Word of the Week

‘buckminsterfullerene’ (n.): An extremely stable form of pure carbon which has a cage-like structure consisting of interconnected pentagons and hexagons

See if you can slip that one into your next conversation!

Word of the Week – Friday 13th Edition

friday-the-13th-340x509

There is a lot suspicion and superstition surrounding Friday 13th and indeed, the number 13 itself. We don’t really know why. There are theories but for some it is simply unlucky and for others it simply isn’t. Regardless of your superstitions, here are some fantastic and strangely named phobias for just that!

First of all, the fear of the number 13:

‘triskaidekaphobia’

Secondly, the fear of Friday the 13th:

‘paraskevidekatriaphobia’ or ‘friggatriskaidekaphobia’

Don’t ask us which you should be using because either way,  you are going to need good luck with that pronunciation, yeesh.

 

 

Sourced from: http://speculativegrammarian.tumblr.com – check out this site for other interesting `satirical` linguistics content.

Image sourced from: http://www.todayifoundout.com/

Word of the Week

‘taradiddle’ (n.): Pretentious nonsense

– This one is automatically awesome because it appears in Harry Potter – “We haven’t got time to listen to more taradiddles, I’m afraid, Dumbledore” (Cornelius Fudge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling, 2004)