Thursday, January 7, 2010

AskOxford: Word of the Day

Word of the Day from AskOxford: www.askoxford.com

nanoplankton
noun [mass noun] Biology very small unicellular plankton, at the limits of resolution of light microscopy.
origin early 20th cent.: from German, from Greek nanos ‘dwarf’ + plankton.

Source: Oxford Dictionary of English
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Wednesday, January 6, 2010

AskOxford: Word of the Day

Word of the Day from AskOxford: www.askoxford.com

toyi-toyi
noun (pl. toyi-toyis) a dance step characterized by high-stepping movements, typically performed at protest gatherings or marches.
verb (toyi-toyis, toyi-toying or toyi-toyiing, toyi-toyied) [no obj.] perform such a dance.
origin Ndebele and Shona; probably introduced into South Africa by ANC exiles returning from military training in Zimbabwe.

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Source: Oxford Dictionary of English
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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

AskOxford: Word of the Day

Word of the Day from AskOxford: www.askoxford.com

McGuffin
noun an object or device in a film or a book which serves merely as a trigger for the plot.
origin 1930s: a Scottish surname, coined in this sense by the English film director Alfred Hitchcock, allegedly from a humorous story involving such a pivotal factor.

Source: Oxford Dictionary of English
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Monday, January 4, 2010

AskOxford: Word of the Day

Word of the Day from AskOxford: www.askoxford.com

strickle
noun
1. a rod used to level off a heaped measure.
2. a whetting tool.
origin Old English stricel (in sense 1); related to strike. Sense 2 dates from the mid 17th cent.

Source: Oxford Dictionary of English
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Sunday, January 3, 2010

AskOxford: Word of the Day

Word of the Day from AskOxford: www.askoxford.com

exarch
noun
1. (in the Orthodox Church) a bishop lower in rank than a patriarch and having jurisdiction wider than the metropolitan of a diocese.
2. historical a governor of a distant province under the Byzantine emperors.
origin late 16th cent.: via ecclesiastical Latin from Greek exarkhos, from ex- ‘out of’ + arkhos ‘ruler’.

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Source: Oxford Dictionary of English
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Saturday, January 2, 2010

AskOxford: Word of the Day

Word of the Day from AskOxford: www.askoxford.com

monokini
noun a woman's one-piece beach garment equivalent to the lower half of a bikini.
origin 1960s: from mono- ‘one’ + a shortened form of bikini (the first syllable misinterpreted as bi- ‘two’).

Source: Oxford Dictionary of English
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Friday, January 1, 2010

AskOxford: Word of the Day

Word of the Day from AskOxford: www.askoxford.com

scorp
noun a drawknife with a circular blade and a single handle, used to scoop out wood when carving or engraving.
origin mid 19th cent. (as scorper), based on Latin scalper ‘knife’.

Source: Oxford Dictionary of English
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