li noun
any of several African weaverbirds of the genus Quelea, especially Q. quelea (red-billed quelea) noted for its vast flocks that destroy grain crops.
Origin:
1925–30; < Neo-Latin: genus name (1850; earlier as a species name), perhaps alteration of Medieval Latin qualea quail
1925–30; < Neo-Latin: genus name (1850; earlier as a species name), perhaps alteration of Medieval Latin qualea quail
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia
quelea
(species Quelea quelea), small brownish bird of Africa, belonging to the songbird family Ploceidae (order Passeriformes). It occurs in such enormous numbers that it often destroys grain crops and, by roosting, breaks branches. Efforts to control quelea populations with poisons, napalm, pathogens, and electronic devices have had poor success; but dynamiting the dense colonies, which may contain more than two million pairs in less than 50 hectares (125 acres), has achieved local control
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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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00:10
Quelea
is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
| an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle. |
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
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