goose_droid | Reading

althing [ahl-thing, awl-]

noun

the parliament of Iceland, consisting of an upper and a lower house.

examples

1....the hatreds and behind-backs
of the althing, lies and women,
exhaustions nominated peace,
memory incubating the spilled blood,,, "North" by Seamus Heaney

2.From the moment self-government lost touch with "self" -- departing the agora of Athens, the 'althing' of Reykyavik and the town meeting of New England -- it adapted itself to nations and peoples. "It Depends on What You Mean by Democracy" Simon Jenkins, Huffington Post, 2008

origin
from Icelandic Alþingi, from Old Norse alþingi, from allr (“all”) + þing (“Thing”).
althing

sallymn posting in

1word1day

compos mentis [kohm-pohs men-tis, kom-puhs men-tis]

adjective:
(Latin) of sound mind, memory, and understanding

Examples:

Each of these stories was, in some measure, autobiographical, and each a reassurance that, despite my worrying, I was still compos mentis. (John L'Heureux, John L'Heureux on Death and Dignity, The New Yorker, April 2019)

Erica Wagner tells us that sometime after 1917, when, in Washington's words, Edmund was "a harmless white haired old man of over 70," a doctor engaged on behalf of the estate of his recently deceased brother Ferdinand had declined to say whether Edmund was compos mentis. Apparently this had been something of a life-long concern. (Richard Howe, Erica Wagner's Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling, The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge, The Gotham Center for New York City History, September 2018)

"I had little bit of whiplash, I smacked the back of my head," she later recalled on The Jonathan Ross Show. "And I had a man standing over me with a flashlight until about 3am to make sure I was compos mentis." (Nuray Bulbul, Brit Awards: 10 memorable moments ahead of 40th ceremony, BBC, February 2020)

Eldridge gives no facts to support his assumption. If Whitman was compos mentis at this time, the only way to attack his story is to attack the moral character or the memory of the witness. (Emory Holloway, 'Whitman Pursued', American Literature March 1955)

"It is getting the better of me," he said aloud, "and I must not give way. Lunacy is often the development of one idea, while, in other respects, the patient is compos mentis. No, no; a lunatic could not feel as I do." (George Manville Fenn, The Man with a Shadow)

Origin:
Latin, literally 'in command of one's mind,' from compos 'having the mastery of,' from com 'with, together' + stem of potis 'powerful, master' (from PIE root poti- 'powerful; lord'), + mentis, genitive of mens 'mind' (from PIE root men<.em>- 'to think') (Online Etymology Dictionary)

yourlibrarian posting in

common_nature

We have seen grebes many times but very often they are solo or there may be two. It was unusual to see a group swimming together, which this one did for some time.

( Read more... )

med_cat posting in

1word1day

Malophile: someone who truly loves apples.

(via Grandiloquent Word of the Day)

...interestingly, Merriam-Webster and a couple other online dictionaries don't have this word, but I thought it was fun anyway.

anais_pf posting in

thefridayfive

These questions were written by

ideealisme.

1. What did you do on Monday?

2. What did you do on Tuesday?

3. What did you do on Wednesday?

4. What did you do on Thursday?

5. What are you going to do today?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

ribirdnerd posting in

common_nature

I got out to one of our local trails late last week.

This one is an old state park that has been partially developed. It's a fun but small trail that has a variety of habitats for wildlife.

It goes around this drainage pond, which attracts many birds and waterfowl.

Then it passes the condo development, eventually leading to a bike path along the bay.
You can see one of the condos on the right.

calzephyr posting in

1word1day

Stylobate - noun.

Today's word is a three-for-one deal from the realm of classical Greek architecture. Did you know the steps on a building had different names? Now you do!

The stepped platforms of Greek temples, where columns are placed, is the crepidoma. A stylobate is the top step, which rests on top of the stereobate.

By Gleb713 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

simplyn2deep posting in

1word1day

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Nictate (verb)
nictate, Also nictitate [nik-teyt]

verb (used without object)
1. to wink.

Other forms: nictating

See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com

Origin: First recorded in 1755–65; from Latin nictātus, past participle of nictāre “to wink, fidget”

When you nictate, you blink. Snakes don't have eyelids, so they can't nictate.

