insufflate (in-SUHF-leyt, IN-suh-fleyt) v.t.

1. to blow or breathe into or upon
2. to blow upon baptisimal waters or or person being baptized
3. medical: to blow a powder or air (or other gas) into the lungs or other bodily cavity

insufflation, noun
insufflators, noun



“ Insufflate, insufflate , wind hibernal!
Thou art not so cruel
As human ingratitude.
Thy dentition is not so penetrating,” – John Fiske, The Unseen World, and Other Essays, p. 247

Mr. Fiske made this amusing rewording of Shakespeare’s poetry to illustrate his conviction that Longfellow, the American poet, is wrong in translating Dante’s Italian words by using their Romantic Language equivalents in English. He arrived at his amusing rewording by re-translating from French back into English the Shakespearian lines using Mr. Longfellow’s principle. Here is the French version of Shakespeare’s lines. (Anyone who knows no French still can see how similar they are to the English Mr. Fiske used in the retranslation.)

« Souffle, souffle, vent d’hiver!
-Tu n’es pas si cruel
Que l’ingratitude de l’homme.
Ta dent n’est pas si pénétrante, »

“Blow, blow, thou winter wind!
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude.
Thy tooth is not so keen,” - Shakespeare

insolate (IN-soh-leyt) t.v. insolated, insolating

1. to expose to sunlight
2. to prepare or treat by putting out in the sun (drying, bleaching, etc.)

[< Latin insolare, to expose to the sun]

“High esteem was made of garum by the ancients, and was used in sauces, puddings, &c. If simply made with aromatic mixture, as is delivered, it cannot but have an ungrateful smell, however a haut gout, for it was the liquor or the resolution of guts of fishes, salt and insolated .” - Sir Thomas Browne, Recipes for Pickles

“Reptiles and amphibians are cold-blooded, meaning that their body temperature is not regulated internally, but rather is affected by the temperature of the air, soil, water, and sunshine around them. They cannot move fast when cool, so they insolate , or absorb heat from the sun by moving into a sunny area, or they may lie on warm sand, or sleep.” Peggy Lantz, Wendy Hale, The Young Naturalist’s Guide to Florida, p. 123 (2006)

“In cases of insolation it is not at all unusual to see a patient whose temperature cannot be registered by an ordinary thermometer. Any one who has been resident at a hospital in which heat-cases are received in the summer will substantiate this.” – George M. Gould, Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine

This poor word, insolate , much more often than not suffers the indignity of being used as a misspelling of “insulate” or “isolate.” Wouldn't it help to put the accent on the second syllable instead of the first: (in-SOH-leyt, -luht)?

febrile (FEH-brehl, FEE-brehl) adjective

1. characterized by fever, feverish,
2. caused by fever

[1651 > Medieval Latin febrilis, > L. febris fever]

febrility , noun; a rise in the temperature of the body

“Very young children are prone to fevers, as their body's temperature control is not yet fully developed. This can lead to fits, known as febrile convulsions.”
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/febrileconvulsions2.shtml

“What I do know for sure is that the blogs are making politics more febrile .” – Steve Richards, 02 Aug. 2007 www.independent.co.uk/opinion

“Madame de Saverne remained for some time in this febrile condition, if not unconscious of her actions, at least not accountable for all of them. “ William Makepeace Thackeray, Miscellanies, p. 260

“. . . but he was somehow conscious of a sharp and chilling scrutiny which irritated and yet overmastered him. ''You need not think, he broke out suddenly, in an explosive, febrile manner that startled and alarmed himself, 'that I am a stay-at-home, because I fear anything under God.” – Robert Louis Stevenson, Merry Men

“The shriek of a train-whistle reached me, a sound which breaks the stillness of the most silent London night, telling of the ceaseless, febrile life of the great world-capital whose activity ceases not with the coming of darkness.” Sax Rohmer, The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu

fattoush (feh- TOOSH), noun

A salad made from moistened toasted bread, cucumbers, tomatoes, mint, and other ingredients.

[< Colloquial Arabic fattus] Fattoush was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in June of 2007.

