Orrery

Word of the Day for Monday, September 16, 2013

Orrery \AWR-uh-ree, OR-\, noun:

1. an apparatus for representing the positions, motions, and phases of the planets, satellites, etc., in the solar system.
2. any of certain similar machines, as a planetarium.

For part of the clock was an orrery: a mechanical model of the solar system that displayed the current positions of the planets and many of their moons.
-- Neal Stephenson, Anathem, 2010

But now he lies in hospital, mortally ill; and while his orrery still rests on the grand cherrywood desk, his photograph still hangs on the office wall (smiling mirthlessly, like a king who has wearied of his crown) and his iridescent fish still shimmer through the gloom of the aquarium on the dresser, his many bookcases are empty, save for dust and a single stress-busting executive toy like a hastily planted flag.
-- Paul Murray, Skippy Dies, 2010

Orrery is an eponym named after Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery. Orrery was the patron of George Graham who created a mechanical model of solar system. It entered English in the early 1700s.

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Dissilient

Word of the Day for Saturday, September 14, 2013

Dissilient \dih-SIL-ee-uhnt\, adjective:

bursting apart; bursting open.

I imagined the dissilient pod of rumours a creative bureau chief up for promotion might hatch. Stories, once sprung, would snowball out of control, growing more damaging with each repetition.
-- Susan Daitch, L.C., 2002

The court was dissilient, generationally fractured, manned (as it were) by an increasingly impatient and acquisitive nobility.
-- Eric Scott Mallin, Inscribing the Time, 1995

Dissilent comes from the Latin word dissilīre meaning "to leap apart."

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Bordereau

 

Word of the Day for Thursday, September 12, 2013

bordereau \bawr-duh-ROH; Fr. bawr-duh-ROH\, noun:

a detailed memorandum, especially one in which documents are listed.

At the War Office, Dreyfus was told to take a letter from dictation, "'so phrased as to include some passages'" from the bordereau.
-- Richard Clark Sterne, Dark Mirror, 1994

“We need a photograph of the bordereau,” he said when he met Dubon at his office that evening.
-- Kate Taylor, A Man in Uniform, 2011

Bordereau comes from the French word of the same spelling, which is a diminutive form of the French word for board. It entered English in the late 1800s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Ikat

Word of the Day for Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Ikat \ee-kaht\, noun:

1. a method of printing woven fabric by tie-dyeing the warp yarns (warp ikat), the weft yarns (weft ikat), or both (double ikat) before weaving.
2. a fabric made by this method.

I saw a collection of monumental tombs and watched a group of village ikat weavers using plants like indigo leaf to dye and make the fabric I'd always admired.
-- Carol Field, Mangoes and Quince, 2008

"Ikat," said Glenda. "From Bali. The most romantic place on the planet." Counting out the money, Simone discovered that she had only one more dollar than the scarf cost, with tax.
-- Francine Prose, Primitive People, 1992

Ikat is derived from the Malay word meaning "to tie" because of the method of dyeing. It entered English in the 1930s.

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Bauble

Word of the Day for Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Bauble \BAW-buhl\, noun:

1. a showy, usually cheap, ornament; trinket; gewgaw.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. a jester's sceptre.

 

 

 

From his pocket, he got out a small glittering bauble, carefully wrapped in translucent brown fibre.
-- Philip K. Dick, The World Jones Made, 1956

She had no temptation for such an action; as to the bauble on which the chief proof rests, if she had earnestly desired it, I should have willingly given it to her, so much do I esteem and value her.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein, 1818

Bauble is related to the Old French word bibelot, meaning "a small object of curiosity, beauty or rarity."

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com

Peplum

Word of the Day for Monday, September 9, 2013

Peplum \PEP-luhm\, noun:

1. a short full flounce or an extension of a garment below the waist, covering the hips.
2. a short skirt attached to a bodice or jacket.
3. Obsolete. a peplos.

It had a straight skirt and a peplum on the jacket and, truly, it seemed to have been made for me.
-- Jodi Picoult, Harvesting the Heart, 1995

Kathleen is wearing what she went out in the night before, a green peplum jacket over a swingy skirt.
-- Elinor Lipman, The Ladies' Man, 1998

Peplum is derived from the word of Greek origin peplos which refers to a loose-fitting garment worn by women in Ancient Greece.

 

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com 

Chambray

Word of the Day for Sunday, September 8, 2013

Chambray \SHAM-brey\, noun:

a fine cloth of cotton, silk, or linen, commonly of plain weave with a colored warp and white weft.

 

 

On the way out the door, I noticed a video of Kamprad, in a chambray shirt and gold chain, playing on a nearby screen.
-- Lauren Collins, "House Perfect," The New Yorker, Oct. 3, 2008

He wears blue jeans and a chambray work shirt over a turtleneck, and the yellow corduroy sport jacket is warm there under the lights, but he knows he needs the pockets.
-- Peter LaSalle, Tell Borges If You See Him, 2007

Chambray is an Americanism that arose in the early 1800s. It's a variant of the word cambric, which is named for the city in Northern France, Cambrai via the Dutch word Kameryk.

 

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com