Katexic Clippings

syzygy

syzygy /SIZ-i-jee/. noun. The conjunction or opposition of two astronomical bodies, particularly involving the Sun, so usually the Sun and the moon (new moon and full moon). A pair of connected or correlative things. The combination of two feet in one meter, such as iamb (du-DUM), trochee (DUM-du), and spondee (DUM-DUM). In biology, the conjunction of two organisms without either losing their identity. Also, a mathematical concept I can’t really understand, much less explain plainly. From the Greek syzygia: a pair of yoked animals, a union of two.
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fringilline

fringilline /FRIN-jə-liyn/. adjective. Finch-like; of or pertaining to finches. See also: fringillaceous. From New Latin Fringilla type genus, from Latin fringilla a small bird.

“When the goldfinch goes—and we know that he is going rapidly—other coarser fringilline birds, without the melody, brightness, and charm of the goldfinch—sparrow and bunting—come in…” (William Henry Hudson)

Elsewhere: Wordnik.

lagniappe

lagniappe /LAN-yap/. noun. A tip, a gratuity or gratuitous addition, something given above what has been earned.

“And more than this, than the revenge, as lagniappe to the revenge as it were, this nosegay of an afternoon, this scentless prairie flower which will not be missed and which might as well bloom in your lapel as in another’s” (William Faulkner, from Absalom, Absalom)

“We picked up one excellent word—a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word: ‘lagniappe’. They pronounce it lanny-yap.” (Mark Twain, from Life on the Mississippi)

“Lagniappe, usually attributed to the French of New Orleans, in fact originated among the Kechuan Indians of Peru as yapa. The Spanish adopted it as ñapa. The French then took it from the Spanish and we from the French.” (Bill Bryson, from Made in America)

“He pays off Bodine, full price, overriding Bodine’s offer to prorate for what’s missing. ‘Call it a little lagniappe, goodbuddy, that’s Duane Marvy’s way o’ doin’ thangs…'” (Thomas Pynchon, from Gravity’s Rainbow)

sehnsucht

sehnsucht /ZEN-zuukst/. noun. Inconsolable longing; longing that cannot be expressed. A compound of the German das Sehnen (fervent yearning) + die Sucht (longing), sehnsucht is often called (wrongly, but you get the idea) untranslatable. See also saudade and hiraeth.

“Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt Weiß, was ich leide!” — “None but the lonely heart can know my sadness!” (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by Arthur Westbrook)

“They were not very far off but they were, to children, quite unattainable. They taught me longing—Sehnsucht; made me, for good or ill, and before I was six years old, a votary of the Blue Flower.” (C. S. Lewis, from Surprised by Joy)

Select Synonyms: yen, yearning, craving, aching, longing, desire, pining, coveting.

Elsewhere: Wordnik.

epilimnion

epilimnion /e-pə-LIM-nee-on/. Noun. The upper, warm layer of a stratified lake. The layer above a lake’s thermocline. More generally, the surface layer of a body of liquid. From Greek limnion, diminutive of limnē (marshy lake). See also: epilimnetic, epiliminial.

“The result of this warming is that, in summer, a warm upper layer of less dense water, the epilimnion, comes to lie over a cold deeper water mass, the hypolimnion.” (Philip Ullyott & Paul Holmes, from Nature)

“Down there the temperature was always an even 4°, no matter what the season, but it was unheard of that a spore should be found there while the high epilimnion was still warm and rich in oxygen.” (James Blish, from “Surface Tension”)

viverrine

viverrine /VIV-ər-iyn/. adjective. Resembling or related to the civet or ferret.

“He knew as a fact that the feline teeth had a certain structure, and that the dental formula of the viverrine animals is different. ” (B.H. Baden-Powell)

“In the science of subjective mind-healing, both cause and effect exist in the full and perfect idea that the mind is Mind. Everything depends on mental typography. This is why we use capital letters so often. Not only in the pamphlets in our reading rooms but in the way we picture our thoughts. Fear-Chains of Asthma. Dominant Drift. Ether of Timeless Being. My name is Viverrine Gentian. Who are you?”
(Don DeLillo, from Ratner’s Star)