"Fattoush is a Lebanese salad, good for hot weather. This recipe uses two unusual ingredients: sumac and purslane. Sumac, usually sold ground, is ground red berries and used in Middle Eastern, particularly Lebanese, cooking. Purslane is succulent with a lemony flavor, and makes a nice salad green. I find them at farmer's markets." - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Authentic-Lebanese-Fattoush/Detail.aspx

testaceous (te-STEY-shuhs), adjective

1. of or like a shell or shells
2. having a testa or hard shell
3. of the reddish-brown or yellowish-brown color of unglazed earthenware or bricks.

[Latin testaceus, made of brick, tile, or shell < testa piece of burned clay, shell or skull]

“He was a testaceous old man, for the years of trouble and hardship had formed an impenetrable shell completely enclosing his heart; or so we thought until that fateful day the hapless fellow obtained a glance of widow O’Bleary.” -anon.

“. . . which begat some doubt, whether they were burnt, or only baked in oven or sun, according to the ancient way, in many bricks, tiles, pots, and testaceous works; and, as the word testa is properly to be taken, when occurring without addition and chiefly intended by Pliny, when he commendeth bricks and tiles of two years old, and to make them in the spring.” - Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, Hydrotaphia, and the Letter to a Friend.

“Instead of these, I would recommend a certain fine insipid Powder, called Magnesia alba, which at the same time that it corrects and sweetens all Sournesses, rather more effectually than the testaceous Powders, is likewise a lenient Purgative, and keeps the Body gently open.” – William Cadogan, An Essay Upon Nursing and the Management of Children

“This species is liable to considerable variation ; the elytra are often pale testaceous, and sometimes the whole body partakes more or less of that colour.” - James Wilson, James Duncan, (1834) Entomologia Edinensis

"I am informed by Mr. F. Smith that the male ants of several species are black, the females being testaceous." Charles Darwin; The Descent Of Man (1871)

Testaceous animals are such as have a strong thick entire shell, as oysters and clams; and are thus distinguished from crustaceous animals, whose shells are more thin and soft, and consist of several pieces jointed, as lobsters. . .Testaceous medicines, are all preparations of shells and like substances, as the powders of crabs' claws, pearl, &c. – 1828 Noah Webster’s Dictionary

quizzical (KWI-zi-kehl), adjective

odd or eccentric ; comical
mildly teasing or mocking; given to making fun of others
showing puzzlement, curiosity or disbelief; perplexed, questioning

quizzicality (kwi-zeh-KA-leh-tee), noun
quizzically (KWI-zi-klee), adverb

[1789, from quiz "odd or eccentric person" (1782), of unknown origin] – etymonline.com


“Still on his delicate pale face
A quizzical thin smile is showing,
His cheeks are wrinkled like fine lace,
His kind blue eyes are gay and glowing.” - Joyce Alfred Kilmer, Trees and Other Poems

“She paused. The woman’s face seemed to grow quizzical , though the pleasantness did not abate. "But how do you know you will be happy in the country?" she asked.” - Jack London, The Valley of the Moon

“He evidently regarded his tall shipmate with a feeling half-wondrous half- quizzical ; and stared up occasionally in his face as the red setting sun stares up at the crags of Ben Nevis.” - Edgar Allan Poe, King Pest

“. . . but he had scarcely sat down in my parlour before he began to find fault with the cut and colour
of my coat, and to express his astonishment that I could wear such a quizzical peruke. I laughed; but he gave the subject a serious turn and; vowed that such queer ways as I had, disgraced the family,. . . “ – Lionel Thomas Berguer, The British Essayists With Prefaces Biographical, Historical and Critical, vol. XLIII, p. 80 (1823)

“Sir,” said Dr. Johnson, “the corporeal gelidity and horripilation superinduced by the niveous atmosphere cannot be mitigated even by the mental incalescence evolved by indignation.” “He means,” whispered Mr. Boswell, “that it’s so infernally cold in the cars of the Third Avenue elevated that even swearing at the directors won’t warm you.” - New York Sun, 1888



gelid (JEH - lehd), adjective

extremely cold; frozen, frosty, icy

gelidity (jeh – LIH – deh – tee), noun
gelidly (JEH – lehd – lee), adverb
gelidness , noun

1630: Gelid comes from Latin gelidus, from gelu, frost, cold

synonyms in context from Roget: (Adjective): cold, cool; chill, chilly; icy; gelid , frigid, algid; fresh, keen, bleak, raw, inclement, bitter, biting, niveous, cutting, nipping, piercing, pinching; clay-cold; starved. (made cold); chilled to the bone, shivering. Verb: aguish; frostbitten, frost-bound, frost-nipped.

