tomato

Jul. 30th, 2025 07:30 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
tomato (toh-MAY-toh, toh-MAH-toh, let's call the whole thing off) - n., a widely cultivated plant, Solanum lycopersicum, with edible fruit; the rounded, edible, pulpy fruit of this plant.


tomatoes on a plicked vine
Thanks, WikiMedia!

Like chiles, the wild ancestor (L. pimpinellifolium) was native to western South America and first domesticated there. There are many cultivars, including some hybridized from close relatives of L. pimpinellifolium. Cultivation spread throughout the Americas, and was present in southern Mexico by 500 BCE, and from there the Spaniards introduced it to Europe and beyond. Interestingly, the Nahautl word the Spanish used for this, tomatl, actually means tomatillo, which is yes also a nightshade, but is less closely related to tomatoes as potatoes and eggplant, which are both also genus Solanum.

---L.

(no subject)

Jul. 29th, 2025 07:58 pm
cupcake_goth: (Leeches)
[personal profile] cupcake_goth

 Guess who won a chest X-ray, a nebulizer treatment, and will be picking up antibiotics, steroids, and prescription cough syrup? So fun.

The chest X-ray was totally fine, yay. And some of the rattling cough, congestion, and face pain are definitely due to a building sinus infection.

(no subject)

Jul. 29th, 2025 03:36 pm
cupcake_goth: (sparklefang)
[personal profile] cupcake_goth
Damn, it's been a while since I updated. We went to San Francisco for the 2nd MCR show, and it was as fantastic as the first. There were some minor tweaks done to the non-music parts of the performance, and from what I hear more minor tweaks were done for the two L.A shows. Gerard Way is indeed living his best theatre kid life.

The SF "stage B" performance (when they perform non- Black Parade songs) wasn't as meaningful for me as the Seattle one. They didn't play "Thank You for the Venom" or "Vampires Will Never Hurt You", sigh. To the delight of others in the crowd, they covered "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" by Smashing Pumpkins. I say "to the delight of others" because I am a Seattle Old and Have Opinions about Smashing Pumpkins. (Not as bad as my opinions about Courtney Love, but I still Have Opinions.)

We also got to hang out with friends while in SF, one of whom was celebrating her 50th, yay! And we made a pilgrimage to Borderlands Books, where I foolishly looked in the rare books cabinet and then spent money on a first edition of The Vinegar Works, a three book box set of Edward Gorey books. (While I was dithering the Stroppy One said, "Will you regret not buying it?", which made it clear it needed to be mine.)

I brought a rotten cold home from SF; It's been slightly over a week and there's a crackling sensation when I breathe, so I'm headed to a clinic later today to (probably) get a z-pack and steroids.

---

OH MY GOD THE TEASER FOR S3 OF INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE THE VAMPIRE LESTAT. Part of the teaser did confirm they're changing the name of the show, because the upcoming season focuses on my beloved egotistical vampire rock star boyfriend. Remember before the show premiered when I had concerns about Sam Reid playing Lestat, and how those concerns were blown to dust after episode one? Holy mother of god, Sam Reid has been possessed by the spirit of Lestat and I am frothing at the mouth about that teaser. I'm also stamping my feet in frustration because we have to wait until 2026 for the show omg I need it NOOOWWWWW.

So between MCR stuff and Lestat content, my Tumblr has been fannish incoherency. In L.A MCR played an unreleased song from the scrapped "Paper Kingdom" album. As I said over there, all I need now is for Hannibal S4 to be announced and my head really will explode.

chile / chili / chilli / etc.

Jul. 29th, 2025 07:29 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
Because of the overlapping spelling variations, this is gonna be confusing. Also, I have Opinions on this.


chile (US) or chili (US) or chilli (UK & India) or chilly (some Commonwealth) (CHIL-ee) - n., the spicy fresh or dried fruit of any of several cultivated varieties of capsicum peppers (genus Capsicum) used in cooking; (chiefly UK and so chilli) any pepper whether spicy or mild.

chili or chile or chilli (CHIL-ee) - n., a stew of meat and chiles.


chiles not chilies in the field
Thanks, WikiMedia!

