away”), and absent (“to be away”), and its variant form abs- appears in abstain (“to hold away”) and abstract (“to draw away”). Urbe is the ablative (prepositional object) form of urbs “city,” which is also the root of urban and suburb (“under the city”), while conditā is the perfect participle of the verb condere “to build, conceal, compose,” the source of abscond, condiment, and condition. Ab urbe condita was first recorded in English in the early 17th century.

how is ab urbe condita used?

The dates we now use … [are] based on the calculations of a sixth-century monk named Dionysius Exiguus. He sought to find a replacement for the old Christian calendar which was based on the years since the beginning of the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian, the last emperor to persecute Christians. He died in 311. Prior to that, dates had been calculated in the Roman Empire using Ab urbe condita (from the founding of the city), the date of the foundation of the city of Rome in 753 BC. Dates in antiquity were also calculated according to the year of the reign of an emperor and the dates of the two pro-consuls elected in Rome on an annual basis.

Ronan McGreevy, “In the bleak midwinter? An Irishman’s Diary on the date of the Nativity,” Irish Times, December 21, 2020

Basically every civilization has also had some kind of accumulating count of elapsed time. In the West, we’re celebrating the start of the year 2022, counting the years since a particular approximate determination of the birth of Jesus; we’re a quarter of the way through the year 5782 in the Jewish calendar (counting from the supposed date of creation) and not quite halfway through 1443 in the Islamic calendar (which has the most historically solid origin of the three, starting with the Prophet Muhammed’s move from Mecca to Medina). In the more distant past, the Romans dated events ab urbe condita, from the founding of the city, and the Maya had the Long Count which put a bit of a cyclical gloss on the steady accumulation of years.

Chad Orzel, “New Year’s Day And The Balance Of Linear And Cyclical Time,” Forbes, January 5, 2022

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Word of the day

carouse

[ kuh-rouz ] [ kəˈraʊz ] Show IPA Phonetic Respelling

verb (used without object)

to engage in a drunken revel.

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More about carouse

Carouse “to engage in a drunken revel” is a variant of garouse, which derives from German gar aus(trinken) “(to drink) fully out,” that is, to drain the cup. German gar “done, cooked; even, very” is a cognate of archaic English yare “quick, lively, ready,” while austrinken is a compound of aus “out” and trinken “to drink.” In this way, gar austrinken is to go “all out” while drinking. Despite the similar spelling, carouse and the related noun carousal “a noisy or drunken feast” are not related to carousel, a merry-go-round. While carouse is of German extraction, carousel derives by way of French from Italian, and there are multiple competing theories for its origin. Carouse was first recorded in English in the 1550s.

how is carouse used?

For a hamlet named after the eternal banquet hall where the slain warriors of Norse mythology caroused, Valhalla is low on drama. Residents appreciate the forested hills, compact homes and soothing cul-de-sacs of this small Westchester community (population 3,400).

Julie Lasky, "Valhalla, N.Y.: A Picturesque Hamlet with a Short Commute," New York Times, December 13, 2017

It’s festival season and that’s good news for many people. Be it Body & Soul here or Glastonbury across the water, thousands of people will spend the weekend showing their standard of festival fitness in the open air. They will carouse, dance, shout, drink, scream, fall over and generally act the maggot in various charming and not so charming ways.

Jim Carroll, “Live music belongs indoors, so let’s leave the festival fields to the cows,” Irish Times, June 20, 2017

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