“I began to have a morbid longing to do something startling, something that would break the gelid monotony of my existence.” – Rhoda Broughton, Cometh Up As a Flower, Vol. 1


“The man behind the counter touched his fingertips together thoughtfully. He had a tiny button of a nose and beautiful eyes, gelid blue with black around the irises.” Jane Avrich, The Winter Without Milk: Stories (2003)

“We pick our way over a bed of pine boughs a foot or two deep, covering the ground, each twig and needle thickly incrusted with ice, one vast gelid mass, which our feet crunch, as if we were walking through the cellar of some confectioner to the gods.” - Henry David Thoreau, “Winter,” The Writings of Henry David Thoreau With Bibliographical Introductions, p. 97 (1887)

“Kidneys were in his mind as he moved about the kitchen softly, righting her breakfast things on the humpy tray. Gelid light and air were in the kitchen but out of doors gentle summer morning everywhere. Made him feel a bit peckish.” James Joyce, Ulysses

"Be silent!" cried Dmitri, "wait till gone. Dare in my presence to asperse the good name of an honourable girl! That you should utter a word about her is an outrage, and I permit it!" He was breathless. He was breathless.’ - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

asperse (ahs-PURS), v.t.

1. to sprinkle with water (esp. with holy water)
2. to defame or attack by spreading damaging charges or false rumors; to slander

synonyms: malign, slander, defame, calumniate, vilify, libel, traduce, slur, sully, soil, stain

Etymology:
Latin aspersus, past participle of aspergere, from ad- + spargere to scatter

Related:
aspersion , noun, act of aspersing
aspersorium , noun, basin or font for holy water; pl. aspersoria

“However, I did not omit to bless the water and asperse the people; and as I thought that the solemnity of the day demanded a little preaching, I preached, and gave notice that I should say mass on the following day.” – John Weiss, “The Horrors of San Domingo,” The Atlantic Monthly, (Sept. 1862)
‘
“If I have caused you some dissatisfaction, in former Letters, by my endeavours to establish the innocence of those whom you were labouring to asperse , I shall afford you pleasure in the present by making you acquainted with the sufferings which you have inflicted upon them.” - Blaise Pascal , The Provincial Letters

“The stupidest mind may invent a rankling phrase or brand the innocent with a cruel aspersion .” - Joseph Conrad, Nostromo

“Men asperse their neighbours by malignant insinuations.” - Wilhelm Dreser, Englische Synonmik, p. 417, (1881)
‘Julian Bond, reaching deep into the old-school bag of tricks, turned to rhyme to asperse Dr. Rice's authenticity: "Just because they are your skin folks, doesn't mean they're your kinfolks." ‘ - John Ridley, Esquire Magazine, Dec. 2006

“This last requirement applies also to aspersion of cereal, fodder crops, nurseries, ... with B quality water.” - François Brissaud, “Wastewater Reclamation and Reuse in France”

Today’s word has been around a while (since 1884); however, it is among those added just this March to the Oxford English Dictionary.

girlcott v.

A boycott by women

“Humorously understanding the verb boycott as showing the noun boy in its first element (it in fact derives from Captain Charles C. Boycott, who was an early recipient of the treatment to which he gave his name), this formation, denoting the carrying out of a boycott by women, has had a long life. It is first recorded in a short newspaper sketch of 1884, describing how the young women of Groton, Massachusetts ‘have resolved to girlcott any young man that smokes or goes out of the theatre between acts’. “ - http://www.oed.com/news/updates/newwords0803.html

“The Cabinet wives girlcotted Peggy and lobbied at Jackson until the Secretary was forced to resign.” 1943 Kingsport (Tennessee) News

“During the boycott of 1920, Sir Reginald Craddock, the Lt. – Governor, sarcastically referred to the schoolgirls taking part in the boycott as those who “ girlcott ” their schools.” Kyaw Ei, Aye Kyaw, The Voice of Young Burma, p. 82, (1993)

stochastic (stuh-KAS-tik), adjective,
1. Involving or containing a random variable or variables.
2. Involving chance or probability.
3. Conjectural; able to conjecture. [Obs.] --Whitefoot.

