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Dec 25, 2017
This week’s themeNo el This week’s words quartziferous hypercathexis bavardage aciniform crackjaw 
Image: Eugenia Loli
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargThis week we’re going to give the letter L a well-deserved rest: No el. While letters in the whole alphabet have been working hard the whole year, and they all deserve a rest, we have chosen the letter L to go on leave for a few days. You’ll notice it’s absent from all of the words featured in A.Word.A.Day this week. That’s because we’re celebrating No el. Joyeux Noel! quartziferous
PRONUNCIATION:
(kwort-SIF-uhr-uhs)
MEANING:
adjective: Containing or bearing quartz.
ETYMOLOGY:
From German Quartz + Latin -ferous (bearing), from ferre (to bear). Earliest
documented use: 1831.
NOTES:
Quartz crystals come in various forms: amethyst, agate, onyx, etc.,
that may or may not be worth a bitcoin, but in a game of Scrabble, the word
quartz is worth its weight: it yields 24 points, and that’s before any
double or triple squares.
USAGE:
“The industry has developed a water-powered impact hammer for breaking
quartziferous rock.” John Battersby; South Africa Digs Out of Its Mining Crisis; The Christian Science Monitor (Boston, Massachusetts); Apr 24, 1991. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs, and explosions,
and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes,
prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record,
prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy; and a thoughtless,
frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own for the
children, and the children yet unborn. -Rod Serling, writer of the science
fiction TV series The Twilight Zone (25 Dec 1924-1975)
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