09/15/2019:
Corncrake
(noun) An elusive, omnivorous, chestnut-colored bird of the family Rallidae (rails) that ranges through Eurasia and winters in Africa.
09/08/2019:
Agonic
(noun) The imaginary line, roughly longitudinal, where magnetic and true north lie in exactly the same direction. It wanders unpredictably, typically about 10 miles per year.
09/01/2019:
Penniform
(adjective) Feather-shaped.
08/25/2019:
Nixie
(noun) A letter or package that’s undeliverable due to a faulty address. Or, a female water spirit. Or, one of those old-fashioned numeric displays consisting of a neon-filled glass tube and multiple cathodes.
08/18/2019:
Grimthorpe
(verb) To alter or remodel a building without taking its history and character into account. Named for Edmund Beckett, 1st Baron Grimthorpe, QC (1816–1905).
08/11/2019:
Ulotrichous
(adjective) Having tightly curled or “peppercorn” hair.
08/04/2019:
Distichiasis
(noun) The condition, caused by a genetic mutation, of having double rows of eyelashes. One of its better known sufferers was actress Elizabeth Taylor.
07/28/2019:
Absquatulate
(verb) To slip out without being seen.
07/21/2019:
Semiotician
(noun) An expert at reading signs, symbols, gestures, and other visual cues.
07/14/2019:
Jyngine
(adjective) Wryneck-like. A wryneck is either of two species of European woodpeckers that can whip their heads around almost 180 degrees, which, combined with hissing, serves as a threat display.
07/07/2019:
Idiolect
(noun) The individualistic traits of a person’s speech. A further subdivision of dialect.
06/30/2019:
Hapax legomenon
(noun) The bane of dictionary authors, a word within a particular language that occurrs only once in the written record.
06/23/2019:
Mesonoxian
(adjective) Pertaining to midnight.
06/16/2019:
Morepork
(noun) An owl, Ninox novaeseelandiae, found in Australia and New Zealand.
06/09/2019:
Retromingent
(adjective) Cowardly (literally, “urinating backward”).
06/02/2019:
Chrysopoeia
(verb) The act of transmuting base substances into gold.
05/26/2019:
Zero Stroke
(noun) A mental disorder occurring during times of economic hyperinflation in which the sufferer obsessively writes row upon row of zeros. The term was coined by German physicians observing this phenomenon during the Weimar Republic period.
05/19/2019:
Naufragous
(adjective) Shipwreck-causing.
05/12/2019:
Deasil
(adverb or adjective) Clockwise. As a verb, it means to move clockwise.
05/05/2019:
Widdershins
(adverb or adjective) Counterclockwise.
