Word of the Day
frondescence
noun
leafage; foliage.
Why the Museum of Science chose frondescence
Fall is upon us, which means cooler temperatures and a change in the color of frondescence from green to brilliant yellows, oranges, and reds. It had us wondering, what causes these beautiful Fall colors? To find out, watch this video about frondescence from science communicator, Alex Dainis, PhD.
More about frondescence
Frondescence comes from a Latin verb meaning “to become leafy, put forth leaves,” which is based on the word for “branch, bough” that also gives us frond. An easily confused word is the Latin word frōns, meaning “forehead,” which is the source of front, frontage, and frontal. Frondescence was first recorded in English circa 1840.
EXAMPLE OF FRONDESCENCE USED IN A SENTENCE
When autumn sets in and the leaves shift colors, a rainbow of frondescence can be seen far and wide.
FUN FACT ABOUT FRONDESCENCE
Leaves already contain the yellow and orange pigments we see emerge in Fall. They are just hidden most of the year by the overwhelming green of chlorophyll. Learn more fun facts at the Museum of Science.
scarper
verb (used without object)
to flee or depart suddenly, especially without having paid one's bills.
More about scarper
Scarper, “to flee or depart suddenly,” originated in a British argot, likely Polari, and probably comes from Italian scappare “to flee,” which is related to English escape (compare French échapper). The ultimate origin appears to be from a Vulgar Latin verb reconstructed as excappāre, based on Latin ex “out of, from” and Late Latin cappa “hooded cloak, cape.” For another example of Polari’s influence on English, see the recent Word of the Day busk. Scarper was first recorded in English in the late 1840s.
how is scarper used?
But thwart a young rat’s zeal for play (by rearing it alone or with drugged companions that won’t play) and you create an adult that loses its cool in social situations. When things start getting edgy, play-deprived rats either succumb to rat-rage or scarper, quaking, to a corner.”
When [the giant peach] disappears they have to scarper, off to America on the Queen Mary, though since they apparently haven’t yet collected on all the money they thought was coming their way, it’s a mystery how they can afford it.
More about pensée
Pensée, “a thought,” is a loanword from French, in which it is the past participle of the verb penser “to think.” Penser derives from Latin pēnsāre, of the same meaning, which in turn comes from pendere “to hang”—similar to the English expression “have hanging over (one’s) head,” namely, when a persistent thought causes fear and anxiety. Pendere has two stems in English: the first is pend-, as in pendulum, suspend, and the recent Word of the Day spendthrift, and the second stem is pens-, as in compensate, expensive, and pension. Pensée was first recorded in English in the late 1880s.
how is pensée used?
The phone rings incessantly, and James, never losing his aplomb, dashes to answer it between lifting lids and turning, in his faded blue dress shirt and undersized, black owl glasses, to share a morsel of gossip or a pensée about his latest book, a collection of photographs titled, simply, Paris.
“Life is a hospital where each patient is driven by the desire to change beds.” Such a pensée fits with the French moralist tradition of Montaigne, Pascal and La Rochefoucauld, yet Baudelaire always regarded Edgar Allan Poe, whom he translated, as his spiritual brother.