Word of the Day

[Augustine2004]

chalcedony


Essay: That word is in the Bible, but I confess I had not bothered to look for a picture of it. Lassies and lads, you are saved! From the trouble of looking for that, I mean--behold . . . I mean just click on this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcedony Woops, I didn't think chalcedony had such a wide variety of color and structure. Oh, why does life have to be so complicated? Hmmm, just what does the Bible mean by chalcedony?

[Augustine2004]

cham, Cham


essay: Cham was an archaic word for a Tatar or Mongol khan. Perhaps later Tobias George Smollett in a letter called Dr Samuel Johnson "that Great Cham of literature." Also the Cham is a tribe in Vietnam.

[Augustine2004]

Campania, Campagna
champagne
Champagne
champaign


essay: You are probably acquainted with champagne, but you might not know its etymology. Campania (Italian) or Campagna (English spelling) is a province in central Italy. Champaign means a plain (stretch of level and open country); the word may be either a noun or an adjective. You probably know the sparkling wine by that name is produced in Champagne, France.

Cheers!

[Augustine2004]

chanson de geste


old French poem that celebrates heroic deeds, often by historical figures. Usually a part of cycles of poems.



In English "chanson de geste" means "song of heroic deeds." An example is Chanson de Roland.

[Augustine2004]

I see I failed to complete the Yangtze entry. My bad. This will be the next entry.

[Augustine2004]

Chang Jiang, Ch'ang Chiang, Yangtze Kiang, Yangtze

China's longest river, also the longest in Asia; the third longest in the world. More in Wikipedia.

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

[Augustine2004]

chanteuse

a female singer, especially a nightclub singer.


A notable chanteuse was Cornélie Falcon. Unfortunately five years after her debut, she lost her voice.

[Augustine2004]

chanty, chantey
chantry


essay: A few words may be confused with one another. A chantey is a song that is sung by sailors to the rhythm of their motions while working. Chanty is a different spelling of chantey, above. Chantry is an ecclesiastical term from the Medieval times. It is either an endowment to cover expenses for the saying of masses and prayers, usually for the soul of the founder of the endowment or an altar or chapel endowed for that purpose.

Teabrogue and Lady Pisqueworth only needed minutes in Haversham asking its residents the whereabouts of the Pickney chantry. An extremely ancient man with surprisingly good hearing gave clear directions.

[Augustine2004]

chaparral


a dense thicket of shrubs and small trees, especially in the southwestern United States and Mexico, similar to the maquis of Southern France.

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

What intrigued me was the mention of the maquis of Southern France. I'd read some World War II stories. Oh, you want a sentence with chaparral in it! How about this: Zany wanted to avoid the chaparral country, but his pursuers blocked the route around it.

[Augustine2004]

chapiter

the capital of a column (for illustrations, click here http://www.google.com/search?q=chapi...iw=833&bih=458 )


Teabowler looked in the yellow pages for someone to sculpt a replacement for the capital of Jane Levinsky's column. As you might expect, he had no more success than boys had in achieving Superman flight.

[Augustine2004]

char

a chore or odd job, especially a household task.
A charwoman.
intransitive verb to do small jobs, chores or tasks.
To work as a charwoman.



Hmmm . . . no charman? And one certainly wants to char that drat chore. [That pun is the reason for making char today's WotD. If you winced rather than chuckled, please accept my apology ] As the child charred the wooden stick, Noona was busy charring upstairs.

[Augustine2004]

charactery

the use of characters or symbols to convey thought or meaning.
Such characters or symbols collectively.


I admit some doubt you would ever have desperate need for charactery to expound your argument so brilliantly that people would exclaim, "O, what charactery!"

[Augustine2004]

I made a punctuation mistake. "O" used as an interjection is usually not punctuated. Thus, "O what charactery!" I am sorry to have ruined your enjoyment of the brilliance that way.

[Augustine2004]

charmonium

essay I selected that as today's WotD because of a lack of confidence that I have enough charm to carry this thread. Perhaps the mention of particles that are charmed will do the trick, at least today. Charmonium is simply the union of a charmed quark and a charmed antiquark.

One naturally wonders if charm engineers could rise to the challenge of devising a Star Trek engine using charmonium. Anything is possible, I suppose; perhaps I could charm someone tomorrow.

[Augustine2004]

charterhouse

a Carthusian monastery.


Today's WotD was selected because of Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma. To see how influential that novel was, read this section http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cha...y_significance
When I first beheld a book of that title, I thought it referred to some kind of government institution.