The technical term for what you do when your eyelids close is nictate, or alternately, nictitate. Whether you're blinking in the sunshine or winking at your friend after giving the substitute math teacher a hard time, you nictate. Almost every single animal has the ability to nictate, and even those without true eyelids have a protective membrane that occasionally covers their eyeballs. The Latin root is nictare, "to blink."

stonepicnicking_okapi posting in

1word1day

indissolubly ˌ[in-di-ˈsäl-yə-blē]

adverb

in a way that is impossible to take apart or bring to an end, or that exists for a very long time:

examples

But if Borges, who was buried in Geneva, is the more obviously European of the two men, in terms of stylistic propriety and range of literary reference, his fiction is indissolubly tethered to the avenues and plazas of Buenos Aires. A Surreal Tour of Nowhere in Particular by James Gardner 2011

It is true that, in making France great, he became great with her, and attached his name indissolubly to her grandeur. The Companions of Jehu by Alexandre Dumas (pere) 1836

origins

Indissoluble and its antonym dissoluble ("capable of being dissolved or disintegrated") both date their first print appearances to the 16th century, and both owe a debt to Latin dissolubilis, which means "dissoluble; capable of being dissolved." While the word dissolve in that gloss may call to mind the chemical process by which something mixed with a liquid becomes part of the liquid (as when salt or sugar dissolve in water), indissoluble primarily relates to other meanings of dissolve: "destroy" and "disintegrate," "terminate" and "annul." Something indissoluble—such as a treaty, contract, or vow—is permanent. The English word dissolve, in all its meanings, is a cousin to indissoluble and dissoluble. Dissolubilis derives from Latin dissolvere (from dis- + solvere, "to loosen") the source of our word dissolve.

I don't know why Klimt's Tree of Life came up when I googled this word, but I love it so here it is

indissolubly

denise posting in

dw_maintenance

I keep forgetting to post about this: we've been troubleshooting the "missing notifications" problem for the past few days. (Well, I say "we", really I mean Mark and Robby; I'm just the amanuensis.) It's been one of those annoying loops of "find a logical explanation for what could be causing the problem, fix that thing, observe that the problem gets better for some people but doesn't go away completely, go back to step one and start again", sigh.

Mark is hauling out the heavy debugging ordinance to try to find the root cause. Once he's done building all the extra logging tools he needs, he'll comment to this entry. After he does, if you find a comment that should have gone to your inbox and sent an email notification but didn't, leave him a link to the comment that should have sent the notification, as long as the comment itself was made after Mark says he's collecting them. (I'd wait and post this after he gets the debug code in but I need to go to sleep and he's not sure how long it will take!)

We're sorry about the hassle! Irregular/sporadic issues like this are really hard to troubleshoot because it's impossible to know if they're fixed or if they're just not happening while you're looking. With luck, this will give us enough information to figure out the root cause for real this time.

sallymn posting in

1word1day

howff [houf, ouf, hohf, ohf]

noun:
(Scottish, archaic) 1 an abode; a familiar shelter or refuge
2 A place of resort, a favourite haunt, a meeting place;

Examples:

It is a howff abundant in character but without renown and exists as a place for people to gather, wet their whistle, and have a blether. It is the perfect local. (Socialising in pubs 'boosts mens' mental health, The Scotsman, January 2014)

It has a romantic past, having been built in secret in 1952 by four climbers fed up with carrying the heavy tents of the day on the long walk into the Cairngorms. There's is a great tale of the building of this howff. (Who remembers this ? Howffs, Old mans thoughts and tales, July 2020)

Together they sought the shelter of a howff off the High Street. ( Janet Beith, The Corbies)

The brewster-wife at the howff near Loch Lomond mouth keeps a good glass of aqua. (Neil Munro, Doom Castle)

Yonder, overlooking Tibbie Shiel's 'cosy beild' - a howff of the Noctes coterie - stands the solitary white figure of the beloved Shepherd as Christopher North's prophetic soul felt that it must be some day. (W S Crockett, In the Border Country)

