pedigree /PED-i-gree/. noun. A line of descent, most often of a purebred animal, or the document describing it. A genealogical table. A derivation or background. From Old French pie de grue (literally “crane’s foot,” referring to the appearance of spreading lines in a genealogical chart).
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Persons, places, things...you know the drill.
hippocampus
hippocampus /HIP-oh-CAMP-əs/. noun. A mythological sea creature with the forelegs of a horse and a fish or dolphin tail. A fish of the genus Hippocampus, AKA a sea horse. An area of the cerebral cortex that forms a ridge on the floor of the lateral ventricle of the brain (so named because its shape, in cross section, looks like a sea horse. This part of the brain plays an important part of consolidating short-term memory to long-term memory and in spatial memory. From Latin hippocampus, from Greek hippokampus, from hippos (horse) + kampus (sea monster).
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exonym
exonym /EK-soh-nim/. noun. A place name or name given to a group of people by someone outside that place or group and not used by them. For instance, Germany is an exonym for Deutschland. Often exonyms are pejorative, or come to be so—or are perceived so by the named group—such as the Romani preferring that name to (the originally Egyptian) exonym Gypsy. See also: xenonym and ethnonym.
Some commonly used exonyms (by English speakers): Moscow for Москва/Moskva, Turkey for Türkiye, India for Bharat, Prague for Praha, Lapp for Saami, and Mecca for Makkha.
aibohphobia
aibohphobia /IY-boh-FOH-bee-yə/. noun. An irrational fear or distrust of palindromes. Etymological origin is obvious. Origin of the coinage is unclear, but the word is first found in Stan Kelly-Bootle’s Ambrose Bierce-inspired The Devil’s DP Dictionary and its successor The Computer Contradictionary. Bootle was known for his wordplay even while writing computer programming articles and textbooks…and his folk-singing career.
See also: ebohphobe and ailihphilia.
parablepsis
parablepsis /PAIR-u-BLEP-sis/. noun. In which a scribe miscopies a text due to looking to one side, or away, or simply skipping lines in the original. Also, archaically-but-aptly, “false vision.” From the Greek paráleipsis (to neglect, omit or “look askance at”), from para- (beside, parallel to) + blepsis (sight).
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Fake (and Fake News)
fake /FAYK/. adjective or noun or verb. Not genuine. A counterfeit or forgery. To pretend. To produce a counterfeit.
omphalos
omphalos /AWM-fə-ləs/. noun. A sacred object, often a stone. The central point. The navel. Greek omphalos (navel).
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