Sunday, January 17, 2010

Dictionary Highlights: Day 17

avoirdrupois - Informal. bodily weight: He carries around a lot of excess avoirdupois.

I wonder why this word isn't in common usage

avunulate - a close social relationship between a maternal uncle and his nephew.

axilla -
1. Anatomy. the armpit.
2. Ornithology. the corresponding region under the wing of a bird.
3. Botany. an axil

As in "the axilla fart"

axion - a hypothetical particle having no charge, zero spin, and small mass: postulated in some forms of quantum chromodynamics.

azan - (in Islamic countries) the call to prayer proclaimed five times a day by the muezzin

azimuthal quantum number - the quantum number that designates the orbital angular momentum of a particular quantum state of an electron in an atom and that assumes integral values from zero to one less than the value of the principal quantum number.

Sometimes you need more than a definition in order to understand a word

Azrael - (in Jewish and Islamic angelology) the angel who separates the soul from the body at the moment of death.

Played by Chris Katan

ba - in Egyptian religion, an aspect of the soul, represented as a human-headed bird.

Baal Shem Tov - (Israel ben Eliezer; “Besht”), c1700–60, Ukrainian teacher and religious leader: founder of the Hasidic movement of Judaism.

A group so old-fashioned, that even the ultra-Orthodox black hatters make fun of how they dress

babu -
1. a Hindu title of address equivalent to Sir, Mr., or Esquire.
2. a Hindu gentleman.
3. a native Indian clerk who writes English.
4. Usually Disparaging. any native Indian having only a limited knowledge of English.


bach - "bach it", (as in bachelor) to live alone or share living quarters with someone of the same sex, usually doing one's own housework, cooking, laundry, etc.

1 comment:

Doug Mazanec said...

Interesting how one set of definitions often leads you in new and different directions .. in this case, needed to track down azimuth(al) and was delighted with 'angelology' - http://goo.gl/9LBt