Sunday, September 28, 2008

bacchanal

bacchanal:
1. A participant in the Bacchanalia.
2. The Bacchanalia. Often used in the plural.
3. A drunken or riotous celebration.
4. A reveler.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Purana

Purana: "The Puranas (Sanskrit: पुराण purāṇa, 'of ancient times') are a group of important Hindu (or Jain and Buddhist) religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the Universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of the kings, heroes, sages and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy and geography. Puranas usually give prominence to a particular deity and most use an abundance of religious and philosophical concepts. They are usually written in the form of stories related by one person to another."

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Semitone





Semitone: "A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant. The most commonly written form of this interval is the minor second, notated using two adjacent letter names (e.g. C and D♭), but the augmented unison is also used, both notes having the same letter-name, with one of the notes being inflected by an accidental (e.g. C and C♯)."

Exudate

Exudate: "An exudate is any fluid that filters from the circulatory system into lesions or areas of inflammation. Its composition varies but generally includes water and the dissolved solutes of the blood, some or all plasma proteins, white blood cells, platelets and (in the case of local vascular damage) red blood cells."

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Knesset

Knesset: "The Knesset (Hebrew: כנסת‎, lit. Assembly, Arabic: الكنيست‎) is the legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem."

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

oeuvre

oeuvre: "a substantial body of work constituting the lifework of a writer, an artist, or a composer"

Monday, September 22, 2008

onanistic

onanistic "1. Of or pertaining to masturbation (onanism)
2. In a manner which suggests masturbation; hence, fruitless, self-congratulatory, self-absorbed, pointless"

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Chav

Chav: "Chav, or Charv/Charva, is a mainly derogatory slang term in the United Kingdom for a person whose lifestyle, clothing (especially if fake / counterfeit), speech and/or mannerisms are perceived to be common, proletarian and vulgar. The term 'chav' is often used as a stereotype to refer to poorly educated, aggressive working-class youths, but youth and aggression are not the defining attributes of a 'chav'."

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Maven

Maven: (also mavin) a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others.

Monday, September 15, 2008

quixotic

quixotic: "# Possessing or acting with the desire to do noble and romantic deeds, without thought of realism and practicality.
# Impulsive.
# Like Don Quixote; romantic to extravagance; absurdly chivalric; apt to be deluded."

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

vitrine

vitrine: "A glass-paneled cabinet or case for displaying articles such as china, objects d'art, or fine merchandise."

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Fatosphere

Fatosphere: "Fatosphere n. A blogosphere of the obese, by the obese, for the obese. Often designated 'no-diet zones,' fatosphere blogs seek to counter medical claims that obesity is a health epidemic."

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Repechage

Repechage: "'to rescue' or 'to save', is a practice amongst ladder competitions that allows participants that failed to meet qualifying standards by a small margin to continue to the next round."

Vet

Vet: "examine carefully"

Chemosensitivity

Chemosensitivity is the susceptibility of tumor cells to the cell-killing effects of anticancer drugs.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Stöðulög

Stöðulögin (The Laws of Standing, Danish: Landsstillingsloven or formally Lov af 2. januar 1871 om Islands forfatningsmæssige stilling i riget, Law of 2 January 1871 on the constitutional standing of Iceland within the realm) were laws passed by Denmark in 1871, determining the standing of Iceland in relation to the Danish state. The laws were followed by the granting of Iceland's first constitution in 1874.

lordosis

  Lordosis is historically defined as an abnormal inward curvature of the lumbar spine.