Thursday, February 5, 2009

Enantiomorph

n. (from Greek enantios, “opposite”; morphe, “form”), also called Antimer, or Optical Antipode, either of a pair of objects related to each other as the right hand is to the left, that is, as mirror images that cannot be reoriented so as to appear identical. An object that has a plane of symmetry cannot be an enantiomorph because the object and its mirror image are identical. Molecular enantiomorphs, such as those of lactic acid, have identical chemical properties, except in their chemical reaction with other dissymmetric molecules and with polarized light. Enantiomorphs are important to crystallography because many crystals are arrangements of alternate right- and left-handed forms of a single molecule. A complete description of the crystal specifies how the forms are mixed with each other.

note: this word appears a number of times in The Extended Words (as does mirror), and in some manner works as a root metaphor for the imaginary dictionary, playing as a reflection to our "real" dictionaries.

[Above definition from online Britannica dictionary]

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Floon

n. A polite leave taking with the suggestion that the people leaving one another will hope never to see each other again.

“The floon brought to mind the slowly elegant bowing waves, gracefully retreating from the shoreline, and the shoreline itself retreating, sliding from under itself, brought to mind the hesitant croaking of a single raven at the empty doorway of the still more empty voice, brought to mind a minutely perfected backwardness drawn out like a cape of felt, and the furry undertow of darkness brought to mind an orchestrated ballet that came from some other, perhaps more independent source, propelling them away, further and further away from one another, in a ritual of final, hopefully final good-byes.” The Many Pictures of Parting, Styles of the Floon in History. Care Eccles Sliding and Supreme Departure. 1900.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Flish

n. The sound made by tires on wet pavement.

“The flish of ceaseless traffic, stains peeled from the tarmac . . . .” Lapsed Time in the Hallway, Treasured Moments of Extended Indenture, Memoirs of a Terrorist in Transition. Barril Beacher Light. 1924.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Eflisin

n. Animal lullabies.

“The birds sing eflisin to their young and even to others of their kind, / but their songs are different songs than ours, formed in a softer air, / steep baskets woven with sonic care and rocked in softer bowers, / and bears and wolverines and foxes mold the air around them / with still other kinds of fur-dark blankets that surround them, / and crickets fill the temperatures of air with their own choices, / strike sharply splintered sounds within their very eflisin settled voices.” Animal Lullabies, an Incomplete Anthology. Fallings Reacher. 1866.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Dast

n. The fossilized dung of the Gambian Slowfloating Fourfolded Fingerfly (Repetitio fourfoldium), whose patterning was used, on reasonable occasions, in various ring settings and necklace jewelry in 15th century costume adornments from Isfahan, Iran and was then considered a mark of prescient distinction by the wearer, conferring on him an adroit invisibility without any forceful and intense need of acceptance.

“It was now the latest way to deny responsibility, in fact, to live and act in the world while remaining ‘pretentiously’ invisible, indeed, non-local; and everyone, yes, everyone was wearing it, dast and dast and more dast, streaks of invisibility everywhere through their imperfections only, yet only streaks, making crime an accidental patterning of discovery and the accidental detective useless.” Dast before the Fourfolded Fingerfly, a Biocultural Journey into the World of Flaming Facts and Their Non-Efficatious Effacements. Liquid Amber and the Glazings Brothers, Tom and Tracy. 1874.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Haxtrial

adj. Referring to the class of all words deemed unrhymeable, such as orange and purple and, perhaps, bulb, and others still waiting to be uncovered.

“Haxtrial maneuvers are cut short in such languages as Chinese or Vietnamese since it is almost impossible to imagine a deadening of such musical connection.” Words without Sound, Haxtrial Maneuvers in the Mid-17th Century Inverted Ballads of Summerset and Their Influence on the Rise of Particulate Meaning and the Decay of Language Occasioned by the Poetry of the So-Called Enlightenment. Roger Dodger and Tour More de More. 1951.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Brakskreeb

n. The selling of part of one’s own body for profit.

“The brakskreeb was fierce, for the mortgage had to be paid, the children fed, and the medicine provided, though, fortunately, he had one more kidney to live on.” Cancelling the Body Out of Debt. Partsa Live. 1996.