Dipsas: genus of non-venomous colubrid snakes that belong to the Xenodontinae subfamily. Also a fabled serpent whose bite supposedly induced a raging thirst.
(Pages 141–154)
Doing something different today. Here's a paragraph to decipher using this week's words:
"The ground dehisced and under the dimout of the demilune arose a dishy dickens, denuded and depilated, with double denticles; deraying with dewclaws dirling, it declared, through its diastema—dewlap dripping!—that ‘demonic’ was but a diminuitive distance from ‘demotics’ and that to develop one must devel. And with that the deil departed, demising dejecta and diobols as he danced downward to its dear devilkins and domesticated dipsas. I disbosom this dilly not as a dipso but to disclose the dinkum!"
Doing something different today. Here's a paragraph to decipher using this week's words:
"The ground dehisced and under the dimout of the demilune arose a dishy dickens, denuded and depilated, with double denticles; deraying with dewclaws dirling, it declared, through its diastema—dewlap dripping!—that ‘demonic’ was but a diminuitive distance from ‘demotics’ and that to develop one must devel. And with that the deil departed, demising dejecta and diobols as he danced downward to its dear devilkins and domesticated dipsas. I disbosom this dilly not as a dipso but to disclose the dinkum!"
⚛ Units of the Week
Decury: a group of ten soldiers in ancient Rome
Dekagram: a measure equal to ten grams
Dekare: a measure equal to ten ares
Demy: a size of paper
Denar: a monetary unit of Macedonia
Denarius: a coin of ancient Rome
Denary: containing ten
Deni: a monetary unit of Macedonia
Deuteron: an atomic particle
Dime: a coin of the United States
Dinar: an ancient gold coin of Muslim areas
Dinero: a former silver coin of Peru
Diobol/diobolon: a coin of ancient Greece
Diram: a monetary unit of Tajikistan
Dirham: a monetary unit of Morocco
!!! Unexpected Words of the Week
Deemster/dempster: a judicial officer of the Isle of Man (I find this bizarrely specific. The Isle of Man is between England and Ireland, and is important enough to warrant its own judicial officer names. Two variants, even.)
Dehisce: to split open
Deil: the devil
Dejecta: excrements
Demilune: a half-moon
Demirep: a prostitute
Demise: to bequeath
Denazify: to rid of Nazism (I just finished reading Michael Shermer's Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. I was surprised to note how many Holocaust deniers there are in the world, as well as normal-seeming people who still believe, with all their hearts, that aliens abducted them. Super fascinating.)
Denticle: a small tooth
Denude: to strip of all covering
Depilate: to remove hair from
Deray: disorderly revelry
Devil: to prepare food with pungent seasoning (another devilish word I didn't use in the paragraph; as far as I can tell, it's used only because the seasoning is really hot, devilishly hot. There's also dish called devils on horseback, consisting of a prune or plum wrapped in a bacon-rasher and served on fried bread; angels on horseback, in contrast, is a dish of oysters rolled in bacon and served on crisp toast. Okay, thank you OED!)
Dewclaw: a vestigial toe (like dogs' thumbs)
Diastema: a space between teeth
Dewlap: a fold of loose skin under the neck
Dickens: devil
Dicrotic: having a double pulse beat
Digerati: persons skilled in the use of computers
Dikdik: a small antelope (antelope are everywhere)
Dilly: something remarkable
Dimout: a condition of partial darkness
Dinkum: the truth
Dipsas: a fabled serpent
Dipso: a person who craves alcoholic liquors
Dirl: to tremble
Disbosom: to confess
Dishelm: to deprive of a helmet (this strikes me as funny, as does "detassel"—to take away the tassels)
Dishy: attractive
Disject: to disperse
♡ Favorite Words of the Week
Defang: to make harmless
Deiform: having the form of a god
Demersal: found at the bottom of the sea
Derry: a meaningless word used in the chorus of old songs (ancient version of “watermelon”)
Detassel: to remove tassels from
Deterge: to cleanse
Devilkin: a small demon
Deviltry: mischief
Diablery: sorcery
Dial: to manipulate a calibrated disk (some of these definitions are impressive; if someone asked you for a precise definition of “dialing,” what would you say?)
Diapason: a burst of harmonious sound
It's really only appropriate to end with this (who else was scarred by this as a child? Am I the only one?). Until next week.
Decury: a group of ten soldiers in ancient Rome
Dekagram: a measure equal to ten grams
Dekare: a measure equal to ten ares
Demy: a size of paper
Denar: a monetary unit of Macedonia
Denarius: a coin of ancient Rome
Denary: containing ten
Deni: a monetary unit of Macedonia
Deuteron: an atomic particle
Dime: a coin of the United States
Dinar: an ancient gold coin of Muslim areas
Dinero: a former silver coin of Peru
Diobol/diobolon: a coin of ancient Greece
Diram: a monetary unit of Tajikistan
Dirham: a monetary unit of Morocco
!!! Unexpected Words of the Week
Deemster/dempster: a judicial officer of the Isle of Man (I find this bizarrely specific. The Isle of Man is between England and Ireland, and is important enough to warrant its own judicial officer names. Two variants, even.)
Dehisce: to split open
Deil: the devil
Dejecta: excrements
Demilune: a half-moon
Demirep: a prostitute
Demise: to bequeath
Denazify: to rid of Nazism (I just finished reading Michael Shermer's Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. I was surprised to note how many Holocaust deniers there are in the world, as well as normal-seeming people who still believe, with all their hearts, that aliens abducted them. Super fascinating.)
Denticle: a small tooth
Denude: to strip of all covering
Depilate: to remove hair from
Deray: disorderly revelry
Devil: to prepare food with pungent seasoning (another devilish word I didn't use in the paragraph; as far as I can tell, it's used only because the seasoning is really hot, devilishly hot. There's also dish called devils on horseback, consisting of a prune or plum wrapped in a bacon-rasher and served on fried bread; angels on horseback, in contrast, is a dish of oysters rolled in bacon and served on crisp toast. Okay, thank you OED!)
Dewclaw: a vestigial toe (like dogs' thumbs)
Diastema: a space between teeth
Dewlap: a fold of loose skin under the neck
Dickens: devil
Dicrotic: having a double pulse beat
Digerati: persons skilled in the use of computers
Dikdik: a small antelope (antelope are everywhere)
Dilly: something remarkable
Dimout: a condition of partial darkness
Dinkum: the truth
Dipsas: a fabled serpent
Dipso: a person who craves alcoholic liquors
Dirl: to tremble
Disbosom: to confess
Dishelm: to deprive of a helmet (this strikes me as funny, as does "detassel"—to take away the tassels)
Dishy: attractive
Disject: to disperse
♡ Favorite Words of the Week
Defang: to make harmless
Deiform: having the form of a god
Demersal: found at the bottom of the sea
Derry: a meaningless word used in the chorus of old songs (ancient version of “watermelon”)
Detassel: to remove tassels from
Deterge: to cleanse
Devilkin: a small demon
Deviltry: mischief
Diablery: sorcery
Dial: to manipulate a calibrated disk (some of these definitions are impressive; if someone asked you for a precise definition of “dialing,” what would you say?)
Diapason: a burst of harmonious sound
It's really only appropriate to end with this (who else was scarred by this as a child? Am I the only one?). Until next week.
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