Words and their Definitions

[Doodoo]

crate-dig
verb : to shop for rare, vintage, or obscure recordings especially by searching through crates of secondhand merchandise

[Doodoo]

ceraunophile

A lover of thunder and lightning."

Sample usage: "I'm too much of a ceraunophile to stay here under this tree! I'm going to go run in the open now. Oh, how I love the ... " ZZZZZZAP

[Doodoo]

mis·an·throp·ic

adjective
having or showing a dislike of other people; unsociable:
"a misanthropic drunken loner" · "with his misanthropic outlook, he was an ugly character"

[Doodoo]

doppelgänger or Doppelgänger Phonetic (Standard)IPA noun a ghostly double or counterpart of a living person.
Someone who looks spookily like you, but isn't a twin, is a doppelganger. Originally, this was a type of ghost.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

The elephant hawk-moth is a charismatic insect. Flying at dusk, it appears to be as pink as a stick of Blackpool rock. Like all hawk-moths, it also has an eye-catching flight, and can often be seen hovering vigorously at honeysuckle, long proboscis sipping nectar as the light fades. The elephant hawk-moth caterpillar is just as visually compelling: it has evolved to look like a snake. If troubled by a predator as it feeds on its favoured larval plant of willowherb, the caterpillar puffs up the front part of its body threateningly. Eyespots on its head further emphasise the reptilian resemblance. This is often enough to deter birds, badgers and human beings. Elephant hawk-moths are generally on the wing from May to August.

Jonathan Tulloch

[Laan Yaa Mo]

The indigo bunting had come a long way. To reach a back garden in Whitburn on Sunderland’s Roker riviera, it had flown across the Atlantic. No mean feat for a dumpy, sparrow-sized bird. With a breeding range stretching from northern Florida up to southern Canada, it is thought that the bunting was blown to Britain in last autumn’s storm. The species steers by the stars, so a cloudy tempest would easily disorientate it. It is hard to imagine what that journey must have been like. Perhaps, the bird was able to rest on shipping or a floating island of plastic. Perhaps, it rode the gales on a nonstop rollercoaster ride. As its name suggests, this bird is a beautiful shade of blue.

Jonathan Tulloch

[Doodoo]

ab·er·ra·tion

noun
a departure from what is normal, usual, or expected, typically one that is unwelcome:
"they described the outbreak of violence in the area as an aberration" · "I see these activities as some kind of mental aberration" · "the decade was seen as a period of aberration in the country's progress towards a democratic society"

[Doodoo]

Breaker boy

Was a coal-mining worker in the United States and United Kingdom whose job was to separate impurities from coal by hand in a coal breaker.

[Doodoo]

ple·o·nasm

noun
the use of more words than are necessary to convey meaning (e.g. see with one's eyes), either as a fault of style or for emphasis.

Pleonasm, which stems (via Late Latin) from the Greek verb pleonazein, meaning "to be excessive," is a fancy word for "redundancy." It's related to our words plus and plenty, and ultimately it goes back to the Greek word for "more," which is pleōn. Pleonasm is commonly considered a fault of style, but it can also serve a useful function. "Extra" words can sometimes be helpful to a speaker or writer in getting a message across, adding emphasis, or simply adding an appealing sound and rhythm to a phrase—as, for example, with the pleonasm "I saw it with my own eyes!"

[Doodoo]

zhuzh

verb

1.
make something more stylish, lively, or attractive:
"the bag is a cool but economical way to zhuzh up many an outfit"
noun

1.
an act, addition, or quality that makes something more stylish, lively, or attractive:
"they have given the traditional Spanish farmhouse an added zhoosh"

[Doodoo]

du·bi·ous

adjective
hesitating or doubting:
"Alex looked dubious, but complied"

[Laan Yaa Mo]

“Wheesht” is a Scots injunction to be quiet: “haud your wheesht” means “hush!”

[Doodoo]

inculcate
verb

inculcated; inculcating
Synonyms of inculcate
transitive verb

: to teach and impress by frequent repetitions

[tamada]

context

noun

con·​text ˈkän-ˌtekst

Synonyms of context

1: the parts of a discourse that surround a word or passage and can throw light on its meaning.

[Laan Yaa Mo]

On roadsides, field margins and bits of waste ground bloom the pink, nectar-rich flowers of common mallow. With five petals and purple striations, they’re easy to spot in the summer months and are much loved by bees, butterflies, moths and other insects. The plant itself is tough, and can reach over a metre tall; the palmate leaves are lobed, with a burgundy dot at the centre, and look handsome even when the flowers aren’t out. Its cousin the paler, scented musk mallow is more delicate, and with its graceful habit more suited to gardens; marsh-mallows (rare now across most of the country) have starchy roots which were once infused to make the squashy sweets to which they lent their name.

Melissa Harrison

[Doodoo]

rage quit
verb :
to suddenly stop participating or engaging in (something) in a fit of anger and frustration : to quit (something) in anger

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Prisoners at HMP Kirklevington Grange had just finished their evening meal when a rare and beautiful sight flew over their Category D prison: a flock of nine bee-eaters heading north. Though the size of a mistle thrush, the birds have a grace and nimbleness that allows them to hunt flying insects. Once they have caught their bee or wasp, they take it to a perch and remove the sting. Bee-eaters spend the winter in sub-Saharan Africa, and they have traditionally bred in southern and central Europe, north Africa and western Asia, but global warming is bringing them north. Recently the species have nested in Britain, bringing their beautiful blue, yellow, chestnut and green plumage to our skies.

JONATHAN TULLOCH

[Laan Yaa Mo]

A wren was feeding fledglings in the Festival Gardens close to St Paul’s Cathedral. Opening its mouth to call, the song was clearly audible above the boom of traffic. Even here, among these few trees and shrubs, the little bird was managing to find enough insect life to survive in the city. No wonder wrens are Britain’s commonest bird species. Their quick boldness, tenacity and rollicking song have always been admired. Wren became a surname given to small and lively people. Indeed, the ancestors of Sir Christopher Wren, architect of St Paul’s, were likely to have been diminutive and as vivacious as the birds. Wren is increasingly used as a forename. Perhaps because a baby is small, vibrant and life-affirmingly loud.

Jonathan Tulloch

[Laan Yaa Mo]

Halloween is far away, but there’s a summer-blooming flower that wouldn’t look out of place adorning a trick or treat parade. Woody nightshade is a common scrambling plant that can climb 2m up through hedges and brambles. Before fully opening, its purple and yellow flowers hang down like lurid lanterns. On opening, they become psychedelic stars. This colour combination is a clear warning of the plant’s toxicity to humans and many herbivores. The glinting red berry that follows can make us sick. Human fatalities are very rare however, because the berry is so bitter-tasting most people couldn’t eat it. The plant’s litany of alternative names show that it’s best avoided: poisonberry, poisonflower, felonwort, bittersweet and snakeberry.

Jonathan Tulloch

[Doodoo]

Kuru
is a rare, incurable, and fatal neurodegenerative disorder that was formerly common among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea. Kuru is a form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) caused by the transmission of abnormally folded proteins (prions), which leads to symptoms such as tremors and loss of coordination from neurodegeneration