From the original website a list of “new words”:
New Words
Defalcate
Manias, Panics, and Crashes; a history of financial crises by Charles P. Kindleberger (Wiley: New York 2000)
“Greed not only creates suckers to be swindled by professionals but also pushes some of the amateurs over the line into fraud, embezzlement, defalcation, and similar malfeasance.” (p.76)
INTRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: de·fal·cat·ed, de·fal·cat·ing, de·fal·cates
To misuse funds; embezzle.
ETYMOLOGY: Medieval Latin dfalcre, dfalct-, to mow, deduct : Latin d-, de- + Latin falx, falc-, sickle.
OTHER FORMS: defal·cation (dfl-kshn, -fôl-, dfl-) —NOUN
de·falcator —NOUN
(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.via bartleby.com)
11/16/02
Alembic
Wall St. Journal 8/14/02 – in an article by William McGurn, “Just Don’t Call It ‘Scotch'”:
” How many Jack Daniel’s or Johnny Walker drinkers, I wonder, appreciate that they owe their favorite tipple to the Irish monks, who in the sixth century brought back from the Middle East the alembic used to distill perfumes but soon adapted it to much more felicitous use?”
ALEMBIC
NOUN: 1. An apparatus consisting of two vessels connected by a tube, formerly used for distilling liquids. 2. A device that purifies or alters by a process comparable to distillation.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English alambic, from Old French, from Medieval Latin alembicus, from Arabic al-’anbq : al-, the + ’anbq, still (from Greek ambix, cup)1
Terne Coated Stainless Steel
I saw this term at an architectural exhibit concerning the new American Folk Art Museum building in New York City. It was used to described the exterior wall covering for one portion of the building.
The term “terne” refers to an alloy of lead and tin that is applied to various steels for corrosion resistance. Typically the portion of tin is approximately 15%. It serves as a wetting and bonding agent to provide good adhesion for the lead to the underlying steel. Terne here is borrowed directly from the French and means “dull”.
When applied to stainless steel the chief appeal of the terne coating is the fact that it tarnishes to a dull grey color within a year of exposure to weather. Thus you get the tremendous life and low maintenance of stainless without the accompanying shiny appearance.
Follansbee, a company in West Virginia, produces specialty coated carbon and stainless steel architectural cladding materials. Their site (opens in a separate window) is interesting on this topic.
(05/16/02)
On a recent visit to New York I happened by the now completed American Folk Art Museum and examined the exterior wall. Here is a picture of the terne coated stainless steel. The weathering process has not yet produced the “dull” finish.
Zucchetto
Seen in an article in the New York Times (05/11/02) about Cardinal Bernard Law describing his head gear.
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. zuc·chet·tos or zuc·chet·ti (-t)
A skullcap worn by certain Roman Catholic clerics, varying in color according to rank.
ETYMOLOGY: Italian, variant of zucchetta, diminutive of zucca, gourd, head. See zucchini.
(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000) (051502)
Yarmulke
Seeing the word zucchetto (above) reminded me of the Jewish tradition of covering the head with a yarmulke.
VARIANT FORMS: also yar·mel·ke
NOUN: A skullcap worn by Jewish men and boys, especially those adhering to Orthodox or Conservative Judaism.
ETYMOLOGY: Yiddish, from Polish and Ukrainian yarmulka, possibly from Turkish yamurluk, rain clothing, from yamur, rain.
(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000) (05152002)
Pull Quote
“….my editing work includes basic grammar checking, improving the clarity of the writing, identifying pull quotes, and so on.” (Linda Larson, editor of Spare Change speaking of her work on the paper)
A pull quote is a snippet taken from the article and placed in larger type and perhaps in a box within the boundaries of the article. The purpose of the pull quote is to entice the reader to in fact read the article; thus, the quote “pulls” the reader in.
(4/23/2002)
Raclette
“…. few were moved to put down their bratwurst or raclette to applaud.” (Wall St. Journal 2/28/2002 front page article, “William Tell Overture: Swiss Enlist Heroes in Fight Over the UN”
NOUN: 1. A Swiss dish consisting of cheese melted and served on boiled potatoes or bread. 2. A firm cheese used in making this dish.
ETYMOLOGY: French, from racler, to rake, scrape, from Provençal rasclar, to rake, from Old Provençal, from Vulgar Latin *rsculre, from *rsculum, diminutive of Latin rstrum, rake. See rd- in Appendix I.
(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000)
(3/4/2002)
Protist
“Any of various complex one-celled organisms of the kingdom Protista, that have nuclei and organelles and that are either free-living or aggragated into simple colonies: includes the protozoans, slime molds, and eukaryotic algae. From Latin protista and Greek protistos, the very first.” (Random House Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 1997).
This word came to my attention via third grade homework for my nephew Parker. Boy, if he is learning words like this in third grade, I guess Ed and Meredith can stop saving the money for Harvard!
(3/1/2002)
Podology
“They relocate sources according to social (i.e. demographic, political, and geopolitical) and natural (i.e. climatological, podological, and geological) attributes as these relate to the material requirements of the reproduction and extraction of the raw material and to the spatial, topographic, and hydrological determinants of the cost of access and transport.”
(from a manuscript dated 02/12/2002, Matter, Space, Energy, and Political Economy; The Amazon in the World System by Stephen G.Bunker)
Based on a Google search of the Web, podology is widely used as a synonym for podiatry. The root “pod” is clearly from Greek for foot. Podological is similarly used pretty exclusively to refer to feet, not excluding horse’s hooves and others.
What are we to make of Bunker’s usage here? Given the context, I would read this to refer to the characteristics of terrain with regards to ease of traverse. For instance, many rural residents of northern areas of the US refer to the period in the spring before the ground dries out as the “muddy season”. During this period, excepting high ground and paved surfaces, moving about is a podological nightmare.
