Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Orinologists Obliterate Obtuse Offices


ABC Wednesday is a word meme with participants from around the world. This fabulous meme was created and hosted by Mrs. Denise Nesbitt who hails from Great Britain. Over time, others have joined in to help host this wonderful and informative meme. We are now in our ELEVENTH round with 'Captain Roger' at the helm! Some of the participants have been with this from the very first round; others have joined in along the way. Each week we are taken across the globe to see the varied and exciting contributions people have taken the time to discover and capture. We start with the letter, "A" and each week we post something in regards to the next letter of the alphabet. This week's letter is, "O".


O is for OBSCURE...

Something I really love in this weekly meme called ABC Wednesday-searching for obscure words (at least, for most of us, they are obscure).


OCTAHEDRON



(image from Wikipedia)

An octahedron is a polyhedron with eight faces. "What's a polyhedron?", you ask. A polyhedron is a geometric solid that is in three dimensions with flat faces and straight edges. If you check out the link I have here, Wikipedia can made the octahedron rotate. Not to mention that it contains lots of detailed mathematical equations and information that further discusses all that one should know (in general terms about octahedrons).

So, now you know. Octahedron.


OBCORDATE





Obcordate-it sounds like a  pretty cool word. A botanical term-a heart shaped leaf with the point of attachment at the narrow end (technically, my photograph is not accurate since it does not attach at the narrow end-but it does serve the purpose of getting my point across). Cordi is Latin for from the heart.


 OAK



Oh, the mighty oak! Although, in this case, it will be a few decades before this one reaches the 'mighty' stature. Did you know that there are over 600 species of oak?

And, oh! The many uses of the oak-the list is impressive. Vikings and other sea faring cultures used it to make their boats. Oak is used to make furniture, floors, barrels for whiskey, bourbon, wine, sherry, scotch, brandy, Japanese professional drums (the manufacturer of  Yamaha Drums uses oak because the higher density of oak gives the drum a brighter and louder tone compared to traditional drum materials such as maple and birch), tools handles, roof shingles, and so on. Why, even the oak gall is used to make manuscript ink.

Non-tangible uses of oak? As a symbol-it is used by many cultures as a symbol of strength and courage.

Perhaps now, you'll think differently about oak!


OPEIDOSCOPE

You will just have to imagine what an opeidoscope looks like. What is it? It is an instrument for visualizing vibration of sound waves, using a mirror mounted on a membrane. It was invented by Amos Dolbear.

I simply could not find any images at all on this instrument and I am finding difficult to even visualize what it might look like. Google kept trying to impose kaleidoscope images on me. But, even with the word, opeidoscope, I got zilch by way of images.





10 comments:

Carver said...

You never fail to come up with some words I'm not familiar with. Great choices.

Roger Owen Green said...

yup, your record's in tact. I didn't know 'oak'; I jest. It WAS, though, the other plant word...

Sylvia K said...

I do agree with Carver and Roger, you definitely come up with the greatest words for the letter of the day!! Always fun to visit your blog and particularly on ABC Day!! Have a fun day, Paula!!

photowannabe said...

It's always an adventure coming to your blog, Paula.
I learn words I never heard before and probably won't use in my everyday language.
Love them.

Berowne said...

I always enjoy a post where I learn something - thanks.

Chubskulit Rose said...

I have seen obcurdate but I never knew what it's called!

O is for....
Rose, ABC Wednesday Team

Joy said...

I never remember which 'hedron is which and have never heard of an opeidoscope and it seems will never seen one; just when you think the Internet contains everything!

A Cuban In London said...

Right, your post cracked me up for various reasons. The first one was the title. The second one was the word "octahedron". Last night we were talking about mathematical shapes and my wife, who's a primary school teacher, said that she always struggled to tell a pentagon from a heptagon. Reason number three was opeidoscope. I knew the meaning of it! But only by pure chance. Whenever I want to find out the meaning of a word in English I visit dictionary.com. And on the website they have something called "word dynamo". It's a guessing game where they give you one word and two different meanings. You have to guess which is the correct one.

Great post. Loved it.

Greetings from London.

Mama Pajama said...

really fun! great words, and no, I did not know that there are 600 varieties of oak - more reasons to love the trees!

PhinkyMommy said...

I have really fun reading your post. SO informative!

New Follower, new ABC Wednesday member.
http://phinkymommyextension.blogspot.com/

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