Learned a new word today

[silverfox]

I think you've misread this ????.

I've given examples of both noun and transitive verb.

[????]

Apologies - will teach me to read the whole post before commenting...maybe ;-)

[silverfox]

futz  (Pronunciation fuhts)

As in "Futzing with the stratosphere?

Verb

Infinitive to futz

verb - (used without object)

to pass time in idleness (usually fol. by around). To be frivolous and waste time. To experiment by trial and error

Verb phrase - futz with or around with, to handle or deal with, esp. idly, reluctantly, or as a time-consuming task: I spent all day futzing with those file folders.

(third-person singular simple present futzes, present participle futzing, simple past and past participle futzed)

noun - a fool; simpleton.

[silverfox]

Yotta

As in:

"Mr Chiscolm sued Bank of America in Manhattan's federal court ... for "$1,784 billion trillion", in a complaint that boiled down to poor customer service".

The actual number, 1,784 billion trillion, is equal to 1.784 multiplied by 10 to the 24th power, or 1,784 followed by 21 zeroes.

Using the International System of Units, this number is called a Yotta.

International System of Units

Kilo (K) = 3 zeroes

Mega (M) = 6 zeroes

Giga (G) = 9 zeroes

Tera (T) = 12 zeroes

Peta (P) = 15 zeroes

Exa (E) = 18 zeroes

Zetta (Z) = 21 zeroes

Yotta (Y) = 24 zeroes

[silverfox]

Googolplex

Following on from Yotta, above, the word Googolplex came up on last night's Horizon programme about blackholes.

As in: "In a separate article, Page shows that the number of states in a black hole with a mass roughly equivalent to the Andromeda Galaxy is in the range of a googolplex."

A googol is a number equal to 10 to the power of 100 (ie, a 1 with 100 zeros following it). Written out explicitly,

10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000.

A googolplex is the number 10 raised to the power of a googol of zeros.

1 googolplex

=10 to the power of

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,

000,000,000,000,000

One googol is also presumed to be greater than the number of hydrogen atoms in the observable universe. Carl Sagan estimated that writing a googolplex in numerals (i.e., "10,000,000,000...") would be physically impossible, since doing so would require more space than the known universe occupies.

Yet, much larger still is Graham's Number perhaps the largest natural number mathematicians actually ever talk about.

(Edited as the posted page didn't reproduce the raised power symbols properly)

[steveo]

Palimpsest is a good one isn't it?

OK delete that

Palimpsest is good isn't it?

[silverfox]

Paraskavedekatriaphobia

Noun

paraskavedekatriaphobia

Fear of Friday the 13th.

Etymology

From Friday + thirteen + -phobia

Derived words

?paraskavedekatriaphobic

and

Polydactyl

Being born with additional digits (fingers/toes)

[silverfox]

Actually I didn't learn a new word today. Can anyone help as there's alot of people on the web confused over this one?

spuripeopleous

Appears in today's Daily Mail in an article about the government wasting money on climate change propaganda. It's been coined by Matthew Sinclair, the TaxPayers? Alliance research director, who is quoted as saying:

?Despite a fortune having been spent on these projects, the fund has failed even on its own spuripeopleous terms. It is infuriating for taxpayers to see their money squandered on attempts to scare and indoctrinate the public.?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1251881/Ministers-lavished-9m-climate-change-stunts--public-opinion-left-cold-global-warming-propaganda.html

[Huguenot]

I'm guessing the correspondent was using a laptop with a track pad.

As he hit the spacebar after the word spurious in order to insertt 'people' he inadvertently tapped the trackpad with his thumb, thus moving the insertion point to wherever the cursor was hovering - in this case over the middle of spurious.

I'm guessing he was using a content management system (CMS) for the Mail website that was accessed through a browser. Because he chose Internet Explorer, there was no spell-check to correct his error.

Thus 'spuripeopleous' could be defined as "an inputting error from a short-sighted right-winger".

[silverfox]

Yep, it must be a mistake. Worrying though that the subeditors didn't spot it. Whatever happened to journalistic standards?

[silverfox]

Lycra-lout

Noun.

A derogatory term applied to the estimated 20% of cyclists who flout the highway code.

Word coined on BBC London News this lunchtime.

[silverfox]

Homo interneticus

Noun

Possibly the next evolved state of 'generation web' homo sapiens, who, having grown up with the internet's instant connections and access to information, may be undergoing changes to identity and the way they think.

Cited by Dr. Aleks Krotoski, academic and journalist, in The Virual Revolution Part 4, Homo interneticus? (BBC2)

[silverfox]

Zettabyte

The size of the ?digital universe? will swell so rapidly this year that a new unit ? the zettabyte ? has been invented to measure it.

Zettabytes overtake petabytes as the largest unit of digital measurement.

Humanity?s total digital output currently stands at 8,000,000 petabytes ? which each represent a million gigabytes ? but is expected to pass 1.2 zettabytes this year.

One zettabyte is equal to one million petabytes, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 individual bytes.

