Words and their Definitions

[Doodoo]

Floccinaucinihilipilification

"The estimation of something as worthless," it's also one of the longest words in English.

noun

1.
the action or habit of estimating something as worthless. (The word is used chiefly as a curiosity.):
rare
"my new book is more than just a 400-page exercise in floccinaucinihilipilification."

[Doodoo]

Salopettes

“Salopettes” is a word used to describe a pair of high-waisted skiing pants that has shoulder straps.

a one-piece garment similar to overalls, with a front flap and shoulder straps or a full sleeveless top, worn for skiing, sailing, etc

[Laan Yaa Mo]

1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre:

The Tiananmen Square protests, known in China as the June Fourth Incident,[1][2][a] were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between the demonstrators and the Chinese government to find a peaceful resolution, the Chinese government declared martial law on the night of 3 June and deployed troops to occupy the square in what is referred to as the Tiananmen Square massacre.

[Doodoo]

bird-dogging
1. tv. to take away another man’s girlfriend. Why’d you have to go and bird-dog me, your best buddy?
2. tv. to supervise someone; to tail someone. Marlowe knew somebody was bird-dogging him, but he was too smart to show it.

[tamada]

Bird dog: Oilfield nickname for the client representative on land seismic surveys.

Dog house: Oilfield nickname for the truck-mounted instrument room used on land seismic surveys.

Doodlebugger: Oilfield nickname for personnel performing land seismic surveys.

"After supervising the doodlebugs, the bird dog went back to the dog house."

[Doodoo]

Milque·toast
noun

1.
a timid or feeble person:

adjective

2.
feeble, insipid, or bland:

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Har gow (sometimes anglicized as "ha gow", "haukau", "hakao"; Chinese: 蝦餃; Jyutping: haa1 gaau2; Cantonese Yale: hā gáau; pinyin: xiājiǎo; lit. 'shrimp jiao') is a traditional Cantonese dumpling served as dim sum.

Its main ingredient is shrimp.

[Doodoo]

lexicography
noun

1
: the editing or making of a dictionary
2
: the principles and practices of dictionary making
lexicographical

adjective

[Doodoo]

mollycoddle
1 of 2
verb
mol·​ly·​cod·​dle ˈmä-lē-ˌkä-dᵊl
mollycoddled; mollycoddling ˈmä-lē-ˌkäd-liŋ -ˌkä-dᵊl-iŋ
Synonyms of mollycoddle
transitive verb

: to treat with an excessive or absurd degree of indulgence and attention
mollycoddler
ˈmä-lē-ˌkäd-lər
-ˌkä-dᵊl-ər
noun
mollycoddle

2 of 2
noun
dated, disparaging : a pampered or effeminate man or boy

[Laan Yaa Mo]

As nature comes under increasing pressure from expanding and intensifying human land use, climate change and pollution, the difference in fortunes between generalists and specialists is becoming clear worldwide. Species that can eat a wide range of things and live in different environments have a far greater chance of surviving or even expanding their range compared with those that have evolved to take advantage of particular ecological niches, many of which we have failed to protect. This is why magpies are becoming ubiquitous as nightingales disappear, why there are more foxes than dormice, more dandelions than orchids, and why farmland now supports large flocks of wood pigeons but few lapwings. Humans, of course, are the most successful generalists of all.

Melissa Harrison

[Doodoo]

Piebald

A piebald or pied animal is one that has a pattern of unpigmented spots (white) on a pigmented background of hair, feathers or scales. Thus a piebald black and white dog is a black dog with white spots. The animal's skin under the white background is not pigmented.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

The jewel-like small tortoiseshell was once a common butterfly of parks and gardens, but numbers have fallen sharply since the mid-Seventies. Despite a small uptick in 2014 the downward trend has been accelerating and last year was their worst on record — particularly in southern Britain. Some blame Sturmia bella, a parasitic fly that arrived in 1998, assisted by climate change; its grubs parasitise small tortoiseshell caterpillars, whose life cycle happens to coincide perfectly with theirs, as well as those of peacocks and red admirals, and occasionally speckled woods. However, small torts were struggling well before Sturmia bella made landfall, so the fly may have been the last straw, tipping an already fragmented and weakened population into freefall.

Melissa Harrison

[Doodoo]

Biblioklept

This refers to a person who steals books.

[Doodoo]

Mal·fea·sance

noun

1.
wrongdoing, especially by a public official.

[Doodoo]

Jaggery

Is a traditional non-centrifugal cane sugar consumed in the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Central America, Brazil and Africa. It is a concentrated product of cane juice and often date or palm sap without separation of the molasses and crystals, and can vary from golden brown to dark brown in colour. It contains up to 50% sucrose, up to 20% invert sugars, and up to 20% moisture, with the remainder made up of other insoluble matter, such as wood ash, proteins, and bagasse fibres. Jaggery is very similar to muscovado, an important sweetener in Portuguese, British and French cuisine. The Kenyan Sukari ngutu/nguru has no fibre; it is dark and is made from sugarcane and also sometimes extracted from palm tree.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

A bird is singing in the dying ash tree. All around, the fogbound hectares of winter wheat are silent, yet here on this small island of ash trees, blackthorn and maples, the blackbird is in full song. Perched on a dead bough, it presents a stark sight, like a rag caught on a gallows. But the sound is as golden as the bird’s beak. Some birdsong has a volcanic urgency: skylarks gush, thrushes spate, terns scream. But the blackbird’s music is always relaxed, serene, richly melodious, and full of trills and turns. Never hurried, these consummate songsters give each phrase full value and often break off at the end of a particular tune, like a human singer.

Jonathan Tulloch

[Doodoo]

Fop·pish

adjective

1.
concerned with one's clothes and appearance in an affected and excessive way (typically used of a man):
"he is foppish and vain" If someone is always super-concerned about how their outfit looks, you can refer to them as “foppish.”

[Doodoo]

Cu·ta·ne·ous

adjective

1.
relating to or affecting the skin:
"cutaneous pigmentation"

[Doodoo]

Accubation

This describes a person who eats/drinks while they’re laying down — so basically anyone who snacks while watching Netflix is an “accubation.”

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Both as a caterpillar and in its adult form, the lappet moth is an extraordinary beast. Bark-brown and covered in fur, when the caterpillar flattens its body and clings to a twig in order not to be seen, you’d think it a sort of lump or swelling: a woody extrusion of some kind, perhaps a scar, one with a light powdering of lichen or mould. Even when it draws in its body to achieve locomotion, it can still be hard to spot, its fine hairs so blur the outline of its form. The adult moth is completely indistinguishable from a dry, brown oak leaf, right down to the small protruding snout that perfectly mimics the petiole.

Melissa Harrison