1word1daysallymn

asphodel [as-fuh-del]

noun:
1 any of various southern European plants of the genera Asphodelus and Asphodeline, of the lily family, having white, pink, or yellow flowers in elongated clusters.
2 an everlasting flower said to grow in the Elysian fields

      
(click to enlarge)

On that memorable trip, I wandered unexpectedly into a glade absolutely filled with bright asphodel. Crowded spires of luminous white, punctuating the misty evergreen dimness, was about the last thing I expected; the scene was remarkable. (Matt Collins, Why I've fallen in love with the asphodel – the glamorous bulb from the Med , Telegraph, August 2021)

Bosa was once renowned for its leather-making industry and is still filled with historical boutiques, where the art of tannery has been passed down across generations, as well as stores selling coral jewelry and asphodel baskets. (Silvia Marchetti, 20 of the most beautiful villages in Italy, CNN, August 2022)

So lovely is the asphodel that it was said to grow in the Elysian Fields: blessed fields of the afterlife in ancient Greek literature. (Katherine Wagner-Reiss, What’s in a Plant Name? Narcissus, Daffodils, and Jonquils, NYBG, April 2017)

I pity you, Milanion, for when thou dost race with me, the goal is assuredly the meadows of asphodel near where sit Pluto and Persephone on their gloomy thrones. (Jean Lang, A Book of Myths)

The Graces assembling seemed to have joined hands in meadows of asphodel to compose that face. (Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse)

Within a Hell of godless emptiness
submit yourself ever more to sleep's spell.
All is a dream, all is nothingness:
the flower of the world is the asphodel. (Gabriele D'Annunzio, 'Poema paradisiaco')

Origin:
late 14c, from Latin asphodelus, from Greek asphodelos, also sphodelos, spodelos, 'asphodel, king's spear, plant of the lily kind,' which is of unknown origin; 'A substrate word, as is shown by the variants' [Beekes]. It was the peculiar plant of the dead; and in Greek mythology and English poetic use it overspreads the Elysian meadows. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

1word1daysallymn

lacuna [luh-kyoo-nuh]

noun:
1 a gap or missing part, as in a manuscript, series, or logical argument; hiatus.
2 (Anatomy) one of the numerous minute cavities in the substance of bone, supposed to contain nucleate cells.
3 (Botany) an air space in the cellular tissue of plants.

Examples:

Following a doctrine of necessity invoked by the National Assembly to rescue Nigeria from impending constitutional crisis thrown up by a lacuna in the nation’s legal framework, the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan had to complete the remaining tenure of his principal under the invocation of the doctrine of necessity by the then David Mark-led Senate. (Umar, How Jonathan’s Candidacy Will Strengthen North-South Alliance, This Day, February 2022)

It was already known that these early vertebrates had bone cells, but we knew little about how the cells were connected to each other, as well as anything about the detailed structure of the lacuna, or cavities, in which the bone cells were located in the living animal. (Fossils provide new insights into the evolution of bones, Advanced Science News, April 2021)

Whereas with a cultured man there is no gap or lacuna between his opinions and his life. Both are dominated by the same organic, inevitable fatality. (John Cowper Powys, The Meaning of Culture)

Origin:

'blank or missing portion in a manuscript,' 1660s, from Latin lacuna 'hole, pit,' figuratively 'a gap, void, want,' diminutive of lacus 'pond, lake; hollow, opening'. The Latin plural is lacunae. The word has also been used in English from c 1700 in the literal Latin sense in anatomy, zoology, botany. The adjectival forms have somewhat sorted themselves: Mathematics tends to use lacunary (1857), natural history lacunose (1816), and lacunar is used in architecture of paneled ceilings (1690s), so called for their sunken compartments. Leaving lacunal (1846) for the manuscript sense. (Online Etymology Dictionary).

Exploring the etymology of lacuna involves taking a plunge into the pit - or maybe a leap into the lacus (that's the Latin word for 'lake'). Latin speakers modified lacus into lacuna and used it to mean 'pit,' 'cleft,' or 'pool.' English speakers borrowed the term in the 17th century. It is usually pluralized as lacunae; however, </em>lacunas</em> is an accepted variant plural. Another English word that traces its origin to lacuna is lagoon, which came to us by way of Italian and French. (Merriam-Webster)

1word1daysallymn

amaranthine [am-uh-ran-thin, -thahyn]

adjective:
1 unfading; everlasting
2 of purplish-red color
3 of or relating to an amaranth

(click to enlarge)

It strives to juxtapose the oriental and western cuts, hence presenting amaranthine and solitary style in their imprinted glamorised world. (Mubashir Ahmed, Of oriental taste, The News, June 2019)

It is for this crown of amaranthine glory, or blessed eternal salvation, that we are to watch and labor with fear and trembling. (Charles Ebert Orr, Food for the Lambs; or, Helps for Young Christians)

There were amaranthine blossoms, broad as salvers, supported by arm-thick stems that trembled continually. (Clark Ashton Smith, 'The Garden of Adompha')

See the modest green of the heath and its plants, rosy, amaranthine, which distil honey for the bees and fragrance for the butterflies. (Theodore Rousseau, cited by Charles Sprague Smith, Barbizon Days)

Origin:

1660s, 'unfading, undying,' poetic (apparently coined by Milton), also amarantine; see amaranth, name of a mythical unfading flower + -ine (1). From late 19c of a purple color similar to that of the flowers of the ornamental plant so-called. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Long ago poets conceived of a flower that did not fade and christened it amaranth. The appellation is rooted in the Greek word amarantos, meaning 'immortal' or 'unfading', and amarantus, the Latin name of a flower (probably Celosia cristata). The word amaranthine emerged as an adjective of the imaginary flower and subsequently of anything possessing its undying quality. Amaranth also names a real plant (genus Amaranthus), an herb that some consider a weed and others grow for its colorful leaves and spikes of flowers. (Merriam-Webster)

1word1daymed_cat

Solenoglyphous, adj.: (Sol-e-NOG-li-fus), having fangs that fold into the mouth:

"Your solenglyphous fangs are spectaculah!
They are awesome (to use the vernaculah)
'Cause they fold up inside
Till you open up wide--
I asp-pire to be like you!"

Signed: Dracula

(Beverley Sharp, Montgomery, Ala)

(from the Washington Post's Style Invitational contest in July 2016; the challenge was including one of the words from the list of words used in the 2016 National Spelling Bee in a funny poem)

1word1daytrellia_chan

The chain of salps is the 'aggregate' portion of the lifecycle. The aggregate individuals are also known as blastozooids; they remain attached together while swimming and feeding, and each individual grows in size. Each blastozooid in the chain reproduces sexually (the blastozooids are sequential hermaphrodites, first maturing as females, and are fertilized by male gametes produced by older chains), with a growing embryo oozoid attached to the body wall of the parent. The growing oozoids are eventually released from the parent blastozooids, and then continue to feed and grow as the solitary asexual phase, thus closing the lifecycle of salps."