The office-bearers and Senatus of the University of Cramond - an educational institution in which I have the honour to be Professor of Nonsense - meet to do honour to our friend Icarus, at the old-established howff, Cramond Bridge. (Robert Louis Stevenson, St Ives)

The Globe Tavern here, which for these many years has been my Howff. (J de L Ferguson (ed), The Letters of Robert Burns)

Origin:
The earliest known use of the noun howff is in the early 1700s. OED's earliest evidence for howff is from 1711, in the writing of Allan Ramsay, poet. (Oxford English Dictionary)

First recorded in 1555–65; origin uncertain (Dictionary.com)

anais_pf posting in

thefridayfive

1. What was the last book you read (or are currently reading)?

2. What was the last movie you watched?

3. What television series are you currently watching?

4. What are some of your favorite blogs or communities online?

5. What social media do you belong to and check often?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

soc_puppet posting in

newcomers

Hello, everyone! Over at

moodthemeinayear, the second Medium Track run has just started.

For those not familiar with the schedule over there, the Medium Mood Track lasts about three months, and covers all of the higher-level moods: The fifteen absolute minimum moods you need for a complete custom mood theme, and the next nineteen that have moods that branch off of them (plus two extra). If you want to create a custom mood theme that's fairly well filled out but don't want to go for the whole 132 graphics, the Medium Track may be for you!

If you want to try and min-max your mood theme, on the other hand, the Minimum Track has also restarted; it lasts six weeks, and takes you through the bare minimum fifteen moods you need for a complete custom mood theme, plus the next three most populous higher-level moods, so you get the most image diversity for the least amount of work 👍

Feeling ambitious and want to go for the whole thing? Jump in now and follow along with the Medium and Maximum Tracks simultaneously! The Medium Track will catch you up to all of the moods the Maximum Track has already covered, while the Maximum Track covers all of the moods that aren't in the Medium Track.

Come check it out, and maybe earn some Dreamwidth points while you're at it!

Current Mood: determined

calzephyr posting in

1word1day

Bocage - noun.

Bocage has a couple of interesting definitions--and I first came across it in a weird thrift store finds Facebook group. That leafy screen, shrub, or grass seen in figurines? That's bocage and it comes from a type of terrain seen in the European countryside as well.

By Matthieu Debailleul - http://aascalys.free.fr, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

An example of terrain bocage

By Chelsea porcelain factory - This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, CC0, Link

An example of sculptural bocage

simplyn2deep posting in

1word1day

April 7, 2026

Quiche (noun)
quiche [keesh]

noun
1. a pielike dish consisting of an unsweetened pastry shell filled with a custard and usually containing cheese and other ingredients, as vegetables, seafood, or ham: spinach quiche.

Origin: 1945–50; < French < German (dial.) Küche, diminutive of Küchen cake

Quiché [kee-chey]
noun
2. a Mayan language of Guatemala.

Example Sentences
There is a custom-made warmer for meals, with beef brisket and veggie quiche on the menu.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 29, 2026

The pair tackled a savoury quiche, a technical teatime biscuit and a showstopping day off in cake form - although neither was crowned star baker at the end.
From BBC • Oct. 18, 2025

A pot of roasted vegetables became the filling for quiche.
From Salon • Nov. 30, 2024

“I like to poke people,” said Biggers, sitting in the shade on a recent afternoon eating quiche at a restaurant, his cane, which helps him walk after a hip replacement, slanted on a chair.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 19, 2024

He tossed his empty plate into the garbage can and went off in search of a drink, leaving Moody alone with the last few bites of his quiche, now gone cold.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng

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Page generated Apr. 21st, 2026 12:22 am

ramblings of a geetoo goose droid

Reading

Monday Word: Althing

Sunday Word: Compos mentis

Grebes in the Rain

Friday word: Malophile

The Friday Five for 17 April 2026

Trails

Wednesday Word: Stylobate

Tuesday word: Nictate

Monday Word: Indissolubly

The case of the missing notifications

Sunday Word: Howff

The Friday Five for 10 April 2026

Mood Theme in a Year: Second Medium Track Run

Thursday Word: Bocage

Tuesday word: Quiche

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April 2026

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