51吃瓜 of the Day
volant
adjective
engaged in or having the power of flight.
More about volant
Volant 鈥渆ngaged in or having the power of flight鈥� is a borrowing from French, in which it means 鈥渇lying鈥� and is the present participle of the verb voler 鈥渢o fly, steal.鈥� Voler derives from Latin 惫辞濒腻谤别 鈥渢o fly,鈥� which is of mysterious and uncertain origin. Some linguists derive 惫辞濒腻谤别 from a Proto-Indo-European root, gwel- 鈥渢o raise the arm, throw, reach,鈥� under the assumption that the definition could have shifted from 鈥渢o raise the arm鈥� to 鈥渢o spread one鈥檚 wings,鈥� but this hypothesis is not universally accepted. If 惫辞濒腻谤别 does come from this root, it is a cognate of Ancient Greek ballein 鈥渢o throw鈥� (as in ballistic, parabola, problem, and symbol). Volant was first recorded in English in the first decade of the 1500s.
how is volant used?
More than 160 million years ago, the forests of ancient China were home to a bizarre predator: a聽tiny dinosaur that glided from tree to tree with leathery, bat-like wings. The newfound fossil, unveiled today in the journal聽Nature, is just the second feathered dinosaur found with signs of large membranes on its wings ….鈥淭he most exciting thing, for me, is that it shows that some dinosaurs evolved very different structures to become volant,鈥� or capable of some form of flight, says lead study author聽Min Wang, a paleontologist at China’s聽Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.
Bats get a bad rap. From horror films to tabloid pages to Halloween, media and cultural depictions of our planet鈥檚 only volant, or flying, mammals have long generated and reinforced unfounded fear …. Such hostile attitudes make it harder to conserve bats and thereby safeguard the many critical benefits they provide us. What鈥檚 more, persecuting bats because of the diseases they harbor could easily backfire.
angst
noun
a feeling of dread, anxiety, or anguish.
More about angst
Angst 鈥渁 feeling of dread, anxiety, or anguish鈥� is a borrowing from German, in which the noun is capitalized, from Old High German angust. If you are wondering whether angst is related to anxiety and anguish, your suspicion is correct; all three words ultimately derive from a Proto-Indo-European root, angh- 鈥渢ight, painful,鈥� which is the source of numerous pain-related terms beginning with ag-, ang-, or anx-. From Old English, derivatives include hangnail (originally agnail, but altered by association with hang). Via Old Norse angr 鈥渟orrow, grief,鈥� English has borrowed anger. Through Latin angere 鈥渢o strangle鈥� (stem anx-) and angustus 鈥渘arrow,鈥� we have anxiety and anguish. Last, from Ancient Greek 补苍肠丑贸苍脓 鈥渟trangling,鈥� English has inherited angina 鈥渁n attack of painful spasms.鈥� Angst was first recorded in English in the 1840s.
how is angst used?
It can be hard to tell the difference, in the midst of a crisis, between normal levels of angst and those that indicate we might be edging into serious psychological problems. Key signs of declining mental health include changes in appetite or sleep patterns that last more than a week …. Having more trouble concentrating than usual or being unable to enjoy things you used to enjoy may also indicate that your mental health is declining and that you need to try new coping strategies.
My motherly intuition senses that my baby is an old soul, recalling many past lives and really feeling them. According to her doctor, she鈥檚 teething and has gas. This may be true on a basic level, but I am certain that she鈥檚 also a highly advanced nascent human with acute existential angst. I鈥檝e lived long enough to know flatulence from the unbearable dread of existence.
atoll
noun
a ring-shaped coral reef or a string of closely spaced small coral islands, enclosing or nearly enclosing a shallow lagoon.
More about atoll
Atoll 鈥渁 ring-shaped coral reef enclosing a shallow lagoon鈥� is an adaptation by way of French from Divehi 补迟辞岣穟. Divehi is the official language of the Maldives, an archipelago country in the northern Indian Ocean comprising more than two dozen atolls, and belongs to the Indic group of Indo-European languages. 础迟辞岣穟 may derive from Sanskrit 谩苍迟补谤补 鈥渨ithin,鈥� a distant cognate of interior (via Latin) and entero- 鈥渋nside鈥� (via Ancient Greek). An alternative theory is that 补迟辞岣穟 derives from 补岣峚濒 鈥渁 sinking reef,鈥� which is a term from Malayalam, a Dravidian language unrelated to the Indo-European language family. Atoll was first recorded in English circa 1620.
how is atoll used?
For the Marshall Islands, climate change isn’t some distant, future danger: It is already wreaking havoc across the Pacific country鈥檚 more than 1,100 low-lying atolls …. As sea levels rise around the islands, bigger waves will flood farther inland than ever before. If enough of these waves hit in succession, flooded saltwater will irreparably taint the islands鈥� freshwater supplies …. one of the Marshall Islands鈥� atolls鈥攁nd potentially thousands of other islands鈥攃ould become uninhabitable when sea levels rise by 16 inches, which could happen as soon as midcentury.
In the film 鈥淭he Island of the Colorblind,鈥� Sacks tells this story while visiting the small Micronesian atoll of Pingelap, where an unusually large portion of the population is affected by complete achromatopsia, or total color blindness. Whereas an estimated one in forty thousand people worldwide are afflicted with this condition, among the Pingelapese, by some estimates, it鈥檚 closer to one in ten鈥攁 contained community of people who see the world in shades of gray.
atoll
