Word of the Day
yurt
noun
a tentlike dwelling of the Mongol and Turkic peoples of central Asia, consisting of a cylindrical wall of poles in a lattice arrangement with a conical roof of poles, both covered by felt or skins.
More about yurt
Yurt “a tentlike dwelling of the Mongol and Turkic peoples of central Asia” is a borrowing by way of Russian yurta from an uncertain Turkic source meaning “home” or “abode.” The Turkic language family, which includes Turkish as well as Chuvash, Crimean Tatar, Uyghur, and Yakut, is found in pockets throughout Asia, from China and Siberia in the east to Cyprus and Turkey in the west. Turkic languages were once considered to form part of a much larger language family, the Altaic family, along with the Mongolic and Tungusic languages of East Asia—and perhaps even with Japanese and Korean as well. However, the similarities among these five language groups are now believed to be the result of language contact rather than a common ancestry. Yurt was first recorded in English in the late 1880s.
how is yurt used?
Constructing a yurt is a jigsaw puzzle feat requiring several hours. When finished, a yurt from the outside seems unimpressive, a sort of lumpy boiled potato …. Until you step into a Kyrgyz yurt. Move aside the heavy felt door. And suddenly everything changes. The outside world disappears, and you’ve walked into a Kyrgyz wonderland. The blankets and carpets and wall hangings and ceiling coverings are all decorated with ornate designs—paisley, flowered, spangled, psychedelic, kaleidoscopic.
Much like tents and cabins, yurts weren’t—and still aren’t—always cushy affairs. The felt-and-wood homes originated in Mongolia several thousand years ago as mobile lodging for nomadic herders living and working on the Gobi Desert steppes. Mongolian ruler Genghis Khan used gers, the local word for the structure, on his military campaigns. The yurt’s main selling points are its portability, durability and quick assembly …. [A] Mongolian family can break down and erect a yurt in less than an hour.
epicurean
adjective
fond of or adapted to luxury or indulgence in sensual pleasures; having luxurious tastes or habits, especially in eating and drinking.
More about epicurean
Epicurean “fond of or adapted to luxury or indulgence in sensual pleasures” derives via Middle English from Latin Epicūrēus “of Epicurus.” Epicurus (in the original Ancient Greek, Epíkouros) was a philosopher of Athenian origin who flourished in the late 4th and early 3rd centuries BC, and his school of thought, Epicureanism, had as its foundation the belief that pleasure was most important. The name Epicurus comes from the Ancient Greek adjective epíkouros “assisting,” which also functions as a noun meaning “ally, helper.” Epicurean was first recorded in English in the late 1300s.
how is epicurean used?
Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow …. with a gentleness, a vigor, and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. There are those, of course, who would adopt the epicurean motto of ‘Eat, drink, and be merry,’ but most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending death.
The tone of taciturn minimalism that Hemingway seemed to discover only after the Great War—with its roots in newspaper reporting, its deliberate amputation of overt editorializing, its belief that sensual detail is itself sufficient to make all the moral points worth making—is fully achieved in Crane’s work …. The extreme stoicism of Crane’s vision, even without the resigned epicurean sensuality that lit up Hemingway’s, is what made it resonate for the “existential” generation, including [poet John] Berryman.
firth
noun
a long, narrow indentation of the seacoast.
More about firth
Firth “a long, narrow indentation of the seacoast” is a Middle English adaptation of the Old Norse term fjǫrthr (stem firth-), which became Norwegian fjord and was later borrowed into modern English. In this way, firth and fjord are doublets, which are pairs or groups of words in a language that are derived from the same source but through different routes. Other doublets in English include plant and clan (both from Latin planta “scion, plant,” but the latter via Irish Gaelic) as well as apothecary, bodega, and boutique (all from Ancient Greek apothḗkē “shop”). Recent Word of the Day gramarye, for example, is a doublet of both glamour and grammar; all three words come from Old French gramaire “grammar” but through different routes. Firth was first recorded in English in the early 1400s.
how is firth used?
It’s not the open sea we are making for, but a firth, a long inlet off the north sea, where wintering geese, ducks and swans find shelter and food and which is often graced by the presence of dolphins. We go round by the head of the firth and emerge onto the road which runs close to the shore.
Some rivers terminate without passing through any firth or estuary, and are lost in the open ocean almost as soon as they touch the salt water; others only join the ocean through a firth, or through a land-locked valley, where the fresh and salt waters meet.