WoW: Aboardage
ABOARDAGE - side-on collision between two vessels, often with one at slight angle [From aboard, plus -age] Slack moorage leads to likely aboardage.
WoW: Famulus
FAMULUS - a sorceror's assistant [Latin: servant] In Fantasia, Mickey Mouse plays the famulus of a magical animator named Yen Sid.
WoW: Plowter
PLOWTER - to play in mud; to slosh through puddles; to potter about [Scottish, of origin unknown] Childhood is your prime time for a quality plowter.
WoW: Morbidezza
MORBIDEZZA [maw-bid-DAIRTZ- sensuous representation of flesh tones in a painting; an extreme delicacy or softness [Via Italian, literally: softness] Botticelli was noted for the morbidezza of his Venus.
WoW: Rhamphoid
RHAMPHOID [ram-FOYD] - beak-like or beak-related; regarding a cusp in trigonometry [From Greek, rhámphos - beak] Toucans boast rhamphoid iridescence.
WoW: Wergild
WERGILD [whirr-GUILD] - the price set on a man's life (during both Anglo-Saxon and Germanic law codes), where the sum us to be paid as compensation by his slayer [From Old English wer - man, plus gield tribute] To be clear, the gala cost of $200 per head is the evening's cost, not each guest's wergild.
WoW: Heisenbug
HEISENBUG - slang for an IT glitch that mutates, giving varying results, or vanishes when you try to isolate it. [Pun based on Werner Heisenberg, founder of the uncertainty principle] On top of heisenbugs, coders also talk of hindenbugs (bugs with disastrous consequences) and higgs-bugsons (minuscule program flaws).
WoW: Etrier
ETRIER [air-TREE-ay] - portable rope ladder of webbed loops used by mountain climbers [French: stirrup] Ascending alps via etrier may cause dissent.
WoW: Variorum
VARIORUM [vair-ee-OR-rum] - a publication or manuscript containing multiple notes from diverse scholars; adjective - owning disparate inputs [Derived from Latin phrase: ēditiō cum notīs variōrum - 'edition with the notes of various commentators'] Coriolanus is a variorum among many other original Shakespeare texts, laden with the marginalia of many directors and scholars.
WoW: Omakase
OMAKASE [om-ah-kar-say] - style (or option) of Japanese dining where the diner entrusts the chef to select each dish; chef's choice [Literally 'it's up to you'] Omakase is a shrewd strategy with non-English menus.
WoW: Endorheic
ENDORHEIC [end-aw-RAY-ic] of a basin or lake with no outflow, only losing water via seepage or evaporation [From Greek, endo- inside, plus rheo, to gush or stream.] Puddles are typically endorheic.
WoW: Zellige
ZELLIGE [zair-LIG-guh] - Moroccan-style tilework of enamelled terracotta chips embedded within plaster [From Arabic, zillīj (زليج), linked to zalaja (زَلَجَ): to slide, alluding to the tiles' smooth surface.] Zellige is more commonly dubbed Moroccan mosaic.
WoW: Pengci
PENGCI [pehn-SHEE] - a scam involving inferior, fragile products, placed where they may be easily damaged, drawing exorbitant costs of compensation. [Cantonese literally: touching-porcelain] When pengci is in play, a street vendor might pull $100 from a patsy for one broken piece of trashy crockery.
WoW: Camogie
CAMOGIE [car-MO-ghee] - Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women, the female equivalent of hurling. [Named by Irish poet Tadhg Ua Donnchadha in 1903, based on a diminutive form of 'caman' - or curved stick.] Beckett scholars will know camogie earns a reference in Waiting For Godot.
WoW: Faute de Mieux
FAUTE DE MIEUX [phote-duh-me-UWW] - for lack of something better or more desirable; a bearable compromise; makeshift [French, literally 'for lack of better'] Democracy and TV viewing can often invoke faute de mieux.
WoW: Allochroic
ALLOCHROIC [all-oh-CROW-ick] - capable of changing colour; of changeable colour [From Greek, 'changed in colour' plus -ic] Cuttlefish and chameleons are both allochroic.
WoW: Simuldraineous
SIMULDRAINEOUS [pinball slang] - of a multiball game when every ball leaves the playing table at the same time; also called drainsplosion. [Blend of drain - a pinball's death gullet - and simultaneous] For more pinball slang, like drianbow and peavlering, check out Fun With Bonus.
WoW: Colemak
COLEMAK - alternative to the QWERTY keyboard, designed on ergonomic principles by software engineer Shai Coleman [Partial eponym of Coleman in combination with Dvorak, another QWERTY alternative.] A registered trademark from 2006, the Colemak keyboard has the most common letters as central home-keys.
WoW: Verkrampte
VERKRAMPTE [vuh-KRUMP-tuh] - an Afrikaner Nationalist (during apartheid) who opposed any changes toward liberal trends in policy, especially those relating to racial questions [Afrikaans, literally: restricted] From 1948 until the early 90s, a typical vekrampte insisted on a rigid adherence to apartheid protocol.
WoW: Tobiano
TOBIANO - of a horse having large white patches; skewbald; pinto [Deemed a Latin American corruption of Tobias, a Dutch name, reflecting the horses' European roots.] "Hi-ho my little tobiano!" sounds a sweeter alternative for the Lone Ranger.
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