Related : stochastically , adverb

[ stochastic: 1662, "pertaining to conjecture," from Gk. stokhastikos "able to guess, conjecturing," from stokhazesthai "guess," from stokhos "a guess, aim, target, mark," lit. "pointed stick set up for archers to shoot at. “ The sense of "randomly determined" is first recorded 1934, from Ger. Stochastik. - online etymology dictionary ]

(Statistics) “of or pertaining to a process involving a randomly determined sequence of observations each of which is considered as a sample of one element from a probability distribution.” - Dictionary.com Unabridged

If stochastic statistics are not completely clear to you, don’t feel alone. First, what is a probability distribution, a “bunch of things” put in sequence by chance, not according to rule or plan? The dictionary which ‘resides’ on my piano, had this phrase: “ Stochastic variation implies randomness as opposed to a fixed rule or relation in passing from one observation to the next in order.” Now that sounds like a description of my life! Understanding is dawning.

In experimental science randomness is eliminated as much as possible so that the experiment is always the same and the results always the same. The variables can then be altered to see what changes are caused in the results. Those are ‘deterministic’ observations, not random, not stochastic .

“Tho' he were no Prophet, nor Son of a Prophet, yet in that Faculty which comes nearest it, he excelled, i. e. the Stochastick [3rd def.], wherein he was seldom mistaken, as to future Events, as well Publick as Private; but not apt to discover any Presages or Superstition.” - Some MINUTES for the Life of Sir THOMAS BROWNE, by John Whitefoot, M.A. late Rector of Heigham, in NORFOLK. – from the 1712 edition of Browne’s Posthumous Works

“. . . at the same time that he far surpassed all in his deductions of the future from the PAST; or was the best guesser of the future from the past. Should this faculty of moral and political prediction be ever considered as a science, we can even furnish it with a denomination; for the writer of the life of Sir Thomas Browne, prefixed to his works, in claiming the honour of it for that philosopher, calls it ‘the Stochastic ,’ a term derived from the Greek and from archer, meaning, ‘to shoot at a mark.’ “ Simon Wilkin, The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, footnote p. xxxi

“Glynn Isaac's model of pounding two stones together for a while, then sorting through the fragments for particularly useful ones, would be a more advanced type of " stochastic toolmaking." - William H. Calvin, The River That Flows Uphill, (1987)

“ Stochastic effects are those effects [e.g. cancer or leukaemia] whose probability of occurring is proportional to the radiation exposure received.” - OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development, Nuclear Energy Today, p. 101, (2003)

“The argument is related to the condition that demand for the goods in question
is stochastic. . . .” Economic Research Centre, Report of the 127th Round Table on Transport Economics, p. 75

“Because of the variation in survivability, and other variability, whether the driver is fatally injured or not is stochastic in nature.” Leonard Evans, Traffic Safety and the Driver, p. 222, (1991)

“It was in the marbled thinking chamber that we were reading both Playboy and the New Yorker at once. A theory resulted: That the rate of humor found in New Yorker cartoons is the exact same as naturally occurring humor in the world. That is to say, in the case of any decent drawing set-up, one could pair a drawing with any caption and reasonably expect to laugh the same amount. We decided to test our theory of stochastic humor by mashing-up Playboy cartoons with New Yorker captions and vice versa. “ - http://gawker.com/news/cartooning/

“ Stochastic crafts are complex systems whose practitioners, even if complete experts, cannot guarantee success. Classical examples of this are medicine: a doctor can administer the same treatment to multiple patients suffering from the same symptoms, however, the patients may not all react to the treatment the same way. This makes medicine a stochastic process. Additional examples are warfare and rhetoric, where the successes and failures cannot be certainly predicted.” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic