Fireworks: chrysanthemum shell (peony shell); shell,
ground burst (gerb); maroon; hummer, whizzer; tourbillion; brocade, kamuro
Geography Words: graticule
(shikari); cartogram, cartographer, choropleth; grabben, horst; orographic;
moraine; swidden; prorupt
Words from Hawaiian: humuhumunukunukuapuaa;
lanai; wahine; ukulele, luau; haole; muumuu; lei, haku
Volcano Words: aa, pahoehoe;
lahar; solfatara (apoplexy); fumarole (magma); caldera; tephra
Today USns celebrate Independence Day. In 1776
John Adams, later to be the second president of the US, wrote his wife Abigail,
It ought to be
solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells,
bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from
this time forward forever more.
In hono(u)r of the day, we'll look this week
at some of the terms for those "bonfires and illuminations", the
fireworks that traditionally close the Fourth of July celebration.
chrysanthemum shell a spherical burst, in which the stars leave a
visible trail
(contrast peony shell, in which the stars do not leave a trail)
The fireworks you see outdoors are generally
shells.
shell the most spectacular of fireworks comprising a lifting charge
(to propel the shell into the air) and a bursting charge to eject stars or
subassemblies in the air after a predetermined delay
ground burst a low level burst of a shell; potentially very dangerous
What kind of firework would not be a shell? Here is an
example.
gerb a firework that throws out a shower of sparks. [French gerb
sheaf of corn (wheat?)]
Interesting etymology today.
maroon an exploding device that produces a loud bang
[from French marron chestnut (from the noise they make in a fire)]
A maroon makes a loud noise. Here is
another noisemaker.
hummer a device that produces a humming sound. It is usually a sealed
tube and pierced near each end on opposite sides, so that the sound is made as
the device spins rapidly in flight
whizzer an American name for a hummer
tourbillion 1. lit. or fig.: a whirling mass or system; a
vortex; a whirl; an eddy, a whirlpool. 2. a firework which spins as it
rises, forming a spiral or scroll of fire.
[from F. for 'whirlwind'; ultimately from Gr. 'noise, confusion'. accent on
second syllable]
Franklin would
swear that an American "set down in the tourbillion of such
a great city as Paris must necessarily be for some days half out of his
senses." He knew of what he spoke
Stacy Schiff, A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of
America
Aerial maroons, bombshells filled with stars, rockets
fizzing in tens, fifties, hundreds and thousands, Roman candles, electric
spray, tourbillions and diamond dust lit the night sky
Amanda Mackenzie Stuart, Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: [etc.]
brocade a star
that burns long, so that it leaves down-drooping trails of light as it falls
kamuro like a brocade, but leaving longer trails; a sort of
"weeping willow" effect
These two are from a 'fireworks' source; I am unable to confirm them. Other
sources indicate that in Japanese, a kamuro is "a young female attendant
in child-age of a high ranking prostitute," sort of a
courtesan-in-training.
I generally don't limit my theme to a
technical field, with words of specialized meaning "of that field".
But since I did so last week, for fireworks words, let's do it again this week
for words that have a geography meaning.
graticule a network of fine lines as a measuring scale or to locate
objects, as on an oscilloscope screen, or to facilitate re-scaling to another
size. (Also, the crosshairs in a rifle scope.) geography: the
latitude/longitude grid (would not be used for others, such as a street grid)
I asked the head shikari,
"Anybody sight these scopes in? Graticules all
checked?" And got a blank look. "You know," I said, "scopes
have to be checked atmospheric pressure, joggling around in jeeps,
that
sort of thing. They get out of alignment."
Robert Ruark, The Old Man's Boy Grows Older
Meridians and lines of latitude (parallels) form the global coordinate grid, or
graticule.
New Comparative World Atlas (Hammond)
Bonus word: shikari a big-game hunter, or a guide for one
One more set of words about maps:
cartographer a mapmaker
cartogram a map showing statistical information graphically; e.g.,
countries are deliberately distorted so that the area of each is proportionate
to its population. This cartogram of the US sizes each state to represent its
number of electoral votes. (Coloring is used to show how each state voted, a
choropleth.)
choropleth a map using shading or color to show a trait; e.g.,
colors indicate altitude; or darker shading indicates more-dense
population. This choropleth shows climate zones.
Processes that build up the earth can cause
special features of the landscape. Illustrated here.
grabben a rift valley; a lowered elongated block of the earths crust
lying between geologic faults [German 'trench']
horst a similar raised block [German 'heap']
a series of odd
cracks, fissures and grabens up to 7m deep. Most of those you see
today were formed by earthquakes and dramatic fissuring and subsidence
Joe Bindloss, Paul Handing, Lonely Planet Iceland
orographic relating
to mountains; esp., associated with or induced by mountains: orographic
rainfall
The north trades [winds]
are moist when they reach the islands, but through orographic
lifting, the air is relieved of most of its moisture as it passes over eastern
Oahu's Koolau Mountains.
Richard Sullivan, Driving and Discovering Oahu
A glacier will grind down the rock beneath
it and move the debris that results. Sometimes that debris is bulldozed into a
large mass.
moraine a mass of rocks and sediment carried down and deposited by a
glacier
[French dialect morre snout]
The fires burned
through a wild area called Dogtown Common, an expanse of swamp and glacial moraine
that was once home to the local crazy and forgotten.
Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm
We end our geography theme, today and
tomorrow, with terms about the human relationship with the globe.
swidden an area cleared for temporary cultivation by cutting and
burning the vegetation
the road wound
gently through a tunnel of dense foliage
The forest here was unmolested by
loggers and swidden agriculture. Insects shrieked in the bamboo groves,
and clouds of yellow butterflies corkscrewed in our wake.
Andrew Marshall, The Trouser People: A Story of Burma [etc.]
Political geographers classify countries'
shapes as compact, fragmented, elongated or prorupt.
In a compact country such as France,
no part of its border lies extremely farther from the center than others. Thus
it can easily be knit together with roads and rail (assuming no impeding
mountains, etc.) and, relative to its size, is unlikely to have major internal
differences. For these reasons it tends to be politically cohesive.
A fragmented country, like Indonesia,
is broken into pieces, impeding internal travel. An elongated country (Chile),
long and narrow, is hard to travel and may well have major internal differences
of climate, culture, or ethic regions. All these factors make cohesion
difficult, though varied climates may help create a more-diversified economy.
A prorupt country is mostly compact but has a significant appendage,
which is very apt to become politically isolated. Examples are Namibia
and Afghanistan (corridors), and Thailand
and Myanmar (peninsulas).
Over the years we've looked at words from
French, from Latin, from German, Spanish, Russian and Italian. Let's take a
vacation to Hawaii and look at words from Hawaiian, starting with one that's
humorously long and repeating.
humuhumunukunukuapuaa a small trigger fish; the state fish of Hawaii
A look at the etymology cuts this imposing dozen-syllable name down to size. Humu
and nuku mean 'trigger fish' and 'snout'; repetition of them, as with
our 'itsy-bitsy', means 'a little one'. Thus humu-humu-nuku-nuku is 'little trigger fish with a little snout'. Add a
'like' and puaa 'pig' and you have humu-humu-nuku-nuku-a-puaa,
'little trigger fish with a little pig-snout'.
lanai a veranda or
roofed patio
He helped her
carry food and wine out to a table of wrought iron and glass on the lanai.
She lit candles, though the sunset still glowed beyond the trees. They drank
California burgundy with the meat loaf she had hastily prepared.
Herman Wouk, War and Remembrance
wahine 1. a
Polynesian woman. 2. a woman surfer
Other sergeants, like
Sgt. Seager, who had been in more than 20 years, lived off the post,
"outside the fence," shacked up with a wahine.
Edward Gorman, An American Education
Two words today, well-known but with
interesting etymologies
ukulele a small four-stringed guitar popularized in Hawaii ['uku,
flea + lele, jumping. So called from the rapid motion of the fingers in
playing it.]
luau a Hawaiian feast [lit. "young taro tops," which were
served at outdoor feasts]
haole sometimes
disparaging: a white person
[technically, anyone not of the aboriginal Polynesian inhabitants of Hawaii]
A haole
man sat in a rocking chair on the lanai - the porch - his eyes
closed, a blissful smile on his face.
Alan Brennert, Moloka'i
muumuu a long dress,
loose and unbelted, hanging free from the shoulders
You're a happily
married man and your wife asks you, "Honey, does this dress make me look
fat?"
for most of us, little white lies are the gifts we give and
receive to get through the day. They bear some risk, of course: If the dress
really does make your wife look fat, and you lie to her, well, then she'll be
out in public with a muumuu that is most definitely not
flattering.
Truthfully, Lying has its Place, Asbury Park (New Jersey) Press, July
21, 2006
lei a Polynesian
garland of flowers, esp. one worn around the neck
haku a crown made of fresh flowers
An especially
popular service offered by Hawaiian for arriving passengers is a traditional
Hawaii lei greeting. Commented Lynette, "Getting a fresh
flower lei and friendly greeting as you step off the plane is the
perfect way to say 'Welcome to Hawaii.' Visitors really appreciate it."
Hawaiian Airlines press release, July 17, 2005
The Hawaiian Islands were formed by erupting
volcanoes. So let's follow our Hawaiian theme with a volcanoes theme, beginning
with a pair of Hawaiian volcano-words, for which the links give photos.
aa lava having a rough surface [Hawaiian, 'to burn']
pahoehoe lava with a smooth, glassy or rippled
surface. [see also here]
[Hawaiian, reduplication of hoe, 'to paddle', probably from the swirls
on its surface]
Not all lava is
the same: A pahoehoe (pa-hoy-hoy) lava flow travels quickly and often
forms smooth, ropy patterns, while an aa (ah-ah) lava flow moves
slowly and hardens to form sharp chunks.
Mackie Rhodes, Instructor, March, 2004
lahar an mud-flow
"avalanche" of volcanic ash and water, down the slopes of a volcano
[Javanese for lava']
Lahar and other volcanic debris cascaded down the slopes of Mt.
Bulusan yesterday after heavy rain, sending residents in Casiguran and Irosin
to flee to higher ground.
Manila Standard Today, June 22, 2006
solfatara a
volcanic area that gives off sulfurous gases and steam
[from the Italian and Latin for 'sulfur']
St Lucia
seems
to have everything: spectacular mountain scenery, a drive-in volcano with solfatara
(steaming sulphur springs and malodorous gases that signify an active, but not apoplectic,
volcano), a wild rainforest and a privately owned semi- tame one (the botanical
gardens).
Victoria Pybus, The Independent, July 11, 1998
Bonus word:
apoplexy (adj. apoplectic) a fit of
extreme anger; rage [also the name of a medical condition]
fumarole a hole in a volcanic area from
which hot smoke and gases escape (see link)
[Italian, from Late Latin for 'smoke hole', diminutive of 'smoke chamber']
Down on the crater
floor, [robot] Dante will play the role of field geologist, collecting
information that Kyle and his colleagues have long desired. Most important, the
robot will study the vapors rising from volcanic vents called fumaroles.
Escaping from inside the Earth, these gases contain clues about the source of
the magma feeding Mt. Erebus. "For volcanoes, these gases --
the volatile elements like carbon dioxide and water--are like blood for a human
being. They are the life body of a volcano," says Kyle.
Richard Monastersky, Science News, June 6, 1992
Bonus word:
magma hot fluid or semi-fluid rock within the
earths crust
caldera a crater
formed by volcanic explosion or by collapse of a volcanic cone.
[Spanish 'cauldron']
This island is
still growing, as a river of molten lava pours often from the caldera
into the sea and has long been considered a spiritual place
Cultural inspiration on Hawaii's Big Island, Sunset, July, 2004
I spend two nights at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel,
a survivor of legions of
tourists,
all drawn by the pageant of wildlife atop an ancient caldera.
Miles below, like a buffed ember, is a hot spot through the crust, and the caldera
awaits its wakeup call from a 600,000-year nap.
Kerrick James, Travel America, May-June, 2004
tephra solid
matter ejected into the air by an erupting volcano
[Greek tephr, ash]
The 1980 eruptions
of
Mount St. Helens showed that even relatively thin accumulations of tephra
can disrupt social and economic activity over a broad region. Downwind,
Spokane received between 1 and 8 centimeters of ash and came to a near
standstill for up to 2 weeks.
Sid Perkins, Science News, Nov. 24, 2001