Word of the Day
xebec
noun
a small, three-masted vessel of the Mediterranean, formerly much used by corsairs, now employed to some extent in commerce.
More about xebec
Xebec “a small, three-masted vessel” is an alteration of chebec, which comes by way of French from either Catalan xabec or obsolete Spanish xabeque, from Arabic shabbāk, a small type of ship. In modern Spanish, the older form xabeque is now spelled jabeque; the version with an initial x reflects the earlier use of x to make the “sh” sound, which eventually shifted to the “h” sound. While many Spanish terms that once contained the “sh”-sounding x have since shifted to the modern Spanish “h”-sounding j (such as Don Quixote, which is spelled Don Quijote in modern Spanish), this x—with the modern “h” pronunciation—still exists today in place names such as México, Oaxaca, and even in Bexar, the county in Texas where San Antonio is located. Xebec was first recorded in English in the 1750s.
how is xebec used?
With the nor’-nor’-westerly breeze freshening as the night fell, the ship advanced rapidly on the starboard tack ….
“She is a xebec!” said one of the sailors. “I see the square sails on her mizen.”
“No,” answered another, “she is a pink! see how high in the stern and broad in the bow she is.”
“Xebec or pink, who can tell one from the other at this distance?”
“Isn’t she a polacca with square sails?” remarked another sailor, making a telescope of his hands.
“Heaven help us anyhow!” said old Gozzo. “Polacca, pink, or xebec, they are all three-masters, and three masts are worth more than two when they come ashore with a good cargo of wine from Crete, or stuffs from Smyrna!”
Returning from a visit to the city in his gig one night Captain Bainbridge was grossly insulted by the commander of a Spanish xebec which was anchored in the harbor as a guard boat. In vulgar and abusive language the Spaniard ordered the gig to come alongside, and, as no attention was paid to the insult, several musket shots were fired. Supposing that some mistake had been made, Captain Bainbridge ran alongside the xebec and explained who he was, but, not satisfied with this, the commander of the guard boat insisted on his coming aboard. Captain Bainbridge replied that, as the commander of an American frigate, he considered it beneath his dignity to comply with such an impudent request, and ordering his men to shove off, he pulled for the Essex in spite of the Spaniard’s repeated threats of firing on him.
sídh
noun
a mound or hill in which fairies live.
More about sídh
Sídh “a mound or hill in which fairies live” is a borrowing from Irish Gaelic, from Old Irish síd, of the same meaning. The ultimate source of sídh is the Proto-Indo-European root sed- “to sit,” with derivations including English sit, set, and saddle as well as Latin sedēre “to sit” (compare sedentary and sediment). Though sídh literally refers to fairy mounds, it also frequently appears in reference to fairies themselves. This process is called metonymy (from meta- “beyond” and -onym “name”), in which a word for one thing is used figuratively to refer to a related concept or entity. Just as sídh can refer figuratively to fairies as well as literally to their home, “the White House” can refer figuratively to the president of the United States as well as literally to the building located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Sídh was first recorded in English in the 1790s.
how is sídh used?
While divine beings could be associated with either [hills or bodies of water] in both Ireland and Wales, the Irish tended to prefer the sidh mounds in their tales while the Welsh stories usually placed the dwellings of deities on islands or even under water. It is possible that the Lady of the Lake was the Welsh equivalent of the Lady of the Sidh.
Newgrange is Ireland’s most famous prehistoric site. As with most of the passage tombs in Ireland, archeologists believe that it was built around 3200 B.C., which means that Newgrange predates the construction of Stonehenge in England and the Pyramids of Egypt …. The Celtic myth says that Newgrange is a fairy mound or a sidh. A group of ancient people, the Tuatha Dé Danann, or “people of the goddess Danu,” dwelled there.
pruinose
adjective
covered with a frostlike bloom or powdery secretion, as a plant surface.
More about pruinose
Pruinose “covered with a frostlike bloom or powdery secretion” comes from Latin pruīnōsus “frosty,” from pruīna “frost” and the adjectival suffix -ōsus “full of, consisting of.” Pruīna and frost are in fact distantly related; just as we learned from the recent Word of the Day corvine that Latin c often corresponds to English h (compare cor/heart and caput/head), Latin p often corresponds to English f. This pattern can also be seen in pairs such as Latin pater and English father, Latin paucus and English few, Latin pēs and English foot, and English farrow “litter of pigs” and Latin porcus “pig.” Pruinose was first recorded in English in the 1820s.
how is pruinose used?
Native to Mexico, ghost plant (Graptopetalum paraguayense) are evergreen plants with light blue to gray, pink foliage that give it a “ghostly” appearance due to a powdery coating known as pruinose that covers the plant’s leaves.
The guidebooks are full of other gorgeous words to describe these creatures with the biplane wings. Teneral bugs are those that recently emerged from their shed skins, known as exuviae, and must rest undisturbed while their shells harden. Pruinose describes the blue or white powder that covers the insects as they age.