Word of the Day

[Augustine2004]

cat's paw (Nautical)
cats-paw

A knot used to connect a rope to an object, such as a tackle
.


Teabight wondered why Shrofitt used a cow hitch instead of the more secure cat's-paw.

[Augustine2004]

cattalo



Essay: A bit strangely, my dictionary does not have beefalo (part bison and the rest cattle) though Wikipedia redirects cattalo ("cattle" + "buffalo") to the article on beefalo. No bum steer! More in Wikipedia

[Augustine2004]

caudal


of, at, or near the tail or hind parts; posterior.



Other words have the same root cauda (Latin for "tail"):

caudad - toward the caudal part;
caudate - having a tail or a taillike part.

The fish's caudal fin measured two centimeters. The caudate nucleus is a large ganglion in the lateral ventricle of the brain that functions in motor control.

[Augustine2004]

Cavendish, Henry


The person generally considered to be the first to determine the density of Earth and the gravitational constant. After discovering the properties of hydrogen, he established that water was a compound of hydrogen and oxygen. More here



The radius of Earth is known, so the mass of Earth can be calculated (volume times density = mass). Henry Cavendish's claim to have weighted the Earth should be accepted.

[Augustine2004]

Caxton, William


Perhaps the first Englishman to print and publish. In ca. 1475 he printed and published Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, the first book printed in English. After printing and publishing Canterbury Tales with his own press in Westminister, he printed the first illustrated English book, an encyclopedia.



William Caxton printed Myrrour of the Worlde, the first illustrated English book, an encyclopedia, in 1481. That's about a century before Shakespeare wrote his plays.

[Augustine2004]

ceil


to make a ceiling for.
To provide (a ship) with interior planking.



The gang started to ceil the Bramblewood House early yesterday morning.

[Augustine2004]

celadon


color see here (search for "celadon")
A kind of pottery that was originally produced in China (Wikipedia article)



Museum officials and staff didn't know their Song Dynasty celadon urn was missing until Teabong informed Sir Pothery-Gothery.

[Augustine2004]

-cele, coel, coele (suffix)


Essay: Two distinct meanings are for this group above. The first meaning has just one spelling -cele; it indicates, a tumor or hernia. The other meaning includes all three spelling variants; it indicates, a hollow chamber. Cystocele = hernia of the bladder. Hematocele = hemorrhage contained within a membranous cavity. Blastocoel, blastocoele = the cavity of a blastula (embryology).

[Augustine2004]

celesta, celeste


Essay: I was initially reluctant to make this today's WotD, which denotes a musical instrument having a keyboard and metal plates struck by hammers that produce bell-like tones, see Wikipedia article I thought that today it would be seldom used if at all, but not after reading this in the Wikipedia article: "One of the best-known works that makes use of the celesta is Tchaikovsky's 'Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy' from The Nutcracker." I've seen TV announcements of enactments of that play every Christmas season. May the Sugar Plum Fairy bless you.

[Augustine2004]

celiac, coeliac


of or relating to the abdomen.



"Celiac disease" has various definitions. The wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeliac_disease
starts by calling it an autoimmune disease!

Oh, well. If you have a upset stomach, maybe you've got celiac disease.

[Augustine2004]

"an upset . . . " I'm sorry if that upset you.

[Augustine2004]

cella, cellae


the inner room of a temple in classical architecture.

-------- purloined from Wikipedia

The illustration above shows a temple layout with its cella part shaded. What about the Parthenon?

--------- purloined from Wikipedia

I just don't know if it has a cella! How about a cellar!?

[Augustine2004]

celt


a prehistoric axlike tool.



The Wikipedia article explains the etymology, thus:

The term "celt" came about from what was very probably a copyist's error in many medieval manuscript copies of Job 19:24 in the Latin Vulgate Bible, which became enshrined in the authoritative Sixto-Clementine printed edition of 1592; however the Codex Amiatinus, for example, does not contain the mistake.[1] In the passage: Stylo ferreo, et plumbi lamina, vel certe sculpantur in silice (from Job 19:24, "Let it indeed be carved with an iron pen on a plate of lead or in stone"), the certe ("indeed") was spelled as celte by mistake, which would have to be the ablative of a non-existent third declension noun celtes or celtis, the ablative case giving the sense "with/by a celt".

This is now considered to be the case by most scholars, although some are still prepared to consider the existence of a real Latin word. A 'Celt' was thus wrongly assumed to be a type of ancient chisel. Early eighteenth century antiquarians, such as Lorenz Beger, then adopted the word for the stone and bronze tools they were finding at prehistoric sites; theOED suggests that the imaginary etymological connection with the Celts may have assisted its passage into common use.
There are other possibly related words found in late Medieval Europe, all possibly descended from the Vulgate text, which was taken to be genuine Latin. There are two Rhineland charters in Latin, which use such phrases as celtes seu fracmina lapidum to describe chips of stone to be used for making a road. There may also have been a rare Welsh wordcellt, meaning "flint stone" or "[nut]shell", but the OED calls it "obscure".

--------------- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celt_(tool)

[Augustine2004]

cenacle


a small social group that meets to discuss shared interests.
A small dining room, usually on an upper floor.
A retreat house.



I made cenacle today's WotD after reading the etymology: " . . . the Cenacle of the Last Supper . . . "

[Augustine2004]

cenospecies


any of a group of species that are capable of breeding.



Donkeys and horses are cenospecies [the plural has the same spelling, like "fish"].