Word of the Day
gallinaceous
adjective
belonging or pertaining to the order Galliformes, comprising medium-sized, mainly ground-feeding domestic or game birds, as the chicken, turkey, grouse, pheasant, and partridge.
More about gallinaceous
The adjective gallinaceous comes straight from the Latin adjective gallīnāceus, a derivative of gallīna “hen,” itself a derivative of the noun gallus “rooster, cock.” Further etymology is uncertain: gallus may come from the Proto-Indo-European root gal- “to call, cry.” If so, gallus (from unattested galsos) means “shouter, crier” and is related to Lithuanian galsas “echo,” Polish głos “voice,” and English call (via Old Norse kall). Gallinaceous entered English in the 18th century.
how is gallinaceous used?
Yea, verily, there is much to inspire gratitude on this holiday centered on a gallinaceous bird with alarmingly hypertrophied breasts.
In the sand I saw tracks of a large, gallinaceous bird — a sage grouse or chukar.
shunpike
noun
a side road taken instead of a turnpike or expressway to avoid tolls or to travel at a leisurely pace.
More about shunpike
Shunpike is a blend of the verb shun and the noun (turn)pike. The word was originally an Americanism and dates from the mid-19th century.
how is shunpike used?
… she proposed to Mr. Morris that he should take the shunpike for a change.
“Shunpiking is real,” he said, using an old term for avoiding toll roads.
conurbation
noun
an extensive urban area resulting from the expansion of several cities or towns so that they coalesce but usually retain their separate identities.
More about conurbation
Conurbation is a coinage of Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932), Scottish sociologist and city planner. The formation of conurbation is simple enough: the Latin prefix con-, a form of the prefix and preposition cum-, cum “with, together with,” urb-, the stem of urbs “city, capital city, large town; the City, i.e., Rome” (unfortunately urbs has no known etymology), and the common noun suffix -ation. Conurbation entered English in 1915.
how is conurbation used?
By 1984, there may well be several giant urban conurbations in the world which will make the present Greater Tokyo, New York and London look rather puny.
Then the conurbation spread and Hallowgate became part of the North Tyneside sprawl.