The current size of the world?s digital content is equivalent to all the information that could be stored on 75bn Apple iPads, or the amount that would be generated by everyone in the world posting messages on the microblogging site Twitter constantly for a century.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7675214/Zettabytes-overtake-petabytes-as-largest-unit-of-digital-measurement.html

[Huguenot]

Petrichor (Thanks to ruffers)

from Greek petros "stone" + ichor the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology) is the name of the scent of rain on dry earth.

The term was coined in 1964 by two Australian researchers, Bear and Thomas, for an article in the journal Nature. In the article, the authors describe how the smell derives from an oil exuded by certain plants during dry periods, whereupon it is absorbed by clay-based soils and rocks. During rain, the oil is released into the air along with another compound, geosmin, producing the distinctive scent. In a follow-up paper, Bear and Thomas (1965) showed that the oil retards seed germination and early plant growth.

[silverfox]

hellion

Pronunciation: \ˈhel-yən\

Noun

A troublesome, disorderly, rowdy, or mischievous person, especially a child. A trouble maker.

Etymology: 19th Century American, probably from dialect, alteration (influenced by hell) of hallion scamp/rogue

Quoted by hoser today on the, Re: Dulwich park distance? thread in the General ED issues/gossip section

[katie1997]

You can get a 'word of the day' emailed to you from dictionary.com (sorry if done before)

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Narthex

noun

1.in early Christian churches, a porch or portico at the west end for penitents and others not admitted to the church itself

2.any church vestibule leading to the nave

Origin: LL(Ec) < LGr(Ec) narth?x < Gr, giant fennel: from a fancied resemblance of the porch to the hollow stem

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright ? 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.

Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

nar?thex (n?rˈthĕksˌ)

noun

1.A portico or lobby of an early Christian or Byzantine church or basilica, originally separated from the nave by a railing or screen.

2.An entrance hall leading to the nave of a church.

[Loz]

silverfox Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Zettabyte

>

> The size of the ?digital universe? will swell so

> rapidly this year that a new unit ? the zettabyte

> ? has been invented to measure it.

>

> Zettabytes overtake petabytes as the largest unit

> of digital measurement.

Zettabyte hasn't recently been invented (it dates from the 90's), exabyte slips in between petabyte and zettabyte and zettabyte is not the largest unit of digital measurement.

Digital measurements are SI units and so follow their naming standard. The list is kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte,

petabyte, exabyte, zettabyte and yottabyte.

[silverfox]

Thank you for pointing out those mistakes Loz.

I am guilty of taking a Telegraph headline writer's words on trust. I've just gone back and done a search and notice that The Telegraph re-wrote the original headline and subhead to make it accurate in the way you describe and that the link I provided above now takes you to the updated/corrected headline.

The original headline and subhead:

Zettabytes overtake petabytes as largest unit of digital ...

May 4 2010 | Heidi Blake | Technology

The size of the ?digital universe? will swell so rapidly this year that a new unit - the zettabyte - has been invented to measure it.

Was rewritten to read:

Digital universe to smash 'zettabyte' barrier for first time ...

May 4 2010 | Heidi Blake | Technology

The size of the ?digital universe? will swell so rapidly this year that it will pass the "zettabyte" barrier for the first time.

See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/search/?queryText=zettabyte&type=recent&sort=date%3AD%3AS%3Ad1&site=default_collection more results

I was also interested to read the names for the submultiples (-10) of SI units. You learn something new every day.

[Loz]

I learnt something as well - zetta and yotta are derived from 'septo' and 'octo' repectively, but mangled a little to make the symbol unique (S being used for other things like 'second' and O would get confused with zero).

I always wondered why zetta and yotta weren't in easy-to-remember alphabetical order. Now I know!

[womanofdulwich]

Burtonisation. ( good one for a pub quiz).

( brewers technique of chemically changing the water of say Bury st Edmunds to make it taste/ react like the water of Burton on Trent to make the beer that used to be made in Burton on Trent taste like it does ( even though made in Bury)

[silverfox]

Phlebotomist

phle?bot?o?mist (flĭ-bŏt'ə-mĭst)

noun

1.One who practices phlebotomy.

2.One who draws blood for analysis or transfusion.

The American Heritage? Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

Copyright ? 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Word referred to by penguin69 on the 'What is the latest on the new hospital in ED?' thread

[Brendan]

Norkage

Adjective

Of or relating to a nork or norks(noun)

Verb

To display norks

(see also cleavage)

[silverfox]

0 words found.

norkage does not appear in Merriam-Webster's Official SCRABBLE? Players Dictionary, 4th Edition.

0 words found.

norks does not appear in Merriam-Webster's Official SCRABBLE? Players Dictionary, 4th Edition.

[HAL9000]

Cerumen

Main Entry: ce?ru?men

Pronunciation: \sə-ˈr?-mən\

Function: noun

Etymology: New Latin, irregular from Latin cera wax; akin to Greek k?ros wax

Date: 1741

: earwax

? ce?ru?mi?nous \-mə-nəs\ adjective

cerumen. (2010). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.

Retrieved June 14, 2010, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cerumen

Word refered to by ianr in thread: "Re: 32" Sony Bravia Brand New in box!" now "." (For Sale...)