What new word did you learn today?

I recently came across the word 'kitchen'. Not entirely sure, but I believe it to be some kind of alien planet with a gaseous atmosphere. My SO visits it often, and communicates with the inhabitants in a staccato sweary language. I have yet to venture there myself.

 

One new word.

Divan
noun
1. a long low sofa without a back or arms, typically placed against a wall.

And one I had forgotten.

Spoor
noun
noun: spoor; plural noun: spoors
1. the track or scent of an animal. "they searched around the hut for a spoor"

verb
1. follow the track or scent of (an animal or person). "taking the spear, he set off to spoor the man"

 

New words-

Biblioklept
-one who steals books

Acnestis
-“The part of the back (or backbone) between the shoulder blades and the loins which an animal cannot reach to scratch” (Oxford English Dictionary)

Octothorpe
-the symbol #

Here's the source if you want to read more: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/surprising-uncommon-words/biblioklept

 

Wow, I had never heard that one! I originally knew it as the pound sign, and more recently of course the hash tag.

 

#hashtagoctothorpe

 

Pound sign? Can you show me what it looks like?

 

Cornicing

• n.
  A horizontal molded projection that crowns or completes a building or wall.
• n.
  The uppermost part of an entablature.

 

Well it's this: #. Until a couple of decades ago it was called the pound sign, at least here in the US, where we use the Imperial system for weights and measures. We use pounds instead of kilos, and that was the symbol for a pound. If something weighed 5 pounds, we'd write it like 5#. And if you needed to use that button on the phone it was called the pound sign. It's still used that way here.

I forgot to mention, it's also known as the number sign. An abbreviated way of saying number eleven for instance would be #11.

 

Usually I call the sign "#" hashtag or tag. We use kilos where I'm from, like 5 kilos, 19 kilos-

 

Obelus
-the symbol ÷

Agelast
- a person who never laughs

Amatorculist
-"A little insignificant lover; a pretender to affection" (Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, 1755) sounds like another word for "cheater"

Peristeronic
-of or relating to pigeons (pigeons?)

 

A generational thing too.
Im 26, and ive always known it as the "pound sign"

(I use the word "hashtag" ironically)

 

Yeah, in the US pound sign was a phone thing, and hashtag is an internet thing, so that didn't exist until the 90's or even later. At least it didn't become popular until then. Probably later really, where is that a thing? It it Twitter? I guess most people 'round these parts didn't use it until Twitter got big.

 

Oh- I still call it a hashtag even if it's on a phone. I'm young so that's why I don't know about that but hey, we all learn something new everyday.

 

In radiotherapy, we also use it to mean fraction or 'episode of treatment', eg #5 of 37

 

I usually call it the waffle sign...it’s a generational thing

 

Are you drinking tonight?

 

Eldritch is an English word used to describe something otherworldly, weird, ghostly, or uncanny. In contemporary culture, the term is closely associated with the Lovecraftian horror.

 

Wattle
noun Building
1. a material for making fences, walls, etc., consisting of rods or stakes interlaced with twigs or branches.

 

Before the age of social media, it also used to be known as a hash sign - that's where hashtag comes from, because you're using a hash to tag something...

 

£

 

True. Also hash marks.

 

# is "number of" in statistics. It's also "number"as in #5 is "number 5".

 

Hogget

The term used for sheep meat that falls between lamb and mutton.

 

Since you mentioned it (although I first encountered it 30-odd years ago, in The Boat of a Million Years by Larry Niven):

cat·e·chu·men
/ˌkadəˈkyo͞omən/

noun

1. a Christian convert under instruction before baptism.
   • a young Christian preparing for confirmation.