BOOKISHGAL

Hurray, it’s Wednesday, and another chance to explore some new words discovered in the course of my reading, this past week.

These are from Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason, by Russell Shorto. They’re rather medical, since they involve the efforts to determine whether the skull in the possession of the Academy of Sciences in France was in fact the genuine skull of philosopher Rene Descartes.

1) superciliary - of or pertaining to the eyebrow; situated on the frontal bone at the level of the eyebrow. (And perhaps this would explain someone’s “supercilious stare”? Someone is raising the eyebrows at someone else? It seems to me that that would still need to be combined with looking down one’s nose, though, because eyebrow-raising alone doesn’t convey quite the disdain or contempt implied by “supercilious.”)

2) naso-alveolar - oh boy, this is funny. This is what I get from Dictionary.com, from the Merriam-Webster’s Medical Dictionary: “of, relating to, or affecting the nose and one or more of the alveoli of the maxilla.” There ya go. Clear now?? (”alveola” - a small cavity, cell, or pit on the surface of an organ. “maxilla” -  a jaw or jawbone, especially the upper) All right, that helps. So “naso-alveolar” is something that affects the nose and some cavity in the upper jaw. Was that so hard to describe, Merriam-Webster??

So those are my words for the week. If you have any Wondrous Words, leave them or a link to them in the Comments, and be sure to leave a link at the originating blog, Bermudaonion’s Weblog . Happy reading!

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