One of the all-time creepiest of concepts. I saw one in Bunratty Castle in Ireland and just standing next to the opening was enough to cause a mild panic attack.
I remember learning that one from the movie Labyrinth. "It's an oubliette. It's where you put things when you want to forget about them"
Read the following dialogue this morning from Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. “Very well. We’ll chat with ‘em till you’re ready.” “No, Doctor. I have instructions—“ “Youngster, you can take your instructions, fold them until they are all corners—and shove them in your oubliette.”
Read for most of the afternoon today and ran into two words that were new to me: simoom simoon (sɪˈmuːn) noun a strong suffocating sand-laden wind of the deserts of Arabia and North Africa susurration [ soo-suh-rey-shuhn ] noun a soft murmur; whisper
Acrolect noun the most prestigious dialect or variety of a particular language (used especially in the study of Creoles). Basilect noun a less prestigious dialect or variety of a particular language (used especially in the study of Creoles).
NO Used to express refusal, denial, disbelief, emphasis, or disagreement. Not at all; not by any degree. Often used with the comparative. Not. HELL, NO Used to express refusal, denial, disbelief, emphasis, or disagreement re: requests the requester should've known better than to even bring up in the first damn place.
Hermit Crab Story noun A story told in a "borrowed" form, such as a shopping list or dictionary definition, rather than a traditional linear narrative. See above for a particularly fine example.
Ombudsman noun an official appointed to investigate individuals' complaints against maladministration, especially that of public authorities.
Yeah, this is how I've seen it spelled (in the U.S.). Due to the obesity (not sure that's even an acceptable term anymore, but I think it's OK in this context) rates, sleep apnea is more common than it was say thirty years ago. I know a few people that have to wear masks at night to help them breathe via a machine. (Actually it's probably to help them obtain a comfortable, continual sleep instead of waking up out of breath all the time).
hiraeth (pronounced HEER-eyeth) - a homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for the lost places of your past
I came across this word not too long ago and like it very much. We moved a lot when I was a kid and I got real familiar with the feeling.
I think that's how I feel about people these days, the ones who feel like home; at least, how I imagined it might have felt had we connected.
picul: a traditional Asian unit of weight, defined as "as much as a man can carry on a shoulder-pole".
espalier noun a fruit tree or ornamental shrub whose branches are trained to grow flat against a wall, supported on a lattice.
Jeremiad noun a long, mournful complaint or lamentation; a list of woes. "the jeremiads of puritan preachers warning of moral decay"
