Words of the Day

great white sea-bird

1670s, probably from Spanish or Portuguese albatros, alteration of alcatraz "large, web-footed sea-bird; cormorant," originally "pelican" (16c.). This name is perhaps from Arabic al-ghattas "sea eagle" [Barnhart]; or from Portuguese alcatruz "the bucket of a water wheel" [OED], from Arabic al-qadus "machine for drawing water, jar" (which is from Greek kados "jar"). If the second, the name would be a reference to the pelican's pouch (compare Arabic saqqa "pelican," literally "water carrier").

The spelling was influenced by Latin albus "white."  (cf. albino). The name was extended by 17c. English sailors to a larger sea-bird (order Tubinares), which are not found in the North Atlantic. [In English the word also formerly was extended to the frigate-bird.] These albatrosses follow ships for days without resting and were held in superstitious awe by sailors. The figurative sense of "burden" (1936) is from Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1798) about a sailor who shoots an albatross and then is forced to wear its corpse as an indication that he alone, not the crew, offended against the bird.

construction: BE + after + V-ing: perfective aspect

Found in Irish English; originates from Irish.

Examples:

- We kept thinking she was after dying on us (i.e. We thought she had died on us) French - Broken Harbour

- I only wanted to know what's after happening (i.e. -what has happened) (ibid)

- some fella’s after buying up the three houses at the top of the Place (i.e. has bought the three houses) French - Faithful Place

- now everyone’s after getting all worried about property prices (i.e. now everyone has gotten all worried) (ibid)

- I’m only after narrowing it down this afternoon (French - The Likeness)

- And you're after coming all the way from England to find out who done it? (French - In the Woods)

In African American English: done + past tense = perfective meaning

- “I’m grown, li’l girl,” she says. “Don’t ask me what I do. Anyway, I come home and that heffa done covered my catfish in some damn cornflakes and baked it!” (Angie Thomas - The Hate U Give)

- Daddy drives off. “Done lost y’all minds,” he says. “People rioting, damn near calling the National Guard around here, and y’all wanna play ball" (ibid)

- “I done faced a whole lot worse than some so-called King. Ain’t nothing he can do but kill me, and if that's how I gotta go for speaking the truth, that's how I gotta go." (ibid).

- The artwork. The prior year the equity partners at Scully & Pershing had
gone to war over a designer’s proposal to spend $2 million on some baffling
avant-garde paintings to be hung in the firm’s main foyer. The designer was
ultimately fired, the paintings forgotten, and the money split into
bonuses. (Grisham - Grey Mountain)

- The Berlin that Schrödinger left bore little resemblance to the city
he loved. Less than a year earlier the German capital had been full of
life—artistic, scientific, political. Its avant-garde theater and operettas
attracted international attention. It welcomed people of all faiths and
viewpoints. (Halpern - Einstein)

formal if a road, river etc bifurcates, it divides into two separate parts

from Medieval Latin bifurcatus, from Latin bi- (see bi-) + furca, the root of fork.

Examples:

- PARTING THOUGHTS
In summary, it may be possible in the coming decades to use a combination
of gene therapy, drugs, and magnetic devices to increase our intelligence.
There are several avenues of exploration that are revealing the secrets of
intelligence and how it may be modified or enhanced. But what would it do
to society, though, if we could enhance our intelligence and get a “brain
boost”? Ethicists have seriously contemplated this question, since the
basic science is growing so rapidly. The big fear is that society may
bifurcate, with only the rich and powerful having access to this
technology, which they could use to further solidify their exalted position
in society. Meanwhile, the poor won’t have access to additional brain
power, making it more difficult to move up in society. (Kaku - Future of the Mind)

- By arranging these dominoes in a network with looping, bifurcating and
rejoining stretches, one can make these signals combine and interact in a
sufficiently rich repertoire of ways to make the whole construction into a
computer: a signal travelling down a stretch can be interpreted as a binary
'1', and the lack of a signal as a binary '0', and the interactions
between such signals can implement a repertoire of operations - such as
and, or and not - out of which arbitrary computations
can be composed. (Deutsch - Infinity)

In informal (spoken) Irish English, 'but' does not appear in initial position of the clause that it introduces, but comes after it:

- That there was Jenny’s wedding, but.

- We haven’t got the Spains, but.

- “You’re not, but."

- “Not this time, but." = But not this time.

-  “Something personal, but."

- "Another thing, but."

Etc.

All examples from Tana French - Broken Harbour (2012).

Here 'but' seems to be used with the meaning of 'however' (which is more likely to be used in writing). 

/ˌkɑːsənəˈdʒenɪk◂ $ ˌkɑːr-/

likely to cause cancer

cat‧er‧waul /ˈkætəwɔːl $ -tərwɒːl/ verb [intransitive]

to make a loud high unpleasant noise like the sound a cat makes

late 14c., caterwrawen, perhaps from Low German katerwaulen "cry like a cat," or formed in English from cater, from Middle Dutch cater "tomcat" + Middle English waul "to yowl," apparently from Old English *wrag, *wrah "angry," of uncertain origin but all somehow imitative.

- I think I might have screamed out loud, I was so happy to be outside,
though nobody could have heard me in all that noise: I might as well have
been trying to scream over jet engines on the tarmac at LaGuardia during a
thunderstorm. It sounded like every fire truck, every cop car, every
ambulance and emergency vehicle in five boroughs plus Jersey was howling
and caterwauling out on Fifth Avenue, a deliriously happy noise: like New
Year’s and Christmas and Fourth of July fireworks rolled into one. (Tartt - Goldfinch)

- With a mellifluous name suggesting bucolic tranquility, Rep. Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican, is an unlikely object of the caterwauling recently directed at him and the House Freedom Caucus he leads. (WaPo, April 13, 2017)

/ˈkætkɪn/ noun [countable]  British English

a long soft flower that hangs in groups from the branches of trees such as the willow

Etymology: 1570s, from Dutch katteken "flowering stem of willow, birch, hazel, etc.," literally "kitten," diminutive of katte "cat" (see cat (n.)). So called for their soft, furry appearance.

Examples:

- The wind is blowing, blowing over the grass.
     It shakes the willow catkins; the leaves shine silver. (Adams - Watership Down)

- I threaded my way through a small growth of fresh-budding river
willows, found a conveniently screened rock in the sun, and spread out the
damp skirt of my shift, enjoying the warmth on my shoulders, the sharp
scent of the fuzzy catkins, and the sight before me. (Gabaldon - Echo)

- “I’m sure, Watson, a week in the country will be invaluable to you,” he
remarked. “It is very pleasant to see the first green shoots upon the
hedges and the catkins on the hazels once again. With a spud, a tin box,
and an elementary book on botany, there are instructive days to be spent.”
(Doyle - Complete Holmes)

caveat emp‧tor /ˌkæviæt ˈemptɔː, ˌkeɪv- $ -tɔːr/ noun [uncountable]  

law term: the principle that the person who buys something is responsible for checking that it is not broken, damaged etc

- Oh, Watson!’ Holmes chided me, laughing heartily. ‘The pendant is part of
the Scandinavian crown jewels! The man must know it was obtained illegally.
All I can say to that is caveat emptor, a very sensible piece of advice to
anyone buying an article of dubious origin. (Thomson - Holmes)

- “Well, you see, it’s complicated, because—” I wasn’t worried about the
people who believed they’d unearthed genuine Sheraton at bargain prices and
hurried away with their copies thinking they’d swizzled me. The old Caveat
Emptor rule more than applied there. I’d never claimed those pieces were
genuine. What worried me was the people I’d deliberately sold—deliberately
lied to. (Tartt - Goldfinch)