That’s a word I just can’t pass up!
Margaret
See, I’m getting smarter already.
Major, MAJOR word nerd cred to the person who can, without resorting to a dictionary or the internet, figure this one out.
The $10 word of the day is: diphyodont
No booby prizes, I’ve already purchased my lifetime quota of electronic yodeling pickles. But if one of you word nerds out there can translate that without help I will by god come up with something appropriate. Probably grape jelly since I’m still up to my eyeballs in it and, oh dear god, the rhubarb is burgeoning, the loganberries and grapes are leafing out, and what in the name of all that is good will I do when summer comes around and I’ve still got 5 gallons or more of various preserves left over from last year?
But that’s beyond the point.
Diphyodont. Work that one out for me.
3 Responses to “That’s a word I just can’t pass up!”
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April 13th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
Um. Let’s go Greek, since Latin seems precluded. Di usually means “two” or “double”. “Phy” is the same root out of “phyla” which is class or group, so maybe this is indicative of “this is a kind of class or grouping”? “Odont” shares the same root as “orthodontia” so I’m guessing “teeth” here. So something about some kind of family of critters with two teeth or double teeth, maybe?
Gah. I suck at this, so I’m probably all wrong and it’s a fancy term for a two-faced liar.
April 13th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
Heh – my first thought was “thing with two wooden teeth,” based on an entirely bogus application of “phyto”.
phyto, phylo “two developmental teeth”, philo “two …really affectionate teeth?”, physic “two natural teeth”… I like that one. Those all depend on a second syllable that isn’t there, so they’re all probably wrong.
“phy” as a suffix doesn’t help much; it’s usually a “-y” tacked onto the end of “-soph-” or “-troph-” or some such.
Nope, I don’t know what “-phy-” means either. No grape jelly for me 🙂
April 18th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
I know this one as I am one of the very rare folks who does not fall under this category. So I did not puzzle it out as it was explained to me by my dentist years ago. I won’t spoil it any more for those still trying to puzzle it out.