You know how you’re aware a thing exists, but it had never occurred to you there was a specific word for it? (Or is that just me?) Well, those little strandy bits in an egg, which join the yolk to the ends of the egg, inside the shell, are known as chalaza.
Abiogenesis is the formation of living organisms from non-living substances. It sounds an unlikely thing to happen, but unless it was created from nothing at all, then this must be how life started on Earth. Unless it was brought here by aliens, in which case abiogenesis must have occurred on whichever planet they came from.
Oh, and the spontaneous generation of living forms is also called abiogenesis. Gosh, who’d have thought that explaining the creation of life would be complicated?
Here’s a fluffy, baby living organism. If you don’t know how babies are created, ask strangers on the bus. You’ll be sure to get a seat to yourself.
If something (or I suppose someone) is lactiferous, then they’re producing milk, or a milk like fluid. That makes sense as ‘lacto’ refers to milk and ‘ferous’ implies having or forming.
Euphorbias can probably be described as lactiferous as the sap of these plants looks very like milk. Don’t go drinking it though, as it’s a strong irritant.
I spotted today’s word whilst looking up last week’s. Perilymph is the liquid inside your ear which sloshes about and makes you dizzy if you spin round really fast. (Come on, I never actually said these posts wold be useful, did I?)
If you’re not already subscribed to Kindle Unlimited, the next time you attempt to buy a book included in the scheme, such as this one, or any pictured in this post, there’s a very good chance you’ll be offered a three month trial at a very low fee. I’ve just paid a total of 99p for three months! For that, as well as being able to ‘borrow’ as many of the included books as you like, you can also subscribe to up to 50 magazines.
I’ve always thought of peril as being a mild sort of trouble – the kind of thing you’d face with your chums before going home for lashings of ginger beer. The variations of perilled and perilling appeared even more benign.
I thought wrong.
Peril actually mean serious and immediate danger.
Don’t know about you, but I’d rather avoid any and all forms of perilousness.
Hello! I’m trying to set up the blog in such a way that it’s easy for people to read any comments made by other blog readers and to make comments themselves.
To swish something (a rejection slip perhaps) is to move it through the air, so that it makes a sound. Helpfully my dictionary describes the noise produced as ‘a swishing sound’.
My little free short story collection, Not A Drop To Drink is currently an Amazon.uk ‘bestseller’ in the category for British and Irish anthologies!
Strictly speaking it isn’t an anthology, as I wrote all seven of the stories (anthologies are collections by various authors). I’m also not entirely sure you can describe something that’s not on sale as a bestseller – but don’t let those little pedantic details put you off downloading a copy.
Get it, for free, here.
To be magnanimous is to be nobly generous rather than petty in feelings or actions. Hmmm, I do try to behave with magnanimity, but sometimes I get annoyed and fail to react magnanimously.
Do you like this word? It’s a bit of a tongue mangler, isn’t it? Decidedly tricky to illustrate too.
Umm… Aha! If someone who’d annoyed me fell into the sea I’d probably be magnanimous enough to throw them a life bouy – if I didn’t have to go far to find one and I wasn’t busy or anything.