Many culinary authorities (as well as every informant I've talked with living in the southwestern US) insist on using chile for the pepper and chili for the stew, but this distinction isn’t universal even in the US. The wild ancestors of the peppers (which are various cultivars of five or six species) were native to the highlands of Peru and Bolivia and first domesticated there, then spread through the Americas in all tropical and warm temperate regions. When Columbus encountered them in the Caribbean, he called them peppers because they were spicy like the black pepper long known to Europeans, and that name carried over into English. Spaniards in Mexico eventually took over the Nahautl name chīlli as chile, and that too entered English in the 17th century. Versions of the stew, called in Spanish chile con carne, "meat with chile," were cooked by Nahaus from before European contact, and continues to be made throughout Mexico and Mexican-settled areas -- as chili con carne, later shortened to chili, it was popularized throughout the US thanks to some food stalls from San Antonio at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

And while we're here, my recipe.

---L.

avocado

Jul. 28th, 2025 07:27 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
I knew even before starting to research this theme that “interesting words from Native American/First Nations languages” was way too broad, so I decided to start with just “interesting words from Nahuatl,” the group of lects of the peoples known in history as Aztec, today called Nahau. This, though, was also way too broad—we’ve gotten a lot of words from central Mexico, via Spanish—so I restricted it further to just “food words from Nahautl.” Which is still too broad—we’ve gotten a lot of crops and dishes from central Mexico, via human propagation, enough to easily cover two weeks. But I’mma do just one week by sticking to the most common. With, okay, a little fudging around the edges. But it’ll fit! Promise! And we’re starting with:


avocado (av-uh-KAH-doh, ah-vuh-KAH-doh) - n., a tropical American tree (Persea americana) having oval or pear-shaped fruit with green-to-black leathery skin, yellowish-green flesh, and a large seed; the edible fruit of this tree; the dark green of the skin of an avocado          (hex value #568203).


an avocado and one sliced in half, showing the seed
Thanks, WikiMedia!

Also called alligator pear, it was domesticated somewhere in central America, and in Nahautl is called āhuacatl (which also means testicle, though the fruit sense came first). This in turn became Spanish aguacate, and then English modified this to avocado, first appearing in a 1696 catalogue of Jamaican plants.

And because it's made with avocado, a bonus word:


guacamole (gwah-kuh-MOH-lee) - n., a dip of mashed avocado mixed with tomato, onion, and seasonings.


First found in English the late 1910s, from Mexican Spanish, from Nahuatl āhuacamōlli, from āhuacatl, avocado + mōlli, sauce.

Fun fact: varieties of Nahautl (correct pronunciation) are spoken by around 1.5 million people, the most of any Indigenous language north of Panama.

---L.

Just Create - Time Zones Edition

Jul. 27th, 2025 09:06 am
silvercat17: Winnie from William of Newbury considering while she holds her axe (consider)
[personal profile] silvercat17 posting in [community profile] justcreate
What are you working on? What have you finished? What do you need encouragement on?

Are there any cool events or challenges happening that you want to hype?

What do you just want to talk about?

What have you been watching or reading?

Chores and other not-fun things count!

Remember to encourage other commenters and we have a discord where we can do work-alongs and chat, linked in the sticky

pantechnicon

Jul. 24th, 2025 07:54 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
pantechnicon (pan-TEK-ni-kon) - (UK) n., (obs.) an indoor bazaar, with stalls selling various goods; (dated) a furniture removal van.


Shortened to pantech, that last sense is still in use in Australia, per one dictionary (can anyone confirm?). I don't usually include obsolete senses, but this one is important to the history. In 1831, such a bazaar opened in fashionable Belgravia, London, combined with a furniture store due to the site's odd geometry, and because of the building's Doric front, the proprietors went all in on the Greek and coined the name Pantechnicon from Ancient Greek roots pan-, all + tekhnikón, neuter singular of tekhnikós, technical/skilled/arts. The bazaar part of the business eventually closed down, but not until after the name had spread to other similar establishments. Meanwhile, the furniture business flourished, to the point that the proprietors developed special delivery vans (initially horse-drawn but motorized once that became a thing), and the name again spread as those also were imitated.

