Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Offbeat Tuesday

A "Blue Moon" is the second full moon in a calendar month (it is rarely blue).

A bibliophile is a collector of rare books. A bibliopole is a seller of rare books.

A ghost writer pens an anonymous book.

A magic potion or charm thought to arouse sexual love, especially toward a specific person, is known as a "philter."

A poem written to celebrate a wedding is called an epithalamium.

A speleologist studies caves.

Ballistics is the science that deals with the motion of projectiles.

Cannibalism, eating human flesh, is also called anthropophagy.

DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleicacid.

"Kemo Sabe" means "soggy shrub" in Navajo.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple.

The side of a hammer is a cheek.

The study of insects is called entomology.

The study of word origins is called etymology.

The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.

2 comments:

BobG said...

I've heard that story about kemo sabe for years, but I have yet to here any of the Diné (Navajo) people confirm it; from what I remember, I am not sure there is even a word for shrub; it is a bit too generic. Most of their words refer to specific things, such as a sage shrub, or a rabbitbrush shrub, etc. Just thought I'd throw that in.

Anonymous said...

"The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe"

i always wanted to know that!