Words & Stuff

Another one from a submission. "Catchpenny" is an adjective, meaning "using sensationalism or cheapness for appeal" (sez MW11). Useful in all sorts of circumstances. Dates back to 1750. Presumably refers...

It's possible I've seen this word before, but it's a funny word, so I'll post it anyway. It turns out that the word "flock" can be a synonym for "floc."...

A "topit" is a "[l]arge pocket in the lining of a jacket that allows [a stage] magician to vanish items by tossing them secretly and smoothly into the pocket," according...

I just looked up "oceanic," and the definition distinguished oceanic waters from "littoral or neritic waters." I had a vague idea that "littoral" was something to do with margins, and...

[...] yellow, like sand calcined and made incandescent by the sun[....] --We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, translated by Bernard Guilbert Guerney in 1960; p. 92 of the 1977 Penguin edition...

His face had its usual look: it was a round plate of white faïence[....] --We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, translated by Bernard Guilbert Guerney in 1960; p. 87 of the...

This one isn't actually new to me now, but it was a few months ago, and I think it's a neat example of unexpected cultural differences, so I'll include it....

Also used in the same story as "salle." An "adit" is a near-horizontal entrance shaft to a mine. This is yet another word that it's possible I've encountered before; it...

Used in a submitted story. "Salle" is apparently French for "room" or "hall"; in the UK, it's "a sorting room in a paper mill"; apparently it's related to "saloon."...

Chorees--abrupt, swift, falling like a keen axe. --We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, translated by Bernard Guilbert Guerney in 1960; p. 60 of the 1977 Penguin edition MW3 says "choree" is...