---L.

polyanthus

Jul. 23rd, 2025 07:44 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
polyanthus (pol-ee-AN-thuhs) - n., any of various hybrid garden primroses (Primula × polyantha, sometimes listed as Primula polyantha) having clusters of variously colored flowers.


yellow polyanthus being showy
Thanks, WikiMedia!

Originally a hybrid cross between the common cowslip (Primula veris) and the common primrose (P. vulgaris), now bred on its own in pretty much every color pattern there is. Taken around 1630 from New Latin, where it was coined from Ancient Greek roots poly-, many +‎ ánthos, flower.

---L.

apotropaic

Jul. 22nd, 2025 07:37 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
apotropaic (ap-uh-truh-PAY-ik) - adj., intended to ward off evil.


I like the cadence of this, the way it lilts off the tongue. Apotropaic acts include gestures to avert the evil eye and horseshoes fixed over a doorway, not to mention uses of crucifixes. Taken in 1883 from Ancient Greek apotrópaios (the Ancient Greeks used apotropaic decorations like paired eyes on ship prows and gorgon heads), from apotrepein, to ward off, from apó-, away + trepein, to turn.

---L.

conglobate

Jul. 21st, 2025 07:32 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
conglobate (kon-GLOH-bayt, KONG-gloh-bayt) - v., to form into a round compact mass. adj., shaped like a ball.


To conglobe, to use its older synonym. This is Latinate, obvs., taken around 1630 from Latin conglobātus, the perfect passive participial of conglobō, gather into a ball/crowd together, from con-, together + globus, ball + a verb-forming suffix. And yes, we also get globe from globus.

---L.

Just Create - Monitor Edition

Jul. 19th, 2025 03:40 pm
silvercat17: close up of Lion-o's face with sparkles (liono)
[personal profile] silvercat17 posting in [community profile] justcreate
What are you working on? What have you finished? What do you need encouragement on?

Are there any cool events or challenges happening that you want to hype?

What do you just want to talk about?

What have you been watching or reading?

Chores and other not-fun things count!

Remember to encourage other commenters and we have a discord where we can do work-alongs and chat, linked in the sticky

empyrean

Jul. 18th, 2025 07:43 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
empyrean (em-puh-REE-uhn, em-pay-REE-uhn, em-PIR-ee-uhn, em-PAY-ree-uhn) - n., in ancient cosmologies, the highest heaven, believed to be a realm of pure fire or light; in medieval cosmology, the highest celestial sphere, believed to be the abode of God and the angels; the skies, the firmament, the heavens.


I wanted, given this week's theme, to put that last sense first, but the historical order really is as given. This dates to around 1600, from Medieval Latin empyreum, from Latin empȳreus, of the empyrean, from Greek empúrios, fiery, from en-, in + pûr, fire, and yes there's a root of four-element theory in there.


And that wraps up this week of words for the sky -- back with the regular mix on Monday.

---L.

firmament

Jul. 17th, 2025 07:20 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
firmament (FUR-muh-muhnt) - n., the vault of the heavens, the sky; in Ptolemaic cosmology, the eighth celestial sphere, carrying the fixed stars.


Another old one, going back to the early 13th century, taken this time from Latin firmāmentum, the sky, originally support/prop, from firmāre, strengthen/support/make firm + -menutum, noun suffix of agency ("that which"). Firmāmentum was used in the Vulgate Bible to translate the Septuagint Greek steréōma, foundation/framework, from stereós, solid/rigid. This in turn was used to translate Hebrew rāqī́aʿ, the barrier used in Genesis 1:6 to separate the heavenly waters from the earth below, which has a root sense of being beaten out thinly -- which is an interesting image for what Elohim was doing.

---L.
Page generated Jul. 31st, 2025 03:34 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios